# My Tanks



## yoyo22 (Apr 10, 2006)

I've been keeping a Natural Tank for about a year now, but it was only recently that I got a digital camera. I would like to provide my experiences with others so that they can learn from both my successes and failures, because these type of threads have always been the most helpful to me. I will periodic post a lot more pictures on photobucket than I do here, if you are interested, and I will try to keep things informatively labelled there.

Anyways, these tanks where set up in June, after a move. The fish made the move alright, but I lost close to 80% of the plants. Anyways here are the specs:

30 Gal Community
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Soil: 1.5" Unfertilized Top Soil topped with 0.5" Flourite
Light: 96W CF and lots of sunlight for 10 hours a day (1 hour break at 2pm)
Filter: Usually none, occasionally an Aquaclear 10 Quick Filter
Water Motion: Aquaclear 10 set at water level
Ferts: Fish Food/Waste

Fauna: 1 M. Betta Splendens, 1 F. Aplo. Linneatus ("Gold"), 2F + 1M Adult Sunburst Platy, 1 F Gold Nugget Platy, 15-20 Platy Fry, 3 F + 2M M. Praecox (Blue Dwarf Rainbows), 5 Otos, 3+ Species of Snails in mindboggling numbers

Flora: Val americana, Potamogeton gayii, Java Moss, Java Fern, some other fern (Ceratopteris thalictroides?), Rotala vietnam, Bacopa carolina, C. demersum, some clover-like floating plant I dont recognize...must have been introduced when I added some other plants...takes over the surface in less than a week, Crypt Wendtii Bronze, Bamboo (Emergent)

Notes: The water is always discolored, I suspect its the tannins from the substrate. Visitors and roommates dont think too highly of the color, but I was trying to make this tank what I percieve a pond/slow river would look like, with way more fish than it would hold in nature. Most do not like the aesthetic of this tank, but I am very very happy with it. As for the lone A. Linneatus in the tank, she leaves the fry alone, for the most part (I guess they are too big for her to swallow at this stage?). Actually I rotate her with the female in the other tank every two weeks or so, so that the male there doesnt harass one of them too much, but the females are even more vicious together, so I keep them seperated. As for the Betta, he spends a lot of time trying to scare off the rainbows, but his excessively long fins keep him from being able to do much harm: he cant keep up. Even when he does corner them, he just tries to scare them off. The Platies, as expected breed constantly. Otos hide in the cave and on the crypts and wood. As with all my tanks, I only need to feed the fish, add water weekly, trim the plants bi or triweekly, and change the water every 6 months. Very low maintenance.

Tank at 1 Month:

http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m312/abwots/6ae81f34.jpg

Tank at 2 Months:


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## yoyo22 (Apr 10, 2006)

*10 gal Killi Tank*

10 gal
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Originally this tank was like the other, I tried to keep them as close as possible, so I could exchange fish between them with a minimal amount of stress. I kept a male Aplo. Linneatus "Gold" and female in here (couldnt keep the balance with two females...). I fed them lots of live food (three or four times a week) and would raise the temperature after I exchanged one of the females, going from 72F to 78F (ideally) to encourage breeding. After a few days, I would reduce the heat. They would leave eggs in Java Moss, large hair algae clumps, and in the C. demersum. However, I live without air conditioning, and the recent heat was more than the killis could handle and I lost all the adults and only have 3 fry remaining, and these are very young (I also lost all three gravid female platies in the other tank, who left me three fry as well). I felt that the tank needed some redecorating, as there was almost no gravel in it, just topsoil, and it was overgrown with algae. If the fry continue to survive the heat, this will go remain a killi tank, but if not I will try some other fish (purple gudgeons maybe?). These killis are my favorite fish, and I would hate not to have some, but until I live with air conditioning, I probably wont be able to keep them.

Substrate: 1.5" soil, 1.5" fine gravel
Lighting: 36W CF, Natural Sunlight
Filter: Occassionally Aquaclear 10 with quick filter
Water Circulation: Aquaclear 10 at waterlevel
Fert: Fish Food/Debris
Water conditioning: initially add sea salt, then nothing
Water Change: 3 months 25%, fill up twice a week

Flora: Unknown Fern and clover, Bacopa carolina, Val, P. Gayii, Red Melon Sword, C. demersum, C. wendtii, Rotala vietnam

Fauna: Snails, ?????

"First Water" (Just set up tonight! Fry go in tommorrow!)









Orphan/Refugee Camp: Holding the fry for a while
http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m312/abwots/IMG_7640.jpg

More Pictures at my site


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## yoyo22 (Apr 10, 2006)

*1 gal Tank*

1 gal Tank
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Soil: Same as 10 gal
Light: Half of 10W
Filtration: None

Fauna: A few snails

Flora: C. Demersum, P. Gayii, Java Fern, B. carolina, random fern, clover-like filters

Notes: Brand new tank. Dont Know what to do with it yet. In this heat, its temperature gets too high for to keep any fish or invertibrates now. I will probably use it as a fry grow out tank. Any other ideas? Shrimp maybe?


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

Interesting thread.

As for your question about what to keep in the 1g tank, shrimp are not a good idea as they do not tolerate heat well.

What is the temperature where you are by the way? A lot of fish will tolerate temperatures in the low 80's just fine. Some even are triggered to spawn when the temperature gets into this range. Dwarf gouramis and most live bearers come to mind.


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## Miss Fishy (May 13, 2006)

Nice tanks! If you lost 80% of your plants in the move, they must have been lush jungles before! I can't wait to follow their progress as the plants grow in again.

The clover-like floating plant looks like Duckweed to me. There are many different kinds which all look similar until you look at them with a magnifying glass! Here is a website about Duckweed if you are interested in finding out which kind you have.

From Alex.


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## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

yoyo22 said:


> 10 gal
> ------
> 
> I live without air conditioning, and the recent heat was more than the killis could handle and I lost all the adults and only have 3 fry remaining.QUOTE]
> ...


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## yoyo22 (Apr 10, 2006)

*Corrections and Amplifications*

Miss Fishy, thanks for the link, it seems very likely that its duckweed!

With Response to dwalstad:

I am sorry to admit that the lighting I mentioned above is not correct. I forgot to change that part after I copied and pasted it from my diary from long ago (I was starting out "high-tech") and the current lighting is as follows:

30gal: 30W NO Flourescent for 6 hrs + 2 hours of direct sunlight (summer)

10gal: 10W NO Flourescent 6hrs + 1 hour direct sunlight

As for the temperature of my tanks, I let then go as they will in the summer, until they rise into the mid-80s when I turn out the lights during the heat of the day. But during the recent heat wave, i was came home to find that even with the lights off all day, the temperature in my tanks was the low 90s (and much higher in my "experimental" 1gal tank, which I wont keep any animals in for the time being.


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