jasonh's 29 gal (56k warning) update 10-27-06

[JonMulzer]

Bumblebees are nasty fish. I picked up a tank a while back from a friend who owed me money. Along with the 135 gallon tank came a whole bunch of cichlids, including a bumblebee. Before I had a chance to get rid of him I realized what a nasty character they are. It probably is not as bad as it is going to get yet since he is still small. And he will get much too large for a 29 gallon, even by himself.

[jasonh]

Originally Posted by JonMulzer

Bumblebees are nasty fish. I picked up a tank a while back from a friend who owed me money. Along with the 135 gallon tank came a whole bunch of cichlids, including a bumblebee. Before I had a chance to get rid of him I realized what a nasty character they are. It probably is not as bad as it is going to get yet since he is still small. And he will get much too large for a 29 gallon, even by himself.

interesting. My bumblebees are actually the 2nd most laid back fish in the tank. Most laid back are the peacocks. The ones that are really starting to chase the others around are the snow whites...and they're the smallest ones, lol.

Sadly this is another of those buy-before-research instances that I swore I'd never do. I just couldn't help it though. My closest Petsmart was closing so all fish were 75% off, and by the time I showed up, all that was left were the cichlids. Shoulda got 4 like I originally planned, but there are just too many beautiful varieties to choose from Luckily, the new house has 1 more room than here, so my girlfriend and I have decided to have a fish room. With that will come more tanks and stuff, so eventually I'll be able to split them up. I could use the 125 for them, but that tank will be a "happy tank" meaning no agressive fish. It seems like the only fish we have right now are agressive - africans, oscars, a betta, and gouramis...a couple danios and guppies as well but those aren't working out as well as we had hoped (tried to breed the guppies for oscar-food, most of them decided to die. The danios are to keep the gouramis from kicking each other's butts, but they keep getting beat up, or jump out of the tank )

As for the 29, I'm really tempted to yank out the swords. They're just not looking good at all. Ever since I trimmed them, they've been going downhill. Heck, they were flowering when I got them. Did I do something wrong by trimming the leaves off halfway down the stem? I wouldn't think that would be a bad way to do it, but they're just not looking good any more. Also, they've got these white hair-looking strands coming up from the substrate - what are these? Is it new stem growth, or just trying to get more nutrients from the water column?

Ok, enough rambling. Man, I talk a lot.

[gremmy]

Are you sure that tall plant on the left is a true aquatic plant? It looks like a terrestrial plant to me. Which means it won't survive more than a few months under water.

I could be wrong.

It almost looks like a Brazilian sword.

http://plantgeek.net/plant-235.htm

[jasonh]

Originally Posted by gremmy

Are you sure that tall plant on the left is a true aquatic plant? It looks like a terrestrial plant to me. Which means it won't survive more than a few months under water.

I could be wrong.

It almost looks like a Brazilian sword.

http://plantgeek.net/plant-235.htm

obviously it wasn't what it was supposed to be. that thing curled up, turned black and disintegrated. Didn't help much that the Cichlids started tearing it to shreds once it started dying. I finally yanked it out today and it was just mush. Petsmart needs to properly label their plants or something if it wasn't a true aquatic. It didn't look exactly like that plant you posted, but it was labeled as an amazon sword I believe.

Anyway, my girlfriend and I thought long and hard about the move, and we ended up deciding that it would be the best idea to sell the cichlids to someone with a bigger tank and wants to deal with them messing the tank up. We had them on Craigslist for an hour before we got a reply from someone wanting them. So today they went to a new home to stay in a 110gal with like 4 other Africans. Sad to let them go, but they're better off in that big tank than in my little one. Plus, it's gonna be a whole lot easier to move, just keeping a few key fish and that's it. Speaking of which, anyone wanna buy a pair of 4.5" Oscars, or some 2" Golden Gouramis?

The tank is done for now. Gonna tear it down to move soon. It was a nice little experiment to get me familiar with all this stuff. Definately did learn a few things though:

1. Petsmart is probably not the best place to buy plants. Though, I did get a couple bunches of Anacharis for cheap, and I now have enough to pack a 20gal.

