# Fluval Edge 12Gal - revived



## pewpewkittah (Jan 14, 2014)

I like it! I really like how you kind of combined the iwagumi and Dutch look. Only suggestion I have is to get a white bsckground, it would make everything pop!


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## TheAnswerIs42 (Jul 10, 2014)

pewpewkittah said:


> I like it! I really like how you kind of combined the iwagumi and Dutch look. Only suggestion I have is to get a white bsckground, it would make everything pop!


Thanks, that's what I was going for. I love the look of iwagumi, but find it a bit too minimalist for this tank. I like to have distinct pockets of plants that make it pleasing to the eye and easy to look at with many textures and varying heights, plus it creates some open swimming space. 
Thanks for the advice. There is a white wall behind the tank, but in the pic it is hard to see cause I took this picture this morning before the room got bright. I would like to get a plain white background, but I'll wait until I have to do a big water change. The Fluval Edge is a pretty tank, but can present quite a few challenges working in and around the tank.


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## Varmint (Apr 5, 2014)

Nice. It will be so pretty when it fills in. My Edge has been evolving for a year. I love it (by far my favorite tank of three). Make sure you take pictures every few weeks. It will give you a lot of perspective on how things are progressing. Doing so may even help you make further design choices.


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## UDGags (Sep 13, 2009)

Liking the new design, should fill in nicely.


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## TheAnswerIs42 (Jul 10, 2014)

Added 3 small amano shrimp today as a clean-up crew. These got work right away and immediately started eating the detritus that has accumulated these last couple days since replanting. For obvious reasons I can siphon the junk, and the RCSs are SOS few that they can't keep up.

Three isn't a lot of left over food, it is just at the CPDs are very shy and hardly ever take food as it sinks. I notice that they are better grazers and will pick the food off the plants and bare substrate, however they always miss a few and I have noticed a few white little fuzz balls among the plants (decaying food), hopefully the amanos take care of things and keep it tidy


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## TheAnswerIs42 (Jul 10, 2014)

Varmint said:


> Nice. It will be so pretty when it fills in. My Edge has been evolving for a year. I love it (by far my favorite tank of three). Make sure you take pictures every few weeks. It will give you a lot of perspective on how things are progressing. Doing so may even help you make further design choices.


I'm taking a picture everyday and planning on putting into a time lapse video.... Hopefully I can stick with it and actually finish the project. It will be cool to see how it ages over the next month or so.


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## TheAnswerIs42 (Jul 10, 2014)

*Day 3*

Day 3 and all is well.

I got an app from the Tropica site and decided to follow the steps through the first 90 days. The app is easy to follow and covers a 90 day period divided into 17 steps.

So under the direction of the Tropica App on day 3, this morning, I did about 50% water change, maybe a little less. Yesterday I read ahead and saw they suggested getting some amano shrimp or other algae eater to keep algae growth down and the food scraps down.

I didn't want to wait until today because a little bit of detritus had built up from skittish fish not eating too much because they are still adjusting to the new environment. So I went to my LFS yesterday and got 3 small amano shrimp  

The shrimp have already devoured a lot of algae that had built up on the rocks from the last setup. I look forward to seeing how they keep up as the tank ages.

Fish seem really happy, although my GH and kH are both at 3 and a pH of 6.4. The water quality is all good with ammonia and nitrite at 0 and nitrate at 5. That was yesterday.

This morning I did the water change and will do water tests later it the day.

I am trying to raise the kH and pH as I would prefere the water to have neutral pH and higher kH for the shrimp, but I just read last night the the ADA soil lowers the pH . I wonder if I should be messing around with the pH and adding Seachem alkaline buffer or just leave things alone? Fish seam to be fine and are not exhibiting signs of stress.


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## TheAnswerIs42 (Jul 10, 2014)

*Day 5*

The plants have grown quite a lot.










I am really cutting back on feeding. These guys eat so little (CPDs). They miss most of the food that I give them, I think because they are just so tiny and don't need much. 

The glass cats also eat very little. One cube of bloodworms lasts for over 5 feedings.

The 3 amanos I added a few days ago are doing great and not hassling the Cherry shrimp and have cleaned up a lot of my overfeeding mistakes.

I wonder if my lighting is too strong? I have the standard light bar that comes with the Edge. I think it has 48 SMC 5032 LEDs white with a warmth of about 6500K. I added an additional 63 SMC 5050 LEDs white with a warmth of 6000K. The additional light bar rests on the top glass infront of the hood.

Does anyone want to weigh in on my setup?


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## TheAnswerIs42 (Jul 10, 2014)

12 new Corydoras pygmaeus added. They are so fantastically adorable and love schooling with the glass cats. they are even smaller than the CPDs at this point and also spend time
Swimming with them. Hopefully they draw then out some more over the next few weeks.


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

The rescape looks fantastic! Would love to see pics of the fish


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## TheAnswerIs42 (Jul 10, 2014)

Day 10

Plants are looking great. The Dwarf Hair Grass is sending out lots of runners and growing very fast. What I'm getting really excited about is the didiplis, it has really started to take off these last few days.

