4 ft Cory-Cardi tank

**anakin** · 7th Oct 2005, 22:21

Did a revamp of my 4 ft tank recently. It houses mostly cories and cardinal tetras. decor consists mainly of driftwood and java fern and so far it has been a breeze maintaining it!

Comments are welcome!

**rek** · 7th Oct 2005, 22:56

very very nice

**planters** · 8th Oct 2005, 04:11

Great looking tank!!

**planters** · 8th Oct 2005, 04:12

by the way, what are the cory inhabitants inside?

**anakin** · 8th Oct 2005, 10:14

Originally Posted by planters

by the way, what are the cory inhabitants inside?

OK, let me try to recall all of them

. I'll fall them in and confirm the numbers later

:

C. Hastatus - 50 pcs
C. Pygmaeus - 10 pcs
C. Duplicareus - 11 pcs
C. Trilineatus - 6 pcs
C. Sterbai - 10 pcs
C. Gossei - 6 pcs
C. Atropersonatus - 6 pcs
C. Aeneus "Peru" Goldline - 3 pcs
C. Sychri - 3pcs

**seagul** · 8th Oct 2005, 11:26

wow love it ! its a better scape than the first

great job

**|squee|** · 8th Oct 2005, 11:51

Nice wood placement. Now if you could sacrifice some of the space at the back and fill it up with plants like perhaps Cyperus helferi or Vallis species, and have some Anubias barteri/E.tennellus at the edges of your wood where it meets the substrate, you'll complete the look more imho.

**anakin** · 8th Oct 2005, 12:12

Thanks for all your encouragement.

As it is, the additional dw and java fern cover is encouraging my usually shy cardinal tetras to swim about more.
|Squee|, will consider adding more plants

. Hmm.. the plants you suggested sounds like those found in someone's own tank too.

But I'm not having any base fert nor adding any liquid fert. So will see which plants can survive without them. Lighting is very low too - about 1W/g. I did try nana, but they did not do well.

Any recommmendation?

**cherabin** · 8th Oct 2005, 13:16

Originally Posted by anakin

Thanks for all your encouragement.

As it is, the additional dw and java fern cover is encouraging my usually shy cardinal tetras to swim about more.
|Squee|, will consider adding more plants

. Hmm.. the plants you suggested sounds like those found in someone's own tank too.

But I'm not having any base fert nor adding any liquid fert. So will see which plants can survive without them. Lighting is very low too - about 1W/g. I did try nana, but they did not do well.

Any recommmendation?

Narrow leaf java should do okay in your setup but they grow tremendously slow.

**anakin** · 12th Oct 2005, 12:41

Originally Posted by cherabin

Narrow leaf java should do okay in your setup but they grow tremendously slow.

Dun mind the slow growth, but would like to grow low-light demanding plants with different leave shape.

Will be looking around more but usually ending up buying more fish than plants...

Looking for Peru Blacks actually...

**Phillipians** · 12th Oct 2005, 18:28

your substrate appears too thin.... try to make it at least 2 inches even before can plant any plants into the gravel... you wont need base fert for foreground plants like Hairgrass or E tennellus... But a little more gravel.... And why dont consider adding to lights to 2 W/G that way you can plant vallis also, no CO2 btw?

**brianclaw** · 12th Oct 2005, 18:54

I like the wood and fern placements... How about adding more rocks and tying mosses to those rocks instead of planting stem plants? It's funny that Nanas didn't work out for you... They have almost the same requirements as the ferns you're already using...

**lorba** · 12th Oct 2005, 20:18

Wood placement is beautiful.

But you have to take into consideration of the java fern placing. Once they grow out, you will get a big ball of ferns in the middle of the tank.

The bunch at the top can probably be shifted to lower left or elsewhere. You will get some airspace and see some nice branches.

Try adding average height plants like cryptocoryne wendtii green and brown, all across the background, and line the mid foreground with moss tied on pebble. With this, you have good open space for your corydoras and completes the little details that is lacking now.

