I guess I should start...

[isaly]

...a journal.

This is why I like 'em...so pretty in an understated way—the slight blue of the horizontal stripe and the way the black seems to come from behind the stripe and fades to smoky toward the belly, the little bit of red in the eye above the pupil...the slight translucency of the flesh...

...and the way they school.

 

Twelve out of thirteen, nice!

 

iPhone to the rescue.

Earlier I posted that I didn't have a smart phone. In December of 2021 that was absolutely true. I proudly crowed that I'd never own a phone smarter than me.

I do, however, like taking pictures. The iPhone offers lots more total capability than a dedicated camera and, so, when my carrier decided to deprecate 3G and I was compelled to buy a new phone I thought "what the hoo-ray?" and bought this thing.

At some point I'll get a macro lens and a bracket so I can mount it to a tripod. I'll try paying more attention to some of the subtleties of taking fish pictures like cleaning the crap off the glass both outside and inside...

 

 

 

 

Edited January 8, 2022 by isaly

[Levi_Aquatics]

That's a nice looking school of black neons!

[isaly]

 

 

Here are some of the rest.

The leftmost serpae tetra has some serious finnage...that dorsal's drooping down like a veil. They're all long finned serpae but this one, the finmeister, minister of fins.

 

These fruit tetras, white skirts that have been dyed, have been with me from the start when lots of my frst serpae were dying.

I didn't know when I bought 'em that they were manipulated. I read that in some cases they remove the slime coat and dip 'em. Some are injected. A significant number of 'em die from the process. It really poses a question—why go to all that trouble for a $5 fish?

 

I think they're cool. They'll come up to the glass for a little staring contest, actually nose to nose on either side of the glass.

 

...yeah...you!

 

...and let's not forget Mr. Snailly Pants.

 

8 serpae, 13 black neon, and 4 fruity/whitey. There it will stay for at least another month while I slowly add and re-arrange plants.

 

 

Edited January 8, 2022 by isaly

[Guppysnail]

Those black neons seriously pop against the dark background. Stunning. 

[Torrey]

On 1/7/2022 at 11:09 PM, isaly said:

...a journal.

This is why I like 'em...so pretty in an understated way—the slight blue of the horizontal stripe and the way the black seems to come from behind the stripe and fades to smoky toward the belly, the little bit of red in the eye above the pupil...the slight translucency of the flesh...

...and the way they school.

 

Twelve out of thirteen, nice!

 

iPhone to the rescue.

Earlier I posted that I didn't have a smart phone. In December of 2021 that was absolutely true. I proudly crowed that I'd never own a phone smarter than me.

I do, however, like taking pictures. The iPhone offers lots more total capability than a dedicated camera and, so, when my carrier decided to deprecate 3G and I was compelled to buy a new phone I thought "what the hoo-ray?" and bought this thing.

At some point I'll get a macro lens and a bracket so I can mount it to a tripod. I'll try paying more attention to some of the subtleties of taking fish pictures like cleaning the crap off the glass both outside and inside...

 

 

 

 

ORD🤩

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

@isalywell done with you iPhone pics. A good schooler is hard to beat and the various neons always fit the bill for me but I’m also a sucker for a medium bodied tetra and you’ve got a good number too! 
It would be great to see the whole tank when you’re ready. That piece of rock with the bubbler in the background is great. I’m a sucker for rocks as here in Central Oregon we’ve got loads of interesting rock formations making for fun opportunities to do interesting aquascapes! 

[isaly]

@Beardedbillygoat1975 I need to do some work on it today and will get some better ones with clearer water and glass.

 

 

 

[Chris]

Black Neons are easily my favorite tetra - they never look like much in a store, and they don't necessarily catch the average person's eye when they're looking at a tank.

But, when you really get close and watch a big school of mature, healthy Black Neons, you get sucked into it - the tiny bit of light blue in their stripe, the bright orange eye, the slow gradation of color along their bodies, and (my favorite) - how chunky they get! They're small fish, but man, they can be like little sausages sometimes!

[isaly]

Here it is before...

 

...and after.

 

I vacuumed the gravel—three five gallon buckets worth which, in this 55 gal. tank, comes to somewhere between 30 - 35%

I then re-planted the rotalia. They’re much shorter now but hopefully I did it right. I’m crossing my fingers that they’ll grow back and do that branching thing they do and give me some denser shrub like bits.

I then re-filled the tank, re-started the filter and air stones and opened the intake/output valve all the way to clarify the water.

I need to find something to attach that java fern to.

