Ferryman's 3ft construction

thanks man, next time i'll rather spring for the bigger and sadly, more expensive ones... maybe R14 per panda was too good to be true...

 

I had two pandas in my little tank with my Mollies and they did well for about 3 months, then one of them died and I moved the other one to the main tank. I don't see it much and it makes me think that they're actually much more passive/shy than other Cories. So yours might have actually been bullied by the bigger ones in the thank...

 

if so, its a shame, they were only there for a day, now i wish i didn't buy them, they would have probably survived for longer in the LFS tank, they were the only two inhabitants in there

 

Sorry about that ferryman. Better luck in future

 

You win some you loose some no use worrying about it any more, best thing to do know is learn from the mistake and next time maybe buy a bit bigger or maybe invest in a Qtank that way you can keep then in there for a few weeks and let them grow a bit, almost like a quarantine/grow out tank....

 

i've actually been price checking small 45cm tanks for a qt tank, but i'm guessing a 2ft would probably be better suited for random sized fish, so i dont go too small, but since finding that old tank i might wait till the oomie comes home, i might go home on friday with a new/old tank that i can then use as a qt tank, dunno, i'll see what happens

 

I am sure it will not stay a qt tank for long...lol. MTS will get you no matter where you hide...

 

hehehe, true, remember that my current 2ft was also designated to be a qt tank at first,

 

right, an update, i dont think the plants are growing awesomely, if they were terra plants, id advise (myself) to add ferts as growth is somewhat stagnant to slow, and growth is looking pale to yellow-green... so i need to better my lighting solution and add ferts to the system....

i will check quotes etc for a diy t5 setup, thought id go strong or leave it completely, the t8s can just as well be t5's with stronger output, as i want a well greened up tank, not just a fish viewing light solution...

so i'll go back to the original guys who quoted me on t8s and get new pricing, and then also the ballasts and endcaps need to be found... then when i have those, i still have 600rand from the house sitting i did last week, i will buy the light setup, and nag my dad for that wood curtain bow so i can start the canopy build... though i just want the stronger light for now, the build may be slower for the canopy as i start writing exams from the 4th november, so will only go bos on the project and my new 3ft rebuild after the exams... it seems i might be heading for two distinctions among the marks waiting, so i wanna keep the option open...

will post closeups of plants as at present tomorrow, cuz the lights are already out.

further additions since the panda deaths, the peppered cory is doing awesomely, going about fine, so today i bought two more, and another bronze one, thought i'd start adding cories to the 2ft... but yeah, clearly, they were added to the cory family in my 3ft, since so many of the guppies are out now, i'm thinking of getting another 10 neons, to improve the schooling effect as they are a bit sparse...

 

Check your LFS they should have electronic ballast stater units with plug, switch and the end-caps. Best I have seen was R89 to R120 ... what is your wattage requirements - probably want 2x30 Watt T8's Daro flow-glo are a bit blue but plants seem to do OK under that -

Total cost +-
2x R80 (lights)
2x 120 (ballast + clips)
R400

In my 3ft Diana Walstad tank I run 1 Daro Flow-glo 30 Watt and 1 18 Watt 6500K daylight < R30 - and it is my best planted tank - awesome plant growth .. no CO2 or ferts - but I might be adding some happycarbo

Remember the 30W + end-caps are usually a bit longer than the length of the 3ft tank.

 

which lfs gave you those prices fish? i havent seen anything that "cost effective" at any of the ones ive scoped out...

the previous "good prices" i got were from sourcing the parts from an electronics wholesaler and a light store

 

I got my 20w electronic ballasts from Animal Kingdom in Atterbury for R120 each, they're more or less the same price everywhere that I've looked, with very little variation for the different wattages.

 

yeah - and dig through the stock -- they I've always found the two that had the "old" price on them ..

