my little eden

[bluestems]

Originally Posted by GMYukonon24s

I like the rocks

Thanks They are lightening quite a bit after being in the tank for a month. And I thought I'd scrubbed them pretty good...

Originally Posted by LyzzaRyzz

Also as for the growth of your plants, I'm not exactly sure, I've never kept those plants, though to keep my floaters away from areas where I need more light, or to stop them from getting tossed around in the filter flow, I use plant corrals. I've heard of people using air tubing, though I used some random plastic sheet sled, and taped strips of it in different sized circles, and suction cupped them in place. Works like a charm.

Thanks for the tip! Originally, I planned for dwarf tiger lotus to help provide some cover, but wasn't able to find any at the time at my lfs and ended up trying clover. It's helped some but the new growth is staying pretty short so far...

Do you find your floaters are hard to keep up with growth wise?

Originally Posted by LyzzaRyzz

Yeah, costly to ship for sure!

Thanks for the heads up on the Anubias, we may look into that, though if I get one live plant it will most certainly trickle over into the cichlid tank.

Why not put some in both? My daughter had this tank growing up:



Sorry for the poor pic, it doesn't show the entire setup but if I remember correctly it was regular soil with a gravel top dressing, an anubia tied to driftwood, betta w/ 3 neons and 2 african dwarf frogs. A biowheel hob filtration and a sunlight spectrum light. We'd do water changes every month or so, but other than that it was maintenance free. I miss her little tank setup... so much easier than my current attempt!

[LyzzaRyzz]

I actually ignored my water sprite til they were all so horrible I couldn't stand it.
I'm now taking ea h and every plant I have and pinching off leaves that even remotely look bad. I have to grow everything out again...but when they were doing really good, it wasn't hard for me cause I have goldfish and they eat that stuff like a salad bar!!
They also eat my duckweed, so I just scoop excess into their tank when the surface gets covered too much.

[bluestems]

Thanks to some great tips from folks here and a few adult amano shrimps, I've gotten the algae under control! (for now) Here's some update pics... (sorry for the poor pic quality and reflections)


the amano troops in their favorite resting spot. If you look closely, you'll see one of the cories hanging out with them to the right...


Seriously, look how picked clean they've gotten the rock in just days!



Here, I'm attempting to capture the elusive red bee, and a trio of curious rasboras came over...






two of the amanos... love these guys!






Two of the five danios. They are never out at the same time, even when eating. They all seem to enjoy having the new red-rooted floaters.






When they're out, the danios shoal with the rasboras





and the full tank shot...

[callisto9]

It looks beautiful Sherry!

[bluestems]

Originally Posted by callisto9

It looks beautiful Sherry!

Thanks Erin! How's your 20g doing? I haven't seen an update in a while.

[callisto9]

Originally Posted by bluestems

Thanks Erin! How's your 20g doing? I haven't seen an update in a while.

All is going well. I never post too much on here, sadly.

[bluestems]

Originally Posted by callisto9

All is going well. I never post too much on here, sadly.

Im figuring out that no news usually means all is going well with tanks. You do pop up here when I update my journal thanks for the encouragement. It's nice to know I'm not always just talking to myself here on my journal. Lol

Glad all is still going well for you! I'm seriously thinking of ditching my aquasky for my desk lamp... Trying to find a good balance still and down to only 7 hrs of light. :p

[callisto9]

I keep my thread updated on another forum... I fuss with the tank weekly and I'm never happy. LOL I want to rearrange and I'm 100% stocked now. I got two cory cats and they drive me nuts. Too busy!

[bluestems]

Originally Posted by callisto9

I keep my thread updated on another forum... I fuss with the tank weekly and I'm never happy. LOL I want to rearrange and I'm 100% stocked now. I got two cory cats and they drive me nuts. Too busy!

I'm the same... always tinkering with it. Trying to not add any more plants though until these grow in. I do want more of the spotted rasboras... I thought 11 was enough but they are so tiny.

What's the other forum that you like? Is it more active?

Cories are always moving, aren't they? The pygmys are pretty adorable though when they school. They way the wiggle when they swim reminds me of a dog wagging his tail.

[callisto9]

Originally Posted by bluestems

I'm the same... always tinkering with it. Trying to not add any more plants though until these grow in. I do want more of the spotted rasboras... I thought 11 was enough but they are so tiny.

What's the other forum that you like? Is it more active?

Cories are always moving, aren't they? The pygmys are pretty adorable though when they school. They way the wiggle when they swim reminds me of a dog wagging his tail.

The forum is a good balance of noobs and experienced people without the experienced people being completely insane about fish keeping. I love this forum, don't get me wrong, but it's not as busy as I'd like and a little too complex for me.

I'm still battling diatoms and can't seem to get the hang of some plants.

I love your pygmys.

My fave is my dwarf gourami; I named him Juicy Fruit.

I also, as of today, have Japan Blue guppy fry! Six of them so far.

[bluestems]

Originally Posted by callisto9

The forum is a good balance of noobs and experienced people without the experienced people being completely insane about fish keeping. I love this forum, don't get me wrong, but it's not as busy as I'd like and a little too complex for me.

I'm still battling diatoms and can't seem to get the hang of some plants.

I love your pygmys.

My fave is my dwarf gourami; I named him Juicy Fruit.

I also, as of today, have Japan Blue guppy fry! Six of them so far.

I'm glad you found a forum that works for you, but keep coming by here every now and then to say hi.

And just like that... you have fry already! What will you do with them- are you planning to keep them? I've been checking out breeder boxes myself... to breed moss. A recent buy of some mini-christmas moss didn't quite work in my tank, but I thought it might be good to put in an external breeder box for trades down the road.

btw, I love Juicy Fruit too... he's gorgeous.

[GMYukonon24s]

That's a beautiful setup! Congrats on the baby guppies

[callisto9]

Originally Posted by bluestems

I'm glad you found a forum that works for you, but keep coming by here every now and then to say hi.

And just like that... you have fry already! What will you do with them- are you planning to keep them? I've been checking out breeder boxes myself... to breed moss. A recent buy of some mini-christmas moss didn't quite work in my tank, but I thought it might be good to put in an external breeder box for trades down the road.

btw, I love Juicy Fruit too... he's gorgeous.

Yep, insta-fry! She must've been pregnant when I got her. I plan on selling back the fish to the LFS for store credit. They don't have a ton of these, so I'm sure they'd like to have more in stock.

I updated my thread here.

I do need to look into moss. Problem is, I take that manzanita out of the tank all the time and wow, aquatic plants dry out quickly!

[bluestems]

Originally Posted by GMYukonon24s

That's a beautiful setup! Congrats on the baby guppies

Calisto does have a pretty setup, doesn't she! Makes me think about doing a Dutch style tank next.

[bluestems]

Originally Posted by callisto9

I updated my thread here.

Ok, I'll go check it out...