What's going in andrephua's 2 ft tank?

[andrephua]

i decided to get a 2ft tank, which is larger than the one I intended to, and it's sitting on my table now.



as in the photo, it's actually sitting between my printer and LCD monitor. I don't think heat from those equipment would pose any problem.

what I'm going to do next:
1) i'm going to get soil. I'm intending to mix some brownish soil with GEX shrimp/ plant soil. Advisable? initially, i want to have the light coloured substrate, almost off-white. maybe i'll be getting some white sand and sprinkle it all over the bottom of the tank.
2) i'm going to add in tap water, and let the whole thing set for about 2 days before putting in the wood. i understand tat there would be some tanning involved, but i'm okay with that.

that's what's going to happen this week. how's my aquarium going to be set up is as following:
1) I'm going to do planting.
2) I won't be using any filter
3) I won't be using any light. Light source would come from my table lamp, which gives out yellowish light.
4) i'm going to introduce submerged and emerged plants
5) i'm intending to put in shrimps and fishes as well. i'm looking at getting killies...

Any comment?

[Simon]

the tank looks longish, how width is the tank? 1/2ft?

[kaganesti]

3) I won't be using any light. Light source would come from my table lamp, which gives out yellowish light.
4) i'm going to introduce submerged and emerged plants

The light source and it's duration of lighting will limit the kinda of plants that you can grow. Judging from the lamp you have, I think your choice of plants will be quite limited. Maybe can give us a clearer idea what kind of setup you going for and what kind of plants you growing. Also curious what you mean by introducing submerged and emerged plants.

5) i'm intending to put in shrimps and fishes as well. i'm looking at getting killies...

Shrimps are relatively more sensitive to water conditions . Moreover you are not introducing a filter.You willl need to ensure the water quality to keep the shrimp alive. You mentioned that you are going to add soil? as in gardening soil? I don't think shrimps can survive that kinda water . For more infomation on killies , you might want to check out http://www.killies.com/

[andrephua]

I'm still reading up on the kind of plants that would be suitable for such set up. What I mean on submerged and emerged plants is, I would be having a wood, half-submerged in the water. The part not submerged, I intend to 'tie' plants on it.

As to 'soil', I meant substrates as found at LFS

3) I won't be using any light. Light source would come from my table lamp, which gives out yellowish light.
4) i'm going to introduce submerged and emerged plants

The light source and it's duration of lighting will limit the kinda of plants that you can grow. Judging from the lamp you have, I think your choice of plants will be quite limited. Maybe can give us a clearer idea what kind of setup you going for and what kind of plants you growing. Also curious what you mean by introducing submerged and emerged plants.

5) i'm intending to put in shrimps and fishes as well. i'm looking at getting killies...

Shrimps are relatively more sensitive to water conditions . Moreover you are not introducing a filter.You willl need to ensure the water quality to keep the shrimp alive. You mentioned that you are going to add soil? as in gardening soil? I don't think shrimps can survive that kinda water . For more infomation on killies , you might want to check out http://www.killies.com/

[Quixotic]

Generally, shrimps and killies aren't exactly a good mix, dwarf shrimps may end up as snacks for the killies. If you really want to keep shrimps with killies, Yamato shrimps may work, but then again, mileage may vary. Or go with Pseudepiplatys annulatus (clown killies) or Aplocheilichthys spp. (lampeye killies) which are considered "shrimp safe".

[celticfish]

also, killies like to jump.
unless you have some floating plants or a cover... you may find them on your desktop.

btw nice picture!

[andrephua]

yup. the tank comes with a glass cover.
furthermore, the tank would be only about 1/2-filled with water, so i hope killies would not be able to jump out of the tank. what i worry is that the killies might commit kamikaze by jumping on to the emerged wood and die...

"nice picture!" refers to the tank i hope...

also, killies like to jump.
unless you have some floating plants or a cover... you may find them on your desktop.

btw nice picture!

