First ever tank

[maoripho3nix]

Hey all, setup my first planted tank finally.

Had most stuff purchased ready to setup except the plant. Went to LFS Kiwipetz in fraser cove in TGA. The lady I talked to seemed to know a lot about fish/aquariums.....and good local geographical knowledge as to the whereabouts of Glosso, as this was my first option to plants, but as they had none I took the dwarf hairgrass instead.

Note: Pics are a bit murky, did some restructuring after I put the water in.

Without Flash

http://img691.imageshack.us/i/img5295small.jpg

With Flash

http://img168.imageshack.us/i/img5293small.jpg

Side

http://img16.imageshack.us/i/img5296small.jpg

Current Tank Specs:

Tank: 14Ltr 31L/18W/24H

Lighting: 18w(100w) 6500k Cool Daylight 12hrs p/d

Filter: Aqua one Clearview Hang over Filter

Substrate: JBL Balls in Fine Black Gravel

Plants: Dwarf Hairgrass

Extras: Driftwood, Rocks

Plans for tank:

Plants: Glosso for foreground

Moss for Rock/Driftwood

Java Fern for background

Technical: C02 reactor/diffuser

Extras: Coloured Background

Haven't quite put my finger down on what I want for fish, either just shrimp, just tetras, just kuhli loach orrrrrr tetra + loach.

I still need to get my cycle along with adding fish. So far the setup has been going for 24hrs. How long should I wait before adding fish, and if I have to add now, can I use the above???

Comments and Suggestions please

[firenzenz]

Gidday and welcome! ( nice avatar)

You haven't mentioned a heater which will be required for any tropical fish.

You could throw in some Tetras tomorrow no worries.

A tank that size will have limited stocking potential though.

[Nymox]

It looks to be a splish splash? Did you get the tropical combo? If not you will need a heater for tropical fish as firenzenz mentioned, 25w heaters are under $30 from kiwipetz I think.

[maoripho3nix]

Sorry forgot to mention that I have a heater. I didn't run it in the water just incase I was going to put Shrimp in there.

Thanks for the comments though.

You could throw in some Tetras tomorrow no worries.

A tank that size will have limited stocking potential though.

Hmmmmm might take a trip to the LFS, set it off with some tetras, limited space though, could only get about 5.

[Brennos]

What gravel is that, its very nice looking.

[Jennifer]

If you aren't going to do fishless cycling, TLC Smart Start is a great product that can get your biological filtration up and going.

BTW, good on you for doing it right. Too many people just jump in and have no idea what they are doing so inevitable dissapointments occur. You are doing fine and your tank is looking very good indeed. 8)

[Ras]

Looking good.

[maoripho3nix]

What gravel is that, its very nice looking.

Its the Aqua One decorative gravel, I got it from Kiwipetz LFS, they label it as Black silica, its almost fine like sand.

If you aren't going to do fishless cycling, TLC Smart Start is a great product that can get your biological filtration up and going.

BTW, good on you for doing it right. Too many people just jump in and have no idea what they are doing so inevitable dissapointments occur. You are doing fine and your tank is looking very good indeed. 8)

Thanks for the thumbs up as its my first setup I'm trying not to rush into things, still in a learning phase as such. 8) Ive read quite a bit but always learn better when I do it, and get great advice through my posted progress Fingers crossed it all goes well.

Update: Day one down, fresh chutes of grass coming through

[SamH]

Update: Day one down, fresh chutes of grass coming through

I'm guessing that tiny tuft of grass in the photos isn't all that's in there now?

[maoripho3nix]

I'm guessing that tiny tuft of grass in the photos isn't all that's in there now?

Haha nope, most of it got buried under the gravel after I did a bit of restructuring, that lil tuff of grass in the pic came out of the gravel a lil bit but hasnt floated to the top so I just left it there. Ive only planted Dwarf Hairgrass, mostly from the mid part of the tank to the back (from where the rocks are to the back).

Fresh green chutes have come off the lil tuff that u can see, and also a couple buried ones have grown through the gravel.

Will post some pics when it grows a bit more.

[maoripho3nix]

The water stayed murky for a while. Last night I added JBL Filter Start to the filter, this morning the water was crystal

Amazing what good bacteria can do to the water.

Also went digging in the shed last night and found a Sodastream kit, which contains a 1.5L cylinder of CO2 8)

Might save up for some techy equipment for the future use of the cylinder. Maybe for a larger tank.

DIY will do for now.

I read somewhere that an airstone is sufficient for a DIY co2 diffuser??

[Jennifer]

The standard airstones should not be used. The CO2 degrades them and they can get blocked resulting in any number of problems (you don't want an exploding bottle of yeast on your hands). You can get wooden air diffusors but they get a fungus that isn't nice (plus they aren't easy to come by). There are a number of good CO2 diffusors around and they aren't too expensive. Try the trade & exchange or TM.

[maoripho3nix]

UPDATE:

I went for a quick tour up the lower hills, to one of the river locations that runs off some Falls. My goal was to catch some shrimp. Unfortunately there were none there or just wasnt looking hard enough. On my journey up and down the rocks and banks I stumbled across some Glosso!! Carefully took a small chunk, cleaned and divided, now i have some glosso in my foreground :bounce:

Glosso http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=44542

Full

Side

Front Left

Front Right

Still got to get some moss for my wood. While searching I found this page, think I might do this instead of plain colour background.

http://www.aquamoss.net/How%20to%20create%20a%20moss%20wall/How%20to%20create%20a%20moss%20wall.htm

Can't wait for this all to grow, still need to add cO2 setup.