2. It's a good idea to research how your fish will interact with eachother and your plants BEFORE you buy them, even if they are 75% off and you just HAVE to take them home.

3. DIY CO2 sucks. Seriously. While it does work, it wasn't fun to get to work properly. For some reason, the two recipes I tried didn't produce anything at all. Dunno why. I made sure everything was the correct temperature, etc, etc, and no go. My first bottle, I just added extra yeast to get to work, and the second bottle I just kinda made my own recipe. I just don't like having to change the bottle every week or so, and you gotta keep a close eye on it. When it starts losing it's vigor, algae comes back quick Definately going pressurized next time.

4. I'm not so sure about this filter sand thing. Yeah, it looks good, is cheap, and works decent. But, idunno, it tends to make a mess when you move stuff around, and I'm not so sure it has enough nutrients and whatnot for the plants. I'll most likely continue to use it in the future though, as it's way cheaper than Eco or Flourite.

Okay, that's about it. We're moving next weekend, so hopefully soon after I'll be able to rebuild the tank (need a place for my few remaining fish anyway), and start on the stand and stuff for the 125 - I'll definately have a journal for that one.

Man, I wish I coulda had this thing established for a bit longer before I had to tear it down.


Jason

[jasonh]

Well, we're all moved in, and I finally got around to putting the plants back in some sort of order in the tank. For the last week they've just been floating in the tank, since I really didn't have the energy to do anything with it. We just kept a few of our non-agressive fish (minus the betta) for the move. So basically we have a green cory, a pleco (don't remember if its a common or what), 2 zebra danios, one single female guppy, and our betta. They seem to be fairly happy with this tank. I also put in one extra rock that I still had, so make some bigger/better caves.

I really need to get in gear and get rid of most of the anacharis from this tank...kinda boring right now. Plus, I am actually planning on a tank that is just jam packed with the stuff for a bunch of endlers, so I'd rather not have overkill with it.

ALSO, we have a fishroom now, hooray. It's in disarray right now, since I need to get around to building some stands for the 10's, the 20L, and the 125. Soon we'll be painting the room a nice darker blue color, so I won't even need a background on any of the tanks (unless I want black). The 29 is in front of a window to another room, so there won't be a background on it, and I'll be moving the equipment to the side so you can see it clearly from both sides.

Ok, enough rambling, onto new pictures.

The tank:
http://synthetix.org/pics/tank/2-06-06/tank-2-6-06.jpg

And some crappy pics of a messy fishroom in the works...






Well that's about it for now.


Jason

[GreenerSideofLIfe]

*woot* Nice! I like the big tank I'm thinking about somehow condensing my 'shop room' (where I house all my inventory for my store) into one side of my spare room so that the other side can have all my fish tanks

I'm glad that you opted to give up the cichlids. They get big, and can be rather nasty to each other w/o enough room. How about getting like some rainbows? For bright colors look into dwarf neon rainbows

[jasonh]

Thanks. It'll be a while before the big tank is all set up. But I think once I get the fishroom put together everything will be nice.

I've seen the dwarf neon rainbows before, I just never remembered them, haha. They look really nice, I think they may be a nice addition to one of my tanks. A group of 6 wouldn't be too bad in the 29, would it?

Jason

[jasonh]

Well, time for an update. We went to the pet store today (Pets, Inc. in Tempe - awesome place) and got some plants. Got a few different varieties, including glosso, which I thought I might give a try - couldn't hurt to see what happens. Well, planting looked easy on the internet, but crap, that sucked. I actually gave up after just a few little plants...they kept floating away, and I'm not down with that whole in and out of the water repeatedly thing. Not to mention I suck with tweezers...yeah I need work on that. I got fed up and just shoved a bunch in at once to see what happens, but I doubt I'll be doing glosso again any time soon. Plus, I probably don't have enough light anyway.

So now I have the following in the tank:

http://synthetix.org/pics/tank/2-11-...ts-2-11-06.jpg

Glosso
Dwarf sag
Crypt wendtii bronze
Watersprite
Javamoss
Corkscrew val
Anacharis
Green myriophyllum (parrots feather)
Rotala macranda
Java fern

and that pink one that's on the left that I can't remember what it is for some reason. I could remember everything while I was there, but as soon as I got home my mind went blank on half the stuff I got.

