My first big tank build!

i highly recommend getting a group of bolivian rams and a school of danios. Both species are super personable, and i really love them in my 40 breeder

 

Sorry I liked this, I wanted to do a sad reaction but I couldn’t figure it out. I hope they get better soon.

move your cursor over the like button and it should pull of the emoticons

 

Sorry I liked this, I wanted to do a sad reaction but I couldn’t figure it out. I hope they get better soon.

Its alright, thank you.

 

I know your fish will get better marmaa!

You are a great fishkeeper! Think of this like a trial or test you have to pass to become an even greater fish keeper.

Praying for your fish!

 

I know your fish will get better marmaa!

You are a great fishkeeper! Think of this like a trial or test you have to pass to become an even greater fish keeper.

Praying for your fish!

Aw thank you! This made me smile

I will keep ya'll updated. I already dosed the tank with Levamisole and I can already see the worms coming out so hopefully the treatment works well and it doesn't come back again!

 

Okay so update on day 2. I see more worms hanging out of the fish and they are less red then when they were barely sticking out. I am going to leave it till tomorrow night which would make it 48 hours and see how they are with worms.

The fish were pretty lazy/lethargic this morning but have gotten their color back more by the end of the day. All shrimp are molting and doing well, I havent seen my snail around so Ill have to go look for her.

 

Did a massive w/c to remove the meds and added some carbon. I fed them fenbendazole food and they chomped that stuff up nicely. I see no worms in their butt hope it works out.

My crypt started pearling after a w/c! First time seeing it pearl, here's a clip. Sorry for the water I had just done a w/c so its a bit messy.

 

Wow, that is so beautiful! Great work!

 

Good news, fish are wayyy more active now after the treatment and fenbendazole dipped food for 3 days. Theres already one cherry starting to mate with my other and I feel so good now that they are better. I dont want to jinx it but so far so good. Only issue is my snail isnt moving so much rn, I saw her move but shes stopped so I hope shes fine. I will dose the tank again in 2 weeks from now to make sure all worms are gone!

Here are some pics of rn, I removed the wood for now for easier gravel vacc w/ the meds. also excuse the glass algae please

 

Nice glad they are getting better!

 

Still looks good, the wood makes it look great though! You have been doing an awesome job with this tank, its beautiful, you put a lot of time and effort into it and it shows.

 

Still looks good, the wood makes it look great though! You have been doing an awesome job with this tank, its beautiful, you put a lot of time and effort into it and it shows.

thank you so much! I appreciate it I also said the same about the wood piece as well but for now theyll have to sit in a bucket. In the meantime Im gonna get some new fish to quarantine since I need to wait to redose the meds again. killing 2 birds with one stone (insert winky face)

 

Update: Fish have perked up so much more after the treatment, I am glad it is working out well. Fingers crossed that my second dose will work out just as well. I plan on ordering more plants from Marcus' Fish Tanks after I dose the tank again. I plan on getting a crypt balansae, an amazon sword, tiger lotus, rrf, and salvinia cucculatta. I hope they grow well in the tank once i get them.

The plants in my tank are mainly doing good, the ludiwiga is getting some super nice red coloring as it reaches the light. The crypts are booming with growth. Only issue is my sag subulata has some bba so I took them out trimmed out the ones with a lot of bba and did a H202 dip, I hope that works out. I want to get the more plants so that it can kill the bba since there will be more growth over algae. I have cut lighting to fight it as well. Other then that things are going good, duckweed is also booming.

As of now I actually have different piece of sponge in 3 different tanks to grow some BB on. I put them in a couple days ago and I plan on taking out some of the older sponges from the filter in a week or 2 to use for my quarantine tank. I have a spare 10g filter + an air pump I plan on using and a 20g tank now that I will use for my quarantine tank. What plants should I get for the quarantine tank? Its gonna be low light bare bottom. Since I only need this tank to quarantine a couple fish (after those fish I dont plan on setting up any tanks so I dont need the quarantine anymore) can I switch it over to a livebearers tank?

