[pianofish]

Nerites ordered along with some C. Nevillii to go in between my granite slope!
Also ordered several varieties of fish flakes from Angels plus. I got the deworming kind, protozoan kind, immunity booster kind and then a couple of high quality protein mixes for a good "quarantine" of sorts.

I also ordered 14 dwarf rasboras to ship in 2 weeks. I reckon my cycle will be finishing by then, if not then I will do a water change or 2 everyday until it does finish. These fish are Tiny so I don't think they will rock the system too hard.
What do you think?
Thanks,
Pianofish

 

[Coltonorr]

Nice! Going to be a crypt jungle in there once they all fill in!

 

[Aquatic Delight]

I am digging that tank man . but i have to ask why are you leaving the mii oya and the afinnis in the pot?

 

[pianofish]

Nice! Going to be a crypt jungle in there once they all fill in!

Thanks man! I think it'll be pretty cool in a few months once its all grown in!

I am digging that tank man . but i have to ask why are you leaving the mii oya and the afinnis in the pot?

Thanks man! I'ts in the pot mainly because I don't have my hardscape is finished yet. I have some Driftwood coming in this week and I want to get everything arranged before adding in any extra plants. It's mii oya in the pot though. All the affinis is planted.



So a quick update. I had a very small ich outbreak in the tank, mostly due to the fact that I was still cycling the tank when I added a few LFS fish -> quickest route to sickness. So I've been treating the tank with maracide over the past 6 days and will continue to do so. I shut down my co2 and lowered my lighting period and stopped dosing however, but now that the initial outbreak is over, I think that I'm going to start adding the co2 back with the fertz. I took out the granite while dosing the tank, as granite is a very porous rock and readily absorbs liquids. I will dip them in vinegar to disinfect, and then soak them in plain water for a few days to allow any of the vinegar residue to soak out. So hopefully when its all said and done, in about 2 weeks, I should have my tank scape (which was largely already finished) back into place with some added driftwood.

I also have my order of 14X dwarf emerald rasboras coming in this week hopefully! I have my quarantine tank all primed and ready to go (10 gallon).

I also swapped my bulbs out for a geisseman mid day and aquaflora bulbs. They look pretty sweet and balance out alot nicer than my other ones.

I'm also in the process of starting an outdoor fish basin. My Dad's birthday is coming up in June and my mom isn't too keen on him having a fish tank indoors, so I thought that I would give him the next best thing. I bought two beautiful glazed pots, one probably about 10-15 gallons and another probably about 1 gallon and plan on sealing them both a then putting MTS and a sand/gravel mixture substrate with all the crypts in the unattractive pots that are currently in my tank as an experiment to see how they will fair out doors. Eventually I will put some Louisiana native sailfin mollies in there as they can bear the heat. The little one gallon will sit on the the rim of the larger bowl and have water pummped into it for a water fall/oxygenating effect. I will also put a sponge filter/air pump style in the little pot for filtration as well as further oxygenation.

Finals are coming up though so wish me luck!

~Joshua

 

[pianofish]

Time for an update!

Fish are here!!!
All 16 of my little wittle bittie emerald dwarf rasboras are here! They are soo tiny only about .75 cm long, but out of the 14 i bought, 16 survived so not too shabby! Thanks to Dennis from Ball Aquatics.

I also moved several of the planted pots and jars over to the quarantine tank to provide some cover for the little guys, talk about they get spooked real easy. Now time for some deworming/ deprotozoan/ healthifying these little guys for the next 4 weeks.

I put all of the rocks back into place and fix the tank up nice. So really besides a few DW sticks coming from the back corner, the only other thing that I want to do with the scape is add several pots of C. parva as a carpet along the front and right sides. And then add some anubias nana petite in some of the rock crevices. But for the most part things just need some time to grow in.

Everything has been going really well with the tank lately, plants are pearling from my DIY co2 that is injected into my cerges reactor. I still have micro bubbles everywhere, but that doesn't bother me. I've been dosing EI style and doing WChanges once or twice a week.

Ich has completely gone away thanks to maracide! And I added nerites back to the tank. I took them out and put them in a planted jar inside of a ziploc bag on the side of the tank while treating them as maracide can potentially have bad effects on snails. They survived in a jar for 7 days just fine!

I'm really thinking about getting some Hara Jerdoni for the tank like maybe 4-5 of them and then 7-8 rosy loaches. Both of them would work with my Asian biotope look.

Bringing the fauna up to:
16 - Dwarf Emerald Rasbora's (babies right now)
5 - Hara Jerdoni (hopefully for my birthday in May)
7-8 Rosy Loaches (hopefully for my birthday in May)

What do you think?

