Aussie's 65g Corner Pent: "blackwater Pool"

24/1/18




Decided might as well do one for my other aquarium as well, this is the one that has been in the family for over 20 years or so. This aquarium I took over maintenance - with parent guidance - when I was 5, and now nearly 15 years later I still care for it to this day. The only difference is now I have a small paycheck, which some of it happens to be spent on this tank. As the result, it has gotten a major facelift in recent years, such as being planted for the first time!

Specs:
Tank: 65g (95cm x 45cm - along each back wall and height) (37 inch x 16 inch)
Filter: Fluval G6 (not turned on) and one aqua ocellaris 1400 (24/1/18 Glass lily surface skimmer, stock G6 out-take with duckbill and spraybar attachment.)
Circulation: 1 1000 l/h (264 g/h) powerhead/wavemaker and
AZOO SKIM 250 surface skimmer (Azoo discontinued from 24/1/18)

Heater: aqua one 300 watt set to 27C/80F (looking for inline, but hydor is discontinued in Australia...)
Light: Deebow LED light (60cm/2foot - off eBay)
CO2: None
Ferts: Dose Epsom Salt as my plants seem to suffer from Mg deficiency... That's it.
Substrate: White play (silica) sand, 2-3cm (1 inch)
Decor: 'Goldenvine' (only found in AUS, similar include spiderwood/manzanita), 'local' River Rocks (Beach Rocks actually) and 2 coconut hides
Flora:
- Alternanthera reineckiI var. 'mini' (AR mini)
- Aunbias barterI var. 'nana' ( Anubias nana)
- Anubias b. var. 'nana petite' (Anubias nana petite)
- Anubias b. var. 'cofferforia' (Anubias cofferforia)
- Anubias b. var. angustifolia (Anubias lanceolata)
- Blyxa japonica (Blxya)
- Bolbitis heudelotiI (Bolbitis)
- Bucephlandra sp.
- Buce sp. 'Velvet'
- cryptocoryne sp. (believe its wendtiI var. 'brown', but not sure)
- Echinodorus augustifolia var. 'Vesuvius' (Vesuvius sword)
- Echinodorus parviflorus 'Tropica' (Tropica sword)
- Fissidens fontanus (Fissidens Moss)
- Hydrocotyle tripartita 'Japan'
- Limnobium laevigatum (amazon frogbit)
- Microsorum pteropus var. 'windolov' (Windolov Java Fern)
- M. pteropus var. 'mini' (Micro Java fern)
- M. pteropus var. 'needle leaf' (Needle Leaf Java Fern)
- Nymphaea zenkerI var. 'red' (Red Tiger Lotus)
- Plagiochila sp. 'Cameroon Moss' (Cameroon Moss)
- Vesicularia dubyana (Java moss <<< been trying to get rid of this for years... and gave up after a couple... it stays)
- Vesicularia montagneI (Christmas Moss)
- Lomaropsis sp. (Süßwassertang)
Fauna
- 1 Pterophyllum scalare (Angelfish - Male, called Stache due to having a little moustache)
- 6 Nannostomus beckfordI (Golden Pencilfish)
- 5 Hemigrammus bleherI (Rummynose tetra)
- 10 Pangio semicincta (KuhlI loach)
- 6 Pangio anguillaris (Silver KuhlI Loach)
- 3 Pangio oblonga (Black KuhlI Loach)
- 3 Corydoras aeneus (Bronze Cory - try to keep 6 or more, but the pop just seems to die back and hover at 3... So I gave up and now just keep 3)
- 2 Mikrogeophagus altispinosus (Bolivian Ram)
- 10 Ancistrus sp. (All sizes, ranging from babies to adults... I just hate destroying the tank to get them out as they seem to not like the traps I set out for them.. Ideally I'll have 2)
- Melanoides tuberculata (Malaysian Trumpet Snails)

 

Saved - will update this in the morning showing various new things... that differ from above pics.

 

Wow! Love that you’ve been taking care of it since you were 5! Can’t wait to see photos!

 

Some recent pics from today! Sorry for the bad pics, I haven't cleaned my prefilter last week - lazy me... I know - and S7 technology! Maybe I'll break out the DSLR or something.

KuhlI pile pics! (Striped kuhlies, black kuhlies and a few bad pics of the silver kuhlies)















Is that... a cherry shrimp (red thing in the middle...) I have a surviving small shrimp colony in here which my angel loves to hunt down... Hitchhikers from my shrimp tank)



Angel pics

 

Part 2! ^_^

Rams






The new glass lily pipe (surface skimmer)



My filter setup... as you can see its a G6 (prefilter) and then the aquaone canister. The G6 worked fine but then one day stopped working... Dunno why, took it apart and was fine. Unfortunately, this $1000 filter warranty expired... so its a very nice expensive prefilter. I do turn it on every couple of daya to use the TDS, water temp and flowrate functions to help me keep track... otherwise its off, water goes intothe g6, out into the aquaone and then pumped back into the tank...