Yesterday I visited a LFS and couldn't resist the cuteness of some Pygmy Cories. I've been doing *lots *of research for what would be a good fish to keep with my CPDs and have read a few accounts that these little guys make perfect companions to small, shy fish. So I bit the bullet and got 12. Already the CPDs are much braver and don't swim for the hills as soon as someone enters the room and the glass cats are thrilled to have some more fish to school with. It was hilarious, last night as the room was getting dark all the cories and glass cats were schooling, but the cories are just so tiny and act so big that the glass cats didn't quite know what to do about the whole situation. 

This morning I saw for the first time the CPDs dashing to surface with the pygmy cories, but they didn't really know why. They sort of got about an inch from the surface and then before they realized it, the cory had taken a breathe and was darting back down and the CPD was just left hanging there looking lost. 

Already the Cories have made my tank so much more alive and brought so much character out of the other fish. 

I know I am really pushing the fish to gallon ratio, but my water quality has been great and I have a really well established filter, plus these guys are so freakin small, i wonder how much they would actually contribute to the bioload. Small fish such as these do not really compare to the pooping factories like gold fish. Anyway, I will monitor my water closely for the next week and see how the bacteria do.

Here is a picture of things as of right now.... fish are all hiding because they are camera shy.


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## TheAnswerIs42 (Jul 10, 2014)

*Day 12*

Added 6 RCS today and an otto to help with the green algae growing on the glass and plants. 
Also got some flourish excel as I think my plants are co2 deprived. Ever since I got the Cories, and had to lower the water level for them so they could breathe, the plants have slowed in their growth and algae has started growing on the glass. 

I decided to take this on from 2 fronts, I got an otto  and some more shrimp. 

I think of the original 3 rcs that came from the old setup, the sole survivor was Big Red Momma. She has a great shine to her carapace and distinctive, pink racing stripe down her back. As soon as I dropped them in, she came out immediately to say hi. All of the news are full grown and one is well berried. Hopefully, but most likely doubtfully, some of the shrimplets will survive and not become fish food.

The otto immediately got to work on the glass and is doing a stellar job.

To solve my co2 dilemma, I tried a new way to diffuse the gas into the water. I tried an air stone again but the bubbles were too big. I also tried a stick from the garden that was dried out and had a very porous core; it kinda worked, the bubbles were small, but not small enough.

Finally I had a brainwave and went down to the street and bought a cigarette off someone, cut the filter off, took the paper wrapping off the filter and shoved into the air hose. Next I positioned it so that the bubbles came out right in line with the water flow and HUZZAH! The bubbles are tiny and instantly dispersed all over he tank. 

It's kinda late right now, so I have disconnected the co2 for the night, but going to run it all day tomorrow while I am at work and see how things go.

According to the co2 calculator, with a pH of 7.2 and kH of 5, my co2 is at 0.53ppm which is terribly low

Let's see how things progress. I think the best thing to do would be to invest in a co2 indicator. 

Damn, this is a costly hobby! But I do loves me fish


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## vanish (Apr 21, 2014)

TheAnswerIs42 said:


> Ever since I got the Cories, and had to lower the water level for them so they could breathe, the plants have slowed in their growth and algae has started growing on the glass.


Forgive me, but what? What do cories have to do with water level?


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## AnotherHobby (Mar 5, 2012)

vanish said:


> Forgive me, but what? What do cories have to do with water level?


Cories swim up to the top of the tank (often super fast) to get gulps of air. On an Edge, there is normally just that small hole, and they miss it or can't find it. Lowering the water level is a good idea, although it doesn't look good in an Edge. They aren't a good fish for this tank (I had them in my 12G Edge back when I had one).


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## TheAnswerIs42 (Jul 10, 2014)

At first I wasn't too keen on lowering the water level but when the tank is full the top glass gets so many bubbles accumulating throughout the day that by the time I'm home from work and ready to enjoy looking at my fish, I can't see through in the top anyway. I just lowered it about a 1/4 inch and seems fine. When I get another aquarium I'm going to try cutting the top glass off. While a great design idea, it's not a practical one.

Now that it is lowered, the CPDs love playing in the water stream and bubbles caused from the HOB filter outflow.


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## cjstl (Mar 4, 2013)

What is the blue hose that goes into your pre-filter sponge?


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## TheAnswerIs42 (Jul 10, 2014)

cjstl said:


> What is the blue hose that goes into your pre-filter sponge?


This is my DIY co2. I found it really difficult to get an effective way to diffuse the co2, decided instead to feed it into the filter where the bubbles get chopped up dissolve I to the water no problem, however, for this to work properly with a minimal amount of off gassing, you have to fill the tank ideally high so that there is minimum surface water aggetation. 

This became a problem when I got Pygmy Cories. They like to dash to the surface for gulps of air and in my Fluval Edge, when the tank is filled the brim, there is only a small area of surface water, so I had to drop it down some.

This resulted in the DIY co2 not really doing much, so as an alternative I played around with different ways to diffuse the bubbles. Now I have a clean cigarette filter stuffed into my co2 tube and have that hanging in the direct flow of the HOB filter outflow. 

I am not really convinced that this is working too well as I have not see any pearling on the plants and their growth has slowed down drastically. I am now considering building a pressurized co2 system. DIY worked for a while and enough for me to notice the huge difference in the health of my plants, so I now hooked and know that healthy plants = healthy tank.


