My first planted aquarium Petco 6.6 Bookshelf Iwagumi (Full Tank Shot 09/27/2012)

[SaltyNC]

Originally Posted by callisto9

I'm new and think I've finally settled on this tank! Thanks for all the great pics and updates! I can't wait to get it.

Callisto, that's great. I think you'll really like the tank. The dimensions are great, and I think it is a great starter tank. You probably already know this, but they do scratch easily. I would recommend being very careful when you add your substrate if it is hard/sharp. I'm pretty happy with this scape came out, but the one thing I would do different if I could rewind the clock would be to use a soil substrate like Fluval Shrimp Stratum or ADA soil. The Flourite is fine, but I imagine if I had used a soil-based substrate, the hairgrass would have filled in much quicker, and I think it looks better, too, though the Flourite blends OK with the rocks I have.

Good luck with your new tank. I hope you'll post your progress. I'll definitely follow along.

[SaltyNC]

Originally Posted by freph

Yeah, the riccia has been giving me trouble for the longest time so I just scrapped them and got some fresh stuff. We've got a couple of shoddy non-chain fish stores on and around Bragg Blvd, but other than that there's a 2 PetsMarts and a Pet Supermarket that I know of. All of them are lacking in exotic fish and plants in general, so I order from Rachel for fish and plants from forum members or aquariumplants.com. I rather pay for shipping than gas and more mileage on my car.

We really need a LFS that specializes in planted tanks. I think if more people were aware of them, they would be much more popular. I stumbled across them one day and instantly was hooked. I love nature and the outdoors, and it's amazing that we can recreate a small world on our desktops or in a corner of our home. I enjoy large format landscape photography, but it's hard for a photo to compete with a living miniature landscape complete with wildlife.

This was my first experience ordering from Rachel, and it was perfect. The fish were excellent. The only mistake I made was not ordering more fish!

[SaltyNC]

New Video!

I uploaded a new video of the boraras brigittae feeding. At about the 30 second mark, you'll see me lowering a quarter into the tank to show the scale of this small tank and just how tiny boraras brigittae truly are. You should at the 30 second mark also get the idea behind the music, which is really horrible! What was I thinking?!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-OwSWMA9_w

[SomeCanuck]

I'm so jealous! Your little boraras brigittae are gorgeous and the tank too! I picked up what was supposed to be b. brigittae from my LFS 2 weeks ago and just thought they were undercoloured from stress and the lack of a proper planted environment, but the more time passes, the more I'm starting to think I ended up with b. merah instead. Still awesome little fishes, but definitely not the same POW and OOMF I was looking for... Or maybe I lucked out and got a batch of only female b. brigittae haha

[freph]

So tiny! I'm picking up some Boraras urophthalmoides for the Mini M and about 35 Boraras briggitae for the 20L first week of September. Very excited. I definitely agree that we need more and better stores in NC. Fintastic in Charlotte is about the best I've seen. They've got a few very nice display tanks. I'm not sure if they were CO2 injected (I wasn't looking at the time) but they were nice tanks all in all. Nice equipment and stock of livestock, too

[SaltyNC]

Originally Posted by SomeCanuck

I'm so jealous! Your little boraras brigittae are gorgeous and the tank too! I picked up what was supposed to be b. brigittae from my LFS 2 weeks ago and just thought they were undercoloured from stress and the lack of a proper planted environment, but the more time passes, the more I'm starting to think I ended up with b. merah instead. Still awesome little fishes, but definitely not the same POW and OOMF I was looking for... Or maybe I lucked out and got a batch of only female b. brigittae haha

Thanks so much. I've read it is common to get similar fish in this family. Mine still haven't fully developed that deep red color that the males produce, but they seem to be darkening. I read that live or frozen fresh food helps. They also really like to be in a group with at least 5-6. One thing about my shots is that because of the lighting and dark background, I am slightly underexposing the image and this tends to saturate my colors. I am also shooting in Vivid mode. I have shot Velvia film for years and Vivid is similar to the saturation it produces. I love it for landscapes.

I hope you get the fish you want.

[SaltyNC]

Originally Posted by freph

So tiny! I'm picking up some Boraras urophthalmoides for the Mini M and about 35 Boraras briggitae for the 20L first week of September. Very excited. I definitely agree that we need more and better stores in NC. Fintastic in Charlotte is about the best I've seen. They've got a few very nice display tanks. I'm not sure if they were CO2 injected (I wasn't looking at the time) but they were nice tanks all in all. Nice equipment and stock of livestock, too

The exclamation points are nice. It'll be interesting to see the differences side by side. I wonder if they will behave any differently than brigittae. I look forward to seeing those.

Fintastic does run CO2 on the planted tank in the back, but it seems on the low side. They get in some nice fish. I bought my Amanos and nerite snails from them, but they didn't have boraras brigittae. They did have a tank full of CPD but they sold quickly. I pass their store on my way to the office. I would like to see them get more into the planted tank and possibly ADA world.

I get so many packages mail order at the office, it's embarrassing, and I own the business.

[callisto9]

Originally Posted by SaltyNC

Callisto, that's great. I think you'll really like the tank. The dimensions are great, and I think it is a great starter tank. You probably already know this, but they do scratch easily. I would recommend being very careful when you add your substrate if it is hard/sharp. I'm pretty happy with this scape came out, but the one thing I would do different if I could rewind the clock would be to use a soil substrate like Fluval Shrimp Stratum or ADA soil. The Flourite is fine, but I imagine if I had used a soil-based substrate, the hairgrass would have filled in much quicker, and I think it looks better, too, though the Flourite blends OK with the rocks I have.

