Supercoley's First Planted Tank Adventure

[SuperColey1]

Sam

Do you mean inside the cave? or on the bogwood (hint if I selected that position for Riccia you can bet it is in direct light. lol.

I'm a little stuck really. When attaching Anubias to rocks do they need to be craggy jagged rocks or can they be smooth pebbles?

Then I could attach it to a large cobble I have and position it just under the edge of the cave so it gets a little shade and just 'peeks' out at you

Andy

 

[SuperColey1]

Just thought I'd stick a picture in of the current location of the Anubias Barteri 'Petite' that I got on Monday

I have laggy banded (as I always do) to a cobble which is resting on the sand under neath the front ledge of the Mopani Cave.

Also to update I have just purchased the following over the web so will receive in various stages over the next couple of weeks:

Tetratec EX700 - £46.99 from zooplus (got £3 discount as a new customer. lol)
CO2 Regulator + 6mm hose adaptor + 2 x disposable CO2 bottles - £58.87 inc delivery from WeldUK
Solenoid + 2m CO2 hosing £30ish (is in euros) from Lunapet
Hydor ETH200 external Heater £19 inc delivery off ebay

Now just waiting to win a Vecton UV8 off ebay for around the 25ish inc delivery and I'm set to go with my final scaping plans, where I will be buying 3 Tropica pots (1 x Alternatha Reinecki and 2 x Rotala Rotundifolia) to complete the rear scape and allow me to move some plants around.

Fingers crossed. Gonna be a busy fortnight.

By the way this will be virtually my final set up cost and after will just be (hopefully) consumables like food ferts and CO2

So far including the tank which I bought in November, fish, foods, meds, equip, plants, subs and deco etc. We are on the verge of about £850.00 (possibly a little more) which is a lot but I have chopped and changed quite a few things on this tank and also there will be saleable non used items like the Nutrafin kits, and I have been selling the Riccia.

Also the Pitbulls are looking frisky and I already have a buyer for each whole spawn that comes, so if they do spawn that will pay for the tank within 2 years (What a dreamer)

Will post pics as things arrive

Andy

 

[Themuleous]

All sounds good Andy However my only comment would be

By the way this will be virtually my final set up cost and after will just be (hopefully) consumables like food ferts and CO2

That situation NEVER happens, there is always something to get!

 

[voo]

Just to let you know, the hose diameter on the Tetratec EX700 is smaller than what the Hydor heater uses. I've got the same models, had to buy two adapters and get a small amount of hose so that i could use the heater.

This is the adapter i bought:
http/cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...em=230080889774

The Tetratec EX1200 has thicker hosing though

 

[SuperColey1]

Voo

I asked the seller and he said it had 12mm connectors!!! So lets hope.

Those Eheims are a rip off.

These are much more like it and then you just heat, slip on and let cool

http/cgi.ebay.co.uk/19mm-to-13mm-Barbed-...VQQcmdZViewItem

andy

 

[voo]

Just checked and mine was the 300W model, could have sworn it was the 200. Sorry!

I didnt see those adapters when i was looking, they're a different size so didnt show in the search. You're right, the eheims were expensive

 

[SuperColey1]

Its only because I'm a cheapskate that I searched for 'Reducer' in the home and garden section and didn't come across them until at the end where it show items from ebay shops. lol Took an hour to find them and like all my other try and do it on the cheap efforts i'll probably end up having to buy the eheims, but I am hoping the ETH200 has the smaller connectors to save me the trouble.

Cheers for warning me though Voo

Andy

 

[SuperColey1]

Got home tonight all excited with my Tropica Pots:

Alternatha Reinecki
Ludwigia Repens (yes more)
Rotala Rotundifolia

Instantly the world went from sunny and calm to Thundering and hurricane like

I looked into the tank and:

all the fish were dead
All the shrimps were dead (They were all stil there after all)
Amazingly some of the MTS are alive.

The drop checker was bright yellow (Was Dark Green this morning)

As you can guess I am very disheartened not least because all my favourite pitbull plecs were gone. My pride and Joy

Therefore this journal is now closed and I will think about starting a new (fishless) one after I have a day or 2 to think about it as at the minute my frame of mind id that of giving up, selling all the equipment and getting a hamster.

If I do continue it will have to remain fishless for at least a month because I have spent loads on all the equipment and there is no money to buy more fish.

Many thanks for all of your interest along the way and maybe you'll see me at a later date starting again as I do have everything I need now and I do have the plants alive and well and algae free. I just need to find the motivation from somewhere now.

I think I will keep looking at Liam's shrimp tank as that is my favourite (Sorry to all you others) and maybe that will inspire me to carry on.

Andy

 

[Themuleous]

Oh Andy, thats crap what happened? How did the Co2 get so high?

Mate thats crap, really crap it was coming alone really well.

Sorry Andy

Sam

 

[SuperColey1]

Dunno mate. Probably f**kin kids banging the cabinet and the CO2 upping?? I dunno its a locked cabinet and has been at the same level for 2 days. Gradually built it up over the weekend.

