# Spec V - first tank



## D.Farci (Mar 15, 2016)

How often do you do water changes? That tank is way too over-stocked, and I'm usually the guy telling people "Nah, you can fit a few more tetras in that space." 

You could maybe get away with 6 CPDs by themselves but having the killies and the ram in there is a cause for concern, IMO. 

Do you run the stock light?


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## SueD (Nov 20, 2010)

I overstock a bit, but haven't come close to your tank. I have one Spec V with 7 boraras urophthalmoides and some cherry shrimp and another Spec V with 5 hastatus cories and only 1 Microdevario Kubotai (lost 4 others and will be restocking - either with the same M. Kubotai or maybe switch to 7-8 chilis). I wouldn't be comfortable with much more than that.


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## Cmeister (Jul 5, 2009)

Looks bigger than a typical 5 gallon tank


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## proper.noun (May 29, 2016)

deleted duplicate post


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## proper.noun (May 29, 2016)

D.Farci said:


> How often do you do water changes? That tank is way too over-stocked, and I'm usually the guy telling people "Nah, you can fit a few more tetras in that space."
> 
> You could maybe get away with 6 CPDs by themselves but having the killies and the ram in there is a cause for concern, IMO.
> 
> Do you run the stock light?


I use the Finnex Planted+

I change 1 gallon weekly but based on my nice and stable parameters I think I could get away with every other week.

Interestingly enough i started out with 7 neon tetras but they were way too active for my tank and fought amongst themselves a lot. The Danios however seem very happy and comfortable in this setup.

The clown killies spend an overwhelming majority of their time in the top 2 inches of the tank and the lampeye's stay in the the top third. The ram pays them absolutely no mind and generally only hangs out way up there when he's expecting me to feed him blackworms. Having said that I did make it my mission to choose the most docile ram I could find at my lfs (same with my puffer). And I went with the angel ram b/c they seemed to be the least active of the 4 different rams the fish store had on offer. 

There's been a lot a trial and error in my search for a compatible community and it's still a work in progress. I've re-homed some things and also just returned fish to the store at my loss. Mexican dwarf cray, Myanmar flam red basis, bumblebee goby, wrestling halfbeak, etc. If it doesn't work i don't try and force it.


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## proper.noun (May 29, 2016)

Cmeister said:


> Looks bigger than a typical 5 gallon tank


I managed to find a really nice piece of driftwood that complimented the proportions of the Spec perfectly, waiting for some things to grow in a bit more but the aquascape is finally just about where i want it.

https://youtu.be/4tEuIMZAXl4


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## Savetheplants (May 24, 2016)

I don't see how you are doing this. You are supposed to have about 12 square inches of surface area per inch of tropical fish. The Angel Ram is a challenging fish to keep. Your plants look green and there is not too much algae on the glass.

I looked into getting a Blue Ram to be the soul occupant of a twenty gallon but was dissuaded by my research. They are not the type of fish you can trust your friends to take care of when you leave home to go on vacation.

The 12 square inch of surface area per inch of tropical fish rule has to do with the respiration of the plants and animals. There is another concern though. That is the abundance of Nitrates and phosphate created by your stock in such a small system. A twenty percent water change every two weeks will probably not work.

You don't realize it yet, but you will. Sustainability is the watchword when you are the custodian of an aquarium. Stock lightly and be observant, because things can go wrong really fast in a small tank.


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## spore (May 7, 2016)

I know it's a major drag to get a bunch of negative posts on your first tank thread.. I think most of us probably overstocked our first tanks, and had a mishmash of fish that are sub-optimal. I think you deserve a little slack for that at least. But frankly, aside from the issue of water volume/water changes, you have some fish that shouldn't be alone in a tank that size.
Rams - let alone an angel ram - for instance, generally shouldn't be permanently in a tank smaller than about 20 gallons. They need room to form a territory, and while it might do ok on the short term, it's not what the fish deserves. That many Corys probably need about 20 gallons to be comfortable too.. then you add CPDs and killies.. all of which would like to be in more space than 5 gallons. You have the aquarium equivalent of 23 people living in a 500 sq ft apartment. Is it possible, yes.. but is it going to be pleasant for the inhabitants? No. 

Other than that, a pretty decent first tank.


