# Siggav - My Rio 180 (56k)



## 2in10 (Feb 8, 2011)

Tank looks very good, normal activity for the Tetras.


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## Siggav (Jun 29, 2009)

Added 4 german blue rams, we'll see how they'll go in the tank. I've wanted dwarf cichlids for ages and decided to just go for it.

They're absolutely lovely so far, two youtube clips of the tank one slightly older one, pre rams and then with them

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPbQqPRGfH4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L39AhOdh0f8










It's fun watching them explore the tank, and with that addition my stocking is completely done, if I want to tinker more it'll be plants.










Absolutely gorgeous little fish


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## whiteblaze 27 (Apr 17, 2012)

love the tank german blue rams look awesome! i have a pare my of german blues myself!


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## Siggav (Jun 29, 2009)

More and better photos of the fish, the crypts and anubias are doing really well though, extra crypts turning up and all of them are putting up new leaves and there's been like 4 new leaves on the anubias in the last 2 weeks which is pretty good going for it really.

These two have paired up and they've been getting pretty possessive over a corner of the tank. I'm not in a position to raise any eggs but it's nice to watch them interact though










Paired male on his own









Sparring with the other guy









Other guy on his own









Updated FTS









I had to moderately wreck the aquascape a bit to put in more breakers of line of sight and stuff into the tank. Also in that shot some cucumber and zuccini and lettuce for my otos, Im not sure I have enough of the right type of algae to feed them just from the tank so I'm playing it safe.

The second female I have of the GBRs is being bullied somewhat by the others right now. She's not gone into hiding and she eats well still but her colour is paler than the others and they all chase her around a fair bit and she has a small wound on one side.

She also has a bit of a defect where a part of her gillcover is missing. She was like that when I got her and I didn't have heart to take her back to the LFS. It doesn't seem to affect her and she was bullying my currently single male a few days ago. The drama never stops with these fish.

Anyway here's her:


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## Siggav (Jun 29, 2009)

Came home to a dead pearl gourami and oto. Pearl gourami had had a growth at the base of her pectoral fin for a while so I guess that ended up doing her in, don't know about the oto. 

Bah, it's never fun loosing fish.


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## Ozydego (Aug 29, 2011)

I had a powder blue gourami with a similar growth. After about two weeks of him barely getting around, fins tattered and gasping at the surface I finally put him down. Weird though about the growth on the pec fin though. 

Absolutely stunning tank, I really like the rescape!


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## tomfromstlouis (Apr 2, 2012)

Love your tank Siggav. The penguin tetras are a really nice look. It seems like they school pretty well together?

I like the val background, but I think it might look even better with some sort of backing on the glass. I myself prefer black paint. Even without it you have a very peaceful scene.


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## Siggav (Jun 29, 2009)

Thanks! Ive put black background on the tank before but took it off, I've gotten so used to seeing the shimmer of the lights on the wall behind the tank and getting a bit of extra light into the tank through the back that it just felt really weird and closed off to me having a solid background. I know a lot of people much prefer tanks with proper backgrounds. I might try again with a background that has a frosted glass effect that might hit the sweet spot of being more of a background while still letting light through.

The penguin tetras are fun, they school tightly when they're a bit insecure, during waterchange time or just after eating etc. at other times they'll spread out and fight amongst each other quite viciously sometimes, with scales falling off down to the bottom. I don't really understand them. They seem to be doing fine though. I have 12 which I think is a good number.

My pearl gourami was around 3 years old so not a baby but not old yet either I think. Still oh well I guess, I was sad to loose her though. I don't know if I'll get another. Maybe try an angelfish instead push the tank into something closer to a full on SA tank.

I should probably update with a new full tank shot, experimenting with a few carpeting plants so it's a bit work in progress right now, just seeing if any of them will take off or not, I'm mostly expecting not. Also got some weeping moss to tie on the driftwood


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## BoxxerBoyDrew (Oct 16, 2005)

VERY, VERY GOOD TANK!!!!!