We also picked up 24 ghost shrimp. Ok, 24 may have been a bit excessive; they really "busied" up the tank. But hey, they were 6 for $1, so no big deal. They're pretty decent sized, anyone know if my Betta will try to make a snack out of some of them? I think he might want to, but they might just be a little big...

I am setting up my DIY CO2 again as we speak, since I'm sure I'll need it. I'm dosing Flourish 2x a week, but I have a feeling I'm gonna need to start EI or something soon.

By the way, anyone know why my corkscrew val in the rock area on the right is just 'corkscrewing' down instead of up and twisting? The plant is actually pretty well rooted, I was going to pull it up to move it, but tugged on it and felt out stuck in there it is, I decided to leave it.

That's all for now.


Jason

[jasonh]

Time for a small, quick update. Looks like the betta decided shrimp are a tasty treat, so out of the original 24, we had 3 left. Also, SOMEONE in the tank didn't like that Rotala Macrandra very much...it got torn to shreds, so I had to toss it. The glosso was a pain in the booty...never again (or not till I have more patience/light/co2). I got tired of so many rocks...it's really tough to plant around them with them so close to the glass. I loved the look, but some of them had to go. Along with the java moss. That went too, but I just tied some up at the top of my filter ouput (not pictured) for reasons described below. My crappy DIY CO2 ran out, and then I had a heck of a time getting it to work again for some reason, so almost all of the watersprite turned brown and mushy - just have a tiny bit left. I just can't get consistent results with this stuff. I also changed the way I'm injecting it...my filter output has an airline input, so I just use that...I don't get any bubble buildup in the spraybar, it seems to get dissolved fairly well.

Also, I just went and picked up some Excel today to help out, since I obviously have a bit of algae. While I was at the LFS, I decided to get 2 pair of Purple Dragon Delta Guppies. I think they look pretty cool. Plus, we got 18 ghost shrimp to restock the population, and the betta was moved to my plant (and snails/algae :-/ ) growout tank. The random guppy baby we got last time with the fish has grown, and looks like an Endler...most likely a endler/guppy hybrid. It's just starting to get it's colors though, so we'll see. The dwarf sag has a few new little plants growing now, and the parrots feather is lookin good. The rotala indica is doing well, with some new growth (though, not much). 3 of the ghost shrimp we got are full of eggs, so we'll see what happens there. My pleco (don't know what kind - peru something?) and green cory are getting a wee bit bigger than I'd like, so hopefully I can get the 125 going soon so they will have a new home.

Ok, I think that's it. Sorry, I tend to ramble on and on. Here is just a quick pic. I know, it's not pretty, but it was quick

http://synthetix.org/pics/tank/3-04-06/tank-3-4-06.jpg

[jasonh]

One of my Purple Dragon Delta Guppies was having babies when I got home today! I can't get a total count cause they're small and fast little buggers. I think I have like 4-6 though. Hopefully nobody eats them. The guppies will be liberally fed from now on, and hopefully my pleco or cory don't get them (SOMEONE is eating my shrimp, and it's one of those two).



P.S. My camera sucks and it is hard as hell to photograph fish. Either it's blurry from no flash, or I have a big flash reflection in the way. I need a new camera.

[jasonh]

The guppy that gave birth died yesterday morning. Not sure why, though, she didn't look too hot after birth. I found her tangled in the javamoss with a few shrimp picking at her. I'm assuming the shrimp will eat anything that dies in the tank? Her fins were shredded, I'm only assuming it was the shrimp eating after she died...I don't think a cory or pleco can rip fins like that....

By the way, my ghost shrimp population is declining again. besides the guppies and 2 zebra danios, which probably won't eat a shrimp as big as they are, I have a green cory and a pleco - will either of these eat shrimp? I've heard a pleco will eat anything it can fit in it's mouth...

Oh, and by latest count, I have 14 fry.