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## proper.noun (May 29, 2016)

Savetheplants said:


> I don't see how you are doing this. You are supposed to have about 12 square inches of surface area per inch of tropical fish. The Angel Ram is a challenging fish to keep. Your plants look green and there is not too much algae on the glass.
> 
> I looked into getting a Blue Ram to be the soul occupant of a twenty gallon but was dissuaded by my research. They are not the type of fish you can trust your friends to take care of when you leave home to go on vacation.
> 
> ...


I agree with you re: the Blue Ram, from what I've seen it wouldn't have worked in my tank as they were fairly active at the lfs. So were the Gold Rams, Electric Blue Rams, and Baloon Rams (green bodied & striped). The Angel Rams in general showed the least amount of movement in their tank and this is something I've observed across multiple restockings of them. My male in particular showed no aggression toward his ram tank-mates at the store- even when he himself was rammed which was pretty funny to watch.

I generally feed him live blackworms but, much to my surprise, he also really loves algae wafers. And though I haven't seen a need to do it yet, the owner of a lfs that I go to regularly assured me that I could just dump all the blackworms in the tank if I wanted and let the fish hunt at their leisure.

Nitrates were 0 as of a few weeks ago and I've been using Seachem's Phosguard to deal with an algae problem I got from using local tap water for weekly water changes.

I've had the experience of things going wrong very quickly in an uncycled tank and it's not fun.


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## proper.noun (May 29, 2016)

spore said:


> I know it's a major drag to get a bunch of negative posts on your first tank thread.. I think most of us probably overstocked our first tanks, and had a mishmash of fish that are sub-optimal. I think you deserve a little slack for that at least. But frankly, aside from the issue of water volume/water changes, you have some fish that shouldn't be alone in a tank that size.
> Rams - let alone an angel ram - for instance, generally shouldn't be permanently in a tank smaller than about 20 gallons. They need room to form a territory, and while it might do ok on the short term, it's not what the fish deserves. That many Corys probably need about 20 gallons to be comfortable too.. then you add CPDs and killies.. all of which would like to be in more space than 5 gallons. You have the aquarium equivalent of 23 people living in a 500 sq ft apartment. Is it possible, yes.. but is it going to be pleasant for the inhabitants? No.
> 
> Other than that, a pretty decent first tank.


Ya know.. I've lurked these forums for as long as I've had the tank so this type of response was not unexpected. The Corys & CPDs especially have always appeared quite happy in my tank. I think the generally skittish CPDs might actually feel more comfortable in a densely planted smaller setup. Bu again, it's a work in progress.

I find the "x-many pple living an an apartment" analogy to be problematic because people can't inhabit 3 distinct strata of an apartment in the same way a community of fish can occupy a tank.


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## Savetheplants (May 24, 2016)

The tank is beautiful. I keep scrolling back to the top to look at it. You even have a little carpet of something starting up. I don't mean to sound critical and condescending. I'm just trying to be scientific. Thirty years ago I tried a little cichlid in a ten gallon tank and it died. What are some of the parameters in this tank? Do you check for ammonia and nitrite? Fish aquariums have a carrying capacity determined by the mass of their animals in relation to the denitrifying activity of their aerobic bacteria. Gasses including oxygen are exchanged at the surface of the water. Your animals, plants and aerobic bacteria are all consuming oxygen. Every tank has an oxygen budget. You are living paycheck to paycheck when it comes to the oxygen in this tank.

EDIT: I reread post #10 and see that you did provide parameters. "Nitrates were zero." Pardon me. I would check that frequently though.


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## proper.noun (May 29, 2016)

Savetheplants said:


> The tank is beautiful. I keep scrolling back to the top to look at it. You even have a little carpet of something starting up. I don't mean to sound critical and condescending. I'm just trying to be scientific. Thirty years ago I tried a little cichlid in a ten gallon tank and it died. What are some of the parameters in this tank? Do you check for ammonia and nitrite? Fish aquariums have a carrying capacity determined by the mass of their animals in relation to the denitrifying activity of their aerobic bacteria. Gasses including oxygen are exchanged at the surface of the water. Your animals, plants and aerobic bacteria are all consuming oxygen. Every tank has an oxygen budget. You are living paycheck to paycheck when it comes to the oxygen in this tank.
> 
> EDIT: I reread post #10 and see that you did provide parameters. "Nitrates were zero." Pardon me. I would check that frequently though.


