My tanks: 11 Oct 215

I'M BACK! Since it's been over a year, lots of changes have happened with my tanks. Fish have come and gone. I'll try to remember to say what happened to all of my projects, but if I don't mention one feel free to remind me!

The biggest change that happened is I moved to Georgia for graduate school. This means I had to leave my pond back in Virginia. It is in good hands, tho. My mother still resides in the house and has been taking care of it and keeping me updated. I periodically return especially around the holidays, so photo updates will still come in for the pond.

Even before I moved to Georgia, all of my betta fish died, and I did not replace them with more. Betta are beautiful, but they are so fragile. Fall of 2013 the two betta in my divided tank died after contracting what I believe was lymphocystis from the pet store.  They were both plakats and very beautiful, but I think if I return to betta fish it will be the wild Betta spp. I do plan to keep up my betta care sheet and quick reference page as betta are very popular fish in the hobby.

While my betta did not make the trip with me to Georgia, my goldfish did. However, due to the stresses of grad school, I was unable to give them the care they needed. One succumbed to bad water quality before I realized what had happened. I gave away the other. Unfortunately Mr. Waddles, my rescue, died before I moved, most likely due to issues with his tank before he arrived at my house. I don't see myself returning to goldfish keeping any time soon, but I will continue to update my goldfish care sheet because they are such an misunderstood fish. The more misinformation I can correct, the better.

Last but not least (I do still have ONE tank) is the 29 gallon community. I still have my adorable loaches. They happily made the trip with me to Georgia. A few cardinal tetra did, too. An accident with dechlorinator was their end. Let this be a lesson to everyone: always add dechlor before you add water back into the tank.

Current state of the 29 gallon. Plants are mostly low-light. Filter is a Finnex P-360

However, you may notice there are still little tetra swimming around in the 29 gallon. Recently I got a different species of tetra to fill the upper spaces of the tank. I opted for glowlight tetra (Hemigrammus erythrozonus) due to their hardy nature. They are commonly recommended for beginners due to their forgiving nature, and I've always thought they were pretty. So I wanted to try them out. I received 10 of them and have already been smitten by them. They are surprisingly easier to photograph than my cardinals were. It probably also helps that I got a new camera, too.

Glowlight tetra (Hemigrammus erythrozonus)

And a shot of my loaches because I love them too much not to include them! ^-^

So those are all the changes that have occurred since my unplanned hiatus. I do not expect to be setting up any more tanks until I finish grad school, have a career, and a house. So future updates will be few and far between. 

My Tanks: 22 July update

So almost a month later, a lot has changed with my tanks. But all of the changes have been for the good.

The amazon sword has done well in the goldfish tank. I'm thinking about adding a root tab to boost it's growth; I would really like two huge swords in that tank. The hornwort has also taken off. It's really helped bring down the nitrate level in the tank. I will certainly need help with that when I add the newest goldfish to the tank.

The biggest change is the betta tanks. I ordered a double-decker stand and stacked them. Basically I can fit two tanks in the space that one would normally take, and run both filters from one air pump. I highly recommend this for anyone who is having trouble finding places for more tanks. I got the stand from Drsfosterandsmith.com for a very reasonable price. They come in sizes up to 55 gallons and are of a rather sturdy make. Industrial strength shelves also work if the tanks aren't going to be on display such as what you would find in someone's fish room.

So the other day I went into Petco looking for something (can't remember what), and I made the mistake of looking at the bettas. I saw this beauty a halfmoon king betta being sold as a plakat halfmoon. Kings usually sell for $25 around here, but I got this beauty for only $14 because he was miss-marked. His name is Lapis, but my mother likes to call him Captain America because of his patriotic colors. He is currently in the 29 gallon.

The changes to my 29 gal community were the most challenging ones. Removing the gravel and then adding the sand was a pain in the rear (and back and head and knees). The sand just didn't want to work with me. I used Estes Ultra Reef, and it looks great (it's also really soft so it won't hurt the kuhlies). I don't care what anyone says, it should be at least rinsed before going into the tank. At the very least it gets rid of a lot of air bubbles (which was my main problem). I've also added pygmy chain sword (Helanthium tenellum), dwarf sagittaria (Sagittaria subulata), and Rotala indica that I bought from Aquariumplants.com (very pleased with their service and quality of the plants and packaging). This is the first step in making this my first fully planted community.

My baby goldfish is still in QT mostly because I want him to grow more before I add him to the main tank. He's gotten bigger, but still not big enough for me to feel comfortable with him in the big goldies. 

My Tanks: an introduction

 I’ve been talking a lot about what you should do with your tanks, so I figured I should show you mine. Now I’m really not the greatest aquatic photographer, so please bear with me. I have very few clear pictures of my fish. I’ll start with my oldest tank.

55 gallon (208 L) goldfish tank

This tank has been set up for going on 6 years now. It originally housed my koi that I overwintered inside. Since I already had the filtration for them I replaced the koi with goldfish once the koi went to the pond. It currently houses my two goldfish Goldeen the red ryukin and Seaking the calico veiltail. Both are male fish, so the next goldfish I add should also be male. If I added a female she would get harassed too much during breeding activities. I would love to find a calico ryukin or black maruko (egg fish)/ranchu.

