Nano Tank Journal - 20 long

[Sherry]

After a 20 year hiatus, I got interested in the aquarium hobby when my granddaughters, Faith and Elaina, wanted to get a betta. I wanted to help them do the best for their fish, Shrek, so bought them a five gallon tank and bought myself a 10 gallon tank to play around with.

The betta is fine, but I had some disasters in my 10 gallon…

I now have eight green neon tetras and five Pygmy Corydoras catfish.

[Sherry]

I wanted to move up from my kit aquarium (with very weak lights).

I bought one of the 50% off tanks from Petco, bought the glass lid, and ordered a 24 inch Aquarium Co op light.

I decided on an island design so I can hopefully see my wee fish swimming around. I have been buying aquatic plants from ACO, and I have collected three pieces of dragon stone from fish stores when I get to one, but that stuff is expensive.

Elaina and I went to Brainerd, MN, for an appointment (about a 50 mile drive for us). It’s the closest place with a Home Depot or big pet store. I was hoping they would have individual rocks for sale, but they only had rocks in bags. I got lava rock and beach pebbles, and started setting things up the next day. I had previously ordered gravel, sand and crushed coral online.

[Sherry]

The island has two tiers - the front has about 1/4 inch of organic soil topped with gravel. I moved dwarf Sagittaria from the 10 gallon for the front.

Then I used the biggest river rocks and some lava rock for the second tier. I filled up that level with gravel and soil mixed (not on purpose) 🤦🏽‍♀️, topped with gravel. I planted some Pogostemon Stellatus 'Octopus' and Scarlet Temple in the back. The pogo is new and still transitioning, but the Scarlet Temple has been struggling in my low light tank, so I hope they make it.

The anubias came from my low light tank, too. The windelov Java fern is new.

I used a thin layer of washed white sand mixed with crushed coral around the island. I used a seasoned sponge filter but the water got cloudy so I added a small hang on back filter to polish the water. My water tested with some ammonia, then nitrites, so it was probably a bacteria bloom.

I put in the dragon stone and driftwood — the driftwood had dried out and wanted to float - hence the attractive rubber bands! 😩

Edited July 17, 2023 by Sherry

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

It is looking very nice! Love it @Sherry

[Miranda Marie]

I love it so far! It'll look amazing once the plants grow in.

[Sherry]

I think I have the driftwood from h—-!

I bought it from Petco - boiled it as instructed and put it in my 10 gallon. It developed hair algae so I treated it with hydrogen peroxide. Didn’t seem to help, so I took it out and let it totally dry out — for MONTHS!

I just recently put it in my new tank and what do I see? Hair algae!! Apparently my new light is awesome because the algae started pearling!

I turned the light down, and tried to pluck the algae off the wood, finally took it out, scrubbed with a toothbrush, dosed with hydrogen peroxide, put it back in.

I’m tempted to take it out period, but I wanted to get some Otocinclus next month, and I thought they would enjoy the wood. Any suggestions?

[Sherry]

Update: I got the minimum order of Otocinclus (6) and two magenta Mystery Snails. The Otocinclus are almost out of quarantine and doing good. I purposely let algae go crazy in my quarantine tank and that seems to have been a good move because they went crazy. Then I worried that my tank wouldn’t be able to keep up with their appetites. I have been feeding algae wafers and some Repashy… I have yet to see them eating that. But they do eat off the sponge filter, so I smeared some softened food on it.

I put the snails in the 20 g after a week in quarantine. The last snails I had died because of my mismanagement, so I was always searching for them to make sure they were still alive! 🤦🏽‍♀️

They are doing much better.

[Sherry]

So… in anticipation of the Otocinclus, I was letting the algae go in my 20 g tank. Lo and behold, what I thought was algae turned out to be Cyanobacteria! I tried manual removal, and added a HOB filter to get rid of any “dead” water zones, but finally used Maracyn.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Oh my!   Keep an eye on your ammonia and nitrite. Maracyn can sometimes kill off beneficial bacteria on the filter.

Sorry I missed your last post about the driftwood algae. Glad you got it sorted.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 9/2/2023 at 8:08 AM, Sherry said:

and some Repashy

Your snails should enjoy the Repashy! You can mix calcium carbonate into it (see Snello 2 in my signature)

[Sherry]

Well, today was the end of quarantine for my Otocinclus. The first two got moved just fine. Three and four got their barbels stuck in the net. 🤦🏽‍♀️

I finally cut my net up, using tweezers to grab the threads and gentle trim them until the thread was able to unravel. I thought the fourth one was going to die… it was getting so tired it didn’t have much wiggle left. Lesson learned - get a net with a weave so small that the barbels can’t go through the holes.

Finally I got the last two moved and all appears to be well.

[TheSwissAquarist]

On 9/4/2023 at 4:50 AM, Sherry said:

Well, today was the end of quarantine for my Otocinclus. The first two got moved just fine. Three and four got their barbels stuck in the net. 🤦🏽‍♀️

I finally cut my net up, using tweezers to grab the threads and gentle trim them until the thread was able to unravel. I thought the fourth one was going to die… it was getting so tired it didn’t have much wiggle left. Lesson learned - get a net with a weave so small that the barbels can’t go through the holes.

