My Plant Journal
- Thread starter Smalltank3
- Start date
Nope my C02 mixture stayed where it always is. I have no idea how this has happened.
Anyway, I plan on doing daily 20% water changes each day until the water stays clear starting sunday.
Once my water clears up I plan on stocking my tank little by little. First I do plan on adding plants that I would order online from aquadise on ebay. The plants I plan on getting baby tears, ludwigia repens, and moneywort. The fish I want to get are either clown killies(if my lfs ever gets them). I have no idea what kind of fish I will want. However, I will get 20+ cherry shrimp soon. I do have to test my water to see if its safe with the ghost shrimp though.
Anyway, I plan on doing daily 20% water changes each day until the water stays clear starting sunday.
Once my water clears up I plan on stocking my tank little by little. First I do plan on adding plants that I would order online from aquadise on ebay. The plants I plan on getting baby tears, ludwigia repens, and moneywort. The fish I want to get are either clown killies(if my lfs ever gets them). I have no idea what kind of fish I will want. However, I will get 20+ cherry shrimp soon. I do have to test my water to see if its safe with the ghost shrimp though.
Tore down my tank today, without getting a mini cycle
First, I took all the plants and equipment out. Then I took all the substrate out; Boy was it messy! All the muddy crud from under the substrate came up scoop after scoop. I then rinsed the shulz aquatic soil until there was no cloudiness in the bucket water. That took about 45 minutes. Anyway, I scrubbed all the walls of my tank, drained the water, put the shulz's aquatic soil in, put in driftwood and java moss rock, filled up the tank, dechlored, planted, plugged in filters and heater, and finally turned the light on. The whole process took about 2 hours. I think it was well worth it. I did however, find some sort of life in my tank, an egg! I couldn't get a good picture of it, but I got 2 decent ones. I can see a black object curled up in the egg. The egg is not white and I can see through it. It is attached on my driftwood. I have no snails. If any of you who remeber my fat oto, this may be an egg of one. See both of my otos were skinny, meaning the fat one got skinny. The otos died on friday of the major die off, which means they probably laid it on friday. I've read that the eggs hatch in 3 days. So I am just leaving it there to see what happens. Any suggestions on what to do? I am worried that if it hatches, the baby will get sucked up by my filter. Is there anything I could cover the intake with besides pantyhose? Here is a pic of the egg and the tank(tank is still cloudy from putting everything back in):
Egg:
another:
Smalltank
First, I took all the plants and equipment out. Then I took all the substrate out; Boy was it messy! All the muddy crud from under the substrate came up scoop after scoop. I then rinsed the shulz aquatic soil until there was no cloudiness in the bucket water. That took about 45 minutes. Anyway, I scrubbed all the walls of my tank, drained the water, put the shulz's aquatic soil in, put in driftwood and java moss rock, filled up the tank, dechlored, planted, plugged in filters and heater, and finally turned the light on. The whole process took about 2 hours. I think it was well worth it. I did however, find some sort of life in my tank, an egg! I couldn't get a good picture of it, but I got 2 decent ones. I can see a black object curled up in the egg. The egg is not white and I can see through it. It is attached on my driftwood. I have no snails. If any of you who remeber my fat oto, this may be an egg of one. See both of my otos were skinny, meaning the fat one got skinny. The otos died on friday of the major die off, which means they probably laid it on friday. I've read that the eggs hatch in 3 days. So I am just leaving it there to see what happens. Any suggestions on what to do? I am worried that if it hatches, the baby will get sucked up by my filter. Is there anything I could cover the intake with besides pantyhose? Here is a pic of the egg and the tank(tank is still cloudy from putting everything back in):
Egg:
another:
Smalltank
Lol, I don't know what happened but that "egg" is gone.
