[indefine]

Spent the last couple years moving around. After moving and extensive renos, finally settling down and restarting the tanks. Have a 110 in the basement waiting to be resealed, but that will be it's own post when I get to it.

For now, this is what I'm starting with the 75P. Pulled out the old twigs, some leftover aquasoil/africana mix and decided to do some scaping. Comments/criticisms?

Also looking for plants and stocking ideas.

Initial thought is a nice apisto cacatuoide triple red, with a harem of 3 or 4 females, a school of 20 or so ember tetras, and maybe some hatchet fish to round out all levels of the tank. Perhaps some pygmy cory's for the bottom too.

Since the tank isnt very big, i am leaning towards smaller active community for all levels of the tank, with the apistos as the centrepiece....or something along those lines. Any thoughts?

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[dino]

I love it like the stock list also

 

[mollyb]

hatchets may chase each other out of the tank, unless it will be covered. nice wood.

 

[indefine]

hatchets may chase each other out of the tank, unless it will be covered. nice wood.

Yes there will be glass covers. I am still tweaking the wood a bit as the high pieces are slightly poking above where the cover will sit.

Hopefully will fill and start cycle soon.

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[indefine]

Rummaged through some old aquarium stuff and foind my eheim 2217. Unfortunately when i shut things down last time i emptied out all the media, so i had to hop on to amazon to order some. It should arrive next week, which i can then begin to fill the tank.

The substrate i had was a bit thin in some spots, so i picked up some fluval stratum to add in.

I also dug out the cichlid caves and tried to incorporate into the wood scape. Also added an old stump i had lying around. Since this is being planned for apistos, the idea was to tey to disperse the caves so that each potential male/female would have a territory of their own. And when planted in, these caves will have their line of sight somewhat broken up.

Anyways, here's the latest iteration.

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[indefine]

Filled the tank on March 30th. Made the nooby mistake of not presoaking the twigs and they all floated up. So much for a couple hours of fussing around with the dryscape, only to do it all over again. This time i weighed it down with some rocks.

Also picked up some plants from couple guys here and planted it out. Tanks are never 'done' so will be editing the plants as i go. Some java fern, blyxa japonica, cabomba, frogbit, and couple stem plants i dont know name of.

Been about a week for the plants and they seem to be taking. Some melting, but new growth is kicking in. Also dosed some ammonia for fishless cycle. But getting a little bit impatient, so bought a bottle of aquavitro seed to try to kickstart things. Will see in a few days how the product works.

Also getting the dreaded white fungus on twigs. So kicked the outlet to agitate the surface for more oxygen exchange in hopes that more oxygen will help get rid of the stuff sooner.

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[rhennessey]

looks great but I think you may want to reduce your count of apistos in this tank. If it's 20-30g you should think about 1m/2f max for apistos but the other fish seem fine.

 

[indefine]

So here's how my fishless cycle been going. Dosing pure ammonia at about 2.0ppm about 24 days ago. Results today:

Ammonia 0.5ppm
Nitrites 0.0ppm
Nitrates didnt test as Nitrite hasn't even registered.

For comparison, my 5.5g shrimp tank has undergone the same cycle, but only for 19days, reading:

Ammonia 1.0ppm
Nitrites 1.0ppm
Nitrates didnt test

Both tanks consistently at 24degrees C. Looks like the cycle is happening for my shrimp tank in much quicker order than the 75p.

Not sure what is happening with the 75p as Nitrites should be registering by now. Only thing i did different btwn the two tanks (other than decor) was about a 50% wc on the 75p because i rescaped a bit and couldn't stand the early dreaded white fungus. But i did dose the ammonia back to about 1.0ppm.

So i'm not sure, ammonia seems to be going down a bit, but still no nitrites. Seem weird to anyone?

Gonna be patient now and not do anything for another couple of weeks and see.

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[indefine]

Nitrites finally starting to register, looks like cycle is progressing.

So hard being patient as there are nice fish out there wanna get!

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[cgjedi]

Should check out Right Now no cycle bacteria. http://www.hdltd.com/products/p_rightnow.html
Its not available at any lfs here which is a shame. Instantly add full tank of fish. You can Check out a thread I did which tested that it actually works. Have been running my tanks for years already and things have been absolutely stable. Very little water changes needed.

 

[indefine]

Nitrites finally down to 0. Did a 50% wc and did some stocking. I know should have given few more days after first 0 reading of nitrite, but was getting impatient. Will keep an eye on and keep up with wc's in this early stage.

Added:
20 harlequin rasboras
8 sterbai corydora

Still looking for apisto cac's

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[Mick2016]

Re: "Its [sic] not available at any lfs here . . ."

----------

Which raises the question: Why not? They state that they supply "wholesalers and retailers", but do not list what (store) retailers stock this product? Only available online through a limited number of sites?

I suppose it is just my nature, but if a product is great, why wouldn't one want to make it easily accessible at Local Pet/Fish Stores? I would think that if this product does all that it claims to do, most retailers would want it on their shelves to sell.

