[Mattymo92]

Hi all,

I wanted to share my newest adventure in aquascaping/ fish and plant keeping! I would love hear any of your thoughts on aesthetics, scaping, stocking, etc.

Established: 12/05/15

PARAMETERS:

Ammonia: 0-0.25 PPM
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 5-10 PPM
PH: 7.0
GH: 9
KH: 2
(Measured with API liquid master test kit)

Water Changes: Bi-weekly 5 gallon water changes using a mix of RO water and tap water using Seachem Prime (tap has 0.25 PPM Amonia, zero nitrite or nitrate, and a PH of 9... Can't remember the hardness offhand but the stuff is liquid rock... I assume it's because of all the limestone in Austin, TX)

Temperature: 78 F / 25.55 C

HARDWARE:

Tank: Aqueon 36 gallon bowfront

Hood: Homemade with Acrylic and Silicon

Lighting: Finnex 24/7 Planted + 30"

Filtration: Aquaclear 70 -- filter media (bottom to top) - very course foam over filter intake, normal stock course white foam block, medium courseness filter floss pad, fine blue bonded filter floss pad, extra fine filter floss pad, 100 micron felt, ceramic bio media, Purigen, extra layer of 100 micron felt.

Heater: Aqueon 150 Watts

AQUASCAPE:

Substrate: normal red Fluorite with beach of black Fluorite sand in the middle.

Hardscape: Driftwood

FERTILIZERS AND SUPPLEMENTS:

Fertilizer: Flourish Tabs (as needed), Flourish Comprehensive (1x a week), Flourish Iron (1x a week or as needed), Flourish Potassium (1x a week or as needed), Flourish Phosphate (1x a week or as needed), Flourish Nitogen (as needed), Flourish Excel (every other day), Flourish Trace (2x a week)

Other Supplements: Seachem Prime, Seachem Stability, Tetra Safe Start (used both BB supplements during cycle... Stability got me to the zero ammonia and high nitrite within 3 days but then seemed to get stuck for about 8 days, but then added Tetra Safe Start and that got me over the hump... The next day Nitrite was almost gone, and the day following the tank was completely cycled).

INHABITANTS:

Flora (current):
- Crypt Wendtii
- Kleiner Bar Sword
- Rotala Indica
- Rotala Nanjenshan
- Red Rubin Sword
- Microsword
- Christmas moss
- Ludwigia repens

Fauna (current):
- 2 (1M/1F) Killifish (Nothobranchius Palmqvisti)
- 2 Albino Cory Cats
- 3 Panda Cory Cats
- 3 Gold Tetras
- 5 Celestial Pearl Danios
- 3 Emerald Microrasboras
- 1 Tiger Blood Nerite Snail
- 1 Zebra Nerite Snail
- 1 Horned Nerite Snail
- 2 Amano Shrimp
- 16 Red Cherry Shrimp
- 1 Orange Shrimp

Fauna to be added (maybe):
- 3 Caridina Shrimp (not sure what type yet)

FEEDING:

Frequency: 1 small feeding daily

Schedule:
Monday - New Life Spectrum Community Fish 1 mm sinking pellets (a few crushed to powder for smaller fish)
Tuesday - Omega One sinking Shrimp Pellets
Wednesday - New Life Spectrum Community Fish 1 mm sinking pellets (a few crushed to powder for smaller fish)
Thursday - 1/3 cube of San Francisco Bay Brand Frozen food ( I have the freshwater multipack - FW Frenzy, Emerald Entree, Spirulina Brine Shrimp, Bloodworms... I just rotate each week)
Friday - New Life Spectrum Community Fish 1 mm sinking pellets (a few crushed to powder for smaller fish)
Saturday - Omega One sinking Veggie Rounds
Sunday - New Life Spectrum Community Fish 1 mm sinking pellets (a few crushed to powder for smaller fish)

Occasional Treat: Zoo Med Betta Dial-A-Treat (freeze dried bloodworms, mysis, and daphnia)

Below pics are from 12/29/15

View attachment 565137

Let me know your thoughts!!!

Thanks!
Matt M.

 

[Mattymo92]

Sunrise

View attachment 565521

Bump: Moonlight (about 9 pm)

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Bump: View attachment 565537

 

[Mattymo92]

Getting some red growth in the Kleiner Bar Swords. When should I trim off the leaves from its emersed growth?

View attachment 565545

 

[Mattymo92]

Baby Kleiner Bar Swords that I pulled off the runner... Much darker than the parent plant because I had them on the tip top of the driftwood by the surface and closest to the light.

View attachment 565577

Bump: There is some funky fuzz all over my driftwood... I'm hoping when j get shrimp they will much in it... My nerites and Corys appear to occasionally do so as well.

View attachment 565585

 

[Mattymo92]

Rotala... It's only been in the tank for about 5 days but once it is more established and rooted I plan to trim it down about half the current height... Any tips on getting it to grow nice and bushy? I'm new to this plant.

View attachment 565601

Bump: Crypt Wendtiis

View attachment 565609

 

[Mattymo92]

My Red Rubin Sword showing some great growth!