 

Redosed the tank again. Its been almost 3 weeks now since the first dose.(in 3 more days it will be 3 weeks) I redosed again to 2ppm of levamisole at about 270~ grams. Lights are off for the next 3 days.

Fish have been extremely active after first dose and have been eating better and mate chasing. Only 2 that were the most affected with worms seem to not be doing well. I have them isolated because I dont know whats up with them. I may just have to euthanize or let them live it out.

Hopefully all goes well with this dose, after this dose I will look into getting some new additions for the 40g.
I will quarantine any new ones in my 20g long to make sure they have no diseases.

I also added some new plants in! I added an Amazon Sword and some Rotala Rotundafolia. Rotala has been a plant Ive been really wanting to get but I couldnt find it anywhere in stores. Then I went to one store and it had Tropica Plants!! So i got some and 2 amanos. I have the amanos sitting in the 10g till I finish the last dose of meds on the 40g.

 

Update: I finished the last dosage for the worms. I changed the water yesterday and added carbon to the filter. Fish are acting well and eating great. They have started getting a bit feisty lol and started going after my shrimp; which is a first! But im glad thay are doing better, I hope I never see those worms again in my life!! One of them has weird poo but Im not sure if its just normal or not. I hope it is.

I have added back the wood but this time I seem to have raised the arch so its not the same as last time but I dont mind. I also had to trim back a lot of plants due to bba algae and dip them in h202 or spray them. They seem to have no more bba but I hope it stays like that!

I recorded some of them while they were eating but the vid was blurry so I recorded another one before the lights went out but this one is also blurry (i think its cause I used a different camera this time), you can see the rotala in the back which is doing exceptionally well and is growing at a nice pace. My only issue rn is even after a w/c my nitrates are still 20ppm. Im hoping once the plants grow in more theyll suck more up.

 

Okay so I keep seeing how Co2 makes a difference and I am tempted to buy one for my 40g tank. But I am unsure if I really need it. I would say its a medium-tech tank. Should I consider it?

 

Update on the tank and fish. Fish are doing great and poop is starting to go back to brown now. I got an angelfish in the quarantine tank that is also doing good so far. He/She will stay in there for another 3 weeks to confirm they are good to go! I seriously need to add filter floss back to my tanks. The water is just not as clear as it used to be! Here is a short video I took before lights went out. Also some pics of the fish and the angel. So far im thinking the angel may be a female but he/she is too young to sex anyways.

Im considering rescaping the tank but I dont know. Im gonna have to draw it out first. I also got more plants from marcus fish tanks! He finally had some frogbit in stock so I knew I had to order. I ordered some java moss ( I hope it lives this time!), Hydrocotyle Triparta and the frogbit. Hope the come in well.

Unfortunately my 2 cherry barbs that were isolated since they were showing weird symptoms and I did not want the rest to have them, ended up passing away I think the first round of levamisole hit them harder than the rest. Burial will be tomorrow next to my bettas burial.

Please excuse the algae in the tank, I havent cleaned it in a bit.

 

Just stopped by my LFS for some polyfilter and I happened to see some honey gouramis. Last time I had them, they died both of dropsy while the rest of my fish were fine, so im not sure what happened there. So this is my redemption at honeys. I saw some small honeys and I had to get one. The honey is now in quarantine with the Angel. The angel seems the least bit interested in her which is good. I named the honey, Honey G after an X Factor Rapper also named Honey G.

The tank is doing great after a w/c and I dosed ferts and the plants seem to love it. Another shipment from plants is coming tomorrow so I cant wait to get them! Will upload pics tomorrow.

