# Welcome to the Jungle: 55 gallon Rainbowfish haven & more. (New Pics! 03-20-13)



## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

*FTS timeline, a work in progress... (original post continues below)*

The tank as of 7-15-10: 













The tank as of 7-26-10:













The tank as of 8-04-10:














The tank as of 8-17-10:













The tank as of 8-30-10:













The tank as of 10-22-10:













The tank as of 11-8-10:













The tank as of 3-14-11:













The tank as of 3-31-11:













The tank as of 4-19-11:













The tank as of 7-10-11:













The tank as of 10-26-11:













The tank as of 12-11-11:













The tank as of 1-23-12:













The tank as of 2-10-12:













The tank as of 6-8-12:














The tank as of 6-15-12:













The tank as of 2-5-13:













The tank as of 3-20-13:














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*Videos: (original post continues below)*


*Feeding Time (4/8/11):* 









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After learning a lot regarding planted tanks from reading here, and caring for my 5 gallon nano, the time has finally come for a bigger tank (and the largest tank I have ever had)- 55 gallons!

I have been working for the past month or so on acquiring equipment, planning out a planting scheme, choosing potential fauna/flora, and preparing my hardscape (soaking driftwood, primarily.) I started off with a used tank that I partially resealed, before getting a deal that I couldn't pass up on a new one. Some of my other equipment came used along with the tank as a package deal, the rest has been bought piecemeal from this place and that. As of now, my plants were shipped yesterday, and should be arriving tomorrow. I figured this was a good time to finally start this journal :icon_mrgr

Equipment-wise, this is what I have:


55 gallon Aqueon tank
Perfecto pine stand and "matching" wooden canopy (looks like this was hand-made)
Glass tank covers
SunSun 303B canister filter
300w Hydor ETH in-line heater
48" Coralife T-5 fixture (one 6500k bulb, one "Colormax"- 56w total)
36" Perfecto flourescent strip with new 6500k 30w T-8 bulb
Air pump rated for 30-60g (don't remember brand, came with my original used tank) and 10" bubble wand
Coralife 3-way timer and power strip
I am going to run the two light fixtures on a dawn-day-dusk sort of cycle. At the moment, I am planning on a 12 hour photoperiod overall, with 3 hours of the 30w T-8, 6 hours of the T-8 and T-5, and another 3 hours of just the T-8. My reasoning behind this is that I want to have a longer viewing time for the tank, without having too much light. I may also go with a 10 hour period if 12 turns out to be too much, keeping the same 6 hour period of full light. I think I will be fine though. The air pump will come on at lights off, and turn back off when the lights come on.

For substrate, I have 100lbs of Eco-Complete. I am going to be dosing Excel daily, and have a simple list of ferts that I plan to use. I have Flourish Comprehensive, and I also ordered the "Simple Solution" from Pfertz (their N liquid, and root tabs.) I will place root tabs in the substrate, and plan to dose N twice weekly (Monday/Friday,) and Flourish once weekly (Wednesday.) 

These are the plants I have on the way. I already have a large portion of Christmas Moss.


Cryptocoryne Crispulata
Cryptocoryne Wendtii "Red"
Cryptocoryne Wendtii "Green"
Echinodorus Rubin (Red Rubin)
Crinum Calamistratum
Java Fern (Microsorium Pteropus)
Anubias Barteri Var. Coffeefolia
Anubias Barteri Var. Nana
Sagittaria Subulata (Dwarf)
Ceratopteris Thalictroides ( Water Sprite )
Bacopa Caroliniana
Rotala Indica (Rotala Rotundifolia)
I have some branches of manzanita that will go on the right side of the tank, which is where the Java Fern and Christmas Moss will go (one of the branches has a large flat portion of trunk attached to it, which is where the majority of the moss will go to create a moss foreground.) I have another piece of driftwood, a gnarled looking small log, which will go on the left and will have the Anubias on it. Dwarf Sag will take up the left corner and part of the foreground, the Red Rubin, Crypt Crispulata, and Crinum Calamistratum will serve as background, and the stems and Crypt Wendtii will fill the rest of the tank.

For fauna, this is what I plan:


Bosemani Rainbows, 6
Panda Cories, 8
Otos, 8-10
Zebra Nerites, ~10
Tiger Barbs, 12-15,* OR *Serpae Tetras, 15-20
As you can see I am still undecided on what fish I will use for my "small fish school." I am leaning somewhat towards Tiger Barbs as I have kept them before and liked them. Either fish are somewhat agressive, hence the plan to keep them in a largish school. Both look similar enough to give the same impact in the tank. It may just end up falling to whichever I can get from healthier stock. Either way I go, I plan on adding them last to further help reduce their agressiveness, as the other fish will have already established themselves and "staked out their turf" so to say 

Of course, what journal entry would be complete without pics? Here are a few of the tank and jumble of equipment before I started organizing it, as well as my driftwood and moss:











































These are the most recent pics, from a few days ago. I did all of the plumbing for the filter and heater, and placed the lights in place (for now.) I still need to make a little shelf for the air pump to sit on.

































I will take more photos of the planting tomorrow, as well as a FTS! Then, I plan to let the plants acclimate themselves for a bit (probably at least a week,) before I start looking into getting some fish. The tank will be planted heavily enough that I shouldn't have to worry about cycling :thumbsup:


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

Phew...

I got it all planted yesterday; it took me four and a half hours! I wanted to get the plants in as quickly as possible, so I ended up not taking any in-progress photos like I planned- it was just too hectic. The entire process went off pretty smoothly though. I got everything I ordered into the tank, with the exception of the Rotala- it didn't appear to ship well, and it was choked with algae anyways  I noticed after planting that I do have a very small amount of staghorn and thread algae in my Dwarf Sag and Bacopa too, my initial Excel dose probably nuked it but I will try to get it out of there before it spreads. I also had the cut back the Rubin sword that I got- I ordered a "large" one becuase I wanted to make sure that it would be big enough...well, it was large all right, it shaded half of my tank! I think in the end I removed a few too many leaves, but it should grow back. I bundled the cut leaves and just threw them in an old 10g I had sitting around- will sword leaves root, or should I just toss them?

All of the equipment appears to be working well- the SunSun is very quiet and has a ton of flow (looks like a river in there practically,) the heater warmed the water quickly, timers are working, etc.

I'll post up a few shots later tonight.


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

As I planned, I did go in and pull out the little bit of staghorn and thread algae that were on a few of my plants when I got home today. I also found that the skimmer on my filter has sucked up the duckweed that "came free" on some of my plants, so that is good roud:

I have also found that I got a few hitch-hikers on some of my plants. Something is in there laying eggs, because some are on my driftwood which was definitely clean before. They look like a very loose gelatinous mass with dots in them. I would assume snails, but I can't see any snails in there, and didn't notice any while planting  More unpleasantly, I also found a leech around 3/4" long inching on the glass...I made sure to get rid of that!

As promised, here are some pics. I think I did pretty good for my second attempt at a planted tank. My wife says I went overboard :icon_lol:


These first three were taken when I got home, when both light fixtures were on:

































The rest were taken this evening, when only the 30w T-8 bulb was on:































































I'm planning on letting the plants settle in for a week or two before adding fish. Some of my plants (the crypts in particular) look like they were grown emmersed, so I definitely want to give them some time to acclimate. I'm already seeing some of the infamous "crypt melt," but I was expecting that.

Let me know what you think- I am eager for feedback!


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

Looks nice!

If you've got any Excel handy, I'd go ahead and hit the tank with a good dose or two of it now- staghorn and BBA can sneak up on you otherwise, and you can be sure there's plenty more that hitchhiked in that you haven't spotted just yet. Nip it in the bud now and you might never have to deal with it again!


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

I am dosing Excel  I did the big "initial start up" overdose that they recommend yesterday (which amounted to 2 capfuls...actually, I probably could have done 3- 1 cap per 20 gallons.) I dosed 1 capful today, and the normal dose should be 1/2 capful. Do you think I should continue to overdose for a bit? As you say, I'd much rather nuke any nasties that came in now before they can get a foothold.


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

Yeah, I'd go ahead and keep up that "initial" doing for 3-4 days. IME that does a good job with most of the soft algaes.


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

Sounds like a plan roud:


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

I did another one of the "initial" doses today, 3 capfuls. Probably a good thing too, since I see some new algae threads here and there. I definitely want to nuke this stuff before it gets a foothold! My dad saw the tank today while he was visiting, and said it looked like something that belonged in the Baltimore Aquarium 

Otherwise, nothing else of note. The white fungus that kept growing on my driftwood while soaking it is growing back. It will make nice food for my Otos when I stock them


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

I did my 3rd overdose of 3 capfuls this morning. I'm going to see how the tank is doing when I get home and decide if I want to continue. Seeing as how the tank isn't stocked with any fauna yet (I've read that overdosing Excel can be harmful to fish/shrimp sometimes,) am I running any other risk to my plants by overdosing for an extended time?

As far as the algae goes, most of the staghorn and thread that I saw in there seems to have disappeared as of yesterday. I did see some whitish/transparent threads in new places; I'm not sure if that is just dying algae or some sort of fungus growing.

Plant-wise, I seem to see the beginnings of growth on a few of them, as well as melting on the crypts and sag. My crinum is yellowing too, but I think I've also read that they can be difficult to acclimate. I just hope with some patience that my tank will be comparable to some of the incredible ones that I see here on the forums


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## tuffgong (Apr 13, 2010)

I dose 3 caps of excel on a daily basis in my 55 and all my fish and plants are thriving, so you should be fine if you choose to continue. Your tank looks good, now you just have to wait for it to grow in.


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

Ah cool, I will quit worrying then. Thanks for the compliment- my family and friends that have seen it so far really like it. My wife still thinks I am crazy though... :hihi:

I have it in my living room to the right of the front door, so it is the first thing that you see when you come into the house. It should be quite the showpiece once it is filled in and has fish in it.


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

I'd just do a big water change (50% or so) before you start stocking.


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

That makes sense.

I noticed some weird growth starting on some of my plants today- it looks like white cobwebs. I would think some sort of hair or thread algae, but color-wise it looks like fungus. It looks similar to the fungus on the driftwood, only stringy instead of fuzzy. Can someone help me ID this? (Best pic I could get, of it growing on my sword. It's also on the Anubias roots, and some of the stem plants- it's mostly on the higher flow side of the tank.)











The sword's leaves are melting now too, so it is joining the crypts, dwarf sag, crinum, and some of the bacopa in the melt party. I hope this is just a normal part of the acclimation process...my head says yes but I am pretty new to this still so I can't help but to worry a bit :tongue:


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

Looks to me like algae that got nuked by the Excel.


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

I would think the same thing too, but it wasn't there yesterday...I guess it could have grown really fast and then died  I'll just see if there is more by tomorrow afternoon.


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

I think I found the egg-layer I had mentioned before too...I saw a nice big pond snail in my sag today. I saw what looks like a baby ramshorn on my driftwood too...I swear, those snails are like ninjas! :tongue: I didn't notice a single one while actually planting my plants.

As for the melting leaves, I assume I should snip the ones that are completely clear and mushy? I've just been leaving the plants alone so far.


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

Yup, go ahead and remove the dead and dying leaves, they'll just decay and potentially add to a nutrient imbalance.

Once a leaf starts yellowing, it won't come back. Might as well trim it to encourage the plant not to waste energy on it, but put out some new leaves instead.

Some of your plants are probably converting from emersed to submerged growth, which is part of the big die-back. It's normal.


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

Some of my plants (the crypts in particular) definitely look like they were grown emmersed, so no surprise there. The sword "looked" like submersed growth, but I could be completely wrong. It probably just isn't liking the move, and the fact that I probably trimmed too many leaves from it so it wouldn't shade half my tank... 

I'll get in there tomorrow and trim off some of the dying leaves.


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

I got most of the dead leaves out (I noticed one more after I had finished, but at that point my arm was done with swimming.) In the process of trimming my Crinum it came out of the substrate, so I took that as an opportunity to move it to the left a bit out of the right rear corner. It should get a little more light where it is now and might be happier. I think I may have ID'ed the weird white filaments as some sort of fungus after all- it only seemed to be growing on leaves that were dying. I had to trim another two leaves off of my sword becuase they were melting and almost completely transparent (and had that weird fungus stuff on them.) Some of the other sword leaves are showing signs of dying back too- I didn't expect quite so much melt from the sword; sort of annoying since I bought a large one simply so it wouldn't have to grow out. Quite a few of the C. Crispulata leaves have melted, and I think at least one or two of the plants have melted back to the roots...but should come back.

The good news is that I am getting some definite new growth on my Water Sprite (which looks much prettier than the emmersed leaves,) and it looks like I am getting some new leaves on my C. Wendtii and perhaps a little bit on the tips of my Bacopa as well (although some of the old leaves on them are melting off.)

If my water parameters are good by this weekend (still haven't tested,) I'm thinking about starting to add fish this weekend, starting with Otos and perhaps the Cories. Some clean-up crew to take care of the fungus on the driftwood and other assorted growths starting up would be nice. I might also get some Rotala from my LFS since I'm still a bit bummed that the stems that I ordered looked so bad when I got them (ironically, Rotala was the only plant that actually looked good at my LFS the last time I was there.) I would probably place it in the corner where the Crinum was, since I have a bare patch there now.


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

I think the plants are finally acclimating, because I am seeing growth on just about everything now roud: I did my first water change over the weekend (25%,) and have brought my Excel dosing down to 1 cap a day for the past few days. I also moved one of my clumps of Water Sprite to the back right corner to fill in the bare spot where my Crinum was originally planted. I am going to be adding fish next week, as I will be away for a bit this weekend. I tested my water last week, and aside from a fairly high pH (somewhere between 7.8 and 8.0,) it was fine- ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates all at 0ppm. (as expected for the latter two as there's no way it is cycling yet, and the abscense of ammonia just means that the plants were using the bit that had to have been introduced by the melting leaves.) I'm sticking with my plan of adding Otos and Cories first, before adding Rainbowfish, and then Barbs. After seeing the cleaning ability of the RCS in my nano, I'd love to keep Amanos in this tank but am all but certain that they would become expensive live food. Ah well. My final stocking list is planned as so:

6 Bosemani Rainbowfish
8 Cories (Panda Cories)
8 Otos
15 Tiger Barbs

I may also consider Kribs eventually...I'm going to see how my initial stocking plan goes. I also have a quickly growing population of pond and ramshorn snails...

New growth pics!


Crypt Wendtii:












Water Sprite:












Christmas Moss:












Crypt Crispulata (recovering from a major melt):












Dwarf Sag, putting out a runner:













New FTS:


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

The first school of fish are in! I got 8 Otos this afternoon (from Petsmart...I know, but one of the stores near me actually appears to take good care of their fish and they usually look quite healthy. They're also on sale for $1 each ) I did a slow acclimation (not quite a drip, but many small additions of water using a cup) as my water is fairly hard. Right now I have the lights out to help prevent stress, so no pics yet. So far they seem happy enough, and are mostly swimming up and down the left side of the tank where the most current is. I also have some zucchini in there for them to nibble on if they want.

I plan on stopping by the LFS that I've been starting to go to that carries a more interesting range of fish tomorrow to get some Panda Cories. Then, I will wait a bit, add Rainbows, wait a bit, and add the Tiger Barbs. I'm going to see if my LFS carries the Rainbows tomorrow...that same Petsmart actually does, but when I checked their stock today, it appears that all of their Bosemanis were female! (I'm pretty sure that the last time I saw them in there, they were all male with the dual coloration.) I actually thought that they were some other type of Rainbowfish that they were trying to sell as Bosemanis, but when I looked up pictures of the females online, I'm pretty sure that's what they were. The fish were not as "tall" as the iconic blue/yellow pictures that I mostly see (more torpedo shaped,) and the coloration was an even yellow-silver with a few black markings. Does that sound like female Bosemanis? Ideally, I want to have a mix of male and female...I really hope that I can get both locally, as the shipping prices for all of the online sites I've found that sell them are really high.

I should have some new pictures of the tank tomorrow. I trimmed off all of the old sword leaves, as it has a good 4 or 5 new leaves that are coming in very red (and all of the old ones were starting to die back.) My Crinum Calamistratum appears to *finally* be adjusting to the tank, as it is putting out new leaves too. Pretty much everything is growing now, which makes me happy  I'm also about 95% algae free so far...hopefully I don't jinx myself by saying that :hihi:


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

The LFS didn't have Panda Cories today...well, they had 2, but I want a good 8-10. The owner said that he should have more next week. He also said that they do normally have Bosemanis, but probably won't for another two weeks or so. That actually fits my stocking plans anyways, so no big deal there.

So, no pics of Otos and Cories...but I do have lots of new pictures of Otos and plant growth!  So far everything is looking pretty good I think. I can already tell that I would probably be interested in running a high-tech setup at some point, as I am always impatiently looking for new growth. However, not having to get in the tank very often (its been mostly just removing melted leaves so far) has been nice.


Current FTS:












Otos and the left side of the tank (this side gets a lot of downwards flow that they seem to really like.):












New sword leaves. I finally trimmed off all of the remaining leaves that came with the plant. It is looking sparse for now, but seems to be growing back pretty well:












Crypts, moss, and Oto food:












Right side of the tank. The Water Sprite continues to put up new shoots:












Lengthwise with Otos:













Angled shot, from the left:













Angled shot, from the right (near the wall):













New growth continues from the Crypt Crispulata:













Darn you, pond snails!:













Closeup of Crypts:













Looking down at my moss...is that some Riccia growing in there? It sure looks like it...:













Happy Otos eating:













What the tank looks like from my couch:













Well, let me know what you think! I've been talking to myself for a while here :tongue:


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## demonbreedr16 (Jan 10, 2008)

Hehe...

I think it looks great! I need to kick my 55 back into shape...it looks rather crappy and I've lost most of my favorite plants from the dreaded floating and interest being put into the SW tank. >.<


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## Cobfreak (Aug 2, 2010)

I just enjoyed reading through this thread. Your tank looks great. Nice show piece for your living room.


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

Thanks you two! I am definitely pleased with the way it is looking now, despite my earlier worries. I am really looking forwards to the next few months, when my plants will be more grown in and the fish will all be stocked. I am checking in with a few other LFS that I haven't been to yet to see if they have some of the fish that I want as well.

My wife still thinks I am a little nuts, but my cat is enjoying her new "TV" now that there are a few fish in it :tongue:


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

Fish group #2 is in- actually, they have been in the tank since last Wednesday, but I've been busy. I went back to my LFS to see if they had the Panda Cories I had been waiting for. Well, they didn't- the tank had Leopard Cories in it instead, which I ended up liking better anyways! So, I have 10 of them in my tank now 

I just did a water change and fed them, so they were all out and willing to be photographed tonight. I'll post up some new tank shots tomorrow, the water was pretty cloudy and I am getting ready to go to bed anyways. The Otos tend to like to school with them as well, which is pretty awesome.

Here they are (my wife even likes these guys- win!) I should be getting my Bosemanis this week too...


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

Lovely, the last full tank shot is my favorite. Can I have your tank?


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

That is a very flattering comment, thanks :icon_smil I'm really pleased so far with how well this tank is doing, especially since only a few months ago, I had never had a planted tank before!

I also realized when I went to update my first post with a new FTS, that the tank has been up for a little over a month now. Looking at the tank's growth over that period is pretty neat- the crypts have grown a LOT! I guess I must be doing something right. I am still sticking to my initial lighting and fert plan, although I did add an extra hour of high light a few weeks back. So,

12 hours total photoperiod, 2.5hr low, 7hr high, 2.5hr low 
Pferts N solution Monday/Friday
Seachem Flourish Wednesday
1 capful Seachem Excel daily
25% water change weekly on Sunday

It's an easy schedule and it seems to be working so far. I may eventually go to dry ferts and do something like PPS-Pro (which I am sort of doing now...well, probably a leaner version.) As for feeding, I seem to be lucky in that my Otos absolutely love algae wafers as well as fresh veggies, so they have been very easy to feed. They are all very fat and healthy, although I did lose one last week. They also eat the Hikari sinking catfish wafers that I feed the Cories. I'm also feeding the Cories shrimp pellets. 

Anyways, here are some more pics. I'm going to be calling my LFS tomorrow to see if they have Bosemanis in stock. I'll post again when I have them!


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## Lil' Swimz$ (Jul 24, 2010)

Wow your tank looks great. Your moss is pearling nicely.  Like the cories! Good luck!


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

A quick update (I still need to get new photos.) I got my 6 Bosemanis last Friday. Unfortunately, I lost one on Sunday (I'm guessing it must have been weakened from stress, I don't think they had been at the LFS very long ), however the other 5 have been doing well. I REALLY like them, which is actually leading me to re-think my last school of fish. My initial plan was to add ~15 Tiger Barbs and be done. Now, I am thinking that I might want to have the Bosemanis be the "star" fish of the tank, meaning that having a school of (eventually) largish and boistrous Tiger Barbs may not be what I want. If I go with this alternate stocking plan, I would like to increase the amount of Bosemanis to at least 8, and then add a school of smaller fish. I'm thinking something that will school well, contrast well with the Bosemanis, but not be too shy. Here's what I'm thinking of so far as possibilities:

Neon/Cardinal Tetras
Cherry Barbs
Gold Barbs
Harlequin Rasboras
???

The Cherry Barbs may be nice because they have a very different coloration from the Bosemanis (ie, red.) Red Wag Platys could be a possibility too...I'm a bit biased against Platies/Mollies becuase they always seemed to be very fragile when I worked at a pet store when I was younger. They could be quite different in a well maintained tank though for all I know.

Or, I could still add a few Bosemanis and keep a slightly smaller (10-12) school of Tiger Barbs. That would probably work too.

