My three freshwater tanks

You've gotten really great at this Adam! I love it, nice, clean, simple look and there's nothing wrong with being exact, you are dividing it in two. I kind of like the coconut hut . Yeah, I'm on the same page with gravel, just yuck. It actually looks kind of cool the way the light reflects off of the divider too. Well done sir Now I want to see the thinned out 20.

 

Those are def GBR (German Blue Rams) a telling sign of these fish are the stunning blue that basically wraps around their faces at the mouth. They are just stressed and when they are stressed their color dulls quite a bit. I know this is a QT tank, however Rams need caves and hiding places to feel safe on their best day. But even more so when in a new place. Even those cheapy lil flower pots are great.

As far as they ICH. I do see an unusual spot on the one to the left. I can not say for sure tho if it is ICH because the picture is too fuzzy. But since it is always a VERY good idea to QT any new fish anyway, I suggest keeping them in QT, so long as there is a filter, heater and the hiding spaces. Very slowly raise their temp up to 86 f. And keep it there for two weeks. You should not need to medicate, unless it gets really bad. Hopefully you caught it early and it doesn't. Also, keep their water very clean, and vacuum the tank really well a couple of times a week. I know you brought over media, however sometimes there is still a minI cycle, so keep a close eye on your water parms too. Good luck!! They are lookers!!! Where did you get them?

 

You're getting really good at this Adam! I love it, nice, clean, simple look and there's nothing wrong with being exact, you are dividing it in two. I kind of like the coconut hut . Yeah, I'm on the same page with gravel, just yuck. It actually looks kind of cool the way the light reflects off of the divider too. Well done sir Now I want to see the thinned out 20.

Thanks! As much as I would like a 10 gallon jungle the bettas would hate it, so a simple layout works just as well. The hut fills in the void pretty well, but it seems to be lacking something. I tried tying two java ferns to it, but it ruined the whole layout. The betta really likes it too, so it may be staying. Now that you mention it the light reflection is pretty cool, I actually hadn't even noticed it. I can get a picture of the 20 gallon tomorrow, but it looks pretty bad to me .

I had a thought for a carpeting plant, the marsilea hirsuta from my 20 gallon. Maybe that would do well to fill in the open space without being overpowering and disorganized like the tank was. Also, the 2 month old heater no longer works, and I forgot to register it for the warranty lol. So, the heater for the 10 gallon is now a 50 watt aqueon pro.

 

I can get a picture of the 20 gallon tomorrow, but it looks pretty bad to me .

It will bounce back. Just remember to make time to trim.

I like that hut too!

 

For the hut, you could do the roll it in silicone and then sand or pebbles, moss it up or let it algae up and you might like it more.

I'm not buying that any of your tanks look "horrible" once I see the picture I pass my mighty judgement on it. For your carpet that sounds good, should add a nice touch if its kept under control imo.

That sucks about your heater! I have a regular aqueon that's been perfect for me for almost a year now so I'm personally okay with the aqeuons though it seems some don't like them much. Btw, what's with the fungus posts above?

 

It will bounce back. Just remember to make time to trim.

I like that hut too!

I really hope it will, and lesson learned I will make time for trimming. The new tank layout should eliminate shading by other plants. I'll admit it, the hut has been growing on me. Maybe my judgement after the tank redo was poor lol.

For the hut, you could do the roll it in silicone and then sand or pebbles, moss it up or let it algae up and you might like it more.

I'm not buying that any of your tanks look "horrible" once I see the picture I pass my mighty judgement on it. For your carpet that sounds good, should add a nice touch if its kept under control imo.

That sucks about your heater! I have a regular aqueon that's been perfect for me for almost a year now so I'm personally okay with the aqeuons though it seems some don't like them much. Btw, what's with the fungus posts above?

That's some good ideas, I did just pull all the java moss from the 29 gallon and need something to do with it.

Haha, the picture for judgment is below. It shouldn't be too hard to keep the carpet under control since the growth is pretty slow in that tank, at least in the past.

