Dark River Aquatics

Gonna need a trim soon but I don’t want to 🫠

The jars are a blast! Didn’t think I’d like them as much as I do, they’re super easy to care for and have the added bonus that all the plants / mosses I added (except for a few of the utricularias, sphagnum, and sundews) can swim, so it’s a neat bonus to have emersed-grown plants kicking around ready to throw into new tanks. And it’s a lot of fun to make them! Highly recommend playing around with it if you’re ever curious 🙂

Tied for third overall in the contest 😄 Very, very, very pleased with the results and had a great experience overall - learned a whole lot, got to experience what it’s like building a tank towards different goals than what I usually do, and got a whole lot of valuable feedback to complement the new experience and just had a blast with this whole thing 🥳 And somehow accidentally grew this Black Angel to have obscenely striking colors which may be my favorite result of babying this tank so much 💙 Have still been dinking around in this growing little basement fish room, and it’s been a lot of fun building minimalist little terrarium jars for aquatics now that I have a bit more confidence keeping things alive. Put together two more little containers recently; both just have aquatic mosses ringed around buce, and they’re fun little experiments to learn more about care requirements & husbandry And in the last pic… my UG is growing! Have never had great results with UG in the past but this time things seem to be going better and I’m thrilled about it so far Also thrilled about adding another collection piece plant to the grow out tanks, finally crossed Echinodorus Opacus Goncalo off my bucket list and that brings me up to four total types - Rataj, Goncalo, Iguazu, and Verde! The water is super cloudy from planting it, had to dig up & move a bunch of Val Nana to make a spot but it was worth it

No final results yet but I’ve been cheating a little, a friend of mine is involved in the running of the contest so I’ve had sneak peaks at some of the results so far 😂 There was a popular vote that’s worth about 25% of the overall score and I tied for first in that which I’m sooo stoked about! The remainder of the scoring is made up of a combined number of points awarded from a handful of judges and we’re still waiting for them to finish up. I’m very, very happy about all of it so far and given that it’s a community contest and I know most of the other entrants (and am actually rooting for a friend to win because I think his finished photo is hands down the best of the bunch) I’m just really happy for all of us and have really enjoyed the process!

Made thing, and it’s gonna have other things in it but not a lot of water - namely ferny things, bucey things, and cool little isopody things 🙂

I just can’t figure it out, it’s a weed every other time I’ve kept it and the other assorted mosses in this tank are doing great, but this one just crapped out - I’m hesitant to pinpoint any specific issue or to blame the individual tissue culture itself, it’s just weird that this one specific one is growing but brownish. Ah well though, onward I guess! Viktor from Green Aqua did an edit of one of the photos of this tank and I’m over the moon about it 😄😄😄 the picture was sent via Facebook messenger so it lost a little bit of quality from that but I’m super pleased with the results and just very happy that he was willing to take the time 😁 Finished up the arrangement in the 14g cube last night too, it’s very basic and will get dark started for a bit due to using a bag and a half of fresh Landen soil. Love the rich front-loaded soils but man do they run hot at first, so using an established filter and letting it run dark for a week or two in order to mellow out has yielded great results in the past. Game plan for this tank is to plant it out with mostly propagations from other tanks, namely a bunch of Eriocaulon Vietnam with Echinodorus Opacus Verde, mosses, Marsilea Crenata, and eventually some buces & other epiphytes. Thinking about running this one with no heater as well, and possibly even no livestock. About half my tanks these days have little to no livestock and don’t have heaters, and the ease of maintenance just makes them so enjoyable - rich substrate, lean column dosing, heavy planting, cool water, regular water changes, and very low levels of waste organics has become very appealing for the stability it produces

I can’t say for certain that it wasn’t, it’s odd and especially frustrating though because I’ve never had issues with mini Christmas before and all the other mosses/plants in this tank are doing so well in comparison - plus you’d think deficiencies would show in the faster growing plants first! The staurogyne repens was losing old foliage faster than it should have so I upped the dosing from every few days to daily and that solved that issue… but this one species of moss is just strange in here and it doesn’t want to cooperate 🥴

