Projects & Rambles

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

@Dark River Aquaticsthat was exactly what I meant. I enjoy playing around with it and will continue to do so. I find it interesting how people execute these builds and the various refinements they make. Your observation about the depth of the substrate is interesting.

[Dark River Aquatics]

Ta daaa

 

Still playing with details but calling it “good enough”

Edited June 14, 2022 by Dark River Aquatics

[Dark River Aquatics]

Planting started last night and is underway 🥳

I have a suspicion that there’s going to be a bacterial bloom, the waters been cruddier than expected - although I totally didn’t rinse the Flourite Black Sand at all so that might be the culprit for the cloudiness, we’ll see if it dissipates or if it’s bacterial

But yeah! It’s coming along. Still need to add more crypts, more carpeting plants in the foreground to do a more wild / Amano style mixed carpet, and need to pad out some of the stems in the back with a mix of more textures. But it’s almost there! Adding the co2 tonight and prob a UV just in case it decides to go full bacterial bloom 🥴

Turns out some of the Echinodorus Opacus I’ve been hoarding have gotten big, although I think some have been getting nommed on by the Green Dragons because a few otherwise healthy looking leaves are a little holey. Two of the three bigger ones are putting out advantageous babies though so that’s cool! The ones that have been added to this tank so far are one big mother Rataj plus two baby Rataj, two big Verde, and one medium Iguazu. Have another larger Iguazu but not sure if there will be enough space in here for it… might need another tank again soon 😂

[Dark River Aquatics]

Yep… full bloom 😪

Water changing daily anyway but it’s definitely bacteria & not silt so it is what it is.

The Crypt sp Black Borneo is going to get shipped to me Monday along with a whole bunch of Anubias sp Chili to add as foreground accents, and I’m going to order a few more stems (more Bacopa & more Potamogeton Gayi) to make the background planting denser. Also considering more variegated Buce to keep aside until it’s more mature - found that Buce really doesn’t like new tanks, so it’s definitely going to have to wait…. Have a full emersed bin with a big clumps of Catherinae, mini Godzilla, Kedagang Red, Brownie Purple, and a few others to play with when the tank is ready but I’m actually kinda digging how bare & visible the hardscape is so we’ll see how many the tank actually needs when the time comes. Probably going to just add a few Catherinae for texture and leave it at that

 

[Dark River Aquatics]

It’s cleared up! Doing 90%+ water changes of as much as I can physically drain daily, plus UV has all but cleared up the bloom 🙌🏻
 

Going to attempt a comprehensive list of everything that went into the tank if for no reason other than posterity

Equipment:

-40g Breeder tank + glass lid + metal stand

-One Sunsun HW-302 with all three trays filled with BioHome Biogravel & Super BioGravel, with spray bar outlet

-One Sunsun HW-302 with one empty tray, one with fine floss (will be removed), and one with SeaChem Purigen and a DIY Rex Griggs co2 reactor with no spray bar attachment

-5lb co2 tank with FZone Pro dual stage co2 regulator & FZone co2 line + check valve

-Jardli co2 drop checker

-No heater yet, but it will get one when the fish go in and it will be set to 72F

-90cm Chihiros WRGB2 + mirrored shades, currently set to a 7hr photoperiod, 1.5hr ramp up/down times, at red 75% green 55% blue 65%

-Green Killing Machine UV Sterilizer

-Tetra Whisper air pump + air stone

-Liquid Fertilizer is NA Thrive at 6ml per dose, currently daily after each massive water change

 

Substrate & Hardscape:

-Penn Plax under gravel filter plates with no lift tubes attached, two layers of plastic light diffuser crating, and fiberglass window screen over all of it

-Safe-T-Sorb (precharged with caso4, mgso4, Millers Microplex, and a small amount of NA Thrive)

-Brightwell Aquatics Laterite powder, and Laterin VF additives

-Landen Soil

-Flourite Black Sand

-Seiryu Stone

-Alder wood for the main “trees” glue to hidden pieces of granite using bits of cotton + liquid cyanoacrylate superglue, with a few small pieces of spider wood roots for accent details

 

Plants:

