Tophat665

I've got Multiple Tank Syndrome in a bad way. All Freshwater and planted with live plants.

75 SE Asian; 55 Amazon; 50 breeder full of loaches; 40 Breeder with pink gravel for my 7 year old; 33 flat back hex with neons, cories, and platies in Mrs. Hat's classroom; 28 high with leopard ctenos; 20 high with a breeding colony of platies; 20 high grow out tank for my bristlenose fry (this will be my breeding tank for the next couple of years); 15 with threadfin rainbows, kuhlis, and otos; 10 with a White male Delta tail Betta (Bruce) and 2 frogs; 5.5 with a steel blue yellow butterfly half moon male betta (Dan). Also a 110 waiting for me to level the tank for African Predators (Bichirs, Ctenos, and Butterflys), and a 2.5 for a snail colony if I ever set up dwarf puffers.

I've start a Post Your Aquarium Pix thread over in Titled Photography. Please, drop by and share.

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Kaimi

Aquariums provide such a peaceful image, the fish gliding around in the tank. The quiet noises of the filter, the soft light at night. I miss my tanks.

Fotzlid

nice looking tanks.
are the live plants difficult to maintain? been wanting to plant mine, but i wasnt certain of the effort involved. i have time, but not a lot of it.

MiSo

75 gallon planted: 260 watts pc, pressurized co2, pps pro
20 gallon cherry shrimp tank.

Tophat665

Depends on the plants and the lighting. I have one tank (the one in the pictures) that's pretty high light (3.8 watts per gallon over a shallow tank). That one needs flourish excel every other night or I get black algae. Not a big pain in the butt, though, as I just add it into the feeding routine. It'd be a lot easier to hook up a CO2 tank to a PH driven solenoid, but that's more money than I want to spend.

The biggest time-suck in a planted tank is trimming, and that can be as hard or easy as you want it to be. The 50 gallon pictured should probably get a good trimming every week. I generally get it every other week.

Course, if you want to go into the whole estimative index fertilization method, you need to do a 50% water change weekly, without fail, and there's a daily regimen of several different fertilizer mixtures on a rotating basis. That would be a huge time commitment that I want nothing to do with. (It is much less expensive that using prepared fertilizers, though).

Bottom line: Under 2 watts per gallon of lighting, a planted tank requires minimal extra attention, and can allow you to stretch your water changes a bit or up your fish load. Over 2 wpg , they require a bit more attention and expense, but that can be minimized too.

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Fotzlid

thanks.
i think i'll give it a shot.

MiSo

if you're thinking about going planted and want to keep it pretty much maintenance free, try to stay to plants that don't need much in terms of light and ferts. in this one setup here, i did not do any fertilizing at all.



just pick your plants wisely. i used mostly moss and amazon swords. the tank also has micro chain swords and aponogetons. all these plants are easy to keep and hard to kill.

Tophat665

Sweet tank! That's excellt composition with what appears to me to be next to nothing by way of hardscape. What's the little foreground plant to the left of the pic? From here it looks like glosso, but that is rumored to need very high light.

I did up my 55 with swords, sags, java fern and moss, and pennywort floating on top. I think that'll be the next one on the photopage.

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TroutKind

55 and 10 Gallon freshwater Tanganyikan tanks with Lamprologus Brichardi and a few Leleupi thrown in for color.

MiSo

that was my first attemt at hc. this tank is not high light and i started with a 3x3 patch. it took about 3-4 months to grow that much. this tank had 2x40 watts odno.

75 gallon tank / 2x40 watts odno put this at around the 1 watt per gallon. so it grew VERY slowly. i had to move and the hc never got a chance to fill in.

Tophat665

Ahh, that'd do it. Looked really nice.

My loaches beat the living snot out of my attempted HC patch (should have known better, I suppose.) Replaced it with Red Crypt wendtii and that seems to be doing just fine.

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surferlove007

I suppose since this thread popped up at an opportune time I'll comment on my recent tank.
So as my Valentines present from James he helped me set up my fish tank which is now the proud holder of three Florida Blue crayfish.
I'll toss some pictures on as well, though they're not the clearest.
The tank is a 45g Hexagon made by Oceanic with a stand. I got the entire thing for $60. The stand was in pretty awful shape when I bought it, but I sanded it down and stained it, then varnished it and it looks better than new. It's amazing what some stain can do to some mediocre pieces. And how it can sometimes ruin really beautiful pieces. Anyway, I love how it turned out, couldn't be more thrilled.
It was the best deal of a lifetime for a hexagon fish tank. I would have bought the other one from him and cleaned it up and sold it but I didn't have the cash. We did have to reseal the inside, but with vinegar, painters tape and razor blades that wasn't too much work.