I don't know why anyone wouldn't like the aqueon heaters, they seem to be decent in serving their purpose. The pro was sitting around for when I flooded my 5 gallon dry start tank, but now I will need to get another. The post above seems to be mispost meant for another topic, nothing to do with my rams.


29 gallon update
In my ongoing aquarium project rampage I removed all the plants and driftwood from the 29 gallon today. I evened out the sand before the water change, and removed most of the debris that has come off the driftwood. A good amount of the frogbit moved into the tank, which has turned into my angelfish's favorite snack. I caught it tearing away at the roots late last night, but it left a good inch of the roots which will be fine for the plants.

All the java moss was removed since it wasn't going to work with the new layout. I spent a couple hours planning and testing driftwood layout, and attaching the java ferns to the two pieces. There is a tunnel now with the new driftwood piece, and the piece interlocked with the existing one perfectly. Both pieces are very stable now. I may have gone a little overboard with the java ferns, but I am not really sure. So, any opinions on that and other ideas would be great.

The pictures didn't come out great, but everything is somewhat visible.

The angelfish eyeballing the roots again.

Here is the horrible looking 20 gallon. The riccia shelf is not working so well anymore. The riccia growth rate is far too fast to keep up with trimming, so a few pieces below died off and the riccia is now in its natural floating state.

And finally, here is some very rare pictures of the bettas that I was able to get. Here's the black orchid, the picture didn't capture his blue eyes too well.

The other male crowntail who has recovered very well from whatever the lump was he had. The scales have come back to where they were lost.

 

I'm ready to pass judgement! The 29 is looking good, I'm glad you left the floating hornwort. Personally, I'd want the driftwood more vertical with the ferns spaced along the vertical. I'm not sure if you could make your pieces work with some ss screws or not. That's just my preference for a tall tank, but looks fine the way you have it imo.

As far as the 20g, you're too good at growing plants, tell them to slow down. I can't see, is the riccia attached to the plastic still or did you pull it free? Also, who cares about a little overgrowth, that's what trimming is for, most people trying planted tanks would kill for that as a problem! I bet those fish are loving their jungle Adam.

I really like the blue eyes! Sharp You can't even tell the other guy had anything happen to him, that's great!

 

Yup, problems of happy thriving plants. It still looks great.

Now I know which fast growing stem plants to stay away from.

 

I'm ready to pass judgement! The 29 is looking good, I'm glad you left the floating hornwort. Personally, I'd want the driftwood more vertical with the ferns spaced along the vertical. I'm not sure if you could make your pieces work with some ss screws or not. That's just my preference for a tall tank, but looks fine the way you have it imo.

As far as the 20g, you're too good at growing plants, tell them to slow down. I can't see, is the riccia attached to the plastic still or did you pull it free? Also, who cares about a little overgrowth, that's what trimming is for, most people trying planted tanks would kill for that as a problem! I bet those fish are loving their jungle Adam.

I really like the blue eyes! Sharp You can't even tell the other guy had anything happen to him, that's great!

Haha, does this mean the gavel is down? I tried weighing the hornwort to the bottom, but it just didn't look right. It works really well to contain the frogbit, and the frogbit will contain the hornwort . I'm not really sure about using the driftwood in a vertical position, it may take up too much of the room for the angelfish. Then again, getting the plants closer to the light would help.

I don't know about too good at growing plants, I've killed my fair share of them getting to this point, maybe I could use that as a threat to slow down growth . The jungle has hidden the riccia, but it is still somewhat attached. I still need to take it out and figure out what to do with all of it. I know, I was one of those people, and now I have what I wanted lol. The fish really love the jungle, the kuhlis have their space during the day, the rams stay by the cabomba at night, and the rasboras have the pennywort. The territory is oddly balanced, but I guess that is a good thing.

Yup, problems of happy thriving plants. It still looks great.

Now I know which fast growing stem plants to stay away from.

It is crazy how fast the growth is, and I thought water wisteria was bad. While the hygro looks really nice, its growth is just unbelievable, so it is definitely good to avoid .


