75 gallon aquarium journal

[Gudgie]

Unfortunately had an outbreak of suspected camallanus worms in my tank last month - thread here: Camallanus worms?! | Freshwater Fish Disease and Fish Health Forum | 496294

I've lost three rams - a juvenile male and two adult males. I had to treat my 20 gal too, plus bleach my equipment to be safe. Thankfully, my remaining three rams as well as all of the other fish seem healthy thus far. Here's hoping they stay that way!

Also, duckweed has wiped out what Salvinia I had in this tank. That's what I get for not rinsing plants before adding them. Oops! Slowly scooping out the duckweed - fingers crossed I'll eradicate it one of these days. I have plenty of Salvinia in my other tanks that I can move over once that happens.

 

[Basil]

Unfortunately had an outbreak of suspected camallanus worms in my tank last month - thread here: Camallanus worms?! | Freshwater Fish Disease and Fish Health Forum | 496294

I've lost three rams - a juvenile male and two adult males. I had to treat my 20 gal too, plus bleach my equipment to be safe. Thankfully, my remaining three rams as well as all of the other fish seem healthy thus far. Here's hoping they stay that way!

Also, duckweed has wiped out what Salvinia I had in this tank. That's what I get for not rinsing plants before adding them. Oops! Slowly scooping out the duckweed - fingers crossed I'll eradicate it one of these days. I have plenty of Salvinia in my other tanks that I can move over once that happens.

Oops, I apologize profusely if there was duckweed on the vals.
I thought I had rinsed it all off.
I’m so paranoid about an infection of something like camallanus worms. Hope everything is cleared up now.

 

[Gudgie]

Oops, I apologize profusely if there was duckweed on the vals.
I thought I had rinsed it all off.
I’m so paranoid about an infection of something like camallanus worms. Hope everything is cleared up now.

No worries! The duckweed will be gone eventually, and the Salvinia never liked the 75 as much as my other tanks anyway. Not too surprised it was outcompeted. The vals seem to have settled in though! Not sure which ones are from whom at this point, but they’re finally sending off runners to start new plantlets. And the camallanus definitely entered my tank with some fish that were more recent than our plant swamp, in case there was any worry about introducing it to your tanks!

 

[Basil]

No worries! The duckweed will be gone eventually, and the Salvinia never liked the 75 as much as my other tanks anyway. Not too surprised it was outcompeted. The vals seem to have settled in though! Not sure which ones are from whom at this point, but they’re finally sending off runners to start new plantlets. And the camallanus definitely entered my tank with some fish that were more recent than our plant swamp, in case there was any worry about introducing it to your tanks!

Oh good to hear about the vals! Mine go through spurts where they spread quite well and then seem to slow down tor a while.
It took diligence but I was able to rid my 75 of duckweed. The 10 g is still a work in progress but the salvinia grows great in that low flow tank.
It’s now in all my tanks but definitely grows best in the low flow ones.

 

[Gudgie]

Vals have taken root and been starting to spread more - yay! The tank has otherwise been holding steady since I treated for camallanus a few months ago, everyone continue to be healthy. I'm hoping to add a handful more fish soon. Next up is tentatively three more Bolivians, since they're the fish I lost . I've also been toying around with finding a SAE to add, especially since they'll eat BBA. I've seen mixed opinions on their flying solo versus requiring 2 or 3+. Thoughts? Could I get away with just one, assuming I find a true SAE (not a flying fox or CAE)?

I think it'll be time to rearrange the driftwood and plants soon, since I'm not digging the current plant organization. I'm loving the vals spreading, but not so thrilled with the other plants. And the Amazon sword has been struggling a bit in its current spot (right, behind the Malaysian driftwood). Deciding whether I can pretty things up with the existing contents, or if I should get some new driftwood. I'd honestly love to get a new big piece of driftwood, probably Malaysian, but driftwood is sooooo dang expensive. Hmm. Time to do an internet search for a bit of inspiration.

In the meantime, here a pic of the two resident bamboo shrimp (yep, I got a second - he's the monster behind the one in front).

