Advice

[kgreenjinx]

Heres a few shots of the current tank. Taken a couple weeks ago during an algae bloom. Canopy still in progress.

[ClownLoachSharky]

nice. if ou want good growth look look up minerilized top soil.

[clownloach23]

i just transfered my 5, 2" clown loaches into my bigger tank 3 to 4 days ago i have not seen them except for one or two at night under the blue light all i have in the tank with them is a panda gorro they dont have any disease and the temp is at 80*F and its all testing perfect i was wandering if theres any thing or it just what they do when they go into a new tank or if there is something wrong

george

[NancyD]

Nice fish & plants kgreen but that looks like way too much soil & too large capping stone & too shallow depth of gravel.

CLS, I understand the soil's value to plants, my main trouble is with digging fish on soil that can get stirred into the water column...it's about plant health vs fish happiness...I always go with fish health & happiness (not what my new aquatic plant friends like to hear, lol...Diana, you know, lol) Discus change everything IME!

[kgreenjinx]

Well shoot. Thats what you get for listening to people who you think you could trust on it. So we are going to remove all substrate and mix up and add the mineralized substrate as suggested. We need to find a good smooth larger grain sand small gravel to cap with.

[ClownLoachSharky]

thats why i suggested minerilized top soil. Its not that different to flourite or those other over priced soils. Just cap it and you should be fine really. Dustinsfishtanks has clown loaches in his 220 gallon with rainbows, good flow, dirt and plants. His clowns are vibrant as marines.

[kgreenjinx]

We had followed the directions for the amount of substrate from a local aquatic store. They said with clowns you could add more to allow for better rooting. LOL Everything that you mention is what is supported on the net. Everywhere we can find says max 2 inches of soil. plus capping. So thank you for pointing that out. There are several different formulas for "mineralized soil' out there. Is there any component we should avoid?

[ClownLoachSharky]

not really im in the progress of making mine and will be adding potash and dolomite lime and bloos and bone on the base, and clay with the soil on top capped with fine gravel.

[starsplitter7]

Let us know what the reading was. I can tell you they get snarky when you test their water. People in our fish club have done that. I would definitely check the bag of water if you buy fish again. Acclimating when the fish have been kept in brackish water is really tricky.

[kgreenjinx]

We have not made it in to petco yet. We asked the manager and he said they do put salt in one of the tanks that the loaches were in. But some of the other loaches were in a bank of tanks that did not have salt. So I don't know. We will probably be going in this weekend. We have one question though. We read some people cap with sand on top of the soil. What keeps the sand from working down into the soil. Naturally, the smallest grain size will end up on the bottom. or does it take so much time that it is not important. We are gearing up for the changeover this week, and want to be prepared with the right/best capping

[Ardillakilla]

Some LFS had TDS so high that it seemed low on one of my TDS meters. It appeared to be a low number until I realized it was over 1000 and my TDS meter had truncated the value.

I often spend hours drip acclimating fish and have to put an airstone and heater in their buckets.

[kgreenjinx]

Interesting. I need to see what max value for my pen tds meter is.

[ClownLoachSharky]

yea the sand on top should be fine. just get a coupe of inches on top so nothing leaches. I think its because the topsoil is fine aswell. And thats shocking with the high salts. they should be completely SALT FREE.

[jonstfrancis]

Nice set up and fish!

CLS, I understand the soil's value to plants, my main trouble is with digging fish on soil that can get stirred into the water column...

I was looking through a really old book on aquariums and the writer advised putting down three layers in a planted aquarium. 1 was soil, 2 was sharp gravel/grit and 3 was rounded gravel. The grit was to cover the soil and I assume this design is to dissuade digging fish from upsetting the soil and roots while they could happily poke about in the top layer.

But I've not seen this idea in any more recent books so I'm assuming it lost favour for reasons...

[starsplitter7]

Your tank is beautiful and the fish look healthy. ALthough one of the discus has a sour look on his face.

I am not sure if Petco has a single system, most pet stores do, so it they are using salt on a single system all the tanks have salt, and if there's ick, everyone has ick. Just something to keep in mind. Sometimes you can tell by looking. I am interesting in knowing what you find.

I am not great with planted tanks. Between the loaches and the catfish my plants don't last long. I keep sand with pebbles and smooth river rock for a substrate.