# 30cm cube journal



## coldmantis

Started 3 months back maybe april or march

My girlfriend bought me the cube and a hob canister filter, this is going in my bedroom so it must be silent.

*Equipment*
30cm cuba from ai
large lamp from ikea with 1 26w cfl 6500k
up aqua hob canister filter
pressurized co2

*Livestock*
to be announced

*Plants*
Dwarf Hairgrass
Dwarf Baby Tears Cuba
to be announced 
Daily dose of micro+macro 1 hour before lights turn on

So 3 months worth of dry start and this is what I got, not too impressive.


















decided to add a tree so the riccia had to go









it's time for the labour of tying moss to the driftwood, pheonix moss on the left and hopefully maybe praying that it's flame moss to the right, went to frank's for flame but they sold the last one. Had to go to aquapets to get it but most of it was already brown and dying so I convince they guy to give me extra.


















1 hour later and it's done









took a long time to fiqure out where the filter should go because the dw is just too big it's about 18"+ tall and 12" wide with all the branches.









pic before filling it up









filled on june 6th 2011, I originally want to keep this dhg, hc cuba, blyxia and all red stem plants I have but my gf suggested to just leave it as is and wait for it to fill it.









side shot









cuba pearling after co2 and fill up









tell me what you think


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## alexxa

can u give me the link of the regulator?
and do you need a adaptor between the paintball tank and regulator?


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## cb1021

Nice to knw you can get pearls with that bulb...sweet.


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## coldmantis

I just finished poking the substrate and siphoning the water out since it was in dry start mode for 3 months the surface got hard and is completely covered in blue/green algae hopefully my fertz will take care of it. I also added 10+ more clumps of hc cuba, I think my plant list will be 4-5 different red plants in the back and blyxia, downoi on one side.


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## coldmantis

*June 7th*

I'm starting to think that doing dry start was a bad idea, blue/green algae is taking over. I have some potassium nitrate lying around anyone got an idea on how much I should dose (dry) for a 7.5gallon to fight the algae/bacteria. with the dw in there and the filter it's hard to do a blackout. Manual removal is so hard with this substrate because it's so light.


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## alexxa

wow the algae grown that fast in only 1day?


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## alexxa

Flooding the Tank 

Once the plants have filled in like shown above, it's time to fill the tank with water. Once the water is filled, CO2 injection is required and needs to be kept very high for 2 weeks close to 5 bubbles per second (bps). Afterward, bring it down to 3bps. Setup lights as per the plants requirements. (Cuba is not a very light demanding plant). Setup filter that you have decided on using. If you are using nutrient rich substrate like ADA Amazonia II, follow the below light and water change routine.

Week 1: 3 Hrs of Light , 50 % Water change once in 3 Days
Week 2: 5 Hrs of Light , 30 % Water change once in 3 Days
Week 3: 7 Hrs of Light , 30% Water change once a week
Week 4: 9 Hrs of Light , 30% Water change once a week

Your tank is completely cycled after this stage and if you follow the above routine you will have minimal algae issues except for some diatom algae during the first 2 weeks on the glass which is easily wiped off during your water changes.


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## coldmantis

1 day lol that pic is after I stir up the substrate and got as much as possible out and like 6 hours later it all came back. and as for cycling the filter it's a canister filter that has been running in a cycled tank for 3 months so instant cycle. I just going to dump in some potassium nitrate and hope for the best.


alexxa said:


> wow the algae grown that fast in only 1day?


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## cb1021

I don't think your bank is balanced. Plants do not need complicated fertilizing regime to grow extremely fast and well. Your HC is perhaps experiencing shock going from dry to wet, so they are not processing tank nutrients as efficiently as before, so any additional nutrients will go to algae, as you know....

I'd stop the ferts and add some fish to help you clean the algae. You might even experience a bacterial bloom in the near future, which will balance out and give you crystal clear water if you have a little patience. There might be a huge amount of ferts stuck in your gravel, if you have been dosing during the dry start. Consider that. 

