Beautiful day at the beach, driftwood and 160 litre aquarium

I have a few minor updates today. It was a beautiful and sunny day in County Wicklow and I took to the beach twice. Got this nice piece of driftwood with me home:

The 160 litre tank is finally repaired too, to my distress my first attempt failed. As I had removed the silicone around the leak I resealed the tank, however it seems that the old silicone was no good and the tank sprung a leak in a different location as soon as I filled it. I decided to remove all of the silicone and redo the whole job, this worked and I’m so relieved that it did.

The tank is now run by an Eheim Ecco pro 200 external filter, an Eheim 2x 100L/h airpump(one sponge filter), it has one 200w and one 100w heater.

The setup is far from complete but I’m glad it’s up and running. At the moment there is one large piece of driftwood and one Java fern along with guppies and bristlenoses in it but I’m planning for other inhabitants soon. This is how it looks now:

 

Previously I used a wooden cover for the tank, it looked good but was not really practical and I decided to line the top of the tank with wood and sawed out a lid out of Perspex:

 

The 144 litre is pretty much the same; I have however started to treat this piece of driftwood which will replace some of the wood in the tank:

 

That’s it at the moment, cheers for watching!

Melander

Growing aquatic plants & Anubias in a shed

Basically I have been thinking about propagating plants for a long time, especially Anubias which I find great and I could do with more of. As of now I have only really propagated them in submersed form. They just grow so slow and I want to find out the best way to grow them faster without too much fancy equipment.

Yesterday I bought the Practical Fishkeeping Magazine and there was an article about Anubias which I suppose gave me a kick in the bum to get started.

I have started to clear out this shed which was needed anyway but I have not decided exactly how to go ahead.



















Recently I also found a few of these seed boxes which I think will be great for growing smaller Anubias on bogwood.

This is just an idea starting to form and It might take awhile until it's up an running. I have not even decided if I'm going to do this in the shed or indoors.

I will post again when i get started.

Melander

144 litre tank

 I have finally moved my old 144 litre tank, here's a pic:

I decided to get rid of all the stones for now and I think the wood looks better but it’s much harder to hide the caves. I have a few smaller pieces of wood to go in and some smaller stones so hopefully that will do it. The bright orange caves that stands out really annoys me at the moment.

The plants are a bit of a mess as this moving business has taken its toll but I'm sure they will recover.

The fish seems ok but a bit frightened; I'm going from a acidic pH to a neutral, that's why the tank is not fully filled yet. Hopefully they will acclimatize ok. I used most of the water that was in the tank originally and I'm adding small amounts of the new neutral water two times per day.

At the moment there are two Peckoltia compta, three bristlenoses, 25+ Corydoras panda and 4 Corydoras Schultzei in the tank. The C. Schultzei will be moved a.s.a.p to prevent hybridisation.

Plants include: one Anubias heterophylla and three small Echinodorus bleheri.

Still loads more to do as I have to set up the new tank too.

Melander

Fry Tank, Corydoras panda breeding and leak test

Still in the process of moving but I have been able to do some fishy stuff.

* I have moved the first tank to the new house, it's my smallest one a 54 litre fry tank as seen below:

 














* In the meanwhile I have had great success with my Corydoras panda, they have been breeding for a long time but I have never seen as many females involved as the other week.
Usually the breeding occurs after a water change and a slight drop of temperature but every now and then they go at it without any triggers.

This time it was a breeding frenzy and even the young ones seemed interested in what was going on. 
The morning after I collected 15-20 eggs which I consider quite allot for this species. I could also see that many had been taken by the other occupants of the tank.

Here Is a picture of the event(it's hard to see but note the female in the middle holding an egg):




















* I have also started the leak tests on the 160 litre tank, it has gone well so far but I'm still keeping it outdoors just in case.

That's all for now, thanks for watching!

Melander

Beech branches

Not much of an update, have been very busy moving the last week but have still not moved any of the fish tanks. We are painting the new place so the aquariums have to wait until the paint is dry.

I do however have a picture of some branches of beech, the tree has been dead for over a year and I have now cut of all the bark and boiled the branches several times. They should be ready to go into one of the tanks soon.

Melander

Thanks!

Just wanted to say thanks to all the members of:

www.irishfishkeepers.com

for their kind words and support!

Beachwood!!

Went down to the beach yesterday and found these lovelies:

I have not decided exactly what to do with them but I am certain they will come in useful.

Melander