# Schuber-Wright 6g office tank



## TexasCichlid (Jul 12, 2011)

Leave the left open. Put blyxa in the back right corner behind the driftwood. Blyxa is very prolific and will quickly dominate the back of the tank if planted on both sides.


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## SomeCanuck (Mar 25, 2012)

As a fellow Canadian, how are you planning on getting your hands on the Finnex light? I'd asked them and they said they had no distributors in Canada and shipping would be almost 40$ extra. : /


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## toastedtoast (Nov 13, 2011)

I had all the equipment shipped to my sister's place in the states and she was kind enough to bring it when she came for a visit


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## acitydweller (Dec 28, 2011)

Wow... has that sleepy hollow feel to it. nice!


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## SomeCanuck (Mar 25, 2012)

toastedtoast said:


> I had all the equipment shipped to my sister's place in the states and she was kind enough to bring it when she came for a visit


You lucky so and so! haha

And I agree, the scape looks awesome and definitely has an eery feel to it.


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## ramen lover (Jun 22, 2012)

that's a beautiful tank/scape! so will this be a low light tank with no co2? im asking because i have a 55g right now and i'd like to setup a simple nano tank similar to yours. 

what filter will you be using and what creatures do you plan on putting in there?


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## NWA-Planted (Aug 27, 2011)

Very nice, what kind of stone are you using?

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2


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## toastedtoast (Nov 13, 2011)

Thanks for the feedback re: blyxa Texas. I've never grown it before, so that's good to know.

I'm hoping this will end up being medium light, it's going to be high-tech with 20oz paintball CO2.

I really like this piece of wood (or pieces actually, there are a couple small branches mounted together). I agree with the comments about spookyness. The rock was called "Okho stone" when I bought it, no idea if that's a standard name or not. It was hard finding pieces of uniform colour since there seemed to be both brown and greenish types.


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## talontsiawd (Oct 19, 2008)

I really love the scape. Rarely do I like the branchy tree look with larger rocks but the scale is good, plus it's not styled like iwagumi. Though I think I would like it much better with the rocks, I wish you had one picture without any rocks, just to see how it would look. I do think the rocks are the way to go and it has a very "dynamic" look to it. I like the background too.

That's actually a decent amount of HC, IMO, for the money too.


The only thing I am thing is that blyxa may be too big. I have had it grow more compact in the right conditions (fairly high light without CO2 and high plant mass) but it can get big. I cannot think of a plant that would give the same look without being a nuisance. E. tenellus would give the right look but would take a lot of maintenance. 

Have you considered star grass? It's a fast grower but really easy to trim and keep tidy. I could see a low bush on the left. You may have to trim weekly but it would just be a few snips. 



I mostly just want to see where this goes. Makes me want to redo my first nano but I will wait for it to grow in first.


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## SaltyNC (Jun 26, 2012)

Looking good. I really like your tree. It is proportioned nicely for the tank.


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## toastedtoast (Nov 13, 2011)

talontsiawd said:


> I wish you had one picture without any rocks, just to see how it would look


My initial plan was to do this tank without rocks, but I had a hard time finding small branches that looked plausible balancing on the substrate. I didn't want to do a "tree"-type scape, so having a branch just stuck into the soil looked a bit off to me. Hiding the base with rocks seemed like the best compromise.



> The only thing I am thing is that blyxa may be too big...


I'm starting to be afraid that you're right. I have E. tenellus in another tank and while it looks good, the runners are a giant pain. I have never grown star grass, but it looks cool--I will do some research. 

Another thing I was considering was Pogostemon helferi, maybe a clump in the back left and by the base of the wood. I could put a couple of crypts or some reddish stem in the far back right corner for colour contrast.

Thanks for the suggestions!


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## CryptKeeper54 (Apr 14, 2012)

Nice. Hope that light works for you. That's a perfect match for that tank. Curious to see how that "frosted/mist" back looks when fillled with water. I was thinking of doing the same.

What filter you going to use? HOB or canister?


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## stevencaller (Sep 14, 2012)

Wow decent nano iwagumi style tank. There's a great article on iwagumi aquascaping on aquarist magazine that details a few points to beware of


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## ReluctantHippy (Jun 23, 2011)

It looks great. That $7 worth of HC really went far.


