# My new 40 gallon breeder



## Cneon (Sep 19, 2011)

Hi all! I've been away from the hobby for about a year. My old landlord came by for an unexpected visit and I abruptly discovered I couldn't keep aquariums, so I bought a house. (I kid. I've been in the market for a house for a couple of years and everything finally came together.)

In any case, here is my brand new 40 gallon breeder! It's currenly 5 days after planting, all plants were added at the same time.

*Filtration:* Marineland Magnum 350 and Fluval 204 (mainly for extra media space)

*Lighting:* A work in progress. 2x39w T5HO @ 5000k (30" on 36" fixture)
2x24w T5HO @ 6700k (20" on 24" fixture)
I currently have the big lights up front for carpeting, and the small lights in back for the taller plants. Currently running a 9 hour light cycle as I figure things out.

*Substrate:* Flourite base; Eco Complete for main layer; capped with fine aquarium sand (to keep the DHG firmly planted). Root tabs added under bigger plants.

*CO2:* Pressurized. Too many BPS to count. Fed directly into the intake of the Magnum 350. This is the first time I've seen pearling in my plants! Even the Hair Grass has tiny bubbles at the tips. You can really see it going on the java fern at the far left of the wood (the photo has good zoom quality.) (again, see photoperiod mentioned above. Will adjust as needed)

*Plants:* from small to big: Dwarf Hair Grass; Staurogyne Repens; Pogostemon Helferi; Cyperus Helferi; Narrow Leaf Java Fern; Regular Java Fern; C. Wendtii (Red and Green); Alternanthera Reineckii "cardinalis;" C. Balansae; Amazon Sword (I already want to pull this out, but my Balansae is still oh so small, so I needed some height in the back.) Oh, and moss. Not sure what kind of moss, just the mossy kind of moss.

*Fetilizer:* EI dosing

*Fish:* 5 Otoncilus; 5 Nerite Snails; 5 Neon Tetras; 2 Albino Corydoras (better match to sand color); 1 Betta. Coming soon: 15 Harlequin Rasboras.

*Decor:* Local River driftwood (literally the very first piece of approriately sized wood I found on the beach. It was pretty amazing.) River rocks (which very closely match the color of the sand, which I'm happy for.)

Thoughts and criticisms greatly appreciated! Discussion points I'd especially love to hear: are the conditions appropriate for DHG? This is my first real attempt at carpeting plants. In the past, I've had a bare foreground leading straight into some low growing Crypts. Also, how about 2 angelfish to go with the schooling rasboras? The Betta is content and has many areas where he can float lazily, so I assume the angels will be content. Lastly, I know I need shrimps for inevitable cleanup, but none of use are sold in my area (unless I want to spend TEN DOLLARS on ONE cherry red shrimp!!!) and I'll have to order them online.

_Lastly, the giant boulder on the driftwood is temporary. It is merely weighing the wood down as the wood become waterlogged!_

Thanks for looking!


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## AaronT (Apr 26, 2004)

Nice setup. I'm wondering why you chose to cap the Eco Complete? Over time the two will mix as naturally the smaller grains of sand will want to fall to the bottom.


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## Michael (Jul 20, 2010)

That sounds like a perfectly good reason to buy a house.

I really like the tank, and look forward to seeing it grow in. The stone at the right rear is a little distracting, it interrupts the long sweeping line of the root. But this is minor!


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## Cneon (Sep 19, 2011)

@AaronT


> Nice setup. I'm wondering why you chose to cap the Eco Complete? Over time the two will mix as naturally the smaller grains of sand will want to fall to the bottom.


While I haven't tried a full carpet in the past, I have tried to plant small patches of Hair Grass. My problem was always the same: the damn things would float to the surface after a couple of days. The sand forced me to plant a little deeper, and my hope is the fine grain will keep it in place at least for a few weeks while it all settles.

@Michael


> The stone at the right rear is a little distracting, it interrupts the long sweeping line of the root.


You're right. When I'm sitting in my living room, my eye does tend to sit on that rock for an inordinate amount of time. It's not a particularly attractive or interesting rock, so that's probably not a good thing  Thanks for the input! Also, I promise to be a little more dilgent about posting updates of this tank. (The last time I participated in a journal, it went from day one, to massive jungle overgrowth two posts. Nothing in between.)


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## henryt (Oct 17, 2010)

Post updated pics. It looks nice


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## Cneon (Sep 19, 2011)

As requested, a quick photo update. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera in my studio today, and this is a cell phone shot. It works for the overall changes. Removed the rock from the corner, and the rock weighing the wood down.

Not an enormous change over the last week. Hit an end of cycle surge of hair algae. Removed the bulk of it, and lowered the photoperiod to 8 hours. Algae is showing minimal return, so manual removal everyday seems to be doing the trick. Also, it looks like the Red Crypt and the Cyperus Helferi have shown some good growth in a short amount of time.

