Evolution Of My 65 Gallon Planted Tank

[ckmullin]

co2 can effect snail shell thickness by providing a lower ph

[McTurtle]

I went away for 5 days and my plants went insane. My 12" parrotfeather plant is now at least 24" and the green temple leaves are 3" wide and 6" long. Seriously insane. I just finished replanting and I'm going to have to trim it all back again. This time I'm going to try a more severe pruning....

[McTurtle]

Arg! I hate the touch pad on laptops. I wrote out my post and then somehow managed to close the window. Arg....

This should probably be a journal instead of a never ending thread, but I guess it doesn't really matter.

Anyhow, I hit up the LFS for airline tubing for my 2 "new to me" 10 gallon tanks. The initial idea was to divide one for the betta boys and have another for set up for breeding and then house a female in the vacated 2.5 gallon tanks. I couldn't find the slider binder spines to make dividers and I'm kind of bogged down with other things right now, so I'm going to skip trying to breed bettas and just stick to enjoying them. So they've lucked out and have a 10 gallon each. The shelving I have them on is just a tad too short between shelves. The tanks fit but it's really difficult to get my hands in and move anything around.

While at the LFS I broke down and bought another cory who will hopefully team up with my "third wheel" cory. I also picked up 6 panda corys. Crazily enough I ran into another AA member who recognized me from my cory horror story and helped me find the right guy to fit with my school.

I really like the way the 65 gallon has shaped up. I will take pictures after I do a water change tomorrow. Between the otos and the snails I have no algae to speak of. The Star grass has filled in it`s section nicely and everything else is still reasonable except the parrot feather which needs to be trimmed back again.

My ramshorn snails have turned out to be spotted which is kind of cool. There are a few to many so I'm going to move some into the betta tanks. I may have to get some pea puffers if the snails keep replicating.

[McTurtle]

So my tank was motoring along quite happily. I even had a danio fry. That was until I brought in some more punctatus corys. I think they brought ick in with them. I've lost 2 panda corys, 2 punctatus and 3 danios. It's heart breaking. Stupid stupid stupid me for not having a quarantine tank. I'm treating with Ich med, I forget the name of it, but it's basically malachite green. Arg! I would have gone with a milder treatment but it advanced pretty far before I caught it. I hope the treatment isn't worse than the disease... ARGGGG!

So I think my recent batch of plant trimmings is going in the trash. I don't want to spread the disease. Stress is...

[McTurtle]

I've been treating with Rid-Ich + - fomalin and malachite green. The fish are enjoying the daily water changes and laid eggs. I think they're cory eggs. Could be the otos, but they're pretty big. I think the chemicals have damaged the eggs and I don't expect any fry. Once the ich is gone I may try to get them to breed again. I still see spots after a week of treatment. I finally gave in and bumped the temperature to 80F yesterday. I know the corys and otos aren't happy about it. I can't treat for forever as my plants all have holes and are struggling. *sigh*

Will ramshorn snails eat the eggs? I see them on the eggs, but I don't see any damage. I don't think the eggs are going to develop anyway, so I'm not worried about it right this second. I'd like to know for the future though.

[Wgcc1]

That's awesome

[McTurtle]

I need to trim back some of the stem plants again, but this is the current setup. I have 2 rasbora fry so far. One is almost adult size now. Hopefully there will be more in the future.

These are the other tanks I have setup, except for my original 10 gallon which is upstairs...

Empty 5 gallon awaiting a heater, 5 gallon betta tank, 10 gallon adult guppy tank (6 guppies and a bunch of fry that will be moving out soon), 10 gallon betta tank (soon to be guppy fry tank #2)

20 gallon guppy juvie tank, 2 x 5 gallon tanks setup/running no fish yet (reserved for killi's if I actually manage to hatch any) - I'm also awaiting a new heater here too since the one I have in it is too large and keeps the water at 30C on the lowest setting :P

I'm excited to hatch out the killi's but also a little scared. I want them to live.

I've also got to set up my 2nd brine shrimp hatchery to make sure I have a constant source of food since my microworm culture died while I was away. :P

[MattsBettas]

I'll admit I jumped to the last page after reading the first two, but wow, your tanks look great. I love the "jungle" look your 65g has now.

[McTurtle]

Thanks! I find it really peaceful, except on "trimming days".

This turned into more of a journal than a normal thread.

[ckmullin]

Thanks! I find it really peaceful, except on "trimming days".

This turned into more of a journal than a normal thread.

nice 65g. i like to keep mine on the wild side as well.

[McTurtle]

Thanks.

Wild is where it normally ends up.

I have to keep on it or the duckweed creeps back in. Fortunately I now have Frank (the goldfish) to eat all the duckweed I can throw in his tank.

[ryancoakley0]

Very nice tank!

[Chelseanr]

Wow, your tank sure has come a long way! It's beautiful.

