Tropical Fish Forum
Tropical Fish Keeping => Gallery Showcase => Topic started by: Sue on March 18, 2016, 08:43:20 PM
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As requested, some photos of my tanks. Only a couple though as quite typically the battery light started flashing as soon as I turned the camera on, so I only managed a few. More to come once the batteries have charged.
These are the tanks in the kitchen, the 26 litre and the 50 litre.
The 26 litre needs more work. I bought an anubias, species not given, about a month ago. The rhizome and leaves appear to be rotting and there are hardly any leaves left. I was hoping for a nice bush by now. I think I'm going to have to replace it. I got it from my nearest MA but the type I wanted looked pretty awful in their tank with leaves rotting at the base. So I got a different type from the next tank but whatever was affecting the plants in the first tank seems to have got to the one I bought.
You can see the java fern on the plantpot cave and the hornwort, both weighted down and floating. Behind that is actually a piece of wood with java fern and the anubias.
The black lumps are alder cones.
And please excuse the heater. The betta burned his tail fin on the heater but I couldn't find a heater guard anywhere. I found an old one in the cupboard with worn out suckers and what you can see is what I've had to do to attach the heater guard to the tank.
The tank looks tall and thin simply because it is end on. The tank is that way round so the weight of it is over the worktop support.
The 50 litre contains my cherry shrimps and a few fish. You can make out a few shrimps at the front right and some fish next to the filter. In total in this tank are 2 habrosus cories and 2 pygmy cories; the rest of the shoals have died. 2 Boraras maculatus and 4 Boraras brigittae, also the remains of larger shoals. And 9 green neon tetras - so far I've only lost one of those. You can see a maculatus and a green neon next to the heater. And the snail on the back of the tank.
On the right of the tank I have 3 pieces of wood. The one at the back has java fern and a small anubias; on the right the wood is covered with java moss, and in the foreground the wood has bolbitis growing on it. The whole left side is a tangle of hornwort anchored down with yet another piece of wood. I hardly see the fish in this tank as they all hang out in the hornwort.
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Lovely tanks!
Who says you're no good with plants the 50 litre is a mini jungle.
Anne
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Love your tanks Sue, the Betta looks amazing and very happy :)
I like the look of the hornwort plant, I'll definitely add that to my shopping list for the future. I love the height you can achieve with it and it keeps a narrow cylindrical shape ;)
Great post 8)
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The downside to hornwort is that old stems drop those needle-like leaves like an old Christmas tree. Provided you don't mind hoovering it all up, hornwort can be planted, weighted down with something or left to float. I just throw away the bald stems, which is quite easy the way I let it ramble rather than plant it.
Mine grows very quickly. All the hornwort you see came from 5 stems.
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I've just noticed the betta's tail in the photo. The top edge of his tail fin shows quite clearly that it is not coloured. That's the new growth after he burned a chunk of it. It shows nicely how fins can regrow although they never look quite the same as they used to.
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I was wondering about that... I looked at the fins and thought "they look ok to me..." but I was more concerned with their shape rather than pigment :)
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Fantastic tanks. I like the planting in both tanks.
Your betta looks amazing. I've not seen one that colour and the fins look so elegant.
I spent some time enlarging the second picture to spot the shrimp and fish, so cute.
;D
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Your betta looks amazing. I've not seen one that colour and the fins look so elegant.
That's why I got him :) Even my husband spotted him and said that's the one. He spends more time showing off his fins than any betta I've had before.
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Considering you keep saying how you are unsuccessful with live plants, I'm mightily impressed with the greenery in your tanks Sue.
They're lovely. Your Betta is extremely striking too!
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Really nice tanks Sue, I'm getting bettas pangs again now. ::)
I have no idea why you think you're bad with plants, I love the bolbitis, I've not seen it in a shop and yours is flourishing and looks amazing so I'm off to google it, I'd really like some.
Thank you for sharing :)
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Sue - your betta is absolutely stunning!
Even my husband spotted him and said that's the one. He spends more time showing off his fins than any betta I've had before.
Wow - your husband has fins too and which compete and surpass the showing-off of a betta? ;) :rotfl:
As for the tanks and plants, which look great, perhaps java fern and anubias are your niche. To quote Matt's helpful advice from a posting of mine on another thread:
My experience with plants is that you have to experiment and find what works in your tank... My advice would simply be to go for it and don't be disheartened when it doesn't go to plan, just try something else and you will find your niche.
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Thank you all :)
I think plants that grow on decor must be my niche; it's plants that grow planted in the substrate I have problems with, the kind of plants that everyone else seems to grow with no problems :-\
I like the bolbitis, it has lovely fern shaped leaves. It's another plants that grows fastened to decor.
I've just noticed that the head of a habrosus cory is poking out from beneath the wood with java moss. They both like it under there. the pygmy cories prefer to be under the hornwort.
The batteries should be finished charging at 6.30 this evening so I'll try and photograph the big tank after that.
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The batteries should be finished charging at 6.30 this evening so I'll try and photograph the big tank after that.