Any input while I mull this over?


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

I think I may have chosen a fish for my final school...I was in Petsmart today (one of the few "good" ones near my house) getting crickets for my geckos, and I decided to look at their fish. They had a tank of "Von Rio Flame Tetras" that really caught my eye...bright yellow and red fish. I did a little reading online and it seems like Petsmart carries a specific color version of the flame tetra that may be an albino version, hence the brighter colors. Either way, I plan to go back this weekend and get some (I know, Petsmart, but I've gotten fish from this particular one before and they are usually pretty healthy.) There is another LFS near me that says they stock Bosemanis, so I may still add a few more of them as well (seeing as how I wiped out the stock of the place I got my current ones from.)

Still no pics I know, I decided to clean the tank a little early this week (I did so tonight) and I did my first cleaning on my canister filter as well, as I was starting to think that the flow was getting reduced. It turns out that the filter was pretty gunky, so that was probably a good idea...of course, the tank was cloudy afterwards so no good photo ops tonight. I plan to get some new pictures tomorrow!


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## tuffgong (Apr 13, 2010)

Kurosaki Ichigo,

The tank looks great. I think your cories are false-julii's though. I've got some that look just like yours and that's what I purchased them as. I'm also actively trying to breed some panda cories I have. Maybe if everything goes right you can get some of the first batch since we aren't far from each other. I do have 4 or 5 emerald cory fry that I'm growing out. If you're interested let me know. I'm going to be in Baltimore tomorrow and was planning on stopping by Aquarium Depot if I have time. Seen anything good over there lately?


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

Cool, you're the first here to say something about my avatar 

I think you're right on the cories as well. When I was looking up info about Leopard Cories, I found that most of the ones sold are indeed the False Juliis...no matter though, they are nice looking fish and I don't really mind exactly what they are. Good luck with the Pandas! I'm not sure if I would have the room for some, but I may be interested if you are able to raise some.

I didn't look around AD too much the last time I was there...when I walked into the fish room one of the employees recognized me at the guy that had been asking for Bosemanis, so I pretty much got my fish and left without my normal browse. I did see that they had gotten some other varieties of rainbowfish that looked really good though.


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## Mellyn (Jul 20, 2005)

I really like your tank - it really is serene. I think it needs some height though, I dunno maybe some plants need to grow out more. It just looks really short. 

But anyway, it really is awesome and your cories are so cute!  And the Crypt Crispulata looks really neat - wish I had some.


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

The Crypt Crispulata has grown upwards some since my last set of photos, which helps the look...I agree with you that it needs some height. I'm hoping that eventually they will grow up and cover most of the back of the tank. The same goes for my Red Rubin sword...it has been staying pretty low for some reason after I had to remove its original leaves. It's grown at least 10 more leaves since then, but it is staying small so far.

I should (finally) have time this evening to take some new photos so everyone here can see what I'm talking about. I had family over last night so I didn't get the chance to do so, but on the other hand they really loved the tank. I also added 15 of those "Von Rio Flame Tetras" that I saw at Petsmart yesterday morning. Now that I see them, they are definitely an albino variant of the Flame Tetra...they have the pinkish sheen to their eyes. The coloration is bright yellow on their bodies, and bright red fins...they look GREAT!


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

Finally...pictures! The camera batteries died after these photos so I was in a rush to get them taken, so some of the fish shots aren't the best (not that they wanted to pose anyways.) The plants are much larger, and there are lots of lively fish now.


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## mightyoak (Mar 10, 2010)

Great job with the 55!!!


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

Thanks


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

A quick update, as I haven't been on this forum in a while. I have some pics from 2-3 weeks ago that I need to upload, and I am planning on taking some new ones this weekend. Needless to say, it looks quite different from my last photo...the Crypt Crispulata has grown completely to the surface in the back, the Bacopa has also grown to the surface and has spread out with at least 10 new stems, the Crypt Wendtii has grown up and spread outwards, my Crinum has several long leaves, the Anubias is blooming...you get the idea.

I have a bit of algae now, which I can primarily attribute to me slacking a bit on water changes and ferts. I just cleaned up last night, so it is looking pretty good now. I've gotten a bit of thread algae here and there, along with a few tiny spots of staghorn and some spot algae on the leaves. I've cut my photoperiod down to a total of 10 hours, with a 5 hour burst of higher light (I previously had 12 hours total, 6 hour burst.)

I have had some fish losses, primarily with my Rainbowfish and Cories. I currently have 3 out of my original 6 of Bosemanis...it seems that the largest of the group bulled those 3 to death (each one would end up hanging out in a corner of the tank for a few days, and then die.) Even though the current 3 are technically too small of a group, they seem to be doing great and there is no excessive bullying so I am in no rush to add more. Their coloration is wonderful. As for my cories, I am down to 1 out of 10  That one is definitely my fault...I allowed the tank to sit at 82 degrees for a while without realizing that it was too warm...I'm pretty sure that stressed them out and caused their demise. I currently have had the tank at 77 for the past couple of weeks, and the last cory seems ok (although he has to be lonely...he hardly ever comes out of hiding.)

I'm thinking about getting my school of cories back up to about 6, and adding a school of Cardinal Tetras.

Pics and more info soon.


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## mountaindew (Dec 10, 2008)

This is starting to look real nice!
I always enjoy pictures of clean well kept systems
md


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## problemman (Aug 19, 2005)

Can't wait to see the new pics


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## VadimShevchuk (Sep 19, 2009)

I loved reading your journal. The rainbow fish compliment the tank nicely and I can't wait for updates.


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

Here are the pics from about two weeks ago that I mentioned (10/22/10.) I'll write in my updates on the next post.


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

Ok, here is my update with pics I just took this evening, and what I have done to the tank recently. As I was saying I was going to do earlier, I did add some new fish to the tank to repair the damage I (stupidly) did to its population by setting the temperature too high. I added in 5 Bronze/Emerald Cories, and 12 Cardinal Tetras. The tank is much livelier now, I LOVE the great contrast that I get from the Cardinals, and my lone Leopard Cory seems perfectly happy to swim around with his new Bronze buddies, even though one is easily twice his size (no more hiding!) 

I'd suggest anyone reading this to look at my first post on the first page for my updated photo timeline...I think it's really neat to see the all of the photos from when I had just started the tank in July, to how it looks now lushly grown in and full of fish. It would also give an idea of plant growth rates in a low tech tank to anyone who is interested. The only change I've made in my fert schedule is to fill in the days a bit more...I dose Pfertz N on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday now (vs. Monday and Friday before,) and Flourish on Tuesday and Thursday now (vs. just Wednesday before.) I still dose Excel daily, and I change out 15-20 gallons of water every Sunday.

The only plant that has still not taken back off is my sword...instead of putting out big leaves, it split off and grew a second small plant. I guess it will grow upwards again eventually.

Enough talking, here are the pics. First, the newest FTS:












Left side, a closeup of the dwarf sag, anubias (with its flower!,) bacopa, and some of the crypts.












Another angle:












Right side, a closeup of my water sprite (an annoying plant btw, it keeps putting out roots mid-stem and floating, causing me to have to keep re-planting it,) java fern, crinum, crypts, and a ton of x-mas moss:












Another angle (and a great shot of two of my Rainbows...they have grown and colored up really nicely!):












Anubias flower closeup:












Lengthwise down the tank:












From my couch:












Random closeups of fish:





















All in all things have been going really well with the tank. I do need to clean the canister filter again soon, but other than that it is simple maintenance and lots of relaxing fish watching


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

Looking forward to the updated pictures. Sadly, though, every time I see your updates, I sigh at my sad 55 gallon. :drool:


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

The pics in my last post are my most updated ones- are they showing up for you?

Also, I just looked at your most recent pics of your 55 and it isn't as bad as you say =P Very jungly!


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

Too funny. I must have completely ignored the last page of your journal. That happens when you've been up for over 37 hours and counting. I really like the stem plant on the left. Isn't that bacopa? I just got some from Laura, and it is growing in nicely. I cannot believe your tank is this lovely and is still low tech. I actually went low tech in a 20 gallon trying to mimic your tank.  

My favorite plant in your tank is the crypt in the front left side.


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

Yep that's Bacopa! It took a while to get going...for a few months all I had were 4-5 ragged looking stems, then it just took off towards the surface and spread outwards (there are at least 10 good sized stems in there now and probably some new shoots that I haven't noticed yet.) 

I'm flattered that you're mimicing my tank...I guess I must be doing something right


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

I'll try to get a picture of my tank and show you my mess of a tank. It's not bad just not nice like this. I even have some of the same plants.


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## LICfish (Oct 9, 2010)

Beautiful tank. You did a great job! What plant is on the left side of the tank in the foreground?


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

Chaos! I see you online. What about an update for us?


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

Ohhh I'm busted :eek5:

I just finished re-sizing my photos on Photobucket...I know the re-size feature here is coming back eventually, but in the meantime my pictures were way too huge and my log was basically broken. I just went back through it and all is well now (the pics are still fairly big as I didn't want to compress them too much and lose detail, but not nearly as bad as they were before.)

Lets see, my last update was in November. Since then I am ashamed to admit that I got lazy again on my fert schedule and water changes (it got to the point where I was remembering to fertilize maybe 1/4 of the time, and I was doing water changes every 2-3 weeks instead of every week.) As a result, I started having a die-back of my older plant leaves about two weeks ago, so my crypts are definitely looking thinner. They had gotten to the point that they were so thick that they were pressing up against the front of the tank before, but unfortunately I don't have pictures of that :frown: During that time I had transplanted some of my crypt runners to fill in a bald spot left by my sword plant that finally died...at the moment the transplanted crypt is also melting back some. That may be due to my laziness, or I may have an anaerobic spot there. I'm leaning towards the latter as I've had problems growing plants in that spot for a while. I'm thinking about moving the crypts there and doing a deep gravel vac in that spot to hopefully suck up whatever decaying gunk is still sitting there from the sword. I may then try putting another sword plant there, as I have a friend with some extra sword plantlets (a friend who I had inspired to start a planted tank- win!) Lets see...I had also trimmed by Bacopa and transplanted some of it to the right side of the tank, where it is slowly growing at the moment. I also pulled out a lot of my X-mas moss off of my log as it was no longer attached well. I just put some of it back under some taut strings, so it should re-attach and re-cover that log soon enough (that stuff is even more weed-like than the Water Sprite...)

I also have some GSA on my Anubias and Java Fern that I didn't have before. Never fear though, I have learned my lesson and started my fert schedule up again this week. I'm also going to start dosing Phosphate in hope of that eliminating the GSA. If that doesn't work, then Nerite snails are in my tank's future (actually, I'm probably going to get some anyways, less algae scrubbing = happy me.)

In terms of fish, my population of Flame Tetras have been on a slow decline since I added them in August (I have about 7 now out of the original 15,) and I've lost two of my Bronze Cories (I have 3 now out of the original 5.) My lone Leopard Cory that survived me stupidly keeping the tank too hot is still with me, as far as I can tell I haven't lost any Otos (those guys are hard to spot, oh and I have gravid females,) my Cardinals are doing FANTASTIC, and I still have my 3 Rainbowfish (although two have what looks like a cataract one one eye each ) So yeah, I am apparently able to keep fish that are supposed to be difficult (Otos and Cardinals) in perfect health, but have problems with "easy" fish like Cories. Yeah, I'm confused too. I am a little concerned that I may be losing the Flame Tetras from Neon Tetra Disease...they seem to have difficulty swimming/jerk around a day or two before they die, and I've noticed a few with crooked spines (which I am pretty sure none had when I originally added them.) I've never seen any sores though, which I would hope rules out fish TB. Or, it could just be due to less maintenance on my part. I'm going to keep up with that and see what happens, as I would love to add a few more fish but don't want to potentialy deal with more "sick" fish (if that is what they are.)

I've also done some online research concerning my specfic version of Flame Tetra (the albino "Von Rio" variant that Petsmart sells,) and I've seen other reports of ones with bent spines that appear healthy otherwise. I've seen speculation of these problems being due to genetic defects- inbreeding, perhaps?

Speaking of adding fish, I am starting to kick around some ideas and would love to have some feedback. I think I'm going to avoid adding more of the Flame "Von Rio" Tetras, as well as Cories. The former for the reasons I stated above, and the latter because they just don't seem to do well in my tank for some reason. I've also noticed barbel erosion on them...I've seen plenty of people swear that Eco-Complete hasn't harmed their Cories' barbels, but that doesn't seem to be holding true for me. I am thinking of adding Loaches at some point (either Kuhlis or Zebras) as an alternative bottom feeder. I kept Clown Loaches in my younger days (when I didn't realize that they needed a HUGE tank,) and really liked them. For additional small schoolers, I'm thinking of either adding more Cardinals or some brightly colored Platies (like Red Wag or Sunbursts) to provide some contrast. Finally, I am strongly considering adding a single young Angelfish as another (eventual) large fish to go along with my Rainbows. As I said, I'd love any other recommendations, and none of these are impending additions.

On a completely not-aquarium-related-note, this post took much longer than it should have becuase I had to keep stopping every few minutes to play with our new cat. He appeared outside my brother-in-law's house a few days before Christmas as (what I am convinced of) an abandoned pet that someone dumped there for whatever reason. When it was obvious that no one in the area was looking for him (and by his behavior, he very obviously was *not* a stray or feral,) my wife and I took him in. He needed some rehabilitation (mostly a lot of food, and getting rid of a lovely combination of ear mites, worms, and fleas...oh, and getting neutered, poor guy,) but he is doing well now! He's around 1 year-ish old, is *big,* and has long black and white fur. I'm pretty sure he may be part Maine ****. Our old cat, who is going on 8 years, is still very much less than impressed with all of his kittenish anctics and definitely plays the part of the cranky old lady :hihi: As a result he's not always out, we still have to keep him in a room when we're not home so he doesn't drive her completey insane (and get into 1,000 things he isn't supposed to.) It's been...interesting to say the least. Oh yeah, and his name is one of the best parts...since we took him in on Christmas Eve, I decided he needed a Christmas-y name. My wife and I settled on "Douglas Fur." LOL :biggrin:

Aaaaaand finally...here are some new aquarium pictures for you all, since you all patiently read through my book. They are a bit overexposed which I apologize for, as I didn't turn down my lights before taking pictures like I usually do.


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

Oh, and to *LICfish*- that plant in the front left is Dwarf Sag. It is actually starting to spread underneath the the driftwood it is planted in front of into my crypts. I was hoping it would spread across the front, but what can you do. I'm just letting it do as it pleases for now (much like most of the plants in my tank...there are only a select few that I have to trim and move around on a somewhat regular basis...the moss and Water Sprite being the two main culprits.)


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

Ok, one more and I'm done for now...I also remembered that I had taken a pic a couple of months ago of two of my Otos full of eggs. I still see a few like that in my tank now, although I've never noticed any of them lay any (not that I would really expect to with my hard, high ph water.)


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

First off, your tank is beautiful even with algae. Actually, it looks even better to me because of it since I am a pro-algae person. 

I really hate to hear about your fish being sick. I had to deal with TB once and it was so awful. I actually cried putting those fish down. I didn't see the sores until the end of the illness, but I hear it effects species differently. Maybe it is a deformity or vitamin deficiency? I hope so for your sake. Are you replacing the fish or waiting until you find the cause?

Cute oto picture! They definitely look like they are carrying eggs. I actually saw my otos showing signs of spawning yesterday. Maybe the springtime is kicking them into action. 

Congrats on the new kitty! I love the creative name. (Oh, and I have a maine ****. Good luck, they are chatterboxes. :hihi

Oh, one more thing, it was definitely worth the wait for these pictures! Some of the best I've seen in a while. (I can't wait until this picture resizing thing is fixed, either.) Thanks for sharing!


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

Thanks again for the compliments  I'm glad someone likes the algae, becuase I can't say that I'm a fan of it at all! At least it isn't too bad, I've seen much worse...I should be able to get rid of it with a little diligence. The tank looked so much better when it was spotless!

I hope that it is just a deformity or deficiency as well. I'm leaning more towards that sort of issue vs. disease, since I'm primarily just having problems with the Flame Tetras. My other fish all seem to be healthy, and I'm not seeing any outright symptoms that really match anything. I should try supplimenting a larger variety of food as well, maybe some frozen or live foods. As it is, I feed Omega One flake each day, along with freeze dried bloodworms or mysis shrimp, so the fish are already getting some variety (and that's a pretty high quality brand.)

I'll definitely be restocking, as I have plenty of extra space and filtration capacity as it is now. I am going to wait for a few weeks at least while I rehabilitate the plants and try to eliminate the algae. I figure that will also give me time to observe the fish, and decide on what I want to add out of all the possibilities I was musing about earlier. As tempted as I am to get something soon, I am going to force myself to wait 

Oh, now that I know you have a Maine ****, I should post up a picture of Douglas and you can tell me what you think of my idea that he is at least partly that breed. He certainly has some of the characteristics (large size, long slightly oily fur with a developing neck ruff, huge feet with tufted toes, and, as you said about yours, he is definitely a chatterbox as well!)


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

You've just gotta change your outlook like I have. It sounds like it very well may be deformity or something since your other fish are doing fine. Did you get them at the same time and same place? If so, it could be a bad batch. 

Definitely post a picture of your kitty. I have Jody in my 55 a while back, but I haven't posted her in a while. She is actually sitting here chirping at the neighbor's Tom. My kitty is crazy spoiled, too. She's worse than my alley cat. Sounds definitely like a maine **** mix if not the full breed.


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

Yep, I got them all at the same time and from the same place, and they have been in a slow decline since then. Hmm, I should also check my water parameters just to be sure, it's been a while since I have (but they've always been good.)

I'll post up a pic of him when I get home- I took one recently that is pretty good. He kept grabbing a kitty teaser and putting it in my lap last night every few minutes- I'd play with him for a bit, stop, and the cycle would continue. Spoiled brat :icon_mrgr


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## Erica (Dec 16, 2010)

Lovely tank! 

I have orange von rio tetras too, and I have also struggled with them. I've bought a total of 14 and at the moment only have 8, 5 of which I just got a week and a half ago. And one is starting to act strange and it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if I ended up losing her too. And yet I've never had a single problem with the cories or snails that live with them. Flames are supposed to be hardy, but in my experience that doesn't seem to be the case. I have never figured out a single reason for why I end up losing them. I lost them all at different times and with different symptoms. Just wanted to let you know you''re not the only one


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

Erica- I'm sorry to hear that you're also having problems with the Von Rio Tetras, but in a way it is comforting to know that I'm not the only one. I think these fish are either delicate in some way, or this particular color variety (that has only one source that I've ever seen) is just bad genetic stock. I won't be restocking them. At the moment, I still have 7 as I said, but one is pretty deformed and I honestly should cull him sometime soon. I just haven't had the heart to yet. As for their eventual replacements, I am leaning away from the idea of adding more Cardinals. I really love them (and I get a lot of positive comments from friends/family about them,) but I like having two contrasting schools of small fish, and think just one larger school would be less interesting. Platies are still in the running (I kind of miss livebearers, and I'm pretty sure my other fish would keep the fry population down,) or Harlequin Rasboras.

I also have to say that reading here is definitely spurring my interest in my tank again, which is a good thing. I've started to kick around the idea of adding a couple of plant varieties to my tank. In a way, I would be getting back to the original plan for my tank, since two of my plants (Red Rubin Sword and Rotala) ended up dying (the former) or were unusable due to being choked with algae on delivery (the latter.) To illustrate my ideas, here is another picture of my tank looking downwards (yes, my bubble bar on the right has floated up, I need new suction cups for it badly):












On the left side, behind the driftwood covered with Anubias and between the filter intake and my Bacopa, is a bare spot. I originally had my sword plant there, but it ultimately (for whatever reason) died back. It didn't get off to a good start to begin with, so I honestly wasn't too surprised. I transplanted some Crypt runners back there, which are just doing "meh" at the moment. I think I may have an anaerobic spot there, so I may end up pulling the crypts up so I can do a deep gravel vac there and stir up the substrate a bit. As I said earlier, I have a friend who has some baby sword plants (I think Amazon Sword,) so that is a free possibility. I also really like the look of Aponogeons (Ulvaceus in particular.) One more possibility would be a small Melon Sword, as I think their stemmy leaves may stand up better to the downwards current there. Thoughts?

In the middle-right, underneath the driftwood that gently curves up, is another spot that is pretty bare. Originally, that is where my Rotalas were supposed to go. Nothing has really spread there- I was hoping some Crypts may have made their way there, but nope. Now, I could always put my Crypt runners that are in my left "dead spot" there, but new plants are more exciting right? :icon_wink I'm actually thinking that some sort of red stem plant would look neat there, but I'm not sure what. The main one that I can think of that might be ok in a low-tech tank is Ludwigia Repens. I can get that plant locally, and I had middling luck with it in my old Nano (it at least rooted and grew for a while before dying, which was pretty good considering I had inert gravel and wasn't really dosing any ferts.) I'm open to other suggestions!

Finally (and completely unrelated to my tank,) here's that picture of my "helper" that I promised, sewingalot :red_mouth He's still growing like a weed (the amount of food he eats per day is nothing short of epic,) which is great becuase the poor guy was only about 6lb when we took him in (fur and bones.)


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

Fur and bones! Love the description but glad he isn't anymore. I would definitely say that your kitty is part maine ****, if not full. Here's Jody: 

 
She's stunted because she only has one kidney and other internal health problems when she was a kitten. The stupid people that spayed her messed her up pretty bad. Still, she's a dollbaby. Best cat I've ever owned. But drives me nuts most days, too.

Oh, about your corner of darkness, I would definitely think about gravel vacuuming and then the Aponogeon sounds like a winner! Also, it is sounding like a bad batch of fish. I'd try to give it another few weeks if you want to be safe, though.


