Sam's Nano Journal

[Themuleous]

However you rework the layout, keep that carpet !

Will do mate I might get shot for this but HC is easy to grow, guess that just means I'm doing things right! Might use some glosso in the next one too, just to compare as I've not used it before and would be good to see how they compare if grown in the same tank.

Thanks all

Sam

 

[Neal]

Do you not have any updates Sam? It would be nice to see the tank now, and I heard you have a UV light, can you give me a bit more info on them? How do you install, price, what they do, etc etc.

Neal

 

[Themuleous]

Not really, Mate, but thanks for asking I'm trying to get some decent rocks together for a new layout, but cant seem to find the right thing. Off to a shop I know has lot of selection next weekend so hopefully might find something then. It hasn't changed much from my last lot of photos.

The only thing I have to report is that yesterday, not only did my CO2 run out but I overdosed PO4 to 4ppm rather than the required 1.5ppm. I also have lots of BBA and thread algae in there too!

So all in all pretty much the same as always. The HC has recovered from the change in lighting thou which is good, pearls away no end during the day. I have noticed that the BBA doesn't seem to grow on the newest bits of the HC so hopefully it might be on the way out, who knows! TBH I've given up of trying to rid the tank of algae and just ignore it now and enjoy the plants and fish

As for the UV, cant really tell if its helping on not, dont seem to get as much GDA as before which could def be a result of the UV. As for the unit, I got it second hand from eBay for 40quid, but its practically new. Vecton 2 300, around 80quid new if I remember rightly. The water in the tank also seems that bit clearer too now, which could well be down to the UV, but who knows! I only run it at night (creates a healthy blue glow in my room) and I dose trace daily now thou, just in case what you hear about UV light affecting trace elements is true, and everything seems ok so far.

Dont think there is anything much else to report! I did get my fiancees brother into fishkeeping recently thou, gave him a complete set up, bar the fish, hod and light. Looks quite nice even if I do say it myself!

Will be redoing the main tank after xmas when I get some new lighting, gonna try a dutch style, with lots of stems as its a 20G high so lots of height to play with. Will keep you posted on that too

Sam

EDIT - oh just remembered, the other thing that happened was I added 12 shinny new dwarf rasboras, then two days latter they all decided to jump out and turn into fish crisps, and even took a few more along with them for sh*ts and giggles, so went from 14 to 26 then down to 10 all in the space of 2 days! What fun!

 

[Graeme Edwards]

Auy up Sam
You really do seem to suffer from algae ahy I dont know anything about EI but ill say one thing..................

THE SOLUTION TO POLUTION IS DILUTION!!

I dont know how often you do your water changes but i would sugest you do it more regularly, say twice a week like mondays and thursdays every week, this should help your situation.

Graeme.

 

[lljdma06]

I don't know, but I'm inclined to agree with Graeme. My nanos get water changes twice a week too and they are low-tech nanos. Also, though I am definitely one to bend stocking rules quite a bit, I honestly think that 26 microrasboras is too much for a 4g tank. I think your tank was letting you know that 10-14 is maybe a better number. I wouldn't put more than 6-8 in my 2.5g and that's pushing it. It might not have been a water quality issue, but remember these fish are also cyprinids and do enjoy swimming space. They are not danios, but they are in the same family. They may have felt overwhelmed with the numbers and they react to this by jumping. Rasboras are strong swimmere and fair jumpers as well, and I on several occasions in IL had been surprised by a curious plopping sound which resulted in my crazy rush to the tank to rescue a flopping rasbora.

I'm sorry you've been experiencing algae problems still. It's really frustrating isn't it?

llj

 

[Themuleous]

Cheers for the advice Graeme, I have done just as you suggested, starting last week twice weekly water changes. Let hope it works!

Yeh maybe you're right Llj, but they do have plenty of swimming room and the tank definitely didn't look cramped, its 24" long after all. But I guess it could be a natural thing, when the population gets to big some try and jump out to populate other areas, think killies do that. I did have one or two of the sawbwa resplended do it too a one point (before adding the new 12) but who knows. Will keep it with the 10 and look to add something different once they are gone.

Thanks again you two

Sam

 

[Themuleous]

Well I had to make my 3000 post on one of my journals and potentially I have some very good news indeed! Without wish to jinx myself, it looks like the shrimp are finally working their magic on the thread algae and having removed a bunch load from the glass a while back its not growing back nearly as fast. This leads me to presume that the bi-daily water changes are also working and creating the stable environment that algae hates. It is therefore possible, just maybe (said whilst touching a forest of wood) that I have finally kicked the algae into touch! Wouldn't that be a novelty! This would mean I can finally get around to that re-scape Ive been harping on about for months!

The HC is look nice and thick as well so am pretty sure it could handle being replanted.

