# Celestial Fluval Edge 12g (Pic Heavy)



## AnonAnona (Jul 2, 2014)

*14 July 2014*

Note: I've always used my iPad to view these forums and this is the first time I'm using a desktop PC... all of the pictures I'm adding look VERY small! I'm not sure if they _are _small or whether this bigger screen is making them _look _smaller.... so I'm sorry if the images are tiny! Let me know :wink:

So I've been wanting an aquarium for a while and decided to get a tank for the spot in the corner of my bedroom. This picture is in the evening, which is when I get about 1 hour of direct sunlight. The reflection on the tank isn't as bad most of the time.










I have limited space so I decided to go for the Fluval Edge 12g (46L). I was looking at the 6g version but I think the extra height gives me more flexibility with plants and hardscape... as well as giving me more room for the fish to explore roud:

Oh... and the box that it comes in is massive! I bought it at my LFS and when I got to the car I realised that I was in trouble... getting this in a tiny 3-door car was a nightmare! But, I managed to get it (and me) in the back seat and we got it home :icon_smil

Anyway, as soon as I got the tank setup I started to worry about the IKEA "bookcase" that it's sat on. All the weight of the tank is resting on a board held up by 4 wooden dowels.










So I decided to buy a better stand... One designed for aquariums.










Meanwhile my driftwood is left to boil!










While that is boiling, I built the stand and got it in position. I feel much better about this stand. I wasn't happy with the other one since the tank is pretty much above my head while I sleep :icon_eek:










So, the Fluval Edge has 4 main parts, the base, tank, column and cover. The base fits on the stand perfectly!










And the black column is barely visible against the wall.










I'm a stickler for perfection (which is a curse most of the time) so I've tried to keep the filter input tube and the heater somewhat symmetrical. I've also got a black heater so that it blends in with the background. The driftwood is in there now, and I have to clean two heavily tannin-stained pans :icon_sad:










That's the end of this session!

So far I've got:
Fluval Edge 12g (black).
Stock lighting (6500k LEDs... with a blue moonlight LED option).
Fluval Finest Prefilter Sponge.
Fluval E Series 50W Heater.
Im not sure what the substrate is (I'll find out when I go to the LFS to get my fish.) It's a very fine gravel, almost like sand. I've seen shrimp at the LFS picking the individual grains up, cleaning them and then throwing them aside which I find quite entertaining!

The plan is to get this HEAVILY planted. Since this is my first tank, I want to test a variety of plant types, just to learn about different plants. I've heard that you are supposed to have different shaped plants in front of each other to give the illusion of depth. I will follow this advice but I'm not really going to follow a style (like iwagumi etc). If it looks good then I'm happy :smile:

I'm looking at getting Celestial Pearl Danios (CPD) and some small shrimp for this tank. I've purposely found a matching pair of driftwood pieces that have LOTS of holes, nooks and crannies in them and I'm going to make an arch in the middle of the tank so that the fish/shrimp can hide if they feel the need.

I'll also get some nerite snails (zebra or tracked) because I'm going to need help cleaning this tank. The hole at the top makes this very awkward to clean... especially the top corners! I've spent about 10 minutes trying to get the heater perfectly vertical and the small hole in the top of the tank is already driving me insane!


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## AnonAnona (Jul 2, 2014)

*15 July 2014*

The tank has been running for a day now and it's working great! There was a nice steady flow going all around the tank when I started the filter. I could tell because there were literally thousands of tiny bubbles circling the tank. :icon_conf Now the water is crystal clear and I'm currently letting the tank run to see if anything breaks.

Moving on, my Master Test Kit came today! I have a pH of about 7.4-7.6 and the Yorkshire Water website shows that my water is soft-medium. There are traces of copper etc but that's a minimal amount so I'm not worried. Perfect for the fish I plan to get. I have to admit, the colours in the test kit are difficult to match... but I managed 










I also got a digital thermometer because I thought I could have the probe in the water and the wire would be easy to hide. :icon_smil The display unit could sit in the top inside the cover. Everything would be hidden and the tank would still look sleek and minimalist.










For now I just stuck it to the inside of the rim at the top and tested the heater to see if it was calibrated correctly.










Alas! This didn't go as planned! :icon_neut The water is reading at 26.6 degrees celcius but the heater was displaying 24 degrees.










It appears that when this digital thermometer is turned on, pressing the power button again increases the temperature by 0.1 degrees. It's an easy way to quickly calibrate it, I'll agree, but it means that every time I accidentally press it, the error gets bigger. Well... that explains the 2.6 degrees error! :angryfire It took me an hour to realise this was happening!

So... I'll be getting a new thermometer on my next shopping trip then 

In other news, my third piece of driftwood came this morning and its about 40cm long... I cannot boil this in a pan! It's way too big! So I've submerged (floated) it in a tray of water and roasted it in the oven  My parents gave me a very strange look when I took it out of the oven 

I had a play around with all 3 pieces and I like this setup:










I bought this bit of driftwood because it's tall and thin, which will help to "lift" the hardscape away from the base of the tank. The bulkier piece of driftwood has been cut along the top and I'm not keen on the sawed-off effect, so I'll be getting some java moss to cover it up. I'll put some java moss in other places to make it look natural  The third piece of driftwood also create a triple of arches which I really like!










When I went to buy the fish tank yesterday I found a nice looking rock which I planned to use. Can anyone ID it?










Looking at this, I don't think it will fit in (aesthetically _or _physically) with the tank. To be honest, it was an impulse purchase and I acted just like Donkey when I saw it:










I don't have any white vinegar hanging around but I got some malt vinegar and poured some onto the stone (praying that my parents didn't walk past again :hihi: I get too many strange looks) and there were some bubbles. I wouldn't say it was fizzing but there were enough bubbles to make me think it will affect my water parameters.

Right now, the bits of driftwood are fully submerged in a bucket of water, held down by that stone. Well, the big piece is poking out of the top but I don't have a water container big enough for it.

Thanks for reading!


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## jeffpersonn (Feb 9, 2014)

Seiryuu stone ?


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## AnonAnona (Jul 2, 2014)

*16 July 2014*

Today was a big day for me! I had my graduation ceremony at University! roud: Me and my parents went out for a celebratory lunch and decided to call in at a garden center on the way home. Scoping out potential LFSs 

So yeah I've got some plants now! Wooo! It felt weird being on this forum without owning a planted tank :hihi:

I've got one of each of the following:


echinodorus bleheri
hygrophila siamensis 53b
Anubias barteri var. angustifolia
microsorum pteropus windelov
limnophila sessiliflora
lilaeopsis brasiliensis










For now, I've just had a play around with them. I only have about 1-2 inches of substrate and I wanted to see how easy it was to get them planted. The Windelov has quite brown roots so I'm guessing it's not very healthy. The eagle eyed readers might notice that the substrate has changed :icon_wink I've added 2kg of Marina Black substrate to break up the substrate. It looked too uniform so these bigger pieces are there to give some variety.










There is a problem with this setup though... by adding these plants, the flow has been affected and that has caused problems already. The heater is flashing blue with LF displaying. I was expecting this to happen! :icon_frow This is why it gets bad reviews! This heater is great but it turns off if there is "Low Flow" (LF). It basically means the heater wont stay on and create a hot pocket of water.

The HOB stock filter pours the water back into the tank directly above the heater but it pours towards the front of the tank, which means there's very little flow going _through _the heater. Like I said, I expected this to happen and I have a back up heater... which is now in the tank as my primary heater. :flick: It's an Eheim 50W heater.

Oh and the moonlight setting looks awesome but unfortunately the camera on my phone just cannot capture what it looks like. My gf is a photographer so I'll be pestering her at a later date.  She has a tonne of equipment so I'll be able to do macro shots or motion triggered photos etc. :icon_conf I'll have to be super nice to her and try to persuade her lend me her camera :hihi:

Thanks for reading!

Bump:


jeffpersonn said:


> Seiryuu stone ?


:icon_eek: Nice! I think you might be right... thanks for the help


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## AnonAnona (Jul 2, 2014)

*16 July - 24 July 2014*

When I bought the fish tank, I got a 30ml bottle of API Quick Start as a freebie. I read the label and it says:



> QUICK START allows instant addition of fish
> 
> No waiting period between start up and addition of fish
> After all necessary conditions are met*, fish can be safely added
> Starts the natural aquarium cycle


I was dubious since the Nitrogen cycle takes around 1-4 weeks. So I've added the recommended amount and recorded the water conditions daily. I couldn't add any ammonia until it arrived on 21 July.










It's a bit strange because the nitrites go off the chart overnight on the 19th but the ammonia remains constant. Although the Windelev started turning black on the tips of the leaves so perhaps it was decaying and producing ammonia? The Windelev has been thrown away since the roots have turned even darker brown.

Either way, I'd like to point out that the fish would be have suffered after about a week due to this massive nitrite spike... it's about 25ppm on 20th July and about 20ppm on the 21st July. (I diluted tank water with tap water to get a readable colour when using the Master test kit)

The nitrates are increasing steadily throughout which is a good sign but the nitrites are still very high. I did a WC and managed to get it down to 5ppm but it's gone back up since then.

All in all... I'm glad I didn't add the fish! roud:

I did however, add some more plants!



















I went out and got a bunch of eleocharis parvula and what looks like limnophila sessiliflora, but I'm not sure. I also got some Spiral val and a marimo moss ball :icon_smil I'm loving the variety of plants and cant wait to get the driftwood in there! Sadly it's still sat in a bucket...

While I was out I picked up a new thermometer too. It's currently red hot in this room and the water is about 27-28 deg C. I cant get it any cooler without throwing some ice cubes in there  It's a Fluval Edge so the fan across the top just doesn't work :icon_conf and I dont want to be adding ice to it when I get some fish in there because that'll do more harm than good.

I've looked online and people keep CPDs at 28 deg C and others keep them at 23 deg C. What do people think?

Could I keep the temperature at 28 deg for now and when it starts getting cooler, gradually lower the temperature by 1 degree per month so that in winter its at 23 deg?

