Photomic

Some photographs of Apistogramma cacatuoides 'super red' pair spawning in my 29 gallon community aquarium. Don't know how well they will do after the young become free swimming.

The biggest problem will be this school of Madagascar Rainbows, Bedotia madagascarencis that were a poor choice for this tank. Their rather large and aggressive and very strong swimmers making them difficult to catch in my heavily planted tank. Maybe I just need to get a bigger net.

I had some more photos framed at Art Heads here in Portland. They do really nice work and have an enormous amount of materials to work with. I love the use of a filet, a smaller frame made of wood or metal with a pattern within the frame and these silk mat boards.

Surface plants in one of my Aquariums.

Aquarium yesterday lit by the afternoon sun. After two years the planted aquarium has been doing very well. Algae is under control, water conditions stable. I believe the heavily planted aquarium maintains optimum water conditions. The plants help purify the water by utilizing the waste products of the living organisms like Ammonia from the fish and Nitrates from the nitrifying bacteria. I made a poor selection planting larger varieties of Sword plants and the Nymphaea that are too large for the size of this aquarium. I have to periodically trim away excessive leaves to allow light to the lower growing plants. The surface of the aquarium though is filtered by the leaves competing for light and this is effective in controlling Algae. Since the beginning of setting up the aquarium I had problems with Algae covering the surface of the aquarium but in the last few weeks the Algae variety that was such a problem has gone away.

The Madagascar Lace leaf another poor selection for this size
of an aquarium blooms frequently and produces small plantlets
that I am trying to encourage to take root.
In the Spring the Nymphae or Egyptian Lotus sends out runners.

A small piece of Java fern attached to a large piece of driftwood when I first set up the aquarium took awhile to establish but now has covered the driftwood and the leaves are breaking the surface providing shelter for smaller fish and shading the areas where the algae was such a problem before. I also encourage duckweed and surface plants like water lettuce and frog bit.

In addition to my 29 gallon community aquarium that I started in April of 2013 I have added two 10 gallon aquariums. One was started in the spring of 2014 and an additional one started in the fall. With the new aquariums I began one with a substrate of Amazonia aquarium soil and the other with organic potting soil and covered with standard sized aquarium gravel. I planted them and then added water from my seasoned aquarium just enough to cover the plants and left them alone to allow the plants to become established. I then slowly added water either distilled or collected rain water until the aquariums were full. At this point the aquarium was allowed to mature with only plants and whatever snails and micro life introduced with the plants for about three months. I wouldn't add a heater and just allowed the aquariums to remain cool which was usually around 65-68 degrees F. This helped the plants to dominate and suppress but not eliminate any algae overgrowth. I don't think it is possible to totally eliminate algae. I would then add a heater and introduce small freshwater shrimp to see if they could establish themselves before I added any fish. The Red Cherry Shrimp seem to be the most tolerant and will survive and reproduce. I then added a small population of Celestial Pearl Danios which did very well but did seem to keep the shrimp population in check. I only gave them supplemental food a few times a week and they seemed to be very well fed. I only see the occasional juvenile shrimp that has grown large enough to no longer be threatened by the small CPD's. The CPD's have reproduced but none of the young have survived for very long and this may have been by the adults eating the eggs and young. I also had a bit of a snail problem which may also have fed on the eggs. A single CPD fry did manage to make it in to the newer 10 gallon aquarium a month ago possibly when I moved some plants or water between the two aquariums. Without any competition or predators it's done very well. A week ago I added some Crystal Red Shrimp to seem if I could get them to establish themselves. About half of them died but a few remain. Their not as hardy as the Red Cherry Shrimp. What I would like to be able to create is a small sustaining population of the CPD's and shrimp.

I had to purchase new lights for the above set up. I had been using a 6 bulb 4 foot unit for T-5 HO fluorescents that was really great but the ballasts kept burning out and were two expensive to replace to make it very cost effective. I purchased two 3ft two bulb Aquatic Life lights that provide about 8 watts per gallon that I have on for 12 hours a day. These were expensive but hopefully will last longer. The wattage might seem excessive by the standard rule of 2-5 watts per gallon. I use surface floating plants like duckweed, frog bit and water lettuce that I have to thin out which filters the light a bit. My 29 gallon aquarium has 4 24watt bulbs for about 3 watts per gallon and has done well but I think it would do better with a six bulb unit. I planted the 29 gallon with large swords and Egyptian Lotus that dominate the surface and have to be thinned. If I could do it over again I would go with smaller plants for this size of Aquarium.

New Aquarium set up. I set this up around two weeks ago using a couple of inches of organic potting soil as a substrate and aquarium gravel over that to contain the potting soil. I added a mix of rain water and water from an aged aquarium and using a small canister filter. I also added a 1/8th cup of crushed coral to the substrate to provide some water hardness. I only have the aquarium about 1/3 full of water and have planted the aquarium. I do this to hopefully reduce algae growth and to allow the plants to grow emergent foliage to take advantage of atmospheric CO2. I am using a 4 foot 6 bulb T-5 HO light unit over two 10 gallon aquariums using a 6 hour light period followed by a 4 hour mid day dark period followed by another 6 hour light period and then dark for 8 hours. The other Aquarium I started 8 months ago but instead of potting soil I used the ADA product Amazonia aquarium soil with a covering of aquarium gravel. I planted primarily Cryptocoryn species. As the plants grew I added more aged water from my established aquarium and eventually added Cherry Red Shrimp and 6 Celestial Pearl Danios. I added the shrimp first and allowed them to establish themselves and then the fish. I believe the CPD's are feeding on the new born cherry shrimp. I have seen a few CPD fry. I've added Cambomba, water lettuce and duck week in hopes of providing some cover for the young fish. Snails from the plants have really taken over.