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## toastedtoast (Nov 13, 2011)

CryptKeeper54 said:


> Curious to see how that "frosted/mist" back looks when fillled with water


That makes two of us, haha. Hopefully it's OK, otherwise I think it will be easy to peel off.



> What filter you going to use? HOB or canister?


I bought the finnex canister, though I'm regretting it a bit now. It doesn't come with quick-disconnects, and buying some will jack up the $35 price to the point where I might as well have bought a 2211. Out of cheapness I'll make do without them, but it will make life more inconvenient then it needs to be.

At this point I'm hoping to avoid heating the tank, since the less hardware I have on my desk the better and I'm not thrilled with the idea of an internal heater in a tank this small. My office is heated to around 23 during the day and drops to 21 on weekends, so I'm afraid it's pushing the limits for tropical species. WCMMs get a bit large, so I may end up being limited to cherry shrimp unless I go for some type of heater. Anyone have suggestions? my main thoughts for this setup have been with the plants, so I don't have much fixed idea about fish yet.


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## toastedtoast (Nov 13, 2011)

After a week of watching the HC sit there, I got impatient and filled the tank--hopefully I don't regret it :icon_roll

I ended up putting blyxa in the back corner, along with some E. tenellus and rotala that I had kicking around. I wouldn't be surprised if this turns out to be too much, but it's easy to chop excess stems later if needed.










As you can see from the drop checker I'm running the CO2 pretty high for the moment, hopefully that helps the HC adapt. I'm not sure if there's any disadvantage to running the gas this high as long as there are no creatures in the tank, please chime in if you have any thoughts.

I was pleasantly surprised at the lack of dust from the netlea soil, this photo was taken about an hour after filling. A real departure from the weeks of silt you get after filling a fluorite tank.


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## radioman (Oct 29, 2007)

If there are no fauna in the tank then it is ok to crank the co2. Just be sure to match it with adequate nutrients for the plants.


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## Geniusdudekiran (Dec 6, 2010)

Excellent scape. Good job.


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## tetra10 (Aug 5, 2012)

the finnex px-360 isnt too bad, just lift it up while holding it at an angle and then put it in a bucket. i have a px-360. did you put the foam pad in front of the biomax? if not you should.


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## PinkRasbora (Jan 22, 2005)

Wow, that is a stunning tank.


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## toastedtoast (Nov 13, 2011)

radioman said:


> If there are no fauna in the tank then it is ok to crank the co2. Just be sure to match it with adequate nutrients for the plants.


That's what I was thinking--thanks! I'm using EI dosing, so hopefully that's enough, especially since my lighting isn't all that high.



tetra10 said:


> ...did you put the foam pad in front of the biomax? if not you should.


Thanks for the suggestion, I should check how I have it set up. I think I did foam in the bottom tray and biomax in the top but I don't remember which way the water flow is going. 

My regret with this hardscape is the lack of strong substrate slopes. When I look at tanks like Kiran's the contour adds a lot of interest to the layout. Good learning experience anyway, I have trouble learning things without doing them wrong first.


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## ramen lover (Jun 22, 2012)

any updates? is that long strong enough to grow your plants?


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## toastedtoast (Nov 13, 2011)

So this tank's been flooded for a week now, figured it was time for some new photos. Updates for this tank will generally be on weekends--my office mates think I'm crazy enough without going around taking photos of an empty aquarium.

Here's a basic overall tank shot: 









The rotala is growing in nicely, especially the shorter stems that you can't see behind the blyxa. Blyxa isn't melting, but that's about all I can say for it so far. There are a couple of stem roots forming though, so hopefully it's happy. 

HC is staying alive (as far as I can tell) though it's not doing much else so far. In a couple of places it's growing some hanging roots and winching stems toward the substrate, and in others it's going straight up. Hopefully with time it will adjust to being underwater and start growing more quickly. It's pearling at least (starts about an hour after lights on) so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.










When I started the filter on this tank, I swapped out half of the media that came with it and filled it with cycled eheim media. I was hoping that would be enough to prevent a cycle, but apparently the rumors are true and netlea leaches ammonia in a serious way.










Apparently I forgot the colour chart at home, but I think it's safe to say the ammonia is "high" and leave it at that. 

Hopefully some major water changes will help clear some of that out









One advantage of setting up a tank in a lab (or across the hall from one anyway) is a handy supply of useful glassware.

