Sam's Nano Journal

[Themuleous]

Thanks I will be sure to get some pics of the fish up, if they sit still long enough for me to take some!

Sam

 

[lljdma06]

Thanks I will be sure to get some pics of the fish up, if they sit still long enough for me to take some!

Sam

I like, I like. Smartest thing you've done was add the floating plants and nerites. The floating plants will most certainly out-compete the algae without tapping into the CO2 supply in your water column. I always have a healthy supply of duckweed, especially when I've just changed a scape.

It's going to take a while for the marsilea to transition to the submerged form, but it is an interesting plant choice. Are the stats the same or have you adapted your plans?

I really wish the best for this scape. Nanos are not simple to do and yours is such a nice tank.


llj

 

[Themuleous]

Thanks Llj I must admit I like this scape.

Yeh I'm hoping the Salvinia and egera do the algae busting job. Its just a shame that Ive actually been running this scape for a few weeks as I originally did it when I switched from the supplied bulbs to the cheapo osram's. At that time I gave the whole tank a really good clean, but as those bulbs didnt work either, the algae has had an opportunity to get a hold before I got the proper bulbs and planted it again. Just hoping that it's not to bad yet. Time will tell. Hopefully the nerites will sort it out in the short term at least and I'll probably get around 10 red and tiger shrimp in the next week or so, if the MA gets them in that is.

The marsilea was in there when I scaped the tank so a few weeks so its had time to transform to underwater leaves, of which is has many now. Almost all the ones you can see are underwater leaves. It's producing runners as well and the few I had to move to get the P.helferi in had a good root mass as well. As far as this plant is concerned the crappy osrams and the resulting low light conditions might had been exactly what it needed, gave it plenty of time to adapt before being hit with full light. My only hope is that it doesn't get too tall, it could easily overgrow the rock and P.helferi if it did and ruin the foreground. Will see what happens!

As for the stats, the tanks is as before, 2x24W T5 tubes (D&D midday (green hue) and Arcadia proflora (pink hue, when compared to each other)), substrate is the same eco-complete, and doing full EI now with a water change every 2 days, after which I dose 2ppm PO4, 10ppm NO3 and 2ml TPN. I also added lots and lots of HC, got two pots and added the best 70-80%, the individual stems are more densely planted than the pics shows, mostly as I pushed them in fairly deep to secure them properly.

I'll keep the journal more up-to-date now its running properly again.

Sam

 

[john starkey]

Hi Sam i think this nano is on course to to rival some others i have seen the layout is really nice i cant wait to see it when the plants have established, and those i have only ever seen them in books my local fs never has any in cant wait to see them to, keep up the good work and keep posting those pics REGARDS JOHN

 

[Dave Spencer]

It`s looking good again Sam.

Your Marsilea looks as if it is starting to behave itself. I found that the emergent leaves eventually just died off, so if you have enough healthy single lobed stems, it might tidy things a little by cutting the four leafed plants off. My Marsilea has a pretty significant root system, so your substrate should suit it a treat.

I hope you don`t shade the HC too much. This stuff has been a disaster in my Iwagumi. I couldn`t figure out why it was doing so bad, what with it being a Tropica plant sat in ADA AS Amazonia with D&D lights and an EI dosed water column, plus all the temporary weeds were growing like....weeds. I floated small amounts in my 120l Lido where it just took off straight away and looked fantastic, planted them in the Iwagumi and they deteriorated. The conclusion I came to was that all the temporary weeds were blocking out too much light. Their pearling also left the water`s surface covered in bubbles, which probably refracted a fair amount of light as well.

That`s a lot of waffling about my tanks, but what I am saying is try not to block out too much light to the HC. I think planting my HC from day one was a mistake, so I will add some in a little while when I start to reduce the weeds in there.

How are you finding the colour rendition from your two tubes?

Dave.

