Cardinal Tetra Tank (help!)

[JediWiggles]

Not much to report today, work has been hell the past few days.

did some aquascaping today and my GIGANTIC water change. Bought some tall shooters (as recommended by Dave, yes Dave). Settled on some hairgrass as I like how it leans over when it reaches the surface.

Also I couldnt find any riccia. Believe it or not the bum @ Big Al's had never heard of it, I was shocked! And the asked if it was his first day. ANYWAY....

I looked around and decided to plant the forground on the right side of my tank with a cardinal plant ( I relize that they are large growers post plant so I'll move it later, for now, the reds in it make it look good). I still want some some riccia, but I need someone in Ontario to "hook me up". I have no aquatic friends in this neck of the woods. If anyone has any connections, Im all ears. Or if I can get some shipped. Seems nutz to ship moss but hey, we like fish, it cant be that crazy!?!

I'll take some shots tomorrow seeing as now Im a wee bit sleepy and the pics would come out worse that horrible.

Yes to friday, TGIF ppl.

Cheers

Jedi Wiggles

 

[Dave Spencer]

Settled on some hairgrass as I like how it leans over when it reaches the surface.

Are we talking about Vallisneria sp here? The only hairgrass I know that reaches the surface is Eleocharis vivipara. I treid it once before, but found it to be very high maintenance.

I looked around and decided to plant the forground on the right side of my tank with a cardinal plant ( I relize that they are large growers post plant so I'll move it later, for now, the reds in it make it look good).

I think this plant might be Lobelia cardinalis. It is a slow grower, but if you get it to grow out of the top of the water, you may see it flower.

Looking forward to seeing the pics, as it will give me an idea of your plant mass.

Dave.

 

[JediWiggles]

Settled on some hairgrass as I like how it leans over when it reaches the surface.

Are we talking about Vallisneria sp here? The only hairgrass I know that reaches the surface is Eleocharis vivipara. I treid it once before, but found it to be very high maintenance.

I looked around and decided to plant the forground on the right side of my tank with a cardinal plant ( I relize that they are large growers post plant so I'll move it later, for now, the reds in it make it look good).

I think this plant might be Lobelia cardinalis. It is a slow grower, but if you get it to grow out of the top of the water, you may see it flower.

Looking forward to seeing the pics, as it will give me an idea of your plant mass.

Dave.

Sweet! picked up a baby plec for me tank, a queen puruvian. And she looks SWEET!

A buddy of mine with a stock of newly raised cards said that I could have like 17 for free! So despite the fact my tank isn't fully set, Im gonna toss'em in. They may make it, they may not. Its ALL good as far as Im concerned.

1 died in transit, I was told the cards were extremely sensative...which I already knew...but this is rediculous. Anyway all my friends are home, plec has completely disappeared and I've had 2 cards go belly up (but they looked like the weakest of the grouping). So 17 is now 14, and the rest are all doing well. All have eatten some brine shrimp and look happy. I guess we'll see what tomorrow brings.

ps. Need an easier way to measure Co2,

YES TO FINALLY HAVING FISH!!!!

Pictures and updates to come tomorrow. (yes weekend!)

Jedi

 

[vinylman]

A buddy of mine with a stock of newly raised cards said that I could have like 17 for free! So despite the fact my tank isn't fully set, Im gonna toss'em in. They may make it, they may not. Its ALL good as far as Im concerned.
Jedi

''It's ALL good'' ?. Sorry, but I have to say that's not a great attitude if you're serious about KEEPING fish, rather than just HAVING them. You're aware that they're sensitive fish, and you know the tank isn't cycled yet. You don't seem unduly bothered whether they survive or not.

 

[Dave Spencer]

I`m with Vinylman on this one.

Couldn`t you just take five a week, instead of all of them at once?

Dave.

 

[JediWiggles]

I`m with Vinylman on this one.

Couldn`t you just take five a week, instead of all of them at once?

Dave.

Sorry guys, Your right about the slow drip. I decided to put 6 in, and the rest went back to my bud's house. All of them are strong and looking good.

I had a moment of weakness. I'd say that so far Im doing pretty good in the mistake column. Thanks guys for bringing me back.

Tank looks good. Pics to follow sometime tonight.

