Freshwater for the Kids! Build

[AHP]

Thanks to the both of you. It’s always nice to have people to talk to about this.

Roshan,
Absolutely I should be back from ND by then and would love some clippings.

tpark.
Great resources thanks for posting.

I will see if I can take a pick of it over the weekend. It is not much but I want to be very aware of what is going on in this tank so I can learn good lessons and catch problems early.

All-in-all I think me picking up about 3-4 Otos and some more plants is something that my tank needs soon.
Ludwigia repens - think I have some of this mixed in with some moneywort. Matter of fact I pulled on up last night to see if it had algae on it and the roots had to be about 6 inches long, they have only been in there for 2 weeks.

[AHP]

So here is an update.
Everything is so so... I gave away the red tail shark and had to re-scape the tank because of it.




Then I ended up losing one of the red cherry shrimp and a Siamese algae eater (I just can not find the body of the siamese). I think they died because of string up the sand and getting an ammonia spike.

So here is an issue I need help with.
ID this algea? I think this is Green Spot Algae but I am not sure because I am not using CO2 and the lights are on 50%.



So here are the plants.
Baby tears (I don't think they are doing very well)


Amazons (Doing ok, still getting new growth but leaves are starting to turn brown) - I am guessing they need potassium but not sure




Ludwigia ovalis (I think)




anubias barteri (I am guessing again. I had to move this to shade because the leave were getting what I think is black algae, not sure.)

a different Anubias, is this algae or bad nutrients?


I am not sure what this is but would love for someone to ID this. Seems to be growing great.




Water Wisteria



Crypt Parva




Fish are doing great, I ended up picking up 4 Otos two weeks ago and they are doing fine.
As I was looking around I noticed that I think my Gold Dust Lyretail Molly is prego but not sure...








So yea that's it. Any help on the plants, algae and molly is very welcomed.

[troy tucker]

A couple albino bristalnose plecos would eat that algea.
The plant is a small tipe of anubias. can't remember the name.
The molly is prego.

[Roshan8768]

Looks good, more plants will definitely help you fight that algae! Everything except for the baby tears looks in great shape. Not sure on the anubias variety, but it's definitely better of in the shade.

[JIM]

Love this thread. Building something for your kids, and advancing the hobby all at the same time is, or should be worth a trophy :)



There you go !! :)

[AHP]

Love this thread. Building something for your kids, and advancing the hobby all at the same time is, or should be worth a trophy
There you go !!

Thanks! My wife and I are enjoying my sons reactions to this FW build. Every day he runs over to the tank and looks for two things the RCS aka "skrimp" and the angle fish dubbed "Pancake".

A couple albino bristalnose plecos would eat that algea.
The plant is a small tipe of anubias. can't remember the name.
The molly is prego.

Thanks Troy, I will try to pick up a albino bristalnose pleco and a couple of amano shrimp (Wife and son love the shrimp) this weekend.
As for the Molly, now I need to read up on where, when and how.

Looks good, more plants will definitely help you fight that algae! Everything except for the baby tears looks in great shape. Not sure on the anubias variety, but it's definitely better of in the shade.

Roshan,
With that being said I am hoping that the Osmocote Plus tabs I put in the tank last night are going to help with growth. Along with picking up a cleaning crew I am going to get some Excel this weekend and try Barr's method.

http://www.barrreport.com/showthread.php/4266-Hybrid-methods-fusing-dry-start-excel-with-non-CO2

Hopefully all goes well and I will have some good growth to start clippings and fill in the tank.

[Roshan8768]

That sounds like a good plan, hopefully that helps with your algae issues. Another thing that can really help would be floating plants of some kind... they grow fast and block some of the excess light from entering the tank. Also, they are really good at pulling nutrients out of the water and out-competing algae since they grow so fast.