New 29 gallon thoughts, ideas welcome!
The plants that I will move are the rotala rotundifolia (background), purple cabomba (background), and limnophilia aromatica (background, if it pulls through). There won't be any floaters, and the light fixture and CO2 from the 20 gallon will move. The substrate I decided on is miracle gro organic potting mix capped with saf-t-sorb.

I've got a couple ideas for some foreground plants, instead of a carpet, when I get the new tank established. Both are harder to care for, but look amazing. The first is downoi, which is not as demanding, and would add some even cover. The second, and more demanding, is eriocaulon 'japan'. Only problem there is I would need a KH of 2-4 or it dies off. Anyone have thoughts on either of those? As for a new mid-height plant I am considering the true rotala indica, ammania sp 'bonsai'. I believe with all that I can fit one other background plant, any thoughts on another to add?

 

It is crazy how fast the growth is, and I thought water wisteria was bad. While the hygro looks really nice, its growth is just unbelievable, so it is definitely good to avoid .

I've cut back my Wisteria a bazillion times. Lol Believe it or not I've almost lost it which is surprising. Now it's growing crazy again! I snapped a shot of it last night pearling and posted it over in my journal.

You need a Red Melon Sword.

 

I've cut back my Wisteria a bazillion times. Lol Believe it or not I've almost lost it which is surprising. Now it's growing crazy again! I snapped a shot of it last night pearling and posted it over in my journal.

You need a Red Melon Sword.

That is surprising seeing how well all your plants are doing, and seeing how well it looks now. I tossed all the wisteria that was in the 10 gallon, my neglect led to algae covering it and some deficiencies. Knowing my luck, I would get a red melon sword and it will be the only sword plant that I can grow lol. Then I'll end up with fish pressed against the glass because they have no room to swim, as Matt describes it . It is a really nice sword though, I like the varying colors in it.



So, it looks like my plan for using the frogbit to cover the hornwort was the worst idea ever. I woke up this morning to find the hornwort shed a bunch of needles. After removing the remaining hornwort and thousands of needles floating around, all is well again. I also added an invisible fishing line barrier in front of the filter outlet so the frogbit can move freely without floating into the outlet. Now my surface plant is roughly 40 heads of frogbit .

I did another trimming on the 20 gallon since the hygro was back to the surface again in a matter of two days. I had trimmed at least 4 inches off those stems. Those trimmings were added to the right side of the 10 gallon to balance it out. The existing stems in there are at the surface already, and have developed some decent roots already (I accidentally uprooted some). The new leaves on the hygro is coming in with more red then my 20 gallon has ever produced, so my guess is the substrate has a lot to do with that.

I tested the parameters in the 10 gallon and found that the substrate reviews are accurate, and the stratum does not leach ammonia. My nitrates were up around 20 ppm though. I also dosed a small amount of macros, no KNO3, after changing some of the water. I still need to figure out what kind of schedule I am going to do for dosing. Hopefully tomorrow, I am going to line the poor reflectors, that are about as reflective as non-polished galvanized steel, with some very reflective duct tape.

Ignore the mess around the tank, I am going through the process of reorganizing the room.

 

Well, the 20 gallon is no longer a high tech tank, and most of the plants have been moved out. It isn't much to look at now, but that is fine with me. The fish did not take the massive change well even though I made the changes over a few days. They are back to normal now that I moved all the brazilian pennywort to the substrate. I still need to figure out what I am going to do for the lighting, but for now I have a single T5HO from one of my humidity domes sitting on the shelf above the tank.

The growth on my riccia baffle adapted to its' new area, so it is now partially grown emersed. It works great since I can run my AC50 at full power without blowing all the fish and sand around. I also trimmed each piece of frogbit to take care of any bad leaves.

Nothing much has been done with the 10 gallon, and by that I slacked at dosing ferts. So, I now need to get the balance back in that take to get rid of the algae, but it isn't anything that can't be handled easily. The growth is pretty good now that the plants adjusted. The hygro was the fastest to adjust, and the dwarf riccia actually seems to be doing better in there than my 20 gallon.