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## BlueTongue (Dec 2, 2010)

Keith,

The tank is looking good. I will bring in the amazon sword tomorrow for you. I think I will take some more pics of my tank in the next few days as well when I find my camera.


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

Awesome man, thanks! It will be nice to fill in that blank spot. I definitely want to see some new pics of your tank as well.

Sewingalot, Jody is adorable  Sad to hear about the kidney problems though, I've never heard of such a thing happening from a botched spaying. At least she has a good home though! Our other cat, Mercury, had really bad bladder stones a few years ago, and has been on prescription food ever since. That makes things even more "fun," becuase of course she wants to eat Douglas' food, and he wants to eat her food...


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

Well I've got a sword plantlet on my desk now, so I guess I know what I'm doing when I get home :hihi: I think I'll probably get some Ludwigia this weekend to plant in the other spot. If it takes off, great, if not, I'll try something else. I've been considering for a while to try adding shrimp to this tank also, so if I can find some Ghost Shrimp locally this weekend, I may throw some in there as well. I'd love to have some Amano Shrimp in there, but after my disasterous attempt at keeping RCS in my nano, I want to make sure that the water I'm using isn't death for shrimp. If I can keep ghosts in my big tank, I'll try Amanos. Honestly I think I have a pretty good chance, as this tank is far and beyond more stable then my nano with its crummy built-in filter ever was.


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## BlueTongue (Dec 2, 2010)

You should have told me you wanted ludwiga too. My repens is growing to fast and to tall so I could have trimmed some off for you too. Although it does have alot of hair algae growing on it right now and not sure if you would want to introduce that into your tank.


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

Ahh I didn't even think of it (well, I had forgotten that you have it in your tank.) I'm not sure about the algae though, I have already fought off hair algae in my tank. I'll see if the Petsmart in Westminster has any decent looking stems of it for sale on Saturday (I've gotten some from them before, and sadly they seem to be the only aquarium store nearby that has any semi-decent plants.) If not I'll let you know.

We sure are working hard today, aren't we? :biggrin:


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

There is a such thing as spaying too early. The idiots spayed her at four weeks old. The vet was surprised it didn't kill her. But all is well, other than the occasional loss of bladder control, Joders is a good cat. Hahaha, that sounds like our cats. We ended up feeding them both the special food after the doc told us it won't hurt Mollie. 

At least you are working somewhat. LOL

Can't wait to see the sword planted. Will you take pictures of it tonight?


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

4 weeks old!?! Wow, that is the problem. I've never heard of anyone trying to spay a cat that young :icon_eek: 

It won't be much to look at (it's a plantlet, just a few inches tall,) but if I can see it back there after I plant it, sure


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

I won't tell you where I got the cat from, since it would be a vendor review, lol. Yeah, some people shouldn't be vets. Sounds like a plan. If you can't see it, I'll forgive you for not taking a picture. I have other people I'll torment in the meantime. :icon_twis


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## BlueTongue (Dec 2, 2010)

Dont worry that sword will grow fast. The one that spawned it was only a few inches bigger than that when I got it and now after 2.5 months the smaller leaves are close to 12 inches.


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

I got the sword planted, but I didn't get a pic (I know :icon_neut) because it was already getting late and I wanted to turn the tank lights back off. It's impossible to see at the moment except from the side of the tank anyways. Before I planted it, I gave that area a really good vacumning (all sorts of nice gunk came out) and I stirred the area around a bit too afterwards. Hopefully that will take care of whatever nastiness was lurking in there. Of the two crypt plantlets that I put back there, only one was salvagable, the other was mostly melted from the roots up. I have high hopes for the sword though, especially since my friend's tank that the mother plant is in is also low-tech. The tank conditions should be similar (I think I dose more stuff, but that can't be nearly as bad as taking a plant from a high-tech to a low-tech...)

I'm also thinking that I may want to try dosing Melafix if more regular water changes don't help to clear up the cloudy eye on two of my Rainbowfish. The act perfectly healthy otherwise, but still, that can't be good. I already have the Melafix anyways, so yeah.

Some of my ferts arrived today, so I can start dosing Phosphorus to see if that will help clear up the GSA, and I also finally got off my behind and ordered a new UV bulb for my canister (it has built-in UV.) Maybe it is placebo, but the tank seemed to have less algae in it before the UV bulb burned out (I had it on all the time before.)


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

Based on how the fish were sick in your tank, it might not be a bad idea to give some meds to the rainbowfish. Just to protect it from getting sicker. I've always heard UV does combat algae, but I have no personal experience or knowledge of it. 

I can't wait to see the progress. It sounds like you spent some time cleaning up the joint. Does your cat like to watch you clean the tank? Jody is fascinated by it.


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

I plan on starting the Melafix dosing once I get my UV bulbs- I'm going to have to open my canister then anyways, and I figure I can remove my Purigen then. I'd rather not have to open the filter more than I have to, it can be a pain to get going again.

I've kept Douglas away from my tank while cleaning so far for fear of him getting in the bucket and me tripping over him constantly (he doesn't have much fear of water or any common sense at all.) Our other cat, Mercury, is completely indifferent and usually can't be bothered to get up from whatever spot she is sleeping at


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

I don't blame you on having an aversion to opening that filter more than you have to. I have one that needs cleaned and I keep putting it off. Good to see I'm not the only one on here that avoids it. You may be smart to keep that cat away. Jody loves to 'swim' in water. She's jump in the shower with you if you forget to secure the door. First time it happened, I thought I was in Hitchcock Psycho. :hihi: Mollie is like Mercury. Perfectly content to be discontent. 

Have you already ordered the UV bulb?


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

Yep, I already have notice that they were shipped. Hopefully I should get them next week (I got a few so I have backups.) Then I can start the meds, and then...more fish. :icon_mrgr

I'm still going to look into some Ghost shrimp and Ludwigia this weekend though.


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

Any type of Ludwigia you are looking at? I love the plant, but it HATES me.  Smart to get some backups this time around. Are ghost shrimp hard to find? I've never seen them in person, but I've heard they are everywhere. Good luck on fixing up that fish eye.


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

I'm planning on just some common Ludwigia Repens, but it doesn't look like I"ll get the chance to get any today...maybe tomorrow. I did give my moss a vigorous trim, removed a few more melting crypt leaves, and did a water change today though. The tank is looking a little sparse, mostly becuase of my crypt die-back, however I see a lot of new leaves sprouting so that should be fixing itself in a few weeks. I also removed the purigen from my filter and started dosing Melafix. I realized that my UV bulb probably won't be here until next week and that I'm going to have to put my purigen back in the filter anyways, so there was no point in waiting (a bit of a "duh" moment.) The cloudy eye on my largest Rainbow was looking a bit worse this morning and I found a dead Oto during my maintenance, so this is probably definitely good timing.

I also appear to have a new "scourge" growing in my tank- an increasing colony of what look like MTS. These are still very small (about 3mm in size) but have the same conical shell shape. I honestly can't tell if they really are MTS or not- I've seen large ones in some of my LFS before, and these don't have the same shell markings or texture- but then again, the snails I have in my tank are small (either juveniles, or something different?) I had been noticing what I thought were just shells in my gravel vac for a month or so when I was doing cleanings, but recently I've noticed more of the actual living snails crawling around. This morning when I turned on the lights to start my maintenance, the little suckers were everywhere! Within 10 minutes, most had hidden themselves. The odd thing is, I haven't added any plants since I got the tank (until the sword a few days ago,) so it's a mystery where they came from. I must have had a few lurking in there from the start, and they just now have multiplied enough to be noticable. Either way, I think I will definitely be getting some loaches once I have my tank more situated :hihi: I'm still torn between Kuhlis and Zebras (Kuhlis look neater to me, but I think Zebras may be better snail eaters perhaps?) At least my pond snail population is almost nil, since my Rainbows and Flame Tetras seem to like to eat the babies.


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

I had those same bloody snails in my 20 gallon. I don't know what they were, but I've always thought they were MTS until I got a few of the bigger kind from Wasserpest. It'll be smart to get rid of them while you still can. They [strike]are[/strike] aren't plant eaters, just annoying when you try to get pictures, or the lights first come on.

Sorry about the oto. Probably best not to wait on the treatment if the eye is getting worse on that rainbow.


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

Ugh they are plant eaters? Man, where they heck did they come from?  I had been planning on getting some Nerites to take care of my GSA, now I'm tempted to put Assassins in there instead... Ah well, I guess my future loaches better work hard when I put them in there.


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

I figured I'd throw in an update- I'm about halfway through my week-long dosing of Melafix. I'm not sure how much it is helping- one of my rainbow's cloudy eye seems to look a little better, the other looks mostly the same (that is also the one who's eye is slightly popped out.) I'm just about out of the stuff (I had a really small bottle,) so I'm not sure if I should get more to complete the week of treatment (and maybe get some Pimafix too,) or get something with more "oomph," like Maracyn-2. My gut says to stay with the simpler treatments before dumping something more hardcore into the tank, however I really want to get whatever this is cleared up asap... I'm definitely looking for advice, since I'll need to stop at the pet store for more meds this afternoon either way.

I got the rest of my ferts yesterday as well as my UV bulbs, so once I get this cloudy eye nonsense sorted out, I'll crack my filter again to put the Purigen back in along with a new bulb. If anything, running a sterilizer again should help nuke any nasties that might be in my water. I should have gotten a replacement bulb sooner.

However, other than the cloudy eye, the fish are still feeding, swimming actively, and acting more or less normally. I have noticed a bit of appetite reduction, but I chalked that up to the fact that I'm medicating the water. I also tested my water a few nights ago, and it looks pretty good:

pH: 7.6 (my tap water tested as 8.2)
Ammonia- 0ppm
Nitrite- 0ppm
Nitrate- ~30ppm

I have been solidly back on my fert schedule and my plants are looking better and putting out new growth, so at least all of my news isn't bad!


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

Chaos_Being said:


> Ugh they are plant eaters? Man, where they heck did they come from?  I had been planning on getting some Nerites to take care of my GSA, now I'm tempted to put Assassins in there instead... Ah well, I guess my future loaches better work hard when I put them in there.


I meant they are _not_ plant eaters in my experience with them. Sorry to say the opposite. You are safe from that!

I don't know. Part of me is all about the natural approach to medicating a fish, but the other part of me is wondering if at this point you are using a band-aid when you really need stitches. Know what I mean? I'm torn. Personally, I would think about pulling out the serious medications since the water changes and melafix isn't helping all the fish. 

P.S. Did you notice Kyle got the pictures fixed?


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

Ah, good to know that those little boogers aren't plant eaters  I can deal with them then, they don't look that bad, and I've pretty much reached a zen state with having some snails in my tank, lol.

I'm torn with the medication too. I would have thought that by now I would have started to see improvements if the Melafix was going to help (I started dosing on Saturday.) Perhaps it is time to step it up a notch. If anything, I can pick up some "real" antibiotics from the LFS on the way home, and if by some miracle the fish look better when I get home, I won't use it. Otherwise, I will. (I'm guessing another water change before changing meds would be a good idea?)

I want to get some new fish but I need this cleared up first!

Oh yes, and now that you say it, I do see that the picture re-sizing is fixed: huzzah! That reminds me, at some point I want to crop the timeline photos on my first post to show just the tank, and not all of the space around it.


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

Yeah, I had to get to that state with snails as well. I finally can see the beauty and importance in them. Still working on the detritus worms, though. :hihi:

I hate to give advice on when to treat fish, but you may be smart to just pick some up to have on hand just in case. Definitely change the water first, though. Don't you hate waiting until sicknesses are over so you can focus on the tank again?

Good luck on the cropping. I've generally been avoiding it because I take crooked pictures.


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

Well, I guess I am lucky in that this is the first bout of sickness in my tank. Other fish deaths were because of my mistakes >_<

I had some of those worms in my old nano, eww they were gross. I'm sure they're in this tank too but if they are, I don't see them. Actually, all of the various extra fauna is kind of interesting. My planted tanks are much more like a mini-ecosystem vs. my old non-planted tanks which in retrospect were pretty sterile.


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

I had a really nasty sickness a while back in my 55 that was heart breaking. But, it was when I murdered my cories due to co2 poisoning that I felt the worst. Those are my favorite tropical fish and I can't bring myself to buy them again after that.

Ha, my tank was sterile like that, too. You are right, letting in the little critters like snails, thread worms, copepods does make it seem more like a mini-ecosystem.


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

I started dosing Maracyn-2 yesterday. I had finished up what I had of my Melafix the day before (as I wasn't able to get to the LFS like I wanted,) and as I was saying before, it didn't seem to be having much effect. Hopefully this treatment will help; I am optimistic. The pamphlet about fish diseases that came with it was actually pretty informative, and after reading it my attention was drawn to some other symptoms that I have been seeing (mostly in my Flame tetras.) It's entirely possible that I've had some sort of low-grade infection in my tank for a while that I didn't really notice because it was just affecting a few fish at a time, over a long period of time. I'll definitely be glad if this knocks it out, then keeping up with my water changes and running UV again should keep things in balance :thumbsup:

Since you mentioned it, I went back and browsed through your 55g log, and some of the symptoms of the sickness you had in your tank are similar (although more severe.) It was neat to see how your tank has repeatedly grown out- there's definitely a difference in growth speed with CO2! Your log also made me decide against adding Platies to my tank I think- pretty fish, but sooooooo many fry! I think my wife would smother me in my sleep if I tried to add another tank to the house :hihi: Once I get my tank straightened out, I'm probably going to go with another small schooling fish to replace my Flame/Von Rio tetras (I'm down to only 5.) Right now I'm still thinking Harlequin Rasboras, or Rummynoses (if I can find some) or Cherry barbs. I still want some loaches, and I'm definitely going to try an Angelfish as well (the LFS I went to yesteday had some really nice juveniles...eventually!)

I'm getting a lot of new growth on pretty much everything, so plant-wise the tank is definitely on an upswing. I'll have to get some new pics soon.


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## chad320 (Mar 7, 2010)

I votse for Harliquins or Cherry barbs. They are both great. I also vote for more pics


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

Either of those would definitely be easier to obtain, as I've only ever seen Rummynoses locally once. So yeah, it's probably between those two  I'll see if I can get some pics tonight- I didn't clean the glass yesterday when I did my waterchange so it might look a little murky, but still pretty good.


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

If you haven't seen them, also look at checkered barbs. I loved the personality in that fish. A little nippy if not kept in a nice school, though.

As much as I love platy fish, I wouldn't recommend them to most people. The amount of fry they drop is amazing. I've actually tried getting rid of them and I keep finding a juvenile platy (or guppy) after removing them. I find them in my filter (alive) every time I clean them. Then, you should add a new one in every once in a while to keep the line from getting too inbred, and both times I've tried, I've ended up getting sick fish. 

If that is the sickness you think you have, it is better that you are treating it with medication, then. Nothing else helped and I lost quite a few fish due to my stupidity and not waiting long enough to quarantine.

Glad to hear that things are on the upswing, though. I can't wait for the pictures.


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

I just looked for pictures, and those are a nice looking fish! I don't think I've ever seen them locally though. That does remind me, there are a few other "specialty" fish stores near me that I still need to check out. I'm not really wild about the idea of having fish shipped to me, although I see people here do it all the time with success.

My first aquarium waaaaay back when I was probably 6 or 7 was a guppy tank, and I definitely remember how much they bred! Luckily my mom knew some people at a pet store that were always happy to take extras off our hands :tongue: That's the reason why I was thinking about putting some sort of livebearer in my tank (nostalgia,) but realistically, yeah not a great idea. Smothered in sleep because of adding more tanks = bad.


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

I had a hard time finding them locally. Actually, if I could find them again, it would be hard to not stock my tank full of them. I ended up settling for live bearers after the tank wipe out before I had a planted tank.

Well, smothering wouldn't be good, so stay away from live-bearers. It probably is the nostalgia. Just do what I do, look at peoples tank pictures with something you want to curb the appetite. 

As far as shipping fish go - I've had better luck getting shipped fish than any other method. The last time I went to a LFS, I lost every fish in quarantine within two days. I got some fish from a member here and not a single one died and are very healthy. Just something to think about.


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

Well, I'd agree with you that getting fish shipped from forumites would probably be a great idea (most of the people here definitely care more for their fish/plants than average.) I was thinking more along the lines of having fish shipped from online businesses. I do see your point though.

That reminds me, I've been considering adding some sort of short foreground plant to the bare strip on the front of my tank, Lilaeopsis mauritiana probably. I had initially hoped/thought that my Dwarf sag would spread to this area, but it hasn't spread a whole lot (just a little into my crypts.) In retrospect, this is probably a good thing because it has actually started to grow a bit tall since I started my ferts again.


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

Look for mini microsword, it doesn't get very tall at all and is one of the better looking ones. I've never bought online from a company for fish. I guess it would similar to an LFS, in that you win some/loose some.


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

I heard yesterday that one of the LFS near me just got some plants, including a bunch of microsword. I'll have to check it out.

My tank is still having its ups and downs. I completed the 5-day dosing of Maracyn-2 yesterday. While the fish seem to be acting better and my one Rainbow's swollen eye has gone down, the cloudiness in both of my two affected Rainbow's eyes has not improved. One still has cloudiness only in its pupil, the other (the one who's eye was slightly popped) also has a cloudy pupil and a little cloudyness over the iris. I also lost my last Leopard cory last night to what also looks like some sort of infection (bloody spot on the tail fin with fungus, and bleeding on the stomach and gill. I couldn't tell if the stomach bleeding was internal, external, or both.) At this point, I'm not sure if I should try another medication, or just get my UV running again and do extra water changes. I can say that it is getting a bit frustrating. I may start another thread about the infection to see if I can get some advice (I have a few pictures of the sick fish as well.)

On the up side, one of my Anubias plants is putting up a flower spike, and I'm still getting a lot of new growth. Some of my crypts are still melting a bit which is odd, but they're also putting out new leaves.

I'll get some new pics after I do a water change and do a little cleanup.


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

Good to hear about the LFS getting plants in. Not so good to hear about the fish. I'd encourage you to post up a thread in the fish section about it. You'll probably get more answers there. The journal section seems to move so quickly that it is sometimes easy to overlook problems. Try not to get too frustrated. Unfortunately this will happen time to time in a tank. The good news is once you get it fixed, you can take measures to prevent it from happening in the future (unless you are like me and throw caution to the wind.)

Awesome news on the anubias flower. Will you get any pictures of it after the water change/cleanup? I'd love to see it. It might be the medication causing the melt. As long as you are getting new growth, I'd wait it out.


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

I did post a (fairly long) post about the sickness in the Fish section. Hopefully I can get some advice to help me figure this out. These things certainly do happen (I remember fighting off Ich in some of my old tanks,) but it is still pretty annoying.

Right now the flower is still a bud, but it looks like it should be opening pretty soon. I'll definitely get some new pictures once the tank gets a cleanup. I'm planning on doing that and a big water change tonight.


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

Awesome. I look forward to the pictures. You should get some good advice over there (maybe some bad, too. ) Yes, illnesses are a pain in the rear. I just introduced a sick fish into my tank last night without really comprehending the pain involved with dealing with ich.


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

Ah, ouch. I went over and looked at your thread- that's a nice looking betta (minus the ich of course.) Hopefully it doesn't spread! I saw the hiking pics too- this is definitely the time to do it before it gets too hot, but I could do without these sudden cold days we're having! I love hiking but its less fun when I'm freezing my, ah, _nether parts_ off :eek5:


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

I did a 50% water change last night, and once the water cleared up, I realized that the battery pack in my camera was dead. D'oh. Pics soon though, I promise.

I've gotten a few replies on my fish sickness thread. I also spent the better part of yesterday doing a ton of fish disease research. At this point, I thinking that I'm either facing some sort of bacterial septicemia, or worst case scenario, fish TB. Whatever it is has been slow-moving, and I'm not experiencing several of the symptoms of TB in my tank, so at this point I am optimistically saying this is not what is going on. Not that the other alternative is good either :icon_frow I think I am going to try one more round of antibiotics, probably with a different one (I'm thinking kanamycin, I've seen it mentioned as a remedy for both of my possible diseases.) Then I'm going to run my UV again, as that should lessen the amount of pathogens in my tank (I even read an article in which UV was used to control TB,) and keep up with water changes and good maintenance. If my tank stays stable after that, I will try new fish. Tear-down is not an option, and honestly, I don't think I need to go to that extreme anyways with the amount of sickness I'm seeing.

I think there is a good chance that I am reading too much into what is going on here...its not like I've had a massive or sudden die off or anything. I probably wouldn't have even looked into it if not for the cloudy eyes on my Rainbows. Other than them, every other fish in my tank appear to be healthy and acting normally as of now.


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

Haha, you don't like cold weather either....for obvious reasons....I personally prefer to hike when it's still cold out. Less snakes, ticks and bugs to deal with both the six-legged and two-legged kind. :wink:

From the description, it really reminds me of septicemia that I had last year. Red blotches under the skin, pop eye, slow death. It fits. But the maracyn 1&2 combination stopped it. The ones already showing advanced symptoms didn't make it.

You should read the latest on my thread. 20 and counting now. So stupid....lesson painfully learned.

But honestly, you may be reading too much into like you said. I am starting to realize that once you start seeing advanced stages, it's almost never a good outcome for that fish, but you can treat the others in the initial stages and if possible, quarantine the sickest.


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

I actually don't mind cold weather (I definitely prefer it over hot,) but my preferred area to hike in is the mountains, so it will be extra cold/windy up there! Once it gets too hot/buggy I am definitely staying inside.