[ranmasatome]

hmmm..the "kusanagi" backdrop not bad leh..

[LoNgFei]

lolz you can actually start putting the soil, the rock/wood and let the water cycle first, then you can start planting.

[andrephua]

hi all

update to the tank.

1) i've relocated the tank. it was sitting on my tempered glass table. i was advised to consider if the glass would actually break once i put in the rest of the stuff, esp the substrate. with just the water in it, it is already pretty heavy. Thus, it's now on my low bookshelf. So, it's no longer the kusanagi backdrop
2) i've bought substrate- i believe it's called lapis sand- from polyart/ C328. I've also bought a 2kg-pack of GEX soil (red pack). I've dump them all in the tank, filled it up with water, and letter the whole setup to settle.
3) I've paid Teo's a visit, and bought some plants, ranging from nana to crypto, etc. Will need some help ID-ing of the plants. they are in a water-filled pail. I've be planting them in 2-3 days time.
4) The drift wood is still soaking

What's planned in these coming days?
1) I'm going to put in the driftwood and later the plants in 2-3 days time when the the water has settled.
2) In about 1.5 weeks time, I'm going get shrimps after assessing that the plants are doing well enough...

What advise do I need?
1) Should I add anti-chlorine in the settling water?
2) The plants are in a pail right now, partially submerged. Is there anything that I need to take note of?
3) The tank is currently nearer to the window, and thus i would foresee that I might have algae problem. I would want to prevent this; what should I do to prevent this? Is there any chemical that I can add into the tank to prevent this? I understand that most chemical in the market don't really work to stop algae; true?
4) any other advise? or any other info from any curious minds?

i'll be posting pic soon, after I've put in the driftwood

[andrephua]

Hi all. The driftwood is in.



The substrate got stirred up, thus the cloudy water.

As mentioned, I need some help to ID some plants. All the experts out there, your help appreciated:

1) This is the crypto that I bought. Anyone can help ID its scientific name?



2) Got these two types of nana. According to Teo's, the 2nd pic is from China. What I notice is, the first type is larger and less dense, whereas I was told the China-import would not grow larger than how it is. Anyone can help me ID them?



3) I got some moss as well. Teo's told me it's not some fancy moss, just some local stuff. Anyone knows what is it?



4) I got myself this as well:



I told Teo's that I wanted this aqua plant whereby the leaves are slim and twisted, as shown. I don't remember exactly the species I wanted, but I was shown the one above and decided to get it as it look pretty pretty and would certainly add a nice look to the tank. I was told that it's an African species.

5) This is a nana plant that I got. What's the species called?



6) And I got myself this as well. Would like to confirm if this is 'Echinodorus "ozelot" '



This I'll be planting at the foreground, almost like a 'main showcase' of the plants in the tank.

7) And lastly, I got myself these:



Would like to confirm if these are Java fern. Can they be planted as emerged? I'm planning to do that by experimenting on trying it on the driftwood.

[bryan]

Hi Andrephua,

I have to break this to you. Some of the plants you bought, won't make it on the ambient light condition that you plan on. To have a better understanding of the different requirements of the various plants do check the link below.

http://www.tropica.com/default.asp

Pic 4 is Crinum calamistratum

Pic 5 is not a Nana, it looks like somesort of Echinodorus

Pic 6 is an Ozelot

Pic 7 is Java fern - You have to constantly keep them misted or cover the tank or they will dry up if kept emerged.

[andrephua]

thanks bryan

hmm.. i've already done the planting, and now gonna see how things work out. perhaps it would work out well, perhaps not. will wait and see. thanks for your advise

[andrephua]

hi all

this is how it looks like currently:



I've yet to put in Echinodorus parviflorus 'Tropica' and Echinodorus ozelot 'green', which most likely be at the front portion of the tank.

Plants that I've planted emersed are: Moss, Java fern and the crypto. It is not that advisable to plant java fern and crypto emersed on a log, but i suppose I would want to try and see how that would work out.

