Thrills' Journey Back - Planted 46 Bowfront

[Delapool]

Wow - what a sea change in the tank. Loving the photos of the tank and fish / shrimp.

 

[Thrills22]

Wow - what a sea change in the tank. Loving the photos of the tank and fish / shrimp.

Thanks a bunch Deadpool!

Unfortuantely my mini cycle might not be so mini. My bacs cleared 1ppm of ammonia, which is a good start but I was hoping for more. I couldn't get a nitrite reading, I did 4 seperate tests and got nothing. But my nitrate reading after 12 hours was 10ppm.

I'm not sure if that means I have a stronger colony of nitrite eating bacs that are consuming nitrite faster than the ammonia bacs can convert the ammonia. Or my nitrite test isn't working properly

 

[Fresh2o]

The nitrite spike can be elusive. When I was doing my last fishless cycle, I always read zero for nitrites. I was testing once a day, the same time each day. Then I decided to test a few times a day (actually about 3-4 hours...had the day off). It was then I was able to catch it rise and fall.
Deadpool...too funny.


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[Delapool]

The nitrite spike can be elusive. When I was doing my last fishless cycle, I always read zero for nitrites. I was testing once a day, the same time each day. Then I decided to test a few times a day (actually about 3-4 hours...had the day off). It was then I was able to catch it rise and fall.
Deadpool...too funny.


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Darn auto-correct

I had heard that on nitrites - I wonder why sometimes it is blink and miss it? I've generally been able to track it so wondering if something speeds it up that I'm missing.

 

[Thrills22]

I've ordered another nitrite test kit just to be safe after reading that without frequent use, they can expire.

This morning the ammonia was down to 2ppm so hopefully at 48 hours I'll have a 0ppm ammonia reading. But I have absolutely no idea where that puts me in terms of gauging how far into the cycle I am. I'll have to find a fishless cycle where readings and results were taken everyday and compare it I guess.

 

[Hannibal the Bichir]

Your tank layout looks really nice, I really like the bowfront planted tanks


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[Thrills22]

It has been too long so to speak.

I have good news and bad news... Well, Actually some good news and some awful bad luck. The bad luck is that 3 days into my mini cycle my Ehiem 2215 gave up. I came home to find the motor making a racket churning air. It had stopped filtering. No water coming into the filter or returning. Not knowing exactly how long my cycle would take and finding it hard to justify another new filter considering I had only recently bought a Ehiem Pro 3, I was left with two choices... Continue the light cycle or do a complete blackout. I've never had a situation like that in my aquarium. But I chose the former and as you might expect that resulted in algae. Tufts of BBA, hair algae, and a green film on the surface. I'm not ashamed in the slightest. Considering the condition this build started in I know it could be far worse. But with that said, I did lose some of the plants...

Pogostemon erectus
Ludwigia sp 'Mini Super Red'
Lagenandra meeboldii Red*
Hygro pinnatifida*

The Pinnatifida Isn't completely dead but is on it's last legs. And the Meeboldii red had been hanging on before this build was started. With no water flow I also lost 5 shrimp. As it stands, without filtration, CO2 or fert dosing for the past 4weeks everything is looking a little tired and lethargic.

But I have some good news.

The mini cycle turned out to be a half cycle. 29 days of applying every single trick (including feeding the bacs potassium) my bac colony can reduce 5-6ppm of ammonia through to nitrate in less than 12 hours. I am officially cycled and it feels amazing.

I still want to create a species only tank. The species I wanted "Gold neon tetra" still seems like a mystery to all but a few fish stores here in London. So I'll be getting the rainbows which a LFS in west London has in stock. They get them regularly and they are quite stunning but most importantly, shrimp safe.

By the way all Credit to Ziggy and that incredible blog"40b" Journal for introducing me to the "Gold Neon." I didn't know they existed before reading through that journal. But after months of trying I must accept that it just wasn't meant to be

Anyways I just wanted to update the journal and let you all know where things are. An untidy tank desperately in need of some TLC and a new Filter with a strong colony of bacs.

I have the day off on Friday to go fish shopping and hopefully pick up a couple of plants and although things are far from ideal (the filter giving up was a huge blow) I'm confident enough that I can get things back on track.

Any and all suggestions of shrimp safe single species are welcome. Also, I should mention that although cycled I wont be moving the pro 3 back to the main tank until Thursday in order to keep feeding pure ammonia until the tank is stocked.

