My Annual Review

[ZoddyZod]

ANNUAL REVIEW
Hello you wonderful people!

Although I’m quietly confident that the way my tank is set up and maintained is pretty good (mainly due to this site), I’d like you to review my current ‘processes’, critique them and point out if I’m doing anything you disagree with.

It’s been quite a while since I started all this so thought it would be a good idea to have a ‘peer-review’ and ensure I’ve not missed something or incorrectly adopted something I shouldn’t have.

Also, if you have any tips on how to improve it…..I’m all ears!

CURRENT SET-UP

HARDWARE
320L - 4x1.5x2
1 x 300w heater (with 150w set 2 degrees lower for emergency back-up)
Lights – 2 x 40w T5s for 8hrs followed by 3 hrs of LED moonlighting (attempting to reduce stress at lights off)
Fluval 405 & Fluval 305 – outlets and intakes positioned at opposite corners of the tank. The flow meets in the middle and causes the sand at the centre front to be blown away. Proposal for different positioning of the outlets?

STOCK
6 Angels (P.Scalare)
7 Harlequin Rasbora
6 Bolivian Rams
1 BN plec (male)
2 Twig catfish
11 albino & bronze corydora
1 Hyphessobrycon bentosi (white tip rosy tetra) – last of an original six
20ish Neons
6 Amano shrimp
2 golden apple snail
handful MTS
4 assasins

FEEDING REGIME
Twice a day varying between the below foods (each is roughly given 2-3 times a week)
Algae wafers, frozen blood worm, frozen ‘greens’, frozen ‘tropical mix’, fresh pepper, baby corn, fruit, brocolli (whatever is in the fridge really), Terta Prima and Tetra Prima mini. Tetra ‘crisps’ of regular, colour and spirulina

PLANTS
Plenty of vallis
Several java ferns
Couple of anubis
Crypts
amazon frogbit
…..I’ve tried other ‘easy plants’…..they all died.

FERTS
5ml of TNC added six days per week - is this enough???

SUBSTRATE
Cat litter capped by 7-10cm of playsand

WATER CHANGE
Approximately 20-30% weekly
Dose tank with 7.5ml of Seachem Prime prior to refilling (from hose)


Give me your thoughts……

 

[ZoddyZod]

so my set-up is perfect???

Excellent news!

 

[the_lock_man]

so my set-up is perfect???

Excellent news!

No, it's just we're all too scared of you to tell you anything bad.....

 

[ZoddyZod]

No, it's just we're all too scared of you to tell you anything bad.....

blimey, do I really have such a reputation on here?

 

[the_lock_man]

No, it's just we're all too scared of you to tell you anything bad.....

blimey, do I really have such a reputation on here?

Nah, just joking, I'm doing my Tizer impersonation again today.

In all fairness though, Zod, I can't see anything wrong really, I personally only feed my fish once a day, not twice, but hey, I consider you a more experienced and knowledgeable fishkeeper than me, so me critiquing you would be teaching one's grandmother to suck eggs (where on earth does that expression come from anyway?)

 

[sarah40011]

lol i love that grass is it vallis or something? i need to get some of that for my 200L but my lfs has a really bad stock of plants

 

[CezzaXV]

I'm also another that feeds my fish just once a day, and not even 7 days a week and have had no problems. I dont know if it makes any difference having so many fish where fish that didn't get a look in on the first round might get some in the second, I don't know.

If it were my tank I'd throw a lot more plants there. I could say it could help with absorbing ammonia/nitrates etc, but I just really like the look of a heavily planted tank and can't resist when I see another plant I like.

 

[Tizer]

Reading through the whole post, the only things that jumped out for me were the 7 harlequins, i think i would bump that up to 10+, there isnt a huge amount of cover for the corys from the bright lights, a few extra caves might let them relax a little when the lights are on full blast. The ferts you are dosing...im not entirely sure its enough but if the plants are doing well, no reason to change it. I would highly recommend your own dry ferts mix though, dosing TPN has to be a far more expensive process in the long run. Its a great looking tank though mate, im sure its a topic for discussion when you have visitors, very eye catching.

