Bane Aquatics' multi-tank journal. :)

Hello and welcome to my tank journal!

I made this thread as an efficient way to share/discuss my tanks photos, husbandry questions, and my other generic ramblings. I want to dedicate this post to personally thank every person who takes the time and effort to read my posts, as well as share their insights. I am always appreciative of advice, and criticism. Lord knows I am but a novice aquarist, after all!

To know a little about me, I've been fish keeping on-and-off for most of my life. Started with live-bearers, and slowly moved into a infatuation with South American Catfish and Dwarf Cichlids (Apistos and Rams specifically!). My fascination with freshwater fishkeeping ties in with my love of permaculture and the creation of ecosystems, so I tend to use botanicals, hardscapes and flora instead of synthetic alternatives (not that there's anything wrong with that!)

I'm very big into sustainability, and ethical collection and breeding of freshwater aquaria, and I hope to use my hobby as a way to be an advocate for conserving some of the species under threat due to various reasons, unfortunately.

But before I run into that, I'm wading into the waters of the hobby slowly but surely. I welcome you guys to join me on my journey!

Now, let's get into a bit more about my set-up. Currently, I run 5 tanks. (formerly 6... we'll get to that) 3 stocked with fish and fauna. 1 currently cycling. The last one is stocked only with native, collected plants (I use this tank to make sure no stowaways make it to my other tanks.... can't risk any crazy Floridian pests!!) I have a basic numbering system for my tanks. I just keep a spread sheet of what each tank is stocked with, and from there, I play fish tetris when need be. I usually run black-water and planted tanks, but you'll see I also play around with scaping.

The first tank: Tank 1 is a 29G "community" tank. This wasn't necessarily the intent, but due to a massive leak in another tank, I made due. I run one HOB and one sponge filter, with a 100W heater (set to 80F), I run Koval 78 LEDs on all of my 29G tanks(they work well for me, and don't break the bank, the plants love them, and the nocturnal fish thrive on the night mode).

This tank houses 7 Otocinclus Vittatus, 1 Pair of German Blue Rams, 1 Hypoptopoma Gulare (AKA "Giant Otocinclus"), 4 Eastern Gambusia (which need to be caught and re-released onto our property pond...), 2 Kuhli's, 3 mystery snails, and a nerite.

Eventually, I'd like to remove the Gambusia, Kuhli's and 3 of the Vittatus to their own domains. The Rams are starting to exhibit a bit of aggression towards the Gambusia, and the Kuhli's are a egg-eating liability.

Let's get to the photos; I decided to not stage any of my photos for my first post, so I apologize in advance for the mess.



(Also, I know I need a pre-filter sponge... my last one dropped in a bucket of vinegar-y water during a water change and I need to order more. )
As you can see, I experimented with mostly drift-wood and botanicals to create a black-water tank. This was the first tank I purchased when I got back into the hobby, and I've never been able to get the water stains off the front. Gonna need to figure that out, if I'm gonna be sharing in here. Anyways, I wanted to use mostly rhizome and floaters, so the bottom of the tank is bare, with Pennywort, Anubias and Java moss glued to different stones and wood (although I've been debating re-configuring this tank to a completely planted bottom), I used a large chalice I got from a goodwill as well as some suction cuppies from amazon to plant some rooted planted for diversity (the baby tears in the cuppies is finally taking off. It's melted SO much, I thought it was a total loss. I'm sure being so close to the lights help.), the plant in the chalice is a flame sword. You'll also note some floating frogbit, it's been decimated by snails. I brought in the pothos to hopefully do the same task as the floaters.

Tank 2: A very similar set up to Tank 1, except I have a box filter inside (same sponge filter, light, and heater, though!)

This tank houses 1 Pair of German Blue Rams, 1 Pair of L034 Medusa Plecos (Ancistrus Ranunculus - bristlenose family) & 3 Oto Vittatus. Eventually, the rams will be moved back into their own 29G (they were the original inhabitants of the 29G that failed on me), and this will be more of a "fast flow" tank for the catfish to enjoy.



(ugh.... the regret I have for painting this background so bright. LOL.)

The tank is a economical Imagitarium white substrate, with some water-logged/crushed peat moss added to it. The plants are Dwarf Sag, a small bit of pennywort, Jungle Val, Wendelov Java Fern, Water Sprite & Java moss. There's also some Alder cones and Indian Almond leaves for the Otos to enjoy (and to encourage micro-fauna to breed, hopefully encouraging the rams to spawn ) The female pleco enjoys sitting face first to the output of the filter lol. The male likes to hide behind that piece of driftwood (which is one of my favorite pieces! looks like a little log!)