Sorry all I kinda forgot this place existed for a while and haven’t updated or done that lighting comparison, my bad 🥴 Been puttering around in my basement recently and have been making slow improvements to the space. The Prizm is now suspended over some emersed plant experiments and I just gutted the 14g cube because I’d let some cladophora algae creep in from neglect, plus the substrate was starting to get depleted, and it’s just time to redo it with a fresh scape anyway. Got a custom made regulator today too which I’m excited about, and have been gathering up supplies for the redo of this 14g The regulator is an absolute unit and it’s so heavy it tips over a full 5lb co2 tank, but I’m looking to gas more of the tanks down here and can definitely put it to good use. Have also been dinking around with the emersed stuff and made several more bins / made a dedicated rack for all of it. It’s all mostly crypts/buce/moss so far with some neat aroids and a bin dedicated to Utricularia species but so far I only have U Parthenopipes & U Calycifida “Mrs Marsh” - excited to collect some more and hopefully get them to make happy little flowers Took the final pictures of the shallow tank recently & submitted them for the contest, overall the tank turned out pretty okay and I’m pleased with it 🙂 Here is a photo montage and I’ll copy & paste the materials list / plant list at the end I’ve been looking at it with a more critical eye than my other tanks, the mini Christmas moss grew but never got a lush green like everything else and I’m not sure why, and overall I think I had a few too many species and would’ve benefited from a more definitive focal point. Love the tank in person but learned a lot about photography from this… personal critiques aside and all things considered though it was a great experience. Just waiting for the results now, it’s a pretty small and unimportant contest but it was a blast. I switched from a lean dose of Thrive to APT3 early on in the tanks life and loved the results. I know where we are and maybe it’s heresy to say that here but APT + a rich substrate + gas worked some serious voodoo magic for everything but the dang Christmas moss. This is the list of additional info for the tank. I don’t know how to change the font/size on a mobile browser so hopefully the formatting isn’t too wacky Equipment used: -UNS 45s tank -Chihiros C2 White lamp -Oase Filtosmart Thermo 100 with coarse sponge, Aqua Char, Purigen, and mini lily pipe / surface skimmer intake -GLA DS-Mini co2 Regulator and Aquario Neo Diffuser -Dosed with APT Complete & PNS ProBio Substrate: -Brightwell Laterite & Laterin VF -Aqua Char -ADA Bacter 100 -Landen Soil -Flourite Black Sand Hardscape: -Hakkai Stone -Tumbled lava rock -Black granite river pebbles Plants: -Anubias Pangolino -Anubias Stardust -Bucephalandra sp Black Angel -Callicostella Prabaktiana -Cardamine Lyrata -Echinodorus Opacus sp Iguazu -Eriocaulon sp Vietnam -Fissidens Fontanus -Hookeriaceae sp Distichophyllum -Hydrocotyle Verticillata -Lobelia Cardinalis -Marsilea Minuta -Micranthemum Monte Carlo -Myriophyllum Simulan -Raphidophora Becarii -Rotala Rotundifolia Green -Staurogyne Repens -Susswassertang -Vessicularia sp “Mini Christmas” Emersed: -Heartleaf Philodendron -Monstera Adansonii

