# 12.5G Tetras Tank with MTS Invasion (May 2011 - now)



## sAroock (Oct 26, 2010)

Being new, thats a good move. start with a small and low tech setup, get ur experiences with this tank.(im noob too) making sure u dont completely bury the java ferns. 

good luck.


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

*PLANTED TANK BEGINS*
I started with planted tank in May 2011. See how crappy the tank was. LOL.









Added a few more plants, and got cheated by the non aquatic plant.. LOL
Check out the hideous scaping....... he he


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

been looking at some of the awesome tanks scape in here, and started to try something with my tank.
Major rescape done.... looks kinda ok, but I am still not satisfied...










Soo....... I changed the scape *againnnnnnnnnnn*










But NO, i change again. LOL


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## TwoStrokeKing (Mar 24, 2011)

Nice tank!!


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

Hey thanks TwoStrokeKing. I just added a few more plants... Progress 4.


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## Plant keeper (Jan 27, 2011)

wow nice are u using a desk lamp?


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

Plant keeper said:


> wow nice are u using a desk lamp?


Plant keeper, thanks! 
No. I am using aqua zonic (china made) aquarium lamp. However i modified its interior to fit 2 cfl bulbs. I put in 2x 11watts energy saving bulbs in there. Equals to about 80w total.


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

It's been a while. I thought I take some photos of my tank as of now.

My new oto cleaning up the anubias that has been covered with diatoms.


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## MissCoryCat (Jul 5, 2011)

Love it. You'll have to post more pics as the plants grow, it'll be looking fabulous for sure.


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## sAroock (Oct 26, 2010)

it's turning out terrific. The java ferns are very impressive. You thinking of adding shrimps?


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

sAroock, actually I tried adding 1 yamato shrimp before. then i left for my hometown for 4 days. when i came back it was dead (orangy stuff at the filter intake). So since then, I am scared to put a shrimp in. I was thinking to make another nano all-shrimp tank though.


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## lurrch (Jul 5, 2011)

The tanks looks great. I love danios. They don't always photograph well, but they're constantly up to something. 

If you're looking for shrimp, I've kept ghost shrimp in my 10g with no problems.


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

Just did a major rescape today. Check out the photo in the first post.

lurrch, yeah.. I love danios as well. They are super active!


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## firefiend (Sep 3, 2009)

Looks good.

I would have left it as it was though, it was really filling in sweetly.


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

Did another major rescape today. Pic is on first post Progress 6.


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

Some more photos:









I love my anubias. Just got 3 new shoots.









No idea what are these...









Another angle









The unseen part - my tetras love to hang out down here









Yep, Im done DIYing CO2 diffuser and bought a proper one. Waaayyyy better.


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

What do you guys think of my tank? any thing i can do more to make it better?


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

Nobody? Come on guys, be brutal if you must... need feedback!


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## lurrch (Jul 5, 2011)

I hate to tell you, but I think your tank is pretty much "done". You're probably near the max bioload and it looks like your plants are filling in nicely. 

If you want to do something, the oto could probably use a friend or two. You might have to find a home for the one of the other schools though. I'm not sure what your filter can handle as I think you have a typo in listing it as "1000L/m". That's less than most fire hoses.


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

Ahaha.. i think it should be 1000L/h.

what i meant is, in terms of arrangement of the plants/scaping... any plants should be moved elsewhere? or, perhaps I should change the DW? or, maybe add some sand at some area?


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## lurrch (Jul 5, 2011)

Plants/scaping looks good to me, but I'm probably not a good source for that. If you wanted it to fill in faster, you probably have enough co2/light that fertilizers would help it grow.


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

I just added a few more cardinal tetras. now i have 11 tetras! (5 cardinal, 3 green, 3 normal neon). I hate to see them hiding all the time.. now with 11 tetras, they flock together nicely out in the open.

also added some dwarf grass. I tried both HC and Glosso but failed. I guess dwarf HG should be more hardy? 

Here's how the tank is now. Im lovin it.


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

Share some new photo after minor rescape and added some "island" gravels.


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## 2in10 (Feb 8, 2011)

Beautiful tank, plants and shots


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

Thanks 2in10.


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

I have just finished moving my tank from old house to new house. I drained out all the water, captured all fish and put in plastic bags... I did not remove plants though. Then just transport it with my car to my new house. After all is set up, I refill the water and I was like "wait a minute.... where's my oto?" yup..... I totally forgot about him and he was buried inside the gravel when I drained the water... 

After setting up at my new house, the gravel and soil kinda mixed up a little bit. But still salvageable. 1 day later, 1 of the tetra died.. probably due to the stress while being transported, not really sure. The rest are doing well till today (its been 1 week since I moved the tank).

Here's some photo... (i have yet to find a suitable cabinet for the tank, so it now sits on the flloor).










The tetras:


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## fastfreddie (Sep 10, 2008)

Saw your thread about no one posting in your journals. That sucks... Well here you go...

I've been away from this site for a few months (okay two years) and yours is the first tank I've looked at in a while. 

I think it looks great. Healthy plants, clean layout, equipment is well hidden, good clear photos. What's not to like? I'm jealous. Keep up the good work. I think you could use some small stones to make a cascading plateau effect and it would add some depth. Sort of like a little wall creating an elevated portion of substrate.

Some small reddish/ brown/ maybe copper colored crypts would look great in there too. 

I have let all 4 of my tanks go to crap since we had a baby 18 months ago, and I think your little tank here is the inspiration I needed to get one of them back in shape. Pat yourself on the back! I'm off to the swap n shop!


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## urbguy (Sep 24, 2009)

Wow, I wasn't feeling your first rescape. I'm so glad you rescaped it again a second time. I liked that one much more. Great start!


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

fastfreddie said:


> Saw your thread about no one posting in your journals. That sucks... Well here you go...
> 
> I've been away from this site for a few months (okay two years) and yours is the first tank I've looked at in a while.
> 
> ...


Hey, thanks for the nice words! Your suggestions are great as well... I am visualizing them and I think you are right. 

Btw, congrats on your baby.


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## 150EH (Dec 6, 2004)

It's a nice little tank but I think Danios are kinda high strung and may have gotten your shrimp but I have no experence putting the two together. You might want to think about Amano's if you'd like something a little bigger that will clean for you as well.

