Jump to content





Posted Image

PCS & Stuart M. Grant - Cichlid Preservation Fund - Details here


Photo

Delapool's 150 Gallon Tank


  • Please log in to reply
457 replies to this topic

#41 Delapool

Delapool

    Membership Officer

  • Admin
  • Joined: 10-July 15
  • Location:Swan View
  • Location: Swan View

Posted 30 June 2016 - 09:58 PM

Was getting some photos of the plants and thought what the heck - I'll take some of the fish as well. Sorry, it's a little messy as just after feeding.

 

The ambulia gets this yucky, muddy colour at depth whereas the tips near the light get a beautiful purple tinge. Unfortunately the tips are where it gets pruned.  

 

74564-albums13177-picture70339.jpg

 

74564-albums13177-picture70338.jpg



#42 Delapool

Delapool

    Membership Officer

  • Admin
  • Joined: 10-July 15
  • Location:Swan View
  • Location: Swan View

Posted 02 July 2016 - 09:15 PM

Not much to report. Somehow spent 2 hours on the tank today and looking at it tonight I'm tempted to do some major pruning next week. There are a few small clumps of BBA that need eradicating and the internal filter needs a clean too. The catfish are resorting to climbing over the plants now to get around.

 

The java fern and melon sword look like they might have decided to grow after all. I'm thinking that if these do work out then in September holidays I'm going to pull out the ambulia and hygro and swap to some plants that aren't quite so high maintenance. Still waiting on the CO2 line splitter to arrive so no rush.



#43 Delapool

Delapool

    Membership Officer

  • Admin
  • Joined: 10-July 15
  • Location:Swan View
  • Location: Swan View

Posted 06 July 2016 - 07:25 AM

CO2 line splitter turned up (good news), the end barb is too large for co2 line (bad news). Back to the drawing board. Melon sword is getting some growth despite being half in shadow. Definitely eyeing off re-doing the left side of tank with new plants after seeing the co2 presentation last night. 😬

Edited by Delapool, 06 July 2016 - 07:56 AM.


#44 Delapool

Delapool

    Membership Officer

  • Admin
  • Joined: 10-July 15
  • Location:Swan View
  • Location: Swan View

Posted 08 July 2016 - 10:23 PM

Just finished pruning plants in the tank. Gads, what a mess. Over an hour just trying to thin plants out and then got sick of it and took a weed whacker to anything near surface. I did find a Java fern I never knew existed so that was a bit odd. No idea how it was getting any light. In better news the family is away camping mid-week. So plotting er, planning some changes to get rid of some more plants and try some others.

Edited by Delapool, 08 July 2016 - 10:42 PM.


#45 Delapool

Delapool

    Membership Officer

  • Admin
  • Joined: 10-July 15
  • Location:Swan View
  • Location: Swan View

Posted 10 July 2016 - 09:50 PM

Went down to Aquotix and picked up some Java ferns. Plus something else and something else I should of written down. Rubra and veritas if that rings a bell anywhere.

Plan is to put these in the left side of tank tomorrow night. I'm going to try and avoid doing too much in case the algae gets ideas.

#46 Delapool

Delapool

    Membership Officer

  • Admin
  • Joined: 10-July 15
  • Location:Swan View
  • Location: Swan View

Posted 12 July 2016 - 08:44 PM

Been busy :) Veeerrry busy.

After pruning the tank on the weekend, I ended up pulling out most of the plants on the left side last night and just left the red alt. Replaced the plants with java fern and some other stem plants up the back. Kind of tempted on a sword plant up the back left side still. If the stem plants don't work, I'll do that.

Need to tweak new plants tomorrow night to slightly lift a few plants and sink a few others. Also added a heap of clay root tabs so I better check the ammonia tonight.

I'm not sure how this will go - looks a bit odd at the moment. I'd love to have the java fern with red stem plants growing between it on this side. Maybe a foot high. Oh and no algae. I know these plants will grow so hopefully just needs time to get closer to the light and to be honest I'm just fed up with pruning the stem plants (mutter, mutter). 

 

Hit some BBA with H2O2 and hopefully that should knock it on the head. The BBA looks quite nice as a few isolated tuffs on the driftwood but I have learnt my lesson there to get rid of it as soon as I see it.

74564-albums13177-picture70375.jpg

74564-albums13177-picture70376.jpg



#47 Delapool

Delapool

    Membership Officer

  • Admin
  • Joined: 10-July 15
  • Location:Swan View
  • Location: Swan View

Posted 12 July 2016 - 09:20 PM

Just saw the bumblebee catfish come out. Must of scratched himself on an ornament somewhere. Gave him a lecture that he is getting too fat (as he scoffed an algae wafer and went back into hiding). So glad I bought a fish I see for several minutes only a day smile.gif



#48 Westie

Westie

    West African Cichlid fan

  • Admin
  • Joined: 31-May 10
  • Location: Hammond Park

Posted 12 July 2016 - 10:22 PM

Try having 15 Synodontis Nigriventris which you see for all of 30 seconds in a 24 hour period!
Tank looks nice with those plants

#49 malawiman85

malawiman85
  • Forum Member
  • Joined: 11-December 08
  • Location: Geraldton

Posted 12 July 2016 - 11:02 PM

I really like the fish and plants. I think a black substrate would set it off.

#50 Delapool

Delapool

    Membership Officer

  • Admin
  • Joined: 10-July 15
  • Location:Swan View
  • Location: Swan View

Posted 13 July 2016 - 06:30 AM

I really like the fish and plants. I think a black substrate would set it off.


It does sound really nice. Substrate is one I think I could do more on.