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## TheAnswerIs42 (Jul 10, 2014)

*Day 15*


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## TheAnswerIs42 (Jul 10, 2014)

*Day 20*


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## TheAnswerIs42 (Jul 10, 2014)

*Baby shrimp alert!!*

Found this little guy this morning bravely hanging out on the Didiplis. After a little more looking I found another hiding in the mini hair grass. Don't expect them to last too long especially with the glass cats. I suspect they are killing the adults in the night. I will not get more RCS for this rank, only amano shrimp from now on.


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## Reginald2 (Mar 10, 2009)

The tank looks great. What did you end up doing about the CO2?


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## TheAnswerIs42 (Jul 10, 2014)

*The CO2 fiasco*



Reginald2 said:


> The tank looks great. What did you end up doing about the CO2?


I have been fussing with CO2 for over a month now and I have finally found a good solution. 

My DIY system is working perfectly, with the CO2 being diffused with a clean cigarette filter near the HOB filter outflow. I also dose with 0.3ml Flourish Excel every morning. 

I was unsure if this was doing anything or if I even had enough CO2 dissolved into the water, so I *almost* threw the whole thing out and wanted to buy a small fluval setup. But I had restraint and went instead for the $14 alternative.... A CO2 indicator. And to my complete surprise, within a couple hours of setting it up, it is reading green :icon_bigg 

So I will just stick with what I have until I upgrade to a bigger tank, then I will definitely go for a pressurized system with all the bells and whistles


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## TheAnswerIs42 (Jul 10, 2014)

*Day 26*











Just gave everything a trim today to encourage new, bushier growth, and replanted some of the clippings so the plants grow in more. Hopefully the Didiplis diandra recovers as I heard it is a sensitive plant and can turn black and rot.... But I just held my breath and did it. If it doesn't recover and grow back like it should, then I'll replace it with something else. But up until now it has been growing very well and even has little pink flowers!

I treated myself to good scissors. I have found that it is difficult to work in the fluval. It is deep and has a very narrow opening on the top. So I got the Do!aqua short handled, curved scissors. They are amazing. It's like cutting through butter, and work really well in tight spaces.


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## TheAnswerIs42 (Jul 10, 2014)

*Alive and munching*



TheAnswerIs42 said:


> Found this little guy this morning bravely hanging out on the Didiplis. After a little more looking I found another hiding in the mini hair grass. Don't expect them to last too long especially with the glass cats. I suspect they are killing the adults in the night. I will not get more RCS for this rank, only amano shrimp from now on.


It is one week since I caught first sight of a baby Red Cherry Shrimp, and I am happy to report that since then I have counted a maximum of 7 and they are all growing and surviving. However the mystery is in the Missing Adult RCS, well there are 3 that I can see, which means 4 are M.I.A. The plants are growing in quite thickly, so who knows, they might be hiding somewhere. out of the 24 hours in a day, I probably only watch them actively for an hour, so there is a whole lot of time that i have no idea what is going on (although I suspect that it is fairly similar to when i DO watch them)


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## TheAnswerIs42 (Jul 10, 2014)

*Day 35*


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## TheAnswerIs42 (Jul 10, 2014)

*Day 50*

Baby shrimps have grown and there are definitely at least 9 of them, and noticed that one of the full grown racing strip ladies is nicely berried with yellow eggs.

Here's a pic of Day 50 growth since the replanting. There is a bit of a snail problem, but I am managing it by killing as many as I can each night once the lights go out. Seams to be helping. I have also cut back on feeding.

In other exciting news, I definitely saw the glass cats mating this afternoon, as to if it amounts to anything, we shall see.


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## MountainPool (Jul 13, 2014)

Wow! Fantastic looking scape! 

The glass cats are not really interesting looking fish, I hope their breeding attempt goes well for you.


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## TheAnswerIs42 (Jul 10, 2014)

MountainPool said:


> Wow! Fantastic looking scape!
> 
> The glass cats are not really interesting looking fish, I hope their breeding attempt goes well for you.


Thanks! I am really pleased with the scape. I have a lot of fish, but they are really camera shy. As for the cats, well.... I thought they were really cool, until I lost 2 then a third. The remaining 4 are very healthy and fun to watch at night with the blue lights on. During the day they hang at the back and do nothing, but that's when all the CPDs and pygmy Cories are foraging.


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## MountainPool (Jul 13, 2014)

Oh gosh I'm so sorry! That's a typo, I meant to say that they /are/ really interesting looking! I'm a zoologist and being able to see their internal anatomy is really cool. And their sensory barbules are all pokey out and presumably they use them for touch hunting in the dark, and I like them a bunch.
I'm sorry, I hope I didn't put a dampner on anything, I'll proof read my posts better, promise!


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## TheAnswerIs42 (Jul 10, 2014)

MountainPool said:


> Oh gosh I'm so sorry! That's a typo, I meant to say that they /are/ really interesting looking! I'm a zoologist and being able to see their internal anatomy is really cool. And their sensory barbules are all pokey out and presumably they use them for touch hunting in the dark, and I like them a bunch.
> I'm sorry, I hope I didn't put a dampner on anything, I'll proof read my posts better, promise!


No worries. I do love watching them skim the water surface with their whiskers at night as they patrol for food.


