20 Long Apisto Tank Build

Fill 'er up!

Couldnt find our carpet plants. That will have to wait till I can order some online.

 

Welp, here's where I'm at so far. I'm out of energy for the night but it's got water in it! There is one java fern that belongs in the back left that I apparently forgot to tie down, but it will have to wait till morning. I may pull a few more anubias out of another tank. I'll do a water change in the morning to get whatever cloudiness hasnt settled. I rinsed the fluorite but didnt bother rinsing the sand or fluval. I'm not 100% happy with the abrupt edge between sand and gravel. I was counting on the carpeting plant to ease that transition a bit. The carpet will hopefully go pretty much everywhere the dark substrate is. If establishing a carpet is unsuccessful, I am going to try mats of christmas moss or something like that. Hubby wants it to look like grass.

 

In the final stretch now! Got the carpet plants in the mail today!! The tissue culture hair grass was an absolutely tedious pain in the you know what (I've noticed this site censors me if I cuss, oops) The taller roll of hair grass was much easier to handle initially but still a pain to actually plant. I got one of each from the same company and I'm curious to see the difference. The tissue culture is supposed to be the "mini" version that only gets a few centimeters tall. Time will tell. The listing for the other one was confusing as title was for regular dwarf hair grass and the listing info was all for the minI version. Figured I'd take a risk. I put all the tall stuff in the back just in case it doesn't grow back short once it adapts to being submersed. I've heard it grows taller when grown emersed. I won't be too upset if it's a grass jungle instead of a carpet, although my husband will be disappointed. He really envisioned that lush iwagumI style carpet! I'm pretty proud of myself for a first attempt. Time will tell if it fills it decently. No co2, just hoping the light is enough. It's such a shallow tank. Got enough water in it to get the filter turned back on. Once I get the kids to sleep I'll be able to go finish filling and clean up my mess. More pics once it settles!

 

All done! I forgot to mention I added two Kleiner Prinz swords as well as the grass. It all just needs to grow now (I have to be patient?!?) and of course it needs fish. Lol Handful of snails in it for now. I'm not sure when I'll be able to get down to the lfs for my apistos with all the corona chaos right now. Gonna call monday and see if they are still open.

 

That looks amazing! It liiks kinda random fir now (plants) but once it fills in it will look even better. The only think that Id change would be to level out the sand in the front. Again, great job!

 

Figured I'd wander back for an update! We still dont have our breeding pair thanks to covid, so the tank has a school of 10 neon tetras, 10 amano shrimp and a juvie BN pleco in it for now. I have had so many issues with this tank it made me start thinking I am in over my head with this hobby, but I powered through it. 3 different kinds of algae explosions, tetras had ich twice, heater broke, thought I lost all my shrimp..... The only thing that's gone really well right off the bat has been the plants. The carpet of hair grass has spread beautifully and my kleiner prinz swords look amazeballs. I have learned a ton though, dealt with a lot of new things and made it work. pretty proud of the tank now honestly, even though it has been very different than expected and still doesn't have the fish it was built for. Hehe

At one point I was absolutely convince that my 2.5 inch juvenile pleco ate my amano shrimp. I added him/her/it to the tank mid afternoon. He is super timid so was pretty much hidding in the same rocky crevice every time I checked on him that evening. When I got up in the morning all 10, 1 - 1.5inch shrimp were just gone. ****?! 2 weeks later, the shrimp all reappeared and are still thriving. I didnt put in any shrimp food in the whole time cuz I thought for sure he had eaten them, crazy as it seemed. I shook out the java moss, looked in the caves with a flashlight, all over. Dunno how the heck they hid so well for so long! lol I'm super stoked they are back. The neons are my husband's fish, they arent very interesting to me, but I could watch the shrimp all day.

Anyways, enough rambling! We will still get the apistos whenever some come in stock. The other critters will shuffle to a different tank when that happens. For now, here is what it's looking like! I took out the java ferns. The sand has gotten messy from the gravel planting substrate but I knew that would probably happen. I added two stems of cardinalis that I absolutely love. Supposed to have more being delivered today along with some ammania gracillis, and some stuff for other tanks. Not sure if the ammania will go in this tank or a different one. I kind of think the couple sprigs more of cardinalis will be all it needs. I also may swip swap the two prinz swords as I think the big one would look way better on the other side. Not sure though. Pictures dont do justice to the deep red and brown color of the submersed leaves that have grown in on them. Yet another thing that has been totally out of stock everywhere since covid hit. =P I MUST HAVE MORE! LOL

 

My last box of plants finally came in the mail. I got brave and swip swapped the position of the two kleiner prinz swords (and to my delight was able to separate two baby ones off the shortest plant). I added 7 more little clumps of lobelia cardinalis too and now I am so much happier with it!! Little tweaks make a big difference.

 

Looks amazing, especially with the sleek white in the background

 

My last box of plants finally came in the mail. I got brave and swip swapped the position of the two kleiner prinz swords (and to my delight was able to separate two baby ones off the shortest plant). I added 7 more little clumps of lobelia cardinalis too and now I am so much happier with it!! Little tweaks make a big difference.

Nice!

 

*Knock on wood* I'm finally getting my male and 2nd female apisto cacatuoides on friday. So excited!! Also picking up a lone macmasteri female the same day.