My first 4ft biotope tank.

[sthh]

Rather than switch off your ohf during feeding, you can consider putting a sponge pre-filter for your ohf pump.
Food will not be sucked up by the ohf pump, and you will see fishes pecking at food there.
I wash my pre-filter sponge weekly however, but that is less work than you switching off your ohf during every feeding.

Word of warning about going bare bottom. Your sand substrate is currently housing a lot of beneficial bacterial too. if you remove the whole lot of substrate, you will remove lots of those. So you may want to start seeding your filter with more media first.

[Kiang]

Rather than switch off your ohf during feeding, you can consider putting a sponge pre-filter for your ohf pump.
Food will not be sucked up by the ohf pump, and you will see fishes pecking at food there.
I wash my pre-filter sponge weekly however, but that is less work than you switching off your ohf during every feeding.

Word of warning about going bare bottom. Your sand substrate is currently housing a lot of beneficial bacterial too. if you remove the whole lot of substrate, you will remove lots of those. So you may want to start seeding your filter with more media first.

Thanks for the recommendation.

Had seeded BB and placed 2 more trays of CR.


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[Kiang]

Some pictures which I had just taken.













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[hann]

Very nice altum you have

[Kiang]

Very nice altum you have

Thanks bro.

Still learning how to keep them.



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[limyw]

Hi, nice set up. I am in midst of planning to set up an altium tank too in my low profile 3ft. would like to seek your (and Others) advice
- are angels jumpers?
- any reason why you converted to bare bottom? does this make cleaning easier (I travel occassionally up to a week or 2)
- for the overhanging df, is it floating or have you tied this to an overhang?

tks!

[Kiang]

Hi, nice set up. I am in midst of planning to set up an altium tank too in my low profile 3ft. would like to seek your (and Others) advice
- are angels jumpers?
- any reason why you converted to bare bottom? does this make cleaning easier (I travel occassionally up to a week or 2)
- for the overhanging df, is it floating or have you tied this to an overhang?

tks!

Hi bro. Thanks for the kind words.

Firstly, I will not recommend a low profile tank for altum as a lack of height will restrict them to have a nice growth in their finnage.

From my short experience, my altum are not showing any signs of jumping even though my water level is usually within 5 inch from the bracing.

However, all fishes are differently due to characters and tank environment. You might wan to place some covers to be on the safe side.

Secondly,I had converted to bare bottom setup as I had plans to add in my 2 Young discus into my main tank. Going bare bottom will help out in my daily clearing of the wastes but at the expense of a more close to nature outlook.

Thirdly, I believed that altum are not as particular to clean water in comparison with discus. Therefore,with a good mechanical, bio filtration and no excess feeding, they should be able to survive well after a good acclimation to the new environment.

Lastly, my hanging driftwood is achieved by tieing it onto my center bracing.





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[Kiang]

Some photo taken during 'Makan' time.

Had added in 2 discus too

http://imageshack.com/a/img633/6015/lLpIQV.jpg

http://imageshack.com/a/img537/4360/c4Y5WG.jpg

http://imageshack.com/a/img539/2229/3xLdAA.jpg

http://imageshack.com/a/img661/9296/oSzOmF.jpg

[Kiang]

Taken out of curiosity

http://imageshack.com/a/img673/8913/c6C5qM.jpg

[welly]

Nice aquascaping

[Kiang]

Nice aquascaping

Thanks bro

[Kiang]

http://imageshack.com/a/img673/3898/0vbi7e.jpg

Finally converted completely into sump filter.

Abit messy. Haha

[Kiang]

http://youtu.be/i2D6Yy5GpBE

Pairing of altum?

[Kiang]

Group photo time

http://imageshack.com/a/img540/8877/9P9SYi.jpg

http://imageshack.com/a/img537/2830/slXKSu.jpg

http://imageshack.com/a/img911/2969/BQfSK1.jpg

Sizing up

http://imageshack.com/a/img538/7228/oP11UP.jpg

http://imageshack.com/a/img540/5506/3kalEl.jpg

[Kiang]

Did some minor arrangement of the sump and installed a DIY algea scrubber.

http://imageshack.com/a/img537/576/KbNCEg.jpg

http://imageshack.com/a/img908/64/MSPjec.jpg

[Kiang]

Need some advise from Fellow brothers here.

Just tested water on my 4ft tank.

Ammonia 0
Nitrate 0
Nitrate about 80 (red zone)

Using API master kit.

Got about 20 rummy nose, 20 cories, 3 altum, 2 discus, 1 L128, 1 L183 and about 10 nertie snails. In the set up.

Feeding twice per day. Each time about 35 sinking carnivore pellet (all food will be cleared within 5mins)

Water change regime is 50% twice weekly.

Any things I had did wrongly which caused the high nitrate?

Thanks in advance

[sfk7]

I wouldn't say its wrong just that bioload is high but media is enough to convert the ammonia. Either do more water changes or fast growing plants to lower level of nitrate

[Kiang]

thanks bro for the fast reply. This nitrate problem is like a pain in the ...

[fireblade]

nice update on your tank...
love your altum! it has colour up nicely..

one point to note is the air pump and 3 pin point above your water... any tiny accident will cause a power trip...

[Kiang]

nice update on your tank...
love your altum! it has colour up nicely..

one point to note is the air pump and 3 pin point above your water... any tiny accident will cause a power trip...

Thanks for highlighting it.

Had increased the base support.

Cheers