Ishar's 20GH Planted tank

[ishar]

well another of my females has released her fry, so I have a bunch of wee tiny guys swimming around once again. The flower shrimp has not done much- he never really moves and I have yet to see him open his hands to eat. It sort of worries me, but not too much.

Other than that I have just gotten an ich outbreak, an need to wait until next monday in all likelihood to get a little tank to house my plants so I can do a salt treatment on my fish. This also worries me a lot- I don't want them to die on me from this disease

EDIT well I went looking for my flower shrimp but couldn't find him- I was worried he climbed out but not too much. Well I went to the bathroom and when I went to wash my hands some ugly thing was on the floor- my shrimp! He walked about 20 feet into the bathroom- thank God too because I doubt I would have found him otherwise. So I put him back in and other than some shrivelly antennae he looked ok. The I duct taped the hell out of the top of my tank LOL

 

[jen0910]

wow, thats impressive. I wouldnt think that they could travel far out of water. The last one that i had was very active, he would hang upside down on leaves and eat. Hopefully yours gets more active and doesnt escape again.

 

[ishar]

hehehe yeah, I wish he would to, but he died on me. He was moving when I put him back but I guess it was just too much for him .

 

[ishar]

Well so you know, I now have another disease outbreak . It is white and fuzzy and is quickly covering my gourami and I believe I see some on some guppies as well. This is very disheartening, as I have put quite a bit of money I don't have into my tank and now I fear all my fish are going to die .

I will not be replacing any more fish, so whatever lives will stay, but if they all die then I will just bee keeping a planted tank with no fish in it until December when I can trry to get birthday or christmas presents of fish/shrimp.

I will keep this posted on how my fish do.

 

[Helena21]

Aww that sucks.
Btw, i think you will need to add ammonia if there are no fish in the tank, to keep the filter "cycled". Not sure how the plants will cope with that though.
Keep us posted

 

[ishar]

oh yeah, that is a good call... I will have to buy a shrimp I guess. I like shrimps, so I will keep it stocked with some shrimp then if all fish die- thank you for the reminder

 

[ishar]

damn... apparently I lost my gourami . That sucks a lot. I don't know what else I may have lost as I am not at home right now but tomorrow I can give a better update.

 

[ishar]

OK- I lost my gourami and my colourful guppy male. I cannot find the body of the guppy, so unfortunately I assume it was eaten. The gourami body was removed for me, thankfully. I still have my many fry, as well as a new batch... so even though it sounds bad I am sort of glad that those fish died (although I wish it didn't have to be my two most beautiful fish! lol) as I have fry growing up so fast, soon I will be overstocked and won't know what do do.

On that topic, the two fry that were born between Oct. 18 and 22 are really maturing- I believe I can see one fry's anal fin growing pointed, indicating a male. And the newer batch grew a lot over the weekend, and all are going to have quite the fascinating dark colouring.

 

[Big Vine]

Sorry for the losses, but I'm glad to hear your fry are doing well.
Ever consider keeping only guppies as the main fish in this setup? You could keep some bottomdwellers and other community-type occupants as well, but I think it would be nice as primarily a guppy tank. Anyway, that's my two cents.

BV

 

[ishar]

Well that is exactly what I have- a guppy primary tank . I have a shrimp and the neons (5 of them) and then that's it. I liked the idea of a centerpiece though that's why I had a betta and then a gourami.

See, originally I wanted a tank that would repopulate itself and that way I didn't have to buy a lot of fish. Well all the fry kept getting eaten, so I wanted to fill up the tank a bit instead of looking at the same fish all the time . But then I added those jungle vals, and they fry have been surviving a lot- about 2 or 3 each batch of fry. So now it will stay as a guppy tank with some neon friends and a shrimp.

I wish I had a bigger tank though . 20G just isn't a whole lot of room

 

[ishar]

Update Nov. 21st, '07

Apparently my tank is quite the "interesting" tank... something is always happening... and not always good.

1) My blonde cobra male guppy has fin rot and I am unable to get any medicine for him and am not sure what else to do for him...

2) The male fry born around Oct. 20th is starting to show some iridescent colouring on his tail fin . That is very exciting for me! But I am scared as there is fin rot in the tank and I am afraid he will get it, and at such a young age I doubt that he would survive it for long.

3) The fry that were born on Oct. 31 are really starting to darken... well one is lol. I have two from that batch, and one is very, very bland so far. The other, however, is showing a very distinct purplish black colouring on it's rear half, and when it is spooked or eating the rest o fit goes very dark as well.

4) The Bacopa is doing quite well, and is starting to send root shoots down to anchor itself, and it is growing. The new anubias I bought is sending up a flower I think! There is a little white stem sort of thing going up with two tiny circular leaves on the end of it. It does not conform to the rest of the plant so I assume it to be a flower. My cabomba is not fairing so well though. It needs more light- all new growth keeps falling off, looking overly pale. What I originally put in the tank is doing fine enough, it is mostly the new growth that is having problems. My java fern and java moss are both doing very well, growing and looking good. My old anubias nana is growing well- it gained another new leaf . Finally, my jungle val is not doing so well. I believe it was Lotus who said it wold 'melt' with excel, and I fear they may be right . There are always holes in it, and some parts just die off and become mushy and very easy to break off. I guess I will be setting up a DIY CO2 soon enough .

