Ishar's 20GH Planted tank

[ishar]

well, today I euthanized a bunch more guppies... I never realized just how many I had!!

12 the first day, 28 more today! 40 guppies! and I still have upwards of 15 in my tank right now :S. So I guess it is understandable that they would at all the food :S.

I am amazed at how many guppies were in my tank.. but I am sad at what I had to do .

 

[emmanuelchavez]

Have you tried using craigslist to give away some of your guppies??

That's how I got rid of mine. Within 30 minutes of putting up the add, I had about 10 emails asking for the guppies.... not to mention many more after that.

craigslist: hamilton-burlington classifieds for jobs, apartments, personals, for sale, services, community, and events

You've done an awesome job in providing many hiding places for your fry, I wouldn't be surprised if you find many more!


Have you tried the "distraction" approach for your guppies? Throw in the sinking pellets, and then sprinkle some food at the top and hope the guppies are distracted enough to not notice. That's how I get my betta to eat, distract the white clouds with some shrimp pellets, and then add the food for the betta while they're at the bottom.

 

[ishar]

thanks man. Well yes, I have tried feeding different things at different times, but nothing seems to work in getting the GBR to eat- I think he is still getting used to his new place. They are shy fish, so I think he might have just been nervous with all the activity around him. I saw him eat a few pieces of flake today, so that is good.

I haven't thought about craigslist, because it would be unfair to who I am giving them away to. These guppies' growth is stunted and the coloration in some of them is quite bland. I don't feel right giving somebody a fish that isn't ever going to turn out the way they might have hoped. Thanks though- I will be keeping that bookmark for future reference though .

I didn't realize just how overstocked my tank was until today. A total of 40 guppies killed in two hunts?? That's ridiculous!! This is a 20G tank! I don't know. In the beginning I was worried I'd never have any survive..... now I have more than I ever thought possible lol. I take it as lessons learned: one being that live bearers are not a good idea in a heavily planted tank without any predators, the second being to LISTEN TO MISSFISHY THE FIRST TIME!! hahahahaha. She warned me a long time ago but I just didn't believe her .

Anyways, in a month or so, as long as my GBR starts to eat, I am going to either add another GBR (hopefully a female) or add some more neons- but we'll see how that goes.

 

[MissFishy]

Thanks for the kudos Ishar.

However, I'm not sure killing guppies is the most moral and logical thing to do. Please make an effort to call all the LFS's in your area and see if they will take them or do as was suggested and post an ad on craigslist. It's free and easy and I'm sure someone will be interested in them. Not to get all ethical on you...but Remember, every little fish you're killing is a healthy little life that doesn't get a chance to live at all.

And for heavens sake, please start keeping one sex of guppy!

 

[ishar]

hahaha I am trying to get only males- that was the original purpose of this exercise until I realized how bad this whole thing was.

I know this was not the ethical thing to do, and I do feel sorta bad about it. But I sort of felt it needed to be done. If I give them away and they breed then I would be weakening the guppy strain and dulling the colours down the road for other people (not a strong reason but it crossed my mind). There is also the possibility of there still being dormant camellanus in my fish that didn't get eradicated during medication earlier.

I don't know. Maybe I should have tried to give them away. But I just thought the safest thing to do for the people (meaning not for the fish) was to just cut my losses...

 

[emmanuelchavez]

Many people don't care if there's anything wrong with the fish, they just want free fish.



I see posts from time to time about people advertising how they WANT free fish, regardless of what they are.


I was lucky enough to have someone let me know they have a cycled tank, and would take my guppies.

 

[Big Vine]

Culling deformed fish and other inferior specimens should be an integral part of anyone's breeding program. Failing to do so only perpetuates the extent to which sickly/genetically-inferior fish are present in the hobby, which does aquarists no favors.

BV

 

[MissFishy]

Yes, but killing off innocent healthy fish simply because you were negligent in breeding too many is cruel IMO. There are lots of people/places to put them if you're ever in that situation.

