Mr Burns
Aquarium Advice FINatic
Hey all, my 10gal has undergone quite a bit of change over the past few weeks:
Here's the tank soon after the original:
I was using DIY CO2 with a poorly designed reactor. It was pretty efficient, but way too much work and made too much noise.
A few weeks ago:
The lilaeopsis in the front started out nice, but continually declined. It would have been really nice to grow it in, but my impatience coupled with lack of info and experience on this species made it pretty much doomed from the begining. In this picture it has been replaced with Eleocharis parvulus, aka 'dwarf hairgrass.' This is actually what I wanted from the start but finding it proved to be exceedingly difficult. Floridadriftwood.com was the only supplier that carried the E. parvulus species. On the right side of the tank, the water sprite has been replaced with Hygrophila difformis which was purchased by accident...it's far too large for a small tank. It's now floating in the 29gal.
The white thing floating on the surface is ice to keep the tank cool. I'll eventually get around to adding some fans to the canopy.
See the algae on the crypt? grrr....
Yesterday, right before adding new plants:
Rotala indica, Hygrophila difformis are removed (rotala saved in a bucket for replanting) and some of the E. parvulus is relocated towards the front. This order was huge...well over $100. It included fish, shrimp, plants, ferts, and tools. I had some DOAs, 3 of 6 cherry and 1 of 4 dwarf puffers (package was shipped overnight.) I'm also fairly certain one of the 3 puffers that made it into the tank has died (and now I can't find it...they don't float.) It was much thinner than the other two and spent much of it's time last night in the back left of the tank at the surface. It would swim down and around every now and then, but generally was exhibiting much different behavior from the other two. The other two are doing very well and have already taken to eating snails. The 3 cherry shrimp are also busy working away on the algae...or at least I hope they are.
Planting snapshot:
The quality of the Rotala wallichii from AZGardens is outstanding. Heck, it looks like it has already grown some since yesterday. I was talking to madasafish as I was planting and made the comment that the 12" stainless steel curved tweezers are wonderful. It makes planting multiple stems so so easy. There hasn't been a single pop-up.
Puffers:
I love this picture. It's cropped down, but the original included the puffer that I think died overnight. No pictures of the cherry shrimp yet.
I was ready to take a picture of the tank as it is right now with more plants added, but of course the batteries on the camera needed to be recharged. As soon as that's done, I'll add that picture and maybe a couple others.
Here's the tank soon after the original:
I was using DIY CO2 with a poorly designed reactor. It was pretty efficient, but way too much work and made too much noise.
A few weeks ago:
The lilaeopsis in the front started out nice, but continually declined. It would have been really nice to grow it in, but my impatience coupled with lack of info and experience on this species made it pretty much doomed from the begining. In this picture it has been replaced with Eleocharis parvulus, aka 'dwarf hairgrass.' This is actually what I wanted from the start but finding it proved to be exceedingly difficult. Floridadriftwood.com was the only supplier that carried the E. parvulus species. On the right side of the tank, the water sprite has been replaced with Hygrophila difformis which was purchased by accident...it's far too large for a small tank. It's now floating in the 29gal.
The white thing floating on the surface is ice to keep the tank cool. I'll eventually get around to adding some fans to the canopy.
See the algae on the crypt? grrr....
Yesterday, right before adding new plants:
Rotala indica, Hygrophila difformis are removed (rotala saved in a bucket for replanting) and some of the E. parvulus is relocated towards the front. This order was huge...well over $100. It included fish, shrimp, plants, ferts, and tools. I had some DOAs, 3 of 6 cherry and 1 of 4 dwarf puffers (package was shipped overnight.) I'm also fairly certain one of the 3 puffers that made it into the tank has died (and now I can't find it...they don't float.) It was much thinner than the other two and spent much of it's time last night in the back left of the tank at the surface. It would swim down and around every now and then, but generally was exhibiting much different behavior from the other two. The other two are doing very well and have already taken to eating snails. The 3 cherry shrimp are also busy working away on the algae...or at least I hope they are.
Planting snapshot:
The quality of the Rotala wallichii from AZGardens is outstanding. Heck, it looks like it has already grown some since yesterday. I was talking to madasafish as I was planting and made the comment that the 12" stainless steel curved tweezers are wonderful. It makes planting multiple stems so so easy. There hasn't been a single pop-up.
Puffers:
I love this picture. It's cropped down, but the original included the puffer that I think died overnight. No pictures of the cherry shrimp yet.
I was ready to take a picture of the tank as it is right now with more plants added, but of course the batteries on the camera needed to be recharged. As soon as that's done, I'll add that picture and maybe a couple others.