Finally I got the last two moved and all appears to be well.

I used to use a plastic cup (you know the ones that tissue cultures come in?). 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 9/3/2023 at 10:50 PM, Sherry said:

Well, today was the end of quarantine for my Otocinclus. The first two got moved just fine. Three and four got their barbels stuck in the net. 🤦🏽‍♀️

I finally cut my net up, using tweezers to grab the threads and gentle trim them until the thread was able to unravel. I thought the fourth one was going to die… it was getting so tired it didn’t have much wiggle left. Lesson learned - get a net with a weave so small that the barbels can’t go through the holes.

Finally I got the last two moved and all appears to be well.

Oh man, I had that happen before, I believe with my Columbian shark or a pleco. It was a long time ago. I think I cut the net and just left a little piece of net attached to the fish and eventually it came off.

Edited September 4, 2023 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[Sherry]

On 9/4/2023 at 12:40 AM, TheSwissAquarist said:

I used to use a plastic cup (you know the ones that tissue cultures come in?).

That’s a good idea. They didn’t move as fast as other fish when I was trying to catch them.

On 9/4/2023 at 4:59 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

I think I cut the net and just left a little piece of net attached to the fish and eventually it came off.

It didn’t occur to me to leave it on them. I suppose they might have been able to eat since their mouths are a little way from the barbels.

[Sherry]

I assume this is normal behavior. Did I luck out with a male and female, or is this just horsing around?

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 9/4/2023 at 12:26 PM, Sherry said:

I assume this is normal behavior. Did I luck out with a male and female, or is this just horsing around?

That’s a pair 🙂 ❤️

Drop the waterline 1 inch, she will want to go up and lay eggs periodically. Unwanted eggs can be frozen to prevent development and then crushed once frozen (most humane way). If you don’t drop the waterline you should check the bottom of your lid every few days.

@Guppysnail said males will mount males too, so.. that could be a possibility too. LOL!

Edited September 4, 2023 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[Sherry]

On 9/4/2023 at 11:27 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Drop the waterline 1 inch, she will want to go up and lay eggs periodically

When I change water tomorrow I will leave the waterline lower… then time will tell.

@Chick-In-Of-TheSea thank you for spelling out the most humane way to dispose of unwanted clutches. I want some babies but I don’t want to be overwhelmed.

[GoofyGarra]

On 9/4/2023 at 12:27 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

@Guppysnail said males will mount males too, so.. that could be a possibility too. LOL!

i have had this happen with my snails.

Edited September 4, 2023 by GoofyGarra

[Sherry]

Can you tell my snail’s sex from these photos?

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 9/5/2023 at 9:19 PM, Sherry said:

Can you tell my snail’s sex from these photos?

I’m not good at it. Let’s ask @Cinnebuns

[Cinnebuns]

On 9/5/2023 at 8:19 PM, Sherry said:

Can you tell my snail’s sex from these photos?

Can't from these pics. It's more behind the head than that. It's hard to get it from a pic on the glass but it is possible. A better angle is if you hold them upside down and encourage them to come completely out but that can be really hard to get a pic while doing that. 

[nabokovfan87]

Late to the party, but I wanted to say welcome back to the hobby. You did awesome with the island style setup and I'm excited to see things progress!

How did the dwarf sag do for you? How are the plants doing?

Edited September 6, 2023 by nabokovfan87

[Sherry]

On 9/6/2023 at 12:33 AM, Cinnebuns said:

Can't from these pics. It's more behind the head than that. It's hard to get it from a pic on the glass but it is possible. A better angle is if you hold them upside down and encourage them to come completely out but that can be really hard to get a pic while doing that. 

I lowered the water line by an inch and the one I think is a girl climbed up above the water - one time completely out. I have the black rim type tank and a lid. 

[Sherry]

On 9/6/2023 at 4:28 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

How did the dwarf sag do for you? How are the plants doing?

I have bought several different plants, and have not always had success.

My 10 gallon is a kit from Walmart. I have had good luck with anubias. The dwarf Sagittaria is growing. One bunch grew clear to the top, while others grew short and spindly… same pot!

I bought Monte Carlo which just wanted to die, and Scarlet Temple hung in for awhile but never prospered. I thought it was my kit light, but even after I bought a better light it just kept struggling.

Now I have the dwarf sag, anubias, windelov Java fern,  Pogostemon Stellatus Octopus, and Java moss. All are recovering from an attack of smothering Cyanobacteria.

My piece of driftwood was always breaking out with different algae even after boiling per instructions (got it from a big box store), scrubbing, spraying with hydrogen peroxide, drying out for several weeks, and scrubbing again. It just wasn’t worth the trouble. I rearranged the tank without it yesterday.

[Sherry]

I have six Otocinclus and they are starting to work on the anubias leaves.