antwan Posted December 17, 2009 Report Share Posted December 17, 2009 Righto, the wheels are finally in motion and my new tank is coming along nicely! My mother and stepdad drove down to Christchurch a few days ago and brought my old tank, light, filters, etc. so these last couple of days I have had the pleasure of setting it up. I bought some dalton's aquatic mix from bunnings and got the substrate from Jolliolli so hopefully the plants will love me for it. The thing I was lacking the most though was a nice piece of driftwood and to be honest I didn't feel like forking out $40 for an average piece from a pet shop, so I did a quick search on here and came across a post by Hazara saying Waikuku beach was a nice place to get good driftwood from, so I set out there today and as soon as I walked onto the beach (very nice beach by the way, reminded me of home..) I found the perfect piece! Stats: Dimensions: 600x500hx450mm ~135L Lighting: 150W 6500k halide Filtration: sponge filter at the moment, I have a canister that I may rig up if I can find room for it Heater: 150W CO2: DIY Me: happy Anywho, here are a few photo's of me setting things up.. My stepdad whipped me up this support for the halide, it's very sturdy and has room for the ballast too Aquatic mix Filling Where I'm at now Basically what I'm wanting to do with this is have a carpet of hairgrass at the front right hand side around that lone rock, a dense area of small crypts on the front left. Some java fern around the base of the wood, with xmas/java moss around a few of the branches, and finally some barclaya/aponogeton's/stem plants at the back. I also must get a piece of black paper or plastic for the back as it looks yuck at the mo. As for fish I'm not 100% yet, but definitely a trio of some sort of apisto (either really nice cockatoo's or something rarer (pm me if you have these ), otto's, bristlenoses, cories, and some sort of small schooling fish (maybe even guppies....maybe). Right, that's enough for now, pics will come as things happen. Comments/criticisms welcome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenix44 Posted December 17, 2009 Report Share Posted December 17, 2009 holy moly. i need to redo my ugly tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
si_sphinx Posted December 17, 2009 Report Share Posted December 17, 2009 I can already see this tank has a lot of potential cant wait to see the plants in there and the monthly pics. Moss looks awesome on branches like that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenix44 Posted December 17, 2009 Report Share Posted December 17, 2009 infact antwan, if you pay for postage im happy to send you some "moss" for those branches, as long as you pass it on when you grow it and keep updating the thread. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
N1CK Posted December 17, 2009 Report Share Posted December 17, 2009 well if you filled it up slower it wouldn't of been cloudy other than that its pretty neat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
livingart Posted December 17, 2009 Report Share Posted December 17, 2009 nice one antwan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doddle69 Posted December 17, 2009 Report Share Posted December 17, 2009 cant wait for the pics with plants. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted December 17, 2009 Report Share Posted December 17, 2009 Good work so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jennifer Posted December 18, 2009 Report Share Posted December 18, 2009 Excellent! That wood is great and will look brilliant with the moss. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
antwan Posted December 19, 2009 Author Report Share Posted December 19, 2009 Thanks all. Small update: Got a few plants off Jenniferh the other day so planted them up and got a few Blue Cochu tetra's to help with the cycle. I plan to have ~9 of these all up and I think they will be a nice contrast against the plants. I've got a few more plants coming this week and I can't wait to get my hands wet again. The fish seem very happy and have had a nice feed of insects that have landed on the water's surface over the last couple of days. I haven't had much luck in finding apisto's but there are a few A. trifasciata at Redwoods I could be tempted to buy later on down the track. Anyway, enough yabbering on Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
N1CK Posted December 20, 2009 Report Share Posted December 20, 2009 loving the hardscape :bounce: , although if you want the hairgrasss to spread faster plant it in bunches of 3/4 stems Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobo Posted December 20, 2009 Report Share Posted December 20, 2009 Looks awesome mate Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AquaVitamins Posted December 21, 2009 Report Share Posted December 21, 2009 EPIC!!! Thats really cool , i love ur lighting ! Good luck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenix44 Posted December 27, 2009 Report Share Posted December 27, 2009 Has it reached yet? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
antwan Posted December 28, 2009 Author Report Share Posted December 28, 2009 Has it reached yet? Has what reached where? Got a few more plants in here but I went away for a few days so the plants didn't have any light over this time and have suffered. I set up some DIY CO2 today and I'm waiting on Organism to re-open so I can get some more plants/fish. with flash Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenix44 Posted December 28, 2009 Report Share Posted December 28, 2009 The moss I sent you. Should have hopefully reached by now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
antwan Posted December 28, 2009 Author Report Share Posted December 28, 2009 Ah, yes it was waiting for me when I got back so it must have arrived xmas eve. The xmas moss is on the right hand side branches. Thanks phoenix it looks great Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
antwan Posted February 1, 2010 Author Report Share Posted February 1, 2010 I've had a massive battle with staghorn algae but I'm slowly getting the better of it. Due to a lack of funds I haven't bought many new plants, just the ozelot sword on the right, but once I get myself a job that will change. The fish are doing well too; the apisto's have a batch of fry swimming around and the tetra's spawn regularly. Supasi shared some pics a while ago of threadfin rainbowfish on Fishkeeper's and I think they are very pretty so a small group of them is on the list too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenix44 Posted February 1, 2010 Report Share Posted February 1, 2010 what is with everyone getting staghorn all of a sudden? 12+ years of keeping fish, and the first time i heard of it was last month when my tank got it, and now it seems really common. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
antwan Posted February 1, 2010 Author Report Share Posted February 1, 2010 what is with everyone getting staghorn all of a sudden? 12+ years of keeping fish, and the first time i heard of it was last month when my tank got it, and now it seems really common. Exactly what I've been thinking recently. I had never heard of it either until I saw your pics, then I got it real bad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenix44 Posted February 1, 2010 Report Share Posted February 1, 2010 I hope I am not the source. :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jennifer Posted February 1, 2010 Report Share Posted February 1, 2010 Looks great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supasi Posted February 1, 2010 Report Share Posted February 1, 2010 I hope I am not the source. :lol: LOL, I think you may be! LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supasi Posted February 1, 2010 Report Share Posted February 1, 2010 Looks sweet Ant I bought some more female Threadfins yesterday for my males. I also had a pair kindly sent from BIGBOSSMAN. I really want to successfully raise some fry this time. I have an endless supply of green water now. Im glad the apistos are going good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
antwan Posted February 1, 2010 Author Report Share Posted February 1, 2010 Nice! They look awesome. None of the chch shops have any in stock which is a shame (I was hoping animates would have them for the buy one get one free thingy, but no). From what I've read it sounds like it's a pretty tough job raising the fry but I would like to give them a go too one day, good luck to you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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