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## TheAnswerIs42 (Jul 10, 2014)

*Arg!!!*

:angryfire
This week I increased my photo period for the plants to 10 hours and I have now had a mini explosion of BGA along the front of the Aquarium. So feeding will be cutback and going hold off on ferts until I do a water change on the weekend.

I am also having a small snail population explosion. I have just been crushing them on the glass when I see them, but I think I am definitely over-feeding.
Only feeding once a day now and half as much.


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## AnonAnona (Jul 2, 2014)

Love this tank! All the plants look really healthy and bushy :thumbsup:

Keep us updated!

Subbed... Rad91


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## TheAnswerIs42 (Jul 10, 2014)

*Day 61*

First BGA and now GSA on my anubias leaves. Arg! I think I am being lead into war against my will - even though I am the root cause.

The plants have been suffering the past couple weeks, however I am fully to blame. I have been a bit sick and so slacked off on my tank duties - under dosing ferts and excel, over-feeding, inconsistent light.

The Staurogyne repens, after growing like crazy and looking amazing for so long, is now yellowing, and the Didiplis diandra clumps are not growing either and starting to turn a bit black.

I have done a fair amount of reading and after being tempted to get a Nerite snail, I decided to work on the ferts and get those balanced. I am still having troubles with the snails but I never let them get big enough. I am making extra effort to crush, siphon, remove them whenever possible and I think it is making a small difference.

I went to Aquariums West and picked up some iron and phosphate supplements which I will start adding today and do as per the directions. Vancouver tap water is beautifully pure so I have decided that I have to up the nutrients. I have also upped the daily dose of Excel to double the amount (0.5ml) for the past 3 days and that has helped immensely. The little tufts of staghorn algae that was appearing on some of the plant leaves have turned black. I will continue with this regime, including a regular dose of Flourish (1ml twice a week).

I hope this all works. I am mostly concerned about my anubias petite. I realize that I put it in a silly spot; right under the light. Pretty much all the leaves are covered with algae except the newest one. It is growing fairly well with a new leaf every 2-3 weeks. It has probably grown about an inch in the last 2 months, but I fear that I will always be fighting the algae on its leaves.

Does anyone have any suggestions?


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## TheAnswerIs42 (Jul 10, 2014)

*Cyanobacteria War*

Well, the ferts did not seam to be helping with the BGA. Its been spreading so fast and now climbing up the glass. So last night I got the black construction paper out and blacked out the tank. I plan on doing this until Sunday (2.5 days), at which point I will do a 50% water change. Hope this works.


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## cjstl (Mar 4, 2013)

TheAnswerIs42 said:


> Well, the ferts did not seam to be helping with the BGA. Its been spreading so fast and now climbing up the glass. So last night I got the black construction paper out and blacked out the tank. I plan on doing this until Sunday (2.5 days), at which point I will do a 50% water change. Hope this works.


Good luck! I'm removing an algae blanket from one of my tanks and still fighting BBA in another. It never ends!


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## CluelessAquarist (Apr 5, 2014)

Nice little tank


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## TheAnswerIs42 (Jul 10, 2014)

*Algae killer*



cjstl said:


> Good luck! I'm removing an algae blanket from one of my tanks and still fighting BBA in another. It never ends!


I found it, the miracle cure for unwanted BGA..... Wait for it.....

3% hydrogen peroxide!

I hated having my tank all blacked out and after lots of reading discovered that by doing so will probably make the algae die back, but not get rid of it. By reading SO MANY forums I found that a few people had success with H2O2. So bought a bottle from the drug store for $5 and did some spot treatments last night. 

Firstly, I have to mention that H2O2 will burn gills on animals, so I made sure there were no shrimp or Cories hiding in the grass and BGA. I was thrilled when moving my finger throughout the grass a couple tiny shrimplets came swimming out; more shrimp! 

So I shut off my filter to stop the water flow as I wanted the H2O2 to stay in place and kill the algae and not get diluted too quickly. H2O2 is more dense than water (it has an extra oxygen atom) so it sinks in water.

I filled a 3cc syringe with the H2O2 and very slowly dispensed it right onto the blue green algae and within seconds it started bubbling. Basically this process is the H2O2 oxidizing in the water and breaking down into water (H2O) and oxygen (O). As I understand how it works to kill the algae is that he H2O2 is corrosive and breaks open the algae cell walls, plus with the excess of oxygen, the algae suffocates and dies.

I repeated the procedure all along the front of my aquarium and treated all the BGA. You have to be careful not to add too much H2O2 where it is going to become a problem for your critters. I stuck to 1ml/gal and read that going over this dose will likely result in some deaths.

I was planning on only a 20 minute break, but my filter motor wouldn't start, I freaked out and ran to the LFS to get a replacement motor. They were sold out and very kindly took a filter from a new edge and gave it to me. Seriously I love you guys at Aquarium West. Although when I got home and tried the old motor again and it worked, it is so great to know that you care about your customers and understand their needs; I'll bring back the new motor today.

So what turned out to be more like an hour I finally got the water flowing again. I was worried because the longer I left the H2O2 without water movement I imagined all my shrimp and Cories swimming into it to get a closer look. Happily there were zero casualties, even the glass catfish are fine and showing no signs of stress; and these guys get stressed super easily.