Or do I keep them at 28 deg all the time? If I set the heater to 25 deg (for example) then it will be constant at that temperature through winter but then it might suddenly jump in summer up to a higher temp...?

I want to avoid sudden temperature changes but also keep the temperature within their preferred range. Any advice on this is appreciated :biggrin:

Now that the Journal is up to date I'll make sure I update this journal as things progress, instead of doing it in bulk uploads :hihi:

Thanks for reading!


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## Tyveck (Jul 6, 2014)

Awesome tank! I have that same substrate in one of my smaller planted tanks:> I wouldn't add that rock to your tank. It looks like a type of limestone and if it bubbled or fizzed when you tested it, it is a calcium based rock (some type of Limestone). This will slowly raise your gH.. Besides that your tanks looks very cool! What kinds of fish are you planning to add?


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## AnonAnona (Jul 2, 2014)

Tyveck said:


> Awesome tank! I have that same substrate in one of my smaller planted tanks:> I wouldn't add that rock to your tank. It looks like a type of limestone and if it bubbled or fizzed when you tested it, it is a calcium based rock (some type of Limestone). This will slowly raise your gH.. Besides that your tanks looks very cool! What kinds of fish are you planning to add?


Hi Tyveck! Thanks for the kind words :smile: I'm using the rock as a paperweight for now until I get a bigger tank with some hard water fish :icon_smil The tank is actually quite small and the choice of fish is very limited. I was looking at Bororas urophthalmoides (the exclamation point fish), chilli rasboras or neon/cardinal tetras originally but I think I've settled on getting some Celestial Pearl Danios, along with some Red Cherry Shrimps (or Fire Cherry Shrimps) to help clean the driftwood and plants.

*25 July - 28 July 2014*

Ok so I got bored of my nitrite test being luminous purple which indicates over 5ppm. I actually want to know exactly what my nitrite levels are for once  I started to think that my bottle of nitrite test solution wasn't working... soooo ... I've done a water change of about 75% and tested the water for nitrites again and it's above 5ppm.

Grrrr... Next plan...

I diluted 0.2ml of tank water with 4.8ml of tap water and it had 0.25ppm of nitrite. That means the current level is 6.25ppm... and before the WC my tank water was 25ppm :eek5: there wasn't any change in pH though so I'm guessing the cycle didn't stall.

So now I actually know what the nitrite level is... I'm currently wondering whether to do another 50% WC and bring the nitrite to ~3ppm? Or should I leave it at 6.25ppm and let the bacteria in the filter convert it? Let me know what you plantedtankians think :smile:

In other news, the bulky piece of driftwood is on the verge of sinking. I can submerge it in water and will just stay there. :icon_roll it's neither sinking nor floating! Weird! I've also found a large container big enough to fully submerge the long piece... which immediately sunk to the bottom (unexpected but great!) I'm just waiting for the smallest piece to sink now but it seems very "knotty"? The grain in the wood twists around so I'm guessing there are knots in it which tend to be quite dense. Anyone you has tried to saw through a tree branch with a knot in it will understand  So it doesn't seem to be getting waterlogged as fast as the other pieces, but that's fine. I can always add the 2 big pieces first and get this last one in when it sinks.

And the last update of this session:

I've got a proper tank thermometer now, which seems to be about 4 degrees Celsius different to one I found lying around the house ARGHH I'm so unlucky when it comes to thermometers  I want to calibrate my heater but can't when I don't know the water temperature lol

anyway, it's cooled down a lot in my room so the tank has dropped from (apparently) 28degC to (apparently) 23degC. To help with the random 2 day heat waves that happen in the UK, I've ordered two 70mm PC fans and found an adjustable voltage adapter. I'm going to create a circling airflow in the hole at the top of the tank. I don't want to damage/alter the aquarium so I'm going to modify it where the fans are removable AND hidden within the hood. Currently, there isn't a single wire on show and I want to keep it that way. I'll keep you all posted on how this goes.

Thanks for reading!
Rad91


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## vanish (Apr 21, 2014)

Good start!


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## Tyveck (Jul 6, 2014)

Radiation91 said:


> Hi Tyveck! Thanks for the kind words :smile: I'm using the rock as a paperweight for now until I get a bigger tank with some hard water fish :icon_smil The tank is actually quite small and the choice of fish is very limited. I was looking at Bororas urophthalmoides (the exclamation point fish), chilli rasboras or neon/cardinal tetras originally but I think I've settled on getting some Celestial Pearl Danios, along with some Red Cherry Shrimps (or Fire Cherry Shrimps) to help clean the driftwood and plants.
> 
> *25 July - 28 July 2014*
> 
> ...


I would leave it for now to let the bacteria build up for a few more days and then do a 20% water change every other day until you get the nitrites where you want them


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## AnonAnona (Jul 2, 2014)

*29 July - 30 July 2014*

Evening all! The tank is going great as far as I can tell. The plants have grown new leaves and the ammonia is being used up quite nicely. I will add some pics soon. roud:

I've added a couple of drops of ammonia daily which brings my tank up to about 0.5ppm in the attempt to prevent nitrites from going off the scale. I can't be certain but I think the nitrites are very close to 5ppm, which is a drop from a few days ago. Hopefully the second phase of the cycle is starting :biggrin:

Also, when I did the WC a few days ago I didn't fill it completely because I was going to get my driftwood in. This has made a problem though... The lower water level means that the water returning from the HOB filter is splashing and hitting the LED light strip. It's supposedly waterproof but the biggest cause of problems with the Fluval Edge is the light strip failing. The water level is probably why! It does actually say to completely fill the tank and have the water 5mm up the hole-rim bit  :biggrin: so the light strip is currently sat upright and the plants are living on only natural light for a bit. They have been living on a 12 hour daily photoperiod since I put them in so they should be fully fuelled :icon_bigg

Oh and while I remember... I have absolutely no algae at all! Whaaaat? I found some stuff on the gravel and in the hair grass but I think it was the bits of sponge that the plant roots were wrapped in. It looked like little tufts of brown sponge. It looks like my future nerite snails and shrimp will need plenty of algae wafers to make up for the crystal clear tank! :biggrin:

And a final update... I think my thermometer is 4-6 degrees Celsius too high. It was the last one on the shelf when I bought it and it's much higher than both of my heaters and the temperature raised up to 28 degrees Celsius a few days ago... I remember going to Ibiza a few years ago and it was 28 degC and I don't think this room was Ibiza level heat. So I'm going to buy another thermometer (this will be the 4th now) and then I can finally get my fans installed and heater calibrated :icon_wink

That's all for now, thanks for reading!
Rad91


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## cjstl (Mar 4, 2013)

Hey, congrats! I started back into the hobby with a 12G Edge over a year-and-a-half ago. Still love the tank, it's just really hard to work in.

Regarding your java fern windelov, it is supposed to have brown roots - all java ferns do. It probably started dying because you planted the rhizome and it is supposed to be left exposed. Most people glue or tie their ferns to wood or rocks. Won't be the first mistake you make in this fun but challenging hobby


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## AnonAnona (Jul 2, 2014)

cjstl said:


> it's just really hard to work in.


Yeh! The hole is really small at about shoulder height in the corner. It's a real hassle sorting this thing out! :biggrin:



cjstl said:


> Regarding your java fern windelov, it is supposed to have brown roots - all java ferns do. It probably started dying because you planted the rhizome and it is supposed to be left exposed. Most people glue or tie their ferns to wood or rocks. Won't be the first mistake you make in this fun but challenging hobby


When I bought the windelov only the leaves were showing and the rest of the plant was wrapped in sponge and put in one of those small black plastic pots. I assumed that they were supposed to buried... Hence the pot  thanks for letting me know though, it explains why it started to turn black on the ends. Always learning! :biggrin:

I also have an Anubias and the rhizome is completely buried. It won't stay down without the extra bit of substrate over the rhizome. It was temporarily planted until I get the driftwood in... then I can attach it to that instead. I'll sort this out in the morning for sure! The leaves are looking healthy so I'm hoping there's no damage done yet.

Thanks for letting me know about rhizomes... I've never heard about it before roud:


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## AnonAnona (Jul 2, 2014)

*31 July 2014
*
Hi everyone! I'm having a really good day!  I've just finished a 4 hour rescape and tidy up of the tank and thought I'd update this journal. I think this might be the first entry that I've done on the day it actually happened  I've also realised that the max image size is 250KB, not 75KB so I've (hopefully) got better pictures now.

First things first... I looked up Rhizomes last night after cjstl's comment and decided I should tie the anubias to a piece of driftwood. This obviously meant that I had to add the driftwood to the tank, which caused a cascade of things to be done! :icon_frow

So, first things first... I dug out the anubias, which have grown a 2 new leaves each! I didn't expect them to grow this fast :eek5: Then I tied them to the piece of driftwood.










I decided to use cotton string instead of fishing line because the roots might attach to it. If this happens then when the anubias attaches to the driftwood, I can cut off the string and the bit attached to the roots can be left on and it will decay or get covered in algae.



















Overall, I'm very happy with this... except for the bright white string! It's currently in the tank, resting against the bulky piece of driftwood. It sinks, but it tries so turn upside-down so this long piece is holding it in place roud:

The next thing on the list was to get rid of the spiral val because it turned clear and the surface was "cracked". When I went to pick it up it felt pretty slimy so I'm guessing it wasn't too healthy  It's a shame but in retrospect this tank is pretty densely packed! Also the marimo moss ball has a new home!










Safe to say, this probably doesn't need it's own tank journal :hihi: Ive also decided to split up the eleocharis parvula and lilaeopsis brasiliensis into smaller pieces so that it covers more space. One tuft covering about a square inch goes a long way!










And in to the tank it goes!










