# Andrew's 1st tank - fluval spec V - never ending breeding



## deleted_user_17 (Jun 14, 2012)

Great setup and photos. The crayfish looks like a real character 

I didn't realise the spec didnt have a built in heater. I have started hiding what little equipment I have in my tank behind a giant indian almond leaf. 

All the best with your tank


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## andrewss (Oct 17, 2012)

yeah, I made the scape without really thinking of the heater, and considering how little space I have (can't get it real close to the plants ideally) where I put it is pretty much the only place I can... I am thinking about looking into a smaller heater but I can't really find much on that. At least the stable temps are making the fish (especially the inverts) MUCH happier.

Thanks for the comments! The crayfish is funny, he really is great... a very interesting creature, im surprised more people don't keep these lil guys, they stay small and really don't mess up the plants - though you do NEED to have the tank covered because when they jet around occasionally I have even heard him smack the cover when he was doing that.

He is missing a claw since last nite (he molted) hopefully he is ok, I dont know how that happened, perhaps one of the new assassins attacked him while he was molting  well either way I think he will be ok till next molt


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## andrewss (Oct 17, 2012)

some new pictures... I think you guys will appreciate the first one of one of my assassin snails - my planted assassin snail


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## andrewss (Oct 17, 2012)

so obviously given how many posts I have made in this so far I am obsessing right now haha... well I finally dealt with that eye sore of a heater and put it in the chamber of the filter the outflow goes, it barely fit but it doesnt contact any of the plastic tubing or the pump below so I think it should work really well hidden away in there... so here are some proper current pictures of the tank with that thing hidden away with the only memory being the bright red led that comes on when it powers up:




























and I figured I would include a decent picture (hard to capture these quick small guys) of one of my young male tiger endlers and a couple lil fry harassing a hidden RCS


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## deleted_user_17 (Jun 14, 2012)

Haha, that is one slow assassin 

Good thinking on the heater, the tank looks better for it being hidden (and you can sleep at night now!)

I only want to keep shrimp, but since joining the forum I have a small list of other creatures I want to keep.. These dwarf crayfish are one, and dwarf pea puffers and another.

All the best with the tank


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## GMYukonon24s (May 3, 2009)

Nice looking tank


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## andrewss (Oct 17, 2012)

Jedi_Pizza said:


> Haha, that is one slow assassin
> 
> Good thinking on the heater, the tank looks better for it being hidden (and you can sleep at night now!)
> 
> ...


I really like the dwarf cray fish but I guess the only thing people that keep them can say perhaps negative about them is that you need a lot of tank to keep more than one together because of territorial issues whereas shrimps you can obviously pack a ton of them together.





GMYukonon24s said:


> Nice looking tank



thx! :smile:


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## 150EH (Dec 6, 2004)

I like your tank, simple and small makes it easy to care for and my favorite is my nano 2.5 gallon just for that reason. When you get a couple dollars in your pocket you might consider buying a 9 liter bag of Aquasoil and it will feed all your plants plus you'll have enough left over to do a couple more small tanks, I've only tried it for the first time in the last year and I'll never use any other substrate again, good luck.


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## SpecGrrl (Jul 26, 2012)

andrewss said:


> yeah, I made the scape without really thinking of the heater, and considering how little space I have (can't get it real close to the plants ideally) where I put it is pretty much the only place I can... I am thinking about looking into a smaller heater but I can't really find much on that. At least the stable temps are making the fish (especially the inverts) MUCH happier.
> 
> Thanks for the comments! The crayfish is funny, he really is great... a very interesting creature, im surprised more people don't keep these lil guys, they stay small and really don't mess up the plants - though you do NEED to have the tank covered because when they jet around occasionally I have even heard him smack the cover when he was doing that.
> 
> He is missing a claw since last nite (he molted) hopefully he is ok, I dont know how that happened, perhaps one of the new assassins attacked him while he was molting  well either way I think he will be ok till next molt



You can put a small heater in the pump well.


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## SpecGrrl (Jul 26, 2012)

*tries not to want a dwarf crazy*


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## theshadybird (Sep 25, 2012)

SpecGrrl said:


> *tries not to want a dwarf crazy*


Me tooooo T_T


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## andrewss (Oct 17, 2012)

150EH said:


> I like your tank, simple and small makes it easy to care for and my favorite is my nano 2.5 gallon just for that reason. When you get a couple dollars in your pocket you might consider buying a 9 liter bag of Aquasoil and it will feed all your plants plus you'll have enough left over to do a couple more small tanks, I've only tried it for the first time in the last year and I'll never use any other substrate again, good luck.


