Aquarium Hobby

Muttley said:
Used to have fish tanks as a kid and then got gifted this free tank 2 years back:
View attachment 1882876

The above tank was my dream growing up - but it's a pain to maintain and it messes up your eyes with all the angles. It's now a dedicated shrimp breeding tank.

After oodles of money spent in school fees on learning about planted aquariums, I finally have this which is going to get rescaped as soon as I build up enough store credit from selling shrimp to the aquarium shop.

Don't even ask what this cost - it's 🤯

Apex 60P but 45CM high:
View attachment 1882878

Some of the gear:
Chihiros Vivid 3 Light
Chihiros 4 pump auto doser (full ADA Ferts + Seachem Flourish Excel)
Chihiros inline 1000W heater
Chihiros Cooling fan
Strideways CO2 Regulator
Inkbird Temperature Controller
Pre filter sponge filter, Dophin Canister Filter - just being used to hold bio media
Sunsun Amphibious 3500L/H pump
A few ESP32's for a scale, back light and TDS meter
View attachment 1882879

Mandatory Home Assistant Dashboard:
View attachment 1882880

Most of the livestock is out in prep for the rescape but currently there's:
4 x Siamese Algae Eaters
6 x Otosinclus
2 x Hillstream Loaches
15 or so Amano Shrimp
Click to expand...
Does anyone sell those normal, brown wild shrimp that happens with mixing?
 
Dolby said:
Does anyone sell those normal, brown wild shrimp that happens with mixing?
Click to expand...
Pretty sure you can find them at your local aquarium store...
If not, buy some red and yellow... before you know it, you'll have lots of brown shrimp
 
Muttley said:
Pretty sure you can find them at your local aquarium store...
If not, buy some red and yellow... before you know it, you'll have lots of brown shrimp
Click to expand...
I don’t think my local stores carry them as so one really wants them
 
Muttley said:
Not sure if you've seen/heard of Purigen by Seachem?
It's expensive but it'll remove the tannin's and make your water crystal clear... most insane looking aquascapes have purigen inside.
Click to expand...
Not so much into adding more chemicals. All tests are in perfect levels, except the pH, hence the driftwood addition. Water tests today shown all on perfect levels. I'd rather have the natural tank balance it's self. Had the tea colour water deal with its self.

3.jpg
4.jpg
 
Binary_Bark said:
@Okty Would like to hear your opinion on things thus far.
Click to expand...
Hi, I'm no expert 😅

Keep monitoring your water parameters. I think you might need more plants if you don't want to rely too much on "traditional" filtering of a tank. Also, might need more plants to combat algea, but see how it goes.

Once you reach n satisfied balance/equilibrium with plant mass to fish stock and algea, it's relatively easy to maintane.

Just remember to prune your plants from time to time to allow continued growth, in order for plants to help keep parameters good.

Also, pause with adding any new stock, must firts see if current system can handle the current load
 
Binary_Bark said:
Where I'm now

View attachment 1885671

Where I'm wiith final fish stock.

Fish stock.
4 kuhli loach
5 xray tetra
5 Glowlight Tetra
4 Penguin Tetra
2 Oddesy Barb
5 otocinclus
1 Assassin Snail
Click to expand...
I'd sersiously consider getting something called Bacter AE - I've done so much research on these guys and they are wild caught and transported/sold etc by dealers in the worst possible ways - basically starved from being caught till the time that they arrive at your local fish store. By then, they're often totally malnourished and have actually "forgotten" how to eat so feeding them algae wafers etc won't always work.

The Bacter AE adds in biofilm which they'll eat off all surfaces and improve in health. Before I did this, I couldn't understand why my Oto's didn't survive despite trying everything.

I now have 6 and they're thriving - they're so awesome and are currently eating blanched baby marrow and blanched green beans. I feed them the equivalent of the end of a toothpick worth of Bacter AE every 3rd day - the recommended amount is waaaaaaaaaaay too much!

prped7kg44gg1.jpeg
 
So, yeah. My Ottos died, one left...

Not sure why, all was good....:(
Additional feeding, extras, get these wonderful little things going
 
Binary_Bark said:
So, yeah. My Ottos died, one left...

Not sure why, all was good....:(
Additional feeding, extras, get these wonderful little things going
Click to expand...
Sorry to hear.. :crying:
Like I mentioned before, they need the biofilm that Bacter AE brings to the tank - then you need to see what food they'll accept...
 