 

[ishar]

Update Dec. 6, '07

Well I figured it was about time for an update. No pictures as nothing has really changed in looks except my Jungle vals keep getting shorter and shorter .

Well I think I will start with my yellow male guppy and his son. I quarantined them to a large mouthed vase (roughly a 1.5G vase with about a 10-11" tope diameter) with some gravel (for cycling purposes) and my big fern bunch and used some salt water, hoping to get rid of any fin rot that was on my adult male. However I started to notice some red, pointy threads coming out of the adult's anus. I then removed the fry back into the main tank and upped the salt dosage for the male. Then I realized these threads were a parasite called Camallanus... a very bad parasite that is very hard to kill save for use of one chemical which I don't really have access to. After about a week of increasing salt doses and with no improvement, I put him into a bowl of near frozen water and ended the suffering he must have been going through. I left the plants and gravel in the vase to allow the parasite larvae to die off in hopes of keeping it from spreading to the main tank (which it probably already has when I moved the fry back over )

I have been feeding the main tank garlic laced foods in hopes of fending off whatever worms might be in them right now, and hopefully that will be enough... hopefully.

The male fry is showing much more colour now- his tail is fully coloured and his body is starting to get that shine of his father . Some of the other fry are starting to show a lot of colouring as well- these ones are more of a blackish purple colouring. I also just got a new batch of fry, so I have a tonne of these little guys swimming around now .

As for plants, I have good and bad news. Bad first. My Cabomba is finally starting to really kick the bucket. It is starting to rot a bit and lose its leaves. I am leaving what is still green in, but whenever the stem starts rotting I just remove the whole plant. My jungle val is also not fairing well. I am going to stop dosing excel as seastarr88 pointed out excel can have detrimental effects on jungle val. I am going to stop for a month or two and see if it comes back and see if my other plants suffer and then make a decision.

Good news is my Bacopa is doing quite well . It is sending down roots nicely and quickly, and it is growing fairly quickly too . The Windelov is also doing quite well, making daughter plants all over the place. I have already planted three daughter plants, two were done today, but the third was a while ago and is growing very nicely. My Anubias (large version) is doing well enough I suppose- no change at all really. I lost the flower it was sending up though . The current in the area was too strong I think, it just kept bending and twisting until it broke . The Anubias nana is doing well though. I moved it into a more shady spot so that algae/diatoms will stop growing on its leaves and so it can grow better. But it is up to roughly 6-8 leaves of varying sizes, and is getting big enough to see the rhizome distinctly.

I replanted the big Windelov bunch that was in the vase today after dipping it and the gravel in the vase in some town water, then new water with a wee bit of bleach added, then soaking it in highly water conditionered water. Hopefully whatever beasties were still on the plant are gone and my main tank is still safe...

Again, hopefully...

 

[ishar]

Update: December 10, '07

Well time for another update on my birthday . I went to the LFS to treat myself to some fishy stuff .

I got two more amano shrimp to join the one I already have. One was pretty small, so I am looking forward to watching it grow up .

I also picked up some Rotala Indica... it is quite red coloured, and I am not sure how it will do in my one bulbed tank. However I am really hoping for another light strip for Christmas, so hopefully it can just hold out until then .

My bacopa is growing explosively . It has two stems over the water surface, and the other two are not far behind. One of them is sending up a new plant as well .

I also came out with some silicon and airline tubing- DIY CO2 time. If anyone has any pointers to send my way PLEASE feel free to do so. I am sort of worried that there might be problems associated with it but I don't know. My bottle is all set up- I am going to let the silicon sit for the night and most of the day tomorrow and then I will put in the yeast. I also sealed a piece of a 2L pop bottle to my HOB filter outlet to lessen the flow impact on my plants below. I did not like the idea of the water not being filtered and having no bubbles in my tank over night so I set up a small fan in front of the filter and had it on a low setting- it dried up pretty quick. I had it there for about 4 hours so I am hoping that it will be ok. I am not looking for a seal but more just a glue

As for the other inhabitants, nothing really has changed. I got some spirulina discs today but my fish didn't really like them much nor did my shrimp. I will keep dropping one in a day and then vacuuming it out if it doesn't get eaten and see what happens.

 

[Helena21]

Happy birthday!!

 

[ishar]

hehehe thank you!

 

[ishar]

Update: December 18, '07

Well there isn't too much to say. My bacopa is loving the tank, sending four new stems off of the original, and already having grown roughly 2 inches. My rotala indica is also growing really well. I was worried it would not do well in my tank, but it has also grown about 2 inches, so I think it will be ok. I pulled out my Cabomba finally lol. I knew it was dying for a month or so but I still liked how it looked . Since starting the DIY CO2 my jungle val. seems to be getting better. No growth yet, but a lot less death, so that's a good sign. Thank you seastarr88 for the advice I should have taken the first time .

