Rye's 125L Tank

[ian]

are you dosing Easycarbo alongside the DIY? If not, you may want to do that as a back up.

 

[Ryefish]

No, i havent any liquid carbon left. Ill pick a bottle up from work tomorrow

 

[lljdma06]

Did you pick up the EasyCarbo?

 

[Ryefish]

i never do myself any favours do i

major changes have occured. I obtained five more pieces of bogwood and pulled all the plants out. I bought a bag of PondCare Aquatic Planting Media (i got it cheap which is why i didnt get something else) and placed this below where i was going to replant the plants. I was given some fish, which in hindsight was probably not a good idea. I also purchased a bottle of Flourish Excel because work don't sell easycarbo and some Seachem Purigen because the water is never perfectly clear and i would like it to be. I rigged up the CO2 but it still isn't working 100% and won't turn my drop-checker lime green.

The tanks had a major re-scape, and i absolutely love it.

I came home today to find my fish gasping and the water opaque. The water tested for Nitrites. I can't remember the number but it was pink, which i know is really bad. A major 50% water change later and its reading slightly purple still, so i'll have to do another waterchange tonight when the fish have settled again.

I rinsed the purigen and the planting media before i put it in the filter but no idea if thats caused all this mess or if it was the new fish. My shrimp tank that has the planting media in (and is awaiting plants) is slightly cloudy too though. I haven't tested the water as of yet though. So, it looks like i am cycling my tank even though its been running for well over two years and the filter hasn't failed me once since i've had i

On the case of illness, my main tank is fine but my cory's in the hospital tank are not. Im still holding on hope though...


so, my new scape

ETA: this tank is growing in now. Im a bit about the right back corner because it looks a bit densely planted so i might change that and remove a sword, but apart from that, nothing is moving. Ill show you when i can actually see in to the damned thing again and you can give me some input

 

[lljdma06]

Ian and I tell you to go buy a measily bottle of Easycarbo... and look what you do... You know my ADA tank when it had the low plant mass was cloudy like that too. That tank's got ADA Amazonia. As soon as I did a couple of large waterchanges and added more plants, water was crystal clear. It's always fun to rescape, though.

Can't wait for it to clear up. What were the fish?

 

[Ryefish]

im just finishing off the fourth large waterchange in 24 hours. the nitrites are almost sorted now. ill just continue with the water change until the filter catches up again. The fish i got given were two rams, which i think are gold but im not sure and four rummynose which are shoaling with my galaxy's beautifully. One of the rams is tiny, looks skinny and looks like it has a slight deformity of the mouth so im not expecting it to thrive ...although it gobbles bloodworm faster than Jerry my betta does

Updated tank stats..

Lighting: 2x 15W T8 tropical bulbs
Filtration: Eheim Classic 2213 and Aqua One Moray 360 Powerhead (600lph)
Ferts: TPN+ ~5ml's daily
CO2: DIY yeast and Flourish Excel daily
Subtrate: Pondcare Planting Media and sand
Hardscape: 7 pieces of wood - bogwood and mopani, 2 large pieces of slate rock


Plants:
Vallis
Amazon swords
Anubias nana
Hygrophila polysperma
Pogostemon helferi
Microsorum pteropus
Microsorum pteropus 'Windelov'
Hydrocotyle verticillata
Cryptocoryne wendtii
Echinodorus palaefolius
Moss: Java moss and another that was bought as Flame Moss but i doubt it is.
Another stem plant that i can't remember the name of lol - a type of Limnophila?

Livestock:
Cherry Shrimp
possibly Japonica Shrimp (ID not entirely known)
1x Male Betta Splenden
7x Galaxy Rasbora / Celestial Danio
4x Rummynose Tetra
2x Cherry Barb
2x Gold Ram

FTS: better picture will follow when the water is clear and i have access to my digital camera, not just my mobile phone

the random two stems on the right are there to try and grow then they will be moved. i don't know what to do with a piece of bogwood thats on the left so its been kind of dumped there for now. im thinkin of moving a sword in the right corner further right or removing it completely and i don't like the position of the Echinodorus palaefolius, i don't think it does the plant justice at the minute

 

[lljdma06]

For now, leave the tank alone and let it recover. It's been through a lot.

 

[Ryefish]

yeah, its definately being left for a long while. the only thing im changing is water if i need to and ill try and fix the CO2. Ive got loads of uni work to do so it will keep me from fiddling with the tank lol

 

[ian]

Looks great Rye!

You have definitely come on since your little biorb!

