Matt's 220 Litre Aquaoak

Well the tank is on a larger cabinet now... so obviously it just makes sense to put a larger tank to fill the larger space..... am I convincing you??

Absolutely! Having said that, my 54-litre tank is on top of a longish cabinet but it clearly stated that max weight/load is 50kg, so I daren't risk it any more than that. Hmmm - in my case, maybe time to look at other sturdier cabinets for the living-room.

When I took the tank of the old cabinet there was a lot of water damage on the surface of the wooden cabinet. Where the tank rested on the wood. I thinks over time bits of water trickling down the outside (probably as a rsult of me being messy at water change time) have reached the bottom and spread like a coffee mug ring around the base of the tank. Just be prepared for that if you ever want to move a tank... the cabinet was ruined. I'm going to have to sand off the top and try to 're wax it or something... turn my hand to furniture restoration!

Rescaped a little today to make things look a bit more balanced. Previous scape I was never happy with as one side was too different to the other.  I did this to hide inlet and outlet of the filter. They are a bit more visible now, but the tank looks a lot better overall.  Pushed all the tall plants to the back so the smaller planta can be seen more near the front and added a subtly red plant (rotala rotundifolia) to the front middle.  Java fern was laargely removed... it kept producing little farnlets on the leaves which killed off the old leaves. So all new baby leaves were  bunched together to start again. I'll be picking them off asap from now on.  Still a lot of tidying up to do but here a piccy so show what I have done...

It looks really good. I always enjoy seeing pictures of your tank. Your style of aquascaping is so different to mine (tidier).

Looks great 

Side photo and updated front shot.

Thanks Dave and Donna

I'd be happy to help with this... just get in touch nearer the time with some ideas and we can go from there if you like?

Some new additions today...

After the loss of all but 2 of my harlequins whilst I was away, the tank looked quite bare on the fish front and my stocking was at about 45%. I wanted a surface dweller ideally to fill a gap at the top of the tank, though was struggling to find any i liked (hatchetfish dont do it for me!) and  / or a smaller 2cm fish. I had galaxy rasboras at one point but they were very hidey and I didn't see much of them but I liked that they added another dimension to the tank amongst the mainly 3 cm fish. My honey gourami arnt really a surface dweller in my oppinion spending time through the whole tank... one is quite poorly too, it has a very large growth which developed shortly after I got it. I'm surprised it has lasted this long to be honest...

Anyway long story short now... I was deciding between chilli rasbora and ember tetra. I couldn't get the chilli rasbora in the numbers I wanted on the day which helped my decision making and I got ember tetras (impossible to photo). I am really glad I did! I have 12 and the schoal beautifully and are out and about and very active. Their colours also go great in the tank. Very happy. Ill get a decent photo at some point. I only have pictures of orange blurs at the moment...

I also got 6 dwarf pencil fish (that hurt my wallet a bit at £5 each) after seeing them in the shop and falling in love with them. I had seen hockeystick pencilfish and golden pencilfish before though they don't really stay near the surface like the dwarfs do, plus i find their colouration much more attractive. They settled in super quickly (as did the embers) and were eating half an hour after being put in the tank. They have been in the top third / quarter of the tank ever since as a little group making little adventures from their hidey hole near the vallis where there is some surface cover (I'm going to spread the vallis out a bit more for them) where they hover and display to each other regularly. Again I am very happy with my purchase! Photo attached.

Finally, I also got the golden eyed dwarf cichlids I had been on about in another thread. They have been quite hidey so far. Though I have seen them both out, when I approach the tank they quickly retreat. I'm sure they will be more comfortable after a night in their new home. The coloration of the male (the female is likely the same) I have observed to be very changeable, I have seen a dot a stripe and a general pattern across his side already and they are quite 'detailed' for example in comparison to the blue ram which whilst beautiful is essentially blue with a bit of orange near it's head, these are like a rainbow of colours. I will get some good photos of them in different moods and post them here soon.  More to come on these guys as they settle in!

The tank looks nicely stocked again (back up at 75% stocked) oh and I changed the layout recently too so there will be some full frontal shots to come of that too... I've basically changed it from an island layout to a triangular "slope" layout.

