[Grobbins48]

Love that green algae growing up that piece of wood near waterline.

The tank looks great and the colors on those fish are spectacular.

What are you feeding?

Thank you! I agree, the algae there is very nice. The buce did not do well at all in this tank (as we can see it is gone...) but is doing well in my 75.

Feeding for both tanks is either vibra bites or bug bites. I prefer the vibra bites. The fish love them both, but I do find the bug bites to be a bit messy.

 

[Grobbins48]

Cooking with gas again... let's see what happens!

 

[Immortal1]

Gotta love good old (non) flammable gas ;-)

 

[Grobbins48]

I know it's not 'right' but I love the way this hygrophila kompakt is looking. Other may think I different but it's pretty cool to me!

 

[butchblack]

If you have an Apex and can regulate the pH and have solenoid per tank that is fantastic! I only have the pH controller on my 75 gallon, so I am trying to fine tune my dwyer flow meters on each tank to not ping the CO2 shutoff level in the 75. Getting close. I also am trying to tune down the CO2 in the 40 breeder- I only have the one 10lb tank, and right now with shelter in place orders getting more CO2 would not be an essential activity- and this would really mess with my 75 gallon (not so worried about CO2 in the 40 breeder- but having a spare tank would be really nice now....).

My advice on the pencilfish to get them to breed is to have floating plants. Then were spawning every day when I had them. I only had one fry survive the tank, but the apistogramma learned where they spawned and learned to hunt the surface of the water.

I am sure an AquaClear would work fine- for filtration it really is to each their own.

Good luck with the tank!

Grobbins48 Interesting. I want to do something similar. I have a CO2 regulator with two outlets and I'm trying to figure out how to do this without buying a second controller. The 40B will be planted much lighter than my 75g, so I'm less concerned about getting optimum CO2 than adding a bit to enhance growth. How are you hooking your's up?

 

[rzn7z7]

I know it's not 'right' but I love the way this hygrophila kompakt is looking. Other may think I different but it's pretty cool to me!

That does look good...is it experiencing a deficiency or have you come across a sub-species?

 

[Grobbins48]

Grobbins48 Interesting. I want to do something similar. I have a CO2 regulator with two outlets and I'm trying to figure out how to do this without buying a second controller. The 40B will be planted much lighter than my 75g, so I'm less concerned about getting optimum CO2 than adding a bit to enhance growth. How are you hooking your's up?

I have the same thought process, just wanted to add a bit of CO2, not max this tank out. The 75 I pump lot's of CO2 in.

I simply put a 'T' on the regulator output with two barbed adapters. They each run line to Dwyer RMA 151 SSV flow meters. I use those to dial the rate in properly. The CO2 controller is set on the 75 to a safety level, so if there is EOTD or something happens I can save the tank. I dial in the CO2 to drop to just before shutting off by the controller on the 75 gallon. It has been working quite well for the past couple of weeks.

The CO2 on the 40 breeder is something like 10cc/min, enough to get it in the water column, but not so much that I worry about gassing the fish!

Bump:

That does look good...is it experiencing a deficiency or have you come across a sub-species?

Definitely some sort of deficiency- but I am no expert here. I only put in 5ppm NO3, and 2.5 each of PO4 and K. Mg I didn't really add at all until this weeek, water is naturally 7ppm. We will see if anything changes!

 

[Greggz]

Definitely some sort of deficiency- but I am no expert here. I only put in 5ppm NO3, and 2.5 each of PO4 and K. Mg I didn't really add at all until this weeek, water is naturally 7ppm. We will see if anything changes!

Will be interesting to see how the plant health holds up.

Either way, it does look pretty cool. Just don't know if you can keep it there or not.

 

[Grobbins48]

Little rearranging today, and decided to cut the CO2 again- this tank doesn't really need it and I didn't like how much faster the tank drains from the 75. I feel this is one of the better looks this tank has had for a while!

 

[Grobbins48]

Nice day to clean up over here. Took a lot of plant mass out. Still going strong with just some water changes and dumping in some ferts every time I do.

 

[butchblack]

Little rearranging today, and decided to cut the CO2 again- this tank doesn't really need it and I didn't like how much faster the tank drains from the 75. I feel this is one of the better looks this tank has had for a while!

Interesting. What do you use as a basis for determining that your tank doesn't need CO2? I've got my 40b up, running planted and stocked. I had to get my CO2 tank refilled a couple of days ago, so I used the time to place the tank in a better position to serve both tanks, but I'm torn about adding it to the 40b as all of the plants seem to be doing well and I'm not having any algae issues yet.