I see the landslide from the move but your tank look nice and clean and some small crypts are a good suggestion, either a wendtii red, green, or brown would fit nicely without taking over.

I see you lost some of your mosses, too bad I really like the way they look, nice job and keep us posted.


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

I have moved the Danios to my goldfish tank right now.. all 3 of them liked to pick on my tetras... like chasing them around. Now, my tetras are not that scared to come out in the open... Actually I didn't lose any moss, just transfered them into my shrimp tank. Weird thing the mosses do need mid-high light to grow. 

Anyway I just upgraded the lighting in my 10g from 5w+8w (CFL) to 11W+11W(CFL).
Immediately I see the mosses are growing!


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## Madfish (Sep 9, 2007)

Now all you have to do is give it some time and let everything fill in. But it is looking good and I can tell that everytime that you change things around it starts to look better. But I really like the looks of it now. Just leave it for some time and let the DHG fill in up front.


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

Im not dosing CO2, and just a single liquid fert every week. its gonna be slow to fill up. but I have noticed DHG and that other grass plant growing/spreading.


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

I spotted this guy from time to time for over 3 months already. A hitchhiker who has become a permanent resident in my tank.


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

Now I have 16 tetras in my 10g!

Here is some color splash showing some of them.


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## BoxxerBoyDrew (Oct 16, 2005)

NICE TANK!!!

I like the current setup! Like it has already been said, just let it grow in and it will be REALLY GOOD!!!! The Hitch Hiker is a MTS (Malaysian Trumpet Snail), and I like them where other don't! They are a live bearing snail, and can quickly reproduce in a aquarium! They do a GREAT JOB stirring up the substrate and cleaning it as well, but the can OVERPOPULATE too! So if you don't want them in there, take it out ASAP, but being that you have seen it for 3 months I would bet there are already baby MTS and you should start seeing them pretty quick! If they do populate too much for your taste you can sell them in the Swap n Shop, or get a dwarf loach and they can usually take care of them for Ya. Also Assassin Snails will kill them too!

Anyway keep up the great work, and pics too! I can't wait to see it fill in!
Drew


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## BoxxerBoyDrew (Oct 16, 2005)

P.S. I believe the "otto" you had was actually a Chinese Algae Eater by the shape and coloration, and if it is gone you are better off in my opinion! They do pretty good when they are small of getting rid of Diatom and other algae, but when they get bigger, I have had them get 5" before, they get MEAN and can attack and attach themselves to other fish an do great harm!

So IF Ya get more Ottos, make sure you are getting Ottos! There are plenty of pics on this site of them. A search will find Ya plenty of info about them and how to acclimate them, ect...

Best of Luck to Ya,
Drew


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

Thanks BoxxerBoyDrew,
Yep, I think they're not otos as well now that u mentioned it.. I have 2 of the CAE now. They seems to be good at eating diatoms so far. Keeps my tank glass clear. I haven't seen them attacking my tetras... but they do move REAL FAST... like lightning fast in the tank. I'll keep an eye on them...


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

Now the tank has 16 tetras and 2 CAE.

My hands are itchy to add 4 more tetras to make it 20. Hm.


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

Added pic in first page. (how the tank looks now)

I decided to ditch CO2 once and for all. I put back 1 clump of DHG at the front.. will wait it spread. The grass plant (?) at the back is growing fast... already it sends out rhyzome with baby shoots.

So far all 16 cardinals/green neon are doing great.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Just found this thread now! I find anubis do really well with fish but in shrimp only tanks there's not enough "poop" and they don't grow at all :X. I might have to start fertilizing the tanks (lightly) to promote growth. Did your chinese algae eater/oto survive the trip buried in the gravel? Moving fish tanks is such a pain :X. At least most of your crew survived!

I believe your tank is pretty overstocked if you go with 20 tetras and 2 CAE. You do have a lot of plants to filter out nitrites/ammonia though so if its working don't fix it! How often do you do water changes?


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

diwu13 said:


> Just found this thread now! I find anubis do really well with fish but in shrimp only tanks there's not enough "poop" and they don't grow at all :X. I might have to start fertilizing the tanks (lightly) to promote growth. Did your chinese algae eater/oto survive the trip buried in the gravel? Moving fish tanks is such a pain :X. At least most of your crew survived!
> 
> I believe your tank is pretty overstocked if you go with 20 tetras and 2 CAE. You do have a lot of plants to filter out nitrites/ammonia though so if its working don't fix it! How often do you do water changes?


Hey thanks for checking out my thread 

Nope the last CAE died on me under the soil. I was too busy moving stuffs that I didn't check properly. About a day after, I suddenly realized "Hey, where's my sucker fish?".. and it was too late, took me half an hour to find him too.. stucked way at the back under some soil near the drift wood.
All of the fish survived though so I'm pretty happy. 

Yeah, now I feel 16 is just enough already. I do WC about 20% every week now. Hey how come you don't post your tank pics? Let's see it.


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

Ok, I added a few new plants... This is the latest condition of the tank


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

I also added 2 otos, finally! The 2 CAEs are still in there. I have nowhere else to put them.

Here's one oto:


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

woke up today morning and found 2 dead otos.
no idea why they died. 

And its just 1 CAE in there now.
i transfered another CAE into my shrimp tank.


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

HUH! Today, I spot one green neon hanging around by herself near the surface.... few minutes later, she is upside down on the soil. I took her out, after totally sure she is not moving/twitching/breathing, i decided to do a little autopsy. Open her up at the belly area, and nothing out of ordinary (not like i know anything about fish internals, but that's what my instinct told me). I mean, definitely no weird parasite creatures/worm. Anyway I continue to open her up and to my surprise, there are tonnes of eggs in her!! Such a sad day to lose 1 fish. Just to be safe, due to todays fish and yesterdays otto's death, i decided to treat the tank with anti parasites.

oh yah, the eggs i dump it in my pico tank.


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

Finally my 10g gets a proper stand/cabinet. Now it proudly sits at a corner of my living room.


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)




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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

Today I spotted a few small shoots of bacopas and that shrub plant at the front. The Asian Ambulia is fast grower! only about 5 days, and it already reached the water surface!

