180l journal

[fishkeeper123]

Just blanched it and now hoping for the pleco to investigate

Had a look and the cucumber hasn’t been touched. It’s now got loads of snails on it so will have to remove it.

 

[fishkeeper123]

Today I’m going to get some plants to put in the new tank any recommendations? I might get some plant pots if they are cheap, I’ll also get some frozen live food for the rams. I’m considering whether to get an assassin snail. I’m not sure whether I would put him in my quarantine tank as that’s where all the snails are currently or whether to put him in the main one so when I move the second filter in and the plants he eats all the snails.

 

[Aiken Drum]

If you are just looking to get a couple of plants and gradually add more, start with an anubias and a java fern. They are about as bullet proof as you can get. They are rhyzome plants, so they just attach to a piece of rock or driftwood. I attach mine to plant weights so I can move them about, or remove them if needed.

They don't need high lighting, I literally have java fern in an unlit aquarium. They don't need much in the way of nutrients, an all in one fertiliser like seachem flourish with your weekly water change will do.

As the plants grow you can cut the rhyzome and get new plants. The java fern will produce plantlets that you can separate from the parent plant and get more plants that way too. You can gradually plant a whole aquarium from a single java fern if you wish. Anubias are a little slow growing, so if you want more of these it's quicker to buy more though.

Other easy plants to consider are amazon swords, cryptocoryne, and cambomba. These are rooting plants. Java moss can be tied to your aquascape too, similar to rhyzome plants.

This is episode 1 of a good series of videos setting up a low tech planted aquarium.

This is a good video suggesting some easy plants.

 

[fishkeeper123]

Thanks I have 2 pieces of Anubias in my driftwood so might skip them. I like the look of Java moss. Are there any plants that are easy to keep that cover the top of the aquarium? Thoughts on the assassin snail?

 

[Aiken Drum]

Do you mean surface plants or plants that grow up to the surface?

I've never really kept surface plants, but duckweed is commonly kept. It has a tendancy to take over though, so you would want some airline to form a sort of corral and keep it where you want it.

Amazon swords will grow up to the surface, and cabomba will grow up to the surface and spread out. My cabomba does this, albeit the aquarium isn't very tall. You can also just let cambomba float about, which I'm considering trying sometime.


I've never kept assassin snails either. I do my best to avoid introducing pest snails, but they somehow found their way into that aquarium. I just squish them whenever I do a water change and that seems to prevent them getting out of control. Once pest snails are in your aquarium they will inhabit everywhere. In the substrate, filtration, little nooks and crannies where your best efforts to eradicate won't be successful. All you can do is control numbers, and an assassin snail will do that. They might also kill any invertebrates you actually want to keep though.

 

[fishkeeper123]

Could a assassin snail carry things like ick into my aquarium or should I not worry?

 

[fishkeeper123]

Also will he be fine as I have gravel as I know they quite like to have a sand substrate?

 

[Aiken Drum]

Could a assassin snail carry things like ick into my aquarium or should I not worry?

There is a very, very, very, very small chance.

Only fish can get infected, but if there are parasites in the aquarium that the snail has come out of then there is a small chance that a parasite that is in one of the non infectious stages of its lifecycle could just happen to land on the snail, or be in a drop of water that gets transferred with a snail. If there are no fish in the aquarium the snail came out of, the chances of transferring ich becomes even more vanishingly small.

The same could be said for plants or anything that gets moved from one aquarium to another.

The only way to be 100% would be to quarantine everything that comes from another aquarium in a fish free environment for more than a complete ich parasite lifecycle. So about a month in a tropical temperature aquarium. The lack of fish to infect would break the lifecycle and kill off all parasites at that stage.

It's down to how risk averse you are.

Assassin snails like to burrow, so obviously sand is better than gravel for burrowing. But people keep assassin snails just fine with gravel. Be aware that assassin snails only turn to eating snails when there is no other, more easily available food. So make sure you arent overfeeding your fish to reduce any excess food, and keep the assassin's hungry.

 

[fishkeeper123]

I think I won’t quarantine in him but I’ll have to think about what aquarium he goes in the quarantine tank or the 180l

 

[fishkeeper123]

I can’t tell if I’m overfeeding or not as most things I put in aren’t being eaten apart from the algae wafer which I now believe the pleco eats. The rams eat lots of the stuff of the floor which is where the flakes sink. But hopefully they will enjoy the live food

 

[fishkeeper123]

4 assassin snails,4 plants; echinoderms ozelot red, lilaeopsis novea-zealandia, cryptocoryne wendtii green, lobelia cardinalis dwarf, 3 plant pots and sing new food. It’s not live food as the rest of my family are really against it but if this doesn’t work i might be able to get some.

 

[fishkeeper123]

The plants are all planted on the right of the aquarium, the Anubis driftwood will go towards the left.

 

[Aiken Drum]

Why haven't you filled the aquarium?

 

[fishkeeper123]

Had just started a water change

 

[fishkeeper123]

Before the water change and the new plants, I had 0.5 nitrite , 0 ammonia and 10-20 nitrate.

 

[fishkeeper123]

New water test 0.25 nitrite, 0 I think ammonia but if not very low, nitrate 10-20.

 

[fishkeeper123]

Unfortunately one of my danios has vanished. I have spent ages looking for him but no sign. The other danios seem happy but in case it’s from nitrite poisoning I’m picking up some aquarium salt( not sure if I can us normal salt it’s 100percent salt nothing else or not)? My rams have been fighting lots and one is getting bullied and forced to hide.

 

[Aiken Drum]

If nitrite is at the 0.25ppm level you last reported that's not going to be at toxic levels. Keep up with water changes to keep your water parameters safe rather than letting them elevate to toxic levels and trying to treat symptoms.

Nitrite poisoning causes the blood to be less able to move O2 round the body. As long your aquarium is well oxygenated and you keep nitrite below 0.5ppm it's not going to be an issue.

You can't generally use table salt as its iodised. You can use non-iodised salt in lieu of aquarium salt. I think kosher salt is non iodised.

 

[fishkeeper123]

They went up to1 nitrite after I didn’t do a water change for a few days. But mainly has been lower and now doing water changes more regularly(daily.)

 

[fishkeeper123]

So do I not need aquarium salt then? I’m concerned if my Ram has worms or whether it’s just poo.