 

[Ryefish]

haha im dying to set my little biorb up again but it might have to wait a few months. its a shrimp and snail grow-out tank at the minute, but im thinking of adding in some little endler guppys once i get plants in.

Im fed up of the lack of CO2 my yeast set up is creating with three bottles, so i picked up a Tetra Plant CO2 Optimat.
If you havent come across it before it looks like this:

Im not sure about the diffuser on it, but it seems to be working. There are no bubbles created which i was expecting. Its basically a cannister of CO2 gas that connects to an air tube and then connects to the green plastic tube which has mesh covering the top. You fill the green plastic tube with the CO2 gas and over the space of a few hours it dissolves in to the water. Whilst i don't see any bubbles, its changing the colour on the drop checker and keeping it constant which is making me happy I got the set up for cheap because it was from work, but the CO2 cannisters are only around £6 replacements. Im not sure how long one cannister will last though with 1 tube of CO2 going in to the tank on a daily basis.

Work are tearing down their planted tank and said they will sell me their FE regulator for cheap. They aren't sure about prices yet but said they will keep it for me if im interested and i can save up for it

Im still dosing the Excel for a while until i know this CO2 works and how long a cannister will last me.
Im worrying about fertilisers at the minute with the long leaves on my vallis having turned yellow/brown and died off, but i am keeping an eye on it

Fingers crossed i will have some good pics to show in a few weeks!

 

[Ryefish]

It's been almost a month since i last updated a pic. I ran out of ferts and the leaves started to brown. I bought some more TPN+ and i am now dosing 10ml's daily rather than 5ml's. Im also dosing a cap of excel (think its 5mls?) daily along with the Co2 which im trying to keep the drop checker at a lime green/yellow-ish colour which is way easier than with yeast.

I had to put my baby apple snails in the main tank (all 20 of them ) and they have eaten my Pogostemon helferi. There is a bit my cory keeps digging up so im hoping i can plant it down again when i move the snails back out. The cory is also pulling up stem plants left, right and centre. The hygrophila polysperma dropped the majority of its leaves but they are growing back. The vallis has died back a bit, but im hoping the increase in ferts will help to bring it back.

The water is a bit cloudy but i don't know what to do about it. Stats are fine... i think i need to reactivate my Purigen though

I don't think theres anything else, so time for a pic:

 

[SuperColey1]

Now thats what I call a jungle scape Looks great.

AC

 

[Biulu]

Wow, that is looking very lush! This scape has changed for the good.

 

[lljdma06]

It does look very nice. Keep it up! I like the wood positioning and how the plants frame it.

 

[Ryefish]

Its been two and a half months since i updated this and you will not believe how empty the tank is, especially looking at the last pic i posted. There was massive die-off and the current plants aren't doing particularly well.
Ive had a bit of a move around (mostly wood and a few plants) to try and improve where they were in the path of current to see if i could save any.

An updated plant list:
Amazon swords
Anubias nana
Hygrophila polysperma
Microsorum pteropus
Cryptocoryne wendtii
Echinodorus palaefolius - holes in leaves, nutrient deficiency?
Java Moss

1 piece of Hydrocotyle verticillata that isn't rooting very well and wont stay planted
and two stems i of another plant that im desperately trying to save

My tank is heavily stocked atm too (water stats are fine)
two types of shrimp, numbers unknown
A few breeding apple snails
1x Male Betta Splenden (was bought as a female, living in a breeding trap temporarily)
3x female betta's
9x Galaxy Rasbora / Celestial Danio
4x Rummynose Tetra
1x Cherry Barb
2x Congo Tetra
1x Albino Cory
2x Khuli Loach

I have spent the last two days reading about EI ferts and figured out a dosing system for my tank. I'll be ordering the ferts next week because i think my tank is seriously lacking in a lot of stuff and TPN+ isn't doing a lot even though im dosing every day. Its also stupidly expensive to use the TPN+ and i am in desperate need for a job.
Im knocking the lights down to 5 hours a day to try and compete against some algae for a week or so.
Im getting a new Fluval 305 filter to replace my current Eheim Classic next week.

I'm tempted to see if the EI will pick up my current plants - particularly the Echinodorus palaefolius and then see how it all goes. Not very happy with this tank since the massive die-off began. The huge 34" vallis I had died off and I can't even keep Java Fern alive.

Here are some pics:

Holy plants

I pulled some of the bba covered anubias leaves off and its sprouted some new ones rather quickly.

Not sure if this is the snails having a munch or not

And this stuff.. was a waste of time. It doesn't root and it doesn't carpet