# Sharing my tanks



## MacFan (Jul 30, 2006)

I uploaded pictures of our aquariums to Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/sets/72157626446421512/

For better or worse, since some were lost in the move, and others were downsized, I'm able to take much better care of these tanks and it shows. They're still getting re-established following the move, but are off to a good start.

The big tanks still need a good stock of dither fish, but other than that, they're complete for now.

Michael


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## alta678 (Mar 24, 2009)

Very, very nice! It's hard to picture these as the tanks several of us helped to replant.


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## fishyjoe24 (May 18, 2010)

looks, really really good.better then my tanks. I need to figure out what to do with these tanks....


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## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

Very pretty! Looks like things are settling in. It always take time for things to acclimate.


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## MacFan (Jul 30, 2006)

Yea, the 150g still has rocks on top of driftwood that I'm hoping to be able to remove some day. At least one piece was previously screwed to a piece of slate though, so I don't know if I can expect it to sink eventually or not. I know the big log piece took 6 months at the time, so hopefully... then it'll look more like I imagine. 

My biggest need now is to get some dither fish for the tanks. The larger fish are likely to be more outgoing when dither fish are about. I was part of a group buy on fishbox, but Alaska airlines (flying out of Seattle) had their computers crash that day so the fish weren't going to leave for 2 days so the organizer told them to keep them.


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## MacFan (Jul 30, 2006)

My biggest change, and so far the most productive one was recalculating my EI dosing using the APC Fertilator. I guessed at numbers of tsp until it was dosing the middle of the range listed (except for iron which I used the higher range listed on the EI sites.) I also tried to get the nitrate number to be 10X the phosphate number.

So dosing for the 240g tank went from 2tsp KNO3 and 5/8tsp KH2PO4 based on the EI Lite chart to 3 1/8tsp KNO3 and 1/4 tsp KH2PO4. I also starting dosing K2SO4 and increased my GH to ensure Ca and Mg levels were in range as well (I reconstitute RO water). 

So far, this seems to have been a pretty positive change GSA is still present but is decreased. Plants with twisted leaves or holes seem happier. We'll see I guess.


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## digital_gods (Apr 23, 2010)

MacFan said:


> My biggest need now is to get some dither fish for the tanks. The larger fish are likely to be more outgoing when dither fish are about. I was part of a group buy on fishbox, but Alaska airlines (flying out of Seattle) had their computers crash that day so the fish weren't going to leave for 2 days so the organizer told them to keep them.


What is a Dither Fish? BTW, your tanks look great. Don't get discouraged, just keep feeding the plants and they will out grow the BBA.


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## MacFan (Jul 30, 2006)

Dither fish are small schooling fish that you buy in large quantities. They tend to occupy the top or upper-mid region of the tank, while other fish might occupy lower regions. Because of their numbers and schooling tendency, they act as good indicator fish to the other larger fish, if the school gets frightened, they know to take cover. As a result, this acts as a comfort factor to the large fish and they will come out more. 

I'm hoping to get 100 dwarf pencil fish for the 240, and a dozen or so dwarf praecox rainbows plus some small fish for the 150. White cloud minnows would be ok, but had ordered Choprae Danios in the group buy. I also want some hillstream loaches for the river tank setup.


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## Phil Edwards (Jan 22, 2004)

Looking great Michael!


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