 

Okay I know said I would put pics up sooner but I forgot lol. Anyways I rescaped the tank. Idk, I like the arch but I kinda got bored of it. So yesterday I cleaned most of the tank up for algae and rescaped. Here is how it is now. I did end up cleaning the algae on the back wall but I havent taken a pic of it with it clean. Anyways, the plants are doing okay. My dwarf sag is sending runners but the original plants still have some BBA. Ludiwiga, probably the plant thats annoying me. It was one of the first plants I added and it still wont root! My rotala rooted sm quicker compared to them. I started with a lot of ludiwiga too and now all the leaves fell off. Oh well. I added java moss, and it hasnt died off! The frogbit is growing wonderfully and the hydrocotyle japan hasnt died on me so I guess its doing okay for now.

Fish seem to be doing good. I can tell one of the cherrys is about to lay eggs soon! Shes been chased around by one of the males for weeks now and now shes getting a bit more plump with eggs.

My 2 honeys and angel in the tank seem to be buddies. They all swim together fine and theres no aggression! My angel though is a fiesty eater, she will munch up food so quickly. My honeys wait till theres food on the bottom to munch on them. Honestly I dont know anymore if one of the honeys is a male, they might be both females.

 

Sorry for not updating sooner. I was a bit busy with work and school. I am almost done with highschool now but the end is always hectic.

Anyways, the angel and 2 honeys have been moved into the 40g tank after being quarantined for almost 5 weeks. I also bought a nerite snail today and hes been added into the 40g tank. Plants have grown in especially the rotala rotundafolia and I added in some bacopa thats doing very well. Some of the slower growing plants are getting bba again and green thread algae. Im hoping that the more the plants grow the faster they can beat the algae. Frogbit has took off in the tank as well. Nitrates sit at around 20ppm which lesser than before. Plants seem to be eating nitrates up nicely.
Here are some new pics of the tank.

 

Sorry for not updating sooner. I was a bit busy with work and school. I am almost done with highschool now but the end is always hectic.

Anyways, the angel and 2 honeys have been moved into the 40g tank after being quarantined for almost 5 weeks. I also bought a nerite snail today and hes been added into the 40g tank. Plants have grown in especially the rotala rotundafolia and I added in some bacopa thats doing very well. Some of the slower growing plants are getting bba again and green thread algae. Im hoping that the more the plants grow the faster they can beat the algae. Frogbit has took off in the tank as well. Nitrates sit at around 20ppm which lesser than before. Plants seem to be eating nitrates up nicely.
Here are some new pics of the tank.
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i love you angel fish his little black face is adorable

 

Thats cool!

Wish my mom let me have a 40g fish tank in the living room...

I'm restricted to my room for now V_V

you gotta get parents that are into the hobby lol, my dad was the one who wanted to put my first tank in my room a 55g planted and then he let me setup out old 29g next to his 180g tank

 

i love you angel fish his little black face is adorable

I agree, he/she (still young) is very cute and so far extremely nice with all my shrimp and other fish. Hope they stay like that!

 

Update time! All the fish have been doing great! Shrimps are looking amazing and I see a new color pop up once in a while from the breeding, i just saw a tangerine shrimp in there and I never bought one! The snail is also loving all the algae on the wall and making little swirly trails on the glass!

The rotala in the tank, is getting mighty huge!! I look back at the old pics of the rotala and compared to then its so much fuller now. I bought some pearlweed off of etsy and its coming in this week! I plan on making it a pearlweed carpet or have a huge bunch of it since my dwarf sag all died on me. My hydrocotyle tripartita though is making a coming back, it still has tons of algae on it but theres been lots of new growth free of algae. Also I got nitrates down!! They are at 10ppm, hoping to keep them under 20ppm now. Ive always had an issue with nitrates.

My frogbit has been growing wayy too much, im gonna have to sell them off either here or to a local fish store. in the meantime here are some pics! The camera just cant pick up the lighting properly for some reason. Im gonna have to try out a diff camera instead of a phone next time.