One more thing...I need to get in there and remove some plants and move some stuff around, but it just happens to be the plants that the fry always hang around in....should I just wait it out till they're a little bigger and are swimming around the tank some more? I'm not really going to be removing a lot of cover, mustly just moving it around....

[Goldfishcrazy11]

Some times livebearers get really stressed and die.

If you want to make sure the fry survive, you need to get a breeder's net to hang on to the inside of the tank or you need to get a tank to put them in.

Cories don't eat shrimp... They don't even eat fry.

[jasonh]

Today was trimming and water change day. The parrots feather was getting a bit long (almost 2x the height of the tank on one of them), as was the anacharis. The rotala indica was getting a bit scraggly too, so I pulled it all out, cut off the bottoms, and replanted the tops, along with some better-looking stems from my grow-out tank (think the lighting is a bit better in there).

So with that said I have a couple questions...

1) stuff that won't grow from the top if you just cut the top off and leave it planted (e.g. the parrots feather)...is the only way to trim the stuff to either pull it out, cut it, and replant the tops, tossing the bottoms? I guess I could also trim it all the way down to the bottom node, so it'll grow out the side of it and you wouldn't notice....There's just got to be an easier way...how do you guys do it? I really don't want to have to pull out large groups of plants to trim them, and plant the tops and toss the bottoms....or am I just doing something wrong here?

2) Rotala indica....The clump I had in the middle of the tank grew tall and the tops looked ok...but about midway down, all the way to the bottom, the stems were bare, with no leaves. Is this normal? It was growing new plants out the bottom though, which was nice Is the bare stems/small leaves that I have just from not enough light? The stems I had in my growout tank with no ferts, no co2 looked way better. The growout tank is just a 20g long sitting on the floor with 2 36" striplights that came with my 125. The fixtures say 38w, but the bulbs only say 25w. and there is a few inches hanging over the edges anyway...

I think that's all for now. Here are before and after pics..



http://synthetix.org/pics/tank/4-1-0...ter-4-1-06.jpg

These will probably be the last pics I post that are this bad. I have a new digital camera on order and it will be here on Monday It's the Fuji FinePix S5200. Should be nice

Oh, and as for the fry, there are only a few left out of the original batch. But, a couple of the other females decided they wanted babies too, so there are 20-25 fry hanging around the tank right now. That's going to be interesting once they start getting big.

[jasonh]

Little update today. Things have grown quite a bit (along with the algae unfortunately). Getting that 'jungle' look which I'm kind of happy to have. I want to move some of the parrots feather over to the right and move the corkscrew vals to the left...they're getting a bit big for the front now.

http://synthetix.org/pics/tank/4-18-06/tank-4-18-06.jpg

Also, I have 3 new additions today. Bought a few Angels. The gold one really isn't so gold, but more of a whitish with an orange head.

[jasonh]

wow. It's been a while. Firstly, one of the angels died maybe a week after gettin it. Poor guy

secondly, I went and got married in Vegas in May, so we set up the tanks on autopilot...timer on the lights, auto feeder...then had a busy busy schedule, so the tank was neglected for a couple weeks. What a disaster. CO2 ran out, water was evaporating quickly because I had the top open for the lights that would actually run on a timer, algae took over badly (thread, that crap on the glass, and every other kind) and the tank just looked terrible stupid me. Wish I got a picture of it at it's worst, but I didn't.

Pulled out all the parrots feather and anarcharis, and went to a simpler layout. Then on a whim, decided to get a Coralife Aqualight...got it because it was local and a decent price. 1x65w PC. The only problem right now is it's a 50/50 bulb, but I'll get that taken care of soon enough. What's weird is I don't know if it's the 50/50 or just the fact that it's 65w of PC light with a good reflector instead of 80w non-reflected T12, or the 50w of kinda reflected T8 (which was better than the T12), but as soon as I put that light on, the plants have perked up, and my angels decided it would be fun to clean off the side of the tank looking like they're gonna spawn. No eggs as of yet though.

Anyway, here it is.

http://synthetix.org/pics/tank/6-21-06/29g-6-21-06.jpg