# The Many Lives of my 55g



## zetvi (Jun 12, 2013)

I got my black cover background from petdepot, petco also has them. Its one side blue and one side dark. 2.99 a feet i think. Also, that led light doesnt seem to be for plants. If i were you, i would return those and get a finnex ray 2 instead. Check out my journal if ya want.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Cycling log: (10/8)
[cue mad scientist scene] *ahem*
_ *IT LIIIIVEEESS*_
I love you beneficial bacteria!!! Apparently my original seed material didn't loose the bb on it like I thought, behold! NITRITES!
Ammonia: 1-2
Nitrties: 0.25-0.5
Nitrates: 40-80

View attachment 218681


Added 1.63 ml ammonia to bring levels in the tank up to around 2-3 ppm.

An a random note: I don't know if my reference color chart ran low on ink.. or does API test kits suck for making same colros cover a wide range of ppm? I mean look at that photo, 10-20 is same color for nitrates, so is 40-80, and 2-5 for nitrites too.
Updated previous post with photo of 2nd days test tube results in cycling log section.


Questions for today:
Any suggestions for low to medium light floating plants *that *(large breed) *plecos aren't prone to eat*? I have no clue how plecos are with frogbit, water lettuce, and simular type floaters.






zetvi said:


> I got my black cover background from petdepot, petco also has them. Its one side blue and one side dark. 2.99 a feet i think. Also, that led light doesnt seem to be for plants. If i were you, i would return those and get a finnex ray 2 instead. Check out my journal if ya want.



Thanks for the tip on the background. As for lighting, I based my choice on these threads:
Lighting an Aquarium with PAR instead of Watts
LED Lighting Compendium
Currently Plants are at the bottom, 20 inches from light at deepest point -putting it in the "low light" spectrum from the charts and data-which works fine for the plants I intend to keep in there. The anacharis has already shown new growth, the hornowrt keeps getting stick behind the filter spray bar (will have to tie it off closer to the light) so not a lot of noticeable growth there. I don't expect to miraculously see new growth on the anubias or java in the less than week that it has been in there, but none of it is dieing (not counting the already half dead java from my pleco making a salad of it).


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## howze01 (Dec 4, 2012)

That little extra length of tank hanging off the dresser unsupported scares me....


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## carpalstunna (Mar 22, 2012)

howze01 said:


> That little extra length of tank hanging off the dresser unsupported scares me....


Doesnt scare me.


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## Tvadna (Jan 17, 2013)

Does your sock drawer ever get wet after a water change?


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

howze01 said:


> That little extra length of tank hanging off the dresser unsupported scares me....





carpalstunna said:


> Doesnt scare me.


Somehow between cleaning the inside and filling it the tank moved a 1/2 inch to the right. Will be doing a massive WC when tank is cycled to remove Nitrates, and can move it back then (no way in hell its budging while full).



Tvadna said:


> Does your sock drawer ever get wet after a water change?


Its cabinetry not a dresser, no cloths in there to get wet. And so far nothing inside has had water damage from the initial tank fill.


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## howze01 (Dec 4, 2012)

carpalstunna said:


> Doesnt scare me.


I have seen more than one tanks break from not being supported correctly, including a 55 of mine. Most of the time, it works fine. The few times it doesn't really suck...




AquaAurora said:


> Somehow between cleaning the inside and filling it the tank moved a 1/2 inch to the right. Will be doing a massive WC when tank is cycled to remove Nitrates, and can move it back then (no way in hell its budging while full).


Glad to hear it, would hate to have the same nightmare happen to you that happened to me!


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*Cycling Log: (10/9)*

Cycling Log: (10/9)
Not much to say today, the nitrite eating bacteria hasn't kicked in yet, but I shouldn't be expecting miracles.
Ammonia:2-4
Nitrites:2-5
Nitrates:40-80
View attachment 218993


Some close ups of the large driftwood:














Must clean glass...

Questions for today: 
I know ammonia can reach a level that's toxic for beneficial bacteria, what about nitrites?


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*Cycling log: (10/10-12)*

*Cycling log: (10/10)*
Ammonia: 1 
Nitrite: 2-5
Nitrate: 40-80
Added 3.27 ml ammonia to bring ti back up to 3ppm

*Cycling log: (10/11)*
Ammonia: 2-4
Nitrite: 2-5
Nitrate: 40-80
No ammonia added. Bought a bunch (about 6 stems) of anacharis from Petco and letting it float in the "55" for now. Found 2 snails on that anacharis so far, one went into the cycled tank with gourami (suspect he'll eat it), the otehr is in the Evolve 4.
Also bought a Evolve 4 from Petsmart on clearance ($30) and will start a journal for that soon.

*Cycling log: (10/12)*
Ammonia: 0.5 (its eating it quicker now)
Nitrite: 2-5
Nitrate: 40-80
Added 4.1 ml ammonia to bring it back up to 3 ppm.
Removed tiny air-stone to use in Evolve cycling since "55" water level is low enough from the filter output that its getting decent aeration from the spray bar.

One of the anubias nana looks like it has some bubbles under a leaf that is exposed to the most light (its the plant that has flowers when it came). 

*Questions for today:*
Whats up with the weird translucent shedding skin look on the rhizome? The rhizome has never been planted so it shouldn't be rot.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*Cycling Log: 10/13-15*

So the "55" has be eating up ammonia like crazy, today it was at 0! but nitrite hasn't budged yet. I broke more of my API test tubes so I only have 4 left, enough to do an ammonia and nitrite test on both the "55" and Evolve (see signature for journal). I should be getting new tubes tomorrow hopefully and can keep track of nitrates again.
I don't think the plant mass in the "55" is eating up all the ammonia, could it? I have probably less than 30% plant mass in there... I wouldn't think it could munch that much ammonia in one day especially since over half of it is slow growers (java fern, anubias nana, and marimo moss)? 

Anyways I am trying to prep some lava rock in my cycled tank to place into the two unfinished tanks soon. I bought some nylon stockings yesterday to place the lava rock in, turns out they're so tightly stitched together it locks air in.. it tried to float.. with rocks in it.. haha had to cut a small hole in each to push out air/let water in. I'm hoping once I add them to the cycling tanks that it will kick start the nitrite eating bacteria.

As a final note for the "55" today, I noticed some odd white film over the past few days in there, as first I thought it was from the nearly dead java fern I had in there, but I noticed the locally collected wood was covered in some nasty film today ew!! Removed the healthy java ferns from it and put them on some left over tubing from the canister filter that was cut. I scrubbed the wood under hot water and am going to try boiling the wood this evening after dinner to see if that gets rid of the film problem. 















As you can see from the photos, not too nice to look at...hopefully it doesn't have any adverse effect on the BB or java


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*Cycling log: 10/16*

Cycling log: (10/16)
pH:7.4-7.6
Ammonia:0
Nitrite:2-5
Nirtate:10-20
GH:214.8
Kh:71.6

I feel like I'm doing the GH test wrong since it comes out so high... going from orange to green... well it takes several drops before it really turns orange.. but oh well, at least I never have to worry about my pH falling through the floor.
Accidentally added 0.1 ml too much ammonia when topping it off today so decided between that and the translucent slime/fungus left over from the wood that I'd do a 5 gallon wc. Came out eassily enough got a lot-but not all- of the nasty stuff from the wood. Grabbed about 5 gallons to dump back in and [censored][censored][censored][censored] forgot to de-chlorinate! Good thing no fish in there but I probably just killed off all my good ammonia munching BB. I realized less than a minute after putting the water in and dumped about 4x as much dE-cholinator as I needed in just to add to the stupidity.

Oh well it will give me an excuse to test out the tetra safestart formula I got along with my heater for the tiny tnak (see signature for journal), test tubes, and more de-chlorinator since my bottle was nearly (and now is) empty.
I'm waiting a few hours then will test ammonia again and add some as needed to bring it up to 3ppm and re-start the fishless cycle along with the tetra stuff.


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## mark546 (Sep 12, 2013)

you do not have to dechorinate water before putting it in the tank. If you put your water in straight from the tap all you do is add enough dechorinator to treat the whole tank (55 gallons in your case.)

As for killing your bb yeah it will take a little more effort than that. BB has to be exposed to an extreme amount of chorine in order to die off that fast. Or be exposed to tap water for hours. Or drying out the media and/or substrate usually kills it off nice.

You actually can rinse biomedia off in tap water without doing any harm. Hot tap water will kill it. Not a big deal.

That being said I prefer to clean biomedia in tank water, I rinse it in tank water once every other week. I clean it off in a bucket of freshly dechlor water once a year. Why risk it if you dont have to. Dechlor is dirt cheap. I go through a gallon a year on my 55 and I double dose it (high chloramines in my area).

Point being you didnt kill any BB unless you left the tank with the chorinated water in it for hours.

If you prefer there is nothing wrong with adding the water straight from the tap to the aquarium then treating the entire volume of water.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*java babies!*

I'm so glad I threw the chewed up java into the 55, its spitting out new babies all over, and those with intact rhizomes are making new leaves on there too. Here are a few shots of some of the new plantlets growing on damaged leaves:













Only 2 plants died completely, but the pleco had literally eaten them down to nothing but a stem...no more java for you poop machine pleco!
Aaaand update photo for the tank (wtf green tube? read "*Cycling Log: 10/13-15"* about fungus-y driftwood, ps: driftwood was boiled and will be going back in tomorrow to hold the healthy java fern)










mark546 said:


> you do not have to dechorinate water before putting it in the tank. If you put your water in straight from the tap all you do is add enough dechorinator to treat the whole tank (55 gallons in your case.)
> 
> As for killing your bb yeah it will take a little more effort than that. BB has to be exposed to an extreme amount of chorine in order to die off that fast. Or be exposed to tap water for hours. Or drying out the media and/or substrate usually kills it off nice.
> 
> ...



Well thats nice to hear ^^ I prefer to treat the volume being added before it goes in rather than treat a larger volume of the whole tank. Its the first wc I'd done on the 55 and between dragging the bucket out and grabbing the stool (the cabinet its on is higher than it looks) I forgot to grab the de-chlorinator.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*Cycling log: (10/21)*

Cycling log: (10/21)
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 5
Nitrate: 10-20

Ammonia still gets eaten like crazy (keep adding several ml each day) but nitrites have not gone down yet. I've had some nitrates, but the plants seem to be eating it up so its not building up that much.
All the anacharis has been moved to my driftwood soaking bin along with one of the lights. I seem to have snails and they like to lay eggs exclusively on the anacharis so moving that out till I can give them a good 'clean' to get rid of those. I also moved about 1/2 the old java fern with plantlets growing to the Evolve, mainly smaller pieces that had a chance of getting sucked up into the filter. All remaining plants are on/around the large driftwood and under the remaining light.
All the healthy javas have new growth on the rhizomes, and I think one of the new anaubias nana even has a new leaf growing on it already , the same one that was flowering (and still is).
I placed some pieces of a broken air stone I'd left sitting in my cycled tank for over a week into the "55" this morning when I did my daily pleco poop cleaning. I also added about (little more than) half a bottle of tetra safe start to the "55" the bottle says it works for up to 100 gallons. I don't know that it will work, I've heard reviews pointing both ways. But we'll see, if its eats my nitrites and keeps them down as I feed ammonia to the tank then I'll be a believer. If its a flop there's a money back guarantee so I'll just go that route and continue waiting for the nitrite eating bacteria to build up.

Still haven't gotten around to buying a background yet, I really need to. The green tubing makes the water look lime green (like the glass is covered in tiny algae) but its just an illusion from light bouncing off the green plastic.... seriously why green?


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*Cycling Log: (10/30)*

Cycling Log: (10/30)
Ammonia: 0.25
Nitrtie: 2-5
Nitrate: 40-80

Had ammonia and nitrite hit 0 two days ago but nitrite it went back up to 2 the day after, I also had another fungus outbreak the same day on the same piece of driftwood even after boiling it for 2 hours a few weeks ago (I wonder if these are inter-related issues). 
I threw out the wood and have the java fern attaches to some small clear air hose piping for now. New leaves coming in on the healthy java fern ave clear tips which I thought meant they weren't getting enough light, but a Google search came up with it actually being healthy and normal. All the platnlets that grew off my half dead java never had clear leaves. The flowering anaubias nana (yet the flower is still alive ) has a nice new leaf on it that's nearly as big as the old leaves already and a nice light color still, it grew in really fast. 
My old anubias nana (which I am actually starting to think is a petite because its stem is no where near as high as the new ones and leaves are smaller) also has a new leaf growing on it but its a bit slower. Not too surprising since it has less leaves to begin with and much shorter roots (thanks to pleco noming).


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*algae bloom?*

Have some odd thread like clear stuff growing on part of the driftwood (closest to light) and some of the old half dead java fern with plantlets that's right next to it. what is this?







[I know the crud below the sting-y stuff is mulm from when i tried dumping water from a filter cleaning in there supposedly to bring over some BB... bad idea btw real messy.]


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*The battle begins!*

So I have hair algae, I've reduce the time the lights on but about an hour and start doing peroxide treatments with water changes to try to remove the algae. Unfortunately the tank seems to be taking forever to cycle now, as the nitrites are back up to 2-5ppm =.=


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*the war on algae continues.. new warrior: duckweed!*

So I ordered some duckweed that arrived today, hoping between it and the anacharis I can keep nitrate/algae from going crazy while I feed pure ammonia to the BB till I figure but and set up my final scape. 
I dumped it in and realized the canister outflow was pushing a lot of it underwater, so I quickly secured some panty hose to the intake for the filter, and pushed all the floating anarchists into the substrate so it doesn't get completely covered in duckweed.
My biggest concern is the fast growing plants (mainly the duckweed) will screw over my java fern and anubias for nutrient in the water column.. or just flat out starve out the beneficial bacteria... but I'm probably getting worried for nothing ^^

Also removed the driftwood and have it soaking in a large industrial/construction trash bag in a sink with peroxide to try to kill off any remaining hair algae. Letting it soak a few hours then going to rinse/scrub the hell out of it, treat it with a quick de-chlorinator dip, then stick it back in the tank tomorrow after re-securing some new weights,


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*Nitrties, I curse thee!*

Its been too long and the nitrites still won't go down and stay down. I got them to hit 0 for a day or two but they went back up. Incidentally they went down after I removed the driftwood to treat for hair algae, and went back up the day after it went back in (wood was treated, then rinsed well, and dunked with de-chlorinated water before re-entering the tank) no more hair algae btw. The wood was also drilled with holes to attached a river stone before re-entering the tank, the original weights were not working out well. I am thinking the wood contains anti-bacterial sap residue, but its only effecting the nitrite eating bacteria, the ammonia munchers still seem to be doing fine (nitrties go up and ammonai stays at 0). If this is so then I'd suspect it would effect fish negatively too.. and I'm surprised how durable the pond snails in there are, nitrates are already off the charts and they still are slowly crawling all over the tank.
I am giving the wood a week in the tank, it nitrites don't go back down to (and stay at) 0 I will permanently remove it. If this happens when the wood does out I will be gutting my Evolve4 (its been a bust) and put its filter media in the "55".


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*update with photos*

*Long babble... skip to end for photos!*

So tank finally cycled a few days ago (it almsot ahd befoer but nitrties spiked again) So I decided it was time to bring down the nitrates, which were off the charts toxic.. except apparently to the pond snails which I now think are as indestructible as roaches (unless you .. you know.. squish them) in terms of water tolerances at least. I took out the driftwood to treat for hair algae *again *and started prepping for a big clean up.

*Yesterday *I took apart the canister filter and clean all the media within the water contained in the filter. When i say clean I simply mean just agitate the bio-balls and ceramic tubes around, ring out the thread pads and agitate the charcoal bags. By the time I was done I could not see 1 inch into the canister's water it was a thick black/brown (eww) dumped that out and put everything back in. I detached the green hosing (which I really wish they're made clear or black) used my husbands cleaning rod to get all the gunk out that had built up and was getting rather unsightly with the transparent tubing. Everything went back together ok after cleaning and resealed and started up just fine. I then did a tiny water changed (6-9 gallons) and got some of the snail poo out of the substrate.

*Today *I went at the gravel like a mad woman and ended up siphon cleaning the entire bottom (after removing all plants and about 1/2 the duckweed to a spare pot). Got quite a bit out and siphon worked well getting the water level down to about 2" above the substrate (with the high walls of the "55" gallon I couldn't get more out with it. I used a plastic cup and pushed a alrge ammoung of gravel asside to get out more water so the level was about 1" above substrate (when its level). My tank had ben ever so slgihtly off center for a while so i decided to try to move the 1" to the elft taht it needed to go... 50 pounds of gravel, 20+ of glass tank and another 15-30 in water =* it ain't freaking budging*. Oh well it hasn't burst yet, I can tolerate it being off center a little longer. Started re-fill with 1 4 gallon bucket of treated water at a time, and wouldn't ya know it... it was below freezing this morning so the tap was *fudging freezing!* I didn't have the patience to heat 1 bucket of water at a time then add it so I left the canister off (been off since the water level started dropping with the cleaning today) and added the cold water to the tank without flow. It dropped the temp from 78 to 60F, *thats a bit low!* So I grabbed the small 50 watt heater from my Evolve and threw it in the "55" to help the large heater along, I know it won't help much but its gotta do a little.. right? Well took a few hours to finish re-filling (had to run errands in between) but its full and the plants finally back in. The tank is only at 70-72 now (the plants bucket cooled down to about the same temp before they were re-added) but I'm hoping with the fitler back on and flowing it will heat up again quickly and not freeze out the BB.

*Tomorrow *I will do another water test and probably more water changes to get the nitrates down (went from blood red off the charts to red-ish orange from today's clean.... got to get it closer to yellow! If BB survived the clean and cold wc I'll be putting my Madagascar rainbowfish in to test that its all clear then in go the others!

*Anyways enough talk onto photos!*
first up: my origianl anubias nana (pleco ate most of it) look new leaves!! so my new nana in off to the left








New anubias nana & old java fern (wrecked by same pleco) photo bombing it. Has new leaf and.. new rhizome growth! look at the right side its growing a new tiny rhizome with tiny leaves!








above view of old nana and both new one (also with new leaves) the white speck is a duckweed... the old nana doesn't look like the new one.. I'm starting to think its actually a "petite"








Above view of new java ferns (tons of new leaves)
View attachment 237785


Close up of baby java ferns that grew from old java the pleco had devoured (this is why I don't throw out the nearly dead java, it gives me new ones!)