It's a bit patchy but I want it to spread out and cover the bottom. And for some reason the camera picks up on the reflection a lot! I'm sat looking at it now and I can barely see any reflections 

Now for the rescape... I originally had the limnophila sessiliflora in the center at the back but the HOB poured on to the top of it and dragged it down/forward. This meant that this plant alone was taking over a third of the tank's base. It's now sat at the back right corner with much less flow and its got some good growth! A full set of leaves and a new set about to open... in just one week:










The other limnophila sessiliflora is in the opposite corner, with the same amount of growth, but its thinner (less bushy):










The lilaeopsis brasiliensis, before being split up, had grown several new shoots too:










I've hoovered up all the brown stuff too btw  Is it brown algae or the sponge stuff from the plant pots they came in? An ID would be appreciated  Anyway... there's the hygrophila siamensis 53b with new leaves:










Not bad to say I haven't used CO2 yet! I thought this would take months before any new growth appeared! I've also cleaned the prefilter sponge too... crikey that thing picks up a lot of debris!

And finally, to update you on how the cycle is going. I haven't done a WC but I have added a couple of drops (0.5ppm) of ammonia to keep the bacteria alive. Yesterday night the nitrates were at ~2ppm and today at noon (before the rescape) were at 40ppm :confused1: I'm assuming that the NO2>NO3 cycle is kicking in but that seems like a REALLY huge jump for 12 hours! Although, I do have a large amount of NO2 in there!

I don't have any pictures of the new setup but I will take some tonight so that I don't get reflections and show you in tomorrow's entry.

As always, thanks for reading!
Rad 91


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## AnonAnona (Jul 2, 2014)

*1 August 2014*

Hey everyone! As promised, I took some photos of the setup last night. The third piece of driftwood is still floating... and doesn't seem to be sinking at all! So that isn't added yet.





































I think the CPDs have plenty of space to swim around in and there are big leaves, plants and driftwood to hide in, should they feel the need. The are gaps between the plants and the tank walls so the snails can go all over the walls without a problem. Not to mention, there are nice big leaves for them to clean! :icon_mrgr

There's plenty of grass and bushy plants so the shrimp have something to play around in. I've also turned the flow rate down to about half way. The water pours back in to the center of the tank (on to the lower anubias) and it isn't too aggressive so I think the shrimp will be able to clean the driftwood.

Does anybody else give their tank this much thought or am I being overly careful? :hihi:

I'm pretty happy with this so far! The only issue I have with it is the anubias, hygrophila siamensis 53b and the echinodorus bleheri all have round big leaves and are all in the back-left to the center. They blend in a little bit too much. I'm wondering about getting a tall skinny red plant to go between the driftwood and echinodorus bleheri. I'll do some research...

I'm also wondering about floating plants. CPDs love to have stuff to hide under but I currently have the water level about 5mm from the top of the tank. The bubbles that get trapped under there are very annoying!  So yeh, floating plants might be a royal pain. Hopefully the corner plants will grow quickly and create a canopy of leaves... then I don't have to worry about it 

I also want to give the shrimp and CPDs a chance to breed and I've heard the best way to do this is to get some Java Moss in there. I have 3 areas of substrate that are empty so I could use them, as well as some of the driftwood surface. Should I include some java moss in the tank or would it be easier to wait until the CPDs/Shrimp have mated and then move them into a floating breeder box at the top of the tank with some java moss in it?

Cheers!
Rad91


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## AnonAnona (Jul 2, 2014)

*2 August 2014*

I spent some time today looking at breeding requirements for the fish and shrimp. I don't think I'll be going down the breeding box route or setting up a breeding tank... I don't want to separate a pregnant fish or shrimp and keep them in a smaller box. It seems unnecessary and will probably be more hassle than its worth. I'm just going to use plants to help with the survival of fry :smile:

Option 1... Floating plants! I think most floating plants will be an issue with this tank due to the sealed top. If I dropped the water level about 1cm then I could have floating plants but they won't get much light if they float into the corners. Not to mention that the water splashes back onto the light strip. The only suitable floating plant I've found is riccia.

Option 2... sinking plants! While looking at plants, I accidentally ID'd what I thought was limnophila sessiliflora. It's actually cabomba which is great for young fry :flick: happy days!! I'll also be getting some java moss soon and that will finish the flora side of this tank.

I'm hoping that the tank will finish cycling in about a week so that I can introduce the new tenants to the tank 

Cheers,
Rad91


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## AnonAnona (Jul 2, 2014)

*3 August - 16 August 2014*

Wow! It's been a full 2 weeks since I last updated this... time flies when you're staring at an empty fish tank! :icon_eek: Right, let's get this journal updated!

Firstly, I left the tank _completely _alone for a full week. The nitrites were off the scale (about 7ppm) and they dropped to a nice 0.25ppm so I started to dose the tank with ammonia again. There's _always _a trace of ammonia in this tank and I'm not sure why... possibly due to the rotting leaves on the Fluval prefilter sponge? Anyway, I dosed the tank up to 4ppm of ammonia and within 18 hours there was about 0.1ppm ammonia and 0 nitrite. It looks like the cycle has nearly finished! hopefully I will be able to go fish shopping on Monday 

Secondly, the 3rd piece of driftwood still hasn't sunk. However, I did manage to partially bury it in the substrate and use the large piece of driftwood to pin it down.










Now everything is in the tank! YEAH! I don't have a random bucket of water in my room anymore! It doesn't look anything like what I originally planned but back then I didn't know how the plants were going to behave.










There's room to swim through the hardscape, like I originally planned...










Oh and the long piece of driftwood now rests on the one underneath so that it looks more natural. Around each wall there is some empty space so that fish can swim around all the plants... and there's a little hideaway...










The cabomba is thriving in this tank... it's currently growing around 1 inch per week (per stem) and it's branching too. Some strands kept getting pulled into the centre of the tank where the HOB pours the water back in so this new scape holds the cabomba back into the corner. Eventually it will grow around the driftwood and engulf the "sawed-off" edges of driftwood. The anubias is having a whale of a time too :hihi: pun intended :flick:










It's certainly growing but still a bit loose. The string doesn't bother me too much so I cant wait a bit longer. One issue is this brown stuff on the anubias leaves. I'm guessing that its brown algae. It's in direct light for 8 hours per day. ID please?










Well I'm happy with it! I had to "aquascape" this tank with this view...










It's not easy :icon_frow I still can't figure out my depth perception on this tank yet!

The plants in the back left corner now have a lot more space to grow now too. I'm hoping that the echinodorus bleheri provides big overhanging leaves while the hygrophila siamensis 53b creates a lower level bushiness 

What do you all think of the setup? Is there anything I can do to make it better for CPDs and RCS?

One last thing, I've ordered a boat load of goodies online (another pun.... couldn't resist!). There's about 20-25 things which will hopefully arrive on Tuesday. Some of it is for this tank and the rest will let me set up my second tank! It will be a 20L betta tank with a rocky/grassy hillside scape with a couple of caves... haha *gulp* I very much doubt it will look anything like what I imagine but it's worth a try! Anyway, enough about that tank, that's for another journal 

Oh and while I remember, are the entries in this journal too long? I realise that this tank isn't that interesting compared to some mammoth tanks on the forums :hihi: I want the journal to be as good as possible for you guys  Let me know :wink:

Back to business... I've ordered an air pump which I plan to add to this tank with a small airstone in the back left to improve surface agitation and oxygenation. The Fluval Edge _really_ doesn't have much surface movement. It's hard to tell but I think there's a dusty film on the surface. I can only see it when looking up from below, with the light on. I plan to have the pump sat inside the back column and I'll run the tubing up over the edge next to the HOB and I'll be using elbow joints to keep the tubing tucked into the corners, tidy and hidden in the substrate. Like my plan for the small fans, most of it will be hidden! I've noticed from filling the tank up that bubbles float and roll across the bottom of the echinodorus bleheri leaves which I find really fun... and hypnotic :icon_eek:. Hopefully the CPDs and RCS will like it too! :hihi: I've got a couple air pumps and three air stones arriving on Tuesday so I will see which combo works best in this tank. :icon_surp

A final note:

I was planning to get some Cherry Fire Shrimp from an online store but there isn't much information on their website. Are they the same thing as Red Cherry Shrimp or are they a different species/grade? I've briefly looked at grades but I'm a noob at this point and still unsure. From what I can gather, Fire is a deeper red then Sakura but not as strong as painted red, but then what grade is a standard RCS? hahaha :hihi: now I've convinced myself I know nothing about grades :help: I've also seen people mentioning SS and SSS+ ... hmm ... I really need to get researching :icon_frow

If the shrimp population gets too big then I plan to sell some back to the LFS so I'm guessing it would be good to know about this stuff? Do you need to know all this stuff to be able to sell to your LFS or do they generally just buy them?

Thanks for reading!
Rad91.


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## Dan's85 (Mar 18, 2013)

Your tank is beautiful!! Thank you for sharing! Seeing is giving me some ideas for my 6g Edge.


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## AnonAnona (Jul 2, 2014)

Dan's85 said:


> Your tank is beautiful!! Thank you for sharing! Seeing is giving me some ideas for my 6g Edge.


Thank you very much! You've cheered up my day! I kind of wish I had the 6 gallon instead of this because it's awkward reaching in through the hole. I'll be keeping a look out for your 6g journal :wink:

*17 August 2014*

Today's been an absolute nightmare! I dosed the tank with 3-4ppm of ammonia at about 11am and got on with other stuff. I plan to check it tonight at 11pm and see if the tank is ready for fish.

Anyway, I've got a 6 socket extension cable in the corner of the room which allows me to plug in the heater, filter, lights and my alarm clock. There's 2 extras for charging phones and laptops etc. Perfect... Or so I thought!

Long story short... There was a huge bang... Everything turned off, including the aquarium... And there's a lingering smell of burning rubber. :confused1:

I basically blew the fuse on the extension cable. Everything is working now that I've replaced the fuse. It seems that the heater runs up to 8 amps and the extension has a limit of 13 amps. When I plugged in my iPad charger, it fused. I have to be cautious with this setup. My plans to run an air pump are now hanging by a very thin thread. I was planning to plug that in to the extension cable too but I'm not sure if I can. I may need to hire an electrician to install some more wall sockets in my room because I'm struggling ATM :icon_sad:

All in all, I've moved everything round in my room and made space for the second tank, as well as set up a new place to charge stuff. Hmmmph. This one wall socket is now running JUST the tank and accessories.

