55us Gal Planted Tank

[theshadowinc]

Figured this would be the best area to show off my tank as well as show the world the goals set forward for my planted tank its undergoing a major overhaul and I am working with a breeder locally and a awsome person that has huge knowledge here combined with my past experinces and knowledge to form a very hard brick wall! I am going to show the final product at the end the tank is already 2-3 weeks into this transformation With patients waiting for a few more things to complete the entire setup

Goals ~ Planted Discus Community High Tech setup! (What it is going to consist of, final specs will be)

Fish (Live Stock)
3-6 Juv Discuss ~ 3 Currently and going to have maybe 6 total in the end with a few breeding pairs we are hoping for
6 tiger cory's
2 pygmy cory's
8 Tetris
2 ABN's

The tank
55US Gal
300W Heater (Plastic new product here and hope it works well ~ Allows temps to be 15F above ambient)
XP3 Filtraton (Stars,BioMax,Something Zorb) opps sorry honey the store was out of xp2 only had the xp3 in stock so I had to make a fast choice and oppted to get one only 35 dollars more lol
Koralia 1 (10x water movement is the goal)
Glass/Ceramic Diffusers 2 medium ones(1 always cleaning while the other is being used)
5lbs Co2 Bottle
Milwaukee co2 regulator MA957
co2 tubing 6feet
160w t12 lighting
Substate (Silica,Peat,vermaculite,clay ~ More in depth on this later)
Air Pump for at night Oxygen Control
air tubing
Somthing simular to a bubble wand but will be burried 25% of it

Foods & Dosing
EI Dosage ~ special fomula following a members suggestion
30ppm with a bubble rate of no more than 5bps (Massive flow is required for this to work)
Frozen Foods (Blood Worms, Brine Shrimp, Dalphina)
TetrisBites

Plant List for Beggining
anubias Barteri coffeefolia
java moss veicularia dubyana
cryptocoryne wendtii
moneywort lysimahina numlaria
water sprite ceratopteris thalictroides
java fern microsorum pteropus
ozlot sword echinodorus ozlot
Amazon echinodorus amazonicus
cork vals vallisneria spiralis var tortissima
red luwiga ludwigia repens
fanwort cabomba caroliniana
scarlet temple telanthera roseafolia
banana plant nyphoides aquatica

Looking at getting a few different kinds of ferns as well as a few more differnt anubias in the tank ones that are hard to find or not normally seen in the hobby, also looking at different lily pad kinds as well as the impressive ricca for the drift wood, the java moss might be substituted for ricca. A few changes will happen to the plant list when it gets up and running we are looking at getting a lace sword the madacascar I really like the look of the sword but wonder what the discus would think of it lol!

Well stay tuned next update will be eaither the lights or the substrate mix that we are going with I will try to update frequently everyday if possible. This will give you an insight to a high tech 55gal setup in what is actually involved in my planted tank.

Special thanks to my local breeder of the discuss who is giving advice on the types of discuss I should be looking at as well as what would make good roommates with them. All of his advice is being taken seriously he knows the importants of this tank, we are going for a show quality tank for a upcoming event next year in our town. Really I just want to look at an amazing tank in my living room Guests love my planted tank when they see it and always asks questions on how things are so possible!

Special thanks to SuperColey1 a member of this site and who has helped me actually understand what is actually needed for a tank this size to make it really thrive when complete, an easy tank to maintain and minor work needed to keep it going! Alot of his advice is taken strongly as he has alot of experience and the knowledge he knows out does alot of people I actually know personally locally when it comes to a planted tank

Having a challenge in this hobby is always the fun part!

 

[Ficious]

sounds good....im waiting for the pictures

 

[theshadowinc]

Well update time for all I finally loaded up pictures so today I will talk about the substrate

I did alot of research when it came to substrat for the reason I don't want to replace this for the next 10 years if possible. I looked at alot of stuff available on the market now a days and was still unhappy with what I have seen and read about some of the stuff. So the wife and I talked about what would be the best substrate available to use and what could we make or get from a greenhouse for the possible the best substrate with a goal of not replacing for the next 10+ years.

