doinkmobb
Member
- Messages
- 60
- Location
- Greenville, SC USA
First post, but I've been scouring the site for ideas, information and inspiration for a while now.
I got into planted tanks about 10 years ago and then set up my first blackwater biotope in a Mr. Aqua 17 gallon last April. I managed to keep the TDS below 150ppm and pH around 6.2, even with hard Florida tap water. I never once cleaned the filter, rarely did more than 1 gallon water change at a time, the tank parameters were rock solid and the fish were showing great colors.
We moved to Greenville SC in January and I was pleasantly surprised when I tested the water here: TDS = 25ppm, GH = 1-2 and KH = 1-2. Pretty much perfect. I thought about a 125 gallon Geophagus setup, but decided to go with a 75 and try my hand with some dwarfs (dwarves?) instead.
75 gallon 48x18x21in (280L 120x46x53cm, doesn't translate to metric well)
Temp - 80F (26.6C)
TDS - 83ppm (grabbed seasoned water from my holding tank for plants, had ferts in it)
pH - 7.4 (seems strangely high)
36" Finnex Stingray
24" ZooMed T5 double fixture
Eheim 2217
Fluval 304
Hydor 300w inline heater
Substrate - pool filter sand with a few handfuls of boiled gravel from the creek
Various pieces of wood
100+ Magnolia grandiflora leaves
Plants - Echinodorus 'Aschersonianus', Hydrocotyle leucocephala, Microsorum pteropus
Planned stocking:
15x Carnegiella strigata
8x Corydoras sterbai
8x Hyphessobrycon columbianus
20x Nannostomus marginatus
? Dicrossus filamentous
? Taeniacara candidi
3/11/16 - still cycling
I may block out some of the light with pet proof screening attached to lighting egg crate (that plastic grid stuff that goes in fluorescent lighting at work). I like the darker, dappled effect, but I need to see how the swords react. The long exposure created some blown out areas, it's not that bright in person.
I think I have all the wood where I want it. I hope the Echinodorus in the back left corner grow up and out enough to cover the filter intakes. I might throw another sword in the back, right of center. The Brazilian pennywort looked great when I bought it, but withered away to just the stems in a few weeks; new growth is starting again, but it'll be a looooong time before it's a nice thick, green mat covering the surface. The java fern might not stay, not thrilled with it. The 80 billion leaves create a lot of hiding places and should stain the water and release a good amount of humic acid, but they don't seem to be making a dent in the pH yet. I'm lucky to live about 500 feet from a couple big Magnolia trees, their leaves are thick and sturdy, they last forever and have a less identifiable shape than regular old oak leaves.
About the stocking...this will not be treated as a breeding tank! Just wanted to get that out of the way. Colombian tetras will go in first because they are inexpensive and I can actually pick them up at Petco. The LFS where I bought my tank carries saltwater and African cichlids, nothing else, unfortunately. I was thinking about a Rio Negro inhabitant like C. adolfoi or C. duplicareus, but the price put me off. C. sterbai should handle higher temps well. I've never owned pencilfish so I thought "why not" and the hatchets...I will keep them inside the tank this time.
As for the D. filamentous and T. candidi...I know they are on the difficult end of the spectrum, but I want to give them a go. I'm hoping 80F, TDS 50ppm and a pH of 5.5 should suffice. I was tentatively thinking about 6x D. filamentous and 2x T. candidi, if that's not feasible, I'd like to hear opinions. I think I have enough leaves, obstacles and dithers to keep the bloodshed to a minimum.
So now, I wait. The ammonia is gone and the nitrites are sky high. I'll test the water again on Sunday.
I got into planted tanks about 10 years ago and then set up my first blackwater biotope in a Mr. Aqua 17 gallon last April. I managed to keep the TDS below 150ppm and pH around 6.2, even with hard Florida tap water. I never once cleaned the filter, rarely did more than 1 gallon water change at a time, the tank parameters were rock solid and the fish were showing great colors.
We moved to Greenville SC in January and I was pleasantly surprised when I tested the water here: TDS = 25ppm, GH = 1-2 and KH = 1-2. Pretty much perfect. I thought about a 125 gallon Geophagus setup, but decided to go with a 75 and try my hand with some dwarfs (dwarves?) instead.
75 gallon 48x18x21in (280L 120x46x53cm, doesn't translate to metric well)
Temp - 80F (26.6C)
TDS - 83ppm (grabbed seasoned water from my holding tank for plants, had ferts in it)
pH - 7.4 (seems strangely high)
36" Finnex Stingray
24" ZooMed T5 double fixture
Eheim 2217
Fluval 304
Hydor 300w inline heater
Substrate - pool filter sand with a few handfuls of boiled gravel from the creek
Various pieces of wood
100+ Magnolia grandiflora leaves
Plants - Echinodorus 'Aschersonianus', Hydrocotyle leucocephala, Microsorum pteropus
Planned stocking:
15x Carnegiella strigata
8x Corydoras sterbai
8x Hyphessobrycon columbianus
20x Nannostomus marginatus
? Dicrossus filamentous
? Taeniacara candidi
3/11/16 - still cycling

I may block out some of the light with pet proof screening attached to lighting egg crate (that plastic grid stuff that goes in fluorescent lighting at work). I like the darker, dappled effect, but I need to see how the swords react. The long exposure created some blown out areas, it's not that bright in person.
I think I have all the wood where I want it. I hope the Echinodorus in the back left corner grow up and out enough to cover the filter intakes. I might throw another sword in the back, right of center. The Brazilian pennywort looked great when I bought it, but withered away to just the stems in a few weeks; new growth is starting again, but it'll be a looooong time before it's a nice thick, green mat covering the surface. The java fern might not stay, not thrilled with it. The 80 billion leaves create a lot of hiding places and should stain the water and release a good amount of humic acid, but they don't seem to be making a dent in the pH yet. I'm lucky to live about 500 feet from a couple big Magnolia trees, their leaves are thick and sturdy, they last forever and have a less identifiable shape than regular old oak leaves.
About the stocking...this will not be treated as a breeding tank! Just wanted to get that out of the way. Colombian tetras will go in first because they are inexpensive and I can actually pick them up at Petco. The LFS where I bought my tank carries saltwater and African cichlids, nothing else, unfortunately. I was thinking about a Rio Negro inhabitant like C. adolfoi or C. duplicareus, but the price put me off. C. sterbai should handle higher temps well. I've never owned pencilfish so I thought "why not" and the hatchets...I will keep them inside the tank this time.
As for the D. filamentous and T. candidi...I know they are on the difficult end of the spectrum, but I want to give them a go. I'm hoping 80F, TDS 50ppm and a pH of 5.5 should suffice. I was tentatively thinking about 6x D. filamentous and 2x T. candidi, if that's not feasible, I'd like to hear opinions. I think I have enough leaves, obstacles and dithers to keep the bloodshed to a minimum.
So now, I wait. The ammonia is gone and the nitrites are sky high. I'll test the water again on Sunday.