DogFish's 40

[GMYukonon24s]

Nice setup!

[HighDesert]

I love this tank, Frank! I am envious of your C. nurii. I want one of those when I "grow up." ;-) I am babying my C. wendtii "Florida Sunset". It's the fanciest crypt I have. And your Java fern looks sooo healthy! It's all just really awesome!

And the lights are AWESOME! I am going to have to hit Ikea now for something similar for my riparium. :-) The industrial-looking lights I have right now just don't fit in with the living room decor.

[StraightAddicted]

I will strive for a better tank but the goby dominates anything I have right now .... I want one so bad, never had one though so haven't researched into them.

[DogFish]

GMYukonon24s - Thanks

Originally Posted by HighDesert

I love this tank, Frank! I am envious of your C. nurii. I want one of those when I "grow up." ;-) I am babying my C. wendtii "Florida Sunset". It's the fanciest crypt I have. And your Java fern looks sooo healthy! It's all just really awesome!

Thank you, I'm pretty happy with it myself. C. Wendti and C. Nurii like similar conditions and both are typically hardy. Once you have your Wendtii growing well you might want to try Nurii.

One thing I do it consider future Acauscapes and plan in advance. My Nurii patch will eventually (?) be moved into a rimless cube I want to set up in the dinning room. Right now the plan for that one will be C. Nurri, moss and shrimp only. If.when I do that I'll be putting in over heard lighting. So that will most likey be after the new year.

The Java is doing well. It's a hard balancing act though. If I dim the lighting it grows longer and so do the crypts. I like the crypts in that height range and with the hight light they stay about there.

Originally Posted by HighDesert

And the lights are AWESOME! I am going to have to hit Ikea now for something similar for my riparium. :-) The industrial-looking lights I have right now just don't fit in with the living room decor.

It was pretty hard to find shades that had enough air flow and didn't look out of place in the living room. The PAR38LEDs need to stay cool for a longer service life. One of the goals from the start was not not look like
the fish aisle at PetSmartCo.

[DogFish]

I feed some Salty's Seaweed Salad from San Francisco Bay Brand. http://www.sfbb.com/Seaweed-Salad™-Green_46.php They are Seaweed sheets that looks EXACTLY like a Nori sheet used in Sushi

I figure the Shrimp & maybe the SAE would like it. To my surprise everyone in the tank went crazy for it. I cut a 1/2" strip and used a paper clip to hold it down.







At one point the SAE laid on top of it to try to keep the Cherry barbs away. The goby came in from behind and two cherry shrimp waited below. One of the better food buys I've made.

The package says 4 - 7.4x8.2" sheets cut to 16- 3.7x4.1" sheets. I doubt there is any thing different than Nori sheets. There is no listing of Sodium level on the package. One thing I've learned shopping at the Asian market is the Sodium content (I have to watch) is all over the place in processed Asian foods.

[crazydaz]

Lol! Greedy little beasties!! I wonder if my Pygmy Cories would like it.....

Any type of processed food runs the risk of being ultra high in sodium....make sure to eat your raw veggies and fruits to balance it out!

[DogFish]

Don - I don't remember Cory's being big algae eaters?

I'm all on top of my diet. We cook so not a lot of processed food is served here. I do like my soba noodles. In checking labels I've seen the Sodium range from 60mg to 1250mg depending on the company.

If one wanted to feed Nori Seaweed, I really don't know if high sodium is even an issue for fish? The stuff I feed is marketed for Marine and Cichlids.
I'm also feeding it to my GoldFish. Of course that's about like feeding hogs. Anything you toss in they gobble up.

[DogFish]

I really like the G3 I'm using on this tank. Of course being a compulsive DIY guy I had to tweak it a little.

Added/tring Growstones http://www.growstone.com/about/ as a bio-media. It's an interesting product. I'm using then in my Aquaponic Grow bed. They seem like they might make a great filter media. Here they are along side the Ceramic media supplied with the G3 from Fuval.





I seldom use Chemical media and having a perfectly good cartage not being used was making me crazy. So I decided to add more Bio-Media area.



The cartage has a divider so I had to cut a slit in the foam to fit. i used the bottom gasp as a guide as I used an electric carving knife to cut the foam to size.

[DogFish]

Both females gravid again, pre-spawn madness time.

[BoxxerBoyDrew]

FREAKIN BEAUTIFUL TANK!!!!

Subscribed!
Drew

[driftwoodhunter]

This tank is a joy to follow! I love the way you constantly experiment : )

[Trail_Mix]

Awesome tank, I love the look of the crypts! Before you mentioned two different batches of MTS, what was the difference between the first generation and the second?

[DogFish]

Originally Posted by Trail_Mix

Awesome tank, I love the look of the crypts! Before you mentioned two different batches of MTS, what was the difference between the first generation and the second?

Thanks, I'm very happy with the crypts myself.

GEN 2 was made after I had done a lot of research on Cation Exchange Capacity. I also had the opportunity to talk with a someone that is a Bio-Chemist. One think I will mention was increased wet/dry cycles over a longer time.

[DogFish]

Taiwan Moss taking over the top of the Mopane stump.



I've had a plastic bag over it for about a month for humidity. I'm starting to increase the time each day hopefully to adapt it to the normal room humidity level.

[DogFish]

I swapped out the plumbing fixtures for 17mm Acrylic Lilly pipes today. (See pic post#59)



I like that it tends to disappear vs. the black plastic pipes that came with G3.



Being an Acrylic tank I am limited in my installation options. I wanted to angle the outflow top the opposite end of the tank. But, when I angled the Outflow I was unable to use the suction cups to hold the pipe to the back of the tank.



I found these at Ace Hardware for $3. I attached one for each hose to the back of the stand on the plywood stand top. The hoses fit snug enough to support the pipes.



I decided to not use the skimmer or the Acrylic intake screen. I cut a pre filter out of 10PPI foam. I think I have better flow now as it seemed restricted.

I'm not pleased with seam were the Lily pipe was put together. It isn't noticeable from the normal view distances.