And FTS

 

Not a whole lot has changed...
- inline heater called the quits
- replaced with a cheapo internal, also called the quits
- added a lemon tetra school
- added 3 SAE (they were very much impulse buys...)
- don't think any new plants
- started dosing dry ferts (K, NO3, P, micro mix and Fe...) noticing a massive difference



My big boy is doing well... had a scare a few weeks back where he refused to eat for 2 weeks. Thought he was dying or something, but then he started eating...



Pretty ram...



Look at the AR minI new growth... very nice and red. I like it.



FTS

 

Another lenghty update. I really should be more on top of things.

My aquaone canister is a pretty cheap canister, and similar build to the sunsun. I was pretty happy with it - its not a bad filter - but I just have had one scare too many for comfort. One of the hoses was close to slipping off, and had a super slow leak (slow enough the water evaporated, but noticeable enough that the tank would slowly drain.

So, instead of waiting for the inevitable to happen, I brought another eccopro. I like how low wattage they are - good for the power bill IMO - and overall enjoy how easy it is to clean as its not that bulky. My tanks have a pretty reasonable amount of plants, so I'm not particularly worried about ammonia or the like - I did move over around and 1/8 from my current canister(s) to help seed it.


I also added an inline heater, since all my heaters decided to call things quits. While it was fine to have an unheated tank during summer, now its getting a little too chilly as the water regularly has been at 20C (70F) for the last couple of weeks.... All fish did fine, and no observable difference in behaviour. It's a sun sun 500watt (I purchased the 300 watt, but whatever) which I love since its a great intermediate between my filters 12mm hose to my 16mm outtake due to having multiple sized hose connectors.


My current light also decided to call it quits, so I have a new nice PAR system from Make My LEDs that's custom to suit my tank. I've always wanted to buy a unit from this company, and now is the perfect chance to do so! Also has a couple of RGB bars, so custom colours here I come! I'll get some pics up of it all when the new unit comes in!



And on the postive note, the lemon tetras spawned and had at least one successful fry. Very surprised to see it survive, but glad it has!

 

Another lenghty update. I really should be more on top of things.

My aquaone canister is a pretty cheap canister, and similar build to the sunsun. I was pretty happy with it - its not a bad filter - but I just have had one scare too many for comfort. One of the hoses was close to slipping off, and had a super slow leak (slow enough the water evaporated, but noticeable enough that the tank would slowly drain.

So, instead of waiting for the inevitable to happen, I brought another eccopro. I like how low wattage they are - good for the power bill IMO - and overall enjoy how easy it is to clean as its not that bulky. My tanks have a pretty reasonable amount of plants, so I'm not particularly worried about ammonia or the like - I did move over around and 1/8 from my current canister(s) to help seed it.


I also added an inline heater, since all my heaters decided to call things quits. While it was fine to have an unheated tank during summer, now its getting a little too chilly as the water regularly has been at 20C (70F) for the last couple of weeks.... All fish did fine, and no observable difference in behaviour. It's a sun sun 500watt (I purchased the 300 watt, but whatever) which I love since its a great intermediate between my filters 12mm hose to my 16mm outtake due to having multiple sized hose connectors.


My current light also decided to call it quits, so I have a new nice PAR system from Make My LEDs that's custom to suit my tank. I've always wanted to buy a unit from this company, and now is the perfect chance to do so! Also has a couple of RGB bars, so custom colours here I come! I'll get some pics up of it all when the new unit comes in!



And on the postive note, the lemon tetras spawned and had at least one successful fry. Very surprised to see it survive, but glad it has!

And lights arrived. As all the cool kids say, its lit!
Before - very dim, pic doesn't show...



New system




And new lights (RGB only, with 'orange' colour which has a tannin feel to it, and all lights on 100%)








And new filter!

 

I hadn't caught this thread before. Beautiful setup. I like how shallow it appears, relative to surface area. Also nice to see the changes over time to such a long-established tank.

 

I hadn't caught this thread before. Beautiful setup. I like how shallow it appears, relative to surface area. Also nice to see the changes over time to such a long-established tank.

I've got some older pics, like in the early 2000's... I have to upload them someday, its certainly came a long way!

 

I've got some older pics, like in the early 2000's... I have to upload them someday, its certainly came a long way!

Do it!!!

 

A slight update.
Fixed up most of the sand bed. Tank looks a little better now that most of the gravel is now where the plants are.... makes the tank look more open...


And a couple of new fish I got recently... (2 Albino Pearlscales & a Marble Pinoy)












My big boy has been very good, only really a small chase to show whos boss but that's about it. Hopefully it continues like this.

