# Bharada's 120g Crypt tank: Updated 10-7-2011



## bharada (Mar 5, 2004)

I started this tank last March (I have a journal on it on my web site--link is in my sig). Initial stocking consisted of wendtii 'bronze' (left back), lutea (left mid), willisii (left front), parva (center foreground), nurii, pygmaea and undulata (right center), petchii (right front), balansae and spiralis (right back). Here it is at its inception...









Here it is today. Over the past year I added some moehlmannii (center), pontederiifolia (right side), wendtii 'Green Gecko' (right foreground), and a cordata 'Rosanervig'.









Left side closer view...









And the right side...









Over the year the nurii got lost amongst the moehlmannii and petchii. I haven't seen the undulata and pygmaea in a long time, too.  Of course, what I think is petchii could actually be the pygmaea...you can never be sure with Crypts. :icon_lol:

Here's the 'Rosanervig', which after four months still shows no sign of any veining let alone pink ones (although another one I have in a 20g tank with AquaSoil is developing muted veining).









The tank is lit with a 4x54w T-5 Tek light (2 bulbs for 10hr and 4 bulbs for 4 hours mid-day), has pressurized CO2 and is filtered by a pair of Via Aqua 750 cannister filters (with sponge prefilters over the intake strainers).

Substrate is Turface Pro League. Hardscape consists of granite rocks and some unnamed SE Asian hardwood branches I picked up at Aqua Forest in San Francisco.

I dose the tank with a solution I have made up for the autodosing pumps on my 125g tank. I throw in 100ml of the macro solution 2x a week which I think comes out to somewhere around 50ppm of NO3 and 5ppm of PO4 total. I also dose about 75ml oif Flourish 2x a week.

Maintenance consists of bi-weekly, 50% water and sponge pre-filter changes and plucking out any dying leaves. I go in every few months and thin out the Crypts and give them away at our club plant swaps.

The fauna consists of: 100+ Espei Rasboras; 2 Pearl Gouramis (transferred from another tank); 6 Serpae Tetras (orphans from a torn down tank); 2 Badis ruber and 1 Cherry Barb (adopted from a friend); an unknown number of Pygmy and Habrosus Corys, and Otos; and countless shrimp (Cherry Red, wild Neocaridina denticulata sinensis, Amano, and possible a few low-grade CRS)

This tank has turned into another example of how spending a lot of time planning your hardscape is futile, as only the underside of the plants ever see it. :icon_lol:


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## Steven_Chong (Sep 14, 2004)

Love the crypts Bill, they're stunning


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## Fosty (Oct 17, 2003)

That's an incredible tank! I love the close up of the left side. IMO any aquarium with lots of healthy crypts looks great, but it must take a ton of patience. Your aquarium has me really tempted to try this on a smaller scale. Anyways, great work!




> and countless shrimp (Cherry Red, wild Neocaridina denticulata sinensis, Amano, and possible a few low-grade CRS)


You are probably the only person to has CRS and isn't even sure!


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## fish_lover0591 (Nov 11, 2006)

wow i really like your crypt tank its so nice


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## dufus (Nov 13, 2006)

nice tank, i love the green gecko crypts.
How are the pygmy cories? i am gathering all kinds of opinions on them.


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## bharada (Mar 5, 2004)

dufus said:


> nice tank, i love the green gecko crypts.
> How are the pygmy cories? i am gathering all kinds of opinions on them.


Thanks. The 'Green Geckos' were in emersed form when I bought them so it's taking time for the conversion to submersed growth. Slowly, the new growth is coming out with the distinctive red patch at the leaf's base.

As for the Pygmy Corys...in this big a tank they out of sight much more than they aren't. But they're pretty much conventrated in the bottom third of the tank, swimming in and out from between the Crypts. But I do have one in a 10g tank (started off with three, but only one remains) that likes to spend a lot of its time lounging on the top of an Anubias leaf.


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## Betowess (Dec 9, 2004)

Very Sweet tank, Bill! No surprise there, however.roud: Sure makes me want to get a 120 gallon...


