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My Aquastyle 9

5K views 30 replies 7 participants last post by  Sharpchick 
#1 ·
I've been out of the aquarium hobby for about 12 years. I moved, and just never brought the tanks back out of the garage. I used to really enjoy South American and Malawian cichlids, and while I had some java fern and moss in some apistogramma and krib breeding tanks, I never really had a real plant oriented tank.

I got the bug to set up a small aquarium lately for plants and shrimp. Shopping around, I decided to start with an Eheim Aquastyle 9. The goal is to be relatively low tech. No CO2. Still figuring out my fertilization strategy, so I decided to start with maybe Flourish at minimal amounts. And the goal is to pick some plants that aren't overly demanding, at least until I get this tank figured out.

To start, I've put in the following:

Java Fern x2
Rotela indica
Ludwigia repens (I think, it was labeled "red ludwigia")
Cryptocoryne wendtii red
Pennywort (not sure which type)

On the way I have some Xmas moss to make a moss wall in the back.

I'm thinking about ordering some mini pellia to try to get to grow on the stump. And would also like to get an anubias or two. Maybe some I saw on ebay labled "petite". I also thought about doing some kind of low foreground plant, but I'm not sure what to use. Suggestions welcome.

The stem plants are there mainly to grow fast and take up nitrate. I thought about getting some floater plants as well, but haven't come across any locally yet. Duckweed, etc. For that same purpose mainly, keeping nitrates in check as a buffer plant.

As I said above, I plan to put shrimp in this tank. Neocaridina of some sort. I kind of like the orange strains, but we'll see. My daughter loves snails, so I'll either get some nerites or apple snails. Not sure about fish yet.

Just using the included filter at this point. I bought a new sponge filter, but in a tank of this size, it kind of took over the look. I considered adding a Fluval 106, but am going to see how this internal works, first. I'm also using a small heater I had from before. Not sure if it's going to make it through cycle or not, as I'm not sure I trust a heater this old. But we'll see.

For substrate, I bought Aquasoil New Amazonia. Started to use dirt, but I was a bit nervous about doing it jumping into a new part of the hobby, so decided to spend a bit on a proven substrate with the idea of trying dirt down the road when I'm more comfortable with plants.

I've got a few river rocks that I might try to hide the base of the stump and the root cut with, as they won't stay hidden in the substrate. We'll see.

All the plants have a bit of dirt on them that settled after the mess I made filling the tank (even though I was pretty careful, it still happened). I'm a bit concerned that 3 days in, I have a bit of algae on the stump already. We'll see where that goes as the cycle goes. I think I've got about an 8 hour light cycle. I dosed ammonia to start the cycle, but understand the Amazonia will also kick out some ammonia, too.

The ludwigia is already showing some growth I'm happy to see. Hopefully the other stuff will follow soon.

Slightly blurry cell shot. Critiques or suggestions welcome:
 

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#3 · (Edited)
I tried to reply last night, but it gave me a moderation review required. It's been more than 12 hours, so I'm trying again. Hope I don't end up double posting.

I had actually considered Marsilea of some type. I was looking around a bit. I think there was some quadrifolia on aquabid or somewhere. Don't think I ever found any minuta. Not sure how much size difference there is.

I thought about getting Excel, but had heard it was not optimal for shrimp. I might get some to boost the plants during the cycle, though, then maybe use it for problem situations down the road.

Got my Xmas moss in from [Ebay Link Removed] Have it in a jar in the kitchen window until I get a chance to put it in some mesh for the moss wall. I probably could have just skipped that idea after deciding to add the stems in the back, as it's probably going to be a bit busy on the back wall. Kind of hate to disturb things now as it looks like I didn't leave enough clearance to fit the wall in without uprooting some of the ludwigia and rotela that I had trouble keeping down to begin with.

EDIT: ha, I just said the name of the auction site and didn't use a link. The auto-edit made it much more obvious than just the 4 letter site name.
 
