10g: Redux

This page documents the Redux tank in linear time; chems & stats can be viewed at Giypsy’s tank logs @ Badmanstropicalfish.com: 10g:redux

Garbage Collectors Arrived Today

The rearranging of the fish-rack started last Sunday, has crept along.

The original 10g tank renamed 10g: tank with a View or 10g:view for short, got thoroughly drained. As I was picking out the plants for a mild bath, some inspiring little voice said; “Try it one more time.”

So instead of tearing the whole tank down & transferring substrate, filter,
blah, blah, blah, I decided to do some careful choosing & replanting.
1 of 2 carboys, I take silly pride in can be seen above the 10g:view
doing it’s gentle fill job. There is a fair amount of mulm from the
L arguata in that substrate, under no circumstances do we want
our filter working on sucking that stuff up, instead of hosting
our bacteria factory. That’s a job for the garbage collectors.

I eradicated most of the Ludwigia arcuata, except a couple of stems.
The original plan was to have a veil of that stuff, filtering sunlight
through the left side and around the back of the tank,
providing a backdrop for the rest of the single specimen plants.
I had planned to break up the back with two Potamogeton gayi.
The L. arcuata failed, miserably. I believe this is due to the water
ph {8} not the vendor of the plants.

I moved the Cryptocoryne lutea into that function. Left side
around to half-way across the back of the tank. They are not doing
so well either. Next comes the Banana Plant, sending up another
leaf as of this writing. I pinched off the previous one during the
rescaping.

Last in the back right corner is the Barclaya which up until now
was shooting out leaves on a regular basis. This too has some
issues and all the leaves are gone. Snail food now.

Coming up on mid-left is the Java Fern, Lace and finally the Java Fern.
Interspersed in front of all this disappointment are a couple of
Ludwigia, planted for their root and top growth out of the original,
as well as what is left of the Potamogeton gayi. The little Petit nana
is offsetting the Banana plant.

The replacement 10, heretofore named; 10g:redux, houses ol FredFish
who at least is not moping anymore. I did not have the heart to make
him live in the bowl until substrate could be rustled up. I suspect he
is past his prime, so better to just live out life at home, so-to-speak.
I gave hime the Marimo balls of which there are seven now, as I sub-divided for propagation. I also replaced the AquaClear ammonia bag wih a bioball media bag and left the ammonia bag in the tank, until last night.
I will have to mod the filter bags or choose a different media, maybe just
plain old wad of polyfill as the AquaClear brand media makes an horrific
mess of it’s own as it decomposes.

Whilst all this was going on, after I had removed the plants in 10g:view

and was doing some research during the drain, I spotted Shrimp-with-a-tude!   I had not seen him for a couple of days, thought Miss No-Name had finally got him during a molt. So I removed him to a fish cup.

Then, what the #&!! is that? Why it is the other juvenile glass shrimp I had given up for lost days ago. Here he comes, all by his lonesome, lopey-doping across the front of the tank! I scooped him out of the tank and dropped him in with the other glass shrimp. Way cool.

On to the 5g: Shrimparium.
I finished refilling all the tanks at about 0-dark:thirty in the morning, Sunday.
Took a little nap.
On Sunday morning proper, I did my chems and looked for the glass shrimp.
They were both visible in the 5g. I had a moment of brilliance; I went
in search of a toy I just could not bring myself to throw away.
Now it is; Shrimp View.

And what can we see through Shrimp View?

Shrimp!
If you look closely, you will notice that the shrimp’s tale is closer to you
than the shrimp’s eyes. Makes a wierd optical illusion.

I spent the better part of an hour watching Shrimp-with-a-tude eat some fish food.  Then I shot these whilst I should have been off getting water from the former owner of the replacement 10g. He has a filter on his tap; his water comes out at 6.6. We here in the Great Lakes state pound nails with our water as a rule.   My city water comes out at 7.6 and within 4 days has morphed to 8 in the 10gs,  8.2 in the 5g.
I will be purchasing a filter immediately following the next cash wave.
{Why yes the substrate is a weedy mess, still. I did not even try to
clean it up in anticipation of the MTS garbage collectors arrival}

As the week progressed, the anxiety mounted. Lutea continue to
show signs of deterioration, Needle leaf as well despite some good
top-growth. Nana has divested herself of all the decayed leaves,
put out new ones which seem healthy. Barclaya, gone.

Today, the garbage crew arrived. 30+ Malaysian Trumpet snails to clean
up the stuff. 5 went into the 10g:view, 2 went into 10g:redux clinging
to some decaying ludwigia. The rest of the colony were dumped into
5g: Shrimparium to incubate as all were pretty small. They went in
clinging to some more decaying ludwigia.

One little guy in the 10g:view has tried three times to see if a trip
up the glass was in order. The other four have moved around the
basin, center front. Miss No-Name, with her vigilant patrolling of her
tank, nosed them a couple of times, decided they were neither a threat,
fun to play with nor food and has just gone back to her
laps across the back of the tank.

FredFish keeps nosing the floating ludwigia where the MTS are still hanging,
He wondered what the heck had invaded his space as well. One little
guy in the 5g has decided a trip up the glass is worth the effort, so far.
Mysteriously, the leaking 10g has healed itself, the arrival of MTS was
anti-climactic we still need substrate, a third filter, replacement plants
and most importantly; a tap filter. As well as a decision on lighting.

The 10g:view has had it’s own hood lighting all along. The early success
of the Barclaya and the Banana plant plus sunlight, plus ferts,
lead me to believe lighting is not an issue in that tank. Even when I
remove the hood and suspend it between the two 10s, lighting seems
more than sufficient for survival. Marimos do not need light,
so the sharing once every three days is for FredFish’s benefit
more than anything else.

I have come to the conclusion it is the water. Specifically the ph. It is just too high for the planted tank. My plan is to gradually reduce ph via the filtered water, over the next two weeks. Target ph: 7.2 max. I will also be adding a DIY CO2 sometime in the next month.

Frankly, I would welcome an algae bloom right about now. If that were
to happen, I would feel better about the survival of the Expensive Weeds.

11.25.2009

10g: Redux – The Grow-Out Tank

After much brain strain and competing number one priorities, decisions were made in order to move forward.  The Redux, so named due to the View’s leaking a while back, became the Shrimparium and Grow-out tank.

90% of three big bunches of Ludwigia arcuata v. Needle Leaf became a melting mess, shortly after purchase.  The remaining few survivors are dispersed throughout the tank and are showing very healthy growth.

All of 2 bunches of Potamogeton gayi died except two stems, they are notorious for serious transplant shock and take a while to re-establish themselves.  The tips of the two survivors had just begun to show orange coloration before the dual re-scaping.

There are some C. Lutea shoots, separated from the 10g:view stock as well as the Java Fern, Lace.  I bought three Giant Hairgrass bunches on a whim and there are some random bulbs in this tank as well, one of which has sprouted.

The Bones:

Hagen AquaClear 20

0.5″ well mulmed Fluorite, over

1 – 1.5″ natural color gravel

Rena 100w heater

Shared 4ft, T8 shop-light fixture w/ 1 Flora-Glow 40w & 1 Ultra-Sun 40w

The Stats:

Temp; 76.f

pH: 7.6 after wc, 8 within 48hrs

NH(3): 0 ppm

NO(2): 0 ppm

NO(3): 0 ppm

GH: 9

KH: 5