 

[Themuleous]

Thanks Dave

You're right about the Marsilea, hopefully it wont take to long to carpet the foreground. I am conscious of not shading out the HC, once the Salvinia covers the surface I'll remove the egera as it tends to get bunched up over the HC due to the filter, then probably remove some Salvinia when needed to keep the surface 75% covered, that way the HC should get enough but I'll still have plenty to keep the algae at bay. The HC pearls at least which my last lot didnt, which I think was due to the very very very high CO2, strangely enough.

I added an otto last night which has done an excellent job of cleaning the glass, the nerites dont seem very happy and have been in their shells for the last 2 days, hopefully they'll settle in ok and get munching! Will be adding 5 amano shrimp this eve and poss some cherry/tiger shrimp in a week or two, then thats it until its ready for the Gertrude's in a month or two.

Sam

 

[Dave Spencer]

I have just added Otos and Amanos to my Iwagumi and Amanos to my 24l. The Otos are great fish in their own right, but the good they do against diatoms makes them my first choice fish.

What kind of lighting regime are you using to combat against algae?

I can`t wait to see the Gerties in your tank. Does their quality vary greatly?

Dave.

 

[afroturf]

Interesting tank Sam I like the layout. It will be interesting to see how the marsilea performs compaired to the HC. Great choice of fish as well, if you can find them.

To answer daves question I can't see that their quality would vary much, I think that fish will often look better the more they mature as most fish brought at your lfs are sub-adult fish. My gertrudes do look more impressive than they did 3 months ago. I only have two males and one is certainly the boss when it comes to the women. and will quite often challenge and defeat the lower of the two. the dominant male is alot more colourful than the other with his dorsal, pectoral and pelvic fins edged in a bright yellow compaired to white of the other one.

Are thse the only fish you intend on getting as the do tend to spend most of their time near the top of the water.

 

[Themuleous]

What kind of lighting regime are you using to combat against algae?

I can`t wait to see the Gerties in your tank. Does their quality vary greatly?

Lighting is currently 48w for 4hrs, I'm going to increase it to 5hrs as of this weekend, then probably up an hr each wkd until I'm at 8hrs. But I will play with the lighting if needs be, certainly no more then 8hrs, poss just 6 if the algae really gets going, but its a case of try and see.

As for the Gertrude's, the quality seems fairly good, I do have two with curved spines, not sure if that's a genetic defect or if they were 'bent' during transit. Either way I'll probably leave those two at work, as I'm hoping to breed them and I dont want duff genes. As you've probably read the supplier for my local MA only supplied males, most annoyed about that! Although I think I might have one female that slipped through the net and the other LFS has a few which I can see a few females but they are 5quid each compared to 5 for £5 in MA! That's the gold fish bowl for you. All that said, I love the little beauties, they are really interesting to watch and display far more than the furcatus and celebs (Telmatherina Ladigesi) I have, really stunning when they get going, should be perfect for the nano. Think I'm going to get into rainbows, certainly the yellow ones, when I get my 100g I'll have a massive shoal of something.

Are these the only fish you intend on getting as the do tend to spend most of their time near the top of the water.

I have the fish waiting for the tank in my work tank I would certainly agree that the more mature ones look the best, the pectoral fins get an orange tint to them (well the one or two larger ones in the shop did) and the body gets a blue hue to it.

Yeh they will be the only ones, it looks better in a planted tank to have a single species. I had noticed they spend most of the time near the surface, but as the tank is only 8" tall even if they are at the surface they aren't to high!

Sam

 

[cheesy feet]

Great nano sam, love the layout .What kind of fish for the 100 gal are you looking for ? Imo praecox rainbow fish are really nice and would be great in a big shoal.Mine has maxed out at just over 2.5 inches, so they are not to small.

 

[Themuleous]

Almost certainly going to be Australian rainbows, not sure which yet, something that's not gonna get to big, 2" max, so I can get a huge shoal 30-40 fish.

Got to save the £1500 I'll need to set it up now!

