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Alexyay's tanks 02/02/14


alexyay

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OK - so the tank above seriously needs to be saved before I get a new one and go for a whole new idea. Because at the moment, I hate it.

Can someone please suggest ideas to fix it? The driftwood (willing to change to a different piece) needs to stay because I want a bit of a hardscape and the plecos need it + they need hardscape cover.

However, I'm thinking of moving it to the other side? I might be able to wedge it in place so I can give it a permanent place despite not being entirely waterlogged.

I don't know what to do regarding plants. It's 90L x 30D x 50-ishH? Can't remember the height exactly, but it's freaking tall and very slim. I want to give it height or at least have it "bushy" to give shade for the fish. At the moment, because it's so slim, the plants aren't placed anywhere specifically and they're just a mess.

The tank's gonna drive me insane if I don't fix it, because I hate it at the moment.

(Different topic)

Is there anything else I should be supplementing my BNs with for the best growth? At the moment they're getting JBL Novopleco and zucchini - my rios and standard BN are growing just great, but my calico hasn't grown since I bought it. What is with that fish :nilly: It seems to eat when everyone else does, isn't bullied or anything like that.

Also, has anyone here got American Flagfish and know their typical growth rate? Mine have hardly grown - they get a bit of everything (novopleco, novotab, flakes etc) and I try to grow string algae (but I'm afraid they don't get it as often as I'd like) - they seem to have no interest in zucchini. Any ideas there?

My male is trying to breed, but I don't think my females are mature. But they haven't gotten any bigger either D:

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I just lost the second calico today - no sunken belly, nitrates at 10ppm - all other fish fine. Not sure what killed the first one either. He was looking "off" yesterday, sitting at the bottom of the tank, a bit lethargic. Not sure why I couldn't grow them or why they died now.

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Hi alexyay. I would move the wood to the middle and maybe lie it down so there is a hole underneath and then may be get another piece to lean against it to stand up ( a slightly more skinny piece). Plant wise I think it need some oter focal points,maybe a beautiful red plant (depending on light) or a forest of something. Something to help cover the back and to take focus away from the glass. Maybe some Anubias as well to cover bits of the wood, I like them more than the grasses for foreground. Just some thoughts, but everyone different :). Sorry to hear about your Betta. Don't know anything about columnar is but I thought tat involved white fluffy stuff to the face. I would def think bacteria though to be multiplying that fast and eating the flesh.

Re the calicoes - I saw those advertised, are they actually a breed of bristlenose or a hybrid? If a hybrid they may not be that hardy?

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The calicos myself and Jennifer were/are selling are a breed, although like all fancy fish hybridisation went on in the past.

They are slower growers (slightly slower than the longfin albino) but are no less hardy than any other bristlenose. I have a mature female at 8cm body plus 4-5cm tail (finer than the standard bn), I have had her 16 months. I have 4 from the same batch of fry as Alex and all are growing slowly. I did wonder how they would handle my tank change over as I bumped the temp from 25 - 28+ but no problems and I am currently waiting to see how they handle the CO2 that I restarted yesterday.

Columnaris eats away at the fish in a matter of hours. Highly infectious and should have wiped out the entire tank.

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The calicos myself and Jennifer were/are selling are a breed, although like all fancy fish hybridisation went on in the past.

They are slower growers (slightly slower than the longfin albino) but are no less hardy than any other bristlenose. I have a mature female at 8cm body plus 4-5cm tail (finer than the standard bn), I have had her 16 months. I have 4 from the same batch of fry as Alex and all are growing slowly. I did wonder how they would handle my tank change over as I bumped the temp from 25 - 28+ but no problems and I am currently waiting to see how they handle the CO2 that I restarted yesterday.

Columnaris eats away at the fish in a matter of hours. Highly infectious and should have wiped out the entire tank.

Yeah - that's the weird part, none of the other fish were infected - because it attacked the face only and the infection didn't spread, that was why I was a bit iffy about columnaris being the diagnosis. I don't blame you or anything for the BNs (in case it sounded like that) - most likely my fault, I'm just not too sure what I could have done differently (or why they died).

