I'm back! 100g Planted Journal

[Rokuzachi]

Original thread:

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f24/the-new-100g-planted-231595.html


Woo, I'm back!

~6 months flies by. I've been very busy at work, so I've pretty much just let the tank "happen" as it may. Haven't removed any plants or added any. Just added a Chocolate. Ran out of ferts ages ago and never replenished them. I still do a 50% WC each week. I have huge colonies of MTS living in both my filters now (yay!).

- Wisteria was devoured
- Rotala was mostly devoured and looks very sad now
- Hygro is in the process of being eaten to death (the Chocolate loves to snack on it)
- Green lily sent 3 big leaves to the top, then died off and hasn't been back
- Red lily still has yet to grow more than a few inches (probly too far off center from the light)

As you can see, the Crypts have exploded and are doing a better job of covering the ground than the dwarf sag. The corkscrews are doing a fine, but slow job of building up along the back. Still have no luck with the ferns. I re-positioned the bulbitus (sp) closer to the light because it was barely growing, and it's doubled in size since then. The melon sword is short, fat and leafy (fine with me) but doesn't grow much.

I'm delighted to say that the goldfish FINALLY got moved out of here. I convinced the wife to let me resurrect the old 56g as a fancy goldfish-only tank ^_^.

I'm thinking of picking up a second Catalina 1x80w light, and putting them about 8" apart on top of the tank. Possibly lowering them an inch or two. Also considering adding a big school of Rosy barbs or something else colorful (all my fish are brown, lol)

If you have any recommendations for ferts, lemme know. I wanted to do pfertz or rootmedic, but yea Sorry about the quality of the pics, took them on my phone before I decided to clean the glass inside and out.

 

[MyanRan]

I'm sure you're familiar with the PPS-Pro method of fertilizer dosing. I would do that, because it works great, and is cost effective.

 

[Rokuzachi]

Oh snap, thanks for that. Is this a pretty good deal?

PPS-Pro | Aquarium Fertilizer | Green Leaf Aquariums

 

[MyanRan]

I would personally buy the stuff separately. You need Potassium Nitrate, CSM+B, Mono-Potassium Phosphate, and Potassium Sulfate. I would also buy 3 1 litre dosing bottles. 1 for CSM+B, 1 for Potassium Nitrate, and 1 for the other two.

 

[Zimmanski]

That's a good fert pack, many use it including myself. I think its cheaper to buy the combo and an extra bottle than buy separately, at least the first time, then when you need to buy more buy individually. You'll throw out one of the bags unless you have really soft water but I believe I priced it out both ways and the combo was cheaper

 

[Rokuzachi]

Well, the fert pack got here today but I didn't make it to the store in time to get a scale!

Blech. I also had to remove my chocolate cichlid from the tank. He's become extremely aggressive and started terrorizing my spotted climbing perches to no end. I knew he was a gamble, I had hoped to end up with a more peaceful member of the species. Pity too, because he was turning into a gorgeous fish. Now he's got some bumps and bruises from fleeing like a madman into the gravel/driftwood. I'm going to let him heal up in the hospital tank and then go give him back to the shop I got him from.

I've had awful luck with cichlids so far, this time around. I tried to mimic the setup at one place nearby, that had 2 climbing perches and a pair of gunther's mouthbrooders that pretty much ignored each other - same result. Poor perches got beat up all the time. I think I'm done with big, pretty cichlids for now. (I miss my old cichlid tank so much!)

Next time I add livestock it will probably be a big school of something, or a couple of very small cichlids (maybe curviceps or keyhole?). At least I know the perches won't bother anyone but each other even if there's small things around.

My absolute last resort would be to add a big school of congo tetras to see if that mellows the choco out, but I seriously have my doubts about that helping.

I think I also have to accept that I will never, ever get ahold of a black eel-tailed catish (see below, not mine) despite it being the very tippy-top of my wanted list. Everyone I talk to locally has never heard of it, seen it, and no one they know does either. Sadness.

black eel-tailed catfish

 

[Rokuzachi]

I'm on day 3 of PPS Pro now, in both tanks. Planted all the argentine swords. Here's a few pics from the beginning of the new fertilizer regiment - I'm anxious to see how things will look in a month or two. I've been running the lights for 6-8 hours a day instead of 10 like I used to.

