December 5, 2008 at 6:29 pm (All, Care, Plants and decoration)
Tags: 128 litre South America, 32 l white cloud
Added fertiliser to the substrate today, Tetra Initial Sticks. It’s actually meant to be mixed into the substrate/gravel when setting up an aquarium, but I’m too cheap to buy the larger tablets and this looked like a better bargain, though I had to use a pincer to place each stick in the gravel one by one. Wasn’t difficult and the experience was sweetened by thinking of the money I saved 
I could save even more by making my own clay-based fertiliser tablets, but I’m trying to stay away from using plain clay as it would be annoying to wash out of the substrate the day I decide to redo this tank, and I hope this works a little better.
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December 5, 2008 at 6:19 pm (All, Care)
Tags: 32 l tanganyika, 32 l white cloud, 63 l glass catfish
Waterchange Wednesday 12-03:
32 l: 7 l
32 l tan: 7 l
63l: 12 l
Chem. values generally okay, though nitrate ought to be even lower.
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December 1, 2008 at 7:19 pm (All, Fish, Plants and decoration)
Tags: 32 l tanganyika
Put up a background for the small Tanganyika aquarium yesterday. That kind of paper backgrounds looks better in larger sizes, but at least it’s better than nothing. Added the plant yesterday as well, as I had some java ferns left over.
As can be seen, the fishes have been busy redecorating since the last photo of a few days ago. Look at the fish to the right in the background, spitting out sand.
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December 1, 2008 at 6:34 pm (All, Plants and decoration)
Tags: 63 l glass catfish
5 bunches of java fern and 4 small anubias bound to lava rock. I find this an easy way to handle these plants, easy to setup and move around later – and it’s even close to the way they grow naturally. The root is a very old one I’ve had for years. I love teh shape, but I’m afraid it won’t last more than a few years. It’s slowly falling apart, and I had to screw a split together as it was close to breaking point.
With plants (hornwort floating)
I think the end result turned out nicely – even though it can’t compete with properly aquascaped scenes Java ferns ‘fill out’ the space well, and in the long run I want lower lights – hence plants that can live well under those conditions.
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November 29, 2008 at 6:27 pm (All, Plants and decoration)
Tags: 63 l glass catfish
Bought it last Tuesday, 25 Nov. on sale for half price, as one can always use an extra aquarium I had at first thought to use it for Tanganyika dwarf cichlids, but I found it was a little too tall at 35 cm. Then I found the glass catfish instead, so now it’s waiting for them.
Initialy, I thought it would be great to decorate it รก la swamp biotope, with rushes in the background – I still think so – but the glass catfish is supposed to be a little delicate, and I don’t want to risk mildewing decorating material with new fish. So right now it’ll be some java ferns and anubias, as they don’t need a lot of light – which is best for these fish – and some tree roots.
A small school of cory catfish would be great (why I’ve used sand on the bottom), but it would create a heavier bioload than what is ideal, so I’ll have to wait a while and see how things turn out.
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November 29, 2008 at 5:41 pm (All, Fish)
Tags: 32 l white cloud
My other 32 litre houses 14 white cloud mountain minnows. I’ve wanted this kind of fish since I was a child, but rarely see them in the shops. So a combination of this fish and the 32 litre aquarium that would fit on my desk, made for an impulse buy, which I’ve become very happy with.
Since it’s essentially overstocked – with 14 fish in 32 litre – it’s taken a little while to find the right biological balance, but it works well now. I change 5 litres 2-3 times a week and the horn wort has turned out to work great since it’s easy and grows fast.
The background is watercolour and charcoal on cheap, slightly crumpled-up paper. I think it’s ended up as a very nice background, and it’s a good example of that a cheap, simple background can come off very well.
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November 29, 2008 at 5:17 pm (All, Care)
Tags: 90 l
Discovered disease (“ick”/”white spots”) last sunday, 23 Nov. A few spots on the black tetras, amny on the ‘old’ diamond tetra, but none on teh ‘new’ diamonds and the flag cichlids. Medicated with Faunamor and right now it looks like the scafre is over.
Irritating, as I can’t stress the fish too much right now by moving them and the decoration to the new 128 litre.
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November 29, 2008 at 4:52 pm (All, Fish)
Tags: 128 litre South America
My first ever totally new aquarium, in a nice design, and with a new lamp that fits and everything! Oh, my… what a feeling! 
I remember all the hand-me-downs and cheap solutions I’ve made do with until now. It’s great finally to be able to afford something nice.
The fish is going to be the flag cichilds and diamond tetras from my old 90 litres. Since they got sick last weekend, I’ll have to wait a couple of weeks until I’m sure they’re over it, so I can’t do much in the way of decorating yet, and the plants are waiting in their pots.
- 22 Nov: Setup. Trying gravel again instead of sand – I don’t like the algae ‘cover’ that grows on the sand in the old aquarium. Washing the gravel was a pain; last I used it, I experimented with using clay and peat moss as bottom fertiliser. It didn’t work very well, and it took a long while to wash out.
- 25 Nov: Bought a few plants: 2 amazon swords with round leaves, 1 anubias and 1 java fern. The other java ferns are for another aquarium.
- 27 Nov: Currently houses 14 glass catfish that I fell for, which are going to live in a 63 litres that I’m in the middle of setting up.
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November 29, 2008 at 4:41 pm (All, Fish)
Tags: 32 l tanganyika
Quite an impulse buy. I’ve missed having Tanganyika dwarf cichlids (I used to have a pair of Neolamprologus Similis), and 26 November I bought a 32 l aquarium and 5 Neolamprologus Multifasciatus. I hope it’ll stay big enough for them for a while – as I know it’s on the small side even for the relatively peaceful N. Multifasciatus. I’m not so worried about water quality – it’s been easy to keep my other 32 l with 14 White cloud mountain minnows healthy – and this should be more of the same.
Images from 26 and 29 November
I was worried at first that I’d gotten 5 males, but it appears that the two small ones ARE females as I’d hoped. Now I only need a background and the real Tanganyika snail shells that I’ve ordered. I know the fish don’t care, but I think they look nicer 
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