#140l project

[ulkoillafish]

The tank today I’m not really feeling the way Aquatan is making it yellow , with some help from alder cones. But I’m dead set using humic stuff. (Although I’m not too sure Aquatan can be seen as such - I’d think humic acids are, you know, acidic. But they claim it’s not altering water parameters so I’m a bit suspicious) Anyway, things could’ve gone wors

[ulkoillafish]

140 L project tank is getting there.

It’s still missing... something? 

[ulkoillafish]

140 L project tank improvement Step 1: teach some manners to Amazonian frogbit (a.k.a ulkoilla made a plant separator)

Amazonian frogbit is a nice plant in many ways. Easy to grow. Easy to thin out. Creates nice shade and shelter to fish, labyrinth fish like it etc etc

On the other hand, the roots can grow long and create a messy look I want to avoid. It blocks light. My other plants aren’t doing good, thanks to it eating all light. This is the tank & tanks surface, the separator just put at use

I was actually surprised how well it hides. In the tank pic below you can see it at left corner, but it really looks more like a vallisneria leaf than the hideous piece of plastic it is.

(At the time of posting, I’ve had this a bit longer than a week. It’s still functioning as it should and such but if/when I have to replace it, I’ll be making an extremely thin separator.

Why?

Because then I could allow a couple runners out of the separator. They’d hide the plastic better.)

I’ve previously attempted to control the growth by controlling where I allowed the runners go. It wasn’t very effective method, so perhaps it would go better if I cut the runners and contained the plant.

A round air pipe separator? Is my tank round? No, I don’t want round. My tank isn’t round. I want to have a thin wall of roots where the fish can hide and feel safe.

The first attempt to shape was steel wire inside air hose. But it sunk.

It could be of interest in shaping and submerging air hose, but it clearly wasn’t a way to go with this task… So I went for the good old drinking straw route and made approximately the same shape using pale green straws.

The joints are not sealed in any way and it’s free floating for now – I’m hoping the filter and bubblers will keep it roughly where I want it.  I hope I won’t have to clip it in on in any way… The tank is placed under a plant rack so fiddling with suction cups or such is bit of an irritation and I’d like to avoid to do so in every WC.

So far so good.

[ulkoillafish]

I scrolled trough old pics and found this - my Project Tank (140 L / 37 gal) before. This was about 6-9 months ago. I was actually quite happy with this layout. I thought that after the plant would grow in, it’d be a nice setting. Then my smaller tank started leaking and I put a lot plants and whatnot in here. The red glow is an unrelated plant light nearby, I don’t know why it shows so strong in every photo.

[ulkoillafish]

Honey gourami fry is small

Drives me crazy that I can’t hack down the surface plants if I even want to give these little dudes and dudettes a change

[ulkoillafish]

A LOT has happened since the last aquarium post.

We had to move. Twice. The first apartment had moisture damage, which was only found after I started to wonder why sewer smell never went away, and found a patch of black mold on a wall.

Hence, I moved the aquarium twice.

It was not but everyone made it. I even found a baby cory, so tiny I hadn’t noticed it at all until I had only sand left. She - I belive it’s a she - made it and is getting so big it’s difficult to tell her apart from others.

The baby cory also has a bunch of younger sisters and brothers. I re-organized some stuff in the tank and it seems like the babies now have better chance to hide until they get big enough not be eaten.

I have a new job. I’m still adjusting to it but now I have some idea on what’s happening in it.

On a sad news, one of my honey gouramis, Kultu, got sick and I had to put her down just yesterday :( I’m hoping some of they fry will make it, as the tank has a nice amount of honey gourami fry hiding amongst the floating plants. The babies are the reason I’ve not cleaned algae from the glass in almost a month (usually I scrape it every other week or so), so I won’t be adding any pics of the tank :,D

[ulkoillafish]

My surprise honey gourami baby has died :,( I have no idea what happened. One day I just realized I hadn’t seen them for a couple of days and couldn't find them anywhere. It’s been such a long time I must admit defeat.

I’m really bummed by this

[ulkoillafish]

We’ve had some temperatures too high for my fish and I had to limit the light to avoid excessive overheating of the tank but everyone is doing good. The “scape” is a mess though, 3 cory babies and then this one, a surprise baby who indeed is a honey gourami have stopped me from doing much decorative stuff.

The cories are now big enough to run with the rest of the gang but I decided I’ll let this one grow a bit before I go in and manage the plants with more vigour