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## ianiwane (Sep 7, 2004)

Its no ordinary 120 gallon, haha. Tell them about the story Bill. Where is the first tank? Your tanks seem to break on the first day you get them. hahahaha jk.


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## bharada (Mar 5, 2004)

They have to read the journal thread on my web site...no subscription needed. haha


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## ringram (Jan 19, 2005)

Sweet looking tank Bill. Those crypts sure look nice all grown in like that. 
Just curious - I'm pretty sure that espei rasboras are the same as harlequin rasboras, but what about LFS's that use different common names? I just put 18 into my 90g and the LFS was calling them "lamb chops" or something like that. lol. Look the same to me. Good work! roud: 

-Ryan


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## fresh_lynny (Mar 9, 2006)

Hey Bill~
Your tank is gorgeous. One question, what is the KH/GH of the water where you are?


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## ianiwane (Sep 7, 2004)

i can answer that for you its rock hard.


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## bharada (Mar 5, 2004)

ringram said:


> Just curious - I'm pretty sure that espei rasboras are the same as harlequin rasboras, but what about LFS's that use different common names? I just put 18 into my 90g and the LFS was calling them "lamb chops" or something like that. lol. Look the same to me. Good work! roud:
> 
> -Ryan


Thanks, Ryan. The Espei (Trigonostigma espei) and Harlequin Rasboras (Rasbora heteromorpha) are different species. The Espei and Harlequin do share similar coloration, but the Espei don't get as tall in the mid-section...in other words, the Espeis keeps the body configuration of juvenile Harlequins.

The local wholesalers usually have them listed as "Harlequins, narrow wedge" on the order sheet. The problem there is that they'll ship both the espeis and hengelis under that common name. But when you get them you'll be able to tell the difference as the espeis have a copper colored body with the black wedge, while the hengelis have a clear body (like a Glowlight Tetra) with a bright orange stripe that traces the upper edge of the wedge.



fresh_newby said:


> One question, what is the KH/GH of the water where you are?


My water has a KH of 12-16 and a GH of 18-22. It may be the reason why the 'rosanervig' doesn't develop any veining.


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## Betowess (Dec 9, 2004)

bharada said:


> They have to read the journal thread on my web site...no subscription needed. haha


Just read the journal. Wow, very nice journal and I really like your tidy plumbing. I didn't knowone could click your photos to get the link. 

But that cut on your arm looked BAD! ouch.:icon_sad: Over all, what do you think of acrylic? I always thought it would be too easy to scratch.


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## ringram (Jan 19, 2005)

Thanks for clearing that up Bill. Based on what you're saying, I think I have the Trigonostigma hengali here:









-Ryan


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## epicfish (Sep 11, 2006)

Bill,

Where did you get your espeis? I've been looking for a bit and haven't found any yet!

Just looked through your 40 gal. page. I'm also planning a 40 gal breeder tank. Would you recommend ~15-20 Espeis or ~15-20 of the neons or cardinals you have in your tank?


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## bharada (Mar 5, 2004)

ringram said:


> Thanks for clearing that up Bill. Based on what you're saying, I think I have the Trigonostigma hengali here:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Yours look more like a regular Harlequin.

This is a T. hengeli...









And this is a T. espei...









Notice how the black wedge on yours almost entirely fills in the rear area of the fish, while the wedge on the espei narrow to a black stripe?

And you can see why one common name for the T. hengeli is the Glowlight Rasbora as its coloration is similar to the Glowlight Tetra.



epicfish said:


> Where did you get your espeis? I've been looking for a bit and haven't found any yet!
> 
> Just looked through your 40 gal. page. I'm also planning a 40 gal breeder tank. Would you recommend ~15-20 Espeis or ~15-20 of the neons or cardinals you have in your tank?


Ibn (Eric) got the espeis for me from an LFS friend of his. I would definitely choose them over the Cardinals. The ones (Cardinals) I have in the 40 spend all their time hiding in the plants...barely coming out even during feeding. :icon_mad:


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## bharada (Mar 5, 2004)

Betowess said:


> Just read the journal. Wow, very nice journal and I really like your tidy plumbing. I didn't knowone could click your photos to get the link.
> 
> But that cut on your arm looked BAD! ouch.:icon_sad: Over all, what do you think of acrylic? I always thought it would be too easy to scratch.


