Japes' 2010 Eartheater Work/Photolog

[Miguel Monteiro]

Your tanks are beautiful. Congratulations. The S. leucosticta do well between them?
Mine are aggressive among them, but i only have three.

 

[Tom500]

Won't go into detailed stocking plans, but I bought it with the intention of Apistos. Will probably end up being a pair/trio of a species that takes my fancy (at this stage, a Nijsseni complex/baenschi variant) but it all depends on Jodi's shipment :soppy: Also looking at possibly 8 or so Nannostomus marginatus.

- Pair/Trio Apistogramma sp.
- 8x Nannostomus marginatus "Dwarf Pencilfish"
- 5x Otocinclus sp.

Tank specs:

50cm (20") Cube, 10mm glass, Rimless/Braceless
Grey ADA Style Cabinet
Eheim 2215 w/ Glass Lily Pipes
70W 10000K Fixed Halide

Anyway, photos in chronological order to the best of my knowledge - I've removed the ones linked earlier:

Day 1: January 17, 2010.

Check up a few posts ^

Day 2: January 18, 2010.

Ballast + Powerboard mounting.

Rear of the tank painted black.

Light mounted. Also took the light apart, which was a standard white colour, and fixed it up with some black and silver paint as well as rewiring it and fitting some coverage to still provide good cooling, but make it more presentable.

Day 3: January 19, 2010.

Sand in, and my awesome Aqua One 3in1 Tool with the rake/shovel attachment. Fantastic for sand!

The Lily pipes I got off Danny had the intake cut to remove the standard strainer to allow for more flow. I actually cracked it while doing this, but fixed it up with a diamond blade to be square and fitting it properly. Instead of attaching a sponge or something similiar, I prepped and painted an Eheim 17mm Strainer with Black Krylon Fusion to hide it at the back of the tank.

Moved some Coarse Sprite from the Tapajos tank over. To mix up the play sand a little I've got small sections of coarser gravel, which is a little more red in colouration than I would have liked, but has actually become a little more pale today, especially with the Tannins. Indian Almond leaves and wood arranged as well. Picked up a single Amazon Sword to begin with as well.

Eheim 2215 hooked up with the lily pipes and running too.

Otocinclus sp. from the Tapajos tank to keep the filter going a bit, have Zuccini in the tank to provide them with food (since there's no algae) and to keep the bioload reasonable.

Day 4: January 20, 2010

Things have cleared up and the tannins are beginning to creep in.

Things to do:

- Fish.
- Another piece of driftwood that spans to and possibly out of the water level to provide some shade and upper region cover.

Will probably post more updates as I'll hopefully be picking up some N. marginatus and driftwood tomorrow.

Edit: Removed all plants and don't plan to purchase any due to some lovely biotope advice from local keepers.

I really honistly think that is the nicest looking setup ive seen anywhere!
It really is breathtaking, its perfect!

 

[Tom500]

Also what are the floating plants you use?

 

[MBay]

Isn't that Ceratopteris? Crazy-growing, a very good addition to filtration system (it "eats" all nitrates etc.).

 

[japes]

It is indeed a type of Ceratopteris. I bought it as "Coarse Sprite".

 

[natas 199]

nice

 

[Gigit]

Cool, I love them too.

 

[Windsorguy77]

absolutely astonishing tanks. It's quite obvious that alot of research and dedication/work goes into your projects. Keep up the great work, and posts!

Awesome

 

[japes]

Ok, so a few photos and then a heap of full tank shots and a summary of my tanks, now that they're all finished for the time-being.

Male Dicrossus maculatus.

215G Rio Essequibo, Guyana Biotope
- 6x2x2' Glass
- Drilled to a 45G 3'x15"x18" Custom Glass Sump, 10L Seachem Matrix, 600mL Seachem Purigen, 4L EHFI Substrat, 10L Glass Noodles, powered by an Eheim Compact+ 5000 w/ Fluval FX5 return nozzle.
- 2x 2x39W 6500K Hagen GLO Setups.
- Heated by an Eheim Jager 300W.
- Decor: Melaleuca & Mangrove driftwood tangles, small amount of Ceratopteris sp. (Sprite)

11x Satanoperca leucosticta
40x Hyphessobrycon rosaceus "Rosy Tetra"
20x Hemigrammus ocellifer "Head & Tail Light Tetra"
10x Otocinclus sp.

30G Rio Huallaga, Peru Biotope
- 20x20x20" Rimless/Braceless Glass Cube (10mm)
- Grey ADA Style Stand w/ Cubelock Light Mount
- Eheim Classic 2215 w/ JBL Micromec + Standard Media to CAL Aqua Lily Pipes
- 150W 6500K Halide
- Heated by a Hydor ETH 200W Inline Heater
- Decor: Various Melaleuca, Mopani & Mangrove on a fine sand mix, w/ Terminalia catappa (Indian Almond) leaves.

3x Apistogramma baenschi "Inka 50" (1M 2F)
10x Nannostomus marginatus "Dwarf Pencilfish"
5x Otocinclus sp.

50G Rio Tapajos, Brazil Biotope
- 3x18x18" Glass
- Eheim Professional 2228 w/ Standard Media
- 2x39W 6500K Hagen GLO Lighting
- Heated by a Hydor ETH 200W Inline Heater
- Decor: Various Melaleuca + Other Driftwood on a fine sand mix, w/ Terminalia catappa (Indian Almond) leaves littering the whole floor w/ Amazon Chain Swords.

5x Dicrossus maculatus "Spadetail Checkerboard Cichlid" (1M 4F)
3x Taeniacara candidi (1M 2F)
10x Hyphessobrycon heliacus "Kitty Tetra"
5x Otocinclus sp.

 

[JK47]

They all look amazing Japes. Is it a good feeling to sit back and be "done" for a little bit?