 

[ishar]

Update April 20, '08

Alright, well I was avoiding changing the subject but it seems that the subject is done... lol.

I am doing a major pruning and will edit this post with before and after pictures... you won't be able to see why I am trimming just how much I trim.

I am having major problems with my tank and I think it is time to do something to fix it. These problems include the rotala, the java fern Windelov, and the val, the glosso and the anubias LOL. The only things growing healthy and problem free are the java fern, bacopa stems I kept that were an inch long or less (and are now over 8 at the tallest) and the hairgrass which is spreading nicely.

Rotala: the stems are going black near the top and sort of rotting... I don't know, but I do know that the stems go black and sever and then the blackness creeps down the stem. My guess is it is residual damage from the huge photo period I gave it over my spring break... So I am going to trim it sort of drastically from top and bottom, and try and give it a new healthy start as well as keep some clippings and try to make the bunch and little thicker and have it grow uniformly together.

Windelov: There is no real problem here, but just that there are many leaves with browning tips, and some algae on the bigger leaves. I have many, many new plants growing and I will be doing my best not to trim any of the plants with baby ones on it, but just the lonely ones .

Oh, and a note on my windelov: I have this awesome looking bunch growing on the big piece of driftwood! It is something you would go to the LFS for and buy in a pot! It is great. Too bad it is in the bloody back and you can't see it!!!!!! lol My stupidity strikes once again.

Val: It is growing well and finally(!!!!!) filling out and growing like it should. I am pretty tempted not to trim it due to me waiting so bloody long for it to fill in, but there are many really tall blades that have a LOT of algae on them and I feel like if I am going to kick this algae and also to let the smaller leaves grow in I am going to need to trim. By trim for the vals I mean remove the taller ones with all the algae all together... if experience has taught me anything it is that a shortly cut val leaf does not spring back lol. But I may do it anyways and just keep an eye on it and make sure no rotting happens.

Glosso: unforunately there is nothing I can do, but most the the cuttings I made months ago or whenever I did it are not growing. They are either very slowly dying or just sitting there as a little two leaf stand alone plant. Only recently have I had any of the start to spread .

anubias: oh man . The leaves are yellowing and they have some type of algae all over them. It makes me really sad. I think it is just that thy are getting too much light, but I don't know how I can shade them out much at all right now...

So I am going to go trim and such in the next few hours, so if you think anything I said is a bad idea please (!!!!) tell me and I will adjust my plan.

 

[Lotus]

Trim away. It grows back, just like a bad haircut

If you need to trim vals and java ferns, it's better to remove the whole leaf.

Are you dosing extra iron in the tank? You might want to do that.

 

[ishar]

yeah I was planning on removing whole leaves from both .

No I am not dosing Iron... I was trying to save my money on this tank and I thought Flourite would be a good enough iron supplement. If I grab some liquid iron fert you think it would help my algae problems?

 

[Lotus]

I've found iron really helps if you have hair algae. I'm not sure exactly what algae you have.

Unfortunately, Flourish doesn't really have quite enough iron in it for higher light tanks. I use a dry form of chelated iron, which is cheap, but I'd rather use Flourish iron. I'm not sure why, I just like it better.

 

[ishar]

yeah that is what I have I think- this fuzzy, light to dark green little strands. I added a powerhead because I felt it might have been caused by a lack of water circulation, but it has only been in for a few days so no change has happened yet if it even will.

Well since I have the time I might as well go down to my LFS right now and pick up some Flourish iron. I will start dosing it the weekly dose amount split between the seven days of the week for daily fertilization.

Anyways, I forgot to get a before picture, but nothing really changed form the last one I gave, but here are a few of the tank and of the trimmings.