I just bought a bag and plan to use it on my next tank (in the mail) - I will rescape this spec V some day and get a quality substrate in there... eventually



SpecGrrl said:


> You can put a small heater in the pump well.


Already did 



SpecGrrl said:


> *tries not to want a dwarf crazy*


they are a lot of fun 



theshadybird said:


> Me tooooo T_T


dooo it :icon_evil heh


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## andrewss (Oct 17, 2012)

hunrgy hungry shrimp











found the shrimps hanging out at the local pub










liking this young male endlers color pattern on this side


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## tomfromstlouis (Apr 2, 2012)

Yeah, he's all dressed up all right. The furry assassin is hilarious. Makes me wonder why you don't see fuzz on shells more often. 

Nice looking tank. Not sure about the gravel size, but it all looks like a nice home.

Nice job on the photos too.


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## robbowal (Mar 27, 2011)

andrewss said:


> Hey there, take a look at some recent pictures and a video of the tank... I have enjoyed looking through many of the journals here, this forum really has some amazing aquariums!
> 
> This is my first and only tank, I definitely want to start more but I won't until I am more stable...
> 
> ...


Firstly like the tank, but i have to say that door has one of the best paintjobs i have seen in a while very cool indeed.


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## andrewss (Oct 17, 2012)

I hope the landlord likes it


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## hlaalu (Sep 24, 2012)

Found your thread, awesome tank! What's that long grass-like plant? I like the look of it


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## andrewss (Oct 17, 2012)

thanks man!

I do believe it is val - nana


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## Sethjohnson30 (Jan 16, 2012)

+1 on the door, I dig it. 

I like the tank it's nice and simple. Reminds me of my first tank. That is before this forum ruined me causing mts 
And spending thousands on tanks I am never happy with lol. 




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## andrewss (Oct 17, 2012)

Yeah, I can see how this forum does that... I just got done scaping and planting my little spec 2 tank - had to get it a bit fancier with a CFL and aquasoil and seriyu stones 

MTS is a real disease haha


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## Sethjohnson30 (Jan 16, 2012)

Lol mts is no joke I currently have 9 tanks, I've had over 25(never had anything less than a 10g and I've only been in the hobby 4 years 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## PinkRasbora (Jan 22, 2005)

25 tanks? lol Goofball

Andrew you take beautiful pictures


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## Sethjohnson30 (Jan 16, 2012)

PinkRasbora said:


> 25 tanks? lol Goofball
> 
> Andrew you take beautiful pictures


Maybe I should clarify. I've kept over 25 different tanks never all at once I currently have the most I've had at one time right now at 9 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## andrewss (Oct 17, 2012)

PinkRasbora said:


> 25 tanks? lol Goofball
> 
> Andrew you take beautiful pictures


thanks 



Sethjohnson30 said:


> Maybe I should clarify. I've kept over 25 different tanks never all at once I currently have the most I've had at one time right now at 9
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


heh, I wonder if there is treatment for MTS? lol


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## andrewss (Oct 17, 2012)

sooo craycray my CPO was looking a bit under the weather for a couple weeks now, his last molt went bad and he was missing a main claw (and his antennae remained really short after this too) - this happened like a day after I added my assassin snails (I wonder if one of em attacked him while he was molting?) - but yeah the last couple days he was kinda twitchy and not moving around well one his claws was stuck and like seized a lil vertical....

but I am curious what you guys think about the cause - I wasn't really supplementing the tank for hardness or calicum or anything for shrimps/crays - any advice here? only thing I did was a few weeks back I started giving the tank some fluval shrimp granules.

so yeah, today I found him dead, apparently halfway molted and he just didn't have it to complete the molt  :'(

craycray was a loved member of the 5gallon community from the start back in july - may he rest in peace in my pet cemetery - and out of respect I might retire the 5gallon from CPO keeping perhaps indefinitely.












RIP


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## theshadybird (Sep 25, 2012)

;_;


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## aydemir (Sep 20, 2012)

Nice tank! Sorry to hear about the crayfish. It sounds like the assasins or something harrassed it. If you don't like the heater in the pump chamber, you can just cut out part of the filter sponge and drop it in there, I did that on my spec 2 gallon and it worked out fine. Eventually I replaced the filter altogether with a small filter driven by an airpump, seems to work better than the built in filter


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## Green_Flash (Apr 15, 2012)

Hello, sorry about the CPO, he looked like a nice one too. I was reading up on CPO's recently and apparently they are very vulnerable while molting. Your guess about something attacking it may be very well correct. 

do you think you will get another, they are so cool.