I dipped my Java Moss in a bath of Excel, and it got rid of the algae
unfortunately the big watersprite leaves rotted away, but I still have new growth stems. I got the baby tears on monday, and now they are starting to rot away too. This happened when I had baby tears before, I don't know whats wrong. If all of it rots away, I'm gonna try either glosso or Dwarf Hairgrass. Anyway, I got my plants from MAHA, thanks man. They are in excellent condition. I got a bunch of wisteria, and Bacopa. The bacopa already has new growth from when I put it in yesterday
I plan on stocking the tank starting tuesday. I first plan on getting ghost shrimp to see if my tank is ok for shrimp. If they live over a week, I'll give them to my brother and order the cherries. Heres my plan:
1 Male Betta(Last)
1 Male Swordtail(Tuesday)
4 Neons(Probably a week after Tuesday)
2 Otos(Tuesday)
10+ Cherry Shrimp(If ghost shrimp live, ordering them)
***3 Ghost shrimp(testers)***(Tuesday)
Here are the pics:
Full Tank:
Bacopa:
Baby Tears:
Wisteria:
So what do you guys think for the foreground? Glosso or Dwarf Hairgrass? I am leaning towards the Dwarf Hairgrass but any suggestions are welcome.
Smalltank
I dipped my Java Moss in a bath of Excel, and it got rid of the algae
unfortunately the big watersprite leaves rotted away, but I still have new growth stems. I got the baby tears on monday, and now they are starting to rot away too. This happened when I had baby tears before, I don't know whats wrong. If all of it rots away, I'm gonna try either glosso or Dwarf Hairgrass. Anyway, I got my plants from MAHA, thanks man. They are in excellent condition. I got a bunch of wisteria, and Bacopa. The bacopa already has new growth from when I put it in yesterday
I plan on stocking the tank starting tuesday. I first plan on getting ghost shrimp to see if my tank is ok for shrimp. If they live over a week, I'll give them to my brother and order the cherries. Heres my plan:
1 Male Betta(Last)
1 Male Swordtail(Tuesday)
4 Neons(Probably a week after Tuesday)
2 Otos(Tuesday)
10+ Cherry Shrimp(If ghost shrimp live, ordering them)
***3 Ghost shrimp(testers)***(Tuesday)
Here are the pics:
Full Tank:
Bacopa:
Baby Tears:
Wisteria:
So what do you guys think for the foreground? Glosso or Dwarf Hairgrass? I am leaning towards the Dwarf Hairgrass but any suggestions are welcome.
Smalltank
LFS Trip!
Woohoo! I got my fish and ghosties last night! I purchased 1 Oto(3/4"), 1 Male Swordtail(2") and 8 Ghost shrimp. If the ghost shrimp live for 2 weeks, I am ordering the Cherries. When I came home today from school, 4 were dead. I looked before I went to school this morning and all were alive. Hopefully the other 4 survive. I have confidence because whenever I would buy any type of shrimp before, they ALL would be dead. They were all the big ghosties too. I have 3 medium size and 1 small size shrimp. Anyway, the swordtail pays no attention to the shrimp and just swims along having the tank to himself, happily He's so cool, I hope he lives for a long time. Anyway, the oto is off working everytime I look into the tank.