Anyway... Moaning aside, the tank is doing well. I now know that during a power cut, all water stays inside the tank. I've seen HOB filters that siphon the water out and overfill the tank when the power is stopped, but this tank is fine. I still need to get a thermometer and calibrate this heater before I get some fish but apart from that I'm ready to get fish in there! :icon_surp

Cheers!
Rad91


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## cjstl (Mar 4, 2013)

I've had trouble getting the filter to come back on after a power outage. The impeller section somehow runs dry and then it gets very hot. Just a note of caution. My power is out right now


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## AnonAnona (Jul 2, 2014)

cjstl said:


> I've had trouble getting the filter to come back on after a power outage. The impeller section somehow runs dry and then it gets very hot. Just a note of caution. My power is out right now


Omfg I never thought about that! :icon_frow yeh the HOB gets siphoned when I cut the power so if I was out of the house and the power went off and came back on it would just burn out the motor :icon_eek:

I'm going to have a look online for something that I can plug into the extension socket and then plug the filter into it. I've seen them before. Basically, when the power goes off, it turns off _and stays off _until you manually allow it to start again. At least then the filter won't be running when it's dry :wink:


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## forelle (Aug 7, 2014)

Tank's looking great, sorry about the power trouble. What kind of fish do you plan on adding to it?


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## AnonAnona (Jul 2, 2014)

forelle said:


> Tank's looking great, sorry about the power trouble. What kind of fish do you plan on adding to it?


Thank you! :red_mouth I'm planning to get some Celestial Pearl Danios and some Red Cherry Shrimp. I know, I know... It's the typical small starting tank stock for newbies roud:

Each fish is about an inch in size (max) and the 12 gallon tank gives me a limit of 12 inch of fish. So starting off with 9 or 10 CPDs gives me some room for a couple of new fry  I'll be adding 5 initially, then adding some shrimp a few days later, then the remaining CPDs a week later.

I was going to have some snails but I'm seriously concerned that there's not enough algae in this tank to keep them occupied! I can't see any algae other than the brown algae on the Anubias. I think snails will be added later if the algae starts to grow.

Also, I've seen people put ottos in Edges before but I don't think there's enough room for them. They like to be in groups of 3 (or 6... I can't remember) and that is a big portion of my limit :icon_neut so I'm avoiding them.

*18 August 2014*

I'm definitely nearing the end of the cycle!

8/14 1pm - dosed tank to 3ppm ammonia
8/15 6pm (29hrs) - 0.1 amm 0 nitrite and dosed to 4ppm amm
8/16 12 noon (18hrs) - 0.1 amm 0.25 nitrite and dosed to 4ppm amm
8/17 11:30am (23hrs) - 0.25 amm 0 nitrite and dosed to 4ppm amm
8/17 11:30pm (12hrs) - 0.25 amm 5 nitrite and not dosed
8/18 9am (21hrs from dosing) - 0.1 amm 0 nitrite.
8/18 10am - just dosed with amm. Will test ppm level soon.

It's a dodgy schedule I know! :icon_mrgr there's no consistency lol

The ammonia and nitrites are being converted within 24 hours recently and some websites say that the tank is ready for fish now... After a major WC.

Other websites say that it needs to be converted within 12 hours. So now I'm sat here wondering which to follow. The latter is obviously a safer option but I want some fish!! :bounce:


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## AnonAnona (Jul 2, 2014)

*19 August - 22 August 2014*

Well it's been a "fun" few days! It's seriously tested my commitment to the hobby haha

1) I had a problem with this tank which lead to a complete redo :redface: the pH dropped from 7.4 to 6 and the nitrates were about 120-150ppm. I was hoping that the nitrates would provide the plants with plenty of food, but that backfired and stalled my cycle :icon_cry: I didn't realise that nitrates caused pH change... lesson learned!

2) A piece of driftwood was pinned down by heavier piece until it becomes waterlogged. Unfortunately something moved and the driftwood started to float, dragging plants with it.  time for a rescape! Everything's been moved and I've taken out the hair grass. It's just snapping with the water flow and looks really bad. I haven't thrown it away... It might be used in my 2nd tank.

3) I've added some more fine black substrate and partially buried one piece of driftwood and moved the Anubias out of direct light. I know it likes light but it's developed some brown algae so the shadier spot will do it some good. The extra substrate has created deeper areas for better anchorage for plants.

4) I've removed the prefilter sponge and given it a good rinse, but left the filter running so that all the bits floating in the tank get sucked up the pipe. Once I'm ready to add fish, I'll add the prefilter sponge and clean out the mechanical part of the HOB.

Ohhh yeh I forgot... 5) I've added the air pump, line and stone. It took about 3 hours to do because it just wanted to float and I had VERY limited arm movement and vision  it was a huge pain but it's in and it's generates quite a decent water flow :red_mouth

Ok, so I have pictures but I don't have my PC ATM so I can't upload them. I'll get pics online ASAP. I'm getting really excited now because I've got the tank setup with everything it needs and I'm at the end of the cycle!! I can dose the tank up to 4ppm of ammonia and there is 0 ammonia and nitrite within 24 hours. I'm going to keep dosing it and see if things stay consistent. If everything goes well, I will do a huge water change on Monday and then get the fish on Tuesday! I will add the shrimp and nerites on Wednesday or Thursday.

CANT WAIT!!! :bounce:

Cheers!
Rad91


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## AnonAnona (Jul 2, 2014)

*23 August - 24 August 2014*

Time for a pic update! :bounce:
Some pictures might not be very good... I was in a mood because a lot of problems were piling up and stressing me out.

The damage cause by the temperamental bit of driftwood.










I also checked the temperature with YET ANOTHER thermometer. You can see two in the tank on the above pic. My hunch was right, the heater was perfectly calibrated and the water is at 23 degC according to the new therm, and the old therm is 4 degC too high.

I decided to rearrange things. Firstly, I took out the hairgrass. It's rooted really well and was sending shoots out like crazy!










This will be going in my betta tank I think. So, since everything was floating around, I took it all out and started fresh. Now was a good time to get the airstone fitted. Thanks to a recent sale on SwellUK, I had a load of goodies, including airline connectors...










The airline setup.










A one way valve to stop water siphoning out of the tank and into the pump.










two elbow connectors to keep the airline tube close to the back wall. The connectors prevent the line from pinching.










I originally had the pump inside the back column of the tank but it vibrated *horribly *so I set it up underneath the tank, on the top shelf of the stand. Now its pretty quiet. :icon_mrgr Not silent, but not bad either.










A floating airline is horrible to work with when in a bad mood :angryfire










I finally managed to pin it down underneath the substrate, behind the driftwood, with the airstone just above the substrate surface. It's bright blue and stands out in this tank so I needed to keep it hidden.

The driftwood stands in the corner and the bubbles go around/through it and the anubias. The water level is pretty low in this pic.










The bubbles float, form a layer on the surface in the corner and then get pushed down by the HOB. It's really nice! :icon_mrgr










I'm really thankful that this tank has a hood! The light is pretty immense without it 

The bubbles create a nice flow, which releases some of the trapped debris and it circles up to the top of the tank. All the loose bits stay in the corner... which makes things easier!



















So now the tank is more open, with the cabmoba planted further away from the HOB, which means it doesn't drift around and take over everything! :red_mouth










I've left the prefilter sponge off and it's helped a great deal! Lots of loose bits have already been sucked up. I'm going to let the grass at the front spread out. It will take a while since I am not using CO2 but I'm willing to wait  The water flow blows the grass around a bit but its not too bad. I'm wondering if nerite snails would damage this grass when they "walk" over it? :icon_neut

As a final note, the tank it definitely capable of handling a full tank of fish! I dosed it to 5ppm (maybe 6) of ammonia on 8/23 and after 25 hours I had 0 Amm and 0 Nitrites!

I can't decide whether to fully stock the tank on Tuesday with 10 CPDs or whether to get 5 and wait a week before getting another 5. Will the bacteria die in a week? CPDs apparently have very low bioload.

Cheers!
Rad91


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## AnonAnona (Jul 2, 2014)

cjstl said:


> I've had trouble getting the filter to come back on after a power outage. The impeller section somehow runs dry and then it gets very hot. Just a note of caution. My power is out right now


I completely forgot about my other purchase for the tank!










It's a circuit breaker for a single socket. I plug this into the extension cable and then plug the filter plug into this. Press the button and everything works! If the power cuts out then the button comes out and the power stops until I press the button again!

The filter will never run dry now! Thanks for the idea cjstl!


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## AnonAnona (Jul 2, 2014)

*25 August - 26 August 2014
*
Everything in the tank was looking great on Saturday night, although I was a little concerned whether the bright light would make the fish skittish. So, after some very helpful comments on another thread (thanks guys!) I've added some Creeping Jenny on top of the heater. It sits there, breaking up the flow a bit and providing some shade.



















It's a lighter shade of green and a different leaf shape so I like it :red_mouth I also added some pebbles (after boiling them) and they are sat on top of the "sunken" driftwood, as well as a few smaller ones scattered around the substrate.

The tank was fine on Sunday and Monday so I did 2 80% water changes to get the nitrates down.










My phone _really_ struggled to focus on those :icon_neut Anyway, the new tank water sat there on Monday with no ammonia dosing and today I've been to my LFS!

I settled on getting 10 CPDs. I think my filter is more than capable of handling their waste. I've also bought 4 Red Crystal Shrimp.










I acclimatised them in a bucket and gradually added water to the bags. After about an hour of faffing, I transferred them to their new tank (with the help of my gf)

The shrimp went in first.




























Leaf surfing!










Playing hide-and-seek!










It seems I've been given 5 by mistake... which is nice! Now it's time to add the CPDs...










They love the sponge prefilter... oh and ignore the polar bear in the reflection 










They faded while bringing them home and they've all hidden behind the big pile of pebbles, near the airstone. Well... all except one! There's one fish that's swimming around all over the place like a champion! Although it's hard to get a pic of it!










It's about 5mm long and clear, with a slight hint of blue around its eyes. I'm guessing its a CPD fry  it seems I have 11 CPD in total!

I'd like to point out that these pictures are rather bright (and low quality). The room is very dim atm.The fish have been in their new home for about 2 hours and they are already getting adventurous. Pairs/trios of fish come out and have a roam around the tank.