Fauna-wise, everyone seems happy. spotted baby MTS again today, this time climbing on the glass wall. usually i saw them moving between the soil.. or under the soil (can see the soil moved).

The 2 CAEs have found their home under the big driftwood. they dug their way in there, and snug themselves in a cave-like home.


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

I went to a river neaerby to collect some river rocks for my next project - 4ft cichlids tank. While there I spotted some cool looking branches, and took it home. Cleaned it up, pour boiling water on it and let it soak. Then I put it in my planted tank. Now i feel my planted tank is "complete" so to speak.


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## jeff721 (Feb 4, 2011)

Scape looks great. 

Can you tell me details on the tank itself or where it is from? 
I like the rounded corners.


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

Thanks jeff.

The tank is OceanFree brand. Cheapo kinda tank I got 3 years ago when i started rearing fish. The tank was a cichlids tank back then. I didn't know much about setting up a tank back then, so all of my fish ended up dead, either by disease, or due to fights.


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

Yes, I am talking to myself in this thread. No worries. Just bored. lol


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## wastedtime (Oct 27, 2011)

Its a nice looking tank, IMO it would look better if you moved the fern on the right to either the middle or back of the tank.

You also mentioned that one of your neons died, did you figure out why ? Water params ? Infections ?

Otherwise a very cool looking tank.


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

hi wastedtime, the ferns are at the left for a reason = it covers the big powerhead i have at the back. hehe.

the neon died for unknown reason. she is full of eggs. but not sure why she died. if it is water params or infections, i think the other neons will die/get sick as well. but all the other are perfectly healthy. 

thanks for checking out my tank.


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

Today did a minor trimming.

I really hate to trim both Asian Ambulia and Bacopa. The plant now full of stubs.










I am thinking to reposition that big leafed plant on the right front to the back... at the base of the branches.... what do u guys think?


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## BoxxerBoyDrew (Oct 16, 2005)

Tank is looking GREAT!!! 

I wish my 10g looked this good! It is really growing in nicely! I think you should move the front right plant to the back! It will give the tank some depth with the branch in front! Your water is soo clear! The plants are very healthy looking too!

As for the Ottos, they can be very sensitive when changing tanks! I usually buy 2x more than I want to end up with and usually it works out that way! I drip acclimate mine for a few hours, AT LEAST, in a Styrofoam cooler so the water doesn't cool, have a small air stone going, an watching them very closely, but I still usually loose half with in the first few days! I HATE IT TOO!!!! They are such cool fish! I Think they are still wild caught though, and that has alot to do with their survivability! When I get my 40b up and going I am going to turn my 10g back to a Quarantine tank and try to keep Ottos alive better!

Anyway keep up the GREAT WORK!
Drew


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

Hi Drew, thanks for checking out my tank.. and thanks for your comments.

I'll be moving the front right plant to the back tomorrow. I just read further in the net and found out that ottos are normally (ick!) poisoned upstream using some kind of cyanide. they had to do this because ottos are super fast swimmers and super hard to catch. The only way to get a good otto is to get from those who breed them. Or, by pure luck, like your method of buying a lot more than what u need.

Such a shame, coz I totally love ottos.


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

Just moved that right plant (i think it is an Echinodorus amazonicus) from the front to the back at the base of the branches. To my surprise, its roots have grown SOOOOOOOOO LONG under the soil... end up uprooting a few other front plants. i repositioned some of the micro swords as well. trimmed more asian ambulia and bacopa. Im starting to hate the bacopas.


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

Just ordered Hygrophila stricta and Alternanthera reinecki. 

The first to replace my dying java ferns, and reinecki for some reds contrast in my tank (finally!). will post photo when the plants came and after planting as well.


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## talontsiawd (Oct 19, 2008)

Wow, this tank came a long way. I do think you may be overstocked though. That may account for having some odd deaths. The cardinals can get up to almost 2 inches as well so keep that in mind as you proceed. But planted wise, I really like the decisions you made as you improved and it is looking much more "mature" now and has a sense of power.


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

talontsiawd said:


> Wow, this tank came a long way. I do think you may be overstocked though. That may account for having some odd deaths. The cardinals can get up to almost 2 inches as well so keep that in mind as you proceed. But planted wise, I really like the decisions you made as you improved and it is looking much more "mature" now and has a sense of power.


Yea... I purposely overstock it. I haven't seen them picking on each other, YET... thanks for your nice words on the tank. I am constantly doing minor scaping on it, because I can't seem to be content with the scaping... but that is the fun part.


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

Updated Journal intro....


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Hahah I read through your history and it sounds almost identical to the mistakes I made early on with shrimp. It's a learning process but kinda feel sorry for the shrimps/fish we both had initially :\.

Mind updating on the first post: what are the current flora and fauna in the tank. What equipment you're using. I see you use CO2 but are you dosing ferts?

And since you're admitting this tank is overstocked  are you doing more frequent water changes?


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Oh yea. And the "updated picture" in your first post. That's not the most current tank shot right? Since you said you moved that front right plant behind... and it still looks like it is in the front in that one.


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

diwu13 said:


> Hahah I read through your history and it sounds almost identical to the mistakes I made early on with shrimp. It's a learning process but *kinda feel sorry for the shrimps/fish we both had initially *:\.


YES. THIS EXACTLY. 



diwu13 said:


> Mind updating on the first post: what are the current flora and fauna in the tank. What equipment you're using. I see you use CO2 but are you dosing ferts?


Thanks for noticing that. I totally missed out on the tank spec during the rewrite. I'll edit them soon.



diwu13 said:


> And since you're admitting this tank is overstocked  are you doing more frequent water changes?


Hehe. I keep at 30% WC weekly. I think my super powerhead is helping on that department. Also, I feed the fish very little once daily.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

So what about the most updated picture? I'm subscribed to this now :]. I am a huge fan of 10 gallons!!!

Btw... how did you mult-quote a single message. Did you seperate them by hand?


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

Yep, multi quote, just use cut and paste those quote tags.