Thank you for the compliment as well as the constructive criticism. I'll do biweekly testing for the next few months just to make sure i'm not missing any spikes. I've got the API Freshwater master test kit and just bought the GH& KH test kit because I'm having trouble maintaining my shrimp population. I also intend to buy the phosphate test kit too since I've read that my plants will suffer from a complete lack of it and I'm running Phosguard in my filter. Finally, I've been using 'Fluval Biological Cleaner for Aquariums' for the past month and while I don't have a foolproof way of knowing if it's working- when I removed the driftwood and vacuumed the soil 2 days ago I was pleasantly surprised at how pristine it was. 

I appreciate the reminder regarding a tank's oxygen budget because it's not something I ever really think about. I have a CO2 regulator set up and If you take a look at the first pic you can sorta notice my CO2 line on the far left side.


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## proper.noun (May 29, 2016)

proper.noun said:


> Hey there, I've had my tank running for several months now and I'm really happy with it so far. Thought I'd finally show you all. Cheers
> 
> 4 clown killi
> 2 Norman's lampeye killi
> ...


Decided to take the rainbow goby out because he was semi aggressive and doesn't really like sharing the floor with my corys. He's also the only fish that my ram won't tolerate and tends to chase so he'll have to go back to the lfs.

So that experiment cost me 7 bucks.. I had him for about 2 months. Gorgeous coloring and I really like the way he moves and his body shape as well as the way he made use of my aquascape- his home was a burrow that he made under the rock that's to the left in the pic. He spent 60% of his time hidden under there.


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## spore (May 7, 2016)

proper.noun said:


> I find the "x-many pple living an an apartment" analogy to be problematic because people can't inhabit 3 distinct strata of an apartment in the same way a community of fish can occupy a tank.


The analogy works because all the fish, while perhaps necessarily occupying the tank in layers due to the complete and utter lack of space, they are all breathing and living in the same medium shared by all other inhabitants. Perhaps 23 people all swimming, and relieving themselves in the same kiddie pool would be a more apt analogy?

The bottom line here - if this is indeed your first tank as your title reads, you are then assuming that you know better than an entire body of people that are strongly suggesting that you're tank is waay overstocked, and not in any way a good situation for any of the fish.

I watched your youtube video, and your angel ram looks really not happy. M. Ramirezi rams are pretty low key to begin with, but it has virtually no space to move. Rams generally spend a lot of their time at or near the bottom of the tank near leaf litter, etc. They also require very clean water, especially since yours is a baloon/angel variety which are generally less hardy than a standard ramirezi due to selective breeding. Please at least re-home this guy, or consider upgrading to a bigger setup.

I'll leave ya alone now, as I think I've made my point.


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## zeldar (Jun 24, 2009)

That ram is going to be miserable in there. He is dang near the width of that tank...

And come on brah, lose the sticker backdrop. There has to plain black on the other side of it.


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## proper.noun (May 29, 2016)

spore said:


> The analogy works because all the fish, while perhaps necessarily occupying the tank in layers due to the complete and utter lack of space, they are all breathing and living in the same medium shared by all other inhabitants. Perhaps 23 people all swimming, and relieving themselves in the same kiddie pool would be a more apt analogy?
> 
> The bottom line here - if this is indeed your first tank as your title reads, you are then assuming that you know better than an entire body of people that are strongly suggesting that you're tank is waay overstocked, and not in any way a good situation for any of the fish.
> 
> ...


While I hear what you're saying.. No, I don't think that's an apt analogy. Or rather- if it is more apt then only marginally so.

I assume nothing. I do however take all internet advice with a grain of salt. Nevertheless let me reiterate that I _have_ found the wealth & breadth of knowledge in this forum and others like it to be invaluable.

I think you're reading a bit much into my ram's behavior in the video, possibly unfairly so. He seemed pretty at at ease to me and as I mentioned back up in post #6, "[he] generally only hangs out way up there when he's expecting me to feed him blackworms." What I saw in that video was a fat ram eager to be fed displaying full bright color and not showing any skittishness towards my presence. But that's just me. More often than not he can be found under the the driftwood. The Rams currently in the same tank mine came from at my LFS look a lot more stressed than him.


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## proper.noun (May 29, 2016)

zeldar said:


> That ram is going to be miserable in there. He is dang near the width of that tank...
> 
> And come on brah, lose the sticker backdrop. There has to plain black on the other side of it.