-Anubias Chili

-Anubias Congensis Mini

-Bacopa Caroliniana

-Bacopa Monnieri

-Blyxa Japonica

-Cryptocoryne Albida Costata

-Cryptocoryne Axelrodi

-Cryptocoryne Beckettii Petchii

-Cryptocoryne sp “Black Borneo”

-Cryptocoryne Ferruginea

-Cryptocoryne “Florida Sunset”

-Cryptocoryne Lutea

-Cryptocoryne Nurii

-Cryptocoryne Usteriana Green

-Echinodorus Opacus sp “Iguazu 2009”

-Echinodorus Opacus sp “Rataj”

-Echinodorus Opacus sp “Verde”

-Eleocharis Mini

-Gratiola Viscidula

-Helanthium Vesuvius

-Hydrocotyle Tripartita “Japan”

-Juncus Repens

-Marsilea Crenata

-Marsilea Minuta

-Microsorum Pteropus “Petite”

-Persicaria sp “Sao Paolo”

-Pogostemon Helferi Downoi

-Potamogeton Gayi

-Ranunculus Indulatus

-Rotala Rotundifolia Green

 

Sorry that the plant list is a different font, I copied it from the notes on my phone and don’t know how to change it posting from mobile 😅 Two of the plant species are still yet to be added because they haven’t arrived yet, but will be going in within a few days as soon as they get here! I’m excited that it’s coming together.

For fish, I’m not 100% certain on what to do but - thinking about adding a pair of F1 Apisto Trifasciata Rio Guapore that I bred, along with a decent sized school of Rasbora Kubotai. We’ll see! I’d like to keep the stock list relatively light, originally the plan was to attempt to breed L183 Starlights but I’m incapable of not scaping a co2 injected tank and now that the plant list has become what it currently is, I don’t want the bioload that Ancistrus feeding/breeding would generate so it’s off the table. But! It looks like a perfectly nice home for Apistos, and in my head the color combo of Rio Guapores + Kubotais to blend into a mostly green tank would be nice and mellow looking 😄

Dont really have any glamour shots yet because it’s still pretty crudded up with silt, brown diatoms, with loads of new plants but here are a few closeups:

Edited June 21, 2022 by Dark River Aquatics
Forgot a few plants

[Brandon p]

On 6/19/2022 at 9:38 PM, Dark River Aquatics said:

It’s cleared up! Doing 90%+ water changes of as much as I can physically drain daily, plus UV has all but cleared up the bloom 🙌🏻
 

Going to attempt a comprehensive list of everything that went into the tank if for no reason other than posterity

Equipment:

-40g Breeder tank + glass lid + metal stand

-One Sunsun HW-302 with all three trays filled with BioHome Biogravel & Super BioGravel, with spray bar outlet

-One Sunsun HW-302 with one empty tray, one with fine floss (will be removed), and one with SeaChem Purigen and a DIY Rex Griggs co2 reactor with no spray bar attachment

-5lb co2 tank with FZone Pro dual stage co2 regulator & FZone co2 line + check valve

-Jardli co2 drop checker

-No heater yet, but it will get one when the fish go in and it will be set to 72F

-90cm Chihiros WRGB2 currently set to a 7hr photoperiod, 1.5hr ramp up/down times, at red 75% green 55% blue 65%

-Green Killing Machine UV Sterilizer

-Tetra Whisper air pump + air stone

-Liquid Fertilizer is NA Thrive at 6ml per dose, currently daily after each massive water change

 

Substrate & Hardscape:

-Penn Plac under gravel filter plates with no lift tubes attached, two layers of plastic light diffuser crating, and fiberglass window screen over all of it

-Safe-T-Sorb (precharged with caso4, mgso4, Millers Microplex, and a small amount of NA Thrive)

-Brightwell Aquatics Laterite powder, and Laterin VF additives

-Landen Soil

-Flourite Black Sand

-Seiryu Stone

-Alder wood for the main “trees”, small pieces of spider wood for a few details

 

Plants:

-Anubias Chili

-Anubias Congensis Mini

-Bacopa Caroliniana

-Bacopa Monnieri

-Blyxa Japonica

-Cryptocoryne Albida Costata

-Cryptocoryne Axelrodi

-Cryptocoryne Beckettii Petchii

-Cryptocoryne sp “Black Borneo”