It won’t stay on this tank, I originally got it (lightly used from a friend for dirt cheap) to put over my Green Dragon tank which is now also farm space for Crypt Jacobseni. This is the 16” though and the light spread just isn’t enough for that tank which is unfortunate. I don’t have any comparison pics between the Prizm and Chihiros/other lights but that’s a great idea and I’ll try to get some to post later this week! I do have some pics saved in my phone comparing a Finnex Stingray 2 and the Prizm though. First this is a comparison on the 40g Green Dragon tank with a 36” Nicrew SkyLED Plus Even suspended right against the ceiling it didn’t have enough spread to reach the sides, which to be fair isn’t the fault of a 16” light on a 3 foot tank. The color rendition is certainly better (this is at full blast with no tweaks for color), so I’m bummed it won’t work here. These next pics are the best comparison shots I have saved comparing the Prizm (at roughly 30% power on each of the dials) with a Finnex Stingray 2 Forget what this buce is but it’s more blueyer with the Prizm Can’t remember this ID for sure either. Helena maybe? Last pic is with the colors adjusted slightly for glow up but not full blurple Top down shots were hard because of the reflection but these next pics also show the different types of diodes used and I love that it has independent yellow diodes. From what I can tell there’s one dial that adjusts blue & white and a second dial that controls all the others. The friend I got this from said that he found most of the raw power comes from the blue & white diodes and the other is more to tweak color rendition The photos here don’t quite do it justice in terms of how it actually appears to the naked eye, first impression is that it’s a great light and produces very vibrant colors and has WAY more power than most other lights outside of the Chihiros/Week Aqua/ADA/etc higher end range. But I think I prefer the WRGB2 at least until I play around more. A WRGB2 just has more finesse with the controls and the Prizm seems like a battering ram designed for much larger or very high energy tanks, and I’m sure it rocks in that application but like… for most of my setups it’s like trying to drive a rocket ship to the grocery store 😅

I got them off Amazon, and they weren’t exactly cheap but weren’t super expensive either. For a few thousand they’d probably be on the more expensive side though… I think it was about $30 for the bag and there are probably 100-200 stones in it maybe? I just searched for “tumbled lava rock” 😄

Okay so I got a Prizm and the snails immediately burst into flame and I’m now legally blind, please send help

I’m sorry I never responded to this, my brains are made out of cheese sometimes - it’s Marsilea Minuta, less of a headache to trim than glosso and the goal of this tank was to have a chill little puddle that doesn’t need a lot of maintenance 😄 I’m ever so slowly revamping some tanks, the Green Dragon tank got a full makeover recently and has been filled with Crypt Jacobseni Pink. A NilocG Prizm is going over it next weekend to up the power and turn them more pink, and the cube tank has had a makeover as well and is destined to have Jade Green Neos soon. A local shrimp breeder buddy is trading me some and that’s where they’ll end up 🙌🏻 Totally removed the Rotala H’ra and added Bacopa Salzmanii Purple, and redid a lot of the other planting as well just to change it up It’s getting a bit of algae on the rocks, and it’s almost exactly one year old now which is a little strange…. The time goes by fast. The row of 10g’s is finally getting over the ugly stage, diatoms are fading and there’s bits of green algae here & there but still doing water changes and most of them only have snails as livestock so hopefully the algae won’t take hold.. The Triple Red Cockatoo Apistos are laying eggs again, and then I impulse purchased a CPO crayfish a couple of weeks ago so she’s in one of the crypt tanks. Really diggin her and had the store order more so I can get a male and see if they breed! The 29g tank is well overdue for some maintenance and hopefully by posting an ugly pic I’ll be motivated to spruce it up in the next couple of days… it’s still experiencing some diatoms and is now getting a bit of green spot algae so I probably need to do more water changes and start dosing it, and the glass needs a good scrub. Got some tiny Panda Garras for it recently, and put a mix of Pencils in with them And the contest shallow tank is doing well 🙂

Best pics I could find of Green Gecko, but it was decently overgrown and shaded out right up to the point that these pics were taken during a replant While looking for the gecko pics I did come across more pics of Nurii Luminous Green growing next to Maiden & Raubensis, for whatever this is worth 🙂 They receive ballpark about 35-40 par in this spot

I may have a few 😅 Photos from a massively overgrown and neglected 75g with Retrospiralis / Jacobseni Pink / Nurii Maiden / Nurii Pink Line / Nurii Raubensis / Nurii Luminous Green / Parva in the pics, and many others in there Newer tank currently experiencing some melt with a lot of Jacobseni Pink & Nurii Maiden, Green Gecko, something sold as “Sparta”, and a few others Flamingos Big Affinis Red Spiralis Red & Spiralis Tiger Sparta Striolata Red Nurii Pink Line inflorescence Cordata Black Borneo Some newer grow out / “don’t know what else to do with them” tanks for crypts with various nurii, jacobseni, and purpurea split up by species 😄