Right now I have no plants in it as I am finishing up a salt treatment for a mysterious ailment that has plagued my calico goldfish for years. Seaking has had tattered fins his whole life as well as been plagued by these mysterious white spots. They are larger than ich and appear to be some kind of warty growth possibly caused by a virus. They appear and disappear on a whim and never seem to bother him. Occasionally these were accompanied by a bit of fungus and bacterial fin rot. That is why the salt is in there. When the salt is removed I’m going to try keeping hornwort and vallisneria in pots. I have also removed the heater for the summer as my tank gets about 80F (26C).

For the more technical aspects I run two HOB filters, one Aquaclear 70 and a Marineland Penguin 200. Both have been running since the tank was established and both have the flow baffled to prevent them from blowing around my fancy goldfish. I have an air pump connected to a bubble wand that runs during the summer to ensure good oxygenation. The substrate is large river rock, and the lighting is 6500k 15w 12 inch T8 bulbs (x2). I have a bag of CaribSea crushed coral in the Aquaclear to raise the GH and KH to more acceptable levels for goldfish. Weekly water changes are 40% of the tank volume.

4000 gal (15,141 L) koi pond

It was completed in spring of 2007 and has been stocked with koi ever since. I initially added 4 koi and added another 2 the following year to bring me to a total of 6 koi. Everyone is about 16 inches (40 cm) long and has a very healthy appetite. The pond is understocked, but I don’t plan to add any more koi. I believe one of the reasons it has succeeded (despite a pump failure one winter) is due to the light stocking. I also have a breeding colony of mosquitofish (Gambusia holbrooki) in there.

The pond runs on a bog and snorkel system. Water from the pond drains into a bog (a large reservoir designed to always keep the pump underwater), and from there the pump moves it up to the top of the waterfall. Because the surface area is so large, I have an autofill system in the snorkel. This prevents the water levels from dropping too low in case of a dry spell.

I have done very little with planting the pond aside from some iris that were given to me the summer my pond was completed. The iris also came with some bog plants that are now found around the edges of my pond. Due to the high surface movement I have trouble keeping floating plants like water lettuce and water hyacinth. My pond is almost completely shaded in the summer which helps keep the temperature at a more manageable level, but that means I can’t grow lilies.

10 gal (37 L) divided betta tank

While this tank now has betta, it didn’t start off that way. On one trip home to take care of my goldfish tank, I noticed these odd looking fish at walmart. I researched them and found them to be brown kuhli loaches (Pangio oblonga). I was immediately smitten with them and had to have them. I picked up a 10 gal (37 L) setup from Walmart and whisked away with 5 of them. There they stayed throughout my college years. I added some live plants and bogwood as I read they liked. Through the years, I lost two. One was a different species, and I can’t remember what happened to the other. When I returned from college I play musical tanks and moved these guys to a larger setup to prepare this tank for two betta fish.

Right now it houses Knucker and Lumi. Knucker is a blue halfmoon rosetail. Lumi is a white halfmoon plakat. The tank has 4 species of plants: java fern, anarcharis, anubias, and duckweed. I use a Aqueon Pro 50w heater and run a home-made bubble filter as I don’t like power filters with long-finned bettas. The light is a 6500k 15w 18 inch T8 bulb. I currently don’t fertilize the tank but plan to in the future. The substrate is plain, natural colored gravel that is aerated by a colony of Malaysian trumpet snails. I change 30% of the water weekly.

29 gal (109 L) softwater community

I know. This isn’t much to look at now, but I’ve got big plans for it. I just need to get a steady source of income first. This tank started out as emergency housing for a pair of dojo loaches I bought to live with my goldfish. Well it turns out the dojos loaches took a liking to the goldfish’s slime coat, so the dojos had to go. They lived in the 29 gal for a few months before I found another aquarist to take them from me. I was sad to see them go, but I knew it was for the best.

The tank currently houses my remaining brown kuhli loaches, a huge colony of malaysian trumpet snails, java fern, anubias, and water sprite (Ceratopteris cornuta). My future plans for it are to heavily plant it and add a school of cardinal tetra (Paracheirodon axelrodi) as well as a thicklips gourami (Trichogaster labiosa). I would also like to switch out the gravel for black sand. This will be the first change I make. The tank currently has a Penguin Biowheel 150, Aqueon Pro 150w heater, and 6500k 17w 24 inch T8 bulb. Water changes are 25% weekly due to the very light stocking levels. The breeder box is in there to keep the plants where I want them.

Another 10 gal (37 L) divided betta tank

This tank is almost a mirror of my other tank. It has all the same plants (but these are in worse condition) and the same setup, but the hood is different which means my lighting is different. It’s stronger in this tank, so I’m having an algae problem. The two betta that are in here are Orchid the red copper dragon halfmoon and Moonie the pastel butterfly superdelta. Due to my algae problem which is partially attributed to the lights and the hornwort that shed all of its needles in my tank, weekly water changes are 50%.