I meant to get this journal started sooner, but there wasn't much to report on while doing a dark start, and then I had a small mishap with some of my plants getting partially frozen while getting driven around timbucktoo in a FedEx truck. Now that I got my plant replacements in and some of my fish in the tank, I figured now is a great time to start since I have some nice photos.
Here's the sparks notes as to what I got going on so far:
Equipment:
Landen 100p (52 gal with a shallow footprint, roughly 47 gallons factoring in water displacement)
Two Week Aqua T90 Pros
UNS Controsoil Supplemented with APT 1 Dosed Daily
Oase Biomaster Thermo 600
5 LB co2 tank with inline diffuser
Flora:
Eleocharis acicularis 'Mini'
Staurogyne Repens
Alternanthera Reineckii 'Mini'
Ranunculus Inundatus (to be added to midground pending delivery)
Rotala Ramosior 'Florida'
Bacopa Salzmannii 'Purple'
Rotala 'Blood Red' SG
Bacopa Colorata
Limnophila 'Belem'
Persicaria 'Sao Paulo'
Nymphoides Taiwan
Cabomba Furcata
Fauna:
20x Cenepa Red Pencilfish
2x Wild Type Honey Gourami
A Few pink Ramshorn snails I plucked from my low techs
To be added once tank stabilizes:
20-30 Hastatus Corydora (I have a group of 20 in their own 20g long breeding project, my wallet broke with the Pencils and Hastatus aren't cheap either) 25 Blood Orange Neocaridina
What's happened so far:
The tank was filled and dark started on 1/17 using some Fritz Turbostart and seeded ceramic from one of my established tanks. I got impatient and planted on 1/30, after the ammonia dropped. The tank cycled on 2/4, so 18 days from fill.
Last night I moved the Pencilfish and Gourami out of QT since I don't work on the weekends and am able to monitor them with the co2. I had my co2 dialed in quite well, at 45ppm. Today was day 1 with the fish in and about halfway through the photo period my plants started lightly pearling for the first time, but unfortunately I could tell the fish were not feeling well. I backed off the co2 a bit, but one Pencilfish in particular started acting drunk. They were $30 a piece so any loss would be a huge disappointment, so I cut the co2 early and slammed some extra oxygen into the tank and all was well. The Gourami were totally unfazed as expected. I turned the flow up on my WaveMaker, turned the co2 down some more, so tomorrow will be ground 0 again with dialing in the co2. Other than that, things are going very well with the plants. It's only been 8 days but the hairgrass is spreading very quickly, the cabomba and bacopa colorata are throwing some very nice colors at the tops despite being low to the substrate, since I've been aggressively propagating everything to fill in what I can. The slower ones to transition and grow are the Ramisior (expected), Limnophila, and Persicaria.
I'm currently running the T90 Pros at 50% on the "Red" preset, which averages about 120 PAR at the substrate. I took about a hundred data points with my rented PAR meter of all of my preferred color settings, including increments of intensity so that I have the data on hand should I need to adjust later. These lights are very impressive. The spread is in line with what I'd expect with a pendant style, but I favor the Kessil-like shimmer effect which is why I chose Pendants. On my 17.71" high tank, they could easily put out 300+ PAR at the substrate and 500+ at the surface.
What's next?
I'm waiting on my Ranunculus Inundatus to arrive and will be planting that scattered throughout the tank like the AR mini to give a nice transition from the hairgrass carpet to the stem plants, I also have two pieces of cut glass coming to make a two piece lid to help prevent evaporation and preserve my boyfriends deer mount. I'm going to start doing larger water changes on the cory QT tank with water a few degrees colder than the tank to stimulate breeding, I'm hoping they will breed themselves into a larger colony, as my main vision for the tank is a massive school of these little cuties. It's my first time keeping them but I find their appearance far more attractive than regular Pygmy Cories, and their mid-level tight schooling behavior will be quite the spectacle if I'm successful. I feel the tank is stable enough to add my shrimp, so I'll be getting those shipped in at the end of the week. I'm hoping once I gain some more plant mass to output more oxygen, I can turn the co2 back up past 35ppm. I can't get any more surface agitation and flow than I already have, without turning the tank into a Kitchenaid mixer. The Pencilfish have been very forgiving with my harder, more alkaline tap water when in the QT tank, so I was hoping they'd be more tolerant of high co2, but apparently not. Long term plans are to add some Jazz caps in a few weeks to feed the stems, but I anticipate sticking with APT 1 since my tap contains both nitrate and phosphate, and I'll have a moderate bioload. I also have had a 5 stage BRS RODI system for a few years that I never bothered to hook up, so I'll be making plans to get the tank switched over to RO water once my soils buffering capacity is about kicked.
Anyways, that's it for now. I'll update back tomorrow with how day 2 went with the Cenepas' tolerance for co2. I've been practicing my cellphone photography skills so enjoy my photo dump below, the Cenepa are absolutely spectacular to watch, and between my toddler, Kaiseri Newts, and these guys, I'm going to have to invest in some external storage for my camera roll. Also, honorable mention for those who replied to my "Center or not" thread regarding my driftwood. It's placed slightly off to the right and it should look very nice once I'm done propagating and can let my stems get some real height. The fish love all of the holes, tunnels, and caves that this piece of wood has.
