Leichardti

Little bit of an update on the tank.
Very sadly I lost the 47cm Neosilurus Ater. Got a few wounds from the Coal Grunter, but him in quarantine with meth blue but whatever the cottony stuff is that keeps appearing when there’s any stress killed him.. [emoji20] sad loss so here’s a nice photo of him. Poor thing.

Anyway, I’ve decided that since this cottony stuff is hanging around a bit I’m going to keep the tank partly under quarantine, so money’s been going towards plants!!!
New additions:
Hygrophila angustifolia
Limnophila aromatica
Ceratopteris thalictroides (watersprite)

Moss

Fissidens dietrichae
Mini Sydney fissidens
Star Moss
Native Bushy moss
Native flame moss
Native carpet moss
Unidentified native fissidens

Most of these came lose bagged so I’ve stuck them down on rocks with mesh other than the star moss which has been superglued

Moved the lights apart too. They light up the whole tank pretty well and looks way better.

The smaller neo doesn’t seem to be much of an uprooter - much to my surprise only 2x Limnophila aromatica stems have become uprooted. He’s a well fed fatty though.

Unfortunately the Blyxa aubertii I got a while back melted and disappeared. I will be getting some bigger ones which should be better.
Finally the whole “Big angry fish with planted” idea seems to be reasonably coming together.
Only current problem is there’s cyanobacteria growing on part of the background right where a lot of the light hits. Tank’s currently in blackout mode for the week and I need to hit it with some hydrogen peroxide. If that doesn’t kill it ChemiClean will.

By the looks of things everything should be finally running the way I really want around christmas. Getting a pile more plants has been a big help [emoji846]

This one down at Drakesbrook weir Ice? 

 SOOTY GRUNTER HAHAHAHA.jpg   87.78KB   6 downloads

Yes gone for the time being fortunately. Need to continue dosing for a little while to make sure any remaining eggs are dead

The Sooty’s unfortunately been sold. The Coal Grunter started submitting to him then the Sooty decided to chase everyone... what more could I expect.
Anyway, here’s some photos of the tank currently:

The panels are now attached with magnets to the stand. They all need a couple more coats of gloss however they’re nearly done. Edgebanding was applied a while ago too

Tank had been wormed and the Neos are now eating prawns like champs
Just need to get the Coaly onto prawns or whitebait now.. pricks addicted to hikari carnivore pellets [emoji31]

Just a little bit of an update, haven’t been very active lately:

Pretty sure the two Neos have been eating bits of prawn, secretly. Going to worm the tank soon since they’re a bit skinny and w/c


I bought a 25cm Sooty Grunter today.. he’s a pretty cool and laid back fish, tanks now divided though as the Coal Grunter was bashing him. Hopefully some timeout will give the Sooty time to settle in and for the Coal Grunter to stop.

Plants are doing well as you may see in the background of the photos, Bacopa monnieri has had good growth. Hoping that within the next 3 months I’ll be upgrading my lighting to a DIY with Lumia 5.2 multichips with a custom LED layout.

Ive also nearly finished the cladding for the stand. This is an older photo but I now have each panel pretty much fully painted with edgebanding on.
Needing some dither fish for this tank I think to even out the aggression a bit. Thinking Giant Glassfish as I should have access to them soon
That’s all for this update [emoji846]

Yep [emoji13] bit of a one off though

New fish!
As I lost my Neo. Ater I’ve been on the look out for another, so I decided to contact a fish collector in Darwin.
I had 2x Neosilurus Ater and a Neosilurus Hyrtlii sent over last night from Darwin to Perth airport.
The result?
One 42cm Neosilurus Ater, one 25cm Neosilurus ater, one 20cm Neosilurus hyrtlii and a very happy me!!!



Will get some more / better photos tomorrow

Big thanks to Dave Wilson for helping me get them and Jules for helping me out with freight / quarantine etc

Mates new 8cm Spangled Gudgeon



Thanks to Morley Aquariums for ordering him in
Came from Bayfish but was the only one left when ordered - I was gonna get it except my tank’s under quarantine for a while ☹️

I made a two toned mix, stuff on the bottom is propogating sand
Top layer that you see is just Gin Gin River Quartz from soils aint soil, probably has a bit of propogating sand and shel grit in the top layer too

Reactor Build

As you will be able to tell this reactor is highly based on upon PeteThePlantKillers cerges design: http://www.aquariuml...VERSION-2-below
My design is differentiates in that I’ve added an elbow on the inside to create a bit of a vortex effect and have done the in/out fittings a bit differently in order to suit my setup slightly better.

Parts for my reactor:
1 Meter of 100mm PVC DWV Pipe
2x End Caps
2x 25mm barbed 20mm BSP male threaded elbow
2x 20mm Female Tank Fittings
1x 25mm Hose Screw Connection
1x 600mm 20mm Riser
1x 4mm Joiner Barb/Thread
1x 25mm Male Hosetail

First off was cutting the DWV pipe down; at first I was going to copy Pete’s design and go with a 50cm version however to avoid having to cut the poly riser I went with a ~60cm version
The DWV pipe was cut to about 63cm to take into account the space needed between the riser and end cap.

Next up is drilling the top cap for the tank fittings. The holes were marked by holding the fittings the furthest they could be apart. After drilling this meant that instead if having to slice part of the nut off it could simply be screwed on whole

Once all the fittings were put on I ended up with this:


The elbow on the inside was a bit of an extra I added to the design which should create a vortex effect

With poly riser attached
Next the bottom and top end cap were glued onto the body

Once this is done you basically have a reactoe - without a Co2 inlet

Above you can see there has been a small hole drilled into the “In” elbow. A small screw driven through this hole, then the 4mm joined pushed / screwed into place with a coating of SikaSeal 401 both in the hole and around the joiner

Not the prettiest but does the job
Tooth pick was then put through the joiner a few times to make sure there was no SilaSeal which was going to block the Co2



Finished Product [emoji846] Would look nice painted however it’s going to be hidden away

Rest in peace..
Was my favourite fish, cant believe I lost him [emoji17] had so many reasons to get rid of him various times but never did because of thise gorgeous colours and his personality - seemed a bit rare to have a prick Neo but he could stand up for himself when the Coal Grunter ever had a go..
Not sure if I’ll be able to find a fish like that again, balanced out the tank well with that mean attitude
RIP Mr Neo ☹️

FFS!


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Meth blues doing its thing

Barely any fungus keft overnight [emoji16]

Wow MM, that sounds awesome, bet you had a great amount if fun. Must have been interesting seeing them in nature, seeing how they act freely.

Would love a FW Moray, they’re cool as but cost more than I could spend on a singular fish ☹️

Here’s some photos of the Coaly I got with the DSLR today








lol classic Coaly

The Gudgeon was being beaten up by the owners other fish hence selling it

Was under the impression that this much happened overnight but looking at a photo from yesterday there's small signs of it on the fins which I never noticed. Very small however, stupid.   has grown like crazy overnight however

Will get some melafix (Pimafix??) in there later.

Thanks Sydad