I've thrown some Amano and Ghost shrimp in there for algae control, a couple more Corys and 5 more Neons (for a total of 10.) Everyone seems to be happy and active. Just playing the waiting game on the carpet to grow in.


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## TEXAS (Jun 5, 2013)

Wow any new pictures? I really like how clean it is.


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## Cneon (Sep 19, 2011)

I remembered my camera tonight. I'm a professional photographer, so cell phone photos of my tanks just won't cut it 

Update on tank with hi-res photo:










I will be moving the red crypt to the left side of the tank, slightly behind and to the left of the bulk of the wood. It's a dead spot right now, and as the crypt balansae grows in, the roots/stems of that plant will be unsightly. Also, the Red Crypt is getting a little too big and is breaking the triangle flow of the scape right now.

And so my concerns of carpeting plants begin. I threw the snails in focus, unfortunately, but you can see the grass is turning into a clump of brown/yellow, with the outer blades remaining green. I'm just waiting for this to get used to submersed life, right? It's going to grow back awesome and green and lush and beautiful, RIGHT?










*BONUS SNAIL XXX RATED PHOTO BELOW!!!! VIEW AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!*


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## henryt (Oct 17, 2010)

lol


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## Michael (Jul 20, 2010)

Those naughty nerites!

In my experience, dwarf hair grass is slow to establish and prone to algae infestations at first. So patience is probably all that is needed.

I agree about the red crypt. The tank is really looking great,


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## Cneon (Sep 19, 2011)

Yup. I assume this is where the unhatchable Nerite eggs come from. I knew it was inevitable, so I'm looking forward to 3,492 little, white eggs all over my hardscape in the coming weeks.


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## Cneon (Sep 19, 2011)

Full scape update:
New equipment:
Upgraded the back lights from 24" to 36" lights, and have two temperatures: 5000k and 6700k (2 bulbs of each) total wattage now at 156 watts (3.9 WPG if you're into that sort of thing) Photoperiod dropped to 8 hours. The initial setup brought much hair and brown algae. Algae is now controllable and no new growth is evident, but I might need to dip my Cyperus leaves (I'm still not sure if it's hair algae or BBA. It's very short, which leads me to believe it's BBA, which will suck.)

Added a Hydor wave maker. Placed all filters/wavemakers on the far right side of the tank, good flow throughout now.

Additional problem: high nitrates. I was at 80 ppm, did a 50% change to bring it down to maybe 60, and now just vacuuming waste 5 gallons at a time every other day. Seems to be around 40 ppm. I've stopped EI dosing KNO3 for the time.

Inreased the temperature from 74 to 78.

Enough of the boring stuff. On to photos! I'm really starting to enjoy watching the tank now that things are settling in a bit.

5 days:








3 weeks:









And some detail shots while I'm at it:


















My favorite angle:


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## henryt (Oct 17, 2010)

its coming along nicely. I really like some of these oddball tank sizes. At the store we use 33longs and 40 longs too, they are nice and we use the the 36x16x18 and 48x16x18. very handy tanks


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## Kerry (Sep 5, 2013)

Looks great already!


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## Cneon (Sep 19, 2011)

Hey all!

Thanks for the kind words - it's very motivating!

I'll try to post some updated photos soon. I try to only do it when there's a noticeable change, but I'm sure there are changes that I haven't really noticed. (Including the two awesome Angel Veil Rams I recently added. They're very shy, though, and anytime I get close to the tank, they dodge under the root or into the tall plants  )


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## henryt (Oct 17, 2010)

do you have dither fish for your angels?


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## Cneon (Sep 19, 2011)

> do you have dither fish for your angels


I have a school of 10 neons. Not sure if they're considered the best dither fish, but they school well (I've had "schools" in the past full of antisocial loners that peeled off in groups of 2s and 3s.) Typically they are in the upper portion of the tank near the middle or chilling out in the wide open area to the right closer to the bottom.

I recently decreased my lighting, and the Rams have been coming out and enjoying the current from my wave maker and have been chilling out in the open space of the tank on the right side.

Thoughts on neons? I'm thinking I have enough room for about 5-10 more small fish (probably more, but I'm always nervous of overstocking. If I added more, I'd like an even bigger school of neons, but I would not be opposed to zebra danios or some other similarly active species)


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## henryt (Oct 17, 2010)

neons are small for angels (food), try a large group of cardinals (25-30) of them


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## Cneon (Sep 19, 2011)

I don't have angel fish. I have angel veil rams:









(photo by me)


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## Cneon (Sep 19, 2011)

*1 Month Anniversary*

Well, with the government shutdown, I'm on furlough until further notice  In the meantime, I've been taking some updated shots of my tank. This is a little more than one month after planting.

