Lady_Lynn's planted 40 breeder Journal

[Lady_Lynn]

Hi everyone! I haven't been doing more than lurking on this forum since I first set up this tank back in 2011, but I've been taking notes on it and figured I might as well start a journal on here. So here's a current pic and some lists of what I got to start off with.



Equipment
40-60g Aqua-Tech HOB filter
DIY co2 reactor - 2.5 bubbles/sec approx.
Leads into Hob intake to break bubbles
Co2 indicator - Green
Thermometer - 76F
2 bulb light hood - bulbs need replacing
On 12 hr timer
1 reg aquarium bulb
1 plant bulb

Scape
Old tan gravel - hill in corner
White sand
Hollow tree deco
Branch deco
Drift wood

Inhabitants
2 emperor tetra
1 Julli Cory cat
6 black skirt tetra
1 female sword tail
1 pleco - 4-5 inches long

Plants
Baby tears
Lily pads
Crypto
Dwarf hair grass

Dosing
API co2 Booster - double dose to fight fuzz algae
API LeafZone - reg dose
API water softener pillow

Test results
Ammonia 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 0
GH 425
KH 120
Ph 6.8

Shopping/wish list
Plant spectrum light bulbs - replacements
Power head - need more circulation
Madagascar lace
Misc plants
Phosphate test kit
Powder ferts - for pps-pro fertilizing
From greenleafaquariums.com

Here's some pics from before the most recent scape back when I was using a UGF.





And a few of my fishes







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[Lady_Lynn]

I just realized I accidentally killed my pleco : (

I had added a new fake wood deco that was hollow on the inside and i had noticed it had fallen over on Monday morning so I set it back up and pushed it into the sand reall good so it wouldn't fall over again. Guess who was hiding inside?

Went looking for him after I saw that he didn't eat his cucumber treat last night.

RIP Mr Pleco


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[Fishperson]

Sorry about your pleco.

I hate to tell you but with a low tech tank like that I don't think dwarf hair grass or baby tears will grow well, if at all. Crypts are good low light plants though. You could try staurogyne repens as a carpet instead.

 

[Mattfinn]

You may want to increase your Corys school to 4 atleast and I'm not sure about the tetras but atleast 4 in a school for them I thought.


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[Lady_Lynn]

Fishperson I've had the dwarf baby tears in this tank before and they died quick. I'm not sure if the baby tears I have now really are the regular baby tears(it wasn't labeled at lfg) but I remember having them before but can't remember how well they did.

The hair grass was an impulse buy at LFS defiantly didn't do any research. Do you think they'd be ok if I switch out both bulbs to ones for plants or would I need a second fixture with plant bulbs?

Mattfinn I started off with 3 of each for the Corys and emperor tetra. One of the emperors didn't last the first week. Noticed a sore once I got him home. Put him in a QT but he didn't last long.

The corys started losing their barbel whisker things from the gravel which is why I removed the UGF(and cleaned it out real well), made a hill of the gravel and put in sand on most of the bottom, hoping they would grow back. I think I heard they need them to find food. And just before I did that I noticed one acting odd. He was swimming up side down and some times I'd see him laying on his side at the bottom of the tank but always got back up when I tapped on the glass. Died not long after. Second Cory started the same behavior and I started dropping the sinking pellets as close to the corys as I could, but he still died.

I've been meaning to replace them but wanted to get the same spotted kind again but the LFS hasn't had any more in awhile. I'll probably end up getting some of the cheap green ones if they don't get any more soon.

For the emperors I'll defiantly be getting more of them in at least 2 weeks. Money's tight till then.


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[Lady_Lynn]

Turns out what I thought was regular size baby tears was actually bacopa which is supposed to be low light. I had to trim the tops and scrub some leaves to remove fuzz algae. (Added some ghost shrimp that I'm hopping will eat the algae. )Replanted them in the sand area because the ones I had there earlier had better root growth. They lost a lot of bottom leaves but there is new growth.

I had wanted to get a power head to improve circulation but I'm broke for the next few weeks. Then I remembered I have a whisper 2-10i internal filter that I wasn't using so I threw that in, moved it around and now I've got at least a little sway to all my plants. Yay improv!

Some of the hair grass died off but some of it was already dying when I bought it. I'm hoping they'll last till I can change bulbs.

Next purchase will be julii Cory cats LFS has been keeping them in stock, couldn't find any more emperors though.

That's it till next time.

Lynn


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[Lady_Lynn]

Pet co has a 30% off live fish and plant sale this weekend so I picked up the 3 julii Corys I needed, 3 buenos aeries tetra and two bunches of wisteria and added them last night. Still haven't found any emperor tetras.

I've been fighting the fuzz algae by scrubbing, pwc, and dosing an algicide every 3 days. Plants, glass, and deco are mostly algae free but it's still growing on sand and gravel substrate. I tried stirring the substrate on my last treatment. Hope it helps. Algae sand with algae is to heavy to be completely picked up by gravel vac.

I read algae doesn't like disrupted light so I set my light timer to 4 hrs on 4 off 4 on.

Bacopa has lots of nice new growth now that algae isn't on every single leaf and I hope to keep it that way.

Hair grass is still alive and kicking despite light requirements .

I scrubbed algae off the hob intake tube and rinsed it out real well then decided to scrub inside the filter where it connects. Also removed the sludge from the lip where the water pours out and now it's running like new.

Thankfully I'm running out of things to scrub.

I finally can't think of anything else to say, so... bye


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[Fishperson]

Cool! Do you have any pictures? Is the algae growing without your pleco to eat it? You could get a few otocinclus instead.