[AHP]

Well things were going well for a bit but last week introduced 5 more cardinals to the tank. I quarantied them for about 4 days and didn't see any issues.
BUT when I came home yesterday after work 3 fish had ick! So I have taken them back our of the display tank and put them back in QT. Right now they are getting a salt bath at 83degrees and I am using something called API "Super Ick Cure".

My question is seeing how they were in my display tank, wouldn't all my fish be vulnerable to ick?
Should I just try to treat the infected first and see what happens in the DT?

[Roshan8768]

Well things were going well for a bit but last week introduced 5 more cardinals to the tank. I quarantied them for about 4 days and didn't see any issues.
BUT when I came home yesterday after work 3 fish had ick! So I have taken them back our of the display tank and put them back in QT. Right now they are getting a salt bath at 83degrees and I am using something called API "Super Ick Cure".

My question is seeing how they were in my display tank, wouldn't all my fish be vulnerable to ick?
Should I just try to treat the infected first and see what happens in the DT?

Yes, all your fish have been exposed so to truly eliminate it you would need to treat all the fish. IMO ich is something that flares up from stress... have you seen any bullying? How many cardinals do you have in there? They tend to do better in larger groups...

If I were you I wouldn't stress out yet, usually the best course of action is to just treat the display tank and leave the sick fish in there as it is less stressful for them. Also, don't do the salt baths!!! Cardinals and other amazonian fish are super sensitive to dissolved solids in the water. They tend to easily become stressed and lose coloration if kept in hard water (AKA Houston/Katy water). This is usually a good treatment to provide some relief but just stick to the API medication (I'm guessing it turns the water blue?)

[AHP]

No I really haven't seen any bullying and I have about 15 cardinals and 10 rummy-nose. All fished seemed to be doing fine, but when I bought 5 cardinals 2 weeks ago I do remember saying to myself that their red was not as strong. That could have been a sign of stress and I should have placed them in the QT for a couple of weeks.

Right now I have all cardinals in a HT. Temp is a 85 and I have dosed salt (seem to be doing fine but I will stop salt) and API super ick cure (Yes it is blue) in the HT. I am guessing I should put them all back in the display tank and dose the tank. Is their a better ick medication that I could use? something that doesn't dye the tank blue and the clear sealant into blue?

[Roshan8768]

I've always used Quick Cure by Mardel... you can get it at Petco/Petsmart. I'm not aware of a medication that will treat your tank without a dye being present in the water other than a copper based treatment, but that's really harsh on the fish and will destroy any micro-fauna in your tank. If I were you, I would move the fish back to the display and treat the display as directed. Leave the temp at 82 I think, 86 is pretty high. Also, make sure you have a lot of surface agitation... if you run canister filters and don't have a spray bar pointing up at the surface, this can be a problem. Use a power head or air stone to make sure your fish are getting enough oxygen at night with the elevated temperature. Ich isn't fun, but it's a lot easier to deal with in Freshwater than Salt

[AHP]

Thanks!
All fish are back in the main tank, temp is down to 82 and water is a light blue. Hope this works and doesn't hurt the plants and the blue coloring is easy to get out of the sealent.

[AHP]

So far I have lost 5 Carnials and I am on my second dose of ick treatment.
The good news is that I found a shrimp last night when the lights went out, I guess my Angelfish didn't get them all. LOL

[AHP]

So here is an update of the tank.


I am thinking about dirting the tank during the holiday week to create hiding spots and make it look more visually pleasing.

So far I see no more sings of ick but just in case I will keep the temp at 82 and monitor for a couple of days.

[Roshan8768]

Looks good... tank is coming along. Why do you want to dirt it... you'll most likely regret it IMO, it makes a huge mess unless you're exceptionally good at keeping your hands out of your tank. Also, you'll most likely have huge algae issues for a couple of months as well as any time you disturb the substrate. I tried i once... now I stick to good lighting and flow, heavy stocking, and root tabs. No C02, dosing, or fancy substrates for me!

Keep it simple, what you have right now looks to be working pretty well... just let it grow