 

I like your riccia, baffle/scrubber, nice way to get two benefits for the price of one! The betta's tank is looking great, I bet they're loving it. Glad to see the coconut hut is still there, it just looks like it "fits" the aquascape.

 

The riccia baffle also serves to make that tank pretty much silent too . If the water level is kept higher the GBRs use it to play in the current lol. The bettas seem pretty happy with the tank, especially since they have swimming room instead of a jungle. The coconut shell grew on me, so yours and everyone else's input was right about it.

 

So, surprisingly enough the growth in the 20 gallon is still going strong even with weaker lighting. I did add a aluminum clamp light lined with aluminum foil tape and a 23 watt 6500K CFL bulb. I dose dry ferts once a week, KH2PO4 and K2SO4 with the fresh water during a water change, and the micros the next day. So far that seems to be perfect for what I have. I had to thin out the frogbit since it took over the entire surface to the point the plants were choking each other out. The riccia baffle seems to be spreading to the filter housing. My pennywort has turned itself back into a floater and is growing across the surface while anchored to the sand. The two jungle vals that were living, not growing, in my 29 hex also got moved to this tank. Finally, I have a tiny rubin sword coming up from the roots of the other which I find odd given the low light level.

 

what is that fish in the second pic ???

 

That is one of my black kuhlI loaches (pangio oblonga) out searching for anything I may have stirred up .

 

oh it looks kwl and jw because I saw some fish that looked like that labelled as weather loaches

 

Yeah, they are neat fish to have and have a very odd behavior. These stay a lot smaller than weather loaches which is nice.

 

The 20 gallon has continued to do really well under a low tech setup. I split the rubin sword, and the second plant is just as tall as the first already. The frogbit has been taking over the surface on a regular basis, so that tends to be a hassle since the leaves are the sie of quarters lol. The water changes are still 50% a week with dosing EI weekly on a low light schedule. Other than that, I just sit back and enjoy the tank with minimal intrusion .

Sorry, there is no organization to this tank at all

New rubin on the right. I added a gro soil tab to the base to see what the growth will be like compared to the seachem root tabs. The didiplis diandra was just added from excess amounts from my other tank.

And some random shots of the male GBR, the female wasn't up to being photographed since she only wanted food. He has turned into a really nice looking fish. Excuse the reflection of my hand .

 

Good to see this tank still going great I really like the simple scheme to it and the pennywort "stairways".

 

Thanks Matt, that is the outcome of me be really lazy and never trimming anything lol. The kuhlis love the pennywort for places to hang out and plot against the other fish below .

 

If it works it works

I just got some botia kubotaI a couple weeks ago and they do something similar, they like to "perch" places where they have a good view and just hang out, they also hover around a lot and click at night, too cute.

 

I made some small changes to the 20 gallon to accomodate some extra stems and other plants from my 29 gallon. The driftwood and crypt 'florida sunset' is what I received in trade for amazon frogbit, leca balls, and a single stem of another plant. It is covered in really healthy peacock moss. The rubin sword is turning out some really deep red leaves, but oddly enough it continues to remain small and healthy. I also decided to increase the dry fert dosing slightly to account for the significantly decreased amount of frogbit on the surface. I'm not sure how I like the layout yet, but it works for now and the fish seem to enjoy the open area not covered in frogbit roots lol. Plus, they got a bunch of springtails to eat when I knocked them off the frogbit. I decided to do a video this time since it is easier.

 

love the tank and the way the plant is on that driftwood can't wait till the java grass I got on mine grows out

 

Thanks! I am happy with getting that driftwood in trade, no algae and no stray mosses in with it. Now I just need to keep it that way . Good luck with getting your java moss grown out, soon you'll have more than you know what to do with lol.