Thrills

 

[Caliban07]

Was gonna bump this thread. Thought you'd left. Too bad about the filter. I'm considering upgrading myself. I have a fluval 205 and it's been in service for a long time. I would really like the 406 but they are pretty expensive. I need to get the flow from front to back down and back round and the 205 just isn't cutting it especially with the length of spray bar. The exit velocity is too low. I think this is why I am getting cyano. I just can't beat it back. Plants look well mind.

So we can really see that stagnant, poorly filtered water does induce algae. Any other observations? The shrimp probably suffered from lack of oxygen? Or was it ammonia did you say?

When you say meeboldi is that lagenandra?


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[Thrills22]

Was gonna bump this thread. Thought you'd left. Too bad about the filter. I'm considering upgrading myself. I have a fluval 205 and it's been in service for a long time. I would really like the 406 but they are pretty expensive. I need to get the flow from front to back down and back round and the 205 just isn't cutting it especially with the length of spray bar. The exit velocity is too low. I think this is why I am getting cyano. I just can't beat it back. Plants look well mind.

So we can really see that stagnant, poorly filtered water does induce algae. Any other observations? The shrimp probably suffered from lack of oxygen? Or was it ammonia did you say?

When you say meeboldi is that lagenandra?


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Observations: Going into the cycle with plans to substitute the filtration with the 2215 I had several shrimp berried. Once the filtration stopped they either aborted or the fry didn't survive. BBA concentrated on the substrate, green film on the surface and white hair attached to the glass. Pinnatifida sucking nutrients from older plants leaving about 5 viable smaller leaves/shoots while the other 99% of the plant is dead. I can possibly bring back. And you're right, I was talking about the lagenandra.

In short, I created the perfect algae breeding ground just by apply light and next to zero water flow. I had a tiny and I truly mean tiny power head fro a 5 gal filter pointed at the surface. But it's so weak its doing nothing but create some surface tension. I've never seen BBA on the substrate before why it's concentrated there is a bit of a head scratcher.

I will have to cut back a few of the plants that are algae ridden. Hopefully that will kick start new growth when everything is up and running.

 

[Caliban07]

Observations: Going into the cycle with plans to substitute the filtration with the 2215 I had several shrimp berried. Once the filtration stopped they either aborted or the fry didn't survive. BBA concentrated on the substrate, green film on the surface and white hair attached to the glass. Pinnatifida sucking nutrients from older plants leaving about 5 viable smaller leaves/shoots while the other 99% of the plant is dead. I can possibly bring back. And you're right, I was talking about the lagenandra.

In short, I created the perfect algae breeding ground just by apply light and next to zero water flow. I had a tiny and I truly mean tiny power head fro a 5 gal filter pointed at the surface. But it's so weak its doing nothing but create some surface tension. I've never seen BBA on the substrate before why it's concentrated there is a bit of a head scratcher.

I will have to cut back a few of the plants that are algae ridden. Hopefully that will kick start new growth when everything is up and running.

Funnily enough, that's where my BBA always starts. On the gravel. Possibly low o2 finished the shrimp. If plants are not receiving enough of what they need and begin to die. They contributing to the low o2 problem and increasing organics. Algae spores in low flow environments are then able to settle and begin their cycle.

I have renewed focus on organics and low flow causing BBA and Cyano bacteria. Fresh20 said he didn't know which was worse. I thought it was a no brainer...BBA but now I'm inclined to agree with him. They both suck just as much as the other.

Hopefully you'll get the meeboldii back on track. It's a cracking plant. I found that it grew much larger in my low light walstad tank than it is doing now but then in the walstad tank there was little competition.


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[Thrills22]

I'm not sure which is worse but BBA is definitely the most unsightly. I removed the Meeboldi completely. Which is a shame because at any give time that plant can exhibit dark/light green, pink, and red leafs. I will get another from aquaessentials when they have it in stock.

My EI is from aquariumplatfood and it's 10ml for every 50L (mac and micro alternating and 1 rest day.) I highly recommend sticking to the alternate days as opposed to dosing both as from my understanding it leads to toxicity over a period of time. As for your algae problem, mine too I guess, I really think it's down to filtration and the lack thereof. Once I added the Ehiem it seemed to "shock" the algae. Conditions were no longer prime for their existence. But I'll get to that in your journal since your consider filters.

