Semi-budget 40g Breeder Aquascape Journal

[TheSwissAquarist]

On 10/23/2022 at 9:33 PM, Schuyler said:

sunset honey gourami

Gouramis are relatively hardy, especially those.

[Schuyler]

On 10/23/2022 at 10:36 PM, TheSwissAquarist said:

Gouramis are relatively hardy, especially those.

That's good to hear! My criteria is basically:

- Won't eat the shrimp and compatible with guppies 

- Hardy 

- Not super shy 

- Won't destroy the plants 

- Bonus points of they are "easy to breed"

[TheSwissAquarist]

On 10/24/2022 at 4:04 PM, Schuyler said:

That's good to hear! My criteria is basically:

- Won't eat the shrimp and compatible with guppies 

- Hardy 

- Not super shy 

- Won't destroy the plants 

- Bonus points of they are "easy to breed"

So basically all the good stuff none of the bad!🙃

[Schuyler]

 

On 10/24/2022 at 7:13 AM, TheSwissAquarist said:

So basically all the good stuff none of the bad!🙃

Maybe it's a bit more aspirational than what the process will actually look like which is me walking around with the kids, then pointing at a fish, me saying it's too big/aggressive/etc, and then repeat the process until we agree on something. Plus the LFS employee vetoing anything I don't know about.

[TheSwissAquarist]

On 10/24/2022 at 5:14 PM, Schuyler said:

 

Maybe it's a bit more aspirational than what the process will actually look like which is me walking around with the kids, then pointing at a fish, me saying it's too big/aggressive/etc, and then repeat the process until we agree on something. Plus the LFS employee vetoing anything I don't know about.

Currently working out my future fish room. Also can’t stand it when the LFS employees know nothing and get a bit in-your-face.

[Schuyler]

On 10/24/2022 at 8:17 AM, TheSwissAquarist said:

Currently working out my future fish room. Also can’t stand it when the LFS employees know nothing and get a bit in-your-face.

How do you afford that many tanks as a highschool student?

My LFS employees are pretty good. Plus it's right next to my work so I drop in a lot and they recognize me. Then again I've only been doing this about three months so maybe they just seem like they know what they're talking about.

[TheSwissAquarist]

On 10/24/2022 at 5:29 PM, Schuyler said:

How do you afford that many tanks as a highschool student?

Kids grow up 🙃! Nothing disallows hope.

On 10/24/2022 at 5:29 PM, Schuyler said:

Plus it's right next to my work

Lucky!

[Schuyler]

LFS days there are still trace amounts of ammonia and nitrites but it's looking like the tank is in final stages of cycling.

I may pick up my first fish as early as Thursday. More likely it will be this weekend.

The Eggersi Killifish is gone which makes that decision easy. Going with a honey gourami trio as the centerpiece. I'm also planning on some Julii corys.

Thursday I'll let my kids decide what they want to get (within reason). They are the main reason this all started.

Between those and the fish I have already it should be a while before I have to make any other decisions. Planning on spacing things out at least a week between new additions to allow the tank to get established (I've heard that's better than all at once and it sounds reasonable to me).

In related news, my aquarium club card arrived so I'll be able to get 10% off at my LFS (and I can go to club meetings and stuff).

Added some baking soda to the tank but forgot rule #1 of aquariums: do everything gradually. Total alkalinity spiked off the test strip's scale. Did roughly a 50% water change and now things look much better (pH and GH look like they are in good ranges). I'll probably not do that again. Just going to use crushed coral in the media bin gradually from now on.

[Schuyler]

Someone in a local aquarium group gave me and pogostemon octopus cuttings for free. I've added them to the tank.

Tomorrow I plan on tearing down my smaller 14 gallon and move the remainder of my plants and my four little guppies.

I'm also pulling the bio balls and sand from that tank to add to my big tank in hopes that it will boost my nitrifying bacteria.

[TheSwissAquarist]

On 10/29/2022 at 6:52 AM, Schuyler said:

I'm also pulling the bio balls and sand from that tank to add to my big tank in hopes that it will boost my nitrifying bacteria.

Good work! I think it may take some time for it to finish cycling, but you’re speeding up the process by doing that.

[Schuyler]

Broke down my medium sized aquarium today and moved some sand, bio media, plants, and four guppies in.

I also moved my shrimp to my small 2.5 grow out tank. Turns out I had a bunch of tiny shrimplets in my tank without me knowing. I almost threw the water out but my son yelled "Baby shrimp!" He's always the first to spot babies in the tank.

