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Mouses 4ft Community Tank - a work in progress *56k warning!


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I thought it might be interesting to see how my tank has been evolving since its conception around 6 months ago. Since its far from completed I'll be updating this thread as the tank changes :)

All suggestions, tips, advice or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

I guess I might as well start from the very beginning...

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more pics to come...

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  • 3 weeks later...

I decideced to go with the black tuscan path riverstones for the substrate, and Toodyay Stone for the terracing.

I opted for Toodyay stone because I couldn't get any slate at the time & had to find an alternative. Its native to Perth (well Toodyay anyway) so there is plenty of it around here at a really good price. Its also stackable and comes in a few different colours. I got the Green Toodyay stone which is like a light grey with sparkly green sprinkly bits running through.

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close up of the stone..

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next came the plants.. my first ever attempt at a planted tank so it was a lot of fun going into the lfs and asking for 'the short fuzzy one" or the "tall lanky one" :o Not that I'm a heck of a lot better now :cheer:)

the purple plants lasted about a few weeks before they rotted & the tall one with the roundish leaves was a favourite with the mollies and lasted a few days longer :oopsie:

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I've always wanted a fantasy tank, so when I saw the castle in the lfs I had to have it.

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clearer pics

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the little broken wall on the left side of the tank is well.. broken now.. thanks to my son pulling it off the bench when I had taken it out to clean

:cheer:

I also put in a 2ft bubble wall at this point to try and keep the water aerated in the hot weather

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I had a bout of shocking algae on my stone for a while there.. no idea why, but I don't get it any more.

It doesn't show up too well on the pic, but it was everywhere.. icky brown diatoms thai I just couldn't seem to budge! :banghead:

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I've now netted some java moss to some of the terracing in hopes of getting a carpeting type effect that spills over the wall. The blue netting looks really REALLY daggy, but hopefully the java moss will grow through it soon (its only been a couple of weeks so far) and it will be hidden soon. ** pics to come **

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

heres my tank as it looks today .. its now minus most of the green plants and fish :)

the brownish plants that are showing in the pics have also been removed now.

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these particular plants have been loving the change in conditions.. they have been sprouting and rooting like there is no tomorrow - no idea why

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the Java moss is totally unaffected also.. but hasn't had the growth spurt of the others

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  • 4 weeks later...

I've just moved house, so my tank has been pulled apart, and reassembled once again. Unfortunately I lost a lot of the plants since the bucket they were in got lost outside for two days in the freezing weather.. we found it finally wrapped in a tarp so it had no light either. :(

Anyways.. this is what its looking like today. Its just a tad on the bare side :(

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Close up of my experimental Java moss attachments

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I can tell you one thing.. the marbled hatchets are tough lil fellas! they took a 100% water change no problems :( .. The neons did too, but they are the cockroaches of the fish world - not much knocks them off :() The moss isn't really growing much since i've attached it though.. Will it attach to the stone like I want? :(

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Thanks Mango .. if the moss doesn't take off I'll track down some riccia. And dont worry..I'm def putting in a couple of BN's. I'm wanting either Peppermints or Albinos, depending on what I can get at what price. My last bn was just the standard garden variety, but Mr Suckyface was awesome. I'm very partial to cats and loaches :(

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Doesn't riccia need huge amounts of light? I love the look of it but I've always steered clear as I only ever had 2 x 10,000K tubes on my 4' planted tank. Red plants slowly turn pink on me, so I assumed riccia was out. Hope I am wrong! :(

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I'm running a daylight strength marine globe (left over from my salty experiments), so light shouldn't be a problem. Usually I get the opposite effect and plants grow long and spindly on me & I have to cut the amount of time the light is on in order to get them to bush up

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It should be ok, the plant "Red Tiger Lotus" requires very bright light...more than riccia, but it seems to be doing very well under 2 tubes...so guess Riccia should be ok. Also mouse, just wondering where you are located. might be able to get some breeders for albinos and peppermints for ya :D Recent I bout 6 albinos for $50 :thumbs: Regards Mango :grouphug:

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