Lorenzo's Fish Tank

This blog so far is turning into an epic fail.  Between my last post and this one, I have done the following:

Gathered or at least purchased (currently being shipped to me) all tank equipment/ supplies needed to start this thing up. This includes water treatments, fertilizers, a DIY CO2 system (Hagen Natural Plant Grow System.. or something to that effect).  I have also layed out the hardscape how I currently want it (hopefully that wont change.. it seems like the more I move stuff around the worse it gets).  So without further ado, here are some pics of the basics to begin with:

Tank w/ gravel

Construction site: You will find here such things as sandpaper, hand saws, steel wool, tubing, rocks and driftwood, substrate (flourite, sand, and pea gravel), filter padding, lighting equipment, filter, and heater

Can’t forget to get pics of Monstro one all the decor was placed in!

Sorry, had to add my side project: The shrimp factory! err.. shrimp puddle is more like it, starting this little guy up same time as Monstro. Will start with red cherry shrimp and work my way up to red crystal shrimp.

Monstro has been filled with water, filter is up and running! Cloudiness subsided after a day or so of having the filter run

Overall I’m happy with how it’s turning out so far.. main conern at the moment is the “cave” .. I thought the wood surface was porous and scratched up enough to hotglue the two halves together.. and it’s holding up well enough so far, although I’m sure glad I decided to go against adding a pleco to the tank or my hopes of keeping it together would have been completely dashed. Hoepfully it will hold up strong enough though since nothing will really be jostling it around.  Also concerned about the tree, it isn’t sitting very secure in the substrate, and every little bump with my hand brings it a fraction of an inch closer to re-surfacing from the substrate (I have it attached to a bulkier piece of driftwood that’s been buried in the substrate.. well it was, the top portion of it has emerged again from bumping it after medling with the cave) Oh well. I think I’ll give it one last go to try to make things “perfect,” then I’ll leave it alone in case it gets worse and worse with each “fix” … . . Not sure if any of this is making sense, although I also feel like no one is ever going to actually see this blog anyways, lol. So to carry on to the exciting stuff..

I’ve ordered about 92% of the plants I wanted! Sources are as follows:

A lovely pair from aquariacentral that I’ve been comunicating with is selling me Anubias nana, didiplis diandra, peacock/taiwan moss, java moss, echinodorius tennellus micro, subwasertang (extra plant they offered as a treat!) and an extra “surprise” plant they mentioned they threw in.. couldn’t have had a better first experience buying plants online! Shipment went out this morning, so it should be here within a couple days ^_^ $17 investment

Bought the CO2 system plus some watersprite from another woman on aquariacentral, which ships out Monday $22 investment

From aquariumplants.com I got the following: Green Camboba, Cardamine lyrata, 2 pots of dwarf baby tears, Limnophila hippuroides (not part of the original plant group I was gonig to go with but for $1.82 I thought I’d give it a shot), and a banana plant (Nymphoides aquatica).. totally a last minute purchase, lol. I think I’ll try putting the banana plant in the shrimp tank $31.something investment

Also buying from a vendor on aquariacentral ($20 investment): hydrocotyle verticillata, a zebra nerite, and 2 clithion corona! (I know I said I didn’t want snails.. but these guys were too cute to pass up!,) my plan is for the zebra to end up in the shrimp tank, but the 2 coronas will stay in Monstro.. if they breed, meh, I’ll live. Still looking out for a Golden mystery snail too.

There are 3 plants left I’m looking for: Star moss, Fontanus fissidens, and Creeping Charlie (for the shrimp tank)  I’ve found bids on ebay for the first 2.. will have to figure out a way to get a hold of the third plant tho. Will update whether or not I win the ebay bids on those plants in a few days.

At this point I’m expecting at least 7 packages from various places for equipment and what not, so as stuff comes in I’ll try to get pics receiving the items and the installment of them in the tank.

For the snails I’m thinking names are going to be Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed.. the 3 hyenas from Lion King. 1 zebra snail and 2 coronas, guess which one is getting named Ed :P

Oh here are pics of the zebra nerites and horned nerites (coronas) respectively:

Thanks for dropping in!