Plants submerged are: Moss, java fern, crypto, Crinum calamistratum, Anubias barteri ''coffeefolia''.

I was told that some of the plants would not be suitable for my tank- dimension 22(h) x 60(l) x 20(w), but nonetheless, i would want to try out those plants, experiment with them, and see how things go...

[bryan]

I think you should use a proper FL or PL aquarium light set instead of the 2 Ikea lamps, the plants will work better with that. I've had much success with crypts,ferns,moss on a single 15W FL tube. Good luck with the plants. Forgot to add, Motoko rawks!

[andrephua]

hi all

just an update.

i suppose i was too eager, and i went ahead to get shrimps after 2 days of planting, and i suppose it's inevitable that some of them died. i bought another 2 packets, and this time, i got myself a filter as well, which is meant more to circulate the water rather than to filter.

after about 3 days later, i turned off the filter, and more dead shrimps...

so right now, i'm going to leave the filter on to circulate the water for a couple of days.

some shrimps have molted, and currently, there's one pregnant shrimp...


as for the plants, they are doing ok, not all that good, but ok. i can see some new shoots from the crypto. the java ferns are where the shrimps love to gather. the anubias minima has roots coming out of the substrate, and back into the substrate; i believe that's a sign that it's adapting. some of the moss are doing ok, some are not.

all in all, the plants are ok. as what i planned, i wanted it to be a setting of this scenario: a freshwater river with a falled log, which distrupted the river flow, and prevented the low sunlight due to the above canopy. i want to see how the plants survive and propagate itself.




will see how things go...

[andrephua]

i had snail problem recently, and i got myself a puffer fish. i took out most of the shrimps, except those hiding themselves.

the puffer fish attacked the shrimps and it was quite horrible to watch since the puffer fish really looks like a 'silent killer', stalking the shrimps... and in the end, i had to remove the DW to get all the shrimps out.

it's been a few days since the puffer fish is in the tank, and i don't see snails anymore, so i decided to remove the puffer fish and put the shrimps back in...

and i've noticed other pest:
1) i saw one water flea
2) tiny white worms

any idea what fish or any other fauna to add to tackle the problem?

[thanantosis]

i was reading through...

just wondering why cant you just take a small step at a time...?

why rush into things??

when things like snail problem, white worm problem happen,,, its not the matter of buy what to remove them, what can eat them....

look at what you had done to solve your snail problem. you get a puffer and you kill most of your shrimps.

no people will keep shrimps with puffer.

this is the problem when you rush into things.

find the reason of why those problem came about.

and i read that you switch of your filter after 3 days

can i ask why you do that?. do you know what a filter is for?

my advice to you is please ON the filter and let it run for at least 1 week.

do not add any fish or shrimps

after that slowly introduce them.

and please dont over stock

[dwgi32]

Yap, bro like the saying too fast too furious. Take it slow and you will get better results.

[andrephua]

thanks for the advice.

anyway... the puffer didn't kill most of the shrimps. just one. and it was because i thought those that I can't net out (coz they were hiding among the plants) would be able to avoid being the puffer's meal. I was wrong, and decided to net all out by removing the DW first to make the 'operation' easier. Oh well... lesson learnt from trial and error.

how's the tank now:
1) the snail prob, and also the rest of the prob, seem to have disappeared. i've taken out the puffer and put back the shrimps.
2) the pump has been left off since. everything looks fine. the shrimps are doing ok. some have molted.
3) been changing the water daily; not much, just 10%.
3) bought a PL light. one good idea is to have it on timer, and the light would be turned on for a period of time of the day, especially when i'm not around to turn it on.
4) the plants are doing ok. some leaves are dying, but at the same time, i see some new leave emerging.

gonna leave the tank to settle and see how the plants would grow. since there's no fertilisation, no CO2, i would expect the plants to grow slowly, which is the way i would prefer, i wouldn't want a jungle to trim...