You got a good substrate, good co2, and excellent lighting. The 3 essential elements, and for ferts you just need bio-load. That's must me though. 

Not really sure how the dry-start fad came about.


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## cb1021

How the hell did I type "bank" instead of "tank".


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## coldmantis

cb1021 said:


> How the hell did I type "bank" instead of "tank".


money issues from spending too much money on this hobby


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## alexxa

do u think adding some excel might help?


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## coldmantis

will let you know in a week, I just started dosing macro/micro (liquid) everyday, 1/8 tsp of pottasium nitrates (dry) every other day, and excel everyday along with co2 injection at 1bps. I will be doing wc once or twice a week until the blue/green algae is gone.


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## alexxa

any update?


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## coldmantis

some of the algae is peeling off the substrate by itself, I stir up the substrate and sucked out as much of the blue/green algae as possible, it's slowing down and not coming back as fast but I still have some. added 1 2.5" swordtail, 1 golfball size mystery snail and 3 yellow shrimp, added some rotala and blyxa. and I somehow scratched the tank!!! 2 long scratches down one side of the front


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## alexxa

coldmantis said:


> some of the algae is peeling off the substrate by itself, I stir up the substrate and sucked out as much of the blue/green algae as possible, it's slowing down and not coming back as fast but I still have some. added 1 2.5" swordtail, 1 golfball size mystery snail and 3 yellow shrimp, added some rotala and blyxa. and I somehow scratched the tank!!! 2 long scratches down one side of the front


wow how did you scratch your tank?


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## 03pilot

Hi Coldmantis,

Just found your thread today and thought I should share my personal experience on fighting Blue-Green algae with you.

BG Algae are not a normal type of algae. They are actually a form of bacteria called cyanobacteria. I hate this stuff because it can take over your tank literally overnight and its smell is disgusting. I tried manual removal and Flourish Excel dosing but it always find a way to come back.

People have used antibiotics called "Erythrocin" to remove BG algae successfully. (More info here: http://www.malawicichlidhomepage.com/aquainfo/algae_erythromycin.html ) Unfortunately, even though Erythrocin is a very mild antibiotics, we need a prescription to get it from any drug store in Canada. Yes..I have already tried . So this is not an option unless your doctor is willing to do that for you.

After more google research, I found this product available at Big Als. You need to ask a more experience staff to get it because not everyone there knows where to get it: http://www.bigalsonline.ca/Fish_Alg...een-Algae-Remover_8090369_102.html?tc=default

There is no shortage of positive online testimonials on this product. Its kind of expensive but really what's not in this hobby?  Two recommended dosage took care of all my BG Algae. I still have more than half left in the little bottle. So really the treatment only cost me less than $7. It has absolutely no ill effects on my plants (oh...I have a good varieties), my RCS, Amano, Black Neon, Otto cat, CPD were all fine. I just lost one assassin snail probably due to BG attack as its shell all covered with BG. My other assassins were fine. The BG Algae will gradually turn brown and die in a few days. Then you can just siphorn the stuff out. Its been at least three months and no sign of it coming back yet. 

Looks like you haven't put in any expensive live stock yet so I would recommend you consider the above if your current plan failed. But I can't be held responsible... If you have doubt then remove any livestock before the treatment.

Sorry for the long post....just my $0.02

Edited: btw...your tank looks great. The shape of your driftwood looks interesting...I am sure it'll look great once you have moss all over it . Also I could be wrong...but I think you have willow moss instead of phoenix moss. They look quite different from phoenix moss so it may not give you the effect you want. Not sure what's the other moss...hard to tell from the picture. Cheers!


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## coldmantis

thanks for the advice pilot, but when I was dosing 1/8tsp of no3 the blue/green algae turned brown overnight some of it not all of it. I'm going to keep trying this first, if it don't work I'll tear it down and rotate it so I won't see the scratch lol

@alexxa
no idea how, at first I thought it was bought like that and I didn't inspect it properly, nothing sharp has touched that tank so I have no clue, my only theory is that maybe there was some on my cloth and I wiped the glass too hard but I don't think so. all I know is that day 1 when I filled it I don't remember seeing it but day 3 I say it. it's not something you can miss.


