48" Nano

[Munroco]

Eventually negotiated to upgrade and old 36" tank I have to a 48". I have a little room upstairs where I keep my PC and recently an old 36" tank I "borrowed from a friend. Its massively scratched and although it does the job I fancied something better. Normally for me bigger aquarium + bigger fish. For this one I'm planning on a heavily planted tank and stocking it with a lot of really small fish. This is likely to take a while for reasons of cost and fish availability. I'm open to suggestions for very small fish suited to moderately soft water.
 
My existing tank holds a few refugees from other tanks. 4 Panda Cories, 4 Killis, 2 harlequins, 1 Celestial pearl Danio and 2 BNs. Plants are mostly Java fern, a stem plant which did spectacularly well for a year then just melted and a few bits and pieces. I'll be switching them all to the new tank. Pics in this post are of the demolition part.

 

[Munroco]

And Voila !!! 4 hours after I started the new tank was in and part filled. I put down a lair of compost (thats the black stuff which I put in womens nylon socks (not sure what they are called). Poured in the washed sand from the old tank and topped that up with some new then planted the stuff I had saved, All the java fern was attatched to a piece of hazel wood so that part was easy. I had saved a fair bit of the water and moved the existing filter over so I was confident that the fish would be ok, which they were despite me forgetting to plug in the heater overnight. 
 
I topped up the tank next morning and a small bunch of crypts that I ordered turned up so I planted them too. I have a few more plants on order but I think I'll have to order a few more. Its hard to believe this tank is only 1 foot longer. Forgot to mention, I also bought some small bits of bogwood which I'm liking the look of a lot. Its hard to get a pic of the whole tank as I can't stand far enough away even with a wide angle lens.

 

[Munroco]

Fish on my maybe list for this tank are
 
1 Australian Blue Eyes
2 Celestial Pearl Danio
3 Scarlet Badis
4 Ember Tetra
5 Emerald Dwarf Rasbora
6 Peacock Gudgeon
 
As I said previously all suggestions welcome, as long as they are very small.

 

[*pete*]

 I would suggest Lampeye Killiefish, I orderd ten online after reading about them in other members posts on here, a very small fish that tight shoal as if they were one!
 
The Scarlet Badis are a great little fish too and also new to me, they do need small live food, mine get Microworms and I think/hope newly hatched Cherry shrimps!  (There are hundreds of them in my main tank)
 
Nice looking set up btw and I like the look of the Australian blue eyes.

 

[Far_King]

I have around forty Celestial Pearls in their own tank with a few cories.
 
Such beautiful fish

 

[*pete*]

I have around forty Celestial Pearls in their own tank with a few cories.
 
Such beautiful fish

They sure are, I may get shoal sometime soon!

 

[Munroco]

More plants arrived today, Eleocharis pusila which is very much like dwarf hairgrass, Myriophilum Mattogrossense which looks a bit like cabomba, and Echinadoras quadricostatus; a pygmy chain sword. I also got 3 free crypts, probably Wendtii but I don't really know. The plants came in very short bunches but with a lot of plants in each once I seperated them out. (eventually got bored seperating the hairgrass and planted about 1/3 of it in a clump. The myriophillum is only about 1 inch high and I've planted it along the back to screen the filter and heater when (if) it grows.
 
I decided to go with a hi-tech background, so I cut up a cardboard box into 2*2ft lengths and covered it with a black plastic binbag. I'm reasonably pleased with it so far.
 
I forgot to mention the new light which is an arcadia stretch 3ft LED. Its very bright so should be good for plants and algae. The controller will be replaced tomorrow as I can't get the night mode to work but overall I'm impressed with this. The extended arms seem a bit flimsy though.

 

[*pete*]

I agree re arms but happy to use them half extended with my 1ft CS30F unit on one of my 18inchers, they're fine for tweaking on on non standard lenght tanks, but would'nt try to skimp by going for full stretch !!! I'm so pleased with the overall look and reflections up the wall effect I ordered a CS90F unit for my main display 3 footer.
 
No more tortured wiring squeazed through inadequate gaps and useless suckers for wonky filters and heaters... grrrrrrrrrr...
... Algae scraping is a breeze now!!!

 

[Munroco]

Slight change in stocking plan, I went to LFS and the scarlet badis had sold out, so I went for 6 (2 male, 4 female) Badis Badis (aka Chameleon fish, aka blue badis among other names) I'm so glad I did. The 2 males had obviously been scrapping and have some bits missing but when they had settled in the alpha male was showing the most beautiful blue colours, really spectacular.
 
One of the bits of bogwood had a hole in the top which goes right through and he has claimed it. Was funny seeing puffs of sand getting spat out the hole as he arranged it to suit. He was in and out regularly and a couple of the females were hanging about. For the last 2 days I haven't seen him and I'm wondering if hes guarding eggs.
 
I also bought a trio of peacock gudgeon which are also spectacular.

 

[jag51186]

I'm jealous! I've often wanted to do this with a big tank!! It looks awesome!
 
Let me know if your Badis are finicky eaters, I'd like them for my 60P high tech, but I've never raised microworms or the like.

 

[Munroco]

I'm jealous! I've often wanted to do this with a big tank!! It looks awesome!
 
Let me know if your Badis are finicky eaters, I'd like them for my 60P high tech, but I've never raised microworms or the like.

I haven't seen them eating fish food, but they do eat microworms fine. In summer I have tubs in my back garden to grow daphnia and I may try culturing white worm. (Need to keep that a secret from my wife somehow....) But microworms are so easy to culture. If you look at the early posts in this thread, you'll see some small tubs under the tank and these are my microworm cultures.
 
These are my two Badis Badis males and one of the females which are fairly drab by comparison, as you can see they've been in the wars but they seem healthy enough. You can tell which on is the boss in the last pic. Although these fish aren't cichlids as all their behaviour is cichlid like.

 

[jag51186]

Nice!! They are beautiful! Maybe I'll try some scarlet badis, and a group of boraras in my 60p...it's only 17 gallons, so can't put in too much!

 

[*pete*]

Good choice and good luck with them, I fancy me some Peacock Gudgeon now!
 
My 3ft Arccadia stretch LED unit is set up btw... I'm delighted with it.
 
The wild Guppy  patterns and colours really ping now!

 

[Munroco]

Crypts have mostly melted away, cories are enjoying digging up the pygmy chain swords, the myriophylum has a coating of algae as does the hair grass, things aren't going well plant wise.

 

[Far_King]

Crypts have mostly melted away, cories are enjoying digging up the pygmy chain swords, the myriophylum has a coating of algae as does the hair grass, things aren't going well plant wise.

 
Welcome to planted tanks lol.
 
I made the mistake once of trying to grow a Hemianthus carpet with Cories.  It didn't last long.