YAY!!! :)
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This is my big tank, in the dining room. It's a custom built tank as most of the 'off the peg' tanks this volume are too tall. I measured the water I put in when I set it up and it took 188 litres, so I call it my 180 litre tank. The maker used inches rather than cm, so the tank is 42 inches wide x 18 in deep x 18 in tall.
I'm afraid the water looks a bit greenish at the moment as I added the last dose of eSHa Exit this afternoon.
In this tank are:
13 cherry barbs - 5 f, 2 m natural coloured and 3m, 3f albino (males orange and females yellow)
12 golden pencilfish (aka beckford's pencilfish). I think they are 50/50 males and females, they won't keep still to let me count them
3 Apistogramma agassizii 'fire red' - 1m, 2f
3 dwarf chain loaches
4 otocinclus
6 stiphodons, species not known
4 Microdevario kubotai (last of a shoal)
2 ember tetras (last of a shoal)
5 nerite snails
The plants are more of the same, only there are 4 different species of anubias and there is the Wendelov variety of java fern as well as plain.
And when I went snail hunting before adding the whitespot medication I managed to dislodge a chunk of java fern from the top of the wood in the middle. I'll re-attach it when the med has finished its job.
The wood doesn't have anything nasty on it, those white spots on a couple of pieces are nerite eggs!
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And some of the fish in the 180 litre.
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Very nice Sue. Your 180L has really impressive dimensions, I can see why you chose to go down the custom route.
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Fantastic tank Sue. I agree with Simon, good dimensions and can see why you got a custom tank. The footprint allows for much more swimming space than a standard tank.
I really like your stiphodons, they are very pretty.
Great tank :cheers:
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The dimensions convert to 107 x 45 x 45 cm. Compare that to the Juwel Rio 180 which is 101cm long x 41cm deep x 50cm tall. That 5cm less height makes all the difference to my reach :)
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I completely agree with you. It's not easy to reach the bottom of a tank sometimes. ;D
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Absolutely fantastic. Also great to see pics of some fish close-up. :fishy1:
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A really lovely tank Sue :) and the custom built tank is a flipping good idea, did you get it built?
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I was talking to one of the guys at MA last week (the one who pointed out the 240L tank on sale) and he was telling me about the company they use. They have the Seashell all glass aquariums on their website, but he said they also do custom tanks. Apparently if you want a tall tank (above standard) it does become quite expensive, but shorter/wider tanks are pretty reasonable. I guess "pretty reasonable" is all relative when considering tank price, but if it's exactly what you want, and makes reaching the bottom of the tank a bit easier, then I figuring that's a good thing. :)
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My son's 140l tank is ridiculously tall, it makes cleaning a nightmare.
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When the bracer bar in my 125 litre came detached from the back and the glass started to bow, I decided I wouldn't trust myself to repair it - and I'd have to find somewhere else to house the fish while any repair was done. My husband readily agreed to me getting a new tank, I'm surprised no-one heard the sound of my jaw hitting the floor ;D. I had suggested to him that if we rehomed the piano which hadn't been played since the children left home then there would be room for a bigger tank in the dining room. The 125 litre was in the lounge and the very slight humming from the filter was a huge interference to his music listening so I think he would have agreed to anything that made the lounge tank free :)
A look on-line confirmed my suspicions that most ready made bigger tanks were quite a bit taller than my 125, especially when the stand was included. I'm only 5 ft 4 inches and wouldn't have been able to reach the bottom.
I did look at MA's custom built tanks but the cabinets put my husband off as it would need to match the dining room furniture :-\ I'd heard of ND Aquatics on another website and everyone who'd bought one was very pleased with the tanks. Their website at the time quoted prices for certain sizes, and to email them for other sizes so I did and they made me a tank the size I wanted. And a cabinet that matched.
The 180 is made from 10mm glass, unlike the 125 which was 6mm, and the front panel is opti-white glass. It has sliding glass covers and hinged lid made from the same board as the cabinet. Instead of a plastic bracer bar siliconed to front and back panels - the back edge became unstuck in the 125 - it has glass strips along all 4 sides level with the top of the tank. This seems to be the preferred method with most custom built sites I looked at.
The only thing I regret about this tank is that I didn't get a 48 inch tank instead of 42 inch ;D
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Blimey, I just had a look at ND aquatics website. Its so flippin cheap!
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That sounds good, especially with a matching cabinet.
I was considering getting a custom made tank for the axolotls. I have a 1.5 meter space currently taken up with a tank and a bookcase. Also, as axolotls don't need deep water, a shallower tank with a larger footprint would be better. It would also free up a 200L and a 125L for fish. :)
As one trio is juvenile (approx. 15cm) and the other trio is verging on mature (and approx. 25cm) they can't be put together. I think I will also wait until they are all mature (possibly the end of this year) so that they can be sexed before deciding which ones go together (because there's only so many axolotls eggs anyone needs).
Hopefully I will be able to keep my MTS in check until the right time. ::)
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:yikes: :o ;D
OMFG! I just had a look on the site too.
Fiona, you are not kidding about them being cheap.
With a cabinet, tank & hood.