Tank 3: Tank three is where things differ. It's a 10G tank with the same 100W heater as tank one and 2, but with just a singular sponge filter.

This tank houses 1 pair of Apistogramma Bitaeniata, two mystery snails, and some blue shrimp (which were added to stimulate the Apisto to hunt).


In advance, lemme just say that the lighting for tanks 3 and four are currently a work in progress. When the other tank failed, it leaked water onto a power strip containing all of the lighting and extra filtration I had for my 10Gs, we're currently remediating that situation. In the meantime, we have a grow-tent light that we're using to light the plants in the tanks. We're diffusing the brightness with a semi-transparent sheet, as well as by growing potted plants on the shelf above the tank. It gives the tank a nice shaded appearance. However, I made the mistake of moving the plants from above, which just made the glare really bad (as well as spooking the poor Apistos)




(Bah!! Awful photo. I'll try this again tomorrow.)

Tank 4: Currently unheated and un-stocked, but it's going to be the new home for some Apistogramm Hongsloi!!



(I promise tomorrow I'll get better photos of both 10Gs!!)


Substrate is top-fin black sand (again, faaaancy! ) , with crushed/water logged peat moss.

The plants are Dwarf Sag, Water sprite, Baby tears, Java Moss, Marimo Moss, Java Fern & Italian Val. The caves was just a pot I smashed and sanded (make sure you always so this, to keep your fish and inverts safe from cuts!) for the occasion.

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Tomorrow, I'll get better and more presentable photos of everything, as well as photos of the plant quarantine/composting area.

And that's about it for today, folks!

If you have any questions, feel free to ask away!

Tomorrow I'll try to cover other facets of my fish, just to keep this fresh and interesting. Hope you all enjoy!

 

That was a fun, detail laden intro to read. I can't wait to see some close ups of the fish. Looking at your 10 gallon setups, I think you'll be up to your neck with spawning Apistogramma and Mikrogeophagus species. I'd trade you some Apisto macmasterI for hongsloi

 

That was a fun, detail laden intro to read. I can't wait to see some close ups of the fish. Looking at your 10 gallon setups, I think you'll be up to your neck with spawning Apistogramma and Mikrogeophagus species. I'd trade you some Apisto macmasterI for hongsloi

Thank you! Tomorrow's plan is so make sure all the glass is spotless, to get some good DSLR photo of the fish.

And I'd definitely ne interested in a trade! The Hongsloi should be arriving on Monday from the breeder.


In the meantime, I do have some other shots of some of my catfish residents:




(Female L034 Medusa pleco)



Giant Otocinclus (Gulare)

 

Alright, I hate to post multiple times per day. But today has been pretty major.

Been speaking a lot with a fellow Floridian fish-keeper and breeder, and I must say, some really exciting things are already in the works.

Starting in a few weeks, I'll be acquiring a colony of L450 Plecos. A nice fish that stays under 5". Looking forward to sharing that process. The first of them will be arriving on Monday with the Hongsloi Apistogramma. I'll be photographing both species for the breeder. I hope to share more information about the collaboration as more things are set in stone!

Also, BOTH pairs of Blue Rams are exhibiting breeding behavior! I guess they needed to be separated in order to feel comfortable to really start courtship. One pair is unfortunately in a tank with a submerged filter. Not much chance for fry. The other tank is a community tank. Grah! Probably gonna have to cut my losses with these Spawns while I move some of the more troublesome fish (the Kuhli's and Gambusia, mostly) away from the eggs.

The Apistogramma Bitaeniata are becoming less and less shy. Hoping to get some nice photographs of them with tomorrow's update. I noticed baby shrimp in the tank earlier... I'm wondering if they're gonna just leave the shrimp be, for now? It would be awful convenient to be able to keep a small shrimp colony in their permanently.

Everyone have a safe weekend!

 

Sorry for the lack for updates! My internet router crapped out on me and I probably won't be posting many updates this week. I'll try to condense everything into a master-post on Friday morning.

Tbox I was emailing the breeder of the Hongsloi and mentioned your trade, if you're ready for theHongsloi, he'd absolutely be willing to do a trade for the MacmasterI now. If you're interested, I can give you his email address and you two can correspond about it.

 

Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeello Fishlore!

Sorry this week has been a relative snore here. Off of the web, it's been the opposite. This week has been a mixed bag of stress and small victories.

Monday: the Hongsloi arrived with the first L450, they acclimated and adjusted fine moved the GRBs with eggs to their own ten gallon set-up. They ate their eggs anyways. Oof.

