Not fishing but fish related

[MuskieBait]

I've been pretty busy lately and fishing took a backseat big time.

Instead of fishing, I've been spending some time setting up a 5 gallon planted tank.

Initially, I just want to keep a couple of Iowa Darters at home so I can observe their behaviour.

It started on Jul 30, 2014



The tank was pretty bare with Hornwort, some Pondweed and Frog-bit that I collected from the same habitat where the Iowa Darter lived.



But the native plants didn't do well at all. By Sep 28, I needed to get some help to eat up nutrients and control the algae. So I got some plants from the pet shop, and some shrimps. I have also added 2 Rainbow Darter for a few weeks.



Cherry Shrimp



Amano Shrimp



Unfortunately, by early October, I had to release my darters. They were maturing and they got extremely territorial. They were chasing and biting fins constantly. It was such a stressful environment for all the darters that I simply had to release them.

Since the darters were gone and my tank no longer needed to be kept at a cooler temperature, it opened a lot of options for me. I went through a phase of adding plants. In fact, I now love plants even more than the fish in my tank. The fish are there simply to generate nutrient and CO2 for my plants. I still love the shrimps because they are pretty cool to watch and they keep the plants algae free.

Here's how the tank evolved...

Oct 6, 2014



Oct 13, 2014



Oct 19, 2014



Oct 25, 2014



As of today, here are all the species in my 5 gallon tank...

Day 89 - Oct 25, 2014

Fish:

6 Red Coral Platy (Xiphophorus maculatus)
4 Pygmy Corydora (Corydoras pygmaeus)
1 Celestial Pearl Danio (Danio margaritatus)
6 Guppy (Poecilia reticulata)

Invertebrate:

1 Grass Shrimp (Palaemonetes spp.)
1 Amano Shrimp (Caridina multidentata)
10 Cherry Shrimp (Neocaridina davidi var. red)
1 Zebra Nerite Snail (Neritina natalensis)

Plants:

Hornwort (Ceratophyllum demursum)
Sunset Hygrophilia (Hygrophila polysperma)
Red Crypt Wendtii (Cryptocoryne wendtii)
Marimo Moss (Aegagropila linnaei)
Red Ludwigia (Ludwigia repens)
Corkscrew Val (Vallisneria spiralis)
Anubias Nana (Anubias barteri var. nana)
Java Moss (Taxiphyllum barbieri)
Mayaca (Mayaca fluviatilis)
Java Fern (Microsorum pteropus)
Dwarf Sagittaria (Sagittaria subulata)

I've basically maxed out most of the space in my 5 gallon. Some of the plants had been trimmed short to allow for growth. My Anubias Nana came from my friend's koi tank where the koi ate most of the leaves. It is now just recovering and it finally grew new roots and a new leaf. My Java Ferns came from a plant swap with someone but they were pretty poor quality. I had to trim all leaves and much of the roots. It will take at least a few months before they will recover.

Now that the tank is all planted, it is time sit back and let plants to grow and mature!

[Eli]

Pretty cool, Ken.
One thing I want to get into eventually.

[captain2002]

Great pictures and a job well done.

[MuskieBait]

(10-25-2014 11:34 PM)Eli Wrote:  Pretty cool, Ken.
One thing I want to get into eventually.

You can start with a smaller tank to get some experience, then move onto a larger project later.

Pat is the man to ask if you have questions. He guided me throughout the build.

When you are ready to set up one, let me know. I can save some clippings of plants, root them and ship them over to you. Most of the plants I have are easy to keep. I have a 10 watt compact fluorescent light for a 5 gallon, giving me 2 wpg (watt per gallon). I give them 10 hours of light a day (average is 8-10 hours per day). My tank is a low tech tank (ie, no CO2 or fertilizer supplement...hence I get more fish when I add more plants). Setting up a high light, high tech tank is to much money and work for me at the moment.

You may need to wait another 6 months before I'm ready to give away plants. I'm still in the grow out phase at the moment.

[Toasty]

Nice set up! Going planted tank is always hard work but it can definitely pays off! I have x3 60-gallons going but I don't have the time to commit to planted tanks. But I can say that when I see even a decent 30 gallon planted, it makes me very jealous!

[Giuga10]

Awesome stuff Ken, good to see you're into aquariums too.

My main tank is a hi tech 40g (c02 injection, high light etc..)

[MuskieBait]

An update on my aquarium...



Since the last update, I've changed my lighting from a 10W 5100K compact fluorescent light (CFL) to a 13W 6500K CFL. The extra 3W was a huge improvement for plant growth...but now that the plants are growing faster, they are also sucking up nutrient at alarming rate. I current have to dose Seachem Flourish Comprehensive plus Seachem Potassium twice a week. Water parameter had been perfect and I can't really ask for better (pH 6, KH 3, nitrate 10ppm). The plants had been doing a great job keeping my water stable.

There were a few more plants added and then I rearranged the plants around a bit. Plants are still adjusting to the move so the Crypts are looking quite sad at the moment...but they will rebound given time.

I changed my fish community today. Livebearer are breeding way too fast...so I got some Neon Tetra and White Cloud Mountain Minnow instead. At least now I don't have to worry about the increasing population...

As of today, here's what's in my 5 gallon...

Day 174 - Jan 17, 2015

Fish:

4 Pygmy Corydora (Corydoras pygmaeus)
2 Celestial Pearl Danio (Danio margaritatus) *plus 1 in quarantine*
3 Guppy (Poecilia reticulata) - baby
10 Neon Tetra (Paracheirodon innesi)
5 White Cloud Mountain Minnow (Tanichthys albonubes) *plus 1 in quarantine*

Invertebrate:

1 Amano Shrimp (Caridina multidentata)
14 Cherry Shrimp (Neocaridina davidi var. red)
1 Zebra Nerite Snail (Neritina natalensis)

Plants:

Hornwort (Ceratophyllum demursum)
Sunset Hygrophilia (Hygrophila polysperma)
Red Crypt Wendtii (Cryptocoryne wendtii)
Marimo Moss (Aegagropila linnaei)
Red Ludwigia (Ludwigia repens)
Corkscrew Val (Vallisneria spiralis)
Anubias Nana (Anubias barteri var. nana)
Java Moss (Taxiphyllum barbieri)
Java Fern (Microsorum pteropus)
Dwarf Sagittaria (Sagittaria subulata)
Water Wisteria (Hygrophila difformis)
Threestamen Waterwort (Elatine triandra)
Scarlet Temple (Alternanthera reineckii)

[Eli]

Looks good, Ken.
The neon tetras are one of my favorites along with the closely related cardinal tetras. A real throwback to my childhood.

[MuskieBait]

I'm loving the Neons. I'm going to return the White Cloud...they'll too territorial and disturb the peace too much.

You should look up Celestial Pearl Danio. They are beautiful!

[Eli]

What's the volume of your tank?

I'm eyeing an 80gal set-up but am anxious to commit...due to prolonged, on-going commitment that is required. I don't think a tank is something that should be done half-assed so it would make prolonged getaways a challenge. Having to look for a tank sitter and making sure there is a backup power supply for oxygen in case of a power outage. Still, keeping some native panfish, stonecats, hogsuckers, shiners, and maybe even a grass pickerel would be beyond cool.
I could of course go with koi which are among the easiest species to keep, but they're not as cool as natives.