I really love the plant selection!!! Fish too!!! GBR are 1 of my favorites, and though I have never kept them the penguin tetras are FUN to watch! Sterbai Corys are VERY COOL TOO!!! I would think about putting a few more of them in the tank, as the corys really like to have a group of their own kind! Maybe 3 or better yet 5 more! I usually try to keep odd numbers of fish. I really don't know why, but I have read LOTS of Fish keeping mags and books over almost 30 years of fish keeping, and most of the writers say odd numbers work better! ??? Who Knows??? lol 

I my really wanting to scape my 40B very much like this for the breeding pair of Angels I have! I still need to build a stand for my 40B though, so they are in my 55g which is more of a high tech setup with T5 HO and Pressurized Co2. Even though I have mainly Crypts in it now! lol But I want to do a peaceful low tech so the Angels will have a easy time while trying to hatch a spawn!

Anyway I hope you don't mind me borrowing from your scape! You have done a EXCELLENT JOB!!!

Keep up the awesome work, and with the great pics too!
Drew

P.S. SORRY about the loss of the Pearl and Otto! Pearls are my favorite Gourami, of the bigger Gouramis, and ottos can be tricky to get acclimated to a new home! I have lost a few myself, as have most of us! I usually buy 3 more than I am wanting in a tank to makeup for losses!


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## Siggav (Jun 29, 2009)

Wow thank you  and im just really flattered that you're inpired by my tank!

I used to have 9 sterbai cories but had a tank disaster and lost most of them. Only one left now :/ he's close to 7 years old and not entirely well. Basically something happened a few months back (before rescape) and all the MTS died in a day. Still have no idea what happened. I sort of want to change out my substrate before adding more cories


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## Siggav (Jun 29, 2009)

More bad news, lost both of my female GBR to wounds, one had a part of her lip bitten off and the other had the wound on her side. So that's not brilliant.

The two males appear to have a truce mostly with the tank almost divided in two between them. One is more dominant over the other though but the tank is big enough and planted enough that they mostly keep out of each others way. We'll see how it goes.

I have two baby angelfish in there now as well. I know they might not get along as they grow up but they're fine for now. I went to the LFS to see if they had good looking healthy female GBR to add in but they only had small and thin ones so I didn't feel confident to get any of those. I however succumbed to the angelfish.

I should probably have thought it through a bit more but watching them makes me smile so that's something.


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## Bleeker (Aug 29, 2012)

I loove angels. Those colors are very unique. I once only had two angels in a tank and I got them who they were about nickle size, They ended up becoming a pair. I think I was just lucky tho. But keep it up! Love the wood btw.


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## Siggav (Jun 29, 2009)

Yeah, I really like altums (well aware that Im not going to keep any though) so I've sort of been after striped angelfish and even though I know that's the wildform colour not seen many at all around, lots are veiltail koi etc, and I was wanting just normal fin silver ones.

Those little guys I have now are a bit extra stripy, but that's fine  (and also the other colours of angelfish are all great, it's more that the ones Ive seen have often had wonky ventrals and huge eyes and looked abit stunted etc.)

My longer term stocking in the tank for now is:
2 german blue rams
2 angelfish (we'll see about how they get on)
12 penguin tetras
5 otos

Tank is 40" by 16" so more floor space than a standard 55g since it's wider but it's shorter.

Other fish in the tank as well right now
1 sterbai cory
3 neon tetras
2 cherry barbs

I can always move my neons into my shrimp tank if the angels start getting bigger and interested but those neons are ancient now and I'm expecting them to die off in the next few months. I used to have a school of around 12 tetras years ago and those 3 are the last survivors at this point. Same with the barbs and the cory.

I might try to change out my substrate next weekend. That'll be a lot of work.


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## Siggav (Jun 29, 2009)

Ok took some updated tank photos. It's a bit less clean than it was at one point but I wanted to see how a few different plants would grow so there's a bit too many plant species in there really (I tend to like a fairly minimalistic plant selection) however dealing with the val had been a pain and I gave it a big haircut. I started getting BGA problems from lack of flow I think, the surface was getting clogged with the super long valisneria leaves.

