The first steps into a new world

[Vexus]

So finally, after planning and saving constantly hearing "the tank looks crappy" (love you wife!!!). I have taken the final step into starting my planted tank. I decided to post this mostly as a way for me to look back on what I've done right, wrong and completely crash and burned with my attempts at something I have never done before. Also, I figured "hey maybe other people might be interested to see how it's going in my new "official" hobby.", so ya there's that lol. I'm actually starting this a little late as I began this slow process a while back so it's going to have some backlog. ANYWAY, ITS PICTURE TIME!!So here we have my original setup, standard big name pet store style (I'm sure you've all been there lol). Unrealistic plants, big fake rock with attached bubbler unnatural looking gravel. Prety basic lol. Oh, also please don't take offence to anyone how has a setup with similarities, these comments only refer to how I see MY tanks original look. Now, some time has passed, I've seen what my tank COULD be and decided to make a change. I like to call this "The Wasteland". As you can see, I already made some noticeable changes. Fancy new internal filter, new gravel better suited for planting, no more blue plants, that big ugly rock is gone, a nice black painted background and you can't really see it in the picture but that big ugly hood is gone and replaced with a nice glass top (took 4-5 months for that top to arrive in the mail, to anyone else who gets a glass top for a 36 bow front, I hope you have a better time than I did getting it) and a fancy Bluetooth plant light that normally costs $150+ that I got for $50 unopened in the box (very proud for finding that deal). You'll also notice we have some new additions to the neighborhood as well as others who "moved out" unfortunately. And once more time moves on and the new era has begun in the tank. With the addition of my overpriced grapewood that took SOOOOO long to get to sink due to how thick it was, a couple new rocks from the same people who sold me that grapewood and 2 healthy Anubias from our friends at aquarium co-op. The only had 2 types in stock at the time of purchase so I got a nice big Barteri on the left and a happy little Gold Coin on the right (feel free to point out if I got them mixed up). 

 

Thats really everything summed up so far. I don't know if I'm supposed to add a new reply to this topic or just edit the original post with updates. I've never actually "blogged" before now lol. But I'll be adding something later on when the next notable development happens lol.

Edited March 19, 2022 by Vexus

[Flumpweesel]

Looking good, taste and fish needs change all the time therefore so do our tanks, I think this blog will probably show the tank evolution that everyone has been /will go  through from first fish to spectacular display tank.

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

I like to see the progress. Everyone has a different style and they are ALL fun for me to see! Looking great so far! 

...and yes, you'd just add a new reply to the topic now as you update so the dates and other replies are in the right order/timeline. You can of course edit any of your posts for errors/changes/spellings/better pictures etc- I do that all the time. As you will see 🙃

Edited February 28, 2022 by xXInkedPhoenixX
yea, I changed something.

[AndreaW]

@Vexus ~ Your (before) tank looks much like my 46G bowfront did 20 years ago.... and still looks today!  So, no judgement from me since it's my next project after I get my planted 10G corner Betta tank figured out.

I love the new look! So far my Anubias are my favorite (and you did get them right). I also have a couple different types of Java in mine, too (rhizome plants similar to Anubias, but different look). 

Keep the updates coming (just reply below)! I love to see the progression in planted tanks (especially after looking at the same tank for 20 years...  )

[Vexus]

3-18-22

 

SECOND POST TIME!!!!!!

