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Ok,

On to some detail shots. The first one is also from a few weeks back, from 3/18 to be exact. It shows the Blyxa in the front of the tank after it received more light for one week. You may note the newest leaves turning yellow/red/brownish.

Attached Image:

Blyxa 3/18

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And here is the same plant now, 3 weeks later. As you can see, it is much more yellow/red/brownish than it was in the last shot.

I am actually not so sure if I like it this way, the individual leaves seem also to be more curled up than they were when being green, almost as if they were wilting.

Attached Image:

Blyxa Now

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And just to show Matty that I am taking good care of his girls, here is the less dominant one looking for food on the side of the tank. She is being chased by the more dominant one whenever that one gets the chance to do so.

Attached Image:

Female I

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And here is a shot of the dominant one, as you can see she is a little more yellow than the other one. Unfortunately it all is for nothing as the male shows no interest in mating, he chases her away all the time.

Attached Image:

Dominant Female

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I didn't get a shot this time around of the smallest, non-Matty, female. She is actually the yellowest of all, and hangs most often in the male's area (but not too close, or if so then sideways laying flat in a very devot position).

Here is the male, a little out from his usual hang-out spot close to the diffuser. That spot is the one he is defending, his source of drugs

Attached Image:

Male

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Here is a shot of the cleaner crew of the tank, or at least a few representatives of each. The Amanos actually hold their ground against the Otos, when one of the latter comes to close then it almost appears as if they attack them. The end result is that the Otos flee the battle field.

Attached Image:

Otos and Amano

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Last shot for today is a look at the most disturbing place of the tank, the area behind the gap from the front (viewed from the back). Here, some form of very slow spreading algae has spread all over the wood that closes the gap. It looks rather decorative when contained, I could imagine a whole ground cover of this stuff, if it wouldn't spread all over the plants that is.

That's it for now,

Have fun,

Ingo

Attached Image:

Algae Carpet

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Looking good. Love the bobitus. When I look at this tank, it reminds me of two people meeting on the dance floor and one has to eventually lead, if you get my meaning.

Have you ever giving dropped a wafer in the tank and watched the fish chase the shrimp all over the place for it? It's really funny?

Alot of waste probably accumulates in the middle area, just suck stuff out more often.



My Scapes

Yeah, that algae you can see is feeding directly on detritus it's collected. Otherwise I doubt it would persist. I have a little spot like that in my 50.

Glad to see the females are doing well. I would think that even if the males didn't look so fantastic, I'd still want to keep the females. What other fish is that yellow and so often overlooked?

Anyhow, I really like the progression of this tank. but I think it will most definitely need a trim, just to be able to continue growing. It's like that with the HM in my tank. Every two weeks I throw out about a pound or so.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Have you ever giving dropped a wafer in the tank and watched the fish chase the shrimp all over the place for it?

You know, I never added any wafers into this tank. Who would they be for? The Otos? The Amanos?

it reminds me of two people meeting on the dance floor and one has to eventually lead, if you get my meaning.

- Absolutely

What other fish is that yellow and so often overlooked?

Well, when there was no male around, all the females did was squabble with each other and none was yellow at all.



Ingo

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Very interesting recap of the tank LF. It all looks so beautiful.

Well, when there was no male around, all the females did was squabble with each other and none was yellow at all.

Yep, in my experience an apisto girl without a male = a dirty brown looking girl. Add a male and that's when you'll see the yellow.

There seem to be a lot of reluctant dwarf cichlid romeos. I have one tank with agassizii male & 3 girls & another has nigerian red pair. In both tanks it seems the girls are keen but the males don't seem interested. What's up with these boys.

Cheers
TW

Hmm...I had a maleless apisto female that was beautifully yellow for quite a while without...too bad I had to take her back to the store when I moved.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Lucky Matty - my females have sometimes even gone brown if the male is there. Yellow showed me she was either in the "mood" or she was guarding. This was with my cac & my bita. You'd swear they were 2 different fish - depending on their mood. My agassizii girls, who I've only had a couple of weeks are always yellow - so it would be interesting to see what happened if the male left the scene (if they'd stay yellow or not).

The Amanos actually hold their ground against the Otos, when one of the latter comes to close then it almost appears as if they attack them. The end result is that the Otos flee the battle field.

That's surprising. My otos held their ground against all my guarding female apistos (cac, bita) and also held their ground against the krib mum too. With the krib mum, it cost them their tails (which have grown back) but they never seemed to care & usually the guarding mum was the one to get frustrated & give up, sick of of her "attack" being basically ignored.

Cheers
TW

With the krib mum, it cost them their tails

I guess mine are a little smarter than

Mine are actually still rather young and not yet fully grown (2/3rd the size of the ones in the 125G).

They have been well groomed by me, flight is better than loosing your tail could be one of my "rules on live"

Ingo

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Agreed, yours are MUCH smarter. Mine are just plain stubborn and if they didn't want to move, they wouldn't - although you would think 2 otos, 1 mum krib & fry in 20G could find plenty of space without getting in each other's way.

