Blyxa Island

[somewhatshocked]

Both Coralife and Aqueon-branded fixtures are still produced, according to customer service. Seems older models of the fixture are the ones with issues.

If you ordered online, you likely won't have a problem. If you do experience a problem, contacting customer service can resolve it.

[Newman]

i bought the one from Ken's fish website. hopefully I'll get a newer model?
got my filter and KH GH test. installing soon.

[somewhatshocked]

Most likely got newer ones. He turns his stock over quickly.

[Newman]

installed the new filter. forgot to buy the prefilter though. will do at some point. made a temporary prefilter thing. fluval edge prefilter should fit i am guessing.
I think the shrimp like it.

FTS updated

[amygirl11]

Amazon has the generic sponge prefilter for your Aquaclear for 3 for $4.95. Super fast shipping also. I usually get mine in aout 2 days.

[Newman]

looks like the prefilters are out of stock, however i bet i can just make one myself out of some old aquaclear sponge media that i never used. i could cut it up into the prefilter shape i need. i bet it will work just as good.

Sold a bunch of cherries from this tank, and looks like all of them will be sold by the end of next week!

hopefully my supplies arrive soon so that i can start the conversion.

I decided to sell every shrimp, even the PFR.
once the softwater tank cycles, i'll try out some black or chocolate cherries for fun and to check if the tank is good. then i'll move on to some higher quality softwater shrimp.

[Newman]

I need to sell all of my Taiwan moss. is anyone interested in buying my moss? it will be all the moss from this tank. plus i have a little flame moss tied to a little DW piece in here too.
i'll make a deal - $12.00 for all the moss i have here shipped?

best part about this moss is that it will be 100% free from snails lol. and it has no algae growing on it.

[Newman]

sold all shrimpn'moss
drained, put in the amazonia soil, filled up with DI water and put on the coralife striplight. looks nice but very cloudy for now.

pics when it settles down, or when i get my blyxa japonica. whichever comes first.

[Newman]

threw in some moss. FTS updated.

[Newman]

Put in some Blyxa japonica. The blyxa arrived when i was not home, so it sat in my mailbox for a day, baking in the sun. luckily it all survived and will be growing back. Looks tattered now, but its growing back.

Updated the FTS!

Raised my TDS level to 100ppm, and now I'll wait for the plants to get going before i add any shrimp. There were two cherry shrimplets in there a while back (they somehow survived the tank breakdown and rebuild), but i don't see them now, so I assume they are gone.

I need some help deciding which shrimp to start this tank out with.
Something softwater. Maybe crystal shrimp? or should i stick with painted fire red cherries again for starters?

I am going on vacation for a month, so the tank will remain w/o livestock. will give it a while to stabilize, before i slowly start building the bioload.

[Newman]

Shrimp suggestions guys?

[Newman]

decided on shrimp. Rili shrimp and the SSS red crystals. the rili should be doing great all year round in this tank, and the crystals will be on a winter basis venture because of temperature issues in summer.

For now the tank is still cycling after one month. Ammonia is at 2ppm, 0ppm nitrite, 10ppm nitrate. 6.3pH and 107TDS.
I upped the photoperiod from 4 hours to 6 hours today since the blyxa started to grow in nicely. all of it survived. Put in some floaters.
I'll leave it to cycle, and the rili shrimp go in.
Pic updates later.

[somewhatshocked]

Temperature issues? You can just use a fan to cool things down and Crystals will be fine year round.

Looking forward to seeing how this turns out.

[Newman]

ack, still unsure about what Neo breed to go for....I would like something that can both sell for decent money ($4 or more), doesn't have to be culled much, and something that i can probably develop into a purer color or something....

[somewhatshocked]

That doesn't really exist, unfortunately. Even Chocolates have to be culled. Those still tend to go for at least $10 - but that price won't last long.

You should just pick a color that you really enjoy and go with that. PFRs and Oranges are always going to be pretty popular. And you can at least get $3-$5 per shrimp for really solid Orange.