When I woke up this morning and lights came on I was thrilled to see no sign of BGA at all. It's all gone and with relatively little effort. I recommend this treatment to everyone for BGA. It sure beats fiddling around with blackouts, ferts, water changes, siphoning, scraping, etc.


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## cjstl (Mar 4, 2013)

Thanks for the detailed write up! The pump not starting on AC filters is a known issue. It helps if you bump the impeller with something to get it going again.


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## TheAnswerIs42 (Jul 10, 2014)

*H2O2 followup*

the Dwarf Hair grass is showing no signs of the H2O2 treatment, however, this morning I noticed a little more of the green slime trying to make a comeback. I have decided to continue treatments until it is gone, but only once a week. I did notice that a few of the smaller CPDs were very lethargic after the last treatment and I was really worried I would lose some.

However, after an emergency late night 50% water change they little guys were much better by morning. I was really worried that were going to die.

This prompted me to read as much as I could on BGA and I think I may have found the cause: I have been fairly lax about dosing ferts and only dosing Micronutrients. I went to the LFS and picked up the line of Seachem AquaVita and some root tabs from Tropica.

I am new to planted tanks and when I was just setting it up, I was recommended to use Flourish, which was fine when the plants were small, but they are big now and taking up all the nutrients. I started dosing with AquaVita according to a plan this week and already noticing that the Algae is diminishing and the tiny ramshorn snails are coming out at night to feast; previously I think they were living in the underbrush of the plants, but now that things are starting to balance out they are coming out at night in search of food, and this is when i get them :angryfire

I take a small mount of pleasure in squishing them against the glass and watching the CPDs, and cories pick at the bits left over. The cories especially have fattened up a fair bit this past week.

The H2O2 did not seem to affect the shrimp at all and I have now counted a total of 5 females all well berried with yellow-green eggs. There are probably a couple more in there that have eggs, but the plants are growing so thick now that I have to hunt to find them.

I have also noticed that since I started dosing properly, the Staurogens is turning green again and the yellowing leaves are becoming less and less each day.


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## TheAnswerIs42 (Jul 10, 2014)

Noticed tonight during a quick scrub of the glass a few pinheads on the driftwood

Yay for baby shrimpies!


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## TheAnswerIs42 (Jul 10, 2014)

*Day 71*









You can see there hasn't been much growth, except for the moss.










SHRIMPIES! :icon_smil


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## Xiaozhuang (Feb 15, 2012)

Very interesting journal to read + good problem solving approaches. Tank seems really well kept. If you're on a budget, nothing beats dry fertilizers though, its about 50X cheaper than using liquid ferts - a kg of KNO3 or K2HPO4 costs around 10 bucks but will probably last you ten years with that tank size.


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## TheAnswerIs42 (Jul 10, 2014)

Xiaozhuang said:


> Very interesting journal to read + good problem solving approaches. Tank seems really well kept. If you're on a budget, nothing beats dry fertilizers though, its about 50X cheaper than using liquid ferts - a kg of KNO3 or K2HPO4 costs around 10 bucks but will probably last you ten years with that tank size.


Thanks very much. 

It really has been a journey but I think I have finally reached a point now where I am confident that I almost know what I'm doing. :confused1:

Your tanks are really quite amazing. I left a comment on the 45g profile; when you setup a substrate, what kind of base layer do you use? You list garden soil, but I have never heard of that. Seems strange to do that, but I guess it works because your tanks are mind blowing.


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## Xiaozhuang (Feb 15, 2012)

Thanks!

Garden soil just means dirt, or more commonly called in this forum, MTS or mineralized top soil. I also have peat and iron rich clay mixed in the base. Its a budget approach because using aquarium substrate for large tanks can be quite costly~


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## TheAnswerIs42 (Jul 10, 2014)

*Day 78*










Day 78 and with the new ferts recently, the plants are looking good, especially the Didiplis diandra. It was definitely a test plant when I replanted the whole thing. I'm not sure if it will ever get pink tips; some have black/brown tips, but the majority of them are growing, branching and flowering :thumbsup:

I removed the anubias nana and a square of Fissidens fontanus and made a 1.5 gal micro, very low tech jar for shrimp. This lead me to moving the mother stone to a more upright position and adjusted the driftwood to mirror it's position and soften the hard edge of the grey stone.

The fish are really enjoying the new arrangement, especially the glass catfish. All the fish are swimming out in the open more including the usually shy CPDs that I got 5 months ago.


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## TheAnswerIs42 (Jul 10, 2014)

*Day 81*

After attending a planted tank seminar at Aquariums West on Thursday night, I have been inspired!

I have just not been satisfied with the growth of one of the Didiplis, so this morning I finally made the choice to rip it out replace it with something that is fast growing and is going to help balance the tank (in regards to nutrients). My partner must have known something was up because right away he asked if I was going to the fish store today. Haha, the constant researching online over the last few days must have tipped him off.

I snagged a beautiful Cardamine lyrata and Pogostemon helferi, both nice and bushy with lots of new growth. During my water change, I popped them in, the Cardamine is along the back with the Pogostemon in the middle and under some shade from the driftwood. 

During the water change I did some h2o2 treatment for BGA, and killed it off again, there was also a small amount of BBA on the grass in one spot, so I gave the lawn a trim. Hopefully this will encourage new growth and send up some nice new green shoots.

