My 16 Gallon Work :)

[hanny93]

Thought I might aswell start a journal so I can see just how n00by i was

Any advice on anything would be greatly appreciated, will update current state once the sand has settled after a 75% water change and super sand shift today
Before I understood the need for regular water chnages and lights on for no longer than 8 hours

After a good scraping and 100% water change (pretty sure I cleaned my filter in tap water here aswell.)

Newly set up with pink stones that I thought added a certain je ne sais quoi to my tank - later realised it looked shockingly tacky

Same again but without the stones.. I think this was just after Christmas. As you can see, I had no idea about plants with the foam and lead weights still on!

And about a month/month and a half ago, just got 50 new plants and I was so happy, thought my tank was ace until I found tank of the month!

Will upload a pic of current tank as soon as I can find my camera cable.

Feel free to laugh at my attempts at being a 'responsible fish keeper', and yes, that is 1 large fancy oranda, 1 medium-large oranda, 1 small oranda and 5 leopard danios in the gravel pics! Took that gravel out to change to sand, nearly filled the thing with sick!

 

[Jamepsss]

Ha ha, I did the gravel to sand chnage once, I know what you mean.

Interesting journal, those pink stones really were pretty bad Stick at it and you'll be winning tank of the month in no time. Looking forward to your updates

 

[hanny93]

I have a sensitive stomach at the best of times!

And yes, I didn't buy them on purpose, they came with the sand (old sand from lfs display tanks) but I was going through my pink phase and thought they were ace

Will upload photos of current scape after I've cleaned the glass of water marks, my absolute pet hate!

 

[hanny93]

Tank as it is today after yesterdays rescape and background addition sorry about the rubbish quality, lost my camera lead so these are taken on my BB

Full tank shot - excuse the gap at the top, and the wild haired photographer!

Little clearing type thing, cories seem to have taken this bit over!

Pretend tree my lovely grandad made for me, hoping to get this covered in moss aswell as the filter casing, it's so ugly! (the casing that is!)

Any constructive criticisms?

 

[hanny93]

So just a quick update, I now have one baby peppered cory out of a brood of about 60!

Not really that bothered about it though, I knew I wouldnt keep all of them to this age, and my sponge filter that was in the 'tank' obviously wasn't up toi the job, because when I pulled it out about 5 dead ones fell out!

But this one seems to be doing well in the main tank, nibbling on food when he gets chance.

Pretty happy that he's a peppered aswell, I thought they were all Bronze's but they aren't!


I do have some questions though, all my cories are different shades, like one bronze is almost black whilst another is nearly beige all over. The same with the peppereds, one of them has very pale spots whilst the other has dark spots. Has anyone got an idea why this might be happening/is it a sign of a disease?

Thanks
Hannah

 

[PDSimon]

Might wana go ask over in the bottomfeeders section or whatever the name for it is

What are you currently dosing the tank with?

 

[hanny93]

I'm not dosing with anything, the only things that go in are water conditioner and food! Thats why I'm a bit perturbed. I thought about the black background but they'd all be the same colour if that was the case!

 

[PDSimon]

A black background would be nice imo.

If you see any of the plants with any problems, it might be time for some ferts. Should be ok though! Just don't keep the lights on too long. 6-7 hours is more than enough really... Those swords can get hungry and the light will just make them want to grow more.

 

[hanny93]

I already have added one homemade made out of three pieces of card and some sellotape

Yeah I'm very wary of letting them die off, they seem to have done fine so far!
The lights are on from about 5-10, sometimes 3-10 sometimes 7-10

 

[PDSimon]

Hmm, I would try and keep it as consistent as possible!

 

[lljdma06]

Agreed.

 

[coldcazzie]

Hannah, you can get timers for about a fiver in the supermarket - would solve your light timing issue

You're doing the same thing I did - slowly moving from inappropriate stocking and bad decor to more natural and lots of plants!

 

[hanny93]

I do try, it is better than 8am-10pm that I used to have them on!

Coldcazzie - yeah I can't believe what I used to think!

 

[hanny93]

Right just a quick update.

Nothing much has really happened other than the addition of 1 teeny tiny home bred peppered cory that's now doubling in size what seems like every day!

And today I went to my lfs, had a scout around the tanks, VERY NEARLY brought some sterbai cories home but it wouldn't be fair on the rest of them.

I did however bring some ceramic type beads home and an attachment for the filter outlet, so it was pointed more towards the surface so I've got more surface agitation now.

Had a real nightmare with the cermaics though, theyre in a plastic box thats melted shut, and it was about 5mm too big, i nearly cried. So i just cut the box open and wrapped the beads in filter wool.

 

[hanny93]

Cermaic beads are actually called cirax, cant find any reviews on it as of yet!