Just plain stubborn.

Cheers
TW

Weekly Tank Update - Week 45

Well, there was no update last week as I went on vacation and did not have time to take a shot of the tank. I took one this weekend though, but I did not perform a water change (as I will do one during the week before our next club meeting - at my place).

The only thing to note is that I am not so certain I like the new Blyxa color and leaf shape, it seems to cause quite a few of them to grow rather smallish leaves and they come loose (the whole plant) much more often.

I cannot find one of the Apisto females (one of Matty's) either, even when looking at the tank with a flash light shining in the caves.

That's it for today, here is the tank,

Ingo

Attached Image:

Week 45

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Can't imagine how you could lose a fish in there :

I'm sure she'll show up.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

No, seriously Matty,

I think I spent about 30min just searching, and that was right after feeding. Doesn't look good I have to say.

Ingo

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Has she turned up? How long has it been? Could she be guarding? If that's not the reason for her absence at dinner time, I agree, doesn't sound good.

I commonly didn't see my female when guarding, particularly in a heavily planted tank. Hope she turns up.

Cheers
TW

Thanks for asking Robyn,

I believe I have seen her two nights ago, but I cannot be certain. Both of Matty's females look alike and I never see two of them at the same time. So my challenge is to know exactly where one is while I search for the other, and in this heavily planted tank that is not easy as the visible female is always on the move.

What I found last night though, when searching in the underwoods with my flashlight, was a Cherry Shrimp. That was kind of a surprise to me.

Ingo

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With regards to my last entry and the Shrimp that I found:

It gets even better

Last night I found a baby shrimp, maybe 1/3 of an inch long and reddish. I could not take a picture of it as it was in the root system of an Anubias, a wise position as the shrimp would make an excellent snack for an Apisto.

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

If you have one, there's bound to be more. Cool, LF!

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Weekly Tank Update - Week 45

I had to do a water change earlier during the week as I hosted the NJAGC meeting yesterday. I used that chance to clean the glass really well, something I haven't done in quite a while and it showed. The result was that people believed my water to be very clear, maybe it always was but I couldn't see it that well through the dirty glass .

I finally had it with the Blyxa, the floating and stunted growth drove me nuts. I removed all remaining stems and now have an almost non-planted surrounding of the hills, something that tetratech suggested all along.

Here is the tank,

Have fun,

Ingo

Attached Image:

Week 45

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Hi Ingo,
I started with this thread, and worked my way "upward"
through the rest of yours... I suspect that it is a good
thing that you don't host the club meeting every month!
If so, you would be one tuckered puppy.
The tanks all look beautiful
and yes clean glass does help!

Frank

-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

I had to do a water change earlier during the week as I hosted the NJAGC meeting yesterday

and I didn't get an invite. Imagine introducing me to the NJAGC. "And all the way from Long Island. The Self Proclaimed King of Protist Destruction"

Anyway yeah I think it looks better without the distracting Blyxa. I of course would like to see the mounds firmed up with the rockwork and of course the trimming of the right group, but one could only dream.
Funny thing, I took my Blyxa out of my 72G yesterday. I was tired of it. I think you had a similiar issue as I did in that the Blyxa did not put out a big root system. It just wasn't adding anything to me tank. I'll probably try it again in a different setup at some point.

My Scapes

and I didn't get an invite

You never asked to be invited

I think technically you would have to be a member (but for sure you could have been my personal guest) to attend a meeting.

Yeah, it looks "cleaner" with less plants around the hills, but maybe it will not look that good anymore when I trim the right group (someday).

Frank - You read all the logs? Very much appreciated
I am also glad that I don't host all our meetings, my wife would for sure not like this as I would spend way more time than usual on preparation and maintenance than usual.

Ingo

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I got some pictures to add, some nice and some rather sad I have to say.

Let's start of neutral. Yes the tank still has some HC, but it doesn't do much. It neither grows nor shrinks, it is just there. But the pieces that are there seem settled though.

Attached Image:

HC

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In addition, and actually what started this photo session tonight, was the discovery of this thing in the Bolbitis. BTW, I see some of you writing it Bolbitus, where does that come from? Tropica uses my version.

Anyway, this is what I saw:

Attached Image:

???

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In case you can't make out what it is, I got a better shot a little later on.

The RCS must have been born in the tank. It is about 2/3 of an inch long. They must be good hiders, I have to say.

Attached Image:

RCS

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Now it gets a little sadder, if that is a word.

Look at this constellation. Here you have the male Apisto coming in from the back, a female on the right posing, and in the middle the female that I could not find for the longest.

Attached Image:

Warfare I

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Now, the male came forward, and the middle female does try to get out of the way of the other female, probably not looking for the male from the other side.

Attached Image:

Warfare II

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And here we go, the male attacks. Just in the last second was the female able to dash out of the male's way.

