44 replies to this topic

[Wet Dreams]

Definately sounds interesting then and will be watching the tank progress to see how it unfolds.
As for the small snails ask Oliver (MrDocfish), im pretty sure he has some small snails in his tank that actually benefit the tank. Cant remember what they're called though.

[Juls]

well Finally i am posting a update,

A HUGE thanks to Dazzabozza, for coming around my place as promised and taking these photos, some are still not as perfect as he'd like,
and I only had standard windows editing software, Daz might post some slightly better edited shots later on!

This 4x18x24 300L tank is actually being gutted in the next few weeks to be rebuilt into a 5x24x30 650L tank, hence i'm posting this update before i trash it!

 tank01.jpg   97.9KB   128 downloads
 tank02.jpg   120.52KB   79 downloads
 xmasmoss.jpg   106.91KB   47 downloads

ALL Photos by DazzaBozza. Thanks Mate

 australae.jpg   75.24KB   39 downloads
Aphyosemion australe Male

 bbender.jpg   74.63KB   46 downloads
Black Bar Endlers Guppy Male

 briggitae.jpg   104.13KB   28 downloads
Boraras Brigittae

 cherryshrimp01.jpg   105.67KB   25 downloads
Neocaridina heteropoda "red" - Cherry Shrimp

 cherryshrimp02.jpg   97.68KB   26 downloads
Neocaridina heteropoda "red" - Cherry Shrimp

 choprai.jpg   65.75KB   17 downloads
Danio Choprai

 cpd01.jpg   107.2KB   32 downloads
Danio Margaritatus - AKA Celestrial Pearl Danio - AKA (severely outdated name) Microrasbora Galaxy

[Juls]

 cpd02.jpg   72.08KB   14 downloads
Danio Margaritatus

 etheramicron.jpg   69.61KB   12 downloads
Danio Erythromicron

 falseneon.jpg   75.17KB   15 downloads
Paracheirodon simulans - Green Neon Tetra/False Neon Tetra

 gardeneri.jpg   94.96KB   22 downloads
Fundulopanchax gardneri

 gertrudae01.jpg   72.23KB   14 downloads
Pseudomugil Gertrudae

 gertrudae02.jpg   64.7KB   8 downloads
Pseudomugil Gertrudae

 gertrudae03.jpg   64.06KB   9 downloads
Pseudomugil Gertrudae

 hasbrosus.jpg   92.48KB   22 downloads
Corydoras Habrosus

 hengeli01.jpg   70.36KB   16 downloads
Trigonostigma hengeli - Glowlight Rasbora - Slender Rasbora

 hengeli02.jpg   73.82KB   13 downloads
Trigonostigma hengeli - Glowlight Rasbora - Slender Rasbora

 kubotai.jpg   55.42KB   8 downloads
Microdevario kubotai - AKA Microrasbora Kubotai

 maculatus.jpg   58.88KB   6 downloads
Boraras Maculatus - Dwarf Spotted Rasbora

 neonram01.jpg   108.4KB   48 downloads
Papilochromis ramirezi "Neon Blue"

 neonram02.jpg   96.83KB   32 downloads
Papilochromis ramirezi "Neon Blue"

 praecox.jpg   69.48KB   16 downloads
Melanotaenia praecox - Neon Rainbow

 pygmy.jpg   94.72KB   16 downloads
corydoras pygmaeus

 sparkling.jpg   88.02KB   10 downloads
Trichopsis pumila - Sparkling Gourami

There is more fish we didn't take photos of, but we struggled as it was to get most,

All photos where by Dazzabozz, thanks again to him for his efforts.

New Tank build should be up in the next 2-3 weeks.

Juls

[dazzabozza]

Wow the pics turned out better than I expected. Those lil fish definitely make it a real challenge!

Nice catalogue of specimens you've got going there

[Jezza]

looks good juls, and nice pics daz...

[ibm450]

MY WORD!!!!

what a bloody awesome setup!!!

what are the plants / moss? are you using a CO2 reactor in there? how do you manage to clean it?

do you feed plants with any nutrients?

[Juls]

It's mainly Xmas moss, some riccia in there, and other bits and pieces.

No CO2 injection, only use Seachem Excel, and regular Flourish Ferts.

I Don't clean the tank gravel at all, all the fish only do very small fieces and the plants take up the breakdown,
I prefer to keep the biofilm strong as it helps the shrimps and any fry that might survive.

In a tank with only small fish with lots of plants it makes this system possible.

Unlike if your keeping any larger fish which are not kept in planted tanks you need to keep doing the cleaning manually,
instead of nature doing it's thing.

I've never been able to get any reading for nitrates (and obviously ammonia/nitrite) which actually is causing a bit of hair algae,
so I've had to start manually dosing Nitrogen to get rid of it, no amount of feeding gives me a reading, despite having roughly 150 Fish and 200+ shrimps.