Watch this space for possible pics in the new year!

The only problem is that having got to this stage, I'm now going to leave the tank unattended and un-fert dosed for 10days! While I go to my parents for Xmas, will just have to hope and pray it doesn't f**k it up so much that I takes me another year to get it back again! Would be just my luck

Sam

 

[George Farmer]

Sounds promising Sam. 2007 could be a better year for you re. algae we hope.

 

[Themuleous]

Indeed, lets hope!

Can also show you my crazy new 3x24w T5 luminaire after Xmas.

Let there be light!!

Sam

 

[George Farmer]

Can also show you my crazy new 3x24w T5 luminaire after Xmas.

Let there be light!!

Oh dear! And you are just starting to get on top of algae!

Are the tubes independently switched?

 

[Themuleous]

wondered what you might say to that! Yes they are independently switchable, so can have 1, 2 or 3 tubes on. So will probably go for 2 to start with, and see how it goes.

Trouble is I've always got a eye on the future and this lighting rid will hopefully go over a 10g nano marine when I finally decide to take the plunge. Its also gives the perfect light needed for a 10G EI tank, based on that article by the Fitch's, and I'm going to 'upgrade' my 10g 'fish' tank to EI eventually, this lighting just means I wont be forever buying more light!

Sam

 

[Themuleous]

Well people,

After months of saying it, I finally got around to redoing the nano!

I'll pretty much let the pics do the taking. But should say that I'm not sure how long I'll keep the riccia, I took hours to tie it to all the rocks! Few questions first.

1) Any suggestions for replacing the riccia, was thinking glosso as it'll need to carpet? Or micro sagittaria? Poss a bit big for this size tank.

2) As Ive got this new lighting (now 2x24W T5), do you think I should reduce the length to 8hrs? Might help with the algae I had before, I dont want it back!

3) I might be getting some new fish to replace the dwarf rasboras, any suggestions?

4) There was quite a lot of mulm under the old HC is this normal, it didn't smell anoxic but just wondered?

5) Also, I notice there is quite a lot of air bubbles in the deep areas of EC below the HC, should I worry about this?

Anyway here goes. My inspiration was originally table top mountain in Cape Town, South Africa. I wanted to try and convey a sense of huge vertical cliffs with an abundance of life both on the plateau on top and also in the valley below. This evolved when I added two cliff faces as this might be more how it would be in say the jungle with a valley created by a river down the middle. The third small stone is just for effect, it looks like it was once attached to the right-hand main rock and was cut off by the weather or a river tributary

Now for the before photo I did let the tank go a bit as I knew it was getting an over haul, but this gives you an idea of what I've been looking at for the past few months.

Now a pic after the HC went in, in clumps couldn't be arsed to do it stem by stem! I've yet to add the riccia as you will see!

These are the slate stones for the riccia, yes there are a lot! I did all but five, took hours!

Now the complete layout. Many thanks to BigIan for the riccia. I actually have both dwarf and normal riccia in there. I was going to have normal at the back and dwarf at the front but I lost track of which stones had which! So will see how it turns out, I can easily move them around if necessary being tied to stones.

The left

And the right

And a pic of the new EQJ trading hood. All in all very pleased with it, the legs are a bit flimsy, but they do the job and I'm hoping to 'bully' my misses into letting me hang in from the ceiling, but that may take some time.

Sorry about the sticker mark on the front of the tank, I put the tank back around the wrong way! Will see if I can remove it somehow.

Comments and questions welcome, hopefully this'll be my entry to the PFK nano aquascape competition, well that's the plan!

Sam

 

[George Farmer]

Brilliant scape idea Sam, I love it. May well give Graeme a run for his money!

What rocks are they (big ones)?

Air bubbles in the substrate is fine. I had a load in mine, they disappear after a while.

Lighting - I'd run 6 hours to start. Eventually you could run a nice staggered i.e. with all three in a midday burst for 4 hours or so.

Fish ideas - you should visit Crowland Maidenhead Aquatics sometime in Peterborough. They have some awesome little fish, some rare. Let me know if you go and I'll come along too.

 

[Themuleous]

Thanks George thats made my day, will see how it looks once it fills out a bit.

Got all the rock from Aquajardin over at J12 on the M5. Cant remember what its called, leave it with me Ill give them a call tomorrow and ask, would be good to document all the material in the tank.

Might see if I can pop up to Peterborough sometime then, will def let you know if I do

Unfortunately the light tubes have to be switched between each other manually, as they all run off the same plug so only one time-able setting, the main down point of this hood.

Sam

EDIT - just need a fancy camera to take the 'fill shots' now to show it off to its best

 

[George Farmer]

I've heard good things about Aquajardin. They're into planted aren't they? Jeremy Gay has mentioned them a few times to me.