 

[Gudgie]

Well after a successful trip to my local LFS, House of Tropicals, I now have 5 rummynose tetras, 3 juvenile Bolivian rams, and one juvenile SAE in QT. The SAE is actually from Petco since the other LFS didn't have any, and labeled as "Siamese flying fox". It definitely looks like a true SAE though, not a CAE or flying fox - the other LFS had both of those.

The store employee thought the rummies were wild caught, so I'm going to preemptively treat for internal parasites during QT. I know there's quite a debate on this, but I'm not going to risk it again after the camallanus outbreak. Though I'll note I'm planning on only treating with antiparasitics; no plans for antibiotics unless there's an obvious need.

After QT ends, the SAE may move into my 20 gallon briefly, before ultimately moving into the 75 gallon community. Fingers crossed that it decides that BBA is truly fine dining!

 

[Basil]

Yay! New fish! Haven’t been to HOT since when I purchased the sparklers.
I’ve always treated everything with levamisole while in quarantine.
And since the last time I quarantined, I’ve read about doing three rounds instead of two tor the loaches, so I’ll probably do that next time.
I have to admit that I never see my SAE actually eating the BBA but it’s not taking over the tank so maybe he is! Either way, he’s a really cool fish.

 

[Gudgie]

Here's a shot of the SAE while I was floating him. He's not that much bigger that the rummies right now. Of course I have no idea how to sex SAEs, so the "he" is completely arbitrary.

Basil - me neither! They had a variety of good looking stock on hand, though also dealing with an ich outbreak in a few tanks. I was glad to see that all of those tanks were clearly marked as not for sale and undergoing treatment. I have a closer LFS that does NOT mark their ich tanks and I've seen them sell out of them with no mention to customers, so I'm always impressed to see a store like HoT.

 

[Basil]

Looks like mine . My SAE was also quite small when I got “him• (since I also have no idea how to sex them). I got him from That Fish Place in Lancaster.
He’s grown quite nicely and will probably really appreciate the room in the 75 when I upgrade. He loves to zoom about.

 

[jmaldo]

He loves to zoom about.

So fast when playing tag, I call mine torpedoes with jet packs. I had a bit of BBA then added the SAEs and gone, fingers-crossed it stays that way.

Good Luck!

 

[Gudgie]

When I was feeding the tank a few hours ago, I saw that I have a berried Amano! Ooh exciting! It's hard to tell from this photo, but she definitely looks berried in person (not fungus).

Sounds like it's rather difficult to raise Amanos, especially since the larvae need saltwater after they hatch, but at least a few people on here have attempted it with mixed success. Odds of success may be low, but it looks like it would be cheap to attempt. Getting a bit of seawater (and algae) and a small sponge filter for the saltwater larvae tank. Then it's just a matter of maintaining a food source for them and periodic water changes, before eventually (after multiple morphs) moving back to freshwater. I know that is a crazy simplification of the process, but it sounds relatively straight forward to attempt.

Of course, I didn't try to catch the female when I saw her and now she's disappeared. But I did set up a small critter keeper with tank water to hold her in until she drops her eggs - so I'm ready if/when she makes her reappearance. I have no idea how recently she berried, so I'd rather move her sooner than later.

I'll need to grab some saltwater and get a container going for once the eggs hatch. If I'd seen her this morning, I could have grabbed some water from a tank at my LFS earlier so that it would already have some micro-organisms. Nuts!

Looking at these posts for some inspiration: Amano Shrimp Larvae Growth Progress | Amano Shrimp Forum | 375165
Breeding Amano shrimp | Amano Shrimp Forum | 251837

For anyone interested in the process - this video on youtube is also super helpful!

If I successfully catch the berried female, I'll start a new post in the Amano sub-forum for the attempt

So fast when playing tag, I call mine torpedoes with jet packs. I had a bit of BBA then added the SAEs and gone, fingers-crossed it stays that way.

Good Luck!

I certainly hope that will be the case with this SAE! Do you think mine would be happier with a partner in crime? Right now I just have the one, but that's all the store had.

 

[Gudgie]

Fish in QT seem to be settling in well. They all ate frozen brine shrimp when I fed that last night. Today I tried Ken’s growth pellets and they quickly ate that too. Always happy to see prepared foods readily accepted by new fish!