 

well hello all! it has been a while and during that time I have done some changes! since the last time i have posted, i graduated highschool and got a job! and now im jobless because i quit so now I have more time for fish! yay!! beware this post will be very pic heavy.

im going to post pics from when we left off and how the tank has changed!

After my last post, I didnt like how the tank was looking and thought I should change things up so I changed the wood and plants and it looked like this for primarily all of june. Rotala was growing good but the bottoms were lacking some light. So I got another light to add to my 40g which has tremendously helped since.





Now I liked the wood setup but something was missing, it didn't look cohesive in my opinion and I just didnt know what to do so JLAquatics and I were talking about Co2 which eventually led to him helping me out redo my 40g. He planned out my hardscape and the depth of the sand. He did it all, so huge thanks to him!!
From there I began moving things around, I added more sand and my tank became a foggy mess!


This was right before destruction had happened. You can tell the new light is much brighter than before.


Removed all hardscape and plants eventually were moved too.


New Hardscape in, added much more lava rock and moved wood more to the back


My fat baby coming to see what I was doing, hes been hanging out with us more since his sister is sick shes getting better after the vet visit though!


Added some plants in. I also had tons of pearlweed from an order I recieved so I spread that all over in between the rocks so they could fill in nicely!


Tank started clearing up but not enough. The next day I did a good 60 percent water change and let everything sit to settle in.


After water change it looked like this. On my phone colors are picking up much better not sure why the colors look like this on here. Could just be my laptop.


For the longest time I always wanted a tiger lotus plant, and today I became lucky as my Local fish store had some!! It is a beautiful plant that looked perfect in the center of the tank. I also saw they had some wisteria (or it was sprite I cant tell) and decided to get some too to fill in the background, Im hoping it can cover the back! Amazing store in Texas, cant recommend it enough! So many plant options for a great price and the fish selection is awesome!


Some more up close pics!

 

JUst found this thread! Loving the tank so far

 

JUst found this thread! Loving the tank so far

Thank you Cant wait for the plants to fill in!

 

Looks fantastic, marmaaa! It will surely be a showstopper once those plants fill in!

I did not do this amazing setup silly! You were the one that redid the tank from scratch. Give yourself much more credit, you deserve it!

As for the plant in the back, it looks to be Water Sprite and not Water Wisteria. No matter though, both plants are great background decor and easy to care for. It should fill in nicely. You may even want to separate some of the stems and spread it across the back so it spreads easier.

 

Looks fantastic, marmaaa! It will surely be a showstopper once those plants fill in!

I did not do this amazing setup silly! You were the one that redid the tank from scratch. Give yourself much more credit, you deserve it!

As for the plant in the back, it looks to be Water Sprite and not Water Wisteria. No matter though, both plants are great background decor and easy to care for. It should fill in nicely. You may even want to separate some of the stems and spread it across the back so it spreads easier.

Thank you) Can I break the plant in thirds or halves and plant them separately? Its all connected to one root system as of now and I didnt know how to split them? Can I also propagate by cutting the tops and planting?

 

Thank you) Can I break the plant in thirds or halves and plant them separately? Its all connected to one root system as of now and I didnt know how to split them? Can I also propagate by cutting the tops and planting?

You can cut stems into sections and plant them in the substrate. The plant will also form baby plants along the stems that you can break off as well. Encouraging the Water Sprite to spread by cutting those mature stems will encourage more growth.

 

I love that creamsicle angel!!! And really luvs the kitty!! Tank looking quite nice

 

I love that creamsicle angel!!! And really luvs the kitty!! Tank looking quite nice

Thank you!! That angel is a whole dog trapped in a fish! I love her sm she's a fiesty one

 

Thank you!! That angel is a whole dog trapped in a fish! I love her sm she's a fiesty one

Certainly not a color we see on angels in my area too often....don't know the names/patterns, but they all look black and white to me around here.

 

Certainly not a color we see on angels in my area too often....don't know the names/patterns, but they all look black and white to me around here.