 

[Grobbins48]

Interesting. What do you use as a basis for determining that your tank doesn't need CO2? I've got my 40b up, running planted and stocked. I had to get my CO2 tank refilled a couple of days ago, so I used the time to place the tank in a better position to serve both tanks, but I'm torn about adding it to the 40b as all of the plants seem to be doing well and I'm not having any algae issues yet.

For me it was that I didn't want to bother with it really. The plants that are in it had grown perfectly fine with no CO2 in the past, and most of them continue to do extremely well today, a few weeks later. The ludwigia super red melted pretty hard, but honestly that is a plant I was ready to toss anyways. Ludwigia broadleaf actually grows wonderful in the low tech setup, long with just about everything else I the tank.

Actually, I like the way the buce and anubias grow in this tank better than my 75 gallon. I k how it is more to do with lower light than CO2, but overall just happier with this tank keeping it lower powered.

 

[butchblack]

Interesting. What do you use as a basis for determining that your tank doesn't need CO2? I've got my 40b up, running planted and stocked. I had to get my CO2 tank refilled a couple of days ago, so I used the time to place the tank in a better position to serve both tanks, but I'm torn about adding it to the 40b as all of the plants seem to be doing well and I'm not having any algae issues yet.

For me it was that I didn't want to bother with it really. The plants that are in it had grown perfectly fine with no CO2 in the past, and most of them continue to do extremely well today, a few weeks later. The ludwigia super red melted pretty hard, but honestly that is a plant I was ready to toss anyways. Ludwigia broadleaf actually grows wonderful in the low tech setup, long with just about everything else I the tank.

Actually, I like the way the buce and anubias grow in this tank better than my 75 gallon. I know it is more to do with lower light than CO2, but overall just happier with this tank keeping it lower powered.

It seems that we are doing the same things. I have a Beamswork DA FSPEC on a ramping timer. Light duration is 10 hours, but 6 of the 10 is at 20% intensity, the other 4 are 60%, 100%, 60%. I have Sagittaria subulata Dwarf, Sword Rosette (Parviflorus parviflorus 'Tropica'), and Tiger Lotus. All are low or medium-light plants, so the combination of low light intensity and no CO2 may work out well. My only concern is that my stocking of corys and whiptail cats may not produce enough CO2 in the long run. I may add a third species, some kind of schooling or shoaling mid/top-level swimmer in the future as I have the capacity to do so.

 

[Grobbins48]

Been a while since an update. Big news is the apistogramma are mow moved over to my 75 high tech tank. The Male passed and with only a few small females I decided it was time to take the tank in a new direction.

The wood was severely dirty and algae covered, so with the weather still being nice I pulled everything out last weekend and power washed it. Wow that worked amazing!

Then after rescaping and planting, I took a triple to the LFS in search of some angelfish. I found exactly what I wanted, and purchased 5 platinum angelfish along with 10 or so bronze corys!

I am so far pleased with this setup and the fish. More updates to come!

 

[Grobbins48]

I have been so back and forth and undecided about CO2 on this tank! Well, back again to CO2- now that I have a backup 10lb tank I feel better powering both my 75 and this 40 breeder.

Just fired it up again today, so will be some time to dial it in.

I also lost my Java Fern, so I am considering a few additions of Java Fern Trident and Mini Bolbitis, along with everything currently in the tank. Looking to keep the island theme, but I feel like the trident fern will give it the look of denser growth.

As always, love to hear thought and perspectives of others!

 

[monkeyruler90]

grow the trident fern! it always gives it a nice texture with the interesting leaf ends

 

[Grobbins48]

grow the trident fern! it always gives it a nice texture with the interesting leaf ends

Three pots on the way, along with some of the mini bolbitis and some buce!

 

[Grobbins48]

Just a few shots and this crew has settled in over the past few weeks. Like the contrast they provide!

 

[Greggz]

You know, I've never really been a big fan of Angels.

But for some reason those ones are very, very nice looking. Love the color and they look very elegant.

What type are they?

 

[Grobbins48]

They were sold to me as platinum angelfish.

I also have never really been a huge fan, but something told me to give this a try, and I'll say, so far I am really enjoying the.

I have 5 in the 40 breeder, so we will see how the stocking works out long term. They are extremely aware of their environment and interact with me a lot.

Between them, the dozen or so neons and a few bronze corys, the tank is pretty great.