Looked all around and I still have no idea what fish(es) to get for the tank next. I want a school/shoal of something, but I tend to like less typical fish, and all my experiences with pretty barbs tell me that I should avoid them unless I want my younger plants chewed to stumps.

The smaller of the two;

The biggest sword of the bunch I bought;

Greeeen!

A couple to fill in the space that used to belong to the Wisteria, before it became a snack;

 

[mom2reds]

Your tank is looking great! If you are anywhere near Lubbock Tx. Mr. Aquarium is really good about ordering fish if you tell them what you want.

 

[Rokuzachi]

Thanks!

I'm down in Austin, but totally willing to drive pretty far to get ahold of my 'golden fish'. I'm putting Mr. Aquarium on my list of places to contact as I try to expand the web further and further outside of Austin. I've tried to contact the Fish Gallery places in Houston/Dallas but have yet to receive a response from them.

 

[Zimmanski]

Thanks!

I'm down in Austin, but totally willing to drive pretty far to get ahold of my 'golden fish'. I'm putting Mr. Aquarium on my list of places to contact as I try to expand the web further and further outside of Austin. I've tried to contact the Fish Gallery places in Houston/Dallas but have yet to receive a response from them.

I live about a block away from the fish gallery in Dallas, I can easily ask for you. They're really great people but maybe not so tech savvy when it comes to new fangled Internet things haha. Dallas north aquarium is also an awesome place to get fish from, they can usually get anything and usually have a couple interesting fish on hand with every delivery. DNA is where I have got my blue angel and EBRs from.

 

[Rokuzachi]

I live about a block away from the fish gallery in Dallas, I can easily ask for you. They're really great people but maybe not so tech savvy when it comes to new fangled Internet things haha. Dallas north aquarium is also an awesome place to get fish from, they can usually get anything and usually have a couple interesting fish on hand with every delivery. DNA is where I have got my blue angel and EBRs from.

That's great to hear. I'm going to end up in Dallas for a few days come September, I'll add DNA to the list of places to go while I'm there. Thanks!

If you think of it next time you're at the Fish Gallery, that would be great. I expect I'd get in touch with them eventually, so don't go out of your way or anything

The fish I'm after is the one I posted above, Neosilurus ater (black eel-tailed catfish, from Australia, which is apparently what makes it so hard to get!).

The worst was the other day when I found a place in Australia that could export them. Then I realized they were a big operation, and had a minimum order of $3600 for international shipments! Talk about getting sucker punched

 

[Zimmanski]

That's great to hear. I'm going to end up in Dallas for a few days come September, I'll add DNA to the list of places to go while I'm there. Thanks!

If you think of it next time you're at the Fish Gallery, that would be great. I expect I'd get in touch with them eventually, so don't go out of your way or anything

The fish I'm after is the one I posted above, Neosilurus ater (black eel-tailed catfish, from Australia, which is apparently what makes it so hard to get!).

The worst was the other day when I found a place in Australia that could export them. Then I realized they were a big operation, and had a minimum order of $3600 for international shipments! Talk about getting sucker punched

Haha $3600 would buy you a whole bunch of your dream fish haha

I'm at the fish gallery at least every other week haha, I'll ask if you don't hear from them first.

 

[Rokuzachi]

The search continues!

We finally got our Fish Gallery here in Austin. Very nice store. Sadly their goldfish stock was hit with a massive ich/fungus outbreak around the 2nd week they were open. Was very upsetting to see, and disappointing because we had spotted two lovely Ryukins for the goldfish tank, and had done our usual "if they're still there/alive/healthy in a week we'll get them." Only one of them was left and he wasn't looking very good.


I'm on the verge of breaking down and filling the last bit of room in my 100g with something cheap, colorful and easy instead of continuing the search for the Neosilurus ater. The Ctenopomas in the tank aren't inclined to eat anything bigger than 3/4" even though they're pretty big themselves, so I almost picked up a dozen creamsicle mollies. I figured they could pretty my tank up with the colors and help out with the funky algae that never stops growing on the rubber connectors of my FX5 intake/output.

I'd just about accept a Moustache Catfish as a replacement for the neosilurus right about now, lol. As always, open to any suggestions for oddball fish (especially catfish) that wouldn't mind being in a tank full of mellow friends.

 

[Rokuzachi]

I must be the king of impulse buys.