All-in-all, everything is looking great and rebounding from those couple weeks of neglect. I definitely think the new ferts are making the difference, I'm just hoping that algae doesn't become too much of a problem.... Hence getting a fast growing plant that will use up nutrients faster then the algae can. Here's hoping.


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## TheAnswerIs42 (Jul 10, 2014)

*What I've noticed of glass catfish behaviour*









image is from: https://ferrebeekeeper.wordpress.com/tag/glass-catfish/

Glass catfish, Kryptopterus bicirrhis, is a fish that I bought on a whim when I was just getting back into the hobby. The last time I had kept fish was about 15 years ago so I came back into the hobby just expecting to have a standard tank with a couple plastic plants, neon gravel and scuba dude or something. Until I went to the LFS and saw the amazing planted tanks and fish varieties. I instantly fell for the transparent glass catfish that just hovered in a tight group in one of the tanks. So without knowledge on what I was getting into, I bought them and took them home, dropped them in the tank and that was that.

I didn't see them for a week, and while they were hiding I decided to read up on them. It crushed me to discover they are all taken from the wild, have heavy casualties during transportation and then commonly, slowly die off in private tanks due to lack of suitable food, lack of a big enough school, lack of space, and appropriate habitat.

CRUSHED! I had no idea I had done such an awful thing as to condemn 7 lives. By the end of the week, the first one died. It slowly turned white over a couple days and got progressively weaker until it was unable to swim and hover with the others. This happened 2 more time over the next couple months. I only saw them at night darting in and out of the plants which made me feel even worse because I got fish to look at them, not wonder if they are slowly eating each other or wasting away. The CPDs that I bought to help coax the catfish out also hid. It was a complete disaster.

And then I replanted my tank and added some Pygmy Cories. All of a sudden, the catfish were spending 75% of the time swimming in the open. It was curious because I put in all new plants and there was little space for them to hide. A number things changed at the same time so it is hard to say what the caused the sudden change in behaviour.

It has been almost three months since the replanting and in that time these little fish (or the 4 that have been strong enough to survive) have been a joy to watch.

During the day they tend to hide in the plants and will occasionally dart out to check whats going on. The best time to hunker down and watch them is either early morning just as it is getting light or at night with the hood lights are off and a lamp in the room is on. There is just enough light that the tank is dimly lit. This is a good time to feed them, I love scattering a few pellets on the surface and watching them all dart around at high speed with their long whiskers skimming the surface. When a whisker touches a piece of food their reflexes are extremely fast. At the end of a feeding session, their silver bellies are round and full and they will sink back down to the bottom to hide in the plants again.

I have also seen a couple of them sifting the aquasoil in their mouths. They find an exposed patch of aquasoil and will suck up the particles like goldfish and then spit them in and out. I thought that this was particularly interesting feeding behavior for them and could not find any accounts online of this.

In the mornings I will often see them sparring with each other. They will pair off and swim very close to each other. One, usually the bigger of the 2 will rub and butt heads with the other and then it is reciprocated. I also suspect that they may be using their small barb, located on the highest part of their "hump" to scratch and jab each other. They will do this for a while. Once, I could have sworn I saw them connect their vents in what looked like mating, but since there is no documented mating behaviour for these fish, it is hard to tell. 

I still have mixed feelings over these fish. They are hard to come by, hard to keep and are wild caught, however, they have become a fascinating study for me and I thoroughly enjoy watching them.


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## Xiaozhuang (Feb 15, 2012)

LOL at the CPDs - they are quite shy. I like glass cats, its interesting to be able to see all their internal parts. One realizes that all the stomach, organs etc are in that small head section, and the rest is just swimming muscles. Seems like they'll eat smaller shrimp though, so I've never thought of keeping them as I almost always have some shrimp around in my tanks. I also really like pygmy cories because of their schooling behaviour. Come to think of it, all 3 species of your fishes like to stick together.


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## TheAnswerIs42 (Jul 10, 2014)

Xiaozhuang said:


> LOL at the CPDs - they are quite shy. I like glass cats, its interesting to be able to see all their internal parts. One realizes that all the stomach, organs etc are in that small head section, and the rest is just swimming muscles. Seems like they'll eat smaller shrimp though, so I've never thought of keeping them as I almost always have some shrimp around in my tanks. I also really like pygmy cories because of their schooling behaviour. Come to think of it, all 3 species of your fishes like to stick together.


The cories really proved to be the key species in my tank. At first I had the Glass cats, then got the CPDs, but it wasn't until I got the cories that all the other fish became more outgoing. The cories are hilarious and will often school with the glass cats and then swim over to the CPDs.

When once you could look in the tank and not see a single fish (even though there were 14 of them) I add the cories and a few captive bread CPDs and now the tank is buzzing with activity with everyone getting along swimmingly - I couldn't resist.

The glass cats definitely do have mouths big enough to fit a shrimp in, but I have not seen them feeding on any of RCS yet and I have *plenty* of baby shimpies crawling around. I guess there is enough plant cover for them to hide in until they get big. The biggest concern for me now is one particularly fat CPD female who spends most of her time hanging around the fissidens. I think she has turned into a baby shrimp eater:icon_surp but again, there are lots of babies so I am not too concerned.