Hm. Not quite sold on the black yet but then again almost :laugh2:


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## D.Farci (Mar 15, 2016)

The reason the rams at the store look "more" stressed is because they are in a bare (or almost bare) tank with a lot of conspecifics, who are all fighting for territory. 

Long story short, you've got far too many species for a 5 gallon, and you've combined species from all across the world. Rams don't know how to act around puffers, so maybe they leave them alone. But they also might immediately attack it, like he attacked your goby. 

We'd all love to overstock a tank, but at some point you call it quits. I'm about to purchase 7 Chili Rasboras (Boraras brigittae) for my Spec V. These fish are as tiny as they come. But when you've got poop, extra food, small territory, etc. they add up quickly. But hey, if you can keep it clean and pristine, do you. I hope you enjoy the tank and no fish are unhappy, because that's all we ask for.


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## proper.noun (May 29, 2016)

Turns out both of my nerite snails were dead before I even started this thread. They were dead in my tank for almost a month before I realized. Really confused as to what might have killed them because they both died at exactly the same time. I woke up one morning and they were both clamped up tight and lying on their backs. At the time I assumed that my pea puffer had pestered them both so I just flipped them over and went about my business. A week later when neither of them had budged I took one out of the tank and tried to open its trapdoor/cover and met (what I _thought_ was) some resistance so I figured they were still alive and let them be. Well obviously I was wrong.

This explain the ammonia & nitrite spike I observed when I did a test right after post #13, largely due to Savetheplants prompting. Ammonia was just under 1 ppm and nitrite was .25 which confused the hell out of me. I did an extra water change in the middle of that week and didn't think about it much beyond that. (dead snails still in aquarium:|)

Yeah.. really don't understand why they both died right at the same time. They seemed reasonably healthy and active right up until the end which is another reason I didn't suspect that they were dead. I mean my cherry shrimp population is stable with no obvious fatalities and in fantastic shape- really active with full bodies and bright coloring. All I can think of is my puffer did it but I really don't know. I have no immediate plans to replace them.

All this to say- I'm pleased that my filtration setup could accommodate the bio-load of two dead and rotting snails in a heavily overstocked 5 gallon with a Purigen bag near the end of its regenerative life-cycle for almost an entire month. Not bad :smile2:


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## MtAnimals (May 17, 2015)

well,if this tank is overstocked,you obviously need a larger tank.Time to start shopping for your second tank! go as big as you can afford.Wait for a petco 1$ per gallon sale!


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## proper.noun (May 29, 2016)

MtAnimals said:


> well,if this tank is overstocked,you obviously need a larger tank.Time to start shopping for your second tank! go as big as you can afford.Wait for a petco 1$ per gallon sale!


Well what I _really_ want is a 12 gallon long but I just don't have the space to spare right now. Maybe one day.. :grin2:

I guess what I should have said was either (i) heavily stocked or (ii) "heavily overstocked" b/c seeing as my stocking level works well for my tank & its inhabitants I don't genuinely conceive of it "overstocked."


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## proper.noun (May 29, 2016)

D.Farci said:


> The reason the rams at the store look "more" stressed is because they are in a bare (or almost bare) tank with a lot of conspecifics, who are all fighting for territory.
> 
> Long story short, you've got far too many species for a 5 gallon, and you've combined species from all across the world. Rams don't know how to act around puffers, so maybe they leave them alone. But they also might immediately attack it, like he attacked your goby.
> 
> We'd all love to overstock a tank, but at some point you call it quits. I'm about to purchase 7 Chili Rasboras (Boraras brigittae) for my Spec V. These fish are as tiny as they come. But when you've got poop, extra food, small territory, etc. they add up quickly. But hey, if you can keep it clean and pristine, do you. I hope you enjoy the tank and no fish are unhappy, because that's all we ask for.


No you've got the relationship between my ram and puffer all wrong, it's the puffer that runs the show not the other way around. If you take a look at the second photo of my very first post in the thread you should be able to see a chunk missing from my Ram's anal fin. It's since gown back and there has been no other fin damage to my Ram or any other fishes, nor any obvious signs of further aggression in my puffer. But for a week or two after my ram was nipped it definitely kept its distance and one good eye on the puffer at all times. I think it may have been a case of 'Hungry puffer thinks everything looks like food.'

These days I regularly see the puffer and ram within close proximity (like within 2 inches) of each other and haven't observed any indication of aggression, hostility, or anxiety in either of them. The ram doesn't dart away from the puffer or vice versa. 