Tank is still a little .. cloudy from the clean and wc so no full views yet sorry.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*Allllmooooost theeereeee*

Sooo tank had a mini cycle from me cleaning out the canister too vigorously I suppose, but its back to "0" for ammonia and nitrite (yay!). Nitrates was 40-80 so did a 30-33 gallon water change and currently re-filling slowly. I swear I always have to do large water changes on days when the weather is below freezing =.= 
I'll probably add my Madagascar from the cycled tank tonight so I can keep an eye on her and see if everything checks out with the "55" then stick the others in. Won't really have time to acclimate and add her before I run errands this afternoon so she'll just have to wait till dinner prep time. Wonder how big a pain she is going to make it catching her, she's gotten pretty big and fast. Will post pics after she's in probably tonight or tomorrow.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*and they're in!*

Things moved quickly and I ended up putting everyone in the "55" on Wed. and moving the Dwarf Gourami back out Saturday after re-scpaing his tank.
Walker (leopard sailfin pleco 7-8 inches) decided to be a real derp and go flying when I tried to move him to the temp bucket to acclimate him for the larger tank. I guess he realized the carpet wasn't all that great since he let me pick him up after his failed exploration attempt. He split all his fins a bit (at least 1-2 tears each) from the incident but they've already nearly completely healed. I put in his old drift wood as a "secrutity blanket" but hoped he'd use the new larger wood for shade... well as you can see in the photo below the retard loves his old wood pieces and smushes himself in between them most of the day =.= dumbass. Dot (Madagascar Rainbowfish) was the test fish for the tank and seems quite happy with the added sim space, but she still doesn't have a school to swim with (stupid pet store never restocks her kind). She use to swim with Ether and pretend she was 'top dog' flaring and mouth gaping at him, but he was never intimidated by her. She definitely got faster than him at feeding time though. Anyways its just her and Walker in the big tank for the moment. I'm going to go try yanking on the store manager's ear to get a shipment of Madagascars, as I'd rather not order a school in winter to ship to my home.

On a side note the duckweed was a bust, I tried it in 2 low tech and 1 no tech tank, it just doesn't want to multiply for me.

Anyways enough yapping here's some photos (poor quail thanks to iPhone sorry)


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*baby photos and recent photos!*

So found some "baby photos" of the fish from their first tank that are over a year old now, posted them in the journal for the tank they use to be in. You can view it *here*.


I also have some more recent pleco photos (the rainbow fish is lowing the extra swim room and won't hold still for a photo =,=)
I love it when he sucks on the glass and i get to see his pudgy belly!



Pleco over 1 year old and [strike]8 inches or so[/strike] turns out hes 9 inches!


Less than a month with me, and about 2 inches (fav photo of him had to share!)


Will pots updated tank shots later in the week.
 
*
EDIT:*btw walker's fins are all healed up since the 'lil "I wanna fly" incident ^^ No meds used in the tank, just clean water.


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## Jahn (Apr 26, 2013)

Very nice! Don't forget- the reddish brown stuff in your filters is not algae- that is the color of your beneficial bacteria. I wouldn't clean that off anything until your tank is very mature and the filter starts getting clogged- otherwise you will cause a nitrate spike and maybe a mini cycle.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Jahn said:


> Very nice! Don't forget- the reddish brown stuff in your filters is not algae- that is the color of your beneficial bacteria. I wouldn't clean that off anything until your tank is very mature and the filter starts getting clogged- otherwise you will cause a nitrate spike and maybe a mini cycle.


Yeh I cleaned it thinking it was mulm before I intended to put the fish in.. set back the fish move by a week or so since it did a mini-cycle.. I just wish it wasn't transparent tubing, I don't want to see it >.<


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*just some more pleco photos*

love getting shots of him when he'll hold still
height check (first in several months) had to do with tank lights off 9 inches of poop making monstrosity


full tank with some anacharis yanked up by the pleco who's acting all innocent on the glass (whoops had the wrong photo, fixed)


OM NOM NOM NOM.. stop staring at me.. NOM NOM


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*Fat cat attack*

Ok so not really an attack, but the fat arse that is Snowball watching the fish in the"55" from the stool I use to do water changes (mostly just to set the buckets on). I think its the first time she's gotten to really look in the tank.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

On Christmas eve me and my husband went shopping for our dog's presents at Petsmart (dog came along, he loves it in there). After picking some thins out I checked out the fish tanks, and wouldn't-cha-know-it, they had some Madagascar rainbow fish. All were 1/2 to 1/3 the size of mine but they were just a two short of a decent school or I would have bought them. Since mine is so large i will only guy more if I can get 8 at once as a minimum to spread the load of aggression my big girl will give them as "top dog" in there. I expect a bit of aggression since I can't get a ton of hiding places via plants with the pleco in there.

I decided to finally do a nitrate test yesterday. In the pleco's previous tank the nitrates always came out an orange-red (40-80) even with daily 50% water changes (soooo much poop). In the "55" I got... *drum roll* 10-20 ppm nitrate! This is doing an 8-10 gallon water change every other day and with tap water that comes out at 10-20 ppm (unless my test kit is faulty but at least its as low as tap water nitrates) so at least nitrates are staying down now yay!


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Just another photo of the pleco, he's been stubborn for me, when the camera goes up, his lovely fins go down.. =.=
pardon the water stains and that's a large chunk of zucchini next tot him he likes to nom


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## horsedude (Nov 10, 2012)

I love you Pleco!!!!!!!!!!!!!
he's so cool, I really want a sailfin but I like my bristlenose as well!
good luck, its looking good


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*The ever illusive aquatic dimetrodon*

The ever illusive aquatic dimetrodon....Also know as a sailfin pleco (no real relation)
he does NOT want a photo taken when in full glory form (sail up) but I got him finally!!


And then thers a gaint brown blur and he's gone again..


You see those suctioncuped plants (anacharis) behind him? He decided to get back at me by ripping up 1/3 of them last night after I got these photos... thinking of switching to riparium plants to absorb nitrates and just give up on plants in the tank with him =.=


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## Sotty (Aug 31, 2012)

Consider hygrophila. I have had good luck in tanks with big plecos with it in the past. Grows fast, develops good roots, and mine at least didn't eat it. Its cheap and easily available typically, though many species of it cannot be shipped interstate now. 

Also consider floating plants. Some look very nice and the faster growing ones will suck up lots of nitrates as they aren't carbon limited like submersed plants usually are.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Sotty said:


> Consider hygrophila. I have had good luck in tanks with big plecos with it in the past. Grows fast, develops good roots, and mine at least didn't eat it. Its cheap and easily available typically, though many species of it cannot be shipped interstate now.
> 
> Also consider floating plants. Some look very nice and the faster growing ones will suck up lots of nitrates as they aren't carbon limited like submersed plants usually are.


Thank you for the suggestions. I won't be buying plants until the spring when the weather is more shipping friendly for them. I've not tried hygro, I'd thought from looking at photos that he'd snap the stem or just eat the leaves, but if its cheap I'll give it a whirl, slap it in there with a root tab and see how it does.
As for floaters, I have a clear hood over my tank, and though it has corners cut for filter, heater cord, and airline tubing, its not enough air flow for floaters it seems. I've tried duckweed.. it did not grow at all, just vanished bit by bit with each water change. I also have amazon frogbit in the 3 gallon, it also has a hood with small silts for air but its not enough, the lily pad like leaves turn yellow and then transparent. I cannot remove the hood as I have rainbows and the pleco in there, though they have not tried, their species are listed as "jumpers" so to avoid finding a cat eating a dehydrated fish snack on the carpet I have to keep the lid on.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*cleaning day + other babble*

I removed the spray bar from the outlet a week ago since its small holes were always getting clogged with mulm. So water just flows into the tank from the elbow it connected to, it creates great water agitation to help aerate and the fish don't seem to mind the faster movement. 

Here's another pleco photo from a few days ago, as you can see, all the anacharis is ripped loose.


I still cannot get a decent photo of the Madagascar *sigh* fidgety lil' bugger.

I don't take any full tank photos now as its not so pretty to look at since the pleco refuses to let me keep the anacharis where I want it =,=

Today I did the messy canister clean today, haven't cleared it out since before the fish went in. I used trash bags around the canister to keep the carpet from getting nasties on it. Again the water in it was black-brown from all the mulm build up, concentrated poop and rotted plant/food.. yuck. The filter floss pads that came with the sunsun filter are pretty much gone (started falling apart as I rung them out/agitated them in the water basin) but I don't have replacements so I have to put them back in. I use a screen filter over the sink drain to prevent anything from clogging the pipes or any snails/plants getting out when doing water changes.. and it gets completely clogged from all the mulm from cleaning the canister and doesn't drain well so I spend a good bit of time dealing with that mess.. more dipping my hands in concentrated mulmy-goodness... 

Last time I did a canister clean I think was too vigorous and ended up cycling again (took a week to get parameters right) but it was before the fish went in.. I hope that does not happen again, or I will have to do more research into how to clean a canister without loosing all the BB... also should look into better filter pads while I'm at it. We'll see how things go.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

The best photo of my Madagascar I've gotten to date

can't get the camera to stay focused when she swims so have to wait for her to stop and stare at me.

My husband managed to get a good in-focus shot of the pleco darting for his favorite spot using his much nicer camera (i must learn how to use it) of course his face is hidden though... the large white blob in front is a very munched on zucchini


I probably won't do any full tank photos until the pleco moves out since he refuses to let me scape, all i can keep is floated anacharis in there with him... so many plant scape ideas *sigh*
I have a tomato growing on the windowsill with my to-techs thats outgrowing its little cup quickly, I'm considering adapting my old crappy hob (that came with the 10 gallon) to house it and pit it to the 55.. if i can figure out how to have soil in there and not lose it all into the tank..

Canister cleaning last week went well, both fish are alive and showed no sighs of stress so I managed not to clean out the BB colony this time (woot), still really need to get some replacement pads for the filter though...


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*Aquaponics.. lots of rambling*

So the tomato I mentioned in the last post got munched on by the cats once they found out they could reach it (grr) I'm currently trying to rehabilitate it in a bigger clay pot with more MGOPM and aquarium water. I don't know if its going to bounce back.. but in the mean time my research into growing the tomato in the HOB sent me on a tangent with aquaponics and I must say I'm quite fascinated by it. 

Aquaponics is simple explained as using nutrients from aquarium water (nitrate and other soluble compounds) to feed plants which remove nitrate from the water making it clean before it goes back to the fish. I'd love to try this, since if successful, I would no longer have to do a 10 gallon water change 3x a week, instead only needing to remove the pleco poop, but not the water with it to reduce nitrates any more (plants will do that part). 

I am hoping to try to set up a small simply system using my existing 55 gallon and canister filter, so all I need is some more umf for lights (I don't think my Marineland Doublebrights will be enough), grow beds, (light weight) media, and some seeds. I'd also switch my de-cholrinator to Prime and upgrade my filter media (get some real foam for there instead of the crappy stuff that's already breaking up) and possibly remove the activated charcoal. If this is successful I'd properly scale it for the amount of water volume and nitrates my pleco helps make, and whenever he gets his final large set up, build a large aquaponics garden to help there too.

For the initial test I'll probably try getting 2-3 6500k cfl bulbs and reflectors to supplement the Marineland (unless I can steal the t5 that is the tank rooms main light source and get some grow bulbs... _our family room doesn't really need any lights in this basement.. right?_ >.>) , a medium/small grow bed box or maybe cement mixing tub, a light weight media (considering expanded shale or growstones), and use some leftover 2x4 we have to build an ugl.. I mean simply setup on top of the 55 gallon. Having lights raised up above plants (exact height will be determined by what is chosen to grow). I'll have the outlet tubing for the canister re-connect to the spray bar and have that in the grow bed and cut hole(s)/slit(s) with screen (if needed to keep media in) to let the water flow right back into the tank that the grow-bed is set directly over. I'd probably also remove the hosing for the canister [strike]and use the leftover black paint from trimming the outside of the house to cover it to reduce algae growth in the tubes (obliviously not getting any paint IN the tube and letting it dry before re-attaching)[/strike] my husband insists on just buying cheap simple black hosing instead of painting existing. Also might finally get a background or some sort of glass tinter (or be cheap and just use old sheets) for the tank to also reduce excess light from getting down into the water (again to reduce algae issues).

Amusingly most people do aquaponics to gain healthy fruits/veggies/herbs and fish for their own consumption and/or to sell. Ironically I don't like to eat fish (and certainly won't be eating my pleco) or very many veggies so I won't benefit from the system, its mostly just for the pleco.. Though if I can successfully grow healthy food I'm sure my family who like a wider range of veggies than me will happily help take care of it.

I'd love to produce greens that I can then take a small sample of a make green algae to feed dalfina to then feed that to my rainbow fish (beautiful closed cycle feeding!), but for now I'll have to switch to a safe flake food to avoid hormones/steroids/color enhancers. I read that Paprika (i think) is a natural color enhancer so I might try tampering with that as I get more organic/safe with fish food. Once I've gotten the hang of growing with aquaponics I'd voe to use it to grow the pleco's own food supply (mostly heats green squash but will try to test anything I grow on him too) so I am only supplementing algae wafers.

Anyways I ramble too much.. will update with ideas/photos/etc as/if this happens *Cross fingers* just hope I didn't inherit my mother's 'black thumb' (bad gardener).


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*Aquaponics under construction!*

So no photos yet but gathering supplies to build an aquapoonic system. Changed from trying a grow bed style to trying an NFT (nutrient film technique) using 4inch PVC and PVC "T"s to hold individual planters. My husband has been a big help in figuring out parts we need and we'll hopefully be getting most of the pieces tomorrow to set up a system. Will still need to get a light and grow media but I am waiting until the system is built as these will be the most expensive parts. Unfortunately all the non transparent tubing we could find at HomeDepo or Lows was too rigid for the set up so we'll be ordering online... need tubing that's not semi transparent, don't want to encourage algae growth.

Currently we have the planters (curtisy of a wonderful little nursary down the road that insisted I take them for free) and the PVC "T"s which need to have thier 'tops' cut down so the planters will sit about 1inch above sthe bottom of the pipe. We have one cut already so ill get a photo to show what I'm talking about later. What else.. we got the end caps that will keep the water in the PVC, just have to do a little plumbing to let it in one end and out the other.

Will try to have progress photos with next posted update^^


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*Construction starts!*

Here's some photos, will add more details later

Seeds


uncut 4 inch "T"s (x6)


cut 4 inch "T"s (same 6)


Planter in cut "T" (x6)


4 inch cap (x2)


Pre assembling (4 inch diameter drainage piping between "T"s 3.5 inch lengths x7) + hose parts 


Glue to bind pvc


Post glueing






3/4 inch hose to use for tubing (will be cut to length)


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## Bluebugs (May 1, 2013)

Very interested! I plan on setting up something like this within the year. Except, no pretty tank.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Bluebugs said:


> Very interested! I plan on setting up something like this within the year. Except, no pretty tank.


Awesome! Be sure to make a journal for it, always fun to see what people build ^^. Do you know what form of container you will be keeping fish in if not using an aquarium? Ibc, barrel, storage container, per fab pond, or the always fun (imo) DIY build for fish 'tank'?


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## dubels (Jun 14, 2012)

Nice to see progress! Keep us updated. I might be tearing down my setup to go with a a NFT system. Beautiful Pleco too.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

dubels said:


> Nice to see progress! Keep us updated. I might be tearing down my setup to go with a a NFT system. Beautiful Pleco too.


Will be adding more info this week and next hopefully ^^ Got the grow media today in the mail (PlantIT! brand). have to clean and water-log it to figure out overall weight of the setup to buy appropriate brackets etc for hanging it up over the tank.

I ordered some sodium ascorbate powder last week that's taking for-ev-er to get here (moron company took 4 business days to ship it out =.=). Hopeing to test it on my tap and see how much my pH swings. I tried asorbic acid (from cut open gel caps) 2.5 grams in a 5 gallon bucket of tap and got a 1.1 pH drop (insanely hard water here so not too much of a plummet). I'm hoping the other vitamin C form will drop pH less so i can switch out the tank water without stressing the fish too much.

Are you considering switching to NFT because the grow-bed is being troublesome? Or some of the plants you want to grow do well in NFT/raft type systems? How are you fish (and shrimp) in you aquaponic setup doing btw? Hopefully well ^^

I love my pleco but all his photos are all of him in 'camo mode'. His natural colors are darker brown all over with like spots, not the blotchy tan to dark brown look.. he won't let me get a photo of him 'el-natural'. I love his light belly though, always fake 'belly rub' through the glass when he's sucked onto the wall ^^


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## Positron (Jul 22, 2013)

Very cool way of using unwanted nitrates! That sailfin pleco is awesome. Pretty cute.

Grow some lettuce with his poop water and then feed the lettuce to him again!


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## dubels (Jun 14, 2012)

Yeah the ph drop with ascorbic acid was too much. I stopped doing that and now that I know my tap doesn't have chloramines in it I might just age the tap water or use my RO waste water. The difference between my tap and RO waste appears to be TDS of 47 and GH of 2, both have nitrates at 5ppm.

Fish are happy but the shrimp all became snacks for the fish. Plants a growing fine now besides the high winds, I just want to switch to NFT because I feel like I can utilize the my space better and it would be a little quieter. I can hear the burp (gargle) of my siphon breaking if my house is silent. Trying not to annoy neighbors too much. The kale is sprouting new growth, radishes are growing good roots and the spinach seems to be doing decently.

I didn't know you were supposed to waterlog the clay. I only had two floaters since setup, but I guess that is because with my setup it's all weighed down by dry clay on top.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Positron said:


> Very cool way of using unwanted nitrates! That sailfin pleco is awesome. Pretty cute.
> 
> Grow some lettuce with his poop water and then feed the lettuce to him again!


Thank you^^. Already planning 2 lettuces and a spinach in here. If I'm lucky I'll get him to eat the lettuce. Lately he seems to only love zucchini (green squash). But if this goes well I will add to he setup and grow his own food later on. From what I've read leafy and herby plants are good for noobs to start with (where you eat the leaf and or stem), flowering or "fruit" producing plants take more nutrients (that sometimes need added) like tomatoes, squash, and such. They also need differ t light spectrum to flower and fruit.




dubels said:


> Yeah the ph drop with ascorbic acid was too much. I stopped doing that and now that I know my tap doesn't have chloramines in it I might just age the tap water or use my RO waste water. The difference between my tap and RO waste appears to be TDS of 47 and GH of 2, both have nitrates at 5ppm.
> 
> Fish are happy but the shrimp all became snacks for the fish. Plants a growing fine now besides the high winds, I just want to switch to NFT because I feel like I can utilize the my space better and it would be a little quieter. I can hear the burp (gargle) of my siphon breaking if my house is silent. Trying not to annoy neighbors too much. The kale is sprouting new growth, radishes are growing good roots and the spinach seems to be doing decently.
> 
> I didn't know you were supposed to waterlog the clay. I only had two floaters since setup, but I guess that is because with my setup it's all weighed down by dry clay on top.


Well at least the fish are still alive and happy ^^. Glad to hear the plants are growing too, can you put up a glass or clear plastic as a sort of wind buffer for your plants? The nose from videos of bell siphons made me want to go with a constant flow system so it no start and stop noises, that would wake me up at night x.x

I will say if you do NFT get real PVC, we ended up getting drainage 4 inch piping (which is NOT sturdy enough to hold the system and water weight). And "T"s that fit on them (which are very firm but forced up to glue everything together instead of keeping them..adjustable). Real PVC "T"s cost a bit more so getting the PVC cutting drill attachment would be a cheaper option especially for a larger system.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*Medicine and Media*

So not really medicine, but got my Vitamin C (sodium ascorbate powder) today... which is surprising, I thought it would take until next week to arrive. I currently have 2.5g put into a 5 gallon bucket of tap water (warm water to dissolve it better) and waiting to see how it effects pH, will update with the results shortly.


Also got around to rinsing about 1/4 the grow media and putting it in one of the 4x4 planters and weighing it (wet). For 6 planters of media it will be just a little under 5 lbs of weight, the NFT tubing system is just a bit under 7 lbs (empty). Have to figure out max weight of plants and how much water will be in the tubing to get overall weight to find appropriate supports for it. My husband suggested we use brackets, "u"s that are used to pin PVC to walls (x2 to make an "O" wrapped around the tube and hang it off of (stainless steel coated) chains. 