#6 ·
I've been doing a fishless cycle, and it's taking quite awhile longer than I intended. It's doing OK, with a bit of hair algae and a touch on the glass, but it's still keeping low levels of ammonia. Probably partially the Aqua Soil. I have seen the ammonia drop over the last few days, and I've already had the nitrite rise and fall, but still have some low/medium levels of ammonia hanging around.

Plants are doing fine for the most part. Where I put the Ludwigia repens is probably not optimal, and the lower parts of the plants have died, but they're growing out at the top. Too much light getting blocked by the filter and stump.

Still haven't put in the Xmas moss wall. I have the moss in a jar on the kitchen window, but haven't gotten around to doing it yet. I think when I do I might move the wood forward a little bit and redo the Ludwigia repens location a bit forard, which might mean the pennywort also moves a bit.

I like the tank overall so far. I would assume the light would be called medium light.
 
#13 ·
I'll try to get some soon. Nothing too special going on, just filled in a bit. Think I'll have to move the stump forward a bit to give more room for the ludwiga, or move some of the pennywort and plant some more forward in the side. If I move the stump up, some of the crypt will have to be replanted, too.

Minor stuff.

Think my ammonia has finally dropped out. Going to dose it again just to make sure, then it's time to start shopping shrimp.

I also need to test GH/KH. I'm suspecting I might need to do something there, as initial tests with the Aqua Soil left my water pretty soft. So I have some reading to do on what that means for shrimp keeping.

I used to use a Kati/Ani DI filter back when I kept saltwater fish and small cichlids. I still have them, but I'd rather not go to the trouble of doing that then buffering the water back up. I do think I saw my old container of Kent RO Right. Wonder how that would work if I'm soft? I don't see how that would really go out of date.

On the livestock question, I've started to waffle now a bit on pumpkin shrimp. Looking at Speedie's pics of Blue Velvets, might go that route instead. Confused.
 
#14 ·
OK, water parameters prior to a water change:


Ph 6.6
TDS 163
KH 17.9 (1 drop on API test)
GH 125.3 (7 drops)
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 80ppm

Not sure how the nitrates got that high, assume there was a lot of ammonia processed with not enough plants to use it up. I'll take care of it with some water changes.

A bit concerned about KH. Not sure if I need to do something with that to have healthy shrimp and snails or not. Guess I have some reading I need to do. Maybe a post in the invert subforum.

EDIT: What about getting some Fluval Mineral Supplement?

If I go with Nerite snails, how many would be good for a 9 gallon tank? I know they're smallish. 5? 10?
 
#15 ·
Gah, I was trying to move the drift wood around slightly tonight while doing a water change to lower the nitrates and got the idea that it might be waterlogged enough to not need the tile I screwed into the bottom.

While it was able to stay down on it's own, it wanted to tilt back no matter how many little rocks I propped it up on on the back. And apparently I got really lucky with the angle of the tile mount the first time, because I could NOT get it back to where it would sit right. The attempts uprooted all the pennywort and might have messed with the crypts, too.

So. Made a mess in something I was pretty happy with overall to begin with. Grrr.

Also, yesterday, I put in a moss wall and rock to start growing in.

Went by Aquatic Critter in Nashville today after going to the zoo. They had some very nice ludwigia that they'd labeled "Cuban Ludwigia", that I think might have been Ludwigia palustris after looking around the internet for pics. Really wish I'd found that instead of the repens I bought. I don't think I have room for another stem plant, or I'd have bought it.

Also saw some dwarf Mexican crawfish. Very cool, and would almost make me rethink the shrimp thing.

I ordered some Marsilea Minuta. The lot was probably more than I needed, but I agree that I need something more up front in the empty area.

Thinking about getting a floating plant of some sort to be a nitrate sponge after seeing my nitrates go so high in the cylce. Specifically I'm trying to decide between Asian Watermoss (Salvinia cucullata), and Frogbit.
 
#16 ·
Wednesday I added two Amano shrimp. I didn't think the bigger of the two was initially going to make it, as it was upside down in the bag just laying there when I got home. But it got over it's shock and is doing fine. Yesterday, both shrimp were active all over the tank, especially the smaller shrimp.