My shrimp are finally being friendly to each other (the two new ones were always hiding and the original one was always out and about). I have two females and one male now, as it turns out, and they spend all day every day (except for the male) underneath the leaves of my anubias. They just lay together in the shade all day. Kind of cool . My little male guppy fry is really getting his colouring and he looks awesome .

I am increasingly more and more interested in the plants and shrimp rather than the fish in the tank lol. Whenever I sit and look at my tank (which is really quite often) I end up looking at the plants (what is to look at I am not sure, but I do) and the shrimp. I look at the neons as well, but not so much. Same as the new male. I look at him but not that much. I don't know... I just really like the plants lol.

 

[Big Vine]

Definitely sounds like you're getting a lot of enjoyment out of it---that's great! *thumbsups
BV

 

[ishar]

hahaha yeah I am . I am basically using this post as like a journal (obviously) so I apologize for the lack of pictures and interesting posts lol.

 

[ishar]

Update January 6, '08

Well I finally got to Big Al's, my LFS, to use my Christmas money .

I grabbed a KH/GH test kit (both tests in one package type deal), a piece of Malaysian Driftwood, Flourite Dark, a glass top, and a T50 dual light strip. I am so happy right now! I went for the T50s because I have heard so many good things from people on this forum, so I figured I should jump on the bandwagon .

I think it was Lotus who said changing substrate is a pain... well... unfortunately for me, she was right . It took me 4.5 hours to wash the substrate, take out the old stuff, take out the fish, shrimp and plants, scrub the wood, refill the tank, and finally put the plants and animals back in (Not in that order though... in case you were wondering). For fear of my tank uncycling, I left water in my filter to keep the bacteria alive (hopefully), and I used some of the old gravel and put it in a breeder trap to help make sure the cycle is still intact.

I ended up getting rid of a lot of my jungle val, as the roots were in rough shape. They all had brown rotted roots among the live white roots, so I got rid of what brown I could and put them back into my tank, where the ones that were too far gone I just removed altogether.

I discovered some things about my plants though that I thought I would share. For starters, the most interesting to me was that even though m vals kept dying off, they were all in the process of or had already sent out runners... doesn't make any sense to me... Secondly, my Bacopa surprised the crap out of me! When I went to put it out I found a hugely dense root system underneath them! I had no idea it would do this but when I went to pull it out it was like pulling out an eye tooth or something! I couldn't believe it hahaha. Thirdly, my rotala indica looks like three different plants on one stem lol. I bought it as a pinkish plant with normally spread apart leaves. Then it grew in my tank about 2-3 inches of green, rounded leaves, then where it reached the top it grew across, with very pink, pointed, and densely grown leaves lol. Pretty interesting.

Changing the substrate was a royal P.I.T.A. though, but I think it was worth it. The dark colour alone looks a lot better than the lighter brown did, and I think my plants will love it . The new light strip looks really good too- it came with Colormax Full-Spectrum and a 6700K Plant Lamp bulbs, and the full spectrum gives off that bluish light that always makes all of your tanks look so professional and good lol. Now I have three bulbs- two at 14W, and the other is unknown, but it assumed to also be 14W, I currently have 2.1WPG, so I am very happy with that .

Anyways, I have avoided clouding my tank too much, but I think it might be too cloudy for a picture. I will take one tomorrow when I buy some batteries for my digital camera rather than my laptop . If anyone wants to know exactly how a changed the substrate or anything else about my experience switching my tank over like this ask anything and I will answer you . I will be monitoring my p-rams every day so if anything goes haywire I'll know it and post it .

PS: I changed my mind- I will give one laptop pic to try to give you an idea of what the tank looks like, but I will still be giving a more omprehensive picture set with my digicam.

I tried to give a slope towards the back but as I aquascaped that went away. However, the back right corner remains high as planned. You can see the rotala indica peaking out in the back right corner behind the wood.

 

[ishar]

ok... well I am worried, but I will wait until tomorrow to do anything as it is 1 am and I have class at 8:30 am tomorrow lol.

Anyways, I think my tank is recycling now due to swapping out th gravel- now I wish I would have placed more of the old gravel in the tank. I thought I would be ok with the dual layered filter (one never gets changed so it cultures cycling bacteria) and with old gravel, but here are the results of my water tests:

amo: 0.5
trite: 0.25
trate: 5

Since I have nitrites still I figure that the cycle is moving along quickly, so I shouldn't have much of a problem? I will check again when I get home from class, and depending on what I see will do a water change.

On a separate note, I did two other tests:

GH: 12
KH: 6

Are these acceptable values for a planted community tank? It is the water that comes from my tap from city water, and the GH seems high to me but I don't know... the booklet in the test package said that a saltwater tank should have this GH lol. What do I do to reduce it if it is too high? And could this be why some of my plants seem to die off (like my vals and my bacopa is starting too as well)?