andyg

As requested, tank stats: 20G PetCetera kit, gravel substrate, AC 150 filter, Diy CO2 ( just restarted after a 2 months lapse ) with Hagen ladder, Coralife 65W 6700K pc fixture 12-14 Hrs day, Elite 100W heater, Rena 100 airpump ( also suppling the 30 ) Flora: Amazon swords, Java Fern & Moss, Java "Windelov", Microswords, Dwarf Sags, Anubia "Nana". Still in there for a little bit longer half a dozen stems of Moneywort, Ludwigia Repens and Cabomba. ( these are being removed as the swords & java are filling the spaces.) 50G Oceanic, Eco Complete substrate, Rena XP3 filtration, DIY CO2 and inline reactor (none in the last three months) Coralife 2 X 65W 6700K pc fixture ( 8 hrs @ 130W, 4-6 hrs @ 65W ) Ebo-Jager 150W heater. Flora: Java Fern & Moss, Dwarf Sags & Italian Vals, Crypt Wendtii "Brown", Echinodorus "Red Special" & Ozelot, Microswords, Alternanthera Reineckii, ( slowly dying ). For another month or so Moneywort, Ludwigia Repens. I cut off the CO2 as a trial to see if I could slow down the growth of the Ludwigia and moneywort as I had to trim the plants 2-3 times a week to keep them from overtaking the whole tank. It worked to a certain degree, I now only trim once a month but, my other plants are suffering from the lack of CO2. Solution...Remove the stem plants. 30G Oceanic Cube, Schultz Aquatic soil & gravel substrate, Fluval 404 filtration, set up for DIY CO2 with Hagen ladder ( so far not used ) DIY hood with Glomat 2 X 20W ballast running 2 15W 6700K Life-Glo bulbs ( might upgrade to 4 in the future ) Flora: Java Fern & Moss, Java " Windelov", Amazon swords, Crypt "balansae " Anubia "Nana" For a while longer until the Swords and Crypt get going, Ludwigia Repens and Cabomba. I set this one up as a low light, low tech tank so CO2 will not be used unless absolutly necessary. All tanks, PH 6.8-7, KH 5, GH 4, NO3 10-20ppm, PO4 1-2ppm ( 30 currently sits at 5ppm ) Amonia and Nitrite both at 0 were they should be. I only had K2SO4 and Plantex CSM+B every couple of weeks ( If I remember) for ferts. NO3 & PO4 provided in sufficient levels by the fauna and feeding. Water changes, 50% every 3-4 Weeks.

Thanks for the compliments. I kind of happy the way they turned out. I've got a journal going on each from start to were they are now and, if I ever find enough time I'll upload and get my website going. Valerie in regards to the SAE. I'm guessing based on what I have observed with the 4 that I have. From my two in the 50, both were purchased at the same time and grew at the same rate until about 5-6 months ago. One kept its slim shape while the other kept getting rounder around the middle. At that time I thought that it was just very well fed. At about the same time they started doing these weird little dance around the tank, nothing like their usual chasing around. ( I wish I had written down the antics or videotaped it at the time) It/she kept getting bigger and bigger around the middle. Then about a week later when I turned the lights on in the am it/she was back down to about half the size of the previous day. Meanwhile the other was nowhere to be seen and remained so for at least 2-3 days. It then reappeared and both were again swimming around as if nothing had happened. I going on a limb here and assume that she laid some eggs and he was guarding them. I've got a pic of the two of them were you can clearly see the difference between the two. In the last few months the male(?) has grown at least 1/2" longer and retain its slim shape. The female(?) to this day retain that bulging middle section. My hosting site for pics is currently down so here's a link to a post I did on the Planted Tank forum. http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthre...hlight=sae+male Hope this answer your questions.

