My 120g South American community tank

[WhistlingBadger]

Beautiful! I had a single angel for a long time, but I love the way yours look in schools. If my dentist friend/employer ever decides she wants a redo of the 150g, I might lobby hard for a northern Amazon tank. A dozen or so angels, huge schools of black neons and red phantoms, and lots of cories; lightly tanin-stained water, lots of driftwood and plants...

[Boundava]

That sounds like an amazing tank!

[angelcraze2]

Thanks all :) Update time! They've had time to get get used to the tank and color up. They have an incredible appetite, they get a bit chippy when they think there might be food. I love them though, I really missed having baby angels, they are so inquisitive.


Actually, I take it back, I think they are pinoy now. They have lacey fins and I'm pretty sure I see hints of blue. I'm really pleased with the pearlscale, a lot of them are expressing it nicely already. A mix of the pinoy pearlscale and platium paraiba would be nice!!! Or even if they pair with my blue silvers or platinum, it would make a nice combo.

I'm pretty excited for this and it's made me appreciate my own fish even more. I've decided I'll have to get a school of red phantom tetras instead of the flame tetras. Flame tetras are nice, but my red phantoms just glow. They stand out and I can see them across the room from the couch. That's something I like to consider with this tank. Anyway, here's an update pic of the 120g
20191103_194321.jpg
On a little side note, I was looking at how the red phantoms stand out. That one red phantom is there in that exact same middle spot in every full tank shot of this tank. I went back and looked! It was actually freaky!

I added an oriental sword plant at the base of the driftwood on the left. It's actually 2 or 3 plants, i'm letting them propagate and grow bigger. My goal is a bunch of sword plants for this tank (ok more!) with a melon sword foreground. A nice thing I noticed my melon swords have put on a growth spurt since I added the Finnex light, the leaves are almost double. But i'm also having an increasingly annoying cyanobacteria problem. I have to step up my game, admittedly, I've slacked a bit over the summer. But i'd like to reverse that and get back into taking better care of the tanks.

The hygro pantanol (was angustifolia) is doing really well, so I'll be using that around the amazon swords in the midground. I recently added 2 more val plants from the 90g, they went on the left side and were considerably lighter in color than the val in the 120g. Don't know what that means, but the darker green looks healthier I thought?

Also my tank is infested with mini ramshorn snails! But that's ok, they help eat diatoms while they are alive, and I just squish them now and then to feed my fish. Free fresh protein! My gold pearlscale comes swimming over when she just sees something pinched in my fingers. She waits for me to squish them and feed her. What a diva, she loves escargot I guess!

[angelcraze2]

That sounds like an amazing tank!

Oh! You can't see the pics? Well there's a short vid for ya ;)

[angelcraze2]

Also just had to add, those mini ramshorns are there for good. I found them in my filter even though I have an Eheim prefilter on the intake! I've never seen eggs, admittedly I'm not sure what they look like, but I've seen nothing that I think could be mini ramshorn eggs. Wonder how small they are?

Some info if interested
http://www.shrimptank.ca/2014/01/sma...orn-snail-eggs

[angelcraze2]

I bit the bullet and bought the Chihiros Algae Doctor. It claims to inhibit algae, pathogenic bacteria and help skin tissue and organ function (however that works).....
Anyway, here's a link to it
http://www.aquascapinglab.com/en/201...uascaping-lab/
https://images.app.goo.gl/ZTTGsPHXYJueXGnj6
download (1).jpeg
I think it's sort of acts like a sterilizer, like releasing oxygen for 30 seconds every hour or something. The manufacture is pretty vague how it works and I have my doubts, but I decided to try it anyway to see if I notice a difference in my 120g.

SO if anyone is interested in hearing/seeing results, I'll update

I also finally received a pump for my water changes. I have yet to try it out since I was waiting to receive it first before I went to find tubing, but i'm happy that I actually received something that looks nice. I like it that it draws water from underneath and says it has a 2 meter height, so I think it will work to make water changes easier and more convenient.
This is the one I got
$_1.jpeg
https://www.ebay.ca/vod/FetchOrderDe...=2510786061016

[Slaphppy7]

Good to hear from you again, it's been a while since you posted

[Boundava]

Agree, super glad your back. Would love to see how that algae deterrent works out for you. Definitely keep us posted

[angelcraze2]

Hi guys/gals, thanks for dropping by :) It has been a while hasn't it? I just haven't had anything exciting lately to share. Well, I do have some plans to move fish around, but i'm nervous to do it, so have been putting it off. I can run it by you if you don't mind later.

So I've done a bit of reading on electrolysis and more on this Algae Doctor contraption I bought. So it's not oxygen (o2) that is released/produced, it's oxidizing the water which is a sterilizing action.....Or something.
Admittedly, this info on redox is over my head
http://www.americanaquariumproducts....Potential.html
And I just can't figure out what it does. I'm going to test parameters and get back in a minute.

It does look pretty cool though, like smoke underwater. If I had any observations, my fish seemed more relaxed, the were no spats and they might be a bit lower strata (but that could be coincidental or my imagination). I was trying to find out if this thing added to the oxygen level.

[Boundava]

Wow thats a heavy read and brings back many lessons in chemistry, lol. It makes sense to me on paper but seeing it work in your tank long term will be very interesting.