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## alexxa

any new photos of your tank?


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## coldmantis

*June 17th*

Got Tired of looking at the swamp that has covered my substrate and plants and also the 2 scratches so I decided to tear the tank down. I took out the tree just incase blue/green algae comes back I don't want my fissidens to die off I only have so much. added some small stones with fissidens on it, blyxa and rotala. I remember a year ago on my 20g tall I got blue/green algae out of nowhere, I remember reading something about old bulbs will cause this so I got new bulbs and the algae went away in days. so just incase I raised the light around 5" from the top of the tank and also replaced the bulb with a new one, also rotated the tank. I still have a little very little blue/green algae but that's whatever I didn't shake off from the substrate/plants when I redid the tank. it's been 1 day and I don't see a huge spread of blue/green algae like I did before.

side shot









front shot


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## alexxa

coldmantis said:


> *June 17th*
> 
> Got Tired of looking at the swamp that has covered my substrate and plants and also the 2 scratches so I decided to tear the tank down. I took out the tree just incase blue/green algae comes back I don't want my fissidens to die off I only have so much. added some small stones with fissidens on it, blyxa and rotala. I remember a year ago on my 20g tall I got blue/green algae out of nowhere, I remember reading something about old bulbs will cause this so I got new bulbs and the algae went away in days. so just incase I raised the light around 5" from the top of the tank and also replaced the bulb with a new one, also rotated the tank. I still have a little very little blue/green algae but that's whatever I didn't shake off from the substrate/plants when I redid the tank. it's been 1 day and I don't see a huge spread of blue/green algae like I did before.
> 
> side shot
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> front shot


did you replant your HC? they look different


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## coldmantis

I replanted everything and change the layout a little, also added more substrate so I can have a slope and plant the stem plants easier in the back.


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## alexxa

i am also planning to replant my 3g tank after the exams
Its quite messy now


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## alexxa

so how did you manage to kill the algae?


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## coldmantis

algae is coming back, but not nearly as bad as before where it only took like 1.5 days to cover the substrate, I would say in total it's covered like 20% of the bottom, I'm just going to wait it out and see what happens, I can't keep poking at the substrate and redoing the tank all the time.


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## alexxa

i dont understand why those blue algae would appear in emersed setup but no in a regular submersed tank


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## coldmantis

going to try one last desperate thing to kill all algae, feed my 2 black skirt tetras extra shrimp pellets, turn of co2 and garbaged bag the whole thing. This was done on tuesday night will take out the blackout tonight and hopefully I will have blue/green algae free tank, and not 2 dead floating fish and dead plants.


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## coldmantis

took out the garbage bags for the black out I don't think it worked, the algae is still there but it looks pale will know in a few days if it grows more or not, but oddly the rotala in the back looks a little week but grew to the top of the tank in pitch black? I think I used like 4 layers of garbage bags.


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## Stephen

Any info on your co2 setup you could share?

In my experience you need more black out time to kill off algae like that.
Algae in the water floating is a different story.


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## alexxa

How's the algae?


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## coldmantis

I think it's been a week and I dont' see any new growth, I did however done a h2o2 injection. I think that help as well. I put in a few firereds to help with any blue/green algae that turn brown.


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## alexxa

My hc is now growing very quickly, but the hg doesn't grow


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## Stephen

pic update?


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## coldmantis

Stephen said:


> pic update?


no point it looks like shit, bga is slowly coming back and the tank is covered in brown algae, I added 3 fire reds, 3 baby plecos and went out and bought a large oto cat to help with the brown algae. after they eat it all I will spot treat with h2o2 again and wait for the bga to turn brown again.


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## Stephen

I feel bad for your luck with that algae. It smells so bad. 
Thankfully I have never had the issues you are. Good luck.


