20 gallon shell-dwellers

[memorywrangler]

This is going to be my Neolamprologus similis setup.

The substrate is reused black diamond sand mixed with a some arogonite sand, with some flecks of fluorescent rainbow aquarium gravel that I could screen out of the black diamond.  We'll see how that goes. 

I filled it today with San Diego tap water.  The murk is, I think, from arogonite.  I thought I had rinsed it sufficiently but maybe not.  Hopefully it'll settle out.

• Fish: 0
• Kh: 8
• Gh: 13
• Ph: 7.4
• Temp: 76
• Nitrates: 0
• Nitrites: 0
• Ammonia: 0
• Deaths: 0

Edited July 19 by memorywrangler

[Whitecloud09]

Can’t wait to see what you’ll put in there! Looking good so far.

[memorywrangler]

The clouds come and go...

The haziness cleared up by the 21st, and the tanked looked very pristine.  I added dozen extra-large escargot shells.

I see a lot of very pretty-looking shell-dweller tanks with shiny shells and nice white sand, but I'd like to have more life in the tank, both because it seems more natural and because more life means more food for the fry.

So, I added a big squirt of the algae-rich mulm and goop that has been growing in my daphnia cultures.  Then I left town for 3 days, returning on the 25th.  I found some nice green specs on the shells and vague haziness in the water.  The algae was even pearling!

Over the next few days, the vague haziness developed into some pretty healthy green water (under my microscope, it looks like chlorella).  You can see visibility deceasing rapidly, especially in the photos taken from the side of the tank.  On a whim I added a scoop of daphnia to the tank.  I'm really curious to see what they will eat all the algae.

Along the way I also added some Coop dwarf sag.  It was not the healthiest looking plant, but I found about 10 sprouts and planted them all.  The main bunch looks dead, but hopefully it'll come back.

 

Parameters

• pH: 8.4
• GH: 15
• KH: 7
• Ammonia: 0
• Nitrates: 0
• Nitrites: 0
• Temp: 80.1
• Deaths:  Probably some daphnia

[memorywrangler]

The daphnia did the trick.  The water is clear of algae and I have a lot more daphnia.  I still don't have any fish, so I've started feed the daphnia powdered food.

Here's the progression

If you look carefully, you can see the black sponge filter suspended off the substrate.  That's due to algae producing so much oxygen than the bubbles make it float.

The dwarf sag is doing ok, but I'm worried it's gonna get coated in algae like everything else in the tank.  I like the look of the shells and the back wall, but I'm not sure how it's going to go from here. 

 Next week, I'm supposed get my mollies back and I'll have them in here until I get the shell dwellers.  I imagine they will knock back the algae some.

Parameters

• pH: 8.4
• GH: 11
• KH: 5
• Ammonia: 0
• Nitrates: 0
• Nitrites: 0
• Temp: 73.5
• Deaths:  Probably some daphnia 

 

[memorywrangler]

I got fish!  I lucked out and found someone locally with similis.  We agreed on 8 juveniles for $80, but he gave me 11 of different sizes.  they are doing very well in quarantine and it's great fun to watch them eat daphnia (and pellet food).

The tank continues to evolve:

The daphnia keep right on multiplying.  I stopped feeding easy green because hair algae was getting out of control, but daphnia keep coming.

The plants are doing well, too, and I added some more shells.

I'm really curious to see what happens when I add the 11 fish to all these daphnia.

 

[memorywrangler]

I swear the daphnia crashed overnight, and I also realized I had missed some changes in their behavior growth.

There are quite a bit fewer of them this morning I think.  It got me thinking back to some other interesting shifts I seen the daphnia:

1. The daphnia had been feeding on the algae growing on the sides of the tank, I had also been feeding them powdered food, and I had been feeding with Easy Green occasionally.
2. Hair algae made it's appearance, which I hate, so I stop easy green.
3. The tank got a bit cloudy for a few days and I noticed that algae stopped appearing on the new growth on the dwarf saggitaria I have in the tank.  The hair algae is gone.
4. Somewhere in there, I added some Salvinia minima, because I thought I'd eventually need something soak up nitrogen when I add the fish.
5. There are now almost no daphnia feeding on the sides of the tank and the numbers are down a lot overall.  All kinds of algae growth has slowed dramatically:  Hair algae is gone and the new shells I added are barely turning green.

This has been a great education in the effects of ferts and plants on algae growth.

So, as an experiment, I've started powdered food again, but I'm not adding easy green.  If I could keep a healthy daphnia population without algae growth, that would be really nice.

I'm kinda tempted to keep playing with the daphnia in here and keep the fish in their 10 gallon.  I would not have thought that the algae and the water fleas would be more interesting than the fish...

 

[memorywrangler]

I need to free up the 10 gallon quarantine tank I had been using for the similis, so I moved them into the tank.

Recent notes:

• The daphnia are still going strong, but I have my doubts about they will hold up against and 11 hungry predators.
• The tank now has many kinds of algae:  diatoms, hair algae, staghorn, blue green, black brush.
• I've also been keeping up a steady diet of root tabs for the dward sag.  It's doing well.  I'm not sure how it's going to hold up to the similis either.
• there's lots of other micro-fauna in there.  Loads of ostercods, some cyclops.  Hopefully that'll help feed the babies, cause I'm going to have trouble spotting them.