And there's even more news! One of the shrimp is berried! So I will have more shrimp (hopefully) in about 2-3 weeks :bounce:

It's been a very slow start but everything is set up now! I'll get some better pics of the fish at a later date :icon_mrgr

Cheers!
Rad91

*Final setup (for those interested):*

Equipment:


Fluval Edge 12g
Stock lighting - LED 6500k
3 stage HOB filter with localised circuit breaker - running at 80-100gph
Prefilter sponge
Eheim 50W heater (23deg)
Thermometer
Substrate mix - 10kg Flourite black, 2kg nano garnelenkies (similar to flourite), 2kg Marina Black substrate (slightly larger pebbles) and some standard beach pebbles (black)
Standard Driftwood
Interpret aquarium pump (mini) + 1inch airstone
Fauna


11 CPDs
5 Crystal Red Shrimp
Flora


echinodorus bleheri
hygrophila siamensis 53b
Anubias barteri var. angustifolia
limnophila sessiliflora
lilaeopsis brasiliensis
_Lysimachia nummularia ‘Aurea’ (creeping Jenny)_
_Cabomba caroliniana_


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## Tyveck (Jul 6, 2014)

I like the shrimp! Those are lower grade CRS :> I have always like the pattern on them though! Im about ready to sell some higher grade CRS so keep me in mind if you want to start a bigger shrimp colony! :>


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## Xzavier247 (Aug 9, 2014)

That's a nice Boulder


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## MountainPool (Jul 13, 2014)

Wow! Your camboba looks brilliant, pinned behind the wood like that! (Mine gets eaten before it can grow in) 
You've given me some great ideas for my 30L, thanks for journaling!


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## AnonAnona (Jul 2, 2014)

Tyveck said:


> I like the shrimp! Those are lower grade CRS :> I have always like the pattern on them though! Im about ready to sell some higher grade CRS so keep me in mind if you want to start a bigger shrimp colony! :>


:biggrin: I went to the LFS to get some RCS but they didn't have any... It's a shame but these guys were sat there and I couldn't resist getting them! They are really low grade yeah... Grade C (or B at a push) but it doesn't bother me :icon_wink what grade are yours? And if I added them to this tank then wouldn't the grade Cs and your shrimp produce middle grades?



Xzavier247 said:


> That's a nice Boulder


The Sieryu stone or the pebbles? The sieryu has been packed away until I get a bigger tank  it's a shame but there's no room for it really :icon_frow



MountainPool said:


> Wow! Your camboba looks brilliant, pinned behind the wood like that! (Mine gets eaten before it can grow in)
> You've given me some great ideas for my 30L, thanks for journaling!


It's been in the tank for about 4 weeks without any fauna, and 10 hours of light per day. The roots are about 2 inches long but it's STILL way too easy to uproot cabomba... The wood is vital in this tank! Without it I'm likely to catch the cabomba when cleaning the tank and uprooting the entire bunch of it.  :confused1: The fish love it though so it's worth it! Hopefully I can stop moving things around and let it properly anchor itself into the substrate!


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## AnonAnona (Jul 2, 2014)

*28 August 2014*

So glad I went with CPDs! They do hide at the back, yes, but they roam in pairs out into the open space  It's great to watch. I've been able to count 7 out in the open and I assume the other 3 are keeping an eye on their hiding spot (I still cant find exactly where they hide... damn cabomba!). The fry just wont stop moving... it's swimming all over... constantly! It doesn't look to be in distress though, just curious :wink: And interestingly, it doesn't school with the other CPDs, but the other CPDs sometimes try to follow it. It has completely different behavior so I'm starting to wonder if it is actually a CPD or some other species. Only time will tell...

They are all colouring up really nicely. They tend to be pale blue in the morning, like in the photos below, but turn a nice deep blue with vibrant red fins in the evening. I've noticed a few of them doing the "courtship dance" so breeding might be an upcoming journal entry  people say that this a territorial dance between males but I'm not sure about this. They come out into the open to do it which seems odd. Surely a territorial dance happens in the territory that they are trying to claim? :confused1: I don't think there's space in the hidey hole to do the dance so I'm not sure either way.

Let's get some pics uploaded! There aren't many because most of them are blurred. My gf is bringing over her DSLR and macro lens so we'll get some proper pictures taken soon 

The Shrimp seem to love the pebbles. I'm not sure if they like the taste/smell (since they are from the sea) or whether its the texture. 




























I fed them a small amount yesterday, just after I finished updating my journals, because I didn't want the fry to suffer. It's so small and I wasn't sure how long it could go without food. To my surprise, they all came out and had a good feed. So I've started feeding them already. Morning and night at 7.

They like Hikari micro pellets and Hikari micro wafers, but the wafers are too large for them, so I have to crush them up. For those of you who aren't aware, the wafers are about the size of a grain of granulated sugar... and it's still too big for their mouths haha! I've got some frozen daphnia in the freezer but I'm going to save that for a later date.

Well, thanks for reading!
Rad91


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## AnonAnona (Jul 2, 2014)

*4 September 2014*

We have new additions to the tank!










The red spotted nerite just doesn't stop! It's been roaming around the tank every time I look.










I've noticed that the shrimp regroup a few times per day. It's quite amusing to watch.










Unfortunately, the biggest shrimp has lost it's berries. I've heard that amateur shrimp can drop them. She's got 1 or 2 still there so let's see how things go.








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Since the rescape, the plants have been doing a lot better.










The cabomba has doubled in size and now touches the top of the tank.










And finally... I tried to take some pictures with my phone (which is bright red) and the CPDs seemed to be interested in it 





































I've got 3 males and 3 females. I don't know about the rest. The fry is growing pretty quick... getting more silver every day. I can't get a photo of that one though  I'll get some better photos eventually 

Cheers!
Rad91


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## MountainPool (Jul 13, 2014)

Those photos are really good for phone pics,  

My gups come up to the glass whenever anything moves, too, it's lovely. 

hope your shrimplady keeps the rest of her eggs!


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## cjstl (Mar 4, 2013)

Keep an eye on those nerites. I have had eternal troubles with the larger nerites. They tend to get knocked off the glass and land on their backs and can't turn over again. They'll die if you don't catch them. Just lost another big tracked nerite in one of my tanks


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## AnonAnona (Jul 2, 2014)

*9 September 2014*

Urgh... well it's been a hectic weekend! A fair bit of bad news unfortunately 

Snails:

On Saturday I noticed that one of the snails was on the bottom looking pretty lifeless. Its "door" was semi open and it didn't move for a few hours so I took it out and added it to the Marimo moss ball jar. The other snail was on the tank wall. I kept an eye on the jar and on Sunday I noticed it had *very* small white specs swimming around the snail. I cant be sure, but I think they were cyclopods. The biggest one was smaller than a grain of sand and it looked like a box with a little spike on its rear. I think they developed in the moss ball jar though. There are none (that I am aware of) in the tank so I don't think they arrived with the snails. Either way, I decided that this snail was dead. I also kept an eye on the other snail. It hadn't moved at all. So it seems they've both died :icon_cry:

I'm not sure why they both died. I acclimatised them over a 2 hour period and they were fine for a couple of days. They came from a pet shop tank at 28 deg C into my tank at 23 deg C which could be the reason. Although why would they act completely normal for a few days and then start dying?

I've been doing tests every other day and it's always 23 deg C (except one particularly hot day when the tank reached 25 deg C)

pH constant at 6.8 (it was 7.4 during the cycling process due to massive nitrate levels but has been constant at 6.8 since). Ammonia 0, Nitrites 0, Nitrates <5ppm. I do weekly 10-15% water changes to keep nitrates down (small WC so that I don't stress the fauna).

I'm not upset by the loss of snails, but I'm am kind of disappointed with myself. Everything seemed to be going so well...

Shrimp:

The biggest shrimp has lost all of her berries. On a positive note... it molted! I saw a hollow skin floating around when I was cleaning the tank. It scared me senseless! I had no idea what it was at first haha!

Anyway, back to the depressing news. On Sunday I couldn't find one of the smaller shrimp. I found it on tucked away in the back corner but it was belly up  I'm really not sure why this happened. Seems strange that it died when I got the snails...

My windowsill:

A bit off topic! I've got a few cacti, bonsai trees and (currently) a couple of apple tree seedlings. Now I've got an infestation of aphids which I'm dealing with. and no... I haven't transferred ANY of the insecticide into the tank. Everything was taken outside and dealt with out there, then returned to the room later.

I've been doing some manual aquaponics with the fish tank water and these plants. I can't wait to move out and get a fish tank / herb garden setup going 

The fish:

I'm so glad these are doing well! They've managed to cheer me up a couple of times this weekend  I've learned that when I put my hand near the back corner, all the fish swim out into the open. It's very pretty seeing them all shoal together in a diamond formation  especially since the males are a nice deep blue colour and have bright orange/black stripy fins :icon_eek: They come up to the glass when I'm sat watching TV and I've seen about 4 males doing their little spinning terrority dance thing. They do it for a few seconds but the filter return water pushes them down so they have to stop before they reach the bottom :smile: I have all 11 still alive and looking healthy. The fry has doubled in size and is still completely silver. I'm still wondering if it's a CPD or not! It's nearly as long as the smaller CPDs but it isn't as tall yet.

Oh and I should point out that I don't scare the fish out of hiding for amusement! I don't want a load of angry comments about this :icon_eek:


I've been feeding them slowly sinking pellets (about two pinches twice per day) and they gobble them up when the HOB pushes them down. They act like they are hunting. It's fascinating watching them all peek out when they think they saw "a bug" float by. They wont touch them up they are left to slowly sink... they don't even acknowledge it as food. I'm really considering getting some daphnia... well I was until all this bad stuff started happening! Hopefully things will stay positive and I can consider getting some daphnia (and perhaps set up a daphnia breeding tank if the CPDs like them!)