I soo want to post an updated pic. but just now had a real blast chasing around my 2 CAEs trying to catch them.... lol.. i was at it for about 1/2 hr, then gave up and had to remove that big DW, and all my java ferns. then i was able to catch them... 

so plan is: remove the DW to give more space for my fishes, and remove the ferns (giving them to my nephew for his betta tank)... and tomorrow will be getting my new plants.. reineckii and stricta... once those are planted and scaped, i'll post a photo. damn, i might be having a dream about it tonite.. so excited.. lol


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Haha that reminds me when I was trying to take out my tetras to make a shrimp only tank. I went in at night and got 3 out of 6 immediately since they were sleeping. Then the other 3 were on high alert and kept ducking INTO the moss and plants. Took 1 hour to get them out and I was so angry and tired haha. So were the fishies, they were gasping and stuff haha. Luckily I gave them away to a new home (120G so they were joining many other tetras).

Looking forwards to your rescape. It always bothers me that I can't finish it right away and have to put it off.

Btw.. what state are you in? Your location is very cryptic. MTS = malyasian trumpet snails or minerlized top soil ? The first is quite specific, the second could indicate you're from my back yard


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

My cardinal tetras are dumb as hell... they only freaked out at the first time i dip in the net.. 5 mins later, they are oblivious to the net... some entered the net VOLUNTARILY lol..
I am in malaysia... hence MTS = malaysian trumpet snail. just received the plants... time to go to "work".. hehe


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

Ok, not sure what to make of the plants I just got from buying online.. but
here is the latest condition.

I ditched the big driftwood. I noticed that when i had the driftwood, my cardinals
seem to be avoiding the "shore" area... probably fear of whats behind the DW idk.

The seller shipped a whole lot of hygrophila, and reineckii... (not sure these are truly 
a hygrophila and truly a reineckii since the stem are woody and quite hard, some forummers said it could be grown emersed..).. if you know something do comment here. anyway, since i got a lot of them, i just go ahead and plant them all.

I am still thinking where to put that anubias... kinda weird at that position..


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

doncityz said:


> My cardinal tetras are dumb as hell... they only freaked out at the first time i dip in the net.. 5 mins later, they are oblivious to the net... some entered the net VOLUNTARILY lol..
> I am in malaysia... hence MTS = malaysian trumpet snail. just received the plants... time to go to "work".. hehe


Ah ahaha. So it was the first :]. No wonder you post at like 4am local time.

And lucky your cardinals swam into the net... can't believe the tiny little neon tetras made me tired and cranky.



doncityz said:


> Ok, not sure what to make of the plants I just got from buying online.. but
> here is the latest condition.
> 
> I ditched the big driftwood. I noticed that when i had the driftwood, my cardinals
> ...


When you say you ditched the DW did you mean that large piece in the back left? Or the two smaller pieces in the front left? 

And I'm not a huge expert on plants, heck, I don't even know some of the stuff I got. As long as they melt in my tank I'm happy haha.

I like how the back of your tank is really bushy now. I think the anubias looks fine on the left like that. But maybe you can get some small carpet plant in front of it so it will turn into a little island? Seems you also need some shells or ornaments in the front? IMO it looks a bit empty since your background plants is so lushy planted.


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

Yes.. I ditch the biggest dw.. I took more photos after some minor trimming and repositioning... I'll post them later.. 

Anyway both of my otos seem to be doing well.. I did the drip method on them.. So hopefully they'll be ok..

I love bushy tanks as well.. Mainly bcause they are so pleasant to look at, plus they help conceal my big powerhead lol.. But yeah i need something for a focus point in there..


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

So I've been asking anyone with 10 gallons the same question... do you gravel vac when you do WC's? Or do you just suck out water from the bottom-ish of the tank?

Looking forwards to more pictures :]


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

No I don't do gravel vac.... During WC, i turn off the power to my powerhead, unplug the pipe that goes into my top filter, direct it to a bucket and turn on the power. If the bottom gets too dirty with melted leaves and what not, i normally use the net to scoop them up.

Okay, here are some more pics... 



























I am thinking to add more branches in there.. but that "shore" area needs something too... still thinking of something natural to put there.. like rocks.. ?? idk yet.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

I see you moved the anubias over more actually. It wasn't rooted into the DW it was originally on? I like the shore/water area. Whichever you're going for. If you want it to be a shore I would get some smaller rocks (or just use more DW) to block off the ADA soil from the gravel? you have there. Either way I would raise up one of the substrates higher to create more of a disjunction between the two?


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

the anubias was indeed rooted.. but not much so i was able to pull it out easily. the DW has also grown soft.. now it is tied to a smaller DW.. 

Your idea of putting some small rocks/pebbles along the "coast line" is interesting.. i'll try something later..


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

I just went to a nearby LFS and get me 2 yamato/amano shrimps to help eat some hair algae that i have spotted... I'm doing a minor rescape as I'm typing this.. so, bear with me, a photo will come soon.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Rescaping BOTH tanks I see . Looking forwards to it! Picture of amanos too! And let me know what you think of them after a week. I might get a few to eat the algae that slowly accumulates on my glass.


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

I'm a rescape addict. what can i say lol.

i did take photos of the amanos... BUT.. today both of them are dead............ 
i did the drip acclimation for half an hour.. not sure if that's too fast.

but i also bought some cardinals from that lfs, and they turn up dead as well...
im not returning to that lfs thats for sure.

i'll probably try to get some amanos in the other lfs (better one) later.


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

Anyhow, all 5 cherry shrimps i got from that lfs is doing ok in my shrimp tank though...


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

Ok, here is the pic of the minor rescape.. basically I added some rocks around the small DW to give a divider impression btw the gravel and soil...


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

I spotted more black hair algae on that big sword plant on the right....
hmm... if i have CO2, it'd be easy... now, no idea how to remove them..


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

doncityz said:


> I'm a rescape addict. what can i say lol.
> 
> i did take photos of the amanos... BUT.. today both of them are dead............
> i did the drip acclimation for half an hour.. not sure if that's too fast.
> ...


Whoa wtf. All of that stuff died after one day? And the neons and RCS in your tank are acting normal? Not staying near the surface, the RCS are grazing and not moving that much?



doncityz said:


> Anyhow, all 5 cherry shrimps i got from that lfs is doing ok in my shrimp tank though...