Well first as always need to start with a empty tank

We cleaned it so it looked more appealing hehe

The 2nd thing was all about our centre peace before we started adding our substrate this was extremly important for the reason we wanted it to look like it was growing out of the substrate in the end resault

The reason for the fish food was to give a sence of what it would look like as a centre peice with the wood with java moss on it there. I thaught It looked perfect as the centre attraction to the tank!

Okay now major centre peace was decided it looked good there got the okay from my little children to continue on at this time its already 2 hours past there bedtime. So off to bed they go hehe. Mixing of the substrate now.

I am a peat moss lover always need to have this in a aquarium no matter the size its a perfect substrate and can't ask for anything better especially if you are dosing EI The second part is Vermaculite a product i ended up talking to SuperColey1 about he recommended me to use so guess what I decided to mix it in. Mixtures are as follows we did big batches of 2 Vermaculite and 4 peatmoss. 1-2 Ratio is what we where after. The bottom layer 2-3" of this stuff and plays a major key part in the substrate!
2 Parts Vermaculite

2 Parts Peat

4 Parts Peat

not all pics are shown just decided to show major ones
Well it has to be mixed together and added to the tank so pic of it mixed

what it looks like in the tank the first layer

The wife in the picture haha, sorry but I have a physical imparment and unable to do most things in life so really the wife helped me with the entire project. If that was my hand you would see an ugly splint on my hand its something I have learned to live with for the past 8 months now its really a pain but can't let it let me down in life have to keep moving on

Substrate looks wet well, cause it is! Sprinkles water from filter canister right into the substrate
This will help and aid in vertually no cycling of the tank. A secret from a pro in this hobby and well its leached now oh no! LoL

3rd part, this is the middle of the entire substrate and a VERY IMPORTANT PART!
We opted for clay oh ya have to love the clay, this comes with conditioner in it so guessing stuff for plants but that don't matter to much. The reason for clay is when it gets exhausted it also absorbs and does this for a very long time, I prefer this method besides using stuff you see in the fish stores that just exhaust and you need to replace. Goal here is 10 years! Not only that this clay is way cheaper than what you find in pet stores for sure a huge bag cost me something like 15 dollars . And I have lots of stuff left! We where looking for a deep method and more we did researched and realized this will exhaust and absorb again meaning absorb the unused EI dosing in it I take it, is better in the long run and where going for something like 2" and realized we didnt' need anything like tha for it so we opted for 1-1.5" of this stuff and also sprinkle more filter meda water over it hehe got to love the tricks of the hobby!

The Clay

Okay the wife adding it hehe

What it looked like with this part complete

Okay now the final part! We where looking at all kinds of different stones and not sure weather to go with play sand, or a #1 gravel. We did price shopping of course for this final step and stones where out of the budget. Not only that I don't like stones. We looked at play sand cause cheap and well didn't go that route neither seeing that glass particles comes in play sand that didn't make me happy at all. Our poor kulie loach will not like going into that kind of sand and would be cut up in no time! So this is when the research actually kicked in and we where running out of options and oh no! On a bump in the road of research I came across silica sand forgot who told me about it! But I did research on this stuff its also known as industrial sand mainly used in sand blasting and is non-toxic to fish woot! Okay found what we are going to use. Went to the local rona and homedepot and oh no! They don't carry silica but sand blasting sand they do so I went and had a look in it and unfortunitly I can't use it even thow the price was cheap an in the budget it had glass particles in it. I finally realized this is not going to be easy at all. I got home and onto the phone and called every homedepot and home hardware store within 100 miles of me and not a freakin one carried silica sand! Great just great I thaught to myself. Then thaught well can try tsc store but I doubt they would have it. I called and they had 2 types they said 1 is silica and the other is non so I asked if they had glass particles in them and they said the non silica does it comes in white and the silica comes in black and no glass in it. So I went and looked at them I was so happy 100 pounds for 16 dollars Canadian woot even better than what I thaught. And they had skits of them woot i am in heavon now. So I did some looking at them and well the non silica they where right glass particles in it. I even looked closer at the black kind that was silica and no glass particles YES! got me self 2 bags that is 100pounds <- Perfect ~ Only thing was that freaked me out in the beggining when looking at them was they said industrial sand on them, so I baught them in doubt a little bit and did some research on them and the manufature of them marks them this way cause its used mainly in sand blasting and usually they just use non silica or pure silica and black is pure silica and white is non silica dont' know why the difference but meh I was safe cool!

our final layer Woot

This layer works like this, at first we wanted 4" of this stuff then quickly change our minds in a hurry we had lots so that wasnt' the issue we wanted to go for a more natural look but something that would stick out to the eye and help in planting of the plants.
We opted for 2" of this stuff in the front climbing to 3" in the middle with 4" in the back

Well since that is all I will post my babies, these I really loved these breeding pairs, my mother even gave me chit that I sold them because they bread naturally and where in a natural setting but can't have them in with discuss in a 55gal and discuss is the theme I am going for even with all the quartine tanks I have I would need themf or discus if anything ever happen.