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## kman (Dec 11, 2013)

Nice job!

I'm curious about the LED striplight you added to the tank? Have anymore info and pics?


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## TheAnswerIs42 (Jul 10, 2014)

*Light mod for Fluval Edge 12g*



kman said:


> Nice job!
> 
> I'm curious about the LED striplight you added to the tank? Have anymore info and pics?


Thanks
Here are a couple pics of the light mod I made:



















If you have any question on how I made it, I'd be happy to answer.


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## TheAnswerIs42 (Jul 10, 2014)

*Day 94*

I am so happy with the results of my first ever planted tank. This it it at 3 months old and it is nicely established. 

What I would do differently next time: no DIY co2; I would use pressurized co2 right from the start. As it is, I am mildly impressed with the DIY co2, mainly for its price and convenience. It definitely has helped the plants grow, but it is inconsistent and I am always afraid I'm gonna gas my fish.

I still have a mild BGA problem, but I am blacking out the lower 5 inches and it is definite helping. However, the BBA is on the rise, not out of control, but aggravating enough. I have an incline that if I had consistent co2 my minor algae woes would be solved.

In sad news, I lost a nerite snail. Stupid thing fell on its back - oh well, I guess there's more food for the other one now.


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## TheAnswerIs42 (Jul 10, 2014)

*Day 100*

Today was a sad day and a good day. I have been going back and forth on this on for a while; the glass cats are getting too big and aggressive for this tank.

So today I bit the bullet, netted all 4 out and took them to the LFS for resale. 
While there I espied some shrimp that I have been fascinated with for ages now and talk about perfect timing. Cardinal Sulawasi Shrimp! They are spectacular and i have just loved watching them eat with their bright white claws, it looks like they are dancing. There were only 2 left at the store, so I made the snap decision and took them home.

My water parameters are suitable for these guys as I have seiryu stones which help keep my pH at 7.6 and kH at 7 and gH at 8. For the past 3 months my water parameters have been stable and only occasionally the kH and gH drops after a large water change, but quickly readjusts and levels out. Plus the water temp is consistently 24C with it reaching maybe 28C on the hottest of summer days. All these things lead me to believe that I have a good habitat for this shrimp species, so the two small shrimpies that make me laugh because it looks like they are dancing are going to be aquatic guinea pigs. If they survive, then I'll get another 2 or 3. Unlike RCS which are cheap as borscht, these little guys may just break the bank, so only a couple at a time until they hopefully have babies and start a nice little colony.

Current fauna list:
12 pygmy cories
14 Celestial Pearl Danios
1 Oto
1 Nerite Snail
3 Amano Shrimp
2 Cardinal Sulawasi Shrimp
RCS colony - thriving!

Current Flora list:
Staurogen repens
Didiplis Diandra
Blyxa Japonica
Alternanthera reineckii 'Mini'
Pogostemon helferi
Eleocharis acicularis 'Mini'
Cardamine lyrata
Fissidens fontanus

Hardscape:
Seiryu Stone
Mopani drfitwood


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## TheAnswerIs42 (Jul 10, 2014)

Managed to snap this pic today of one of the new Cardinal Shrimp. I love them.


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## TheAnswerIs42 (Jul 10, 2014)




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## MountainPool (Jul 13, 2014)

Is it just the photo or are the CPDs more confident since the glass cats left?

The reds are looking great!


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## TheAnswerIs42 (Jul 10, 2014)

MountainPool said:


> Is it just the photo or are the CPDs more confident since the glass cats left?
> 
> The reds are looking great!


They are way more friendly since the glass cats left. They are out most of the time and now get really excited at feeding time.


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## TheAnswerIs42 (Jul 10, 2014)

*Day 145*

So after 145 days I am so happy with my tank. It is the first thing I see when I wake up, and I get to watch the critters wake up with me, and it is the last thing I see when I go to bed.

The plants are looking fabulous and all residents are doing very well. The Didiplis is a huge surprise to me. Out of all the plants I selected I was very uncertain of the Diliplis. It has taken the full 145 days to look like something, and I almost ripped it out multiple times, but I am thrilled to see the tips turning pink and the dreaded black rot that I have read about and feared has not shown it's ugly head.... Yet.

My only beef with my tank at the mo is the small amount of BBA that exploded onto the scene about 6 weeks ago, but after being diligent with fert dosing and water changes, coupled with daily triple doses of Excel, it is finally in remission and on its way out the door!

Here's how things look....


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## AnonAnona (Jul 2, 2014)

wow... just wow

:confused1:

that's stunning!


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## TheAnswerIs42 (Jul 10, 2014)

Radiation91 said:


> wow... just wow
> 
> :confused1:
> 
> that's stunning!



Thanks! I love this little tank and can sit and watch it for hours. The plants grow like mad so I have about an hour of maintenance every 1-2 weeks.


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## AnonAnona (Jul 2, 2014)

TheAnswerIs42 said:


> Thanks! I love this little tank and can sit and watch it for hours. The plants grow like mad so I have about an hour of maintenance every 1-2 weeks.


I've reached a point where my plants have stopped growing (no idea why). I just do a water change every week and that's it  not complaining tbh.

I'm currently insanely jealous after seeing your tank though. Fluval could use it for advertising...