I ordered the lights yesterday on ebay, got 4foot long 2 bulb (6500k for both) t5 lights for about $55, not a bad price, hope they make it here intact and functional ^^ We'll also hand the lights from chains so they can be adjusted if anything gets a bit big, i think the herbs are most likely to get the largest from our initial seed list.

When we start growing flowering/"fruiting" plants I'll get a warmer spectrum bulb, I think 300k is the suggested kelvin for those. In overall price the lights are definitely the most expensive aprt of this so far (ignoring the cost of the canister filter since it was pre-exsisting).

I also ordered Seachem Prime as a de-chlorinator back up and some coarse filter pads for the canister filter as the flimsy filter floss pads are pretty mush useless now and need replaced. I may also use 1 pad at the beginning of the NFT tube to keep any missed organics from getting on roots.

Ok so its been a bit since I started typing this lets see how the Vitamin C water pH is.... 
Was kind of hard to tell if the low ph test had a slightly different blue hue so I did a tap water test too (used warm water like in the bucket).. compared both tests side by side... I can't tell which is which! My gh/kh is so high sodium ascorbate had no effect on my pH at all! It is wonderful as it allows me to start using this immediately without fear of stressing the fish.
Here's a photo of them side by side I _think _the left is treated, right is tap.. but i can't tell now >.< (sorry quick blurred photo)


I decided to put in a bit more vitamin C (maybe 0.5-1g extra) to see if going slightly over the dosage would effect pH lets see how that goes (so I would know if I had to be super anal about exact dosing amounts or could safely go over). After letting the added powder dissolve and sit a bit the pH....blue-ish-green -7.2 range (next color on pH chart) so it will drop with excess amounts but its not bad. I'm going to let this over dosed batch sit a day and check again just to see if pH fluxes.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

The vitamin C was too unstable to use. After setting up a new bucket of water and dosing the original (not over done) amount and watching for several days, the PH dropped by 1.2 in 2-3 days, which is too fast for the fish to handle. So I will be sticking with Prime as my de-chlorinator for now. I'd ordered a bottle on amazon.. apparently I botched and got 100 ml instead of 1 liter so will have to order a larger bottle.

So this past Sunday me and my husband worked to put the bypass hose under the pvc, turns out the hose was so rigid, it put enough tension on one of the glued pipe attachments/hose adapters that it came loose. Evidently my husband originally used naval goop on it, but he re-glued using the pvc glue to see if it holds better. If not he will probably make a threaded fitting.
I will add photos once its done.

The light fixture/bulbs I ordered should be in today, and I'm very excited to see if they (hopefully) survived transit. I also got some blue coarse foam filter pads to replace the filter floss pads. Will change them out at next water change (wed). Hopefully they do a good job catching all the food and poop particles.
I also got a seedling starter .. thing-y to get seeds growing some roots before transferring t the aquaponics system.

On another note I also got a new tank, canister filter, and heater which I am starting to cycle (sans the substrate/light/plants for now) and also getting my husband a new tank for his desk soon (the 3 gallon suuuucks can't wait to chuck that out!). I'll make a new thread for these tanks (will share same canister filter) once they're more put together.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Seed starter kit:


Coarse foam pads all used in canister filter (going to order another 2-1 to stuff in pvc to keep any missed organics out).

Also got lights in but they're not hung yet so photos later on ^^ 

Should be doing more meddling with the system this weekend.


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

This is a great idea. I honestly just scrolled through glancing at pictures, I'll read through it later today or tomorrow as I gotta go take an exam. I originally had planned to use a 55 to build my first aquaponics system. Found out I'm going to have room to set up a system using ibc totes at my new house. I'm pretty stoked. Subscribed.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

johnson18 said:


> This is a great idea. I honestly just scrolled through glancing at pictures, I'll read through it later today or tomorrow as I gotta go take an exam. I originally had planned to use a 55 to build my first aquaponics system. Found out I'm going to have room to set up a system using ibc totes at my new house. I'm pretty stoked. Subscribed.


I'm excited to get this up and going too, always fun to work on a project ^^. Look forward to seeing a journal on your future setup. Do you have any ideas on what you'll grow in the new system?


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

AquaAurora said:


> I'm excited to get this up and going too, always fun to work on a project ^^. Look forward to seeing a journal on your future setup. Do you have any ideas on what you'll grow in the new system?


At this point the plan is to rotate veggie crops seasonally. My guess is that Tilapia will be the fish. I'm also tempted to use an air pump vs a water pump, like they do at Olomana Gardens in HI.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

SO I decided to put the seeds in the Burpee seed start try and get them going in the window... I gotta say that seed starter kit is a real piece of [censor] that freaking lid is made of such horribly cheap plastic it perpetual bows inward and refuses to stay properly sealed over the try. I suspect my seeds/tray will dry out quite quickly. Extremely displeased with this...

Edit:after a bit of rangeling I managed to get the lid to stay down with the use of two large candles on each side. Looks rather stupid but at least it's sealed now. Still pissed the lid is so crapily made =.=


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*Its up!*



Few tweaks made, had to enlarge the output to 2inch pvc "L", pipe, and shut off valve. Took a little bit of back and forth adjusting how shut off it was to get a good flow. Hung lights today, got them at a great price from a good group that cent a replacement immediately (overnight shipping...and free!) when I informed them that one of the two bulbs was non-function after shipping. Had to boogie rig the lights a bit or they hung down right on the planters, but handy hubby knows great ways to boogie rigs things to be functional and safe ^^ couldn't have gotten this done without him, huge help through the whole process!


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*Will update with photos soon but this is no longer 'under construction' its fully functioning (yay)!*
Added a quick simple light shield and the 6500k t5s are so bright we never use the room lights anymore.
Also added a simple cut up piece of pvc scrap to act as a dam to get wanted water height instead of dickin' with the shut off valve.
Originally planted (from left to right) cilantro cilantro spinach spinach lettuce lettuce.
Unfortunately 1 of the lettuce (can't recall which type went in which pot) did not survive the transfer so I threw 3-5 seeds of the Valkeri lettuce into the clay media and put a wet paper towel on top of it (wetted daily in the tank's water). Have 2 lettuce popping out from there now. One of the cilantro is not doing well, but has a new leaf so I'm giving it to the end of the week, if it looks like its not going to make it I'll move one of the lettuce plantlets into its cup.
Nothings growing like a weed yet but there's new growth. Still doing 3x a week water changes to keep poop and nitrate down. Pleco is growing fast again, last measurement was past 11"! Stop growing so fast! We don't have your monster tank built yet x.x


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## Bushkill (Feb 15, 2012)

I was interested in the "aquaponics tube" from the picture in your other thread and something occurred to me. The drain on the right side may not retain enough water to reach the bottom of the pots. If that's the case, you may have to adjust the location of the drain on the end of the run so that there's actually a constant water level in there. Good to see you used heavy-duty hangers. That tube will get heavier than you think. Great concept.


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## Bushkill (Feb 15, 2012)

Duh, just read the last post about the "dam" should work fine. Just keep in mind that flow out of the canister won't be 100% consistent.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Bushkill said:


> I was interested in the "aquaponics tube" from the picture in your other thread and something occurred to me. The drain on the right side may not retain enough water to reach the bottom of the pots. If that's the case, you may have to adjust the location of the drain on the end of the run so that there's actually a constant water level in there. Good to see you used heavy-duty hangers. That tube will get heavier than you think. Great concept.





Bushkill said:


> Duh, just read the last post about the "dam" should work fine. Just keep in mind that flow out of the canister won't be 100% consistent.




The hangers can take about another 200lbs of weight added to whats on them (better to be overkill then have a mess). The planters had holes drilled into the lower sections to allow water in more easily and the mini pvc damn keeps water levels high enough that the clay media is sucking up water just fine and putting it by the roots ^^

Actually had to clean out the circular sponge pad i put at the front of the nft before the pots, it was so full of gunk it wouldn't let water flow through it so it tipped over and failed to catch anything. Will make a note to clean that out when I do water changes ^^

Anyways here are some photos:




Have a paper towel over a partially opened lettuce seed that I transferred to the dead cilantro's pot.


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## Bushkill (Feb 15, 2012)

Oh, I know those hangers are overkill, but I agree 100% better safe than sorry.

But now you have me curious about the white "hammock" under the pots? I'm guessing it's to reflect light back to the pots?


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Bushkill said:


> Oh, I know those hangers are overkill, but I agree 100% better safe than sorry.
> 
> But now you have me curious about the white "hammock" under the pots? I'm guessing it's to reflect light back to the pots?


Its just a cheap quick light 'reflector' but really purposed as a light blocker. If I let the light from the t5 shine onto the 55gallon tank (lights on 16 hours a day), it would be an algae nightmare (even with an algae eater monster in there, I don't think he could keep up) and if algae grows its taking nutrients the plants should be absorbing instead so they're getting gipped. 
Its fishing line, white poster paper, some misc plastic tubing, packaging tape, zipties, and staple gun staples. I thought about adding aluminum foil to it to be more reflective, but I'll wait till the plants are actually growing large and hanging over the sides of the nft before considering it seriously.


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## Bushkill (Feb 15, 2012)

OK, that's what I thought. Fwiw, you're probably better off leaving it as is. There's plenty of info on the reflective properties of simple white finishes. Also anything that's reflective like polished aluminum needs to be directed, or focused. So that you would most likely end up with odd reflective points sending light in odd directions in the room.

There are some T5 fixtures that are a lot more expensive than some others. The key to them is the reflectors that literally wrap around the bulbs and have carefully designed bends to capture all the light from around he tube a reflect it downward in the most efficient manor possible.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

So had a bit of a disaster last weekend.. not 100% sure how it happened, but got to get up early Sunday morning to a tank with about 40 gallons of tank water missing...(on the floor). Fortunately this is the basement and next to the 'unfinished' utlities side, also we own our own 'wet vacs'(carpet cleaners) and a de-humidifier so they've been put to work for the week, and I've pretty much killed my back from all the cleaning. On the bright side the carpet did need a scrubbing anyways so this kind of forced it, so easy to forget just how dirty it really is from all the foot traffic.
No leaks were found in the tank or equipment and no loss of water since it was refilled. The Madagascar was NOT happy being in such shallow water.. the pleco I don't think cared as long as he was still underwater, they survived the drain and the refill without noticeable stress and had no loss of appetite, and were back to normal behavior within a few hours.
As for the plants, they didn't suffer from the drain, and the cilantro has roots sticking out of the bottom of its planter now and its definitely enjoying the setup. One of the two spinach is growing well, the other seems stunted. And the oldest/original lettuce is very leggy but putting out leaves. The cilantro is the only one that could be used for food yet, the leafy greens are still too wimpy, but I'm hoping they pick up soon!


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## Sdavis1982 (Apr 26, 2012)

Hope to hear more updates. Will be interesting to see how long the roots grow

Sent from my SM-N900P using Tapatalk


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Plants are doing ok though some have a slight burnt look to their leaves, will have to lok up what that means again and correct it.





Cilantro and its roots, not too long yet but only ones reaching out of the cups



Pleco photo time





He's longer than this photo shows, he tail is on the substrate
btw the watermelon shot is from an hour ago.. its already devoured (he loves melons)


I'm thinking of removing the tiny spinach and putting the oregano seedling in that one's pot.


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## Jill (Mar 13, 2012)

This is so cool. I can't to set one of these systems up on my spare 29 gallon tank.  Thank you for sharing!

That pleco with the watermelon is adorable.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

So been busy with 20g giving me one problem after another recently but wanted to update this journal.
Lettuce at the output end is doing great! The other plants... not so much. My husband decided to try a leaf of lettuce from the aquaponic system last night and said its great and has a nice flavor to it. I'm thinking of ripping out the 'meh' plants and trying spinach again and a few more lettuce.





Can you see the pleco blending into the log? Also gave him a piece of lettuce to nibble from the plant above. The lettuce to the right is taller/leggy' because the seed starter wasn't transplanted quickly, the one on the left of it was grown in the aquaponic system and is staying the more traditional low growth style. Of almost forgot to mention tossed one dead seedling and put n an oregano that had been sitting on the windowsill seed starter tray for a long while... Really got to get off my ass and figure out whats wrong with the cilantro.. though I'm guessing (haven't checked yet) that its roots are suffocating from being covered in mulm thanks to the sucksuck i mean sunsun canister and its fail filth catcher system..


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## tattooedfool83 (Mar 15, 2013)

Awesome set up, try dropping the level of the clay balls in the pots. You gotta figure the water level is only as high as the PVC so that means half the pot doesnt get saturated with water. And if you look at other aquaponics systems that may use an Eb and Flow systen so there they are saturated up to the base of the roots and stem many times a day. I really love this set up you, makes for great space saving. awesome awesome job.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

tattooedfool83 said:


> Awesome set up, try dropping the level of the clay balls in the pots. You gotta figure the water level is only as high as the PVC so that means half the pot doesnt get saturated with water. And if you look at other aquaponics systems that may use an Eb and Flow systen so there they are saturated up to the base of the roots and stem many times a day. I really love this set up you, makes for great space saving. awesome awesome job.


You think the high level of media is leaving the seedling roots to dry? Diggin into the media just below the top layer its moist (but not completely saturated) constantly (can't really afford having filtration turned off with the poop monster I have in there). When I shuffle media the newly dried top layer ends up with a *********** from the dried calcium in our water (as seen in photos). I'll try removing a bit of media when I plant new seeds in the system (use a wet paper tower on them until they sprout), and see how they do.
Really like that this only takes vertical space and no extra floor space too! If my husbnad and I decide to add on we'd make something of a 'stair way' I think its called (there some sort of 'step' like term for it) where we'd just add another pipe slightly below but next to the existing so gravity still moves the water but no need to add more lights.

I'm excited to get enough growing in here to use frequently for meals soon ^^


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## burr740 (Feb 19, 2014)

Fascinating read, that's a really cool set up.


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## jay973 (Feb 5, 2009)

This is so cool... indoor herb garden many possibilities.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

burr740 said:


> Fascinating read, that's a really cool set up.


Thank you ^^



jay973 said:


> This is so cool... indoor herb garden many possibilities.


Thank you ^^ pretty much any plant: flower, vegtable, herb, even fruit can be grown with aquaponics. The system I'm using limits selection a bit, "media beds" can grow large heavy foods like corn and I've seen someone with a coconut tree I think from youtube. 



Its fun getting into aquaponics already having an aqurium background so the whole fish, beneficial bacteria, filtration, and general tank stability theory is already understood. Its basically adapt your filtration (based on method you want to use) and slap plants in! Having it indoors gives full control of the environment and helps reduce pest issues too. I'd recomend it to anyone that is willing to put in the bit of work and research to get initial set up done.


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## cjstl (Mar 4, 2013)

I love this! I have had an empty 55G sitting in my garage for seven years now. It has a stand and everything. Wondering if it will still hold water and thinking I should fill it up and see! I have been thinking about putting it in my basement and using it for my ever-growing endler colony and plant grow-out. I like the PVC, but wondering if something similar could be accomplished by using plexiglass and cutting holes so the pots hang directly in the tank.

BTW, I know what I would be growing in those six pots if I lived in Washington or Colorado ;-)


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

cjstl said:


> I love this! I have had an empty 55G sitting in my garage for seven years now. It has a stand and everything. Wondering if it will still hold water and thinking I should fill it up and see! I have been thinking about putting it in my basement and using it for my ever-growing endler colony and plant grow-out. I like the PVC, but wondering if something similar could be accomplished by using plexiglass and cutting holes so the pots hang directly in the tank.
> 
> BTW, I know what I would be growing in those six pots if I lived in Washington or Colorado ;-)


Even if I lived there I think I'd still grow food, who knows what that other stuff might do to the fish 
I think yes you could make a lid style cover with holes for planters and let media and roots be wet in tank, just make sure water levels don't get to low, and whatever you use for a filter pushes water all around the tank,.. and that you lid is a thick/sturdy material as the plants and wt media will get heavy and make it sag (consider reinforcing). Sadly I cannot do that style since my pleco would just rip and eat the roots :/
You can paint or coat the 'lid' (don't do black as it can get too warm for plants depending on light) to reduce light getting into the tnak if you are only growing on top, thus reducing algae underwater, and let you use a strong light with a long photo period for the above water plants.

If you do setup the tank be sure to put up a journal for it and show everyone what you build and grow! ^^


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*fuzzy fungus fight*

So now I have a white fuzzy fungus growing on my clay media, trying to figure out what it is and what causes it so once I clean the media and plants I can rectify the issue and prevent it from coming back.. anyone have any ideas?
This is growing on clay media above water.. the 2 lettuce plants are still doing well but the others.. not so much... and the nft tube is just nasty.. 







Really want to switch to a canister that doesn't suck like eheim (sunsun with uv light is just fail for catching mulm.. it all grows through the opening for the light....

Pleco and rainbow fish are still doing fine. The Madagascar loves Saturdays now since I feed thawed frozen blood worms or brine shrimp (rotate each week) to my betta... dwarf puffers still won't go for the stuff only live foods) and I always cut off too much from the block so i dump the leftover in for the rainbow.. she darts around through the food like a torpedo NOM NOM NOM


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## vanish (Apr 21, 2014)

Just wanted to say you were one of my inspirations for a summer project.

Two weeks in (started with extra seedlings from our garden):










I need more poo


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

vanish said:


> Just wanted to say you were one of my inspirations for a summer project.
> 
> Two weeks in (started with extra seedlings from our garden):
> 
> ...


Thank you! Awesome set up, simple and easy way to keep fish from jumping (or predators from getting in). Will you move it (or chill/heat it) when it gets too hot/cold? Bristlenose plecos are poop monsters on a smaller scale and can live in smaller tanks (my guy needs an upgrade soon). Oscars are not good idea if you want anything else in the tank.. but I think a 55g with good filtration will support one, 75g for 2 and are probably the next biggest poop producers compared to plecos, both need warm tanks though. Goldfish are commonly used and will grow into big poop monsters eventually.. same for koi just gotta let them and the plants grow up together, these two can live in cooler water.


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## vanish (Apr 21, 2014)

It currently has three Comets that were to be lunch for my green sunfish before he was transferred to a friend's indoor pond a couple of months ago. The only trouble I have had with them in this tank is they eat many of the lettuce roots. That's a 2 inch thick foam raft on top, so the baskets sit in about 1/4 inch of water. It works quite well for giving them consistent water exposure.

I'm unsure what my long term plan is to be ... I have about 3 months before I need to move it. This was all put together on a whim with mostly spare parts.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

As the fish grow you could use 'egg crates" those light diffuser things (plastic) to build a barrier that the roots can grow down into the water and the fish won't be able to eat them, but it leaves the fish with less swim room... But its nothing set in stone so you can always tweak your setup later on ^^
I couldn't do a 'raft' system for the same reason, pleco would eat roots, probably aggressively enough to break the foam and bring the whole plant underwater to eat, lol he's a beast..