I really wanted more money for them but I think fair at 40 dollars , not only that the female isn't pure albino now they got really aggresive 2 breeds ago and female had damage it healed black >< pissed m off they are true white and for some reason shows up as silver in pictures.

My New Babies

This is the one we had huge issues with when we added to the tank to try and get invovled in a school, this thing turned pure black never seen anything like that before in my life but discus are known to do it, so anotherwords this thing when stressed turns black so I know if black an issue in the tank! But look so beutiful now!

No pics of corys having an issue with them, some of them have internal parasites of some kind, they coming from the fish store this way so the stock list is changing now I think going with another good known fish store for stock!

Enjoy
theshadowinc

 

[DiscusKeeper403]

Good luck with those Discus Shadow!! Remember, lots of feedings and lots of water changes and you should be good!

 

[theshadowinc]

Good luck with those Discus Shadow!! Remember, lots of feedings and lots of water changes and you should be good!

I took the discuss out they are in qaurtine tank now want to make sure they are okay cause of the deaths from the cory's(the lfs thing lol) and some reason I have a nitrite spike now in the planted tank >< next week they will be out of qaurtine.
Planted tank in the end will be 1 water change a week if possible, but right now if they where in there would be every 2 days and dosing the plants after the water change. Trying to do a bohom setup once a week for water changes

 

[paul_219]

Nice tank.

 

[theshadowinc]

Update!
Stock Changed
3-6 Juv Discuss ~ 3 Currently and going to have maybe 6 total in the end with a few breeding pairs we are hoping for (Right now they are in qaurtine again)
7 panda cory's
1 pygmy cory's
8 Tetris
2 ABN's
1 SAE
Unknown Dwarf Gourmis babie fry

Water Readings today
0ppm Ammo
0PPm Nitrite
60ppm Nitrate <- Spiked overnight
Co2 3bbs ~ Green!(Oxygen bubbles formed on the water sprite and comoba)
(Yesterday Co2 was yellow overdoese >< at 5bps)

Okay so onto the hood! I won't keep you waiting

When I thaught about the hood alot of ideas came up the first that stuck out was the LED lighting not only does it save money in the long run but not much is known about success rates with it still a little in the dark so to say about led lighting when it comes to planted tank, not only that when I finally figured out how many lights I would need and fans and heat sinks it was way out of my budget! So onto plan B

Had to think cheap, the goal was to stick to a budget when it comes to a fish tank that never works for some reason but the lighting system I ended up using actually did! Budget was set at 100 Canadian funds so time to do some searching and see what I could come up with for making a hood! I already did the research and was interested in T12 or T5vho but with a budget of 100 it ain't happening I ended up finding the ballasts cheap for T12 got them at a steal actually they where marked wrong I found out later I picked them up for 15 bucks ea and found out later they where going for actually over 40 ea, damn what a score that was. Since I seen it was T12 the wpg rules stands the most effective with T12 lighting after all that is what the rule was made under was T12 lighting! Alot of talk about lumens etc well I went the simple route ~ Look for something that is 6500 Kelvin and has the most lumens and that would be able within 4 bulbs supply an easy 160 watts of lighting. So almost 3wpg was the goal! Really its 2.9090909090 repeated! So for this we just say 3 its way easier or 2.9wpg. <- Already lots of complications come now its not a normal low maintence planted tank this is high tech! Every lvl now needs to be perfect in this tank or else massive algue issues will arise gaurenteed! The wood was cheap got from local home depot, picked up stain and a water proofing stain at that as well as screws etc to put the entire thing together this hood took a total of 4-5 days to build from what I have designed myself. When we picked up the bulbs we also pick up special reflectors but also known here as T12 bulb (reflectors)protectors so it it ever breaks the particles won't ever fall into the fish tank! <- Very Important!

