40 gallon biotope build

[nanofish]

August 4th was when I had all the major compents bought and set up. It took a lot longer than I thought but it's definitely cycled now. I just have to figure out what 60% stocking would be. I plan to go Tuesday or Wednesday for fish since I'm off those days.

The bucket is a good idea. The tank holds 44.9 gallons-whatever the substrate and DW displace + whatever the much too big filter holds. I'm thinking if I do four gallons and then multiple by 10 I should be close I definitely want to test it out. I saw an aquarium wiki (yeah I know) that said .5-1 oak leaves for every 13.2 gallons. The much bigger Indian almond leaves were recommended at least 2 per 13 gallons. Not saying it's impossible, just that I get to experiment.

 

[absolutangel04]

Yeah, thats a good idea. Multiplying by 10 is about as easy as math ever gets. I have never personally used either leaf, so I do not know if those numbers seem accurate or not, but it could be a good place to start.

 

[nanofish]

I completely ignored the starting point lol. I tested 6 oak leaves in four gallons of water. It's only been 48 hours but so far there hasn't been no noticeable tannins in the bucket. Just goes to show that nothing on the net agrees. Some sites say you can let the leaves break down themselves while others recommend pulling them every couple of weeks. I think I'll try a mix of the Indian almond and a lot of oak. If the water gets too dark i can always take some out.

 

[absolutangel04]

Sounds like a good plan. I have heard the same things where some sites swear you need to leave them in and some attest that you absolutely must take them out every so often. Good luck!

 

[nanofish]

There's now about 40 oak leaves and 10 Indian almond in there. Most of them floating which looks kind of cool. Few days and they'll sink though.

Tomorrow is the big day. Fishy day!! Woohoo! Sadly though after checking the website it seems like I'll only be bringing home the kitty tetras, everything else is out of stock. I'll see if the bluespotted corys are really that though and maybe think about getting them. Have to think about it when I'm there.

 

[absolutangel04]

Well, it never hurts to stock slowly anyhow. Maybe you will get lucky and find out the website was wrong! *Fingers crossed*

 

[nanofish]

I have fish but first the story of the journey. The place is almost an hour away but wow was the fish selection amazing. I didn't even look at the cichlid or saltwater parts either. The website was right about what was in stock though. They did have species I didn't see listed online though. I was extremely tempted to get some coral red pencilfish. I never expected to see them. They also had cockatoos but they were juvies and I couldn't sex them. Tons of other fish like hatchets which they don't list online.

Unfortunately the one species I went for, the kitty tetras, they only had four of. I bought those and I'll just have to look around for more to flesh out the shoal. I also got 8 rosy tetras since they are almost identical to the Bentosi. I had actually had rosy tetras on my list for a while.

No three line corys. I figured with me being unable to sex the cockatoos and the store being so far away that I'd most likely only ever one 1 dwarf cichlid, even that I'm not sure of anymore. Do apistos do well alone? Without the dwarfs and worrying about them being territoral I figured I could look at another species of cory. Some I wasn't familar with like the rust. I had looked into false bandits before but they only had one. The one species that they had that I kept before and always loved I bought even though it's slightly bigger than the kinds I had looked for. I am also the proud owner of 5 (all they had at the moment) half inch Sterba's.

 

[nanofish]

Couple other things. They had zebra otos too but no way was I getting any species of oto for a new tank, even if I'm see algae. I didn't even look at the pitbull plecos to long. The watersprite was out of stock so right now I have no floating plants. I've switched out my T5 HO bulbs for the lights that came with the tank to make the fish more comfy for now and not to give the algae any help. The tank is certainly a lot darker. Hopefully pics with my crappy camera tonight.

 

[nanofish]

OK maybe I'm not going back there. This is my fault for not remembering what they should look like. After watching my fish now for a while I'm thinking my 4 kitty tetras aren't what I thought they were. I think I have gold tetras instead and feel pretty dumb since I just pointed to the tank and said "I want the kitty tetras". Ugh.

 

[absolutangel04]

I am not familiar with a gold tetra, unless you mean a gold Pristella.
Good call in waiting for the otos. I know patience sucks, but dead fish are worse.
Are you sure about the misidentification?
Yes, a cockatoo would be fine alone IMO. All the dwarf cichlids I have ever had did fine alone. They are territorial, not schooling, so they are fine without a mate.

 

[nanofish]

Not gold pristella. Those I'm actually familar with from having seen before. I'm fairly, but not completely certain about the misidentification. I can try to get pics. I'm more annoyed with myself for making the error. Either way those four guys are mine and I have to figure out what they are so I can give them a bigger group.

Hmm I looked again and at least one fish isn't a kitty and one might be. Not getting a good view of the other two at the moment. The one fish lacks the upper red eye and doesn't have an andipose fin.

 

[absolutangel04]

Hmmmm... Well, it will help if you can get pics, but I knwo that trying to get pics of active fish in a large tank is a nightmare.

 

[nanofish]

Biggest problem for me is my camera. I can't figure out how to change the settings so it's not all blurry with the aquarium light on. That's with the flash off too. Active fish are tough. Active fish you can't even see? Umm yeah lol

 

[absolutangel04]

Lol, yeah, I have soooooo many pictures of blurry fish butts.

 

[nanofish]

lol I took some now but you can't see the fish well enough to figure out what they are. After looking some more I think I have two kitty and two gold. Different genus so you think I'd be able to tell for sure.

 

[absolutangel04]

I am not at all super familiar with either species (obviously, since I didn't even know what a gold tetra was). Google has told me that the kitties should have red eyes, but the gold tetras don't.... Honestly, they looked pretty similar to me too in the pictures I saw.

 

[nanofish]

I'm not very familiar with them either. Two don't have the half red eyes for sure. Those two also seem to have no adipose fin. The other two have a red upper eye, reddish caudals, and yellow adipose fins.

 

[nanofish]

Random, and bad, tank picture. Fish in question are in it but good luck seeing them. It's more to see the tank.

 

[absolutangel04]

I just don't know! BTW, I love all the leaves in there.

 

[nanofish]

Thanks. I think they look great. I just put most in last night so they're not fully sinking yet. The mix of colors of the two types looks cool to me...oh and the corys are in wonderland.