Journal Fishstery's 20g Long Plant Farm

[Fishstery]

Here we go on Tank Journal no. 2!

If some of you have been following my nature/garden hybrid journal, you'll know that I decided to rescape the tank to a full nature style. I'm also taking up farming rare Buce which I am importing from Vietnam. I was able to combine these two projects by moving most of my stem plants that aren't being reused in the rescape into the new farm tank.

Unfortunately the war in Iran has delayed my import. Instead of shipping out yesterday, shipping logistics decided it's best to wait until next week. That puts me at about 2 more weeks until my (huge) import order arrives.

Until then I wanted to get the tank up and running after selling off my 12g long shrimp tank. I've just been throwing in trimmings from the 50gal for now to give the shrimp and fish something to keep them comfortable. The end game is to have the left side of the tank house all of the buce species which I will be growing in a 7 tier acrylic display shelf, and stems I want to keep for future use on the right.

Here's what I have going on currently, with this being a Frankenstein tank put together with spare hardware I had laying around from past builds.

Hardware:
20oz paintball co2 tank
Stainless steel in tank diffuser
FZone Paintball dual stage regulator
Twinstar E series Light (may swap out for my first gen Chihiros Vivid if the mount will fit over the tank rim)
Oase Biosmart Thermo 100 with a spraybar outflow

Fauna:
6 Hastatus Corydora from my breeding project
~25 plus tons of newly hatched Crystal Red/PRL shrimp that I've had for many years
A few Ramshorn snails
Adding 10 Adolfoi Corydora next week

Flora:
Rotala 'Mexicana'
Rotala 'Blood Red SG'
Rotala 'Ramosior Florida'
Limnophila Aromatica
Bacopa 'Colorata'
Bacopa 'Salzmannii Purple'
Ludwigia 'Super Red'
Cuphea Anagalloidea
Cabomba 'Furcata'
Nymphoides 'Taiwan'
Clump of Buce that was sold as BG 11 but I'm skeptical until it grows out, based on leaf shape.

Water Parameters:
I'm using BDBS and tap fertilized with APT 3 once daily
pH 7.6
kH 3-4
gH 6-7

So far things have been easy as can be. I have the lights on for 8 hours a day and co2 injection low as I acclimate the cories. The drop checker isn't even fully green, which is fine as I don't need or want crazy growth rates in this tank. It's currently one week in and the first set of clippings I put in are doing very well. Coloration is good and zero melting despite not many of them having roots when I planted them. The corydora were not doing very well when this tank was species only, with lighter sand and sponge filters. Since putting them with the shrimp on black sand and a canister filter, they have been active nonstop and eating well. They're far more bold and I'm hoping adding the group of Adolfoi cories will help them be even more bold as time goes on. I'm really enjoying the tank so far, it's very set it and forget it. Zero algae and I gotta say, I'm really loving the black sand with black background. It's making the colors of the plants really stand out. While I had plans to switch the 50gal rescape from brown controsoil to fresh black, I'm seriously considering just using BDBS in there instead, to avoid the ammonia dump and algae issues.

Updates on this tank will be minimal until my import comes, barring any issues. Once my plants show up, prepare to be bombarded with photos as there are going to be some very rare buce species in there!

Until then, here's some pics I got tonight before I added some more species from the 50gal.

 

[Fishstery]

Also for funsies a photo of my fat cat Leo, who is very happy I pushed my ottoman over so he can watch the fish and shrimp

 

[JayP]

I keep debating if I want to get a couple cats, so I do enjoy seeing photos here and getting confirmation the cats and fish get along OK without too many incidents. I think I've seen too many FB reels of cats going for brief swims.

 

[Fishstery]

I keep debating if I want to get a couple cats, so I do enjoy seeing photos here and getting confirmation the cats and fish get along OK without too many incidents. I think I've seen too many FB reels of cats going for brief swims.

I have three cats and they have never bothered my tanks! Two of them don't really care about the fish at all, Leo is the only one. He really enjoys watching the fish swim. At least once a day I either pull up a chair for him or just hold him and we admire the tanks together.

I think the most important thing is just having the tanks on stands that are sized for the tank footprint. If the cats don't have room to jump up on the stand, they don't bother with it. The majority of those posts I see are people that keep tanks on a kitchen counter or a table. Kids are the ones you really have to worry about haha! I can only take good tank photos on water change day, otherwise my glass is smeared up with sticky toddler handprints. My son also likes to press his face up against the glass so I also find kissy prints often

I'm a cat person so I'm biased, but I say go for it! Cats are awesome.

 

[Fishstery]

2 week update:

Don't you love when you have nothing but issues in a tank that you spend weeks obsessively planning, monitoring, and throwing money into? Just to have a tank that you toss together with random crap laying around with minimal effort and it absolutely thrives? So typical.

The farm tank has already been far more enjoyable than I was expecting. My intention was to just have a tank I could keep my shrimp and cories in and grow some cool plants, it wasn't anything I was expecting to stand there and watch. I have no idea what the PAR is, but my twinstar doesn't have the dimmer adapter on it so it's just been running at 100% and my plants are getting far more color than the 50 gal. Algae is literally non existent. My cories are finally thriving and my shrimp are breeding like crazy despite no longer having softer water from aquasoil.

I added a few new species after doing some trimming on the 50 gal last night to help it fill out more. I have some plant orders coming this week and fingers crossed my import order ships on Tuesday, so there will be a complete layout change in here shortly. I'm so excited for this project, and to get my buce rack together. Since I'm going to have so many species, some of which look pretty similar, I think I may use my label maker to put labels on the side panel of the tank glass in an order that corresponds to where the buce is on the rack, that way when I go to sell later on I can be sure of a species ID.