 

[Thrills22]

Good news and fantastic news. - I think that's a first for this journal?

I had planned to switch the filter back to the main tank after cycling on Thursday but did this Wednesday instead. In the 48 hours since (with CO2 injection) the bba is 99% gone and what remains in the tank has turned pale white. The hair algae is also dead, what remains of it has turned brown. My short term goal was to save the Hygro pinnatifida and to get the shrimp breeding again. After the water change the substrate is littered with shrimp skins and I spotted my first berried bee shrimp in some time.

Today I went to west London to get the threadfins. They had two types in stock orange and black, and silver black and red. Both equally stunning. But as I tried to decide which one to get my attention was drawn to their planted tanks which they use to showcase the plants they have in stock. I noticed they had Bucephalandras. I know little about the species other than some guy on another forum being swindled out of $$$ thinking he was buying that species but what he actually bought was crypts. They had the characteristic white dots on the leaf but the lfs had the most fantastical names for them. Names like "Blue Saphire" & "Glow Green" etc etc but I was offered a deal on 4 small buces and they also had a lush lagenandra and several types of java ferne so I got one of each. They are from the lfs and so are in quaranteen.

While I was in the lfs swiping through my phone, looking for some info on the buces my phone rang and it was an lfs from East London who I had both rang and emailed since they were one of the few lfs I know of that stocked gold neons. They called to say theyhad them in stock so I jumped on the underground and travelled to East London and there they were............

Unfortunately the LFS had upped the price by 220% Once I reminded him that he had sent me his price list 3 weeks prior I was able to reduce that to a 30% increase. I bought 26.

I've also repurposed some old LED moons as well as an old bit of driftwood. I also bought an inline hydor heater and some NLS.

If anyone has any info on the buces, please feel free to share. I'll update with more pics once the fern, buces, and lagenandra are planted. Hopefully some of the neons too but at the moment they're quite skittish.

 

[fishenthusiast]

Gives the Buces some time after attaching to a rock or wood. Mine melted with no growth for a month, and have gradually sprouted leaves. With time, they also gain more coloration.


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[Delapool]

Looking forward to photos. How is everything settling in?

 

[Caliban07]

That's great news. Sounds like things are getting back on track and at least you can have the fish you wanted.

Did you get NLS locally? I have to order it on eBay.


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[Thrills22]

Hey guys.

Really appreciate the feedback here.

Gives the Buces some time after attaching to a rock or wood. Mine melted with no growth for a month, and have gradually sprouted leaves. With time, they also gain more coloration.

I bought the without any research prior. They are quite small but while in the lfs I could see that potentially they could add to the range of colours in time. I also didn't know they need attaching to rocks/wood. I only have these available.

I'm thinking of breaking the dragon stone into smaller pieces. What do you think? Also the ID of buces seem a little difficult to source. I'll have to wait until they grow a little I guess. The LFS plants does have some snails so I still need to deal with that before adding them.

Looking forward to photos. How is everything settling in?

I expected to lose a few overnight but so far so good. I also have two bee shrimp berried now so I'll need to make an effort to increase shrimplet survival. I haven't taken any pics but did take a vid of the their first feed earlier today. Please excuse the algae... The White hair is now the brown tufts and decaying.

That's great news. Sounds like things are getting back on track and at least you can have the fish you wanted.

Did you get NLS locally? I have to order it on eBay.

The nls I usually buy doesn't seem to be available in the uk. This is similar, range of ingredients + garlic. Things are slowly getting back on track caliban. Thanks to you guys I think I'll be able to get the tank I wanted. Hopefully soon.

 

[Caliban07]

This thread needs a full tank shot ??


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[Thrills22]

I just discovered that I have 34 gold neons. It seems while trying to hike the price he forgot how many he put in. I feel a little guilty

This thread needs a full tank shot ??

Indeed.

 

[Thrills22]

I have been waiting to pick up a filter for a while. The one I have made is DIY and unsightly. Also picked up two Crypts that have gone to quarantine.

I'll update with a full tank shot once they are planted.

 

[Caliban07]

I have been waiting to pick up a filter for a while. The one I have made is DIY and unsightly. Also picked up two Crypts that have gone to quarantine.

I'll update with a full tank shot once they are planted.

Looking forward to the tank shot. Sorry, what filter did you end up with again?


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