Today however, the smaller shrimp is MIA. I do not see it anywhere. Don't know if it is hiding, if it is stuck somewhere, or if it's just dead and missing. Don't think it could get out of the tank, as there's probably about 1.5" of glass above the water line plus it has the lid on. I guess the lid is loose in a few places where the cords enter the tank, but still. Another possibility is that it's somehow stuck in the moss wall plastic grid, but it was happily going in and out from behind that all day yesterday, and I can't see it in there.

I'm hoping it molted and is hiding somewhere, but I don't see a molt.

The bigger of the two that I can still see I'm a bit confused about. It's not as clear as most Amano I've seen. I keep wondering if it's some other species. It's basically similar to the other shrimp and pics I've seen, but it's more creamy in color. It's mainly hung out on the wood and grazed, where the smaller shrimp was all over the whole tank all day yesterday eating everything.

Thoughts?

Also, yesterday I got and planted my Marsilea Minuta.

Got to learn how to take better pics. I'll try to upload progress shots soon. I was planning to order some Pumpkin Shrimp off of aquabid today to hopefully have them shipped and in before it gets colder here next week, but now I'm wondering what's going on.

EDIT: I also switched from the old 50W heater I had from 12+ years ago as it seemed to vary more than I liked. Got a 50W Finnex Digital Titanium heater. Seems to keep temps a bit more stable.
 
#18 ·
Since I updated, I got 12 pumpkin neos off of Aquabid. Looked pretty good. All very small for the most part. One female was a little bigger than the rest. Seemed to ship well and settle well into the tank.

Surprisingly today, the largest female is berried. Weird. Didn't think she was big enough, but cool nonetheless.

I'd also bought two more Amanos prior to adding the pumpkins. So I had 3 Amanos after the first one went exploring across the carpet as mentioned above. 2 Originals - 1 wandering shrimp + 2 new ones.

Today again I have two Amanos, after another one tried to escape by climbing up the filter and getting stuck. Gah. I really don't know how to control that. I thought running the water a bit lower to create more turbulence where the water dumps in the tank might have been helping, but I don't know. I'm going to look into getting some acrylic or lexan maybe to cut a new top that I can make fit flusher, but I need to figure out a way to secure it on the lip of the glass (or within the lip). Since I switched heaters, this new one causes the glass to have a bit more gap between the top and the tank, which is where they're trying to escape.

Ideas welcome.

Win some, lose some.
 
#20 ·
Sorry, wasn't clear. The Amanos climb up the side of the filter between the edge and glass, then get up top and try to get out over the lip. It's not the filter, it's the access it gives them to potentially escape. Combined with the fat heater cable on the Finnex titanium I swapped in, they've been able to fit through the gap between the top and the tank lip.

I picked up some acrylic from HD. Going to try to cut a sheet so that I can provide a notch for the heater cable. Will replace the glass top.

Need to take some more shots of the tank as stuff are growing in. I'll try to do that soon. I've gotten a bit of algae back as I've noticed my nitrates coming back up. Doing some small water changes to try to reduce that.
 
#21 ·
Updated pic finally.

Updates since the last pics:
+2 Amanos
+12 Orange Neo shrimp
+baby orange neos in the last week or so. No idea how many.
+Marsilea Minuta
+Christmas moss on wall and small rock in front of driftwood
+Subwassertang on rock up front as well as in the center of the driftwood root

The Rotela is growing in very well, as is the Crypt Wendetii. The pennywort grows like crazy. The Ludwigia repens isn't doing as well as I initially thought. I think it was too shaded by the filter, and the bottom leaves died back. It's coming back, but slowly. I wish I'd put the Rotela indicaon the left to better hide the filter and the rotela on the right.

The moss wall looks like crap, but hopefully it will fill in. Shrimp like hiding in and behind it, and are as the moss grows in, they do seem to feed on it. I can always pull it if I decide I don't like it.

The water is low as a protective measure to keep the Amanos from surfing up the filter and escaping again. I have lost two that way so far.

