The "Dream Tank" is becoming a reality!!!

[Kannan Fodder]

Update: Had to do another serious tank cleaning due to algae and the hornwort falling apart. I pulled out all of the hornwort, and it's in a tub on my patio. Had to move things around to vac up all the bits of hornwort, so went ahead and totally changed the aquascape. The piece of driftwood I really wanted to use just will not sink, so I looked into other options. My LFS has something called "spider wood", so bought a few pieces a few weeks back and have been soaking it. I added it tonight along with some beach pebbles. I'm pretty happy with this design.

 

[rufioman]

Awesome layout! Tanks is looking GREAT!

 

[wesleydnunder]

Lookin' really good! You're right, I think. You're not cycled yet and with the teeny bioload and plants it may take a couple weeks yet. The plants likely brought some nitrifying bacteria in with them so that'll help. I'm a little mystified that in light of the fact that you know tinfoil barbs eat plants, you went with plants. A school will decimate plants. The denisons are omnivores so may snack on them as well. Pictus like others of their own kind. You could do 4 or 5 and have a nice, content group. Keep up the good work.


Mark

 

[wesleydnunder]

I wouldn't cycle the tank with any of your future stock. You could stress them heavily and quite unnecessarily. Be patient, grasshopper lol.

Mark

 

[rufioman]

My roselines (denison's) ate my java and anything that wasn't anubias....they are 6" long, though, and several years old. Picky buggers.

 

[Kannan Fodder]

My large tinfoil now leaves ferns and anubias alone, so I'm pretty much sticking with those plants. The 3 Dennison's seem to leave plants alone, but they are only around 4 inches. I wanted to add at least 3 more, but the only ones I've found locally are 1 1/2 inches - which is snack size for the bichir and sunfish. Plus my big tinfoil might try to eat them.

I did add about 25 rosy reds last week, but the sunfish and smaller bichir (haven't moved any of my larger fish yet) picked most of them off. I deliberately netted the largest because they were a little bigger than the Dennison's at work, and I was hoping that they'd be ok. Nope, so if I want more Dennison's, I gotta grow them up in a different tank. I also bought 3 small tinfoils, who immediately started following the sunfish around. I added 20 more rosy reds (2 of which immediately got picked off) and 2 more tinfoils yesterday. Checked water parameters today - .25 (maybe) ammonia, 0 nitrite, and around 5 nitrate. Nitrate dropped significantly, but I also changed the filter pad and vacuumed out a ton of hornwort debris.

I'm paying close attention to the water parameters, but needed some fish to get this beast going. Water changes won't be an issue, they are just very time consuming because I get to play Queen of the Bucket Brigade.

 

[rufioman]

I hate the bucket deal, haha. My 100g is always kind of daunting, because even at 80g of water that's still 10x 5g home depot buckets at 4g apiece. Mind boggling, but I'm too cheap to get a python or anything that's more practical. Anyways. That's a bummer those reds are getting picked off. I would definitely grow out the roselines before trying them. That may become a problem in the future if your bichir is already eating minnows

 

[Kannan Fodder]

Almost got to toss my crown, but the Aqueon Water Changer won't siphon out the debris. Works great to refill the tank, but had to bucket brigade out the dirty water. The tank temp had been climbing as it's gotten hotter here. The master bedroom is the last room on the air conditioning duct, so is the warmest room in the house in summer. (But the coldest in winter.) I did a massive water change to remove leftover hornwort debris and to bring down the tank temp. It had gone up to nearly 85°, but the fish seem to be fine.

Of course things got moved again, and since the fish I want to keep usually come in as babies, I concentrated the new aquascape on providing plenty of hiding places for the bottom dwellers. In the tank now are the sunfish, a bichir, 4 small tinfoil barbs, 3 pictus cats, some minnows (including one living in the sump tower), and maybe a small bristlenose. I'm debating moving the pair of BNs from my 29g into the 180g.

Whole tank shot:

(Miss Kitty is in the left corner. Watching HDFV Jumbotron)

Left side:

The rocks in the front form a cave leading under the wood for the pictus and bichir.

Right side:


The one taller piece of Malaysian driftwood it still floating, so have been debating on trying to anchor it toward the surface with suction cups.

 

[Kannan Fodder]

Massive water change Friday, let the tank sit 24 hours, just tested with my API kit. Ammonia .25, zero nitrite, nitrate 5, and pH is 8. I seriously doubt this tank is cycled, and I have never gotten a nitrite reading. In fact, I've never gotten ammonia higher than .25.

Opinions?

 

[rufioman]

Weird. I can only assume it was a random swing? Tank is looking beautiful, by the way!