Oh and I saw a shrimp literally dive onto a rolling pellet the other day. Funniest thing I've seen in a while! :hihi:

The tank:

I got fed up with all the brown algae (which was turning black in places). There wasn't much of it but certainly enough to annoy me :icon_roll I've cut out pretty much half of the anubias leaves, trimmed the cabomba back 4 inches, cut out some leaves with brown spots and cleaned the heater. I'm actually starting to get some algae now! It's been perfect for weeks but the tables are starting to turn :icon_eek: On the plus side, the plants have rooted very well! They are starting to show on the tank wall under the substrate.

I'm getting some tiny bubbles forming on the surface around the edges and around the heater cable and airline tube. I've read that this is normal and just a build up of protein from their found so I'm not fussed.

I noticed that on the substrate surface under the cabomba is a layer of dead plant matter. It's obviously a place with low flow. I cant get a gravel vac in there and I can't scrape any of it into the open. And I *really* don't want to uproot the cabomba again... that was a nightmare last time. Any ideas from you TPTers? My only thought is to trim the lower leaves off the cabomba (the bottom 2 inches) in the attempt to get a better flow across the substrate.

That's my entire weekend right there! pfffffft

I'm still looking for answers to my recent deaths but no success. Anybody had any similar experiences?

Cheers

Radiation91

Bump:


MountainPool said:


> Those photos are really good for phone pics,
> 
> My gups come up to the glass whenever anything moves, too, it's lovely.
> 
> hope your shrimplady keeps the rest of her eggs!


I was surprised by the quality too! I'll borrow my gf's camera soon and get some decent photos 



cjstl said:


> Keep an eye on those nerites. I have had eternal troubles with the larger nerites. They tend to get knocked off the glass and land on their backs and can't turn over again. They'll die if you don't catch them. Just lost another big tracked nerite in one of my tanks


Sorry to hear that cjstl. The pet shop woman told me that I had to place them in the tank with their door to the ground otherwise they just die. I spent a good 10-20 mins trying to put them in the tank facing the right way lol they kept rolling around 

They seemed to have a decent grip in the shop. It took a while to pull them off the glass. I was going to go with ramshorn or MTS but I can't risk them breeding. I would never be able to keep there population under control without restarting the entire tank  this tiny hole in the top is a nightmare!


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## TheAnswerIs42 (Jul 10, 2014)

ive really enjoyed reading about your challenges with your Edge. I too have a 12 Gallon and find the top access way too small and very frustrating.

on the plus side, now that my tank is becoming more established I have fewer reasons to fiddle around inside. 

I love that you got CPDs, I find them a great treat to watch. I saw you mentioned the 1 in of fish to 1 gallon adage; I find this ratio to be more of a suggestion for newbs. Now that my tank is established, I have 14 CPD's, 12 Pgymy Cories and a whole mess of shrimp (20+). What is more essential is that you have good water flow, sufficient hiding spots and a good clean-up crew.

I love your setup and plants. Looks very lush.
Nice Job.


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## AnonAnona (Jul 2, 2014)

TheAnswerIs42 said:


> ive really enjoyed reading about your challenges with your Edge. I too have a 12 Gallon and find the top access way too small and very frustrating.
> 
> on the plus side, now that my tank is becoming more established I have fewer reasons to fiddle around inside.
> 
> ...


Ahaaa I started reading your journal when you started it and then forgot which one it was! I'm glad I found it again! Thanks for the kind words, I like to put in the additional detail. I think it makes it a more interesting read :smile: you do the same thing in your journal which is why I love reading yours :thumbsup:

Since you've got an edge, can you tell me a few things?

What setting have you got the filter set to? Too fast seems to hit the front of the tank and then it bends all the plants. I noticed the front center of your tank has less growth than the front corners (coincidence?) too low and the water pours straight down at the back and drags all the tall plants forward 

Also, when feeding your CPDs. Does the food get sucked down by the flow and settle on the substrate? The little hole in the top is the only place to sprinkle the food in... But the filter is also in the hole which means nothing floats for long.

Anyway, I won't keep asking questions :redface: I'm going to leave the plants to fill out more and hopefully get more of the tank filled. Once I get things bushier then I'll think about additional fish. I'm not pushing the limits yet because I'm a newb and I'm playing by the rules until I get enough experience :smile:


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## cjstl (Mar 4, 2013)

Ok, I don't have a journal for my Edge, but thought I'd share a few pics. It is my oldest tank, but the hardscape has changed a few times. It's overgrown and overstocked, but I think it has a certain wild beauty. It is also very low-maintenance, which is nice. The mat of hornwort at the top needs to come out. Started off weighted down behind the sword, but most came loose and floated, then spread everywhere. The water level is low right now, but there is a beautiful carpet of giant duckweed growing among the hornwort. I'm going to move it to some of my other tanks and get rid of the annoying regular duckweed. The plants on the right are a mixture of jungle val and dwarf sag. The hairgrass really needs to be trimmed down in front so you can see the rocks again. Even left to grow wild, it has carpeted pretty well. Hopefully it'll fill in the rest of the way if I mow it short. Thinking about planting some emersed-grown wisteria behind the sword once I remove the hornwort. Let me know what you guys think.


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## AnonAnona (Jul 2, 2014)

Oh wow that looks great! I personally couldn't have it like that because I like to have everything in order  It does look fantastic though!

It looks similar to the neon tetras natural environment btw  Nice work


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## AnonAnona (Jul 2, 2014)

*13 September 2014
*
All is going well!

I've made a "device" to make sure the filter doesn't push all the food down to the floor. It's simple but it seems to be working!

I had some airline tube left over so I created a circle using a T joint and attached a sucker pad to the inside of the tank rim.




























It sits on the water surface and the food sits inside it. The food floats, but doesn't float outside the circle (hence doesn't get sucked down).










After a while it sinks and the CPDs go after it 

Algae is definitely growing. The back (nearest the light) has the most. It's strange.... after weeks of it being crystal clear and clean it's suddenly changed  Keeps me busy!










I took some pics of the anubias now that it's been trimmed...



















I don't know if the freshly cut leaves smells nice to shrimp but this guys all over it!










there isn't much to say really. I thought I'd just update it with the "feeding ring" idea.

Cheers!

Rad91


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## Tyveck (Jul 6, 2014)

I love it! I have been reading your journal since day 1 haha it great to hear your tank is going well! I hate to hear about your snails though! If You want I would t mind sending you some of my extra ramshorn snails as a RAOK! I have enjoyed reading about your tank so I just want to give back just pm me if you want! Keep up the good work!


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## AnonAnona (Jul 2, 2014)

Tyveck said:


> I love it! I have been reading your journal since day 1 haha it great to hear your tank is going well! I hate to hear about your snails though! If You want I would t mind sending you some of my extra ramshorn snails as a RAOK! I have enjoyed reading about your tank so I just want to give back just pm me if you want! Keep up the good work!


Ah thanks Tyveck  I'm glad you're enjoying the journal! It's great fun writing about my experiences and day 1 seems so long ago! I will pm you about the snails for sure, thank you for the offer!

Small update time!

*14 September 2014
*
I originally did this aquascape so that one piece of driftwood held down the other. It was floating and I was impatient :icon_bigg I've added a load of pebbles to that piece since then so I might have a look at a slight rescape. The cabomba doesn't seem to be moving around too much so I don't think that moving the large piece of driftwood will be an issue.

My plan? Well if I can get the long bit of wood to sit near the top in the middle then the water flow will be diffused more. And it will open up the back corner and encourage the fish to be in the open space more often. They hide in it every time I go up to the tank to feed them and this new scape may help them get used to me. roud: I'm thinking something like this... but resting the driftwood against the top of the heater?










I don't want to encourage brown algae growth though... maybe I should do a split photoperiod where it stays on in the morning and evening (when I'm in) but turns off in the middle of the day to reduce algae. Thankfully the filter and light are powered separately so I could get a timer socket for the light and have it automatically turn off for a while during the day.

The fry is growing and getting into the spirit of things  He/she/it has been playing follow the leader with the other CPDs. I still have no idea if it is a CPD fry but I'm willing to wait and see :icon_wink

My grandma has just walked in to the room and had a look at the tank. There was a shrimp in the front corner barely moving and we spent 5 minutes watching it very closely. Its front arms were moving around but nothing else. It was lopsided and not doing much. Its fanning its back fin-things but it's on its side, on the substrate.



















I'm _really _not happy about this... I'd hate another dead shrimp  I've been so careful with everything so far and 4 deaths in a couple of weeks would annoy me quite a bit  I'm off to do research on this it seems...

Well that entry turned sour towards the end! And I was in such a good mood 15 minutes ago!

Thanks for reading
Rad91

Bump: update:

The shrimp is upright and still fanning itself and moving its arms but its feelers are pointing down. They don't usually do that but at least it's upright :thumbsup:


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## cjstl (Mar 4, 2013)

Shrimp might be trying to molt. Sometimes they have trouble and lay on their sides for a while. I had one that I removed from my tank once and kept her in a glass of water for a week. She never quite got herself righted, but her legs were still moving, so I knew she was alive. Then, finally, I came home and found the shell and she was back up and about. If I hadn't moved her out of the tank, the snails and/or planaria would have killed her.

Just a word of caution on ramshorn snails. I love them and have them in all of my tanks. They're generally plant-safe, but one of the few plants they do love to eat is camboba. They ate mine down to nubs. It's because the leaves are so soft - it's just like eating algae to them.


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## AnonAnona (Jul 2, 2014)

cjstl said:


> Shrimp might be trying to molt. Sometimes they have trouble and lay on their sides for a while. I had one that I removed from my tank once and kept her in a glass of water for a week. She never quite got herself righted, but her legs were still moving, so I knew she was alive. Then, finally, I came home and found the shell and she was back up and about. If I hadn't moved her out of the tank, the snails and/or planaria would have killed her.
> 
> Just a word of caution on ramshorn snails. I love them and have them in all of my tanks. They're generally plant-safe, but one of the few plants they do love to eat is camboba. They ate mine down to nubs. It's because the leaves are so soft - it's just like eating algae to them.


:droolhew! That's cheered me up! thanks for putting my mind at rest! I'll keep an eye on it though :icon_eek:

I haven't researched Ramshorns yet but I wouldn't get them without first doing lots of research haha The cabomba situation is a bummer though since that (and the sessiflora (which is like cabomba)) make up most of the flora in the tank. Losing that would be a pain!