What really burns about this setup is that the room across the hall is plumbed for 30psi CO2 (along with natural gas, vacuum and compressed air). I played around with the idea of running lines over the ceiling somehow, but it seemed like I would be pushing physical plant's tolerance for my little toy.

I'm hoping that the ammonia issue sorts itself out soon so I can stock some cherry shrimp and forestall my colleague's various suggestions--At least my immediate neighbour has kept fish before and wants neons, but some of the more absurd have ranged from turtles and axolotls to a red-tailed shark.


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## Silmarwen (Sep 21, 2012)

I admit, the idea of someone sneaking in at night to siphon off a CO2 line is suitably hilarious.

Other than that, this is a beautiful tank. I'm always amazed at how lovely these tiny tanks can be. In the close-up shots, you sort of lose a sense of scale, until you step back and go "whoa. All that, in there..."


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## toastedtoast (Nov 13, 2011)

ugh, I just caught my E. tenellus making its first 10cm jump across the tank. Since this is exactly how it behaves in my other tank I'm not surprised, but I think its life expectancy will decrease dramatically with each shoot I have to chase down.


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## xAlias (Sep 19, 2012)

Seeing that it is the Schuber Wright , is the beveled edge facing to the front for your setup? 

I had the same tank so was wondering to have that to the front or go with the normal edge towards the front.


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## toastedtoast (Nov 13, 2011)

xAlias said:


> Seeing that it is the Schuber Wright , is the beveled edge facing to the front for your setup?


I put the beveled edge forward, since on my tank the silicone was better on that side. Once the tank is filled with water the bevel is essentially invisible (except the top edge I guess). When I first saw it, my reaction to the bevel could be summed up as "meh" at best, and I strongly considered putting it backward, but it's grown on me and now I'm glad I put it toward the front.


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## xAlias (Sep 19, 2012)

toastedtoast said:


> I put the beveled edge forward, since on my tank the silicone was better on that side. Once the tank is filled with water the bevel is essentially invisible (except the top edge I guess). When I first saw it, my reaction to the bevel could be summed up as "meh" at best, and I strongly considered putting it backward, but it's grown on me and now I'm glad I put it toward the front.


Thanks for the info. I will do the same. Yeah, my reaction initially was also meh but i guess looking at the pics of ur tank, it doesnt show when filled with water.


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## toastedtoast (Nov 13, 2011)

After another week, the filter seems to have the ammonia situation under control and it seemed like a good time to add some fish.

I had a small group of chili rasboras in my home tank that were kind of lost in a larger group of M. kubotai (and unhappy in the higher flow that the kubotai prefer) so I've decided to bring them to work.










They're still a bit pale from the move, but they should colour back up in time and I think they're the perfect size for this tank.

I also have some fire red shrimp that will go in here eventually, but I'm scared about what they might do to the HC before it gets fully rooted.


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## FisheriesOmen (Jan 14, 2012)

Cherry Shrimp shouldn't be much of a threat. Doesn't look like algae is in there anyways so they'd have to rely on feedings in a dish.


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## Silmarwen (Sep 21, 2012)

I love the chili rasboras in there, once they color up some more they'll be a lovely contrast!


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## SaltyNC (Jun 26, 2012)

The chilis look good in there. Do you find they spend a lot of time bobbing up and down in that corner?


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## toastedtoast (Nov 13, 2011)

I think there's too much current for them, and they haven't figured out the dead zones yet. They seem to swim parallel to the glass right where the main water current hits it. In the tank they came from, they used to hang directly below the filter outlet where there was basically no flow.


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## KFryman (Sep 4, 2012)

Tank looks gorgeous! I can't wait to see this tank in a month or so!


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## toastedtoast (Nov 13, 2011)

Coming up on three weeks flooded, so here's another photo.

Not much has changed really, although I trimmed the taller bits of HC a bit shortly after taking the last photo--it's grown back pretty quickly however and you'd never know looking at the tank today. Some of the original blyxa leaves melted and are being replaced with new growth that's shorter and brighter green. I've never grown this plant before, so I'm not sure if this means it's happy or sad.

My emersed fissidens experiment worked better then I could have hoped, and a couple of my stones are now covered in fuzz.










I took this immediately after lights-on, so the drop checker is still a little dark and the fish are a little light. Both improve as the day goes on, but I'm thinking I should start the CO2 a bit earlier (it's currently turning on an hour before the lights).