Black Angel go brrrrrrrr 🙂

They tend to do it when they’re really happy and flourishing, or when they’re a little stressed out like if they’ve just been added to a tank with different conditions than what they’re used to and in those cases it’s a stress response. It’s an “oh crap, something changed and we’re not sure if we like it, better produce an inflorescence and try to procreate just in case this doesn’t work out well” type of thing. It’s not necessarily a bad sign or anything when they do it, it’s just the plant responding to change by trying to ensure its genetics survive and it’s a very common thing to see when you put emersed form buce underwater - it’s better for the species’ survival if the plant puts energy into flowering before it rolls the dice on putting energy into its own new growth in new/unknown/fluctuating conditions 😊

The crypt nursery tanks are officially fully planted and alive! The Jacobseni tank already has a bit of algae on the glass so some light diffuser film may be in order, currently just rolling with some old non-adjustable lights that were collecting dust and they may be a bit potent They are alive though! And the 29g seems to be doing ok, still keeping up with heavy frequent water changes and have added a tiny internal filter with a spray bar to increase surface agitation but all seems well. The light is currently at half strength and may not even need to be ramped up, starting to see some new sprouts already so we may be in good shape. And it may be premature and I may kick myself, but added some buces - hopefully it’s not so unstable that they melt 🤞🏻 The Buce in some other setups are popping off at the moment with inflorescences, it’s always one of those things where it’s like “dang hopefully they’re happy and this isn’t just a stress response”, but there are inflorescences for days at the moment both under water and emersed

Got new friends in the mail today that I’m excited about, Vallisneria Nana “Yabba” - nothing too rare or special but they’re so dang tiny and cute! Planted out another of the 10g farm tanks today with the new midget Val and some Crypt Nurii Pink Line, the crappy basement rack of 10g’s is now almost fully done up as mostly crypt grow outs. There’s a tank of Jacobseni Pink, one of Affinis Metallic Red, one of Nurii Maiden, one of Nurii Pink Line, and then there’s a smattering of Purpurea and midget Val and a few other species mixed in. In other news, scaped a friend’s tank for him over the weekend and had a blast. Didn’t bring enough plants with me so we need to add more, but it was a lot of fun and he’s very happy with it so it was a win 😄 And! My collection of tiny jars is growing. Another friend finally convinced me to try carnivorous plants so one of them now has Sundews and Utrics - hopefully they don’t unalive. Some of the buces in the Iota aren’t that happy so I started applying a foliar fertilizer and hopefully those don’t unalive either. They might just be sitting too high above the water line, idk, but trying small changes to try to fix it and hoping for the best. The mosses seem to be doing quite well though!

The water in the 29g is testing at 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite and a hint of nitrate and I’m still in the daily water change phase so got a little ambitious and added some mixed pencilfish from another tank, so far they’ve colored up again quickly and are exploring the new space. Really liking them in this tank!

Still adding stuff, sprinkling in more green here & there. Unsure about the Eriocaulon, tossed them in right before the picture was taken may swap them out something else. Might add some Val sp Nana Yabba? Maybe some Buce sp Red Dagger, and maybe some more mosses? Idk, taking it slow and just playing with details now but thinking that more greenery at substrate level would look better. The light shades should arrive tomorrow as well as an additional manifold to run a co2 line, and then it’ll be just about done! Can’t wait to get some apistos in here, and the dither school may be a group of red coral pencils

Apistogramma Alto Tapiche hiding in the weeds, and the slight saturation filter this forum seems to add to uploaded pics makes it look so green 💚

