Planted Guppy Tank (54L)

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Pics of the guppy girls please!

It's not a case of "if" you'll get guppy fry, it's a case of how many and when... lol. Provided the water stays good and no disastrous disease of course, there will be a ton of fry from six females. Good luck!

 

[PlasticGalaxy]

Pics of the guppy girls please!

It's not a case of "if" you'll get guppy fry, it's a case of how many and when... lol. Provided the water stays good and no disastrous disease of course, there will be a ton of fry from six females. Good luck!

Here's a few quick photos I just took of them... I've got a couple gorgeous ones; one with a sky blue tail. Definitely want to try and have that one breed first. I'd love to wind up with a guppy with a blue, speckled tail. Just got an EFX 200 filter from my dad... (Yes, I'm very spoiled but I promise I never ask for the high-tech filtration stuff. He just gets it! He's very into fish, too, so I can see why he likes helping out.) so that should help along the way.

LOADS of snail eggs in my 170L. I'll make a thread somewhere when I can get pictures and link it (here) so I can show you... Trading them out for my friend giving me a free bristlenose once this initial quarantine is over and I can get my new QT tank set up!

Whew, that was quite a lot to unpack.
Did I mention that I'm getting a free bristlenose? They're usually £10-£20 in my LFS, and all I have to give up is some snails!

 

[Back in the fold]

I like your plan and I like your choice of fish. I don't know anything about Dwarf Hairgrass as I've never seen it in my town. Pictures I've seen of it look cool. Java Fern is very easy to keep and grow and with the Frogbit it should be fine. Sometimes that Frogbit goes wild and gets pretty thick. It will shade your other plants but Java Fern is low light so no problem. The advantage to thick Frogbit is the hiding area it gives fry. I used to have a huge amount of it and I found Golden Wonder Killifish fry in it constantly. I killed it though with an ill conceived experiment with straight R/O water. You need some mineral in your water. That little episode killed off every snail I had too. The last of them , common pond snails, had ivory white shells and died quickly. So, something good came of that even though I lost my Frogbit which was very lush.

 

[PlasticGalaxy]

I like your plan and I like your choice of fish. I don't know anything about Dwarf Hairgrass as I've never seen it in my town. Pictures I've seen of it look cool. Java Fern is very easy to keep and grow and with the Frogbit it should be fine. Sometimes that Frogbit goes wild and gets pretty thick. It will shade your other plants but Java Fern is low light so no problem. The advantage to thick Frogbit is the hiding area it gives fry. I used to have a huge amount of it and I found Golden Wonder Killifish fry in it constantly. I killed it though with an ill conceived experiment with straight R/O water. You need some mineral in your water. That little episode killed off every snail I had too. The last of them , common pond snails, had ivory white shells and died quickly. So, something good came of that even though I lost my Frogbit which was very lush.

Frogbit seems quite... Picky? Not quite the right word for it but it's the best I can come up with.
Unfortunately there's no dwarf hairgrass or frogbit in any of my LFSs, and I couldn't find either when I was looking. Salvinia and java moss have been a good substitute though. Looks quite nice.

 

[Essjay]

I have frogbit and it's been anything but picky. But I don't use pure RO water Like Back in the Fold did in his experiment. I have the reverse problem - I regularly have to remove plants as they grow so well. I'll be doing that this afternoon.
Salvinia is the plant I had trouble with. It was fine for ages, I was regularly removing handfuls, then one summer during a heatwave it all turned brown and died.
The main difference between the two is size. Frogbit plants are bigger than salvinia and the roots are longer. If I didn't trim them, the frogbit roots would trail on the bottom of the tank while salvinia roots stay short.

Water sprite is another good floating plant but not one I'd recommend for small tanks as the plants get quite big and they tangle up together making it hard to thin them out. I had some but replaced it with frogbit.

 

[PlasticGalaxy]

I have frogbit and it's been anything but picky. But I don't use pure RO water Like Back in the Fold did in his experiment. I have the reverse problem - I regularly have to remove plants as they grow so well. I'll be doing that this afternoon.
Salvinia is the plant I had trouble with. It was fine for ages, I was regularly removing handfuls, then one summer during a heatwave it all turned brown and died.
The main difference between the two is size. Frogbit plants are bigger than salvinia and the roots are longer. If I didn't trim them, the frogbit roots would trail on the bottom of the tank while salvinia roots stay short.

Water sprite is another good floating plant but not one I'd recommend for small tanks as the plants get quite big and they tangle up together making it hard to thin them out. I had some but replaced it with frogbit.

Ooh, thank you for the tips! And yeah, that heatwave was deadly last year. I've never had to deal with my own tanks in the heat before, so we'll see how that goes.

 

[Essjay]

This is why my frogbit needs thinning out

 

[PlasticGalaxy]

This is why my frogbit needs thinning out

View attachment 132416

Ooh that's a good amount, I'd love to get my hands on some but apparently it's been hard to get a hold of recently. It seems like a lovely plant.

 

[Essjay]

There are quite a lot of Ebay sellers listing it - some use the Latin name Limnobium laevigatum

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[PlasticGalaxy]

There are quite a lot of Ebay sellers listing it - some use the Latin name Limnobium laevigatum

​

I'll have a look again... The last time I checked (two weeks back) it was all out of stock on eBay. That or the postage was two weeks off into future even just from England. Now my duckweed (that was guaranteed by Thursday two weeks ago) has been delayed so I kind of wish I had just waited haha.

 

[Back in the fold]

My experience with Frogbit is that it grew very well like @Essjay said. Mine was going great until I changed water conditions and killed it. It was thick and lush and I did have to thin it on occasion. I think it does well because, like all floating plants, it's up close to the light and draws its nutrients from fish waste in the water.

 

[PlasticGalaxy]

My experience with Frogbit is that it grew very well like @Essjay said. Mine was going great until I changed water conditions and killed it. It was thick and lush and I did have to thin it on occasion. I think it does well because, like all floating plants, it's up close to the light and draws its nutrients from fish waste in the water.

Well I'm hoping that it goes alright for me too! Might move the salvinia to my quarantine tank (journal here) when I start getting it set up.

 

[Slaphppy7]

"Duckweed"

(shudders)

 

[PlasticGalaxy]

"Duckweed"

(shudders)

Yeah not exactly sure why I went for that really. It's been nothing but trouble in the ponds we've kept over the years. I think I'm just desperate lol.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

"Duckweed"

(shudders)

I did warn him in this very thread! Sometimes people have to experience the nightmare for themselves to truly learn the realities of duckweed....

It has reappeared in two of my tanks recently, despite eradicating it months ago, and despite my cleaning equipment thoroughly. I truly don't know how it keeps coming back, but it's hidden in among my frogbit and water lettuce, so will require hours of moving plant to buckets, sorting and washing it off in different buckets, skimming the tank clean, then trying to return at least some of the plants I want in there, and hoping no tiny duckweed leaves make it back into the tank hidden among plant roots or something.

I truly loathe duckweed.