[mechanical8dragon]

I thought it would be interesting to see my tank take on a personality of it's own, so here we go. These will also be posted in my photo album so -shrug-

The day I picked everything up: 12/30/13. Flourish, Sand, an Amazon Sword and an Anubis with a glass lid since my stand has a build in light. This is the night I set it up, same day. Didn't even rinse the sand hahaha! The driftwood I stole from one of my geckos, wasn't really working as a good climbing surface and the tanks were too crowded. Boiled it and plopped it in. Works better in a fish tank, me thinks.

1/7/13:
Been using Seachem's Stability. No luck. Went and got ammonia from Ace Saturday (1/4/14) to just do it the way I KNOW will always work. My slate rock and plants are suppose to arrive Thursday this week (1/9/14) so I'll throw up another picture after I get everything planted and set up.

P.S. Yes that's my cat down there... god she's going to go bonkers when I get fish...
​

 

[mechanical8dragon]

Well, the 4lbs of slate rock came in today. 2 days ahead of schedule. going to soak them in some conditioned water (going to poor boiling water over them) and let em sit like that until tomorrow morning where I'll figure out how I want to lay them out. They're... smaller than I thought they'd be... but for a 20g they're probably alright.

Any ideas where I should put em?

A picture of them. The chapstick is in there for size reference. See? Small. LOL

 

[Chesh]

I just found this thread - hopefully in time for an update!
The slate pieces are small - but some of them are really pretty!
Where did you end up putting them?

 

[Olympia]

What are your plans for this tank?

 

[mechanical8dragon]

hehe alright big update. didn't think anyone even saw this so I didn't bother but alright here it comes.

Here is the tank to this day:

Currently stocking:
4 Harlequin Rasboras (one died due to stress I'm sure cus my water parameters checked out and it didn't look like there was any diseases on it, was acting weird anyways, wouldnt shoal with the others, will be getting 6 more this friday)
5 False Julii corys
1 BN Pleco
1 Female betta



Now.... something i find interesting... if you take a look at the original post... you can see how small that amazon sword is. My cycle.... only took me about 4 weeks. This is the amazon sword now, during that 4th week that my tank finished cycling and after I got fish in. That tall leaf in the back... is over 3" long. Slow-grower my tailfin! Oh and thats Tiger Festival, the female betta in the shot <3 I love her so much, so calm and inquisitive.

My anubias sprouted a new leaf too that last week of cycling. it's still a bright baby green but its growing more each day. I guess I must have good ferts, though they're nothin special just API root tabs and Jobes Fertalizer sticks. I did get API liquid ferts but that was after my tank finished cycling so I've only dosed once, but it was after those two plants exploded. No CO2.

 

[Chesh]

Huzzah for updates!
The tank is looking great! I love how you laid everything out. . .
Happy to see things are going well over there - good luck with the new rasbora this weekend - keep us posted on how this pretty tank grows! ^__^

 

[willow]

hi :-D
i think it looks great.
if you have any slate left over you could always aquarium silicon them
into a cave shape ?

 

[mechanical8dragon]

Well the remaing slate pieces are all really small so eh... idk I'll find a use for them in the future some day.

on another note... -sigh-
http://www.tropicalfishkeeping.com/...tuff-around-female-bettas-349898/#post3912010

 

[willow]

hey…sorry you're having troubles here.
keep up with you water changes,fish out any dead bodies as quick
as possible…could be cotton mouth..however i'd wait for someone else's
input about that.

 

[mechanical8dragon]

she died during the night. -sigh-

 

[Chesh]

T____T I'm so sorry for your loss. . .
Hope everything is settled in there now? *worries*

Well the remaing slate pieces are all really small so eh... idk I'll find a use for them in the future some day.

You'll find somewhere for the extra - and come to wish you had more, I bet!

 

[mechanical8dragon]

yeah all the other fish look fine. no weird white stuff on them but I guess we'll find out. Tiger's disease came in a split second and took her life the next... so if thats anything to go by for all i know I could have a tank full of dead fish by tonight/tomorrow -sigh-

 

[Chesh]

Keep up with those water changes, and think positive! *hugs*
Hope things stay quiet over there. . .

 

[willow]

oh my gosh that so sad. :-(
i sincerely hope all others will be ok.
x

 

[mechanical8dragon]

Well... I just got done with a week long treatment with Permafix and melafix and those didn't seem to help. I'm down to my last 3 harlequin Rasboras and I'm so close to just giving up, but I don't want to see them die... they've hung in this long.