 

[Gudgie]

Did a major water change today, then rescaped the tank. Mostly just shifted around the driftwood and plants, plus removed some stems and bits of Anubias nana that were super algae covered. There are two new manzanita branches I tossed in that were leftover from scaping my 20 gallon. Odds are good they'll be back floating at the top when I look at the tank tomorrow.

Before rescaping (but after water change):


After:

I think the layout needs some further tweaking, but I'm not sure what. Probably will give it a couple of days to settle in and then see. Any suggestions on what to adjust? Perhaps adding some foreground plants of some sort?

Here's the amano that previously had eggs. Didn't end up netting her out, but that's alright. Too much else going on anyway.


Lady rams:


At least another week until the current QT inhabitants can move into this tank, but so far so good there!

 

[Gudgie]

Finally got a new light for the aquarium - a 48” light that’s the proper length for this aquarium! After looking through recent posts on lighting here, I opted for a Hygger 957 light. Thus far, I really like it. Hard to tell from the photos, but it is slightly brighter than the old 3 lights combined.

Also added some additional vals from StarGirl, trying to fill in the background bit more. I may need to adjust my spray bar since I think it’s pushing some of the vals down a bit too much.

Quick photo after my water change tonight:

Also got a couple quick pics of some shrimp who were out and about.


My rams were super colorful today, and it looked like the male might be pairing up with the younger female. He was digging in the sand a bit, shimmying near her, plus he chased the other female away a few times. Fingers crossed, perhaps I finally have a pair! Though if not, there’s another 6 that’ll be added over the next month. Should at least have a pair or two by the end of that, I hope!

 

[jmaldo]

I really like the look of the 75g reminds me of my 55g build years ago. I like the "Vals" just placed an order with StarGirl should have them next week for my 20L Puffer build.

 

[Gudgie]

Further tweaked the scape a bit. Decided to remove the tardis, so it’s decorating my QT now instead. I added a couple small pieces of driftwood I had in an old 5 gallon, plus shifted the two swords and some vals around. I’ll probably move the vals around a bit more still, but I want to let them settle in for a day and see how they’re sitting in the filter flow. A constant work in progress right now!

Also added the rummies and rams from QT yesterday. Of course a few hours afterwards, I noticed a mark on the side of one of the rummies (panicked slightly and posted about it on the forum). Fairly sure it’s just a mild injury, not disease, but keeping an eye on it. Certainly didn’t look any worse today, possibly better, so I hope it’ll heal up just fine.

 

[bermese2002]

Looks amazing! I love it! There's so much to look at with all the different areas

 

[Gudgie]

Spotted 6 Endler fry today! They may have been there a couple days, as I hadn’t looked too closely at the surface lately. Since I just moved the pure orchid endlers back to the 75 about 3 weeks ago, which include the only females, there’s a very good chance the offspring are pure orchids too!

And on that note, I’ve decided to rehome the endler males that are either guppy hybrids or a wild type (not line-bred) that I have to my friend’s 75 gallon. They never were in the 20 gal with the orchids, so the existing offspring are unlikely to be theirs. Of course the females could be carrying new offspring from them - only time will tell. I’d prefer to keep pure endlers, so I’ll likely sort out any obvious hybrid offspring. Not to hate on hybrids, I just greatly prefer the look of orchids.They may not technically remain pure orchid though - there’s one male black bar remaining from our original batch who we’ve had at least 4 years, and likely more like 5-6 years! He just keeps swimming!

In other news, I have four more rams (2M:2F) going through their QT period right now, which’ll bring my total up to 10. I know they do well in groups, but I suspect that may end up being a few too many for the 75. If that turns out to be the case, I’ll be looking to rehome a few once I have some pairs.

 

[Gudgie]

Some happy and sad news to share.