I can't get MTS because they will uproot everything. I've not had much luck with nerites. Apple snails eat everything and Ramshorns look great and a population explosion is easily fixed with the introduction of some assassin snails but I think the plant eating is a real deal breaker for these guys 

I'm planning to get some (10?) more CRS to add to the tank soon so I'll have a good ponder about types of snails as well


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## Tyveck (Jul 6, 2014)

Yeah do some research on them like I said, I love them so much I have a handful in all my tanks and currently breeding them in my CRS tank (I have 2 CPD as well!! I keep them because they eat all the little bug, planeria, that show up in my shrimp tank I also will have a few CRS up for sale pretty soon too! I love watching them eat! Those four little arms and pinchers grabbing food like it going outta style! Haha


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## Tyveck (Jul 6, 2014)

Oh and I have had a cherries shrimp do the exact thing!!! You can go read my "worst mistake keeping shrimp story" I posted awhile back haha it will give you a good laugh!


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## AnonAnona (Jul 2, 2014)

Tyveck said:


> Those four little arms and pinchers grabbing food like it going outta style! Haha


I love watching them do their thing hah :icon_mrgr

*18 September 2014*

I've started back at uni and they've got a fixed routine now. I did a load of cleaning this weekend and got the brown algae off the plants and back wall. I cleaned the sponge filter etc so it looks a lot cleaner now.

On a sad note, the shrimp died after 4 days of trying to molt. I felt pretty bad that another one has died and I spent nearly 5 hours researching it:


If there is lots of left over food on the substrate then the shrimp eat it and don't eat as much algae. Too much protein causes molting problems.
I have soft/very soft water which means they don't have as much calcium etc to help with their shells.
Now I'm going to get some calcium blocks so that the shrimp have a helping hand. As for the food problem... I'm really not sure how to handle it. I might try turning off the filter when I add the food so that it stays away from the substrate slightly longer.

Ohhhhh I forgot! I tried out some brine shrimp and the CPDs loved them! The smaller ones had to munch on them a bit but the bigger ones could just about gobble them up. Watching them hunt is really fun! The shrimp that was trying to molt managed to catch one of them and had a great last meal too!

I've noticed that I'm getting plenty of brown coloured algae on leaves (which wipes off when I rub my thumb across them) and there are brown speckles on the tank wall (I think these are called diatoms?). It comes back after I clean it pretty quickly, especially around the light, so now I'm considering getting some ottos. The shrimp are good at cleaning the floor but not this brown algae. The snails did a great job but didn't last very long.

The tank has a fair amount of flora and the CPDs are usually hidden. They tend to stick near the substrate and weave in between the mass of leaves. So I think that if the plants continue to grow then getting 3 ottos wouldn't be an issue.

I'm pushing the 1 inch to 1 gallon rule with 3 ottos (which get 2 inch long max) but I'm keeping an eye on the water parameters etc pretty closely so I don't see any problems. Oh and nitrates are pretty consistent, which will keep the ottos happy.

Thanks for reading!
Rad91


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## Tyveck (Jul 6, 2014)

Nice! If you have soft water those calcium blocks should do the trick. You can also put a few limestone rocks in your tank and they will create harder water for those cherries!


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## AnonAnona (Jul 2, 2014)

Tyveck said:


> Nice! If you have soft water those calcium blocks should do the trick. You can also put a few limestone rocks in your tank and they will create harder water for those cherries!


Oh god! Not more hardscape! haha :icon_lol: I'll remember that for next time I get a shrimp tank 

*18 September 2014
*
Exciting news! I borrowed my gf's camera and tried taking some pictures. They are lightning fast so 90% of them were naff. next time I'll get some better lighting and then I'll be able to get a better picture!

They didn't know what to think when the camera first appeared:










They got closer... I'm glad I manged to get a picture showing their pearls  










And this is the big boy! He's the biggest male and his fins are almost red when he swims close to the light. I love those fins!










And of course, the 2 males were in the open so they just _had_ to dance:










Like I said, the lighting strip is bright for the tank, but no where near enough for the camera... I will get better pictures eventually  It's all trial and error!

Cheers!
Radiation91


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## AnonAnona (Jul 2, 2014)

*10 October 2014
*
Wow! Nearly a full month since my last update... sheeesh!

Well there's been a few changes!

First off, I was getting masses of brown coloured algae and speckles all over the tank walls so I headed to my LFS and bought a couple of ottos  They are waaaay too good at camouflaging against the driftwood but they cleaned the entire tank in 2 days. The CPDs initially came up to them and were very interested and they seem to be a _little_ bit more confident.

It turns out that the small fry is not a CPD... it's colours are completely different and I'm almost certain that it's a spadetail endler. It's luminous red down its side, there's a black line forming from its eye down its body and there is a green colour developing around the top and bottom of its rear fin. It roams around the tank without fear and I've caught it following ottos and cleaning up the loose bits of algae and it also pecks at the algae. All in all, fairly confident that it's an endler. Might need to get it a couple of endler friends because the CPDs tend not to interact with it. It hangs around with the ottos more than the CPDs 

I've taken out the anubias since I read that snapped anubias roots can give out toxins that kill shrimp. I also took them out because they were blocking a lot of the light from reaching the bottom.

Today, I received a parcel  I bought 25 CRS (I haven't counted them but I'm pretty sure there's about 25-30) which came today. I've just finished acclimatising them to the new tank and I've got a whole range of grades and sizes in there now! The smallest one is about 3mm long. I've got some pure white shrimp with a single red line so I think I've got some grade S at least, but I like the lower grade ones just as much. Tbh the mix of grades really works for me! Lots of variation in there and I like that 

All in all things are going well! The tank is STILL at 5ppm Nitrates and 0 for ammonia and nitrites. The only thing left to do is the cooling system (which can wait until later) and I need to get some moss to tuck into the holes in the driftwood  

Peace out!
Rad91


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## AnonAnona (Jul 2, 2014)

*30 October 2014*

I finally have a day off! So lets get this journal updated!

Jumping back to what the tank looked like earlier, the driftwood was stood upright and sat under the filter output flow. It got a lot of light and I liked having some hardscape in the upper part of the tank but it wasn't working for me... I could never see the CPDs! I attempted to tease them out with some daphnia










Alas, it didn't really work... but they did like the live food! Also, the light was really close to the anubias, which created a lot of brown algae. So I've bought 2 new friends... Bill and Ben!










Yep... they're ottos!










Big bellied ottos at that!

My tank is spotless now... and I've got a airline tube sucker pad thing on the left wall. Its great because I can cut a slit in a cucumber slice, cook it and slide it over the bit that sticks out of the sucker pad. Then again, stuff like spinach can be hooked through the airline tube hole part. (this isn't the greatest of descriptions lol)

Moving on...

I got some more new friends!

There's about 25 CRS. Some are pure white and some are grade C. There a mixture across all the grades which is nice.










The smallest one was about 2mm long, possibly smaller. I nearly threw it away because i didn't see it :icon_redf but it went in there although I've not seen it since. Probably got eaten by the CPDs since it was the size of a daphnia.

My original 3 CRS stuck together when I was introducing the others.










they're all getting along with each other now though :smile:

I've moved stuff... again... :icon_roll but this time I'm loving it!










The driftwood looks more natural. you might have noticed that I've ripped out half of the cabomba and placed the black pebbles around the base of the stems to hide the roots and give it a solid anchoring.










I've also moved the big leaved plant to the front left to give a bit of variety in leaf shape on that side of the tank. *gets distracted* I've just noticed that the endler is kissing its reflection right now... anyway back to the tank. I'm tempted to get a couple more endlers just to keep the lone endler company but I've hear they breed like crazy. It's definitely an endler though. It's getting redder on its side and its got a blue/green shimmer when it turns. It's hard to get a pic of it because it's so damn lively!










So, with the new layout, the fish have less places to hide and I can see them more.



















Also, one female fish seems quite "round". Advice?
































































So there you are! A load of photos to enjoy!

there is some bad news though. Anybody who is reading my 5G mountainscape journal knows that I've got a massive amount of algae forming and it's annoyed me a fair bit. Well in this tank, I've got a diffferent problem...

The shrimp seem to be dying. No warning. I was watching one just acting normal cleaning the substrate and then "flop". It was on it's side and dead. So far, I've lost 2 of the original 5 CRS and then I lost the 2 nerites. Now I've lost about half of the CRS I put in. At first I didn't see any dead shrimp but noticed the numbers were dropping. I guess they were eating each other when they died.

I'm still trying to work out what's happening. There's something in the water/tank/food that's killing invertebrates. The reason for getting more CRS was to reduce the amount of protein they eat from leftover food but I barely feed the fish anything nowadays. they've got a calcium block in there at all times which they occasionally go over to and munch. I've seen several molts, which then get eaten. I've removed the anubias because I heard the roots can kill shrimp. right now I just don't know.

I'm hoping that the Ramshorn snails going in my other tank will stay alive and then I know if it's this tank, or whether it's the water. Either way, it's depressing to find a dead shrimp.... especially because they don't show any symptoms at all!

Morbid end to the journal but who knows what will happen!

Hopefully the rest will keep living strong!

Thanks for reading!
Radiation91


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## AnonAnona (Jul 2, 2014)

*23 December 2014
*
Not much to say... The shrimp have stopped dying and there's about 5 in there now. the numbers dropped to 5 shortly after the last post and they're doing fine.

The Endler is starting to get more colour and I'm thinking about getting some more of them, just to even out the numbers.

The ottos are doing great. Not had to clean any algae out of the tank at all... other than the inside of the filter tube.

I've managed to make the CPDs more confident by turning the filter off during feeding time. The pellets float on the top and the Endler starts eating them. The CPDs quickly joined in. Now they've started swimming around in the open space, looking out for food.

I've put some daphnia in recently and some of them are too big for the CPDs to eat so they're now residents  I don't mind, one of the shrimps will catch it sooner or later!

