My 20g has a new owner, so RIP journal

[fshfanatic]

Let me see if I can find it first. I havent had a chance to look yet. I will in the morning after I drink a couple beers in honor of fallen American heroes.

Type in SMS in the search. You will get 100's of threads to read.

Great stuff..

LL - I havent had an issue with anything really kicking it up after it settles and you get some root growth.

[lauraleellbp]

Originally Posted by fshfanatic

LL - I havent had an issue with anything really kicking it up after it settles and you get some root growth.

You'd know better than me, I've never used it to date. I do laugh and think about Fishaholic complaining about it being "stirred up by pleco farts" though

[Karackle]

Sounds good, no rush because I've got some serious fixin' to do in my 5g.

LL - the cories are in the 5g, so that shouldn't be too big of a problem HOWEVER i have been considering cories to add to the tank since I lost the platys, though I was also thinking about adding a few more tetras (neon and/or glolights), haven't decided which but I have to make sure all the parameters are good and everyone continues looking healthy before I add anyone else

[Karackle]

Well, despite the poor health and subsequent passing of my 3 platys, the 20g and it's inhabitants are doing wonderfully. So i think it is time to replace some of my fauna. The question is, who do i add? The current inhabitants are as follows: 3 female bettas, 3 zebra danios, 3 glo light tetras, 3 neon tetras, 1 femlare guppy, 1 clown Pleco. Previous inhabitants included a Dwarf Blue Gourami and the platys, as well as other guppies, male guppies tend not to do as well, i think they get picked on by the female bettas.

I was thinking of getting another female guppy to keep the one i have company (perhaps this isn't necessary?) And either a few more Neons and/or Glolights, OR a trio of cories? Though i hear they do better in larger numbers, but I'm not sure I have room for too many?

Any and all thoughts and input would be greatly appreciated! Other stocking ideas welcome as well!

[fshfanatic]

Originally Posted by lauraleellbp

You'd know better than me, I've never used it to date. I do laugh and think about Fishaholic complaining about it being "stirred up by pleco farts" though

Everything gets stirred up by pleco farts.

I think I know where I put the stuff. Just have to clear a path to it in the storage room.. I will try to get to it today.

[Karackle]

Thanks, I appreciate it! Like I said though, no rush. My 5g needs some help before I start dealing with changing out substrate on my 20g. I need to rearrange some plants in the 20, so I'll do that when I get rid of the brightly colored substrate. The only thing I'm a little worried about after reading about SMS is that it lowers the pH, but I have malaysian driftwood in the tank that is doing a fine job of lowering the pH already (my tap is ~8, tank is running around ~6 now with the driftwood). I don't want to start messing with chemicals to raise the pH, but I do have Aragonite (crushed coral) that I could add to raise/buffer the pH i suppose?

[Karackle]

So I finally took pictures of my "mystery plants" I wanted to get some opinions as to what they are, so here goes:

Crypt or Anubias?
Top:


Bottom:


Crypt Balansae? (sp?) Spiralis? Something else?
Top:


Bottom:


What do we think?

Also, I went to my LFS this evening and i decided to go with a few more Neons and a few more Glolights. They're drip-acclimating now

[BigB]

first one is a anubias looks like a batari,

you can tell by the rhizome on it

[Karackle]

Thanks! I thought Abubias too, though not sure what kind

And I think maybe the "grass" is in fact Crypt Spiralis and that it wasn't mislabeled, i looked up pictures and many of the leaves do have the characteristic waves, and are more flowy and long than the pictures of Balansae appear to be. I'd be open to other ideas though!

[Karackle]

Well, it was a sad night last night, I lost one of my female bettas I'm thinking it could have been the heat. I tried leaving the lights off for most of the day to try and keep the temp down, but it's just been SO hot recently. I discovered her pretty late last night, so tank parameter check will be the first thing I do when I get home, though ever since the addition of the Crushed Coral and the frequent water changes, the parameters have been quite stable. I hope it wasn't the addition of the crushed coral and subsequent raising of the pH, though i realize that's a possibility. I'd have to think that the drop from 7.2 down to 5 in less than 24hrs during bi-weekly water changes would have been more stressful though, and she's been doing well. Keeping my fingers crossed that everyone else is still happy and healthy when I get home...

[Karackle]

Ok, my tank parameters have been nice and stable for over a week now. pH is running at a steady 7.2 (instead of under 6), my GH is stable at about 8, my KH is staying up around 2.5 (on the low side, i know), ammonia 0, nitrIte 0, nitrAte ~15. Aside from losing one of the female Bettas (who had no obvious signs of disease) everyone else is still happy and healthy. I added a trio of Otos at the end of last week to the tank to help rid the slower growing broad leaved plants (the 2 anubias species) of their bits of algae. They're all doing reallly well and they're super active! So that's fun and good. I'm going to leave well enough alone for a little longer I think, and then add some hardscape and do some minor plant rearranging once i've thoroughly scrubbed and soaked the rocks and wood i collected today.....so many projects! But everyone needs hobbies to stay sane I think

[Karackle]

I rescaped the 20g today I tied some moss to the driftwood and added some e. tennellus, in 2 sizes (thanks for all the new plants to maclellan!) I removed the struggling cabomba, moved the wisteria to the right corner, the moss-covered driftwood to the left, moved the small red Crypt Wendtii over with the driftwood so it's still in it's cozy crook, put the larger tennellus to the left of the driftwood, the smaller ones along the bottom (these may get moved to the 5g). Oh and moved the Anubias nana petite from behind the piece that sticks out of the driftwood, to on / in front of it. Here's a bunch of pictures:

Full tank shots:

[Karackle]

Close up of the driftwood with moss:




Close up of the small red crypt wendtii / center of the tank:


And some decent shots of my neons / right side of the tank:




As always, i'd love feedback! Yes, i know the substrate is a bit unsightly, but any and all feedback is welcome. Things to change? keep? remove?

I'm thinking it needs some more hardscape on the right side...thoughts?

[lauraleellbp]

Looking better and better all the time!

[mybrotherdarrell]

I agree with lauralee - this tank is looking very nice.

There are a couple things I would do
- get some different colored plants - it may look different in person, but the plants all seem to be bright green and kind of monotonous. I'd like to see a reddish/orangish plant break up the background.
-The driftwood looks nice with the java fern. I'd move it over toward the center just a little bit. Then the big mass will be more centered and broken up by your crypt(?).
-Change substrate (but kudos to you for growing such nice plants in hot pink gravel)

I think your tank looks very nice, and these are just nit-picky things to think about.