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## TheAnswerIs42 (Jul 10, 2014)

Radiation91 said:


> I've reached a point where my plants have stopped growing (no idea why). I just do a water change every week and that's it  not complaining tbh.
> 
> I'm currently insanely jealous after seeing your tank though. Fluval could use it for advertising...


Awe thanks, that's a huge compliment. :icon_smil:

I am pretty diligent with water changes and fertilizing, plus I have a DIY co2 line feeding into the filter impeller to get co2 to the plants. There has been a fair amount of trial and error with this tank. I found it really helped to get the plants established by adding some root tabs at about the 2 month mark.


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## TheAnswerIs42 (Jul 10, 2014)

*Day 202*

It's been a while since I've posted an update. There's been a few changes in the last month or so. 

Most recently I moved the pygmy Cories out in plopped them in my 29g newly setup tank "Rivers Edge". They are super happy to have more space and sand. The CPDs in this tank are super happy too. 

In regards to plants: 
I pulled up the Murdania and replaced it with the my old anubias nana petite. I also hacked back all the back plants as they were shading out the carpet plants. I really love the Alternanthera reinckii mini now that it has bushed up a bit. It's a great plant to control with trimming and adds some nice colour, especially for a medium requirement plant.

Anyway, here's an updated pic. I am really thinking of changing the Didiplis. It is slow to rebound after trimming and I think I would like to replace it with something else, but just not sure what. Any suggestions out there that might suit the layout?


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## TheAnswerIs42 (Jul 10, 2014)

*Rescaped! May 10 2015*

So my beautiful tank had a crash'n'burn this past month. It went from stunning to dismal in a few weeks and I just couldn't bring myself to try and fix things, battling for months, getting algae under control, trying to save my plants all the while battling a massive algae and BGA outbreak.

How did it get this bad? 
Well I recently went through a separation so my life was occupied with a nasty split-up and I was annexed from the bedroom (where the tank lives) for 2 weeks. so for 2 weeks I didnt feed, fertilize, do water changes, glass scrubs... nothing. It was a horrible sight to see my tank deteriorate into green cube of sludge. I also lost A LOT of my cherry shrimps. The population completely crashed and I am only left with about 15. The CPDs however seem to have been thriving in their algae pond and I didn't lose a single fish. YAY!

So I made it down to the LFS and picked up a whole new set of plants and Tropica Aquasoil and powder and got to work. It was good and bad because I really like my dutch style tank and it was sad to see almost a years worth of work come down to a sludge pond.

Anyway, got some great plants and reused my sieryu stone to create something completely different. I think I'll stay clear of CO2 and just use excel with these plants, unless someone has some otherwise good tips for my plant choices. I dropped a lot of $$ on them, so don't want them to die.

Cryptocoryne wendtii ‘Green'
Cryptocoryne wendtii ‘Tropica' 
Cryptocoryne beckettii 'Petchii'
Echinodorus 'Reni'
Sagittaria subulata 
Myriophyllum matogrossense - recycled from the old setup but had to do a h2o2 bath to kill any snails and algae


Let me know what you think, give me your suggestions. Its not too late to change things just yet....


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## TheAnswerIs42 (Jul 10, 2014)

its almost a week since I replanted the tank and things are looking good. The CPDs are super happy and spend most of their time out and about now. My 2 dwarf honey gouramis in my 30 gallon were chasing each other a lot, so moved one into the Edge, but since that they are both looking rather depressed and not being their super active selves. So I think I'm going to move the gourami back into the 30G and get some other little tetra or other mid-tank non-shy, small fish to help full the space... Maybe some Ember Tetras or pencil fish.


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## TheAnswerIs42 (Jul 10, 2014)

so i decided to keep the gourami where he is and added a 5 ember tetras. I like Embers because they are pretty bold little fish and don't scare easily. 

Seems to have helped, The CPDs are now out and about and the gourami is acting much more naturally


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## kep (Feb 3, 2015)

So sorry to hear about your troubles! Separation and messing up your hard work on the tank really sucks! 

I love my embers. They are bold and I love that they recognize you when you peer in to the tank. Mostly they're just swarming and screaming "feed us!" 

I'm sure this new scape will come out even more beautiful than your last


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## Daisy Mae (Jun 21, 2015)

*Hello*

Felt bad about your troubles. I hope that you're managing ok and that the hobby can continue to give you pleasure. I really liked the way the tank looked before and looking forward to the re-do. Good luck with your efforts on it.


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## TheAnswerIs42 (Jul 10, 2014)

*5 months of growth*

tank is looking good and is very stable. I do weekly or bi-weekly water changes and dose daily with Excel. Other than that I just sit back and enjoy it  

It is much less work than the previous setup.


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## TheAnswerIs42 (Jul 10, 2014)

6 months - not much change


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## BMueller777 (Feb 5, 2008)

Nice tank man! Lots of looks, all great.. I just got around to putting my Edge back together, gotta start my own journal. 

How the tank these days?


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## TheAnswerIs42 (Jul 10, 2014)

Its been a while since I posted an update. Here is a photo from tonight of what the tank currently looks like. I got a jungle val and got rid of the extra lighting. Now I have a lush, dim forest lighting the night stand in the bedroom. The Celestial Pearl Danios are loving the long grass-like fronds and spend a lot of time out in the open.


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