 

10 gallon update

It has been a while since I update anything on the 10 gallon, so here it goes (sorry in advance for the length, but there was a lot I applied to this tank). This tank has had a history of being a bit of a pain with algae always creeping up on me and me not taking care of it as soon as I normally do in my other tanks. This time I have rhizoclonium and some BBA due to the neglect of removing it before it became a problem. A few weeks ago I lost my black orchid betta to an unknown cause, so I ended up deciding to redo this again. All the plants got thrown away, or went to the emersed tub if I still wanted it.

I opted to get rid of the hood on the tank because it did not have a good light spread, and the horizontally mounted CFL bulbs was destroying any decent light output. I hung a 10" clamp work light with a single 23 watt 6500K bulb 6" above the water's surface and will adjust that as needed. That should take care of my lighting issue and give me an easier tank to work with. I removed the betta and did a full cleaning of the glass and stirred up anything in the substrate. I let the filters catch most of the free floating stuff, shut them down, and did a large water change. One filter was decommissioned while the other one got the filters and housing cleaned. All that took care of the algae and organics pretty well. The 2 50% water changes I did over the following week took care of the rest.

The clean tank looked bare and the betta unhappy with having only floaters and a fake log that I put in temporarily. He is a lazy one and like to lay across the plant leaves. I picked up a large cryptocoryne wendtiI 'red' that I has able to separate into 12 plants (9 of which were a good size, the rest were very small and went to another tank to grow out faster). While getting the crypt, I was also able to pick up an awesome piece of driftwood that seemed perfect for the tank, and if it wasn't my loaches would mind another cave . Anyway, once all that was prepped, I worked to slope the substrate to the back of the tank for depth visually and for the plants. The front is ~1" deep and the back is 3"+ deep.

Skipping forward some, I placed the crypts along the back to middle, added a small crypt. 'Florida Sunset' from my 20 gallon, and planted a couple spare stems of bacopa caroliniana, rotala najenshan, and some chain swords. After that was done I added seachem root tabs in between the crypts (6 total), and I will probably add the rest to the front when I add some more plants later. Two more 50% water changes later everything has stayed in place very well.

The goal of this tank is for it to be very low tech and therefore low maintenance with a large plant mass. Plus, I need a tank to take up some plant overflow from the 29 gallon . I will be dosing 2 mL of seachem comprehensive, 1/32nd of a teaspoon of equilibrium, and an 1/8th of a teaspoon of KNO3 each week. The water has also been softened more with a 75/25% mix of RO and tap water respectively, which brings the KH to 3-4 dKH with 0 dGH (before dosing equilibrium). It is too soon to judge plant growth, but there is no signs of the crypts getting ready to melt or anything and the I added is already growing very well which is a good sign of the water quality (if it can't grow nothing will since it has an unlimited source of CO2). There will be a few more water changes done to remove anything more that may be remaining, basically I want to see clean filter media (aqueon 10 packed full to baffle and eliminate bypass).

Most important of all, the lone betta (Albert) is very pleased with the new layout and is back to running the tank and laying on the leaves . Hopefully all the work I put into this will pay off.

 

The tank looks great!
Nice job.

Did I understand that you don't have a hood?
You might want to take precautions against jumping.

Plastic egg crate cut to fit would allow light in but prevent an escape.

 

like all your tanks iv seen it looks great.

 

It really is nice! I love the dark gravel with the green plants.

 

The tank looks great!
Nice job.

Did I understand that you don't have a hood?
You might want to take precautions against jumping.

Plastic egg crate cut to fit would allow light in but prevent an escape.

Thanks! I did remove the hood on this tank. I've never encountered any jumpers on my other tanks until the other day with a tetra. I had not thought of using eggcrate for a top, so I will make one this weekend since it seems bettas can be jumpers. This one never has, but not really willing to risk it.

like all your tanks iv seen it looks great.

Thank you .

It really is nice! I love the dark gravel with the green plants.

Thanks, it does help to make the colors stand out a bit more, and it works really well for the betta's colors .

 

Why don't you diy a gravel vac? Very very cheap and easy.