Forrest Gump : 260 litre with sump

No really. They're small enough to go and sit on a leaf and clean it. Or get your paws on some Amano Shrimp.

 

Stay away from Corydoras until your plants have completely carpeted too. Otherwise they will uproot your wonderful carpeting plants before they spread properly.

 

The shrimps are in the pipeline from my "dealer"

Hmmm, ok roger that. They do like to dig. I had bronze corydoras for about 6 years before, but I was using more old school, "heavy" gravel hehe. This aquasoil blows away if you're not careful with a hose pipe

 

Just another question while you're online, is it normal for pieces of glosso to kind of be up in the air, if you know what I mean? I think sometimes the flow is quite a bit in the tank. I have the wave maker pointed up and across at a low setting but excellent flow is being achieved and the surface skimming is an absolute dream with the overflow. Nothing to worry about there.

 

Just let it settle. It's only been filled recently. The plants will adapt, they just need time.

 

Hehe, ok. Yeah I guess the immersed environment is quite a shock for the poor buggers. Some of the rotala colorata has grown massively in a very short space of time!

 

Just read this entire thread. Man, you are crazy, but in the best way. Tank is looking amazing. Hard work pays off.

 

Ah shot Jonathan

Yesterday I got a bunch of crystal reds and crystal blacks, and a dwarf bristle nose pleco. Shot Herman!!!!!

 

Picked up 8 galaxy rasboras on Saturday. Sunday morning I fished one out the overflow (snuck under my temporary mesh) Along with some shrimp. It is exceptionally difficult to catch them in there (design fault - I should have made it wider, as it's also harder to get ones hands inside!). Sunday night x1 dead galaxy. So either stressed out as they were only in quarantine for 3 days or so at the shop, or this one got damaged (not sure how) when I caught it, or ammonia levels high, I don't know. I did a water change, CO2 running at a low rate.

I got a pH drop checker thing, it stays yellow no matter what. I suspect it's pure rubbish.

I made another acrylic creation to keep fish out the overflow, will see how it works. Last night I left off any form of barrier from the overflow and true as nuts one fish and 5 shrimp had been washed over! I may never do a sump again, and right now irritation levels (surely increased because of having to format my laptop yesterday) has me thinking some very negative thoughts about the tank - watch Gumtree. I should come right. It is Monday after all.

I have a small patch of some form of algae which looks like a dark green blanket covering some glosso. Doesn't look good. I see my Twinstar was partially unplugged and did not notice. The galaxies seem to be very stressed every time the Twinstar did it's bubble thing. Strange.

 

@AdrianT , WoooooSaaaa...

You stress too much! hehe. Fish in sump / overflow is normal, especially the small ones (including shrimp). Rather get a fine mesh, either stainless steel or that green garden plastic mesh (which i know you won't like), and "close off" the overflow slot. The only thing I would worry about is the shrimp getting stuck on the mesh due to the flow / pressure, and that they are not strong enough to swim away, but I remember that you do not have a very strong current there, so should be fine! Fish should be ok not getting stuck on the mesh. I should show you my Bichir that just parks off at the mesh and chills, and almost bloody floods my tank because he is blocking almost the entire flow. hehe

Most of those drop checkers need 4dKh water to work properly. I know that most say just use the aquarium water, but it has never worked for me.

I would of thought you would of liked the challenge of fixing the faults, hehe. No one design or plan is perfect, especially with fish tanks... you could replicate the exact setup as mine with the exact parameters, and you will still find issues different from mine.. hehe. so just fiddle and fine tune your sump system, and I guarantee you that you won't regret a sump. Hey, at least you didn't have to try with marine fish that gets stuck in the overflow... expensive! haha

 

haha, shot Sunny! I already built a fine stainless mesh and plastic combo but they slip in between. I removed it last night and installed my new unit. Will post photos at some stage.

Ok didn't know about the drop checker stuff. My tap water is pH 9 and the tank about 6,5. Been too busy to do things really properly, and this is evident on my zero research into the galaxies. I didn't know they don't like heavy water flow. Absolute fail Thanks for the info @JAX , didn't know! Maybe I should sell them? @Coldcat keen for some discounted galaxies?

 

Minimal hardscape. Did I mention the wave maker? The shrimps are loving it, at least

 

Hey howzit, check ur mailbox

 

I wont say no lol.. but don't give up dude.

 

Update. You can see the algae here and there. The galaxies were photographed. Not ideal - they are super hard to get a macro shot of! The watermarks are an old habit now. I had so many of my kayaking photos stolen off my website and used on multiple other sites, it irked me. I'm mostly over it. But still Hard to stop now.


Dwarf bristlenose pleco. Thanks @wolf !


Shrimp carapace.







Night time is plec time...





The Twinstar had chucked a bunch of bubbles into the tank, foiling my plans somewhat.

 

You take some serious pictures very very nice

 

Thanks If you want to see a few more, check out a FB I update from time to time:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Adrian-Tregoning-Photography/104204339617967?ref=bookmarks