Breeding tanks nearly done!

Dennerle Scapers

This is a trio of Dennerle 50L Scapers. Flushed with success from successfully stocking one of my TMCs with F1s and another with Taiwans I decided I should get ahead of the game.

Everything crossed that I don't get a major setback!

My hope is that these will become my breeding tanks in due course. Taking my lessons learned each of the tanks has an HMF Mobile ProfiLine. Each filter came with two jet lifts but I couldn't get the water flow I wanted so I removed one of the lifts from each filter. Each filter also has two bags of Siporax in the central column.

Again Mont Morillonit powder was put on the base of the tank followed by a centimetre or so of substrate, then a sprinkling of Bacteria Bee3 and then the final covering of substrate. The left and right hand tanks have Red Bee Sand and the centre one has Environment Soil. It's cheaper than most but has a good pedigree so worth a go. It will also be interested to see how the parameters work out on a direct comparison.

Probably not the best location, under a window, but it faces north east and I can always close the curtains. You might also notice an Oxydator in the photo of the central tank. This is a clever little gadget which uses hydrogen peroxide and a catalyst to produce H2O and O2. The logic to me is that in trying to replicate natural conditions os much oxygen as possible is needed in the aquarium. Thanks to Keen Shrimp for this trial.

Original tank - Dennerle 60L

I couldn't find anywhere in the UK which had these tanks available so I ordered from Aquaristik in Germany as they had loads. All arrived quickly, safely and a little cheaper than the UK price even including delivery. A discovery of this set up is that I have finally found a genuinely quiet airpump made by Osaga. All my other pumps are by Tetra as they were reckoned to be quiet. All of these are now in sound deadening boxes as the buzz was getting on my nerves! This will probably reduce the working life of the pumps but at least I now just have the sound of water in what is, at least some of the time, a working environment.

I have decided that as my original Dennerle Nano 60L is devoid of livestock that I will take it apart and rebuild it with an undergravel and a foam filter.

Finally a cheapo ring flash arrived on Saturday so I am playing with that and a few of the first photos are below. I have tried keep the colour balance neutral so the shrimp are shown pretty much as they are in the flesh.

So to summarise 5 tanks now mature with F1's in one, Taiwans in the second, the third and fourth awaiting PRL and PBL, the original tank to be rebuilt, and the three new ones settling in.