All fun though :-)

Juls

[ibm450]

oh ok
the neon blues, do they grow any bigger then that? or whats their largest size get to?

do they prefer hard water? will they do ok in softish water?

btw never thought the blue rams would look so eye catching

so i gather the nitrates are controlled by the plants. the hair like algae, couldnt they be controlled by afew BN?

[Angelo]

love the setup! the neon blue's are amazing!

[Juls]

The neon Blue rams prefer soft to neutral,

Generic Blue rams prefer 6.0-6.5 and 27-30 Degrees,

Because the Neon Blue is a Commercially bred strain (doesn't occur in the wild)
it appears to be pretty happy in Neutral water in moderate temps i find.

(PH 7.0 - 24-27 degrees)

Do not expect the neon blues to look that good at your LFS, they will be dull and drab,
once home for a week or so they will brighten up.

They can grow up to about 6 cm tops,
myn are still probably around 4-5cm.

Still too small to eat Adult cherry shrimp, although they tend to wipe out your babys and mid size shrimps.
but my killifish are more of a problem in that regard than the rams. But neither is really a problem in this size tank with this density of shrimps.

I've had far more luck keeping these neon blues alive than I ever had with regular blue and german blue rams.

My plants are consuming the nitrates faster than i can create it, Bristlenoses will not eat hair algae, and they get too big for what I'm trying to do as well as they tend to knock all your plants out of the ground,
and stir up the substrate.

Sailfin Mollies will eat the hair algae, but again too big for my tank getting to around 8-10cm, and will eat adult shrimps in preference to algae most likely.

In my new tank i plan to get a army of native shrimps which consume this type of algae.. Probably 200 Hair Algae Eating shrimps, as well as 500-1000 Cherrys, and 30-50 of various other shrimps.
I found that the local Glass Shrimp like to eat the tiny snails, so I most likely get a few hundred of these also..

Juls

[ibm450]

so could i be correct in saying that the shrimps will maintain the cleaning up process in the tank eating the left over food and or the waste produced by the fishes?

[Juls]

The shrimps will eat any leftover foods which is important when keeping these small fish as the small fish need tiny foods in the watercollum. Such tiny foods are hard for fish to find on the substrate but prove a goldmine for the shrimps so they complemnt each other well. The shrimps do not eat fish poop but probably do riffle through it, the shrimps create amazing amounts of poop themselves as they are constantly eating.

They keep duetrious out of the mosses and plants, as well as feeding heavily in the biofilm on all surfaces of the tank, the biofilm is critical to the survival of juvenile shrimps and any fry that might appear. The biofilm also helps culture micro crustaceans which means a higher chance of survival for fry without additional feeding.

Juls

[cichlovr]

Beautiful tank Juls, the moss wall looks awesome. How many watts per gallon do you think would be good to start out and get decent growth?
I might try it in my small 2ft tank if it doesn't need high OP lights.

[Blakey]

with the flourish what are your dosages like? how much and how often?

[Juls]

At the moment I'm running 1W per Litre roughly,

Although I did run it for the first 6 weeks on 0.3W per litre.
and still had good growth, but i put alot of that down to the tube I was using.

on a 2ft I reckon you want about 0.5W per litre for decent growth, A Power Compact tube (or 2) or T5HO x 2 or more would be ideal.

I don't suggest you bother with T5LO, T8 might be ok.

It's not a matter of making the plants "survive" as to making them "thrive" if you know what i mean.

As for dosing,

Excel I dose 5 times a week on average, General Ferts Twice a week, NPK (separated) As required.

Water Changes.. well since i started it, it's had 2 (yes only 2) 30% water changes.....

Juls

[Blakey]

Thanks for the Info
If there is any moss covered rocks/logs your willing to part with or even any clumps of moss then let me know i would be happy to buy some off you.
I am a huge fan of moss and am currently working on a nice piece in my Juwel Lido... not experiencing the growth you have yet with the java fern but i only put the T5 in over the T8 about 7 days ago and started ferting last week. PH is fairly high (around 9) so im not sure if they would affect the growth of the moss?
That tank is probably my idea of the PERFECT TANK except i would have tangs in it.

[Juls]

I should have some spare when I strip the tank down but won't really know how much till after I reasemble the new tank.

Juls

[Krystal]

WOW.....when you said that moss tree was big you weren't wrong!

Nice fish collection....I've heard lots about them and the quality of them is great. And good work Daz on taking those pics, those fish are small are damn hard to capture.

[Blakey]

no worries mate thats fine keep me in the loop!
Cant wait to see the new scape with so much more room to play with.
You going to stick to the mosses or add in some other plants?

[Juls]

The new tank will mostly be moss but will have a few select other plants too

Juls