320lt - 2 Years On

Hi again, I don't seem to have got the hand in getting the correct size
of photo to upload.

Anyway that was 2010, a year on 2011.............

Hi Richard 

Interesting to see the tank annually! The tank appears to look greener last year than the latest photo. Have you recently pruned the plants back and/or thinned them out? And dare I ask what happened to your red plant (alternanthera?) in the back right corner? (shrimps dessimated mine  )

Im not meaning for the above to sound critical, so please dont read it that way! Your tank is looking great. You have some lovely wood in there and your fish look great. Am I right in thinking you have JBL Manado?

Man-Flu eh    Hope you feel better soon 

Hi Chuck & Helen,

Last year we had a new kitchen and decided to take the chosen stone floor through to the
dining room. The tank had to be moved around the room to allow the stone to set. I
decided at that point to change the decor, but still sticking with bogwood & live plants. The
large wood to the right was rotated and basically flipped on its back, the attached plant has
grown better since being a little deeper and I take it, further away from the lights too (I'm guessing). Other plants have not fared so well, the red one wilted and died after being
repositioned, others have taken quite a while to re-establish themselves but now show good
signs of regular new shoot growth.
I love the colour of the bogwood as it gradually changes colour caused by catfish grazing and
general ageing I suppose.
The LED's certainly enhance the colour of both wood and fish, the ripples caused by the water movement cast shadows on anything that is solid. Moving from left to right (where water enters the tank) the shadows gradually move slower as the ripple (water) speed drops, very effective.
The number of fish in the tank hasn't increased, I did make a decision not to replenish the
smaller fish shoals as they naturally shrunk. Replaced with Discus, however only two out
of the six purchased have survived. Cobalt & Pigeon both died, the remaining 2 Blue Diamond have both thrived. Golden Wonder Panchax have reduced from 6 to 2, I am waiting
for this to become zero before getting either Halfbeak or Gar. 6 x Torpedo Barbs are doing very well all at 5" plus now, the BN are now 4, 2 male, 2 female, I disturbed them breeding
when moving the tank, poor timing I know. So joining the Plec's which also included (L014)
Sunny Plec, we now have a Blue Spotted Phantom Plec, currently making himself at home
underneath the bogwood and disturbing the JBL Manadoo (yes correct Chuck). We still
see the Kuhli Loaches at feeding time, I introduced a Violet Dragon Goby, he has fitted in
really well, so many mixed reports on what conditions they should be kept in, so not sure
wether right or wrong to have him, seems very happy currently, consistently moves the
plecs from their under bogwood resting places and then moves the JBL around to suit 
Columbians, Lemon Tetra & an odd amount of suring Silver Tips/Copper Harlequins make up the tank numbers.
Changes happen in the natural world and so changes happen in my tank world too. It will stay as is throughout the winter and with only minimum pruning and planting we will se what happens.
To finish on, a question - Has anyone had a BN go to sleep on its back for an hour and
then just swim off and latch itself to bogwood for a bit of a graze? Whilst typing thats
what one of my female BN's has just done 

Laters 

I think I may have killed my bn because I didn't realise until a while after getting it out of the tank that it may not have been dead when it was lying on it's back. It didn't even move when I poked it and picked it up!    But I did read that they can do that.

Wow - Im surprised at the problems you've had with the LEDs. Thats kinda scared me a little - I was (eventually!!!!!) gonna order mine off the internet - quite a few quids cheaper than going to a local shop. Maybe when the time comes, I'll ask MA for a quote on what Im wanting. At least if anything goes wrong, I can just go back to the shop and they've got the joys of sorting it! I somehow had in my mind that they are covered with a 10 year warranty........  Must be getting mixed up in my old age! Out of interest, do you (nearly) have the multi controller? (the very expensive one that takes up to 8 strips).

Meanwhile, one of my T8 tubes went on my other tank last week. Im toying with the idea of getting the Arcadia LEDs for that tank. Simply because the TMCs wont fit it! Annoyingly, the GroBeams are about 50cm long and the tank is 100cm with a bracing bar across the middle. Doh!

Hi Richard,

Was just curious really. Its the expensive multi-controller thats on my shopping list (as I want 2 double strips and I dont think the cheaper controller can run that many) so I was wondering how they faired for their price.

Good luck with your night-time stakeouts!