We ended up making our own custom hood only cause we didn't like the expense of any of them on the market, and well it has to fit a budget including lighting, most of the ones we seen we didn't like at all. The only thing we didn't bother adding was coolers to our hood we figured we would run the hood and see how hot it gets with T12 running cooler we thaught we wouldn't need to worry about chillers or anything like that and in the end we where right!

Well Picture time!

We got 2 of these

The wood PINE!

The bulbs(these where the best we could find at the time)
To all those who say I have more lumens LMAO this is the highest bulb manufatured in lumens for a T12 Fixture I did lots of research before I actually baught the bulb so if you say you have my well you are full of it!

Reflectors or protecters what ever way you want to look at it!

Before the old hoods

After! (Ha Ha Ha this is just the hood not the final tank yet hehe)

 

[DiscusKeeper403]

Wow, looks amazing with that new light!!

 

[theshadowinc]

Wow, looks amazing with that new light!!

TY! Yes it looks amazing wait till you see the pictures of the plants growing out and the discuss swimming peacfully in the tank, I have had to do 2 trims so far the plants grow like weeds!! The issue with the corys made me worry about the discuss had to remove them from the tank due to it, the fungal issue tanks been treated and some plants have died and coming back now and soon discuss will be back in.
Next is figuring out the flow with the spray bar, the koralia, and the co2 so far I am glad I have not had the discuss in the tank doing this. PH readings in middle of day about 6.5pH and about 7PH at night 12 hour difference when testing so, I do know i have an issue with co2 and the 1st day I tried it with the new Glass diffusers I actually overdosed the tank with co2 ><. If they can prove to handle these PH Swings I am running into I think they will be alright but going to, change some things of flow around and see what I can come up with. So far today I underdosed the tank an in the last 24 hours a constant reading of 7ph my tap water is 8 here so, water change tomorrow and start the cycle again for the week and see what happens.

 

[theshadowinc]

Okay another update you all been waiting long for this one now the explanation and pics of CO2 for the plants, after all plants need co2 to actually thrive. Just so you all know I am at 3bps and 30ppm of co2

Well need a regulator, something to control the co2 injection with(Milwakee MA957)
Comes with bubble counter and I used the special hose for co2 gas

Well need a tank for co2 or it would be hard to just put it under the tank >< just an ugly green thing but I don't need anything that is supper expensive it was used and 45 canadian funds filled good enough for me.

Well need a way to get it into the water and also a way to move it, the flow was done in a different way than what most would do. I used a korelia 1 because going for 10x watermovement total and most of it being filtration, because plants give waste to. But focus was movement and the disolvment of the co2, its the most cruical part of the system. 2 diffusers that way 1 is cleaning while the other is in use!

Before

The completed after! I guess I can show you all but I did rescape since these pics hehe
and the discus arn't in this tank cause some reason due to overfeeding I had a ammo spike like huge but left the other fish in and where fine. The spike only lasted 3 days and then was gone woot!

Fanwort Forest (This has been redone just went wild)
side Middle view

front middle view

sideview bottom

The quartine tank(Hospital tank)
I always go big for some reason but this was a cheap tank pickedup from a friend paid 50 for everything and that was a deal sold off the fish that came with it and made 5 dollars from the fish and kept the cardinals hehe, oh its a 40 gal hospital tank for discus lol, anyone want teh plant in the middle offer me something and take it. Its Amazon motherplant the roots takeup the entire bottom of the tank and it has been trimmed tons of times. I have had it for over 5 years and it has given off babies only once from a shoot

Okay back to the planted tank hehe, centre peice is the wood and what better than to have Anubias Coffeefolia a bigger leaf from the family and one that would flower and stick out in the centre of the tank

The goal is for this to flower in the tank and I am hoping for the best

Okay a quick look to the left side of the tank looking at the tank, the ozlet sword I had to have one of these small leafs than an Amazon but a very distinct shape and the little dots set this apart and it definitly an offset to the left look of the tank. Also Java Fern not sure what kind just normal as far as I know.

