Flutterfish's Disaster 10 Gallon Re-build

Bummer the sand never came. Hope this one comes extra fast for you!

 

It's arriving tomorrow, so yay

I'm putting the dingy flourite stuff in a bag so I can use it if I can ever set up my 2.5 gallon... just sitting in my closet, never to be opened lol. Tbh I need to find it before I can actually set it up... whoopsie?

It's not actually the UP AQUA sand for plants - it's out of stock -, it's UP AQUA shrimp sand. I only ordered 2 bags of it, apparently 1 bag per 10 gallons is recommended... but I bought 2 because I don't think 4.4 litres is really going to cover it. Got an amazon gift card for my b-day a long time ago, so technically I only paid 5 dollars. Yay.

 

Hardscape somewhat positioned?

This is going to be final layout, though. Unless anyone wants to make minor changes or major.

Lchi87 Jocelyn Adelman -Mak-

Firstly, after getting a humongous chunk of seiryu, I got the wood like this :

IMG_4306

• FlutterFish
• Oct 3, 2017

... But then it looked really really out of place, so I positioned it a little more closer :

IMG_4307

• FlutterFish
• Oct 3, 2017

... And then I pushed them together and a bit backwards so it became a little like this :

IMG_4308

• FlutterFish
• Oct 3, 2017

Why do I have a huge stone instead of multiple?

I asked BucePlant to send me some large stones, and they ended up sending me a 6 pound stone after I ordered 4 pounds. I'm actually pleased with it - a) they sent me a stone the size of my sink, and b) it looks very lovely.

 

You could always break it up yourself. I prefer having multiple pieces in different sizes but if you like one massive rock, I'm sure you could make it work.

 

With a hammer? *rubs hands together* That does sound fun...

Where should I break it up, though? I did entertain that idea for a while, but wasn't sure where I'd chop that thing lol.

 

I'd score it with a chisel first so you can be a bit more controlled and precise LOL!

 

I like the middle picture best, a bit more spread out, plus I like the holes...

 

So I don't think I'll be able to break it... my Mom is adamant that the stone stays the stone and her chisel stays a chisel.

And also I don't think I can chisel my way through this lovely seiryu lol.

I like the middle picture best, a bit more spread out, plus I like the holes...

Really? Looking back at it, it does seem more natural... I'll see it again tonight. My sand came in today, so I'll probably be scaping it soon...

 

Lchi87 Jocelyn Adelman

It's flooded!

IMG_4323

• FlutterFish
• Oct 7, 2017

... I also have an excuse for this tank.

Turns out wood #2 floats... instead of having the layout I wanted -

IMG_4307

• FlutterFish
• Oct 3, 2017

I ended up madly shoving pieces of wood together as my staurogyne repens carpet happily floated around the tank. It still floats, but after ten minutes or so, it magically stayed down. And when I decided to rearrange it a little... it happened again.

So right now, this is absolutely not the layout I want at all... it's messy and annoying, but I'm going to wait until this is completely waterlogged. At leas the seiryu doesn't seem as awkward as it was before...

My s. repens are looking slightly better... they've somewhat perked up, but I still think I liked it better when it was as filled in as this :

Re-scape

• FlutterFish
• Aug 15, 2017

Eh....

UP aqua sand is great 8.8 litres was more than enough, and it didn't cloud my tank a bit when I filled it up. Hoping the s. repens will get a little better with this substrate.

Oh yeah, and Galaxy pictures!

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• FlutterFish
• Oct 7, 2017

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• FlutterFish
• Oct 7, 2017

You can tell that she's grumpy here. It's fasting day today.

 

Beautiful!

 

congrats!

 

Sorry I didn't see it 'till later! My alerts haven't been loading for some reason, so I've had nearly 30 alerts clogged up there lol.

But thank you!! I don't really like it (do I ever? lol) but the wood is in no position to be moved, so I'll adjust it later!

 

S. repens carpet did not make it... half of the carpet literally melted, or just floated up to the surface and got caught up in the filter... There goes 4 months of growing that.

 

Aw that's a bummer any idea why?

 

I think it might have been because it had been forced to be left floating for 2 weeks, and then drastically changed back to substrate. I thought that the nutrients in the aquasand would be enough to help it bounce back, but apparently not, I guess

 

Other 50% melted. What a bummer, it was doing so well.

I'll be buying another tissue culture from Substrate Source though. My LFS did start selling them, but it was $17 for three or four stems, so ordering a $13 tissue culture with nearly twenty stems seems to be a better option.

 

Good luck with the new batch! S. Repens is only of those plants that doesn't like being uprooted so hopefully the new nodes stay put this time.

 

The tank hasn't leaked so far So I think I'll be fine for a while.

 

So the wood does float now :

IMG_4369

• FlutterFish
• Oct 20, 2017

And I've got a bit more of what I wanted in the first place. Any more plant suggestions though? I don't want the UP sand to go to waste with all those lovely nutrients, and I haven't ordered my s. repens.

Lchi87 Anything you'd add to the tank?

 

I love how it looks already tbh

The S repens will round it out though. Once you start propagating it, you’ll have a nice carpet effect going so I personally wouldn’t do anything else with it. With smaller tanks, I prefer to keep the assortment of plants to a minimum because too many different looking plants are overwhelming in a small tank. Since you have such a beautiful focal point, you don’t want too much else to detract from that.

Just one person’s opinion though!

 

Sounds great to me! I do love s. repens in general so just having that alone will probably make me happy

Would there be any other plants you could see in this scape (other than anubias nana/s. repens)?

