The lady in red.

I finally got a batch of the coveted Limnophila aromatica, as well as some Ammania gracilis, the latter being a new acquaintance to me. I filled the left side of the tank with the L. aromatica and the right side with the A. gracilis. Now all I can do is wait and see if they'll get a nice reddish hue, or melt away into oblivion. The A. gracilis looks like it would require a proper trimming to get it going, but I'll give it a few weeks and see how it develops.

Plantman!

While surfing the virtual wave, I came across this very enlightening thread over @ Aquatic Plant Central. Go read it, then we'll talk some more!


This is something I've been already doing, but I think I'll step it up a notch. I've been planting the cut tops back to get more plant mass to the tank, but I think I need to prune the plants even more. It's a bit of a balancing act between getting a tank that looks like it's growing now, and having a tank which looks a bit bare but has lots of new growth that will flourish in the future. Ceratophyllum demersum & Heteranthera zosterifolia, meet Mr. Scissors!

Only the good die young!

I've got some good news, and some bad news. Let's start with the bad ones. There was a casualty in the tank - one of the Gymnocorymbus ternetzi now swims in the heavenly pond. I don't really know the reason for its demise, it had no visible marks of disease or anything, it was just floating around in the tank lifeless. The fish in question was a lot smaller than the rest of the school, so I'm thinking it had some defect from the get-go which lead to this. Label this under "such is life" for now.

The good news is that after tweaking my fertilizer dosing rate, I'm seeing positive results in the plants. I've been puzzled a bit by the lack of plant growth, as well as the appearance of the brownish algae. The light is there, as well as the CO2, so I decided to increase the amount of fertilizer to see if that was the limiting factor. I'm using Easy Life ProFito as my choice of liquid fertilizer. I was dosing 10ml twice a week, now I'm adding 10ml 4 times a week. I'll try to stick with this regimen for a few weeks and see what the long term effects are.

Usually, when plants do poorly and algae thrives, there's a deficiency of some sort which inhibits plant growth and thus leaves the algae to suck up the nutrients. The tank is still rather new, so that is also a factor which I have to keep in mind. What ever the reason is, there was a significant change in plant growth, so maybe this will be a break for better things!

Ain't no sunshine...

A quick word on the small algae problem I'm experiencing. There's some brownish algae growing on the glass panels, mainly on the front and back. I'm almost 100% positive that the biggest reason for this is direct sunlight. The reasoning being that the area infested by the algae stops in a really straight line 1/3 from the top of the tank. The same line continues on the filters too! It seems I have to be more careful with the curtains, as the warm spring sunlight obviously hits the tank at some point of the day.

I'll scrape the visible algae off next time I change the water. That way the fluff wont remain in the tank and mess up the sand.

I also fiddled with the direction of the flow once again. Now the right hand side filter points left, a bit to the back glass and slightly down. The left hand side filter (U4, lower nozzle) points diagonally up and to the right. The CO2 contraption shoots to front and right, and is pointed to the lower part in the middle of the front glass. I'm hoping to get good circulation all over the tank, at least there's plant movement in all areas so there's hope that CO2 and nutrients are spread, if not evenly, at least to all corners of the tank. There's also sufficent surface agitation, so the exchange of gasses should also be in check, but without the fear of losing too much CO2.

Right here, right now!

Ok, so now we have a tank full of water, sand, gear, flora and fauna. Nothing has died, and the plants seem to grow slowly but steadily. The fish have been enjoying their stay for a few weeks now, and have shown no signs of poisoning of any sort. I also installed the Tunze diffuser, and modded it a bit with the small powerhead I had running the CO2 duties before.