Chili Rasboras are indeed tiny, I've got 9 in my 2.6 gallon office tank.


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## proper.noun (May 29, 2016)

MtAnimals said:


> well,if this tank is overstocked,you obviously need a larger tank.Time to start shopping for your second tank! go as big as you can afford.Wait for a petco 1$ per gallon sale!


Oh man- I just noticed your location, my friend from W. Montana. Take a look at mine, lol. I don't live in a house or anything, I live in a room in an apartment with my partner. So really only half a room :laugh2:

I floated the idea of a 12 gallon long lengthwise across our desk a few months ago and wifey was less than receptive.. My corn snake's tank already takes up 2/3 of our dresser and my cat already wakes her up 10 minutes before _my_ alarm goes off in the morning- which translates to a whole 40 minutes before _her_ alarm goes off o.0

I still dream of a 12 gallon long lengthwise across the desk, I think it would look really nice and get pretty decent natural lighting but I don't know where all our other crap would go. One day I'll have more space


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## MtAnimals (May 17, 2015)

proper.noun said:


> Oh man- I just noticed your location, my friend from W. Montana. Take a look at mine, lol. I don't live in a house or anything, I live in a room in an apartment with my partner. So really only half a room :laugh2:
> 
> I floated the idea of a 12 gallon long lengthwise across our desk a few months ago and wifey was less than receptive.. My corn snake's tank already takes up 2/3 of our dresser and my cat already wakes her up 10 minutes before _my_ alarm goes off in the morning- which translates to a whole 40 minutes before _her_ alarm goes off o.0
> 
> I still dream of a 12 gallon long lengthwise across the desk, I think it would look really nice and get pretty decent natural lighting but I don't know where all our other crap would go. One day I'll have more space


I can relate! Our house was originally built on a budget,consequently it's 26 x 28 with a small loft.We're on 10 acres with a tiny house.My wife kinda goes back and forth on setting up a desktop tank on her desk for a new home for the betta.I drive down the street,and when I see a nice spread out house,all I think of is how many aquariums I could put in there! lol.One of these days I'll build an addition for a fish room.


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## proper.noun (May 29, 2016)

Hello everyone, I just came here to vent. I had been out of office on vacation for a week and when I came in this morning I was greeted by THIS F#%&ING MESS. JFC.. 

The photo doesn't even do it justice because I've already started cleaning but there was so much rotting food covering everything that part or me questions if it was simply gross incompetence or actually malicious intent. :crying:

ALL I asked my coworkers to do was NOTHING and I came back to this disaster. If I had vacationed until Monday (5 days from now) instead of coming back today (Thurs.) then I'm sure many if not all of my fish and inverts would be dead. People don't listen. Moral of the story- Don't leave your fish food out in the office.


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## angyles (Oct 1, 2015)

they probably thought they were being helpful :-( hopefully you didn't lose too many critters

I was just reading through this post and saw about your Nerite snails and wanted to chime in on that. While it is odd that they both died at the same exact time, I've have pretty bad luck with them myself because I don't have enough algae to feed them. They don't really eat any other food or algae disks, so unless you have algae growing for them to feed on, and not BBA, then they're not even worth trying to keep. They're also very sensitive to nitrates so if those get too high, that can be a culprit too and might explain them both happening at the same time.


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## AWolf (Jun 13, 2014)

I've kept a heavy bioload in a 10g, and it required 90% water changes every week. No way plants and filters could keep up with the ammonias. I can't believe this will work long term and without heavy maintenance. You should change water twice a week at least with that load, or risk it all. I'll place a 10 dollar bet on fish dying within the next month, without 2x week large water changes. Just kidding about the bet of course. 

If I were to create the exact tank in my home, which is what someone will inevitably do after reading this, and only change 20% wkly as you are doing, then I'd be surprised if it lasted more than three months without any deaths. However, if I were to recreate this tank and do 2x wkly water changes, then I could probably keep everything alive for three months, but the fish would not be happy or healthy. The stress will slowly break them down. You are basically just like a fish store now, with an overload in hopes that people will buy before they die. 

