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Amazon Blackwater Creek

11K views 69 replies 9 participants last post by  willow 
#1 ·
Currently cycling a 210l (nett) Amazon Blackwater Creek biotope. A few pictures of the setup below. Attempting to make maintenance as easy as possible (let's see how it turns out :lol:)















 
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#3 ·
Thanks Wllow. The background is a DIY job made from polystyrene sheets siliconed together and then carved with a metal foot file and then coated with an epoxy pond paint and sand sprinkled on the wet surface and allowed to cure.

The finished effect is shown below and is ready for planting up. Hopefully the plants will be delivered this week and then it is a case of just waiting for the cycle to complete. Fish (hopefully) will be going in at the end of February once I have adjusted the water hardness etc.

 
#7 ·
Thanks everybody. The 'cabinet' had to match this floating shelf type thing that I did in the other alcove (This was the one restriction I had placed on me....couldn't get the fish side to float though :-?).

Some good news and bad news but more good news

The good news
Cycling is complete and can now start adjusting the chemistry of the water by adding RO over the next couple of weeks. Will keep the filters ticking over until the fish are added with the addition of Biomature every third day.

The bad news
The plant supplier was a real let down. Ordered them a month back and should have been with me within two weeks maximum (nothing special, just Swords and stuff). The first week...nothing but will be next week, the second week...the floating plants, Densa and Pennywort, third week...nothing as Chinese New Year, fourth week...no Swords would you like some Sagittaria Pusilus instead? Huh! Lost patience and had a refund.

The good news
Found aquariumgardens.co.uk which looked promising so I emailed them. Unfortunately they didn't have everything in that I wanted (although I did amend the shopping list a tad) but would get them in stock by Friday if I ordered and would ship them Monday! Excellent service and should be here Tuesday. Keep your fingers crossed......
 
#11 ·
Welcome to TFK!
It certainly looks like you're off to a great start - I hope that your shipment of plants arrives safe and sound.
May I ask which lucky fish will be coming home to live in this lovely setup? . . . I am very excited to watch this tank grow! Can't wait for the next installment! ^__^
 
#13 ·
Thank you all, getting close, 2 weeks today and the first fish should be in.

That did me laugh Willow :notworthy:. I could post a video of the pH monitor. It's a German model and is accurate down to a 100th, don't ask me why but you know those crazy Germans. Anyway, it is quite interesting to watch how much the pH jumps around when you are getting down to that level. Actually, correction to that, it's not interesting in the slightest it's just that I have no fish to watch yet :roll:. I promise as soon as the plants are in I will post another photo, hopefully the middle of next week at the latest (I have asked them to email me if there is any problem with the order tomorrow).

I must admit, if anybody doesn't like Blackwater tanks then they are going to hate this. It went a bit too far but fortunately when I did the first water change to start bringing the hardness down it brought the colour back up a level. I have ordered more Indian Almond bark as it looks better in there than leaves (I think), must remember to boil it for an hour before it is thrown in otherwise the fish are going to need torches to be able to see.

Talking of the fish, the plan is:
Group of Marbled Hatchetfish (Carnegiella strigata)
Shoal of Cardinal Tetras (Paracheirodon axelrodi)
Small group of Dwarf Pencilfish (Nannostomus marginatus)
2 pairs of dwarf cichlids (Apistogramma)
Group of Emerald Green Brochis (Brochis splendens)
Whiptail Catfish (Rineloricaria lanceolata)

Going for Cardinals as the tetras as (along with Rummynose) they are more likely to shoal when not threatened than other species.
The Apistos will probably be Panduro and Cacatuoides. Will be going for the wild coloration rather than any ornamental strains.

There you go, you got it out of me. Now let's see if I stick to it!
 
#15 ·
Well a major surprise this morning. Lying in bed when somebody knocked on the front door. It's only the postman with a box of plants. So they are now in and there is...