Edited January 10, 2022 by isaly

[isaly]

Here are a few more after the clean up.

Mr. Snailly Pants hung out on this rock all through the gravel vac / water change / replanting. He must be lovin' that algae 'cause he's still there chowing down happily or, at least, i hope so.

 

I love these serpae tetras as much as the black neons, the red translucent flesh and the jerky way they swim, although they can take off like a shot when they're motivated.

 

[PineSong]

Your tank is great looking--I love the bubble streams and miss those from my goldfish keeping days. I kind of want tetras now from looking at yours...the variety of body shapes combined with the pug faces are so cute and your photos really show the colors on those black neons. 

[isaly]

@PineSongI originally wanted electric blue acara but decided, rightly I think, that 55 is too small for those. I used serpae tetras to begin the cycle and got the fruities a little later and it was tetras from then on.

There are 25 fish in there now. I'm keeping it where it is for at least a couple of months and then I may add another dozen, maybe glow lights, maybe green neons...maybe I'll just keep it as it is. Everyone gets along and there's plenty of room.

[isaly]

Four months in —

Cyanobacteria has been a problem for me over short length of time since I started this hobby. I removed as much as I could manually but, over time the resurgence during the week between gravel vac sessions has increased.

Two days ago, I called the closest LFS for E M Erythromycin. They had two boxes two days ago. Snow happened and the supers didn’t plow our lot, so I went today. Wouldn’t you know, someone bought em both and they don’t know when they’re going to get any more. They had UltraLife bg slime remover, though. I’d seen it on the intertubes so I went for it.

I scraped the glass, scrubbed corners and under the rim bits, massaged leaves, toothbrushed rocks and, after letting things settle for an hour, changed 33% through gravel vaccing, stirring up the gravel.

I refilled the tank and, started the filter, and added the UL — seven scoops based on 45 gal because of the depth of the gravel and size of the stones. I normally run two airstones naked in the tank.

I’m noticing snails, one red/brown ramshorn like and various long thin pointy snails the biggest of which is just over an inch. They’re growing. I like ‘em.

One of my white skirt tetras got the snot kicked out of him. I noticed his tail was mostly gone and he was self isolating. The generally favored self isolation spot is by the intake. I didn’t notice him moribund until I almost sucked him up the next day.

The plants have solid root systems and slow but steady growth. Hopefully the cyano treatment will help minimize what builds up on the leaves.

[PineSong]

On 2/6/2022 at 4:15 PM, isaly said:

The plants have solid root systems and slow but steady growth. Hopefully the cyano treatment will help minimize what builds up on the leaves.

I had a stretch when I was having blue green algae in my betta setup, maybe a year ago? In addition to manual removal and increased water changes, I blacked out the tank for three or four days  the second or third time I had it, and that helped. It did not kill his plants to be dark for that long--java fern and floaters both survived. As pesky as it was, I'm surprised I got rid of it and it has stayed gone. No clue why it appeared and no clue why it hasn't come back.

[isaly]

On 2/6/2022 at 6:16 PM, PineSong said:

I blacked out the tank for three or four days  the second or third time I had it, and that helped.

Early on, when I first got the finnex light I left it off when I left town for a couple of days...worried about the airstones causing moisture on the light. Red root floaters all died...which is why I didn't try a blackout.

Well, the light gets some moisture on it and I'm having no problems with it except for aquarium crud building up on it which I have to clean off. 

[isaly]

As I’m writing, the tank light just went off.

@ 9:00 pm, my finnex planted is set to the lowest setting of both the green and red led’s which, in the custom 24/7 mode, fades over three hours from that to total darkness at midnight. The room’s almost dark right now, a little ambient light coming from a small led desk light facing the wall on the other side of the room...

...the iridescent blue/white stripes of the black neons are swimming in almost total darkness — pretty effin’ cool to look at.

Edited February 14, 2022 by isaly

[Torrey]

On 2/13/2022 at 11:27 PM, isaly said:

As I’m writing, the tank light just went off.

@ 9:00 pm, my finnex planted is set to the lowest setting of both the green and red led’s which, in the custom 24/7 mode, fades over three hours from that to total darkness at midnight. The room’s almost dark right now, a little ambient light coming from a small led desk light facing the wall on the other side of the room...

...the iridescent blue/white stripes of the black neons are swimming in almost total darkness — pretty effin’ cool to look at.

Sounds lovely, and I am ORD😍

[isaly]

It’s been six months.

The aquarium is becoming…an aquarium. Things are growing and pretty much everyone seems to be happy. It’s becoming more of an established ecosystem.