 

Maybe a curtain of vals for the background?

 

Hmm.. vals have never really done well for me in the tank, and I don't think the height would be enough for any val species lol. And they've been kind of messy to control.

I would love to do some background plants, though

 

Hmm.. vals have never really done well for me in the tank, and I don't think the height would be enough for any val species lol. And they've been kind of messy to control.

I would love to do some background plants, though

I think smaller varieties do exist, I know I read that somewhere here and I can’t for the life of me remember what they were or where I saw it

I think honestly background plants would be all you need now!

 

Well, I should probably update by this point...

So I had a couple of problems with the tank :

a) The driftwood was so fragile - if I so much put the siphon near it, it would collapse
b) The driftwood, stone, and anubias were so packed in together that Galaxy couldn't fit anywhere; basically she was out in open space 90% of the time, and this fish loves to hide.
c) Every square inch was covered by a clump of hair algae/diatoms

So since I got my Substrate Source order (1 s. repens, 1 bacopa carolina) I decided to go and do a deep clean/rescape. Anyone have that thing where you do a water change, which turns into a deep clean, which turns into a rescape? That's totally me.


3 hours later, this is what the tank looks like :

IMG_4485

• FlutterFish
• Nov 7, 2017

I'm okay with it... I mean, I'm not satisfied with it so I'll probably be tweaking it, but I don't hate it either. So I won't really mind.

S. repens doing really well :

IMG_4487

• FlutterFish
• Nov 7, 2017

And also! You see the leaf in the right corner?

This one?

IMG_4488

• FlutterFish
• Nov 7, 2017

That thing is literally a hair algae living compound. I've wiped it clean yesterday, and seriously, hair algae is already beginning to grow on it. All the other leaves are fine - but this one isn't.

And I'm wondering if I should put it more towards the shade to prevent that, but this fish has decided to make the leaf her personal hammock lol. I'll try to get a picture of that soon.

 

Is your lighting period too long? Cutting back can help with the algae if it keeps coming back. It looks great though!

 

That's a normal day in the fish hobby lots of disasters....

 

Is your lighting period too long? Cutting back can help with the algae if it keeps coming back. It looks great though!

It goes like this : 8AM- 12PM on, 12PM - 7PM off, 7PM - 10PM on, 10PM - 8AM off. So about 7 hours of on time. Is that too much?

I think I just had hair algae in the beginning because there were no other plants in the tank other than anubias... all those extra nutrients had to go into algae! Yum.

That's a normal day in the fish hobby lots of disasters....

Oh, this isn't the worst of it... technically, I'm the one who got off easy! I've seen members with thousands of other disasters.

 

Looks great!!!

 

Love the rescape.

If you want the hair algae gone, hydrogen peroxide might be called for.

 

I think smaller varieties do exist, I know I read that somewhere here and I can’t for the life of me remember what they were or where I saw it

I think honestly background plants would be all you need now!

Blyxa japonica might be an alternative to a val if height is an issue... gets about 4-6inches tall. Has a spiky grassy bushy look to it. It doesn't propagate like a val or grow as fast...

 

Looks great!!!

Thank you!

Love the rescape.

If you want the hair algae gone, hydrogen peroxide might be called for.

I have heard about hydrogen peroxide, but the hair algae isn't too out of control by this point. I'll definitely look into it if it goes crazy, though!

Blyxa japonica might be an alternative to a val if height is an issue... gets about 4-6inches tall. Has a spiky grassy bushy look to it. It doesn't propagate like a val or grow as fast...

I'm pretty sure blyxa requires high light ... I'm not dosing Co2 or any ferts, just got a Stingray running on the tank

 

I've never found the need for it with hair algae. My solution has always been more fast growing plants.

Edit: also I have blyxa in a low-light, low-tech tank where it was suffocated by java moss. I've trimmed back the java moss though and the blyxa is alive and healthy. I think it seems to prefer acidic water though.

 

I'll look into blyxa then I've just got some bacopa carolina that's going pretty well in this tank, so I'd like to keep it at that for a while. I'll make sure to let you know if I decide to get some though!

 

I don’t think that’s too much light; you’re probably right about the nutrient imbalance though!

 

Blyxa has grown quite well in my 20h gallon tank with only 5000k led lights and floating plants to boot. I don't use c02, but I do use flourish and the tank is dirted...

 

I'm actually thinking of adding some floating plants to help a bit with this hair algae... what do you guys think? Would it help? I'm concerned that it'll start doing a bit more than it's supposed to and take away so much nutrients.

Jocelyn Adelman -Mak-

 

I really like how it came out! I actually don't like floating plants that much, but they will at least block out some of the light. You can always remove them later

 

I also had blyxa in a low tech, did fine... is known to be a fussier plant though, low or high...

Also overall don't love most floating plants, however water Sprite is easy to control, doesn't suck up too many nutrients, and leaves are spread out enough to provide some shade for the anubias without totally blocking the light (water SPRITE not wisteria)

 

So I'm pretty interested in getting some invertebrates for this tank... Galaxy is good with snails (she doesn't really care about them; she just kind of looks at them, nudges it with her head, and then just swims away), but I'm not willing to risk RCS or ghost shrimp with her. I've got an HOB, so it won't match anyway.

Do nerites eat filamentous diatoms? I have a good supply of that in my tank, so I was wondering if they could live off them. I don't know if they eat hair algae though...

Not wanting them as a clean-up crew, just wanted to see!