BTW, all shots were taken at the dark area on the left short end of the tank, that is why they are rather shabby in quality.

Attached Image:

Warfare III

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Here is the male. He is not friendly to any of the females, the one he tolerates the most is the youngest (not pictured in this series), but even she is not safe.

Attached Image:

Male Apisto

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Here is the female that was first on the right of the Warfare series. She is in pretty good shape and sometimes offers herself to the male, but he is more into chasing her than taking the offer.

Attached Image:

Female I

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And here is the saddest of all, the female from the middle. When I saw her for the first time since she dissapeared on me I was in shock.

She is smaller now than the other female (both from Matty and about the same age), looks rather pale and spotty all over the body, and is just a very sad looking fishy.

I don't know what is wrong with her, maybe she guarded fry seriously and lost a lot of weight and strenght in the process. She is out more often now.

The picture shows her and her reflection in the side panel.

That's it for now,

Ingo

Attached Image:

Female II

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Nice to see all the females still there. Too bad about all the aggression from the male. It doesn't seem to wear too bad on the females though, they have full bellies, and decent color. It's probably because they are able to disappear in the fern for a while.

I guess I don't have much help on why the male behaves how he does. I would just guess it's an individual thing.

Nice pics

EDIT: Just saw the last post....that one does look a bit skinny. Couldn't tell from the other pics. Maybe she's out and will eat a bit more now. I hope she pulls though alright.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

The RCS must have been born in the tank. It is about 2/3 of an inch long. They must be good hiders, I have to say.

As thick as your tank is with all the ferns, I am not that shocked that you are now finding RCS babies. I know from my tank that they are great hiders. Though, now that I have overpopulation going on with them I can always see some shrimp around. Do you have Amanos in this tank too?

As for the Apistos. It is good to know that they are all still alive. Though, it's too bad that they don't play nice. What types of food are you feeding these guys? It probably wouldn't hurt to try a live or frozen food to beef them up a bit. Your wife probably wouldn't like that though...


EDIT: So LF! Why haven't you been over to see my new pictures?

55G Planted tank thread
19G Container Pond
[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/Wingsdlc/Ric

Yeah, she does look skinny and somewhat out of shape colorwise as well

Frozen food means I have to buy a mini-fridge just for it, as you identified right, Wings

And I will be off looking at your new pictures right now, if I find them.

Ingo

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Nice HC and rcs Ingo, wish I could have the HC in my tank, but I have too low wattage . Pretty little stuff though.

Too bad about the "Apisto Wars". Maybe if you ask them nicely (and bribe them with live food) then they might stop .

Keep it up !


~Morgan~

Thanks Morgan for the input,

Yeah - I don't know what this HC needs, I have a 96W unit right on top of it and it still doesn't take off, although it is in there since maybe around 5 months (if I remember that right). I would assume it cannot be a lack of ferts, I use the dosing and have EC as a substrate.

I pretty much give up on the Apistos and just let them be. I have a female that seems all sad and a male that is CO2 addicted, just the 2 other females seem normal (but I begin to doubt that they are of the same kind, as Matty's females look different - size and detail coloration - than the smaller one that I got with the male).

Oh - Wings - yeah, there are Amanos in the tank as well.

Ingo

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Weekly Tank Update - Week 47

Well, today I had enough of the totally overgrown tank - and albeit I didn't have the time to do a full Ingo-Redo, I at least completely dismanteled the right group, including the removal of all wood on the hill.

I took out all the needle fern that I stuck in there from the 125G (which I thought was narrow fern, but the gang told me otherwise). Then I removed all the narrow fern and placed a smaller batch in the center of the hill, rather than on the woods half way up as they were before.

Here is the tank:

Attached Image:

Week 47

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To me, it feels rather naked now, I guess I will have to give it some time to fill in a little more.

Here is a closer look at the new right side. Some of the Anubias have been removed as well and placed in the 125G.

Also, note the Apisto and Amano in front

Attached Image:

New Group

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Here is a look at the same group from the back, again with an Apisto in the picture.

In general (as you will see in more shots), the wildlife of the tank is more visible for now

Attached Image:

Back New Group

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And here is a shot of the whole tank from the back, again with an Apisto - this time the male.

I assume that sooner or later the right side will need a redo as well, but I will hold off for a while until the tank is more settled again.

Attached Image:

Full Back

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One animal that I thought was gone from this tank was the cherry shrimp group, but recently I found one or two. During the redo I saw at least 4, of different sizes.

Here is a bad shot of the adult one:

Attached Image:

Cherry Shrimp

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Here is a clearer shot of a young one, maybe 1/2 an inch in length.

Most that I have seen are about that size, maybe up to 2/3rd of an inch:

Attached Image:

More Shrimp

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And later on, when doing the full tank shot, I found this one in the Bolbitis.

He is also in the first picture of the full tank, but only visible as a red spot in the top right part of the Bolbitis:

Attached Image:

Shrimp In Plant

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And yes, Amanos are also still in the tank, although I haven't counted 7 (the initial load) in quite a while. Either some died or they hide too well.

