Planted Aro Tank - Comments pls

[learner]

Thanks vinz.......
sad to hear that your SAE was too careless....

I must have seen your SAE before.. poor guy.. eaten after 1.5 yrs..

Yours is a densely planted tank... mine is so sparse.. if i introduce a loach in, i wonder how long it would last..

wanted to put in a small moss wall in the tank but aro somehow tot that it was food and took at bite at it.. the mesh was at least 10 inches long, but i guess it tot the white thread was food.. cut its 'lips' for its efforts.. sigh..


anyway, realised that the tank is very heated up if i cover it all up... (oh. it's a rio 400?)

hence did some DIY to add a pair of fan ..
here's some pix..
quiet and cheap... no problem with overheating of tank now..

any comments for the layout of my tank? to scrap(e) or not to scrap(e)


DIY fan... too lazy to get black wires.. used a red/black pair instead....


when the cover is lifted


when covered, all hidden...

[vinz]

Wow, how did you get the holes cut so nicely? No covers between lights and water?
Personally, I'm concern the aro might jump into the lights or fans. OTOH, I've noticed that the arowana does not jump if they can see something in the way. Yet, I think if they are panicking, they will jump ir-regardlessly.

Regarding the scape, you don't have to scrape it. But you can put in more mid-ground plants. Just keep the mid and top water open for the aro. You can even put in a small group of tall plants off center, but keep the ends open to allow the aro to turn when it gets bigger. You can use a taller, bushier foreground plant for the bottom-swimmers and shrimp.

[Aeon]

[quote:890852b718="PeterGwee"]Aeon, I am not trying to pick on you but in a high light tank, CO2 is a critical nutrient (carbon) to plants. Plants always do better with CO2 as 40% of it is made up of carbon.

The notion of high light in getting red plants is not true. 2W/G should be enough to redden most red plants up provided the rest of the nutrients are available and the NO3 on the low side.

Regards
Peter Gwee [/quote:890852b718]

I've said... RW likes lots of light and not too picky on CO2 but CO2 is still critical for the entire tank. read properly.

They like lots of light, CO2 not critical, but it's critical for the entire tank

I'm just speaking from my own experience with this plant.

[learner]

Hi vinz,

the holes were all hand drilled
took me quite a while to finish everything but i'm quite satisfied with the results..

aro seldom jump... only on occassions when the market prawn that i feed gets stuck on the sides....
and yah, the lights are not covered... ie, if the aro jumps, it will hit the light tubes... have 2 horizontal support under the lights to hold the tank together but that only blocks a small part of the light tube...

actually, dont foresee it as a major problem...

here's some new stem plants in the tank..
i know the shoots are new, but is it too green? time for some iron dosing?

[vinz]

The problem is we never know when the aro will jump. Most times its when they don't like the tank water... which isn't a real problem as planted tank water tend to be fairly good condition if the plants are in good shape.

My aro has tried jumping after water change a few times. She won't jump if there is at least some lights in the room and she can see the covers. I noticed she only tried to jump when the room lights were off. So I had to keep the room lights on for those nights. Fortunately, the kuhli loaches also react (no deaths, just weird behaviour) to whatever it is that bugs her, so I have a warning sign to look out for. The other fishes never seem to be affected.

The holes look really neat. I thought they were done professionally.

Iron is not an issue for redness. Apparently low NO3 is the trigger. If you can keep it around to 5ppm, you should see the redness coming in.

[learner]

Don't know what's wrong with the C.balanese... really growing very very slowly... testing my patience... .

Added 3 loaches just... and 1 SAE..... loaches about 1.5-2 inches... SAE 2 inches... aro made a dash for them.. so far so good.. managed to hide in the crypt forest....
Keeping my fingers crossed..
here's an update...

Early Feb



Late Feb


LATEST - Late March

[AroDon]

Very nice...I like the spacious centre for the arowana to swim. It will be even better once the arowana reach adulthood and your planted tank bloom beautifully.