Hye guys, i just started my low tech + cheapo equipment planted tank about 1 month ago. Hopefully can learn more from u all, im damn noob, my planted tank now looks like a plantation farm, really messy lol

My tank with tetras, danios and gae.


Untitled by xmox, on Flickr


Untitled by xmox, on Flickr

This post has been edited by calmshot: Feb 16 2013, 02:40 AM

I think u dont have to worry bout the cloudy water. That is normal for new tank, the cloudy happen due to bacteria bloom. This is because of nitrogen cycle. The water will become clear again within a month.

But indeed gold fish is a pooper, so get a good filter with bio media.

Just my dua puloh sen

This post has been edited by calmshot: Feb 16 2013, 06:55 PM

my oto that i just purchased from sisaiko doing a very good job cleaning up all the algae even at the outlet of the HOB lol


IMG_20130303_195953 by xmox, on Flickr

haha ya it is rm5 each.

meet mr little puffer


IMG_20130306_133428 by xmox, on Flickr

Feeding my puffers.

They are adorable but very aggresive, not good for community tank huhu

This post has been edited by calmshot: Mar 6 2013, 07:32 PM

Mine is Dwarf puffer aka indian dwarf puffer or pea puffer is a 100% freshwater puffer

http://www.dwarfpuffers.com




Update from my dem low tech tank just using liquid co2, WC 10% 1 time every week, coz i dont want to disturb the stabled water parameter too much. The HM and glosso started to propagate and grow nicely after almost 2 weeks i planted them in the tank


Untitled by xmox, on Flickr

This post has been edited by calmshot: Mar 6 2013, 11:25 PM

suddenly today when im back from work, my puffer tank was attacked by algae, the algae grew all over the aquarium glass and looks damn gross. Then quickly i took out one of my otto from my 2ft tank and put them in the puffer tank, crossed fingers hopefully the puffers will not attack the otto. Damn i was amazed by the result in less than 10 mins. see the action below


u can see the gross algae on the glass, the otto starting to do his job


Untitled by xmox, on Flickr


He's start to speeding up and eat the algae vigorously


Untitled by xmox, on Flickr


Result in less than 10 mins, my front glass cleared and clean from algae, the otto start to go to the side of the tank to eat more algae.


Untitled by xmox, on Flickr


i really recommend whoever that just started planted tank like me to get an otto for ur planted tank if u have an algae problem. but the only problem that i know is otto only eat certain type of algae only.

This post has been edited by calmshot: Mar 7 2013, 10:02 PM

haha maybe

again, want to share my lowtech jungle-serabai-notheme tank, just using liquid co2 once a week with small amount of dw lush.

fauna inside:
13 neon
3 GAE (wanted to get rid of the fish, but they are demm fast and hard to catch duh)
1 SAE
1 Otto
5 zebra danios
3 serpea tetra
2 nerite snail
1 ramshorn (just came into the tank couple of days ago, i dunno how the hell he came there)

picture taken on 6th march 2013:


Untitled by xmox, on Flickr


picture taken yesterday 24th march 2013 (around 2 weeks from previous picture):


IMG_20130324_195214 by xmox, on Flickr

The HM start to grow like crazy and glosso started to spread nicely below the substrate. as u can see the plant above the DW is a bunch of leftover glosso that i dont want to throw them away, they grow emersed lol.

This post has been edited by calmshot: Mar 25 2013, 03:22 PM

haha yah thanks for the tip, will try to do it on weekend

my temp between 26c (night) - 28c (noon), using fan, and every morning routine is to topup water

This post has been edited by calmshot: Mar 25 2013, 04:59 PM

Fish can live in wide range of water ph. As long there is no sudden fluctuation in ph and hardness that most likely to stress them.

My tank previously is 6.8 but since i have couple of snails inside, so i put some crush corals to provide calcium for them, so now my ph is around 7.2 all the way, but sometime reach 7.5 after topup new water, but then it will go down back to 7.2. All my fauna live happily.

This post has been edited by calmshot: Mar 25 2013, 11:48 PM

saw that u stated that u just started the planted tank 1 week ago, does it mean the tank and water just 1 week old?

if yes, ur tetra die because of nitrogen cycle called "new tank syndrome". let your tank cycle atleast for a month then u can put fauna inside. or u can put fauna earlier, but do expect it to die as new aquarium is full of toxin that harmfull for fish.

please read more on aquarium nitrogen cycle for new tank. read this as a beginning:
1. http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/biologic...trogencycle.htm

2. http://fins.actwin.com/mirror/begin-cycling.html

This post has been edited by calmshot: Mar 26 2013, 03:58 PM

cloudy is because of bacteria bloom, that's normal. please read the article that i gave u to understand

http://fins.actwin.com/mirror/begin-cycling.html

http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/biologic...trogencycle.htm

No worry bro, as i mentioned earlier

"Fish can live in wide range of water ph. As long there is no sudden fluctuation in ph and hardness that most likely to stress them."

And make sure ur water stable. As a beginner, just need to understand nitrogen cycle in tank, regarding the ph, as long it is stable, that is good enough for the fish.

This post has been edited by calmshot: Mar 26 2013, 04:41 PM

yup, but as long u are not change the whole water, then it is ok. just do around 20% -30% water change every 3 days for new tank for the first month. then just change 10% once a week after the nitrogen cycle completed, to maintain the stabled water.

as bro -kytz- said, slight fluctuations in pH is generally fine

that what i did to my tank. i have 0 casualties, but 1 of my zebra danio died because he jumped out from the tank lol.

now i didnt do any water change at all coz i know it is already stabled and i have a lot of good bacteria in my filter, just topup water and rinse my filter media only hauhauha, all my fish and now become fat and happy.


and one more thing, please use a good anti clorine/chloramine if u do water changes. do not pour direct water from the tab, coz it contain clorine that kills beneficial bacteria.




This post has been edited by calmshot: Mar 26 2013, 05:40 PM

those rm2 anti chlorine usually just remove chlorine not chloramine. u can get any water conditioner that stated remove chlorine and chloramine such this http://www.apifishcare.com/Products/Produc...px?ProductID=46 or can get any cheaper one in LFS, as long it stated remove chlorine and chloramine, that's good enough

This post has been edited by calmshot: Mar 26 2013, 05:22 PM

as long the fish still healthy and happy, u are good to go, just maintain the water. while wash ur filter, dont do it thoroughly, just rinse with the tank water or tab water that have been treated with the water conditioner, because u dont want to kill the beneficial bacteria from the filter media. That is the primary reason to have filter media which is to have a colony of bacteria that helping to keep the water stable for fish to live in.


fyi, i never have/buy test kit. I just do it, and trust the nature to take care of everything (plant, bacteria, fish).


another good article, at the last para, he listed what you shouldn't do

http://freshwater-aquarium-passion.blogspo...or-dummies.html

This post has been edited by calmshot: Mar 26 2013, 05:41 PM

My glosso almost covered the entire floor. Will update again in one week.

Fyi, my lowtech tank dont have any co2 injection, using cap ayam 36watt pll light, 15% soil using ada amazonia remaining campur with normal gravel + fish waste + worms huhu. Temp 26-28c.


Untitled by xmox, on Flickr

This post has been edited by calmshot: Mar 31 2013, 02:13 PM