Not as much a fish, as my new desktop tank in the office - but I figured you might be interested... This is the seventh tank I've set up, and I wanted to combine various things I've learnt since the first one, starting from scratch in a bare tank (the others are all in one units, often remodelling a tank again, always a compromise...)
(A lengthy description follows, written for an aquarium oriented forum...)The tank itself is 60L, freshwater, substrate is all gravel, small gravel on the base, larger chips over the top, and a few bags of white river stones ($7.95 at an LFS, $2 at Getta Bargain) and one bag of 'large brown river stones', also $2 - the large browns help as plant anchors, and give my algae eaters somewhere smooth to stick on... The background is a good, large pic of a planted tank I found on google images, I chose a suitable selection, blew it up, and printed a couple of A3 images from it on vinyl - colour, size and variety of plants match what I have in there, and manage to provide a reasonably convincing illusion of depth...
Filtration is from two 200lph hang on filters, one has a foam insert, followed by a small reservoir containing carbon atm (to combat the tannins from the driftwood), the other has fine filter wool as an inner layer, which I've packed with volcanic rock fragments... one filter has been running in my 140L for three months, so gave a good biological filter base to the new tank... one filter gives some surface movement, the other a straight current across the tank, helping to give a river current section for my Homaloptera Yunnanensis, who may be joined by a couple of friends, or maybe more Gastromyzon Hillstream Loaches (aka Borneo Suckers) - the current is obviously sufficient for him, as this is the first tank that he comes out into the open at regular intervals in...
I'm running the tank at 26C, and the lighting is from a twin T5 24W 10000k unit, off Ebay... I also have a clip on housing from bunnings with a 24W compact 'bright daylight' bulb, which was providing light before the T5's arrived, and I still flick on for supplimentary light for a couple of hours a day...
There are four large rock pieces that came with the tank, and a fifth found at an LFS languishing amongst a pile of driftwood - when I asked how much for the rock, they said $1... bargain... The rockwork is bedded well into the gravel, and offers a couple of hiding spots for the Albino Bristlenose, and a neat little shelf the danios seem to love swimming under and through when playing chase...
To the right of the rocks I have a small piece of malaysian driftwood - it's been well soaked in boiling water, but is still leeching a little tannin - again, there primarily for the BN, or I'd have gone with the taller piece of rock in it's place... a small rock, covered in lush java moss sits between the driftwood and glass - it has plenty of long, wavy tendrils, but given the success of my java wrapped driftwood in the 140L I'm considering doing the same in here, cutting it right back and laying down a mat onto the wood - the piece in the 140L has made a thick carpet, almost lawn like, and looks stunning, completely unlike 'java moss' (yes, I'll take some pics and post here... lol)
There's a small terracotta pot tucked behind the driftwood, which was initially a spot for my albino cory, but turned into a parking place for the Mystery snail... he's in there now... lol
To the left, at the back, is a bunch of Ludwigia Palustris - around about ten nicely rooted stems (there's a great seller on ebay for this, $2 a bunch) which is hiding a 100W heater (due to be replaced by a submersible heater, when I'm next ordering online stuff) then a wall of wisteria - four well established plants, and three small trimmed pieces, all of which will grow well. To the right of the wisteria, between the rockwork and the driftwood is a Sagitarius Natans, emersed, as you can see, it almost looks like a sword... this will eventually send a spike to the surface, and will start a new plant - also the root system will provide a number of corms, which seperated and planted usually strike successfully - they will eventually spread out to more plants, too...
The back right corner has a pair of Madagascan Umbrella Papyrus heads... I'm not 100% set on those, as they are a bit long and lanky, so may swap 'em out for something else in the near future... (I have a lot of new Java Ferns coming up in the 140L, so may use some of them in there...) The foreground has five heads of Dwarf Papyrus, which has already started a root system - given 5-6 weeks that will shoot a stem to the surface too, providing more heads...
I have used Aquarium Pharmaceuticals Root Tabs around the base of the plants, and am using Tetra Flora Pride, Wardley Plant Food, and dosing Excel on alternate days (still have three strands of established Elodea in there, as they had a quantity of algae on the leaves for the Oto) which will go to daily dosing when the Elodea comes out...
There is a bubble wall around the back and left hand side, long enough that it generates very tiny bubbles, and a coiled wall hidden behind the driftwood - the bubble wall runs at night, and I pop the coil on once in a while to liven the 'river' effect for the Homaloptera Yunnanensis... No CO2, lights on atm for 10 hours a day...
Fri Jun 22, 2007 10:44 am
