Dean's 12g planted (and 1st ever aquarium)

[theDeanorama]

I'm running this journal elsewhere on the webernet but I've been lurking on this forum as well and figured I would share here too.

Background:

This is my 1st aquarium and right out the gate I wanted it to be a planted tank. The LFS I went to set up me up with what I thought at the time was a decent enough system for what I wanted.

Equipment:

• 12g JBJ Nano Reef Tank
• DIY type co2 canister connected to an airstone (DIY because all the included ingredients it came with expired a number of years ago)
• A number of plants that came with no names.

The plants as it turns out where:

• Cabomba
• some sort of Dwarf Grass
• Echinodorus Ozelot
• Alternanthera reineckii
• Bacopa australis - I planted this in a badly chosen area and only 2 stems now survive in a replanted position.

Fauna:

• 7 Cardinal Tetras - the overall count over the last 6 weeks has been both more and less, but now I'm at a steady and healthy 7
• about 10 Red Cherry Shrimp .. little buggers are hard to get a head count on. As above I've also had more and less than this, but it seems to have stabilized.

I have since removed some of the Dwarf Grass and have planted HC all around the foreground. I plan on replacing all the remaining dwarf grass with addional HC when I can find more (even though I'm surrounded by LFS's, I have only found one source of it thus far).

I had a hard time with the lighting that was designed for a reef tank, 50/50 atinic and a 10k, both 24w for 12gallons for a total of 48watts of PC lighting. I found I was fighting algea pretty early in the game which I beat back with blackout periods and overdosing Excel. I've since changed over to a couple of 6700k lights and that has made a huge difference. The only place that ever shows signs of a thin layer of algae is the drift wood which is fine as it gives the Cherry Red Shrimp somthing to pick away at.

Currently things are pretty smooth other than a snail invasion (the pics will tell the story) and drifting plant matter that never completely filters away. Lots of Pond Snails, a few Ramshorns and a few MTS - these last two I actually like, but I am probably going to have to get agressive with them soon.

I am disenchanted with the Reef Tank for this use though. The filtration can't seem to keep up with a tank planted to this level, the tank gets pretty warm with the lights on (81.5F) and there is little space at the surface for air-exchange (I had to introduce an airstone for the lights off period). Now that I'm figuring my way through this new hobby I've decided to replace this tank with a 24 inch 15 gallon rimless - but that will be a different thread.

Despite the shortcomings, I've managed to get by and its been a great learning experience.

The tank on Day 1:


The tank as of today:

[EntoCraig]

Well done! your first tank? Hard to believe

Im really diggin that drift wood cave piece.

The Dwarf grass looks like Micro sword to me.

[theDeanorama]

Originally Posted by EntoCraig

Well done! your first tank? Hard to believe

Im really diggin that drift wood cave piece.

The Dwarf grass looks like Micro sword to me.

Thanks

Could be microsword, I have no idea ... I had to use the internet to ID all my other plants as it is It's all on its way out eventually what ever it is as it didn't suite my tastes in this condensed space - all the wrong scale.

[theDeanorama]

Now for my regularly scheduled updating, here is today's:

Day 51

Our 7 Cardinal Tetra are still tetra'ing! This is the 1st time I've introduced new fish and not had to medicate or do corpse recoveries. They are now hiding a little less (other than the one guy who still likes to stay low and out of the way out of the original 4). There are now defined territories and when they are in defense mode there will be no trespassers tolerated.


I've started using the Seachem dosing chart to see if I can get my Alternanthera to perk up a little. Everything else seems to be doing well, even the newly planted HC. I probably left them in clumps a little larger than most chose too but they are not melting and have started to spread out a bit, since I've only started the dosing yesterday, this has not been a factor on the growth rate of the plants yet. I have been only using some Excel now and again coupled with Flourish Complete now and then up to this point.

I will be giving the Cabomba a heavy trimming today, if your local and want a few free bunches of healthy (bleach dipped) Cabomba, just send me a message and I'll hook you up.

As you can see in the pics below I have a snail invasion with all three common snail species represented. I actually don't mind a few of each, but the breeding is out of hand with the pond snails. I see an Assassin or two in my near future, even though I actually like Ramshorns and MTS in the small numbers of those I have. I am only feeding once a day and its all consumed by the fish and what little drops gets claimed by the shrimp, this is just an after effect of my inexperience earlier on with over feeding and not pre-dipping plants before planting.