Bob, when I first got the tank in I was obsessed with buffing out all the hairline scratches left from the manufacturing process. But I finally came to my senses and realized that once it was filled in that they'd disappear.

Of course it has had the occasional encounter with one of my son's toys flying into it. But the damage has been minor and easily buffer out.

The thing I like best about it is how it takes on the appearance of a giant Lucite paperweight when I look at it from across the room. Nothing beats not having any silicone seams obstructing the corners.


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## fresh_lynny (Mar 9, 2006)

I presently have a corner-free acrylic myself...but am changing over to an ADA......
Ed/Ian I am convinced that is why crypts do so well there! My plants grow like mad, but my crypts are just so so. They never look like yours, Ed. My kH is around 0-1. I dose Mg, but they never seem to explode with growth like that. Perhaps the rock hard water makes them happy?


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## bharada (Mar 5, 2004)

I guess I've just been lucky not to have invested any money in blackwater Crypts. 

I gave some of the moehlmannii to a friend in San Francisco and he told me that he didn't expect them to do as well for him there with his soft water.

Ian will be taking some of the moehlmannii with him after the game on Sunday (along with whatever else I can cleanly pull out for him). Perhaps AS with be the difference maker in softwater environments? His cordata 'Rosanervig' sure are doing well.


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## sketch804 (Mar 2, 2011)

WOW that is a crazy tank! i love the use of many types of crypts!!!!


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## macclellan (Dec 22, 2006)




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## nilocg (Jul 12, 2010)

macclellan said:


>



Which it should be. This is one of the nicest tanks I have seen. This thread should be stickied.


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## Whiskey (Feb 15, 2005)

nilocg said:


> Which it should be. This is one of the nicest tanks I have seen. This thread should be stickied.


Here! Here.

Is it still up and running?

Whiskey


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## bharada (Mar 5, 2004)

*Yes, it's still up...*

I let nature take its course on this tank so it evolved to this in 2008...










And finally to this today...










35+ Diamond Tetras did a number on the C. balansae, and the removal of most of the small foreground Crypts (transferred to my 125g tank) left the tank wide open for a C. moehlmannii takeover. Still, it's amazing that the moehlmannii was able to eradicate all the other large Crypts.

All the original hardscape is still in there...somewhere. :eek5:


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## 2in10 (Feb 8, 2011)

Quite a change


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## 150EH (Dec 6, 2004)

Man that blows, I'm a crypt man and I was really think'n I had a good find here and bam. The upper photo is really beautiful with all the different Crypts, are you going to try something new.

Rescape, rescape, rescape!!!!! I let mine go for years and it was way worse, almost no plants left but a dozen C. wendtii brown and a pair of Apons and one lonely light bulb out of 2 hoods capable of 644 watts, but I was busy riding my bike all over the country so I'm surprised anything in the tank lived.


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## bharada (Mar 5, 2004)

150EH said:


> Man that blows, I'm a crypt man and I was really think'n I had a good find here and bam. The upper photo is really beautiful with all the different Crypts, are you going to try something new.
> 
> Rescape, rescape, rescape!!!!! I let mine go for years and it was way worse, almost no plants left but a dozen C. wendtii brown and a pair of Apons and one lonely light bulb out of 2 hoods capable of 644 watts, but I was busy riding my bike all over the country so I'm surprised anything in the tank lived.


I was definitely around to witness the moehlmannii advance. And you should know how hard it is to control well established crypts. :hihi:

Anyway, after doing a water change and clearing out the cloud of ratty Taiwan Moss it became apparent that the undergrowth of willisii and parva still exist and I even found a sole balansae poking out in the back. :icon_smil

I've decided to make use of the moehlmannii carpet (I can't let three years of growth go to waste) and rescape the left side of the tank with a large Iwagumi-esque hardscape. The left side will be redone with the small crypts I recover. And it may be time to transfer some back from my 125. I have tomorrow off so I know what I'll be doing this weekend. :icon_smil


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## 150EH (Dec 6, 2004)

Cool, at least you have some left to work with I'm courious to see the re-scape.