-Cryptocoryne Ferruginea

-Cryptocoryne “Florida Sunset”

-Cryptocoryne Lutea

-Cryptocoryne Nurii

-Cryptocoryne Usteriana Green

-Echinodorus Opacus sp “Iguazu 2009”

-Echinodorus Opacus sp “Rataj”

-Echinodorus Opacus sp “Verde”

-Eleocharis Mini

-Gratiola Viscidula

-Helanthium Vesuvius

-Juncus Repens

-Marsilea Crenata

-Marsilea Minuta

-Microsorum Pteropus “Petite”

-Persicaria sp “Sao Paolo”

-Pogostemon Helferi Downoi

-Potamogeton Gayi

-Ranunculus Indulatus

-Rotala Rotundifolia Green

 

Sorry that the plant list is a different font, I copied it from the notes on my phone and don’t know how to change it posting from mobile 😅 Two of the plant species are still yet to be added because they haven’t arrived yet, but will be going in within a few days as soon as they get here! I’m excited that it’s coming together.

For fish, I’m not 100% certain on what to do but - thinking about adding a pair of F1 Apisto Trifasciata Rio Guapore that I bred, along with a decent sized school of Rasbora Kubotai. We’ll see! I’d like to keep the stock list relatively light, originally the plan was to attempt to breed L183 Starlights but I’m incapable of not scaping a co2 injected tank and now that the plant list has become what it currently is, I don’t want the bioload that Ancistrus feeding/breeding would generate so it’s off the table. But! It looks like a perfectly nice home for Apistos, and in my head the color combo of Rio Guapores + Kubotais to blend into a mostly green tank would be nice and mellow looking 😄

Dont really have any glamour shots yet because it’s still pretty crudded up with silt, brown diatoms, with loads of new plants but here are a few closeups:

I love this tank! Great job. I feel like o could be at the lake or stream. 

@Pitafishthis is some one you should ask

[Torrey]

ORD😍

[Pitafish]

On 6/20/2022 at 3:17 PM, Brandon p said:

I love this tank! Great job. I feel like o could be at the lake or stream. 

@Pitafishthis is some one you should ask

This is amazing!!  Please post when you get some fish!!

I have a 20 gallon I’m about to break down and start up a 30 gallon and my wallet is screaming knowing what’s coming!   I love this!

thank you @Brandon p

[Dark River Aquatics]

On 6/20/2022 at 11:19 PM, Pitafish said:

This is amazing!!  Please post when you get some fish!!

I have a 20 gallon I’m about to break down and start up a 30 gallon and my wallet is screaming knowing what’s coming!   I love this!

thank you @Brandon p

The feeling is all too familiar! 😂

Best advice I can give is to exercise as much patience as you can and plan it out / start collecting the equipment & hardscape over the course of a few weeks/months to spread the cost out and take some of the sting out of doing it all at once - plus that gives you time to plan the scape & plant list, and if you can collect some of the hardscape from nature or wait to find deals from local hobbyists selling stuff for cheap that’s even better! This scape used mostly collected wood or pieces recycled from the last scape, a decent amount of plants from auctions/other hobbyists/ones grown in my other tanks, and I found a big box of seiryu from a local dude for cheap. Drawing out the build to collect all the components over time and jump on deals as they come along def helps the wallet screams 😄

[Dark River Aquatics]

Sitting in bed and watching the last 10-15 min of the ramp down of the lighting going from dim, to blurple twilight, to fully off is so hypnotic 😄😴

I went rogue and added a male Apisto Trifasciata tonight, it’s a little early but the kh seems stable (was questionably stable at first after using some supplemental uncharged Safe-T-Sorb to raise the back hill a bit, miscalculated how much to charge), and the co2 seems dialed in. I added a small herd of female Tefé to my 75g, and felt it was best to pull the Trifasc pair out of that tank early - although the little female is savvy and I couldn’t catch her yet… she’s smart enough that as soon as she sees the net she’s a ghost, so it’s gonna be tough wrangling her.