Tuesday-Wednesday: Regular maintenance of tanks, noticed my SD card was corrupted and lost my photos from Sunday/Monday for this post. Oof x2.

Thursday: Everything hits the fan. I woke up and noticed the male hongsloi died overnight. Checked parameters. Everything was normal. Went to work. Came home, noticed my Medusa female has a huge white spot on her back... god, I hope I'm not dealing with Saddleback Can't order meds yet, so I increase flow, turn off lights and leave her be.

Today: I woke up this morning to find my spare male GRB dead in our community tank. Same (lack of) symptoms as the hongsloi. Tested waters. Parameters were normal. I'm puzzled. I know have one female Hongsloi and one female GRB without partners for now. Thankfully, I have worked out a situation for a new pair of Hongsloi. I'm hoping that the male will accept both females in a harem, and that I can just separate them as needed for breeding purposes. I went ahead and ordered a replacement filter for the medusa's tank, as well as some aquarium electrolytes to "treat" with. I'm hoping it's not saddleback, as I would have to research how to deal with this effectively. Wish me luck. I did a 20% waterchange in their tank also to hopefully improve anything that couldve been in the water.

I also managed to uncorrupt some of my files today, here they are un-edited;



This is my current egg-eating breeding pair of GRBs, let's hope they get the memo on parenthood soon (and to stop tugging on plant roots... grrrr)



The male Bitaeniata is really starting to come into his coloring, even in a dark blackwater tank, you can see some nice orange, as well as a healthy red "streak" along his side. He's gonna be a looker.


Tomorrow I'm gonna do some more work on the tanks, including a filter change on the medusa's, and possibly running to home depot to buy a few more caves for them, I feel like they would appreciate it, although they're not using the one currently in there...

 

Ok you are doing what I am about to do with my 29 gallon apistogramma cacatuoides tank. So few questions. What lights are you using on your blackwater tanks? Do you have any red or blue lights in them? Also do you need to have more lights to penetrate the dark colored water? Also what are you using for caves? I have 3 terracotta pots but I don't like the look they are out of place. I am thinking either a real rock formation cave. I'm getting 3 apistogramma so I want to have 2 caves for each female. Also I see you use peat. How much in the 29 gallon I think it was. My ph is around 7.2 but still cycling and I'd like to lower it just a few more points. Thanks

 

Sorry for the lack for updates! My internet router crapped out on me and I probably won't be posting many updates this week. I'll try to condense everything into a master-post on Friday morning.

Tbox I was emailing the breeder of the Hongsloi and mentioned your trade, if you're ready for theHongsloi, he'd absolutely be willing to do a trade for the MacmasterI now. If you're interested, I can give you his email address and you two can correspond about it.

Where is the breeder you go through located? First, l'll need to learn the how to's of shipping live fish and shrimp. I haven't done it yet. Makes me a little nervous, even more so in the winter. I gotta get over the fear, cause I know people do it with no issues.
Coralbandit might have some GBRs for you to look into as well. He's a master shipper of live aquaria

 

Ok you are doing what I am about to do with my 29 gallon apistogramma cacatuoides tank. So few questions. What lights are you using on your blackwater tanks? Do you have any red or blue lights in them? Also do you need to have more lights to penetrate the dark colored water? Also what are you using for caves? I have 3 terracotta pots but I don't like the look they are out of place. I am thinking either a real rock formation cave. I'm getting 3 apistogramma so I want to have 2 caves for each female. Also I see you use peat. How much in the 29 gallon I think it was. My ph is around 7.2 but still cycling and I'd like to lower it just a few more points. Thanks

Hello!

Here's the amazon link I used for my lights:
Koval LED light

It has two modes, and the LEDs include red, white, and blue. My plants do fine, I find that it's more about substrate and nutrient availability for the plants more than light, so if these are too pricey (or not pricey enough) there's definitely other solutions for ya!

For caves, I like the utility of terracotta, but what you can do to get over the ugly color of it is before you put it in the tank, shatter/shape it into the cave you want, sand the sharp edges away, then glue rocks over it. wait for that glue to set, then glue moss, or other rhizomes into the "crevices" of the rocks and Terracotta. over time, the roots will fill in the space and you have a reusable, living cave.

You can do this with coconut shells, as well as pvc. Just make sure you're using aquarium safe glue that has properly dried.

For the peat, if you hate the look of mess or "river-bed", you can just put it in a media bag and put it into your filter. You can also use it under-neath substrate, but word of advice, you need to water-log it. It takes a lot of work. If you don't want a DEEP black-water color, do this process in a bucket, otherwise, you can do this in your tank.

