Caliban's AquaOpti 85L

[Autumnsky]

That's incredible being able to have a yearly maintenance.

[Jacky12]

Spectacular! Did you mention the fish you plan on? My apologies if that’s been said, I don't do well with long threads.

[Caliban07]

Originally Posted by Jacky12

Spectacular! Did you mention the fish you plan on? My apologies if that’s been said, I don't do well with long threads.

Thanks. Thats my current stock detailed above. I won’t be adding anymore fish to the tank.

[shellyx]

Beautiful looking tank!

[Caliban07]

Thanks Shellyx. It’s mainly a load of crypts, dwarf sag and amazon swords. I’m slowly reducing the TDS and some plants that failed are coming back but the hobby is so much more rewarding these days.

[Caliban07]

I lied and added 6 neon tetra and 5 more cherry barbs. They are very small but great specimens.

I also move some plants and opened up an area at the front, did a 50% water change as you should always do after uprooting plants.

[Caliban07]

Another angle

[Caliban07]

Tanks is ticking along nicely. Just fed some frozen copepods.

Lost a neon due to poor filter design. It’s happened before but I’ve been using all different kinds of filters lately so totally forgot. Basically the suction cups to hold the filter on the glass plug a hole that leads straight in to the filter body. I had one missing. Found a neon half in and half out of the hole stuck to the side. Instead of turning the filter off and letting the blighter swim out, clever clogs here tried to nudge him out but pushed him in.

Other than that nothing of note to report.

[Autumnsky]

Disappointing when one doesn't make it. Otherwise sounds like things are going well! Its nice when you don't have a big stress over the tank(s).

[Caliban07]

I’m down to 65ppm TDS now. It went down by 5ppm despite little water changes. Not up as you would expect. A conductivity of less than 100uS (micro Siemens) means there are very few ions of any description in the water. 65ppm = 101uS.

Despite this plants are doing amazing. They just keep growing. Granted i did add some soil in gel capsules to the substrate but the duckweed that was virtually gone is now growing back steadily and whats more is that the roots are growing long in to the water column. This suggests to me that because they can’t access the substrate there must be enough nutrients in the water.

I’ve lots more fish now so nitrogen and co2 should be well covered but I think the fact the duckweed is growing back means that the fish food is also doing it’s job. The amano shrimp are more visible and the snails are grazing more. Systems like this are extremely efficient systems so there’s never enough for algae.