A note on the anubias: the leaves had rotten away where the stem met the rhizome. Not sure what that means... other than it was dead/very close to it and I removed two leaves.
A note on the windelov: on the small piece of driftwood, two of the 'adult' leaves were growing a whole string of plantlets up the whole length and one of them has one on each finger at the end! The one without the ones on the fingers has the plantlet's roots already attached to the driftwood, so I am going to wait until the babies fully mature and the adult leaf dies off. The other one I added a lead weight to it to weigh it down and allow the plantlets to attach themselves. I am pretty excited about that .

I wanted to show you how wide some of the 'fingers' on my windelov can et- that one is about 3" wide and is by far not the biggest I have had in my tank .

Anyways I am off to the LFS for some iron. Be back in a few hours .

 

[ishar]

Well another update today! I went and grabbed some Seachem Iron on Lotus' suggestion, and while I was there I picked up a new lightbulb to replace the crappy stock one at the front of my tank right now. Hopefully that will help my glosso and hairgrass out. However I am unsure about how good it really is, and if you think you could help I asked about it and gave the details .

The dosing I will start with is in my sig as .25mL per day excepting two days at .5mL for six out of 7 days of each week.

 

[ishar]

BAM!!

that's what my tank is saying hahahah

I took back the 2400K bulb... and decided to go all out right now- why not? I was going to pick up another dual T5 strip like the one I have... but then I noticed that for the same price I could get a 65W compact 6700K lamp! So now I am rocking out 4.65 WPG!!

I also picked up a group of ghost shrimp (Asked for 5, got like 8) so that hopefully I will get some babies for my GBR to eat so I can make sure he can get some protein to grow and colour up

I will post pictures if there is enough interest, so if you want 'em, ask for 'em

 

[Adorkable]

I VOTE PICTURES! XD

4.65 WPG?! No fair! I have like 0.00000004 WPG XD

 

[ishar]

haha well I might just for you Dorky .

A slight edit: when I put the shrimpies in... I forgot to count, but I think I got almost 12 :S.

 

[ishar]

Before and After

GBR- got a few decent shots- you can see some ghosties in one of them

 

[ishar]

Well I did a series water tests just to check it out as I haven't in months. The results are as follows:
amo: 0, trite: 0, trate: 20, GH: 10, KH: 5-6

With trate at 20ppm I think I have found a good dosing level for my nitrogen, so that made me feel pretty good . The ferts I am dosing and the amounts can be found in my sig, but the routine I follow is attached below.

On a different note, the glosso that was not looking so hot or growing like it used to.... is loving the new light! haha Every bunch of it has sent up a new pair of leaves in one day!

 

[ishar]

Update- April 28, '08

Well unfortunately I have a pretty big update for you all.

First,my internet has been down the past two days so I haven't been able to post this as it happened.

Now the story. Three days ago I noticed my filter was hardly moving any water, and I could not figure out why. I tried cleaning it and reassembling it and everything but all to no avail. Just a little dribble coming out. Obviously this is bad . Then the next day I say my GBR at the surface, mouth to the air- I assumed there was ammonia in my tank. Not cool. I resolved to buy myself a new filter the next day as it was too late by that time The next morning I woke up and the GBR was dead. So disappointing . But I went and grabbed the new filter- a Marineland 150 w/ biowheel. Heard so many good things about them here on MFT and figured they'd be worth a shot.It works great! I just hope it cycles soon, as in less than I week I need to move it all back home and replant everything and whatnot, so the sooner it is cycled the better. I also picked up some Rotala macranda- a nice leafy red plant, as suggested I should et by Avalon. I put it in the center where he suggested because it was the only spot left for it lol. But with the move everything is bound to get moved around for a whole new look.

I will get pictures of it tomorrow, but feel free to help me out with any ideas on how to move. I was thinking of emptying half the water into two 5G buckets. Then putting the fish and shrimp into them. Then the plants will remain in the tank with some water, and I will spray them with their own tank water with like a mister bottle on the drive (only about 1.5 hours to 2 hours).