[Fat Guy]

Waiting for the marsilea to fill in. Adjusted the lighting period and intensity and upped the CO2. Thanks for looking!

 

[Fat Guy]

Added some more cardinals and some salt and pepper Pygmy corys (corydoras habrosas). Raised the substrate in the back with fluval stratum which does not leach ammonia. Planted some more helanthium tenellum to those corners. It’s created another level of depth and makes the tank look so much bigger imho. Also raising the lily pipe to break the surface allows for better gaseous exchange, happier fish and more CO2.

 

[Fat Guy]

Pulled the Helanthium tenellum as it was growing way too fast. It’s a phosphate sponge for sure. I resloped the back and planted eleocharis parulva mixed with eleocharis mini and rotala H’ra. Excited for the new plants.

Also I have a new light coming to replace the Fluval 3.0z. Purchase a chihiros wrgb 2 with light shades from aquatic rocks Colorado for a reasonable prices. Looking forward to getting some nice reds from the H’ra I just planted. Thanks for looking!

 

[Fat Guy]

Really excited about removing the hemainthus tenellum. Sometimes you get bored with your tank and I was definitely starting to feel that way. I didn’t feel bored about the rocks in it, just the way that the plants were growing. I feel like the h. Tenellum needs a bigger tank as it grows so rapidly. Winding it between the rocks was cool at first but it grew over itself so quickly and seemed to affect the growth of the repens as it seemed like the repens was losing the battle for nutrients. I started doubling my EI doses over the past week and the plants were depleting them rather quickly. Turning down the light intensity helped but I feel like the plants were in competition with one another as the tank aged.

Can’t wait for the e. Parvula and mini to fill in. I like the softer edges they provide around the rockwork and the way the fill in the aquascape. Can’t wait for the new light to come and to play with the reds of the royals h’ra. I grouped them in roughly 5 stems per bunch.

On another note, I have the worst luck keeping Pygmy cories. If I buy 5 usually two will die after two weeks and the rest will remain. I think they would do much better in a low tech tank with a ton of hiding places and minimal co2. Otocinclus can be tricky too. When the co2 is on they stick to the glass and barely move for 6 hours. Then the co2 turns off and the lights go down and they are back to cleaning all the algae. The cardinals are by far one of my most favorite nano fish. They are so peaceful and colorful and are not chasing each other around the tank all day. They also school better than any fish I’ve ever kept...and they don’t attack the juvenile cherry shrimp. Added three of those from a colony of +50 in my mini m. Fingers crossed they adapt well. I think their biggest nemesis will be the surface skimmer but hopefully not.

Thanks for looking.

-el Gordo

 

[Fat Guy]

Dialing in my CO2 again. Picked up a Fluval bubble counter. Can’t wait for the chihiros wrgbii to arrive and for the eleocharis varieties and h’ra to fill in. Realized I was way overdosing my tank with CO2. The cardinals were fine. I lost a few Pygmy corys to acidosis i think. I e cut back on nitrate dosing after the initial dose after a water change. No issues with osmocote leaching either. Minor staghorn algae appeared in an area of high flow. I think I introduced it by adding a sprig of marsilea from my other tank into this one. Spot treated with excel. So far so food. Also added 11 cherry shrimp from my mini m colony. They are doing awesome. Kh around 6 and Which I was able to bring way down using RO water. Glad I pulled the h. tenellum. Thanks for looking!

 

[Fat Guy]

Still waiting for the chihiros wrgbii to get released from customs. In the meantime the HRA is really loving this tank. I thought about limiting nitrates but then decided against it. The hair grass is starting to send out more runners after a trim. That plant takes a little time to adjust if you buy it from a tissue culture. Salt and pepper Corys seem to be doing fine. Did a spot treatment on some staghorn with hydrogen peroxide. Planning on doing more thorough rock scrubbing per water change. also set up a 20 gallon RO trashcan for future water changes. Also moved about 100 Malaysian trumpet to the house. They were bulldozing my hair grass plantings. So far so good. Thanks for looking.

 

[Fat Guy]

Light will be delivered next week. Stoked for the upgrade. In the meantime, the H’ra is growing in awesome and the two types of hair grass have turned the corner transitioning to submersed. Considering getting a baby bristlenose...we shall see.

 

[ipkiss]

Really loving that current serene background that you’re using. And especially how you’re using it to really enhance the entire look. I don’t know if you set the right colors to complement the right plants or vice versa. It really works and it catches my eyes every time as I’m scrolling through threads.

 

[Fat Guy]

Really loving that current serene background that you’re using. And especially how you’re using it to really enhance the entire look. I don’t know if you set the right colors to complement the right plants or vice versa. It really works and it catches my eyes every time as I’m scrolling through threads.

hey thanks! I like it too. The colors are easy to change. The blue maintains the colors of the fish. So does a violet which is the closest i can get to white with the current. Orange looks good too (more for sunrise). Thanks again!

I just upgraded to a chihiros wrgb2 and wow is this light awesome. Check it out. Still messing with the settings but holy mackerel. I put shades on it which I really love as it balances the look of the tank on my homemade stand.

