Jump to content

Birthday tank


Jennifer

Recommended Posts

As many of you saw this tank in progress when you were down at conference, I thought I would post some pics now that I have started planting and populating it. It is still in the early stages and some aspects are still in progress. The right hand side is largely just a placeholder until the rest gets established and the new plants are ready.

Dimensions: 1830mm long x 500mm high x 500mm deep

Volume: approx 400L

Glass: 10mm all sides, European bracing

Heating: Jager 300w x 2

Filtration: FX5, heavy on biological filtration; Fluval 405, mechanical filtration

Lighting: 4 strips T5 Powerglow (two strips on a 5 hour photoperiod for two weeks to allow the plants to adjust)

Co2: Injected and pH controlled

Substrate: Dalton's propagating sand + JBL root balls under crypts and swords

Other fertilisation: NPK and Flourish comprehensive 4x weekly, 50% weekly water change

Fish (so far):

Red rainbows x 2 (more to be added)

Boesman rainbows x 2 (more to be added)

Praecox rainbows x 6

Green fire tetras x 40

Spotted hatchetfish x 6

Red whiptails x 2

Gold bristlenose ancistrus x 2

Siamese algae eaters x 2

Gold zebra loaches x 6

Striata loaches x 6

Plants (so far, some will stay and some will go):

Anubias barteri v. barteri

Anubias barteri v. 'nana'

(Anubias barteri v. 'nana golden')

Anubias barteri v. nana 'petite'

Anubias barteri 'marble'

Bolbitis heudelotti

Cryptocoryne wendtii v. “Brown”

Cryptocoryne wendtii de witt "Red"

Cryptocoryne lutea

Cryptocoryne crispatula v. “Balansae Green”

Cryptocoryne affinis

Echinodorus x. “Rubin”

Ludwigia arcuata

Ludwigia repens

Microsorum pteropus v.'Windeløv'

Microsorum pteropus v. 'narrow leaf'

Nymphaea lotus 'Zenkeri'

Vesicularia montagnei

Longshot.jpg

Longshot2.jpg

CloseLHS.jpg

CloseRHS.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 60
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Hi Jennifer, your tank is gorgeous and I just love those rainbows. Did you get them in ChCh? I'm from Dunedin and we never see lovely fish like that down here. One of our shops has "Bosman Rainbows", but it is basically a dull white colour. Would love to know where you can get those colours from.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

They are Boesmani, Reds and Praecox rainbows. I bought them locally, most shops can get them in for you. You can buy them young but they don't colour up until they are mature and it is the males that will have the best colour although the red rainbows have females that look very nice as well. They are easiest to sex when they are a bit older too. I feed them a wide variety of foods, including live foods and that really helps develop good colour. The males will also display better colour if they have a female to display to (although males will display to each other too).

There are some nice young ones here in town (although they are young), and I go down to Dunedin a lot so I can bring some down if you end up not being able to source them there.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wow Jennifer that is just fantastic! :hail::bow::hail::bow::hail::bow::hail: Simply amazing. How deep is the substrate? Is that dark stuff on top of the Dalton's seperate type of substrate? The warehouse here has HEAPS of 20 liter bags of Dalton's Propagating sand, and I was thinking about getting some for my tank, but it is rather pale and I'm not too sure about it. I like the look of Burnt Sienna from Petstuff101 because its not too fine and its rather dark, but it's quite expensive, plus I'd have to get it shipped to me, which will cost extra money.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There are 4 double balasts and each holds two 3 foot tubes. I will try to post a pic a bit later.

Joe, it is all Daltons (60 litres of it in total, about 4 inches deep). Daltons has a mixture of sand as well as the same type of sifted pebbles that were in the planted tank that you liked. The fine sand settles to the bottom, which the plants appreciate, and leaves the pebbles at the surface. Best of all it looks natural and only cost $4 a bag!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The fine sand settles to the bottom, which the plants appreciate, and leaves the pebbles at the surface.

Interesting. I've always heard that the plants prefer fine gravel like the Sienna, so I want your opinion on something - is Dalton's better that Burnt Sienna, or would Sienna be better than Dalton's? I want to make sure that my plants are getting the best substrate possible. I don't know as much about plants as you, and I'm kind of new to plants, because I used to just be interested in the fish. But I'm pleased that I'm into plants now, because I've found that properly planted aquariums are very pleasing, but I've never really had a lot of success with them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

DAltons costs $12 a bag up here :o

Actually, it is $8 a bag here (at the red shed) but they are going out of the Daltons range so all products are discounted. I wonder if they are discontinuing Daltons at other locations around the country?

... is Dalton's better that Burnt Sienna...
I wouldn't worry too much about which is "better," it won't matter unless you have very fussy plants in which case you need to know what acidity and nutrient levels of soil that they prefer. Just go with what you like. I am tending to like the natural look these days and I liked Daltons because it has a lot of that fine greywacke that I like so much in my other tank.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think I'll go for the Burnt Sienna, but it is very expensive. But I suppose since the Dalton's has that fine gravel stuff in it, then I might be able to sift it. I'll have a think. But first I have to sell my tank and get one rebuilt to the size that I like, and then I can worry about substrate.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...

×
×
  • Create New...