Working on a new tank, desperate for some help/feedback!

[sapphireminds]

I'm upgrading/condensing my aquariums - I live somewhere that has incredibly soft water, so I use aragonite as a substrate to harden the water a bit and help with pH stability.

I also have a school of corys that I would like to make happy with a nice comfy substrate. black diamond blasting sand over black aragonite or stratum over some aragonite?

I'm also interested in trying to maybe make at least a smallish algae scrubber for my nitrates, to decrease the amount of water changes needed, as I live in a drought-prone area and feel guilty about water changes, even though I do try to recycle some of the water into my plants. Is this crazy for a non-expert?

Filtration is going to be by canister with supplemental sponge.

I have 2 electric blue acaras, a school of smudge spot corys (7), and a variable number of guppies. I would also love to try and figure out a way to make it possible to keep some shrimp in there too, instead of having a separate shrimp tank. If I can't make that happen, I might try and make a nano tank for shrimp.

Planting is going to need to be limited as my EBAs are diggy little friends :D I've been able to grow subwassertang (which I love) with them though, by kinda keeping it cornered with a piece of driftwood (which is what I was thinking for shrimp - basically giving them an area where they could live where the acaras can't get them, but I don't trust the shrimp to be smart enough to stay in that area LOL)

I would love to have salvinia cuculata and maybe red root floaters on top, I'm going to try desperately to make it a duckweed-free tank.

Any input, thoughts or criticisms welcome.

[Tony s]

I’m not sure you can keep either guppies or shrimp with the acara. Guppies are borderline. Shrimp are expensive fish food. Your acara are going to be 5” long when grown. If you’ve had them in with the guppies, probably okay for adults. But will eat the fry.
 

have you ever tried floating some hornwort in your tank. It may grow faster than they can eat it. And it’s very good at destroying nitrates. And the guppy fry will absolutely love it.

[Gannon]

On 2/14/2024 at 9:04 PM, Tony s said:

I’m not sure you can keep either guppies or shrimp with the acara. Guppies are borderline. Shrimp are expensive fish food. Your acara are going to be 5” long when grown. If you’ve had them in with the guppies, probably okay for adults. But will eat the fry.
 

have you ever tried floating some hornwort in your tank. It may grow faster than they can eat it. And it’s very good at destroying nitrates. And the guppy fry will absolutely love it.

They can get super big! Here is my wonderful guy next to his big archer friends

[sapphireminds]

Guppies already live with the acaras and the acaras are full grown and sassy  LOL  There was some loss of guppies at the beginning, but now they don't bother them.  I'm totally ok with them eating the fry! https://imgur.com/gallery/SBpzng1  

I was afraid of that for the shrimp.  Is there a way to box off a section to contain them maybe?  

I have done hornwort in my other tanks, but I love the look of cuculatta!!  It grows fairly quickly (though not as fast as the duckweed, sadly) I'll likely have a little hornwort in the tank to eat as much nitrate as possible.  They don't seem to eat the plants at all, just like to dig dig dig so everything I'm going to doin the tank is going to need to be able to be anchored onto something else so it is moveable.  

Mulder and Scully are about 6 inches, a little over 2 years old now! It's amazing to see how big they got, especially considering I got them when they were just wee little things. 

[Tony s]

You might be able to put a divider in. But that would decrease the area for the acara. I would try the salvinia. It looks very cool, and is supposed to eliminate nutrients very well. At the most, it’ll be a snack. But they may just ignore it. 

And your male is just stunning 

[Gannon]

On 2/14/2024 at 9:24 PM, Tony s said:

You might be able to put a divider in. But that would decrease the area for the acara. I would try the salvinia. It looks very cool, and is supposed to eliminate nutrients very well. At the most, it’ll be a snack. But they may just ignore it. 

And your male is just stunning 

Salvinia is the best floater from my perspective at soaking up nutrients. Almost as good as duckweed, but without the sisyphean task of removing duckweed. Salvinia is easy to round up and take out. 

[sapphireminds]

On 2/14/2024 at 7:24 PM, Tony s said:

You might be able to put a divider in. But that would decrease the area for the acara. I would try the salvinia. It looks very cool, and is supposed to eliminate nutrients very well. At the most, it’ll be a snack. But they may just ignore it. 

And your male is just stunning 

Thank you, he knows it too!  Scully is nothing to sneeze at either  😉  https://imgur.com/gallery/xEf2pin is when they were babies/toddlers  

They really don't eat plants at all, just like to dig things up.  I spoil them with their food and treats.  There's some mollies in the tank that I'm actually going to be getting rid of because I really got them as fry to be feeders and dumbbutts didn't eat them!

I had salvinia before, but when I broke my ankle and couldn't do a lot of tank maintenance, they got smothered by the duckweed unfortunately.   