I agree that it is most likely septicemia too. It fits a lot more than TB does, from all of the research I have been doing. I saw while reading that a lot of people will jump to the worst possible conclusion (OMG TB!) I don't want to do that until I've covered _all_ of my other bases first. I am a bit puzzled that the Maracyn-2 didn't clear up the cloudy eye on my Rainbows, but behavior-wise my fish are doing much better. They either still need some time to heal, or something is still lurking. I've pretty much decided to move ahead with one more bout of antibiotics, and then UV/maintenance. Optimistically, I should be good to go again (in terms of introducing new fish) in a month or so.

I went and read your most recent post...ouch, what I am dealing with is nothing like that. Sorry to hear  I am always very wary about the fish I am adding (since I too, do not have a QT tank.) I can understand the urge to want to "save" an animal though, I am a big softy when it comes to critters.


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

I figured I may as well put the picture of one of my Rainbows from my other thread in here too. Aside from the cloudy pupil he is a great looking fish...and this is actually the least colorful one in my tank. Hopefully these guys will be healed up soon!


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

I stopped by the LFS with the best selection of "stuff" on the way home yesterday, and it figures that the only medication they didn't seem to have was Kanaplex. I went ahead and ordered some this morning online. I was, however, able to get a few more types of food for my fish. I think they have been needing a bit more variety. As for the Kanaplex, I'm not even sure if I really need it- two cloudy eyes aside, all of the fish are still acting normally. If anything, I think whatever disease I was/have been seeing effectively culled the weakest fish in my tank, as the remainders (the Flame Tetras in particular) were the most robust looking ones. The current plan is still to push ahead with one last round of treatment to be sure. 

Aside from that, I don't have any immediate plans for the tank. I do still want to make a little room for some Ludwigia soon, but otherwise, its going to be a waiting game for a bit. I'm going on vacation for a week at the end of April, I figure when I return home, I will move ahead with additional fauna/flora. I want to try growing a strip of microswords across the front of my tank. I've definitely settled on eventually introducing an Angelfish, and I'm close to being decided on a school of Harlequin Rasboras as well. I may end up putting Assassin snails instead of loaches in to control my new snail scourge, that I am still undecided on. I also want to try shrimp again (Amanos, in this case.) I'm still going to throw a bunch of Ghosts in first- actually, I will probably do that after I'm done with a second round of meds. Definitely no additions other than those for a while though.

That Anubias flower is going to open any day now...maybe it will be when I get home today :smile: I'm still seeing a bit of unusual melt on my Crypts (it seems they didn't like the meds I have been using,) but everything else looks good. The best part is, all of my new growth is staying free of that blasted GSA :biggrin:


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

Just a thought here, so bare with me. Is it possible the eye is permanent damaged from the infection? I had a fish go blind from the septicemia and her eyes were cloudy like that for the remainder of her life. Eventually old age got her. Not suggesting you ignore the symptom, but since that fish looks really healthy otherwise and you've done treatment, it may be permanently damaged.

Oh, my poor tank. 38 and counting. Looks like many of the live bearers are on their last fin. That's what I get for being a stupid softy. 

What type of ludwigia are you looking to get? My favorite by far is brevipes. Glad to hear the GSA is at least going away.


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

I've definitely thought of that. In fact, I've been trying to find out how long it usually takes for eye cloud to clear up (aka if it should during the treatment,) becuase I have been suspecting that it may be permanent damage as you say. Thanks for telling me about your experience! Either way, I do have the 2nd antibiotic on its way. If I end up not having to treat, at least I will have something on hand. I'm going to be keeping a very close eye on my fishes for the next couple of days while I wait for my shipment.

As for the Ludwigia, I'm planning on just common Ludwigia Repens, so long as I can still get it locally. It seems like one of the "red plants" that is more likely to grow in my lower light tank without CO2. Otherwise, I am open to pretty much any red/non-green stem that will grow up to the surface and tolerate lower light and excel vs. higher light and CO2. I am hoping to cover the bare spot on the back of my tank between my tall crypts and crinum...I have some crypts there (crispulata) that never really took off. I also think I need a bit more contrast in my tank (there is a ton of green.) I am completely open to suggestions! I can say that I like Limnophila Aromatica...but I don't think that it will grow in my tank. I also like Sunset Hydro, but it seems hard to find. That Ludwigia that you mentioned looks good too (but again, a quick look shows that it likes high light/CO2.)

Good luck with your tank :frown:


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

The last time I dealt with the cloudy eye, it took weeks to clear up. If you do decide to use the new type of antibiotic, due a few good water changes to clear out the old medications and wait a few days. I made the mistake of using two types of medications too close together years ago and it made the fish sicker.

Thanks, it'll stop eventually. I'm running out of fish. Once the disease clears up in my tank, if you like, I'll send you some of the brevipes to try out if you like. But it'll be a while it looks like. Both times I've tried ludwigia repens, it ended up melting on me. I could never get it to transition from emersed to submersed for me. Or if it did, one day it would randomly melt. Go figure.


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

Weeks huh? Good to know. As I said, I'll be keeping an eye on my fish- the stuff I ordered should take a few days to get here. I was already planning on doing at least one more big water change soon, so I should be good to go if I want to run another bout of meds.

Trying to give me collectoritis too? :wink: Just kidding. I'd be more than happy to try some of that plant in my tank. Worth a try right? No rush, of course. I had Repens in my old nano for a bit, and it didn't do well in there either. Then again, I was doing everything wrong as that was my first planted tank attempt. I think I have a better chance now.

And finally...new pics! Of course, it was only until _after_ I uploaded them to my computer that I noticed they looked unusually blurry. I checked my camera, and sure enough- huge fingerprint on the lens. So, I apologize in advance for the pic quality being crummy (-er than normal) this time around! I already evicted my wife from the living room so I could turn the lights off to get these, so they are going to have to do for now!



Daylight full tank/stand shot:













Close up of Cardinals:













FTS:













Closeup of new crypt growth:













New Amazon sword plantlet (it has a few new leaves already):













Anubias flower bud:













Several random closeups/angle shots:





















































































I feel like putting some unrelated pictures in here too. Unrelated to the aquarium at least, but somewhat related to the conversation here. I've already posted a pic of Douglas (who, true to style, has been pestering me mercilessly while I've been trying to post this.) Here's a pic of Mercury, wondering why her minion (aka, me) has not filled her food bowl yet:












Here is my albino Leopard gekco, Beowulf. He had a mate (Pandora,) but unfortunately I lost her late last year. She used to lay eggs, but I never hatched any as I didn't have an appropriate incubator:












Finally, since there was talk of hiking, here is a pic from a 4 day hike on the Appalachian Trail I did in Shenandoah National Park last September. This was taken near the summit of Hawksbill Mountain, the tallest peak in the park:












My camera takes better outdoor pictures then it does aquarium pictures. I need to play with my lighting too...my pics tend to either be overexposed, or too dark to see everything.


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

If I didn't like you already, naming a gecko Beowulf would have made me an instant fan of yours. :hihi: It's my favorite poem of all time and partly because of the anonymity, but mostly because it was what made me appreciate writing. Side note. LOL.

Great pictures! I've been admiring them for quite a while now. Even with the thumbprint smear (which I don't see), they look great. I can't believe you got an anubias to send up a flower shoot for you, too. I finally gave up on that plant because it would do anything but sit there. Of course. I am trying to get rid of my collectoritis once and for all. I sent plants to karackle, nonconductive, overstocked, cardinal tetra and it is only fair I spread the disease to you as well. :icon_twis

What kind of moss is that on the driftwood? I really like how it lays down. 

Mercury is a cute little kitty. Reminds me of Mollie without stripes.  How does he like the new roommate now?

Nice picture of the mountains! That's in Virginia isn't it? I'm thinking so. Maybe mid state. Looks a lot like here.  I forget how lovely it is to live in this area until I see pictures or come back from vacation. Funny, I am better overall at aquarium pictures and suck at outdoor shots. LOL. Maybe we should compare notes? Although, I think your aquarium pictures are amazingly good.

Thanks for all the great pictures. And your fish look very healthy despite the illness you've been battling. I wouldn't think it was TB based on that. But, it's really difficult to say. I hope things turn around for you now.


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

Ah cool! I love that poem as well (obviously I guess.) Another one of the old epic poems that I love is Homer's Odyssey.

That's actually the second time I've gotten my Anubias to bloom (it may be the same plant, hard to tell but I think it is.) That's Christmas Moss on my driftwood. It does look pretty how it weeps over the wood, but I have to trim it a lot. I've already figured out the hard way that if I don't, it tends to become detached and float. I'm currently trying to get it to re-attach on a few parts of the driftwood.

Mercury still doesn't like having Douglas around. He is a real knucklehead and doesn't get that she wants to be left alone most of the time :icon_lol: If he bothers her enough she tends to come up to me and give me a look like "really, why is this brat in _my_ house?" After she finishes hissing, growling, and smacking him in the head of course.

Yep, those pictures were taken in central virginia. There's still a lot of Shenandoah that I haven't seen (hiking-wise,) and I tend to go there at least a couple times per year. I'm actually planning on going back in a few weeks to take advantage of the week of free admission that the national park system is going to have. Seeing as how that's the only national park anywhere near me, that's where I'm going!

I agree with you that whatever was in my tank, it wasn't TB. If it was that I would think that the symptoms would have been much more catastrophic.


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

Homer's Odyssey is a good one too. Have you read much of Canterbury Tales? I have a feeling you'd like it or at least parts of the book. You'd be surprised how many of today's works are based on that book alone. I read it in mid-English. I'd recommend the modern translation...

Tell me about it. I am still picking out random pieces of java moss and it has been months since I removed the driftwood. That sounds like my cats. Just last night I had to break up a fight on my lap. Both want to sit on me, but neither want to share. They ended up sitting back to back growling. :hihi:

I was pretty sure it was more central Virginia. The mountains look so similar to this area. I've always wanted to hike in Virginia, but I have so many places still to go here!

Yeah, with TB, you'd really different symptoms in my opinion, but it's really not known until you do an autopsy. And the fish never improve for long, they usually have a lull and get sicker. But that is only my experience with what I believe was TB with my CPDs.

That amazon sword is going to look great in that back corner! I can't wait to see it grow up.


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

Actually, I think I read that back in college...it may have been in middle english as well (I definitely remember reading a few things in middle english.)

I'm eager for that sword to grow too- its going to fill a big blank spot there. My intial "vision" for my tank was the have the entire back covered with various plants grown up to the surface. I'm only part-way there. I kind of wish I had gotten a 75g for the extra depth for that sort of purpose, but the size of the 55g in the living room was already a compromise :redface:

Its been another slow day (heck, it's been a slow week) so I've had more time to look at other fish, plants, etc. I'm thinking of making this a bit more of a Rainbowfish themed tank- so instead of adding a school of Rasboras, I may instead add a school of small Rainbows (like Threadfins or Forktail Blue-Eyes,) _or_ another 3-4 of a larger variety (like Goyder River or Axlerodi Rainbows.) I still do want one Angel, so I would probably decline from adding more bottom feeders to keep from getting too overstocked. I have plenty of more time to decide of course, but _something_ interesting should be going on here in May 

Ok, back to boredom...


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

I read it for the fun of it in high school. My mom is a retired librarian and I spent many a day in the library reading after school. My college professor didn't believe me until I started quoting from it. Yea, I was that much of a nerd. 

I really am thinking that sword will be grand back there. I'm sending good vibes it's way. Haha, I know all about compromises. I got the 55 as a compromise with my husband. :biggrin: He won't budge on those extra 20 gallons, either. If you ever figure out how, let me know. I do like your vision for the tank and it does look like you are on your way there.

I like the idea of a Rainbowfish tank. You don't see that often enough. I just read on the fish section that it's not a good idea to get only one angelfish. Just something you may want to check out. I am actually thinking of getting angels myself. I'm not sure though. Part of me wants to run away from this hobby after destroying my tank.

I love the Goyder River Rainbows. I used to have them. They were full of personality!


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

Yeah, I really like the Goyder River rainbows too. I found a website for a breeder that sells them, and the pictures of them have a really strong red coloration...would look great with my Bosemanis I think! Those guys are definitely the stars of my tank at the moment. That's interesting about a single Angel though- I thought I had read they were either best at a single fish in a community tank, or kept with several other Angels. I'll have to look into it a bit more (I have time.)

I am hoping that sword takes off too- it was annoying that my first sword didnt' make it. It didn't have that great of a start though. It seems like the Amazon ones are the weediest of the swords though, so hopefully I'll have better luck with this one.


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

They would look great! (Only because I had both, lol.) Talk to wkndracer, he knows his angels. He's been breeding them for a while now. I am debating on whether or not to get some, and I am starting to decide against it based on the reading I've done. I just don't think I am ready for another cichlid.

Yeah, that other sword was probably just a dud. I just pitched a couple of swords that never did do that well in my tank. The roots weren't in good shape when they arrived, so I wasn't expecting much. You shouldn't have any trouble with that Amazon. It looks really healthy.


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

Well, I stopped at the place I got Ludwigia Repens at before, and their plants looked crappy- so that isn't in my tank now. So, at this point I'm up for suggestions on something to fill in that spot (if I get something other than Repens,) becuase I'll probably have to order it anyways. Alternately, I could always put some Bacopa cuttings there, I have some stems that need to be trimmed down. Something new would be nice though.

My Kanaplex should be arriving today. I think I'm going to just put it in my cabinet to have it "on hand" if I need to medicate in the future. The Rainbows' eyes are still cloudy, but I haven't seen any other symptoms in the other fish, and there have not been any deaths since I finished up the Maracyn-2 dosing. I need to regen my Purigen (I'll probably work on that today) so I can get that back in my filter, along with a new UV bulb.

That darn Anubias still hasn't flowered, but I'll get a pic once the bud opens. It looks like this flower is going to be bigger than the last one.


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

I did some trimming and a bit of scaping today (the latter being a rare event! Low tech only grows plants so fast.) The tallest stalks of Bacopa got cut down, and the tops re-planted to spread a bit to the right across the back. I pulled the Dwarf sag runners that had sprouted in the middle of my crypts (5 in all,) and re-planted them across the bare strip I had in the front of the tank. If I can get them to spread there instead and to stay somewhat low, they will look great. The original group of sag is getting pretty tall though...so we'll see how that goes. I also moved one crypt to the main group of crypts, to make room for a new addition.

I'm going to be ordering some Nerite snails soon (mostly Olives, a few Red Spots) and the seller also has some Willow hygro available...so that's what I'm going to use to fill in the blank spot. It's another green plant, sure, but I think it will work well because it's a fast grower, and it appears to branch sideways in addition to just growing up. Some of my c. Crispatula in that "bare" spot is finally growing upwards too, so the combo of the two should get that effect that I'm after.

They're a bit hazy from the water change, but here are some pics:



Newly placed Sag:












Bacopa got a trim:












Newly planted tops:












Bare spot (minus one crypt,) ready for a new addition:












As you can see, still no Anubias flower. In addition to the other growth, my Amazon sword continues to put out new leaves...it should be growing upwards soon enough. I'm going to see if I can get some Ghost shrimp in the next couple of days as testers for possible future shrimp (that, and I actually kind of _like _Ghost shrimp.) I have recieved the "stamp of approval" from my wife for more Rainbowfish after we return from vacation (she says that I already have enough little fish.) It is all coming together :thumbsup:


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

How do you feel about rotalas? That could look nice in the background, too. Although, I really like the idea of the willow hygros. Good idea to just store the medicine for now. I am glad the fish are doing better and the only issue is the cloudy eye now. I like the dwarf sag placement. How can you guys get that to grow for you???? I've never had much luck. Actually, blyxa grows for me and sag just melts into oblivion. LOL. I like your wife.  Have a good vacation! How much do you want to bet that anubias will flower while you are gone? Good luck on the ghost shrimp! They are pretty smart at hiding and the clear color should help them hide. Or you could get some red claws from CT. They are ruling the tank right now. :biggrin: Not bothering anyone so far. 

I like that you are getting more rainbows!

The tank looks really good right now, doesn't it? I like the layout. Can't wait til that amazon grows in and you get the hygro.


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## Slaster (Apr 6, 2011)

For me need to stop using exell ,how is feeding treat in your tank?


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

Rotalas were actually what was originally supposed to go there when I started the tank last year. However, when I got my plant shipment, the Rotalas I got were tiny and covered in algae  I just placed my order for the snails and Hygro, I'm guessing I'll get that next week as I believe the seller said they ship Saturday/Monday/Tuesday.

I actually thought that all of my Sag was going to croak there for a while, but it's suddenly started to take off after several months of sitting there getting covered with algae. Go figure 

My vacation is still a few weeks away, so that flower had better open before then. As for the red claws, believe me I am_ very_ tempted. I've had some iffy luck with shrimp in my old nano though, so I'm still going to stick with some cheap Ghosts...for now. If you have good luck with yours though, I could definitely see putting some in my tank. I just want to be sure that they wouldn't be too aggressive, my other Macrobrachium was a major a-hole! :icon_lol: (it sounds like the red claws are much more laid back though.) I'm looking forwards to more Rainbows too...I'm planning on getting some Goyder Rivers, which I'll likely have to order online.

Yes, I'm actually liking how the tank is looking now. The plants are really bouncing back and filling out now that I'm back on my game with maintenance and ferts.


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

Slaster- I'm still using Excel, at a dosage of 1 capful per day (which is about double of the "official" dose.) Actually, I had been dosing 2 capfuls a day for a couple of weeks recently to try to make up for deficiencies. I had stopped dosing Excel and my other ferts on a regular basis, and had a pretty significant die-back with my crypts, and an almost complete lack of growth with my other plants. I'd definitely say it is the "secret ingredient" of my tank. (until I finally go CO2...one of these days.)


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## chad320 (Mar 7, 2010)

This is pretty sweet with the rainbows!! Nice job on the jungle!!


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

Thanks- jungle is what I'm going for! :biggrin:


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

Glad you are liking the tank again. That's the important part! :biggrin:

I have a love hate relationship with rotalas. They never seem to look pretty enough for me. I see other tanks and wonder what I am doing wrong....I finally gave up and shipped off the last of my rotalas.

They do seem pretty laid back for shrimp that look so evil. Actually, they are starting to look cuter now that I've gotten over the initial creepy factor. I saw the female sporting a cherry shrimp on her back and didn't care less. I'll let you know how they end up fairing for me.

Here's hoping the anubias flowers soon!


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

Nothing wrong with evil looking shrimp. Unless they actually are evil, and destroy the fish in your tank. The m. rosenbergii I had was actually a rescue from a friend's tank. He bought it as an "algae cleaning" shrimp from a pet store at a nearby mall, and the night he introduced it it killed and ate one of his catfish. I do wish I had the resources at the time to care for it properly, "Scampi" was a pretty unique pet (you should have seen him decimate feeder goldfish :icon_twis ) He was probably at least 5-6 inches long (including the claw arms) when he died.

Realisitcally though, had I wanted to keep him long term I would have needed a large tank just for him. I saw a full grown one at the National Zoo in Washington, and it was lobster sized. Pretty much like this pic I found online:


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

Oh, wow. Scampi was wickedly beautiful. Maybe that is why you had a problem with him and fish, lol. I feel the same way with my goldfish. I wish I knew then how to properly care for the. Knowing that now is why I don't buy them. I actually was able to let one of the claws touch my finger without jumping this time. If they do well for me and breed, I'll be glad to share some with you. From what CT says, they are only mean to the other males and get agressive with each other when mating. So far, they've done a fantastic job cleaning up the excess food. They leap into the water before it hits the ground a feeding time. I'm going to pick up some wafers for them this weekend.

Scampi! I love that name. Can I steal it for my largest male shrimp?


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

Haha, steal away  He was probably about 1/3-1/4 of the size of the one in that pic above, but he had the same coloration. BRIGHT blue arms. He would jump up and catch food the instant it hit the water too.

I went ahead and got 20 Ghost shrimp for my tank yesterday, just to see what would happen. My fish ignored them, which was a plus (I did stuff them with frozen bloodworms first.) Time will tell if they thrive, die, or become snacks


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

Glad to hear they made it through the first night. Stupid question, do you rinse your frozen bloodworms? I have a whole bunch of them in the fridge that I'm going to get out later for the bettas and can't remember if I'm supposed to rinse them off or not.....and google is not being very friendly today, lol. 

Hey - that means you have a reason to take more pictures soon. Too show off the new shrimp, of course. 

Thanks for the name steal. I've named them Scampi (male), Scrampi (female), Leroy, Ed, Edd and Eddy. If there are more I'll start with shrimp #7, shrimp #8....:hihi: Perhaps this will make me love them more. Each time I look at them the more I appreciate them. And they are good workers.


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

Nope, I didn't rinse the bloodworms- just thawed them in a cup of tank water and added them in pinch by pinch. Cute names for the shrimp :icon_mrgr Speaking of shrimp...



> Hey - that means you have a reason to take more pictures soon. Too show off the new shrimp, of course.


I can't say they are all that exciting, but sure, here are some pics. I'm not sure how many have survived, or if they are just really good at hiding (probably the latter.) Taking macro shots of these guys was challenging!
































The middle shrimp is a little milky looking, I've seen a couple of others like that (they seemed to do that while I was acclimating them.) A few duds seems to be a norm with these guys though unfortunately.


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

So cute! Maybe the middle guy is about to molt (hopefully)? I love the first picture. They look like little old men. :hihi:

Off topic, but tank related - I didn't know you had MTS. Do you like the snails or are they bothersome? I've been debating on whether or not I want to add some to my 55 gallon.