She’d come out just long enough to taunt me then disappear back behind the giant piece of wood in that tank

The male is in the redone 40 though, looking shell shocked and looking like he just discovered alien abductions are real, but the water parameters are virtually the same with a ~2 degree temperature differential so he got chucked in and I added a heater to bring it up from 70F up to 72F.

Water changes will still occur daily but will drop from 90%+ down to 50% daily for the next couple of weeks and he should be just fine in there. Ammonia/Nitrite tests have been 0 since day one, and nitrate is being added via liquid fertilizer but isn’t really a thing with the heavy early WC’s - found that excessive WC’s early on are key in preventing algae - George Farmer is 100% right with his methodology IMO!

Haven’t been able to get great pics of the Tefé’s tonight with all the commotion from the newly added females / my failed attempts to catch the female Trifasc scaring everyone, but the big male is all excited. And for the record the white spot on him in the pic is just crud on the glass and not anything on his body 😅

[Dark River Aquatics]

A few boxes of special arrived in the mail today! Anubias sp Chili, Cryptocoryne Nurii Raubensis, Cryptocoryne sp Black Borneo, and two Bucephalandra sp White Marble

Also received some reinforcements of Bacopa Monnieri, and Potamogeton Gayi to fill out the new tank more - plant mass for the win!

[Patrick_G]

Anubias chili! Gotta get some of that!

[Dark River Aquatics]

On 6/23/2022 at 9:32 PM, Patrick_G said:

Anubias chili! Gotta get some of that!

I got it from Jenny West! Here’s the link, I think there’s still some available but not sure:

https://v-aquatics.com/collections/rares/products/anubias-sp-chili

[Dark River Aquatics]

Doing a science experiment based on the advice of a friend - he’s been making root tabs with ground up Magnolia leaves + Osmocote for his crypts, and says they’ve been loving it. The rationale is that crypts naturally grow in typically humic-rich environments, so the leaf mulch + Osmocote provides them with humic breakdown / humic acids / ammonia + other nutrients at the root level.

I don’t have Magnolia leaves but I adapted his idea with a bunch of old & crunchy Catappa leaves instead. Started by getting a cute little food processor and mulched them up as finely as I could 

For the tabs themselves I used size 000 gel caps, and added a small amount of Laterite powder to the mix as an iron supplement

The caps have 2x Osmocote balls in the bottom, a pencil eraser-size amount of Laterite, then a bunch of the leaf mulch in the middle packed down with a pen, and 2x Osmocote balls plus more Laterite in the “lid” before the two halves of the cap were pressed together

I’m sending a bunch of the 4x Osmocote strength tabs to a friend for him to test with them, and for my own use I made a few with only 1x Osmocote ball per capsule because I want to start small and build up. Curious to see the results (good, bad, or maybe totally ineffective) and it was a nice way to spend some time watching a movie and working on a busywork project 😄

[Dark River Aquatics]

There is creatures is here now 🙌🏻

The plant list has changed very slightly, mostly just in adding a few random things from other tanks and removing the Blyxa for aesthetic purposes - added more Buce Skeleton Queen & Catherinae, two Xyris red, Crypt Striolata Red, bits of moss, some wild plants, and I forget what else. But there’s fish & shrimp now too!

The stock list is:

-Apistogramma Trifasciata

-15 Pseudomugil Gertrudae

-Amanos

-Otos

So far everyone seems to be doing just fine, the Gerties are difficult to take pictures of but they’re starting to pattern up - there’s a mix of normal ones, and Burster Creeks so I’m curious to see the difference once they mature a bit. The Apistos are settling in and the female is already caved up and yellow, can’t tell if she has eggs yet but if she doesn’t have them already it looks like she will soon. As best I can tell, no Amanos have become lunch yet either which is nice!

Best pic I could get of the Gerties, they’re speedy little buggers.

I also collected a cool little Vallisneria last weekend which ended up in here - sent a few to a friend to help ID them and only kept one, it’s already turning green on the new growth but it was quite reddish-orange and small out in nature. It was a surprising find, every resource I’ve found only lists Val Americana as being in our state - so I’m unsure if this is just Americana adapted to very specific growing conditions that kept it compact & small, or if it’s another species that’s either invasive or naturalized and just undocumented, or if it’s something else altogether. Still a cool find for poking around locally though!

