Plants, Inverts, and tiny fish in Olympia

[pbmax]

Hello everyone! I'm new here and fairly new to the hobby, though I've frequented Aquaria Central and Arizona Inverts for some time. I started with a single 29g aquarium that I bought from Aquarium Paradise about 2.5 years ago that quickly morphed into a high-tech planted tank with CO2, a PH controller, a regular fertilizing regimen, and tons of plants. The original idea was to set up a larger planted tank (I really got into all of this for the plants) then a smaller one in my son's room (he was just a bump back then) to add white noise and ambiance. Fast-forward to today and I have 9 tanks (29g, 2x20g, 4x10g, 3g, 2.5g), all but one of which are heavily planted with a variety of smaller fish and inverts. My CO2 regulator failed some time back so I'm not quite as high tech now, but I've made do without it and my last 2 tanks have been soil-based Walstad Natural Planted Tank setups.

The original set of Brilliant Rasboras I purchased back when I first setup the tank are still alive, wondrously. Since then I've gone through platies, guppies, and mollies and landed squarely on Danios and Corys as my current favorite fish to keep (and they don't die so much ). I'm also an an invert enthusiast, though I tend to keep the easy ones (Neocaridina shrimp, mystery snails, etc.) since I failed at keeping Crystal Red shrimp. I've successfully bred Zebra, long-fin Zebra, and Celestial Pearl Danios, Panda Corys, Neocaridina and Malawa shrimp, and various live bearers. There's nothing terribly challenging in that list, but I've had a great time getting this far.

I've been wanting to meet local fish nerds like me for quite a while now; I'm looking forward to spending time on here getting to know everyone.

Here are some (dated) photos of my nicer tanks.


I keep Yellow Shrimp, Celestial Pearl Danios, and Heterandria Formosa in this tank.


I keep Brilliant Rasboras, Long-Fin Zebra Danios, Malawa and Snowball / Blue Pearl Shrimp, a Golddust Molly, and a Cajun Dwarf Crayfish in this tank. The moss wall on the left has since filled in and is up for trimming again.


I keep N-class Endlers in this tank along with malawa shrimp and assassin snails in this tank.

 

[czeiszler]

Love your tanks. I am trying my hand at a planted tank with RCS and pgmy cories and a dwarf honey sunset gourami and 1 lone white cloud tetra. It is still in process of growing someday I hope it looks like yours.

 

[czeiszler]

Oh and :welcome!:

 

[DMD123]

Wow, awesome planted tanks! :spoton:

:welcome!:

 

[pbmax]

Love your tanks. I am trying my hand at a planted tank with RCS and pgmy cories and a dwarf honey sunset gourami and 1 lone white cloud tetra. It is still in process of growing someday I hope it looks like yours.

Thanks! The middle tank (my first) looks better than that now, but I've been slacking on photos.

I just got some pygmy corys (which I love) from the wet spot about 3 weeks ago and they're hanging out in my new 20g Walstad NPT with some RCS as well.

Good luck in your efforts! I use the flourish line (comprehensive, excel, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, iron) on 5 of my tanks (including those in the photos). My plants aren't perfect, but they're good enough for me.

 

[flo77]

Congratulations! You have beautiful tanks and healthy plants! And the pictures are awesome! I'm very happy to see that somebody has almost same interest as melanted tanks, shrimp, endler, corys, CPD.

 

[Madness]

Awesome looking tanks. Kinda wish Cichlids didnt dig and destroy so much.

:welcome!:

 

[pbmax]

Congratulations! You have beautiful tanks and healthy plants! And the pictures are awesome! I'm very happy to see that somebody has almost same interest as melanted tanks, shrimp, endler, corys, CPD.

Thanks! You, sir, have fantastic taste :cheers:

Awesome looking tanks. Kinda wish Cichlids didnt dig and destroy so much.

:welcome!:

Thank you! Yeah, me too... Cichlids are fantastic fish, but I can't part with my plants. I did at one time think about getting some Multis. Unfortunately I'm forbidden from setting up another tank until at least December of this year. :cry:

 

[pbmax]

I kicked out my inner slacker this morning and grabbed some new tank photos before the sun came up to mess up my shots. My 29g has gotten a bit wild, but it has a certain beauty to it. I need to grow something on the right to hide the heater/filter intake and trim the moss wall. I did some trimming on both tanks over the weekend.

 

[VsKitchen]

Great looking tanks! :welcome!:

 

[finsandfeathers]

Awesome looking tanks!!!

Tried to do planted for a while but some of my cichlids had a $100 a month habit LOL romaine lettuce is so much cheaper. Now my 12 year old son has taken to a planted tank, even starting to do his own maintenance gotta give him credit LOL he's doing a pretty good job his few lil plants are turning into a jungle

 

[pbmax]

Jungles are the best way to go I don't have the patience or creativity for aquascaping... I just throw a bunch of plants in and mess with them until the tank looks halfway decent.

 

[czeiszler]

My planted tank is a jungle and I love the look of it. I need to stock a few more fish in my tank. My cories are so cute though they have started laying on the leaves of my plants during the day.

 

[Jess S]

Beautiful tanks!

 

[sandnuka]

How long did it take for the amazon swords to get that big??!?!? itleast 1 and a half years right??? looks awesome though.... I just dont have the patients to let my tanks sit for that long to grow.

anyway, welcome to WFB, cant wait to hear more on your plant knowledge, you obviously know what your doing. great group we have here too, so enjoy yourself.