Some ideas needed for this tank..

Oh...on the ram color thing with higher PH....how's this for color ?

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I am wondering if the babies I have will be more tolerant of the PH issue since that's what they are being raised in. I plan on keeping some of them and compare how they do as apposed to the ones I purchased at the LFS. They really are beautiful little fish !
 
Emg, might I suggest you hide your heater behind everything? Just slide it towards the bottom of the tank, on the back wall. You might need to get a heater guard (it's to protect your fish from getting burned, goes around the heater).

Plus, I would add some malaysian driftwood which will lower your ph, and soften your water. It does stain your water slightly-heavily (varies by size of piece), but that will go away after a while with water changes. A lot of fish actually prefer their water stained though (that's why black water extracts are sold).

Also, some good plants for a 2wpg setup is Limnophila sessiflora (Ambulia), Dwarf lily (Aponogeton.....something, they sell the dry bulbs at walmart for about $3) they're a great low light plant, nice color and shape.



HTH,
Serg


p.s. When you do decide to remove the overpriced (IMO unattractive, sorry :) ) resin decor, make a cave with aquarium safe rocks, or driftwood, and you'll wonder how you ever kept a tank with retro decorations.
 
Holy poo... I think this is crazy! You mean to tell me that her fish are swimming by that resin rock with a castle on it that LOOKS like a ROCK and are going "Gee, I thought I was in the US! Where did that castle come from!? Am I in the UK? What happened? Oh God I'm so stressed out!! Lady! Please! Give me a real rock!!!" Please people... Personally, I am also a fan of the natural looking tank. I have natural gravel and an assortment of green fake plants, but I also have a resin rock with a castle on it because my 4 year old picked it out when we set up the tank. If she had picked out the neon pink plastic fake anemone, that would have gone in the tank and I don't think my fish would really care... So far, a pictus cat and a rubberlip are shackin' up in the castle and my cory cats, I swear to God, climb up and down the stairs on the thing cleaning each and every one like little finny janitors. I also have a giant resin viking shipwreck that is the centerpiece of my tank. I love the thing and it has a huge hole in the hull that my other two pictus and the other rubberlip play house it. I can't believe for a moment that i'm shortening the lifespan of my fish or making them stressed or unhealthy because I have dorky castles and shipwrecks in there.

When I was 12 or 13 I had a 20g long tank with guppies in it. I had the neon rainbow colored gravel in there and a fine assortment of orange, blue and pink plants. Those guppies were multiplying like rabbits on Viagra.

I think it's all a matter of taste. I'm sure it's different for dolphins and whales and sharks kept in public aquariums, but for my little fish tanks at home, I think all they care about is that I feed them well and keep their homes clean. I don't think they give a rats hiney if they've got resin rocks or real ones.
 
Aknif !!! YOu are TOO FUNNY !!! :laugh: ...and soooo right...lol...

("Quote from SoCalSunset.....p.s. When you do decide to remove the overpriced (IMO unattractive, sorry ) resin decor, make a cave with aquarium safe rocks, or driftwood, and you'll wonder how you ever kept a tank with retro decorations.)

Lol SoCal, overpriced is right...but I did put them in there because my daughter loves dragons and I knew she would like them..though the dragon is actually off site now..broken arm..lol..

I don't take offense at folks dislike of the decor...lol....I can totally understand the revulsion of the 'purists' in the aquarium field...lol...it's ok, I'm all grown up now and beyond being offended by such things.....unless of course it's Harlock picking on my ignorance of "Ich"...lol... ;)

OH, and SoCal...thanks for the suggestion on the heater...I was worried about putting it too near the plants...I don't think I have the planting thick enough down there just yet to really hide it very well. Maybe after they fill in a bit it could work...if such a thing is possible with such poor lighting...lol..
The malasyian driftwood sounds like a good idea...so that stuff really helps keep PH down? I do have a piece of driftwood in there at present, but I don't know what kind it is. I'll have to look around for a good piece for the 20L...but won't that cause problems with water changes if the water I'm adding is PH 8 and the tank is say...7 something ?
And thanks for the plant suggestions. I do have a couple of those lily bulbs sprouting out in a 5 gallon that I have. My neighbor had one in her tank and it was the red variety, very pretty.
 
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emg wot is tht clear box at the top of ur tank ????
 
I have a female ram in there treating her for red nematodes. I put her in there to make sure she gets to eat the medicated food I am feeding all the fish in that tank with. She is the only one who I have seen the worms in (coming from her vent)...she came with them along with 2 other females I bought at the same time....from the same batch. So far no other fish has been showing any symptoms..just have to wait and see. I'll be treating the whole tank for at least a month, three days a week per instructions on the package.

I did have them in a quarenteen before I added them to the tank, but obviously not for long enough. I researched the nematode they have and it requires a crustacean in order to complete thier cycle..so I'm hoping the others don't get them since I don't have any crustaceans. Lost one of the females last night. She was the first one to come down with symptoms. I did't realize that she was ill at first...just thought the others had been harrassing her so I seperated her into her own tank. By the time I realized it was something more...and I found out what it was (noticed the red wormlike thing coming from her vent) and got the proper meds..she had gotten to where she wasn't eating.

I am keeping a very close eye on the other fish in that 29 tank..so far the male ram, the gouramies and the otos seem to be just fine...but I'm treating them anyway to be sure.
 
Gouramies like floating plants. Water sprite floating on the top would look cool as the top portion of the aquarium is pretty bare. I am big on using driftwood as a PH regulator. It will bring your PH down. There is a lot of debate in here about the importance of PH. Wild caught fish need a proper PH. Most fish are domestically raised though... and are pretty adaptable. I use seachem acid buffer and only a tiny bit keeps my water pretty acidic. 8.0 is very high... but if they are doing well, why mess with it?
 
Yeah, that's kind of what I figured as well as far as the PH goes. I even have a 15 full of 3 week old baby rams who seem to be doing fine.

I do have a small clump of water sprite floating around on the top and the gouramies do enjoy following it around...lol...
 
THERE !! I took the ugly castle out...lol...

I left the smaller one in because I needed something in there and besides..that one isn't as bad as the larger one. I do like this much better, especially the left side of the tank where the driftwood and live plants are. That big plant on the right behind the rock/lighthouse is silk.

I really want to switch the gravel to Echo-Complete. I think the colors on the rams would look so much better and I would feel better about getting more low light plants in there. I really don't have enough lighting for alot of varieties...but I'm going to try some of that flourish Excel and see if that helps some. I don't mind if they don't grow real fast...I just would like them to look healthy!

Oh, I still have that one ram in the isolation tank there. Just to keep the other two from harassing her to death...until I can get those baby rams off to the LFS so I could put her in the 15.

Anyway, here's the tank now....by the way....no more algae bloom !
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Here's the "Before" shot to compare it with ....
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