So, I got in some new plants today, not happy with that but let me explain why. First of I'd like to say my.... less than happy reaction has NOTHING to do with aquarium co-ops quality or efficiency. Just like last time my shipment got here nice and fast (3 days from order to delivery, I think the first one was 2 days). No, what miffed me was the postal service. So quick info dump, I live in Las Vegas, in a nice non-gated housing area with communal mailboxes... in the desert.... in the early stages of spring.... on a 76+ degree day with no shade or overcast cause its, you know, a desert. I think you can all see where I'm going with this. Trust me that metal mailbox at the end of the street that spends every day in direct sunlight is not the most ideal place to put moist plants inside. BUT I'll admit I can't fully be mad at them on account they didn't actually know what they were delivering, but that doesn't change the fact that last time my plants were dropped off at my front door on my SHADED porch. Luckily, I had been keeping an eye on my shipment every hour or 2 for the past couple days but that doesn't change the fact that package felt like a pizza box sitting on my lap when grabbing some takeout. So here are my newest additions, Water Sprite, Monte Carlo, Dwarf and a Tiger Lotus bulb. Now the Sprite was in fairly good condition, a little banged up but I was expecting that so really no complaints. Tiger lotus lost a leaf but still happy, although I'm not sure if it suffered from the heat any. The Monte Carlo is what got me though, again nothing wrong on Co-Ops part, but I definitely could tell that it was suffering from that heat with some wilting. I'll be informing Co-Ops customer service INCASE it something goes wrong but I'm hoping for the best. Oh, and the dwarf lotus was.... well, it's a nut in a bag of dirt. I'd be amazed if the mail service managed to ruin that lol. 

So, like last time I prepped my plants and watched a few tutorials on how to plant these just to make sure I didn't mess up. Picked where I wanted each plant to go and here is the end result. Water got a little foggy from all the movement lol. So changes, my air stones have been bugging me with their placement lately so I took the opportunity to move them to the back row so they wont take away from the plants. The bulk of the Monte Carlo I planted on the front left with a few sprigs that fell off when cleaning it on the left side, assuming it grows well ill move clippings around for a nice carpet and also I may attach some to the driftwood for a possible cave curtain effect (the planting tutorial told me it can be attached to things and doesn't have to be in the substrate so I thought that would be a nice possibility). The sprite, I cut in half and planted left and right as well with one half in the background and the other middle. The left half was the more banged up and a stem was about 95% severed so I clipped that and will let it float around, like Cory suggests in one of his videos, and see if it does anything interesting. And the bulbs, you guessed it, left and right lol. The Dwarf is front left with the tiger lotus mid far right. On a side note, anyone with experience with bulb plants can you take a look at this and tell me if I planted them correctly? And for those of you with a good eye for detail, you may have noticed my Barteri is missing a leaf. Here's what happened with that, so I come home one day and notice one of its leaves has a big dark spot on it. I didn't know what it was so I let it be but kept an eye on it (should have taken a picture), a couple days later the entire leaf looks like it was boiled. No holes or dissolving or anything, it just looked like cooked spinach but kept its shape and it was the only leaf to do that, so I don't know if that counts as melting and the rhizome is still healthy. Any thoughts on that?  

 

I'm not 100% sure if I did it right, the dwarf said to just set it on top and the tiger about halfway into the gravel. I'm also not sure if I positioned the dwarf lotus correctly, does the round end go face up or the pointed (the rounded side on the tiger had the leaves growing out so I based it on that)? Everything planted today got a root tab under it (even the bulbs) and for the most part I think it's going to look good once it's all established. I'm really looking forward to the tiger lotus when it gets bigger, even with how small it is now I love the coloring on it. Oh, and before I forget the most important new addition to the tank. Murphy is now chillin on the left corner opposite my cardinal tetra lol.

 

So, thoughts? Opinions? Did I cause bad feng shui with my placement?

Edited March 19, 2022 by Vexus

[Katherine]

That looks lovely. I look forward to seeing how your plants grow in.

[Streetwise]

For rectilinear tanks, I do not like to center any hardscape. However, bow-front tanks look better with centered features.

I like how the sloth-arm of the wood is reaching towards the center-front of the glass.

More plants, please!

[AndreaW]

I love the new plants and hope they do well for you! It will be fun to see this tank fill up with greenery.

[Minanora]

That wood is so cool! it looks like a monster coming at you. "raaar" Okay, I'm an adult. I love it though! Your tank is so lightly stocked. It's refreshing.