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## alexxa

http://www.aquariumslife.com/algae-control/blue-green-algae/
see here. maybe u need larger water current and more oxygen


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## coldmantis

alexxa said:


> http://www.aquariumslife.com/algae-control/blue-green-algae/
> see here. maybe u need larger water current and more oxygen


I'll probably put an airstone in the tank, but I do have a spare powerhead I don't think I need it though since I'm using a canister filter on the tank. it's been under 24hours and 30% of the brown algae is gone thanks to the cleaning crew.


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## alexxa

hows it now?


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## alexxa

any update?
i am planning to add water to my tank tonight, do i have to add excel?


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## coldmantis

got a job so haven't had time to do any fish stuff lately I just left it alone, the bga is gone for sure this time. I think it took like 3 doses of h2o2 for it to finally disappear for good. adding HM carpet and UG carpet, surprisingly the UG grows better then the cuba and the UG was from emerse form. pictures were taken with a webcam so not the best. also added 3 baby pleco, 1 big oto, 3 firered, 1 nirite, 1 baby assasin snail


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## alexxa

when u first flooded ur tank, did u see any emersed HC melt?
right now im doing 3bps and dosing excel


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## coldmantis

All I did was 1bps and .75 excel for a week. After that daily fertz 1b2secs and no excel. No melting


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## alexxa

coldmantis said:


> All I did was 1bps and .75 excel for a week. After that daily fertz 1b2secs and no excel. No melting


0.75ml excel everyday for a week?


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## coldmantis

ya .75ml/day for a week


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## alexxa

i dont see them pearling. was that normal to you for the first few days?


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## coldmantis

dunno, remember I got BGA after I filled it........ if you want your plants to pearl give them lots of light, I don't think a single 26w CFL is powerful enough to make your plants pearl. I recently switched from a fixture that has 3x26w CFL = 78w to a fixture that has 4x21=84w T5NO and it pearled within hours and always pearls at night time.


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## alexxa

coldmantis said:


> dunno, remember I got BGA after I filled it........ if you want your plants to pearl give them lots of light, I don't think a single 26w CFL is powerful enough to make your plants pearl. I recently switched from a fixture that has 3x26w CFL = 78w to a fixture that has 4x21=84w T5NO and it pearled within hours and always pearls at night time.


are u talking about ur 30cm cube or the other tank?


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## coldmantis

I'm talking about another tank but it's in reference to the cube also, if you want massive pearling try adding another CFL for like a day or two if it starts pearling then you will know if you need more light.


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## alexxa

so u are still using a 26w cfl for your 30cm cube?
do you find that enough for HC?


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## coldmantis

if it can grow my UG it can grow anything. you do understand that adding more light just to get pearling on your cuba is not worth it because more light = more algae if you don't maintain it probably and it will take time for you to find out what your tank needs co2 levels, fertz dosing before you find that "magic level" where your plants grow crazy and your tank is spotless without algae. I been doing planted tanks for maybe under 2 years and I still haven't found that "magic level" yet. you saw my tanks not one of them except for the low light ones are algae free.


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## coldmantis

rant time:
got a bad feeling, this couple came by earlier to buy some plants and they brought their maybe 9 year old kid, I guess they didn't raise their kid to respect other peoples property because this kid ran around my house like it was his own, went into every room and touched everything. He even turned off my tv???? So I decided to treat my family out to buffet today and when I came home about 4 hours later I look at my cube and the bubble counter was a tornado. This stupid kid turn my needle vavle to probably 10 bubbles per second, All I know is that all the snails are on the rim of the tank, My 2 firereds are not dead but not moving, and my oto catfish is nowhere to be seen..... Note to self if the parents of a kid don't yell at their own kid to stay with them in stranger's house I will yell at their kid next time. turned co2 off and put in 2 airstones connect to an airpump that's rated for 100g+


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## alexxa

coldmantis said:


> rant time:
> got a bad feeling, this couple came by earlier to buy some plants and they brought their maybe 9 year old kid, I guess they didn't raise their kid to respect other peoples property because this kid ran around my house like it was his own, went into every room and touched everything. He even turned off my tv???? So I decided to treat my family out to buffet today and when I came home about 4 hours later I look at my cube and the bubble counter was a tornado. This stupid kid turn my needle vavle to probably 10 bubbles per second, All I know is that all the snails on on the rim of the tank, My 2 firereds are not dead but not moving, and my oto catfish is nowhere to be seen..... Note to self if the parents of a kid don't yell at their own kid to stay with them in stranger's house I will yell at their kid next time.


thats sad
maybe u should put ur co2 in a more secure place


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## alexxa

hows ur tank now?