For the plants, I was urging myself to get rotala indica but I held off. My brother just went planted and when he trims his Sunset hygro, I get to get it. I had to take all of the Java Moss off of the rock because it was dead. However, there was little that is green, which is still on the rock. I added an additional rock, which looks cool. The Bacopa is exploding with new growth. With less then a week, it is almost to the top(see last post)
Full Tank:
Bacopa:
Oto:
Swordtail pics(I couldn't stop taking pictures of him):
Smalltank
Woohoo! I got my fish and ghosties last night! I purchased 1 Oto(3/4"), 1 Male Swordtail(2") and 8 Ghost shrimp. If the ghost shrimp live for 2 weeks, I am ordering the Cherries. When I came home today from school, 4 were dead. I looked before I went to school this morning and all were alive. Hopefully the other 4 survive. I have confidence because whenever I would buy any type of shrimp before, they ALL would be dead. They were all the big ghosties too. I have 3 medium size and 1 small size shrimp. Anyway, the swordtail pays no attention to the shrimp and just swims along having the tank to himself, happily
He's so cool, I hope he lives for a long time. Anyway, the oto is off working everytime I look into the tank.For the plants, I was urging myself to get rotala indica but I held off. My brother just went planted and when he trims his Sunset hygro, I get to get it. I had to take all of the Java Moss off of the rock because it was dead. However, there was little that is green, which is still on the rock. I added an additional rock, which looks cool. The Bacopa is exploding with new growth. With less then a week, it is almost to the top(see last post)
Full Tank:
Bacopa:
Oto:
Swordtail pics(I couldn't stop taking pictures of him
):
Smalltank
Im sorry I dont have a comp and only log on here once a month or less, but your post keeps on going. I noticed you changed your setup like 10 times. On this one page (14) you had a really perfect setup with the water sprite and driftwood on the left and moss and stone on the right. Then you added that foreground plant, which will be perfect, but you why did you take out the watersprite. that plant is possibly the best at sucking out ammonia and so beautfiul. If you let your tank be and let those plants grow out, that'll be a great looking small planted tank for sure. but please, for my own sanity, stop moving things aorund! nothing will ever get a chance to mature that way. peace,
oh one other thing, i lose fish wehenever I do water changes over 35-40%. All of that tapwater, even after being treated, stressed the fish big-time. I would never do an 80% water change no matter what. All that fresh tap water is what killed the fish. And the white cloudiness is a bacteria bloom from the dead fish carcasses. Instead you should have done maybe a 25% change, three days in a row, that'll be much less shocking to the fish. You know something in your tank has died when you wake up and you have white cloudy water. Believe me on that one, Ive lost some beauties, when I lost my Dwarf cockatoo cichlid I nearly cried. Ive never had such a beautiful fish.
I do need to keep my hands out of my tank. I know it was a huge mistake, and I should of researched before I did them.
I did not take the watersprite out. I think it melted from an overdose of Excel. However, the 4 small plantlets I had left are getting bigger and bigger now. My tank was cloudy and so I tested my water(last week). The Nitrite was at 1! It was the first time ever since I started that I had nitrite. Thank god there was no ammonia. I did 3 25% waterchanges every other day so far, adding dechlor, and still has not fully cleared up. Any suggestions? The parameters as of now are Nitrite=0, Am=0, Nitrate=10. I did get the nitrite to go back down. I did lose a neon. I noticed when I bought him that he had no tail. I had no melafix and he died right away. The other neons are doing great. I added a Crowntail betta(will explain below), and some green foxtail. The foxtail is growing very fast. It has taken over the majority of the back right side of the tank. I did take my rock out too. I want to have the right side fully stocked with plants. As for the betta.....
He is a great Dark blue, red tail, crowntail. He is not bother any fish atm, but I don't want to risk it. I bought him, because this weekend, I'm going to get a 3g Eclispe setup! The plan is that I put him in 3 days after adding water. Yes, no cycle I am just going to add water the day I get the tank. Then I will wait a couple days, add a first layer of some shulz aquatic soil from the 10g, add a top layer of black gravel for show, then a couple stems of bacopa, foxtail, and a small rock. I posted a thread last night and response have been that that would be enough bacteria to prevent a cycle
Can't wait!
