Ch4rlie's Tanks

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Ch4rlie

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Decided to upload a bunch of pics to show how my tanks are doing, yep, in the mood to show off a little bit :p

Starting with my main 3 foot tank.....

This was amongst the first pictures of this tank when it was set up back in May 2016
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Plants starting to grow and you can see one of the small tanks at the end of this tank as well, barely started setting that little 5 gal up for shrimps and snails, think was fishless cycling actually...
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Elodea plants starting to take off, grows like a rocket, not unsual to take out 2 or 3 feet of this elodea at the end of every 2 weeks or so.
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As the tank is now, took the elodea out as was making the tank too crowded plantwise. The right hand side of the tank starting to get a bit much so a prune down will be done in the near future. The CPD's like this area as they swim in and out of the plants all the time while the lambchops rasboras hang out usually in the middle tank area.
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Crypts growing real well, about the size of a football now, started slightly smaller than tennis ball size i guess. (The grey ball is a mineral ball for the shrimps, about 1 inch in diameter)
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Water Lettuce, grows real well. This was taken just after water change today, reduced down.
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Water Lettuce taken just as started the water change, this is normal after 7 days.
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The 5 Gal shrimp tank, set up middle of May of last year.
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Plants as they are now. Grown out and filled the gaps as I hoped it would :)
I promise you there ARE shrimps and snails in this tank, just camera shy I reckon :lol:
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One of the Ramshorns, nice size its growing out to be, about an inch in diameter as well.
(the 'white' specks you acn see in the pic is just the air bubbles from the filter)
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My 2.5 foot tank, had mixed results with this tank. Set up really nicely as I wanted back in December 2015.
Soon after, things started to go wrong on this tank. Called it 'the tank of death' as nothing really grew and had some unexplained fish death, including the Whiptail Catfish and a lot of Assassin Snails died as well.

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Decided it was something to do with the substrate (silica sand mixed with sansibar grey sand). As well as the T5 lights as algae grew in this tank like nothing else, diatoms and a type of hair algae which was real ugly and truly disapointing, almost gave up on the tank altogether tbh.

Changed the lights to T8's and the substrate as well as adding new plants. Stopped Co2. Also completely changed the filter flow set up as well, spraybar at end of tank rather than at back of tank.

I unfortunately did not take a picture of the new set up tank at the time but this is as it is now. Plants have started to grow nicely and added water lettuce.

This was done perhaps 5 months ago and no algae or fish deaths since then.
Now this tank is slowly no longer being called 'the tank of death'.......... knock on wood ;)
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Today added some anubias that I nicked from the main 3 foot tank, looks good methinks. Simply tied on the wood with a black cable tie, will cut the cable tie off when the plant has rooted to the wood in a month or two.
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Full tank shots of all 3 tanks as they are now. Got to say it looks good :)
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Keeping it simple and keeping up the maintenace with due diligence has paid off here as all the tanks are going strong now :)
 
I think it really looks good!Wish I could that big of a tank.Sadly room is too small.The 5 gallon one I also like as of the formation of the wood.
 
Thanks guys.

To be honest am surprised I got away with getting these 3 tanks in that corner of the lounge :lol:

The flat where I live is not big at all, and space is definitely a premium, somehow persuaded the other half that it adding tanks will make a 'focal' point and as a bonus is educational for our little lad ;)

It worked anyway......now.....lets see if I can sneak in another tank.... :devil:
 
one of the small tanks at the end of this tank
I love how you did this and make it appear to be one cool tank! I love the look!
And how fun to have just a shrimp and snail tank!

mineral ball for the shrimps
Do they change the GH/PH of the water?

Water Lettuce, grows real well.
It's beautiful!

the tank of death' as nothing really grew
what's that tall whispy plant in the left corner? I like it!

Full tank shots of all 3
Total Tank Envy!!!!!! They look amazing! Wonderful work!
 
I love how you did this and make it appear to be one cool tank! I love the look!
And how fun to have just a shrimp and snail tank!

:)

I LOVE my shrimp tank, it's one of these rare tank set up that worked EXACTLY as I hoped for. The Ramshorn, MTS, Red Cherry Shrimps and of course the Amano seem to enjoy this little tank.

This is why I try to encourage folks to go with shrimp tank set ups with their 5 gallon tanks as its truly rewarding as there is always soemthing going on, Tina, my other half, LOVES the Ramshorn snail.

And maintenance is a doddle on this lovely small tank, I enjoy doing this tank every week.

Do they change the GH/PH of the water?

As far as I know, no they should not. Just a mineral ball to supplement what minerals some of the shrimps or snails may be lacking in that tank. Anything released from these balls will be minute and won't be of any affect to the water column as there are only 6 of these in the tank.

When I first put these balls in, the shrimps and snails were ALL over them, so obviously they loved them and now over time they occassionally go on them. These have been in that tank for at least 6 months and all going ok (knock on wood!)

what's that tall whispy plant in the left corner? I like it!

I have two of these, they are Crinium Calamistratum Plant, aka onion plant, at the time when I wanted these, they were fairly rare and hard to find and pretty expensive for a plant, I paid £30 for 2 of them a couple years back and luckily they thrive in my main tank.

They are more common now and can be bought for under £5 each but no regrets as they are lovely to have. But a big tank is best to showcase these, my tanks are not big enough to show these at their best to be entirely honest.

Really, it should be in a tank of its own without other plants stealing the show as they are proper lovely, imho. Very much a underated plant.

Total Tank Envy!!!!!! They look amazing! Wonderful work!

Thank you, very kind words and I have to say we truly like the way these tanks looks in our lounge.

Certainly no reason why ANYONE cannot achieve great looking tanks with a little time, hard work and imagination.

If little old me can do this, anyone really can :nod:
 
A bit more information on the Crinum plant :)

Crinum calamistratum

Oh cool, thanks for the link and info! What a beautiful plant! I really love it. Not sure I could make it work in my tiny little low tech set up (anubias species seem to be the only things that really do well).

I bet you get a lot of joy out of that little shrimp/snail tank!
I have a nerite and an amano and one sunkist in my little 6 gallon with my endlers and I adore them so very much! They are just so much fun to watch! The shrimp are endlessly scampering about working and eating.
 

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