Yea this definitely makes it seem like something was up in the LFS as amanos can handle the same ranges as the RCS. Any pics of those so we can identify them ?



doncityz said:


> I spotted more black hair algae on that big sword plant on the right....
> hmm... if i have CO2, it'd be easy... now, no idea how to remove them..


You could try spot injection of excel. Excel also provides organic carbon which will kill off the algae.


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

diwu13 said:


> Whoa wtf. All of that stuff died after one day? And the neons and RCS in your tank are acting normal? Not staying near the surface, the RCS are grazing and not moving that much?


Yep. Just the amanos and cardinals that i bought are dead. the RCS (all 5 of them) are peachy until now... (not moving much and grazing as normal).



diwu13 said:


> Yea this definitely makes it seem like something was up in the LFS as amanos can handle the same ranges as the RCS. Any pics of those so we can identify them ?


I took the pics, but when they died, i deleted the pics already.... meh.. sorry about that.



diwu13 said:


> You could try spot injection of excel. Excel also provides organic carbon which will kill off the algae.


I'm still trying to find this non-Microsoft "Excel" thing at the lfs. They don't seem to have it stocked...


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

I would check your water parameters in this tank then, just to make sure it's all A-ok.

Are you able to order off amazon.com without ridiculous shipping? Ken's Fish has cheaper products but I'm not sure if the shipping to Malaysia will make amazon.com the better option. Here's the link to Ken's Fish excel, its 1/2 the price of amazon.com http://www.kensfish.com/product1013.html


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

I don't know how to say this, but I don't have water parameter checker.... lol

Anyway, I will take another search in my fav lfs later..


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Er... consider getting the API freshwater test kit. Almost all LFS carry that, though it will be expensive as all hell :[.

Another option is to get a GH/KH test kit and TDS meter. This option is cheaper and you can pretty much find out all the information you need with a little math .


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Btw. What did you mean when you said


> Cool... i am thinking to have some riparium plants as well in my 10g since i have a lot of those small plastic cups that came with plants..


 in someone else's journal? Do you have pictures of what you're talking about? I'm interested


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

Anyway, I think the tank probably spiked up in ammonia or something for sure, because I havent do WC for 2 weeks + and few days ago did that major rescape (involves bulldozing the soil around)...

So, I did a 50% WC today...


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

diwu13 said:


> Btw. What did you mean when you said in someone else's journal? Do you have pictures of what you're talking about? I'm interested


Yep.. here they are... :bounce:









I just started a Paludrium for my goldfish tank. It used to be 100% non planted.
See it in my sig.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

doncityz said:


> Anyway, I think the tank probably spiked up in ammonia or something for sure, because I havent do WC for 2 weeks + and few days ago did that major rescape (involves bulldozing the soil around)...


Try to do some weekly WCs from now on :X! Inverts are much more susceptible to nitrite poisoning than fish, but your tetras are still doing fine right?



doncityz said:


>


That's really cool. Did you get your plants from a LFS for them to come with those? They also came with their own suction cups?


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

I got those from LFS when buying plants. But no suction cups.
Those suction cups I get from.... hmm... i totally forgot where i got them from.probably from one of my filters... I got this big box where i keep the fish things.. i took them from there..


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

diwu13 said:


> Try to do some weekly WCs from now on :X! Inverts are much more susceptible to nitrite poisoning than fish, but your tetras are still doing fine right?


Missed this part of the post.

Ok, will do WC weekly now for the shrimp tank as well.
My tetras are all doing well.. All 16 of them. Some have gotten real big.. more than an inch... Everyday I look at the tank and wishing to spot a fry, but nothing. hope is not a bad thing.. :icon_mrgr


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

Ok, I just remeasured the tank's actual volume (up to water level).
It is actually 12.5G.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Haha I see the name change. The goldfish bowl also increased in size eh ?

I think you'd have to get a breeder net or the tetras will most likely eat their young!


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

Really? but my tank has lots of plants.. i thought the fries would be smart enough to hide in there?


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

I don't think so... The adults are also that much faster haha. You know what's really funny? I got a RAOK bunch of plants. And a few days later I saw a small fry in my shrimp only tank. I was like "wtf... is that a tadpole in my tank?!?!" Turns out the person who sent them to me said her fish were mating near her plants haha. Must've came in egg form and hatched in my tank!


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

I just spotted a pinkish worm in the tank. about 1cm long. i spotted it while it was falling in the water column.. landed at the gravel area. i went to pick up a radio antenna (i use it to poke things around in my tank), and it's gone.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Keep your eye out. If you start seeing more than 1 its dewormer time. Cut down on feedings. Or just throw in a danio haha!


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

I don't like to put danio in my cardinal tank.. the danio likes
to chase the cardinal around too much... 

i haven't seen any more weird worms in my tank. but, i bet there
are a lot under the soil. makes me squirm everytime wanna put my
hand in there.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Hm... when you have time try doing a deep gravel vac then?


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

I don't think a deep gravel vac is necessary since the aquasoil are also packed up with all sorts of stuff in there. 

Anyway, here's a photo of the tank location.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Hm.. I've been doing pretty thorough gravel vacs in hopes of keeping the TDS low in my shripm tank. Constantly fluctuates between like 230 and 250 from WC's so at least I know its doing something. The TDS is slowly creeping upwards though...

Nice clean house. I like it :]


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

diwu13 said:


> Hm.. I've been doing pretty thorough gravel vacs in hopes of keeping the TDS low in my shripm tank. Constantly fluctuates between like 230 and 250 from WC's so at least I know its doing something. The TDS is slowly creeping upwards though...


Oh ya, i still haven't got any water test kit. i just stick to the weekly WC routine, once a month trimming and cleaning up. that's all. i also stop rescaping, i am quite happy with the scape now. I can see some of my shrimps in the 10g still. But not all 7. Not sure whether they've gone hiding, or, simply got eaten by the cardinals. lol. 



diwu13 said:


> Nice clean house. I like it :]


Thanks! :smile:


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

As I check for shrimps in my 10g, i still able to find about 5 of them in there. Perhaps all 7 are still in there, but just hiding somewhere. I manage to take a pic of some of them. I'll post it later.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Should go buy more from the LFS and make the betta tank back into a shrimp tank


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

diwu13 said:


> Should go buy more from the LFS and make the betta tank back into a shrimp tank


Unfortunately, Betta >> shrimp in terms of maintenance/care.