In happy news, it looks like I really do have a Bolivian ram pair - it’s my remaining original male from coralbandit, plus a younger female I got from Passionfish. No eggs yet, but they’ve continued to stick together, chasing the other rams away from their chosen spot, and staying super colorful. Fingers crossed that there will be eggs soon! Slight downside - their chosen site is right next to Plecopotamus’s hidey hole. They’re super respectful of her when she comes out right now (she’s definitely the queen of the tank), but I’m a bit worried what could happen once there are eggs to defend. Once my 10 gal QT frees up, I may temporarily move the pair there for spawning, since then there won’t be any other fish to eat the eggs/fry.


In sad news, one of the Synodontis lucipinnis that we’ve had since ~2014 died today. She/he had been in a hospital tank while I attempted to treat a horrible injury it received a few days ago, but sadly had no success. Wondering if there was an altercation with the pleco, otherwise no idea what caused the wound. We’re continuing to monitor the rest of the tank to be safe, just in case it was a contagious illness rather than injury. Thankfully, everyone looks good so far. It’s a bit tough losing a fish we’ve had so long - actually one of the first fish my now husband had gotten when he set up his first 25 gallon (I may have been a bad - or good? - influence on him when it comes to aquarium life).

Other general updates - I made some other minor changes in the tank. It was time for a big water change, plus a thorough cleaning of the 407 canister. I adjusted the direction of its spray bar afterwards, then decided to turn off our Hydor power head for now. I felt like it was battering the vals too much, so I want to see how the tank does without it for awhile.


One of the bamboo shrimp was out filter feeding earlier - got a decent picture!

 

[Gudgie]

Woohoo, I finally have some eggs from the Bolivian ram pair! I'd put a small/flat stone in yesterday, and apparently that did the trick! They laid eggs earlier this evening.

Bad news - the eggs started to become a community buffet. Some tetras were helping themselves, and the pleco may have too. The male guarded the nest in that he chased off the other rams, but he ignored the other species. Plus then he started eating some eggs too (does NOT appear like he was relocating them) . It's their first time, so I'm not too surprised that they still need to work on their parenting skills.

Rather than fully let nature take its course, I decided to rescue some of the eggs - looks like there are around 40 or so left. For now, the rock w/ eggs is hanging in a breeder net in my main tank.

Decided to set up a 5 gallon tank for the fry, but only about half full with a bubbler and couple drops of methylene blue. Nearly all the water was transferred from the 75. I’ll transfer the rock over shortly.

If I’m lucky and any of the eggs are fertilized, sounds like I should start seeing wrigglers in 2-3 days.

I also tossed a small sponge from a sponge filter into my largest canister filter, so hopefully it’ll be aged enough by the time I need it (since this is a small batch). If not, I have a small HOB as a backup, which has an adjustable flow rate and prefilter sponge.

 

[jmaldo]

CONGRATS!
Fertile or not they may develop fungus, normally the parents will take turns fanning them. Since you moved the eggs, just make sure you get some water movement around the eggs, I have heard some try and put an air stone near them.

Good Luck!

 

[Gudgie]

CONGRATS!
Fertile or not they may develop fungus, normally the parents will take turns fanning them. Since you moved the eggs, just make sure you get some water movement around the eggs, I have heard some try and put an air stone near them.

Good Luck!

Thanks!

I just transferred the rock over to the 5 gal using a small Tupperware container. There were already a handful of white eggs, so I used a pipette to remove those first.



I ended up leaving the rock in the tupperware, since that it made it easier to wedge the air stone under it. The bubbles aren’t really hitting the eggs directly, but there’s clearly some water flow over the eggs so hopefully that’ll work. Time will tell

 

[Gudgie]

Started a spawn log to track the eggs here: Bolivian Ram spawn log | Breeding Fish Forum | 507018

Figured I'd try to keep this thread for my general community tank updates

 

[Gudgie]

Eeek. I’ll preface this post by saying that the crisis was averted, but we nearly gassed our 75 gallon tank!

So our CO2 regulator has been a bit finicky, and we’ve needed to toy with the flow rate. The manifold that connects to our 20 gal is always reliable, not been a problem. But the other manifold that connects to the 75 gallon has been super unreliable, and the bubble rate always seems to slow for unknown reasons. Even after opening the needle valve all the way, the bubble rate often stays at a crawl. The 75 consistently showed low CO2 lately, so we’d significantly opened up the needle valve which only slightly increased the flow. Now fast forward a couple of days to Saturday….