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

I don't know if those things are "real" MTS. Those are the snails that I had been talking about a few pages back. They act like MTS (mostly nocturnal, and like to get into the substrate,) but even after months of them being in the tank they haven't gotten any bigger than the ones you see there. I'm guessing they are a related species. They must have snuck in with my plants and slowly grew in numbers, becuase I didn't notice them for a long time (during which I purposefully eliminated a huge group of pond snails from my tank.) I don't really like them or am bothered by them (so long as they don't completely over-populate my tank.) I don't even see them most of the time anyways. I have reached acceptance with snails in my tank  After all, I'm going to have Nerites in there soon.

As for the Ghosties, they all looked clear in the bag, and then a few turned that milky color after being acclimated and put in my tank. They may just be getting used to the tank still- who knows? My wife likes them though (she said they are cute :icon_lol: )

One more thing: I took a video of my tank at feeding time today. Look at the rainbows go! They do a full-speed strike on whatever food they target.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=allOprMDhXQ


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

Oh, wow. They really do look like baby MTS snails! Those are the same buggers I had in my 10 until I tore it down.. I forgot about you talking about them a while back (duh). They must be some sort of relation...

Glad your wife likes the shrimp. Happy spouse = more shrimp! Yeah, give em some more time. The red claws took a while to turn back to a nice color. They were kind of opaque at first. I think that's partly why the scared me, lol. Wait until the cat notices them. :biggrin: My stupid cat's been pawing at the glass trying to get to red claws all day. Driving me nuts.

Cool vid....you are making me miss my rainbows! Do any of your other fish get a chance to eat?


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

Yeah they do- after the "bosses" of the tank are done! Do you have any pics of the Rainbows you used to have? Funny that you mention the cats. Douglas will occasionally pat at the tank when he isn't too busy playing with something else. Mercury ignores it unless I hold her up to it- then she'll watch the fish for a few moments, before realizing that the tank is full of water. Then, she freaks out (she is deathly afraid of water.)


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

I got my nerites and hygro today. It was a bit of a trial though. I was watching the online delivery report at work for most of the day. Mid-afternoon, it updated to say that a "delivery attempt" been made. Uh, what? The package didn't require a signature... So, I cut out a little early to go home. Sure enough, there was a slip in my mailbox stating that I could pick up the package tomorrow morning at 8:30am. _I don't think so. _There wasn't anything on the slip about needing a signature, or any other issue that should have prevented the mail person from delivering. Unfortunately, it was blatantly obvious that since the box didn't fit in the mailbox with my other mail for the day, our lazy &$% mail lady decided that it would be too much trouble to get out of her truck and drop it off on my front porch. Ugh. Luckily for me, she had already brought the package back to the post office and I was able to pick it up. I was ready for an angry customer meltdown, too (something I rarely, if ever, do.)

The bright side of the story is that all of my snails made it safe and sound, and the hygro looks like it's going to fill in my tank's blank spot nicely. I got a couple of quick pics- I'll try to get some better ones (and a new FTS) in a few days. The tank is a bit on the grungy side now as I left some algae on the glass so the nerites would have something to eat immediately after their trip. Oh yes: the Anubias finally flowered a few days ago, too.


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

Haha at mercury. I'll see what I can dig up on my computer with pictures of the rainbows. I didn't take photos much before planted tanks of my fish. But I've a few I could find in background pictures. Nothing impressive, though.

Nice flower! Glad it finally opened up for you.

And good thing you were able to find your box at the PO. I hate when they pull that. Our mailman on the weekends just leaves notes and won't even ring the bell. Great nerites, where did they come from (forgive me if you already said) and I can't wait to see that hygro get established.


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

I actually didn't say where I got them- I got them from http://www.bobstropicalplants.com, which is run by a member here actually. They are definitely nice! They have their work cut out also- notice how I placed them on my GSA-covered Anubias  I expect the hygro will make a quick bounceback- it had naturally suffered a bit from the shipping, but if it grows as fast as I've read, it should be filling in nicely soon.

The Goyders you had before, were their fins really red? I've seen pictures where they are bright red, and others where the colors are more muted. If I can get ones that will color up to that bright red color, they would look really great in my tank.


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

The Goyders were muted red like a cranberry color, not a bright red. And there was a lavender, orange color to them. The Irian rainbows I've seen at pet stores are much brighter red.

I have some really crappy pictures I was able to locate and it might not help you out at all, lol. This one has the Melanotaenia trifasciata and a Melanotaenia praecox (goyder on the top, but the colors are all washed out because of the camera settings - the stripe in the middle was black and the fins were orangish red. However, this was a baby and female and they aren't as bright as the males.) Great fish, but if you are looking for red, red irian is the one to look at (Glossolepis incisis). Typically the melanotaenia sp. are more muted than the other rainbows. They are my favorites. :biggrin: And now I want them again, lol.

I'll keep digging and see if I can find a better picture. Yeah, that hygro (corymbosa 'angustifolia'?) is amazing once it establishes itself. I really love the red stripe it can get in new growth. It grows fast, but not as quickly as some hygros I've owned. But faster than most stems that's for sure.

Nice touch on adding the nerites to the GSA anubias. I've dealt with mgamer recently with fertilizers. I like her.


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

Ah ok. I saw the picture with the bright red fins on a fish breeder's website. All of the other pictures I've seen have a more muted red like you described. Both had the bronze-ish body with the black line, which I like. As for the Irians, they are nice and red but I don't like the way they look for some reason.

The hygro I got was listed as _hygrophila salicifolia. _I would like some angustifolia but it seems to be hard to find for some reason (at least it was when I was initially setting up my tank.)

I'll definitely be happy if the nerites munch on some of that GSA  I'm having a bit of concern with my largest rainbow again though...his eye with the cloudy pupil seems to be bulging out a bit more again, and I noticed a hint of cloudiness on his other eye. Otherwise, he is still acting normally, so this is kind of odd. I may end up having to medicate again after all, but i'm not in a huge rush- I'll see how he looks today. All other fish appear fine, and my other rainbow with a cloudy pupil is unchanged for better or worse. I did finally clean out my filter yesterday (it was pretty gunky,) so perhaps this will help if it was a water quality issue (although my WQ looked good the last I checked.)


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

Yeah, the bright red fins will show up somewhat when they get sexually mature, but only during mating. Most of the time, they are muted. But still lovely. Nice hygro, though. Since you aren't afraid of algae, once mine grows out more, I'll be happy to send you some. 

Sucks that the rainbow is getting sick again. Do you have another tank you could move him to to treat so you wouldn't have to treat the others? Hopefully the filter change will help.

I agree with you on the Irians. I don't like their shape as they age.


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## GDP (Mar 12, 2011)

Chaos_Being said:


> I got my nerites and hygro today. It was a bit of a trial though. I was watching the online delivery report at work for most of the day. Mid-afternoon, it updated to say that a "delivery attempt" been made. Uh, what? The package didn't require a signature... So, I cut out a little early to go home. Sure enough, there was a slip in my mailbox stating that I could pick up the package tomorrow morning at 8:30am. _I don't think so. _There wasn't anything on the slip about needing a signature, or any other issue that should have prevented the mail person from delivering. Unfortunately, it was blatantly obvious that since the box didn't fit in the mailbox with my other mail for the day, our lazy &$% mail lady decided that it would be too much trouble to get out of her truck and drop it off on my front porch. Ugh. Luckily for me, she had already brought the package back to the post office and I was able to pick it up. I was ready for an angry customer meltdown, too (something I rarely, if ever, do.)
> 
> The bright side of the story is that all of my snails made it safe and sound, and the hygro looks like it's going to fill in my tank's blank spot nicely. I got a couple of quick pics- I'll try to get some better ones (and a new FTS) in a few days. The tank is a bit on the grungy side now as I left some algae on the glass so the nerites would have something to eat immediately after their trip. Oh yes: the Anubias finally flowered a few days ago, too.


I really like this tank, lots of plants and cool looking fish. I normally dont like that kinda old style of having a huge cover on the top but it looks decent enough on yours.

Also yeah I tend to get pissy too when a delivery person fails to actually deliver or really anything goes wrong and something doesnt get delivered. Dont know why, its one of the very few things that actually gets under my skin. 

In any case the point I wanted to make is you wont get anything done if you go balistic on a customer service person. I can tell you this first hand as I am in customer service and if anyone gets crapy with me I basically shutdown. You wont get anything from me other than whats required of me. Reason I say this is because if you learn to not go balistic and do the exact oposite you get way better results. Anyway dont ask me why I brought up this particular point, I guess just because I see a lot of people going at these issues the wrong way.


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

Eh, its hard to tell if he is getting "sicker" or not. I just got another look at him and the bad eye is about the same. It isn't full-blown pop eye, it just looks like the iris surrounding the pupil is puffed up a bit (making the pupil smaller as a side-effect.) It doesn't quite look like any other photos of eye related fish diseases I've been able to come across. I can try to get a picture, but he doesn't like to pose  The little patch of cloudyness on his other pupil is a little more concerning I guess. As far as activity, he is unchanged (still eating well and flaring/nipping at the other two rainbows: he is the largest and the alpha.) Unfortunately, I don't have a hospital tank, so if it looks like I need to use medication again, I'm stuck doing the whole tank.  I'm going to observe for another day or two (I'm due for a WC then anyways,) and then decide.

GDP- thanks for the compliments! I do admit that the canopy look is kind of old-fashioned but I like it for some reason. And don't worry, I'm not usually the type to go ballistic on customer service people- if the package wasn't live stuff, I probably wouldn't have sweated it too much. Although, our mail lady has in the past left snarky notes in our mailbox when someone has parked in front of it (not always one of our cars,) so I already knew of her lazy non-delivery shenanigans. Actually, I'm in the customer service boat too (I do desktop/software support for several buildings' worth of users.) I know exactly what you mean about shutting down when someone gets pissy with you. There are several people there who are on my "S List," woe to them if they need help with something because they'll be waiting for a while :icon_evil


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

sewingalot said:


> Yeah, the bright red fins will show up somewhat when they get sexually mature, but only during mating. Most of the time, they are muted. But still lovely. Nice hygro, though. Since you aren't afraid of algae, once mine grows out more, I'll be happy to send you some.


 
Sure, I'd love to take some hygro- I think I have enough of an algae-busting crew in my tank now :hihi: I could see marks on some of the GSA where the nerites have scraped it yesterday, so they are starting to do their job. I still like the look of the Goyders even if they aren't super bright red all the time. I'm definitely looking forwards to making my tank more Rainbowfish themed, if I could go back to day one I probably would have done so. At this point, if I had the cash/space I'd have three theme tanks: one Rainbowfish, one Barbs, and one African cichlids.

I peeked in at my big rainbow this morning and he didn't look any worse. I couldn't see any cloudiness on his other eye this time, although the tank was of course dark. I think he's going to be all right still.


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

The goyders do have some spunk to them that I loved about them. Honestly, they are a beautiful fish. Just enough red without being obnoxious. I'll start growing out the hygro for you. It shouldn't take to long to get you some decent stems of it. I'll go cut it later to encourage more growth.

Glad to hear about your rainbow. I think you just named some of my favorite fish there. Although, I'm more of a South American cichlid lover. Convicts and jack dempsey fish.


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

A quick update- I took a few new pics (including a new FTS) two nights ago, but haven't had time to upload them yet. I will try to do so tonight. Suffice to say, the nerites have MORE than pulled their weight so far. My anubias with the largest leaves has been scrubbed of most of its GSA. I am pretty amazed. They are truely algae terminators.


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

No laughs for my MSpaint artwork, huh?

Anyways, here are the new pics of my tank that I took a couple of days ago. Compare the pictures of my Anubias to the last one I took right when I introduced my nerites- big difference! They've cleared most of the black gunk off of my Sag plants too.































































Shrimp!












Cories!












My new hygro...kind of melting, kind of suriving:


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

Chaos_Being said:


> A quick update- I took a few new pics (including a new FTS) two nights ago, but haven't had time to upload them yet. I will try to do so tonight. Suffice to say, the nerites have MORE than pulled their weight so far. My anubias with the largest leaves has been scrubbed of most of its GSA. I am pretty amazed. They are truely algae terminators.



Hahahahahahahahhahaha!!!! I just am now getting caught up and this is cracking me up. I love it. (Of course, I really liked that movie, so maybe I am biased?) Looks like they have been working overtime. That is a dramatic difference already. I can't get over the quick work they've done decimating that algae. The tank is looking good. I see that your shrimp are still alive.  And of course, I love the cories. One of my favorite fish of all time.


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

Chaos, I know you've been online lately and I am tired of patiently waiting for both an update on the tank and the vacation photos! Also, I have that tall hygro that I just remembered I've been holding for you ready. So what's up? Where is my update? I demand to know! LOL.

Did you get the fish yet? Tell me something, I'm so sad.


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

Aww :icon_redf I was actually really busy last week preparing for a job interview (I'm not out of work, i'm just looking for a better opportunity.) As such, the tank is in dire need of a trim and water change, which I may do tonight (depending on the weather, I also have some lawn mowing and gardening to finish!) Speaking of new fish, no I haven't gotten new ones yet, but I did find something very interesting last week. Two of the Petsmarts near me are selling juvenile Denison Barbs/Roseline Sharks for $7 each :icon_eek: Unfortunately, the store with the most in stock had nasty looking tanks with fungus infested fish...the other store (which i've gotten lots of fish from and which are always healthy) have only had the same 3 the past two times I stopped in. The first time, I asked if they were going to get more, as for that price I'd like to put a small school of 6 in my tank. However, I would prefer to get them all at once. I stopped by again on Friday and they hadn't gotten more. I may just end up getting what they have. So yes, I may be getting new fish soon, but I might go for these awesome barbs instead of another school of Rainbowfish 

I do have an offering of one pic that I took with my new phone last week: this copy is downscaled becuase I just grabbed it from facebook, but it still looks decent. New pics soon, I promise!

(and oh yeah, we'll have to talk about they hygro, i'm still interested, especially since my willow hygro isn't doing well at all.)


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

Good luck on the job search. It's always wise to look for better opportunities. That is awesome about the dennison barbs. I hope that you can find some healthy ones to work out for you. They would be an interesting contrast for the rainbows. Are you worried about them getting too large? My one SAE is only about 4 inches and he looks like a monster in the 55. 

I sent you a pm about the hygro. You'll be doing me a favor taking it off my hands. And lucky that we live pretty close to each other as I've found plants fair better trading just a few states away as opposed to cross country. The apono bulb I got as a present grew faster than I ever imagined. 

Look forward to more pictures.


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## RWaters (Nov 12, 2003)

I was in a Petsmart here in New York tonight and I saw that the Dennison Barbs were on sale for $3.49. They weren't the healthiest bunch I've ever seen, but what a great price! I picked up six of the healthier looking ones. Maybe your store has them on sale too.


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

So...I got the hygro from Sara...and it is ridiculously huge and AWESOME! I had to move some plants around just to make room for it, and now my tank looks even more like an overgrown jungle :icon_mrgr I may have to eventually do something about that and do some real aquascaping, hah! While I had my hands in my tank I decided to find out why my surface skimmer had stopped sucking in water (and had been for a couple of weeks.) I found one of my olive nerites stuck in there, and it is actually alive and scooting around now that I had to (somewhat forcibly) press it out 

I grabbed some pictures with my cameraphone right after I planted and stirred up a bunch of muck. I'll go back soon with my real camera and get some better pics.























On an unrelated note, I have some new pics of Douglas. He is now up to 15.5lbs, no fat on this guy, just muscle, bone and fur...and I still think he is growing. Keep in mind this guy was a skeletal 6lbs when we rescued him on Christmas eve, a little over 5 months ago. As he develops I grow more and more sure that if he isn't a fullblood Maine ****, he is mostly one at least. He's still an insane spaz that rarely slows down, and if you try to distract him he just brings one of his toys (usually the one he is posing with) to you and puts it in your lap :icon_lol:


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

As for the Denison Barbs, I still haven't seen any new stock come in...I'm hoping they weren't a one time order. I've seen them kept in a 55g so I don't _think_ they would be too big, although that would be something to consider.


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

Just by looking at his manly figure, I bet he is a maine ****. It sounds about right by the amount of weight and length he is. Our girl is long and lean just like that. And a chatterbox to match. 

Nice job at rearranging. I like it. Too funny, I was afraid that I didn't send you enough hygro and was worried you'd be upset at the portion.  Don't worry if they shed leaves in the begging, it's normal for those two. Hope they do well for you!

Did you ask them if they get in Dennisons? Then again, maybe you shouldn't. They could raise the price. :hihi:


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

LOL no I wasn't upset at the portion...unless you think me looking at the plants in a bit of shock and muttering, "how the hell am I going to fit this all into my tank" is upset :hihi: Seriously though, thanks again. Once my Amazon sword grows higher, I'm going to have a great green wall effect going on.

I had asked a couple of weeks back if they were going to get more Denisons in and the girl I spoke to wasn't sure. I had stopped in that store briefly today and saw that they had one left, but I didn't get a chance to ask about them. One of my friends suggested that I try the Petsmart near his house because their fish quality is usually good, so I may check them out soon.

Oh yes he is a chatterbox...he has to announce himself whenever he enters a room, and god forbid you try to close a door on him to get some peace. So much whining.


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

The curse of giving too much, I got that from my papa. He was always doing that.  You are more than welcome. Had too many plants and you did me a favor. Plus, I hate taking the time to take pictures and list them, lol.

Good luck on the denison search. Hope you find some soon.

Does your kitty play fetch like Jody does? Apparently, this breed is common to do so. Another funny perk. Haha, that is so funny. She hates doors to be closed! If they are, she'll knock on them chirping. Weird cat.


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

Oh yes he certainly does...I found out he would do that when I tossed one of his toys into another room to try to distract him because I was working on my computer. He brought it right back to me...and it has been a game ever since. I remember being at someone's house who had two Maine *****, and they fetched too. It's pretty neat


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

That's pretty much how I discovered it. But poor kitty doesn't get to play fetch much anymore. The dogs get too excited, so we limit our play to when they are outside.  Two Maine *****? I think I'd go out of my mind. They are like the puppies of cats. 

Have you decided to rearrange the hygro? I hope it does well for you, because it looks really good with your tank.


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

They hygro has stayed where I put it, and actually, it looks good where it is now. I had actually neglected the tank quite a bit after I planted it I hate to say...ferts were infrequent, I let the water evaporate 2-3 inches, and my water sprite decided to shade half the tank. Some serious stuff has been going on in my life lately. I finally did a water change and a huge trim this week though, and like I said, despite the neglect everything in there is looking great. Hopefully I can get some new pictures up in the next week.


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

Do I see any pictures? No. Hope all is well with you and the stuff is fixable. I understand how life gets in the way sometimes. Sorry that I overlooked this post until just now. Glad to hear the tank is doing well.


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

Ahh I must have sensed that you were on here looking for pictures...because I have pictures to give now 

As for the life stuff, it's been good and bad. The good is that I'm on my 2nd week of my new job. I don't remember if I had said what I was doing, but it's more techy geek stuff- my new title is "Microsoft Exchange Engineer" (I'm an engineer now, oooooh,) meaning I'm doing email server work. So far I'm just cramming as much info as I can while I wait for my administrative accounts to be created, and my access card to be given to me. It's definitely going to be a big step up for me. The bad...well, I don't really want to broadcast it on the internet for all to see, but suffice to say I'm going through something that I never thought I would have to, and it isn't fun.

As for the tank, it is doing very well. Some of the plants are showing some deficiences from my time of neglect, but it's nothing that a little TLC won't fix eventually. Other than that, the plants are huge (especially those crazy Hygro plants,) and I think there will be a time soon where I'll have to do more than just normal maintenance trims if I want the fish to have room to swim :tongue: With that being said, I don't think the original name for the tank, "Serenity," really fits any more (and it hasn't for a while.) It's time for a new name...

*Welcome to the Jungle.*

I had been talking about a while back, but I'm finally going to get some new fish in this thing this weekend also. Now that it's hot, and I'm also working further away so rushing home on lunch break isn't really feasible, I don't want to order fish like I had been planning on before. I'm planning on going to a "Not-so-local-fish-store" with a friend on Saturday. It's called "That Pet Place" up in Lancaster PA (a good 1.75 hours from my place,) but my friend tells me it is the largest aquarium store on the east coast, and their selection online looks phenomenal. I'm going to let their stock guide my choices somewhat, although I'm probably still going to go with more Rainbowfish (and they have the Goyder Rivers that I wanted before in stock.) I'm also somewhat interested in Congo Tetras, or maybe even Pentazona Barbs (I'd still really like to have Tiger Barbs, but I'm a bit concerned they would beat up on my awesome Cardinal Tetras, so I'm a bit leery.) Regardless, I'll have something new to show on Saturday.

Speaking of stuff to show, here are the pics. I did take a new FTS, but it came out blurry and I don't feel like turning my lights back on and my bubbler off, so I'll get a new one tomorrow. My tank is also getting close to it's one year anniversary- my first pic on the thread is from July 15th, 2010. I'll definitely have a post with a before and after 1 year comparison on the day


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

Big news! I went to "That Pet Place" in PA today, and I brought home 6 Goyder River Rainbows, and 1 Platinum Blue Angel :bounce: I think I may have an equal mix of male/female with my new Rainbows...it is a little hard to tell since none of them really look mature, but some do already seem to be showing the deeper body shape of the males, and the others definitely are more torpedo-shaped like the females. They don't have a lot of color (to be expected of course, my Bosemanis looked terrible when I brought them home too,) but there are definitely hints...I think they are going to look really good  The Angel is also a juvenile, between nickle and quarter sized, and has some vertical barring so I'm guessing it has some of the Silver genes in it too. Right now they're all in the tank with the lights off, but I should have some new pictures tomorrow!

The store was pretty incredible, I'll probably go over to the PA part of the boards to leave a review. Suffice to say I have a ton of ideas for future aquariums now :hihi: I also got to see my friend's 20g planted puffer & cory tank, which was definitely cool. His albino cories are laying eggs (I watched one lay a bunch of them,) and he has some fry he is trying to raise already. I'm already planning on taking a few new cories once they grow up a bit.