Once in a while I can count 5.

Attached Image:

Amano

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On the other hand, I have a much easier time counting the Otos, and as of last Wednesday they have all been accounted for.

This was a surprise as I bought them way too young and as soon as they were in the LFS. I for sure assumed that I will loose one or the other.

Attached Image:

Oto

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And because she was not in the photo series from this week - she prefers to stay out of the way when fighting is going on - here is a look at the younger female Apisto.

Attached Image:

Female Apisto

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LOOK AT THE PICTURES ON PREVIOUS PAGE FOR UPDATES ON TANK LAYOUT AND MORE PHOTOS

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I don't think she is a double-orange, or an orange at all. She has a rather plain yellow black dress, unlike Matty's that have some orange in the fins.

Nevertheless, I like her.

That's it for today,

Have fun,

Ingo

Attached Image:

Female Again

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Nice pics Ingo, and nice storytelling as well

That right side did need some housekeeping, looks good

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Back in the saddle!

Pretty nice shrimp shots. The tank was in need of some trimming. I am sure it will be back to over grown in no time. Right now I kind of feel like this tank is missing something. It doesn't seem tied altogether any more.

55G Planted tank thread
19G Container Pond
[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/Wingsdlc/Ric

It doesn't seem tied altogether any more.

I agree, and I think it is the fact that the hills have no connection with each other. Maybe the HC will finally start to grow in some more and connect the 2 blocks.

There is also the need for a trim on the left hill though.

Ingo

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I agree, and I think it is the fact that the hills have no connection with each other.

You've created to separate groupings and have two distinct focal groups. You need to push the entire right side more to the center so it's not left vs right and have some more blending with "BOB" dominating. Right now it's a battle.

My Scapes

Who is BOB? I'm confused.

I think it looks like a tank that just got overhauled, so I don't think I can say what could to be done, except to let it grow out a bit. It sure looks a lot brighter in that tank though. I think that the bolbitis and java could easily mesh again to make a cohesive group, bu moving them closer together would help that.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

BOB - must be BO-l-B-itis

Yeah, I could start moving things around, but I am into waiting a little. In particular because the left side will need some trimming as well, given that all new Bolbitis leaves are floating on the surface.

And what is wrong with a battle anyway,

Ingo

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Seems I'm out voted, but I like the less is more look of your tank after the trim. I see more detail of each plant, plus as you point out, we can more easily spot your occupants. But then again, I'm not such an artist at planting as the rest of you.

The plants will grow so quickly, that any filling out that might be needed, will happen all too soon.

Enjoyed all the shrimp & fish shots too. These shrimps are not easy to find here, but I'm thinking of getting some cherry reds, if I can find them. I thought apistos would eat them - but yours seem to do okay together?

Cheers
TW

Robyn,

LOL, you are not outnumbered - you have 4 votes

Anyway:

I thought apistos would eat them - but yours seem to do okay together?

You may not have seen this photo a while back then, right?

Ingo

Attached Image:

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mmmmmmmnumnumnum.

This is why I'm hesitating to put even the adults in my 50. I think they would get munched on by the pearl gourami. Oh well I guess. I still like them in the 5.5.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Matty,

The one in his mouth was an adult and not one of the juveniles. I chased down the Apisto and tried to remove it as I was worried he will choke to death (he was breathing hard). But, after I finally got the Apisto like 30min later, I only could recover the back half of the shrimp as it fell out of his mouth. The rest was on its way to his stomach

Ingo

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Ok,

On to my horror story from this week. While planning to update my first frozen food feeding documentation in the 20G QT log, I had to change my mind as Thursday evening turned into a High Tech Nightmare. But from the beginning:

I decided to go to my fishroom, aka basement, around 7PM to feed the fishies. I haven't seen them all day as I was at work.

So once I come down there, the first thing I see is an Oto on its side on the substrate of the 40G. So naturally, I think he died, once in a while fish die. Upon closer inspection, I notice that he is still breathing, and soon after I see an Amano also on its side kicking its legs. Now this seems odd and I look to see if I find more of this kind. But instead, I cannot find any other fish at all.

After a few seconds, I noticed the diffuser going like mad. I check on the bubble counter below the tank and bubbles are rushing through like crazy, for some reason, the low pressure gauge went from 8psi to 14psi, aka all the way up. I had a new CO2 bottle hooked up on Monday and it was almost empty, Panick!!!

I removed the lights and glass cover, put one light back on and hunted for fish. Overall, I collected 5 of the 6 Otos, and the weakest (not because of this, just in genenral) of all Apisto Females. I could take them out by hand as neither had the strenght to swim away. I placed them in a small net and without adjustment phase placed the net in the 125G, but in a way that the fish cannot swim or fall out.

