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A 30g in NY - 11.7.2012

5K views 40 replies 20 participants last post by  acitydweller 
#1 · (Edited)
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>>Update: 11.7.2012<<

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Hey all!
I would like to share with you my new project. It will be a 30g tank and here is the check list for it.

Equipment

Tank: 30 gallon
Filter: Fluvial 206 filter with Lily pipes
Substrate: 2 large bags of ADA Amazonia and small bag of Nile sand
Light: Coralife { 2x30" t5 10,000k HO and 2x30" t5 6,700k})
CO2: Co2 5lb tank, Nano ceramic disc diffuser, AquaticLife CO2 regulator with Solenoid Valve
Ferts: Flourish Iron once every two weeks

Hardscape
Maryland stones

Flora
Dwarf Hairgrass (Eleocharis acicularis) 3" and 6"
Blyxa japonica (Blyxa japonica)
Myrio - Green (Myriophyllum pinnatum)
Red Ludwigia (Ludwigia repens)
Rotala rotundifolia (Rotala rotundifolia)
Riccia (Riccia fluitans)


Fauna

Gold Pristella Tetra (Pristella maxillaris)
Panda Cory Cat (Corydoras panda)
Gold Algae Eater (Gyrinocheilos aymonieri)




I feel like I have missed something... eh, here is the picture.




Cya

EA
 
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#2 · (Edited)
OK! Let the fun begin!!!!!!

I finally got everything I need (CO2 stuff are on their way)to start the setup of my 30g.

I have painted the board a dark color so that it can match my desk -and I must say that I did a good job! I did it all on my fire escape because in NYC you don't have a yard............................................ no, some people do... but not many......



They are three little Blyxa Japonica, that I got from Bartohog along with Dwarf Hair Grass. They are sooooo cute! Thanks Bartohog!!



And there it is. Just the right size for the room. I really like it when the furniture is bigger then the aquarium and this is nooooo aquarium stand.

I must say, I was scared that it would not take the 300lb-ish but once again Ikea has surprised me. After filling it up I put on about 50lb of books and hit it a few times... Like a rock! I have a friend and she has a 55lb turtle tank on a Expendit . When I saw that my heart dropped to my stomach. But still, Please keep your fingers crossed for me.



I have used some of my old sand under the ADA because there are some little buggers that I still want.



My lights are only 30" and the tank is 36" so I could only really make a centered aquascape. The rocks are from the rivers of Maryland that I picked on my vacation. Some ADA Nile sand so that I don't get a large contrast between the Amazonia and the rocks.



This is not how a young lady's nails should look like :icon_wink



And how I have to sit and wait... I started putting in the plants but I can't see what I'm doing!!



Thank you for reading and leave a comment plz!

EA
 
#3 ·
Two days later and my water is clear. I was expecting to wait a long time for that to happen. Just once I did a 20% water change. The ammonia is high so I will have to wait with my fish. (I feel bad for them because they are in a 2.5g tank.)

I keep my lights on for 5 hours only because I still don't have my co2. I got everything in the mail today for myco2, but I don't know why I was surprised by the size of my "5lb" tank. It way bigger then what I thought it would be. I don't think-little girl that I am -will be able to bike 3 miles one way to fill it up in +90F. So I may have to wait till Saturday when I can use a car.
Here are some pictures from today.












Thanks for looking!!

EA
 
#6 ·
It has been a week and I see some significant change in the plant development.



With more light and better substrate the plant are growing faster are dropping their old foliage and developing more lushes and bigger leaves. The Blyxa is developing new leaves with read spine and look really nice. Also, the color of this plant is turning a nice pink/peach with the high light. Anyone know what it may be? And will they stay this color or will they turn green as they get older?



The grass about two days ago stared poking out new hairs around the existing ones so that is really exciting. I have added co2 (don't ask me how much because I still don't know how to read the regulator) and I feel like the carpet development might explode now.

Its fun to watch the Green Foxtail grow. When the lights go off it develops new leaves that point straight up like a paint brush (it takes about three hours to grow them) and the next day it opes them up. Here is a picture of new and old leaves on the Green Foxtail.



So far I have been doing 20% water changes everyday and logging in the numbers. Today it looked like this.

Ammonia is at 0.75 ppm and it has been dropping very slowly
Nitrate is at 0-5.0ppm
pH has moved from 6.4 to 6.0 with the new Co2. (I'm worried about that)
KH is at 35.8 ppm

I will be adding new plants tomorrow so I hope this will help out the water. I really want my fish to get in to the new tank.