I have no idea how the one sprig of cabomba will do, it came with some shrimp I got for my nano tank and I wasn't going to put it there. Way to nice looking to just throw away though so in it goes.




















The new guys









I clearly like black and silver in fish, hah










Full tank shot


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## Knotyoureality (Aug 3, 2012)

Siggav said:


> Yeah, I really like altums (well aware that Im not going to keep any though) so I've sort of been after striped angelfish and even though I know that's the wildform colour not seen many at all around, lots are veiltail koi etc, and I was wanting just normal fin silver ones.
> 
> Those little guys I have now are a bit extra stripy, but that's fine  (and also the other colours of angelfish are all great, it's more that the ones Ive seen have often had wonky ventrals and huge eyes and looked abit stunted etc.)
> 
> ...


You may well luck out with your neons. My angelfish never bothered mine; even molly fry were annoyingly safe once they were more than a week old.


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## Ozydego (Aug 29, 2011)

I was seriously worried when I got 20 tiny cardinals for my 55gal. I had 3 med-lg angels in the tank already and the LFS guy even gave me a few extra because he thought a few may not make it while growing big enough to not look like food. I never lost one. Your angels are small enough now that I dont think you will ever see any predation from the angels.


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## Siggav (Jun 29, 2009)

Ok that's reassuring. My neons are old and huge for neons, almost 1.5 inches so hopefully they'll be fine


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## Siggav (Jun 29, 2009)

Updated tank photo, everything went a bit wrong with the tank *sigh*

I've had something wrong with the fish, I think there's a bacterial infection in the tank. I've lost all but one of the rams and one of the angelfish and all but one of the otos. Also lost Limpy my pushing 7 years old cherry barb but that was expected (he had a stroke or something 3 years ago and has been paralysed in one side since then, I expected him to be a goner way back then, so him surviving an extra 3 years was remarkable)

I can't get actual antibiotics without a vet prescription in the UK so I tried a few different medications I could get my hands on (over a period of time) and that melted my vallisneria down.

I did a mini rescape to declutter the tank abit also with only the one ram it's less important having line of sight breaks etc. 

I still have vallisneria at the back, the roots survived and it's starting to grow back.

I've measured the water through all this and it's come up fine in the tests. Got myself a TDS meter as well and that sits at around 140 so that's not too bad. The fish that got sick stopped eating, lost colour, then got mild fin rot and hung around listlessly and the ram got an infected lip. I have no idea what went wrong really and don't really want to dwell on it. The otos seemed to have too red gills as well. Not going to add any new fish for a while now.

I sort of want to change out my substrate, but I know that's a huge pain

Tank!









Current inhabitants:
12 penguin tetras
1 angelfish
1 german blue ram
1 oto
2 neon tetras
1 cherry barb


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## Siggav (Jun 29, 2009)

Updated tank shot again, the angelfish has had a growth spurt



















I know he's far from full grown but I really like him so far


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## bassmjm (Jun 1, 2011)

Just read the thread and coming in a little late. Sorry to hear about your tank troubles. Are fish antibiotics not available over-the-counter in the UK?

Otherwise, I like your little crypt forest, and your angelfish were an excellent find with those striped patterns.

Pearl gourami's are my favorite, GBR's a close second. I've always been worried about keeping them together because of aggression though. Perhaps the gourami got in a fight, got an injury, then got an infection?


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## Siggav (Jun 29, 2009)

Thanks for commenting  and yeah that could have happened w the pearl gourami I guess but she was pretty much fully grown and much much bigger than the rams. I never saw tham squabble but I wasn't watching the tank 24/7 either so who knows. 

