We have a winner in Fishforums.net
October 2023 Tank of the Month Contest
We had 6 awesome tanks entered in this month's TOTM contest featuring tanks sized at 17 to 30 gallons but only one could win...
And the winner is.......
rebe
Let's all congratulate them
Here's the winning tank and its description
So far, it's a planted 105L tank (28 gal) housing my lovely rasboras. This is my second attempt at keeping an aquarium and my first time creating an aquascape. I'm looking forward to adding more fish in the future!
A detailed description is below:
Aquarium set up: 11th August, 2023, (my tank is currently 7 weeks old)
Rasboras added: 14th September, 2023
Inhabitants:
- 14 trigonostigma hengeli (glowlight rasboras)
- Hitch-hiked ramshorn snails (belonging to the gyraulus genus, I believe)
Equipment:
- Aquael Leddy 75 (Tank) (105 L, 75x35x40 cm)
- Retrofit Day & Night (Light)
- Aquael ASAP 500 (Filter)
- Bonlux 100W (Heater)
- Zacro dual outlet (Air pump)
- Airstone, heater guard and homemade pre-filter
Hardscape and substrate:
- Mangle wood
- Seiryu stone
- Bottom layer of lava rock and Maflora light
- Top layer of ADA La Plata sand
Plants:
Foreground/Mid-ground
- Ludwigia repens 'Rubin'
- Cryptocoryne wendti ‘Broad Leaf’
- Cryptocoryne wendtii 'Green'
- Cryptocoryne parva
- Lobelia cardinalis 'Mini'
- Rotala rotundifolia (dwarf rotala)
- Sagittaria subulata (dwarf sagittaria)
- Microsorum pteropus (java fern)
- Bacopa australis
- Hydrocotyle leucocephala (brazilian pennywort)
- Helanthium tenellum ‘broad leaf’
- Helanthium tenellum ‘red’
Background:
- Ceratophyllum demersum (hornwort)
- Echinodorus bleheri (amazon sword)
- Eleocharis vivipara (dwarf hairgrass)
Floating:
- Salvinia auriculata (water spangles)
Water Parameters:
- Ammonia: 0ppm
- Nitrite: 0ppm
- Nitrate: 10ppm*
- PH: 7.8
- Hardness (German Degrees): GH 4.2, KH 2.3
- Temperature: 25° C
*Nitrate level equal to my tap water
Lighting:
- Retrofit Day & Night (LED)
- Aquarium light on for 7 hours each day
- 6500k (kelvin rating)
- 14W
Maintenance:
- Weekly water change of about 25%-50%
- Plants are trimmed regularly where needed
- Seachem Flourish Comprehensive used as recommended (for plant fertiliser)
- Uneaten food/debris removed during water changes
Feeding:
- Six days per week
- Oase Organix micro granules or flakes for breakfast
- Fluval Bug bites micro granules for dinner
- Starting to feed live moina macrocopa, that I've raised indoors
Due to their small size, the rasboras can't eat full bug bites (the size 0.25-1.00mm). They are also mid-water feeders, so they won't eat food sitting on the water surface or at the bottom of the tank. Here is my feeding method that solves both issues (for me at least):
- Crush an appropriate amount of bug bites in a small container
- Use a syringe to add a little tank water to the container
- Stir until all of the bug bite pieces no longer float
- Suck it all back up into the syringe
- With the needle/opening just under the water surface, slowly feed the bug bites to your fish, by adding just a little of the water with bug bite pieces at a time.
By doing so you can control precisely how much food is in the water at a time, so the fish can eat it all before it sinks to the bottom.
You can see me feeding my rasboras using this method in the video at the top of my post.
Thank you for taking the time to read my entry!
-Rebe
.