I've started to notice some green dust-type algae on the upper branches of driftwood, just under the surface. It improves the look of the wood IMO, but I'll be shocked if it doesn't try and spread. I'm going to move a dozen or so cherry shrimp from my home tank when I have a chance--they should enjoy some fresh greens and some more red will look good with the scape.

So far, I think my biggest lesson from this tank is with planting HC. While it seems awesome to get enough to cover most of the substrate from the beginning, it's actually a bad idea. Areas where I had planted densely from the start had nowhere to spread out, and started to grow up (and float up). Zones that started out more sparsely have begun to spread nicely and are doing much better. Even though it's only been three weeks, I'm impressed with the growth speed of the HC under this light. I was expecting it to struggle or not grow at all, but it seems to be doing fairly well.

It's been a lot of fun so far having this in the office, especially since there's a window and the tank can be seen from the hall. It's a good conversation piece and I've had a chance to chat with a lot of the random people I see every day but have never actually talked to.


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## Lowe (Nov 11, 2011)

Man this is a beautiful tank that I've been following from its beginning.


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## PinkRasbora (Jan 22, 2005)

Looking very nice. Its all growing together so nicely


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## mistahoo (Apr 25, 2012)

Very nice!

Sent from my spaceship using Tapatalk 2.


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## toastedtoast (Nov 13, 2011)

Thanks for the comments. 

@Lowe, Overall I'm pretty happy with the setup equipment-wise and I'm glad I ended up going with you guys for most of it. My feeling is that the tank and filter are both decent products at fair prices, but the light is really a gem. For essentially the price of one of the eheim or fluval kits, it's a low-iron setup with a canister filter and a light that can grow plants pretty well. I'd enter a photo in your giveaway, but for some reason your facebook page isn't viewable for people outside the US.


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## Lowe (Nov 11, 2011)

Hey toasted, no worries about the facebook. You can still enter w/out posting on our FB =)


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## blink (Feb 22, 2012)

Beautiful tank, sometimes I wish I had an office job that would allow something like this but working in a machine shop it's just not an option.


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## toastedtoast (Nov 13, 2011)

Yeah, Blink it's one of the perks of working in a research lab--I have an office but spend less then 10% of my time actually sitting at a desk working on the computer. On the downside is that it's 2100h on friday night, and I'm at the lab posting on aquarium forums and waiting for my experiment to finish.

Week 4, time for another update. I should preface this post by saying that I've processed this week's photos on my work laptop, which has a really weird screen. I'm basically guessing on white balance etc. If the colors look to terrible when I see it from a decent monitor I'll change them when I get home.

Edit: Yep, the images look every bit as bad as I feared. I've updated them.

Here's the basic full tank shot from before tonight's WC:










I'm really happy with how things are growing in, especially the fissidens on some of the stones:










A less welcome addition is some green spot algae, which has spread a bit from last week and has now colonized the larger stones as well.










It's welcome to all the stones and driftwood it can eat, but I'm hoping to stop the spread before it reaches the glass in a serious way.

From my reading, it seems that my best route of attack is 3-fold:

1: Increase CO2
2: Increase dosing of P
3: Shorten day length

I've started #1, and started thinking about #3 but that's as far as I've gotten. If anyone has more experience with this algae, I'd appreciate hearing your suggestions.

While I was doing the weekly water change, I thought it was about time for a heavy trimming of the stems and HC. Here's the damage. Please excuse the residual HC crumbs and scared fish from the water change:










And another FTS:


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## Geniusdudekiran (Dec 6, 2010)

I love the placement of the tank from the FTS, it goes well with the tank. Placement is half the importance of nano tanks.

Overall, you're doing a great job, keep it up!


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## talontsiawd (Oct 19, 2008)

Looks amazing. Love what you have done so far.


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## Neatfish (Jun 22, 2012)

Nice tank. This makes me want to setup a nano tank too.


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## toastedtoast (Nov 13, 2011)

Thanks for the comments all, I'm pretty new to all of these plants so I'm mostly just excited that they're alive.

I'm thinking about adding a nerite snail, but I've never kept one with fine carpet plants before. Are they likely to uproot HC?


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## tiggity (Feb 21, 2012)

You can maybe try Horned Nerites, they're smaller than regular Nerites and not disturb your HC.