Once completed, I lowered the water level about 20% and had the spraybar above the water line to create as much oxygination spelling) as possible, furthermore I added a small air pump to the tank. And this is when I had the time to take the first picture:

Attached Image:

Tank In Danger

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In this picture you can see the rescues fishies in the net in the 125G, there was no danger of them jumping out as they barely moved. They stayed in there for maybe an hour.

Attached Image:

Rescued Fish

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Here you can see another shot of the spraybar pumping water into the tank. By that time I had found the other two female Apistos, which where hiding behind the heater at the surface and because I lowered the surface they came into view.

I also found the male, but I had to remove the entire right group to get him out from underneath the wood.

Attached Image:

Spray Bar

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About an hour after I stared the airation the situation seemed to have gotten better, the Amano that was on its side was uptright again, but didn't move otherwise yet.

Attached Image:

Amano

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And another hour later the Apistos were swimming again. Here is the female that is in best shape. Now the other ones were also back in the tank.

Attached Image:

Female Apisto One

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And here is a shot of the youngest female, she actually seemed to have made it through the event the best of the 3 females.

Attached Image:

Apisto Female Two

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Here is a look at the male, once he recovered he sure did not look happy. I don't know what upset him more, the fact that he almost died or the fact that the CO2 was turned off completely now.

Attached Image:

Apisto Male

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And here is the only Oto that I could find in the tank after I added them back in, he was just sitting on the ground. I think they in particular took it pretty hard.

Attached Image:

Oto

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And, for what it is worth, by chance I got the best shot ever of the male Apisto after the situation was back under control. Do you agree?

Attached Image:

Apisto Ingo

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And even better, my buddy Joe from the NJAGC took exactly the picture above and ran it through some photo software. The result shows me that I think I have to learn more about that aspect of photo taking.

Now I will take a short break, feed the fish, and then continue with some shots from the next day.

Attached Image:

Apisto Male Joe

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OK,

On with the story. BTW, feeding now concluded in me seeing all the 6 Otos, so all are still there.

Here is closer look at the strongest female the following day, as if nothing had happened.

Attached Image:

Apisto

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I actually ran the tank without CO2 from Thursday to Saturday afternoon, it seems like it did ok.

Morgan, we just talked about this in your log, the air bubble producing algae. Here is some hair algae on my HC that produced the only air bubble in the tank without CO2 injection:

Attached Image:

Air Bubble

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The Amanos seem to have recovered as well, although I never find them all anyway. I have supposedly 7 but at most I counted 5.

Attached Image:

Amano

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Ha, did you notice the small patch of BBA next to it? One should not assume that my tank is spotless, LOL.

Here is another Amanon, showing why it is so hard to find them. He is in the middle of the Bolbitis Fern bush.

Attached Image:

Amano Again

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PLEASE MAKE SURE TO VIEW THE PREVIOUS PAGE FOR A REVUE OF THE CRISIS I HAD LAST WEEK, WITH LOADS OF PICTURES

Now, we talked of all the fish and critters that were suffering, but there was one that seemed to be thriving. As if it would be the best day of their lives, maybe because of the lack of pretadors, these guys were out and about during the entire event.


Attached Image:

Cherry

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I counted at least one adult and 5 juveniles, most were pretty red, aka girls.

That concludes the horror story, I seem to have made it through ok. Long term effects will show themselves later. On with one more Shrimp shot, and then follows the weekly update.

Attached Image:

Red Baron(ess)

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Weekly Tank Update - Week 48

What a week it was, if you read the previous posts then you know what I mean.

Well, this weekend all was back to normal, the CO2 was hooked up again (and yes, the first action of the male Apisto was to get a good hit).

Here is the tank after the water change and some trimming of the Bolbitis:

Attached Image:

Week 48

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I want to show you the 3 Apisto females in comparison, as you sure will notice some differences between them. And this is not CO2 crisis related.

First off, here is the young female that came with the male.

Attached Image:

Young

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And here in comparison is the strongest female that I got from Matty. As you can see, she has some red in her fin while the young one does not at all. Ergo - she (the young one) is not a double-orange. But she is nice anyway.

Attached Image:

Female Strong

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And now check out the weak one of the adult females. She is another one I got from Matty and not too long ago she looked just like the other one. But then she went into hiding and only recently came back out and is visible more often. This would not be the after-effects of fry care, or would it be that way?

Also, note the much stronger red in the gills.

Attached Image:

Weak Female

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Last but not least, a shot of the HC under the influence of CO2 and a water change.

As you can see, there are many more bubbles on it and this time they don't come from any algae. I actually removed most of the hair algae that was surrounding it. In the background you may be able to notice an Amano.

Puh, that was a long log update (as I also updated the 20, 29, and 125 logs - go check them out), but now I am done,

Have fun,

Ingo

Attached Image:

HC Bubbler

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That's a drama you could have done without Glad all have recovered, including the otos.

I had this same thing happen to me much earlier last year and I think it seems that as long as you catch it before they die and then start aerating the water, recovery is good. Mine all recovered by taking same action as you.

