Welcome To The Jungle...

[Ny82]

Hi everyone well my new tank came today. It'a about 64 litres or there about.
I started by adding sand then I put a layer of black gravel on top. I placed the bogwood in the middle and planted all my plants from my old aquarium around it. It looks ok but I can do better once my redmoor wood comes. I placed the order last night it's this piece here
http/www.thegreenmachineonline.com/products/aquatics/d-cor-materials/redmoor-root-wood-individual-pieces/redmoor-root-wood-piece-y20
how creepy! I can't wait for it to arrive.

I put my old filter and heater into the tank and ran it while I was filling it up and moving bits and pieces around. I transferred the fish and instantly they were swimming about happily!
I'm so glad it went relatively smoothly.
Here are the pics of the tank as it is.

I think it looks like there's someting missing, I don't want to over do it though. I'm also waiting on plants coming.

The tanks been running all day and the ammonia is 0 and the nitrites are 0 but I think that's because I am running the old filter and the new filter. Can I just put the brown gunky sponger from the old filter into my new filter? The new filter is considerably bigger than the old one and I had seen on a few peoples new posts that they should only put a third of their old media in. Shall I cut the new sponge to make room and put my sponge in with it? The old tank is going to my friend so will need the old filter to go with it.
Thanks

 

[Ny82]

Ok so I think when my redmoor wood comes I will scape it properly. Any help would kindly be appreciated. I have gravel on top of the sand but I think I am going to get that out because I do like the sand but I had no luck finding the black sand I was after
I am after the strands of grass I seen in a lot of tanks. Does it begin with an L? I have forgotten but I will ask around for some of that to make it all lush looking. I have so many ideas but like I say I don't want to overdo it. Less is definitely more.

 

[Ny82]

So been waiting for various bits and pieces to arrive. I got some amazon sword, a little bush like thing and some anubias. The crypt they had was very wilted and he said it would just go in the bucket. My wood also arrived a few days ago and it looks like E.Ts hand-I love it! I also got some grass and hopefully it will grow.
Here are some pics.

After I rearranged everything-still a bit cloudy.

The "hand"

The bush

The anubias

The grass

The tank when the sand had settled

Thanks

 

[minnnt]

Apart from the path, i really like it!

 

[ian]

i really like the path and thin you have done well on the scaping. I would remove those moss balls though, they don't look in the best of health.

 

[Ps3Steveo]

+1 for removing the moss balls, they look a little worse for wear. Looks great tho, glad you had a re scape once it all turned up as in the first pictures everything is too symetrical bit now it looks wicked, I'm impressed.

I hope the lilaeopsis works out for you too .

 

[Ny82]

Apart from the path, i really like it!

Thankyou, I only had to put the crushed shells in as somehow my PH fell dramatically- I know stable PH is better than exact PH but the shells are in there now, and I was recommended the tetra balance stuff. Hope it works.
Ammonia and nitrites are spot on so might just keep the 2 filters running.

i really like the path and thin you have done well on the scaping. I would remove those moss balls though, they don't look in the best of health.

Thankyou, I don't know what happened to those moss balls, do you think the tank temp is to blame? I have it at 27 for the gouramis but when I take them out and put them in cold water (the moss not the gouramis ) they go green.
I'll look for a replacement!

+1 for removing the moss balls, they look a little worse for wear. Looks great tho, glad you had a re scape once it all turned up as in the first pictures everything is too symetrical bit now it looks wicked, I'm impressed.

I hope the lilaeopsis works out for you too .

Thankyou, I like symmetry but when i'm done it's going to be like sleepy hollow meets alice in wonderland hopefully! I am a bit worried about the grass, looks a bit scraggly and curly lol I hope it grows.

I will need to rehome the gouramis or at least the female. She is about 3 inches long, and she killed my peppered cories. Each one of them had flesh wounds I couldn't beleive it. Now she has turned on the male he's only about an inch and a half long but she chases him through the plants. I need to get her into a better home before I have another casualty, but when she's I have a bronze cory and 2 sodalis corys which I really don't want dead as I haven't seen them before.
Also I have 4 platinum tetras do I need to make the shoal bigger? They seem to be doing fine with just 4, and I have 4 long fin leopard danios which are so much fun I don't want to crowd the tank as they need room to swim. They are on the go constantly - will they be fine in a group of 4 aswell?