Pics!

FTS


C. Affinis "Metallic Red"


True Dwarf Sag


Either Ludwigia Repens x Ludwigia Arcuata or Rotala Macrandra variation.
Its kinda cool, you can see the transition period from the old tank to my tank by the green on the stem.



Drop Checker is all good!





Who doesn't like overhead pics?
C. Nurii "pahang mutated"









My little Dwarf Emerald Rasboras!


FTS

 

[merritt1985]

Love the last pic, looks really good. I've got 12 Rosy Loaches and love them there all over the place and not shy at all.

 

[Dien16]

Whats the plant in the front left the tall leaf ones

 

[pianofish]

Love the last pic, looks really good. I've got 12 Rosy Loaches and love them there all over the place and not shy at all.

Thanks man, I was wondering about how they would act in a tank. I'm debating on if I want more hara Jerdoni (mini catfishes) or the rosy's I may just do like 8 of each. If all I have are those two and the dwarf rasboras I think it'll look real sweet and that won't push my tank limits too much. Then in several months after the tank matures, I'll add a pair of gobies.

Whats the plant in the front left the tall leaf ones

Thats some Cryptocoryne Ballansae on the very left and a few Cryptocoryne Retrospiralis as you get closer to the leafy stems. Its quite the cool plant, gets very long and leafy and has a nice texture.

 

[merritt1985]

I'd vote rosys they are awesome little fish to be so tiny. Plus there in season right now seems like everyone has them couldn't find the at all a month ago

 

[pianofish]

I'd vote rosys they are awesome little fish to be so tiny. Plus there in season right now seems like everyone has them couldn't find the at all a month ago

I vote them too haha.
I just sent my order in to Ms. Rachel (Msjinkzd) and if all goes well I should be having:

9 hara jerdoni's
9 rosy loaches
3 amano shrimp
8 ottos

all coming in the mail for this Wednesday!

Since I don't have any fish that I plan on keeping currently in this tank, I will just put the new fish into the main tank directly. I don't mind treating the whole tank as its only 20 gallons if I have to. Msjinkzd does an extensive quarantine with all of her fish and I will monitor them closely in the tank.

I think though that I will still quarantine the emeralds in the 10 gallon for a few more weeks being that they are so tiny, I want to fatten them up first before plopping them in the 20 gallon with all the other fishes.

And I decided that I will wait quite a while for this tank to mature before adding any gobies to the tank. I'll see how I like these fish and I may just end up having these 4 schoals which is quite alright with me.

Plants are all growing well and I haven't had any big problems yet.

 

[Chaoslord]

Looking good.

Hara jerdoni was my favorite cat. I didn't know mszinkzd had them. I might have to get them again.

 

[pianofish]

Looking good.

Hara jerdoni was my favorite cat. I didn't know mszinkzd had them. I might have to get them again.

Well I ended up getting cory habrosus instead of hara's, but thats A okay with me! I'm super pumped!

Time for a few new Updates!!

I am now the proud owner of
13 rosy loaches
12 cory habrosus
8 ottos
3 Dario Hysginon
8 amano shrimp
16 danio erythromicron

Thanks Msjinkzd!!!!!!

Plans are to have in the 20 gallon:
13 rosy loaches
12 cory habrosus
4 amanos
16 danio erythromicron
9 nerite snails

In the 10 gallon:
4 amano shrimp
3 Dario Hysginon
8 ottos



I plan on trying my hand at breeding the darios over the summer Eventually it would be cool to have a few breeding trios in there.

For now though I have everything from my most recent batch of orders in my 10 gallon for quarantine:
8 cory's
9 rosys
6 ottos
4 amanos
3 dario hysginon

I'll probably wait a couple of weeks before I add everything to each tank. Mostly because I have a lot of aquascaping to do with the 20 gallon.

I've been thinking that I don't really like the large rock formation all that much. Its very closed off and most of the fish liked to hide behind it.
This coupled with the fact that I have a box full of great manzanita from Tom Barr. So i've been working on a few scapes and would like some opinions. I would like to go for something with more long term pleasing natural look. So i've been thinking that a sort of sloped branchy hill will look pretty cool with some of my smaller bits of granite pressed closeby. Here are a few examples:

1st scape


2nd scape


3rd scape


4th scape


4th scape variation


Which do you like best?? My favorite is scape 4 and its variation. I was thinking something like that one with maybe a few branches pressed into the sand to look like roots, and some moss on the tips of the branches and buces all along the base.

I would put it starting to the left side going to the right as shown in the pics.



I am also going to replant everything in the front to accomodate the new scape when I put it in. That way I don't have to tailor the hardscape just for the plants placement.