I went to check on our aquariums around 2-3pm, since I needed to feed the few rainbow fry that I have. Thankfully I noticed the 75 gal from the corner of my eye, and noted that I didn’t see fish swimming around, which is super odd. Looked closer, and saw a ram on its side at the bottom, gasping.

Alarmed at the point, I quickly realized that ALL the rams were on their sides or upside down at the bottom, and the syno cats were basically rigid/vertical/not swimming at all, though thankfully everyone was visibly breathing. The rummies weren’t quite as bad but still clearly effected. Oddly enough, endlers seemed almost okay. Thank goodness I immediately remembered the CO2 issue and turned off the flow to the tank; turns out the flow rate was WAY faster than it was supposed to be, to the point that the tank was nearly gassed!

Immediately started running a series of water changes to drop the CO2 levels as fast as possible. Also adjusted the filter flow and restarted our powerhead to increase surface agitation. While our python was busy emptying/filling the aquarium, I also filled up a 5 gal bucket with mostly new water, added a bubbler and a bit of methylene blue, and netted all the rams, cats, plecos, and the worst impacted rummies.

Thankfully, the fish started to perk up right away in the 5 gal bucket. And after numerous partial water changes, I was able to add everyone back into the 75 gal.

Amazingly, we managed to not lose a single fish. I’m just glad I looked at the aquarium when I did, because an hour later might have led to a different outcome. I really thought we were about to lose the entire tank when I first saw it.

For now, I have the CO2 still shut off to this aquarium. Ideally I’d like to get a new regulator such as the CO2art pro elite, but that’s not quite in the budget yet. It needs to have dual manifolds, so that limits the options. In the meantime, I may try replacing the faulty manifold on our currently regulator and see if that fixes the issue. Certainly going to be extra cautious whenever we decide to turn the CO2 back on!

 

[Gudgie]

Can't believe I haven't posted to this thread since the near CO2 disaster. Not much has changed though, other than the CO2 has been turned back on at a very, very slow rate. It's continued to hold steady, thankfully, no problems whatsoever. But we're going to keep in low rather than dial all the way up to optimal plant CO2 levels, since the plants seem to be doing fine. No new plants or fish unless you count endlers being born, and I'm just periodically thinning out the duckweed. Got rid of a massive mat of it last night!


Unfortunately, there definitely still seems to be some internal parasite in the tank. It's obvious on most of the rams, but it's possible that other fish have it too. The rams seems to have increasingly sunken bellies, despite having an appetite and eating just fine. No obvious sign of protruding camallanus worms, so I'm not sure if it's that or another type. If not camallanus, I'm not sure where the parasite would have originated from, though I'm guessing perhaps the juvenile rams or rummies purchased from my LFS back in July. The frustrating thing is that those fish were treated twice with General Cure as well as levamisole in the QT tank (not at the same time). And my whole 75 gal has also been treated twice with Prazipro as well as levamisole (levamisole before the new fish were added, Prazi after). Perhaps my mistake was not treating a third time with either of those meds, and I may have missed some (or the eggs).

(the second image is an older female, who is generally very pale compared to other rams. But I don't think it's stress - she's always been like that. And her head is not that humped, it's just an odd photo angle).

For now, I've decided to try treating with fenbendazole (Safeguard dewormer), since I hadn't tried that med previously. I think some inverts may be susceptible to fenben, so I opted to mix it with food rather than add into the water; hopefully will be safer for the inverts. I mixed fenben, focus, and garlic guard in with some frozen brine shrimp, and fed that yesterday and today. Planning to feed it for a week, and then again in three weeks So far so good - the fish still happily gobbled it up. I also am getting some epsom salt today, so I'll mix a little of that in with my next food prep to help in expelling any worms.

If that doesn't work, I may try levamisole or GC again - though I'll likely do three rounds, and/or try mixing it in food. I'd much rather mix GC in food than dose the entire tank if possible, since I'd have to use up a ton of GC for 75 gallons.