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

I decided to clean the filter last week, flow had gone down drastically... it was quite a mess, too much so to take photos during cleaning, but look how 'clean' the tank water is right after I hooked it back up? =.=


Had to do a large water change to get all the loose [censor] out. This is the issue I complaining about.. the filter does not catch mulm worth [censor].. really leaning towards adding anotehr eheim to this for added flow and better filtration. Btw, the water is much clearer now.. jsut hate that 'post clean.. not-so-clean' look... moral of the story, don't get sunsun canisters with uv starlizers... the lack of proper filtration is not worth it for the anti green water light.

I think my white fuzz issue in the aquaponic system is from the top layer of media being too wet. Going to remove and replace all media, clean lettuce and probably throw out the cilantro, and put in new media (adding a bit more to hopefully get a dry top layer). I could ask my husband to lower the damn (cut it shorter) in the pipe so the water level is a bit lower, but since I already have to replace media I'll try this route first.


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## coolnick (Oct 28, 2006)

The water only needs to touch the bottom layer of your media. Capillary action will assist in wetting the rest of the media. Try lowering the water level before you change out all the media. 

For the mulm problem sometimes a power head for flow helps your canister catch the debris that you stir up.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

coolnick said:


> The water only needs to touch the bottom layer of your media. Capillary action will assist in wetting the rest of the media. Try lowering the water level before you change out all the media.
> 
> For the mulm problem sometimes a power head for flow helps your canister catch the debris that you stir up.


Thank you for the info on media.
I don't know if you've sen a sunsun with uv light, there's a nice big old hole in each basket for the light to go down into the canister, and mulm has a tendency to find its way into this area and ultimately end up in the aquaponics tube or tank again instead of getting caught in the filter media.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*[email protected]&% you sunsun*

So last weekend I cleaned out the canister and it run ok the first day or two.. well 7-8 days later its worse than it was when I cleaned it, the tank water is murky as hell, and the flow is pretty much non existent... I'm not in the mood to clean this inconvenient canister 2x a week.. I'd hesitated to buy a new filter as I'd want an eheim and they cost a pretty penny... well this did it... $400+ lighter now I get to wait for it to come and see what i have to do to adapt the aquapnonic system hosing.. I feel sick spending that much money on equipment since until now the most expensive thing I've bought was only $100...


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Well ripped canister apart again, it wasn't that full of mulm since last week to account for the lacking flow... so started taking apart and cleaning other pieces.. the disconnecting unit was pretty clogged, but the real culprit was determined to be the intake pipe. I'd not cleaned that out since setting it up, and it was completely CLOGGED. I'd tried putting a nylon stocking or foam over the intake before to prevent a clog in the canister, but all the poo would completely cover the outside of this 'pre filter' or sorts and killed flow that way.... Now I'm a bit pissed I spent the $ on a new filter (and more so for next day air so it would get here quickly assuming sunsun was on its last leg before cleaning it yesterday). I could have milked this canister out a bit more.
That said even with the uv light in there I' getting a lot of green water (very noticeable from side of tank rather than front) most likely from the t5s on the aquaponics system shining into the semi transparent green piping... May have to paint or tape the pipes to keep light out. For now not putting the tank's lights on to tr to reduce the algae... pleco is loving the no-lights, rainbowfish.. not as happy but can still seen fine to get food and such.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

.. I feel like a part of my previous post got lost,I could have sworn I'd written about this...
Last weekend:Well last weekend along with the canister clean my husband cleared out the planter pots and cleaned off the media + added more back in. He also cut the lettuce and got quite a bit out of the two plants we have (one broke from being moved, going to see if it grows back). Harvested lettuce was more than you typically get from 1 romaine lettuce at the store and most was used for a simple salad that night (just added tomato and onion). He also added a lot of seeds to the empty planters to get some new stuff growing. The damn was not lowed to reduce water level since when checked, it only barely brgouth it up high enough to get the bottom 1/2" of the pot in water.
Pre cut:

post cut (wilted from being out of pot):



Tuesday: New canister came in and after a bit of work was st up. Husband adapted the outflow hosing tot eh aquaponic system and I took apart the old canister and added its media + some new media (after a lot of rinsing) to the new filter. Filled the canister with tank water than made a bit of a mess priming the two intake pipes. And it finally was up and pumping. Noticeable increase in flow which was nice but the aquaponics outlet dumps water straight down into the tank. This is good for aeration but doesn't do anything for in-tank flow. May add a diy buffer or slap an elbow on the end of the outlet to fix that. Water is noticeably cleaner now even though this filter does not have a uv light.. I guess what I thought was green water was just a ton of particulates. 

Today: Seedlings are popping up from all the mystery sprinkled seeds in the aqauponic's previously empty pots (hubby didn't tell me what he put in which pot). Going to let them grow a bit and weed out the weaker ones.


The existing lettuce has bounced back from its wilt and started growing new leaves too.


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## vanish (Apr 21, 2014)

I think you might have posted it to someone else's thread on accident. I remember reading about the salad before.

What kind of canister did you buy?


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

vanish said:


> I think you might have posted it to someone else's thread on accident. I remember reading about the salad before.
> 
> What kind of canister did you buy?


Whoops might have (can't find it now though x.x) I also apparently lost a photo will have to add that back later.
Got the over kill Eheim pro3 1200x canister filter. Way more than I should need but I figure it can move over with the pleco once it's bigger tank is ready (ideally 250g+ upgrade but will have to see what we have room for and can afford to build).


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

[Click for a quick slide show of pleco having fun eating zucchini] (set speed to fast)
Run it on a fast speed.. sorry i use to know how to cram several photos into a simple 'animation' but its been a while.. i let photobucket do it for me.. sorta..
Anyways find it amusing to watch him swim up and catch floating zucchini bits and then just move all over the place eating them... Madagascar rainbowfish was not impressed with me standing there taking photos and not feeding her more (thawed) frozen blood worms. I have to put zuchini on a plastic chop stick thats wrapped in non lead aquarium plant weight and stuffed under rocks (as seen in photos) as my old method (rock+ rubber band) never hold it down anymore... problem is he never eats the part under the chopstick before it breaks loose.. so then we get this fun ^^

In other news the lettuce is still a beast, and the... wow brain fart celantro? bloomed ^^


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*Sad times :c*

So unfortunately my big plans for a giant tank for the leoaprd sailfin pleco can't happen now, and he's growing incredibly fast (went from 10" to 13.5" in 3 months), so I have to find him a new bigger for-ever home soon.
I've started by trying to contact the cloests toruish aquariums in baltimore md and camdin nj in hopes that they might take him as a donation. I've not heard back from either yet but I tried contacting on the weekend which gets buisy so there's probably a backlog of [censor] for the people to respond to that my message is buried in. I'd love to donate him to an aquarium so I can visit him now and then, but if not I'll have to start searching for people with big tanks and filters to take him. My lfs nearby are under equipped and too incompetent to consider giving him to, and wouldn't put out the effort to make sure he went to a home that wouldn't kill him inside of a week from poor care (they're all about the sale not the fish's health).
I may end up putting up a raok for him in the proper section in a week or two if I don't hear back from the aquariums by then. 
Sadly I'm not involved with any fish club.. I don't know if there even are any 'close' to me (I don't consider Philly close, that place is a nightmare getting into). So I have no real contacts to ask if they can take him or help expand the search by contacting others about giving him a home.
Its really hard letting him go -I love that big dork- but he needs a larger tank to be comfortable and happy, and I cannot provide it. :c


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

So the tourist aquariums couldn't even bother to get back to me with a "no thank you" how rude of them. Oh well I wouldn't want to drive that far anyways XP
In other news my mother in law gave me and my hubby the most monstrous zucchini I'd ever seen this past weekend! If I didn't know she gardens 100% organic I'd swear she found the sweet spot for plant steroids! This will feed the pleco a long while if it can be kept fresh (can you freeze zucchini?) at 17" long, 6" at its widest, and 3" at its 'thinnest', and weighs a ton (didn't weigh before cutting but I think it could have won a prize at a count fair or something). The seeds are the size of ones you find in jumbo pumpkins! and the original slice I cut was so buoyant I had to quarter it. Took him a few days to nom through it.






Zucchini has since been cored so 75+% of the seeds are removed. The monstrosity veggie is now in 2 pieces in the fridge wrapped in cling wrap and gallon ziplocks (that still can't close around it).


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## vanish (Apr 21, 2014)

Hows the aquaponics part doing? I am about to tear my setup down. It was a neat experiment but I need the tank for my 150G sump.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

I'll be tearing mine down soon too once the pleco is re-homed, since its main purpose was to help with the nitrates caused from it. I'll probably transfer my riparium onto the 55, might even move the tank over by the office side so I can see it from my seat like the 20g riparium currently. 
Anyways its going pretty good. Lettuce had a growth spurt and is touching the lights, cilantro is too big for its own good and drooping (really should tie that off). And I got a seedling from.... something? I mixed the pots around so I can't remember if that one had spinach or lettuce seeds. Hope its spinach. Lettuce may look shabby in photo, husband did a big prune this past Sunday for dinner salad (which was had with organic tomato and beats also from my in-laws garden).


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Not quite sure what to do with the lettuce, its grow up past the lights, heading for the ceiling! Its goin' to go all "giant bean stalk" on me and be through the roof soon!! Ok maybe not... Still waiting for the one seedling to grow and find out what it is.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*Sad days.. :c*

Yesterday was the last day I could call this tank "plecoponics",.. my big pleco baby was re-homed to a school with a large animal education program that includes several large tanks and a turtle pond, they already have a few plecos in their other tanks so I know they'll be able to care for my fello. 
I gave what was left of his food (algae wafers and 1 1/2 gallon bags of frozen cut zuchiini), and a giant hollow stump I'd bought a while ago when I had planned to give him a bigger thank before life got in the way. Getting him out was.. interesting, did a large water change before extracting him to dilute nitrates then drained the tank to about 1/3 water level and removed his alrge log (ooo he was not happy having his favorite resting spot gone). To try to minimize stress instead of attempting to pick him up out of the water (which i was quite sure would result in him flying onto the carpet again like when he was being moved to this tank) we used a very thick black construction strength trash bag (i think 50 gallon?) rolled up and put into the tank. My husband ended up working to get the pleco in while I kept the rainbowfish corralled in another corner since she wasn't part of the deal. Well the leopard sailfin pleco wasn't too interested in the bag and as it came close he decided to hang out a bit above water, probably looking for another escape rout. My husband ended up using his finger on the pleocs mouth, letting him grab on, then gently moved him into the bag and pulling it +2-3 gallons out of the tank and put into a new (and washed) home depot bucket. My husband told me after that the mouth was like the rest of his body, rough hide, very effective for rasping. After a quick fin check (non visibly shreded yay) a little water was added and the lid put on, then he went in the car with the other goodies and was wrapped in towels to keep the bucket in place and from temp fluxing too much and we were off!. Met at a neutral place (shopping center) and had a painless exchange then headed home.
I'm going to miss him, loved getting to pet his rough hide, watch him eat, and loved seeing him on the glass or in full sail mode.. but I won't miss the poo or clogged filter issues though. Hope he gets along well with his new tank mates.

Today will be the last day of aquaponics on this tank, as I'll be taking it off and tearing the tank down temporarily (up to a few weeks). Plan to move it to the opposite wall (after giving the floors a much needed clean) and set up the riparium and all its inhabitants (except otos) in the 55. But first I need to get off my butt and finish scaping my 2g jar so I can figure out which pico on of my new bettas will go in so I can free up the quarantine tank (other is in a.. smaller quarantine tank.
My rainbowfish will be put with the 20g community temporarily... I'm not sure how she'll fiar with so many other fish, she's been use to just living with a giant pleco for nearly a year.. I'm hoping she doesn't try to eat the otos or shred other fish's fins, feeding will be interesting as she'll be the largest by 2-3x.. My biggest concern is the 20g riparium has no lid and rainbows are known to jump.. though I have left the lid off the 55g for long periods before (usually during water changes) so we'll have to see how she does.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*Major tank overhaul*

So no photos yet but massive re-do for the 55 is going on, moved it to the wall just outside the office (where 20g was) so it can be seen once done. The Madagascar rainbowfish was temporarily moved into the 20g long.. she is not happy with the smaller space or all the fish but it shouldn't last long.. I just hope she doesn't suck down any otos while shes in there. Currently soaking a lot of ghostwood in the tank, 12-16 hours its made the water very dakr tea colored so going to boiler the pieces I can and figure out something for the others... Maybe oven or dishwasher (as another user recently did with ghostwood on here). Hopefully the pH drop doesn't kill my BB off in the canister before I get that all figured out. Also need to thoroughly rinse what I have left for unused black diamond sand + buy another bag... I foresee a very sore back/arms from that endeavor x.x
Anyways final plan is to move all plants from the 20g to the 55 + get some more (maybe add nl java ferns and some more riparium planters and plants.. really want to find a 'pray plant') after getting wood taken care of and scaped. Then move all fish except otos over as apparently angelfish (my 55g centerpiece fish) will eat teem when they're full grown.
The weather out now is nice and cool and I'm tempted to order some plants early though I don't have lights setup yet or anyplace to put them.. I worry there will be anotehr hot spell whenever I do get around to ordering.. ah oh well.. time to get to work!


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*Restart*

So preping to transfer the riparium to the 55g, originally was going to do a 1/2 full tank and reuse the wood in the 20.. buuut I got impulsive and rescued a small angelfish that was getting bullied by larger ones at the petstore (and who's quickly growing now) so it will be a full tank with new wood. Well the new wood makes manzanita tannins look like a joke.. been boiling 2 of the pieces for a few days (when I'm home) still getting tea colored water.. ended up buying a bin at Tractor supply company (+ some more black diamond 'sand'.. notice the -60 is pretty much the same as 20/40.. unless one of the bag was mislabeled and its all the same grit size) to boil larger pieces in outside using a propane burner. Going to be a week + probably to boil all the tannins out.. or at least enough to not drop my pH (don't feel like dealing with PH fluxes at water changes killing fish/crypts). Finally drained some tank water and added the black diamond I'd cleaned. I've got about 1-1.5" of it in there.. want to get an even 1.5" all around at least (might build up a little more by planted side) so have to wash some more 'sand' off.. weee x.x
So here are a few quick photos:


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*Getting there slowly*

I wasted last weakend waffling about driftwood and intlet/outlet (and by proxi-cansiter fitler placement). I drained the whoel tank to remove tannins and moved the filter.. then decided to move it back. I also moved the table that holds the 2 10gs that was on the wall thsi tank now is against... they are on the wall the 55 use to be on (against stair case) Not sure yet if I'll move them back or not. Hoping to set up either cushioned chair or couch on the staircase wall to view the 55 from once its set up so might need to move the table for room.

So after what 2 weeks of wood boiling and still getting orange water I gave up (mostly because I don't feel like refilling the propane tank again) and tossed the wood in the 55 last night. Giving it a few days so the parts that were out of the bucket get re-water logged. Thinking by Friday that they will all sink fine and I can start messing with scaping the wood.. didn't realize just how much wood it was till I put it all back in O.O 

Might end up not using a piece or 2. Its not been a full 24 hours yet, but the pH has not gone down in the 55 so that's a plus! 
Hoping once wood placement is determined to drill wood and use wooden dowels to keep pieces in place since this will be completely aquarium safe (dowels are just untreated wood, safer than a screw).
Plan to set up lights this weekend (with a LOT of help from my husband) as well as make another diy inline heater with the eheim jagar for this tank (again with hubby's handy help). My husband and I made 2 already for my 7g cube and his 12g long, they work great! Been going for a few months, keep good consistent temps. 
Original idea was to scape wood Friday, and move all plants over Sat and Sunday, but I need the lights and the tank heated (with diy inline heater made). So it might be wood Friday, lights and heater Saturday through Monday (got to let pvc glue cure) then move plants Tuesday-Wed (see how much I can get done in a day) then fish the next day (easy part... well except for catching them.. that's gonna be a bitch).

With my luck it will take a whole 'nother week past that plan schedule to get it all done.. but as long as it gets done soon..


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## vanish (Apr 21, 2014)

I like the wood. Gives the tank a lot of dimension and levels. If you're going with smaller fish I definitely would keep the wood.

Ah just remembered, angelfish ... well they might like a little more room.



AquaAurora said:


> With my luck it will take a whole 'nother week past that plan schedule to get it all done.. but as long as it gets done soon..


Ha, isn't that the way it goes? Some projects seem to do themselves, and others, well ... I picked up the broken 150G in March, was supposed to be in place by end of August and yet its still in the garage. Its coming along but, just like this one, there always seems to be another little thing to do.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

vanish said:


> I like the wood. Gives the tank a lot of dimension and levels. If you're going with smaller fish I definitely would keep the wood.
> 
> Ah just remembered, angelfish ... well they might like a little more room.
> 
> ...


The angelfish i rescued a bit ago has been growing quite fast, and will be going in the 55 (no way a 20g long will be tall enough for it). The photo is by no means the final scape or even a rough idea of it, literally just shoved the wood in. I'm thinking of a wood display on the right 1/2 of the tank, with room in front of it to swim, and have the left half clear. Put aquatic plants in/around the wood and riparium mostly on the left side so everything gets good lighting. 
I will be moving all fish except the otos over (cherry barbs, angel fish, my lone rainbow fish) since the angel can apparently suck down or choke on otos when full grown (can't have that). I'm debating about confiscating the 2 nerite snails I have in my picos for the 55g clean up crew (and maybe grabbing a few more at the store if there are any left) since I don't want another pleco even if a lot of people like using bristlenose plecos.. I'm burnt out on plecos after my big boy, don't want another.



edit: forgot to mention, I added the last of the sand black diamond I think I'll need, I'd bought 2 bags but only used 1.. might see if I can return the other.. or just save it for whenever MTS strikes again ^^'' (i think i need help like AA for tank people)


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Of course after boiling the crap out of wood when I go to use it.. turns out I can only use about 1/2 of it (3 pieces), the others were too long or bulky... Even so there was still a bare spot I couldn't seem to balance out with the 3 pieces I used. Well damn it all, one of the pieces I did NOT boil works perfectly in it *sigh*. So reboiling all the chosen tank driftwood pieces with a new tank of propane (good thing it seems to get cheap in fall here at least). Husband started putting heater together and we're working on lights. No photos of the wood layout since it was done without tank lights up and its hard to see in a dark tank with serious reflection from the room.
Soo another week set back for the transfer.. May rescape the 7g tomorrow since I have the itch to do something.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Just quick photo tease of the hardscape layout I have in mind (wood is still boiling, hoping it will be ready tonight or tomorrow). Sorry so dark, photo was taken before lights were hung. 


Will be making a black background for this tank too to hide the hosing.


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## vanish (Apr 21, 2014)

That resembles my idea for scaping the 150. (Y)

My only suggestion, and I know driftwood isn't malleable , would be to try to extend the lowest level of driftwood a bit. Right now its a very vertical line in the center of the tank, to my eyes.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Thanks for the suggestions, sadly most of these pieces only barely fit in (have plenty of bits sticking out and pushing them against glass/other wood) so adjustments are a bit difficult. I wanted to extend the lowest piece of wood (a smaller one behind the large/main piece) but it has an ugly cut end that's visible if I move it any more. Thinking about stuff my (not so) dwarf lily in the back right, java fern just whenever I feel like in wood crevices, and crypts in the front. Riparium plants will be mostly to the left side of the tank.

Final hardwood layout (not much change) + diy inline heater hooked up.


