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Hi,
I have a 3FT planted tank that has only been running for around 3 weeks. I have 15 neon tetras, 1 longfin calico bristlenose, 2 small SAE's, 2 peppered corydoras, 4 julii corydoras (2 breeding pairs), 1 dwarf loach and 5 kuhli loaches.



Any feedback on the tanks would be greatly apprieciated.

Hi Calicocat,
That's going to be one very nice tank! I love those lilies, keep the water nice and they will send up a flower for you at some point. The flowers smell amazing!

You said the tank was only running for three weeks? That seems like a very short time to already have fish in there. Are they doing okay? All the plants might make the water conditions okay for such a young tank but keep up your testing up and if any fish are acting kind of weird,test again. Except the kuhlis, they act weird all the time! At least mine do.
Also don't shy away from adding to the two groups of corys you have, they like to hang in groups and really show more active and fascinating behavior in larger groups.

The C. julii might be because almost all fish shops seem to sell them under the Corydoras julii name but there's now so rare that we all want to find one but probably never will. An easy way to tell is if the cory has some squiggle patterning as well as spots. I think the true C. julii has only spots and no squiggles.

Have any pics of the tank now? I know it's only been a few weeks but it will be nice to see how everything has settled and cleared the water.

More pics please - I love planted tanks

That kind of plant load will take care of any ammonia spikes should they occur. Great looking tank. Can you give some specs? Co2/Excel/natural? Type and wattage of lighting? Substrate? Always interesting to hear how other planted people do their catfish tanks.

Yes, I agree....can you give some specs? You have a beautiful set-up there and I'd love if mine could look just half as nice. I have a great interest in the planted aquarium! I'd love to have a complete ecosystem in there, if I could. So, yes, anymore specific information on your set-up would be sooooo appreciated!
Thx!! -Baba

That is a great looking tank !!

My would like to set up a plant tank, could you give my a suggestion
on the growing medium? I will not be using CO2.

Any help would be great.

LeeRoy

wow only 3 weeks? awesome job !!

2Wheelsx2 wrote:

That kind of plant load will take care of any ammonia spikes should they occur.

I was more concerned with nitrite readings only because my similar tank had wacko up and down readings but never had any up and down ammonia issues. Think the plants sucked it up as fast as the fish could put it out. Nitrites may have been the decaying plant bits from all the new plants AND my overly excited first catfish feeding....

Hi,
My tank cycled in under a week and I have not had any ammonia or nitrates in at least 2 weeks. I test at least once a week for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates and if there is any at all then I do a quarter water change and add Seachem Prime, which removes ammonia and neutralizes nitrites and nitrates.

My tank hasn't even got medium lighting (I have got 2 x T5 and I am running 2 x 10,000k globes in it) and I have only recently started using DIY CO2. I use Seachem Flourish products including Excel, iron, comprehensive suppliment, trace, potassium and nitrogen as well as using dinosaur dung and Flourish tabs under the gravel. I just use ordinary natural fine gravel.

Leeroy:
You could grow tiger lotuses (any colour), java fern, java moss, Hygrophillia Corymbosa, Hygrophillia polysperma "sunset", wisteria, amazon swords, most Echinodoras species, some cryptocoryne species and alot more.

Lnumber banana:
I have got 6 julii cories (I am pretty sure that they are true ones), 2 massive peppered cories that I have rescued from a guy around the corner (he had them in a tank that was full of salt and it literally burned them) and 1 Corydoras melanistius (he was brought into my LFS by himself and I had to take him home). I have added another 2 julii's to the julii colony but it turned out that I ended up with 1 that didn't want to hang around with the others and decided that he'd rather play with my dwarf loach and/or Corydoras melanistius. I tried adding a few more peppereds but they didn't like them and had to put them in another tank. Also, they aren't lillies they are actually different coloured tiger lotuses, which don't send up flowers very often if at all. I agree with the kuhli's. I cleaned out my filter the other day to find that 1 was in there, alive and kicking. I put him straight back into the tank and he is fine and very fat!

I will try to put a few more pictures on as soon as I can.
Calicocat

I have got 6 julii cories (I am pretty sure that they are true ones)

Awesome! We never see them around here. We see everything labeled as them but no such luck. And great rescue job - poor little salty fellows! It's funny that the one cory wants to be with a buddy loach, I have a glass cat that has that odd loner tendency, he hangs with the otos!

Here's the thread of my lily blooming. The ones around here that are sold as Red Tiger Lotus are lilies so I thought yours might be the same. I'm still on the hunt for a true lotus to add to my warm tank - that would be beautiful!
http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... =4&t=26873

I'll keep my eye out for the new pics.

Hi,
It seems that you have a green/red tiger lotus. I have only recently got one of these myself and absolutely love them. The peppered cories that I have rescued are very happy now and love to hang around with my other cories and my dwarf loach. My dwarf loach seems to think that he is a cory and is very happy to hang around them or around the SAE's. He is hilarious to watch!

I will try to put some pictures on asap.

Calicocat

Thanks for your info.

LeeRoy

It seems that you have a green/red tiger lotus.

Yup, have a few. That's the one I was commenting on when I told you that you will love the scent of the flower. It's heavenly. Botanically, it's in the waterlily family so I call it a lily. But as with common names and fish, sometimes we use different names for the same plants.
The latin for my plant is Nymphaeceae, Some sellers say lotus, some say waterlily.
I suppose we all know what one we're talking about regardless if we say Red tiger lotus or red-leaved waterlily

Picture below is a true lotus: Nelumbonaceae, genus Nelumbo. I think you may be able to find one of these lovelies near where you live. The only problem I could see with me owning one is that my yoyo loaches are fabulous jumpers so I can't put a true lotus in that tank, need the lid off because the leaves of the lotus don't float on the water but rise above it. My loaches would soon be flapping about on the floor!

Pretty AND pretty expensive.

Hi,
It is very beautiful, but I dont have very much room left in my tank so I couldn't have one. Mine are now getting pretty big but I dont think that they will flower as I dont let the leaves touch the surface and have trained them not to do so.

I will try to post some pictures of the tank later on today. I have just rescaped it and added a sandpit for my 2 rescued peppered cories. They love it!!

Calicocat