View attachment 565625

Bump: Where the baby Kleiner Bar Swords used to reside

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[Mattymo92]

View from my bed before I turn the light off for the night.

View attachment 565641

 

[Mattymo92]

Update:
Added another species of rotala, some microsword, and Christmas Moss... As well as a horned Nerite and an Emerald View attachment 567521

 

[Mattymo92]

View attachment 567529

Bump: View attachment 567537

 

[Mattymo92]

Got some new little friends! 4 RCS, one orange, and 2 Amano shrimp... I plan to get a few more orange and a few more RCS soon. Would love to get a breeding population. Any tips?
View attachment 567993

 

[Mattymo92]

About an hour ago I noticed one of my panda Corys laying sideways/ upside down gasping... He had been just fine earlier in the day and the only things I could think of that i had done recently was add a few new tankmates ( 1 horned Nerite and 1 Emerald microrasbora yesterday and then 7 shrimp today) as well as add some excel about 2.5 hours ago ( 3/4 cap in my 36 gallon tank).... My first thought was maybe it was CO2 poisoning... I probably shouldn't have dosed excel so late in the day... Seemed odd that only one fish was reacting though.. I quickly netted the fish and kept him close to the surface while I did a quick water change... I noticed then that he had a few little red marks... Almost like scratches under the scales. I tested my water and immediately started reading for clues online and left him up near the surface in the net hoping for a recovery... Tests showed 0 Ammonia, 0 nitrite, 5-10 nitrate. Every time I checked on him the redness seemed to have spread further and intensified... Once an hour had passed he looked as he does in the photo below and was gone... What could have caused this? Could it be Hemmoragic Septicemia like I am thinking from what I found online??? Could it really progress that quickly?

Also, I am heading out of town for a week on Tuesday. Would it be wise to dose the tank with some antibiotics before leaving? If so, please recommend one that is safe for all my fish, snails, shrimp, and plants if you don't mind.

View attachment 568089

Thank you for any help or advice you can offer.

- Matt M.

 

[Mattymo92]

Hi everyone!

Any thoughts on the tank? Good or bad, would love to hear it!

Thanks,
Matt M.

 

[ottomotto]

Tank looks good!

 

[jameshill247]

Tank is looking very good! I would add some sheets of Moss on mesh in the patch in the middle.

in terms of the shrimp population... you will find that the RCS and the Orange are both Neos and will interbreed which could lead to natural colour rather than red or orange.

so long as you have both male and female then you should have no problem with them breeding. If the Beta catches them then they will probably be killed, with plenty of hiding places then once established you can afford to lose some of the slow ones.

If you go over to the Shrimp section of this forum then there is loads of information to read.

 

[Mattymo92]

Tank looks good!

Tank is looking very good! I would add some sheets of Moss on mesh in the patch in the middle.

in terms of the shrimp population... you will find that the RCS and the Orange are both Neos and will interbreed which could lead to natural colour rather than red or orange.

so long as you have both male and female then you should have no problem with them breeding. If the Beta catches them then they will probably be killed, with plenty of hiding places then once established you can afford to lose some of the slow ones.

If you go over to the Shrimp section of this forum then there is loads of information to read.

Thanks for the feedback!

Also, I appreciate the heads up on the orange and red neo interbreeding issue. I googled it afterword, and I'm very surprised that the colors revert back to wild form... I wonder why that is?

I wonder why it wouldn't be how it is with mammals (dogs for instance) where they either take on one of the parents' colors or a combo of both? I know we're getting into genetics here now but if anyone knows the answer to this please post!

I think I may move the orange neo over to my 2.6 gallon that I'm setting up as a quarantine tank... I haven't ever needed to use copper based meds yet so I'm sure she would be fine there most of the time at least.

Thanks,
Matt M.

 

[Mattymo92]

Update: Went out of town to visit my family for a week and had a friend feed (pre-bagged amounts everyothher day) and finish out an antibiotic treatment, but unfortunately came back to having two dead fish... Lost my Betta that I have had for he past year and a half as well as my Celestial Pearl Danio Unknown cause but I hope it wasn't what I was treating the tank for (Hemmoragic Septicemia).

On a positive note, I added 12 more RCS.. I have a few that look to be "painted fire red" quality! I probably have 4 or 5 hat are berries including one of the painted!

I also decided that I will set up my 2.6 gallon to move my orange pumpkin shrimp to so that she and the male RCS don't interbreed and create wild color shrimp. I will get her a few orange pumpkin shrimp friends as well and just make it a nice ash low light set up with lots of moss and Java fern.

I may play around with getting some photos and video underwater using my GoPro, so when I do I will put those up.

- Matt M.

 

[Mattymo92]

Today I had the hood off my tank when adding a few more Emerald Microrasboras and another Panda Cory one of my RCS was up near the surface showing off her eggs so I snapped a few pics and vids for y'all! Check it out!

View attachment 575737

 

[Mattymo92]

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[Mattymo92]

https://vimeo.com/151983127