[Slongo]

Preface

I am a university student and I run a small fish department in a local pet store. I have been in the hobby since 2012. I stick to what I know - dirted tanks. I try to keep my tanks as low maintenance as possible. I am just starting to fool around with DIY CO2 with limited success.

I have three tanks I would like to showcase on this forum. The first will be the focus as I have recently set it up and I will be changing and upgrading it quite a bit over the coming weeks. The other two are established and will likely receive less attention in this journal. However feel free to comment on all three tanks.

The Dragons Den - 35G

Found the tank and stand for $20m so I decide to tear down a 20G and put this sucker together. It has been up since mid July 2015 but I had barely touched it since I set it up. It gets quite quite a bit of sunlight from a large window - causing some algae.

I have these quick growing pond plants in it and they had gone wild and were eating all the light, choking out all the other plants. The plants below them began getting algae problems.

This is the tank that will be the main focus of the journal. I just got new lights and I am looking to get this tank looking good. What do you think I should do with it?

Specs:

- MGO with play sand cap
- Aqueon Modular LED (2 Day White Strips)
- Marineland penguin, unknown 10 gallon filter and a small spong filter
- Just begun dosing excel

Objectives:

- Get rid of algae problem
- Cover driftwood in moss
- Add black background
- Remove algae from sides of tank

Pictures

Current

Inhabitants

- 3 Axolotls
- Feeder Guppies
- Feeder Minnows

Mojo:

Mojo & Django:

Ponyboy:

The 29G - The Forest

I originally set this tank up in 2013 as a planted community tank. A few month later I decided to dirt it. in 2014 I torn it down and moved it into my new house. It has been through a lot.

I just started DIY CO2 on this tank. That got thing booming but it has recently thrown everything out of balance - I didn't change the bottles out as frequently as I should. I am noticing an increase in algae and debris in this tank.

Specs:

- Clay base, MGO and play sand cap
- Finnex Fugeray Planted
- DIY Yeast CO2
- Irregularly Dosing Flourish Comprehensive and very occasionally macros
- 2 Aqueon Quiet Flow 20s

Objectives:

- Get better filtration
- Get 2 x 2 L bottles for CO2
- Change out yeast bottles more regularly
- More water changes
- Add black background
- Remove Algae off sides of tank


Pictures

Current (Sept 29th 2015):
(Pictures Coming Soon)

Nov 2013 - 2 months after dirting

Inhabitants
- 2 axolotls
- feeder guppies
- 1 goldfish

Elvis:

The Stump - 55G

Set up mid 2013. It is at my parents house so it gets nearly zero maintenance. My dad feeds them daily and tops up the water every once in awhile. It is extremely self sufficient, it gets about 2 water changes a year, the plants keep everything running nicely.

As this tank as at my parents it will get the least attention and updates in this journal.

Specs:

- MGO with play sand cap:
- Finnex Fugeray
- Old free filter (can't remember what it is)
- Dosing weekly Flourish Comprehensive and biweekly Flourish Iron

Objectives:

- Fill in back right-side of tanks with sunset hygro
- Cover top of stump in java ferns.

Pictures

Current (Sept 20th 2015)

Inhabitants
- 3 Black angels
- 3 Female Bettas
- 5 Bolivan Rams
- 6 Dwarf neon rainbows


I will be adding more pictures to this post ASAP. Plant lists will be posted in the next few days in a separate post. Comments and criticism are appreciated.

 

[Slongo]

Getting some taiwan moss and cherry shrimp for the 35G. I am hoping to get a wild type strain of neocaridina heteropoda breeding in there. Ill update with pictures once the moss has been added.

 

[Slongo]

Got the moss and the shrimp. Pretty happy the way it is looking for far. Mostly male shrimp though, I will add more females once the moss has grown in a bit.

I've never had taiwan moss before does it grow as quickly as java typically?