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## SaltyNC (Jun 26, 2012)

Great looking addition to your office. Do you find your productivity has plummeted at the office? :icon_wink 

If the nerite is anything like mine, he will spend most of his time on the glass and on the rocks. I only have DHG, but the nerite glides over it from time to time without ever damaging it. I know HC is a little easier to uproot, though.

Hey, I'm curious about your weekend routine. When I first became interested in having a planted tank, I had plans to put a tank on my desk at the office, but I sometimes work from home and I'm not in the office on the weekends. I eventually gave up the idea. With small fish like boraras brigittae that require finely ground food and regular feedings, how do you handle weekends away from the office? Do you use an automatic feeder? Do you also have temperature drops/rises on the weekend to contend with?

I'm glad you and your co-workers are enjoying the tank. It's great to have a little nature in an office.


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## toastedtoast (Nov 13, 2011)

Thanks for the nerite snail anecdotes. I think the suggestion of sticking to the smaller horned versions is a great one and I'll go hunting for one this weekend.

@Salty: Unfortunately I find myself working 7 days a week most of the time, so this isn't a big issue. I did go out of town for thanksgiving, and there was no problem over a 3-day weekend but I'm not sure I would want to do that often. My tank at home has an automatic feeder that I use on holidays, and I may buy one to use here if I decide to leave town over christmas.

I'm a little concerned about temperature, but so far it hasn't been a problem. During the day they keep our office about 25, and at night/weekends it drops to 22. Even with the lights off, the tank seems to average at least a degree above the ambient temperature. I think 23 is pushing it for these fish, but as long as it doesn't go lower I hope they don't mind. If it seems to become a problem I have a 25w heater that I can put in, but I'm hoping to avoid it.


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## Silmarwen (Sep 21, 2012)

I'm glad to see some of the latest tank shots, it's filling out beautifully! I'm sorry algae threatening, but you seem to be catching it early enough to fix it, right? Good luck!


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## toastedtoast (Nov 13, 2011)

Another week, another photo. I hope people don't mind my shameless bumping of the thread every week, but it's been a fun way to force myself to track the tank progress--not to mention all the useful feedback I've gotten.










As you can see, the green algae has continued its spread and has now colonized the back glass in addition to the stones. It's clearly happy, as you can see it start to pearl late in the day. 

Starting last week I've increased fert dosing by 30% and dialed up the co2 a bit, but I think those will take time to show a difference (if they change anything). As a shorter-term solution, I've added a horned nerite, which looks pretty cool even if it doesn't manage to eliminate the algae. The cherry shrimp do a good job of keeping the wood clear, but they don't seem to come out and clean the rocks much.

Other then algae, I think the tank is doing fairly well. HC is spreading out, though there is some melting--I think this is the emmersed growth finally dying off but it's hard to tell. It recovered pretty well after my trim last week, so I hope it will be OK.

Blyxa is doing well, and I think there is some trimming in its near future. H. tenellus is going crazy, though the growth is different then what I see in my low-light tank. At home, it's about 4cm tall and green and here it's growing the full height of the tank and turning reddish. It's different then I expected, but it actually looks pretty neat like this.


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## Silmarwen (Sep 21, 2012)

I don't mind at all! It's inspiring  And if it helps you keep track yourself, all the better  Looks like it's coming along; hope the steps you took against the algae pay off.


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## andrewss (Oct 17, 2012)

I like the scape/layout you got going on there


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## tetra10 (Aug 5, 2012)

toastedtoast said:


> Another week, another photo. I hope people don't mind my shameless bumping of the thread every week, but it's been a fun way to force myself to track the tank progress--not to mention all the useful feedback I've gotten.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


i have the same "white algae" on the rubber elbow of the finnex outlet.


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## toastedtoast (Nov 13, 2011)

After they've been in here a few weeks, I really don't think the chili rasboras are very happy. The temperature and water quality are good, but I think flow is too high and they seem to be struggling with the current. In my 20g tank at home they were able to find dead zones to hide in, but here they don't seem to be able to.

I'm going to bring them home tomorrow, but I'm undecided about what to replace them with. At home I have a school of microdarivario kubotai (~16) and 5 Trigonostigma espei. I think the espei are too large for this setup, which is too bad since they handle current well and are very outgoing. I'm tempted to bring in half of the kubotai since they're fairly active but the green isn't as striking as it could be against plants. Another possibility is to just get a half dozen neons somewhere, since they're cheap and fairly outgoing most of the time.