 

[Mowbz]

im sure its a topic for discussion when you have visitors, very eye catching.

You certainly cant miss the thing! Has more presence than my 340ltr thats for sure. Yours really "jumps" off the stand at you. What tank is it, if you dont mind?

Looking again at it, i think its the rounded corners, theres no loss of vision through the perspex that you get with square glass, with the opposite mirror effect. Much better look. Bit gutted about my own tank now

 

[ZoddyZod]

Nah, just joking, I'm doing my Tizer impersonation again today.

In all fairness though, Zod, I can't see anything wrong really, I personally only feed my fish once a day, not twice, but hey, I consider you a more experienced and knowledgeable fishkeeper than me

where is the 'blush' emoticon

lol i love that grass is it vallis or something? i need to get some of that for my 200L but my lfs has a really bad stock of plants

yep, indeed it is vallis. Seems to do pretty well in my tank. Have you tried eBay for plants? Can recommend a seller called 'last trading post'

 

[ZoddyZod]

Reading through the whole post, the only things that jumped out for me were the 7 harlequins, i think i would bump that up to 10+, agree. There were 10 originally and I was looking to have it fully South American.....but they are my favourite schoaling fish so may look to add more again.

there isnt a huge amount of cover for the corys from the bright lights, a few extra caves might let them relax a little when the lights are on full blast. good point. There's a few crypts and a couple fo slate caves in there now, but still not a great deal of cover.

The ferts you are dosing...im not entirely sure its enough but if the plants are doing well the plants do 'ok', not brilliantly so might up the dose,

I would highly recommend your own dry ferts mix though, dosing TPN has to be a far more expensive process in the long run. just got another 1L of the TNC (chepaer than TPN and seems to be very similar). I will see how long that lasts and then look into dry.

Its a great looking tank though mate, im sure its a topic for discussion when you have visitors, very eye catching.cheers. Some people do comment on it.....but then I engage over-enthusiastically and you can almost see the boredom in their eyes. I have zero fishkeeping friends.

 

[Tizer]

Same as me, the wifes friends are always curious and my mates are like, "you fish gay".

 

[ZoddyZod]

You certainly cant miss the thing! Has more presence than my 340ltr thats for sure. Yours really "jumps" off the stand at you. What tank is it, if you dont mind?

yeah, the wife wasn't so keen on the size of it when it arrived. I may have downplayed it slightly. It's a Fluval Osaka 320L. Sadly they don't make them anymore (possibly due to a massive design flaw that I am yet to discover!)

 

[SaTiVa1984]

I'm curious to why you have put cat litter below the sand?

Sorry if this is a newbie question, but ive never heard of people doing this before.

Great looking tank tho!

edit*

also that play sand looks a very nice colour, every type i have looked at has been a horrible dark yellow/orange, any ideas where i can find that in the UK?

 

[ZoddyZod]

Same as me, the wifes friends are always curious and my mates are like, "you fish gay".

hahaha, why can they not grasp the time and effort we've given and how proud we are with the results. I DEMAND THAT THEY SHOW ENTHUSIASM!

I'm curious to why you have put cat litter below the sand?

Sorry if this is a newbie question, but ive never heard of people doing this before.

it's a tip I picked up in the planted section. It acts as a nutrient sponge so over time it will collect nutrients from the water coloumn and store them for use by root feeding plants. It's also very very cheap compared to the 'proper' nutrient loaded substrates

also that play sand looks a very nice colour, every type i have looked at has been a horrible dark yellow/orange, any ideas where i can find that in the UK?

Argos

I'm also another that feeds my fish just once a day, and not even 7 days a week and have had no problems. I dont know if it makes any difference having so many fish where fish that didn't get a look in on the first round might get some in the second, I don't know.

If it were my tank I'd throw a lot more plants there. I could say it could help with absorbing ammonia/nitrates etc, but I just really like the look of a heavily planted tank and can't resist when I see another plant I like.

I feed them 6 days a week, so there have 1 day to 'clear themselves out'.

Yep, more plants is what I want to do (loads of cyrpts) but I'm waiting to find the perfect large piece of wood to act as a centerpiece, then I can plan around it.