[Zev]

Someone's been busy with the tweezers!

[phoenix44]

cool. i would suggest some sort of fert regime, even if it is under gravel fert tabs, cause once glosso grows well and carpets, it needs some form of nutrition.

[HaNs]

Id plant the glosso more dense.

And yes you need some fert of some sort.

[maoripho3nix]

UPDATE: After a couple of rivers it seemed useless trying to find these little critters, and the last one I got to at about 7pm was overly vegetated, got to the bank and one swoop with the net got me about 3 in one hit. :bounce:

Got a couple more the next swoop, and then one last swoop I pulled up a bigger one than the rest, and he/she was BLUE

So now I finally have some critters in my tank, hopefully they will survive through, and hopefully the blue one (nicknamed BLUEY) will stay a cool blue colour. 8)

Now im working on the cO2

[SamH]

So now I finally have some critters in my tank, hopefully they will survive through, and hopefully the blue one (nicknamed BLUEY) will stay a cool blue colour. 8)

So very jealous of those shrimp

[sharn]

Good to see you found some glosso up the kaimais maoripho3nix (Sharn from KP here), shame there wasnt any shrimp tho, when we got them from up there they would have been a good 500m or so up the river, might have just been our lucky day. It will look great when that glosso gets going!

[maoripho3nix]

Good to see you found some glosso up the kaimais maoripho3nix (Sharn from KP here), shame there wasnt any shrimp tho, when we got them from up there they would have been a good 500m or so up the river, might have just been our lucky day. It will look great when that glosso gets going!

Thanks for the info Sharn, I was going up and down the river for the shrimp, as someone on here had told me thats where to get them too, but also remembered that you said there is glosso up there too. Took some of what I thought looked like glosso and it was :lol:

Yeah I keep looking at all the well planted nano tanks online and hopefully soon enough mine will look the same.

Thanks

John

[maoripho3nix]

I setup my DIY cO2 last night, monitored the shrimp for about 40mins-60mins and they seemed fine, the one small one was nutting around the tank as he usually does. Woke this morning to find 4 out of 7 on the bottom of the tank lifeless. The other 3 I whipped out with the net into a large aerated container with fresh water. Watched them for a little while and had to go to work. Got home to find 1 alive but struggling. I suspect within the next few hours it will die too.

The only conditions I have changed in the tank in the last 24hrs is adding the co2. I suspect the carbon may have been too much for the shrimp, although the shrimp did not show any signs of stress upto 60mins+ of putting the tube in the tank.

I'm gutted because this is my first setup, and already having problems

Anyone have experience with keeping shrimp+co2+plants???

Ive gone wrong somewhere and I wanna know where, dont want it to happen again.

Im going to grow my plants out a bit more before adding anything.

[Aquila]

Sorry to hear that, they were awesome.

I don't know about the co2, but your best chance at getting the little shrimp to stay alive would be to make sure you match the temperature of your tank with that of the stream. The only other think i can think of is that maybe your tank water had too much chlorine or something else in it that was too much of a difference for them.

For future attempts, don't forget to also feed them. They obviously didn't starve to death this time but might do so in the future as your tank is new and doesn't have any algae to feed on. Try spirulina tabs or algae wafers.

[Jennifer]

Sorry to hear that. Don't be too discouraged though, it is all just a learning process. Keep in mind, small tanks are much more difficult to stabilise than larger ones so that will give you a little more challenge!

Some possible ideas for what could have gone wrong include: oxygen too low, temp too high, toxins in the water (ammonia, nitrites, chlorine, water conditioners, etc), rapid pH fluctuation (CO2 will cause the pH to drop and this can be significant in a small tank). Shrimp are pretty delicate.

[antwan]

I would say the addition of the CO2 is what did it. Plants don't use CO2 overnight, and they don't give off O2 overnight too, so this would cause a big increase in dissolved CO2 and decrease of O2 in your water. Since the shrimp come from fast flowing streams they will need a large amount of dissolved O2 in the water at all times. Sorry about your loss, but it's a learning curve.

[maoripho3nix]

Thanks for all the kind words, I think for now I'm gonna leave out any critters and just let the plants grow. Once the tank is well grown and ph ammonia etc is balanced ill add some critters.

For future attempts, don't forget to also feed them. They obviously didn't starve to death this time but might do so in the future as your tank is new and doesn't have any algae to feed on. Try spirulina tabs or algae wafers.

I would say the addition of the CO2 is what did it. Plants don't use CO2 overnight, and they don't give off O2 overnight too, so this would cause a big increase in dissolved CO2 and decrease of O2 in your water. Since the shrimp come from fast flowing streams they will need a large amount of dissolved O2 in the water at all times. Sorry about your loss, but it's a learning curve.

I agree, they were doing so well, and yup I was feeding them spirulina flakes, as soon as the flakes hit the floor they were on to it, I know they werent starving though.

I'd have to agree antwan, I think there was too much co2, learning curve alright, just very unexpected.

Just a question in a diy co2 setup, is there a way to limit the amount of bubbles per second??

Maybe using the filter as a diffuser worked all too well, as I know if I let the bubbles just feed out of the tube the co2 wont mix as well. Maybe using a glass spiral or ladder diffuser will limit the co2 mixing better compared to how well it worked injecting into the impeller.

Maybe next time limit the amount of co2 (if i can on a diy setup) have that feeding during the day, and then at night run the air pump. From what I know the plants only take in the extra carbon during light times. But also that shrimp require good source of O2.

Thanks guys