Gareth's 2ft Tank Journal

[Reth]

Hellloooo AQ'ers! This shall be my journal for my 2ft tank set up on 15 Feb 2009 (:

It's currently receiving 4 hours of light full blast from 6-10pm. No fauna and fert dosing yet. Cycling aided with AquaPro Bio-Bacteria. Currently the crypts are melting, not sure why. Also, can anyone advice on when I should start dosing my ferts?



Details
Size: 2ft / 65 Litres / 17 US Gallons
Lights: 3x24W T5HO 10000K (N.A. says its actually 8000K)
Filter: Eheim Ecco 2231
Substrate: GEX (dark green packet)
Ferts: Tetra InitialSticks (base) / Wonder-gro Macro & Micro
Others: CO2 @ 2bps
Flora: Jap hairgrass, HC, Marsilea hirsuta, Java / Windelov fern, Crypts, (stems need some ID-ing)
Fauna: To house my 12 celestial pearl danios (aka galaxy rasbora), Cherry and Tiger shrimp


Just to share, this is my other just-short-of-1ft tank that currently houses 12 galaxies and cherries. Will transfer all the fauna to my new tank and tear it down since I've upgraded and also due to space constraints. You can read the long long journey of this tank at http://www.arofanatics.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=313190





Thanks for viewing and do feel free to comment!

[Kac_r]

i love galaxy rasbora .. looks sooo amazing.

[Viper007]

Very impressive start!

[aquascaping1982]

Once the tank mature it will be very nice.

[Reth]

Kac_r; Indeed! I'm keeping the tank species-ony, hopefully they'll breed if i provide the right conditions!

Thanks Viper and Aq1982!

Right now most of the crypts are melting very badly! I replanted them once before settling on the current scape - could that be the problem? I heard it's best not to touch planted crypts at all. Or could it be too strong lighting? I've got 72W (3x24w) in total of T5HO, perhaps i should just turn on 2 tubes only? The lighting fixture has the option to use either 2 tubes, 1 tube or all.

Any advice would be much appreciated!

[Xianghao]

wow.. i like your pictures of your galaxy rasbora.. how do manage to capture them all in the picture? Mine are very shy and hide alot, and also they swim so fast, faster than my camera shutter speed.. :S

[Reth]

Thanks (: I think i took that picture when i first released them into the tank, so they were still swimming at the front. Haha it wasn't easy to get a clear shot, I had to increase the ISO and shutter speed a lot - you can see that the picture is very grainy.

[juggler]

Reth:
You can start fertilising once you set up. I do that for my tanks.
BTW - your 1ft cube is nice. I like the layout.

[Reth]

Thanks Juggler! I shall start dosing the wonder-gro.

Haha that tank is not even 1ft! Fortunately choosing plants was easy cause the ferns filled it up fast

[ethan2008]

Looking good bro.. just give it some time, do remember to remove those plant that's melted though...

[blue33]

Looking good.

[Reth]

Thanks a lot Ethan and Blue!

[aquascaping1982]

Thanks a lot Ethan and Blue!

Any updates or new pics?

[Reth]

Here's a update on my tank as of today!



Removed and added a few stem plants to the background and did a trim. Added java fern too. Melted crypts have sprouted new shoots! Now to wait for everything to grow out

I plan to breed galaxies and shrimp so I bought a sponge filter intake sponge thingy.. It's HUGE. Will look around for smaller alternatives.

Thanks for viewing and do leave some comments!

[Reth]

Any updates or new pics?

Wow that's a fast reply! Just updated

[Reth]

A few more pics (:


Right side. I really like that stem plant in the middle! Not sure what it's called..


Full view! Ugh.. I really find the filter intake a big eyesore!

[JadeIceGreen]

Hey Bro, I have followed your journal on AF, nice to see you here too. Looking forward to this scape and more great pictures to come!

[ethan2008]

Ugh.. I really find the filter intake a big eyesore!

May be you want to consider getting a smaller one and hide the intake behind your scape instead?

[Reth]

Hey Bro, I have followed your journal on AF, nice to see you here too. Looking forward to this scape and more great pictures to come!

Glad to see you here too This tank will definitely be a bigger challenge than my previous cube!

ethan; Thanks for the suggestion, will move my inlet to the back!

[Reth]

Here's a quick update on my tank!

March 5:




Today (March 10)


I've been playing around with the positioning of the filter in/outlet and CO2 diffuser. I still don't find the CO2 diffusion efficient though - due to the positioning and the disk getting clogged with algae. Might try out the grey plastic Dymax one in the future..

Oh, I've added my fauna already 10 galaxies, 2 otos, cherry and tiger shrimp! About my tiger shrimp.. The first batch I added - 3 died on the same day they were introduced.. The rest can't find, maybe hiding. So I purchased another 6, this time I dripped-acclimatised them even longer and left them in a quarantine box overnight in the tank. This time they are doing much better and didn't turn white!

Soo yeah. I'm gonna trim the stem plants tomorrow and try to make them bushier! Thanks for viewing again! Feel free to leave any questions/ comments (:

P.S. Sorry but the colours are a bit off because ImageShack messed with it :/