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

So.....how are the hygros I sent you doing? I don't see them anywhere. :hihi: The tank looks fabulous, Chaos! Congrats on the new job. I am so glad you got it. Sorry about the other stuff going on. I wish the best for you whatever it is.

Paradise is what I've named your tank.  It's very lovely, like you could get lost in it for hours.

That is great on the pet place! I've heard fantastic things about the store and can't wait to visit it myself. Problem is finding someone to go with. My husband doesn't appreciate going to a store and spending more than 5 minutes looking now that he isn't active in the hobby. 

I can't wait to see the fish! I'm excited for you!

By the way, your tank is getting a very nice layout going. I adore the java fern.


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

This setup looks wonderful. I love tank pictures like this one with everything set against black.



Chaos_Being said:


>


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

Thanks, you two  Paradise, huh? That's a pretty good name too. And yes, your Hygro has absolutely dominated my tank, lol. I'm pretty sure I can spot a few new sprouts coming up from it too...good thing I love the jungle look, huh? I like the back blackground too, it give the tank so much depth. I really wish I had painted it on at this point though- I'm using black cloth as a background now, and it decides to randomly fall off about once a month. Fun times.

That Pet Place is great, but that would be a really long drive for you wouldn't it? Well, if you decide to make the pilgramage, let me know, I'd be willing to go again sometime. Just looking at their show tanks again (especially their vivariums and palaudriums...drool) would be worth the trip. That place is bad for my wallet though...I know I will be back eventually, as I do want to set up another tank or two eventually (and they had some killer deals.) I want to do a 75 or 90 gallon Malawi rockscape tank, and a 20-30 gallon planted barb tank...but probably not for another year or two. I don't think I could absorb the cost of new tanks just yet. Eventually I may break down and try a nano reef too. 

My new Rainbows are doing great, they are showing the beginnings of the color that they should have eventually. My Bosemanis looked terrible and washed out when I got them, and they are incredibly vibrant now, so I have confidence that I can get them nicely colored up. I stuffed them on bloodworms today, and they are feeding just as heartily as my Bosemanis. I think two of the smaller ones may be immature males, and one of the larger ones may be male too...the others I am pretty sure are females. Only time will tell. My new Angel is a little intimidated by the energy of the rainbows, but as he gets a bit bigger I'm sure he'll hold his own.

Pictures? Sure, here you go. I finally got a good FTS, and I have a closeup of the new Rainbows and my new Angel (who didn't really want to pose,) too. Let me know what you think. I went back and edited my first post to add the new FTS as well...my tank's one year anniversary is 5 days away, so I'll be sure to get a new FTS then so I can have a day one shot vs. day 365  Considering I was still basically a planted tank newbie when I started this one, I think I have done pretty well for myself...


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

I eventually had to part ways with the rest of the hygro that I didn't send to you. It was overtaking the tank. I like how it drapes over the water, though. It's a happy plant. 

The new fish look fantastic and healthy! I hope they do well for you. Let me know how the angel fairs for you. He's a beauty. The rainbows are going to be brilliant in a few months when they grow up some more. The smallest one in the far back left looks like he'll be a very handsome fish.

By the way, your netrites have done a fantastic job at eating algae. It looks like a brand new plant. Fabulous.

Yeah, if I ever decide to make the trip, I'll give you a yell. It's one of those dream trips. Over 7 hours, though. Two bad it's not Lancaster, Ohio.


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

Believe it or not, the Goyders have colored up noticably in one day vs. the pics I had just posted up...most of them have some salmon or reddish color in their fins, and their bodies are already darkening and gaining a bit of iridescence. They should be amazing in a month or so I think  The Angel is no longer intimidated by the Rainbows already too...he wasn't quite chasing them today, but he kept following them really closely and weirding them out. It was kind of funny in a David vs. Goliath sort of way :hihi:

You're definitely right about the Nerites, I don't think I'd ever have a planted tank without them now. My plants are kept practically spotless between them and my Otos. If that Hygro starts to take over my tank I'm fine with it, I would probably just let to replace my Water Sprite eventually. I'm tired of having to trim and replant it all the time when it decides to put off floaters. I think a huge corner of Hygro would look neat!


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

Well, once again, not the best of news...

My DSL was down for about a week, which is why I didn't get the before and after pic up on the 1 year anniversary as I planned. Additionally, my new fish that looked so healthy apparently were carrying ich...yes, not using a QT tank finally bit me in the ass after a year. I have had my tank at 86 degrees and have been medicating (Kordon's Ich Attack, as I don't want to use something harsher which may kill my snails) for the past week. Unfortunately, my two best Bosemanis died on Sunday. I'm still pretty unhappy about that... :icon_evil At least thing seem to be making a turn for the better now, the only fish that are still showing ich spots are my Cardinals. Of course, none of my new fish ever showed any symptoms :icon_roll

Life has taken another turn for the hectic lately also, and I've had to make a number of large purchases that I wasn't planning on. This time though, I have at least kept up with the tank maintenance so it still looks pretty good. A few of my plants are a little less than happy about the high temps and meds, but at least I'm not looking at a full on melt or anything like that.

I have a 10 gallon that I'm not using right now that I plan on setting up as a QT tank, hopefully that will be large enough. (yes, I should have had one from the start, and it is a long story why I didn't...) I will likely want to add a few more male Bosemanis again in the future, but it peeves me that good stock of them seem to be hard to find. The two that died were very vibrant and not washed out at all, as many of those that are commonly sold are. Blah... I've got to get the tank stable and get the QT up before I can even think of that really. If I can't find good Bosemanis (the place where I got mine is essentially out of business,) I may be asking for advice on something else.

I'll get some new pics up once everyone is healed and the tank bounces back.


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## Postal Penguin (Mar 30, 2009)

If you want to avoid a QT tank, a UV sterilizer will work. I have one tank with a UV and never QT anything, never had an outbreak of anything in that tank either. Every time I put in new fish I turn it on 24/7 for 3-4 weeks and then after that I leave it off except for maybe one or two days to burn off any growth around the tube.


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

Yes that reminds me, my filter has a UV built into it, but the bulb burnt out a while ago. I have some replacements, but had some difficulty getting the old bulb out before. I know how to do it now; I plan on cleaning my filter in a few days and I'll take another whack at replacing the UV while I'm at it. That will help nuke any of the free swimming stage of ich that may still be left in there.

Thanks for the reminder


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## TankZen (Jan 31, 2011)

WOW very nice tank! Love it!! 

Treating a planted tank is the worst...In the past high temp and meds really set back my plants... the only thing I've ever got to work on ICH was Kordon's Ich Attack. I didn't have to turn my temp up with it either. Is your ICH gone yet? 



> If you want to avoid a QT tank, a UV sterilizer will work.


I didn't realize UV sterilizer could kill everything so effectively and therefore there's no need to have a QT tank. 

Chaos_Being, are you still planning to set up a QT?


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

Thanks for the compliment  (by the way, your 180g looks like its going to be incredible.) It's nice to hear because the tank has been somewhat frustrating lately. The good news is, the ich is nearly gone now. I could only see a few spots left on my Cardinals yesterday. The bad news is, my last Bosemani got a fungal infection (probably due to the stress of the ich and higher temperatures,) and despite my attempt to treat it (I had some Kanaplex on hand,) he died a day later. 

I'm hoping that the tank is on the cusp of a comeback now. Aside from the last few ich spots on my Cardinals, everyone else in there looks healthy now. My goyders continue to color up, and I have all but confirmed that I have an even split of 3 males, 3 females now (telling by shape, color, and the fact that I've seen a few of the males flaring and flashing their "spawning stripe" on their noses.) My Angel is growing like a weed and is really interactive...he begs like a puppy at the glass when I walk by and he really goes nuts when he sees the cup I use to defrost frozen food...every time I feed frozen bloodworms or brine shrimp he eats so much that I can see his stomach poof out :hihi: My plants are mostly ok despite the meds and heat, a bit of melt and some extra crud on the leaves (which I think is precipitate from the Ich Attack,) but nothing that a good cleaning won't fix.

As for the QT tank, yes I'm still planning on getting one ready before I add any more fish. I'm going to get my UV working again, but I don't want to completely rely on it. The tank was more stable when I had it running, though. Also, now that I have lost all of my Bosemanis, I'm trying to figure out what to get now (well, after I am comfortable that the tank is stable again.) The obvious choice would be more Bosemanis again, although I'm open to other suggestions. I'm also considering Turquoise and Dwarf Neon Rainbows as possible choices. Up until now I've kept my Rainbows in a mostly uniform school. I'm wondering if doing something like adding two Turquoise and two Bosemani (trying to get a male and a female of each) would work, or if I should stick with getting 3-4 of just one more species. I'm not sure how well they will do with mixed schools. I also like some of the smaller Rainbows (Fork Tail Blue-eyes especially,) but am unsure of adding another group of small fish that may eventually be terrorized by my rapidly growing Angel. I am also open to suggestions, so help me plan here! Whatever I end up getting doesn't necessarily need to be a Rainbowfish, although I'd prefer to stick with that theme. I am also primarily interested in very bright, boldly colored fish.

Ah, one more thing about the QT...as I said, I have a 10g setup already, including light, filter, heater, etc. I think that will be big enough but am not completely sure, especially for QT'ing Rainbows. I'd appreciate some feedback on that too.


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## TankZen (Jan 31, 2011)

Hey thanks. I can't wait to get it up and running....I'm hoping in two weeks. 

Your tank is beautiful. I know how it is to get frustrated. I lost a ton of fish to Ich a few months back. I tried the high temp salt treatment and thought it was all gone. Then it came back and I lost at least 12 fish. It sucked. Now I have a 20G QT tank and will put new fish in there for a month before I add them. It's actually turned into a QT/shrimp tank lol. Any way I think 10G will work just fine. I just wouldn't put more then 10 fish in there at a time. I agree that you shouldn't rely on UV alone it's too risky. QT tank is easy and you can do like me and make it a shrimp tank also which is fun. 

How many Cardinals do you have? I do know they get Ich real easy....kinda like Rummy nose. Every time I get them they have Ich. I like your Cardinals they look really cool I would add more to increase your school. I don't know much about Rainbows but they are pretty. Keep it up your tank looks really nice!!


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

Oh no! I hate to hear the news on the fish. Have you gotten the ich eliminated yet? It really sucks. Same thing happened to me shortly before starting planted tanks. I wiped out my entire tank to ich because I didn't quarantine. It sucks. And you think I learned my lesson? No. But I'm getting better after my last disaster. Good idea to pick up a QT tank. I have a few empty tanks and just keep a spare filter running on one of my established tanks just in case I need to setup a hospital tank. That way, I can store it empty.


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

Yeah, I always knew in the back of my head that eventually it would catch up to me, but it still sucks. I had to fight to get this tank though, so trying to have another tank in the house just for quarantine...ah, you all probably see where I'm going with this  

Anyways, yes the ich has been gone since Monday, although I have been continuing the heat and meds just to be sure. I can probably start bringing the temp down today, and clean my filter/replace the uv asap. Thankfully, no more deaths since my 3 Bosemanis, and everyone else in there looks healthy. I have definitely confirmed that I have a 3/3 split on males and females with my new Goyders, which is awesome. There was a lot of chasing and displaying going on in there last night, so at least I know they are feeling well :hihi:

I did some trimming a few days ago. I finally cut some of the old bacopa stems completely out and re-planted just their tops, since the bottoms (which were several months old,) were looking pretty scraggly. I also thinned out some of the water sprite, and planted the tops of several of the hygro plants in their place. Sara, too bad I didn't get the chance to take a pic before I did that...those hygro plants had DOMINATED my tank, they had all grown up to the surface and had swept halfway over. Now I have several of the cuttings along the back right...I probably won't replace all of the water sprite, but I'm definitely working towards replacing most of it with hygro.

I'll get some badly overdue pics soon...this weekend is going to be another incredibly hectic one, but then things should thankfully be calming down.


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

I was just like you with the quarantine thing. I knew it was a matter of time, but I did it anyway. And I know what you mean about fighting for tanks. I am lucky that I finally met a good guy and am given a lot of leeway with my hobby. 

Glad the ich is cleared up and you have no more sick fish. That is good that you got a good split on the rainbows now, too.

Great news on the hygros for you! I am glad they are doing well. After I sent them to you, I was amazed at how much space I had to plant in. Water sprite is a plant I could never grow well for some reason. I think I moved it around too much.

Hope things calm down for you soon!


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

What, I ignore my thread for a while and a certain someone hasn't come on here to demand new pics? Surprising :hihi:

Anyways, things have slowly been calming down for me lately. I'm still not completely done dealing with things, but the majority of it is behind me now. The tank went through another mini-phase of neglect, and is bouncing back (again) now. I got a decent amount of crypt melt and melt on the lower parts of bacopa and some of my hygro, which forced me to top some of those plants again and re-plant. I think it was a mix of deteritus on the lower leaves, neglect on keeping up with water changes and ferts, and maybe a bit of anaerobic substrate again (I vacumned that area and stirred it up a bit just to be sure.) I have also started to wonder if that may have happened due to old bulbs...they are a bit over a year old now. My other plants are doing fine though...I had to tear out a good amount of water sprite again, and the hygro that I had trimmed back earlier has grown back to the surface. My amazon sword that I got as a plantlet is starting to throw out some larger leaves and is halfway up the tank now.

Fish-wise, they are all doing pretty good. I found a dead oto yesterday, I think I need to make sure those guys are getting enough food as the nerites pretty much destroy all of the algae in there. The angel has easily doubled in size, and is about silver dollar sized now. The goyders have colored up a bit more, but they are very chameleon-like...some hours the males and even the females to a lesser extent have some great bright red coloration, and other hours they are just brownish looking. I still wonder when they are going to lay eggs, every time the lights come on in the morning there is a lot of frisky chasing and displaying going on. Then again, they may already be spawning...I saw the angel very closely following whichever pair swam off together. I get the feeling that he may have already been adding eggs to his diet :tongue:

It sounds like I'll have some new cories soon too...my friend has successfully raised some of his albino cory fry. He's going to bring some over next weekend. I have still been thinking about getting some different rainbows...but maybe I'll just have a mess of cories instead!

Ok, here is a VERY crappy cell phone pic, window glare and all...I will definitely get some new pics with my good camera soon as I have really been slacking on that. I never did my before/after 1 year comparison, either...


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## 2in10 (Feb 8, 2011)

Very nice tank and design, good luck on getting cleaned back up


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## sanj (Jan 11, 2004)

Nice rainbow haven, im almost certain your rainbows will be spawning if they are going through the moves. It is not easy to see the eggs and many fish including the parents will eat them if they find them.


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## Kibblemania1414 (Feb 1, 2011)

the tank is great, i wish i had one of those...


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## mjbubbles (Aug 26, 2011)

Hey Chaos, I've really enjoyed reading your thread. Thanks for all the hard work and persisitence. I've learned a lot. Love the rainbow fish - I don't think I've ever heard of them before.
Take care,
mj


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

Okay, so I was on vacation and am sort of still there, but stopping in to ask where are the pictures, Chaos? I thought after being away for 6 weeks that I'd come by and see oodles of pictures and instead I get a fuzzy cell phone picture??? Not acceptable! By the way, the tank looks great. Did you loose anymore fish from the outbreak (hope not!) and is the disease cleared up (hope so!)?


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

Arise, zombie thread! Back from the dead!

Yes, I slacked big time on the updates there for a while. Life has stayed busy, but in a good way lately vs. how things were in the summer. I recently went on a vacation to North Carolina for a beer festival, and then to Tennessee to stay in a cabin for a few days with my family and do some hiking in the Smokies. I got a lot of great fall photos, and saw some wildlife (two bear cubs, an elk, and a coyote.) I also spent a good amount of time indulging in another of my hobbies, computer building and modification. I'll just say that my aquarium isn't the only thing with a pump and water tubing any longer (I watercooled my gaming pc.)

I did have a bit of minor dieback and leaf shedding from the plants not getting fertilized while I was on vacation, but other than that the tank has been extremely stable. About a month ago my Bacopa pretty much all melted for some reason, but everything else is growing well (ok, the crypts melted a bit too.) I get the feeling my bulbs aren't outputting the same level of light any longer (the ends of the bulbs are dark,) I just haven't gotten around to getting replacements yet.

No other disease or strange fish deaths since the ick outbreak. One Oto died while I was on vacation, and a Cardinal a little after that (the first after over a year), but otherwise all is well. The Angel is getting really big, and while my Goyders have never reached the same stunning level of color that my old Bosemanis had, they are beautiful in their own different way and are a lot of fun to watch since I have males and females, instead of just males.

Seeing as how I did a water change/tank clean/trim and replant yesterday evening, this evening was the perfect time to finally get some real, non-cellphone pics :biggrin: It's a shame the Angel kept freaking out every time the little LED on my camera would momentarily come on, which kept me from getting a good pic of him- he is a wonderful powder blue with black stripes and partial red irises now. Another time I suppose.















































Is that better Sara? :icon_wink


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

Ah I forgot to mention- my friend did bring me some albino cory fry a couple of months ago. They turned out to be pretty tiny, but he needed to re-use the tank they were in for something else so I took in about a dozen. The big fish didn't exactly try to eat them on purpose, but they would nip whenever the little guys would do the cory "zoom to the surface for air" thing. A bunch got accidentally nipped and died, but I currently have two that are still in there and growing, so yes I have a few more cories than I used to now.

Also, thanks to everyone who posted while I was away, I'm glad that others like what I've done here


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## 150EH (Dec 6, 2004)

Your tank is very nice and the dark photos are nice as well, I don't own any at the moment but out LFS has an all Rainbow tank and it's my favorite and with most having that Rainbow shape the colors can quickly make up for it, your are very nice too.

I just noticed your from MD too, Eldersburg is north-west of Baltimore some place??? we are just south of Annapolis, maybe I'll see ya at the fish store.


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## TankZen (Jan 31, 2011)

Tank's looking good....great photos too!!


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

That is _much _better.  

First, I am very glad to hear that life has you so busy and you are enjoying other hobbies and aspects of the real world! Aren't the smokies beautiful? One day I hope to go back and camp out. Would love to see the outdoor shots of the animals, especially the coyote. 

Sucks about the disease that wiped out some fish, and I am glad it has stopped. I must say, this is the best your tank has looked. Perhaps the dimming bulbs is a good thing in this instance? I love the look of the Goyders. You are making me miss my rainbows and cories now.  Seriously, loving the tank.

By the way, that computer sounds _awesome_.


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## 150EH (Dec 6, 2004)

I did the Great Smokie Moutain park just past Pigeon Forge TN. on my bike, that's where the Blue Ridge Trail starts in the lower 48, the whole thing is beautiful but all the twists and turns make it a very long trip but it's worth it. I'm getting too old but the Appalachian Trail would be so cool to do.


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

Thanks everyone! I do agree that the tank is looking good now. I'm not as satisfied with my crypt growth compared to how it used to be, but as I said, that may be a lighting issue...or laziness on my part on following my fert schedule :hihi: The Rainbowfish really are awesome, Rainbows are my favorite fish by far now. I'd still love to have a couple of Bosemanis in there again, but the tank is so stable now that I'm kind of hesitant to add anything else.

150EH- yep, you have my area correct. I live in Carroll County, west-northwest of Baltimore, pretty much in between Baltimore and Frederick. I like this location because it is quiet and rural, yet I'm not too far from the city one way...and not far from some mountains the other way.

The Smokies are indeed beautiful, this was actually the second time I've been there but both times have only been for a few days. I want to return for at least a week if not more, with some backpacking equipment so I can go hiking and camping for a while. One of my friends in NC that I recently visited wants to do the same. He tore his ACL in one of his knees a few weeks ago though and just had to have surgery. We agreed that by next year, he'll be all healed up (and I'll be in better shape, I've gained weight this year, blah) and then we'll go backpacking. As for the Appalachian Trail, I would LOVE to hike it...if only life would allow me to take off the 6 months or more I would need to do it  I did hike a 36 mile portion of it in Shenandoah National Park last year though, which was an incredible experience in of itself. I've hiked bits of it in MD and PA too, great trail.

Unfortunately I didn't get pictures of any of the animals, but I do have some great scenery pics, especially from Andrew's Bald. I'll post up a couple when I get home later. I can put up a pic of my computer too if anyone is interested  Maybe I can get the Angel to pose too...


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

Totally interested in the pictures. Good luck on the Angel posing. He sounds like a tough one to catch. 

If we ever get down that way again, I am totally wanting to do the Shenandoah hike. It's supposed to be lovely from what I have been told. Unfortunately, the severely broken ankle from years past makes it difficult to hike like I used to (if they ever tell you that physical therapy is a must, listen). Ouc on the ACL! Hope he has a swift recovery.

Maybe someday you can get Bosemanis again. Those are nice fish indeed. Thought about adding root tabs to the substrate for the crypts?


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

I'm probably going to take my cousins hiking in Shenandoah while they're down for Thanksgiving. Well, depending on weather...and how hung over we may end up being :biggrin: There are a ton of trails there that I still want to check out, I've actually considered getting a year pass next year so I can go several times. It isn't terribly far away for me...a little over two hours given the way I drive. I know what you mean about PT after an injury, I severely dislocated my left knee as a teenager, and I had to go through a lot of PT and basically re-learn how to walk. It is still a bit bothersome sometimes but I don't let it stop me from doing what I want to do.

Ok, here are some completely non aquarium related pics!


A view from Andrews Bald in the Smokies (accessed via trail from Clingman's Dome...the bald itself was around or above 5000ft in elevation.)












