New tank diary

[benzonar]

Well fingers crossed my new tank will arrive tomorrow.

Its a Juwell Rio 180 and I plan on using it to breed P. Taeniatus in a community tank. Have seen some "Moliwe" in my LFS so once the fishless cycle is complete they will be going in along with some dither fish and Amanos.


I'm going for a sand substrate courtesy of Homebase, and will also have a heavily planted tank.

I'm attaching my last effort which I had to get rid of 18 months ago, in which I had a nice pair of Nigerian Reds breeding.

Will probably aim for a similar design with a few little tweaks. Will provide updates on the new setup on a regular basis.

 

[Angel Lady]

I like the clay pots. Your tank is pretty...

 

[benzonar]

Well the tank arrived today so spent this evening building the base etc and setting it up.

Washed the sand and put it in and prepared my coconut caves.

Plants should be arriving tomorrow and will be getting some bogwood on Friday along with some slate.

I have a bath full of water at the moment (never been used and well rinsed out) to let the chlorine release., and will use that to fill the tank tomorrow.

Pics so far, not a lot to see just yet.

More to follow in the next few days

 

[benzonar]

The plants came today so have filled it with water and started a fishless cycle.

Picking up used Bogwood and rocks tomorrow so will have a bit of a rearrange of the plants then.

 

[Nospherith]

Looks promising, lots of potential there. What are you using for lights? How are you going about dosage? Nice plants, I'm looking forward to what the setup will be like after you get the driftwood.

 

[benzonar]

Looks promising, lots of potential there. What are you using for lights? How are you going about dosage? Nice plants, I'm looking forward to what the setup will be like after you get the driftwood.

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Lights are a work in progress. I'm converting some metal halide lamps from my apartment to use in there with two at 100watts.

For ferts I'm using Pro-aqua-plant from Greenfield Aquatics. I'll see how they go.

CO2 is just two Nutrafin canisters

 

[jimbooo]

Nice to see another rio 180 in progress. good luck with the tank and even more luck with the plants. those halides will be very usefull.

keep us updated as you go along.

 

[benzonar]

The bogwood is now added. It has two plants attached and so is under all that greenery in the middle.

Still need to get some slate and have a final rearrange before I am happy.

Also need to add a plain black background.

 

[benzonar]

Didn't bother with the slate, found another piece of bogwood I liked that is riddled with holes and hiding places.

LAtest pic.

Now just have to wait for the tank to cycly and then try and find some Pelvicachromis Taeniatus "Dehane"

 

[Stonker]

Looking nice
Exactly what sand are you using?

 

[benzonar]

Looking nice
Exactly what sand are you using?

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Just standard childrens playsand from Homebase in Preston

 

[benzonar]

Tank has been running 6 days now.

Nitrites are at 0.8, and I threw in two large filter sponges yesterday from a friends tank.

 

[benzonar]

Latest pic

Added some riccia to the top of one of the coconut shells and also boosted my lighting.

The plants are growing and a bulb I planted that is some type of lily is going great guns.

About halfway through the cycle now. Its clearing 5ppm of ammonia in 16hrs

Nitrites have spiked and my nitrates are about 50ppm.

Still trying to decide on my stock list. Torn between Pelvicachromis Taeniatus "Bipindi" or "Dehane"

Both are gorgeous, but my lfs has Bipindi whilst the Dehane would have to come from Tri-mar and work out £38 a pair with shipping.

My gf is trying to persuade me to put a pair of German Blue Rams in with them but not sure that is such a good idea. Ancistrus and Pakistani loaches will go in as well as some dither fish, maybe Gardineri killifish.

Here is the tank

 

[Bloo]

geez it's looking gorgeous - I sure do hope you are able to maintain it that way !

 

[benzonar]

geez it's looking gorgeous - I sure do hope you are able to maintain it that way !

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Thanks bloozoo

It is going to take a lot of care, but I much prefer the look of planted tanks. More stable in the long run.

I want to create an environment suited to the Taeniatus, but I need some snail eaters and algae eaters so will have to look outside of a West African biotope, unles anyone has different suggestions to ancistrus and loaches.

P.S. my gf loves your cat