Will look at the phosphate/silicate remover! Any way that could be done naturally? Or is it necessary to buy a certain product?

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Rather than adding removers you really need to find the cause. Brown algae is common in newly set up tanks.

They're both new tanks, so I expect it - I'm hoping it'll just gradually decrease over time. It doesn't bother me too much, but it grows on some plants where it's hard to remove it without destroying the plants. I'm trying to keep my nitrates low to keep it at a minimum, though.

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So it might be easiest if I list exactly what I feed to make sure I'm not doing anything wrong - since reading I'm considering changing from JBL to NLS (but won't switch until I'm out of JBL unless it's really that much better).

140L-

Tetras - JBL flakes, Tetracolour tropical granules (not keen on this but I have it to add variety, it's probably fed every second day) and they get to pick at Novotab and Omega One shrimp pellets

Bristlenoses - JBL Novopleco, zucchini (mostly every second day)

Kuhli loaches - They get to pick at all of the above

120L-

American Flags, Gourami (variety), L129 and Red Whiptails all get - JBL flakes, Tetracolour tropical granules, Novotab, Novopleco, Omega One shrimp pellets and bloodworms (every second day). Also occasionally the AquaOne spirulina tablets only because I need to get rid of it lol.

55L-

A australe and hara catfish - Flakes every second day, bloodworms every other day. One killie will eat flakes but the others don't seem too keen (it seems to sit and rot in the tank) - is it OK to be feeding bloodworms every day? What does everyone else feed their killies? Bloodworms aren't very good for them daily, but they don't seem very interested in prepared foods :nilly:

31L-

Snails daily, bloodworms every second day

Everything is fed once a day, except sometimes the Novotab and Novopleco will be fed twice a day.

Any major red flags? Anything I should be doing differently?

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Rather than adding removers you really need to find the cause. Brown algae is common in newly set up tanks.

Diatoms feed off silicates until they are exhausted.

Water changes using tap water replenish them.

Same goes for phosphates - food introduces them as well.

Only other way to keep on top of it is by it being out competed by plants - but then conditions have to be more favourable to the plants rather than the algae - right balance of co2, nutrients etc...

Don't worry about testing nitrates, they are only a potential problem when over 40ppm and even then won't have any adverse affects. It takes a lot of neglect, overfeeding and lack of maintenance to get them high enough.

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Diatoms feed off silicates until they are exhausted.

Water changes using tap water replenish them.

Same goes for phosphates - food introduces them as well.

Only other way to keep on top of it is by it being out competed by plants - but then conditions have to be more favourable to the plants rather than the algae - right balance of co2, nutrients etc...

Don't worry about testing nitrates, they are only a potential problem when over 40ppm and even then won't have any adverse affects. It takes a lot of neglect, overfeeding and lack of maintenance to get them high enough.

So doing WCs increase my silicates and thus doesn't help? Oh dear, lol. I'm putting them down at the moment to being a new tank, but will have to take further action if they stay and annoy me further.

I tend to not bother with testing nitrates but increase maintenance if I'm worried about them - I'm cautious about them since the spikes which killed off my otos.

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So doing WCs increase my silicates and thus doesn't help? Oh dear, lol. I'm putting them down at the moment to being a new tank, but will have to take further action if they stay and annoy me further.

I tend to not bother with testing nitrates but increase maintenance if I'm worried about them - I'm cautious about them since the spikes which killed off my otos.

And otos will munch diatoms all day long :)

Obviously you can't not do water changes, so have to look at other factors. I would do 50% on my planted tanks regardless as the benefits do outwiegh any cons with tap water.

I suggest giving this a go- do a 50% water change, give everything a good siphon and clean, especially the algae.Stop dosing any plant products like flourish, decrease photo periods by maybe 2hrs, and feed lightly. After a week I'd say you would see an improvement,

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And otos will munch diatoms all day long :)

Obviously you can't not do water changes, so have to look at other factors. I would do 50% on my planted tanks regardless as the benefits do outwiegh any cons with tap water.