 

[Fat Guy]

Trimmed the H’RA and replanted. Love love love this light. Snapped a pic during sunrise 🌄

 

[Fat Guy]

Boy oh boy does this H’RA grow and it get redder and redder. Have stopped dosing nitrates this week and have a constant 5-10ppm amount. Added 4 more horned nerites...im really enjoying these snails. All is well. Dosing just P and K and Mg on even days and some micros on odd ones. Thanks for the looking!!

 

[Fat Guy]

Wanted to add this photo to my journal. Side by side comparison of the Chihiros WRGB2 and the Fluval 3.0 on my tank. The Chihiros outshines the Fluval by far . Zero problems with the app also. It’s been great so far. Fingers crossed.

 

[mickmac]

Looks really terrific. I love the peaceful simplicity. Your plants look wonderfully healthy and colorful. Great job. Love your background light show too! Thanks for always taking the time to share all this.

 

[Fat Guy]

Looks really terrific. I love the peaceful simplicity. Your plants look wonderfully healthy and colorful. Great job. Love your background light show too! Thanks for always taking the time to share all this.

Hey! Glad you like it! I’ve really enjoyed working on this tank. It’s been a journey to say the least but it keeps it super fun and challenging.

The marsilea has really started to take off and I think the DHG has turned the corner and is settling in nicely. I still have some staghorn which I’m attacking slowly and some GDA that appears on the rocks. But the horned nerites love it. The shrimp colors are so wonderful up close. I’m slowly upping the excel to almost double the dosage per the bottle to get ahead of the staghorn. I think the gda and staghorn are feeding off the NH3/NH4 from the osmocote. I’ll have to check back to see when I put those granules in it would be interesting to see if the algae disappears once the granules have been exhausted of nutrients. Just going to have to wait it out.

here’s a video of my surface skimmer in action. I usually stop it from spinning this fast but sometimes it’s fun to watch it skim the tank like this. I am running my food for 307 at full flow. Going to clean it out mañana.

Thanks for the comments and thanks all for looking!
el g

 

[Fat Guy]

Dear Me,

More excellent growth happening in the tank. Stopped limiting nitrates after the s. Repens started to turn red on the new leaves but chlorosis on the older leaves. Have doubled the excel dosage and am winning the stag horn battle. The one issue that always plagues me in this tank are the salt and pepper or dwarf corys. I have some that are always thriving and then one will just randomly die and another will as well. So there’s always two that are doing great but for whatever reason I’ve always had issues with them which is a bummer. It used to be that way with Otocinclus but the there I have in there have been there for months and clean the tank when the lights go down. Loving my 8 horned nerites. Awesome addition. H’RA loves this tank and light and water. Thanks, W

 

[Bserve]

looks amazing dude! I might need to pick up some H'Ra... or upgrade to a WRGB2 that actually fits my tank.

Also, with your skimmer lily pipe, do you ever get gurgling/air bubble problems with the filter?

 

[Fat Guy]

looks amazing dude! I might need to pick up some H'Ra... or upgrade to a WRGB2 that actually fits my tank.

Also, with your skimmer lily pipe, do you ever get gurgling/air bubble problems with the filter?

Hey thanks man!! The H’RA is awesome and this was grown from two UNS tissue culture cups. It took off after a couple days and didn’t take very long to adapt. Do you have a wrgb 60 over your 90? I really love this light. And the shade attachment is brilliant and really reduces the light spill in the room. I’ve had zero issues with the app or the light running hot. It’s a lot heavier than I thought it would be. The chihiros also brings out the color in the H’RA so much better than the fluval that I used to have on the tank did. How’s your staghorn issue? You get control over it? Mine is almost gone. I trimmed the dhg way too early before it really established and had accidentally introduced a piece of marsilea from my mini that must have had the staghorn spores on it. The algae started to show on the trimmed DHG first....totally my fault. Almost gone now.

 

[Fat Guy]

Took the foggy background off just for a change in perspective...

 

[Bserve]

Hey thanks man!! The H’RA is awesome and this was grown from two UNS tissue culture cups. It took off after a couple days and didn’t take very long to adapt. Do you have a wrgb 60 over your 90? I really love this light. And the shade attachment is brilliant and really reduces the light spill in the room. I’ve had zero issues with the app or the light running hot. It’s a lot heavier than I thought it would be. The chihiros also brings out the color in the H’RA so much better than the fluval that I used to have on the tank did. How’s your staghorn issue? You get control over it? Mine is almost gone. I trimmed the dhg way too early before it really established and had accidentally introduced a piece of marsilea from my mini that must have had the staghorn spores on it. The algae started to show on the trimmed DHG first....totally my fault. Almost gone now.

Yeah its the 60 over a 90... basically like a vivid, minus the power. I've been debating adding a wrgb 90, but jury's still out. My tank is right next to a huge window, so light spill is pretty unnoticeable. Staghorn's been under control for 2-3 weeks now, although there is some BBA for some reason (I may just leave it alone though, it looks kinda cool).

 

[Fat Guy]

Did a trim and replanted the tops. Grows so fast but the bush it creates is quite lovely. Love this H’RA!