# My tanks



## northtexasfossilguy

Here is my 30 gallon hex









Latest image, sorry that its not detailed!









I also added another crypt recently and rearranged a few of the swords, you can see my pH meter (green box) it sits on the 20lb Coca Cola CO2 bottle. Thanks to TexGal for about half the plants shown.









After trimming and removing the BBA, probably in March '09.

Stats:
30 gallon hex
Sunpod HQI lighting + moonlighting
UV filter
Hang on the back filter
CO2 injection - SMS 122 and pH meter controller, 20lb CO2 tank
Moneywort
Ludwigia sp.
Crypt. var. Florida sunset (not pictured)
Anubias barteri var. nana
Rotalia
Frogbit
others unidentified

Livestock:
Rasbora Het (10?)
Microgeophageus ramirezi (1 large male)
Chinese algae eaters (4)
Pomocea bridgesii blue (3)
Ramshorn snails
other snails


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## northtexasfossilguy

Here is my new 55 gallon tank. The concept with this was to get all South American species in a somewhat plausible tank.









By ntfguy at 2009-06-18
Morning lights








By ntfguy at 2009-06-18
Daytime lights








By ntfguy at 2009-06-18
Farlowella and Corydoras sp. panda

The list of plants is a long one, and I'll put that on here later.

Stats:
Two 48" T5HO lights, one with two Power something or other bulbs, the other with two plant bulbs
Hang on the back filter
Canister filter
CO2 system will be in place next week, I got an in-line diffuser with the pH meter and another 20 lb bottle.

Substrate is a mix of 2 bags ADA Aquasoil Amazonia, 1 bag Aquatic pond soil, 1 box Laterite and 20 lb black beauty sand blasting sand.

Sandstone and tree stumps. Multiple kinds of rockwork within the cave, which lights up at night. I will get better pics of this when I install moonlighting, then I will have a nice 24 hour light show.

Fish:
Microgeophageus ramirezi (pair)
Plecostomus (unidentified L#)
Ancistris caucanus (hides all the time)
Corydoras panda (5)
Farlowella (2)


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## northtexasfossilguy

The rocks on top of the stumps are obviously temporary, that wood floated for about a month now. The floating jar is also going to be removed. 

Things I'm going to add in order of importance:

CO2 system as soon as it gets in, and the 2 other T5s. 
(FYI for the thousand plus dollars I've spent, I actually won a 48" T5HO fixture at fish gallery the other week!)

I'm thinking about neon tetras or endlers livebearers and two more ancistris, but this time termineckii as that is all that is available near me. 5 more panda corys. More of the black sand on top to hold down the Aquasoil amazonia and to allow the rams to filter feed from the substrate. Livestock thoughts?

Install timer on night time lighting for under cave light and later add-ons.

Buy moonlights.

I need to get a good pic of that caucanus to verify that is the correct name and because nobody really gets those. I had a female but she died all too quickly of fin rot, mine is a male. They are obviously wild-caught. I would still like to get a female for him, and move him to my new tank at work if he would ever leave the cave.

Any comments on how I might improve are welcome. Obviously the arrangement is going to change as things grow out. The cabomba on the left is purple cabomba, which will turn that color as soon as my lights and co2 are adequate (fingers crossed).


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## CrownMan

I have a bunch of endlers I need to unload if you want them.


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## northtexasfossilguy

That sounds good Michael, though I'll have to wait a while until the CO2 is running and the plants are growing to add more fish. I really don't want to overload the nitrates with those Farlowella. I'll let you know before next Sunday if you should bring some or not, I've still got one bag of that pond soil to trade, I'm using the other one on a new tank at my office (yes the fever has spread...)


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## Vivarium Concepts

*Your tanks look great! I really like the 55 gal. it will be interesting to see how it fills in.*


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## northtexasfossilguy

Yeah Cindy I am too! I appreciate your comments, I really tried on this one, and I think I know what I'm doing now thanks to you guys!

On a side note, I ordered my CO2 from Aquabuys.com and they didn't list that the in-line diffuser I bought was out of stock, so that is delaying my growth and one of my swords (at least) was dying due to that and also because it kept getting dug under by my ancistrus or the pleco(?). I'm using extra flourish in the hopes that it might prevent total death. 

Also something keeps disturbing the Brazilian plants on the left, I'm afraid they are going to die if they keep getting abused like that. Interestingly, I left some of the round leaves floating and now I have huge lily pad looking things. I figured that was one of its methods of establishing new plants, and I may be right?

I have about a foot of soil in the back behind the cave, and my ancistrus has actually tunneled way into that, I think the pleco is not far behind. Really interesting behavior in my opinion. I hope to pull that sailfin pleco "Pickles" out pretty soon, its grown 2 inches in a month! I think he will get his own 30 gallon.


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## Tex Gal

Your 55g is also my favorite. The caves are really neat. My pleco also "digs" his caves deeper. He has picked places under rocks and wiggled out the substrate. He's the oldest one I have -about 8.5 yrs. old.

If your fish are digging that may be what's bothering your plants on the left. Plants get picky about being dug up night after night! ;D


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## northtexasfossilguy

Tex Gal said:


> Plants get picky about being dug up night after night! ;D


I know  I'm bound to lose some of these, and the hearty species will stay. It doesn't help that I have a 6 inch growing pleco in there or the fact that I didn't give them enough time to develop roots... Just a noob mistake. It's going to change quite alot in the next few weeks.