Take the peat moss and put it in a aquarium/fish net (something finer than a media bag), I then float it, then crush the air out of it with my hand with tons of force. I make sure to mash it through the mesh to it breaks down into more of a "powder". It then settles on the bottom of my tank, and I either vac it up, or I leave it to continue to do what peat does. Others think it's too much hassle because of how hard it is to get to sink, but I think it has a lot of benefits.

For Apistos, in my experience, the pH doesn't have to be quite so low, as they just require super clean, pristine water. 7.2 should be okay for them, if you happen to not want to go through the hassle of the peat!

Where is the breeder you go through located? First, l'll need to learn the how to's of shipping live fish and shrimp. I haven't done it yet. Makes me a little nervous, even more so in the winter. I gotta get over the fear, cause I know people do it with no issues.
Coralbandit might have some GBRs for you to look into as well. He's a master shipper of live aquaria

They're located in Florida! I spoke to them and they said they had all of their juvenile pairs sell to a lfs, unfortunately! They have juveniles, so once they're grown up, I'll definitely get you two in contact.

I watch coralbandit's threads very closely! He's someone who I look up to. My GBRs are nothing compared to his!

 

Awesome thanks for the reply. I have been thinking about a diy light system and wasn't sure if I needed red amd blue lights. I have been thinking about just buying a light kit and be done. I have pool filter sand substrate so pretty much useless in plant growing. But I plan to use root tabs under the sword and any planted plants to give nutrients. I will also fertilize with either nilocg or easy green pro ppm. Since it's going to be an south American tank it will be mainly low care plants. I am going to get some Indian almond leaves to Litter the bottom. I will def try to mash the peat and let it settle underneath the leaf litter. It's just how I have my pots setup I don't like so I'll play with them this week while finalizing. Thanks for the info.

 

Awesome thanks for the reply. I have been thinking about a diy light system and wasn't sure if I needed red amd blue lights. I have been thinking about just buying a light kit and be done. I have pool filter sand substrate so pretty much useless in plant growing. But I plan to use root tabs under the sword and any planted plants to give nutrients. I will also fertilize with either nilocg or easy green pro ppm. Since it's going to be an south American tank it will be mainly low care plants. I am going to get some Indian almond leaves to Litter the bottom. I will def try to mash the peat and let it settle underneath the leaf litter. It's just how I have my pots setup I don't like so I'll play with them this week while finalizing. Thanks for the info.

Anytime! I don't use any fertilizers, so unfortunately, I'm a novice at that stuff. I hope it all works out for you! Blackwater tanks are life.


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Another quiet week here in Florida! We're gearing up for the winter, so things are slowing down.

In the world of my tanks, all of my tanks are business as usual. No spawning, although the Hongsloi are showing interest. I'll have to play some Barry White for them. Right now the male is courting two separate females. I'm extremely relieved to find that this male is a Harem breeder. (Some Apistos will form true pairs, and banish 'extras')







The egg-eating pair of rams really are coming into their own. The coloration they exhibit gets better constantly. Too bad they haven't spawned since the last time.



The L034s... I love them, but boy are they frustrating. They seem to either pig out on food, or straight up ignore it to the point where worms/snails show up.... I've tried sinking carnivore pellets, bloodworms, brine-shrimp, algae wafers.... Grrrrrr..... gosh-darned messy, messy, gorgeous, messy, plecos... (don't they remind you guys of nurse sharks?)



Apistogramma Bitaeniata.... The shyest fish in my entire collection (even more so than the nocturnal L034s). When they do come out, they remind me of Bettas. Boisterous. Aggressive. Ornate. They're really gorgeous fish. They're another who I am finding hard to get to spawn/breed. I've re-arranged their tank, and changed the temp slightly to see if I can get the male to strut his stuff. I'm suspecting that this pair is very, very young. I don't expect to see breeding behavior for months. (so much for proven pair, right?! > )


(shy female; will get male later)


This week, I also got a red shrimp tank set up and going! So far, no photos, as the tank sides/back aren't painted and the glare is KILLER. Can't wait to share the Shrimp, too! (I've got my work cut out for me with selectively breeding these guys for better red, for sure...)


Hope y'all enjoyed!

-Bane Aquatics
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Fish that need photographing;
-L450 Plecos
-Male Bitaeniata
-Male L034 Pleco

 

I watched a video of rephasy food. He took out his pleco cave and rolled 3 sides in the rephasy food gel. Might be an option for the pleco. That way it sits there until they decide to eat. Tanks look great!!