Do y’all ever find a piece of hardscape and the immediate reaction is “whelp, there’s other projects to do but now everything is on hold to redo one of the older tanks”?? Went to a local store looking for a specific plant (didn’t find it) and found a neat piece of Eucalyptus root instead. The weekend project then turned into a full tear down/rebuild of the old, run down, overgrown 29g from way back in this thread somewhere. I’d let it go all to heck with jungle Val, duckweed, and algae everywhere and it’s just been long past due for a revamp. Got caught up and forgot to take photo documentation during the destruction but this is a pic with all the hardscape and virtually all of the plants removed, with ancient silty Amazonia and the remains of all the Vals just lookin like…. Yikes Gave everything a good thorough bleaching, cleaned out the filters (surprisingly not that gooky), and got everything as shiny as possible for used equipment Then the fun part, playing with a new layout! Went through several different iterations of hardscape over the course of Saturday and landed on one that looked pretty decent while mentally playing with a plant list - going into it I came up with a few goals: -Use primarily plants I grew myself -Utilize it as a plant growout as much as possible -Make it very low maintenance -Apistos need to like it This is what I landed on for hardscape - wood heavy, lots of overhanging roots that don’t take away too much substrate real estate but still provide a load of space for epiphytes, and a good amount of complexity for the fish. Was pretty pleased with it and used thermoplastic to stick everything together and to adhere hidden chunks of granite to the bottom of the wood to anchor it all from floating & to build height. The substrate is Laterite & Bacter 100 & a small amount of Safe-T-Sorb at the base, a thick layer of Landen soil, and a cap of Black Diamond blasting sand. Then came the planting! Went digging in some of my other tanks and was surprised at how much the anubias in the green dragon tank has grown, and started to wax nostalgic about doing a really simple plant list - crypts, anubias, a bit of moss, etc - sort of a throwback old school style nature scape. Ended up reminiscing about reading Nature Aquarium World as a teenager and while I’m absolutely no Takashi Amano it was fun trying to pull inspiration from that sense of awe young me felt at seeing his work. Also pulled a bunch of crypts, primarily Jacobseni Pink and Nurii Rosen Maiden with some Lutea & Green Gecko for the edges, plus some moss I got from a friend recently. I think it’s Taiwan Moss? No idea. Ran out of spare Anubias so I ordered a bit more and still need to finish planting out the wood. Game plan is to fill up the sides with more greenery and to leave the wood in the center bare, but calling it done for today. Co2 will get hooked up tomorrow and it already needs a water change to reduce turbidity but it was a fun weekend project and I’m happy the tank got a facelift 🥳

Finally putting more effort into my crappy basement rack, adding tanks and sprucing up the ones that’ve been sitting fishless & neglected for a while - as of right now they’re all getting redone to be crypt growouts to make better use of the space Did one up the other day with Jacobseni Pink, some Hooker Moss, and a random Buce. The substrate is a thin base layer of Landen soil mixed with a small amount of raw dirt, Laterite, Bacter 100, a layer of Safe-T-Sorb, and a layer of sand with a simple internal filter for movement. There’s a bit of melt so far but nothing major, with some luck once everything mellows out they’ll be very low maintenance farm tanks with a difference species in each 🙏🏻 It’s funny how distinct of a difference good lighting makes on Jacobseni - this last pic is from the same group that went into the 10g, but lit with a WRGB2 instead of a Finnex light and the difference in color rendition is amazing. No crazy settings on the Chihiros either with an increased high red or purple hue, just the normal day to day settings for that tank

Wish I could help but I haven’t bred any tetras before, sorry! I’d try out the ideas already posted here, and probably research on YouTube a bit for info on species with similar spawning habits - there’s a ton of info out there about egg scatterers! Best of luck 😊

Happy Halloween everyone! Started planting the shallow tank last week - the theme is green 🌱 Still waiting to add more moss rocks and a few more fine details, in the meantime just allowing the majority of the plants to grow in. Co2 is cranking, the lighting is set relatively low, maintaining a schedule of 75% water changes every morning, dosing with a small amount of fertilizer after every WC / inoculating with a lot of PNS ProBio, and so far so good 😊