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New 25 Gal apisto tank

Started by Lurch1, March 26, 2012, 07:16:00 PM

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Lurch1

I decided to stop with the peat water after seeing how annoyed my wife was getting with me spending so much time on it. I will try and post a new pic of my tank with reg water. It looks great (IMHO), but I am, of course, biased.

bizfromqc

Quote from: Lurch1 on April 01, 2012, 09:07:01 PM
I decided to stop with the peat water after seeing how annoyed my wife was getting with me spending so much time on it. I will try and post a new pic of my tank with reg water. It looks great (IMHO), but I am, of course, biased.

In my humble opinion, keeping the wife happy is the key to enjoy this hobby LOL Cant wait to see the pics.

Janny

I like the style of your set-up and look forward to seeing it progress.

I need to find a way to get my husband hooked up with some of you guys. He's ambivalent for the most part but when I talked about a Fluval Ebi to house yellow shrimp he said he is going to do an intervention before I turn into the crazy fish lady. Hahaha.

Lurch1

Quote from: Janny on April 02, 2012, 09:51:11 AM
I like the style of your set-up and look forward to seeing it progress.

I need to find a way to get my husband hooked up with some of you guys. He's ambivalent for the most part but when I talked about a Fluval Ebi to house yellow shrimp he said he is going to do an intervention before I turn into the crazy fish lady. Hahaha.

Thanks! It has been most relaxing working with it. I am a paramedic so when I can take my brain out and play in some water I find it super relaxing.  I find it is so easy though to come down with MTS.

Quote from: bizfromqc on April 02, 2012, 08:27:26 AM
In my humble opinion, keeping the wife happy is the key to enjoy this hobby LOL Cant wait to see the pics.

She was already uber PO when I got a fry tank for the basement so I had to do something to appease her.

Lurch1



Any comments or criticisms more then welcomed!

Lurch1

I was able to snag some alternanthera reineckii from petsmart and was wondering where the best place to put it in the tank. Also so some elegant corys for cheap at BA so I decided to grab them too.

Cheebs


ottawa_fry22

Nice  :D I like how you piled the drift wood like that.  Sometimes simple is more.

I have a 20gal.  And I love Apistogrammas.  They have such a funny personality although I know its mostly aggression, its still fun to watch them puff their gills and slap their tails at each other. 

Thing is I have a hard time keeping them from killing each other.  I used to have some in the 75gal when my other south americans had smaller mouths. lol  It was more successful then but it won't be now with the large Red Hump male and Threadin Acara.  The Jurupari is getting big too. 

Any tips on housing Apistos in a planted 20gal?  I am probably best off with 1 of them aren't I? lol Well I won't be getting any more fish for that tank yet as it has been a little cloudy.  I want to get a new hang on back filter with better stuff to put in it to help.  Plus I am working on finding a pressurized c02 system to pump into both tanks.  Fuller plants the better!

75 gal planted, t5HO, fine soft sand, powder-form hydroponic fertilizers., 5 viejita apistogramma, 1 Banjo Cat, 1 Rapheal Cat, 3 Emerald Corys, 2 black angels, 1 Bushynose Pleco, 1 molly, 5 SAEs, 2 bolivian ram, 1 kribensis.

20 gal low light sand tank, 4 white cloud mountain minnows.

Lurch1

Quote from: Chubs on April 02, 2012, 05:54:16 PM
Nice looking tank!

Mercy Buckets!
Quote from: ottawa_fry22 on April 02, 2012, 07:56:43 PM
Nice  :D I like how you piled the drift wood like that.  Sometimes simple is more.

I have a 20gal.  And I love Apistogrammas.  They have such a funny personality although I know its mostly aggression, its still fun to watch them puff their gills and slap their tails at each other. 

Thing is I have a hard time keeping them from killing each other.  I used to have some in the 75gal when my other south americans had smaller mouths. lol  It was more successful then but it won't be now with the large Red Hump male and Threadin Acara.  The Jurupari is getting big too. 

Any tips on housing Apistos in a planted 20gal?  I am probably best off with 1 of them aren't I? lol Well I won't be getting any more fish for that tank yet as it has been a little cloudy.  I want to get a new hang on back filter with better stuff to put in it to help.  Plus I am working on finding a pressurized c02 system to pump into both tanks.  Fuller plants the better!



I haven't had much experience with planted tanks and "aquascaping" so I thought I would give it a try. I enjoy it. As for the apistos I was told a pair would be max and have it well planted/obstacled to break up the line of sight from the male.

bizfromqc

Quote from: ottawa_fry22 on April 02, 2012, 07:56:43 PM
...
Any tips on housing Apistos in a planted 20gal?  I am probably best off with 1 of them aren't I? lol
...

You should have no problem at all keeping a pair/trio in a planted 20G. The long version is better than the tall version because it provides more real estate (surface area) at the bottom of the tank for established territories. Depending on the specie you go with, you may be able to get a pair or trio setup in there. Make sure there is plenty of hiding spots, caves and clearly defined seperate areas (out of sight out of mind) for them to not see each other all the time.

Eric

bettabreeder

My only suggestion is add a background to that and it'll pull everything together as I love the aquascape.


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Lurch1

I painted my cichlid tank background black. Would this look ok here or another colour better? I'm not really a fan of the "picture" backgrounds, too fake looking for me.

bizfromqc

I've done both the painting and applying a background with oil (messy) and the results are 100X better with the paint BUT also more work (both to put on and if you want to remove after a while).

Next tank is going to get the sticky vinyl treatment, I already bought some and can't wait to try it out  :)

Lurch1

Was your background 1 color or a picture?

bizfromqc

#34
Quote from: Lurch1 on April 04, 2012, 01:58:57 PM
Was your background 1 color or a picture?

Just a color, black.

I'd give the sticky vinyl a go though. Having seen the demo at our last planted meeting, it looks great, it's easy to put up and it's cheap.

bettabreeder

I spray painted a piece of cardboard dark blue and it turned out really well


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exv152

Nice tank, do you any pictures of those elegant cories?
Eric...
125g, 32g, 7g

Lurch1

Here is a link. http://www.aqua-fish.net/show.php?h=elegantcory

If they cooperate with my I will try and get a pic. Where does one get sticky vinyl?

Quote from: bettabreeder on April 04, 2012, 02:44:47 PM
I spray painted a piece of cardboard dark blue and it turned out really well
How did you attach it to the tank?

Lurch1

Interestingly enough, a pygmy cory gets to 1.4" in length and these elegant corys range from 1.5 to 1.9 inches. I guess I could attempt 8 or 9 in my tank eh?

bizfromqc

Quote from: Lurch1 on April 05, 2012, 08:12:35 AM
Here is a link. http://www.aqua-fish.net/show.php?h=elegantcory

If they cooperate with my I will try and get a pic. Where does one get sticky vinyl?
How did you attach it to the tank?

You can get the sticky vinyl from Omer De Serres (http://bit.ly/HUU6Fi).
I bought two yards (24" high) with a plastic-thingie-spreader and taxes for about 12$.

Check out the post here for pictures of our last plant meet (http://bit.ly/HUUCDs) and you can see how the vinyl is applied.

Basically, as Winnie and Robert explained, you clean the surface, you soak it with water and then you stick the vinyl on it (from center on smaller tanks, from top of bigger one) and then use a CC or straight edge to squeeze the water out from under the sticky vinyl. The result is a bubble-less stick-on that looks awesome.

I haven't done it yet but will do soon.

Eric