I've been known to be stubborn and push the envelope, but this makes my biggest mistakes look small. I thank you for that, at least. >


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## proper.noun (May 29, 2016)

AWolf said:


> I've kept a heavy bioload in a 10g, and it required 90% water changes every week. No way plants and filters could keep up with the ammonias. I can't believe this will work long term and without heavy maintenance. You should change water twice a week at least with that load, or risk it all. I'll place a 10 dollar bet on fish dying within the next month, without 2x week large water changes. Just kidding about the bet of course.
> 
> If I were to create the exact tank in my home, which is what someone will inevitably do after reading this, and only change 20% wkly as you are doing, then I'd be surprised if it lasted more than three months without any deaths. However, if I were to recreate this tank and do 2x wkly water changes, then I could probably keep everything alive for three months, but the fish would not be happy or healthy. The stress will slowly break them down. You are basically just like a fish store now, with an overload in hopes that people will buy before they die.
> 
> I've been known to be stubborn and push the envelope, but this makes my biggest mistakes look small. I thank you for that, at least. >


Ha! You're silly.. And wrong. Cheeky reply, though, so I guess I'll give you points for that.

It would be very odd indeed if all my fish were to mysteriously die off within the next 3 months as this tank has been up and running since February but I'll keep everybody posted. I lost 2 neon tetras in that first month due to an uncycled tank, back then I didn't have a kit to test my parameters nor something like Prime or AmQuel to neutralize the toxic levels of ammonia. I've since learned from those early mistakes. But yeah, as it stands- I have had just 2 fish fatalities due to foul water.

As I just mentioned a few posts up, I have been away on vacation so I missed my weekly water change last weekend. My tank is coming up up on 2 weeks without a water change and my water appears to be clean- well that's what the test kits telling me anyway. It may even be a bit cleaner than usual because they went without daily feedings during my absence thus producing significantly less waste. All my fish are in good physical health, however my puffer does exhibit signs of stress in the form of occasional glass surfing.

Take care.

additional photo of my filtration media setup attached in case anyone's interested


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## AWolf (Jun 13, 2014)

The first pics don't show the duck weed covering the surface you have in the filter pic. I expect it really helps pull all that ammonia and nitrate out of the tank for you. :wink2:


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## proper.noun (May 29, 2016)

AWolf said:


> The first pics don't show the duck weed covering the surface you have in the filter pic. I expect it really helps pull all that ammonia and nitrate out of the tank for you.


Oh yeah, that makes sense. It does represent a good deal of additional live and growing plant matter so it definitely helped on this past 2 week stretch but I would like to point out that I only dumped all that duckweed in there about a month ago. It wasn't in there when my nerites were dead and rotting.

I think it's also worth noting that I'm pretty sure I have a breeding population of blackworms in my substrate. I've seen some really healthy looking big and small (baby?) ones pop up after uprooting a plant. On that occasion one of the tiny blackworms squiggled straight up the water column and was immediately eaten by one of my clown killis at the top of the tank.


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## proper.noun (May 29, 2016)

angyles said:


> they probably thought they were being helpful :-( hopefully you didn't lose too many critters
> 
> I was just reading through this post and saw about your Nerite snails and wanted to chime in on that. While it is odd that they both died at the same exact time, I've have pretty bad luck with them myself because I don't have enough algae to feed them. They don't really eat any other food or algae disks, so unless you have algae growing for them to feed on, and not BBA, then they're not even worth trying to keep. They're also very sensitive to nitrates so if those get too high, that can be a culprit too and might explain them both happening at the same time.


Yeah they did.. I've lost 4 of my 9 chili rasbora. Turns out it was the kid I hired that actually did the deed after being prompted by another coworker who thought that my dwarf crayfish had died. My crayfish had, in fact, molted... 

Thank you for that nerite info! Your explanation makes a lot of sense to me. I guess if they were both starved for lack of algae in the first place then they likely would have been particularly susceptible to any nitrate spike.


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## proper.noun (May 29, 2016)

Pic heavy update

Trying red hued plants again (Rotala this time) after not having any success the last few times. Supplementing with iron this time around and at 3+ weeks in the rotala is still looking good.

Added some Buce of the black gaia variety which i'm very happy with.

Added anubias and it's been a big hit with my salt and pepper corys. They _love _to rest on top of the leaves as well as shelter beneath it.

Christmas moss continues to grow really well, in need of a good pruning right now because it's overtaken my Ram's home under the spiderwood. I dulled the Finnex planted + light source directly above the moss by covering the light with a piece of black card-stock (see photo) to further reduce its intensity.

