Return of the SPACK - Tank Log

[SPACKlick]

So the Reactor is now installed. This has been a faff of a morning. I have cut so much hose and screwed in and unscrewed so many of those compression collar fittings that my fingers are raw. Now I just need to actually get the amount of CO2 dialled in. The reactor is pretty silent right now but we'll see if it stays that way once everything is dialled up. The only minor annoyance is that I've ended up with the quick disconnect between the reactor and tank at the tank end rather than the reactor end. But I can live with that.

In the mean time. I had to move the bamboo shrimp to my LFS. They were picking at the substrate a lot, getting a little bullied by the Amanos and the SFF's. I tried feeding little and often to keep more in the water but it was definitely overfeeding the tank and they still didn't seem happy. It didn't seem fair to keep them. I'm also not seeing many of the cherry shrimp in the quarantine tank. I think there are still 5 in there but I've not seen more than 2 at a time for a while. Cannot wait to get the lemon's into the main tank to really fill out the shoaling look.

I'm having a slight nitrite spike having recently fiddled with a lot of the substrate and plants which is an annoyance. Need to keep an eye on that. I'm also concerned about the number of MTS in the tank so I'm starting to pick out the larger ones to try and cycle the population somewhat.

[SPACKlick]

Nitrite went down within 24 hours, everyone is settling into the tank well. Cherry shrimp seem to be happier this time.

My big issue this week is that the tank is getting up close to 27 degrees. The room it's in isn't all that hot but I guess the new reflectors are putting more of the heat back into the water.

I'm looking to jerry rig a fan of some kind to blow air through the hood but if it's already at 27 I'd hate to think what will happen during a heatwave like last year. Anyone else having heat issues this week?

[plankton]

As long as there's water movement and an airflow around the tank it should be ok. The temperature isn't totally constant in the wild.

[SPACKlick]

Yeah, Airflow is what I'm a bit concerned about. I've got perspex lids an inch over the water with only an inc or so gap at either end and then the wooden hood that has two fist sized holes at the back.

Can't leave the hood open because the lights are attached to it (although I'm considering jerry rigging some sort of stand for the lights so I can open it. I've removed the perspex lids for now and a little fan at one of the holes in the back of the hood.

[LookoutTrout]

Tanks getting to nearly 30 in the summer isn't unusual and even cold water fish should be fine for the usually short hot spells.
I worry more about keeping the room cool and humidity down. Keeping your house cool depends on your house and location, mine stores a lot of residual heat so I have to force a lot of air through at night, then when it gets warmer outside shut all the windows and turn the dehumidifier on. Keeping the room cool helps keep the tank cool and keeps everyone else happy too.

[fr499y]

Mines hit 30's already and I'm not too bothered as there is plenty of water movement going on. I also have a perspex lid on the sump and a polycarbonate lid on the tank. I wouldn't over think it too much

[SPACKlick]

Been a while since I posted a update. Tank is generally going well. Added some new red plants and the AR pink was dying off. Still having to haul out huge volumes of plants regularly because of the healthy growth. The Vallis has invaded my central lawn but when it's short I'm not sure which are Vallis and which are dwarf sag so I don't think I'll ever be rid of it.

Lemon tetra have got to the size where they're displaying lots of dominance behaviour between males and it may just be my eyes but they look like they're colouring up a little. The barbs are still regularly trying to breed, I think only 3 female babies have survived. Neons have settled in and are all over the tank.

Only one of the cherry shrimp is ever about, he may be the only survivor so I'll probably need to add more. The amanos all look healthy but a couple of them look like they're getting old. So when I add Cherries I might buy some young Amano Shrimp to keep the population going.

I have recently done a huge prune on the vallis because it was over crowded and growing poorly and it's caused a mini-cycle. I need to do it more often and more carefully I think because the tank is heavily filtered and heavily planted so I shouldn't be seeing this behaviour but the bacteria just seem to prefer the roots of the vallis.

[SPACKlick]

Another gap between updates. The Vallis has only just recovered from the big prune in September and now is shooting up. The Rotala's have given a nice splash of red. I've also added a third plant, red root floater, to the floating section because I like the heterogeneous look and they've all exploded again. I don't know what it is about mixed species floating plants but they always seem to do better.

Had a bit of an accident with the CO₂ earlier in the week. I'm running at basically the max capactiy of the reactor I'm using without noise. I made a small adjustment to the flow and was generally happy with the lack of noise but noticed shortly after some odd behaviour from the shrimp. The pH had crashed below 6 so water change, and massive water turnover and everyone survived it and I'm back to tuning the CO₂. I have a design plan for a long horizontal reactor that should be quieter and allow better control over the CO2 cooking in the back of my head but I doubt I'll ever make it a reality.

Recent additions are 10 cherry shrimp and 10 amanos. I forgot how tiny young amanos are, I basically never see them. The yellow cherries are all over the central lawn. The Lemons are developing a very slight yellow tint as, to my surprise, are a couple of the flying foxes. It still amazes me how with 62 fish, 36 shrimp and 8 decent sized snails there are times where I can hardly see a singles animal.

Some close ups of various inhabitants (The lemon tetra refuse to be photographed)


Full Tank Shot


5 sections of the tank


Floating Garden

[fr499y]

Looks awesome bud!

[Sarah]

Your tank looks great.