The tank has reached a point where it's stabilised. The plants are thriving and I do weekly WCs and cutbacks to let light in to the bottom. The inhabitants are living happily with each other and I don't feel the need to change anything 

I suspect this journal will be quiet for a while now. I'm going to be moving house in a couple of years so I'm guessing that's going to be when I return to this journal (unless something happens in the meantime).

I hope you enjoyed reading about this tank!

Rad91


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## Zoidborg (Jan 29, 2014)

Thanks for the great read. sorry that you have so many crs deaths. That's one of the reasons I've been hesitant to get crystals, so expensive here and can die easily. I have cherries in 2 of my 5 tanks, started with 10 and now have 50+


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## AnonAnona (Jul 2, 2014)

Zoidborg said:


> Thanks for the great read. sorry that you have so many crs deaths. That's one of the reasons I've been hesitant to get crystals, so expensive here and can die easily. I have cherries in 2 of my 5 tanks, started with 10 and now have 50+


Yeh you're living in USA... I've noticed fauna costs a lot more over there. But you get $1 per gallon tank deals so that balances things out 

I think I've lost about £60 worth of CRS in this tank which is annoying but I've got some plans for the tank 

*4 January 2015*

So far the tank has been going great. Lately the cabomba has stopped growing (not sure why) and the sessiflora has been collecting algae because it's directly under the light. The Lilaeopsis brasiliensis at the front is struggling to get enough light now that the other plants are growing taller.

1) I'm going to get rid of all the duckweed in the tank. It's collecting on the prefilter sponge and not doing much.

2) I'll be taking out the Lilaeopsis brasiliensis and thinking about putting in a java moss carpet. Good for the shrimps and it can grow in low light.

3) I'll be taking out the cabomba and replacing it with egeria densa. The sessiflora and cabomba look very similar and I want to change it so that I've got more variety. I might put a cutting from the hygrophilia siamensis 53B (I did that from memory so it might be wrong) near the back too. Having that at the base of the egeria would fill the gap and the ottos love to sleep on the leaves so they will be happy.

4) I'm going to move the thermometer to the back wall.

5) I'm going to dot some java moss around/in the driftwood.

Overall, there's going to be more stuff in there for shrimps. I'm helping to set up my girlfriend's tank and my other tank so I could sneak some cuttings from those and use them in this one  that way it wont cost me anything.


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## AnonAnona (Jul 2, 2014)

1 February 2015

Well, the tank has had some slight changes... but nothing major.

I've pulled out some of the cabomba at the back because it was growing really stringy with barely any leaves. There's only one piece left in at the moment. I planted one stem of Hygrophila siamensis 53b in that corner because all the fauna like that plant.

I've added a patch of moss in the end of the long DW and at the base of the DW, which the ottos like to hang around.










I've also filled the tank up too far and it touched against the top panel. That's what you're supposed to do with this tank but there are endless bubbles and it looks awful. However, my ottos did enjoy chasing bubbles around the surface of the tank!










After a few months of turning the filter off during feeding, the CPDs now eat food from the surface of the water. There's NO wasted food and there's the added benefit of more confident fish. My girlfriend started looking at the tank and they all came right up to her face. I'm pretty pleased with that because they're now doing the same thing with me!

I don't know why but all the animals in my house love her better than me... not sure what it is about her though :icon_frow

On a final note, I've added a few tufts of Java moss inside an airline sucker pad and stuck it in the top left corner. it will receive minimal light but that's fine. I'm hoping it will help to provide food for younger shrimp? Having said that, my girlfriend's tap water has 40ppm nitrate in it so I'm guessing mine's the same. Nevertheless, I've got 4-5 shrimp in there having a good time.


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## Tyveck (Jul 6, 2014)

Awsome! Great to hear an update! I'm still reading keep it up m8


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## AnonAnona (Jul 2, 2014)

*2 April 2015*

Ok so things have been going fairly smoothly. I've got about 3 CRS that are hardy blighters and are powering on. The otos are have a good time sucking the mush that builds up in the prefilter sponge. One fish died (old age?) and the rest are having a great time.

Some sad news though.

I can't gravel vac this tank. I don't mean "I can't be bothered trying to". I ACTUALLY can't. The small hole and the position in the corner, with all the plants and stuff makes it impossible to get the gravel vac to the base of the tank. So what I've done in the attempt to help it is pour in new water when I do a WC and that stirs up all the crud in the tank, then I run the filter without the prefilter so that it sucks it all up. It works to some extent but nothing like it needs to be. How do you other Fluval Edge people do it? I had the prefilter sponge off for a week and everything was fine. The fish could easily outswim the flow around the intake so there was no problem. However one morning I noticed the pipe was clogged. One of the CPDs was in the intake tube. Must have fallen asleep and drifted into it  Needless to say, the sponge is back on and staying on!

To make things worse (or better... I can't tell yet), I'm moving house soon! The expected moving date is 1st June - 16th June so I have some time to plan what I'm going to do. The problem I have is that I'm going to need to move the fluval tank. It's really tempting to drain the tank down to 3 inches of water and carry that to the car and take it to the new house like that. I know that if anything goes wrong then its going to be a pain to resolve though. If I drain it completely then my plants are probably going to suffer a bit and I would need to do a rescape. Any thoughts?

I've come up with an idea which I am really liking lately... I could get a new (bigger) tank to make things easier. It would mean that I could COMPLETELY pull out everything from the Fluval and replant it all in the new tank. I could then clean the gravel in the fluval really easily then! With the new tank I wouldn't have to deal with the tiny hole which is annoying me to death!! I can keep the fluval and move my betta fish into it... he would really like the extra space and the tank would be ideal for him! The small tank with the betta (see my signature for a link) is currently facing a problem with algae in the moss and the filter and then best thing for it is probably to pull it all out.

Let me know what you think.

Cheers,
Rad91


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## AnonAnona (Jul 2, 2014)

*12 April 2015*

Well, it's decided, I'll be moving house in June so this tank will be getting emptied, transported to the new house and put back together using the same plants, hardscape and fish. That means I'll be pulling out all the plants, taking cuttings from them and replanting them all to make it look fuller.

The issue I have with this tank is that I can't clean the gravel very well. To help with this, the plan is to rescape it with a mossy patch at the front and bushy plants to the back, to help with cleaning. The hardscape will be moved around to make it easier. The tank will be put somewhere that makes it easier for me to get into as well.

The best part is that when the tank is emptied, I can get the gravel cleaned out 100% without upsetting the fish! wahoo! And by cleaned I mean gravel vacced, not bleaches an stuff. Want to keep all that good bacteria in there... just not all the gunge.

The only issue I can see is that the nitrate level in the tap water is fairly high compared to other places. I have a sneaky suspicion that the CRS died because of the constant low levels of nitrate in the tank. I've still got some alive and they are doing great but I don't know what makes these different from the other 30+ CRS :S

My other concern is that I'm not sure what the water will be like where we are moving to. It's possible that the water there will have 40ppm nitrate in the tap water. I just don't know... So I'll have a look at getting a RODI filter set up. My father-in-law-to-be has recently got one and he isn't planning on using it so I might enquire as to its usage  If I don't get that one then I could buy one. I plan to get a reef tank in the future, in my "final family house". I've got my eye on a 400G aquarium but I'll need to save up some dosh first! That will need an RODI filter so buying it now will just spread out some of the cost. At the moment my gf is using bottled water for her RCS tank, which is fine because it's only 2.5G but having this filter could be cheaper in the long run if it's being used on all the tanks. The best thing is that it will be my house (not my parents) so I can set up the RODI filter on the wall permanently without upsetting anyone  Plus we wouldn't need dechlorinator which is a nice bonus!

Now, I'm just counting down the days before the big move.

Cheers,
Rad91


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## Tyveck (Jul 6, 2014)

Yay! I hope everything works out!! Make sure to post pictures


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## AnonAnona (Jul 2, 2014)

*27 May 2015

*And so it begins... I've spent the last 3 days cleaning, packing, sorting and transporting my stuff to the new house. It looks great! I'm really happy with it and I've been trying to put my plan into action. I wanted to get a bigger tank and put the everything from this Fluval into that one and then Cyan (my grumpy betta fish who only likes to play with my gf) can move into the Fluval. 

I originally saw a tank on ebay being sold pretty close to my new home and it was a 250L with everything included for £300 and I was really excited... but then it got taken off the site and I didn't get to bid :icon_frow I was looking forward to getting it but I had to think of something else. I searched on ebay and couldn't find anything good.

So last night I decided that I NEEDED to get the tank situation under control and that meant buying one. Specifically, a Fluval Roma 125 in black. I was tied between that and the Juwel Rio but I don't like the top heavy effect and the cabinet means that I can store all my fish related stuff inside and keep it out of sight.

That means I will have this Fluval, with a mixture of black substrates and a blue betta fish. It's a complete rescape!!

I'm learning from my experience though:


I'm not going to plant stuff into the substrate because gravel vac'ing this tank is a nightmare. I just refuse to do it. Ive been using a turkey baster to blast the crud out of the substrate and into the water column so that it gets sucked into the prefilter sponge. I then clean that sponge on a 2-weekly basis.
The snails in the 5G tank are out of control so I'm sticking with 2 or 3 ottos in this tank with the betta. They are awesome! I have never cleaned the glass in this tank and it looks as clean as a whistle!! Plus they're pretty funky swimmers...
The Fluval light is good for the plants in the middle but the outer plants grow spindley and creep to the middle. What's worse is that the returning water then pushes those plants down. It just looks a mess if it's left for more than a week without being trimmed.
This marks the end of my first tank. It's been great fun and a really enjoyable tank and I put that down to a lot of research, help from you guys and probably a bit of luck too  My aim is to make the tank less demanding. I want to enjoy the tank instead of thinking "oh that needs doing again" every time I walk past it.

I will be starting a new journal for the Fluval Roma 125 and another one for the rescape of this Fluval Edge 12g. I will put a link at the end of this journal when the new one starts.

I'm not revealing my plans yet but I will say that the hardscape for the fluval edge is on it's way and the parcel weighs 15kg! 15kg of hardscape in a 12g tank... should be interesting!!


Cheers,
Rad91


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