Sam

 

[Dave Spencer]

Lighting is currently 48w for 4hrs, I'm going to increase it to 5hrs as of this weekend, then probably up an hr each wkd until I'm at 8hrs. But I will play with the lighting if needs be, certainly no more then 8hrs, poss just 6 if the algae really gets going, but its a case of try and see.

I know what you mean with the try and see regarding lighting. I hate to tempt fate, but I seem to be kicking the crap out of algae with my two new tanks at the moment. I think lots of temporary fast growers, CO2 dropper in the yellow before critters arrive, a shortened photoperiod, 50% water changes every other day (dead easy on small tanks) and a decent critter clean up crew( Otos and Amanos) once the CO2 dropper has been pulled back in to the lime green, have done the trick so far. I have also dosed Excel directly on to problem spots at low water during water changes (this has now ceased since the introduction of the shrimp).

Either way I'll probably leave those two at work, as I'm hoping to breed them and I dont want duff genes.

Breeding these critters would be seriously satisfying. Better than crap sex, but not as good as that rare ocassion when we get it right.

Dave.

 

[arif_93]

What kind of lighting regime are you using to combat against algae?

I can`t wait to see the Gerties in your tank. Does their quality vary greatly?

Lighting is currently 48w for 4hrs, I'm going to increase it to 5hrs as of this weekend, then probably up an hr each wkd until I'm at 8hrs. But I will play with the lighting if needs be, certainly no more then 8hrs, poss just 6 if the algae really gets going, but its a case of try and see.

As for the Gertrude's, the quality seems fairly good, I do have two with curved spines, not sure if that's a genetic defect or if they were 'bent' during transit. Either way I'll probably leave those two at work, as I'm hoping to breed them and I dont want duff genes. As you've probably read the supplier for my local MA only supplied males, most annoyed about that! Although I think I might have one female that slipped through the net and the other LFS has a few which I can see a few females but they are 5quid each compared to 5 for £5 in MA! That's the gold fish bowl for you. All that said, I love the little beauties, they are really interesting to watch and display far more than the furcatus and celebs (Telmatherina Ladigesi) I have, really stunning when they get going, should be perfect for the nano. Think I'm going to get into rainbows, certainly the yellow ones, when I get my 100g I'll have a massive shoal of something.

Are these the only fish you intend on getting as the do tend to spend most of their time near the top of the water.

I have the fish waiting for the tank in my work tank I would certainly agree that the more mature ones look the best, the pectoral fins get an orange tint to them (well the one or two larger ones in the shop did) and the body gets a blue hue to it.

Yeh they will be the only ones, it looks better in a planted tank to have a single species. I had noticed they spend most of the time near the surface, but as the tank is only 8" tall even if they are at the surface they aren't to high!

Sam

after ur gerties have bred can i buy some please
i have phoned over 30 fish shop nad the only shop to have them is 210 miles away

 

[Themuleous]

Breeding these critters would be seriously satisfying. Better than crap sex, but not as good as that rare occasion when we get it right.

That made me laugh Dave

Satisfying indeed (both )

after ur gerties have bred can i buy some please
i have phoned over 30 fish shop nad the only shop to have them is 210 miles away

My local MA shop (Oxford) has them and that's not 210 miles away. Have you asked a shop to order them in for you? When I get some females and they breed, you can have some

Sam

 

[arif_93]

Breeding these critters would be seriously satisfying. Better than crap sex, but not as good as that rare occasion when we get it right.

That made me laugh Dave

Satisfying indeed (both )

after ur gerties have bred can i buy some please
i have phoned over 30 fish shop nad the only shop to have them is 210 miles away

My local MA shop (Oxford) has them and that's not 210 miles away. Have you asked a shop to order them in for you? When I get some females and they breed, you can have some

Sam

thanks but ive asked several petsathome shops to order them in they say they cant and all my lfs say they have never even heard of the fish
and how much will i have to pay u for each fish
plz say quite cheap
and also does ur local ma in oxford post fish