These pencilfish are one of my favourites, I love the way they hover in the water   

If you think they were expensive, you should see the price of the related N. mortenthaleri 

When I posted a pic of mine on the old forum, someone described them as humbugs. To me they look more like everton mints 

These pencilfish are one of my favourites, I love the way they hover in the water   

If you think they were expensive, you should see the price of the related N. mortenthaleri 

If it's any consolation, the price of annieae gobies is 

Here is a photo of the tank 

I'll get some better shots and some close ups and some of the other new fish soon...

Wow - these new additions are such an exciting development!      So envious of the full-tank pic and the various species you can accommodate, and indeed all of the pics, but the pic of the pencilfish is particularly amazing.

Looking forward to seeing pics of the embers once you're able to.

My honey gourami arnt really a surface dweller in my oppinion spending time through the whole tank... one is quite poorly too, it has a very large growth which developed shortly after I got it. I'm surprised it has lasted this long to be honest...

That gourami passed quite suddenly and seemingly quite peacefully last night (after looking 'a bit off' esterday night. Im quite gald really.

I realised I have all South American apart from the remaining gourami and harlequins. I'll have to look up where all my plants are from. I don't think there will be any similarities!

I do still have the gobies... forgot about them for a second. I was hoping to move them to the puffer tank for a while but since I've now managed to stop them brining the planting substrate out into the sand, they can stay! I do love their characters they are not peaceful though! Constant fighting!! Are yours the same?

Mine tend to raise their heads at each other, so it looks like they are raising themselves up using their fins, and holding their heads as high as possible. One will then usually swim off, sometimes chased briefly by the other.
I did watch a proper scrap a while back, which I think was between two annieae gobies, I think I may have posted pics. It only lasted a few minutes, and I've not seen anything like that since.

I fitted glass lily pipes this afternoon and rearranged the background plants.

Also made use of aquascaping tweezers which are a revalation to me after I received them as a birthday present earlier this month... I would definately recommend getting a nice long pair so that tank tasks can be completed without getting sleeves etc wet.

I'm happy to finally call this scape complete now    though I'll need to get a proper photo later, when its dark but, I'm excited so... here it is from rubbish angle to get rid of most of the reflections...

I agree - looks great. Well done!

I also concur with how beneficial aquascaping tweezers are... I'm forever tinkering with mine. One piece of advice I'd give re them, though - I've had inquisitive fish attempt to swim through them and almost get squashed when I've been about to tinker with something, so best to lower them in the tank already in the squeezed-together position (as opposed to open, then squeeze once you find what you want to tinker with).

 

My aquascaping tweezers also get used for retrieving small children's toys out of the cracks in our tree stump coffee table!

I use them a lot in partnership with my aquascaping scissors - hold the leaf with the tweezers and obviously snip with the scissors. I don't think I could have done my major substrate refurb without the tweezers. It makes it a lot easier to get plants into the substrate.

Sigh... That's such a beautiful tank.

  why not?

I keep thinking about my tank, and whether I can apply any of the things I'm learning from you. It'd never look anything like that though.

I just added this to my blog and thought it worth sharing here too ...

---

Easy aquascapers beware of your nitrate levels!

Having recently increased my fish stocking level a few weeks ago I took a regular nitrate test. It is clear I need to change my complete fertiliser dosing regime to reduce nitrates in my aquascape. I had been seeing more diatoms (brown algae) than normal too which are linked to high nitrates.

More fish equals more nitrates and easy plants generally means slow growing plants so beware of not overdosing your fertiliser...

Fortunately I have some biological liquid carbon which contains potassium as well. This means I should be able to dose this for a week or two whilst I bring my nitrates down (as well as doing some extra water changes). Nitrate and potassium are the two elements plants need the most of to grow healthily.

Fortunately I spotted this early enough to take action slowly so as not to shock the fish, else I would be changing much more water much more quickly.

I will continue to test my nitrates for a good while longer whilst I adjust to a new fertilisation regime which does not lead too unreasonable levels of nitrate before my weekly water change. You ideally want it at less than 25ppm... be warned though you tap water may have a higher nitrate concentration than this so water change day is ALWAYS a day when you skip adding ferts.

I'll be adding this to the website shortly... get testing!