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## CryptKeeper54 (Apr 14, 2012)

Nice progress. I'm interested to see what fish you come up with. I need to find high flow loving, nano fish as well.


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## toastedtoast (Nov 13, 2011)

Looks like the problem is solved. I shoved a small funnel on the filter outlet as a ghetto lily pipe, and it does a pretty good job of spreading out the water flow and preventing the strong jet that was causing problems before. I just put it on last night, but the fish are already colouring up more this morning then they have since I moved them into this tank.


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## Silmarwen (Sep 21, 2012)

Well at least you've found a solution! I like the idea of a "ghetto lily pipe," the thought made me snicker. :hihi: Hopefully something somewhat more elegant will present itself? The chilis really are lovely in this tank.


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## toastedtoast (Nov 13, 2011)

Week 6:










Stems are getting overgrown but not much else has changed. Green algae seems to be slowing down, and it hasn't tried to invade the glass again since I scraped it off last week. I'm not sure why, and I'm fully expecting it to return at some point (likely when I don't have time to scrape it)

My ugly new filter outlet is pretty effective, though I need to come up with something that's less of an eyesore. I'm tempted to try bending some glass pipettes into a makeshift lily pipe, but I need to do some more reading about the technique.

I did a quick trim during my weekly water change, here's the damage:









And a shrimp:


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## KFryman (Sep 4, 2012)

Haha, looks funny, put its functional. Sometimes we gotta make changes because of fish we're housing. The chili rasboras make this tank look much bigger.


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## toastedtoast (Nov 13, 2011)

Disaster!

I added a 25W heater a few weeks ago (you can see it in the last set of photos I posted) since it was getting cool in the office over the weekends. This morning I came into work to find the water was 40 degrees and full of dead and dying fish. It was fine when I left the lab at 2200h last night, so it must have stuck on sometime between then and 0900 today. 

I didn't have my camera with me so I couldn't document the carnage, but I'll try to take a few photos over the weekend.

So far, losses seem to be 4 chili rasboras and most of my shrimp. Also, the HC seems to be cooked and didn't pearl at all this afternoon. Hopefully it bounces back but I don't have high hopes.


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## andrewss (Oct 17, 2012)

!!! that SUCKS!

what brand heater?


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## Silmarwen (Sep 21, 2012)

Oh no! D: I wonder what happened


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## toastedtoast (Nov 13, 2011)

Finally got around to taking a photo of the damage:










I've been fighting an aggressive infestation of bba that started to attack the plants weakened by boiling. I think the worst is past now, but you can see that between what the heater killed directly and what I've had to tear out, the HC is in a pretty sad state. 

At least my fissidens and the other plants seem to be doing OK, so in person the tank isn't too ugly (until you start to look closely, or remember what it was a month ago).

I'm not sure what happened with the heater, since testing it in a bucket seems to give the proper temperature. Either way I'm not going to trust it. Thinking of buying a smaller one, and combining it with an external heater control unit. The last heater was a basic tetra 25w unit, anyone have suggestions for the replacement?


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## brinks (Dec 19, 2007)

nice tank, but what happens when you open and close the files, does the water splash out


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## laqu (Oct 17, 2012)

i have the same tank (your is cooler), couple of questions
1) from top to bottom what is the order of stuff in your filter?
2) is the "open" or funneled outlet 'softer' then the bar with holes that came with the filter
3) can you post some photo of the filter/co2 setup on the side?

thanks ...


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## ReluctantHippy (Jun 23, 2011)

I've had the majority of my tetra automatic heaters fail on me; several times with disastrous results. Your safest option is using a separate external temperature meter to control your heater but I do hear the Fluval edge automatic heaters work decently - at least a bit more reliably than the tetra version.

Tank's looking great. Keep it up.


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## talontsiawd (Oct 19, 2008)

ReluctantHippy said:


> I've had the majority of my tetra automatic heaters fail on me; several times with disastrous results. Your safest option is using a separate external temperature meter to control your heater but I do hear the Fluval edge automatic heaters work decently - at least a bit more reliably than the tetra version.
> 
> Tank's looking great. Keep it up.


I have had 3 tetra heaters and each has failed. I don't know why I tried 3 times, mainly because they are small. They always fail the wrong way, sticking on and getting very hot.