Lucky you did not pull an all nighter in the office on that particular day/night. Otherwise, by morning it may have all been too late.

Very nice shot of the male, as well as your other fishies too.

Cheers
TW

Sorry to hear about the Co2 mishap. If your in this hobby long enough especially with multiple tanks something will eventually go wrong as you can probably recall the Tetratech Brewery

I was as lucky, many of my fish succumbed to it.



My Scapes

Yeah good thing they all recovered, that would have been horrible if all of your Apistos died (and of course your ottos and shrimp)

About the algea: so it must be true then, that algea can bubble (now if only my plants might follow suit )


~Morgan~

wow, what a story. I've been pretty dang lucky so far, to have my CO2 act properly, especially when I was running DIY for quite a while, no check valves or any of that business. I'm glad to see the fish made it out ok for the most part. The tank looks good btw.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Thanks folks for the input,

I am as glad as I can be that I made it through that event without any further damage, but - at least for the time being - I am paramoid about the regulator going crazy again. I was checking the gauges hourly yesterday,

Matty, any idea about the "weak" female thing (see pictures above)?

Ingo

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Ingo , Hi I've been reading this log and your 125g log . Wow , I'm amazed at your ability to scape tanks . They both look fantastic . My wife tells me I've become addicted .
I've just come back to the hobby after 30 years . I love planted tanks and have a 60g with which I have been relearning and trying to catch up with all the advancements . I came onto this site looking for advice as I'm setting up a 6 ft tank and reading your logs have taught me so much . Thank you for all your efforts in keeping the posts going for so long .
I have a lot of questions that I would like to ask you , however I don't want to hijack your thread so I will try to ask them in context . One that I need to resolve , as I'm in the purchase stage for my new tank , did you guys ever resolve the flow rate discussion you had re canister filters ???
Looking forward to further instalments .
Garry/:'

Well I'd want to get her into a tank of her own, away from the male and other females, if you can. That will definitely help her eat if she's not now. I'd doubt it's parasites or something since you've had her so long now.

Sorry for the late reply....I'm out of town.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Could you put her in the 20 or 29?

55G Planted tank thread
19G Container Pond
[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/Wingsdlc/Ric

First off, thanks Garry for the nice compliments. Believe me, I sure learned a lot during the last 2 years as a member of FP (where is my second bar as today is 2 years?), but I am still far far away from being an excellent scaper.

Wings and Matty, I haven't been reading my thread in a few days either so I didn't see your suggestion until now. The female Apisto is very elusive and I rarely see her, maybe once every other day. I doub't that I can catch her, with all the hiding places and stuff, without ripping it all apart or waiting until she is too weak to "run away".

Anyway:

Weekly Tank Update - Week 49

Not much has happened during this week, all is the same. I added some plants, or maybe I should say I parked them as they will eventually go somewhere else.

Here is a full tank shot:

Attached Image:

Week 49

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The additions are on the back side of the tank, namely a group of Nana Petites.

Oh did you notice in the last shot the red dot on the front rightish hand of the tank? That would be a cherry shrimp. And maybe you saw the yellowish small plant dead center - that is a Eriocaulon cinereum, but so weak and tiny that it probably will not make it.

Here are 6 Petites:

Attached Image:

6 Petites

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And only one more shot for now, another 4 petites in the back right corner of the tank, all out of focus

In the shot is also the male Apisto and the youngest female.

That's it for now,

Have fun,

Ingo

Attached Image:

Group Shot

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Oh goodie,

Nobody has anything to say about this tank. Well, just let me know if you had enough and I will end the entries.

In the meantime:

Weekly Tank Update - Week 50

Not much happened this week, with the exception that my Amanos were in one spot all over each other for an entire week. I assume it is breeding related.

On another note, I haven't seen the weak Apisto female in at least 5 days, I have to assume she is gone.

Tank is really overgrown in the Bolbitis area right now, but I am too busy () to do a major redo at this time. As a result, fern leaves are starting to grown out of the water.

Attached Image:

Bolbitis

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And here is the full tank, not much to see there. Oh, the Nana Petites from the shots from last week are no longer in the tank, they are now part of the 125G layout.

That's it,

Have fun,

Ingo

Attached Image:

Week 50

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Ingo , fishing for compliments . I don't feel up to making too many comments on your tanks , but I read your logs and updates avidly . Please please don't stop posting to this or your other logs. We would all be that much poorer . By the way I have read all your logs all the way thru and I do not believe the

but I am too busy () to do a major redo at this time

comment . I'm sure you are already thinking of what to do Look forward to some thoughts from you when I start my log in the next week or so .
Garry

Well Garry,

I am actually at a loss when it comes to a redo of this tank at this point, my inspiration was just good enough for the big one.

I will not stop posting (just renewed my premie) when I know that people actually read what I write, this is not some ego-trip that I am on, just simply a matter of time wasted or not.