I thought it was time to share some shots of my tanks. (Click on pics for larger shots.) 20G My first planted tank.(About 15 months since set up ) Fauna: 1 DP female, 6 Neons, 4 Gold White Clouds, 2 Panda Corys, 5 Otos. Taken about 1 week ago. 50G My second tank( set up Jan 05 ) Fauna: 8 Neons, 11 White Clouds, 3 Dwarf Gouramis, 3 Panda Corys, 1 Albino Cory, 4-6 Otos ( Hard to count as they hide a lot )2 3" SAE ( 1 male, 1 female) 1 5" Sailfin Pleco. Taken 1 month ago in its jungle state 30G My newest addition. Set up second week of Jul/05. Fauna so far: 4 Peppered Corys, 2 yet to be identified Corys, 2 3.5" SAEs, 1 common pleco (1.5"), 8 Otos. Plan to add some Rams and Angels in the near future. Taken yesterday.

Welcome aboard Seajays.

I thought that picture was familiar. I was right. I saw it back in april when someone fro SE Asia said they had it in their tank. http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthre...data+rosanervig According to his website, he does sell plants. Maybe email Darren @ Aquagiant, they get most of their stuff from around there so maybe they could bring it in. I wish I could find a few also it's a georgeous plant. Like other Crypts I suspect it's fairly low maintenace, probably does'nt like to be moved and requires low to med light. If you do find a source please let us know Andy

It took me by surprise too. I went through the tank eliminating possible sources one after the other until I came to that piece of rock. After a 2 day soak in RO the water tested at well over 10ppm PO4. I took it back to the lfs and tried to get them to replace it with something else, but no luck there. Interestingly enough, soon after they stopped carrying that particular rock.

LOL, my first thought was that it was plastic. Then I thought " Nah! He would'nt keep a plastic one in there with the live stuff." As far as algae goes, just make sure you keep your CO2 in the 25-30ppm range and keep adding your ferts. Your plants will soon outcompete it. Andy

Milan, are you still having problems with your Phosphate? If so, take out the rock you have in the left front corner and rinse it with RO or distilled water ( to remove any trace of tank water) then soak it for acouple of days in RO/distilled water and take a PO4 reading. I had a similar rock in my 20 that was leaching PO4 like crazy (10+ppm) and it was'nt until I removed it that I got my levels down.

Milan, your tank look great. I don't recognize that red/green plant on the stump at the front, what is it? As far as your dosing questions, Garhan can correct me if I'm wrong. There is a test kit for potassium made by "Lamotte", but I don't have a source for it. From reading other forums, some people say that they are unreliable. To my knowledge you cannot overdose Potassium. Levels of 50+ppm have been reported with no ill effects on fauna and flora. ( Your levels should never get that high if you do regular water changes ) In most cases you can get enough K when dosing KNO3 / KH2PO4 to sustain the demands of your plants. If you have a large fish load and don't need to add NO3 /PO4,( which I don't think applies in your case ) then yes dose K. NO3 to PO4 level should be at around 10 : 1 ratio. Mine basically stay at 20ppm NO3, 2-5 ppm PO4. ( All provided by the fish ) I dose K2SO4 1tsp every 2 weeks with water changes, and Plantex CSM+B solution 10ml/week (when I remember) Here's a link to a ferts calculator that I find quite useful: http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_aquacalc.htm Are you adding CO2 ? Andy

temp was at 26C

Thanks for the replies, comments and suggestion. I picked up a small common pleco and 3 corys today. Let the water temp adjust than transfered them to the QT. Hopefully they'll make it.

I tried to introduce a Rubberlips to my 30G planted tank. Used the usual procedure to acclimatize the fish ( 20min temp adjusment, add tank water(1 cup) wait 30min, add more tank water wait another 30, add another cup of tank water and waited 1Hr. Transfered him to the tank, swimming around, exploring, no problems. This was at around 8Pm. Next morning 6 Am dead pleco. I thought that maybe he was sick so returned him to the lfs and picked up a new one. Same procedures except that this time I added one more cup of water and waited an extra hour before placing him in the tank. This was at 1 Am. Next morning 6:30 Am dead pleco Tank stats: 2 3" SAE, 3 Palaetus Corys. All happy and healthy. PH 7.6, NO3 20ppm, PO4 <5ppm, amonia 0, nitrite .01 (tank is still cycling) no CO2. This tank has high flow rate ( 30 G cube with Fluval 404 w/spaybar.) so lack of current is not an issue. I know I should have quarantined them but, my QT filter has been offline for about 1 week and I did'nt want to take a chance of an anerobic(SP ?) reaction. Anyone know what may have caused it?