I also have 7 bleeding heart tetras in it. Planning to add more, I believe it's full cycled by now but it's typically better to wait after a while. The crayfish look really neat, they add a lot of fun to the tank. Also we had a piece of driftwood that decided to float after the tank was finally set up. It has been sitting in the bathtub for the past 3 days, only some people would be so lucky.

JStrider

In that first pic we were epoxying the trim, it had cracked and was allowing the glass panes to start pulling apart a little so we fixed that, the rope was used to keep the trim pulled tight.

we resealed the seams also... I thought that was neet, now I can buy peoples leaky tanks,fix em and sell em as not leaky!


looks really nice now.
GG got the driftwood sinking and back in place, and its all filled up and its final (for now) state she should be able to get some nicer pics now.

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BadNick

I love naturally planted tanks ...here's a couple pics of my first attempts with my 55 gallon. I got the clown loaches when they were about 1" long, I got that pleco guy when he was about 1-1/2" long, he's my favorite fish though the clown loaches seem funny and "friendly" in a fishy sort of way

Tophat665

Nice Hygro. I have a devil of a time keeping mine from taking over and junglizing the tanks it's in.

Love me some loaches. Plecos too.


These are my Botia striata from when they used to live in my 55. Now I have 8 of them in my 75 with 5 Botia almorhae (Yoyos), 2 Pangio myersi (Giant kuhlis), and 3 Siamese Algae Eaters. It's really neat to see a 2" Striata tussling with a 4" yoyo or chasing a 5" SAE.

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BadNick

Those Botia striata look cool. I'm gonna get some.

Sometimes when I look at my tanks, I admit having evil thoughts. I love sushi/sashimi and this is almost like growing your own vegetables.

Tophat665

The Striatas are awesome. They hold their own agains yoyos that are twice as long and eight times heftier, and actually chase my SAEs aroud, and they're about as big as the yoyos.

On cuisine front, I once got smacked down on an aquarium forum for suggesting that the only thing compatible with Red Tailed Catfish is tartar sauce. I understand that RTCs, Snakeskin Gourmais, Texas Cichlids, and a number of other aquarium fish make for pretty good eating. I suspect that this would be even more the case in an aquarium wherte their diet is controlled.

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Vigilante

Not if you've ever put any medication in the tank

I have a 75 I'm setting up right now. Thin topsoil under rocks under river sand substrate. I like a native touch to my tanks, so the sand I actually went to the river for and got in buckets, then rinsed any silt out with the water hose and my hands for mixing. I'll take a pic later, but it's not much to look at. We have native E. cordifolius (one species of amazon sword) and I know where it is . It's surprisingly hard to find around here for some reason. It'll be a mix of native and tropical, but either way low-maintenance.

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MiSo

here's a pic of my latest creation.
it's a cell phone cam so the pic sux.

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Vigilante

Hey that looks really good!

What is the plant called that is tied to the log at the end?

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Tophat665

That is really sweet, MiSo. Someone has been studying their Amano . Is that flame moss out there on the Driftwood?

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BadNick

That's a nice looking vegetable patch, MiSo. I didn't know what flame moss is, but if the stuff on the end of the branch is it then a 30gal tank I now have one large golfish in has a ton of that stuff; I often grab several handfuls of it and tear it out to keep it under control.

Vigilante

Haha yep, looks like it huh. I have the nature aquarium world series myself

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Vigilante

Just made a run to the river and caught some fish for "testing the water" as it were. Caught a few of these
golden topminnow (Fundulus spp)


And a few of these
Bluegill etc


Wife and I are arguing whether to go native fish (yeah!) or store-bought (meh). I would love to do a SE texas tank, but not sure I'm going to win this one LOL.

Either way, the fish will kick off the nitrogen cycle again, and if they make it I will keep some and release the others back where I got them.

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Tophat665

Good Stuff, luciferase. Dad and I caught about a dozen good sized Bluegills this weekend (course, for s the question was to fillet or release). Word has it that the sunfish clan is just about as territorial as cichlids, so 2 bluegills in a 75 is a good stocking level. That killi is beautiful!

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BadNick

I'm with you on this, luciferase. The idea of a local species tank really appeals to me, too. Even my boys have often commented on how beautiful the sunfish/bluegills are that they catch and how similar they look to some of the tropical/semi-tropical cichlids.