Here's the sparks notes as to what I got going on so far:
Equipment:
Landen 100p (52 gal with a shallow footprint, roughly 47 gallons factoring in water displacement)
Two Week Aqua T90 Pros
UNS Controsoil Supplemented with APT 1 Dosed Daily
Oase Biomaster Thermo 600
5 LB co2 tank with inline diffuser
Flora:
Eleocharis acicularis 'Mini'
Staurogyne Repens
Alternanthera Reineckii 'Mini'
Ranunculus Inundatus (to be added to midground pending delivery)
Rotala Ramosior 'Florida'
Bacopa Salzmannii 'Purple'
Rotala 'Blood Red' SG
Bacopa Colorata
Limnophila 'Belem'
Persicaria 'Sao Paulo'
Nymphoides Taiwan
Cabomba Furcata
Fauna:
20x Cenepa Red Pencilfish
2x Wild Type Honey Gourami
A Few pink Ramshorn snails I plucked from my low techs
To be added once tank stabilizes:
20-30 Hastatus Corydora (I have a group of 20 in their own 20g long breeding project, my wallet broke with the Pencils and Hastatus aren't cheap either) 25 Blood Orange Neocaridina
What's happened so far:
The tank was filled and dark started on 1/17 using some Fritz Turbostart and seeded ceramic from one of my established tanks. I got impatient and planted on 1/30, after the ammonia dropped. The tank cycled on 2/4, so 18 days from fill.
Last night I moved the Pencilfish and Gourami out of QT since I don't work on the weekends and am able to monitor them with the co2. I had my co2 dialed in quite well, at 45ppm. Today was day 1 with the fish in and about halfway through the photo period my plants started lightly pearling for the first time, but unfortunately I could tell the fish were not feeling well. I backed off the co2 a bit, but one Pencilfish in particular started acting drunk. They were $30 a piece so any loss would be a huge disappointment, so I cut the co2 early and slammed some extra oxygen into the tank and all was well. The Gourami were totally unfazed as expected. I turned the flow up on my WaveMaker, turned the co2 down some more, so tomorrow will be ground 0 again with dialing in the co2. Other than that, things are going very well with the plants. It's only been 8 days but the hairgrass is spreading very quickly, the cabomba and bacopa colorata are throwing some very nice colors at the tops despite being low to the substrate, since I've been aggressively propagating everything to fill in what I can. The slower ones to transition and grow are the Ramisior (expected), Limnophila, and Persicaria.
I'm currently running the T90 Pros at 50% on the "Red" preset, which averages about 120 PAR at the substrate. I took about a hundred data points with my rented PAR meter of all of my preferred color settings, including increments of intensity so that I have the data on hand should I need to adjust later. These lights are very impressive. The spread is in line with what I'd expect with a pendant style, but I favor the Kessil-like shimmer effect which is why I chose Pendants. On my 17.71" high tank, they could easily put out 300+ PAR at the substrate and 500+ at the surface.
What's next?
I'm waiting on my Ranunculus Inundatus to arrive and will be planting that scattered throughout the tank like the AR mini to give a nice transition from the hairgrass carpet to the stem plants, I also have two pieces of cut glass coming to make a two piece lid to help prevent evaporation and preserve my boyfriends deer mount. I'm going to start doing larger water changes on the cory QT tank with water a few degrees colder than the tank to stimulate breeding, I'm hoping they will breed themselves into a larger colony, as my main vision for the tank is a massive school of these little cuties. It's my first time keeping them but I find their appearance far more attractive than regular Pygmy Cories, and their mid-level tight schooling behavior will be quite the spectacle if I'm successful. I feel the tank is stable enough to add my shrimp, so I'll be getting those shipped in at the end of the week. I'm hoping once I gain some more plant mass to output more oxygen, I can turn the co2 back up past 35ppm. I can't get any more surface agitation and flow than I already have, without turning the tank into a Kitchenaid mixer. The Pencilfish have been very forgiving with my harder, more alkaline tap water when in the QT tank, so I was hoping they'd be more tolerant of high co2, but apparently not. Long term plans are to add some Jazz caps in a few weeks to feed the stems, but I anticipate sticking with APT 1 since my tap contains both nitrate and phosphate, and I'll have a moderate bioload. I also have had a 5 stage BRS RODI system for a few years that I never bothered to hook up, so I'll be making plans to get the tank switched over to RO water once my soils buffering capacity is about kicked.
Anyways, that's it for now. I'll update back tomorrow with how day 2 went with the Cenepas' tolerance for co2. I've been practicing my cellphone photography skills so enjoy my photo dump below, the Cenepa are absolutely spectacular to watch, and between my toddler, Kaiseri Newts, and these guys, I'm going to have to invest in some external storage for my camera roll. Also, honorable mention for those who replied to my "Center or not" thread regarding my driftwood. It's placed slightly off to the right and it should look very nice once I'm done propagating and can let my stems get some real height. The fish love all of the holes, tunnels, and caves that this piece of wood has.