5 Days after planting:









1 Month after planting:









Trunk detail:









Length detail:


















My alternanthera reineckii "cardinalis" Love the color, confused by the stunted growth. It just stays low and bushy, and refuses to go vertical. Thoughts?









ROOTS! I know the DHG has been growing, but I love seeing the roots against the glass!









Thanks for looking, and I love feedback!


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## henryt (Oct 17, 2010)

very nice. if you are pushing less than 40 par, then that may be reason for the lower growth


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## Yo-han (Oct 15, 2010)

I'm not sure about the low light, yes for the Althernathera it might be the case (but it is not that fast growing, especially in the beginning), but I do see quite severe staghorn on your ferns as well. Meaning they're short of something. This might be the same thing that is slowing your Althernathera down. Aren't you skipping EI dosages?


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## Cneon (Sep 19, 2011)

@henryt


> very nice. if you are pushing less than 40 par, then that may be reason for the lower growth


I've been moving around on the lights, but currently I have 2x39w T5HO, suspended 4 inches above the tank, which places the lights 17 inches above the substrate at the level of the reineckii. I have retrofitted the reflectors in my light, so they are beating down full force into the tank. I doubt it's low light. This is the least powerful the lights have ever been (had them on the tank, had 4x39w at one point, suspended the 4, now to this.)

I was looking around and I found there is a "mini" version of the reineckii. Knowing my LFS, I'm sure he ordered this.

Yo-han


> Meaning they're short of something.


I stopped the NO3 dosing for a few days because I was in the 80 ppm range. Once I got it back to acceptable levels, I resumed at lower doses. My current levels, tested against reference solutions:
NO3: 35ppm
PO4: 4 ppm
Fe: 1 ppm
K: Ain't nobody got money for that, but "K" is included in the KNO3 and KH2PO4, as well as my K2SO4, which I dose only twice a week. Unless something in my tank soaks up K faster than all other nutrients, I think it's fine.

I think the problem with algae is my CO2. I'm still tweaking it. I haven't had fish surface for air yet, so I turn the dial about 1/1000th of a mm every day (I exaggerate, but it's a minute twist every day for the last couple of weeks.) Drop checker goes to a pale green at the end of the day. My next trick is to maintain where it is currently, but turn the CO2 on even earlier than I am before the lights kick on (currently one hour before. I'm thinking 1.5 hours before to get it to the 30-35 ppm range so the plants can start kicking ass at the first second).


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## Cneon (Sep 19, 2011)

*5 1/2 weeks*

Coming right along. I added some more java ferns (which were supposed to be narrow leaf, but were not). I'm trying a more reputable dealer for some actual narrow leaf stock. I'm going to be moving the sword to the left, so that it is more hidden behind the trunk.

The plus side is I've started the CO2 earlier and it's reaching its peak when the lights come on... I have not seen any new algae growth, and I'm going through plant by plant with an H2O2 dip and killing the remaining algae. At first, the dead, orange algae stayed in the tank for quite a while, but I added some more Amanos and Otos, and now after the dead algae only sticks around for a day, and mysteriously vanishes overnight 

The earlier CO2 is proving to be loved by the plants, as well. The sword alone has gotten quite a bit larger in just a week and a half, and my Alternanthera is now starting to grow up past the rock. Good times.

The down side is the tank gets over saturated after a few hours (I do have surface agitation to help, but it's still strong), so I have to turn the CO2 off for about 30 minutes in the middle of the photoperiod so things can calm down a bit.

This photo was taken about 20 minutes after the CO2 shut off, and the plants are really pearling like crazy during this time.


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## Cneon (Sep 19, 2011)

I lost track. 2 months after planting? Something like that. I've moved the sword from such a prominent position, and it now lives behind the trunk. You can see some of the leaves poking through still. C. Balansae is doing very well, the C. Reineckii is really starting to pick up in height, and the DHG is really starting to show some promise in carpeting.

In the future, I want to add some more anubias/java fern on the log, and probably a little more moss on the exposed pieces to the right. I'm thinking weeping moss for a nice hanging effect on the "bridge."

(Because I love before and after shots, here is the tank 5 days after planting.)









(And here it is today)


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## Wphan (Apr 9, 2010)

Very nice progression love seeing a planted tank once it fills in. What is that red plant in the last picture?


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## Kerry (Sep 5, 2013)

It's looking great! Love the red plant...its a great contrast to the bright greens.


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## annie24 (May 7, 2013)

i really like your hardscape


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## Cneon (Sep 19, 2011)

Thanks for the kind words, everyone. The red plant is Alternanthera Reineckii "Cardinalis".

Here's another quick update. This is 2.5 months after planting.


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## BUGGER (Nov 7, 2013)

Thats really nice tank.


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## TheRatsNest (Jan 30, 2013)

looks great!


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## Jkeating (Jun 7, 2013)

I love the the one large Downoi stem sticking out by the long branch. Nice looking tank. 


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