I have some ram’s horn snails living in the tank. There’s a bunch of Malaysian trumpets, of which my complete rookie guess is “I don’t know how many.”

The plants are doing better. I trim off the ends of the valisenaria that get hairy from algae. I have lots of val in at present, some tropical swords, amazon sword, and some java ferns.

It’s the beginning of April. I’m testing water parameters every couple of weeks or so. Water changes are occurring when I vacuum the gravel for excess crap; I take two 5 gal. buckets worth of water and replace it with conditioned tap water which replaces about 20% of the water volume, diluting whatever’s in the water at any given point.

At the moment I’m not testing for trace minerals and micronutrients that require extra test kits…gotta save a buck.

The system’s working between 20 and 40 ppm of nitrate. I dose with Flourish about once a week.

At this writing — pH 7.1. ammonia 0. nitrite 0. nitrate 20+ - 30; more, I think, toward 20.

 

 

The next move is eight glowlights along with three white skirts for a total of 35 fish which will, I think, be the about perfect. I was thinking about half a dozen cories, bringing the total to 41. I don't want to stock heavily. These are all 1.5 - 2 inch fish and I think, with everything, it’ll be on the cusp of lightly / medium stocked.

If anyone has an opinion on whether to stock the glowlight/white or the cories first I’d be interested.

Edited April 3, 2022 by isaly

[AndreaW]

On 4/2/2022 at 9:04 PM, isaly said:

If anyone has an opinion on whether to stock the glowlight/white or the cories first I’d be interested.

I have a thing for cories and their behaviors. If you don't already have bottom-feeders, I think you need to get them next. They will liven your aquarium up in a different way. It's really fun to have motion going on in different levels.

[isaly]

On 4/3/2022 at 11:36 AM, AndreaW said:

I have a thing for cories and their behaviors. If you don't already have bottom-feeders, I think you need to get them next. They will liven your aquarium up in a different way. It's really fun to have motion going on in different levels.

I'm really 50/50 on this. When I got the black neon's, the lfs had a tank of really nice glowlights. I fell in love with 'em. I wasn't going to plunk 25 fish into a tank that early on.

I think cories would be awesome as well. Maybe emerald cories would compliment the serpae tetras nicely.

I think it'll be whichever the lfs has that look good the next time I'm there.

Since I'm running two stones in this, my only tank, I think I'll start a sponge filter in here first for a quarantine tank...sometime during the coming month.

This must be how mts starts...starting a filter for quarantine which then becomes a shrimp/plant tank and, oh, I need a new quarantine...

Edited April 3, 2022 by isaly

[isaly]

It's been three weeks since the last water change.

I'm not trying to be piggy, I'm just wanting to let this system swing a bit and watch. So, while it's not the tidiest tank around, it's clean. There are no funny smells. I'm running a Fluval 406 in a 55, along with the sponge filter I put in last week.

The big three are all where they should be, I'm reading the nitrate as between 30 and 40, color issues, you know, and due for a light gravel vac and 30% change this week. I say light because there are some small val coming up from new runners and I don't want to get too clumsy.

I'm working on my steganographic chops as well.

I love how they school....

Edited April 17, 2022 by isaly

[isaly]

Here's the whole tank at this writing.

 

I have a boatload of Malaysian trumpets in here, hopefully enough to use as an ongoing food source for a 20L pea puffer tank which will contain five or six of the little guys along with that sponge filter.

 

Edited April 17, 2022 by isaly

[isaly]

I've had the above sponge filter in this tank for about a month now, which I'm planning to put into a 20L for pea puffers. I think I'll ghost feed it to give the bacteria some munchies. I think I'll take a handful or two of gravel from my tank along with some small trumpet snails that'll surely be in there...let it go for a few days, testing for ammonia/nitrite. Hopefully I'll arrive at a time when I've got both ammonia and nitrite so I can keep all the little guys in the sponge I'm moving happy and well fed.

I'm in no hurry, I haven't yet put in glow light tetras or gotten the tank and heater for the puffers but likely this week or next as they're on sale @ lfs for $31.

I like how clear the water is. I suppose I'll put in another sponge, maybe a little smaller, after I move this one. I like the clarity of the water @ 1 week since the last water change, around 40%.

 

...just after the light came on this noon.

I also think it's time to think about a reasonably big pump and a manifold to service, maybe four or five tanks with, hopefully less than $100. I guess I'll build one of those Cory/Dean PVCDIYSOCKITOME manifolds.

Edited May 10, 2022 by isaly