I added a bit of Hydrocotyle leucocephala and Hygrophila difformis to the tank, the latter resides in the left corner, and the former sits in the middle and right hand side. I also added a school of 12 Gymnocorymbus ternetzi and another juvenile Crossocheilus siamensis to the mix. The fish quota for the tank is quite full for now, so no new additions are planned. The Botia kubotai have been exploring the tank, but have been a bit shy. Hopefully the addition of a school of fish will encourage them to be even more visible, as they use other fish as an indicator whether it's safe to show their loachy faces around. The Kuhlii loaches really come out only when it's dark, but I'm hoping that they'll gain some courage too. They've set up camp under a drifwood on the right hand side of the tank while the Kubotai favor the left side.

I had to scrape a bit of brownish algae from the front glass, but so far I've been able to keep the dreaded algae infestation at bay. There's a bit of the same stuff on the rear glass, which I'll clean when it's time for the next water change. I've also trimmed the plants a bit here and there, so that I'll get bushier growth to fill the space better.

The Lilaeopsis brasiliensis show small signs of growth, so I'm hoping I might fair better with it this time. I've still haven't been able to source the Blyxa japonica I crave, but I'm certain some will fall into my tank in the near future.

Cyclorama!

A few words about cycling a fishtank, if you may! Like some of you know, when setting up an aquarium, one just can't simply fill it with water and throw the fish in there. This will, in most cases, result in the fish becoming, well, very dead fish. The reason for this is, again in most cases, ammonia. The very basis of a well run aquarium is understanding how the aquarium nitrogen cycle functions. A quick google search came up with this explanation from Fishlore.com, which works as a quick introduction to the subject. Go read it. Really!

For my cycling option, I chose a relatively new and interesting product called the Prodibio BioDigest. A pack of glass ampules containing live bacteria, which help to kickstart the nitrogen cycling. I boosted the effect by using a running filter (the Fluval U4) and some driftwood from another tank which already contain a dose of the same established bacteria.

 I do have a confession to make, I have done absolutely no testing of the water what so ever. I rely on the promise of Prodibio and its customer testimonials from various sources, as well as the maturity of the filter and driftwood. I also rely on the signals given by the fish, as they will react if something is wrong. This might be a cold blooded way of doing things, but I have strong confidence in how things will work out.

So, I filled the tank, and threw in the recommended amount of bacteria. Then I waited. Later that evening, I added a bit of fishfood to feed the ongoing process. The next day, the water had a bit of a sulphurous scent,
obviously due to the nitrification process.The water was a bit cloudy as well, which should be a sign of propagating bacteria. I did a slight water change, and added some more of the Biodigest-stuff.

Next day the tank smell had evened out, so it was time to bring in the fish. The 1st pioneer to go in was my lone Poecilia sphenops, a remainder from the 450-liter tank. I had a swarm of those guys as pioneers with that tank too, so it was in a way fitting to get a bit of a tradition going. He (yeah, he has the equipment to be classified accurately) will be the last of his kind, as the Mollys were breeding like rabbits... After several hours, with the Molly showing no signs of ill effect, I took the plunge and filled in the tank with 4 Pangio kuhlii, a lone Crossocheilus siamensis and 5 of my favorites, the Botia kubotai. Then all I could do was to monitor the progress and hope that the bacteria would work as advertised.

Several days passed, and the behaviour of the fish seemed normal, I was beginning to enjoy a slight feeling of relief, this might work out after all! I would highly recommend testing the water even when utilizing the modern bacteria products, but, alas, I did not follow my own recommendation. Bastard!

Here comes the flood!

Now that all the pieces of the puzzle were laid out to their corresponding places, the only thing left was to add water. I added a plate to even out the flow, so that the sand wont fly all over the place.

I filled the tank almost all the way up, and then emptied it in order to get rid of some of the tiny dust that was floating around. This was my clever way of cheating my way out of having to wash the sand. Then I filled it again, but just enough for the sand to be submersed. Then it was time to plant the Lilaeopsis Brasiliensis.

I also added the Ceratophyllum demersum to the background, as well as the Microsorum pteropus, Heteranthera zosterifolia and a touch of Cryptocoryne wendtii "brown'. Then it was time to fill 'er up!