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more aquatica

2K views 11 replies 9 participants last post by  veganchick 
#1 ·
Well as all tanks go - evolution seems to be the process. And photos and fun and a drive for a pleasant life. So here are more pics of the guys in action of the full aquarium. There have been about 20 dollars worht of plants added and these plants are growing wildly. Here it goes - and I hope these are a little as enjoyable as the actual aquarium to view in person.

The gouramis and beta are fine. The GBR's are tougheer fish than you would think. The fore fern in the front has grown 4" since last 5 days ago. There is quite a bit of T-5 wattage in lighting, flourish excel in standard dose, DIY Co2 with mild ( 0.4 ) ph swings at most and finally a minimum of 2 * 12% water changes weekly. The plants are pearling constantly. The filter medium is no more than 1" thick aquarium sponges and SeaChem's phosguard.
 

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#9 ·
to answer some of the questions...

First I suppose it should be stated that you folks are the only people that have been able to enjoy my little biosphere. That is why I post here among many other reasons such as educational for example.

First there are many new fish in this aquarium as far as my experiences have allowed. German blue rams, tetras, panda cories and bolivian rams.

The plants are new to myself also - for example: red tiger lotus, java fern, japanese grass, frogbit, duckweed, and floating ludwigia.

And finally this is only my second large aquarium and only my third aquarium ever - over a period of 1 year and 6 months.

Why have I embraced this hobby? Well I was very young and my now 86 year old grandmother had an apparently freshwater aquarium with angel fish and a betta some 35 years ago. I was quite simply mesmerized.

So to address questions and learn here is the following data: ph @ 6.8, ammonia 0.0, nitrites 0.0, nitrates 0.0 to 5.0, temperature 79 degrees, and kh 3.0.

The algae is much less than maybe some seem to think from very poor and blurry images. Algae might be symptomatic of a healthy water system anyhow as I am led to believe. The floating plants are in the aquarium for two reasons - one: allow the gouramies, tetras and beta a much more inviting enviroment. Two: to help diffuse the extremely bright light from the grow lamps - which by the way the light diffusion seems to make the fish much more confortable than the exreme direct light.

Also the fish I chose have been picked for their interesting colour and maximum size achieved. Size seems to matter as I wish my fish to have an appropriatly sized enviroment for their size. One thing that have seen that I despize is a large fish in a small aquatic enviroment with just substrate beneath it. This type of captivity seems cruel and unhealthy. So I have choosen dwarf ciclids and dwarf gouramis as my maximum sized fish for a 45 gallon planted aquarium. And the fish seem happy and even keeled in their little fishy endeavors.

This seems to me the appropriate and mature way to approach a captive aquarium. Heck Tsun Tsu the beta still seems cat-like and swims to my hand petting himself against my stubby fingers.

So life is good. Love is great. Any good suggestions are always welcome.

How about Amoano shrimp or ottos for algae control? - say ather than siamese algae eaters that quit eating algae in later life and become aggressive towards other fish?

J
 
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