Echinodorus argentinensis
Echinodorus bleheri
Echinodorus tenellus
Egeria densa
Heteranthera zosterfolia
Hydrocotyle leucocephala
Limnobium spongia
Miriophyllum matogrossense
Salvinia natans
Riccia fluitans
Vesicularia montagnei



So now just got to wait for them to grow. At least most of them should get a footing before the fish start moving in.
 
#19 ·
Water parameters are going the right way

KH 150 --> 80
GH 180 --> 130
TDS 443 --> 264
pH 7.6 --> 7.3

So a couple more changes before the fish go in and it should be near enough in the right area although TDS will be a little high but that can sort itself out over time as it is artificially high due to cycling. The good news is, the water change system seems to work well...never has changing 10gallons been so easy for me.

Found one slight problem. The intakes to the corner boxes are covered in a fine stainless mesh and clog too easily. Need to come up with some way of stopping that :hmm:
 
#20 ·
Was digging around on my iPad and found a couple of photos of the wifey's 'Killi' tank and thought I would throw these up as things are a bit quiet in the Amazon tank at the moment (roll on Thursday).

The first one shows it as it was when it was first setup and before the Corydoras Juliis were introduced. Gardneri Killis and Serpae Tetra were the residents at this time.



The Jullis were introduced and the sand was cleaned up. Unfortunately the 'palmy' type plant on the right (I have no idea what it is) had a huge amount of die back. It's recovering again but it's not the strongest of plants. Unfortunately a couple of moss balls were put in and introduced hair algae. Been a bit of a battle to get rid of it but we are finally winning...reduction in photoperiod, TNC Carbon and Complete added daily rather than a weekly Sanoplant tab (which works brilliantly in the guppy tank) and the introduction of a SAE who took a time to get the hang of what his role was but, after a stern lecture, he seems to be finally buckling down to it :lol:. The moss balls have been taken out.



If you are wondering what the male Killi is flaring at he does it to anybody who dare sit in front of the tank!

And finally, an up-to-date one taken today. To say this is the first tank she has setup I think she has done a darn fine job, looks much better than my first one did by a long way.

 
#21 ·
+10 to Wifey! Tank looks good, simple - I like it! How long did it take to bring it from the first shot to the last?

The blackwater looks lovely with the plants in! I can't wait to see how they grow in there!

PH monitors are awesome, lovely to have that information readily available. Does your system also check other parameters? A very handy toy. . . if you don't mind my asking, which brand do you use? For now I'm stuck with chems and test tubes, but one day I can see myself going this route. I just like to know what's going on in my tanks where I can't see ^__^

Your stocking list has me swoonish!!! I'm especially keen on whiptails and apistos. . .*ishjealous!!*

Keep posting! Can't wait to see what comes next!
 
#22 ·
Thanks Chesh, I didn't even know that she knew what aquascaping was :lol:. The pH meter is the OCS Digital pH/Temp Meter P09. My old marine setups used to monitor just about everything digitally but I wanted to come away from that so just pH and temp on this one.

The Apistos and Whiptail will be the last going in the tank but think I am pretty set on Panduro and Cacatuoides for the Apistos. Mrs Biff wasn't too keen on the Whiptail originally but then she saw it in the flesh and was sold :greenyay:
 

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#23 ·
Performed the final water change today before the fish start to go in and checked the parameters

KH 60
GH 100
TDS 259 (getting there)
pH 6.8-6.9
Nitrate Trace

The plants seem to be settling in, had to harvest some of the surface ones earlier in the week and looks like this might be a fairly regular task. The rest of the bark has gone in and I think we are good to go.

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Hopefully I've sorted the problem with the clogging corner box intakes. Placed a courser mesh as a 'prefilter'. Seems to be working so far but if it is still problem I will remove the finer one altogether (just a pain to do as it's very awkward to get at).
 
#24 ·
i'm subscribed to this thread and yet i get no notifications :-(
wife's tank is really lovely..she has a keen eye for aquascaping !!:-D
your tanks coming alone very well :-D
 
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