40Breeder notes

[jake37]

May of 2020 I transfer my 20 long to a 40breeder and it looked something like this:




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At this point I had around 6 orange laser, pair of nannacara, some pygmy cory, some ottos and a few guppies. I also moved the rosy tetra from my 29 to this tank.
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During the summer and fall of 2020 i added a number of kubotai rasbora, galaxy rasbora, 1 additional female nannacara, 3 cockatoo (1m,2f), some more orange laser cory and temporarily some kribs (which created havoc and were removed by late fall). Almost forgot added 8 more otto exepecting a few to die but none did. One of these days I'll bring the net out and move a few to the 120. I think 6 months has been a long enough qt'ing of them?
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Plant wise I added:
lace plant
Bacopa caroliniana (which is doing well but in very back)
myriophyllum scabratum
myriophyllum tuberculatum
myriophyllum mattogrossense (almost identical in look to tuberculatum)
anubias barteri var. glabra
uruguayensis Sword
dwarf Sagittaria Subulata
pinto anubia
lagenandra meeboldii red
various buce
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In early Nov I added onf flat+ for additional light
On Nov 30 I added co2
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As of Dec 29 this is the current tank:



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I hope to update this once every month or two to see how things progress. I can tell you one BIG negative of co2 is the impact it is having on that lace plant. As of today Jan 3rd that lace plant has already put out 2 more giant leaves and is becoming problematic.
Here is an updated picture as of Jan 03. You can see that lace plant has grown a bit in the past 5 days:

 

[waterpat]

Wow

 

[jake37]

A short update - the tank just after today's water change:





It is hard to see with the downsized image (forum software downsizes) but after the water changes the plants generate tons of large bubbles (pearling) - i suspect this is because I fertilize after the water change and the plants could probably use more frequent fertilization. A few of the plants - starting on the left:
left front corner: Vesuvius (Echinodorus Angustifolia) with a long runner of about 8 unplanted tiny swords.
to the right: Echinodorus Parvifolius "Tropica". The "tropica" version is at most 2 inches high the non "tropica" 4 inches. All the Parvifolius in this tank are "Tropica" - wonderful plant.
just behind the tropica sword is a kleiner prinz sword (looks much nicer in person due to rich red/purple leaves - the camera failed to capture correctly)
To the right of the kleiner is crypt parva
next to parva crypt is afzelii anubia and directly behind the afzelii is barteri var glabra anubia
Some repens is next to the afzelii with lots of annoying dwarf sag (grass).
Not really visible but just behind and left of the rosy tetra is a pinto anubia and directly behind is an uruguayensis sword
Right of the rosy tetra is another tropica parvifolius sword - and this one has just shot up a runner so we shall be getting more of them (long term i'll probably pull the grass and let the tropica replace it)
Behind the tropica is a melon sword and just right of the melon sword is another pinto anubia
The green fluffy plant in the front is ambulia limnophila sesslifora
The green fluffy plant in the middle-rear is myriophyllum scbratum
and mexican oak is between the two (front to back)
Just left of the sesslifora is a tiny purple alfame. This plant is actually a year old and I diligently pull any plant that gets too near (this morning that was mostly dwarf sag).
The red plants on the right are a combination of rotala Vietnam H'ra, myriphyllum tuberculatum (nice copper colour) and ammannia gracillis.
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There are of course many more plants some seen some not this is a start.

 

[marmaaa]

Wow your tanks looks amazing! I plan on also upgrading from a 20L to a 40B. How did you transfer them over?

 

[jake37]

I used 5 gallon pails - i put all the fishes and plants in two pails with about 2 1/2 gallons of tank water; i then use a plastic shovel to remove all the substrate and put in another 5 gallon pail. I then put the old substrate in the 40B along with the another 40lb of new substrate - filled with water - treated the water - moved over the sponge mature sponge filter - heated the water and put the plants in and then the fishes. Took 2ish hours.

Wow your tanks looks amazing! I plan on also upgrading from a 20L to a 40B. How did you transfer them over?

 

[marmaaa]

I used 5 gallon pails - i put all the fishes and plants in two pails with about 2 1/2 gallons of tank water; i then use a plastic shovel to remove all the substrate and put in another 5 gallon pail. I then put the old substrate in the 40B along with the another 40lb of new substrate - filled with water - treated the water - moved over the sponge mature sponge filter - heated the water and put the plants in and then the fishes. Took 2ish hours.

And the cycle was still fine? Would it be fine if I didn't transfer over my substrate?

 

[jake37]

It was fine because i transferred the filters but i tested ammonia daily for the first 4 days to ensure it stayed below 0.25. I use very dense sponge filters...

And the cycle was still fine? Would it be fine if I didn't transfer over my substrate?

 

[Jimj1]

outstanding tank