My 1St Planted Tank In A Rio 180 ... Going Low-Tech

[thefubar]

A little upate on the last couple of weeks.

I added:
5 more cardinals
a pair of sterbai corys
1 Anubias

I have had to deal with:
massive outbreak of snails
death of 1 sterbai cory within 72 hours
white spot outbreak which has claimed my neon, 1 black neon and 2 cardinals

Good news:
I still have all 5 Otos alive and well (saw them all together last night)
I have had my first shrimplets (I've seen preggers females but they are happily muching in the moss)

Things planned for the next two weeks:
sorting out these poxy snails
cleaning external filter
deciding which plants to remove from the tank
begin making a den for planned Pair of Rams.


Sheesh, its hard work this fish-keeping!!

 

[hensonc4098]

All fun and games then?

Edit due to typo

 

[thefubar]

Its been a while but i thought i shoot out an update.

Went on holiday for a week and my external spray bar clogged and i returned home to a mess. All fish ok (i think?!) but shrimp numbers seem lower.

I did a fairly extensive maintenance evening and hacked back all the plants which were dominating the tank.

I want to find a tall growing plant which will frame the tank growing from the back right over to the middle/front left....any ideas??

Vallis is useless in the tank due to the easycarbo (MELTZZ!)

so i am planning to replace that back left corner with Anubias and setup a little shrimp haven with some pipes too.

i just need to pull my finger out and make a ram den and i can start restocking after my nightmare last month.


Should also mention i bought 10 assasin snails and they have cleared out the mess of smaller snails a treat.

 

[thefubar]

Should also mention i bought 10 assasin snails and they have cleared out the mess of smaller snails a treat.

I am fairly sure i have a "litter" of eggs on my bog wood. I will wait and see what happens.

 

[thefubar]

Just thought i would update with some pictures i took at the weekend. After my ich death and probable cure i added 6 more cardinals (11 now). I've been watching them like a hawk and all seems to be good...for now

These are a full tank picture

My Java Fern (started out at 1-2mm)

MY Snail eggs on a piece of bogwood (waiting for someone to tell me they're not eggs!)

 

[Haych]

very nice

 

[thefubar]

Thanks very much.

I sprung in to action last night during my weekly WC.

I moved the mosswall to the back of the tank
I removed the spray bar from the inlet pipe
I put some new deeper floss in the external
I moved the Vallis that was in the back right-hand part of the tank further forward
I pruned and re-tied the moss on the bogwood arch
I added fert balls to my 3 varieties of Amazon in the hope of perking them up a bit
I now have a "keep net" for my java moss trimmings too
Plus some general pruning and tidying.

It was pushing 11pm by the time i finished so i an't wait to get home from work and find out how its settled in. Especially with the change in FF.
Pictures to follow.

 

[thefubar]

So here is an update picture of where i am at...

Recent Crypt Balansae Addition

Cherry Shrimp piggy-backing an Assassin Snail

Best picture of one of my Cherries that i've caught

Superb Anuibas Nana from KittyKat on the Classified Forum.

 

[lljdma06]

I like the new arrangement. How did you do your moss wall? I don't feel like sifting through threads today, sorry. It's looking very good.

llj

 

[thefubar]

I like the new arrangement. How did you do your moss wall? I don't feel like sifting through threads today, sorry. It's looking very good.

llj

No probs...

The moss was "sewn" using thin plastic thread onto a plastic mesh covered in netting. It took along time, but i wanted an instant moss wall.

If i was going to do it again i would use a tank divider plastic sheet (which has holes in) and use that because then it would fit flush against the back wall held in place with long metal clips.
I will be re-doing it but i can't find a tank divider big enough yet.

HTH

 

[thefubar]

First post of 2010.

Sorry to say that the plant growth in the tank hasn't been very good. The Amazon sword is soon to be removed and the moss wall after initially thriving has been dwindling fast.

Plants doing Well:
The Java moss on the bogwood and coconut cave
The Anubias.
Vallis


Plants not doing well
Xmas Moss
Crpyt Balansae (grew to 5" and stopped)
Amazon
Java Fern (Stunted growth)


I am thinking about removing the plants which are suffering and replacing them with the plants which are proving themselves suitable for my tank/conditions.

I dose ferts (albeit not as freq and rountinely as some of these plants prefer) and i am liquid carbon. CO2 injection is not an option for me. So i am going to go down a notch or two on the tech scale.

Does any have any other ideas?

 

[lljdma06]

No worries. Life can take over.

What is your current lighting and photoperiod?

llj

 

[thefubar]

2x24W on for a total of 7 hours per day.

2 hours am, then 5 pm. Not in direct sunlight at any point.

kept at 26/27C

I add TPN+, Profito and EasyCarbo every 3 days or so.

 

[thefubar]

Just thought i'd share a re-scape i did last night.

I am switching over to a low-tech approach with no water-changes and using fish feed and once weekly dosing as fert. No Co2.

This will result in less maintenance and slower growth, i'm running about 1.2 wpg.

 

[Ryefish]

very nice