Jack's 140

[Phillydubs]

Nice jack - - clean little qt set up - how many in total there?

[Jack L]

Nice jack - - clean little qt set up - how many in total there?

thanks, 27 give or take my counting ability

[Jack L]

March '17 Update
The school of Black Neons is doing well.
Added some SAE, they did a great job of removing the hair algae. Have look at the wood compared to before when bba was going wild.
In the sump I’ve added water lettuce, got the idea on another thread from SD, from Hart24601. To keep the WL from being churned by water flow, I cut up a filter sock with large slits to act as a diffuser
I've started doing EI dosing and saw no algae increase as feared and like it got when I added flourish.
The Val seems to be recovering some.
The crypts still are doing great
Some java fern that was dormant has started to grow again.
I’ve cut back feeding quite a bit too at this point. I now feed BH once a day and about a 1/4 teaspoon of dry food drop for the cories.
Between the reduced feeding and WL in sump, I have seen lower nitrate in water even with extending WC.
They continue to spawn.


3-17-2.jpg3-17-4.jpg3-17-p1.jpg

[Jack L]

just a quick update:
not much has changed, i'm still running the water lettuce in the sump.
you can see the green spot algae on the glass, the lines are where i do WC to, apparently it can't handle air long.
i still feed 1x a day with a flake and BH mix, then the dry pellets on the timer and some of Al's FDBW as a treat from time to time. its chugging along. i've really stretched out my WC now, i think the lower feeding levels is the biggest reason i can do that.
IMG_20170721.jpg

[two utes]

Looking great Jack

[Jack L]

Thanks Joe

i noticed when looking at the last 2 updates, how LITTLE change there has been in 3 months. doesn't even look like the plants grew. oh well, i wanted less maintenance, got it. the fish still do spawn.

couple other updates:
-i run the temp at 79 now, and they are fine
-when i do WC, i heat up the water, the cold drop killed the neons, but again, the Discus don't care
-i put some water lettuce up in the display tank to see it it takes hold there. the LED plant light over the sump grows some funky algae !
-the WL in sump grows and i toss it, that might be why the plants in display tank have held steady, the nutrients are going to the WL instead.

[Ryan925]

Thanks Joe

i noticed when looking at the last 2 updates, how LITTLE change there has been in 3 months. doesn't even look like the plants grew. oh well, i wanted less maintenance, got it. the fish still do spawn.

couple other updates:
-i run the temp at 79 now, and they are fine
-when i do WC, i heat up the water, the cold drop killed the neons, but again, the Discus don't care
-i put some water lettuce up in the display tank to see it it takes hold there. the LED plant light over the sump grows some funky algae !
-the WL in sump grows and i toss it, that might be why the plants in display tank have held steady, the nutrients are going to the WL instead.

Just curious to the reasoning behind dropping the tank to 79?

[Jack L]

I was curious if they really needed to be that high for these domestic ones.
the heater eats the most $ so i dropped it and they haven't acted any different at all. still spawn, still eat great, so they don't seem to need the extra heat. i'm also not trying to grow them anymore

and at 80+ the sump gets bacteria film on it, and much over 80, the ottos suffered.

[Ryan925]

I was curious if they really needed to be that high for these domestic ones.
the heater eats the most $ so i dropped it and they haven't acted any different at all. still spawn, still eat great, so they don't seem to need the extra heat. i'm also not trying to grow them anymore

and at 80+ the sump gets bacteria film on it, and much over 80, the ottos suffered.

Gotcha. Was just curious. Will be interested to see how it works out long term

[Jack L]

Gotcha. Was just curious. Will be interested to see how it works out long term

NP, i still plan to do updates from time to time and will try to remember to include the temp setting. but after a couple months, it seems fine.

[Ryan925]

NP, i still plan to do updates from time to time and will try to remember to include the temp setting. but after a couple months, it seems fine.

If it's been a couple months would have to imagine they are fine. Fish look great. Are you putting more focus into the plants now ?

[Jack L]

If it's been a couple months would have to imagine they are fine. Fish look great. Are you putting more focus into the plants now ?

thanks, yeah they seem to be doing well, and are being fed a FRACTION of what i used to feed too when growing them. they get fed 1x a day now. they don't bother with the sinking pellets on the auto feeder.

for the past several months i've just been in watching mode.

i would like the val to take off. it did great for a while, but after i moved it and the sag, neither ever recovered to what it was, and most all the stems i moved died. but then when they do take off, after i put in some DIY root tabs normally, then i have to spend time cutting them. i've never found a good background plant that grows and stops, it always keeps growing too much.

i've been debating removing the Water Lettuce from the sump, i'm thinking its stunting the display tank plants, I know there are always many variables, however it does seem they slowed down when i added the WL.

[AquaWoman]

This was really interesting to read and see how you were able to grow these beautiful fish in a planted tank.
Now that the fish are adults and the tank is well established, how often are doing water changes?
I love these natural looking tanks and to me they are worth every extra effort. Just curious, but now that you've accomplished (give or take) the tank you wanted, what if anything would you do differently if you had it to do over again?
Thanks for sharing.

[Jack L]

This was really interesting to read and see how you were able to grow these beautiful fish in a planted tank.
Now that the fish are adults and the tank is well established, how often are doing water changes?
I love these natural looking tanks and to me they are worth every extra effort. Just curious, but now that you've accomplished (give or take) the tank you wanted, what if anything would you do differently if you had it to do over again?
Thanks for sharing.

thanks, glad you liked it.
off top of head:
1. i would not grow out in planted tank again, i've done it before, but it just makes things more complicated
2. i would start with poret in sump
3. i would not be lazy and skip q-tank on additions (introduce ICH this way, careless i know)
4. i would do a bigger tank
5. i'd prolly buy all red alenquers
my WC has really dropped off after i reduced feeding to 1x a day of BH. its not a set schedule anymore. at the peak of mess/growing, it was daily with gravel vac. now several days pass or if i'm on vac for a week, its fine when i return.

[Surf&turf]

Just curious why everyone feeds BH, that's not a normal food they would get in the wild, Isn't black worms enough to make them grow along with pellets or flakes?