And here is a pic of a waterfall I hiked to with my family the day before:












Here's a pic of "Monolith" (yes, my computer has a name) right after I installed a pump control module. It's in a Corsair 700D case, and I have both the CPU (an i7 950 overclocked to 4.14ghz) and an eVGA GTX 570 (video card) water cooled.












Here it is up and running with the UV's on.












Right now I've been playing through Deus Ex Human Revolution, and I am eagerly awaiting the release of Skyrim. To all who just read this who isn't a tech or video game nerd...sorry :biggrin:

Back to aquariums...yeah I need to catch up on some of my favorite threads here. I'll be around!


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

That water fall shot is beautiful! I don't know how I missed your thread update! I went and cleaned out my subscriptions for my top 10 journals and that way I won't miss another! 

By the way, that computer is very enviable. I am seriously impressed. Have you left your room since Skyrim's release? If not, crawl out of your hole and update us on your aquarium and life. :hihi:


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

You caught me :icon_lol: I've definitely been playing the heck out of Skyrim. I've also been working some strange hours lately, and thus my poor tank is in dire need of a water change (which is happening tonight!) I also finally ordered some new T5 bulbs to replace my dimming ones, and some new ferts, as I'm still getting too much lower leaf melting. I definitely have some trimming and re-planting to do when I'm in there changing the water tonight. It'll bounce back though, it always does.

I should bring a camera with me tomorrow too- I'm going hiking with a friend in PA tomorrow. As for Thanksgiving, I ended up taking my cousins to Catoctin Mountain Park near me in MD rather than drive down to Shenandoah. We hit three of the overlooks, and I got the opportunity to do a bit of free climbing on Wolf Rock.

Also, an interesting side note: one of my friends was getting rid of a 37 gallon tank (he replaced it with a 40 gallon breeder as he didn't like how tall/narrow the 37 gallon was.) It's in my basement for now while I decide what to do with it (and amass money for the inevitable expenses that go along with my projects.) I may use it for another aquarium, probably a Barb tank, or I may make a terrarium for some Anoles (I had a 20 high with plants in it and Anoles when I was younger, and it was really neat.) I'm sort of leaning towards the latter since I have been planning for a while to do one more larger tank with...something, and I don't think I want to maintain 3 aquariums.


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

I always wanted anoles! I've thought about doing that with one of my tanks eventually. They are adorable. I vote for that.  

I've heard it is an excellent game from all my friends that play. Personally anything above 2d makes me car sick, so I am not much for gaming other than Super Mario brothers and the like. 

Nice on the new bulbs and fertilizers! I am waiting patiently for pictures (well as patiently as I can). You should take a camera with you! I so miss hiking and I can live through your pictures. Ha!


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

The bulbs and ferts have shipped, so hopefully they will be here soon. As it turns out, it was mostly just one of the hygros that had a lot of low leaf melt on it, but I've been grouching about that sort of thing in my tank for a while so I think new bulbs should do the trick regardless. I did get some root tabs as well, as my tank is over-due for a re-application of those.

The tank is all cleared up now (although I could have done a better job cleaning the glass,) so here are some new pics  Despite the neglect, the tank is really living up to its name...


























































And because this thread has become a quasi-journal of non-aquarium related things I'm doing as well, here's a pic from my hike last Saturday at Pole Steeple, in Pine Grove Furnace State Park, PA. It was cold, and there was snow on the ridgelines, but that meant the air was really clear and great for photography!














Sunday I stayed in to recuperate a bit (I sadly let myself get out of shape following the fiasco I had to deal with in the summer,) and took the time to bottle two batches of homebrew. That means I have room to brew some new beer now...yay hobbies!

And Sara- I like the idea of Anoles too for that tank, as it doesn't really have the best dimension for anything I would want to do aquarium-wise. In terms of another big aquarium, I would still like to set up another 55g or a 75g for either Mbuna cichlids (the more likely, yet more expensive choice,) or fancy goldfish (and let them get big!) Either way it would be a tank that would look very different from my jungle


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

One more semi-interesting (maybe) thing I noticed during my last two tank cleans- I still have at least one of the ghost shrimp from the bunch that I threw into the tank as an experiment months ago. I didn't see any for quite a while and then this guy popped up suddenly, nice and big and none the worse for wear apparently. It makes me wonder, if a ghostie can survive in my tank, being a member of a species that drops dead if you look at them weird, I wonder if Amanos would survive in my tank too? Or, just become expensive fish food :hihi:


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

The tank is beautiful! Like sometimes I wish I didn't look at your journal because you make my tank look sad in comparison. I must say, I do love the greens in your tank with only a bit of color from that crypt. It really sets off the fish nicely. I want you to pack up your tank and bring it to me, please. I'll trade. 

Don't we all get a little out of shape every now and again? I am really so out of shape that I created a new shape: round. LOL! Actually, I was thinking seriously about taking a break from technology and getting back to exercise. I waste so much time online lately. You'll get there in no time! That was a beautiful park! I bet the air was nice and crisp for the lungs!

Yay for anoles! If you do go that route, please take pictures! I think they are so adorable and have often thought about getting some. 

Both are great choices for fish, I really love the idea of goldfish as they are my favorite fish of all time (like seriously I would love to have a HUGE tank of nothing but goldfish). However, the cichlids also hold a special place in my heart. I vote for one of each. roud:

Maybe you could get a couple amanos and try them out? That way it would be more like an expensive treat and not a meal?  They would have the advantages of being transparent and easier to hide like ghost shrimp. I say go for it!

Thanks for the pictures, by the way. They are fantastic as always!


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

Hah- I don't know what you're talking about, I think your tank looks great now! Mine looks like a messy jungle :icon_lol: The grass is always greener I guess. Ok, I'm actually really proud of my tank, I love showing it off to my friends and family and other guests in my home. Everyone who hasn't seen it before always makes a beeline right to it when they step into my house. It's a soothing presence in my living room too, it's nice to just look over there and watch the fish school, see all the nice green plants waving around, and have all that green light reflect onto the walls. I would like to have a bit more color other than green in there sometime, but there's only so many non-green plants that will also take to growing in a low-tech environment, and while I like to drool on all the high tech tanks here, I honestly don't really feel the urge to mess with all that extra equipment and extra maintenance. When I bring CO2 tanks and regulators and such into my house, it will be because I'm building a kegerator, LOL :biggrin:

I hear you on wanting to get away from tech a bit to exercise more. Part of my problem is that my new job is more sedentary than my last, as I'm mostly doing remote work on servers. The drive is also a bit longer too, so I don't always feel like doing much by the time I get home, and even when I plan to, I usually just end up playing games or doing some other action just as sedentary. I lost a ton of ton of weight last year doing p90x and hiking a lot, so I know I can do it. The hardest part is starting, once you get further in, it is easier to continue but still becomes tedious after a while. That's what bit me last time, I got kind of bored of the routine and got too complacent, and the weight crept back on. I'm just cursed with a slow metabolism that needs a constant swift kick in the rear.

Whenever I start up the Anole tank I'll post about it in the terrarium section here. As for having one of each of those aquarium ideas...haha no way, I'm way too broke for that :icon_lol: That, and I don't really have room for that many big aquariums unless I start putting them in my basement, and that doesn't seem fun to me. I plan on my 2nd tank also going in my living room, on the other side of the room from my current planted tank. My gecko is there right now, so as it is he'll have to be moved elsewhere (luckily his tank is a 20L so it isn't terribly big.)

If I can find Amanos locally I may try a few. I'm not too keen on the idea of having them shipped now that it's cold. There are still one or two LFS that I haven't checked out...unfortunately the choices that aren't petsmart or petco here in MD are slim indeed.


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

Always greener, your tank is more green than mine and literally.  Honestly, when I had a look more jungley like yours, people loved to start at the tank. Now, they barely notice it. Plus, we had to move around furniture for the husband's tv (sigh) and there is no great seating for it. I think that is part of the issue. (That's what I tell myself)

Nice, a kegerator. If I liked beer, I would totally be making my own. Neither of us drink much after college, so it would be pointless I am afraid. I wouldn't mind seeing one in person, though. It sounds like a lot of fun.

A longer commute and a lazier job can definitiely make it frustrating. The old man was doing p90x last year and also got out of it. He gained all his weight back, so he's grumpy about that. I think we both need to give ourselves a technology break and get off our summer fluff. :hihi: Boredom always becomes a factor, but I'm more like you on the getting started routine. My problem is mainly, I start exercising the first day, remember how much I loved it and then over exercise to the point I injure myself. LOL. Got to start out slower this time. Plan is to start this afternoon. We'll see.

Be sure to send me a link to the Anole tank! I don't want to miss it. Yeah, one of my thoughts is to get rid of all my tanks, upgrade to a 90 and have it just goldfish. Anymore than what I have is too much work. Even though it's normally just the 55, a 10 and a 15 (that is currently torn down), I find myself slacking off too much to keep up. I'd take down the 10 if I had to do anything more than top offs. I don't even change the water in that tank. Wanting to set up the 15 in similar fashion. Geckos are cute! But I still like anoles better for some reason. Man, you have me wanting to set up a tank for them now. 

Same here with petstores. One of them turned into a joke when the son took over, the other is geered toward dogs and saltwater. And we have a pintsized petco that literally only has 9 10 gallon tanks of fish and one 55 of feeders with 1/2 an isle dedicated to fish supplies. They don't even carry tanks but 10 gallons in small numbers. 

Well incase I'm not on here, Happy Holidays and New Year!


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

sewingalot said:


> Well incase I'm not on here, Happy Holidays and New Year!


Same to you! 

The other tanks will take a little while to start becuase of funds (I have one last big task to do at the beginning of the new year, and then my finances should be better. I have a lot of other hobbies and some travel that I want to indulge in also, and that all costs $$ as well!) I'll definitely post up any new tanks here on these forums...even though my next aquarium (pretty sure it will be a mbuna rockwork tank, I have it partially planned out) won't be planted. Maybe I'll stick an anubias in there just so I can say it's planted and post about it here, hah!

I still have the occasional itch to add something new to my jungle tank too. More rainbows, or another school of tetras, or something. It's wonderfully stable the way it is, and I really should just leave it alone, but it seems that it could maybe benefit from something else. Eh.


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## chad320 (Mar 7, 2010)

Dude, that is probably the best looking coffeefolia and anubias ive seen on this site! Great job! I love this tank. Super clean looking  I dont even see any snails


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

Thanks! There are snails in there, but they're the _right_ snails. My secret to keeping my anubias looking great are olive nerites. Before I added them they had gotten pretty coated with GSA...after the snails went in, within a week the leaves were spotless! 

Anyways, I definitely appreciate the feedback! I think my tank (and others) sometimes gets overlooked here becuase they're "just" low tech. Then again, your tank is low tech too right? Low tech jungle tanks unite! *high five*

Happy holidays everyone!


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## chad320 (Mar 7, 2010)

I agree. I think alot of people skim the "low techs" even though were running good llighting and Co2. Haha, fooled ya :hihi: Nice tree BTW, someone went all out


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

Yeah, a lot of those ornaments came from my mom, she has been collecting them for quite a long time. Meaning some of those ornaments are as old or older than me


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## chad320 (Mar 7, 2010)

I just caught that you are also a homebrewer. I just got rid of my 28g rig for a 14g. I dont have the room anymore and now I do strictly kegs. What are you doing with yours?


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

When you say 28g and 14g, I assume you are referring to conicals? If so, your level of gear far surpasses mine :hihi: I do your typical 5 gallon batches, mostly partial mashes with the occasional all grain using the "brew in a bag" method (I still need to build a proper mash tun,) and I do my fermenting in better bottles. So far, no kegging equipment, but it is very high on my list of things to buy- bottling is a pain, and I've been doing it for way too long (I've been brewing since 2007...and its high time for some new gadgets I think!) 

I was actually just at my local homebrew store yesterday buying supplies. I do a different holiday ale each year (last year's was a gingerbread spiced porter.) I'm more than a little late this year due to... A) dealing with too much stuff, and... B) laziness, but better late than never. This year is another one of my somewhat experimental "concept" beers: a chocolate chip oatmeal cookie ale. I'm going to toast some oats until they have a nice cookie aroma, mash with a little biscuit, crystal, and marris otter as my base malt, and then age it a bit in a secondary with either cocoa powder or nibs. I also grabbed the ingredients for an american amber that I plan on dryhopping with cascade leaf, and then I'm going to use the yeast cake to brew up another batch of my "Goblin Rocket Fuel" barleywine :biggrin: I also have a sweet mead that I'm going to bottle in a few days that was made with a blend of cranberry and orange blossom honey.

Today was a slow day at work, so I spent most of my time writing up beer recipes :hihi: I actually hadn't brewed much for a while and have recently been getting back into it.

If you have a pic of your kegging setup I'd love to see it. I'm still considering my options on a kegerator build. By the way, I have an account on homebrewtalk.com, my ID is "chaos_being" over there too. I haven't posted on there in a while but plan to start doing so again.


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## talontsiawd (Oct 19, 2008)

I admit, I did not read through the whole thread and went back to the progression pics. I really love the depth you were able to get out of a 55. That is not easy. I feel like a 29 is hard, a 55 seems impossible. Really nice work.


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## cableguy69846 (Dec 13, 2010)

Wow. Nice tank man. It looks great. I really like the light setup you have for it. Might have to put that on one of my tanks in the future, if I ever get a big enough one to warrant it. Lol.:biggrin:


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

talontsiawd said:


> I admit, I did not read through the whole thread and went back to the progression pics. I really love the depth you were able to get out of a 55. That is not easy. I feel like a 29 is hard, a 55 seems impossible. Really nice work.


Thanks! It wasn't until after I had the tank that I understood why so many dislike aquascaping 55's and other narrow tanks like it. My next tank will probably be deeper, but then again I'm kind of used to the narrow tank type.




cableguy69846 said:


> Wow. Nice tank man. It looks great. I really like the light setup you have for it. Might have to put that on one of my tanks in the future, if I ever get a big enough one to warrant it. Lol.:biggrin:


Yep, having a light cycle just made sense to me. I wanted the tank to be as similar to a real ecosystem as possible. I'd still love to try an LED system that simulates refraction shimmer


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## cableguy69846 (Dec 13, 2010)

Chaos_Being said:


> Thanks! It wasn't until after I had the tank that I understood why so many dislike aquascaping 55's and other narrow tanks like it. My next tank will probably be deeper, but then again I'm kind of used to the narrow tank type.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


The LED system would be awesome. I would love to have one that would mimic cloud cover and thunder storms and the moon cycle and all that. But I will have to keep dreaming.


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

I hear you there, I have a lot of big dreams and not enough $$ to indulge in all of them :hihi:


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## cableguy69846 (Dec 13, 2010)

Chaos_Being said:


> I hear you there, I have a lot of big dreams and not enough $$ to indulge in all of them :hihi:


Lol. I think that is an aquarist's biggest problem.:hihi:


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

Chaos_Being said:


> Thanks! There are snails in there, but they're the _right_ snails. My secret to keeping my anubias looking great are olive nerites. Before I added them they had gotten pretty coated with GSA...after the snails went in, within a week the leaves were spotless!
> 
> Anyways, I definitely appreciate the feedback! I think my tank (and others) sometimes gets overlooked here becuase they're "just" low tech. Then again, your tank is low tech too right? Low tech jungle tanks unite! *high five*
> 
> Happy holidays everyone!


Well, look at Mr. Popular! I am checking in with some shipment I made online and your journal is buzzing with excitement! This picture is amazing! I really like it a lot. Part of it has to be the cardinal decorations, I really love that tree! You are making me want to actually go set ours up.....that is still in the box. I think you may be right on the low-tech being overlooked. Yours is one of the best tanks ever and even cooler because you grow such lovely plants without all the bells and whistles. I envy you for that.


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

Yeah I love those cardinals  They are crocheted I think...my mom got them from a craft store in the 80's that she used to sell wreaths and other floral arrangements at. There are some ornaments that she embroidered on there too, some truly antique stuff, and some weird stuff (like my Atari ornament, lmao.)

Yeah I am on here and posting for a change, it's been a while and there are a lot of journals I've been catching up on. I only meant to check one thing online real quick, and 3 hours later, here I am. Thanks again for the compliments...considering the periods of neglect that have been inflicted on this tank from time to time, it's kind of miracle it looks the way it does!


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

They are adorable. Haha on the Atari ornament! That's actually awesome. There is this awful giant metal gold ball ornanment my husband has from his childhood. Even though he admits it's ugly, he insists on putting on the tree right where everyone can see it. Last time we put it up, that was the only ornament that made it on the tree. :hihi: That tree is so cool looking. Nice on the embroidered ones as well. I bet they are cute!

Yeah, I am so trying to get off the internet, but something pulls me back on. Today, I have been trying to track down a package that was mailed on Saturday priority but is MIA. Don't you love when you look up and go "It's what time?!?" lol


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## chad320 (Mar 7, 2010)

Nice tank, back to beer:hihi: I only have a 14g kettle and made my own mashtun from a cooler. I have been out of the game myself lately because I went through a divorce and im in a small apartment so its mead only for me right now. All of my stuff is in a pile in a tiny cellar. I love the Maris Otter and Pearle combo and im a big fan of wheat beers with cascades or magnums. I had 20 vines growing but those went with the divorce  I hope to be back up and brewing by the spring tho. Maybe we can do some trading then?


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

Yeah I want to make one of those DIY cooler mash tuns sometime soon. Although, I made two killer pale ales (an american, and a belgian) doing brew in a bag a few years back. For those beers I used my big kettle (8 or 10 gallons, I don't remember exactly) and a propane burner out in my garage. I got some great looks from my neighbors, especially when I busted out the coiled copper immersion cooler :icon_lol: For most of my beers I just do a stovetop partial mash- mash in a 3g pot, boil in a 5g pot. I have tried boiling in my larger pot but my electric stove wasn't up to snuff.

I bottled two beers a couple of weeks ago, a hefe and an oktoberfest (which is actually an ale as I didn't use lager yeast, but the hops and malt bill are spot-on and the beer actually tastes pretty darn convincing.) Both turned out excellent, which was a relief as I wasn't really happy with my last few batches (mostly becuase they sat in the fermenters for WAY too long, for reasons that will become obvious below.) I bottled a sweet mead last night that I started last February, so it already has a decent amount of age on it. I used cranberry and orange blossom honey in it...20 lbs combined, so it is a potent elixir 

I plan on brewing my cookie ale this weekend, my amber probably next week (I'm going to brew it with a visiting friend who has gotten into homebrewing more recently,) and I'm planning on another batch of a caramel apple cider that I have been formulating via experimental batches over the past few years. My goal is to make a cider that retains some apple character and sweetness despite being bottle conditioned...my last batch was VERY close, so I made a few more tweaks to the recipe. On a side note, creating recipes is half the fun for me, and most of my beers are from my own recipes (I do occasionally use recipes from books or forums though if they sound really tasty.)

Sorry to hear about your divorce  For anyone who has been reading this journal, you can see there were a lot of large gaps and I mentioned several times that I was "dealing with some things" this summer. Well, no point in beating around the bush any longer: it's because I was dealing with the same thing as you. My to-be-ex and I have been separated since June...in MD you have to be separated for one year before a divorce, so it's pretty much coming eventually. In terms of material possessions and property it could have gone much worse and was fairly painless, but in terms of stress and emotional damage it was pretty taxing. Having the person I loved change into a stranger, and dealing with things falling apart after 10 years of marriage was quite the bitter pill. However, I have been making the best of it and focusing on my own happiness, and have pulled through. I hope the same is true for you!

Anyways...I hope you get back to brewing (my current brew efforts have also been a sort of "well now I can do this again" thing,) and yeah beer trading sounds fun  I actually would like to start some hops of my own too, I've thought about it for a few years...maybe I should finally do that in the spring. Thankfully I have the space for them.


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

Just a quick update (that is about my tank, although I can talk about beer more if encouraged :icon_lol While doing a water change/clean/trim last night, I also put some flourish tabs in the substrate around my root feeders, and I switched out the bulbs in my t5 fixture to my new ones. The old bulbs were a 6700k and a "Colormax" bulb, I put in two 6700k ones this time. It definitely looked brighter in there...it may just be because of the spectrum change but I don't think so, since the old bulbs were indeed pretty dark on the ends. The plants have already started to look a bit better as is since I've been better with my fert schedule lately (oops...), so i'm hoping the new lights and tabs get things looking even better: especially with my crypts, which used to be very lush. I should have some results to share in oh, I don't know...a few weeks? Low tech, huzzah! :flick:


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

Another fairly quick update...but this time with pictures! Quick, because I only got a couple of FTS since the battery in my camera is nearly dead at the moment. The addition of new root tabs and sticking to my fert schedule better has really made a difference with my plants. The jungle is much more of a jungle at the moment. I topped some of the hygro last week and re-planted them in other parts of the tank. I'm also down to just a few stems of the water sprite, as for a while now I've been culling out floaters and pieces that have gotten uprooted. I get the feeling that it is eventually just going to be fully replaced by hygro trimmings, that plant just does so well in my tank.

Anyways, here are the two pictures, one with all of my lights on, and the second with just my low lights on (as the timer switched while I was taking photos.) There's a sprite floater in there that I need to either try replanting or get out...
























I went and added the latest FTS to my timeline on the first post of my journal, and wow, this is the lushest the tank has ever looked!


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

Fabulous tank shot! I love it even more than ever! I am seriously in admiration with this latest photo.


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

Thank you! Kind words as always 

I've been busy lately, so the updates have been scant I know...but, I did snap a new FTS shot tonight. Everyone just got fed so they're out, not that it is easy to see them in the jungle...