Maybe I'll just do a little nano for the shrimps or give up on my shrimpy dreams.  I do love the little things, but I'm trying to decrease my water and electricity usage.  Power bill is getting crazy with three tanks

Thoughts on stratum vs sand for corys?  Any experience with algae scrubbers? 

[Tony s]

On 2/14/2024 at 10:30 PM, Gannon said:

Salvinia is the best floater

Haven’t actually tried it yet. But have hornwort in half my tanks. It grows incredibly fast and needs pruning often. Just rip pieces off and chuck into another tank.

[Gannon]

On 2/14/2024 at 9:35 PM, sapphireminds said:

Thank you, he knows it too!  Scully is nothing to sneeze at either  😉  https://imgur.com/gallery/xEf2pin is when they were babies/toddlers  

They really don't eat plants at all, just like to dig things up.  I spoil them with their food and treats.  There's some mollies in the tank that I'm actually going to be getting rid of because I really got them as fry to be feeders and dumbbutts didn't eat them!

I had salvinia before, but when I broke my ankle and couldn't do a lot of tank maintenance, they got smothered by the duckweed unfortunately.   

Maybe I'll just do a little nano for the shrimps or give up on my shrimpy dreams.  I do love the little things, but I'm trying to decrease my water and electricity usage.  Power bill is getting crazy with three tanks

Thoughts on stratum vs sand for corys?  Any experience with algae scrubbers? 

Ive done fluval stratum. Not a problem for cories, but its a very light substrate thats great for planst especially in the first year, but its very light so sometimes its hard to get plants rooted at first and vacuuming it can result in removal. 

On 2/14/2024 at 9:37 PM, Tony s said:

Haven’t actually tried it yet. But have hornwort in half my tanks. It grows incredibly fast and needs pruning often. Just rip pieces off and chuck into another tank.

Love hornwort! Its been so long I need to have it again. 

[Tony s]

On 2/14/2024 at 10:35 PM, sapphireminds said:

Thoughts on stratum vs sand for corys

My Cory’s are are on a medium round gravel. Haven’t tried either of these yet.

[sapphireminds]

On 2/14/2024 at 7:38 PM, Gannon said:

Ive done fluval stratum. Not a problem for cories, but its a very light substrate thats great for planst especially in the first year, but its very light so sometimes its hard to get plants rooted at first and vacuuming it can result in removal. 

Love hornwort! Its been so long I need to have it again. 

One of my tanks has stratum right now.  I'm not planning to root many plants, because of the diggingest dogs, but rather have them on rocks/driftwood that they can move around with.  Everything that needed rooted in the current tank has died because some fish dug them up.  

On 2/14/2024 at 7:39 PM, Tony s said:

My Cory’s are are on a medium round gravel. Haven’t tried either of these yet.

I've been told to not do gravel with corys, and I feel like my current sand is even too rough for them.  Maybe I'm projecting too much LOL  

[Gannon]

On 2/14/2024 at 9:50 PM, sapphireminds said:

One of my tanks has stratum right now.  I'm not planning to root many plants, because of the diggingest dogs, but rather have them on rocks/driftwood that they can move around with.  Everything that needed rooted in the current tank has died because some fish dug them up.  

I've been told to not do gravel with corys, and I feel like my current sand is even too rough for them.  Maybe I'm projecting too much LOL  

I've done all kinds of sand and gravel with cories, its all going to work. As long as the gravel isn't very apparently sharp and harmful. However, I prefer sand because the digging behaviors from cories is a big part of the fun. 

[sapphireminds]

On 2/14/2024 at 7:53 PM, Gannon said:

I've done all kinds of sand and gravel with cories, its all going to work. As long as the gravel isn't very apparently sharp and harmful. However, I prefer sand because the digging behaviors from cories is a big part of the fun. 

Yeah, and obviously M&S love to dig too.  I was leaning towards the sand anyway, this helps cement it!

[Tony s]

Yeah, my gravel is nice and round. Think small pea gravel. Haven’t tried sand yet. Still learning. No digging, but they’re doing good. Have a couple of tanks to change to sand, just haven’t done it yet 

 

[Galabar]

I use Eco-complete with aragonite sand and the sand slips through the eco-complete, leaving a black layer on top with no visible aragonite.  So, that is a positive.  It doesn't seem to stop the aragonite from increasing KH though.

[sapphireminds]

On 2/15/2024 at 12:45 AM, Galabar said:

I use Eco-complete with aragonite sand and the sand slips through the eco-complete, leaving a black layer on top with no visible aragonite.  So, that is a positive.  It doesn't seem to stop the aragonite from increasing KH though.

Do you have corys?  

I want the aragonite to increase my kH. My tap water is nigh RO

[Galabar]

On 2/15/2024 at 7:46 PM, sapphireminds said:

Do you have corys?  

I want the aragonite to increase my kH. My tap water is nigh RO

I don't.  I just use the aragonite to harden my very soft water.