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## andrewss (Oct 17, 2012)

aydemir said:


> Nice tank! Sorry to hear about the crayfish. It sounds like the assasins or something harrassed it. If you don't like the heater in the pump chamber, you can just cut out part of the filter sponge and drop it in there, I did that on my spec 2 gallon and it worked out fine. Eventually I replaced the filter altogether with a small filter driven by an airpump, seems to work better than the built in filter


it is working out pretty good so far... yeah I dunno maybe an assassin messed with him while molting - it was also suggested that perhaps my frequent water changes were irritating him.



Green_Flash said:


> Hello, sorry about the CPO, he looked like a nice one too. I was reading up on CPO's recently and apparently they are very vulnerable while molting. Your guess about something attacking it may be very well correct.
> 
> do you think you will get another, they are so cool.


yeah, they are really cool... I dunno I might have to get another one, it is either that or more RCS (only have 4 rcs in there now)


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## andrewss (Oct 17, 2012)

two new pix... replaced the blyxa plant in the front left which was doing real bad with the remained of my dwarf sub then added a crypt parva next to the crypt wendtii and finally added some flame moss over the biggest piece of driftwood - I think it all looks a bit more lush 

oh and maybe you can spot the new nerite snail, on algae duty


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## acitydweller (Dec 28, 2011)

All invertebrates need calcium supplementing or calcium enriched diets for them to grow and molt properly. A diet rich in protien also will cause them to grow faster than the rate of shell development which results in premature molting. Many can survive with partial molts but with obvious deformities like lost limbs. Learn more about dosing the water column with calcium. It is easy and inexpensive.

Also for a tank with the stock lighting, id recommend not having any floaters as it makes a low light tank that much darker. If you wanted to keep floaters, get a few larger ones like frog bit or dwl where the shrimp can feed off their biofilm. Duckweed doesn't offer this benefit and just serves to multiply and choke light out.

Good luck.



andrewss said:


> sooo craycray my CPO was looking a bit under the weather for a couple weeks now, his last molt went bad and he was missing a main claw (and his antennae remained really short after this too) - this happened like a day after I added my assassin snails (I wonder if one of em attacked him while he was molting?) - but yeah the last couple days he was kinda twitchy and not moving around well one his claws was stuck and like seized a lil vertical....
> 
> but I am curious what you guys think about the cause - I wasn't really supplementing the tank for hardness or calicum or anything for shrimps/crays - any advice here? only thing I did was a few weeks back I started giving the tank some fluval shrimp granules.
> 
> ...


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## andrewss (Oct 17, 2012)

thanks for the input, I really appreciate it - oh and yeah I've been taking out the duckweed more and more lately...

any more specific input you can give me on the calcium issue? I am wondering if supplementing the water or the diet is the way to go... well I will be searching on this


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## Green_Flash (Apr 15, 2012)

It is looking more lush I agree.


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## BoxxerBoyDrew (Oct 16, 2005)

AWESOME LITTLE TANK!!!

SO SORRY about Craycray!!! It sux when ya get attached to the little guys , then loose them too soon!!! LOTS of people say " They are JUST fish", but when you work on your tanks soooo hard like most of us do, they are NOT JUST FISH ANYMORE!!! To me my aquatic friends are treasured, some more than others, but still they are Living Creatures and not some plastic toy that when broken gets trashed!!!

Anyway Sorry about the rant! 

The only thing I would change about the tank is the gravel as some have mentioned, but still it is a VERY COOL SETUP!

Keep up the great work!
Drew


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## andrewss (Oct 17, 2012)

Thanks man 

Yeah, it was really sad to find him dead 


The gravel would be nice to change out to some sandy substrate over maybe a soil... eventually I will do that job - probably in a few more months when the filter gets even more packed with good bacteria 

thanks again !


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## andrewss (Oct 17, 2012)

couldn't help but take a picture of my female (who recently dropped) invading the endler pennywort hangout 




























I have finally gotten to KH/GH testing with this tank and have some invert supplements coming in the mail, and some borneowild shrimp foods 

Will update when goodies arrive.


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## andrewss (Oct 17, 2012)

So, I have begun dosing with flourish and flourish excel finally...

These tanks come with both biomax and carbon filter - I heard the carbon will eliminate the fertilizers. You guys agree? 

So I took out the carbon bag and left the biomax, however I am wondering what I should do from here on out... replace that section in the sponge thing with another bag of the biomax (ceramic) or leave it out? What do you guys think?

Isn't the ceramic just for smell or something, no? Just wondering what the justification for the carbon is.

Any input is appreciated! 