Grabbed some thermometers today at the lfs, get to test them against good ones then put them in needed tanks (i have bad luck and tend to break these whoops), including the 55 so I can adjusted temp setting. Hoping to plant the tank Friday-Saturday and move fish Saturday or Sunday.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Ok the day has finally come.. If I can stop procrastinating I'll get to work starting the massive transfer... man where to begin....My biggest worry is someone jumping out of the 20g while I'm removing plants since there will be a lot less hiding spots/shaded areas... Will post before and after shots later today/tonight hopefully (or possibly just the whole thing tomorrow/sunday)

[EDIT]
Turned on the light and *AAARGH FML!!* I have the semi translucent white fungus/mold growing all over the wood! Seriously? over a week of boiling in a pot of water and this [censor] still shows up?! *hits head on desk* Was really hoping not to have to deal with this [censor] >.<
Now I'm not sure if I want to just blindly buy a fish that will eat it and then have to deal with "well the 55 s its Quarantine tank.. no one goes in for 2 more weeks.." Wait out the fungus/mold.. or try removing and scrubbing it off.. Really getting sick of delaying transferring plants and fish over but I don't like having the plants get covered in this gunk while the wood does its bs... I think I recall seeing some plants die from the stuff that will grow on the wood before..


[2nd EDIT]
I decided [censor] it! Grabbed a toothbrush i sue for misc tank cleaning stuff and did a 50% water change scrubbing off what I could of the white fungus and snail poo.. apparently even though I'd emptied, rinsed, and put in new substrate I still have a nice snail collection.. thee must be a huge colony in the filter... I also took my 2 zebra nerite snails from my picos and put them in to see if they will eat the fuzzy crap off the wood, wonder how the fish will do with them in there? I has through about putting the otos in but I don't feel like chasing them all over the 20g to catch, and then the 55g once I'm done with them (they can't stay in there). Didn't want to fight getting nitrates down for them....
So I've done the water change now I'm drip acclimating the aquatic plants from the 20g before I plant them in there. Don't feel like having any go dormant/slow down growth to 'adapt' to the new tank so trying to make it a quick but gentle transfer. As it looks right now I'll probably get aquatic plants in today, do another water change then be done. Will do riparium plants tomorrow (have to grab more shower baskets and some Velcro), then hopefully move fish over tomorrow night.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Ok riparium is up and running and everything is in finally, but I don't have time to post photos/details yet, will try to tonight or tomorrow ^^


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## powerplay85 (Sep 23, 2014)

pics!! pics!!


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## vanish (Apr 21, 2014)




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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

Looks like you ended up with decent growth from the aquaponics system! I've been largely absent lately, but I look forward to seeing what happens in this tank. 55's can be a challenge as I think you know. I'm finally starting to be happy with my 55 again though I'm now dealing with a bit of an algae issue.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

johnson18 said:


> Looks like you ended up with decent growth from the aquaponics system! I've been largely absent lately, but I look forward to seeing what happens in this tank. 55's can be a challenge as I think you know. I'm finally starting to be happy with my 55 again though I'm now dealing with a bit of an algae issue.


Well no noticeable algae in my 55 yet *knocks on all available wood* i do have 2 nertie snails and 5 otos in there.. otos weren't suppose to go in bu I had to take the media from the 20gs filter so they moved over to avoid dieing form un-cycled tank issues.




powerplay85 said:


> pics!! pics!!





vanish said:


>


Sorry for delays been insanely buisy!!


























If you've seen my 7g thread, you know how much I love the dwarf lily plant, its such a beast! and been in my 7g, 20g long, and not the 55g, look! its stems are so long it reached the surface pretty much on day one!!
I've really enjoyed the crypts I have (i think wendtii green?? they were sold as "crypt green") its made a ton of babies from the first 5 I started with, the parva I have is pretty much unchanged/no noticeable growth.
Java fern has been doing ok but wasn't as tall as I'd fantasied it would be by the time I moved it.. might get another background plant like crypt balansae.
In regards to riparium plants, the dwarf taro died and rotted before the move so I tossed it. The Ruellia brittoniana 'Katie' has.. seeds? I dunno some odd hard seed like thing sprouting on it. I stuffed the other 1/2 of Dwarf Palm into the shower basket the rest were in and put the Purple Waffle and all the Fittonia albivenis from the HOB in the taro's basket. 
One of the Fittonia albivenis plants ended up getting loose and drying out from its roots being out of water, I tossed it over the edge of the trim to see if it would come back (can see it in a few photos) sadly it died completely (brown roots) so its tossed. I also threw out most of the wondering jew as many of the stems were annoyingly constantly rotting at the base that was in water, only one seemed to be doing fine and transferred over. 
Got several floating rafts in a raok a while back, they're on the riparium side and not really filled yet, one spare Fittonia albivenis is in one. Plan to stuff more of my riccia or maybe even some misc leftover mos on the rafts. Sadly the Eheim's outflow hard plastic piping doesn't let me adjust it to put it below/in front of/around the riparium planters so its slapped on the front of the tank and not the back (not too happy with that). I also have 3 stems of photos just stuffed into the water tat aren't in planters/rafts that I need to figure out final placements for, want to sue them to hide he outflow tubing I think.
I think I want to get more Fittonia albivenis and a new pot of wondering jew, but will wait a bit to see how everything does.
As far as I can tell all the fish are still alive, but I hardy ever see the 2 nerite snails I put in there (one pops up ever once in a while). Everyone is settling in ok, still getting use to new feeding spot and getting everyone over there to eat (some just seem to a.d.d. at the other end of the tank). Amusingly my angelfish, CarmelYumYu-Grand Duchess of Finnly, and my Madagascar rainbowfish like to hang out together, guess they're their own little 'school' since they tower over the cherry barbs in size. It seems every morning when I check on Carmel she's got a long turd dangling that makes it look like there's a 3rd ventral aka pelvic fin. Hes got a lovel yshiny body that looks metallic when the light hits it right, but she rarely holds still when I'm in front of the tank (gets excited thinking its feeding time) so hard to get unblurred photos. Not sure what her coloration would be called, 'silver'? She also seems like a mix between longfinned and regular fin length-ed angels (compared to others at the lfs when I got her). She's freaking grown like a weed to, went form probably dime sized body the day i brought her home to 1/2 dollar/whole dollar join size now body! Amusing to see her in the dense plant mass, might be hidden behind the wood but her long fins still stick out "Yep there she is!".
Hoping to re-cycle my 20g and moving the otos back before CamelYumYum gets big enough to try to eat them.

Bought some black fabric to make a background for behind the tank and behind the riparium plants (2 separate pieces), waiting for glue to dry before putting the tank background against the wall.


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

The 'Katie' is probably putting out a seed pod. Keep an eye on it, it'll pop open and have about 20ish little bitty seeds inside. They're easy to germinate. Actually the first one I had several fell into the tank and germinated on their own. 

I like how things are looking with the layout!


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## lamiskool (Jul 1, 2011)

liking the new scape! Would look great with a black bacground though


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

johnson18 said:


> The 'Katie' is probably putting out a seed pod. Keep an eye on it, it'll pop open and have about 20ish little bitty seeds inside. They're easy to germinate. Actually the first one I had several fell into the tank and germinated on their own.
> 
> I like how things are looking with the layout!


Cool maybe I'll try to collect and germinate a few ^^ And thank you!



lamiskool said:


> liking the new scape! Would look great with a black bacground though


Thank you ^^ if you read my post above, one was being prepped (had to wait for glue to dry). Actually installed it yesterday with my husband.. but we went a bit fast with it and I forgot to wipe down the glass on the back wall first so now I can see the water stains from drips >.< will have to move the background out and clean that off next time I clean out the canister filter (the intakes have to be removed from the tank to move the background).
Will post photo update with background once the upper portion is finished.




Did a 10g water change today, loving how low nitrates are in the large tank ^^ But I didn't really think about flow and layout so I get a build up of poo on the front right side (since there is a hill of sand and driftwood in the way of the intakes). But I can deal, its less annoying then the huge strands of pleco poo I use to be siphoning out of this tank.
Enjoyed watching the fish while doing the water change. Watched an oto school with a few female cherry barbs in the open water for a little then the whole oto group got together and swam around a bit, very cute to watch. All their bellies are bulging so it seems they've been eating the white semi translucent fungus from the driftwood (I'm happy to not being seeing large tuffs of it). I dared to do the water change very close to feeding time so all the kicked up sediment was being sucked in and spit out by everyone in the tank, thinking it was food.. its not food guys it poo stop trying to eat it... Fed them after I put water back in, but they were begging for more just a bit later when I got _my _lunch. 
Not entirely happy with how crwoded the left corner of the riaprium is, the Dwarf palm and Syngonium are fighting for light since they're too close together. May re-arrange things, though not entirely sure how just yet.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*Quick update*

Just a quick update, everyone is doing good, plants seem healthy, but the driftwood is being an ass.. got some sort of short fuzzy algae over ALL of it.. not sure what it is, doesn't look like hair algae.. anyways photos of the tank, fuzz, and the cherry barbs trying to beg for a second lunch.


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## lamiskool (Jul 1, 2011)

thats just fungus that gets on dw when its first put into water, should go away on its own in a few weeks. I usually try and suck up as much of it was I can during water changes


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

lamiskool said:


> thats just fungus that gets on dw when its first put into water, should go away on its own in a few weeks. I usually try and suck up as much of it was I can during water changes


Its not the thick fluffy semi translucent white blobs-o-fungus (have had some of that, it is getting eaten yay), but this is like little threads, is that still one of the wood fungi?
And the driftwood in my 20g never lost that thread-y stuff but the tons of pond, ramshorn, and Malaysian trumpet snails ate it (not fast enough to get rid of but not get out of hand).. but in this tank the angelfish is eating all the small snails x.x Hope the otos or nerites might eat it.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

A better look at the driftwood issue

Not sure if this is fungus or algae.. staghorn algae? (i hope not)
I tried dosing my excel directly onto a spot for a few days.. the stuff is shorter in that spot but it could simply be the water movement from pushing the excel out of the needle-less syringe pushed some loose/off.. so I dunno.. but I'm getting sick of looking at it. Sadly I'm not in the mood to have to complete redo the plant scape (would have to if I remove the wood to clean) so I just have to live with it x.x


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

No full tank shot updates, lights aren't on yet but I found a prayer plant at a local grocery store. It was on my hit list of plants I want to try in a riparium so I forked over the $ for the overpriced plant. Pot also includes 2 species I already have: Dwarf Palm Neanthe Bella and Syngonium just very small. I don't really have room for the pray plant in the riparium but I'll find a way to stuff it in there ^^
(its the one with rounded leaves ad thin red/pink lines)


In other news I never see the nerties but they're in there, the nerite egg count keeps growing.. fish the damn fish would eat those.. Wood is still a mess of fugly-less fungus or algae or whatever.. I'd get more nerites to work on it but I think they'd just hide like the current 2 and not get any work done :/


I also ended up with a monster Hastifolia recently... didn't expect it to be so big! Only place I can keep it is the 55 but it doesn't really fit the plant scape I have going so I may sell it. Currently just have it 'free floating' but tucked against the wood to keep it anchored. When roots are hanging straight down the tip of the tallest leaf to bottom of he longest root is longer overall than the 55 is tall! Such a beast! Everyone in the 55 was very interested when it went in. I bet the cherry gals will tr spawning in there, such dense roots less change of CarmelYumYum or the rainbowfish eating the eggs before they'd hatch.
(photo from yesterday.. you can see the extra fuzzy driftwood in there too)


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## vanish (Apr 21, 2014)

Good luck with the prayer plant. I have one potted next to my tank and its very emo. One day it is perky and sending out new shoots, two days later its browning and curled. Repeat weekly. Maybe it will do better in the riparium.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

vanish said:


> Good luck with the prayer plant. I have one potted next to my tank and its very emo. One day it is perky and sending out new shoots, two days later its browning and curled. Repeat weekly. Maybe it will do better in the riparium.


None of the ones at the store looked all that great either, I just grabbed the one with most leaves (assume it will also have the most roots and be able to adapt a bit better). I actually prefer the green only hued pray plant but this is the ONLY pray plant I've ever seen so figured might as well grab it.



Also forgot to mention I tried taking seeds from my Ruellia brittoniana 'Katie' and get them to sprout but had no luck. Used moist soil, cling wrap with holes and a warm place but nothing happened. Supposedly they'd sprout within 3-5 days but its been over a week... Might just take next seeds and stuff them on top of the riparium media and see if they do better.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Grabbed some quick photos from the floor when playing with the dog, Boo (he's a Halloween born (well few days before) black lab) old boy is 11 now.. still acts like a pup when he wants ^^ but can also be a grumble-y old man that just wants to sleep all day sometimes haha.

And the 55


HOLY [censore]!! I took a nitrate test (and yes I did it right, I've gone through 3 or 4 sets of nitrate bottles so I know how ^^) the levels are barely 5ppm! Last water change was 10g last Wed. 

I was thinking of adding corys for this tank but was worried about nitrates, looks like I can now! Time to roll up my sleeve and research species again, find some that will work in this tank... then again I may find they like colder temps than I keep the tank at for the Angelfish.. we'll see! I know my local petco get Sterabies cory (sp?) they also get emerald but I'm not a fan of those.. Will probably pop buy petco and petsmart tomorrow to see whats there then research (don't feel like paying $40 on shipping fish here... wish there were better lfs by me :c )


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## vanish (Apr 21, 2014)

Out of the half dozen species of corydoras I have, Sterbai are my favorite so far. The downside is they are the most expensive ones locally, too. 

Your riparium plants must be doing well because I can't see in the tank anymore!


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

vanish said:


> Out of the half dozen species of corydoras I have, Sterbai are my favorite so far. The downside is they are the most expensive ones locally, too.
> 
> Your riparium plants must be doing well because I can't see in the tank anymore!


yeh when i looked them up petco sells for $7-11 *each *x.x my cheap-ass-ed-ness suddenly kicks in and I want to look for a different fish (aaah but they're so cute!)... *How are your starba's for uprooting plants? *I still have some pathetic crypt parva with not much roots.
The riparium plants shade the tank soo much its hard to get a good underwater shot thats not too dark or just glare/reflection-crazy >.<


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*Cory Quarentine*

So after Magnus was moved from the 10g quarantine to his bubble bowl I put the smaller hob on the 20g with the large one and kept dosing ammonia. The extra nitrifying bacteria 'finished' the cycle. I found that my 55g barely has any nitrates so I decided to add some cory to that tank. Well I wanted Sterba's cory but i can get 2x as many julii for the price (plus store only has 3 streba). So I ended up with a total of 9 julii and false julli and 7 ghost shrimp (bought on a lark to try in betta tanks) I bought them after doing a 50% water change on the 20g tank and put in the qt pvc hides. Unfortunately my Eheim Jagar in there went on the firsts and wouldn't stop heating (I set it to 69 and the tank was 80F.. used a 2nd thermometer.. yep heater busted not temp gauge) I wanted the tank at 77F so I ended up removing the heater and grabbing my 2 smaller ones (total 75 watts).. somehow these tow ended up also keeping the tank at 80F ugh.. adjusted them to hopefully lower temp.. Kinda pissed I didn't just grab the azoo temp controller and use that instead (was tired.. didn't think things through).. as now the heater I use for warming water for a water change is in this temporary qt with fish that may have who knows what.. I think I'll have to take it out and give it a quick bleach dip and good rinse before using. Ugh... Anyways going to go verify that the medication I have is cory safe then dose for removing parasites and other diseases, then its 2-3 weeks before moving them out... hope everyone survives..


[EDIT]
Well after a quick bit of Googling I get mix info on paragaurd staining wood and silicone so everyone is getting shifted to the 10g (both filters going with), I'm not risking ruining my driftwood or the nice re-siliconing my husband did on the 20g when we bought it. + side is I can just use the 10g heater and not have an issue, then i can start trying to fix the 20gs heater.. hope I can, don't feel like making another purchase...



IN OTHER NEWS.. 55g wood is getting really fugly!.. Also finally found my female nerite.. of course NOT cleaning the wood.. =,= a nice big MTS is though, good boy (or girl)! btw the white dots in the nerite photo.. ton of eggs.. why wont those fish eat them?!


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## vanish (Apr 21, 2014)

Wow that is some gnarly stuff on the wood! I'd read that is typical but I didn't realize it would be that bad.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

vanish said:


> Wow that is some gnarly stuff on the wood! I'd read that is typical but I didn't realize it would be that bad.


When I had fungus on the driftwood on the 20g, it just kinda looked like short translucent hairs running down the 'bark' crevices of the wood... this is something else entirely... I hope that it'll go away soon.. don't feel like making a mess ripping wood out to scrub then having to replant EVERYTHING after (sine all plants are around the wood and would get uprooted/detached) x.x


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Dripping the cory and ghostshrimp into the 10g now.. turns out 2 ghostsrimp actually got into the 5g bucket yesterday when originally brought home! I'd thought it was jsut one and netted it to the tank but when I dumped out the bucket in the sink today i was very surprised to find a live shrimp crawling around the sink (this bucket had dirty tank water and water form the 2 pet stores). 
Will take photos once everyone is in. I also plopped my leftover moss in the tank for the shrimp and a blanched cucumber for everyone to munch on (since I did not feed them yesterday.. believe they were fed at store in the morning). Going to start a week of Melafix and Paraguard on them as a preventative/get rid of whatever the hell they might have brought home regime.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Well lost a cory already (unknown causes though it has no barbels, poor thing), I have a lot of pvc in the qt tank for hides so i have a hard time finding and counting everyone (but i _think _the rest are still there). No cory took interest in the blanched cucumber, saw a ghostshrimp or two nibble it though, put in half of a leftover hikari algae wafer today and found 2 cory and a ghostshrimp by it so hoping it'll get eaten. Fingers cross I don't loose anymore in qt.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*And another one bites the dust...*

_And another ones gone, and another ones gone.._

Loosing Cory in qt but hoping i get at least 6 to survive.. in other news the hastifolia i temporarily (stupidly) put in the 55g is showing sighs of rhizome rot, which may destroy my petites in there as well as the crypts (i'm going to be so pissed if I do loose them).... not having the best of weeks.....
but here's a photo of CarmelYumYum, one of 20, only photo in focus...damn she's growing fast!

pay no mind to the fugle shirt in the reflection... terrible clothing gift from my mother.. but is good "don't' care if I ruin it when cleaning" cloths instead of wrecking a preferred shirt.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*Cory Update*

6 of the 9 cory survived quarentien, 2 died and one went missing (may have jumped... or died and consumed over night completely in tank??) and 6 ghost shrimp made it ...i think one got out of the 10g before I covered a large gap in the hood.  They had a 7day treatment of melafix and paruaguard. Saw no other sighs of sickness so moved them into the 20g long for the rest of their quarantine period. Id any show signs of illness I'll separate them to the 10g for treatment/isolation. Everyone seemd very happy to be in the 20g with 'sand', wood, and plants (have some anubias also being quarantined in there for possible rhizome rot). They move around so much I'm not 100% sure but I think I have 4 false and 2 true julii cory. Some came home with missing barbels, some with the tops of their dorsals nipped, but everyone seems to be healing up ok. Anyways here's some photos.
*
PILE UP! *fresh algae wafer put in and they went nuts for it (still not big on veggies though)


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## vanish (Apr 21, 2014)

They're looking good! I'd say there is almost no chance you have true julii. I know they are nigh impossible to photo, but if you could show us which ones you think are true julii we can give our opinion.