Right now I have a C. nurii that was just put in the tank 2 weeks ago, a mother plant (still smallish) and 3 plantlets connected by a mass of roots, the other day I noticed the big one swaying in the breeze, it seems I did plant quite deep enough and one of my fish must find the roots tasty. So it's connected to the substrate by 2 tiny roots, I hope it puts out some new ones but I know better and this plant does nothing quickly so I'll have a floating nurii soon. I need something like a sod staple to hold this plant closer to the sub so it has a chance.


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## bharada (Mar 5, 2004)

Over the years I've been given a few of the more exotic Crypts but none have taken. So I'll stick with the tried and true growers.

I've ordered 10 pots of parva and some spiralis. And Wasserpest is sending me some willisii so the new 'scaping project is well underway.


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## bharada (Mar 5, 2004)

*The redo*

I took the day off from work and did a slipstream rescape of the tank this morning. The fish remained in the tank and the filter was kept running the entire time.

Plants from aquariumplants.com. C. parva, C. spiralis, and some HM for variety  









Rocks from the garden.









Old hardscape. There were a lot more rocks than I remembered.

















Left side of tank cleared for new hardscape.









C. moehlmannii in need of a good home and finding them among the sfbaaps membership. roud:









Salvaged Crypts that survived the moehlmannii blitz.









Tank partially drained to accommodate the hardscape and to vacuum the substrate.









And the result of about four hours of labor...









The water is still a bit silty (I need to clean out the filter tomorrow) and I can't use my diatom filter until I get a replacement main casting for it next week.

And some shots of the tank inhabitants...































































The hodge-podge of fishes is the result of this tank being an adoption center for friends tearing down tanks the past couple of years.


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## 2in10 (Feb 8, 2011)

Beautiful rework. I like the Hodge-podge of fish.


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## bharada (Mar 5, 2004)

2in10 said:


> Beautiful rework. I like the Hodge-podge of fish.


I'm fine with everything except for the three dayglo Danios. :icon_eek:

What I'm looking to add is a few more dwarf loaches along with more julii corys.


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## 2in10 (Feb 8, 2011)

bharada said:


> I'm fine with everything except for the three dayglo Danios. :icon_eek:
> 
> What I'm looking to add is a few more dwarf loaches along with more julii corys.


I don't like the false colored animals either. I like both of the fish you mentioned.


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## bharada (Mar 5, 2004)

I'm hosting a club open house next month so I'll see if I can find a sucker...err...member who wants them.


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## TactusMortus (Jun 28, 2011)

Your tank and your tank alone is what inspired me to have mostly crypts in my tank. So glad I found your thread about 6 months ago. Kind of sad to see your old layout go however loving the rocks in the new layout.


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## bharada (Mar 5, 2004)

TactusMortus said:


> Your tank and your tank alone is what inspired me to have mostly crypts in my tank. So glad I found your thread about 6 months ago. Kind of sad to see your old layout go however loving the rocks in the new layout.


Thanks. It was four years of stem tank maintenance that convince me to go the crypt tank route.


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## TactusMortus (Jun 28, 2011)

Precisely why I made the change I just did not have time to constantly trim the plants.


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## TactusMortus (Jun 28, 2011)

Hey bharada,
Does your parva grow like that or did you just freshly plant them? Because in my tank they lay flat to the substrate which I don't mind at all just curious as your stands up straight.


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## bharada (Mar 5, 2004)

TactusMortus said:


> Hey bharada,
> Does your parva grow like that or did you just freshly plant them? Because in my tank they lay flat to the substrate which I don't mind at all just curious as your stands up straight.


The upright parva was grown emersed. The wrapping they came in had the name of some Florida nursury on it. My submersed parva all grow like you say, flat.

Here's a pic of the emersed grown leaves melting away in the conversion to submersed form. I did inject some Jobes plant sticks into the substrate surrounding the parva so hopefully that will speed up the process.