I am still waiting on more goodies to come in the mail but I finally got my equilibrium in, so I am trying to devise a schedule:

flourish: 1x week
flourish excel: 3 or 4x a week
equilibrium: every water change


Also, I am waiting on some more varied food for the shrimps (all borneowild) but also their minerax & vigor supplements... so I am wondering how I should fit those two into the schedule equation or if they are even necessary lol!

Oh and here are my parameters:

ph: 7.2
gh: 161 (9drops)
kh: 3 (3drops)


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## Sethjohnson30 (Jan 16, 2012)

You are correct. Carbon will remove the nutrients from the water column. 

The ceramic rings are porous, and have a lot of surface area. The high surface area allows for a lot of room for beneficial bacteria to grow. In a sense I guess they do aid in removing the smell. 

Have nothing but filter floss,ceramic rings, and bio balls in my filters.


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## andrewss (Oct 17, 2012)

bioballs huh... I am thinking I am going to stuff some bioballs in the bottom part of the overflow and then put the sponge thing housing my biomax on top of that, probably sticking out a little more than stock that way it prevents fry from going through the slits and hanging out up there - it is kinda funny they are interested in swimming in there especially if I am messing around with it because these endlers are so curious - but I don't want to hurt or trap any of them


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## andrewss (Oct 17, 2012)

finally got around to testing my water straight from the tap here...

ph: 7.2 - 7.6 (I have gotten a damn near same result from my tank but this tube seemed a decent bit more blue than the 7.2 which is more teal like lol but whatever)

gh: 179 (10 drops vs 9 drops from the tank)

kh: 3 (same 3 drops from tap and tank)


probably going to stack in bioballs in the filter to fill in space and filtering considering the carbon is gone for good (and will do the same with my smaller spec2)


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## andrewss (Oct 17, 2012)

FTS









he's tryin so hard to impress the ladies









the gang of them, my oldest male is trying to show them how it's done lol!

when the males get into fits of displaying for the females it is pretty funny


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## theshadybird (Sep 25, 2012)

This is just such a beautiful tank, I absolutely love watching it grow :]


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## andrewss (Oct 17, 2012)

thanks so much


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## Rexthecrayfish (Nov 9, 2012)

haha love the planted assassin, does that cray get along with the shrimp? he doesnt eat the babies does he? im thinking of getting one for my 5gal rcs tank


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## andrewss (Oct 17, 2012)

haha ya that assassin is so funny with the moss hat 

the cray died a lil while back unfortunately  - though I never saw him get a shrimp, they were always too fast for him.


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## eco (Feb 23, 2012)

I've been enjoying yout tank for a while! One question, has your endlers ever took a nip at the shrimp?Have you seen the endlers around shrimplets? I've got hybrid tigers but I'm too afraid they'll make a meal of my neo's! Btw nice tank! e


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## andrewss (Oct 17, 2012)

I haven't witnessed any of that but maybe it happens when I'm not looking.... that said the RCS's in the tank have had no trouble producing PLENTY of offspring


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## bubbless (Nov 19, 2006)

Really nice tank! I like you choice of flora and fauna.


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## andrewss (Oct 17, 2012)

thanks a bunch


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## horsedude (Nov 10, 2012)

any updates?


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## andrewss (Oct 17, 2012)

not much to report... have given away somewhere around 30 or so endlers (number includes some pretty small fry) to local club members to keep this tank within reasonable numbers 

plants are all sustaining, so things are good 

the cherries and endlers make for constant breeding and easy


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## horsedude (Nov 10, 2012)

any more updates its be almost 2 months


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## horsedude (Nov 10, 2012)

horsedude said:


> any more updates its be almost 2 months


 any updates been 3 more monthes :icon_bigg lol


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## horsedude (Nov 10, 2012)

horsedude said:


> any updates been 3 more monthes :icon_bigg lol


any more updates, been 3 more months  
good luck


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## Steindler63 (Oct 8, 2012)

andrewss said:


> so obviously given how many posts I have made in this so far I am obsessing right now haha... well I finally dealt with that eye sore of a heater and put it in the chamber of the filter the outflow goes, it barely fit but it doesnt contact any of the plastic tubing or the pump below so I think it should work really well hidden away in there... so here are some proper current pictures of the tank with that thing hidden away with the only memory being the bright red led that comes on when it powers up:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Hey, great looking tank. I'm putting mine together tonight and like you, I have a heater like yours also. How is it working out in that compartment? Is there enough circulation in there next to the hose to keep the whole tank at proper temperature? Right now I have mine suctioned to the black plate inside the tank, not in the filter compartment.

Thanks!


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## horsedude (Nov 10, 2012)

horsedude said:


> any more updates, been 3 more months
> good luck


Any more updates its been another 3 months??


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