For now, he's progess photos of the clippings currently in here:


Ah to be a baby shrimp, perched peacefully atop a young buce clump

 

[MrJG]

Love the little candy cane pieces you put in there! Looking great.

 

[Fishstery]

Love the little candy cane pieces you put in there! Looking great.

Thank you! I sold their tank to condense my projects but couldn't stand to let them go. I've had this colony for about 7 years now, they're very tolerant of water parameters and incredibly hardy. They're perfect little inhabitants for a farm tank so in they went. I think having shrimp and corydora only will be fun as I don't typically keep cories in my display tanks.

 

[Fishstery]

Got some new (and rare) additions to the farm tank!

Podostemaceae sp Nano


Crepidomanes sp 'Grape Leaf'


Bucephalandra sp 'Elegant Blue' and 'Legendary'



And not pictured, but some Microsorum Pteropus 'Orange Narrow', however the plants were grown in low tech so only time will tell if they are the real deal or not.

Aside from that, the farm is still easy as ever. The plants are growing exceptionally well with high light/lower co2 injection and 1.5ml of APT3 daily.

My import orders finally shipped, with delivery hopefully by the end of the week. I also managed to get my hands on 5 very large and very mature sumberged grown BG 2011 rhizomes. At this point I'll have about 30 rare buce rhizomes. I'll probably have to attach them to the walls of the tank in order to have enough space for them all until I get my extras sold

The long term plan is to get a rack with one 20L for stems and another for buce, or invest in a 40g rimless tank and stand so I can fit everything in one setup. I'll report back with tons of pictures once my import order comes!

 

[Naturescapes_Rocco]

How are you dosing as of now? What's your water change %?

 

[Fishstery]

How are you dosing as of now? What's your water change %?

1.5ml of APT daily, and 50% weekly WC. I have some plants growing on nutripads as well, it's my first time trying them but they do release nutrients into the water column as well. I've done no water testing so far. This is definitely a "go with the gut" tank with zero precise measurements or attention, really.

Ironically the same species have much better growth form in this tank than the 50 gal they came from, but I'd chalk that up to the higher light intensity.

Seriously though, I've been running through near empty tanks of co2 until I have time to get my paintball tanks refilled, so the co2 isn't even that consistent. Still no algae.

This is the first time I've ever used sand to grow stems in a high tech tank, I've found it preferrable over aquasoil tbh.

 

[BranchScape]

I keep debating if I want to get a couple cats, so I do enjoy seeing photos here and getting confirmation the cats and fish get along OK without too many incidents. I think I've seen too many FB reels of cats going for brief swims.

My 3 ragdolls have done nothing to my tanks, only negative is their fur when it floats up in the air and into the water. One positive is that they did flag my one jumper so I could save it but didn't touch the fish just went alert.

 

[Fishstery]

Farm tank update:

So. Much. Buce.
I'm behind a few weeks on my projects, because my kiddo came down with influenza B, then I did, then his dad, and then when I got better I came down with Pneumonia I'm better now (finally) but that was ROUGH.

Anyway, the farm is chugging along quite well. I'm already out of room, so I'm thinking once I sell off my newt larvae, I'll be selling my paludarium to make room for a nice rimless buce only farm tank. Seriously, I have collectoritis so bad. I've managed to get my hands on a lot of rare species, and have been spending my free time networking to track down other rare species that are much harder to find. I've made some internet friends in very far away lands as a result of my research, and my interest has drastically shifted to this single plant genus.

In a few months I think I'll get myself a nice large, shallow rimless to start the propagation process. Most of these are for me, but I'll definitely be selling off a few rhizomes here and there since I already have a few multiples of some species, and I'm fortunate enough that I've already gotten really great advice on how to grow these collectors species quickly. They've all been sprouting about one new leaf a week

Here's photos of the farm in it's current state:

 

[JayP]

I have collectoritis so bad

Yeah, it's a serious affliction. I went from a 20 farm to a 40, and now working on the 75, and may even end up keeping the 40 for just epiphytes once the 75 is going.

 

[Fishstery]

Not too much to speak on in the farm, things are still growing well! I popped on this to post some more pictures for funsies. I wanted to swap out my twinstar for my old 1st gen Chihiros Vivid Mini, but in true Chihiros fashion, the app and Bluetooth connection just refuse to work, and my light is stuck on 100% red. Sigh. My collector's buce would look far better if I could adjust the color settings. I suppose it will have to wait until I set up the new 40 gal farm, which I think I may try out a Netlea.

Anyway, here's some pics:

The true feature of this update is my Podostemaceae sp 'Nano', or 'Purple Moss'. I rarely ever see this plant mentioned in the hobby, but it's so peculiar and interesting. It's really taken off since I got it, and is finally starting to show some red/blue hues that it's known for. I find the crystally, glass-like fronds to be so unique and interesting.


I also got my hands on some Hygrophila Pinnatifida 'Roseus' in TC form, although I cannot for the life of me find much information about this new variant at all. Most of what I have been able to find is from Japan. It's been very difficult to transition and stabilize, which leads me to believe it's a varigated mutation as opposed to a variant that was discovered in a certain locale. I have it in multiple tanks and placements to see what will be successful, some here in the farm, some in the 50 gal, and some emersed in each of my paludariums. In the photo it is behind the normal Pinnatifida.