Front:


Side:


45 degree


Here is my HC progress shot .. makes me wish I took one of my initial planting about a week ago:

[theDeanorama]

Day 53 - Macro Day! -sorry for the oddly indented formatting but I could not for the life of me get Planted Tanks to recognize carridge returns in my posts tonight so I had to trick it more or less.

Not much going on tank wise but I introduced 6 more Cherry Red Shrimp last night. They all seem to be doing well today and have coloured up a bit overnight. All I've done since my last update is trim the cabomba down so I decided today would be a macro day as its been a while since I've gotten in close. The new Cardinals are coloured up now to the point where the only way I can tell the difference between them and the older ones is body girth:

All the shrimp are looking healthy (the ones I can see I've probably seen them all at some point today but trying to count them is ... well ... fruitless). I have two that I would call closer to fire rather than cherry and one that could possibly be amano the rest all are pretty much like these guys:

The potential Amano .. I've had him now as long as the orginal shrimp and his colour has pretty much been as you see it here. I thought he would shift to a darker red as the others have but nope:

[wrangler]

The last pic.... Its not an amano....its a BOY cherry shrimp....and that is prolly all the color that he is going to get.... ;-)

[theDeanorama]

Originally Posted by wrangler

The last pic.... Its not an amano....its a BOY cherry shrimp....and that is prolly all the color that he is going to get.... ;-)

Poor little guy looks so naked without his red coat on

I guess on the upside, I'll most like be able to tell his offspring apart from the rest should he ever decide to breed.

[theDeanorama]

Day 57

The fish and shrimp are thriving ... as is my echindorus ... which btw should never have been sold to me (person who sold it to me sold it to me at the same time as my tank so he KNEW how big these start to get) as its a fight to keep it from blocking the light to all the other plants, I trim it almost as much as the cabomba. The Renekii is doing better, I piched off a few tops and its showing some new growth now, it was pretty stalled before then.

My biggest obstacle is my Cabomba, I love the way it looks as it climbs towards the surface closing up at night like a flower, but my problem with it is the lowest itty bitty branches, eventually they just get cut off from the light and melt away, making a bit of a mess. I'm always skimming bits of dead/melty cabomba now.

The fish love it - it's their clubhouse when things start to overwhelm them, the shrimp love it as the little branches are filtering the odd flake missed by the fish, its love/hate with me though.

I need something tallish in there (substrate to surface is roughly 9 inches). I was thinking Bylxa Japonica as I understand that at low light it will grow taller than when at high light and my tank is "high" as best as I can tell so I'm thinking it won't try to outgrow the 9 inches. Should it end up needing a trimming, how well does it hold up to having its leaves trimmed height wise?

[theDeanorama]

Day 62

The HC seems to be doing well, even though I have to poke down a bit here or there once in a while. Cabomba is still messy but I've removed a little of it to allow for deeper penetration of light. Its not as thick in there as I like but it's doing the job for the ever nervous fish. I have attempted to track down some Bylxa Japonica to replace it and have struck out but a LFS is going to see if they can track it down for me.

The Alternanthera is doing well after its 1st pinching. Its almost reached the top of the tank and I'll have to shorten the stems sooner than later, not that this is a bad thing since the lower leaves are starting to attract algae and are not all that healthy being out of the light.

I'm hoping that as my experience increases my algae decreases. So far its just showing up on the slowest growing and on my driftwood, as well as a little on my glass, but little enough that a once a week cleaning takes care of what little shows up there. I finally managed to source some phosphorus to add to my regular Seachem schedule, this stuff was surprisingly hard to source out here. I've also read that fluctuation in co2 levels can actually promote algae growth to some degree, this is going to be hard for me to overcome until I can get a proper pressurized system. I'm not too worried about the drift wood (seems to be a nice place for the shrimp to gather, but I would like to see it off the leaves of the slower growing plants.

No matter how much I trim the Ozelot it just comes back stronger. This is one that I'll be hard pressed to keep up with if I want the rest of my plants to enjoy the light. It's by far the strongest grower I have in the tank. I'm sure this plant is single handedly the reason I only have a little algae vs a lot though, so I'm not even considering replacing it even though its a potential tank buster at this scale.