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

There she is!


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Aw. What a cutie :].

But yea.. you don't have to worry about sucking up little betta's during WC's lol. But shrimp are much more fun to watch IMO. More activity in the tank.


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

I love shrimps, don't get me wrong. But, I'm so frustrated with the repetitive visits to LFS, getting some supposedly males, and put them in my tank, and turns out they are female. then, some starts to die, population goes down since they are no babies, then I go get some more, supposedly male, but then not again.. Bahh..! I just wish local lfs here really know what they're selling. lol


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Hm... you can't order online or anything haha? Btw, nice profile pic


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

Order online, can the shrimp survive? say from US to Malaysia? I've never bought anything live from overseas before. I worry our Customs will block any living things to be imported.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Hm... yea customs may be the issue. RCS can easily survive 4-5 days in transit. I can't believe your LFS doesn't have a single male :X


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

diwu13 said:


> Hm... yea customs may be the issue. RCS can easily survive 4-5 days in transit. I can't believe your LFS doesn't have a single male :X


Yea... I think they purposely stock female. So that, none of the customer's shrimp reproduce, hence they have to buy more... = more $. hehe


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

That could definitely be the case. But only stocking females is one thing, not knowing which are male and which are female is a different story :X


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

As I look at my tank closely, i can no longer spot any CRS. all presumed dead eaten by my hungry cardinals. lol


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Aw :[! Those damn cardinals! Not a good christmas for them

And about that picture lol! That's a Crystal Red Shrimp ;P, and not even mine. But I loved the pose it was in! Merry Christmas!


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

I'm confused with the naming convention.

Is it Cherry Red Shrimp, and Red Crystal Shrimp or
Red Cherry Shrimp and Crystal Red Shrimp?


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

RCS = red cherry shrimp
CRS = crystal red shrimp


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

hey thanks for that clarification.

anyway, my 10g wasn't doing well after the addition of hygrophila and that reineckii.
hygrophila melts like hell (i suppose it is a transition from emersed to immersed), but the new leaves formed also are not doing well. the tank was a bit abandoned due to all the things that has happened in the family (ppl get sick and everyone worried).

i didn't had any time to rmove the melted leaves, that in turn get stuck to some of my plants and made the other plants melt as well. 

ytd had some free time, so decided to clean it up and do a WC. (last WC was a month ago!). fishes are all doing well. no death or sickness. both otos are doing well too. 

anyway after cleaning up and minor rescape, the reineckii seems to be doing well, but there are plenty of green algae on it. otos seems to eat it sometimes.

fts


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

Oh yeah.. i start to see some MTS on the glass wall. gotta love em! these are bigger snails, about 5mm long. it's the first time i saw them climbing up. normally they just stay under the gravel.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Damn, this looks pretty bare now


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

diwu13 said:


> Damn, this looks pretty bare now


Yea....... 

I really love that middle plant (now just 2 stem of them).. they were growing nicely and i wanted to sorta carpet them all over the place.. but they melted after the dead leaves of hygrophila shrouded them.

Lucky i had managed to save 2 stems. they're growing back now.. i'll be waiting for them to grow taller and replant method.


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

feeling really Sucksss.........

one oto died on me. no idea why. perhaps i changed too many water. i duno.
algae is booming (but i guess due to a little nitrate spike when i did the cleaning up.. not sure.

all cardinals are doing ok though.

AND.. MTS are getting bolder. 5-6 of them are happily crawling on the wall now... gotta love em snails


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

I've heard ottos are very picky about parameters


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

Yup... both otos are gone. so are both of my CAEs in my betta tank. my betta kept chasing them around and probably hurt them as well.

anyway, as i count my tetras, only 12 left.. seems 2 died without me noticing.

here is the current condition after i get some time to do some maintenance...
but there is a green shroud algae on the substrate.. i sucked them using the vac
but some remained and they're growing again..

I must say that buying both the a.reineckii and hygrophila was a bad move for me.
being emersed, they start to die on me during conversion to immersed and all the leaves melts and cover up the rest of the other plants and causes them to melt as well. both plants seems to be hard to grow as well in a low tech tank like mine. bah. whats done is done. anyway, here's how it looks like today.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Welcome back! It looks so empty now


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

Thanks.. yeah still empty. but manageable apart from the algae.
my pond is doing much better though.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Been really busy lately? Haven't seen you on at all. Everything alright there in Malaysia?


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

diwu13 said:


> Been really busy lately? Haven't seen you on at all. Everything alright there in Malaysia?


thanks for asking. yea, everything's alright here.. just really busy with work and stuffs.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Well.. that's good to hear! Looking forwards to you updating your other tanks. At least with pictures haha


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

Nothing changed for the other tank.. just some growth that's all. I havent trimmed them yet.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Interested in the goldfish pond and how the plants grew out there!


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

I'll be updating the pond in a few days after I get a friend of Dorothy.
Just got that pond floating plant. The bamboo and pothos are growing well. 
The Small java fern in there is also doing well. Bright green leaves are sprouting
from it, i bet it is from nutrients in the goldfish poops. lol


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

So went to the LFS, and get a couple of Flying Foxes. I read somewhere they are pretty hardy and they eat many kind of algae including BHA and Hair algae. Also saw a plant that looks pretty and cheap. Bought it straight away. Not sure what's the name, but hopefully its not non aquatic. 










Here a shot from an angle focusing on the center piece.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Yea, my friend told me about flying foxes as well. They are the best algae eating fish there is apparently, kinda of like amanos being the best algae eating shrimp. How much do they cost there? How many did you get? No pictures of them ?


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

Hi diwu,

Here it costs RM1.20 per fish - that's about 40cents (US).

But WOW flying foxes really are great algae eater. many of green hair algae
and even the black bush algae are slowly gone lol. even otos didn't eat them
while i had otos.

flying fox is my fav now... they are so beautiful while they "hover".

they are hard to capture on a camera, because they would swim away when they saw my silhoutte. anyway, the second pic in my last post captured them at the back.


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

Anyway, I am thinking to get some (2-3) rummynose in there since my tetras qty is now only 12.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

doncityz said:


> Hi diwu,
> 
> Here it costs RM1.20 per fish - that's about 40cents (US).
> 
> ...