I am looking forward to your log, if you have read all my logs (this was a major job on your end, thumbs up to you for that ) then you pretty much will know what I have to say:

- loads of plants, right substrate and light, not toooo many fish, know your ferts ... and so forth

Thanks for letting me know that someone is looking,

Ingo

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Out of all your tanks this one may be my favorite .
Mainly because you have some of the same plants I have so I can always look at yours to see what mine should look like. I have a small bolbitis fern also that I just attached to my large piece of driftwood. I was guessing it was a slow grower but after seeing yours I started contimplating that . Anyway my tanks floor is all micro sword, I noticed you had that as your ground cover but took it out, why? Aslo what ferts do you use? I use some from the Seachem line.
Well I really like you log so dont stop it!

That stinks about the female, sorry to hear.

This tank currently looks a bit lopsided, so I can't hardly comment on it in its current condition. I'm sure you'll get a plan for it after you've moved on past the 125.

Nice pics, and obviously don't stop updating You think it's bad in here.....try having a SW tank

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Platy_Punk - thanks for stopping by, here are some answers for you:

- Bolbitis in general takes a while to settle in, but once it does it usually grows rather fast. I have some of it (clippings, so to speak) in my 29G, that is a low tech tank with 65W and almost no ferts, and it hasn't grown much at all in about 2 months (I think, maybe you want to check that log to see the date when I added it).

- I took out the micro sword as it didn't work for me. Not that it didn't grow, but I found it too "unorganized", as in not so pretty, and too tall (3 to 4 inches).

- I use dry ferts for the macros and Tropicas Plant Nutrient for the micros.


Matty - Once my back is better again (12 hours of bending over plant buckets left their mark) and once I can convice the wife that I need to spend another entire day on a tank I will change this one as well. I think one main hill in the middle may be the better thing to do here. And the Bolbitis may actually be too large for the tank. But I am currently only thinking out loud.

Ingo

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haven't seen the weak Apisto female in at least 5 days, I have to assume she is gone.

sorry to hear that Your male is an orange flash, isn't he? I had forgotten - but can see differences between him & my new double red (or tripple - who knows) & I expect that's because your's is an orange flash? I think he has another 2 wives, or is he down to one now?

Don't stop posting. Even though I have been at this hobby just over a year, I don't think I'll ever feel knowledgable enough about the plants to contribute much in the way of comments, other than to admire what I like and try to learn from what I read. I also have no talent when it comes to scaping a tank - so wouldn't dare to suggest that you move this to right or that to the left.

Anyway, I think it's a nice record for yourself of the life of your tank. I hardly ever have responses in my logs - although I can always count on you LF for a visit and countryfish has also popped in lately (thanks guys). It's a good pictorial record of the tank. Although - a word of warning - a moderator in another forum has explained to me that if a thread has not received a reply for a period of time, then the premie pictures disappear. So, LF - another incentive to not stop posting if you want all your historical pictures to hang around on-line.

You don't have much of it, but I thought I noticed some black spot on the anubia leaves. I have the same & try scratching or rubbing, as someone suggested to me. Doesn't really seem to work. Do you have some trick to get rid of the black spots, by chance?

Cheers
TW

Do you have some trick to get rid of the black spots, by chance?

Cut off the leaf

Actually, that is the only way that I know.

Thanks Robin for the encouraging words, as long as others look I will keep on posting, except if I don't have the tank anymore. Maybe Matty can shed some light on how long that period of no activity would have to be before Adam erases all the images. He does that to preserve server space though.

My Apisto is an Orange Flash, or Double Orange, which I think is the same (or maybe the flash would be a triple). He still has two females, but he hasn't been in a breeding mood in ages. He rather eats CO2 bubbles and Cherry Shrimp, his version of Champagne and Lobster, .

Ingo

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Actually I was just informed of this when I recently replied erroneously to one of robyn's threads....see I do post in your threads robyn.

I was informed that it takes a few weeks or more to happen. I've found the most reliable way to keep images up on any site is to host them elsewhere and bring them in with the [img] tag. It would be rough going to redo all your previous pics (wouldn't recommend ), but it's a piece of cake to do it starting now.

Server space and whatnot is at a premium (pun intended?) because there aren't enough of us premies to cover costs. I need to get on tetratech about that.

Oh....just thought about the black spot. A tank full of cherry shrimp is a good tool IMO for slow growing plants. I removed my petite nana covered in green and black spot to the 5.5 and the leaves are literally pristine again. I highly recommend it.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

see I do post in your threads robyn

I know you do Matty and you've helped with some of my more technical questions eg. testing of filter flow rate etc. (I might come back to that question again soon.) You, tetratch, nowhereman & (in the early days at least) Bensaf have all been invaluable help to me.

Cherry's are hard to come by, but I have found a LFS who promises within 4 weeks he will have some stock. I'd love to get some and hope my fish don't eat them (Lobster without the Champagne). I guess you have to be more gentle with gravel vac too - hate to squash one of the shrimpsters during a vigorous clean.