Walking into the LFS, I was still on the hunt for my Neosilurus ater like always, but had a mind to pick up a bundle of mollies or rainbows, or better yet, hope I'm surprised by something in stock that I wasn't expecting.

In the very back corner of the pond section, I found a tank full of Red Shiners (cyprinella lutrensis). Instant impulse buy! Of course I'd grab them instead of something from the selection of beautiful rainbows or colorful dwarf cichlids, haha.

Even in the quarantine tank, they exhibit very distinct behaviors depending on the conditions. Lights on: very tight school, hugging the bottom. If one of them finds the NLS Thera +A pellets, they immediately swarm them and then tighten back up. Lights off: loose school, lots of roaming on all levels of the tank, unafraid to venture out and get food on their own. When I had a modest school of Rosy barbs a year ago, their behavior was similar but less extreme.

I'm glad that they'll be competing for food with my NLS-crazed Hoplos in the 100g. Anything less boisterous at feeding time might not find much left over for them to eat!

Here they are in QT (there's some cheesy music to cover up the blaring oven alarm that was going off when I took this, lol)

Red Shiners (Cyprinella lutrensis) in QT - YouTube

 

[Zimmanski]

Pretty cool! Have you emailed the fish galler or dallas north aquarium about your eel tail? I told you I would ask but I keep forgetting when I'm at the stores up here, sorry ill try to remember tomorrow when I go in. The fish gallery here in Dallas has an African Arowana that always reminds me of the fish you want but by the time I get my things and get to the register it slips my mind

 

[Aquamandan]

Nice plants. What kind of crypts are in the 3rd pic?

 

[Rokuzachi]

Pretty cool! Have you emailed the fish galler or dallas north aquarium about your eel tail? I told you I would ask but I keep forgetting when I'm at the stores up here, sorry ill try to remember tomorrow when I go in. The fish gallery here in Dallas has an African Arowana that always reminds me of the fish you want but by the time I get my things and get to the register it slips my mind

I haven't yet - no apologies necessary though! I expect this search to take years at least I talked to a guy at the Austin FG but he didn't know, and told me I'd have to talk to the guy that places the actual fish orders. Someone over on Catfish Planet gave me a lead that sent me to MFK, but I haven't investigated it much yet. If you remember to ask, that's great, but if not, it's not a problem.

Aquamandan, I think all the Crypts in my tank are wendtii. A petchii might have survived in there somewhere, but if it has it's been massively outgrown by the legion of unmitigated wendtii.

 

[Rokuzachi]

Hey guys, might be time for a change!

The short of it is that I'm tired of dealing with various aspects of my FX5 on the 100g. Last night was sort of the last straw during a WC. The other part is that letting my H. littorale spawn is something I'm considering, and the FX5 produces too much current to let that happen unless I build a very low-flow spray bar (a decent possibility).

Seems like most of the LFS around here run their stock tanks with Hydro Sponge filters and I've had a few folks try to sell me on them before. If I went with them, I was thinking I'd get 2 or 3 of the 75g rated ones and position them in the background, and then have a Koralia for current if I felt like plugging it in.

As you can see from my tank gallery, my combination of laziness and intrigue has let my tank run wild. I like to interfere with my fish and plants as little as possible, so I tend to just let the plants go nuts.

What do you think, good idea, bad idea? I'm open to any other suggestions regarding lower tech filtration as well. The tank is likely to remain understocked for the entirety of its duration, since the fish I want to add to it are protected by an unobtanium shell in the US.

 

[Rokuzachi]

Welp, this tank went dark a few nights ago. Life threw me a curve ball and I had to sell the whole setup on short notice for $200 along with about 1/2 of the residents.

I'm back down to a 56g with all my fish stuffed in it, and most of my best specimens of aquatic greenery... and a sad little 10g set up to keep some plants alive that couldn't fit into it, lol. Now I've got 200+ pounds of black eco complete sitting in buckets and nothing to do with it!

On the upside, I had so many healthy plants that I got about $50 for them (let's be honest, sometimes you can barely get an LFS to take common crypts for free lol) to put towards making the 56 a better place for the fish to live.

I wholeheartedly recommend Deep Sea Aquatics tanks and stands now - they are very well made, very nice looking and they don't skimp on the materials. And somehow... their prices beat out standard big name tanks (when I was comparing locally, anyways).