I suggest giving this a go- do a 50% water change, give everything a good siphon and clean, especially the algae.Stop dosing any plant products like flourish, decrease photo periods by maybe 2hrs, and feed lightly. After a week I'd say you would see an improvement,

The benefits of dosing plant ferts/carbon, feeding and photoperiod all have benefits that outweigh the algae (although Dad looked after the tank for a week and dosed no ferts or carbon... brown algae was worse than usual). I typically do 40%-50% of a WC of the worst tanks affected anyway. My last otos had no interest in the brown diatom algae - I'm taking a break from them at the moment until I can get everything like stocking levels sorted D:

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Which likely means lighting is probably not quite right or lack of co2. Its all about limiting factor.as soon as one exists then plants can't consume everything leaving something (light, co2 or nutrients) left over for algae to get a foothold.

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Is there an ideal sex ratio when it comes to angels? It strongly appears that we have 4 males and 1 female - would adding or reducing females reduce aggression?

Is tattered fins part of typical behaviour? The fins are tattered due to fighting, not due to fin rot or anything like that. But how much aggression is "too much" (needing intervention)?

I'm not a huge angel fan, but I'd love some blues (They have some at HFF Mt Roskill, but none for sale). How readily available are they?

Is it reasonable to make a post asking for females, or do people typically not have any available already sexed? AKA, how likely am I going to find actual females for sale?

Also, it wasn't my plan, but I now have 5 black kuhlis and 5 haras thanks to Ron at Pupuke :thup: Really happy with them, excited to see them settle in. I think I've decided to change the 140L to a tank around 90L x 45D x 40H, with a different piece of driftwood (spiderwood) - maybe going more blackwater, but well planted with carpet plants (dwarf sag, DHG), swords and java fern. Will probably continue to use T5HOs, though. But I'm really liking having the oak leaves in my killifish tank and will do leaf litter in the new tank as well.

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Which likely means lighting is probably not quite right or lack of co2. Its all about limiting factor.as soon as one exists then plants can't consume everything leaving something (light, co2 or nutrients) left over for algae to get a foothold.

I was under the impression that brown algae meant that the lighting was too low?

Lack of CO2 is a possibility - I don't have any CO2 running on it but am starting to dose Excel again.

Again, I think it's probably a new tank thing - it doesn't bother me too much but I will change something if it continues in the future

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I did promise pics - not many available. The thicklip only comes out to eat, otherwise she hides in her tunnel and chases anyone who comes near - I'm hoping getting her a male will decrease how crazily territorial she's become since I lost the original male. Given up searching for the wild-type, as I've not even seen any here before (even though they're legal to import of course) :dunno: And the Banded are very shy - they don't mind the flash but as soon as I move the camera they freak out - they're starting to settle in slowly.

Only taken photos of the 120L, as the 140L fish are shy (only ones who are out and about are the tetras), and I'm just letting the haras settle in at the moment.

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Red whiptail catfish

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American Flagfish

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Red honey gourami - he's starting to heal up - I kept an eye on it before treating it as fungus as others suggested they look more like wounds, and it appears to be getting better so most likely just wounds. In above he's not as colourful as usual.

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Thicklip gourami - currently the boss of the tank!

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Indian banded gourami - looks skinny from here but it's just the angle I promise! I'm thinking my three are female.

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Edit: Nevermind - Flickr is making things more and more difficult to share :/ The photos definitely don't look as sharp on here - I suggest you view them here > https://www.flickr.com/photos/abnegate/

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There are some seriously good photos on there. Well done :)

Thank you so much! I've lost a lot of my passion for photography and so it's been very slack lately but am slowly getting it back - once I get my restricted I want to visit places like Butterfly Creek almost daily :P So hopefully one day I'll be producing that kind of stuff again!

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For those who have bred red whiptails - what did you use for spawning? Any specific tubing? They've not used the one I've put in but it's not very good and the gourami have claimed it. I've seen people breed BN in a jar so I've just put that in there. But yeah, is there anything specific I'm looking at using?

Also, is there a best way to sex them?

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