[Brandon p]

@Vexus the best way to prevent them from sitting in the mail box is to go on USPS webpage. You need the tracking number and it help to know the post office that your mail goes through. We have 4 in my city and it’s smaller than Vegas. Then look for the part that askes about holds. There is a thing called  intercepts don’t use that one is less you need it go to a different address than you had the original order sent to. It’s been a little bit since I’ve done this I went on disability a couple years ago so I’m home most of the time and if I have fish or plants coming and I make sure I’m here. Look for your next plant shipment that might be the best course of action. In some places when you check out have a few want them to hold out the USPS or shipped to you house. It’ll usually have a box in front of it and say hold that local post office or something similar there’s a few pages on Google explain how to do it but I remembered a few years ago doing it and it was pretty easy. I’m in South Florida so I know how it is to get a package and have it be not as hard as you are pretty hot in the mid 90s. Good luck keep it up I love the tank the wood is awesome

[Vexus]

Lol it’s great how everyone comments on the wood looking like something. My wife thinks its a bear and my mom thinks it’s a monster fish. It was such a pain to find it and it’s so big that it can’t be positioned any other way but I think It was a great find lol. Now I’m dealing with fish being brats, one of my gourami was staring at me for like 20 seconds then moved up to the Monte Carlo and just pulled a leaf off and spit it at me. I don’t think he likes it lol. I’ll try that suggestion with my next plant order. Luckily I’m able to plan for my deliveries so that work isn’t an issue but with the status updates being delayed and our mail gets delivered anywhere from 1-4pm makes to easy to miss if I’m not monitoring it constantly. 

Edited March 19, 2022 by Vexus

[PineSong]

Great to see your added plants. What fish do you have in the tank now?

Don't give up hope too soon on any that don't immediately take off. In addition to the normal melt they may do because of changes in emersion to immersion, time will help you tell which plants may need more or less of something, and rooted plants need time to develop really effective root structures.

My hygrophila basically stood still for a couple of months until I cut it back by half--then finally the roots were able to meet the needs of the plant; the stems thickened up and the plant started really growing. I was glad I hadn't tossed it when it looked so lame.

Edited March 19, 2022 by PineSong

[Streetwise]

The wood is a sloth. I have spoken.

[Katherine]

On 3/19/2022 at 3:40 PM, Streetwise said:

The wood is a sloth. I have spoken.

I agree.

 

 

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

I don't disagree with @Streetwise but I tend to lean more fantastical and it looks like the Fremont Troll to me 🙃

[Widgets]

I see an alligator snapping turtle. 

[Brandon p]

On 3/19/2022 at 12:20 PM, Vexus said:

Lol it’s great how everyone comments on the wood looking like something. My wife thinks its a bear and my mom thinks it’s a monster fish. It was such a pain to find it and it’s so big that it can’t be positioned any other way but I think It was a great find lol. Now I’m dealing with fish being brats, one of my gourami was staring at me for like 20 seconds then moved up to the Monte Carlo and just pulled a leaf off and spit it at me. I don’t think he likes it lol. I’ll try that suggestion with my next plant order. Luckily I’m able to plan for my deliveries so that work isn’t an issue but with the status updates being delayed and our mail gets delivered anywhere from 1-4pm makes to easy to miss if I’m not monitoring it constantly. 

I normally get the first ont the next day. So then as soon as I see the first one says the the ticket has been printed I try to go on the a web site and try to put the order. When I was working 5-5 I could hold the then sent them to work but is worked because there was only 100 employees and I had a mini fridge in my office. 

[Vexus]

3-24-22

Todays post is a good one and concerning for me. The good part is I’ve been planning to get a trio of hillstream loaches (hopping to get 2 females) to deal with some brown algae that’s been growing on my plants and glass. What’s been stopping me the size of loaches at my lfs, there’s nothing wrong with them I was just concerned if they were to small the dwarf gourami might bully them. And the other lfs nearby sell them for $16-$22 as apposed to the $10 at my regular store. But with the slow increase of algae on my Anubis’s I decided to get my loaches. Obviously I was gonna go to my regular place but they were out (unlike every other week I go in lol) so I had to try other stores in the surrounding area. The others had some but at a 50-100% price increase there is no way I’d be comfortable with that. So I waited a week and called my lfs and guess what? They had a fresh delivery with good sized hillstreams at a preferable price. So here are my new additions getting drip acclimated. After a good 3 hours I dropped them in and they decided they wanna live behind the filter lol. It’s hard to see but I could only find one at the time of taking this pic. More good news is my red dwarf lilly Bulb has sprouted. 