 

Also got a breeding trio (1M:2F) of Apistogramma borellI var. yellowface... Very much an impulse buy, but feel in love with one of the females that I had to bring home... so got her one of the males (the nicest looking one, and also the one that showed the most interest in her) and the other last female.








Look at the size difference between my angel and the female...




And also a slight surprise, some eggos!



Edit: the plants look a little ratty. Unfortunately they didn't take well to a couple weeks of lower lighting... :/

 

Another update.
I decided the direction I want for this tank is an angel community. Down the road, I may thin out the tetras a bit since there's more babies along the way. It's certainly risky having multiple adult angels in the same tank, but fingers crossed it all goes smoothly - many say that having a large group is less likely to have problems, and numbers over 7 usually work the best.

So that leads onto... 2 more angels.
These two are a Koi (Golden Marble Blushing) and a Ghost (Smoky Ghost). They have settled in rather well, my big angel showed them who's boss but in a couple of hours he has stopped paying attention to the newcomers. Slightly bad s, as I have to get ready for work!






And some of the other fish





Whole tank shots (plants new growth are really responding to the new lights!)

 

Slight update. I caved, and got 3 new angels.
1 more koi (haha, I can't help it), 1 silver angel and 1 zebra angel (this one was a pity purchase, since he's not exactly an ideal angel and quite oddly shaped in appearance, but my big boy isn't exactly show quality, but I still love him!)

So that brings the total:
- 1 silver ghost gold marble (Stache)
- 1 Pinoy Marble
- 1 ghost smokey
- 1 silver
- 1 zebra
- 2 Albino Pearlscales
- 2 kois

My bad. And I've been eyeing off a pinoy angel (or a green smokey or blue smokey)... lord, help me.

 

And FTS

 

Did a massive trim today... it was needed, as I haven't done one in over a year. So it was long past due.
Here's the massive pile of leaves I manage to collect in today's mass trim.



It's about 2 liters worth (pushing leaves down to fit better in the container)



Also cleaned the filter, was due for a clean anyway and did a small (25%) waterchange in the process.

 

Your tank is super nice!

 

Your tank is super nice!

Thank you! ^_^ much appreciated!

~~~~~
Here some of today's pics, slightly less cloudy.
FTS





My 'missing' (hacked back) AR minI garden at least the coffeefolia looks good!



Java fern/anubias wall in the back looks vibrant (bolbitis is MIA)



The chainsword/tiger lotus area is a little bare due to bolbitis shading. It should perk up in a couple of weeks.



My pinoy marble sampling the water lettuce roots - now I know why they go missing!

 

Some good news, and bad news.

To put it simply, this tank has been decommissioned permanently due to an upgrade to a better system. This tank has been running for close to 25 years, (longer than I've been alive) and in the process the silicone has slowly started to break down, which I was worried about busted seams.

This time was as good as ever, since my family decided to go through a minor renovation which forced me to break apart the tank (wasn't fun!). Fish are all currently in a small 30 litre tote (around 8 gallons) in the garage. Thankfully its summer, so the heater keeps the temps constant and doesn't struggle with Mel winters. Reason for being in the garage, rest of the house is a mess and was worried about potential fumes harming my little gang. So far all seem to be doing ok with daily waterchanges and minimised feedings.

New tank is currently in the works, which is a 'reef ready' 60cm cube. Believe it or not, but the new tank is roughly the same volume as the current/old pent, sitting around 65g. Not exactly the tank dimensions I'm after (something at least 90cm long, 3 ft, but 2ft tall/wide would have sufficed) but was all I could afford.

I'll get some pics of the new tank in the morning, but it really is an upgrade. Overflow is included, 1inch drain and 3/4 inch return (return will be swapped over to another drain so I can run a herbie system), sump (needs to be customised a little better for freshwater) and general setup (stand is glass and aluminium, extremely sturdy).




One of the first questions, should I continue with this thread or make a new one for the new tank?

 

Just found this thread. Amazing job keeping it running for so long with such success . Looking forward to seeing pics of your new upgraded tank. I would keep the thread going and maybe see if the mods can change the title?

 

Since the new setup basically has very little in common with the previous edition (and not a rescape, just new tank with same fish) new thread was in order.

Aussie's 2ft cube | Fish Lore Aquarium Blogs 433611

 

Nice thread ! Tank looks great and with it and your history I am sure the switch will go well.
Figures I find it near the end !
Jumping over to new thread now ..
New thread is locked ..Did you do that until you finished updates ??
It looks good ..

 

Nice thread ! Tank looks great and with it and your history I am sure the switch will go well.
Figures I find it near the end !
Jumping over to new thread now ..
New thread is locked ..Did you do that until you finished updates ??
It looks good ..

Thank you! I'm hoping the switch will go well, I know the fish would appreciate the upgrade from their cramped conditions in the garage.

New thread may of been accidentally locked, I've since pmed to get it sorted. LOL