Smalltank
I did not take the watersprite out. I think it melted from an overdose of Excel. However, the 4 small plantlets I had left are getting bigger and bigger now. My tank was cloudy and so I tested my water(last week). The Nitrite was at 1! It was the first time ever since I started that I had nitrite. Thank god there was no ammonia. I did 3 25% waterchanges every other day so far, adding dechlor, and still has not fully cleared up. Any suggestions? The parameters as of now are Nitrite=0, Am=0, Nitrate=10. I did get the nitrite to go back down
. I did lose a neon. I noticed when I bought him that he had no tail. I had no melafix and he died right away. The other neons are doing great. I added a Crowntail betta(will explain below), and some green foxtail. The foxtail is growing very fast. It has taken over the majority of the back right side of the tank. I did take my rock out too. I want to have the right side fully stocked with plants. As for the betta.....He is a great Dark blue, red tail, crowntail. He is not bother any fish atm, but I don't want to risk it. I bought him, because this weekend, I'm going to get a 3g Eclispe setup! The plan is that I put him in 3 days after adding water. Yes, no cycle
I am just going to add water the day I get the tank. Then I will wait a couple days, add a first layer of some shulz aquatic soil from the 10g, add a top layer of black gravel for show, then a couple stems of bacopa, foxtail, and a small rock. I posted a thread last night and response have been that that would be enough bacteria to prevent a cycleCan't wait!
Smalltank
Last edited:
3.10.07
Well, nothing worked. The green water is gone because I tore down the tank and cleaned EVERYTHING. I moved the fish and snail into the 1g until I know for sure the tank has completely cycled. I drained the tank, siphoned the Shulz's, cleaned filters, driftwood, rocks, walls, and rinsed the plants. I did not change filter cartridges because I want to speed up the cycle. Here is the end result after putting the Shulz's in:
Planted:
Left:
Middle:
Right:
Water is still a little cloudy from the tear down. I have 2 plants of Watersprite, 1 huge bunch of Wisteria, lots of Bacopa, Java Fern, and 1 stem of Sunset Hygro. I am going to try shrimp again, but not until I know it is safe. Same with the fish in the 1g. They will not go in until I know it is completely cycled. I will get 3 Ghost shrimp, then if they live Cherry shrimp.
Future Plans:
DIY Co2 back up(Tomorrow, or this week)
Cherry Shrimp
Smalltank
Well, nothing worked. The green water is gone because I tore down the tank and cleaned EVERYTHING. I moved the fish and snail into the 1g until I know for sure the tank has completely cycled. I drained the tank, siphoned the Shulz's, cleaned filters, driftwood, rocks, walls, and rinsed the plants. I did not change filter cartridges because I want to speed up the cycle. Here is the end result after putting the Shulz's in:
Planted:
Left:
Middle:
Right:
Water is still a little cloudy from the tear down. I have 2 plants of Watersprite, 1 huge bunch of Wisteria, lots of Bacopa, Java Fern, and 1 stem of Sunset Hygro. I am going to try shrimp again, but not until I know it is safe. Same with the fish in the 1g. They will not go in until I know it is completely cycled. I will get 3 Ghost shrimp, then if they live Cherry shrimp.
Future Plans:
DIY Co2 back up(Tomorrow, or this week)
Cherry Shrimp
Smalltank
Last edited:
New thread. Here's the link:Smalltank3's 10g RCS Journal
Thanks for all the comments and suggestions on this thread
Smalltank
Thanks for all the comments and suggestions on this thread
Smalltank
Last edited:
Well Smalltank, it has been almost four years since you posted this atrocity of an aquatic experience.
I just read this entire thread and lost track counting how many times you rearranged your tank, took out plants, added plants, bought new fish and killed those fish. I truly hope that you have learned a significant amount about patience and how to keep and maintain a healthy aquarium. If not, I hope you at least got out of the hobby.
I am all for being a happy-go-lucky, supportive person but come on people. Instead of saying "great tank" and posting a smiley face every 48 hours that the tank was completely overhauled with new plants and fish, someone should have stood up and commented about the mistakes that were taking place.
Peace.
I just read this entire thread and lost track counting how many times you rearranged your tank, took out plants, added plants, bought new fish and killed those fish. I truly hope that you have learned a significant amount about patience and how to keep and maintain a healthy aquarium. If not, I hope you at least got out of the hobby.
I am all for being a happy-go-lucky, supportive person but come on people. Instead of saying "great tank" and posting a smiley face every 48 hours that the tank was completely overhauled with new plants and fish, someone should have stood up and commented about the mistakes that were taking place.
Peace.