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## coldmantis

I got the 3 G's green spot algae, green dust algae, and green hair algae lol


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## alexxa

photo of your tank?


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## coldmantis

here you go, just did a h202 injection and scraped off algae on glass


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## alexxa

wow nice the HC grows so fast


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## coldmantis

alexxa said:


> wow nice the HC grows so fast


I don't like the look though, I got lazy and planted it in clumps instead of one stem at a time which I normally do. when you plant it in clumps it tends to grow in a layer over each other instead of a perfect flat uniform carpet which comes with planting one stem at a time.


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## alexxa

when did you plant them?


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## coldmantis

probably around the end of june


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## alexxa

when you plant them, aren't you suppose to plant 3-4 stems together? Or just one stem at a time?


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## coldmantis

alexxa said:


> when you plant them, aren't you suppose to plant 3-4 stems together? Or just one stem at a time?


3-5 stems is how I planted this tank, in my 1/2 gallon cube and my 29 gallon I plant 1 stem at a time.


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## Fergus

Any photo updates for us?


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## alexxa

Fergus said:


> Any photo updates for us?


its on page 6


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## coldmantis

*September 24th*

Slimy Green Hair Algae everywhere had to redo the tank, took out all the plants and sprayed with H2O2. New scape will be all UG nothing else.

Top









Side









Front









Unhappy Occupants


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## iBetta

ahhh where did you get your UG? i couldnt find them anywhere! 
and nice rasboras (from franks?)!! one of my favourite species


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## coldmantis

iBetta said:


> ahhh where did you get your UG? i couldnt find them anywhere!
> and nice rasboras (from franks?)!! one of my favourite species


rasboras I got from big al's they are extremely red but since they were stress in the breeding container they lost their colour, as for the UG I got it from a member here Planter, but I believe it's gone from the hobby. I find that UG will only grow nice and together if your using some sort of plant substrate, regular sand or gravel even with high light, co2 and fertz won't grow it properly(it comes out in ugly patches instead of an uniform carpet).


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## iBetta

ahhhh, were you the person who bought it all?


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## coldmantis

yep, bought 9 originally, I think 5-6 died due to suicide. went back and told the guy I'll take the whole tank but there was only like less then 10 in there. I wanted some schooling fish but these don't school, my 40-50 cardinal tetras don't school either in my 45 gallon.


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## coldmantis

*September 25th*

everything planted and inhabitants moved it enjoy.

Front









Culled Fire Red Female who decided to give birth the day before I rescape the tank now the shrimplets are probably dead.









Chili Raboras









Intense Red Chili Rasbora


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## iBetta

neon tetras? you mean the blue ones with the horizontal red lines? they don't school? O:


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## coldmantis

nono cardinal tetras, the one with the red stripe through the whole body and not just half, mines don't school like they do in stores where they constantly swim around the tank together, mines just stays stagnant and only move when scared.


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## alexxa

hows ur tank?
any update?


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## coldmantis

*January 5th 2012*

So it's been a while since I updated, here are the changes

UP Aqua mini canister filter to Eheim 2213
Nothing but UG, UG, UG, and UG with algae
I'm not focused on this tank currently so green hair algae due to probably too much light which has consumed the tank, I put in a 4" SAE and he took care of it, then he suicided and algae came back


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## ubr0ke

mow that ish before it starts to lift.


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## alexxa

I had green hair algae in my 3gal before also but SAE didn't eat that. my sae only ate the transparent thread algae.
Try to reduce water flow. If i am not mistaken green hair algae loves strong current.


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## iBetta

i'll take some of that UG whenever! *.*


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