 

New green growth in the middle of the plant in this last pic, it’s been in here for a week and seems to be adapting well to a captive environment, but no longer has direct sunlight / sand substrate / cold clear nutrient poor water like it had growing on the shoreline of a glacial lake so it’s no surprise it’s losing the rusty red color. The ones I sent out for ID will be grown in a pond in Florida for now so hopefully they keep their sunscreen 😎

Edited July 18, 2022 by Dark River Aquatics

[Dark River Aquatics]

Baby Moliwe’s are starting to get the faintest hint of color

[Dark River Aquatics]

Love waking up to this tank after sleeping in long enough that the morning sun is hitting it

Also loving the tiny mushroom I just discovered in it while doing a water change earlier!

The mushroom clearly got the memo we were going for an enchanted forest vibe

[Dark River Aquatics]

Have done another thing! Tore down my 3g cube a while back, and set it up again last night as a specimen tank of sorts. Did away with any hardscape and it’s currently running a base layer of Brightwell Laterin VF + Laterite capped with a couple of inches of Landen Soil, a Chihiros C2 White light, two tiny HOBs with well seasoned BioHome media, and co2 injected with a nano sized Aquario Neo diffuser & GLA DS-Mini regulator.

The water is straight RO remineralized with Ca & Mg only, targeting 0dkh & 6.5dgh, currently dosed lean with only a few drops of NA Thrive.

The plants at the moment are all US East Coast natives, either collected by myself or by Chantz Cramer - current list is:

-Rotala Ramosior Florida

-Rotala Ramosior Cramer

-Rotala Ramosior “Maryland”

-Eriocaulon Aquaticum

-Lobelia Dortmanna

-Gratiola sp unknown

-Suspected Xyris sp unknown

-Sagittaria cf Filiformis

-Sagittaria sp unknown

-One that’s a complete mystery and I’m fully open to any ideas

This is the mystery plant, it’s a very small green creeping stem with tiny round leaves found in a shallow lake in the northeast

It’s itty bitty and neat so we’re giving it a whirl. I’m just really hoping I don’t kill any of the Ramosiors and can successfully convert them from emersed growth - especially the newly collected one from Maryland, it seemed like an extreme lapse in judgement that he sent me something so special & rare entrusting me to keep it alive but we’ll see how it does! The goal is to not have any livestock so I can seriously crank up the gas, and then do daily heavy WCs with 0kh, high Ca & Mg water to keep it all from unaliving 🤞🏻

Edited August 18, 2022 by Dark River Aquatics

[Dark River Aquatics]

And here’s a photo dump of fish pics, all taken within the past week 😄

Apistogramma - Tefé, Trifasciata Rio Guapore, and Alto Tapiche

Ancistrus - Rio Paraguay, and Wabenmuster

[Dark River Aquatics]

Haven’t been hobbying that hard for a few months from working too dang much, all the tanks are doing pretty well except the little 3g - I wasn’t taking care of it the way it needed, so took it down recently and have a new project to take its place. UNS 45S tank, a Chihiros C2 White, Oase Filtosmart 100 Thermo, Hakkai stone, and other materials

Was also testing a co2 regulator for a brand I won’t name in return for a video review of it and… well… it ended up breaking and gassed all the livestock in my 40g forest scape including the Rio Guapores and it was horrible. It’s the first time I’ve ever had a gas out like that, and won’t be doing the review now and will always be sticking with GLA regulators in the future. It was heartbreaking to be honest… it’s funny how attached you can get to fish you bred yourself.  Gave that whole tank some time to sit empty before restocking, and a few weeks ago felt up to getting new fish and landed on a trio of Apistogramma Agassizii Blue Flame - not usually a fan of the man made strains but these ones are stunning, and look like they’re either about to breed or are possibly sitting on eggs already

Been collecting plants again too, and specifically some for this new scape - Anubias sp Stardust is one that will be going into the new shallow tank when it’s ready to plant

[Minanora]

I'm so sorry about your bad experience with the regulator. That's awful. I look forward to seeing the new rimless setup. What a fun project.

[TheSwissAquarist]

I just read from the top of the thread @Dark River Aquatics, and it really is very interesting!!

