20 Gallons of Uncertainty

[AngelaM]

Very cool.   Homemade Backgrounds are something I've recently wanted to try my hand at. Are you using the pebbley white stuff?
Mike

For the bits that are supposed to be rock I am. My roommate had a bunch of stuff delivered recently that was packed in it. I'm going to try a bit that looks like a tree stump and for that I'm going to try to find some of the non-pebbly kind.

Does anyone know of a place that sells/gives away styrofoam sheets?

[Jody]

We often get fish orders in Styrofoam boxes made of sheets. Give Big Al's a call and see.if we have any.

Jody

[Mike L]

Home depot sell the pink stuff. It would definatly carve better. Pretty sure the sell small sheets. Even then a full sheet is not expensive

[AngelaM]

An update:

I now have everything but the lights for this tank. I had ordered a set off eBay but they came in much smaller than expected (the seller had some interesting methods of measuring and photographing them). They work very well on my 12" cube though so it's not a complete loss. Currently, the cube is holding a bunch of plants (bucephelandra, anubias, java fern, crypt, foxtail a couple others) and is packed.

I've been looking into other options but am having trouble finding lights for a 30" long tank. Any suggestions? Based on my previous experience where I was using a DIY ducktape and bailing twin set I used I'd prefer to be closer to medium light than low light.

I've decided to shelve the backdrop project after looking into what the epoxy was going to cost me. Seeing I have most of what I need to finish it I'm going to save it for a future shelly or livebearer setup where the ph buffering factor is not an issue. In lieu of the backdrop, I've painted the back and wall-side of the tank. I'll post pictures when it's dried.

[Black_Rose]

I bought a 30 inch Beamswork ET 6500k light bar for a 29 gallon tank build that is now on hiatus (may be selling off new tank and light).

[tanksalot360]

I have been dealing with the 30in / 80cm conundrum myself. Its not a commonly stocked size.
For the past year and a half, I have been using a 36" dual T5HO strip light (Hagen Glo) and over hangs on the sides - good enough for the fishroom, maybe not the best in a living room.
I toyed with the Beamswork lamp - canadianaquatics still has a couple low watt (72 x 0.2w) LED 24" fixtures with legs/brackets that stretch to 30". Many 24" lights do stretch.
Chihiros LED fixtures are available at the 80cm length but at an added cost - I was looking at aquasense (montreal) and eBay - color and output is great on these. they now have an RGB version that would help balance the white if you ran one of each.
I consider myself lucky for finding a lightly-used finnex planted+ 24/7, at 30". I now run both the dual T5 fixture and the finnex fixture.

Lots of light- almost too much. If the plant mass isnt maintained (ie. if I trim too much) the hair algae invades.
Other options I explored were building a bracket to hang ~3 LED spot lights. 

[AngelaM]

I have been dealing with the 30in / 80cm conundrum myself. Its not a commonly stocked size.
For the past year and a half, I have been using a 36" dual T5HO strip light (Hagen Glo) and over hangs on the sides - good enough for the fishroom, maybe not the best in a living room.
I toyed with the Beamswork lamp - canadianaquatics still has a couple low watt (72 x 0.2w) LED 24" fixtures with legs/brackets that stretch to 30". Many 24" lights do stretch.
Chihiros LED fixtures are available at the 80cm length but at an added cost - I was looking at aquasense (montreal) and eBay - color and output is great on these. they now have an RGB version that would help balance the white if you ran one of each.
I consider myself lucky for finding a lightly-used finnex planted+ 24/7, at 30". I now run both the dual T5 fixture and the finnex fixture.

Lots of light- almost too much. If the plant mass isnt maintained (ie. if I trim too much) the hair algae invades.
Other options I explored were building a bracket to hang ~3 LED spot lights. 

I might end up going with a longer light. I should have looked into this before buying the tank. In the end I might have been better off with a 36" tank on this.

[AngelaM]

Having painted the back and wall side of the aquarium last weekend I really wanted to get it up and running today. So I ran out and picked up a set of Aqueon OptiBright lights, a glass top, and some hardscape today.

I hardscaped the aquarium using a large piece of Eucalyptus wood, some small pieces of mopani, a small piece of spiderwood (which has been living in the 12" cube), a small dragonstone, a fist-sized chunk of lava rock (the geologist in me hates this term for scoria...ugg), and a small pot that I hope my eventual apistogramma will like.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/156688578@N03/38586613616/in/dateposted-public/

After filling the tank to just over the substrate and raiding the 12" cube I planted it. Its planted with Anubias barteri "nana", narrow leaf java fern, bolbotis, Cryptocoryne crispatula, two varieties of bucephelandra, and .