I also moved another coconut hut but I don't think I'll keep it there long term. Maybe I'll see if I can sell it.

I still want to add some scarlet temple and aquarium lily at the very least. Other than that I think it's just a matter of letting things grow out and see how they handle the transplanting.

[Schuyler]

Guppies are in the tank and they all seem happy. My only concern is the male keeps darting up and down the glass in areas with higher flow. Online I see that's a sign of stress but parameters in the tank seem fine, no ammonia or nitrites and nitrates are actually probably a bit low for my plants.

I'm hoping it's just stress of a new tank. The females only do this when begging for food. Otherwise they happily swim around in the plants. Basically each guppy has 10 gallons all to themself.

So far plants aren't showing signs of melting and nothing has come loose from the bottom.

I added a sponge filter to try and colonize it for a beginner tank I'm building for a friend.

This week I think I'll either add the gorami or a schooling fish. I'm waiting on a bottom feeder until the plants get more established.

Including a bonus shot of a happy little shrimplet. Whenever my fish have babies it makes me so excited.

[TheSwissAquarist]

Looking good and bravo on managing to find that shrimplet!

[Schuyler]

While looking at my shrimp tank today I noticed a wide variety of tiny creatures. Turns out I have a thriving culture of tiny invertebrates living in there along side my shrimp.

Which is a good thing because this weekend I'll be picking up 10 pygmy cory fry who hopefully will benefit from having a supply of tiny prey as they grow big enough to go into the big tank 

I've also put some blanched veggies in a jar with water from the that aquarium to hopefully raise more critters for feeding fry. I know she stuff got picked up because I can see it swimming around.

I would add pictures by they're all so small my phone doesn't know what to focus on so here's a picture of my shrimp feeding

[Schuyler]

Lots of new growth for my plants to the point that nitrates are actually going down. The val sent out a runner already and it's taking off. Lots of new Anubias leaves and even some growth on my buce.

I added an air stone to the infusoria and other micro fauna jar and it seems to be really getting cloudy which I guess is a good sign.

My tiny shrimplets finally came out for a family photo with the kale I gave them.

[TheSwissAquarist]

On 11/4/2022 at 6:53 AM, Schuyler said:

Lots of new growth for my plants to the point that nitrates are actually going down. The val sent out a runner already and it's taking off. Lots of new Anubias leaves and even some growth on my buce.

I added an air stone to the infusoria and other micro fauna jar and it seems to be really getting cloudy which I guess is a good sign.

My tiny shrimplets finally came out for a family photo with the kale I gave them.

How long did it take you to scape the tank (with plants & all)?

It's looking amazing!

[Schuyler]

On 11/3/2022 at 10:58 PM, TheSwissAquarist said:

How long did it take you to scape the tank (with plants & all)?

It's looking amazing!

Thanks!

It's hard to say really because I kinda set it up in the little gaps of time I had.

I was collecting rocks and sticks for about two months. Mainly because I had to wait for our new floors to get put in but also because I had just killed a bunch of fish and I wanted to try and get things figured out before jumping into getting a bigger tank.

The actual setup was over three or four days. That probably took about 6-8 hours? If I hadn't already settled on a rock layout it would have taken much longer.

I wish I had left out the big rock in the back left. I doubt it will ever be seen once everything grows in and it take up space that there could be plants.

 

[TheSwissAquarist]

On 11/4/2022 at 4:01 PM, Schuyler said:

I wish I had left out the big rock in the back left. I doubt it will ever be seen once everything grows in and it take up space that there could be plants.

It's never too late!

[Schuyler]

I went to the LFS today with the kids to pick out some fish and they had another Eggersi Killifish pair. After reading the thread @Fish Folkmade about Killifish I decided to give it a go. 

 

So far I love it. As soon as I put the pair in the female went to the opposite side of the tank and hid from the male. The guppies seemed fascinated by the male and followed him around for at least half an hour. My wife pointed out that this was the first fish they had seen besides each other (we separated them to a smaller tank to keep them from being eaten and then things went wrong and all the adults died).

It seems like he loves the tank and actually interacts with things rather than just swimming in the open space like the guppies. What made me really excited was that I found him hanging out in the coconut hut.

I'm hoping to find some more females so he doesn't just constantly harass the one. At least now she has more places she can hide.

I also did a small ~10 water change because it was looking a bit low. After that I added 2ml of Seachem flourish for the plants because nitrates were pretty low.