:welcome: Saphyre

:welcome: to the site. As previously mentioned, it's adictive.

I keep a 1G icecream pail stocked with pond snails for my Puffer. I originally picked up about a dozen from an LFS, placed them in the pail with a few discarded stem plants (cabomba, moneywort) added a sprinkle of fish flakes every few days. There worst than rabbits. LOL. I now have well over a hundred. The only maintenance is a water change every week or so ( if I remember ) and fresh plants if the ones that were in there have rotted.. Keep in mind to feed the smaller snails to your loaches and leave the larger snails in the pail as they are the ones laying eggs.

Nice setup! Plants and fish looks really healthy. Andy

Milan, How much Schultz AS did you add to your tank? Garhan, I'm actually running a test in my 30 cube with Schultz AS.(5 KG Schultz with 10KG gravel) I've read numerous post on other sites that it will increase PO4 in a tank. So far after 2 weeks mine is holding at just under 5ppm (slightly lighter blue than the 5ppm on my chart. ) Fish were added about four days ago. ( 2 3" SAE and 3 peppered corys. The tank was originally filled with 75% recycled water from my other tanks and 25% RO. So this might explain the high phosphate as my nitrate was also at 20ppm at the start. I would classify it as medium planted with java fern,moss, amazon swords and crypt balansea. I also added a dozen mixed stem of Ludwigia, cabomba and moneywort to help soak up some of the PO4/NO3 .

Tanker, it looks very similar to mine. I believe mine to be a Sailfin Pleco (Glyptoperichthys gibbiceps) Here's a couple of shots, first one is at around 2 1/2" about 1 yr ago, second is a couple of months back, at around 4 1/2" ( not including tailfin) The markings and color change depending on the light condition ( first pic was taken using flash, second is tank lighting.)

Tanker, Would that driftwood be Grapevine wood by any chance? I've had something similar using gravine wood. I had it soaking over a period of three weeks. First two were like you hot water twice a day for 4 days and then just plain cold water. About a day later wood and water surface was covered with that slime. Repeated the process for the second week with the same results. Third week was done using strickly cool water( room temp ) and no slime. I'm guessing that something reacts with the hot water and create the slime has the wood cools off, or the extra long soaking did the job. The two pieces have been in the tank for one week now with no slime. Mind you the tank is currently unheated water temp is at 23C.

Never used Kitty litter so I can't really advise on that one, but from what I've read it's a 50/50 split , some people swear by it other swear they'd never use it again. The problem with using a layered substrate is that large particles will eventually work their way to the surface layer. So if your kitty litter is larger than the sand it will eventually get there. Never experienced it firsthand, but from what I've read peat may play havoc with the water parameters if too much is used. So it should be used sparingly as a bottom layer ( you should still be able to see the glass ) My preference in layering would be Aquatic soil (aka Profile ) with similar sized gravel (2-3 mm) in a ratio of 2-1 ( 2" gravel for 1" soil ) Aquatic soil is available at most Home Depot, Rona, ect.for about $7 /5 Kg bag.

I have a Sailfin Pleco, 2 SAE and 4 Otos in my 50G, & 2 SAE and 3 Otos in the 20G. The 50 is kept spotless, the 20 however is a different story. The SAE were raised on flake food( donated by another aquarist ) and have no idea what algae is. the 3 Otos in there are doing their best but can't keep up.

:welcome: Loads of info to peruse; Enjoy Andy

Tanker, Garhan. I came across this the other night. Since this is currently happening in my 50 I'll try it out and let you know. http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=18604 Andy

Thanks for the info Garhan :thumbs: Andy