Re the linking. Seems I remember visiting people's threads, where they have links that no longer work. Wouldn't that also be a problem with the links dropping out.

how long that period of no activity would have to be before Adam erases all the images

The moderator told me 2-4 weeks, but I know that my logs are often not updated for that period of time and the pics are still there. I have been thinking now I will not stop posting in my current logs, when I shut some tanks down & replace with new tanks. I'll just rename the logs to reflect the new tank size.

Cheers
TW

If I am not mistaken then the "removal" of images is a manual process by Adam, right Matty?

The problem with linking to a separate host is that it adds more work to the Logger as I have to maintain a separate site with images. Once that gets out of hand then all is messed up. That even happened to Matty when he lost all his images for a brief period.

Uploading images to FP directly takes the burden of maintenance from the individual poster. I think it would be a smart move by the Site Admins to discriminate between what threads should be "cleaned" vs. which ones should be kept. Take my 125G log, for example. One one side, there is quite a bit of "Off-Topic" stuff included (may I remind you of the Brady Bunch phase), but on the other side there is a wealth of info, best explained with the attached images, that would be a great loss for the FP community if wiped out. Not to mention that it is probably the longest and best documented tank log out there (in the public world). Enough about me

Ingo

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Removal of images is an automatic process. In Robyn's case the thread had not been posted in for 6 months.

Re the linking. Seems I remember visiting people's threads, where they have links that no longer work. Wouldn't that also be a problem with the links dropping out.

This would only be because they removed the image off the host site themselves. You can still see the images on my reef tank log even though it's been inactive for over a month and the first images are from october 2005.

It's true there's that one time my images got messed up, and got me nervous, but all were back with no effort on my end in a day or so. That sort of thing doesn't happen often.

Myself, I don't feel too overwhelmed or anything keeping a photobucket site for my pics. It's really easy and since I don't live near any of my family, they appreciate being able to see pics of my tanks and other stuff too. You can click my www below to see all the good stuff there, even some pics from my recent vacation.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Weekly Tank Update - Week 51

Not much happened to the tank this week, the female apisto has still not been seen, I am as such most certain that she is MIA.

Trimming this weekend was only performed on the Bolbitis, pretty much any new leaf that is coming is now of a size that causes it to grow out of the water. I would say that this is no longer working this way, but I am not certain if a major trim would do or if even then new leaves would be too big for this tank.

Here is a full shot of the tank:

Attached Image:

Full Tank

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As I haven't shown any shots from a different angle in quite a while, here is the tank from the main front looking downwards.

You can see in the open center gap the HC. As you may note, it sure gets a lot of light.

Attached Image:

Front Angled

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Ingo, sorry to hear about you Apisto female Are you planning to repace her ? Tank looks fantastic as usual .
Garry

And here is the tank from the other front, also in an angle.

Visible is the male Apisto in the center front, and a cherry shrimp on the leftmost branch. Also, compared to earlier stages of this tank, this side has no ground cover anymore at all.

Attached Image:

Back Angled

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A shot for Matty and his newly aquired HC, here is mine. I don't think it ever was really shaded and since quite a while now has the 96w lighting straight above. So, what keeps it from exploding ?

Attached Image:

HC

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Last night, it was time to do the following:

As you can see, these are a set of new Amano shrimp for the tank, not because the others are no longer there but to increase the clean-up group.

Attached Image:

Amanos

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So, in addition to the existing 6 adult Amanos, I added these 8 juveniles. They (and about 22 more) have been in the QT for the last two weeks and sure cleaned up that tank (including snacking on the Najas indica .

That's it for now,

Have fun,

Ingo

Attached Image:

2 Amanos

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A shot for Matty and his newly aquired HC, here is mine. I don't think it ever was really shaded and since quite a while now has the 96w lighting straight above. So, what keeps it from exploding ?

My mistake then, I thought for sure that everything in the tank had been shaded before you pruned the java fern.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

I checked back when I got the HC, that was on Nov 15th last year. This means that I added it probably on the following weekend.

At that stage, the Bolbitis and the Narrow Leaf Fern were still way too small to create a shade. Once they became taller it may have been possible, but I think to remember that I always tried to keep the HC in full light, knowing that this (supposedly) is their single most important requitement for growth.

Ingo

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Here is a small piece of bad news, one of the newly added shrimp was found dead in the tank this morning. I first assumed that it was only a shell, but it was actually the whole animal.

Given that all others are fine (as much as I can tell, as I only see maybe 4 of them, but that is rather normal) I have to assume that I maybe injured it when fishing it out of the QT.

On to write some good news about the new shrimp in the 125G,

Ingo

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Well you for sure know your tank better than I, sir.

Sorry to hear about the shrimp. It happens to the best of us.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Well you for sure know your tank better than I, sir.

Well I am glad it is that way . I raised the question just a few minutes ago in the NJAGC forum and so far what I have gotten back indicates a need for a better growth substrate (speak AquaSoil Amazonia) and more light (speak up to MH)

Not to helpful for my tank,

Ingo

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