My 100l tank

[LanceP]

Hi All,

I have a 100l (25g) community tank with the following fish species:
2 x Plecos
2 x Black Ghost Knifes
2 x Angels
2 x Pearl Gouramies
1 x Dwarf Gourami
3 x Pakistani (Yoyo) loaches
2 x Spotted (stand to correction) Loaches
1 x White mollie
2 x swordtails (1m, 1f)
2 x Rainbow sharks

I recently lost 2 discuss when I introduced 3 convict cichlids into the tank. I was told by the pet store owner that convicts were some of the less agressive cichlids and that it would be safe to stick them in my community tank. I realised later that it was not the case. I returned the convicts and replaced them for the Ghost knifes. I am extremely happy with the ghosts and couldn't ask for more amazing looking fish. Although, I miss my discus. The next time I keep discus, I will make it mostly, a single species tank.

I know that my tank is too small to house 2xplecos and 2xGhosts, so I'll be relocating 1 each to another tank that I've recently built (170l) and waiting to cycle. I'll send details on that tank when it's fully up and running. I'll also move the one rainbow shark as they are both becoming territorial.

I've recently (+-3 months) converted my tank to a planted aquarium. I've got several plant species (I just need to find correct names for them). I'm using a DIY Co2 injection and have a total of 85watts of various spectrum lighting. The plants have not flourished as fast as some sites have suggested they might after adding the CO2, so I started introducing plant nutrients. But now I'm starting to grow excess amounts of that hairy green algae. So now I need to play around some more until I reach some sort of balance.

I hope you like the pics

Cheers
L

[Dolphin]

Nice pics Lance!Sorry about the Discus... that was rather bad advise given by the LFS!What filtration are you runnin?What are you feeding?What are your water parameters: Temperature, pH & Hardness? How often do you do water changes and with what water?Some notes on the fish:- Black Ghost: This is a peaceful fish that needs hiding places. It should not be kept with smaller fish such as tetra or rasboras. They get large, upto 50cm - most likely 20-25cm in home most aquariums. You should be feeding blood worms and good quality pellets.- White Mollie: Needs abit of salt in the water. Problem is your other fish wont appreciate the salt so it might be a good idea to get rid of the mollie IMO.- Rainbow Sharks: How big are they? Keep an eye on them coz these guys get aggressive and should also go if that happens.Might be a good idea to think about the species you eventually want to keep and then analyse what you have and plan the addition/removal of species to eventually reach your objectives.I'll comment on your plants in the lighting thread...

[LanceP]

Thanks Dolphin,

As I'm new to this hobbie, please excuse me if I don't use the correct terms.

I'm using an Elite Jetflo 100 (480lph) internal filter. I cut away about 30% of the filter sponge to make space for ceramic rings to increase the surface area for bacteria.

I use a combination of flakes, pellets, bloodworms and cucumbers for the plecos. I found a bag of live brine shrimp once (not very common where I shop) at a LFS, so I treated my babies.

I change about 20% of the water on a weekly basis...with tapwater. I know it's not the best thing to do though.

The tank maintains a temp of 27degrees, PH is 7.4, not sure on hardness. How do I test this?

For the ghosts, I've got a few pieces of driftwood, and have recently added some PVC piping to help. I'm busy soaking a large piece of driftwood that will help with more hiding spaces. The smallest fish are the loaches so nothing for the ghosts to eat...yet. Not sure how fast the ghosts grow, but when it looks like it might start becoming a problem, then I'll make a plan.

The rainbow sharks are about 1.5 inches. So far they only go after each other, but like I said, I'll separate them soon.

Thanks for the interest and advice. Will have a look at your comments about my lighting.

[Dolphin]

sounds like you're on the right track there! just need to use aged water for your water changes - even if you put in a 20L bucket overnight with an airstone and use a good dechlorinator, it will be fine. you can find the hardness test kit at most LFS or check my website nextweek www.qualityaquariums.co.za

[solex69]

Get some guppy grass (or duckweed) if you can and chuck it into the tank...helps a lot to getting rid of water imbalances. I did this on a 60l2 foot tank of mine which was covered with a lot of slime algae for weeks but I just added both guppy grass & duckweed together with more plants and eventually the algae just died off....tank is now happy.

Pls post some pics of your plants if you can...would love to see them and try to assist you in I.D them

Cheers
Dale

[LanceP]

Okay, so I managed to get rid of my algae problem, hopefully I can keep it that way. I bought some Flourish Excel, and that seemed to do the trick.

Here's my tank looking much better.

[Henk Hugo]

looks great lance! :D

[Dolphin]

wow thats looking awesome!

[Big G]

Hey man!

That setup looks Lekker!

I'd love to see a close up pick of your loaches? I'm a big fan of loaches and would be interested in discovering what it is??

Cheers
Big G!

[LanceP]

Thought I'd post some recent pictures of my 100l. It's gone through some changes since the last pics. Most of the fish have changed. Some I've lost, others I've moved and half are new-ish. Same with the plants...

Here's a full tank shot...sorry for the quality, this one was taken with my cellphone. The plants on the far left are not doing well. I had a lot of bba on them, and tried soaking them in a bleach & water mixture, but soaked them for too long. BBA is gone though.:p
997

This pearl is about 8cm.
998

Here's a new baby black angel...almost camouflaged.
999

Another baby angel. Aint he special :bigsmile:
1000

Can someone please ID the plant at the back left? Also, any reason why the tops of the plants are turning a reddish brown? Is this good or bad? I've heard that some plants turn red in bright light.
1001

[Ferryman]

it may be good, did you add more light? may be due to the fact that its getting closer to the surface, thus more light, back left looks like ludwigia repence (red ludwigia)

does the tip growth look almost like rose petals? growing out circularly?

[slayer]

Great looking tank

[f-fish]

looks real good lanceP ...

[Linga]

tank is looking great there lance

[Zafgak]

Nice !!!!!!!!!!!!

[Ruan]

Wow! Lovely!

[LanceP]

Thanks for all the compliments folks.

Ferryman, comparing it to online pictures of ludwigia repens do show similarities. So, I'll go with that unless proven otherwise.

Yeah, I recently added some more lighting. Bought a few Phillips Genie CFLs as per one of Laure's earlier threads. It seems to work well. This plant has grown a full inch in the last 4 days!

The Bacopa monnieri and Ceratophyllum submersum (I hope I have these names right) have also been showing some accelerated growth since.