I found some photos of the seachem fluorite red and the volcanic ash pellet. I looked at the flourish black but found a few threads of people complaining that it looked washed out under high light. Idk, I must have another look at it.

Unfortunately a lot of the present substrate is just fine river gravel as that was cheap at the time when I bought the tank. I'm finding the extra substrate depth is maybe good for plant roots (not sure).

The pellets are meant to be really good for plants but were very expensive. The left side of the tank has more of the pellets and I find it much easier and looser for planting in. The right side has more fluorite which seems to compact a bit / little harder to get plants into.

74564-albums13177-picture69370.jpg74564-albums13177-picture69371.jpg

Edited by Delapool, 13 July 2016 - 06:37 AM.


#51 Delapool

Delapool

    Membership Officer

  • Admin
  • Joined: 10-July 15
  • Location:Swan View
  • Location: Swan View

Posted 13 July 2016 - 07:14 AM

Try having 15 Synodontis Nigriventris which you see for all of 30 seconds in a 24 hour period!
Tank looks nice with those plants


Nice looking fish! Geez, you would think 15 would give you better odds. Do they get more out-going eventually?

#52 Westie

Westie

    West African Cichlid fan

  • Admin
  • Joined: 31-May 10
  • Location: Hammond Park

Posted 13 July 2016 - 12:12 PM

Quite the opposite actually. They were very active as babies (around 2 or so cm) but now that they are 9cm (maybe more) they just come out for a feed then swim back in to hiding. They seem active at night after lights out. I did ask the question on here if that was normal, but no one answered the thread.



#53 Delapool

Delapool

    Membership Officer

  • Admin
  • Joined: 10-July 15
  • Location:Swan View
  • Location: Swan View

Posted 14 July 2016 - 07:36 AM

Quite the opposite actually. They were very active as babies (around 2 or so cm) but now that they are 9cm (maybe more) they just come out for a feed then swim back in to hiding. They seem active at night after lights out. I did ask the question on here if that was normal, but no one answered the thread.


That is a shame. I've never kept them but they look superb. Lately been thinking of getting some kuhli loaches.

#54 Westie

Westie

    West African Cichlid fan

  • Admin
  • Joined: 31-May 10
  • Location: Hammond Park

Posted 15 July 2016 - 12:45 PM

a friend of mine had kuhlis with a sand substrate, and they would dig around from time to time. Cool looking fish



#55 dicky7

dicky7
  • Forum Member
  • Joined: 25-October 13
  • Location:Perth
  • Location: Noranda

Posted 15 July 2016 - 07:00 PM

Kuhli's are totally wikid absolutely recommend them for a planted tank



#56 Delapool

Delapool

    Membership Officer

  • Admin
  • Joined: 10-July 15
  • Location:Swan View
  • Location: Swan View

Posted 15 July 2016 - 09:05 PM

Thanks everyone - I think I will add them to the bucket list. I was pretty put off by them looking like worms but seeing some videos of larger ones with colours thought they looked nice.

 

Updated plant list to try and keep a record somewhere. The corkscrew sword looks really neat - thanks to Mattia for knowing what I bought! I'm hoping it will take off.

 

First group are weeds, second think they might grow and last group is just hoping. One giant hygro left now - light too low for it sadly.

Vallisneria (narrow and broad leaf).
Ambulia.
Hygrophila polysperma.


Alternanthera reineckii (red alt)
Java Ferns (narrow leaf).
Melon Sworda.


(Giant Hygro).
Rubra (stem plants)
Echinodorus augustifolia - Vesuvius (Corkscrew Sword)

 

 

The CO2 in-line needle valves turned up and actually fit the CO2 line as well. Which is really great. Now I just need a line splitter that actually fits. :(  On order still is:-

 

1 x splitter with needle valves on way from UK (fingers crossed!)

2 x cheap inline splitters with needle valves on way (backup).
 


Edited by Delapool, 15 July 2016 - 09:06 PM.


#57 Delapool

Delapool

    Membership Officer

  • Admin
  • Joined: 10-July 15
  • Location:Swan View
  • Location: Swan View

Posted 16 July 2016 - 09:35 PM

Kuhli's are totally wikid absolutely recommend them for a planted tank


Actually - how many would people get? Would three work? Or 5 - they look pretty compact.

#58 dicky7

dicky7
  • Forum Member
  • Joined: 25-October 13
  • Location:Perth
  • Location: Noranda

Posted 16 July 2016 - 11:26 PM

We still have about 4 or 5 and they have grown very fat and long  lovely things they are



#59 Delapool

Delapool

    Membership Officer

  • Admin
  • Joined: 10-July 15
  • Location:Swan View
  • Location: Swan View

Posted 18 July 2016 - 07:50 AM

We still have about 4 or 5 and they have grown very fat and long  lovely things they are


Ok, thanks - I'll add them to the shopping list. Be nice to put the fish back into planted fish tank.

#60 Delapool

Delapool

    Membership Officer

  • Admin
  • Joined: 10-July 15
  • Location:Swan View
  • Location: Swan View

Posted 19 July 2016 - 09:56 PM

Woke up at 4am this morning and decided to check the drop checker (as you do). The drop checker has a new solution by ISATA in it but it behaves the same as the the fluval one. I had to take a photo to compare but the drop checker was showing a blueish-green versus a medium green when CO2 is on. Some colour change anyways although very hard to pick against green plants. The electrical timer for the lights looks like it is staying permanently on so will have to pick up more timers this week.     






0 user(s) are reading this topic

0 members, 0 guests, 0 anonymous users