I've got some hair algae. Not too bad, and easy to control. I initially had diatom algae as well, but it seems to be backing off as the tank gets more established. I keep thinking about getting a couple of otos, but I'm not sure they'll eat the algae that I have. I'd feed some small algae pellets anyway, so hopefully they'd be fine either way if I got them.

Another thing I think I'd like to add is a floating plant of some type. I actually have some duckweed that came in with the shrimp I ordered, but I'm not sure I want to have that get in this tank. Looks like you'd never be able to get rid of it. Was thinking either frogbit or Asian water moss (Salvinia Cucullata). Probably will wait until the weather warms up a bit to order some from somewhere.

Overall, I'm really enjoying this tank.

Water Plant Pet supply Terrestrial plant Organism
 
#22 ·
I'm thinking about getting a few fish of some sort. I've got a seed shrimp infestation, and was thinking maybe something that might graze on those critters, but hopefully not take down too many pumpkin babies.

Would Endler's be too aggressive with my shrimp? I've been reading a bit about Least Killifish, but I'd not have a local source of those at a LFS, as I've never seen them. Plus, I'm not sure if they'd eat the seed shrimp or not. I also saw some CPD's at the LFS today as well as some Scarlet Badis and some kind of small rasbora that I forgot the name of.

From what I've read, the seed shrimp don't hurt anything, they're just a bit unsightly. I don't really feed very much at all, so I'm not why I've got an outbreak. I assume they came in on some of the plants or something.
 
#23 ·
More baby shrimp today. I only have the one female mature enough to berry at this point, and this is her second batch of babies.

I was thinking today about something to better hide the filter on the left back. Wonder how well Cryptocoryne balansae would do in replacement of the Ludwigia? Would that get too tall? Any other tallish crypts that might work?
 
#25 ·
Any up close shots of the shrimp?
I haven't gotten any good ones, but then I really haven't tried too hard. I'll try to get some soon.

I'm not really sure I know how orange these should be. The breeding female looks really nice and solid pumpkin, some are just a bit lighter. I think some of them are just young to be fully colored.

I have two that I think are males that are more tangerine. One looks too close to a RCS for my taste on a pumpkin, and I might cull it. Been thinking about setting up a simple bowl for plant cuttings and shrimp culling. (I see the path back to multiple tanks in my mind. Trying to stay off of it for a bit ;))

This tank has turned into quite the gorgeous setup. It's a far cry from the beginning shots you shared in October.
Thanks. I like it, but I also see room for it to improve. Still some filling in that needs to happen, too.

That's why it's a fun hobby, though. Always something to learn/tweak.
 
#27 ·
Going along pretty good. Getting a bit tired of the pennywort uprooting any time I do anything in the tank, so I'm thinking about putting something on that left side in it's place, maybe even in the back to try to hide the filter a bit better. Ideas on low to medium light stuff? I was thinking possibly a taller crypt since the Wendtii has done so well.

Feeding time:


 
#30 ·
I've been letting some of the pennywort float for awhile now. I still kind of want something like Salvinia Cucullata or Frogbit.

It's not like I don't have a bunch of 10G tanks in the garage, a 75G, a 45 tall, and a 40B. Why did I buy another little tank? :)

One thought was to throw culled pumpkins in there, and my wenditii is needing to be thinned.

$34 seemed a really good price. Would have preferred a similar sale on a 6 or an 8, but you take what you get.

Now to do some reading on all the mods I've seen on these things.


EDIT: Something I meant to mention above that other people might find of use. I'd read a lot of people using tree leaves in tanks. Obviously Indian almond leaves are the most talked about, but I'd read you could also use things like oak or fruit tree leaves as well. My shrimp seem to like the Bradford pear leaves better than the oak I've tried.

Bradfords are those trees used a lot in decorative plantings, but contractors building houses, etc. They grow fast, don't really have fruit, and have very pretty white blossoms prior to the leaves coming out in the Spring. Unfortunately they're known to break easily in the wind when they get too thick, so they're kind of disposable trees.
 
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