Oh wow, colors like that are actually pretty common in my area, we do have the black and whites but the cream/orange is quite popular here. I actually got her from my Petco that has a good fish selection!

 

Oh wow, colors like that are actually pretty common in my area, we do have the black and whites but the cream/orange is quite popular here. I actually got her from my Petco that has a good fish selection!

Maybe thats why...i don't often look at the fish when i go to Petco...thats usually a strictly fish/cat/gecko supply run!! I spend more time looking at the turtles and chinchillas than anything...lol

 

Well its been a while, and the tank has changed quite a bit since the last time. The rotala has almost taken over the whole back wall and I'm not mad at it at all! My pearlweed is also growing very tall in the front almost covering the entire piece of wood. Oh and my tiger lotus has shot up 5 lily pads already! I will need to do a major trimming one day.

Still battling some green thread algae on the wood and plants, it has decreased but I want it gone completely! Here is a pic of the tank and a little video update!

 

Its been a couple months since my last post and I apologize, school has not given me much time to upload.

Its crazy to think that I started this tank almost one year ago. Im coming up to the one year mark this February and a lot has changed. I still remember when my fish were sick or when I was quarantining my Angelfish that was a baby at the time and now shes a whole chonky girl.

I made a video of pictures I took throughout the year. I made sure to take a pic each month to see the progress and its weird to think that its changed so much in these 11 months.

Looks like the link will take you directly to the video.

red0nion on TikTok

Here are some current pics of the fish and the tank. I’ll probably be switching it into a journal soon since my build is done.

 

The amount of convincing I had to do to with my mom was a lot lol. I had my dad on board but my mom grew to like it now. But they said this is my last tank lol. We will see about that.

my parents said that 3 tanks ago lol

edit: realized i am replying to an old post

 

my parents said that 3 tanks ago lol

edit: realized i am replying to an old post

lol im trying to see if I can get a 75g soon, maybe I can convince them once more!

 

Please do not get duckweed. Well, I will say is once you have it, it is so hard to get rid of. Thought I had it in only 2 tanks in my fish room and was happy it was disappearing. Now it's back in 7 tanks. I removed it all again, so hoping it is gone, but I never really know. I have crypts in my 40 breeder and they look sweet in the mid foreground of my tank. Dwarf hair grass is great, but mine always needed CO2 to thrive.

Here's what I would do. I would move filter to 40 with current plants and fish. You can even have tank set up with a few more plants that are new if you like. Be careful though as dying plant matter can cause issues with water quality and there's almost always die off when you get plants from the store. They are usually emersed and need to go to submerged growth. If you only have one filter, I'd buy a small sponge filter and put it in the 40 for a few weeks with a all air pump so you can then out it in the 20g and use as quarantine tank. Definitely do not want to kill your current fish with new ones when it can be avoided. Once they have passed through quarantine, you can move them to the new tank slowly so you don't overwhelm your current bio load. Root tabs work wonders for me as does making my own liquid fertilizers from powder fertilizers I get in 1lb. bags. Macros one day micros and iron the next. Then on 7th day I skip and add equilibrium. I may also add epsom salt if I see holes in leaves as that's usually a magnesium deficiency and epsom salt is magnesium not a salt. Works wonders by the time the new growth starts on plants.
As far as fish goes, I just know you don't want fin nippers for angel fish so if the fish leave angel fish alone you're good. Corydoras and plecos get along well in my experience. Don't get a common pleco, but maybe some kind of bristlenose so that it stays at 3-4 inches in length full grown.
I sure hope this helps!!

Good luck!

Sorry. Slight error. Epsom salt is indeed a salt. A salt is a chemical compound of anions (positive charge) and cations (negative charge). Salts disassociate in to free ions both + and -.
Your epsom salt is a compound of magnesium Mg and sulfate SO4 which disassociate in tank to Mg+ and (SO4)-