I was thinking about trying some ghost shrimp in my little emersed setup.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

vanish said:


> They're looking good! I'd say there is almost no chance you have true julii. I know they are nigh impossible to photo, but if you could show us which ones you think are true julii we can give our opinion.
> 
> I was thinking about trying some ghost shrimp in my little emersed setup.


I'll try.. but man they don't like to hold still and my phone camera doesn't handle movement x.x
Ghostshrimp seem pretty cool, larger than cherries/standard neos but harder to find, they're pretty greedy with the algae wafers! Also they have a propensity to jump, so when you're scooping them out in a fish net, put your hand over the top of they'll go flying! Also make sure to have a good hood with very minimal openings at least until they're settled in (don't want them jumping on the floor before they're use to room/tank lights on/off or activity by/in the tank). They're amusingly cheap locally, ghostshrimp: $0..40-0.45.. cherry, Amaino, or other dwarf shrimp $3-5, dwarf lobsters/crayfish species $20+, that's for *one*. I won't be too heart broken if I mess up and loose my ghostshrimp since they didn't cost me $20+ (like it would for as many cherries). Debating about putting them in with the bettas or with my new tank... once its cycled.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*The 'Twnety g Mystery'... or 'Cory Corpsing'*

I've noticed the ghost shrimp are greedy little [censor]s with the algae wafers, will drag off a piece bigger than them, away from the cory and other shrimp to eat.. wtf jerks, SHARE! I just fed them again and less than 10 seconds after dropping in the algae wafer a ghost shrimp was on it (was not by it when it sunk).

In sadder news.. I woke up today to another dead cory.. I did a water test, ammonia and nitrite are 0.. nitrate says 0 but I think the test kit had gone bad.. 6 (now 5 with 1 rotting (but has been removed) cory+ ?? up to 6 ghost shrimp (they are hard to find) with only a few anubias in a 20g will have to have nitrates... going to try redoing the test.. I noticed its eyes were missing so I assume it died last night and the shrimp nibbled a bit.
.
.
.
2nd nitrate test.. also 0ppm nitrate  wtf
.
.
.

Ok so I did a ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate test on my 10g quarantine which currently has a rescued betta, new sponge filter, and 1 piece of media from an aged filter.. also a pretty thick batch of anubias... it is showing nitrates (ammonia and nitrite 0).. so damn.. somehow the 20g has no nitrates  The anubias hastifolia in there is huge but all its leaves have the decaying sighs of rhizome rot (which is why it was removed from the 55..don't want the disease to spread to the crypts), so I wouldn't think it would function well for nitrate absorption..

Going to try looking at the fish under a digital microscope my husband got me (for of all things, the purpose of inspecting dead fish, and rhizome rot-ed anubias)... wonder if I'll find anything..
.
.
.

*WTF IS GOING ON?!?! 
*I peeked at the 20g, the cory got the algae wafer away from the ghostshrimp and are piling on over each other for it.. but i had to stop and double take.. then triple count... 6.. 6 live cory?! I started with 9, 2 died (and were returned for refund) and when I moved cory back to the 20g after medication.. I only cough 6 out of the 10g (i assumed one jumped and became cat food when the lid was off)... Somehow when I first moved the cory from the 20g to the 10g for medicating, and had removed all decor and the filters.. one managed to hide and not be spotted in the tank, and it was without filters for a week! Either it died over that time and I somehow never saw it (did the mts drag it under the substrate?) or it died very recently after re-adding the others... Either way not sure if it was from living without filtration or a disease so now I have to re-set the quarantine timer on everyone encase it was sickness.. ugh.. going to go thaw the dead one now (always stick my dead fish in the freezer) and see if the microscope helps me learn anything..


[edit]
Well finally remembered to thaw the coprse and take a look.. nothing seemed off aside from missing eyes and barbels, but several cory come home from the store with them gone. I took a few photos with the digital microscope. You can click [here] to see them, using a link instead of showing the image as it is of a dead fish.

I also do 2 more water tests, after reading a post where someone mentioned that off the chart nitrates will show up as low readings. So I did a 1/2 tap 1/2 tank, and 1/2 distilled water 1/2 tank test nitrate tests. My tap has nitrates, the results showed 1/2 what pure tap test would, distilled still showed 0ppm.. so the 20g really is without nitrates.. it baffles my mind!


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Cory are all still alive and doing well in teh 20g, several (but not all of) the ghostshrimp are turning a yellow tint.. googling around seems that's nothing bad. 55g has been good nitrates have been 0 to 5ppm at most (cory not added yet). I think the driftwood is done growing its fungus but its not gone away.. still hesitant to remove the wood to scrub as I'd pretty much have to replant the whole tank again after.. but if I did do that I might move the fish to a bucket, drain the tank and stuff a little soil down under the crypts and lily plant... then again I'm lazy so its more likely I'd just shove a root tab or 3 in there.

Was out past feeding teim today, so everyone at a 1/2 hour.. thing is most of teh cherry barbs weren't around when I did feed... "wtf where are you guys?" looking around they all seem to be in the dense fern mass... think it was mating time.. or they're having a secret meeting about world domination.. they aren't dead but the tank seems surprisingly empty with them not out and about chasing each other  temp and params are still ok and didn't see noticeable signs of illness so not fretting over it...just a bit od.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Jinxed myself by saying anything... another dead cory today... I still can't figure out what the [censor] is killing them... The temp is proper, there are no traces of ammonia, nitrite, or nitrate still (and yes I triple checked that I did the tests right)... they eat algae wafers just fine, show no sighs of stress or discomfort.. not spotting any discolored poop..I'm really at a loss here... I'm also really getting pissed about it as I don't have enough for a proper shoal now, and doubt any will live to go into the 55g... every time one dies it resets the 3 week quarantine since I don't know what's causing it...ARRRRGGGHH


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Still have 5 cory, ghost shrimp are a pain to find but a few are not so ghost-ish (turning yellow ) but 1 or 2 are still clear. Sadly though I think the rhizome rot took hold in the 55g.. the petites I'd kept in there are showing the early staged of it and my crypts, which had never melted and have had since early summer... are melting (rhizome rot in crypts shows from leaf melt then plant/root death)... really not happy about this. I love my crypt and wanted to convert this to a pure crypt tank in the spring (when I could have plants safely shipped).. but if I loose them all to the disease I won't be so inclined to try a pure crypt tank...


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## philipraposo1982 (Mar 6, 2014)

Make sure your not just feeding veggie diet... Cory's need proteins, blood worms and such, shrimp pellets work too. I would say more meat than veggies is required. 3:1 for my Cory's and they are loving it.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

philipraposo1982 said:


> Make sure your not just feeding veggie diet... Cory's need proteins, blood worms and such, shrimp pellets work too. I would say more meat than veggies is required. 3:1 for my Cory's and they are loving it.


I've tried putting int blood worms and black worms a few times but have not seen them eat 'em yet (usually these end up sucked into the filter =.=). They will get better variety and more meat chances once they are in the 55g which will be next week if they don't die on me anymore.

I've been bad about photo updates for the 55g.. need to get some... the crypts are still melting which is frustrating, the riparium plants are getting bigger, pothos is going wild. Never see the nitrites but keep finding more of those damn hard white eggs all over the driftwood.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Well the male nerite is still in there! I caught both trying to get freaky on the intake pipe *que Gunther music* (male on pipe, female on male). The male's shell as noticeably healed! It had a huge chunk missing at the tip when I first got him but its mostly healed up now. Didn't do anything special for him, just let the calcium rich water do the work.


And here's a spam of crappy tank shots... I cannot get a shot that doesn't reflect from outside he tank its a bit annoying....need to figure out how to angle lighting to overcome that.. 















I had wanted to make this a crypt only tank (for below water growth-keep riparium above) but the crypts are still melting and pissing me off. I'm considering ripping them all out and tossing them, making the tank only needle leaf java fern and dwarf lily plant below water..or may take the nljf out and fill in the riparium more with only the lily in there.. but I think the plants help the cherry barbs with escaping courting/macho chasing. The aluminum plant has an INSANE amount of roots, I'm surprised there aren't any fry living in them yet as they're so dense.
I'm getting real sick of all the fungus and nerite snail eggs on the wood.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Here are some better shots...










I had a peculiar nitrite spike which I'm not 100% of the cause... Its fine now after a 50% water change and a day's passing there is no more readings... It showed up after: dosing the 55g with 0.8 ml of Seachem Flourish Nitrogen, doing a 16-19g water change, and removing a bit of fungus from the driftwood via toothbrush during water change.. I'm also losing over 1/2 my crypts to rhizome rot (pulled one of them out that has no leaves, its body and roots were mush, no firmness to them at all....).. the loss of plant mass might have also account for the nitrite.. I really don't know... Anyways everyone is still alive in there and doing well (the otos seems to be doing oddly fine and eating while everyone else was gasping at the surface with no appitite  wtf otos? you're suppose to be the super delicate ones. Anyays the nitrite spike has made me delay moving the cories over for another week.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*In you go!*

Cories were added to the 55g yesterday. Didn't see much of them till almost bed time. They were out and about today though so seem settled in well. I think they even ate some of the lunch that made it to the bottom. No ammonia and nitrite increase from them so yay. I unplugged the heater while they were acclimating to bring temp down (it was about 80F and I wanted it at 77... well forgot to plug it back in so it was 70 this morning (opps!). Turned on now so should get up to proper temp. No one seemed stressed or lethargic from the decreased temp at least.
No one seemed bothered by the new residents and the cherry barbs last hung out by them last night. Have to mini cycle the qt tank filters to get beneficial bacteria built back up then I'm going to buy more false juli and some more cherry barbs.. and also a few more ghost shrimp (I lost all but 2 from using Seachem Nitrate since nitrates were at 0ppm.. bad move..)
Pardon the reflection
oto photobomb


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Reflection heavy (and blurry) post lunch shot (they had live black worms.. mmm wiggly!)



Tank is up to temp and everyone is doing well. QT tank beneficial bacteria built up its ammonia absorbers fast.. waiting on the nitrite consumers t catch back up...


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## tylergvolk (Jun 17, 2012)

Cool tank, where did you get that angel?


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

tylergvolk said:


> Cool tank, where did you get that angel?


Surprisingly, Petco! I think the term for its coloration is "Silver"? And looks to be a mix between a regular and veil tail/long finned as its caudal fin sees in the middle of the two lengths. I was suppose to be there buying a gold ram for the 20g.. but I saw this angel and it reminded my loosely of Altumn angels (a wild type my water won't support), and seeing it getting bullied by other angels in the tank as it was the smallest.. I had to get it ^^
Its my fist angel so I can't tell but I think it may also have a bit of pearl scale in its genetics.
CarmelYumYum (husband named it-said he was hungry and the colors reminded him of caramel) was so tiny when she(/he?) came home! (10g quarantine- the 'side' is the 'front')


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## knm<>< (Mar 18, 2010)

Want to share some of your aluminum plant?


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

knm<>< said:


> Want to share some of your aluminum plant?


I saw your journal post yesterday and was going to respond but had to run to catch a show ^^''
If it wasn't at or below freezing here for a good part of the day and all the night I'd offer you some, however I have no insulation or heat packs. The plants would most assuredly arrive dead, and I could not offer a refund for shipping.
Alternatively I offer you to get them from hydrophyte. They have a [sale thread] right now. Just ask for insulation (will cost extra but should keep plants alive). I got: Aluminum plant, Ruellia brittoniana 'Katie', Spathiphyllum (unknown smaller species), and Spathiphyllum "domin" from them several months ago.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Nothing fancy just photos of the plants up top.. I really need to trim the aluminum plants...


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Not much of an update still.. I can only ever find 4 of the 5 new cory in quarantine that will be going into the 55..and sadly I found a dead cory in the 55 yesterday. Not sure what from, had its barbels, did not look starved, tank params have been stable and temp a bit lower than I want actually (75.. want about 77F). 
Still have fungus/mold galore on the driftwood which is just getting annoying at this point =.= 
I've busted the angel and barbs nibbling on the cucumber and zucchini slices I put in for the otos.. they just look at me like "What?.. I'm not doing anything..." Also the barbs and the Madagascar like to go after the algae wafers I put in for the cory after lights out. NOT FOR YOU!! Freakin piggies...

CarmelYumYum having a bit of a 'cucumber salad', you can see a grump oto butt on the left.. (s)he was shooed off the food by the angel for a few minutes.



I need to siphon out the poop.. or look into an electric siphon (those fancy things that catch particles but let the water go back into the tank)?

Not selling any riparium plants off this tank, but have some extra dwarf palm and syngonium (small versions of the tall plants on the back left), and Wedelia trilobata (a new riparium plant hydrophyte tossed in with my order) I can't fit on the 20g long so giving them away with the sale of the anubias hastifolia (which is currently taking up a lot of space in my 55g... If only I had a 40g breeder to either make non riparium for the anubias or a 1/2 filled riparium and let the leaves grow out of water.. but no time for another tank.. yet.. though I might be bad and grab a 40 breeder just because the sale is on (so I have every standard (petco sold) tank except the 20g high which I don't really like) >.>''

edit: damn already had a buyer before I'd hit "submit" for this original post Sale went through but the riparium plants were unwanted so they will be raoked, should have a thread up soon.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

So I shuffled things around and moved the small Peace Lily and Ruellia brittoniana 'Katie' to the 20g. I also pulled the dwarf lily and a few nljf to re-do my 7g. I moved the Anthurium and Alocosia polly to the 55 as their leaves were huge and blocking light for the smaller riparium plants on the 20g. The Anthurium is about to bloom again, its got a nice red spike that's been slowly growing/opening.
Nothing new with the fish they are all doing well and seem to all be pigs. The MTS (which I have a ton of) mostly stay in the area I put the veggie slice instead of being spread out over the tank tilling sand like they should be... CarmelYumYum was a hog last week and sucked down a huge chuck of semi frozen bloodworm block.. it was my first time sticking a not completely thawed meat in and since the angelfish took 1/3 with a gulp.. I won't be putting frozen chunks in. The madagascar fish will gulp down the food I toss in after lights out for the otos and corries if its small enough to fit in her mouth, so I end up using large chunks instead of several small pieces. All the fish eat the food meant for the otos and cory including algae wafers, repashey soilent green, and the zucchini or cucumber slices, the only exception being the rainbowfish has not pecked at the veggies.
Had to tilt the light as the riparium plants were getitng too huge on the left and if I just raised the T5 the crypts and ferns below water would get far too little to survive. I'm not keen on adding another light if I can help it, so far this has been working well.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Not much of an update, all the fish are doing well, the Anthuriumbloom opened, and the Alocosia polly has apparently acclimated as it has a new leaf started! I also looked around the back of the tank and found one of my pothos vines has been growing back there! I spotted my nerite female a few days ago chuggin' along on the driftwood but she managed to get into an un-photographable space the wood pieces before I could get the camera. Carmel is getting big, her body is over 2" long and from fin tip to tip she's over 6". Below water shots have too much reflection so not posting any of them today.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

The Alocosia leaf is opening up nicely, love the texture and color of these guys! Riparium is doing well and I saw both nerites out yesterday YAY! I new the female was still around with all her egg dumping but wasn't sure about the male. Sorry not fts, reflection/glare makes its impossible to get a good underwater shot >.<





female.. looking at all those [censor] eggs behind her!!!! (white dots)


male


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## vanish (Apr 21, 2014)

I love the textures on your riparium as a whole. I could use a new plant with a different leaf shape. The little red flower add a nice accent and the dark green of the alocasia is great, too.

How do you keep your aluminum plant short? I pinch the tips but it seems like before I know it they are a foot tall and leggy.


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## andrewss (Oct 17, 2012)

great riparium


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

vanish said:


> I love the textures on your riparium as a whole. I could use a new plant with a different leaf shape. The little red flower add a nice accent and the dark green of the alocasia is great, too.
> 
> How do you keep your aluminum plant short? I pinch the tips but it seems like before I know it they are a foot tall and leggy.


I don't... Haha they're getting huge! Just keep adjusting the lights do in not burning leaf tips.



andrewss said:


> great riparium


Thank you ^^


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*Never ending plan growth!!!*

My plants just don't stop growing taller! The Syngonium's tallest new (still unopened) leaf is at 20" above the tank rim!!! The Alocosia polly new leaf is 90% unfolded and very waxy/shiny. The plant also has two small sprouts at the base that will be new plants eventually(not pictured sorry)! The pothos is being a beast as well as the domino peace lily and anthurium.
All the fish are doing well.. the Madagascar is a little stinker and found out I dump in food for the cories on the left side while I feed the, the angel, and barbs on the right.. so now the rainbowfish likes to go to the other feeding spot and hog all that food =.=
In others news.. DAMN my nitrates are almost 0ppm! the hue from the test makes me think its 1-2ppm (or my lighting in here sucks and its really 0). If that's the case I may rip out the aquatic plants since they're the slowest growing and get to raise the lights more. Really hoping to have the hubby build a custom stand for the 55 so we can lower it and enjoy the plans more. The cabinet its on now makes me have to go tip toes or right against the tank to see the surface of the water.

I'm a little worried about the silicone in the 5g, I did not redo it like the 20 and 10g.. and I am noticing.. air bubbles IN the silicone O.O wtf where did those come from and how did they get there.. will popping them compromise the hold?!? I'm not horrified of a 55g flash flood x.x do not want!


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*flowers and fat [censor]s*

Need to get another fts but for now.. flowers!
New bloom (spathe) on spathiphyllum "domino' (peace lily)

Old and new bloom on anthurium + a new bloom just starting to sprout




Ok moving on.. my angelfish, CarmelYumYum (husband named her), was an absolute pig yesterday at lunch (brine shrimp on the menu) for some reason the cherry barbs seemed.. preoccupied down behind the driftwood *que Gunther music*.. I thought I got their attention so I started putting the food in.. but they didn't come up, and the rainbow fish loves her new little 'special' spot that's suppose to be for cories so Carmel hogged a good 85-90% of the food.. that was 2/3 of a block you pig!!! After I tried getting a head on photo of her to either show my husband just how fat she got or to be her last photo in case she exploded (she didn't surprisingly). But she was all like "NO! You can't show anyone how fat I am!" and kept turning ever time I got a head on view and tried to snap a shot.. well I'm still gonna show how fat you got you little [censor] so there!
behold the non slender angelfish!.. and my nerite snail egg covered tank >.<


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*They've bloomed*

The flowers I posted about early in the month are open. The peace lily spathe is touch gin the light! The second anthurium bloom is even taller than the first.



