30 Gallons and $100 of inner peace and happiness

[thesawguy]

The tank itself was a gift of a friend who at the same time lent me the three Nature Aquarium World books by Takashi Amano. They were pretty inspiring. Having only set up a twenty gallon and two five gallon tanks with pretty much stock lighting I knew I wanted to delve a little deeper into this world but with minimal expense as I am still just getting my feet wet in this new hobby. So I bought the same filter and heater I have in my 20 gallon tank on amazon and a no name 96 watt compact fluorescent on ebay all for less than $100. I considered buying substrate but couldn't quite bring myself to pay another $100 on sand so I went with a garden soil and play sand substrate. I took a wonderful excursion into the woods to find the rocks. I brought along a bottle of muriatic acid to test the rocks and a big backpack and had a really good time. I have DIY CO2 set up and dose with flourish once a week.

Here's the tank when it was new:


Fish:
Cardinal Tetra X 10
Coryadora sterbai cats 2
Amano Shrimp

Plants:
Anubius nana
Babytears
Dwarf Hairgrass Eleocharis parvula
Filligree Frill Plant Myrio simulans
Frogbit
Hygrophila angustifolia
Hygrophila pinnatifada
Micro Sword Lilaeopsis
Needle Ludwigia
Rotala indica

The Hygrophila pinnatifada and needle ludwigia both just disintegrated and I added Bacopa mint plant, Cabomba, Mayaca, and telanthera (which is just barely holding on). Here it is before a recent trim just 3 months later:

And after a recent trim:

My goal now is to get the hairgrass to fill in the front. I tried glossostigma to no avail, what's the secret with that stuff? I also have a ton of snails and some black hair algae to battle. Any tips?

[Qbert23]

Nice looking tank i love the rock in the middle and the plants in the back left they just look cool to me haha

[Hilde]

Love it

Some API root tabs should help the plants. Cheapest here

[thesawguy]

Just got back from a couple of fish stores, got a nesaea plant to add some contrast to the right side. Also added 10 more little cardinal tetras and an otocinclus catfish.

[thesawguy]

I saw these Gold Rams at the fish store and I fell in love, they were also a good price. I know my water conditions aren't perfect and wasn't sure if they'd harass the cardinals but I went ahead and got them before someone else did.

[Hilde]

Rams are very sensitive to water changes. I believe dosing with calcium sulfate would help them to adjust.

[BS87]

For some reason I'm having trouble telling from the pics, is that a 30 long or a 30 breeder?

Could be i'm just very tired too :P

[LB79]

Rams aren't necessarily sensitive to water changes, they're just sensitive to nitrate, swings in pH, and unstable conditions. Just make sure the temp and pH of the new water are relatively close to that of the temp and pH in the tank. Which is something everyone should be doing anyways!

[thesawguy]

Originally Posted by BS87

For some reason I'm having trouble telling from the pics, is that a 30 long or a 30 breeder?

Could be i'm just very tired too :P

It's a standard 30 gallon.

[thesawguy]

Since my last post I've done a major trim and added some new fish. I really hacked away at the hygrophila angostifolia. One plant that was sold to me as myaca I've come to believe is actually narrow leaf anachris and it is growing like crazy. I bought another gold ram since the first two seemed really happy and I added ten rummy nose tetras. The tank is really buzzing with activity.

[Hilde]

Originally Posted by thesawguy

The tank is really buzzing with activity.

How about some pics of it.

[fishyjoe24]

rams, just don't like nitrates, and big swings in ph. acqmate them slowly with a dosing pump and you should be okay. tank is looking real good.

[thesawguy]

Anubius flowering

Blurry Rummynose

One of the new gold rams

[LB79]

Now all you need are 10 corydoras habrosus. That's a really nice, natural-looking tank.

[thesawguy]

About 6 weeks ago I bought a pair of kribensis on a whim and a couple weeks later I had fry. I moved the rams into my twenty for the time being because the parents were getting very aggressive towards them. Also gradually lost most of the cardinals. The fish from my twenty will go into a 38 gallon that I will set up soon and then I will put the fry in there for about 6-8 months and hopefully sell them after that.