 

[Basil]

Can't believe I haven't posted to this thread since the near CO2 disaster. Not much has changed though, other than the CO2 has been turned back on at a very, very slow rate. It's continued to hold steady, thankfully, no problems whatsoever. But we're going to keep in low rather than dial all the way up to optimal plant CO2 levels, since the plants seem to be doing fine. No new plants or fish unless you count endlers being born, and I'm just periodically thinning out the duckweed. Got rid of a massive mat of it last night!
View attachment 818647

Unfortunately, there definitely still seems to be some internal parasite in the tank. It's obvious on most of the rams, but it's possible that other fish have it too. The rams seems to have increasingly sunken bellies, despite having an appetite and eating just fine. No obvious sign of protruding camallanus worms, so I'm not sure if it's that or another type. If not camallanus, I'm not sure where the parasite would have originated from, though I'm guessing perhaps the juvenile rams or rummies purchased from my LFS back in July. The frustrating thing is that those fish were treated twice with General Cure as well as levamisole in the QT tank (not at the same time). And my whole 75 gal has also been treated twice with Prazipro as well as levamisole (levamisole before the new fish were added, Prazi after). Perhaps my mistake was not treating a third time with either of those meds, and I may have missed some (or the eggs).
View attachment 818649View attachment 818648
(the second image is an older female, who is generally very pale compared to other rams. But I don't think it's stress - she's always been like that. And her head is not that humped, it's just an odd photo angle).

For now, I've decided to try treating with fenbendazole (Safeguard dewormer), since I hadn't tried that med previously. I think some inverts may be susceptible to fenben, so I opted to mix it with food rather than add into the water; hopefully will be safer for the inverts. I mixed fenben, focus, and garlic guard in with some frozen brine shrimp, and fed that yesterday and today. Planning to feed it for a week, and then again in three weeks So far so good - the fish still happily gobbled it up. I also am getting some epsom salt today, so I'll mix a little of that in with my next food prep to help in expelling any worms.

If that doesn't work, I may try levamisole or GC again - though I'll likely do three rounds, and/or try mixing it in food. I'd much rather mix GC in food than dose the entire tank if possible, since I'd have to use up a ton of GC for 75 gallons.

I’m also still dealing with what I think is an internal parasite in my 75. I’m down to 8 tiger barbs and 4 Queen loaches. They all get skinny and eventually die even though they have great appetites. It’s a couple of weeks to a couple of months between losses.
And like you, all were dewormed with levamisole in quarantine and prazipro in the 75 and now flakes containing fenbendazole and levamisole but to no avail.
The flying fox looks amazing though and is growing like a weed.
So I’ll be watching your experiences with interest.

 

[Gudgie]

I’m also still dealing with what I think is an internal parasite in my 75. I’m down to 8 tiger barbs and 4 Queen loaches. They all get skinny and eventually die even though they have great appetites. It’s a couple of weeks to a couple of months between losses.
And like you, all were dewormed with levamisole in quarantine and prazipro in the 75 and now flakes containing fenbendazole and levamisole but to no avail.
The flying fox looks amazing though and is growing like a weed.
So I’ll be watching your experiences with interest.

I’ll keep ya posted. So far, no obvious success with the fenben. Actually lost one of the smaller rams today. Thinking I may also try levamisole again, but at a higher dose. I used 2 ppm last time, may bump that to 4 ppm or so. Just so frustrating. If it’s not internal parasites, I have no idea what it is.

 

[Basil]

Since I have loaches, I have to be so careful with any meds and dewormers.
The vet who sees my horses as well as my cats and dogs did say that he could send a fish for necropsy and culture. But it needs to be refrigerated not frozen. But the last two tiger barbs that I lost were partially eaten by the loaches when I found them.

 

[fishdude5000]

Hi everyone,

My 75 gallon tank is finally up and running, and I wanted to share its progress. I’ve never tracked my tanks before, so I’m hoping to periodically post pictures and see how it fills in. In theory I’m aiming for a South American community tank, if you ignore the fact that we also have six dwarf synodontis (who peacefully coexist with everyone). Any suggestions on things to tweak are always welcome.