Thanks for looking!
EA
 
#7 ·
The update.
AAAAAAAMMOOOOONNNIIIAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!! WHY OO WHY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!...... well I feel better.

Yes, my ammonia is really high and refuses to go down. Today I went out and got Nutrafin Cycle to see if adding that will make it go down a bit.

My plants are happy and I got some new Ludwigia sp. 'RED' Hybrid-thanks uptown193!. They are still stunned with the change and so they are not growing. The Riccia is tied down to two big rocks and just started to cover the net that is holding it down.

I also see my first algae on the rocks and the glass... Good for the snails but I wish it could have waited a few more days.

Here are some pictures.











EA
 
#8 ·
Trim update!

It was time to cut and reuse the tops of the tails. I hope the new ones will take hold and the old ones will grow new lush green leaves.

Here is the before:


And after:



Tomorrow I'll update on some more trims and fish! (one weird fishy love)
cya!
 
#10 ·
I love your scape! The rocks are perfect. I've been told to get that perfect-looking planted scape with nothing but beautiful tops of the plants, to pull up the whole stem, cut it off where you want it, and only replant the tops. Once I got as many as I wanted, I started doing this, and it does look better to have nothing but tops instead of stems and forks.
 
#15 ·
Nice scape. As far as trimming goes for the stem plants, just cut inbetween the nodes and re plant the clippings.
Thanks for the tips. It's not easy to keep new cuttings down. I think I'll trim in two weeks again and I'll cut is really low because I can't keep up with some of the plants.

The hair grass is slowing down and I don't know why. Maybe I need more co2.

soo prettyyy, nicely growing !
Looks very nice! Great use of space and proportion. It will be interesting to see how that changes as this fills in.
Thanks for liking it!
 
#12 ·
Update:
Here are two pictures of the whole aquarium.

This one is from 8/1/2012


And this one is from 8/8/2012


I don't think I can keep up with the plants! Kind of scary.

A Fish Love:
For a few weeks I had one panda and one yellow dragon in there and they would stick to one another like glue! Where ever the panda was the algae eater was not far. I would see them chilling out one on top of the other... it was cute....... but they knew they had so say their good byes when more of their kind joined.
 
#21 ·
Yeah, now it looks to flat... the problem with the regular fish store aquariums is that they are 12" wide. Too flat to get any good background going. I'm scared that if I pack the plants too much the leaves in the middle bottom will not get any light and die.

My fellow Queens residents really know how to make good tanks !
HEEEEEYYYYYY!!!! you coming to the meet up in sep?
 
#23 ·
Update and a lot of fun Pictures that I took this week:


A big cut this week. It feels like I have to cut the plants every week. So I hope that with a big trim I wont need to do anything next week.


The hair grass it covering everything well. I have two types. One that is really really short-no longer then 2"-3". The other is a bit to the back that can grow up to 6".


All good there. I was scared that the Ludwigia sp. 'RED' would change its color to green/brow/yellow. I give it some Iron.


Looks so pretty.


Hard to take pictures of them. They never stay still.


I wish I had that in my aquarium!


And just to show you how lovely spiders can be.
 
#26 ·
I like spiders too. I might warn you, dogs of any size do have a very high bioload, so be careful when adding them to your aquarium. Great tank. My only suggestion: get some dwarf cichlids!
 
#27 ·
Wow, did not see the comments till now! Thanks all.



Its getting there naturally.. But the big rock is there and so there wont be much room for it to fill up nicely in the back. I would have to move the rock.

clean look!
Trying really hard for it to be clean.

I like spiders too. I might warn you, dogs of any size do have a very high bioload, so be careful when adding them to your aquarium. Great tank. My only suggestion: get some dwarf cichlids!
I seen some cute Ram Cichlids at the store and I was wondering if I could just get two and if they will be happy. But I want no fry... two girls?
 
#29 ·
For my b-day I got a new Micro leans!

I took a few pictures of my aquarium with it and would like to post some of them up... Hope you like them!

First up are two pictures of BJ that focus on different parts of the plant.


Next is Rotala Rotundifolia just looking cool under the waves.


Finally Myrio - Green looking out


A cute little snail trying to poke out of the water.


A few of Leto's (my dog) friends
 
#30 ·
Up date:



I did a trim and pulled out some old Myrio and Red Ludwigia.

I also did my very first filter clean up about a week ago and ooh boy did I make a mess. I did read on it a lot before I changes the media and thank you to all that answered my questions in another post. But all is well!
I did have some problem with the lily pipes.. all the brushes where too stiff and would not bend the curves of the pipes or too short and would not reach the end.



Now I'm having a problem with some algae and I can use any help I can get.




Thanks for looking!
 
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