Nothing else really new with the tank, everyone is still in there, CarmelYumYum is still growing, wood is still fungus covered.. mts are still waaaay overpopulated... need to sell another batch off.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*Bye Bye GhostWood*

So I got sick of the mold/fungus mess that NEVER went away and after noticing my fish were gasping at the surface and not too interested in eating it was time to get it out. 
I put the old red cedar back in that use to be with my pleco and tossed the quarantine pvc hides in until I find more wood. 
Did a 50% water change or more and everyone seems better today. I tested yesterday before the change-everything was 0ppm. Today I have a little nitrate (10ppm) but thats what my tap has + i took out the submerged plants so I suspected a little nitrates but no ammonia or nitrite readings thankfully. 
The wood smelled like rotten eggs and was quite nasty. Took it outside and scrubbed 'em off in the bucket I originally boiled them in, water got so barn and nasty coudln't seen 1" down in it >.< Wood still smelled after but letting it dry out then figure out if I want to wash it again or what..
Sadly I'll have to do a canister cleaning soon as water flow is about 1/2 what I want but ugh don't want to do yet.. just dealt with one nasty smell yesterday don't need mulm covered 'goodness' today...sometime during the week or next weekend I'll get it..
Holy [censor] did the pothos get long! One of the vines is nearly 15' long now x.x 
Peace lily and anthurium have new blooms started. 
No photos to prove it but CarmelYumYum either gets too focused on food to notice, or tolerates it because she's happy to have food but I've been able to 'pet' her dorsal fin a few times ^^ 

Anyways photo time!


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*The good, the bad, adn the plantly*

So update time..

Good news: confirmed CarmelYumYum is indeed female. As the only angelfish in teh tank she laid eggs on the intake pip on the right side of the tank after the old wood was removed.
Bad News: CarmelYumYum, an angelfish, laid eggs in a tank and went into protective cichlid parent mode which mean no other fish on that half of the tank and her attacking me if I went in.

After 48+ hours I wasn't happy with the temperament change and ended up going in with a tooth brush, pushing off all the unfertilized eggs (no male after all), and siphoning them up with a quick water change. Day after she was back to normal. Hopefully she doesn't try doing the egg thing again. I'd hoped she's just eat them since they were unfertilized but first time trying so who knows..

Plant news: The tank has 2 new plants on the right side, purple queen (pallida) and marble queen (pothos). Hope they acclimate well, really love the contrast they give.

Guarding (morning after eggs were first seen.)


Carmel: "GTFO!" (taken next morning)


Plants!


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*More flowers!*

The purple queen has only been on the tank for 5 days I think? And already has a purple-pink bloom!


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*Disaster strikes!*

The 55g sprung a leek on Saturday, when we were expecting company for dinner.. so I spend the whole afternoon and evening frantically bucketing and transitioning tank water to a 40g breeder I had (planned to use for a vivarium) and catching fish. The table the 40g was put on is too low to run the canister filter which my husband and I leanred after a few hours of fighting it >.< No lights for the plants but slapped them onto the 40g so they don't dry out (just hope they don't die from 4-5 days without proper lighting)... Slapped an old aquaclear 70 with some canister filter media on the 40g to keep from having too much ammonia and nitrites.
Determined the leak was a at the bottom of the tank as there was algae on the outside of the glass between glass and black trim on the right side wall.. I'd also noticed bubbled forming in the silicone several weeks ago, not sure if that was caused from the separation of silicone and glass that caused the eventual leak.
Spent all of yesterday de-siliconing the 55g.. my fingers are so raw and back so sore! Hubby will re-silione the tank today and afer 36-48 hour cure we'll test its hold for 24 hours.. then if that all works we'll be putting a wood frame around the base for exta support.. and then the tank will go on the low table the 40g is on now (that'll be fun to juggle shuffling around >.<) and I'll probalby switch to a sponge filter as I am throughly sick of priming canisters .. might sell off the monster canister and the spare media box for cheap...


So far I think all the fish are alive (otos are hiding in the pvc hides) but no one looks stressed or gasping for air at least. Wish us luck getting the 55g resealed!


here is the last tank photo, taken about 3 days before the disaster..


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## StellaStars (May 15, 2015)

Yikes! So sorry to hear that. I hope the repair goes well.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

StellaStars said:


> Yikes! So sorry to hear that. I hope the repair goes well.


So far so good.
The fish appear to be alright, no high ammonia or nitrites thankfully. Going to try filling the 55g tomorrow if it looks ready to test (silicone appears dried and cured-not stinking up the tank).


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Ok its been over a week since the leak. The old silicone was scraped off, new (large amounts) were put in and allowed to cure for over 72 hours, then a 36-48 hours leak test-passed... Yesterday I spent the whole day draining the temp tank 40 breeder) catching fish, removing plants, draining 55g (thankfully a set and forget with siphon fed to a drain), then play musical tanks/tables and shuffle stuff around *hubby was a huge help here). Set up the 55g on its new lower coffee table and put sand int..then spent about 2 hours adding and removing water trying to clean sand before lower the black background, putting in hardwood and hides, adding plants, filters, and heater, and then finally drip acclimating the fish while we made and ate dinner. 
Thankfully the tank is still well today (had a bad dream about a tank with the front right lower rim being badly damaged and pouring out water). For the week being slightly displaced all the first survived as well as plants.. though the purple queen is looking rater pathetic.. hoping it bounces back! The marble queen is finally starting to put out new leaves and the Anthurium has a lot of new bloom shoots started (counted 4 or 5 yesterday + the 2 already opened up!). I scraped all the riccia off the floating trellises and am considering adding a moss to the rafts/planters to hide the foam/media.

The female nerite is a lil 'where's waldo' of a snail... in the 55g i didn't see her since I rescaped with the red cedar... when i took the wood out I found her lodged in a hole on the underside of it. When I emptied the 40g breeder temp tank I again could not find her! Ended up crawling on the floor looking everywhere.. checked the hides and back/undersides of planters.. nope.. finally felt around the inner top black trim of the tank and *pop! tink tink* there she was! Put her in the 55g with the rest after a quick acclimation.. no clue where she's gone to hide now.. don't care as long as she doesn't cover the nice cedar in more freaking eggs..


Peace lily "domino" (mis-sold as "marble sword"-not a sword plant).. I was going to split it as its two large plants but when i took it out of the planter the roots held ALL the media in place... decided not to mess with it and left it whole.


The Syngonium (aka arrowhead) is very lanky and on the temp tank it was tilted which the stem quickly corrected for max lighting.. now all the leaves are pointing to the side/down.. decided to leave it off the riparium and slap it in some soil. Thinking about finding its more white relative to stick on the riparium for more contrast.






I find myself wanting to get rid of the barbs, angel, and rainbowfish and jut get a bunch more otos and false julli cory.. I enjoy watchmaking them swim around more than the others.. is that weird?


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*Slight mod...*

Syngonium leaves/stems are finally mostly upright, also grabs a peace lily at a grocery store (kinda hope it turns into a 3' giant). I also removed and potted the dwarf mondo grass from my 20g long.. its roots turned black in the planter  dunno wtf was up with that but snipped the black parts off and trying it in soil for now. And I pulled some of the pothos off the tank rim to wrap around some simple ghostwood branches (didn't want to use any that stuck out and could stab someone). Roots are still in the tank to absorb nitrates.. Pardon the 2 barren stocks in the HOB, one of the vines lost leaves where it was behind the riparium plants so snipped those off.. going to see if they grow some more. Purple queen lower portion is wily but has new healthy growth on top. Anthurium is working over time getting its blooms up to visible height. 
I really want to go crazy and add more fish but amusingly this tank is more like a pond now (view from above rather than front glass pane).
On a side note, the branches now in front of the 55g were originally intended for my 40g vivarium but decided to go with my manzanita branches in there instead. All the potted plants will be watered with removed tank water on water change day ^^


I want to go crazy and put a giant black mat behind the tank that is 2x as tall/wide >.>'''
Can't wait for the sponge filter to cycle so I can rip that HOB off.. its my retired one that use to b on the 20g long (had brought from a member on here for a great price)... I love that its meant for up to 60g tanks but it doesn't properly fit over the black plastic trim.. really had to fight it to get the intake tube lined up with the impeller ....


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*Running out of Room!!*

Soo went a bit over board and bought several new plants Friday and Saturday for the 55g.
Chinese ever green


Prayer plant


Rumex sanguineus and Scirpus cernuus




And this [censor] that I've tried twice to order from someone on here but it always arrived melted/mush and unsalvageable. Oplismenus basket grass!



The last 3 came from an outdoor goldfish pond at a garden center. Because they were outside (unlike all my other plants which come from indoor garden sections) I am wary of putting them on immediate as there are plenty of little crawly nibbly bugs I don't want to risk introducing to the system. So for now they're outside in buckets of dechlorinated water (and rain water) until I can get some potassium permanganate-a commonly used item to disinfect pond plants that won't kill them or fish.

I went to 2 nurseries and both recommended a 3rd thats about an hours drive off for more pond selection (sad that close and far ones don't have the potassium permanganate so I had to order it off ebay) and though I don't really have any room left I'm tempted to make the drive and see what all the hub-bub is about at the other place.

Anyways for now the prayer plant and Chinese evergreen are on the 55. The purple queen has not been doing so well, all the old roots melted and 1/2 the stems. Hoping it pulls through as I think I see some new root nubs starting... anyways the 55g as of today:


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## Mariostg (Sep 6, 2014)

I remember prayer plants, my mom had those in pots when I was a kid. Those plants close their leave a night if I remember correctly. 

I like the Rumex. I will add this to my wish list lol.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*Update on my pleco I dontated*

So any of you who have read through this thread may recall back in last Fall I re-homed my leopard sailfin pleco, he'd gotten too big for the tank and even managed to clog a giant canister filter filter (I spent so much on a eheim pro 3x jumbo [censor] huge one) with his poop ugh x.x Anyways I found a nice group that kept giant tanks and had plecos in their other tanks so they were experienced with keeping these giant poop monsters and he went to his new home last October.
A decided to ask about him today, after a few family members I'd asked for help finding him a home (if they knew anyone with large freshwater tanks) had asked how he as doing. The group that has him were quick to answer and kind enough to include some photos of him. They estimate he's grown another 3" and is at a grand total of 16" right now (only 2" left to reach his average breed max length). They also said he's doing well, getting along fine with the fish and people, and that they enjoying having him. I'm so happy he got a good home ^^
(not my photos or tank)




JUust a reminder, when you see these cute little plecos at a petstore, many of them can turn into the giant pictured above. Don't buy them if you can't get a HUGE tank with HUGE filtration system.
(my photos)


I still keep an old photo of him as my cellphone back drop, a cropped version of this image ^^ Clean my screen!






Mariostg said:


> I remember prayer plants, my mom had those in pots when I was a kid. Those plants close their leave a night if I remember correctly.
> 
> I like the Rumex. I will add this to my wish list lol.


I don't really notice leaves closing on the riparium at night (though my dwarf lily plant leaves 'close' aka point upward after lights are off for a while). 
Incidentally I grabbed the rumex sanguineusas after my husband pointed it out and said it looked edible. When I got home and looked it up (btw this is rare-me buying a plant I don't know without prior research) and turns out is is edible, but it has oxalic acid in it that makes it not a good idea to consume often... I doubt we'll eat any of it though. Just enjoy it on the tank (after the disinfectant arrive and it gets a 1 hour dip) ^^


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## xjasminex (Jul 26, 2011)

Hey! I absolutely love your tank! 

I was curious to know if you have all your rip plants planted in the tiny riparium planters or if your also using some other planter. Most of your plants are huge, and I can't imagine how they fit in the planters!


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

xjasminex said:


> Hey! I absolutely love your tank!
> 
> I was curious to know if you have all your rip plants planted in the tiny riparium planters or if your also using some other planter. Most of your plants are huge, and I can't imagine how they fit in the planters!


Thank you! I remember staking your goldfish thread trying to get a peak at your terrestrial plants rooted in water! How's the gold fish tank doing? Do you still have some riparium plants above it?

As for you question: many are in these (same size as the 'riparium planters baskets' but bought at my local giant $2):


But some (palm, chinese every green, purple queen) are in these (bought same store $3, I use window screen mesh to keep media from falling out):


Several of them have wire used instead of suction cups (cups gave out from weight of plants)


The lily sp. domino is huge and actually above the basket but its so well rooted into the media I didn't want to split it (its actually 2 plants). The Polly is in 2 separate planters and the anthurium also kinda sits on top of the planter like the domino. Prayer plant was only added last week so its not grown in enough to be crowded in that planter. The marble queen will be split up into multiple planters or just hanging roots in freely once its grown in more but for now it's just stuffed into one small basket.

Domino out of planter



Antherium


If you have any other questions feel free to ask ^^


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

*Update photos*

spam photo dump, added new pond plants ripped off the HOB











And some close ups


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## Mariostg (Sep 6, 2014)

Awesome.
What did you add? It's hard to keep track.
What do you mean you ripped off the HOB?


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Mariostg said:


> Awesome.
> What did you add? It's hard to keep track.
> What do you mean you ripped off the HOB?


The grass and red veined plant on the right side here:
Fiber Optic Grass (Scirpus cernuus)
Red Water Dock (Rumex sanguineus)


And the yellow-ish white and green banded 'grass' here (off center-right side)
Oplismenus basket Grass (Oplismenus hirtellus 'Variegatus')




"ripped off the HOB"= I had a hang on back filter (HOB) on the right size of the tank as I was cycling a large sponge filter. Tank is too low to use the canister filter it use to have. Finally took HOB off when I added plants to make room.

See far right side of this photo from a week ago or so ago, hob with no top on:


And yesterday no HOB:


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## xjasminex (Jul 26, 2011)

AquaAurora said:


> Thank you! I remember staking your goldfish thread trying to get a peak at your terrestrial plants rooted in water! How's the gold fish tank doing? Do you still have some riparium plants above it?
> 
> As for you question: many are in these (same size as the 'riparium planters baskets' but bought at my local giant $2):
> 
> ...



The tank is doing well, the goldfish are getting old (age wise) They continually get red spots on them if i dont do water changes like every five days. Thats why i was stalking your thread here for idea on rip plants. 

I still have the upflow biofilter, it must be doing something. The plants are slowly taking over my room like in jumanji...

I take pics for you when i remember to and its daylight. 

The plants in the tank are doing well too. The goldfish tend to rip up the plants here and there since i always forget to feed them the good stuff like repashy and kale but the pelletson the automatic feeder do a decent job. I have a bare spot that doesnt want to grow much. I have a tiger lotus that is growing like crazy and a huge amazon sword but all the other plants do ok. 

I went out and bought some plants from your thread to start planting some rip planters with ( i have a few from a while ago when i bought some used)
I got peace lily, i already have a good sized one but didnt want to unplant and split up since its doing so well. I bought arrowhead, that is already growing in the upflow biofilter. I got a prayer plant, antherium, calla lillies and another plant that im not sure of but im pretty sure i have seen it in rips. 

I have planted the arrowhead, prayer plant and peace lillies already. Im limited on space. The planters are attached to the front and side since my light is on the tank and the plants from the upflow biofilter make it hard to put them on the back. I did notice that the prayer plant is doing well already!

I also bought a hang in the tank breeder box and should be getting it soon. Its a pennplax product and online it looked like it might work well as a planter but bigger in size than then rip planters. I will let you know how that goes too.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

xjasminex said:


> The tank is doing well, the goldfish are getting old (age wise) They continually get red spots on them if i dont do water changes like every five days. Thats why i was stalking your thread here for idea on rip plants.
> 
> I still have the upflow biofilter, it must be doing something. The plants are slowly taking over my room like in jumanji...
> 
> ...


I've not tried calla lilies but I alwasy look at them when I see them.. no space at this point to try though >.>'' Well I ahve space for 1 more plant, I'm suppose to get a arrow head "cream illusion" in the mail next week (almost completely white leaves) for some contrast to all my green. You can post a photo of your unknown plant in the plant sub forum (just make title something along the lines of "riparium plant id" or "terrestrial plant id".. or "House pant id") someone should be able to help ID it ^^

Look forward to status and photos updates on your riparium ^^


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

And on the 55 a new addition: arrowhead plant I got in the mail yesterday (thanks to a member on another forum). Needs to grow a bit before I rearrange tank to put it somewhere better.


Also the Oplismenus basket grass has not been doing so great on the tank-my guess is it hates being cut and 'planted' without roots but the root ball of the original was impossible to break up (must have been a few years old!). But I left the root ball in a bucket of water outside not sure what to do with it and its growing new grass already! May trying breaking a chunk of root ball free to try in the aquarium or simply sell this before it gets too big and needs a large flat rate priority box..


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Just some close ups of the plants + a top view showing how much the pothos vine on the wall has grown
Spathiphyllum "domino" spathe with Dwarf Palm Neanthe Bella in background, and pothos in last photo





Maranta leuconeura (prayer plant)


centerilea involucrata (Friendship plant) right:Red Water Dock (Rumex sanguineus)
 

Aglaonema (Chinese evergreen)


*new addition* sold as Syngonium podophyllum 'Cream Allusion' (arrowhead plant) but it looks a lot like 'Holly', grass to left is Fiber Optic Grass (Scirpus cernuus)


Alocosia polly


Potted not on tank, Spathiphyllumsp unknown (store bought), lot of spathes!!


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

55g I ended up pulling the Fiber-optic grass and Oplismenus basket grass off. They both seemed to need higher light (and humidity for the basket grass) than the tank gave-its T5 gives maybe high end of low light, low end of medium light. I still have a bucket with a huge root ball and new shoots of the Oplismenus basket grass outside with no care at all.. may try to find someone to sell it to, would need a medium flat rate box for the root ball.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Some close up shots

Spathiphyllum domino


Aluminum plant


Alocosia Polly (this plant is like rubber real hard to get a shot that its not reflecting a lot of light off its leaves)


Prayer Plant (this plant is just exploding with growth)


Arrowhead plant ('Cream Allusion') (its whiter in person but surrounded by green plants the photo comes out more green tinted)


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Just a little update.. all the pond plants were removed. I can't give sufficient light for them. The fiber-optic grass kicked the bucket, but the Oplismenus basket grass and Red water dock are in a bucket outside in the sun by the bird feeder..The root ball of the basket grass (never brought inside-just cut some stems from it to put on the riparium) has a lot of new stem growth and its HUGE (needs a medium priority box to ship).. anyone want the 2 plants for cost of shipping?
I need to retie the pothos above the tank its grown nearly 8" since I fired put it against the background!!!
Tank shot


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Decided I was sick of the empty spot on the back left of the tank so I pulled the peace lily from the pot in front of the tank to put on the riparium... I'm thinking of getting rid of my aluminum plant and friendship plant as they have hard time getting decent light with all the bigger plants around them. Since I planted the 20g long under water I can't exactly transfer their floating rafts over. Maybe I'll just pot them and put them by the window, see how they do.

before


the peace lily


after


Hoping the newest lily grows big like the "domino" on the left wall.

May adjust the pothos so that, aside from the one on the back wall, all just have roots in water and drape over the front to hide the tank (still have 2 vines partially submersed-with leaves out of water).


edit: btw red water dock and basket grass are doing great with no love in a bucket outside. Red dock really bounced back quick! Periodic rain refills what sun evaporates. If anyone wants them for the price of medium priority box let me know.


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## Mariostg (Sep 6, 2014)

Regarding your prayer plant, any issues with it? Are the roots fully in water?
I have one in my 15 gal and it's kind of having a hard time. I had to chop off a few dying leave recently.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Mariostg said:


> Regarding your prayer plant, any issues with it? Are the roots fully in water?
> I have one in my 15 gal and it's kind of having a hard time. I had to chop off a few dying leave recently.


Yes roots are fully in water. I had it planted in planters that have expanded clay media but all the roots are put in deep so they're in the water.