 

i'm looking to go with t5 tubes rather than the previous idea i had of t8's... gonna go see if the suppliers that quoter me 40 rand on a ballast and 35 rand on a tube, will have equally good prices if i'm looking for t5...

it just cuts out the hassles of "oh noes, you dont have strong enough light" - if i can find it cheap aswell. if henk can get sylvania t5's at the lamp house for 40 odd rands, i'm sure we can find such prices here in GP too

 

okay, almost ALL guppies are out now, cept the ones that duck and hide and frustrate me...

now all i have are the following:
5 bronze cory
3 peppered cory
6 albino longfin danio
5 leopard danio
19 neon tetra
10 glowlight
9 sailfin mollies
5 platy
4 white cloud minnow

180 liters of water

i wanna know, i want two or so, nice show fish, something that catches the eye,

can anyone recommend a center star for the tank?

i was thinking maybe a red robin or three spot gourami? not sure of compatibility with small fish planted tank? will need to do my homework, but can someone chime in with advise?

 

after reading up a bit, it seems that the red robin is a much better choice between the two i mentioned, dwarf, about 5cm size, can tolerate the highish ph, is sociable, etc etc

would anyone else recommend this fish?

What other fish could possibly be suited as well?

 

Live food first

yesterday at work i noticed one of our waterfeatures was teeming with mosquito larvae in differing stages of development, so when i got there taday i took a buddy bottle and submersed and drained it a couple million times (putting cloth over the opening to drain water and start again...) and so i caught a whole glass jar full of floating parasites in the making.. before putting them in the jar, i drained all the pond water and filled up the buddy bottle with fresh water a few timees to rinse the larvae off,

when i got home i took a 60ml syringe with airtube over the end and sucked up some larvae and 'injected' the tank, the fish went nuts for them, they ate those wriggling suckers up so fast, hehe, it was cool to see them take to live food so naturally

I think i'll try to feed some live food once a month or so.

I also decided that i'm going to buy a pair (if i can find a pair) of red robin dwarf gourami for this tank as the centre piece fish... just not sure if i have any other options, so i'll go scouting tomorrow and see what i find. otherwise, red robin it is...

sorry for the plant pic update delay, still looking for the hp camera... takes better quality pics than the usual cell pics i post

 

okay. today i decided to seek out exclusive pets for interest sake,
was scouting for red robin gourami.

So got there and checked out their stocks, and then i bought a pair of red robin gourami from the guy @ R25 ea. and also two pearl gourami @ R30 ea.

Not sure how i got the pearls in the end, because after discussing the sexing, i decided to look around a bit more to find a definate male and female, as his specimens both looked female. but then after the robins were netted and i wanted to pay... it all happened confusingly fast, the guy yelled at the help for not netting the pearls too, took the bag, and netted the two gourami as well... ah well, now theyre in. the reds are active, visible etc. but the two pearls are frustratingly mia. i cant even find them 90% of the time i'm looking, are they always this shy, or just in the beginning, or what?

they gradually become semi visable in the back bottom corner behind a rock, and when i approach the tank, they hide again... most odd, most frustrating...

 

And what's your take on their stock? I haven't been there in a few weeks...

 

Didn't have 'alot' off stock the guy said, said they're going to be very busy this weekend, planning on replacing those tanks on the far right wall with more south american water parameters all running on bio filtration as opposed to the current UGF they have in there. He said their gonna get more tetra/discus/etc types in that like the acidic water. but still, what they had in some tanks was quite different from the stores i usually visit

But i think his prices are a pinch steep, not much, but slight enough for me to notice, lol.

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the reds are swimming about and eating etc, but the pearls are still hiding, i have done a slight hard scape rescape, so they will now be hiding behind my 'cave' and vallis corner, which is a good thing, i was dreading thateven with the move they'd keep hiding behind the rocks under the sponge filter, because i cant see back there against the wall, and because they are such ninjas i feared they keeled over last night, they're luckily still alive, but they aren't coming out into the open..

Anyone have any tips?
The tank they were taken out of had other occupants in as well, and those two pearls, but they also kept to the back pane in the shop tank...

How can i lure them out into exploring the tank?