From what I gather, down in Texas where you are the local waters will have both sunfish and cichlids...like in the San Marcos River, see this link: Cichlid Research Home Page: Cichlids in the San Marcos River, Texas

Up here in the N.E. I think we only have one type of killifish and it is not as pretty as that one you show, or at least I've never seen colorful ones. We only get the more plain looking banded killifish (Fundulus diaphanus).

Tophat665

Course, up in the northeast, a river tank, say about 125 gallons, with a pair of bluegills, some river dace, and some tadpole madtoms would be really sweet.

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BadNick

Tophat,
I also like the idea of adding local crayfish to that N.E. tank. But my experience with them so far has been frustration since they go around cutting off all my plants at the base. Is there a solution to that problem?

Vigilante

Break off the claws LOL

edit: that's a joke

Maybe wrap some of those lead anchor strips around the bases?

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We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.
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BadNick

...since you're from Houston I'm surprised you didn't suggest eating them and I'm sure the larger ones taste good, too. When I'm in Houston my buddy usually takes me to the Ragin Cajun for crawdads and stuff. I don't know if it's the best, but it's fun.

Tophat665

There's not a lot you can do with crayfish. Sooner or later, they will eat anything you put in the tank. There're a couple of things you could do to keep them from mowing down your plants or at least make that snot such a bad thing. One is plant with Vals and or sags. Get a good grassy mat of them going and them put your mudbugs in there. The other is to use floating plants, like hornwort. Or get a dwarf lily going with a good bulb and root system.

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BadNick

Thanks for the advice, Th. Eventually I shall prevail...or eat them...well actually I don't have any right now but next time I try it.

Vigilante

Meh never seen a crawfish in a tank big enough to enjoy, unless you count them big ones off the northern east coast

Oh I went and caught a few more fish today. Got several Fundulus notatus (blackstripe topminnow) and a larger bluegill, which seems to be adapting well to the new tank. I also grabbed a couple of pieces of old wood and tied one to a rock to see if it would sink. It didn't, so it's floating in a cooler full of water until it sinks.

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Tophat665

So my upcoming projects:
I hae a 10 gallon with 2 female bettas, 2 ottos, and an unsusscessful Iwagumi layout. I am going to set up a 5 1/2 gallon, using that gravel and stones, and get some dwarf hairgrass action to try and get something a little more Iwagumi-ish, then add a little bit of ludwegia and transfer the bettas to that. Then, I am going to take some Awesome hunks of raw Beryl from the rock collection Papa Joe left me (ranging between the size of a cigarette pack and the size of three fists) and take another crack at going iwagumi with that 10 gallon. I'll set that up in Mrs. Hat's classroom with the ottos and about 15 neons.

With that done, I'll be able to move my over/under Iron stand with the 20 and the 25 to where the 10 gallon was and, this is the fun part, 4' long Tanganyika tank. I've thrashed it out on aquariacentral and with the guy at the LFS. I have a 33 and a 55 to choose from. Either is going to get a big stack of granite scraps at one end, a sort of a canyon full of Valisnera along the back, some marine live-sand for quick cycling and a big old shell field (though I might futz about with the rock-stack in the middle and shell fields to either side. Going to get some julies for the stack and some shellies (Prob'ly Lamprolous stappersi, maybe sunspot brevis for the other side if I go that route.) for the shell field(s).

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Vigilante

Hey Top, any idea what these are (3 fish on right)? I get the impression they may be tilapia?! Not too shocked since they have been released all over the US, but I will be surprised if I have 4 in my aquarium haha.

Image:
http://texasoverclockers.com/modules...002/whoru1.jpg

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Tophat665

Could be. I do know that some tilapia species have gotten out of hand on the gulf coast (one is the most common species of fish in New Orleans), but with the exception of a very few that I have researched, I'm not much up on cichlids.

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Vigilante

Yeah me either. Well another forum is starting to point to them being tilapia as well. If that's true, this means the san jacinto is part of a population explosion because these youngsters are everywhere in a small tributary that drains my neighborhood. I went dig-netting and caught one in nearly every scoop I made.

I gotta get over there with my cast net haha.

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We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.
-Winston Churchill

Tophat665

On the plus side, them's good eatin'.

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Vigilante

Yep, and two of my neighbors have ponds (one medium sized, one HUGE), so raising them would be easy

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Tophat665

Not really appropriate for an aquarium thread, but damn do I loves me some fried fish fillets. And I ply a fairly speedy knife on fishies of that general shape. Get you some 50 lb bags of trout chow and I'll look you up next time im in that corner of the world.

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