This is why the forum is great, Cheers guys.

Jedi

 

[vinylman]

Good man; patience at the start always pays off.

 

[JediWiggles]

Ok, so I've been a bit lax about posting this weekend, partly because of the wonderful weather, partly because I've been moving fish in. (and out).

Day 1 - Added 13 Cards

So first off this is the picture of my tank friday night, right after the 13 cards were added.

Right after I removed 5, and kept 8. The 5 that I removed, 1 died in transit back to my bud's place. The 8 in my tank are doing well.

I feed once in the morning with tetracolor tropical crisps (which they eat but aren't thrilled about eatting, I can tell) and once @ night before I turn off the lights. I feed them freeze dried brine shrimp which they can't get enough of.

I saw a vid on youtube buy a guy who makes his own brine shrimp hatchery. Jazzy's Brine Shrimp Hatchery

He has an Angelfish breeding video too. The aussie knows his stuff, very tempting to want to breed them after watching this.

Anyway Im considering setting something like this up. Im sure the cards will love it.

getting back on topic

Day 2 - feed my cards in the morning with some more crisps. They getting more used to them (although I dont like feeding them stuff they don't really love). But a mix in diet I hear it key. So advice would be appreciated.

I got a present today from my gf. She bought me a pleco and 5 ghost shrimps.


Side Story, u can skip this if ya want.

My last major fish endevour, about 10 years ago. I had a common plec reach about 5 inches in my 20 gallon. The only fish to outlast a rampid disease that turned everything white. roughly 15-20 fish all wiped out. I grew attached to the little guy, rescued him from the disease infested tank. He started to flourish. Grew another inch roughly, and shared a 20 gal with 1 gourami. (spacious living!)

3 months after that I went on vacation for 4 days, came back to see that he had jumped out of the tank(Im guessing through one of the holes in the back of the hood) and lay belly up on my floor.

Rattled me pretty bad, gave the gourami away and gave up the hobby.

Back on topic, so Day 2 and Im adding my new aquirred pleco and ghost shrimp to the mix. I figure the shrimp will have little impact on the chemistry of the tank but will scavange the bottom and dust up any food that may make it to the down there. (I figure there like a noob food guard!)

The pleco happens to be a Queen Peruvian. The thing is a beauty and has taken on my tank as its new fortress of solitude. Its maybe a minute big, here's a pic. Its the best I can do thus far.

So now I have 8 cards, 1 plec and 5 ghost shrimp in the tank.

Today is day 3 of the fish being settled.

The plec is great, the shrimp are battling with the snails, but the cards have a minor case of pink bellys. There not the red I know they should be, I need help to rectify this.

My water stats atm are:

ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 10
Ph: 6.6

Im thinking the ph is too high or the nitrate levels aren't making them happy. Recommendations ppl please

The Cards were tank raised, roughly about 3/4 inch.

I would appreciate any comments on what might be off in my tank.

Also any information on the Queen peruvian plec would be appreciated.

Is there a specific lighting schedule I should keep now that I have cards in there?

A list of food I could feed everything in my tank also would be great.

Also I have an airation diffuser running through the front of the tank, I think that it was a waste of time and wanna take it out. Should I keep it in for any reason? I kept it on @ night for my plants when I was cycling but now I don't like how its affecting the tank.

Thanks everyone pre-comments, questions.

Jedi Wiggles

 

[JediWiggles]

My Hair grass is starting to brown, and my amazon swords develop lots of brown algae.

The java moss and fern are doing great, aswell as the cardinal plant.

My question is:

What can I do about the hairgrass browning?

Should I get other type of light bulb? Right now I have a daylight T8 in. (typical eclipse bulb)

Also I have snails that are eatting all the brown algae, keeping the plants clean.

Im looking @ getting an EI regement started, but I cant find the supplies here in Canada. If anyone knows of a store I could pick up some supplies for this, also Tropical Plant Nutrient Plus, cant find it anywhere.

Cheers

Jedi Wiggles

 

[Dave Spencer]

The hairgrass is changing from its emersed to immersed growth, so the blades of grass developed for growing in the atmosphere are dying off. Cut them right back to about 1cm above the substrate, and it will grow back nice and healthy. If you leave the emersed blades to die off, they will become algae magnets.

