Tank Journal

[Chaos553]

I decided after much thought, that just writing down what I was planning on doing to my tank in the "general freshwater" forum was just not enough, so I'm instead putting up a journal of what I'm doing/plan on doing in terms of tank adjustments. I will post of pictures as well every so often to keep you guys up to date on the present look of my setup.

So as for now, my tank seems to be running very smoothly, even after all the adjustments I have made. To brief anyone who hasn't read any of my other threads, I am currently making my 38g a community tank. I had a Blue Jack Dempsey, a 7 inch Sailfin Pleco, an African Butterfly fish, and a Bolivian Ram. The pleco and the jack were small to begin with, but after about a year they got way to big for my tank, and the jack got way to territorial. I ended up bringing them back into my LFS where my buddy works and getting a $30 credit for my jack, but nothing for my pleco since they had an overstock of them already. So with that credit, I ended up getting 8 neons, 2 huge amazon plants, and a purple waffle plant to start anew. Mind you, I still had a Bolivian Ram, a red eye tetra, 4 cories, and a cherry barb, so really it ended up working out fine.

The fish and plants adapted quickly, but my butterfly ended up croaking the next day due to stress of jumping out of the tank the previous day, even though I saved him and he looked good for a while, he died. Due to that, I ended up going back to my LFS and grabbing another 12 neons to fill my school up to 20. Of course a few died of the 'neon disease' the next day, so at the moment I'm down to about 13. The fish seem healthy and friendly.

I ended up buying a new 30 watt bulb for my tank called 'Power-Glo' which supposedly stimulates the plants to grow at a better rate, other than most bulbs. It seems like its working, but I really still can't tell since it's still fairly new. My amazons are looking healthy though, and the seedlings that were on one of the stems seem to be growing very well. I was told my purple waffle is not an aquatic plant and will soon wilt and make a mess in the tank, but as far as I can see, it seems to be growing and no signs of wilting, when it does happen however, it will be taken out.

So a couple of days ago my buddy from my LFS asked if I wanted some free java moss for my tank since they were getting rid of some because of its rapid growth, and I ended up taking a clump because it makes tanks look rather nice. I attached it to the rocks in my tank with rubber bands and fishing line and it does look pretty good actually. After doing that, I found 2 more rocks that I guess I hunted for in my backyard but never seemed to use, so I attached the java ferns I had in my tank to one of them, and placed the other one on the left side of the tank just for decoration.

I will post up pictures later on tonight since I'm about to go eat dinner. Hopefully if anyone has any suggestions or comments you guys will post them and I'll be sure to update this as much as it needs to be.

[Chaos553]

Alright so I snapped a few shots today before my buddy's graduation party today, and they came out pretty nice. This is what I have so far:

Full Tank Shot


Small Java Ferns with an anc****************d Java Moss on a rock in the background, as well as a smaller Amazon. Sorry for the blur.


I believe she's filled with eggs, am I right? I kind of want to breed, but I don't really have a whole lot of time since I'm busy. Maybe if they hatch (or even spawn) they'll hang out in the moss?


The school and yes, I'll get to cleaning the back of the tank tomorrow ;D.


Java Moss anc****************d to a rock with rubber bands.


My 2 larger Java Ferns anc****************d to a rock with rubber bands.



I'll be taking more soon as well, don't worry =P.

Edit: The blanked out word is supposed to be "anch0red." Sorry.

[Chaos553]

I picked up 2 Geophagus Jurupari today because they looked pretty interesting and I had the money/room in my tank for them. My Ram got territorial for a few minutes only because it's "his" tank apparently, and just decided they were fine.

Any one ever have these guys before in a tank? I've heard they're one of the peaceful cichlids of the bunch and that they just scrounge off the bottom for food since 'geophagus' means earth eater. I'll get a few pics up sometime soon.

[HTML.Coder]

I like your tank(s)!

[Chaos553]

Alright, so I debated on bringing the Geophagus' back since they became territorial with each other and the Ram, but everyone seems to get along fine now.

Nothing really new at the moment. The seedlings from my amazon are getting alot bigger as the days go on, and I plan on clipping and planting them as soon as I see more roots beginning to grow. At the moment, they look pretty healthy from starting as tiny buds.

That's about it at the moment. I'll keep you guys posted as more and more things begin to happen. I'll also take some pictures of the seedlings sometime this week and post them up.

[Chaos553]

I got a few snapshots yesterday, so I thought I'd post them up!

The head of one of my Geophagus Jurupari



Full body shot. Pretty tough to get a good shot of these guys =/



The Ram, who I've had for over a year and a half =P



The school of Neons.



The seedlings off of my Amazon. I'm probably going to plan the larger ones today.



More seedling pics.

[justintrask]

Looking really good! Any other plans for fishes?

[Chaos553]

Not at the moment really, maybe a small pleco since I'm off to college in 2 weeks. I need someone to do my dirty algae work ;D

[Chaos553]

Been a while since I updated so here's what we got. I went out today and picked up 5 otto cats to do my algae work while I'm gone at college (which I'm leaving for on Saturday, woohoooo!). I snipped the smalled amazons off of the host stem and planted them in the tank, so it looks right now like a medium/heavily planted tank. My java moss is growing...then again what else does it do haha.

Other than that nothing really has changed. I;ve had 13 neons for about a month, which has been nice since i dont have to go out and buy more every day. They've gotten really big as well, around an inch, inch and a half each right now. That's about it, I hope to keep in touch while I'm at school!

[Chaos553]

WOW! It's been a good 3 1/2 months since I've posted anything. I thought I'd sum a few things up for now since I'm still at school until this week.

I got home for thanksgiving break (which I hope everyone had a very good holiday ;D) to basically a trainwreck. My mom said she was taking care of my tank, maintainance and everything, and all I see really is waste/algae all over the place, as well as browned leaves and whatnot. So right away I gave a makeover. Trimmed all the brown leaves back, took all the gunky algae out, vacuumed the bottom, changed the filter, yuck.

Tank looks ALOT better now, from what I saw when I got back, I only have 2 cories left, one of the geophagus died unfortunately, but I still have everyone else. I picked up 2 chinese algae eaters to maintain while I'm gone. My tank looked really dull as well, so I also picked up 9 pearl danios for activity since I no longer have an african butterfly fish anymore. Things are good though, I'll post pics up when I get back. Good to be back!