I think that looks like a root, anyone else able to identify if it’s a root or stem?
 

Now to the more concerning news. I think one of my fish may have a fungal infection. As far as I can tell it’s fungal but I’d like more opinions. As far as treatment, can I treat the entire tank or is a quarantine tank required? 

[AndreaW]

Yay for finding Hillstream Loaches! They are one of my favorite (although I don't have any right now).

It's hard to tell from the pictures, but it does look like a fungus to me. There is a section on here dedicated to fish diseases which I would post photos and tank parameters and you will probably get a better response. 

[Vexus]

3-31-22 

It has been another eventful week for my fish tank, I'm not even sure where to start. So I’ll just begin with a full shot of the tank and go from there I guess lol. I don’t know why but my phone keeps making the pictures aid ease even tho I’m holding g it straight up when I take them lol. 
 

So let’s start with my after work surprise I found the other day. Eggs!! I was so excited when I found those. At first I thought they were from my hillstream loaches but after doing a little research it looks like one of my Cory’s may have made those. Having an albino, emerald and bronze I have no idea which one actually payed them, but my money is on the emerald cause its bigger than the other 2. Not that it matters at this point cause either the hillstreams, dwarf gourami, mollies, tetras or platty has been eating them off the walls. 😢

My new loaches are doing well so far, they had been hiding in the back corner behind the filter for the first few days of getting them so I moved the filter out of the corner and now they are learning to not be as skittish whenever someone gets near the tank. 

And Iv all but confirmed that the issue my platty has is a fungal infection so I’m in the process of taking care of that. 
 

Now a plant update. The large portion of water sprite seems to be growing, it’s slow but it’s growing, and my tiger lotus has sprouted a few new leafs. And then there was my Dwarf Lilly. Now according to my “Fish Tank Log Book” I planted the Lilly on march 19, it sprouted that little white nub 4 days later on the 23rd. Look at all that growth after a total of 12 days from planting. 🥳

That’s the end of the positives (not counting my platty issue 🤒) now for the downers. My anubias has become the victim of rhizome rot as of march 26 losing its 3 largest leafs. But the good folks at co-op have got my back and a new one is on its way. And as you can see from this recent picture. My plant is not ready to throw in the towel just yet. But I will be attempting to remove it from the wood and transferring it to a rock when the new one gets here so wish it luck on that operation. I also have determined with the helpful input of some fellow forum members that my tank is suffering from some kind of fungus outbreak. Which would explain the platty situation.It’s also latching onto several of the plants and I’m not sure if it’s preventing their growth or not. As you can see my Montecarlo is being smothered  by it. I have ordered a treatment for the tank and got a special tool I can use the get large chunks of the fungus out of the tank hopefully without stirring  it up to much. 
 

Thats pretty much it, new fish are doing well, issues with the ecosystem are going to be taken care of (hopefully), plants are being managed and my first batch of eggs didn’t last long lol. Once I take care of this fungus issue I may look into getting some Java moss and I’m seriously considering getting snails but no matter how much I look into that I have no idea what type of snail to get. Almost everyone says some are good and others not but then the next person says the good ones include some from the bad list and bad ones from the good list. It’s very confusing. Can anyone make a suggestion for a snail that can live in harmony with shrimp? (Shrimp are still my goal to work towards once I get the plants and everything under control) I’m ok with a snail type that breeds but I just don’t want to to over populate. Any suggestion is appreciated. I never thought I’d have so many updates in such a short period of time. Idk if that’s a good or bad thing lol. 
 

[Vexus]

8/12/22

 

WOW it's been some time since I updated this.... I don't even know if anyone is even still interested in this post lol.

So where to begin... a lot of stuff has happened in the past 5 months, not good stuff but that's its own thing. To sum things up, my wife and I moved, things happened and I have just not had any desire to poste due to family health issues and such. It's been a rough time. But this place is for fish talk so let me get to that.

So, the move, it was a sudden decision and so we stayed with my in-laws for a week. Obviously, I couldn't set up a 40-gallon tank in my in-law's home for a week, that would be crazy. So I did the next best thing, went out and bought a 20-gallon tank and a bag of sand then set that up in their living room lol.