All this E. parvula below was cut right back, but soon came back to life.

The fertiliser regime should have been in place before the plants. Take a look at Rex Grigg if you are interested the cheapest method, which is using powders.

Are you keeping up with the water changes?

Dave.

 

[JediWiggles]

Sweet, I actually have flourish tabs in and the nutrigro as my suppliments. I have another month of them left so thats what Im working with. I'll check out the Rex Grigg stuff. Cheap is ok but I'm more looking for something "sufficent".

I've been doing 10% water changes every 2-3 days and roughly a 30-40% every weekend...

All my chemistry is looking good. the tap water Im using ph is a little high but adding some black water extract has been doing wonders before I add it to the tank.

Need some help on how to clean a 10 gallon water tank, like a decent mix I can use to wrinse it out. I figure a bleach solution would be great.

Im a former landscaper and I didn't think to cut the dang grass...hahaha. Good call man.

What do you use to trim in water? pair of scissors with a little rubbing alcohol to clean them?

Just found a card struggling in my co2 ladder, thinking about making a guard for that seeing as I think I was just in the nick of time.

water levels are looking good.

ammonia and nitrite still non existant but I think thats because my fish are constipated.

nitrate @ 10, ph 6.6

Still concerned about the white coloring on the cards bellys but hopefully with a pea flush they'll be ok. I fed them peas tonight. I was thinking about feeding them again in the morning. I dont think that all of them ate the peas. Gimme some feed back, cheers.

Jedi

 

[JediWiggles]

Quick update:

Water is stats indicate a ph crash, been sitting @ 6 ph constantly for the past 2 days. Water is cloudy and I pulled a rookie mistake. I fed my fish peas and didnt clean the debris. Now I have mold!!!


Anyway Im doing a large water change, probably 50-60%, vaccumming gravel, rising my filter media for the first time in some tank water. Any tips on sterilizing plants after mold infection?

The mold is killing my java fern and my java moss on the log. I'll take a few pics before I clean. Thinking about removing the moss thats infected. Also to read up on how to clean the fern.

the mold is hair like on the pea debris. I'll let ya know what happens after the overhaul.

Jedi

 

[Dave Spencer]

Don`t worry about the pH.

You haven`t been strict enough with your water changing routine, and leaving food in there to rot was a bad mistake. The plants are filtering your tank, and you really need to look after them. Are the CO2 and ferts OK? What are you dosing?

Dave.

 

[JediWiggles]

Don`t worry about the pH.

You haven`t been strict enough with your water changing routine, and leaving food in there to rot was a bad mistake. The plants are filtering your tank, and you really need to look after them. Are the CO2 and ferts OK? What are you dosing?

Dave.

Did a hugo water change, cleaned the filter out(but left the filter media alone), pulled the air diffuser and shook as much of the mold into the water as possible before I changed it. Seems I got most of it, although it seems brown algae will be my constant battle. I cant put more than a 15 watt light in my 12 gallon, so vaccuming, my snail fleet is all I can do for now. I have a window that gets direct sunlight that Im letting hit the tank for roughly an hour just before sunset. The light schedule is working great now that I've lowered the amount of light per day. when from 12 hours down to 6(including the 1 hour in the sun). During that hour the fish get confused as to which way is down, I find it funny to watch them swim sidways.


I noticed that a 20% water change every 2 days seems like the key. AT least just something to remove waste. That has helped hugh.

Im still using the flourish tabs, in combination with a .15-0-0 fert still. I have about 3 or 4 does left of this so after I figure I'll switch to an EI regiment, although my swords are literally "flourishing". I've removed the Co2 while my new additions are making themselves comfortable.


I have 8 cards (that are starting to look a little better, there bellies are starting to "red" up, the whitish insides I think was from water upkeep. There starting to take to my setup nicely. Theres a bit of nipping going on but nothing substantial. I just added 4 Prisella tetras. There great looking and have made my cards "perk up" a little. Seems the addition of more tetras have influenced there behaviours a little.

ghost shrimp love my vaccum, I've sucked all 4 of them up while doing water changes, u wanna talk fun, fishing them outta the bucket and putting them back in the tank!

I took some pictures and I have a video of the tank. I have school tomorrow so I'll post in a few days.