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## northtexasfossilguy

An update: I ended up getting Ick in my tank a few days ago. I have no idea where it came from, as all the fish have been with me for a long time. Possibly the plants?

So I tried this product called Maracide which cured it off my rams in 2 days. I'm continuing the treatment, which cost me ~$25 to do the whole tank 3 doses. It was necessary, because the worm/parasites were in my filter. I saw them come out when I turned it off and back on, it made my heart sink a little. Also, I was thinking, "my hand was just in that tank..." 

I would definitely recommend using Maracide, as it has not hurt the plants at all, and it seems to have killed the parasites almost instantly. I used two bottles so far, about 120mL. I added 5 gallons of water just to stir it up a little on the second dose. The third dose will go in Thursday, and I will start changing about 5 gallons a day for the next week. It turned the water blue for a while, but it is much better than the powders. 

None of the catfish in my tank experienced any signs of ick, they seem to be very hearty in that respect.

Also, I'm going to move this to Journals soon.


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## bratyboy2

North im sorry to hear that you came down with that and i was just bout to message you about getting plants from you...pm me


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## northtexasfossilguy

Update:









By ntfguy, shot with G'zOne Boulder at 2009-08-18

Marbled radican sword flowering:








By ntfguy, shot with G'zOne Boulder at 2009-08-18









By ntfguy, shot with G'zOne Boulder at 2009-08-18









By ntfguy, shot with G'zOne Boulder at 2009-08-18


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## northtexasfossilguy

Update:

Full tank shot before Saturdays extensive trim.








By ntfguy, shot with G'zOne Boulder at 2009-08-18

Marbled radican sword flowering:








By ntfguy, shot with G'zOne Boulder at 2009-08-18

Apistogramma cacatuoides and my dumb looking reflection








By ntfguy, shot with G'zOne Boulder at 2009-08-18

Apisto enjoying his new home.








By ntfguy, shot with G'zOne Boulder at 2009-08-18

So a few things have happened, the pandas spawned again, the Endlers guppies had babies, I got that apisto and Crownman Mike gave me some more cherry shrimp. The Echinodorus cordifolius "Marbled Queen Radican Sword" flowered, the other is about to. They are really beautiful.

I'm going to be adding another box filter this week to increase the current and biological filtration load. The magnum micron filter cartridge is highly effective and gets the sludge out every week.

On that note, adieu!


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## alta678

What a beautiful tank! I would love to make this my screen saver. It is so peaceful and relaxing to look at.


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## northtexasfossilguy

alta678 said:


> What a beautiful tank! I would love to make this my screen saver. It is so peaceful and relaxing to look at.


Thank you very much! I put a lot of effort into it, and its constantly needing a trim. It is a jungle in comparison to some of the other styles out there (the "Dutch" garden style, etc.) but I love the chaos. The endlers are not easy at all to photograph, but they really bring it to life.

There are over 100 small animals in there if I added them all up, and about oh I'd say 40-70 individual plants. I keep seeing new baby panda corys all the time, but it is impossible to see them all at once to get an accurate count.

My new apisto. cacatuoides is really cute, he is very friendly to me and always comes to the front of the tank. The farlowella is funny as heck, I named him Chris Farley after the comedian. (He always wanted to be skinny... so anyway now in his next life he is a twig catfish. Karma.)


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## northtexasfossilguy

Here is an update for my tank:









And my 10 gallon from the top, it looks kinda cool with emergent growth...


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## bettalover

Looks good.


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## cichlidkeeper

looks great. i wish i had an ounce of aquascaping ability compared to yall's pounds of it


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## StephB

Wow! Very nice! Looks like you still have that cave in the 55g. How did you build that and have you had any challenges? I love that feature!


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## northtexasfossilguy

Well its pretty simple, I obtained some landscaping paving stones and some lace rock to hold it up and look cave-ish on the inside. 

Basically its a large flat piece of sandstone that sits on top of the lace rock which holds back the soil behind it and beside it. It is like a table. I had to take the big rock to school and use a diamond rock saw to cut a piece of it off so that it would fit, but other than that you could make it yourself.

Build the rock table first, then add soil, then fill with water. It's pretty simple.


Things I learned were: 
silicone it all together as a single piece, as mine lets soil in.
BN's and plecos like rear exits, so give them one before they dig up your plants and soil
if permanent, silicone it into your tank too... you want to create a soil dam all the way around either way. any holes you have will allow soil to come in and soil will come in under the thing also.
have a way to dig it out as dirt and dead snails, etc will get in there eventually, I usually siphon everything out into a bucket and check for living organisms.
be able to reach your hand in there comfortably without disturbing things

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FYI, to cut rocks linearly with a chisel:

In lieu of a rock saw, what you can do is softly score a line all the way around the rock where you want it broken, doesn't matter what type of rock it is. Use a chisel and either scrape or lightly tap it all the way around. It needs about a 1/8" depth to the line. Secure and weigh down the rock on the side you do not want broken off. You want it so that all your force goes into the crack you are creating and hammer both the top and bottom of the rock with a chisel in the scored line you drew. This will create a fracture in the rock until it breaks in the way you want it. You want to be sure the main part of the rock can't move or you will probably bust the whole thing apart with a few strikes. Even doing this you can still screw up, so have a few backup rocks or rent a rock saw.


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