:o
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If I hadn't gone for the opti while panel, my tank would have only cost a bit more tank the eheim tank that was the ready made I liked best. I used my combined birthday and Christmas present off my mother to buy it.
The downside was the delivery cost with me being outside their area. They used another courier to do longer distances but shortly before I got the tank I had an email from them, also addressed to several other people, saying they'd had problems with the courier damaging tanks and cabinets so would we all be happy for them to deliver our tanks on this date so they could do them all at one go. They were very reliable and arrived exactly when they said they would, unpacked everything, put the cabinet where I wanted it and set the tank up on top with a thick layer of polystyrene between.
I see from their website that delivery is now free except for a list, which includes me, where delivery is subcontracted out. I presume they have found a new courier!
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Delivery, unpacking and set up, all for that price!
That's fantastic ;D
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If they do the delivery, they send one man. He'll set it up but you need to help, and with huge tanks you need a few friends as well.
If you are out of the area and a courier delivers, not only do you have to pay for delivery but the courier won't do anything. I was lucky that they delivered it themselves due to an unreliable courier, and because of the distance they had to drive there were two of them. I had the feeling that this delivery was a one off, and the email was sent to 5 of us to make it worth their while for a long trip.
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I've checked on the site and I'm within the delivery area.
Oh dear, the temptation. :-[
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Before you get too tempted, bear in mind that the prices on the website are just for the tank and cabinet. Lights, heater and filter are extra, if you want the brands they sell.
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Sue
I may have missed something, but how is the tank covered and lit? Does it have a conventional hood?
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Thanks for the information Sue.
I'm trying to let common sense rule the day. It would make more sense for me to wait until the axolotls mature before I invest in a custom tank.
However, it is good to know that there is a company available that has a good reputation, personal recommendations, is very reasonably priced, and can deliver.
;D
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Richard - the tank itself has cover glasses, and if you buy a cabinet the tank comes with a matching trim. This can either have a lid, or just the trim for use with an over tank luminaire. I have the version with a lid.
The trim is made from the same board as the cabinet, four pieces of board joined together to slot over the top of the tank. Inside are several shelf supports which sit on top of the tank sides and hold the trim in place.
The lid comes in 2 sections; the back third is fixed to the trim and the front two thirds are hinged to the back third. The lights are attached to the underside of the fixed third.
Since a picture paints a thousand words, I've taken a couple of photos. Please ignore the mess on the reflectors, it is quite hard to clean them (that's my excuse). The tank originally had fluorescent tubes. These were held in place by clips attached to the reflectors, and the reflectors themselves are fixed to two cross pieces attached to the back third of the lid. I now have LED tubes which you can see reflected in the cover glass (it may look like three but there are only two). I should take the reflectors out as LED's don't need them but that would mean lifting the hood off the tank and it is very heavy.
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Thanks Sue, I have the picture now. At some time I'm thinking of replacing a couple of smaller tanks with one big one. However, like you, I wouldn't be looking to get bigger fish,but larger shoals of small fish. The longer I keep fish, the more I like the little ones best, provided they are in numbers.
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I agree.
I find a large shoal of small fish far more interesting and appealing than a small shoal of larger fish.
:fishy1: :fishy1: :fishy1: :fishy1: :fishy1: :fishy1: :fishy1: :fishy1: :fishy1: :fishy1: :fishy1: :fishy1: :fishy1: :fishy1: :fishy1: :fishy1: :fishy1: :fishy1: :fishy1: :fishy1: :fishy1: :fishy1: :fishy1: :fishy1:
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The biggest fish in the 180 are the dwarf chain loaches.
After losing so many fish to camallanus worms last year, when I restocked I went for slightly bigger fish that I had before. I went from 1 inch fish to 2 inch fish :)
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Hi Sue :wave: I'm back in the forum again! Seems like it's got much busier than my last visit!
Absolutely love your tanks and your Betts is gorgeous! :D
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Hi Jesnon, nice to see you back :)
I've had the betta almost a year. I bought him on 25 March last year so he's probably around 18 months old.
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Oh wow didn't realise you'd had him that long, he's a great looking fish! :D
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Hi Sue,
Is the photo above Stiphodon percnopterygionus?
Would you recommend this as an alternative to otos?
I can't find much info on them - where did you get your from?
Thanks in advance! :wave:
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I have no idea what the stiphodons actually were. They were sold as cobalt blue gobies, and the extra four I got later were labelled as indie blue gobies by the wholesaler. I never did decide what the species was.
I got mine from a local shop, but when I was in Maidenhead Aquatics in Stokesley, N Yorkshire a few days ago they had a tank labelled Stiphodon elegans that had 3 stiphs in.
It's hard to say if they are a good alternative to otos as I had both in the tank. But the stiphs were a more visible, attractive fish. They liked excavating under rocks and sitting in full view on top of leaves as well as sticking themselves to the glass.
Stiphs of whichever species I can get are on the list of options for when I restock the 180 litre.
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Stiphs of whichever species I can get are on the list of options for when I restock the 180 litre.
I like them too, very nice fish, even though I ended up with 3 species rather than 1 ::)