2.9 Gallon Fantasy Tree Stump! *pics*

[ADA]

This is my second journal. As with my 12 gallon long, I started this journal late. This scape is only about a week or so old though, so it should be pretty well documented.. just missing some of the set-up pictures that I wish I had taken.

I'll be sure to update this with new pictures about once a week or so. Thanks for looking!!



***Updated pictures on June 25 2011 at the last page of this thread.. (here is the tank as of May 21 2011)***






Specs

Tank: Mini-S 2.9 Gallon

Substrate: ADA AquaSoil

Lighting: Archaea 27watt

Ferts: YamatoGreen-N

C02: Mini Paintball System

Filtration: ZooMed 501



Flora:

Hemianthus Callitrichoides

Echinodorus Tenellus 'pink'

Fissiden Fontanus

Willow Moss

Süßwassertang

Rotala Indica

Marsilea Quadrifolia

Hydrocotyle Verticillata

Hydrocotyle Sibthorpioides

Ammannia sp. 'bonsai'


Fauna:

Three German Blue Rams

An A grade Crystal Red Shrimp

Three Snowball Shrimps

Two Wrestling Halfbeaks

One guppy

One Scarlet Badis


Pics!

This is right after I filled it up for the first time. The Aqua Soil, turned my scape to mud!! Hahah.





.. and after some cleaning up and rescaping, here's how it currently looks:










Water level is above the tank sides





This wood stump is from my previous tank, so it has a head start with some mosses, and the Süßwassertang is already well established.





And here are the tank inhabitants:


German Blue Ram, "Rammstein" :p





Snowball Shrimp:




"Rammstein" again:




Wrestling Halfbeak:
These lil guys are super cute. I put a piece of food in the tweezers, and they chase it around the tank. Amazing personality for such a small fish. It's like you're playing with a dog! They look a lot like a micro Arrowana to me.








My Scarlet Badis: He could be my favorite fish. Adorable.







Another one of my Blue Rams:










I had this plant, (Eriocaulin Sp. "Australia" Blood Red) but it melted. I think it needs RO.. boo.




So, that's about it for now. Thanks so much for looking! Please subscribe, or check back often, like I said, I'll be updating this every week or so.

Comments/suggestions welcome!

[boon]

The stump looks amazing in there. I think you are a bit overstocked in there though. 2 rams alone need 20gal<.

[ADA]

Originally Posted by boon

The stump looks amazing in there. I think you are a bit overstocked in there though. 2 rams alone need 20gal<.

Thanks!

I do 10% to 20% waterchange every day. The water is clean.. but I concur. I do wish they had more room to swim.

[Geniusdudekiran]

Yeah, pretty overstocked. Try using aqadvisor.com, it will give you a stocking percentage. Also, you really want to lower that water, because sooner or later, something's gonna decide to make a jump. Especially when it THAT high. I love the scarlet badis, have always been a fan of them. I've never actually seen a wrestling halfbeak before, but I agree, they do look like dwarf Arowana! So overall, the tank looks really good, as does the scape. But keep those rams well fed so they don't kill your shrimp. They may anyway though. And lower the water. Good luck!

[houseofcards]

That could be a nice setup, but you have all those fish in a 3g tank that is 1 week old or did I miss something?

[Quentin]

Originally Posted by houseofcards

That could be a nice setup, but you have all those fish in a 3g tank that is 1 week old or did I miss something?

ditto
Hey where did you get the Archaea light? Seems to be sold out everywhere I see.

[karatekid14]

It looks very nice, but I wouldn't house those fish in anything less than 20gal. You should think about getting a bigger tank for some of them.

[bsmith]

I love that stump. One of the coolest looking Nanos I have seen in some time. If the rams are happy let them be. You keep up on WC's so you should be fine. I am not all about cramming fish into a space they dont fit in but they are small and are displaying great colors so they must be happy. I would just worry about the halfbeaks and rams eating your shrimp. I had a few killies in my mini-m and my shrimp population dropped about half in the few days they were in there.

[Couesfanatic]

That wood is awesome in there. Good Job on the tank, keep us updated.

[houseofcards]

Originally Posted by bsmith

I love that stump. One of the coolest looking Nanos I have seen in some time. If the rams are happy let them be. You keep up on WC's so you should be fine. I am not all about cramming fish into a space they dont fit in but they are small and are displaying great colors so they must be happy. I would just worry about the halfbeaks and rams eating your shrimp. I had a few killies in my mini-m and my shrimp population dropped about half in the few days they were in there.

I'm sorry but that is just not a good way to go:

You got sensitive fish in a tank within one week of setup with Aquasoil.
You got rams with shrimp in a small space.
You have the water filled up to the top (hopefully just for the pics).

If I can discourage newbies from doing this it's' worth the post.

[oscarsx]

Awesome and beautiful set up man. That stump in there looks perfect...

[ADA]

Thanks for the comments!

Sorry to mislead some of you, only the current scape is about a week old and most of the plants were added about a week ago. The tank itself has been running for 8 months or so. I just did a 100% rescape about a week ago. I tested the water to make sure there were no toxic spikes before I added any livestock.

I'm watching the Rams closely to see if they display any aggression toward the shrimp, and there are plenty of places for them to hide. (The stump has a huge hollow area where the Rams can't get to. The Halfbeaks never leave the surface, so I doubt they will bother the shrimp, but that's a good point. They're so small that I didn't really think of that.. they are pretty aggressive at feeding time though, so given the chance, I bet they'd have a go at a shrimp at least.. but again, I don't think anything could get the shrimp in there. In any case, I wouldn't put any of my high grade CRS in there.

[ADA]

Originally Posted by Geniusdudekiran

Yeah, pretty overstocked. Try using aqadvisor.com, it will give you a stocking percentage. Also, you really want to lower that water, because sooner or later, something's gonna decide to make a jump. Especially when it THAT high. I love the scarlet badis, have always been a fan of them. I've never actually seen a wrestling halfbeak before, but I agree, they do look like dwarf Arowana! So overall, the tank looks really good, as does the scape. But keep those rams well fed so they don't kill your shrimp. They may anyway though. And lower the water. Good luck!

I had the water topped off for the photo.. back to normal now.

I love the Badis too. So much personality in such a small fish. He's been there from the beginning. Refuses any food I give him, but he looks fat and happy.. I have no idea what he's eating.

[xmas_one]

While I don't agree with your choice of livestock, I do like the style of your scapes both this and the 12 long are inspiring.

[youjettisonme]

As others have said, the choice of wood is key here. It makes for a natural, beautiful scape, very dimensional. I have a 90p that is heavy planted, and even I worry about my shrimp/fish interaction so I can't imagine trusting your rams and badis with your shrimp. Even with the wood, eventually something bad is bound to happen.

Still, great scape.