I tucked or tied the rhysome plants to the rocks and wood. Unfortunately, I didn't have any dark coloured string so some of the strings are visible and I look forward to the time when I can remove them. The crypts am very happy about these are the plants I got as a tissue culture at the beginning of November that had horribly unhealthy roots. They all have some new healthy-looking white roots and I have hopes for them.

Once planted I filled the tank the rest of the way. It was immediately obvious that the large piece of eucalyptus so I put a bag of gravel on top and a piece of lava rock on one end to weigh it down until it sinks. I attached a power bar to the wall. Then I set up the filter (a penn plax canister), heater, lid, and lights.

All in all, I'm happy with it. Its a bit foggy and has a lot of air bubbles on the walls but I'm attaching a picture here. I'll get some better ones once it clears.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/156688578@N03/38586613816/in/dateposted-public/

[charlie]

Hi Angela, , thanks for sharing, looking forward to the progress.
I tried resizing the picture

[AngelaM]

Here it is. The results today with clearer water. The breeder box has left over anubias for the auction tomorrow.

[AngelaM]

A week later things are going well. I picked up some Nymphoides hydrophylla, Bucephalandra sp., Hygrophila pinnatifa, Cryptocoryne sp., and Java moss at the auction which I've added.

It also seems that all these plants might have come with some good microbes! I'm already reading nitrate and nitrite in the water. I'm going to continue the cycle until its converting 6ppm Ammonia to nitrate in about 1-2hrs but I have hopes this won't take too long. SO I'm starting to think about stocking. Here is my current plan:

1. A pair of apistogramma (species undecided I am open to suggestions on what the best one is to start with as I've never kept SA cichlids before)
2. 6 otocinclus cats (because from what I read apistogramma ignore them and they eat algae so I like them)
3. 6-8 either Boraras brigittae or Boraras maculatus


I'm curious to what would be the best order to add things. I'm assuming adding the apistos last is the right way to go about it.

[charlie]

Enjoying how this build is progressing, thanks for sharing
Regards

[Gilbotron]

Thats a nice stocking list. 

I would recommend adding the otos last and maybe wait a little longer.  They can be very sensitive so you want to make sure the tank is very stable and established, and you also want to have a good amount of algae built up for them so they don't starve.  Anytime I've added otos to a relatively new tank they haven't done well, but in my established tanks, no prob.

[matttimms49]

I would go for more Chili Rasbora too, in a 20 L you could at least double your number.

[AngelaM]

Thats a nice stocking list. 

I would recommend adding the otos last and maybe wait a little longer.  They can be very sensitive so you want to make sure the tank is very stable and established, and you also want to have a good amount of algae built up for them so they don't starve.  Anytime I've added otos to a relatively new tank they haven't done well, but in my established tanks, no prob.

I've had success adding them early before. Mostly due to providing large amounts of food (Ripashy painted onto wood, veggies ect. ) and I made sure the otos in question had been at my prefered LSF in St. John's at least 2 weeks. However, you make a good point that they are really sensitive.

I guess its the rasboras first, then the apistos, then the otos.

[AngelaM]

Saturday morning I was surprised to find that my tank was able to processed 6ppm ammonia to nitrate in less than 4hrs. I was so happy that I did a large water change to drop the nitrate levels down to about 20ppm and made plans to go fish shopping.

After having had a good look at the mouth of an adult male apistogramma I decided that boraras might end up being on the menu. So I took the suggestion of Jody and am trying out some lampeye killifish (Aplocheilichthys kingii). They get a bit bigger than the Boraras sp. I was considering and as far as I've seen pretty much stick to the top of the tank. I bought three and we will see if they get eaten.

The killiefish are really hard to photograph as they are constantly moving. They are staying near the top of the tank and seem to like the patch of java moss on the top of my log. I'm wondering if I'll see some breeding behaviour from them. So far the apistogramma seem to be oblivious to their existance.

I also picked up three Apistogramma cacatoides.  I tried to get a male and two females but they are juveniles and its hard determine. I definitely have a male but the other two I'm not sure yet.

I've tried to get some pictures this morning but they are only taken with my phone camera and aren't great. For scale, the catappa leaves are ~2" long. I think the paler small fish who the obvious male spend a lot of time following might actually be a female. The darker small one is hard to get pictures of as it spends a lot of time hiding. I think it might be another male.

So far I've had a lot of fun watching both the apistos and the killies. If anyone has thoughts one the genders of the little cichlids let me know!

[AngelaM]

More pictures