They Look Cool But Are They Practical In The Long Run?

[peegee617]

Awesome. I would rather not deal with the salt issue but I am really keen on those little critters, and I'm happy to deal with a crunchy diet - I think it's worth it for fish with such personalities....
 
I got ammonia from Ace (thanks N), dosed and tested tank - now at about 4ppm.  The water still has a tea color, but I kinda like that. Clearing slowly..

 

[NeonTetra97]

Cabomba is a great plant, I think it looks really good. Especially with that tank, looking awesome! The wood is epic, plants look epic, I have to say you have a really nice tank there. The variety of the plants is really nice, how is the red one doing? Oh and one more thing, when Cabomba gets going it really gets going, I have had some for about 10 days now and in the past 4 days it has been growing about half an inch per day! Lost of trimming lol

 

[Lillefishy]

The tank looks lovely.
The plant with the red under the leaves looks like hemigraphis colorata which isn't an aquatic plant, it will soon rot

 

[peegee617]

Lillefishy- I just googled it and this is exactly what my plant looks like, so I think you're bang on. Thanks !!   I can understand the likes of Petsmart doing it but why would a LFS sell me a plant as an aquatic when it clearly isn't? Grrr....
 
I think I'll take it out before it rots, but I do like the larger leaf in the tank so maybe I'll put in a good ol' Cryptocoryne undulata. Or maybe a Java fern - this'll work if I end up turning my tank brackish for a puffer (NOW I'm thinking ;-)) so probably my best bet.
 
Thanks for the comments regarding the tank. I am really happy with how it's looking too. Let's hope I can keep it that way

)  The photo shows the view down from on top of the tank - that's the payback for the glass top - the view is totally unobstructed!

 
 
 

 

[peegee617]

And I'm thinking the 'fluffy' plant might be Myriophyllum rather than Cabomba

 

[ech0o]

A fluval edge is not large enough for a figure 8 or green spotted puffer, you would need a much larger tank.  Also, neither should be in freshwater, they will live extremely short and unhealthy lives.  Dwarf puffer would be an option, full freshwater for its entire life.   If you are going to get a puffer I suggest you do some serious research before you do, they are not beginning fish, and require special care as far as managing aggression and feeding.   They are amazing little creatures though, I love all of mine!

 

[peegee617]

I hear you Ech0o, and I am doing as much reading as I can get my hands on....  I'm not strictly speaking a beginner, I used to keep fish a long while ago, so just very rusty, plus the knowledge base within the hobby has grown considerably. Access to the wealth on information on the web is something of a mixed blessing - there is a lot of conflicting information out there.
I'm not rushing this tank. I do wish it was bigger, but it isn't. There's no point forcing a fit because it won't work out well in the long run.  I'll study up more on the dwarf puffer while the tank is cycling.

 

[ech0o]

if you do a google search for dwarf puffer information, keep the name Robert T. Ricketts in mind, or RTR on many forums.   He has posted countless threads of useful information for dwarf puffer care across the internet for many years, and is considered to have been keeping dwarf puffers for longer than most anyone in the aquaria field.

 

[peegee617]

I have replaced the Hemigraphis on the rhs with some artificial plants for now (the little LED's on that side of the light fixture are out, so the light is terrible in that corner), and put a new red plant (already forgot the name of it) in the middle. I think the tank looks really nice now. I've done a couple of water changes and today I could wait no longer - I'm not sure if I jumped the gun too soon, but I succumbed to two male cobra guppies and a cherry shrimp. So cute!
 
I got the guppies from a hobbyist in town who has bred his own strains of guppies over the last twenty years, and he has some really beautiful fish. I'll post pics as soon as I get some good ones. I don't think they'll squabble, there's too much cover, and the guy had his tanks very densely stocked, so you could say they're used to each other.  As it happens he couldn't help but snag a fry along with my two, so I guess there's a 50/50 chance the boys will get lucky after all

)
 
Not content with the tiny tank, I just picked up a 30gal tank. Now the question is - brackish or jungle ? I definitely want it well planted, but is it possible to do both - in other words have a lush-planted brackish set-up? I reeeeallly want an F8 puffer ;-)

 

[ech0o]

I have a brackish tank I am about to break down, and covert the green spotted puffer inhabitants to full saltwater, as brackish is just not fulfilling enough for us.  It is SO HARD to get plants to grow, even plants that are from brackish enviornments are extremely slow growers, and actually do better without the salinity.  So pretty much it is really really tough planting a brackish tank, we ended up ripping all plants out of ours and replacing with fake plants, which again doesn't do it for me at all.   You could do an all river rock tank or something and do a plantless scape?

 

[peegee617]

Well, I guess puffers are going to have to wait then, since I can't afford a marine set-up and definitely want it heavily planted. I suspected it wasn't really possible since the choice of brackish water plants is severely limited, so thanks for confirming it ech0o .
As for plastic plants, except for the couple of broad-leaf examples in my tank all the plastic plants I've seen are ghastly looking. Hasn't any company come up with some realistic looking ones yet? It can't be that hard, surely. 
 
Water in the Edge is nice and clear (just a little tea-colored from the log) and I tested it today -
 
pH 7.4
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
 
I was expecting to see some nitrate by now, so it it a bad thing that it hasn't registered yet?

 

[ech0o]

Those are you numbers with fish in the tank?

 

[peegee617]

yes

 

[peegee617]

My big(er) tank is ready, so I have moved all the fish from the Edge to that one, and put my crown tail betta in this small tank, lowering the water just enough so he can gulp air easily.  I think this is a better arrangement all round.  
 
So - a couple of reviews of the Edge's shortcomings (over and above it's size):
 
The lighting isn't great. I ended up putting fake plants in, but I'll probably replace the plastic amazon swords with real Java fern before long - they are probably one of the few plants that will do ok with the Edge lighting.
 
Another major disadvantage of the Edge tank is simply how hard it is to catch fish in it with that small opening. I ended up having to almost totally disassemble the tank to catch everyone. In this case it didn't matter since I was doing a big switcheroo anyway, but if you just needed to gat a particular fish out - good luck!!

 

[Ch4rlie]

Great tips for the edge.
 
Gonna bear that in mind when setting up my 46l one in future, think more plants than anything else and upgraded lights too....