P.S. It looks like their web page was last updated in 2004.

 

[cgjedi]

Ya I dealt with many skeptics such as yourself when I did my month's long evaluation of the product. Oftentimes something truly revolutionary is not appreciated. The inventor/patent holder doesn't have the best marketing skills and it seems these products are a by product of dealing with waste management which is much more lucrative than selling to some pesky fish keepers. I've read the patents and have gone through the science and tested it out on my own tanks. He's proven himself to me. Just trying to do my part to get it better known.

 

[indefine]

So i'm a bit torn on this one. Purchased the fish at North American Aquarium Store near Nanaimo/Kingsway. Buy more than 6 fish, get 10% off.

The sterbais look decently healthy, plump and active. The Harlequins however, are not very colorful and a couple seem to be very thin. They also have a bunch of arowana, but almost all have sunken bellies or are very thin. Yet other tanks seem to have good looking fish.

So I'm not sure what the deal is, if they are selectively feeding their tanks, or what. Selection is decent. But its like 50% of tanks are well kept and well fed, and the other 50% are underfed/neglected.

Will see what I can do for these Harlequins.

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[Reckon]

So i'm a bit torn on this one. Purchased the fish at North American Aquarium Store near Nanaimo/Kingsway. Buy more than 6 fish, get 10% off.

The sterbais look decently healthy, plump and active. The Harlequins however, are not very colorful and a couple seem to be very thin. They also have a bunch of arowana, but almost all have sunken bellies or are very thin. Yet other tanks seem to have good looking fish.

So I'm not sure what the deal is, if they are selectively feeding their tanks, or what. Selection is decent. But its like 50% of tanks are well kept and well fed, and the other 50% are underfed/neglected.

Will see what I can do for these Harlequins.

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I love Harlequins but I haven't been impressed with the NA Aquarium Store whenever I stop in. I can never seem to bring myself to buy fish there.
How about checking with April's Aquariums? It's a bit of a drive but Fish Addicts is pretty awesome too.

 

[Mick2016]

I was thinking this new info about "unhealthy stock" should be a separate post, but then realized that INDEFINE is the OP of this thread. :lol:

As far as NA is concerned, it IS possible that a shipment was received which wasn't in the best shape, so some hospital care is needed before the fish are sold.

OPTIONS?:

1. See if others chime in about their experiences with NA;
2. Return to the store in a few weeks and see for yourself if the poor conditions continue or have improved.

As far as the harlequins are concerned, your healthier tank and consistent diet are all that may be required to put them back on their feet, er, fins. You will know in a matter of days, I imagine.

 

[indefine]

Took a stroll into Aqwest today after work, they had a pair of A. Agassizii, Tefe Blue. Unfortunately had ich and was being medicated. Selling for 24.99. if not for the ich, i would have pulled the trigger.

Feeling unsatisfied, popped into Mr. Pets on the Drive on the way home and low and behold, they had the same Tefe Blues. a trio (m and 2f) for 5.99 each! Granted, the male doesn't have the deep shimmering blue as Aqwest, perhaps just needs to mature up a bit, but the price was right. So i pulled the trigger as well as 3 oto cats. Although this male isn't as flashy, hopefully under some good food and care, hopefully he'll colour up over time and come into his own.

Update on the sterbai cory and harlequins. After a full day, harlequins are eating and oranges are showing nicely. Whereas yesterday they were still rather lethargic and colorless. Sterbais are clowning and they're coloring up nicely too. Nice gold accents coming out on their pectorals, and activity levels much different from yesterday too.

Things are looking on the up and up for all.

Pic of the male agassizii.

Feeding time

 

[indefine]

My bad! I got fooled. Actually ended up with 2m 1f. At the store the less dominant male was a sneaker male, and i didnt examine him close or long enough.

Lets see how this pans out.

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[Mick2016]

Re: "Ya [sic] I dealt with many skeptics such as yourself . . . "

---------------------------

Actually, I am more puzzled than skeptical. It just seems to me that word would travel quickly throughout the Aquarium World about "better" products which are developed. Consequently, Local Fish Shops would hear and want a supply for their own customers. The company has been around since 1999 (according to their webpage) and this is the first time I have heard of this particular cycling product. So I am not so much as questioning the product's claims, but am puzzled as to why it is not better known. Perhaps more people know about it than I realize.

 

[indefine]

Update - after about a week, harlequins are all eating nicely and taking to flakes and nls small fish that i offer them. Body shapes are starting to become more diamond shaped with fuller bellies, as opposed to elongated and thin when i first got them. Suffered two losses though, but those two were probably running on fumes. Hopefully can do the rest well.

Sterbais are going strong. They're like underwater pigs, always rummaging their snouts through the aquasoil and always active. Fattening up nicely too.

Agassizii are eating well now and less shy too. We've seemed to work out a nice schedule where they know i feed them after dinner, and they sit by the feeding tube waiting for their meal.

So far very enjoyable troupe.

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