Tuggerlake's Planted Tanks Journal

I decided to cave in and start a journal on my two freshwater tanks. Both were set up a few months ago after I moved.

My first tank is a 40 gallon tank. Currently it has discus, angels, and a cupid cichlid. I had another tank I had to tank downz so will be looking for new homes for the angels and discus soon. They are much too crammed in this tank. My plan is to swap them for some GBRs and neons.

I recently rescaped and have really been loving it. Here are a few pics from it:







My other tank is a 20 gallon high. It houses some killifish and a few algae eaters. My plants have gone crazy from when I first set it up.








Both tanks I recently added a few additional patches of dwarf hairgrass. Once those start rooting in I'm going to give them a trim.

 

Your tanks look so great! I need to get some different plants.

 

What beautiful, planted tanks. I am envious of heavily-planted tanks!

 

Well, I have killi babies!

I cleaned my killifish tank and didn't notice anything unusual. Much to my surprise, after I started cleaning the glass I noticed itty bitty killifish everywhere! I hope I didn't stir anything up.

I have a tiny fry holder that I could use, but I'm not sure how I could catch these guys. They are so tiny!

 

Congrats!
Best part of keeping "Wet Pets" the discovery of fry.
Never kept Killifish , so no help.

Good Luck!

 

Tanks look awesome! Your 40B almost looks like some of the pictures your see in online articles or magazines!

I love the look but I firmly believe it tanks an artistic eye to pull a nice tank like that off. My planted tanks are straight up jungle theme like someone dropped seeds from and airplane haha

 

Alright, so some bad news here. I will be moving (again- just moved last May). Sadly it looks like I'll need to cut down to one of these planted tanks and my reef tank.

I now have the hard decision of which one to keep. Fish-wise, I love my angels and killfish, but I know I can't have both. The discus I am okay selling. Though they are beautiful, they need that larger tank.

I am kind of torn. I could either keep my 40 gallon with the angels, and eventually add some tetras, or else keep the 20 gallon and continue to just focus on killifish. Really not sure what to do.

 

Tank update! Did some trimming yesterday. I need to trim back a little bit more in the front, but otherwise a good go at it.

 

Move update!

I am moving on Sunday. Sadly both tanks are coming down and I'm downsizing to a 20 gallon. I purchased a Seaclear 20 gallon high. Will be setting that up Sunday. I'm taking my angels and discus into the LFS tomorrow. I am really sad about that. I loved my pair angels and they've always been my favorite type of fish.

Going to try keeping the killis and putting them in a separate tank. In this new 20 gallon, I'm thinking of doing some green neon tetras and a pair of small dwarf cichlids. Still need to decide which ones to do...

 

Tank update! Did some trimming yesterday. I need to trim back a little bit more in the front, but otherwise a good go at it.

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What a pity you had to take it down! It's really stunning!

 

You should have moved somewhere else if you didn't have room! They were looking so good!

 

You should have moved somewhere else if you didn't have room! They were looking so good!

It was definitely a big deciding factor! Once I finally buy a home somebody my dream is to make an entire fish room. Until then!

 

Took the fish in today. This is what the tank looks like now.

 

Took the fish in today. This is what the tank looks like now.
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It's a shame you had to take down that tank since it was truly stunning... What are you going to be doing with the equipment from it?

 

It's a shame you had to take down that tank since it was truly stunning... What are you going to be doing with the equipment from it?

I think I'm going to try selling the tank, but will keep the lights. Those were expensive and I'm sure I'll use them again. Plus easier to store.

UPDATE
Moved yesterday, and of course before opening any boxes I set the tank up. Lol.

Finally got the plants in this morning. I'm waiting to fill up the water the full way because I'm trying to get every single piece of duckweed out of the tank. I had tried washing the plants, but apparently that didn't help.

 

Immediately looking great!

 

Tank update! What should I fill it with? I'm thinking something orange/gold could look really nice.

 

Maybe a pair of gold rams, if you can get your hands on a mated pair? Or other M. ramirezi varieties, but I know you mentioned orange/gold.

 

Tank update! What should I fill it with? I'm thinking something orange/gold could look really nice.

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You definitely have knack for aquascaping!!!

 

You definitely have knack for aquascaping!!!

Thank you! I have a lot to learn, but I've definitely improved over the years!

 

So I may have gone a bit overboard. Got golden rams, neons, and some endler's. Water parameters look good and we fully cycled last week with old filter media.

I forgot how much I LOVE neons. So pretty in a planted tank. Photos don't do them justice.

 

Update.

After years of avoiding it, I had an ich outbreak.

I first noticed one my endlers with white spots all over her. She quickly died. I immediately increased my temperature to 86 degrees and added an air stone.

Within a day, I lost five neons and two of the rams. A few days later and things seem to have stabilized. I'll keep the temperature at this level for a few weeks. Not really much I could have done. Luckily no existing fish. I can't use any medication since it's an acrylic tank, and I can't have it stain.

Major bummer on the rams. Will let the tank mature for a month or so and see about testing it out again.

 

Sorry to hear! While I get that increased temperature is supposed to extinct the parasite, doesn’t it only really work with medication? And while I get you don’t want to stain your tank, wouldn’t a small hospital tank and proper medication be a cheap and effective solution? I couldn’t bring myself to not medicate in order to save the others.

 

Sorry to hear! While I get that increased temperature is supposed to extinct the parasite, doesn’t it only really work with medication? And while I get you don’t want to stain your tank, wouldn’t a small hospital tank and proper medication be a cheap and effective solution? I couldn’t bring myself to not medicate in order to save the others.

At least in the forum sticky here, it's recommended to set the temp to 86 for two weeks and do water changes throughout, without using medication. Open to other thoughts though!

 

There are also natural remedies if you don’t want to go the pharmaceutical route. Others with more experience than I should be able to give you sound advice though.

 

I may have had an inch outbreak last week, and my ram might be the only ram in the tank, but she decided to lay eggs today

 

This fish seem to have stabilized. No more flashing. Will still keep an eye on everything. I did find something that is plant safe so I might try it out if I notice anything else. Been doing small water changes every other day. I think that's helping.