I'm going to keep playing with the scapes for now and see if I can come up with something truly spectacular.

 

[pianofish]

Here are a few pictures of the fish.

Rosy's in the 10 gallon


Sneaky Dario Hysginon


Rosy posin' in the 20 gallon


Everyone having fun in the 10 gallon


One of the bigger rosy's


Male Dario lookin all swoll


FTS


Left


Right




In the left picture you can really see the sloping effect going on in the tank! I plan on using this to my advantage with my scape setup! I'm super pumped to put this all together. Please give me feedback on this leg of my fish tank journey!!

 

[crazydaz]

Looks like a really great start, and it's encouraging to see all the crypts doing well!! Nice work!

In terms of hardscape, I would express a little concern about adding too much. Yes, the wood is from The Great Barr, but he would certainly agree that sometimes "less is more." I wouldn't put all of those branches in there; you will create an eyesore and draw attention away from the crypts. Hardscape should compliment the tank, not demand attention. Besides, taking a few branches out will give the buce's more room to grow and make it look more natural.

Of course, it is difficult to really comment with much certainty until I see the wood next to, or in front of, the tank for perspective. "Branchy-er" is the best way to go, and I would probably start on the left and trail it off to the right.

My two cents, at least.

 

[pianofish]

Looks like a really great start, and it's encouraging to see all the crypts doing well!! Nice work!

In terms of hardscape, I would express a little concern about adding too much. Yes, the wood is from The Great Barr, but he would certainly agree that sometimes "less is more." I wouldn't put all of those branches in there; you will create an eyesore and draw attention away from the crypts. Hardscape should compliment the tank, not demand attention. Besides, taking a few branches out will give the buce's more room to grow and make it look more natural.

Of course, it is difficult to really comment with much certainty until I see the wood next to, or in front of, the tank for perspective. "Branchy-er" is the best way to go, and I would probably start on the left and trail it off to the right.

My two cents, at least.

So I really have been thinking about what you said about making it more branchier and less piling. I've also read one of amano's articles about driftwood placement and have been really researching different styles of dw placement. And without further ado here is what I've come up with. I'm really happy with it and I think that I'll really enjoy planting with it and be able to really enjoy it for years to come. I boiled the wood pieces and should be putting it all together next week sometime!

I also made a sketch with my vision for the future when it grows out. Its all I could do to superimpose the wood in relation with the tank.








So as a description for the sketch.

Everything outlined is a piece of hardscape.
Essentially , I plan on pulling out everything in the front of the tank except for the Crypt Affinis 'Metallic Red'. Other than that, I plan on replanting most of the plants around this hardscape to make it look more natural and create that "nature just took over" look The stems in the back middle are Hygro corymbosa and Hygro sp "brown". All along the middle DW branch will be Buce. Lamandau purple. Behind that will be Buce. Golden Bell. And behind that forming the bush infront of the stems will be Buce. Bukit Betung.

All of my buces are putting out baby plantlets so I should be able to get a good start on the placement.

My buce inspiration:

Credit to Ragn4rok, (I'll take down the pic if you don't want me to have it posted here.)

Lastly, on the tips of the DW, i plan on trying out different species of moss. Maybe fissidens on the bare right two in the sketch.

Lemme know what you think,
Cheers!!!

 

[pianofish]

Fish List:

12 Rosy Loaches
12 Cory Habrosus
17 Danio Ethyromicron
4 Amano shrimp
7 Nerite Snails

I just want to say that I love Rosy Loaches and Cory Habrosus!!!! Definitely some of the coolest fish I've ever ran across!

 

[johnson18]

Oh man, how did I miss this?!? Looking good! I like your drawing of what you would like the grown in tank.

 

[crazydaz]

Looks like a nice plan, Joshua. Fissidens is a beautiful moss, and would add a nice, soft touch after it takes. I hate the idea of you ripping up all of the crypts and starting over, but it'll be worth it in the long run. Just watch your algae.....many tanks can get crapped out following a major makeover!

 

[pianofish]

Yeah man, ill make sure to change out my co2 and reduce the photo period just a hair to accommodate the plant growth stunt. I'm really excited though to actually be able to do this rescape. I'm seeing great results with my tank so far and I think that this will really add a fresh element to it. I've never had a tank suitable for mosses and buces before so I'm really looking forward to the challenge.
I'm also ready to get all of my fish out of quarantine an into my tanks. They are all in a tiny 10 gallon that I do weekly water change on. But it's so sad seeing so many fish in such a tiny place, haha.

The date for the rescape is Thursday! So wish me luck!!

 

[sumer]

I have always wanted to make a crypt tank.
Wonderful tank there