Planted 30L Biorb

[Ryefish]

thanks
the Rasbora are settling with Jerry in their tank, so he may just stay. I have bought a mini filter off a member on here, which i should have hopefully by next week.
Of course, new filter means no centre air tube and i dont have to avoid putting things on the filter box... which means... rescape
I have some ideas of what i want to do, but i am thinking i may need some smaller plants to go towards the front instead of just all taller plants. I will have to see if i can find some that will be good for my tank first though.

Will update when the re-scape happens

 

[lljdma06]

Diatoms, the brown algae, are frequently caused by ammonia spikes, entirely a possibility when a fish dies and you can't find it. Otherwise, the tank is coming along nicely. Don't worry too much about rescaping at this point. Keep things stable, and keep things growing.

The rotting anubia rhizome is a concern to me. Do you know why it would be rotting? That is just unusual unless it is not getting circulation some how.

llj

 

[Ryefish]

i honestly have no idea why its rotting. its a really dark orange, almost brown colour on one end that has no leaves and then the other side that has leaves has a green rhizome. Its only half the size it originally was now. The other piece is doing fine and is growing another new leaf (i thought they were supposed to be slow growers )

I am going to have to move the bogwood and rock to get this new filter in, but ill leave the crypts planted where they are - they are my only actual planted plants

 

[lljdma06]

i honestly have no idea why its rotting. its a really dark orange, almost brown colour on one end that has no leaves and then the other side that has leaves has a green rhizome. Its only half the size it originally was now. The other piece is doing fine and is growing another new leaf (i thought they were supposed to be slow growers )

I am going to have to move the bogwood and rock to get this new filter in, but ill leave the crypts planted where they are - they are my only actual planted plants

If it were me, I would cut the damaged rhizome off and work with the fresh, healthy growth only. No, they do not grow as slowly as people think. I will regularly see new leaves on my anubias.

llj

 

[Ryefish]

Been a busy girl today!
I had to take the bogwood out today and managed to take some pictures of this rhizome that i causing concern
This is the piece of Anubias - the green side where new leaves are growing

the other side of the same piece

if you touch it it just falls apart

I tried to remove as much of the orange bit as i could without damaging the green part. The plant used to be twice the size as it is now.

I created this post about glassy leaves and was advised to up the ferts. I have a pic of the 'glassy' leaves on my crypts for reference sake, so i can look back later and see if there is a difference or not. They are really washed out and translucent. ETA: i wasn't planning on moving the crypts but this one uprooted when i was doing a gravel clean. They have some really nice root growth on them so i took the opportunity to trim away some of the browner, dead roots

I changed the filter today, so i think there is more water circulation in the tank. Ill upload pictures later when the water has settled again. Poor Jerry my Betta had to spend the day in the slow cooker because he jumped out of the bowl i had him in whilst i did all this and the slow cooker was the only thing i could find with a lid

 

[Ryefish]

Had a move around. The tank looks SO much more bigger without the plastic air tube in the centre. The fish seem to have a lot more swimming room now that everything isnt cluttered around the outside of the tank.

changes made:
removed UGF and filled the space in with some spare gravel
kept the air stone in, but lowered the output on the air pump
added a new filter which is currently hanging in the top
moved the java's and a crypt
ended up turning the tank round so a 'seam' was at the side lol

There are bubbles on the front of the tank so i may need to move the filter round but ill sort that out tomorrow - might just be from fresh water. There is a piece of sponge sitting on the side of the tank until i get rid of it lol, and Jerry's house (the terracotta plant pots) needs moving once i get rid of some java moss.

One thing i noticed when i had the UGF in was that my snails never fully came out of the shell, they would always shuffle around. As soon as they went in to the tank today after the move around they were fully out and zooming around

 

[PDSimon]

Looks nice. Not to sure about the anubias...

Thinking about the airstone though, i've read that aeration removes c02 from the water, any thoughts on this?

 

[Ryefish]

yeah ive read that too. im not too sure about it. the airstone is on because i was/am worried about filtration and circulation with the smaller filter. Watching for ammonia spikes at present

 

[james_fish]

Tanks looking good Rye!

James.

 

[lljdma06]

Hmmm. When you purchased the anubia, how was it being kept? Many retailers will bury the rhizome, a foolish thing to do, and the damage is already done when you bring it home. Just keep removing the dead stuff and do your best to separate the living rhizome from what is obviously dead tissue. Unfortunate.

Otherwise, I like the improvements. You're definitely doing something worthwhile with that biorb. I can't imagine trying to scape that tank. I would be at a loss. You're doing great.

 

[west-megaman]

Wow, really, this is the best planted biorb I have seen. Great job mate

 

[Ryefish]

Hmmm. When you purchased the anubia, how was it being kept?

I have no idea how they had it in the tank, i dont know if it was just sat on the gravel or buried deep. I totaly forgot to check. There wasnt any others to look at because i grabbed it because it was the last one and i really wanted the Nana version of the Anubias (small tank and all). The green part has grown yet another leaf, so it must be alright

Thanks for all the compliments guys I know there is a lot of bad stigma around the BiOrb which has made me more determined to create a good BiOrb that doesnt harm fish and actually looks good.

Im about 2/3rds through the bottle of liquid carbon i have...
Would there be any problems with setting up a DIY Co2 kit on a tank this small?

 

[lljdma06]

Hmmm, I bet if you opted for a small glass nano diffusor, you could get a nice DIY fermentation setup that would look nice. I used a rhinox 1000 for my 8g nano.

 

[soph_betta]

Very nice tank rye! Looks great!
Glad the snails are doing some of the work for you!

 

[Ryefish]

yyeeeaaahhhhh
my friends mum (the one who gave me this tank) is giving me a 4ft tank. My mother is going to freak