Sophia Posted August 12, 2010 Report Share Posted August 12, 2010 Here is my new set up. Has had fish in it for just under a week. The fish are 2 male fundulopanchax scheeli and 3 girls. The big male ('Big Daddy', for want of a better name ) is the boss of the tank except at feeding time when the little male zips around hogging the best worms. Big Daddy is quite active, he plays in the current from the filter like a guppy. They are interesting fish to watch, I'm quite attached to them already. After having mostly dither or 'fraidy-fish before, it's rewarding to have the fish come and wait by the dropper at dinner time or bump into my hand when I'm poking about in the tank. Tank is 50cm long, 30cm high and 28 wide. At present there is about 33.5 litres in there. The back is painted with Dulux Selwyn blue. 3 coats to make it completely opaque. Filter is an Eheim pickup 2006 - contrary to all advice I bought this instead of a box or sponge as it was the smallest and quietest filter. You can swivel the head and adjust the oxygen and power of the water coming out so I have it pointing into the corner on it's lowest output, but even at it's most powerful the current is still minimal. I would recommend this to others with a small tank. If fry getting sucked in becomes an issue later I will cover the base with stocking. Last one I had had fry living in there for a week or more at time quite safely and obviously getting plenty of food. You may notice the curious filter/rock/stick arrangement, I will post a seperate thread about that in DIY as I think it's odd enough to get it's own thread. Heater is an Eheim 50 watt. Substrate - black grit - to keep the cloudiness at a minimum when setting up I rinsed under the tap one net full at a time. A net as fine as a stocking this was. Worked a treat. Light is a chinese 2 tube thing, it came with 2 8 watt T5s giving out 14,000 K. I had it working with both tubes initially, but am testing it with just 1 - saving a bulb and seeing if less brightness makes the plants green up a bit more. The fish behave the same in all the light variations of the room. Plants - planted in the gravel - twisted val, Hydrocotyle/Pennywort , tiger lotus Stuck into holes in the driftwood - left, bolbitis/congo fern (I need more!); middle, small stump narrow leaf java fern and ordinary java fern; right, normal java fern; far right, little piece of Windelov fern and java fern Floating - riccia and duckweed The val and riccia are recovering from an over anxious dose of being sterilised (there are conflicting opinions about bleach on this message board and I picked the wrong one!! Don't use bleach EVER on these plants :-? ). Lotus also was affected by my vigilance but it has sprung back! The upside is that there are no snails in my tank! Fertiliser - JBL balls, Flourish comprehensive Whole tank & homebuilt cabinet Side view of the best bit of driftwood Frontal view Another frontal Small boy Boys & a girl One of the girls Big Male admiring himself Big Male playing in the current Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stella Posted August 12, 2010 Report Share Posted August 12, 2010 Nice Make sure you post more photos as the plants establish! Interesting bits of wood, just found somewhere? One thing with aquascaping is that twos of things tend to look a little contrived, threes and odd numbers look a lot more natural. With your wood, having two upright like that can look contrived, but the same two, with one upright and the other lying down, could look a lot more natural because it makes them different from each other. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sophia Posted August 12, 2010 Author Report Share Posted August 12, 2010 the beach where I found the wood was Orere Point and yes I need the plants to grow a bit more.. the stumps will look better when they have more greenery I like the wood how it is - there are 4 bits in there Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sophia Posted August 18, 2010 Author Report Share Posted August 18, 2010 there has been a lot of fishy business in here over the last few days now I wait for the wrigglers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenix44 Posted August 18, 2010 Report Share Posted August 18, 2010 awesome stuff! I'm sure barrie will be happy to know more killies are being bred Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sophia Posted August 22, 2010 Author Report Share Posted August 22, 2010 Some new pics. Now have some cabomba that is growing very fast. Hopefully thinking about laying eggs in the riccia. Had to have burrowed through to get this far to the top, her head was touching the surface of the water. Me snooping over her head did not bother her at all. Little Guy posing in the jungle Girls Big Daddy warming his back?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zev Posted August 22, 2010 Report Share Posted August 22, 2010 Nice pics! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sophia Posted August 23, 2010 Author Report Share Posted August 23, 2010 these killies are not shy! I had my hands in there earlier messing with the plants and they were nibbling me! I think Barrie bred some killer killies!! :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wok Posted September 11, 2010 Report Share Posted September 11, 2010 Very Nice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sophia Posted September 11, 2010 Author Report Share Posted September 11, 2010 thanks it doesn't look like this any more as the wood had to be removed. I will post new pics soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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