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

Very cool. I like the fish too!


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## bharada (Mar 5, 2004)

hydrophyte said:


> Very cool. I like the fish too!


Thanks. Yesterday I added a few more C. julii, and Cherry Barbs. And replaced the Redtail shark that I lost last year.

What caught me by surprise this morning was seeing an Amano shrimp cruising around the tank. How he's lasted so long in there is beyond me. haha


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## creg (Feb 21, 2011)

very cool rock formation and my favourite plant species, nice work mr bharada


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## audithom (Mar 3, 2009)

I like the tank. Looks great and pleasing to the eye.


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## bharada (Mar 5, 2004)

*More updates*

My friend (and fellow sfbaaps member) Marc sent me some Staurogyne repens. This is the first new (as in it wasn't around last time I was in the club) plant I've added to my collection in three years. Thanks Marc.










And a trio (1 male and 2 females) of Apistogramma agassizii "Tefe pearl blue" from Neptune Aquatics. Having that store so close is going to be very expensive for me. :lol:


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## i'm a ninja (Aug 2, 2009)

This tank looks amazing, I too am leaning toward mostly crypts (trimming stem plants gets old fast) in my new tank. Any updates?


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## plecostomouse (Jun 9, 2011)

wow this is totally dope man!!!!
awesome photography!!!
great scape!!
nice fish!


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## Alasse (Jul 23, 2008)

Awesome tank

What are the vibrant yellow fish?


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## bharada (Mar 5, 2004)

i'm a ninja said:


> This tank looks amazing, I too am leaning toward mostly crypts (trimming stem plants gets old fast) in my new tank. Any updates?


Thanks, Ninja. I rejoined sfbaaps (local plant club) and have not been tempted to get back into stem plants at all. lol



plecostomouse said:


> wow this is totally dope man!!!!
> awesome photography!!!
> great scape!!
> nice fish!


Thanks, plecostomouse.



Alasse said:


> Awesome tank
> 
> What are the vibrant yellow fish?


Thanks, Alasse. The yellow fish with the black specks are Gold Barbs.


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## bharada (Mar 5, 2004)

*Back once again.*

Back for another 5 year update on this tank.

But first, here's the last tank shot I took back in November 2011, after the last reset filled in a bit...









And here's how the tank looks today...









So back in Aug 2012 I was laid off from my graphic design job. This sent me into immediate cost cutting mode. High up on the list was my $320 electricity bill. So this tank's light period went from 12 hours to 4 hours per day. With the reduced lighting I also cut the CO2 and dosing.

The tank was left in ultra low maintenance mode. Weekly 50% water changes became topping off the tank when the splashing of the filter outlet got too noisy. Said filter was cleaned once in the past five years. Good thing it was able to bypass the dirty media as the water circulation never stopped.

Looking through the green-spot covered front glass was deceiving as a top-down look into the tank revealed crystal clear water. And while the plant mass decreased significantly the fish did surprisingly well.

All six of my angelfish are alive and well. As are my ladder and kuhlii loaches. I even have 13 Amano shrimp still scavenging away.

I did lose a lot of the tetras to old age. My large school of Diamonds has been reduced to 5 geriatric fish. All the Gold barbs are gone as well as most of the Cherry barbs. And sadly, my redtail shark died the day before I started my reclamation project.

But things are turning around. I retrofitted three 18W daylight LED tubes into my T5 fixture and brought the lighting period back up to 10 hr/day. I've recommenced dosing ferts, but have gone to glutaraldehyde for carbon rather than injecting CO2.

So far after two weeks there's noticeable increase in plant growth. The Crypts are throwing out new leaves which aren't being coated with diatoms or algae. :thumbsup:


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## tom855 (Jan 31, 2006)

Glad it's doing well! I switched from CO2 to Excel about halfway through my fishkeeping, and I never regretted it. No CO2 tanks, no tank dumps, no regulators, no super fast growth. Just regular dosing, lower light, and slow and steady plant growth. Low tech was sooo much less stressful.  Even my RCS tolerated it. All was well with the world. 

Best of luck with the tank!


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