Dang!!! I wish they were super cheap here. I would totally get a bunch of them for my 10G and have them eat all that hair algae. But more realistically I'll get some amano shrimp since those are cheaper and fit the shrimp theme.

Do flying foxes eat shrimp? I heard they have teeth.



doncityz said:


> Anyway, I am thinking to get some (2-3) rummynose in there since my tetras qty is now only 12.


Sounds good to me!


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

How much does a flying fox costs there?

But yeah, you should get Amanos since your tanks are shrimply. (did i just use the word shrimp as adjective? ack!)

I just transfered my anubias from my betta tank back to this tank. Ytd it was covered with hair algae. TOday I woke up AND IT IS SUPER CLEAN!! I took some pics, I'll upload later when Im on my mac.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Not sure but they are definitely over $2 each haha.

I need something to eat the nemotodes in my shrimp tanks, more than the hair algae. I will be getting some amano shrimp though.

Pictures!


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## leeteekyung (Jul 7, 2011)

hi doncityz, nice tank u have there
anyway, what chilcid is this that u have posted before? i always want to buy it but i want to research before about it, thanks don.


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

leeteekyung said:


> hi doncityz, nice tank u have there
> anyway, what chilcid is this that u have posted before? i always want to buy it but i want to research before about it, thanks don.


hi leeteekyung, thanks.

That cichlid is Melanochromis Johanni. He's a bada$$. He'll definitely attack any other fish around, especially if there aren't enough space. Cichlids generally needs about 5L per fish, much like goldfish needs. Oh yeah, I believe he will rip out any plants that you have as well. They also will like to dig in the substrate. While I had him, my substrate was about 2 inches, and he dug a spot up until the bottom glass.


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

diwu13 said:


> Not sure but they are definitely over $2 each haha.
> 
> I need something to eat the nemotodes in my shrimp tanks, more than the hair algae. I will be getting some amano shrimp though.
> 
> Pictures!


Whoa. $2.. that's expensive. 

That's one reason why I don't like to rear shrimps. I mean, I love shrimps, but taking care of them is not so easy. If you have fish in there, it will definitely take care of the nematodes. But they will also take care of your shrimps. :icon_mrgr

Pics time!!

MTS Invasion - Baby MTS crawling about.









Bigger MTS scouring for food on the DW









Can you spot the Flying Fox?









Flying Fox #1









Flying Fox #2 . It is cosy under the powerhead... 









FTS. Finally mission to hide big powerhead accomplished by water sprite!


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

Dun dun dun... under quarantine. bought them, came home, noticed they had a few ichs.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Oh no. What's with all the people getting fish with ich now. Where do they come from that they come stressed . Why is that tank water so green haha.


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

Ok today morning woke up to 1 dead rummynose. the other 3 is well.
the green/blue water is actually treatment for ich solution. all 3 are cured overnight.
but the 4th didn't make it. oh well.

anyway, all 3 are in my 12.5g now. They're really showing their red nose color and stripes after half an hour.... pretty pretty.!!!


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Hm.. might have been too far along. Happens with shrimps that are too bacterially infected as well.


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

Good news. all 3 seems to be healthy. not sure if i should add some more lol.
i aldy have 12 cardinals, 3 rummynose, 2 flying fox... my cardinals are quite big as well now.. biggest is 1.5".


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Hm.. you should let the plants grow some more before adding more fish. You already have the ~1in of fish per gallon.


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

diwu13 said:


> Hm.. you should let the plants grow some more before adding more fish. You already have the ~1in of fish per gallon.


They should be ok in there. My filter is powerful for a 10g (1000L/h).
As long as they're not nipping at each other's fins... that is. 
I like overstocking :hihi:


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Ah yea. Insane amount of filtration for a 10g haha. I like overstocking shrimp !


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

diwu13 said:


> Ah yea. Insane amount of filtration for a 10g haha. I like overstocking shrimp !


I'd love to have overstocked shrimps as well! man! if only they're easier to keep.


----------



## doncityz (May 17, 2011)




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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Still looks really empty haha.


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

It's a low tech tank, nothing much i can do except wait a few years for it to fill in.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

I heard flying foxes will eat shrimp. And flying foxes are a type of SAE?


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

I was told Flying Fox IS SAE! I don't know really. So far it has been a trial & error learning experience lol.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

People are telling me they are two different fishes lol. And flying foxes will eat shrimp (and algae) whereas SAE will only eat algae. No idea myself though...


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

From wikipedia,

Flying Fox: 









Cambodian Logsucker:









SAE:









And My Fish:









Mine resembles an SAE a lot, don't you think? Not really sure anyway. So long as it eats algae, you can be a shark for all I care lol.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

To be honest.... it could be the same fish in all the pictures for all I know...


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

The first pic is really different. see the mouth area and the reddish coloring.

but of course, they are all from the same species group as written in wikipedia.


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

I notice something cool with my fishes today.
they seem to know when i came over the tank to feed them - they would flock near to the front glass and near to the top surface... it's a nice feeling..! I guess they start to trust me as their master.. hehe


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

I noticed that as well back when I had fishes. Everytime I opened the hinge they would all come near the surface. Too bad the mosquito rasboras don't do that lol.


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

Fish are like dogs. and shrimps are like cats. lol


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## AlexPhotography (Mar 12, 2012)

As I read this entire thread, I kept going back to the first page, where you spoke of having killed several fish due to being hard headed and not listening to advice...
So far with this tank you killed many fish, yeah, fine some may have been victims of collection practices, but the recurrence of deaths lead me to believe that theres something you might be doing wrong.
Many people have mentioned that your tank might be over stocked, this is not a compliment, this creates stress and decease...but you seem proud of it.
Several people have asked about water parameters...but you said that you can't afford a test kit. so you simply replace the dead fish with more fish, possibly sentencing them to death by placing them in an unstable, and overstocked environment. If you can't afford to buy a test kit to ensure the survivability of your fish, then you can't afford a fish tank. I sickens me to see the lackadaisical attitude towards the loss of life. Please, test your water, please, decrease the bioload if needed, plrase be a responsible keeper of life. Thank you.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Whoa there Alex. By several people do you mean me? me? and me? Over stocking a tank is perfectly fine as long as you provide enough filtration. As long as you have plants to divide up the fish's vision it's not a huge issue. That's the whole reason people use sumps, so they can OVERSTOCK their show tank while maintaining good water quality with the sump tank.