Yeah over the counter antibiotics for fish are not really available in the UK. Ive not lost fish now thiugh in several weeks so Im hoping it's going ok now and that the tank is back. The vallisneria is starting to grow back now as well


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## Siggav (Jun 29, 2009)

Angelfish has done some more growing, tank is in need of a bit of a clean so not the best picture but I figured I'd share anyway










I've lost a few more fish so current inhabitants are:
11 penguin tetras
1 angelfish
1 oto
1 cherry barb

I was expecting the ram and the neon tetras to go, the tetras had gotten very old. I'm expecting the cherry barb to go too at some point. I'm pretty lightly stocked right now but I'll keep things like this for a while. The angelfish is super fun and seems to be happy to be the only larger fish in the tank


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## Siggav (Jun 29, 2009)

More photos:


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## t.doyle (Mar 7, 2013)

Siggav said:


> Updated FTS



I am in the process of getting a Rio 180, and aim to get something similar to this but with a bit more twigs and moss! 

Love this!


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## Siggav (Jun 29, 2009)

Turns out my angelfish is female. She laid eggs today and is very busy now chasing the tetras away from them. Bit sad that they're all infertile due to her being the only angelfish in the tank so her hard work will be for nothing.


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## Siggav (Jun 29, 2009)

So it's been a long long time. I have moved house since the last posts, and redid the tank when doing that.

Ended up with some smudge spot cories and rummynose tetras on top of the angel, I added two bolivian rams. Then got a second angel as a rescue from a friend who had a trio of angelfish and then two paired up so I took the extra one.

Tank then slowly deteriorated (biggest mistake I think forgetting to swap out the lights) and the substrate basically disintegrated, I had had amazonia, I expect that's not intended to stay undisturbed for years.










I then lost the angels and one of the rams over about three months when I was travelling quite a lot. The two rams had started fighting a bunch and it was the smaller and weaker one that went and my angels were getting on in years, although I expect not keeping up with the tank properly was a factor (my parameters always come out fine, but I think there was probably a lot of dissolved solids etc. from the algae, plants and substrate).

Tank also got badly hit by bba and the anubias both took over half the tank and were covered in the bba leading to an eyesore of a tank

It had very much been a slow decline situation, where you don't properly register how bad it had gotten. So what's a better lockdown project than to properly sort out the tank again!

What it looked like once I started uprooting plants etc, forgot to take a proper before photo










Task one, swap out the substrate. Just going with very fine gravel/coarse but smooth sand for the cories and overall simplicity. I will use root tabs and am ok if I mostly end up with java ferns and hardy stem plants in the end










Herculean task done, most of the plants were in a bucket waiting to be sorted out in the next few days










Had a new piece of manzanita, just allowing it to float to start with, and had bleach dipped the anubias and salvaged the best bits of the ferns and crypt + hygrophilia, to allow the fish to be slightly less freaked out by the lack of cover.










Next step, new plants arrived and I got tired of waiting on the wood to sink so I just tied it to some rocks.










Also, very important, got a razor algae scraper and cleaned the front glass










I definitely hit he anubias too hard with the bleach and they were melting, however in the middle of that my smudge spot cories (I was down to just the two, spawned, so now I've got a fry protector box in the tank, hatching the eggs I managed to get. I genuinely need more cories and have struggled to find any smudge spot ones, so here's hoping they survive.










So, taking out the anubias and getting some more ferns and a few other plants the tank is now this!


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## Discusluv (Dec 24, 2017)

Great job! 
That was, indeed, a challenge- lol!

Good to have you back


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## Siggav (Jun 29, 2009)

Yep, I debated starting a new thread altogether, but I figured the long view might be interesting. Very curious now to see how it settles in.


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## andrewss (Oct 17, 2012)

Wow! Good job with the redo looks really good now


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## Siggav (Jun 29, 2009)

The cory fry all passed, only four hatched from about 16 eggs, and I don't think they were eating the food I was offering (bbs, crushed flake and liquifry) but that does mean I could remove the hatching box thing and get a proper view of the tank. Also sharing a corner shot. I'm quite pleased about that angle, expecially since that's the view from the main sofa in the lounge where the tank is.





















It's far too early to tell how the plants are really doing, but it looks nice in the meantime.


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## Siggav (Jun 29, 2009)

Updated photo now, the big branch has finally gotten properly waterlogged so it's not tied down and just balancing instead. Plants are growing well. The cories spawned again so I'm trying to see if I have better luck with the fry this time around.


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