[itsfoxtail]

On 11/4/2022 at 10:01 AM, Schuyler said:

Thanks!

It's hard to say really because I kinda set it up in the little gaps of time I had.

I was collecting rocks and sticks for about two months. Mainly because I had to wait for our new floors to get put in but also because I had just killed a bunch of fish and I wanted to try and get things figured out before jumping into getting a bigger tank.

The actual setup was over three or four days. That probably took about 6-8 hours? If I hadn't already settled on a rock layout it would have taken much longer.

I wish I had left out the big rock in the back left. I doubt it will ever be seen once everything grows in and it take up space that there could be plants.

 

Wow! I am absolutely blown away by this scape! It's quite literally one of my favorite that I've ever seen. Did you gather the rocks and sticks over time from stores or did you get them from outside/backyard etc.? The plants are all growing in so well and that clump of moss in the middle is to die for!

The killifish also look so cool! Are you planning on buckling down for the daunting task of collecting eggs or are you just going to enjoy how beautiful they are?

[Schuyler]

On 11/4/2022 at 10:42 PM, itsfoxtail said:

Wow! I am absolutely blown away by this scape! It's quite literally one of my favorite that I've ever seen. Did you gather the rocks and sticks over time from stores or did you get them from outside/backyard etc.? The plants are all growing in so well and that clump of moss in the middle is to die for!

The killifish also look so cool! Are you planning on buckling down for the daunting task of collecting eggs or are you just going to enjoy how beautiful they are?

Thanks! I took a lot of inspiration from an aquascaping contest page. One of the aquascapes that had this street of roots growing over rock was from Malaysia I think and under the hardscape material section it just said "roots collected from local area".

All of the hardscape is stuff my kids and I collected outside. The sticks from a river near our house and the beach near Grandma's house. Some of the smaller roots are actually from a dried up huckleberry bush. The rocks are landscaping rocks from our back yard. I broke up with a pickaxe or by throwing it at another rock. Pretty sure it's basalt with quartz veins.

That clump of moss in the middle is actually the coconut hut. That was the dry start half of the experiment. It's Christmas moss on the shell of a coconut we bought at the store. Here's a comparison between it and the super glue method that way glued on and then put in the tank right after things dried 

I'm going to give egg collecting a try but I'm also happy to just watch them swim around and look cool if that doesn't work out.

[TheSwissAquarist]

On 11/5/2022 at 7:37 AM, Schuyler said:

Thanks! I took a lot of inspiration from an aquascaping contest page. One of the aquascapes that had this street of roots growing over rock was from Malaysia I think and under the hardscape material section it just said "roots collected from local area".

All of the hardscape is stuff my kids and I collected outside. The sticks from a river near our house and the beach near Grandma's house. Some of the smaller roots are actually from a dried up huckleberry bush. The rocks are landscaping rocks from our back yard. I broke up with a pickaxe or by throwing it at another rock. Pretty sure it's basalt with quartz veins.

That clump of moss in the middle is actually the coconut hut. That was the dry start half of the experiment. It's Christmas moss on the shell of a coconut we bought at the store. Here's a comparison between it and the super glue method that way glued on and then put in the tank right after things dried 

I'm going to give egg collecting a try but I'm also happy to just watch them swim around and look cool if that doesn't work out.

What light are you using??? 

Your plants seem to be doing fantastic!

[Schuyler]

On 11/5/2022 at 12:46 AM, TheSwissAquarist said:

What light are you using??? 

Your plants seem to be doing fantastic!

It's actually just a cheap-ish Hygger light running at 70%

[TheSwissAquarist]

On 11/5/2022 at 7:37 AM, Schuyler said:

I'm going to give egg collecting a try but I'm also happy to just watch them swim around and look cool if that doesn't work out.

I take it you're going to try @Fish Folk s peat-in-a-jar idea?

[Schuyler]

On 11/5/2022 at 7:49 AM, TheSwissAquarist said:

I take it you're going to try @Fish Folk s peat-in-a-jar idea?

Pretty much. I got coconut coir because I could only find the moss in big gardening size packs.

Watching them they seemed to like spawning in the coconut hut so my plan was to use a flat mason jar to put the coconut coir in and then put the hut in top but it didn't turn out quite how I envisioned it... I think I'll be looking for other jars or maybe just scattering a few containers and seeing what they like (for all I know they mate in the coconut hut because he can corner her there)

Crucially, we named the fish. The males name is Fin because he has one transparent pectoral fin. Her name is Cindy because the kids wanted to make her Cinderella.