Those blue Apistogramma are SOOO cool!

[gjcarew]

On 10/16/2022 at 6:01 PM, Dark River Aquatics said:

Haven’t been hobbying that hard for a few months from working too dang much, all the tanks are doing pretty well except the little 3g - I wasn’t taking care of it the way it needed, so took it down recently and have a new project to take its place. UNS 45S tank, a Chihiros C2 White, Oase Filtosmart 100 Thermo, Hakkai stone, and other materials

Was also testing a co2 regulator for a brand I won’t name in return for a video review of it and… well… it ended up breaking and gassed all the livestock in my 40g forest scape including the Rio Guapores and it was horrible. It’s the first time I’ve ever had a gas out like that, and won’t be doing the review now and will always be sticking with GLA regulators in the future. It was heartbreaking to be honest… it’s funny how attached you can get to fish you bred yourself.  Gave that whole tank some time to sit empty before restocking, and a few weeks ago felt up to getting new fish and landed on a trio of Apistogramma Agassizii Blue Flame - not usually a fan of the man made strains but these ones are stunning, and look like they’re either about to breed or are possibly sitting on eggs already

Been collecting plants again too, and specifically some for this new scape - Anubias sp Stardust is one that will be going into the new shallow tank when it’s ready to plant

Sorry to hear that. I had that happen once after accidentally bumping the needle valve on my regulator and it's the worst feeling. For what it's worth I would love to know what brand it was that broke, so I know not to use it.

[Colu]

Just caught up you have some stunning tanks loving the kribs and apistogramma colour's are amazing 

[Dark River Aquatics]

Thank you all for the kind words!

The shallow tank is scaped and running with a dark start cycle, and will be for a contest so this is the only pic I’ll share of it so far 😄

I did take some pics of neat plants to share though, including this one which is becoming a new fave - Ooia Manduensis procured through Chantz Cramer, it’s sort of like anubias and buce had a baby

It was grown emersed in these first pics, and now that it’s been submersed for a bit the new leaves have a slight metallic blue sheen & speckles like you’d see in buce. It’s getting crowded in there so this pic isn’t great but you can see a few of the newer leaves. There was zero conversion melt, it just kept trucking and is growing fairly quickly for an aquatic aroid 

Got a Bucephalandra Black Angel recently and moved some of the rarer buces to this 40g scape to give them brighter light - this pic has Black Angel, Helena 2013, Hellfire, Ghost 2010, and a teeny tiny Ghost 2015

Black Angel is small but showing some vivid color.

These are some baby Echinodorus Opacus Rataj that I pulled over the weekend to sell, the mother plant is spitting out advantageous new sprouts which I’ve been splitting off once they get a few leaves + roots, and these babies will be getting shipped out soon.

 

This is a Cryptocoryne Cordata that arrived the other day

 

Crypt Black Borneo is doing well too, it’s seeming to like the well water and is finally switching from a deep red to a truer black on the surface of the leaves

Some of the tanks in my basement are in a state of full neglect and need more love than they’re getting, but are doing ok considering the lack of time and energy to dedicate to them. The 75g is over a year old now which feels crazy, and it’s experiencing a small amount of BBA now from lack of regular maintenance but nothing too too bad. 

Most of the BBA smudges are on species that will have a harder time recovering from it like Anubias Pinto, Anubias Jalapeño, and Echi Iguazu but it’s not too terribly bad yet - I just need to force the time for more water changes to get the tank stable again

The 14g cube has gotten overgrown to a point that the Pogostemon Sampsonii is emerging & flowering

The Ancistrus colonies are all doing well too. The Rios are spawning again after a period of inaction/upset from moving their tank, the Green Dragons are still prolific, the Wabens are large and in charge, and I recently got a funky male of some sort that was sold as LDA72 - not entirely sure that that’s what he is, but he’s nifty with unusual coloring

 

This is a pic of some juvenile L519s that I’ll be getting soon from a friend - he imported them a few months ago and as soon as I’m able to set up a tank for them they’ll come to live here. Very excited about these!

 

And lastly, more Zebra Otos

Edited October 18, 2022 by Dark River Aquatics