Planted Tank Newbie Journal

[Fillet 'O' Fish]

Thanks for your help Sam, as always lots of good advice !!

With regard to the slate there are several areas where over the years there have been extensive quarrying and there are massive mountains of slate by the road side on the edge of the quarrys, obviously chunks no good for the roofing trade !?? I will just pick up a couple of pieces from the mountains of several million tons. No natural habitat will be destroyed in the process.

With the lighting the algae apparently likes the blue in the light spectrum, but not the orange/reds. Thats why these Dennerle algae busting lights work apparently. They cut out the blue spectrum.
I note George Farmer recomends them in his posts.

Only time will tell?!!

 

[Themuleous]

Cool

 

[Fillet 'O' Fish]

Did the usual weekly water change last night and the could not find the Amano shrimp anywhere??
Ive been looking for them the past few days and spoted 1 or 2 hiding in the plants munching away on algae, but not seen any since.

I know its a fairly large tank and there are only 6 of them, but surely I should see at least a couple now and then?

Do you guys think my fish could have eaten them? Wouldnt there be some sort of shell or trace left? My angels and dwarf gourami have a couple of pecks at them when they first went in, but due to the size of the shrimp they couldnt not possibly have eaten them?

Would my clown loach have eaten them? (the clowns are only 2" long at the moment so would have to nibble them to death!!).

Could they have been sucked into my external filter? But when looking at the intake nozzle ist got a fine grill over it, and I cant believe they would fit through.

Has anyone else had this issue with dissapearing Amano shrimp?

 

[MoreCoffee]

They could be hiding if they feel threatened by any of your fish ...... but Angels and Clowns will eat shrimp.

A friend of mine put 8 shrimp in a tank with both Angels and Clowns. A week later he had 1 left. That 1 shrimp is still hanging in there, but it's very shy and he rarely sees it.

 

[Fillet 'O' Fish]

That does not sound good
The chap at the LFS said no problem so long as they dont fit in their mouths?

 

[MoreCoffee]

My friends Angels did quite a bit of that 'pecking' ..... the smaller bits fit in their mouths quite easily.
They are also quite vulnerable just after a moult.

Hopefully your's have not met the same fate and are just hiding.

 

[Fillet 'O' Fish]

Well took a picture update of tank today and its really coming on
Still got areas of beard algae, generally on broad leaf plants, but not to bad

And guess what !! The dwarf gourami are at it like rabbits !! male is frantically building a bubble nest under one of the lilly leaves and the female is visiting regularly to do 'you know what'!. I am not sure what will happen next with the bubble nest, but they seem to be chasing the other fish away for now, even the angels are scared to go near, and they are much bigger!

I suppose the other fish in the tank will eat the fry if they do eventually come along?

update pic of planted community tank:

A picture of Gourami bubble nest with male blowing bubbles: ( the best picture I could get - sorry for quality):

 

[planter]

I have the very same tank and have it planted too, mine was set up last November and this pic was a few months ago (Must take some fresh ones)

Sorry to but in here just thought I must tell you your tank is proper BO! really like your aquascape ,Not the most natural looking but pretty damn cool! Well Done! are all the plants real?

 

[adriansp]

I purchased the same tank (Rena Calvados) around two months ago, seems a popular choice. There does seem to be a wide price difference depending on where you purchase from. I saw the set-up on the internet for £530.00, but more expensive at Aquarium shops. I did a deal with Maidenhead Aquatics at Harlestone Northampton where they matched the cheapest price I'd seen on the net. Always worth negotiating irespective of where you buy from.

I spent around a month running the tank 'bout 2/3rds full with just the substate, adding bacteria starter cultures etc. My aim is an Amazonian Biotope planted aquarium, ultimately with 5/6 Discus. Two weeks ago I purchased a starter pack of plants from Java. Although they did initially send the wrong order & I had to wait an extra week for the right plants to arrive, I was impressed with the quality. Although my tank is 4ft (120cc) long I ordered the Discus collection for a 5ft (150cc) (£25.00) setup. This consisted of around 130 plants. They were all packed in sealed plastic bags and clearly marked with their scientic names and if they were foreground, middle or background. At the same time I also installed the Dennerle co2 system. I live in a hard water area and I started with ph of around 8 and hardness of about 12. Two weeks later my ph is 6.5, the hardness is down to about 5-6 after topping up the tank with RO water.

I have recently added the first fish, 12 Black Phantom Tetras shortly followed by 2 Bristlenoses and 3 Peppered Corys when I noticed that the algae was starting to grow. After 3 days the Bristlenoses had claened the lot, apart from the hair/beard algae which has started to grow. Was interested in the comments on the shrimp. Can anyone help me with Amazonian shrimp which might fit my set up?

I plan to run the tank for another 3/4 weeks before adding a couple of pairs of South American Dwarf Chichlids. So far I been fortunate in terms of low Ammonia and Nitrite & Nitrate etc. Proves that taking your time always p[ays dividends.

 

[Themuleous]

Great scape fillet-o-fish, plants look really good I must try rotala at some stage it does look great bunched up like you've got it.

What are your plans for the foreground? Perhaps you could move the lily over to the left and have it more dense on the right? Sort of a triangle scape with the lily the focus on the right?

Keep up the good work

Sam

 

[Fillet 'O' Fish]

Thanks for the comments Sam

Just got back from a weeks holiday and the plants have gone craaazzzzy !!!

 

[madcaow]

huhu awesome.

my hygrophila polysperma goes nuts every chance it gets. i must have cut it all in half about 4 times in 2 weeks.

 

[Themuleous]

Excellent jungle scape you got there!

 

[Fillet 'O' Fish]

Well I've trimmed the jungle down and added the new slate and made some caves. I also added some smaller chunks scattered in the gravel to make it look more natural.

I also had another good idea recently.......

We have been suffering with quite a few power cuts and I have been worried about my filter bacteria dying off with the lack of water flow.
So I have invested in a computer UPS and wired my pump and heater to it. Now whenever we get a power cut, the UPS cuts in and my pumps and heaters still work. I could probably plug the lights into it to, but I think that may shorten the battery life, and I would rather the filter pump work for longer .

I am still getting beard algae on lots of the leaves. I try to control it, but with not much luck. Any suggestions guys?

 

[BoSelecta]

I have the very same tank and have it planted too, mine was set up last November and this pic was a few months ago (Must take some fresh ones)

Sorry to but in here just thought I must tell you your tank is proper BO! really like your aquascape ,Not the most natural looking but pretty damn cool! Well Done! are all the plants real?

Thanks for your comments, the tank has changed a lot over the last few months and now looks quite different (I will post some fresh pics soon !!)

I must say Fillet 'O' Fish, your tank is really coming on well, when I first planted mine it seemed so big I thought the plants would never reach the surface.

Good work fella 8)