As you can tell by the looks on their faces my fish were not happy with the downsize. After pulling out plants and reattaching them to rocks so they would fit in the new tank, I filled a tub of water and put my driftwood in it then left it in storage so the algae wouldn't die, and I wouldn't need to worry about it drying out too much. Another option I went with was floating my water sprite. Up to this point my sprite was showing little to no growth, every time I would plant it into the substrate the base would start to rot, and it would break and float up, so gave floating a try. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of it at the end of the week but trust me when I tell you IT. BLEW. UP. Like seriously after a week half the tank was water sprite and yet all the time before that I'd be lucky to see an inch of growth.

So our "fun" sleepover time with family sadly came to an end after a week. and it was time to set up my tank again. I got my driftwood plants and fish then started putting it all back together. Some plants didn't make it, namely half Anubias, and after sorting through the large mess that was my water sprite I took the best stalks I could find and replanted them into the substrate.

I also added a little cholla wood for the loaches and snails. Overall, I think it looked good when I was done, granted thanks to my large wood (phrasing lol) I couldn't do much as far as changing the layout.

 

It has been a couple months now and since then iv added a couple nerite snails (previously mentioned) and 2 more hillstream loaches. The snails were kind of just a random thing for no real reason but while at my LFS I noticed they had a different subspecies of hillstream and just couldn't help myself. My original 3 are doing well (as far as I can tell, they are good at hiding lol) and from what I can tell based on some research they are Sewellia lineolata loaches while the new ones are Borneo Suckers. 

I just wish I could see all 5 at once lol. 

Another change I made that is more subtle is the addition of calcium into the water. I wanted to be smart about it though, so I went with a technique I saw on YouTube where you add crushed eggshells to the water. After saving up a good number of shells and cleaning them up I threw them in a food processor to get them good and crushed then put them in a filter bag and added it to one of the chambers in my filter. Assuming the information I got online was correct the shells should slowly dissolve in the water spreading the calcium throughout the tank with the water flow. 

After all that my plants are doing well, my grape wood driftwood has finally stopped growing weird fuzz/mold but also developed a nice layer of algae for my loaches and snails to eat, the anubias that survived the move are slowly recovering and regrowing, the water sprite is growing like a weed to the point I need to trim it every week, and my Lotus and Lillys plants are going strong like always.

 

Now it's time to move to the most exciting part of the post and the reason I was reinspired to start posting again. As some may remember (or you can go back a couple posts) some time ago I discovered eggs in my tank that I believed to have been from my corys. Those eggs were eaten/disappeared within a few days of discovering them and would occasionally reappear every now and then just to vanish shortly afterwards. A couple weeks ago was the same situation, I saw some eggs on the filter and they were gone soon after. But today while doing my weekly water check after doing my changeout the day before (I like to wait a day before getting the numbers, so it has time to settle) I noticed something small moving around on a rock. I assumed it was just plant waste that got stuck but then I noticed it was moving around. So I took a closer look and what do I find? A BABY CORY!!!!! I was so excited I ended up choking while breathing and calling out to my wife to come look. She thought I was hurt or something and wasn't amused I was yelling for her at 6 in the morning while she tried to get ready for work lol. I started looking around and was able to find a second one soon after.

You can kind of see it on the rock, that's how it looked when I first noticed it.

The quality is not the best, but you can see both of them in the center next to eachother.

 

 

 

 

These are my first successfully bred fish even though it was purely by chance. I have had mollies breed before but by the time I found out about them the fry were nearly all eaten and the few left didn't last long enough for me to separate them. But these 2 little ones managed to survive all on their own long enough that they shouldn't need to worry about the other fish coming after them anymore. So I'm really happy about that because it means my fish are happy and my plants are sufficient enough to support a community. As for the breed, I only have 2 cory fish, an albino and bronze cory. I don't know which one is the mother but seeing as the albino is the larger of the 2, I think that one may be the female. But again, I'm no expert so who knows.

[Solstice_Lacer]

Looking good, congrats on the babies