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## AlexPhotography (Mar 12, 2012)

Oh good, so the constant death would be considered normal?
All I'm saying is that theres got to be something wrong but nothing is being looked into, fish just keep getting replaced.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

What constant death are you speaking of? Are you talking about when he first started keeping fish? He's not having constant death with his current stock.


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## AlexPhotography (Mar 12, 2012)

I remember seeing deaths on almost every page when I read the entire thread... So just in case after yiur comment I tried something. I randomly chose two pages to see how accurate my perception was. The first random page: dead rummy nose, second page: dead shrimp.
I suggest you re-read the entire thread and let me know how that goes.


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## AlexPhotography (Mar 12, 2012)

Just for the hell of it I clicked on one more page...and yey, no deaths...then I clicked on another and...dead amanos...


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Starting on page 6, dead fish/shrimp from a LFS. Since they died within the day chances are it's because the LFS did not care properly for them. If you want to go animal activist you should really see how many LFS do this, nearly half. page 8, dead shrimp since fish ate them. page 9, dead fish that came in sick from the pet store. page 10-12 nothing dead.


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## AlexPhotography (Mar 12, 2012)

Oh good, nothing dead on 3 pages.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Which is equivalent to 4 months.


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## AlexPhotography (Mar 12, 2012)

Ok so conditions stabilized without proper effort...blind squirrel approach. If it works.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

"Ok so guess I really didn't read through this thread as closely as I thought I did"? Looks like you just did Control+F "dead"


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## AlexPhotography (Mar 12, 2012)

Lol...the whole protective thing is kinda cute. Ill stick to my opinion and you to yours, deal.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

AlexPhotography said:


> As I read this entire thread, I kept going back to the first page, where you spoke of having killed several fish due to being hard headed and not listening to advice...
> So far with this tank you killed many fish, yeah, fine some may have been victims of collection practices, but the recurrence of deaths lead me to believe that theres something you might be doing wrong.
> Many people have mentioned that your tank might be over stocked, this is not a compliment, this creates stress and decease...but you seem proud of it.
> Several people have asked about water parameters...but you said that you can't afford a test kit. so you simply replace the dead fish with more fish, possibly sentencing them to death by placing them in an unstable, and overstocked environment. If you can't afford to buy a test kit to ensure the survivability of your fish, then you can't afford a fish tank. I sickens me to see the lackadaisical attitude towards the loss of life. Please, test your water, please, decrease the bioload if needed, plrase be a responsible keeper of life. Thank you.


Reread your first post. Reread this thread. You'll fine out what you wrote in your first post, is false. Therefore, the basis of your "lecture" is based off of false pretenses. Not only that, you're talking about overstocking as if it's not done in LFS ALL the time. And it seems you have no idea what a sump system is.


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## AlexPhotography (Mar 12, 2012)

Wow, still stuck on that? Its like an angry lover...let it go.


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Glad you man up to your mistakes.


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

AlexPhotography said:


> As I read this entire thread, I kept going back to the first page, where you spoke of having killed several fish due to being hard headed and not listening to advice...
> So far with this tank you killed many fish, yeah, fine some may have been victims of collection practices, but the recurrence of deaths lead me to believe that theres something you might be doing wrong.
> Many people have mentioned that your tank might be over stocked, this is not a compliment, this creates stress and decease...but you seem proud of it.
> Several people have asked about water parameters...but you said that you can't afford a test kit. so you simply replace the dead fish with more fish, possibly sentencing them to death by placing them in an unstable, and overstocked environment. If you can't afford to buy a test kit to ensure the survivability of your fish, then you can't afford a fish tank. I sickens me to see the lackadaisical attitude towards the loss of life. Please, test your water, please, decrease the bioload if needed, plrase be a responsible keeper of life. Thank you.


Hi Alex, thank you for checking out my tank!! roud:
Also, thanks for your concern for the fishes. 

I agree over the years, I probably did something wrong here and there that resulted in fish deaths. However, they are definitely NOT due to overstocking. I have a very good (actually too good) filtering system. From my calculations, the filtering media I have setup is good for 30gallon tank. And the pump rate is also too high for my tank. The tank has been stable for quite a long time actually. Deaths that occured were due to things like:

i) Oto died due to I did not regularly feed them with zuchinni... and I did quite a major rescape.
ii) Bacteria infections - I transfered some of my shrimps (that later I found out was infected - the whitish spongy color).
iii) Bad batch from fish shop - like the 1 rummynose tetra that died during quarantine.

I am not getting test kit, because I feel they are unnecessary as long as I keep my WC routine and maintenances and fish care (like medicate them if there are illness). 

Also, bioload of 13 tetras + 3 rummynose + 2 flying fox in an overfiltered 12.5g is not that bad, they are not cichlids. plus i feed them only tiny bits once a day. 

And yeah, most of my fish stocks are okay. 

Anyway, I appreciate your thoughts and thanks for sharing. :hihi:


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

diwu13 said:


> Glad you man up to your mistakes.


Thanks for trying to explain things diwu, you're so kind.

Anyway, it's alright, probably Alex is the supplier for water test kits products. :hihi:


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

ANYWAY... back to the tank progress. hehe

I just stopped the aerator. And went to shopping and my fav LFS was nearby so wham, I bought a plant. impulse buy. the plant is the same species as the one I had before which was doing so well (until the "melted leaves of emersed plants shrouded the tank" episode that is). But not really pic worthy yet.

All fish are doing great btw, especially the rummynoses, now they really really showing their colors and stripes.


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

Here's a video during feeding time. Check out the flying foxes eating at the surface. They're so funny lol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roSsQ5FAfjU


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## diwu13 (Sep 20, 2011)

Wow everything goes crazy lol


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

FTS


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## doncityz (May 17, 2011)

Wow. been a while. been busy lately.

my tank looks completely different now lol!

lost most of my plants, and about half of my cardinals.

mebbe i'll post a pic later.


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## Basil (Jul 11, 2011)

Would love to see how everything ended up


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