[McTurtle]

Thanks for the comments.

So today was what seem to be my monthly trip to the LFS. 4 tiger barbs, 3 nerites, 2 pygmy corys & a female betta.

The five green tiger barbs (4 I bought, plus the one who I had in solitary due to fin nipping) are all in the 40 gallon. There seemed to be some scrapping to start amongst the barbs, but it looks like they've settled it and don't seem to be bothering the rainbows or neons. They do seem to enjoy eating the plants. I really like how the 40 gallon is shaping up. I still have some more sand to add and some more scaping to do.

New photos today. I tried to get some shots of the guppy "mutts" that are almost mature. There are some interesting looking boys. I need to find homes for them soon if anyone is interested... I couldn't get anything in focus so I'll have to do another photo shoot at some point. I'll take pic of them and my betta girl when I have more patience.

65 gallon is growing in fast from my last plant clean up. I have 4 cpd fry! woot! I've only ever had one at a time before, so something is going right. I think the adults are liking the baby brine shrimp I've been hatching for them.

40 Gallon breeder:

Guppies

CPD

Betta

Edited December 23, 2013 by McTurtle

[McTurtle]

I haven't updated in a while, but the mts keeps getting worse. I think I've hit capacity though, so I'll just have what I have work. I also have hit about the limit on the amount of time I want to devote to water changes.

Currently the 65 gallon has a lot fewer plants. I cleared out a lot so that the plants I do want to keep can get more light and recover. They got pretty straggly due to overcrowding. I also had an algae issue because the flow is pretty low and I'm feeding brine shrimp to keep my fry going. The snails were going nuts and claiming all of the pellets for the corys before the corys could get at them. So the flow has been raised, most of the snails removed, I'm doing water changes a little more aggressively and upped the ferts a bit. The plants seem to be recovering and my lilly is sending up what I think is going to be a bloom. I've never had it do that before. It is a monstrous plant though,

I finally had to refill the 10 lb CO2 tank. Not bad considering it's been going for 6 months.

The celestial danios are happy. The fry seem to come in sets of 3.. or at least survive in sets of 3. I have 12 or so now and the oldest one is an adult. The original adults are getting a little worse for wear. The life span is supposed to be 3-5 years, and these guys weren't fully mature when I got them in the summer. There is at least one male that is very thin and is losing his colour. I'm not sure why, but I've heard others have had similar problems. They're getting brine shrimp and eating the pellets I drop in for the corys.

I still have 2 black corys, 2 pandas, 2 bandits and one spotted guy. The wild caught corys did not do well. I don't think I'll go that route again if I can avoid it. I added 7 little sailfin corys and they're quite happy and are good company for the pandas. The only other fish in the 65 gallon are the otos which are fat and happy.

The 40 gallon tank has 6 rainbows, 5 neons and 4 tiger barbs and a catfish. The rainbows are gorgeous. I can't believe the difference between the colouring in my boys vs any in the stores. The tiger barbs are having aggression issues. One died while I was away on vacation. Another is not swimming totally normally. I'm not sure who is causing the problem... I'm not sure if getting a few more will help or make the problem worse.

I still have my male betta in a 5 gallon and now have a female in a separate 5 gallon. I'm thinking of maybe dividing a 10 gallon so they can see each other. My male has yet to build a bubble nest on his own. If I present them to each other the female does get her vertical stripes, so maybe they would breed. I'm not 100% sure I want to breed them though as separating all of the fry (eventually) would be a major undertaking.

I have my 4 female and 2 male adult guppies in a 10 gallon and they continue to breed prolifically, as guppies are wont to do. They also don't seem to snack on the fry so there are as many as 30 - 40 fry in there with them at a time. It means I'm doing water changes on that tank and the other 10 gallon fry tank twice a week. I have a 20 gallon grow out tank that's been going for a while. The guppies in there are young adults now and I'm just about ready to decide which are the keepers. I will have to decide which females to mate back to my original males and then what to do with the females I have been breeding so far. I bred the males to 2 red females and 2 blue females and now have two lines of fry. The plan is to put the most promising dark female back with the original males to eventually breed a line like the fathers. The red line I'm not so sure what to do with or if I should even bother with. I do like having a mix of adults though.... hrmmm.... I have a new (to me) 25 gallon set up as a second grow out tank and another 25 gallon waiting to be cleaned and cycled that will also probably be a guppy grow out tank.

Lastly is my 10 gallon tank that held pygmy corys. These guys just didn't make it. I think they're just too fragile and I did too large of a water change. I normally do about 40% and I'm guessing 5% would have been better. There were only 6 in the tank and I can only find one. It could also be that they didn't like the change in pH when I add CO2. I'm thinking I might try ember tetras in there... I just don't want them to harass my nerite.

Next time I will add photos.

Edited February 19, 2014 by McTurtle