Muttley said:
Used to have fish tanks as a kid and then got gifted this free tank 2 years back:
View attachment 1882876

The above tank was my dream growing up - but it's a pain to maintain and it messes up your eyes with all the angles. It's now a dedicated shrimp breeding tank.

After oodles of money spent in school fees on learning about planted aquariums, I finally have this which is going to get rescaped as soon as I build up enough store credit from selling shrimp to the aquarium shop.

Don't even ask what this cost - it's 🤯

Apex 60P but 45CM high:
View attachment 1882878

Some of the gear:
Chihiros Vivid 3 Light
Chihiros 4 pump auto doser (full ADA Ferts + Seachem Flourish Excel)
Chihiros inline 1000W heater
Chihiros Cooling fan
Strideways CO2 Regulator
Inkbird Temperature Controller
Pre filter sponge filter, Dophin Canister Filter - just being used to hold bio media
Sunsun Amphibious 3500L/H pump
A few ESP32's for a scale, back light and TDS meter
View attachment 1882879

Mandatory Home Assistant Dashboard:
View attachment 1882880

Most of the livestock is out in prep for the rescape but currently there's:
4 x Siamese Algae Eaters
6 x Otosinclus
2 x Hillstream Loaches
15 or so Amano Shrimp
Click to expand...
It’s mad the gear we use for tanks. My marine tank controller cupboard looks like the cockpit of an airbus.
 
Went back to the store today after losing 4 out of my 5 Otos. :crying:
Really bummed about it because everything looked good in the tank.

I’ve been trying to figure out what went wrong and why. Parameters are spot on, maybe just slightly on the harder side, and there's plenty of natural algae plus supplementary food. Did another full set of tests today, and everything still checks out perfectly.

From what I’ve read, it seems Otos can be pretty sensitive and a bit hit‑or‑miss, especially those that haven’t acclimated well or weren’t in great shape at the shop, mostly because they are wild caught.

So instead of getting more Otos right now, I added an apple/mystery snail and a group of red shrimp. They’re super interesting to watch. The shrimp especially they’re like tiny underwater gardeners.
123.jpg
 
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Binary_Bark said:
Went back to the store today after losing 4 out of my 5 Otos. :crying:
Really bummed about it because everything looked good in the tank.

I’ve been trying to figure out what went wrong and why. Parameters are spot on, maybe just slightly on the harder side, and there's plenty of natural algae plus supplementary food. Did another full set of tests today, and everything still checks out perfectly.

From what I’ve read, it seems Otos can be pretty sensitive and a bit hit‑or‑miss, especially those that haven’t acclimated well or weren’t in great shape at the shop.

So instead of getting more Otos right now, I added an apple/mystery snail and a group of red shrimp. They’re super interesting to watch. The shrimp especially, they’re like tiny underwater gardeners.
View attachment 1889949
Click to expand...


Sadly Otto's have a high mortality rate. Apparently if you can find someone local that breeds them your chances are much better but they just don't seem to do well with shipping and being wild caught. I've seen theories from being caught with cyanide to high parasite load to just being starved and suffering organ failure due to the long shipping times.
 
B-1 said:
Sadly Otto's have a high mortality rate. Apparently if you can find someone local that breeds them your chances are much better but they just don't seem to do well with shipping and being wild caught. I've seen theories from being caught with cyanide to high parasite load to just being starved and suffering organ failure due to the long shipping times.
Click to expand...
100% Think the 4 that died were overstressed. Bellies where good, got the pearl shape from the shop, but only one seemed to continue eating when introduced (it's still going, chasing the penguin tetra around!?). It's not a good feeling having fish die. When I was younger, fish only died of old age.
 
Added some red shrimp since most of the ottos died.
3 left out of the 5, though, beginning to suspect the Odessa barbs are eating them. Might have to re-home them to the office tank.
 
I had to make some changes because the pump recycle created rapid currents in the water column, causing all the newly added plants to bend, break, and die.
I first replaced the pump and introduced some shrimp into the system. One of the originals was left; the barbs ate them.
In response, I've built a river rock pile in one corner, with many gaps for the new shrimp I got (glass shrimp – not the best idea, can't see them in the water) to hide; it seems the loaches love the structure too.
Added different plants now with the new limited water flow.
Also added some guppies for the top of the water column. Now we have stock from the bottom, middle, and top water columns.
 
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