Front:


Side:


3/4 view:


HC progress shot:

[theDeanorama]

[Day 62]

Something is happening today thats not happened to this level since the tank was new. I have so much pearling is like I have tiny airstones throughout the tank.

The only thing thats changed is that I finally sourced seachem phosphorus saturday so it is now included in my dosing regime (working off a 7 day seachem dosing chart). The rest of the elements of the regime have all been going in already. What ever it is thats changed in the last couple of day, it's making me (and my plants) a happy camper.

While I'm stopping by, I thought I would post some shots from the weekend, something other than full tank shots anyways.

Stretching his legs (pretty sure its a 'he' anyways):


The MTS are getting bigger ... at least the pond snails never get this big, they just seem to break apart into 20 more based on my population:

[celine]

i absolutely love your tank! so pretty! and all your rcs are so cute! keep the pics and commentary coming, it's very fun to read!

[Chafire]

For your first tank it looks great! I love the colors especially the pop of red. The Macro shots have so much detail, I'm dying to get that lens.

[theDeanorama]

[Day 61] pt 2

This is a quick vid taken with my iPhone, started low and to one side where I can almost see through to the other side. Pearling coming out of the Ozelot, Alternanthera and HC. The Cabomba is also pearling but not nearly as much.

Originally Posted by celine

i absolutely love your tank! so pretty! and all your rcs are so cute! keep the pics and commentary coming, it's very fun to read!

Thanks One thing I definitely can't stop doing is taking pics ... the shrimp and tetra are just far to fun to try and get shots of. I wish I knew how to promote RCS hanky panky though ... would love to see some shrimpettes in there as well.

[theDeanorama]

Originally Posted by Chafire

For your first tank it looks great! I love the colors especially the pop of red. The Macro shots have so much detail, I'm dying to get that lens.

Thanks for the comments, I'm hoping tank #2 turns out even better

This lens is one of my favorites, has been on my camera a LOT more since getting this tank going This lens is probably #2 in my list of 'must haves' for the camera, the #1 is the one I use for the full tank shots.

[theDeanorama]

[Day 63]

Dean: OMGBBQ .... is that BBA?!?!?!


BBA: haha! I have arrived to crash your party, where should I leave my luggage?

Dean: oh hell no ....

BBA: I may be small, but I WILL be the life of the party for the remainder of this tanks life!


Dean: I see you have set up in the penthouse (highest point in my tank on my driftwood)

BBA: What of it dude, this is my perch now, close to the rays so I can get a nice tan

Dean: We shall see about that! This penthouse is more like a tent ... soooo not a permanent stucture. Into the Red Bucket of Doom (tm) with you!


Dean: and say hello to my little friend!!!


BBA: NNNOOOOOOOoooo o o o o o o o .... I will be bach!

Dean: huh? you will be a dead composer?

BBA: no .. you idiot, bach, BACH .. you know, return?

Dean: huh ... there is an Austrian strain of BBA, whoda thunk it? Well, bad accent aside, you were nothing to me, n.o.t.h.i.n.g



----------------


So ... after letting the stick soak up the excel for about 30 mins or so, I gave it a soaking in some dechlorinated water so as not to shock my shrimp who like to climb all over it and then put it back into the tank.

After looking over the larger Malaysian driftwood cave like piece, it too could probably use a treatment. There is nothing puffing up like it did on this, but there are some areas that are starting to show the same colour. I'll yank it on the weekend and give it a good going over. I may have to source some metricide.

This is the 1st non dust type algae to really show up in my tank so far so I guess I can count myself lucky considering my n00bness. I did have a little teensy hair algae in my 1st week or so, but with no fish or shrimp in the tank at that point it was easy to deal with.

I guess with drift wood being both static and closer to the light, that it will attract algae more thanb plants that are constantly growing, this would be a good time for me to consider tying on some moss to the stick I think.

On the upside, I got a call from my new fav LFS and they have my requested Fluval co2 systems in. I have a 20 (this tank) and an 88 (for the 15g I'm peicing together) waiting for me. This should give me a little more control over my co2 injection vs the diy I'm messing with now.