**anakin** · 12th Oct 2005, 22:08

Originally Posted by lorba

Wood placement is beautiful.

But you have to take into consideration of the java fern placing. Once they grow out, you will get a big ball of ferns in the middle of the tank.

Hi Lorba! Thanks for your comments. We (ami and I) actually did remove a big bunch from the center dw before this

- agree that we can see more now. Ha.. seems like such a long time since we exchanged aquatic plants @ Sam Yick's @ White Sands. (2+ years ago

confused: ) (BTW, the aponogeton ulvaceus u passed me flourished in my former planted tank). posted a pic of the tank below.

see it on the left? Can crypts be kept without base fert, don't mind having them if they can be.

yep, Phillipians, no CO2, no fert, low light, not much algae except for a bit of BBA growing on the top branches - dun have the time to look into the bpm, PMDD, KH, GH, etc.

Just have to change water every weekend for this setup. Have enough stress @ work, just wanna come back home to a tank where my fishes are happy and my plants are not melting, or developing holes, or yellowing.

BTW, how to combat the BBA especially when the branches are so close to the surface and lights? I have to take the dw out and scrub them off - but they always come back. SIGH...

**benny** · 13th Oct 2005, 10:51

I love it! I'm a big fan of corydoras too!! And that's quite a collection you have there!

Cheers,

**lorba** · 13th Oct 2005, 16:10

yeah, now i recalled the apongeton.

I buy a lot of plants those days to try them, and usually they are out of tank the second day as they didnt fit in, hahah. Glad it found a great home!

I use to have the problem. But after having 20 pcs of dwarf pencilfish, I dont see BBA anymore! Other then controling your parameters, i find these fishes really useful.

Recently I rescaped my home tank and there was a coating of BBA on a big wood. It was miracally cleared up after 3 days.

**anakin** · 13th Oct 2005, 17:05

Originally Posted by lorba

I use to have the problem. But after having 20 pcs of dwarf pencilfish, I dont see BBA anymore! Other then controling your parameters, i find these fishes really useful.

Recently I rescaped my home tank and there was a coating of BBA on a big wood. It was miracally cleared up after 3 days.

Thanks for the tip!

Originally Posted by benny

I love it! I'm a big fan of corydoras too!! And that's quite a collection you have there!

Thanks for the encouragement benny! Still looking around for 2 more endearing species - peruvian black and caudimaculatus. Too bad you're a BBA cultivator not exterminator. Ha ha...

**benny** · 13th Oct 2005, 17:10

I know where to get Corydoras caudimaculatus.....

As for peruvian black..local supply seems to be dry at the moment, but if you know the right people locally, it's just a phone call away.

Cheers,

**anakin** · 19th Oct 2005, 14:22

Just an update

:

C. Hastatus - 50 pcs
C. Pygmaeus - 10 pcs
C. Duplicareus - 11 pcs
C. Trilineatus - 6 pcs
C. Sterbai - 10 pcs
C. Gossei - 6 pcs
C. Atropersonatus - 6 pcs
C. Aeneus "Peru" Goldline - 3 pcs
C. Sychri - 3pcs
C. Similis - 6pcs
C. Caudimaculatus - 10pcs

And sharing a pic of the caudimaculatus:

**benny** · 21st Oct 2005, 00:00

Originally Posted by anakin

Just an update

:

C. Hastatus - 50 pcs
C. Pygmaeus - 10 pcs
C. Duplicareus - 11 pcs
C. Trilineatus - 6 pcs
C. Sterbai - 10 pcs
C. Gossei - 6 pcs
C. Atropersonatus - 6 pcs
C. Aeneus "Peru" Goldline - 3 pcs
C. Sychri - 3pcs
C. Similis - 6pcs
C. Caudimaculatus - 10pcs

My goodness! You are quite a cory fanatic!

Cheers,

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