Can you uh, spot the hygro? :hihi:


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

Um did you say there was hygro in your tank? Strange, I stared at that picture for an hour and saw none of that hygro plant. :hihi: That one I sent you has taken over nicely. I don't think I could have kept up with that one long term when I was high tech. Even in your setup, it is growing fast.

Nice FTS.


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

Yeah it has taken over quite a bit, but it gives me the "green wall" effect that I was trying to get (and failed) with crypt crispulata, so I'm happy  I can only imagine what it was like in a high tech tank though, as it is I trim it and it's back to the surface within a couple of weeks, which is blazing fast in my tank. I actually just trimmed out some of it (and uprooted some crypts and sag,) along with some of my christmas moss trimmings and gave them to my sister's boyfriend today. He's been drooling on my tank for a while, and is setting up a 12g Edge now. The hygros will probably end up being too crazy in there, but the other plants should look nice. Furthering the hobby!

This also makes me think about setting up another nano tank of my own again...hah :red_mouth Like a fully invert tank with cherry and amano shrimp, and horned nerites...hmm...

One more interesting thing: I went to the Baltimore Aquarium today with my family, and several of their tanks in the Australian area were packed Banded Rainbowfish- _Melanotaenia trifasciata, _like my rainbows! I got to see several fully mature ones, and yeah, they are going to look awesome in my tank once they are full grown. I have to say though...the ones in my tank are more colorful. That made me feel pretty good roud:


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

I really do appreciate how it has done the wall effect. I really desired that myself. Now that I am going lower tech on the 55, I am planning to finish what I started with my greenery wall.  I bought the mesh a while back, but haven't done much with it.

Nice on the sister's boyfriend's tank. Little jealous of the size in terms of what you could do with it, but happy at the same time as I could only imagine the bills and time spent with it.

You should totally do a nano. That would be so cool. You could power it with your pc even. :biggrin:

Don't you love aquariums and seeing your fish or tank looks better? That is awesome about your fish. I can't wait to see them grown up. They are fabulous fish.


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## 2in10 (Feb 8, 2011)

Tank looks great


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

sewingalot said:


> I really do appreciate how it has done the wall effect. I really desired that myself. Now that I am going lower tech on the 55, I am planning to finish what I started with my greenery wall.  I bought the mesh a while back, but haven't done much with it.
> 
> Nice on the sister's boyfriend's tank. Little jealous of the size in terms of what you could do with it, but happy at the same time as I could only imagine the bills and time spent with it.
> 
> ...


Oh, going to do a moss wall? Those look so neat once they're grown in. Yes, I'm seriously looking at getting a Fluval Ebi sometime, lol. Or, something like a Mr. Aqua cube...still in "research mode." My last nano (a 5 gallon Aqueon all-in-one sort of system) ultimately failed because it just didn't have enough light and filtration for what I was trying to do with it. My sister has it now for a simple tank, she doesn't have the same insane urge to try to grow plants and have all sorts of weird fauna like I do :icon_roll

Yeah, after we got back from the aquarium, my entire family beelined to my tank and said how my fish and plants looked better than anything they saw there 




2in10 said:


> Tank looks great


Thanks!


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

Long time no see everyone!

I figured it was long past time for me to post an update here. As has been the usual for me this past year, life has been keeping me *very *busy, thus the utter lack of updates for the past few months. I'm getting close to another milestone with my tank, however: As of June 15th, it will be up and running for two years. I meant to do a direct comparison between day one and day 365 last year, but some serious life changes got in the way and I never did. So, I am planning on doing it this year, so assuming no further disasters I'll be on here next friday to post up some new pics  When I started this journal, I wanted it to be a documentation of the tank's progress and growth rate. I could have updated it more often, but I still mainly succeeded, and the fact that I'm still posting and the tank is still running strong two years later is definitely a success.

In terms of tank maintenance, I haven't changed much at all. It's still "low" tech (practically "medium" if there is such a thing, I run a fairly decent amount of light and do ferts and excel.) The tank has been extremely stable for me, which is a blessing as it has definitely gone through some neglect cycles due to circumstances out of my control (and sometimes, I will admit, sheer laziness.) If this was a high tech, high maintenance tank, it would have crashed and/or become an algae farm a long time ago.

The down side of this is that well...things don't change very often, and it can get boring. I've been getting the itch to do something and change it up for a while now. Earlier this week, I finally indulged and made some changes. I checked out a new (to me) LFS, House of Tropicals over in Glen Burnie, MD. I've been to some really great fish stores up in PA and New Jersey somewhat recently (That Pet Place, The Hidden Reef, and the Aquarium Center,) and this store definitely competes with them in terms of quality. I ended up bringing home a new plant (some sort of red Ludwigia, it was unfortunately unlabeled,) as well as 3 Boesemani Rainbows! I have been missing the ones that I used to have and lost to an Ich outbreak, so it is definitely good to have this species back in my tank. They are juveniles, all male it appears, and are already coloring up very nicely. They're also serving as pretty good dither fish to my 6 Goyder Rivers, which tended to hang unmoving on one end of the tank in a tight school. Now they are moving around more.

Another way I plan on "scratching the itch" so to say with the urge to change up my tank is to start a couple of new ones soon. I had for a while been planning on starting up a larger (75-90g) Mbuna tank. I thought about it for a while though, and I'm not really confident in the place where I had planned to put in in my living room. There is definitely a weak spot in the floor there (squeaks and moves a little bit,) and without tearing up my carpet or the basement ceiling below it, I don't have much of a way to fix it. My only other option would be to place it in my basement, but then I wouldn't see it as much. I can, however, place a smaller tank in that general area which won't be near the squeaky spot, which is what I think I will be doing. A friend of mine gave me an extra 37g tank a while back. I had been thinking about making it into an Anole vivarium, but now I think I might make it into a Tiger Barb tank. So far i'm thinking of still keeping a somewhat Malawai look to the tank, probably with a dark 3d stone background, lace rock, and pool filter sand for contrast. It will be much lightly planted compared to my jungle tank, probably a solitary sword and a few smaller plants for more "impact." The other aquarium I am still planning on doing is a cherry/amano shrimp tank, probably a 15g column (Aqueon makes a nice one) or other tank with a similar footprint, which will go in my bedroom. I'll probably still do the Anole vivarium at some point too...I do have a spare 55g that is halfway resealed out in my garage 

But anyways, enough talk, I actually do have some photos to share too. I topped and re-planted pretty much all of my Willow Hygro last weekend, so the plants look shorter now. I also have another species of Hygro that has been very slowly growing and is now noticable in the center portion of the tank. I think it was the "Willow Hygro" I bought (and I thought, died) and planted when I got my nerites. I guess a stem or two of it must have survived, and it looks different from the Hygro I got from Sewingalot/Sara. The new Ludwigia is also off-center in the tank now, where my Bacopa used to be. The Bacopa had slowly died out a while ago, and also in the past couple of months my Water Sprite got choked out/died off (also, due to me no longer wanting to re-plant it when it put out aerial roots and became floaters.) Now...there is just lots and lots of Hygro, lol.

My Goyders are getting big and my Angel is pretty much full grown now. I also have a bunch of albino Cories that I took in as rescue fish from a friend's tank. He had them with dwarf puffers, which were peaceful for a year (the cories even bred,) and then the puffers decided to start eating the cories fins. Since they've been in my tank, they've laid eggs twice but I haven't seen any fry (no surprise with the larger, hungry fish I have in there.)

Ok, pics!




FTS:














New plant (kind of blurry, sorry about that):














The Angel actually posed...he is truly king of the tank now:














And lots of shots from different angles and positions!


























































And, one last one, from my couch during the daytime (with a cameraphone, so not the best quality.) It shows nicely how it looks in my room though:













So, what do you all think of it now?


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## 2in10 (Feb 8, 2011)

Great update the tank looks great, plants look very healthy as do the fish


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## HybridHerp (May 24, 2012)

nice tank man, I hope that my 75 looks that good when I am done adding plants and things to it. Out of curiosity, do you only have one angelfish in that tank or are there more hiding somewhere?


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

2in10 said:


> Great update the tank looks great, plants look very healthy as do the fish


Thank you 




HybridHerp said:


> nice tank man, I hope that my 75 looks that good when I am done adding plants and things to it. Out of curiosity, do you only have one angelfish in that tank or are there more hiding somewhere?


Nope just that one. All of the other fish in the tank are pretty laid back/non-aggressive, which is great because I'm not dealing with world war 3 in my tank all of the time...but at the same time, I really do like aggressive fish. I had read that a single Angelfish can do well in a community tank, especially if raised from a small size with the other fish (which is what I did.) That has actually worked well for me, he doesn't bother the other fish unless he is really hungry, and even then he just darts at them a little bit. More cranky than aggressive, really.


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## HybridHerp (May 24, 2012)

ah, I see, I see
I am doing an aggressive (or at least ramboxious) community, and so far I'm getting okay growth on things, but getting smaller/weaker plants to stay in one place is difficult
stem plants are not my friend it seems lol


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## halffrozen (Nov 4, 2011)

WOW!

Looks great, and that angel is awesome!


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

*As of today, my tank is 2 years old!*

This time I was able to stick to my plan (as I wasn't able to do a day 1/year one comparison last year,) and do a before and after pic comparison. So, here it is.


*Day 1:*











*Day 730:*













From the beginning I set out to see what sort of results I could get from a setup that was both more budget-friendly and lower maintenance: aka, low tech. This is also my second planted tank...my first one (a 5g nano) was a disaster of noobieness, so I wanted to be sure to get this one right. As it was when I started it I went over budget, and I already knew that I basically have hobby ADD (I get extremely interested in something for a month, or few months at a time, and then lose interest for a while,) so if I had to get in there and trim and fiddle all of the time, I was doomed to disaster. It may not have the same stunning colors and vast plant selection that the incredible high tech tanks have on here, but I am still pretty happy with the results 

For those who are interested, and who haven't been following me from the beginning, here are the schedules of my tank:

*Lighting:*

1 56w 48" T5 6500k strip, set for a 6 hour "middday" burst
1 30w 36" T8 6500k strip, set for a 10 hour total photoperiod

*Ferts:*

Excel daily
Pfertz "N" on Monday/Wednesday/Friday
Flourish and Flourish Phosporous on Tuesday/Thursday
Root tabs every 4-6 months

(I was recently given a ton of GLA dry ferts so I will be trying them in the future.)

*Water Changes:*

25% weekly (which doesn't happen very often,) or ~40% bi-weekly (much more often, and if I'm being honest, sometimes its every 3 weeks.)


Short, simple, and easy. When I do my water changes is when I scrub algae, remove dead leaves, and trim/replant.

-------


As for an actual update on what is going on in there since last week's post...a bit more growth than usual (I've been better about my ferts compared to last month's neglect!) and my 3 new Boesemanis are doing great! They've already colored up VERY nicely, and considering how colorful they are now vs. their size (not even 2 inches yet,) I think they are going to be absolutely stunning as they grow. I am very happy  Not much else to say for now...just a stable, laid back tank that I love to watch.

Thanks for looking!


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## cableguy69846 (Dec 13, 2010)

That tank has come a long way. Good job man. And that Java Fern is huge.:icon_eek:


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

Thank you, I'm very pleased with how the tank has grown out these past two years. I'm pretty proud of it. You're definitely right that it's come a long way from the start of unhappy mail ordered plants shipped in the heat, to a jungle full of fish!


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## green_valley (Sep 14, 2011)

NIce and green.............. Yeahhhhhhhhhhhh...
Good job with the scape.


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## 2in10 (Feb 8, 2011)

Wonderful progression, congrats on a successful plan


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## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

Happy birthday to your tank!  I just caught up with your two updates and am kicking myself for missing the first one. Your angel is getting even more handsome as it ages. It's one of the better looking angel's I've seen. Cool find on the Boesemani Rainbows! I am glad to hear they are a great dither fish for your other rainbows. 

That new plant looks like a lot like Ludwigia repens x arcuata. It's a great plant. I used to have it in my 55 for a long time. Had to get rid of it as it became a weed. Also, that is an amazing transformation in your tank since start up. And I am totally feeling you on the boring part. I do sometimes think it was more fun to be messing around the tank more. But it is so stable right now that it's worth it for me. Also, I set up a small 15 gallon to be more techy in. :biggrin:

I also really like the idea of the 37 gallon with tiger barbs. I had those and black skirt tetras for years and really enjoyed their company. I used to have a tank that size and it was one of my favorites. I gave it away to a friend when I had to move and a small part of me wishes I kept it even though there was no place to put it. I think you'll like it's dimensions.


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

I'm back! It's only been...oh, around 8 months since my last update  What can I say, life intrudes...but mostly in good ways.

The tank has been doing well since then. It's gone through a few more cycles of neglect and re-growth. What can I say, I'm a bit A.D.D. when it comes to hobbies. Thankfully, with all the plants and its low-tech-ness, the tank is wonderfully stable, so it can and has put up through some phases of lesser attention (the fish always get fed, though!) Right now it's in a re-growth phase as I have been more vigilant with ferts and cleaning. Compared to my last pic, there has definitely been growth...but one would expect that after 8 months, even in the slowest growing low tech tank 

I recently made a couple of somewhat experimental additions to the tank. I've wanted shrimp for a while, and I had that one oddball ghost shrimp that survived nearly a year in it somehow, so I decided to add 5 fairly full-grown Amanos. So far, so good, although they do spend most of their time hiding, particularly in the Java Fern forest side of the tank. They come out after water changes, and a few brave souls have taken to darting out when I feed to snatch some sinking wafers. The other addition is a dwarf puffer. To anyone who has read my journal, you should know that I've had a large population of some sort of weird mini-MTS in my tank for some time now. A friend of mine who is a puffer fan suggested that I try adding a dwarf puffer to my tank, and after some hemming and hawing, I decided to go for it. Again, so far so good...it spent most of a week hiding (it's MUCH smaller than the other fish in the tank, some of which thought it was food at first,) but now it's out and about during the day and ignored by everyone else in the tank. It's definitely grown in size already, and every time I see it has a nice round belly, so it must be gorging on snails (good!) I know this can be an aggressive fish, but the majority of the tank is semi-aggressive anyways, so I'm hoping for the best long-term. In the worst case, I will set up a nano for it if it becomes too much of a bastard.

My Bosemani rainbows that I added last summer have come into their own, all three are males and have colored up wonderfully. They spend pretty much all day flaring at and chasing each other. All 6 of my Goyder River rainbows are still doing well. My Angelfish is pretty much full grown. The Cardinals are among the biggest and happiest looking examples of their species I've seen. And the Cories are always breeding (and getting their eggs eaten )

Still no new tanks...I almost bit when Petsmart had a bunch of tanks on sale recently, but I've had other expenses. I still have that 37g in my basement. I'm about 50/50 on what I want to do with it, either that tiger barb species tank I've talked about before, or an Anole vivarium. Maybe one of those will happen this year, lol.

Anyways, here are a couple of photos that I took last week. I'll have to get some more soon.



FTS (the big hygro in the center that was so prominent in my last photos months ago is still there, it's just been cut down recently since it was at the surface. Look at how big the Anubias and Java Fern are now!):












The King/Queen/Bee-otch of the tank (no clue on the gender, but this fish can be downright cranky when hungry...but still passive otherwise):


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

Reading back over my last set of posts, I'm reminded of a near-disaster that I experienced with my tank last summer (not long after my last update.) I was reminded because I had mentioned adding some sort of red ludwigia stem last time. Well, that died...the reason being my area got hit with a titanic thunderstorm last summer and my power was out for nearly a week. During the worst heat wave of the summer, 100+ every day. Keeping my tank alive through that was almost a miracle. When I realized that the power wasn't coming on anytime soon, I resorted to making large (50+%) water changes, 3 times a day to stay ahead of the ammonia and stagnation. Thankfully, my efforts paid off, as I didn't lose a single fish. That red plant, not surprisingly, did die though, and there was a lot of leaf shedding afterwards and re-growth that needed to happen. I hope I never have to deal with that sort of ordeal with my tank again...but it does make its current state look all the better


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## fishboy199413 (Jan 20, 2010)

Tank truly looks great. I have always liked the jungle look as it looks more natural. I remember that heat wave. My tanks were so hot I am lucky nothing died. Literally when that happened I was at the beach and as soon as I got home the power came on. Glad here that the tank is doing well.


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## BoxxerBoyDrew (Oct 16, 2005)

WOW!!!

Your tank looks FREAKIN AWESOME!!!!

I LOVE everything about it! Your Fish and Plant choices are spot on with what way I believe I want to take my 55g! 

What Bulbs are you running? I have 2-48"T5HOs over my 55g now, but I am thinking of stepping down to 1 and using a smaller bulb like you do! I am needing to get bulbs pretty soon anyway, so it would make it easier just to by 1 T5HO!! 

I read through most of the journal, but my back is killing me, so I will finish it tomorrow! OH and I totally understand about the A.D.D. with hobbies!!! I have a few tanks setup right now, but I also Fish, Hunt,Reload Ammo, Woodworking, Car Audio and Electronics, and a few other things as well! So I feel your pain when it comes to other things getting in the way!

Anyway keep up the good work on the tank!
drew


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

BoxxerBoyDrew said:


> WOW!!!
> 
> Your tank looks FREAKIN AWESOME!!!!
> 
> ...


Thank you! I'm glad that you've enjoyed looking at my journal  I'm running one 48" t5 (non-HO, but it is a double bulb,) and one 36" T8 of all things. The latter came with the used stand that I bought. When it dies, I'm probably going to replace it with LEDs...the casing on it is pretty beat up, but luckily it's hidden inside the hood. Sounds like you have a bunch of interesting hobbies too  I might get into reloading myself sometime...as if I need more hobbies LOL.

It's been about a month, so new pictures! I took these the day after a water change. I do need to clean my canister filter, there are too many particles floating around. I finally had to cut back some of my Anubias as one rhizome in particular was up against the glass. I didn't remove it though, I just moved it back into the rest of the clump. That's pretty much the approach I've taken with this tank the entire time, very little plant mass gets removed other than dead leaves. Trimmings get re-planted or moved. Which is why it's such a jungle...


New FTS. My java fern is getting truly enormous now!












Left side, close up:












Right side, close up:













Side shot:













One of these days I'll get a better camera than the point-n-shoot I have. At least it takes nice outdoor photos, which is good since that's mostly what I got it for (hiking, it's a waterproof/shockproof camera. No worries about rainstorms or accidental drops.)


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

I forgot to give an update on the newest residents of my tank. The dwarf puffer is doing great, it (well, I think it's a she) has at least doubled in size in the past month. She must be annihilating the snails in there! There's no danger of the snail population ever being wiped out, but the little bastards do seem to hide a bit more, so they're more out of sight at least :icon_cool Speaking of out of sight, that's what the Amanos do. I know they're in there because I see their sheds, and they tend to come out during feeding time. Otherwise, they lurk in the java fern. It's fun to see them when they decide to come out, though. I actually like the fact that I can't see all of the fauna in my tank most of the time. That means that there is always something different to see when I look in there!


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## Imi Statue (Apr 6, 2012)

Simply beautiful, and more!:thumbsup:


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## Chaos_Being (May 18, 2010)

Thank you!

Appropriately for the first day of spring, my cories have been laying eggs today. Eggs, eggs everywhere. Which the other fish are, of course, promptly devouring :tongue:


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## kwheeler91 (May 26, 2009)

Awesome job! I love the greenness of it.


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## HD Blazingwolf (May 12, 2011)

your tnk is beautiful. definitely a rainbow habitat!! I Love it!


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## crazydaz (Mar 18, 2007)

Wonderful, CB!! What a healthy, thriving system you have there! I love the lush green; it's very understated to the eye, but full of so many different textures from the moss, anubia coffeefolia, Sag subulata, and java fern. The hardscape really draws your eye left to right and "down." The Rainbows are the emphasis, and are the perfect choice for this tank. Masterful work.


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## JEden8 (Jan 5, 2011)

Beautiful setup! It's always good to see others out there with Boesemani's! You don't see a whole lot of people with them. I hope my tank gets to be as spectacular as yours!


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## ccbeauch (Jul 29, 2012)

Do your plants ever block out so much light from each other that they die off? I wanted to plant some swords as close as you did but was afraid they would kill each other off if they were too close. Looks like you don't have this problem. How close are their roots together anyway?


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

Wow! This is a beautiful tank! I've only had a chance to glance through some of your pictures but I will be back to read this thread. Such a lush green, healthy looking tank. It's awesome to see the progress over the last few years!


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## jmf3460 (Aug 21, 2013)

What I noticed more than the growth of your plants was the growth of your fish. Beautifully done! I like that it looks natural and not so manicured.


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

jmf3460 said:


> What I noticed more than the growth of your plants was the growth of your fish. Beautifully done! I like that it looks natural and not so manicured.


haha! I see that too now! I'm so focused on plants these days that I rarely even pay attention to fish. I've got 4 tanks full of plants and only currently have fish in 1. lol


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## jmf3460 (Aug 21, 2013)

johnson18 said:


> haha! I see that too now! I'm so focused on plants these days that I rarely even pay attention to fish. I've got 4 tanks full of plants and only currently have fish in 1. lol


I understand your sentiments exactly. I was a fish lover before a plant lover, but now sometimes it seems I worry more about the health of the fish than the plants. Sometimes I go over to a tank and give the plants food then walk away and realize "dang I didn't even give the fish food" which was why I originally walked over to the tank. Keep up the good work, when its time to trim that huge anubias, let me know


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## Whiskey (Feb 15, 2005)

Fantastic thread, and fantastic tank! I always enjoy seeing tanks that are kept stable and thriving over the long term, there is a real talent to that.

Whiskey


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## jcmv4792 (Jul 15, 2015)

This is an amazing setup. Hope mine fills in like this. Just wondering, but where are the crypts? I can't seem to pick them out in those photos.


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