My CPDs had a tendency to bolt to the farther end of the tank when I would walk by so I added that tall grass-like plant and rotala specifically to make them more comfortable and it's worked out just as I had hoped- they definitely use more of the tank even when i'm near. My clown killis also really enjoy weaving through the grass and rotala.

Removed the dwarf hairgrass which never really took. Baby tears have been in for 6 months and never grew out significantly either. I'm ok with that because I think my corys prefer the bare bottom. 

Speaking of corydora I've got a single (per the lfs..)"Juli Cory" that I'll be removing from the tank to either re-home or surrender to a LFS, not so sure if it's a Julii Cory or a False Julii but i think it' a false. It's just too busy for my tank, my salt and peppers are much more mellow which I prefer. He didn't have barbells _at all_ when I first got him just worn down nubs so i'm happy at least to be leaving him in better condition than when I got him.

I've recently had 2 (small-ish sized) rcs in the span of a week die during the molting process so I'll be monitoring for more fatalities. 

Removed all the duckweed I could find weeks ago but there's still some duckweed in there :/ Those floating water spangles have been a real life saver by reducing the intensity of my Finnex Planted + light- which was/is way too intense. I think it was the intense light that gave me so much trouble with green hair algae. I had green hair algae for months and sometimes it would get way out of control and I'd be left picking it out as much as I could with tongs on a near daily basis. These days the algae is just... gone. I can't find even a speck of it and I'm just amazed and ecstatic  I also reduced the water current to almost nothing by covering the outflow with a piece of foam, this was recommended by the owner of a LFS to combat algae.

Also, my feeding schedule has been reduced to about every 36 hours - 48 hours.


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## proper.noun (May 29, 2016)

I returned my ram.. well I didn't return it to Petco- I brought it to a LFS that gave me $5 livestock credit and in turn quickly resold it for $25 so presumably he's now off to bigger and better things.

The ram had sort of a bottomless-pit of an appetite and I really didn't like the way it constantly begged for food, It took several month for me to actually go through with giving him up but it's been a couple of weeks now and I even though I do miss his stupid beautiful pig face I can't say I regret the decision. 

I also returned the puffers which ultimately just weren't right for my setups. the male was a nippy danger to my corys and ram in my 5 gallon as well as possibly a little anxious but was happy enough when moved to my low-key 2.5 gallon (with chili rasbora tank-mates). The female seemed anxious in the busy community environment of my 5 gallon and also seemed to prefer my low-key 2.5 gallon. 

Since then I've added an orange oto and 4 juvenile panda loaches to the 5 gallon mix. The panda loaches were an impulse buy which seems to be working out well so far. They're so small my CPDs thought they might be food the first day I put them in. 

The orange oto might just be the handsomest fish I own right now, will get 2 more if I can find them.

Had an enormous BBA breakout recently which I assume had something to do with my ample bioload and not changing the water for a good 3 months... Slowly but surely it's coming under control :/

































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## lasttycoon (Aug 8, 2011)

Glad you have come to your senses. It's good to see you taking advice eventually. Your tank will be much more stable with these messy fish out of this tiny tank. I personally think adding more fish is not smart but to each their own. Successful tanks are measured in years, not months. 

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## proper.noun (May 29, 2016)

Thought I'd give an update since the tanks been up for a year now, not sure if there's much worth reporting but here goes..

No catastrophes lol, tank is stable & the fish folk appear to be doing well. Aquascaping in this tank is a pain though, not much room to work with.

For lighting I switched out the Finnex Planted+ with a 24/7 SE and I'm running it on the 24/7 setting. The switch has done wonders for the red coloring in my rotala plants, which grew well with the Planted+ but basically stayed green. In general I still feel like I haven't dialed in my lighting schedule but I think it's getting better.

I keep the co2 on 24/7 at a rate of 1 bubble every 20-30 seconds which is a pain in the a$$ to calibrate but super convenient when you finally do (no solenoid for me FYI).

I've had a recent increase in green hair algae that I'm currently troubleshooting. Hoping it has more to do with my change in water source than it has to do with my change in lighting.

Panda loaches are getting their adult coloration slowly but surely and are bigger than the cherry shrimp now and I also added an amano shrimp.

Oh and my 2.6 gallon work tank is also chugging along fine, I changed the aquascape quite a bit.

Oh! And I'm using an all-in one macro/micro liquid fertilizer these days.









































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