I am now going to be doing a 2 week long heat treatment as I believe now that it could be Ich. I have a cory that just goes bonkers scratching itself against the sand (not constantly) and I've seen a few others of my neons, a harly, and my betta occassionly scratching themselves. None of my other fish but my harlys have anything on them. Two of my harly's have white stuff on them. But what's odd is that its not 'sprinkled' like Ich is described, its just this puffy white glob. I've swabbed them with a q-tip and some Melafix, rubbing some of it off in hopes it'll help them out as well.

I raised the temp yesterday from 74 to 77 over the course of a few hours and am in the process of raising it to 86 in hopes that'll help get this out of my tank. I will be doing a WC tomorrow about 25% and then the next will be Saturday.

I ordered 10 MTS from Aquabid (before i started this treatement) that should be arriving Saturday that will be added to the tank. I don't have a QT set up either cus I haven't gotten my paycheck yet, but even if I did it wouldn't really be a QT unless i cycled that seperately as I wouldn't be able to use a pad from my current filter.. given that... theres something in my main tank anyways so that would defeat the purpose of seeding a QT tank.

If i get my PC friday should I just get a QT for the sake of my snails? Idk if they can even catch diseases o-o?



Anyways... current setup now: I've replaced the Topfin with a Fluval as I've had to return the damn thing twice already. 1st time was rust forming, and this time it was moisture condensation inside which i doubt is much better. So hopefully this Fluval will work better... it's not fully submersable, which i dn't like as I hate having vertical heaters but.. i've put it beside the filter intake soooo it should still push the warmth around.

I won't be getting more Harlequins after this though... as I feel that perhaps they just aren't right for my tank. At first when i set up the tank i added 8 neons (not right off the bat... a few weeks later) and 4 died within the next day. All params. checked out via API liquid test kit. and a week later i restocked with 4 more. Since then I haven't lost a single neon -knock on wood- but I've been loosing Harlequins left and right. I still have all original 5 cories, my BN, and though i lost my original betta, I've gotten a new one who is still well. So it's just been the Harlequins. but since they're the only ones dyeing (at first there wasn't any signs of disease so i thought they were just dying from stress or somethin since my water checked out)


Though lately I've been thinking of just trying to find a 40g tank after i finish treating this one. Give away my neons, and what harlie's I'll have left and get Angels as they are some of my favorite fish. But it's still up in the air and i probably won't geet around to even bothering with it until this summer after I move (easier to move a 20g L then a 40g....)

 

[Flint]

You can use a covered 2gal bucket as QT just change the water once a day.
Posted via Mobile Device

 

[mechanical8dragon]

i have two 5gal buckets... LOL too much? lol

 

[mechanical8dragon]

Tank update:

A little description of what's happened since I last posted:

My fish have been disease-free for quite some time now. No new deaths at all and everyone is healthy and happy. I did loose quite a bit of plants from I can only assume brown algae sticking itself to the leaves, the dwarf hairgrass was really bad. I did go through a.... HUGE tank cleaning process because my sand, just below the top surface, was grey/black which led me to think it was the bad bacteria/gas buildup stuff since that turns sand grey/black. I've gotten new plants and they've all been doing quite well for about a month in a half roughly. Hoping my hairgrass will start sending out runners soon to fill in that left area.

Need to figure out what to do though on the left side... its too open for my fish it seems as they don't really want to go over there. Another piece of wood perhaps? Maybe some fake, tall plants perhaps? I'd put my slate back in there but... god unless i siliconed them together in the shapes that i wanted I don't think i will... even the slighted bump and it all goes crashing down cus they're such uneven pieces.

Down to 2 harlys, 2 coris, and 7 neons. Still have my betta and BN Pleco though. I need to get a QT tank to bring back their numbers -_- they've been like that for about 2 months now, I feel bad for the poor guys.


Got a new filter. The old one irked me for the last time the other day. Did a nice good cleaning, got all the poop off the sand, was so happy, and then I nudge the internal filter juuuuuuuuuuuuuuust slightly and it like........ squirted out brown crap all over the place from the intake area. Cheap TopFin internal filter. God... what a crappy company. So went out and spend 42$ on a HOB Fluval 20-50gal (200GPH) that... i'm pleased with. Not impressed, its just a filter, but I'm pleased. It's quiet so thats nice... but its not big enough to fit all my old media in it so I have some left over ceramic rings and one filter pad sitting in my fish net in my tank -facepalm-