My plants still haven't arrived but I received an email this morning saying they weren't happy with the quality of them and will be getting more in and will send me them from there and give me extra ones for nothing for my inconvenience so that's really generous of them.
I think I also need a black background and some rocks/caves for hiding places. Still a long way to go but getting there slowly

 

[Ps3Steveo]

The grass is lilaeopsis and it does stay kind of curly, the tips of the leaves tend to be curly as they need to soak up light so don't worry it's fine.

 

[minnnt]

Grows really well under good light. Sends really long runners out.

 

[ian]

replace the moss balls with java moss or Riccia on a slate. I have a small bit of riccia left over from my nano if you want it.

have a look here on how to tie it.

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/101806-step-by-step-guide-riccia-and-java-moss/

 

[Ny82]

The grass is lilaeopsis and it does stay kind of curly, the tips of the leaves tend to be curly as they need to soak up light so don't worry it's fine.

Grows really well under good light. Sends really long runners out.

Ah that's good then i'll just leave it to do it's thing. Unfortunately patience isn't my strong point and onthe card it said this plant grows very slow! The lights on from about half 9am until half 4/5pm.

replace the moss balls with java moss or Riccia on a slate. I have a small bit of riccia left over from my nano if you want it.

have a look here on how to tie it.

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/101806-step-by-step-guide-riccia-and-java-moss/

That riccia looks lovely I really like it but it looks quite complicated! I will need to have a look for some. I get my plants online or from dobbies garden world. I am waiting for them to get some decent crypt in as they still have the wilted stuff. They also have this really nice plant with red/pink leaves I love it but don't know what it is and don't want to end up killing it!

I am also having issues with this white fluffy stuff on the big bogwood piece and on some of the plants I hope it's not mould as the fish go up and eat it any ideas what it could be?

Also I emailed the local fish rehoming group a few days ago, they rehome fish who have out grown their tanks or who have been mis sold to people and someone will be with me at about half 3, to take the gouramis away. It's getting out of control, I love them they are beautiful but the male gets such a hard time, they just whizz past then the corys get excited and join in and it's just chaos.

Here are pics of my corys:

1 bronze boy - very shy

2 what I believe are sodalis corys with nice markings and quite big. Think they are females. One has taken a shine to the bronze.

and 2 I picked up today but can't remember what they are. They have a pale pink/white band on their head. Extremely shy at the moment but like the anubias. You can see the fluffy stuff on the cabomba to the right and even though it looks like bits at the back-it's the bubble stream from the 2nd filter.

I am probably overstocked at present but I have 2 filters and haven't had any nitrites/ammonia spike. I do want a centrepiece fish once the gouramis are rehomed but I don't know what to go for. I am a bit mismatched at present but I originally wanted the gouramis as the centrepiece and some fast swimming shoaling fish. The danios are non stop and the tetras all go their seperate ways.
Any suggestions?
Thanks.

 

[JonE]

I think it looks good and also quite like the path. I've just put some Riccia on pebbles in my nano, it's a bit fiddly but no more complicated than tieing moss and it looks great when it's finished.

 

[Ny82]

I think it looks good and also quite like the path. I've just put some Riccia on pebbles in my nano, it's a bit fiddly but no more complicated than tieing moss and it looks great when it's finished.

Thanks, I might make the path a bit skinnier, just worried about the corys soft barbels on it. They always go to that bit
Ooh pebbles sound nice I need to find some riccia what about when they sell it online already attached to the mesh-is that ok aswell? Do I just use thread to fasten the 2 bits of mesh together?

http/uk.ebid.net/for-sale/riccia-fluitans-on-pad-tropical-aquarium-plant-39451053.htm?from=googleshop_uk
Looks simpler lol

 

[Ny82]

Right my OCD was bugging me so I made the path a wee bit skinnier and lined it with the black gravel to give it some definition.

You can see beast gourami checking out what I just done, and that blur in the middle of the path is the male. Talk about size difference

*EDIT* just remembered I forgot to take the moss out, will go do it just now.

 

[Ny82]

Ok I took the moss out and rearranged things once again - I know I must have the most stressed fish in the history of the world They are used to me now, the corys come upto my hand which freaks me out a little bit lol.
I am just waiting for the water to clear-it's almost done and I will post a pic of what it looks like now. Just rearranged the anubias and the little plants. I like it more now. It's still looking a wee bit like a jumble but I need to resist messing it up again-the sand flies everywhere and it goes cloudy. The middle part of the tank is more spacious for swimming. The problem is it's like a cube, it's the same height and width it's all I can work with at the moment due to space. The new filter is going brown already which is good, i've been topping up the controversial bottled bacteria everyday so it's maturing well. The tank water is sort of clear now I added a few drops of accu-clear and it's really good. I shall take a pic and post it up