Good luck with your new tank. I hope you'll post your progress. I'll definitely follow along.

Went to the local Petco today, they don't carry it anymore, so I ordered it from Amazon.com.

Is it possible to do this tank without the soil? I'm wanting low-tech here, so I don't want to spend money just to spend it. I am patient and if plants grow slower, I'm OK with that. What are the downsides if you don't use it? Is your tank just flourite on the bottom?

Off to start a thread...

[SaltyNC]

Callisto, the Flourite is fine, but it is expensive, too. The only downside for me really is the size of the grains and the color (I wasn't crazy about the brownish-red). You can get Eco-complete or Flourite in a sand version that I think would be better for hairgrass, if you're leaning that way, and they come in black.

My substrate consists of a tiny (and I really mean tiny) amount of peat on the bottom...a sprinkling. I then added regular Flourite that I rinsed well before adding to the tank. Finally, I placed about 1-2 pellets of Osmocote every sq inch of the tank under the Flourite. I poked holes with a wooden art brush handle and dropped in the Osmocote before I flooded the tank.

You can definitely do it without a soil-based substrate. The only other thing I did was change out my bulb to a Hagen 6500K bulb. The one that came with my unit had a very pink cast and to the human eye appeared to not produce as much light.

Good luck on your new tank! I'll check out your thread.

[callisto9]

Thank you for all the tips. I see flourite is about $25 on amazon.com; wonder if anyone has it locally. Do the big box chains carry it? I'm guessing no. My LFS might. I can't wait to make a trip back there.

How do you change out/add plants once your substrate is in?

[plantednano]

Love your tank. The scale is very impressive, i have looked at your thread many a time without fully reading the 6.6 gallon part and always though wow this looks so nice. I wish i could set up a tank that large. Then it hit me its only 6.6 gallons lol, not much bigger dimensionally than my 5 gallon i plan to plant once the frogs go into their vivarium. Trying to gain inspiration on a scape from all the great tanks on here

The music on your video was entertaining lol, i feel my tank sucking the money out of my wallet already and its no where even near ready to set up as an aquarium

[SaltyNC]

Originally Posted by callisto9

Thank you for all the tips. I see flourite is about $25 on amazon.com; wonder if anyone has it locally. Do the big box chains carry it? I'm guessing no. My LFS might. I can't wait to make a trip back there.

How do you change out/add plants once your substrate is in?

Petsmart did carry it. I guess they still do. I think Petco and Petsmart carry Eco Complete.

I just pull things out slowly with long tweezers and push them in the same way. I originally used mechanic tweezers I found at a dollar store. They worked just fine. I then bought a set of long pincettes from E Bay. They come to a sharper point and do work a little better. With something like Flourite, it's coarse, so it is a little harder to plant single, delicate plants, but it can still be done. I gently squeeze the plant and wiggle the pincettes down into the Flourite and then very gently wiggle the pincettes out so the Flourite collapses around the root and holds the plant. With something like Amazonia, you can just push the plant down into the soil with the pincettes.

[SaltyNC]

Originally Posted by plantednano

Love your tank. The scale is very impressive, i have looked at your thread many a time without fully reading the 6.6 gallon part and always though wow this looks so nice. I wish i could set up a tank that large. Then it hit me its only 6.6 gallons lol, not much bigger dimensionally than my 5 gallon i plan to plant once the frogs go into their vivarium. Trying to gain inspiration on a scape from all the great tanks on here

The music on your video was entertaining lol, i feel my tank sucking the money out of my wallet already and its no where even near ready to set up as an aquarium

Thanks, PlantedNano. Seeing the video of the quarter in the tank even surprises me, and I see the tank every day. It really is a very small aquascape. When I do a 50% water change, I use a 1 gallon Sterilite pitcher. It only takes me 3 trips to the sink. I have to quickly run the siphon tube over the grass and plants to vacuum any settled debris, because it only takes a minute or two to drain out 50% of my water.

It was late at night when I chose that music. It reminds me of a song in the new Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Don't all hobbies suck money out of our wallets?

[plantednano]

Originally Posted by SaltyNC

Don't all hobbies suck money out of our wallets?

OH YES, problem is i am gaining to many hobbies

Cars/autocross, scale models, photography, frogs, now planted tanks (planted tanks are my cheaper solution to a reef tank, which i have to keep fighting the urge to even consider). Its getting difficult to budget lol

[callisto9]

Originally Posted by SaltyNC

Petsmart did carry it. I guess they still do. I think Petco and Petsmart carry Eco Complete.

I just pull things out slowly with long tweezers and push them in the same way. I originally used mechanic tweezers I found at a dollar store. They worked just fine. I then bought a set of long pincettes from E Bay. They come to a sharper point and do work a little better. With something like Flourite, it's coarse, so it is a little harder to plant single, delicate plants, but it can still be done. I gently squeeze the plant and wiggle the pincettes down into the Flourite and then very gently wiggle the pincettes out so the Flourite collapses around the root and holds the plant. With something like Amazonia, you can just push the plant down into the soil with the pincettes.

Ah, that helps immensely! Better than my method of using two large wooden cooking spoons!