What is a planted tank with out the classic Banana plant dead centre to stick out

I thaught this fish was extincted from the tank but I guess I have a surviver omg impossible well there is a story behind it on why he is still here its kinda amazing. Well we had 2 from our breeding tank baught 2 more and lost a total of 4 of them. Well we took 2 back to the fish store for a refund and we figured out later when we seen him that what we actually took in was a babie Dwarf Gourmis that died lol. So really only 3 died and I am very surprized that this one actually survived so small and had fungal issues, I never treated it just let it go. And well its fine now don't understand this but wow!

Its tiny very very tiny look close its as small as your pinky finger nail.

Okay a Dwarf Gourmis but really this dude is 1 of 2 that have survived from a breed gone bad for some reason. The colours are just amazing on this dude. Its hard for me to get a clear pic of it always swiming and playing in the current. He is part of the family I actually can tell its a male and he will live the rest of his life he is not for sale its an expensive fish lol. Well I lost a Trio I was hoping to keep, I don't know what happen but in the breeding tank a seal let go and had to evac them quick and well lost alot of fish. I wasnt happy but seeing the colour of this dude it sets the mood just perfect. hit top fin is red and long the top of the fin it is blue. bottom fin is the same way and he eats a very healthy diet, he eats the same time as the discus and actually comes up and feed out of my hand Sorry not for sale
Oh so you all know it gets along with the discuss very well, it has a forest of fanwart it hangs in most of the time and has a female mate i think to chase most of the time. Have to wait and see how it plays out but definitly part of the family now.

Okay that is it for now sorry getting tired I have more to come about all the plants I do have and looking forward to a few other plants that Will be used in here and an amazing Madagascar Lace but want to make sure everything goes well first before getting one of these, ricca is another thing I will be adding to the driftwood to really make the centre bling bling in the tank. I have meat the conditions to actually get oxygen bubbles on plants

This is another unknown plant I have just have to wiat for it to get bigger to see what it actually is I forget the name and no its not a sword. Discuss are now in and doing very well in the tank. Stay tuned more pics to come of the amazing growth

theshadowinc

 

[Miah002]

Your tanks looking good.

 

[theshadowinc]

Your tanks looking good.

TY its alot of work but really its paying off!

 

[Ficious]

its not done yet and its been 3 weeks...where are the pics?? and where did that piece of wood go??

 

[theshadowinc]

its not done yet and its been 3 weeks...where are the pics?? and where did that piece of wood go??

Update coming shortly in the next few days, just got batteries for the camera, apperently i need batteries in it for downloading the images on the computer but all is good baught rechargables. Lots of great pictures coming and some nice changes done.

Looking at another 2 discus soon for the added bioload and everything is turning out pretty good a battle with some algue that is going great now.

 

[theshadowinc]

some updated Pictures you are going to say wow!

Our Fanwart forest we kinda did away with this grew in really thick in no time and was amazing looking but started to chock out the sword to the right

We then replaced this area with

but found in this area we ran into an issue when watersprite took up the top of the left side of the tank and this the right side of the tank and couldn't feed the discus we did away with most of it and kept only 2 stocks we find it grows retarded quick for us a week and we chop it at the base and in no time back to this again

Our watersprite issue we ran into, this actually caused algue in the tank being this crazy.

This is how thick the wisteria was in our tank before thinning it out

our fanwart didn't want to stay rooted alot of flow in this area of the tank guessing

We all know by now I house discus and other fish in this tank and discus definitly the fav of the creatures in this tank my most fav pose from one of the fishes is actually my baby, This discus is now on the bottom of the pecking order and really slow growing, its very nervous one to humans for some reason. Once and awhile it will actually come up and feed out of my hand if I am lucky, but definitly this is my fav of them all.

This is the view after trimming done to the tank on april 1st if i recall right, I will be doing maintence on the tank tomorrow so I will take pics before to show the difference also I will show a before and after shot of a sword plant still currently in the tank. The leafs on it are huge now, it will be an amazing sight to see for many!

Okay update on our current stock in the tank well live stock anyways
4 discus, 1 Blue Dimond, 1 Green Tourq, 1 Red Tourq, 1 Pigon Blood
1 Dwarf Gourmis Male
2 Albino BN (Still juvs not sure of sex yet)
5-6 Panda corys
8 Tetris
1 Kuli loach in the substrate somewhere again
Lots of Algue snails

Hope you all enjoy