Gozer_1

Well, everything is doing well. The Sprite is really taking off and the ludwigia is rooting. Even the hemianthus is growing so I guess it's getting enough light Unfortunately I've started the ol' Diatom algae stage. It's not going crazy but it's there. Gonna back of on food and stuff hope I can get it to starve itself. Don't want to get any Otos just yet. I'd have to order them online and it's kinda cold round here these days. I'd like to wait till spring. Hmm Here's hoping. I may get a couple just for my anubia's sake. It's getting some algae on its leaves. It is growing though. Lots of new roots popping out of the rhizome. The Vals have lost a few leaves as did the Crypts but I expected that. Both have new leaves coming in though. I expect the Sprite to have filled in it's corner to the top of the tank in a week or so. It's about 3/4 the way there now. lol. I can tell it's going to be a grower! Looks great though. I think I like it better than the ludwigia, though I thought it'd be the other way around.

Oh and the horse stays. It'll look good once everything grows around it.


I just had to throw some bananas in there. My bananas are too cool to be in a legion though

Gozer_1

Well the LFS had a single lonely Oto so I decided to give him a home. He has plenty to eat as the algae is trying to be a problem. Hope I can get him a couple buddies soon. Otos have to be one of the cutest fish EVER. This is my first one. Right now I think he thinks the Emperor Tetras are his kind so I think he'll be OK being solo for a bit lol. Kinda funny though.

COBettaCouple

congrats on your new emperor oto otos are such great little fish.. i'd love to find a good source for healthy ones around us.

Gozer_1

Yeah The LFS I got him at is pretty good with their freshwater fish. Marine is a whole other story but we're making progress lol. Usually don't have Otos at all. I just got lucky. She had 3 and someone bought 2 like 10 minutes before I showed up lol. DOH Supposedly she's getting more in "next week". I hear that a lot from both the LFSes around here. Usually means like 4 weeks.

COBettaCouple

yea.. i haven't seen any at the LPS's here in Denver and we visit the ones around us more often than we should.

Butterfly

Gozer do you live close to Denver if so you need to check out the aquarium club there. I think Dave will agree their great.
As for the water sprite.If you want a really interesting and cool floating plant break off one leaf and let it float. floating leaf
This is what it looks like now
That is wisteria reaching for the light in the upper right cornor

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COBettaCouple

they have 2 plant growth contests each year, you'd win easy but i think it's a bit of a drive from your part of the state.

Gozer_1

Yeah, about 5 and a half hour drive over the mountains. I gotta drive to Grand Junction today. Thats only 1 and a half on flat land and I'm kinda dreading it. Atleast they have better LFSes and a PetSmart. PetCo too but they've degraded to a standard DeathCo these days. Oh well I gotta get some frozen foods and they don't carry it here. Next month I have to do the Denver drive to pick up my new (old) car. That'll be plenty for me this year. lol

Butterfly that picture looks cool. I have a ludwigia stem that floated up and is just growing away at the surface. Can't decide if I want to try to replant it, leave it floating, or pull it out. lol

COBettaCouple

Hey, if you're in Denver on the 8th, the Colorado Aquarium Society meets that night at 6.

Gozer_1

That figures. I'll be there the 4th. DOH I'll be at a Turf Trade Show the 4th and 5th. Back to work by the 7th. Was thinking about going to the Aquarium anyway. If I can freakin find it. lol

COBettaCouple

google earth it.. usually the meetings are the 1st monday of the month, we may miss this meeting too since they had to move it to the 2nd sat.

Gozer_1

Well, everything is looking pretty good. My PH stays right about 7, nitrates and such are pretty good. Though, I did have something of a mini cycle when I removed the carbon. The bio media wasn't quite ready to take it on alone. Doing good now though. The Dwarf Babies Tears has had a tough time but I think it's coming back. It started going brown untill I started adding Iron. Greening back up pretty well and starting to grow again. The other plants have done very well. I kind of wish I had picked up more of the Vals but time will fix that for me. The Water Sprite is probably my favorite. I love the leaf shape. The Wentii Crypts have a nice red color as do the Ludwigia. I started having a little bit of algae but 4 Otos have cured that. If they eat much more I'll be feeding algae but for now the algae is growing just fast enough that they always have a patch some where to eat. I kind of like the green patches on the statue.

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Kevin

looks good, all the plants have grown up nicely!

COBettaCouple

Yea, the tank has come a long ways from the 1st pic.

Gozer_1

Update time. I've been fighting a nasty battle with this tank for a couple weeks. First off my Ph started climbing. It got up to about 8ish. I brought it back down to 7ish overtime and have been using Neutral Regulator to keep it down. The real trouble was from my stupidity in buying fish from the Walmart. I bought 3 Emperor Tetras quite awhile back. They were fine till 2 weeks ago. 2 of them developed a strange worm thing in a bubble. Never seen anything like it before but the ones still at Walmart all died with the same worm thing. I did one round of Meracide (I think that's the name). Then I did daily light doses of Quick Cure for a week with medicated food also. The worms are gone now but I noticed some reddness around my male Gouramis gills and possibly some white bumps. The fish at Walmart have the same reddnes and definite bumps. So, I'm treating for that now. This just reinforces the lesson I guess. Emperor Tetras have been mighty hard to find for me so I bought them even though I know better. The Otos seem to be fine. They just keep eating.

