125 Gal. B-day Present: 11/10 new fish and rescape (56k)

[jargonchipmunk]

I gotta be honest. I'm actually excited to see these pics too lol

I have the tracking info for my lights and they're the same exact fixture with moonlights etc from catalina too. The tracking info tells me my lights are delivered right now at my door, and I can't get home to play christmas morning for another two hours :-( I'm jealous lol

[yikesjason]

That is one of the advantages of working from home.

[yikesjason]

I got my tank set up in the house and filled and planted. I took pictures last night but now I can't find my card reader and we lost the transfer cable a long time ago. So I can't post my pictures yet.

So far my troubles have been a broken heater that came with the tank, a bad checkvalve for my co2 (hopefully my solenoid will still work), and I have a nice tea colored water from the new wood I put in there.

Hopefully I will find my card reader today and be able to post pictures and more details tonight.

[yikesjason]

I found my card reader, so here is a picture.



The wood is some oak I found near my house. I spent a lot of time stripping the bark and getting it clean. What do you guys think about it?

Now the branches are growing a nice slimy coat of algae. I am double dosing with Excel and I would like to start with my co2, but I have to wait for a new check valve to arrive before it gets going again. My temporary petco special didn't do the trick. I really need some more fast growing plants in there to get things moving, but my budget is all used up for now. I guess I will just wait it out.

Ohh, and my camera doesn't get the job done well either.

[chonhzilla]

very well put together sir.

[yikesjason]

I tested the water yesterday and everything is doing well, so I added some otos and guppies to get things going and to eat some of the algae that is growing on the wood. But today it looks like I am going to be adding quite a few more fish. The 30 gal that I am upgrading from got moved to the back room while the new tank was cycling, but it looks like something happened to the heater. I notice that my angelfish were acting strange and when I touched the water I realized that it was freezing cold!!
So far, all I have lost was my gold nugget pleco. I loved that fish, she was beautiful. It is the only fish I have that has a name, Nessie. I have had her for over a year. I am very sad to see her go. Hopefully the rest of the fish make it in the new tank.

[yikesjason]

After I moved my 3 angelfish, 4 danios, GBR and some otos over, two of the angels were laying flat on the substrate. After spending possibly as much as three days in cold water after the heater quit on me, I am surprised that so many of the fish are doing as well as they are. One of the angels that was just laying on the floor is now swimming and looks like it will be ok. The one last sleeper is still alive, but not yet swimming. I still don't know if it will make it.

It is so nice to see fish in the big tank. It just looks "right" to see the fish swim with a lot of space. The 4 zebra danios are almost always accompanied by 1 or 2 otos as they school around the tank. I can't wait to replace them with a big school of cardinals.

[fshfanatic]

I am looking forward to seeing this one come together.. Nice start..

[yikesjason]

Well, my black angelfish died. I am not too surprised though after a couple of days in cold water. The rest of the fish look fine, but are not really eating well yet.

The initial algae on the wood is going away. With extra water changes, I think everything will do fine with the shortened cycle time.

[yikesjason]

The tank is still doing well. I have been getting a little bit of brown diatom algae, but everything else is looking pretty clean. There are about 5 otos in there, but I don't think that is enough for a tank this size. I hope to pick up 5 more soon. That should take care of it pretty well. The otos are fun little fish, they even school with the danios some times.

Now that the co2 is running soothly, I have backed off of the Excel double doses. Even at normal dosing, that is a lot of Excel for a tank this size, even with the good deal I got on it. Hopefully I can stop with the Excel completely in a couple of weeks. I just want to get everything growing well before I stop.

I got a bunch of plants this weekend from Michael_TD. Some more aromatica, a couple of melon swords, I think one is a red rubin, a couple of types of ludwigia, some ranunculus, and a big blayx. Thanks a lot Michael.

The tank is looking better and better all of the time. Once it is grown in well, I plan on having my brother in law come over to do some good photos. He is a professional photographer and he sounded interested in trying a new type of subject. I showed him some photos from the ADA site and he was quite impressed.

[yikesjason]

Saturday morning I pulled the plug on my AquaClear HOB filter so I could use some of the media and set up a used XP3 filter I bought (more about that adventure later). I had some difficulties and ended up not getting the new filter installed until the next day. But that night when I was feeding the fish I noticed a bunch of eggs on one of he sword leaves.



I have had these angelfish for almost a year. I had no idea that they were male and female. I originally got 5 angels and these 2 from PetSmart were the last two standing. I thought it had to do with them being the same type of angel and being bought at the same time that they always stuck together, but apparently there was more to it than that.

Now there are some white eggs that have died, so apparently the rest are fertile. I don't really want a bunch of baby angelfish, and I doubt many will survive, but if some do, it should be fun to watch.

Here is a picture of one of the parents. They have both been standing guard near the eggs.

[yikesjason]

I picked up a canister filter for my tank on Friday. It is an Rena XP3 that I got for $25. The catch is that two of the latches are broken and I have to use cargo straps to hold the lid on.

So I picked up some new tubing at Home Depot and set it up. It took me a couple of hours to figure out how to keep it from leaking. I am pretty sure I need to get some new o-rings. And the latches are attached to the actual case, so to replace them would mean a whole new case and that would cost as much as buying a used filter in good condition. So for now, I will watch for leaks and maybe get some o-rings.

[itstony]

thats still a nice deal on the xp3 if everything else on it works fine. and cool angels

[yikesjason]

This morning I thought that all of the eggs were dead or eaten. But it turned out that all of the remaining fry had been moved to a different leaf. I was kind of surprised that the first time parents are doing such a good job with them. I just wish my camera was better so I could get some decent pictures to post here.

[yikesjason]

I got a little behind on my journal here, about like the times when I have tired to keep a journal in real life. But I do have some pictures from when the angels spawned the first time.

I just realized that I had the wrong photos uploaded onto image shack, so I guess I won't be able to post these pictures until later.

Anyways,
This first batch lasted about a week, until the reached the free swimming stage. Then the parents gobbled them up as fast as they were learning to swim.