We transitioned everything from our old 55 gallon over to this new tank this weekend, including the substrate. My husband custom built the stand for it - just still needs some doors so our dogs won’t raid the fish food (wouldn’t be the first time...).

Equipment and decor:
75 gallon aquarium
Custom stand
Fluval 407 and 306 canisters
Fluval E heater
36" Fluval eco bright LED fixture (13588)
two 21" Marineland Hidden LED Lighting Strips
Pool filter sand
Dark frosted window film as the background
New spider wood, plus our old Malaysian and a bit of mopani driftwood
Dragon stone

Plants:
Anubias nana
Crypt wendtii
Crypt balansae
Rotala indica
Amazon swords
Ludwia repens
A smattering of other plants that I can’t remember

Fishes/Inverts:
4 Bolivian rams (currently 3M:1F, hoping to add more females soon!)
10 rummynose tetras
6 endlers
1 female BN pleco
1 Colombian zebra pleco (sold as L129, though I’m not sure how to differentiate from L270).
6 Synodontis luscipinnis
2 black neons
2 glowlight tetras (these and the neons are remains of old schools)
2 Amano shrimp
6 nerites
1 Mystery snail (he rode along with some plants)

Stand after priming:
View attachment 683578

Just after we filled the tank on Saturday, waiting for it to clear up:
View attachment 683584

Here are some tank shots from Monday, with the tank looking much clearer!
View attachment 683585
View attachment 683586View attachment 683587View attachment 683588

Unfortunately a lot of the plants are in rough shape due to algae and a recent antibiotic treatment in our 55, but hopefully they’ll all recover with time. We definitely need some background plants to fill in. I’ve supplemented with root tabs so far, plus I have liquid ferts. Eventually I hope to upgrade the lighting, probably to a 48” Beamworks FSPEC.

I think I should try to adjust the spider wood on the left so that it takes up more vertical room, but I’m waiting until it’s fully water logged first (rocks are weighting it down). The top of the tank just feels so empty right now. Thoughts?

i just wanted to say that your tank is freaking amazing !!!!! keep up the work i know i couldnt do that good of a job

 

[Gudgie]

It's been two years, but this tank is still going strong overall. The vals have taken over so I need to thin them out soon and adjust the hardscape, but I think that'll wait for another day.


Unfortunately we went out of town last month, and the person house sitting overfed the tank (a lot) and the nitrates went nuts. Presumably there was a bit of ammonia and nitrites at some point too, though there wasn't any by the time we checked. We sadly lost both bamboo shrimp and some tetras, though thankfully everyone else made it as far as we can tell.

We seem to have everything back to normal now, but I certainly miss our two bamboo shrimp. I'd always spot them hanging out on the vals or driftwood, waving their fans in the flow from the filter and powerhead. We'd had them 2-2.5 years (which the internet seems to think is old for them?), but they still seemed to be going strong until this happened.

I suppose once my QT tank frees up, I'll be on the lookout for a couple new shrimpies...

 

[Gudgie]

Things have gotten way more under control in this tank - whew!

Thinned the vals a little plus gave them a major haircut, so there’s a lot more light penetration and more surface flow.

We added two synodontis petricola/luscipinnis to our existing group a couple weeks ago. I wasn’t really looking to add more, but a friend needed to rehome hers so we figured we’d see how they did with ours. There was a little bit of upheaval and glass surfing by one at first, but thankfully they’ve settled in now.

We also have a new bamboo shrimp all settled in. I’m always happy to see them filtering away - already found the prime spot to sit in the flow from the filter!

There’s also some pothos along the top of the tank now, clipped from a house plant we have. I’m curious to see if it’ll help keep the nitrates lower.

Lastly, I think I may be looking to rehome the three SAE from this tank soon, though not fully decided. They just always seem a bit chaotic - I miss the tank being a bit more tranquil!

 

[Gudgie]

Been quite awhile, but the tank is still going strong! The main light just died, so I'll need to get a replacement soon. Other than that, it continues to be low maintenance for us.

Just picked up four otos today to start their quarantine. I've had three otos in the 75 gallon for several months now - since they've been doing so well, decided it was finally time to expand their school a bit.