Plantwise, the tank is doing fair. The Water Sprite loves it's life and I've actually sold a couple clumps to my LFS. The Ludwigia is doing pretty good. They seem to shed a lot of leaves. The lower half is mostly just stem with the upper half full of leaves. The upper couple inches has a pretty good red color. The Vals are fairing well. I've also sold a couple runners from them. They aren't getting very dense but I've been kind of keeping them that way in an effort to spread them out to a bigger area. The Red Wentii Crypts look pretty good. They eventually lost all of their original leaves to melting but all have a plethora of new leaves. The new leaves have come in much slimmer and shorter. I think it's the depth of my tank. Unfortunately I had to give up on the Hemianthus. It struggled just to hang on, never developed any new roots and was a haven for algae. I finally pulled it and moved a couple things a little. The Anubias has put on a couple new leaves but is looking slightly yellowish. It is also kind of hard to clean. The leaves are a kinda rough and slow growing so the algae gets on there and doesn't like to come off. I've been using Flourish twice a week, Flourish Potassium 3 times a week, and Iron 6 days a week. I think I want CO2. I think it would help a lot. I also think I want another light. Right now I have the Nova Extreme and a standard 24 inch strip. I'm at about 2 WPG but the narrow strip light causes all the plants to bend to the front when they get taller. I think I'll add a 36 inch strip. That won't be too much more light but will spread it across the length of the tank. I want to get a CO2 kit first though. Just one of those little yeast kit things.

Anyway, Just thought I'd update. Feel free to leave me any thoughts, questions or advcie about what I'm doing with this tank. It's an all new frontier for me so I take every bit of advice I get.

PS I'll post new pictures after I get finished with this sick fish nightmare I brought on myself. Seeing that green water just makes me sad. Atleast everyone (I think and hope) is gonna make it through.

Wow that was a heck of a post.

susitna-flower

Hi Gozer_1, just read all the way through this post, and your tank is lovely.

Can you pinpoint just what brought your ph up?

Sounds like a horrible worm scourge! I have had bumps before on gouramis, which ended up killing them....but I think that often comes with gouramis...

I just ordered some Roseline sharks! Puntius denisonii, from corysrus......in my shoes it is almost better to chance shipping than to get fish from my LFS. It isn't walmart, but the death rate is similar, and lately they lost their fish expert...I haven't bought from them since....The price was GREAT, I'm getting 12 with the idea in mind that maybe I'll have some to share with others up here.....

Plants are one thing I haven't really explored yet. All of my tanks have some, but as far as trying to have a really PLANTED tank, I feel I fall short. Nothing like yours or Isabellas....

Gozer, I was wondering why you go to Turf Conventions? Are you into landscaping? Just ask because that is part of what we do in our business....

Gozer_1

Thanks Susitna.

I'm not sure on the ph. It was stable at 7 for awhile and then one day I tested and it was 7.5 on up over a couple weeks. Now that I think about it, I'm not sure what the ph of the various Flourish products is. Might be one source but it seems a lot of other planted tanks I've read about had higher ph levels. CO2 injection will lower the ph so maybe the ph swing is an indicator of needing to use some CO2.

Yeah, I've seen these bumps before on other fish. The Tetras at Walmart have them and likely my Tetras. I just noticed it first on the Gourami. I think they're going to be fine. I'm going to do a water change tomorrow and add some carbon for a day. If needed I'll do a second run of meds after that.

I love those Roselines. I'm a huge large Barb fan. A few Roselines would go oh so well with my Tin Foils. Oh if I had the space.

I'm a golf course assitant superintendant. So, I deal with LOTS of grass lol. Lots and lots lol. Close to 200 acres of groomed fairways, cropped tees, fast greens and shaggy rough. (I think it's close to 200 atleast 150 lol) My avatar pictue is at my course. We send a couple guys to the trade show every year. My boss is in Florida right now at a huge Superintendants tourney and convention.

susitna-flower

I did lawn maintanence for several years and am a "certified pesticide applicator"..... cough, cough...not the favorite person to many ....but it sure makes the lawns look Good! IPM though, is my motto! & I'm sticking to it!

Mushrooms are my worst problem up here, cause you don't have any control on how many stumps are buried under a lawn. Cottonwood trees are another.....they send out runners that never quit, they will bust up asphault, and break sewer lines! It is far and few between though to find the right job for a fat, OLD woman... I love to ride my John Deer mower though....
That's the life....I am sure you enjoy your work...