16 gallon tank

I’ve tried a few times to get going with a smaller planted tank, to be used as quarantine tank or as a shrimp tank. It usually goes OK for a while then spins out of control. Newest pics are on top.

2016 shrimp tank

January 2016

In an attempt to keep adding color to the tank, I got a couple of swords and tucked them in the back — an ozelot (the speckled one) and a red flame sword. The existing sword on the right side has stayed small, so who knows whether these will outgrow the tank… normally, they would, but… In any case, if they do, I can move them to the big tank. In the meantime, they’re still in pots and haven’t yet shed their emersed leaves.

December 2016

Well, I tried out some celestial pearl danios. They didn’t do well, apparently because I wasn’t feeding the right stuff. But I added in some habrosus corydoras (a type of dwarf cory) since I moved the pandas to the big tank. They’re cute and lively!

The BGA is all gone, thankfully.

Beginning to think about adding shrimp in again.

November 2016

Starting to fight a BGA outbreak 🙁 Yanked most of the java moss, since the BGA likes hanging out in it.

September 2016

August 2016

July 2016

All the shrimp are dead again.

March 2016

While I was away on a trip, the tank spun a bit out of control. Lost the snails and the shrimp completely, likely because total dissolved solids in the tank is way too high. Also algae started to break out — GSA on the crypt parva and hair algae iun a few spots. A few days of regular ferts and reduced light seems to be helping.

Late February 2016

I’ve lost a few shrimp, but by and large they seem to be doing well.

Stock in the tank is currently seven ember tetras, two nerite snails, five pygmy corydoras, and three otocinclus. I’d like to get some green neon tetras to dither with the embers but they are hard to find.

Valentine’s Day

I moved some of the rotala back to the background, since it was growing at a very nice clip.Shortly after this I planted that water sprite towards the background.

Early February 2016

I added black sand on top of the gravel, because apparently it helps the shrimp color up, and because it is also better for the corys. I have neons in at this point, but they are destined for the larger tank to add to the big school there.

There was an outbreak of cyanobacteria during this period, and I solved it eventually.

January 2016

Here’s the initial setup, with some rotala, one amazon sword in the corner, crypt parva in the foreground, some hairgrass on the second tier, an anubias in the back, and various crypt wendtii and lutea scattered hither and yon.

This is at the end of January 2016.

Initial stocking is six red cherry shrimp and six neon tetras.

16g bowfront planted tank

The bowfront was purchased when we thought the other 16g had a leak. However, after leak tests, it turns out it doesn’t. Now it sits empty, on the patio. Doh.

Dec 2015

This is the final state of the 16g planted bowfront, in Dec 2015. The java moss took over, but then hair algae entered the picture in a big way. Attempted removal of that killed the java moss. Tank balance went to hell. The crypts had gotten so big they blocked all view — they should have been planted towards the back. The sword is barely visible, the moss had done so much damage to it. The wisteria was doing well, but I had grown to hate it.

It was easier to make a clean start than anything else.

The huge growth in the crypts was basically transferred to the large tank and to the redo of this tank. The larger foreground one turned out to be ten separate plants!

August 2014

June 2014

March 2014

Feb 2014

Had a lace plant going for a while as well as trying to have red cherry shrimp.

Jan 2014

Dec 2013

This was the peak of the bowfront. Not long after, a fungus of some sort started growing on that piece of driftwood and I had to remove it.

A gallery of some of the fauna:

Oct 2013

16g planted tank

This tank was intended to be a CO2 planted tank. But we had lousy luck with it altogether.

March 2013

By now I was trying out CO2 and some shrimp.

January 2013

Most of the plants died. I tried again with water sprite, since it’s usually such an easy plant.

April 2012