I had a different variation of prayer plant on my 20g long for a while .. this one:

The one pictured above did not do well, its new leaves did not come in green (more yellow).. I finally tossed it. Sometime later I found the one that is on the 55g tank and its' just exploding! I don't think it was a lighting issue or nutrients. If anything the 20g had stronger light.. I think both tanks were equal on fer dosing and nitrate levels.


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## Mariostg (Sep 6, 2014)

Interesting. The one you tossed is like the one I have. New leave a yellowish too. 

Thanks!

Sent from my SGH-M919V using Tapatalk


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

55g riparium is doing well, I don't see the fish with the way its set p but one of the large ones (rainbowfish or angelfish) crashed into me a few days back at dinner time and wiggled away quickly.. it was like getting your hand electrocuted without the pain (fish had a lot of power in its movement).


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## knm<>< (Mar 18, 2010)

Looking quite lush! Hope you've been doing well, I haven't been on here with much consistency lately. Work has had me unable to do much of anything else.


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## Bushkill (Feb 15, 2012)

I really like the choice of Anthurium in the middle!

I just bought a few a couple of weeks ago that I've never seen before. Yellow, Gold and a Silver with red trim. I guess if they can get Phaleonopsis to absorb funky colored dyes there no end to the novelties we'll see.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

knm<>< said:


> Looking quite lush! Hope you've been doing well, I haven't been on here with much consistency lately. Work has had me unable to do much of anything else.


Thank you ^^, darn real life getting in the way of tank fun >.<



Bushkill said:


> I really like the choice of Anthurium in the middle!
> 
> I just bought a few a couple of weeks ago that I've never seen before. Yellow, Gold and a Silver with red trim. I guess if they can get Phaleonopsis to absorb funky colored dyes there no end to the novelties we'll see.


Thank you! I've never bought dyed plants, don't like getting something altered like that, would worry about dye leeching back out and into the tank (but I'm an overly paranoid persona bout that sort of thing-don't need any possible extra variables causing problems).





I'm actually planning on combining my 20g long, 55g, and high light 10g some time over the new month or two.. not sure what I am going to do about stocking (10g's fish are going in my husband's 12g, but not enough room in 40g for 20g ad 55g stock). Will probably have to give up most of the fish and do something else. Hopefully lfs will take the fish for store credit or I can find someone to adopt them. Have to figure out the 40g DIY in tank sump first. Trying to cram all the 55g riparium plants on the 40g is going to be a challenge, might have to sell some off.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

tank update:


Possibly the last photo before the tear down and moving of plants onto a 40g breeder (under water will be 20g long aquatic plants+hardscape). I'll most likely split the domino lily (its 2 very large plants.. I could probably spit it into 3 plants). The hidden peace lily next tot he dwarf palm and antherium will be removed as well as some of the pothos.. I'm planning to put those the split domino on a 10 riparium where I will probably also dump all the excess of mts to produce nitrates for those plants.
Cherry barbs and cory will go to a lfs-still need to call around about that. Angelfish, rainbowfish, and otos will go into the 40g. I'm debating about getting koi swordtails or some other shoaling/schooling fish...or maybe some other livebeares to give 'free food' for the larger hunters.

A week ago when I was out I called my husband and he asked me about "the red fish in with the marimo balls" I thought he was talking about his Chiyome and her marimo tank but he said he was talking about the tub with the leftover marimo by the 55g.. turns out one of the male cherry barbs jumped out of the tank and was lucky enough to land in the little 10"x6" tub. My husband said he was big enough that from above he thought it was another betta, and for a moment he thought I'd gotten a new one. Thankfully he's watched me net and work with fish enough that he was able to get the barb boy and put him back in the tank. He told me the fish did not fight to stay away from the net-he obviously wanted out of the tub, and my husband used a small cup I only use for aquarium stuff to keep the fish in water as he transferred him back to the tank. I'm not sure if the cherry barb startled from lights turning on or was bullies by one of the other males or possibly CarmelYumYum (angelfish) or the rainbowfish.. Either way he's back in now. My husband and I both checked the table and floor around the tank for any desiccated fish after that incident, but saw no sigh of any other jumpers.

The domino lily (and most of the other plants) just never stop growing! It's latest spathe went above the light! The one before it crashed into said light and got a little burn.


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## vanish (Apr 21, 2014)

What is the reason for dismantling this one? Its so pretty! Too much upkeep?


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

vanish said:


> What is the reason for dismantling this one? Its so pretty! Too much upkeep?


Can't see the fish unless I'm on the floor in front of the tank. I'll still be using most of the riparium plants on the 40g but it will be lit so I can see underwater. After the disaster with the 55g the re-silicone job was done thick to ensure it didn't happen again but its a bit unsightly so don't want to see the seams of the 55g.
I originally intended to downsize tanks (condense 4 to 2-takign down 10g high light tank too) to reducee maintenance/fert used/etc but my husband doesn't want me to get rid of the fish I'd planned to so I'll still have the same number of tanks running.. just slightly less total gallonage >.>


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Sooo I decided to just leave the 55g as is. I'll eventually migrate the 20g plants/hardscape into the 40g breeder instead. The Spathiphyllum "domino" was getting way to big for its little plants, its actually 2 plants and one is growing outwards so I finally pulled it off and split them. Spent a good bit of time de-tangling roots/cutting roots out of the mesh that came with the old riparium planters. I'd spray painted one of the longer shower caddies black and stuffed the plants and their roots in then crammed in what I could for clay media and put ti back on the tank. I ended up moving the smaller peace lily from the back and shifting the dwarf palm over a bit then put the smaller peace lily next to the domino. There was some pothos wrangling involved too, its turning into a real monster!! Oh I also hacked up the arrowhead in the vase outside the tank. It was getting to long, the cuttings already have new leaves so that's good ^^




Largest pothos if getting very thick vine and large leaves, I sued my thumb and hand to show size


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## vanish (Apr 21, 2014)

Woo, its really going bonkers!

I'm about to start something like this in a 90G. a LONG time ago I picked up a pair of Marineland hidden LEDs free off craigslist. Freshwater Saltwater Reef Aquarium LED Lighting System | Marineland

My hope is to be able to set up something similar, but still be able to see my fish.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

vanish said:


> Woo, its really going bonkers!
> 
> I'm about to start something like this in a 90G. a LONG time ago I picked up a pair of Marineland hidden LEDs free off craigslist. Freshwater Saltwater Reef Aquarium LED Lighting System | Marineland
> 
> My hope is to be able to set up something similar, but still be able to see my fish.


It certainly has, the close ups of leave and vine are my longest pothos, I should get some twine and knot ti off at 12" and measure out that monster total length again, its so huge!
Yeh not seeing the fish kinda sucks but they love all the roots so I don't hack it back anymore (use to chop up the pothos roots as it does not effect the plant at all(no wilting or slow in growth)). Look forward to seeing yours take over that trellis. I'm tempted to get something similar for my philodendron on the 3g bubble bowl. Currently I have a loose fishing line 'net' but its kinda sloppy.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Did a bit of tweaking with lights. Got new bulbs for the T5 as I think the previous ones were near their 'need to replace' useage time (bulbs to be replaced after 6 months of 'on' time-if light is only only 12 hours a day you replace bulb once a year. T5 was pulled out to light over the pothos in front of the tank and foreground riparium . A Finnex Ray II 36" was put in the back on bookshelf brackets, along with a clamp reflector lamp with 6500k 13 watt cfl bulb. So more light over the tank, hopefully plants appreciate it. may re-arange some plants on there..


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Sorry for lack of updates, I've been insanely busy!
Managed to get some viable seeds going from the peace lily 'domino', 4-5 months they should be ready to come off the stock and be sprouted! Hoping to be able to sell some young 'domino' plants next year ^^
Everything else is growing like mad still. 
I had to cut the pothos vine that was tied to the back background, it grew so long and heavy it could was starting to pull off the background. Put both cut ends into the tank, the one without original roots has roots now but lost several leaves, hoping to have new growth in the next week weeks. The longer piece on the background decided to make some offshoot vines.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

photo update on tank, rainbowfish and angelfish are doing well, I see the cherry barbs at feeding time but no clue how many of them or otos or cory are still in there. Hacked back some old yellowing leaves on the pothos and domino. Domino has 3 new babies growing off it (also has the seeds still growing on the spathe). Pothos is climbing for the ceiling! Also a shot of front of tank covered in pothos (window screen over it to keep dog from eating it).


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## wastewater (Apr 5, 2010)

Wow... very lush! A truly unique riparium, indeed!

I really enjoyed your first post (photos) showing how a fledgling idea turned into a full flight reality. It's nice to see a long-term project progress and endure. Great job with documenting (and sharing) your experiences throughout the pages within your journal.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

wastewater said:


> Wow... very lush! A truly unique riparium, indeed!
> 
> I really enjoyed your first post (photos) showing how a fledgling idea turned into a full flight reality. It's nice to see a long-term project progress and endure. Great job with documenting (and sharing) your experiences throughout the pages within your journal.


Thank you for the kind words ^^ I enjoy getting to look back and see just how much its grown. In person it seems to go so slowly you don't realize until comparing to an older photo.


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## darklord (Feb 22, 2015)

Hi AquaAurora, 

How did you get the Anthurium to grow in water, mine always die on me with the roots submerged. 

darklord 

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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

darklord said:


> Hi AquaAurora,
> 
> How did you get the Anthurium to grow in water, mine always die on me with the roots submerged.
> 
> ...


I plant it in expanded clay media and place it on the tank, here is an old photo of the antherium

Nothing special about it, transitioned just fine for me, sorry I don't have more helpful info.


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## darklord (Feb 22, 2015)

AquaAurora said:


> I plant it in expanded clay media and place it on the tank, here is an old photo of the antherium
> ....
> Nothing special about it, transitioned just fine for me, sorry I don't have more helpful info.


Thank you for the pointers. I guessed I was too lazy to remove all the compost and might have caused the rot. 

darklord

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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

The pothos that's been growing vertically with dreams of hitting the ceiling has been throwing out a ton of.. i dunno the proper term for these.. look like stubby 'lil feet (to try to cling to the wall).


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

"_This is the end *bum bum bum* My only friend, the end_"

Its time to say goodby to my riparium, I need the lights for another project and to shuffle aquatic plants from 2 tanks into it so I'm re-homing the giant riparium for just cost of shipping, see raok thread here:
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/1...-plant-packages-jumbo-medium.html#post9850914

















































plant list:
Variegated Pothos (dozen separate vines and many feet long, can be cut shorter to make more plants)
Peace Lily (Spathiphyllum "domino") (2 large plants with some baby off shoots)
Peace Lily (Spathiphyllum sp???) (many plants packed into one planter, easily divide into a dozen separate lilies)
Dwarf Palm Neanthe Bella (more than 6 plants)
Anthurium (red blooms) (1)
Aglaonema (Chinese evergreen) (more than 6 plants)
Arrowhead Plant (Syngonium podophyllum 'Cream Allusion') (3 plants)

plants in containers based on species: all chinese evergreen is in 1 caddie, all eh palm is in another. Plants can be separated into smaller bunches/single plant once received.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Well its been a good long run, but my riparium plants are gone now, off to a new owner who I hope will enjoy them as much as I have. I've taken the lights for my aquaponics project and shuffled plants from my 2 75gs into this tank. photos from a few hours after refilling
















have to dig up my purchase order for proepr names but its several types of sword plants (amazon, melon.. forgot the others), red vals, tiger lotus, and n. taiwan. My hopes are the vals will spread along the back, and if the lilies grow tall again (been compact for a while) I'll move them to the back too. Look forward to the swords growing into monsters.
Hoping to get some 'koi' swordtails-orage head, white body, orange back half of body/tail. I put the nerites from the 75gs in here along with my remaining otos and Carmel YumYum (who does not seem happy about the new setup.. or she can see eh refection now and is having a stand off with said reflection). The white clouds are going into my 75gs for now and the other fish are gone. 
Sadly my madagascar rainbowfish didn't survive the move, she was an old girl and when i went to put her back in the 55g she was perpetually upside down, gasping, and very pale even with prime in the bag(the otos and angel fish were fine). It was had to let her go as she was all the remaining of the first fish I'd bought way back in 2012-my dwarf gourami died of old age the the pleco was rehomed. But she's gone now... 
Not sure what I'll do about my current fish in the 55g.. I'm thinking of giving up the angelfish to petco to rehome as I don't want her eating the new fish.. and the otos will just compete with the nerites for food.. so i need to get rid of one of those species..
I ordered a powerhead/pump to stick on the sponge filter (make it a glorified giant pre-filter) for better flow in the tank.. for some reason the eater is being a [censor] right now and keeps at 80f even though I keep turning it down ugh =,=


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

So some people might have followed this thread/the riparium plant list thread and know I as trying to get some Spathiphyllum domino seeds out of my plant last year. Well before I decided to give up my riparium I pulled the seeds off a spathe that has been growing for a few months and put them in a pot by a window i have chives in. Pretty much drowned them in water and sometime alter got this!! a lone sprout! I'm quite excited to grow one from a seed, wish more had sprouted but at least 1 did ^^









CarmelYumYum has settled into the redone 55g, the 3 remaining otos and 1 nerite are in there-my other nerites I put in a very algae covered cube tank which they've 85% cleared up! I'm hoping Carmel won't eat my new fish coming in sometime this week, or I'll have to get rid of her. Will also have to grab a breeder box in case I'm lucky enough to get them breeding to give fry a chance not to end up in the angelfish's stomach.

Plants are doing well-tiger lotus seems to be the most fussy about the transplant and lot a few leaves. I've started very low doses of Excel and with the fast growing plants in there ti doesn't destroy the vals (yay!). I'm slowly increasing the dose-currently at 0.5ml daily. I look forward to this take been overrun in swords/vals in the future.

edit:
Forgot to add I got a pump finally for this tank.. first few had issues and had to be returned so I went with the kind in my 40g-about 300 gph. Had to boggy-rig it together with teflon tape, eheim tubing, and some canister intake parts from 2 other filters but it does what I want-adds flow. Camel has done fine with it, it doesn't blast her around. Pardon the water stains in the photo, need to clean the glass... also need to ring out the sponge filter-notice it's sucked inward from the pump.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Grrr the fish I ordered still haven't shown up at the petstore was suppose to be here by today at the latest =.= i want my fish!


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Fish I ordered are still mia >.<
The new plant growth I was so excited was a peace lily domio... well its an onion.. wtf where did this come from? and why did it sprout after planting peace lily seeds! The plant in the same planter is chives but it has a noticeably thinner leaf thickness. I have scallion seeds but never planted any here and the 'bulb' at the bottom is much wider than those would get... its too rounded to be garlic.. so yeah very confused here..also disappointed, had really hoped one of the peace lily domio would pop up... oh well. 








On the note of the 55g I thoroughly rung out the sponge filter (it desperately needed it from a year+ in a mts infected tank (before I gutted the substrate). Now I have 2-3x the flow rate and had to aim the outflow against the wall the pump is suction cupped to or it blasts CarmelYumYum against the far wall, even the otos had to cling onto the glass for dear life to avoid the turbulence of outflow facing outwards the length of the tank.. No issues from the bb reduction from cleaning-plants are taking care of it.. speakign of paltns teh tiger lily sems to be the only one that made a fuss about transplanting, even teh vals are doing well. I am up to a 0.8ml dose of excel each day now and they're fine-slowly increasing. The swords and other plants absorb it before it melts the vals. Last time i tried excel in a val only tank did 0.05 ml dose and everything melted in a day! Anyways the n.taiwan are growing fast so may move them to the back of the tank. Will take a new photo after tank light turns on.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

So guess what came in yesterday? 

















I called petco again and by now they know what I'm calling for before I ask, the woman who works in the fish department immediately said "the swords are in" so I rushed over and grabbed them!

Acclimated and ended up removing 1-it was nearly dead and died within the hour. Another is in a shower caddie with shower scrunchie over it to keep the fish in-it has some bad fin damage and I want it to have a chance to heal. I have 2 males and currently 9 females. CarmelYumYum seems to be behaving-no interest in them, the otos were happy to have something near their size in the tank and shoaled with them for a little. Hoping the rest live and get to sexual maturity to start making some more! I'm not worried about getting over stocked-I'll keep babies I want in a breeder basket/net and feed excess to the angelfish, goldfish, or tilapia (haven't bought yet). 
Pardon the water stains, need to clean the glass.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

'nother fts, moved a few things around (n.Taiwan mostly).. iwll probably shuffle plants some more as they grow.


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## Maclyri (Mar 6, 2016)

Love the color of those swords! Never seen them with that coloration.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Maclyri said:


> Love the color of those swords! Never seen them with that coloration.
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


There are a few red hues swords, aflame, hati, I forget the others names. Giving medium to high light and a lot of iron helps bring out their reds.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

AquaAurora said:


> 'nother fts, moved a few things around (n.Taiwan mostly).. iwll probably shuffle plants some more as they grow.


update photos

































Plants are growing in more, getting closer towards that thick jungle look I want.
CarmelYumyum is getting along well with the swordtails, and they with her (and the otos). Sadly another female died. He had some fin damage when they first got here so I put her in a make shift breeder basket to keep from being harassed. She seemed to be healing well though not completely grown back fins yet (about 70%) so I released her.. 2 days later she was dead :c Everyone else looks fine, hopefully it stays that way.


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

Wow! Looking good! I can't wait to see this jungle when grown out! 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## PEdwards (Oct 31, 2016)

Nice tank! It's going to be chock full of plants when they grow out. I'm having a hard time telling from the pictures, but is there room at the top for the Echinodorus flower spikes and Lily flowers to come out?


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

johnson18 said:


> Wow! Looking good! I can't wait to see this jungle when grown out!
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Thanks ^^



PEdwards said:


> Nice tank! It's going to be chock full of plants when they grow out. I'm having a hard time telling from the pictures, but is there room at the top for the Echinodorus flower spikes and Lily flowers to come out?


Thanks. No I didn't but Ill lower water level and consider removing the lid if needed when a flower stock starts. Don't want anyone jumping (from swords chasing eachother of feeding frenzy).


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Plants are taking over the tank-keep having to move the val runners that come to the front. Trying to rehome swordtails before they start spotting out babies (i think 2 may already be pregnant >.<


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## BettaBettas (Aug 21, 2016)

I just love that angelfish, what type is that?


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Tank photo update. Anyone want the swordtails? They're not quite what I want.













BettaBettas said:


> I just love that angelfish, what type is that?


Thank you, she's a mutt of veiltail and regular tail lengthened angels. Generic pet store angelfish (not one of the fancy breeds), I believe coloration is called 'silver'.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

So finally let loose the fish I'd kept int eh basket for a few weeks.. turns out its a late blooming male.. so 3 males.. 6-7 females. The swords don't appear to be bothering CarmelYumYum anymore and no ones taken an interest in taking the swords for me so I guess they're staying for now...


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

So realized why she wasn't taking any crap from the swords
I've never seen so many eggs from her! She's still the only angel in there.. wish she hadn't used one of my lovely sword leaves for that. She didn't want me taking photos of the eggs either, kept swimming back and forth in front of them to block me "move along, nothing to see here, hey no flash photography!!"


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

right after water change


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

not great quality photos but plants are growing still.. will have to start removing some as they're not getting enough light.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

update, have a bloom from the Aponogeton Crispus (middle photo from yesterday, last photo from today) its stem for the bloom is as long as i am tall!!, plants are growing huge will have to thin out soon.


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