Thats why I was getting the solenoid though. Then the build up in the night doesn't happen, although I suppose that wouldn't have altered anything as it was green anyway.

I have planted all the AR, LR and RR that I bought, wishing that Tropica didn't supply so many damn stems in each pot but I suppose thats why they are worth the money.

I fel a little better because after I painstakingly spent an hour with tweezers removing all the 'dead' MTS I found 1 hour later that most were scaling the sides of the bucket so there is some life still there other than plants.

I think I will carry on and probs get some more pitbulls no more mollys though I can't go through killing 70 babies each month that very rarely anyone wants. We'll have to see. Maybe a school of Neons or those funny coloured Rams or chain loaches.

I don't really know yet but I think I will start another Journal from here on 'A New Beginning'

Andy

 

[lljdma06]

I don't really know yet but I think I will start another Journal from here on 'A New Beginning'

Andy

No, I'd advise to keep the journal as is. Part of what makes a journal a journal are the mistakes a long the way. Closing this would give the false impression that you gave up, which you didn't. If you continue with this thread, members will see that you moved on. IMO, new journals should either be for new tanks or complete stripdowns and new scapes, which yours is not. But you do what you want to do. It is your journal.

PS: I really like the position of the Petite anubias.

llj

 

[R1ch13]

Really sorry about the disaster mate!

Cmon you cant give up!

This is just a "minor" set back

Richie

 

[SuperColey1]

Hello everyone

Thanks for the support and I will continue the journal for the good side and downside of fishkeeping.

The tank is now fully planted again after the major pruning and binning I did last week before I lost all the inhabitants.

It is the background I have filled out with Alternanthera Reineckii Roseafolia (Left) More Ludwigia Repens (Centre) and Rotala Rotundifolia (Right)

On the fish front I have spoken to Marcus at Pleco Aquatics and he says he will save me 4 new pitbulls (definately 2m, 2f)and also 10 Neons (I am going for less variety in my new stocking) I think the Neons will look good schooling around the plants.

I like the German Blue Ram too. Any comments on Neons and 2 Rams together? The CO2 keeps the tank at about 6.4 (when I get a new needle valve that doesn't go wrong) so that should be OK. Its just a compatibility issue really.

I think I will probably get some more shrimp too and I've also seen some cool underwater frogs which are about 1 inch. anybody have experience with these (Do they try to find the tank they were born in to spawn . lol)

So after 2 days feeling better (apart from now having flu) and the second disposable bottle is on (without the dodgy needle valve as I only have snails in there now) and I have managed to get the drop checker to stay green again. Funny thing is I can't see any bubbles coming out of the diffusor but the CO2 must be getting spread around well because in the morning the drop checker is light green and after the 'midday 4 hour burst' it is a darker green!! and the incident proves my solution is good because it was yellow and 3 hours later stuck on the kitchen wall was blue again.

Keep watching for new pics of the plants and I will put pics of the new inhabitants on when they are delivered in June.

Many Thanks people

Andy

Anyway

 

[aaronc]

Hey Andy

Sorry to hear about the nightmare you are having.

Your journal has been a great read and can't wait for you to get back on your feet

Keep up the good work


aaron

 

[SuperColey1]

Just a quick update as to where I am with this tank.

Equipment:
Everything has arrived and is in place except for the UV8 which I am waiting on my cheque to clear. The Tetratec EX700 is awesome and makes zero noise. Ultraclear water and very easy to use.

The Hydor heater bought for £20 sec hand on ebay (which was leaking from one of the bottom plastic joins) only seemed to have the light on for 1 day. On closer inspection (i.e. unscrewing) the whole of the inside was saturated including the circuit board so there must be a leak in the glass tube in the centre of it. Needless to say I disconnected it and cut the cable off, although it is still inline as I don't have a hose connector. It will have to stay there until I can buy a BRAND NEW one.

The CO2 Solenoid from Lunapet seems to work really well and I may yet get a needle valve from them as I need to replace the dodgy one I did have (using the black cumbersome knob on top of the reg at the mo)

Plants:
All doing OK although slow growing as I am 'upping' the lights slowly and at present am on 3½-0.6WPG, 5-2.4WPG, 3½-0.6WPG.
So tempting to up the lights to get the background to grow but am resisting the temptation. next weekend will be up to 3-6-3, then the weekend after 2½-7-2½ and then finally back to the original 2-8-2.

Fish:
I have decided against the Rams due to the water paramaters they would need which would leave me less room for error etc and am working out what my other fish will be so for now will be 4 x pitbulls and 10 x Neons which I have asked to be delivered second week of June.

In this pic of the fishless tank taken today you can see the Aleternanthera Reinecki and Ludwigia Repens coming on, but the Rotala Rotundifolia is totally hidden by the slate 'mountain' (There are about 15 'plantlets' so should grow quite thick)

The Tiger Lotus is still only about 1 inch tall from the bulb but hast 4 shoots with mini 1cm diameter leaves. This is again hidden but by the bogwood the Java Fern is attached to.

Thanks for reading

Andy