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## ReluctantHippy (Jun 23, 2011)

talontsiawd said:


> I have had 3 tetra heaters and each has failed. I don't know why I tried 3 times, mainly because they are small. They always fail the wrong way, sticking on and getting very hot.


I'll second this. Two different tetra heaters on separate occasions raised my 5g tanks to over 110 killing all inhabitants.


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## toastedtoast (Nov 13, 2011)

Thanks for the comments everyone.

This cabinet is more for long-term storage, so it probably only gets opened once or twice a month. So far there haven't been any issues with the tank getting shaken around too much, though I've been careful not to fill it too close to the rim.

For the moment, everything seems fine at room temperature so I'm going to leave it without heat--at least over the holidays. The tank won't get its usual level of supervision so I don't want to chance a new setup going crazy.



laqu said:


> 1) from top to bottom what is the order of stuff in your filter?
> 2) is the "open" or funneled outlet 'softer' then the bar with holes that came with the filter
> 3) can you post some photo of the filter/co2 setup on the side?
> thanks ...


In my filter, I have eheim media and a small purigen sack on the top, and the included foam on the bottom. I think there's also some filter floss in there somewhere, but I don't remember where I put it.

I never tried the included spray bar, so I can't say how this compares. my placement of drift wood prevented a bar going along the right side.

Sure, if I remember to bring my camera to work over the weekend I'll take a photo or two.


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## Jonnywhoop (May 30, 2012)

what did you glue your manzanita wood to? Its pretty smart to make it stable like that.


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## toastedtoast (Nov 13, 2011)

Jonnywhoop said:


> what did you glue your manzanita wood to? Its pretty smart to make it stable like that.


They're my favourite interlocking plastic waffles: pipette tip racks
We generate tons of the empty racks when we use the tips in the lab, so I try to find creative uses for them. I've also used a bunch for the substrate slopes in my 20g long: http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=159478


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## acitydweller (Dec 28, 2011)

consider the hydor theo heaters. i have two 50W running since january in a 5 and 10 g. both without drama so far.


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## talontsiawd (Oct 19, 2008)

ReluctantHippy said:


> I'll second this. Two different tetra heaters on separate occasions raised my 5g tanks to over 110 killing all inhabitants.


Yup, mine didn't get that hot, only 101 degree's on the last one. Luckily, i spilled a bunch of food in the tank (5 gallon as well), so I removed all live stock quite literally the day before we left for the weekend. Only one plant survived. These shouldn't even be on the shelf.

Sorry, just want to make sure nobody replaces one, thinking that it's a fluke thing because it will happen again. 


I have been not using heaters in many tanks successfully. Just stock accordingly. I am thinking about getting the Fluval one for the Edge as it's pretty inconspicuous. I expect more out if Fluval than some other companies and it is one of the smallest heaters I can find that sufficient for over a few gallons. I will let you know my thoughts if I buy one.

Can't wait to see how this recovers, I really enjoy the scape.


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## toastedtoast (Nov 13, 2011)

talontsiawd said:


> I will let you know my thoughts if I buy one.


Thanks, I'd appreciate it. As I'm sitting at my desk this evening, it really struck me how quiet this finnex canister filter is once you get all the air out. Granted, I have it sitting on a foam mat to prevent vibration noise but it seems at least as quiet as my 2213 and it's much closer to my head.


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## laqu (Oct 17, 2012)

thanks for the info on order... i just cleaned my tank today... good to know the 'sack' of purgen fits (I assume you just bought the sack premade) .. i'm slow so i bought the stuff loose (ack)

what c02 system are you using?


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## toastedtoast (Nov 13, 2011)

I have the Atomic Nano V3 regulator, with an adapter to a 20oz paintball tank. It works really well, though I have a few issues with it--mainly the lack of a high-pressure gauge. Since working pressure is fixed it would make much more sense to see when the tank is about to run out then to see the working pressure.

Here's a cell phone snapshot of my filter/CO2 setup, sorry for the poor quality. I've used a milk crate to reduce the length of filter hoses somewhat, since it seems to slow down some with longer hoses (regardless of height). The milk crate also makes a convenient frame to zip-tie the CO2 canister in place and prevent it from getting knocked over.









Since the filter etc are in the corner under my desk I haven't taken much care about how they look--though I should probably try and improve that somewhat.


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## golfer_d (Oct 3, 2012)

Got your blades at work too....nice!


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## laqu (Oct 17, 2012)

thanks!


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