This is a Journal that I started February 4th (Sunday) at another webstie, but I wanted to share with you guys as well!
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Okay - after a huge wait, I finally got started on my "big" tank! I've decided to keep it pic for pic so you could easily understand my craziness, and hobbyists new to planting can follow what I might be attempting! Haha.
First things first: Wash the gravel - as a lot of you know, I decided to wash 3 out of 8 bags of substrate to create a "clean" top layer that would "trap" the unwashed bottom bags of substrate. I used flourite (so you know). I was recommended to create a "giant strainer". So, here it is!
The skeleton:
The finished strainer (that's window screen on top):
This creation held three 15.4 lb bags of flourite easily! Here's the raw stuff:
And here's the washed stuff:
Quite a difference, huh?
And now, the tank (it measures at 48" x 18" x 24"):
Rocks and substrate (including clean layer):
In order to fill my tank slowly, I used two airlines and syphoned from the bucket sitting on my tank:
I'm not crazy, I swear!
Once it got about half way, I took the bucket down and filled it pitcher by pitcher:
AND FINALLY!!
That's clear enough to work in for sure! And it's now been about a half hour with the filter running, and it is nearly crystal clear! The reason I filled it without planting also is because I took the tank from phx (which has been running for over 3 years) along with all the original water and filter. There's hopefully an "already cycled advantage" I can gain from this... And also, I filled it up without planting because I don't have my plants yet (they come in Monday or Tuesday)! AND I don;t have my light (hopefully Wednesday or Thursday)! But I do have all this other stuff:
Tomorrow, I can hopefully post planting pictures!
~ Wonderboy!
The filter is a Marineland Magnum 350 - I've used it on this tank (for fish only) for over three years, and it has never let me down; so, I've decided to stick with it. But the new addition to the filter is a hydor heater that you can see in-line with the filter return. I use one of these on my 180, and I love the "not-visible" factor, not to mention that they're effective too. So, I got one for this tank, too. If you look at the pictures again, you'll notice all my equipment that runs into the tank is in the top right corner (includes inlet, outlet, and CO2 reactor). I was trying to keep things "low profile".
The rocks came from the mountain range behind Mt. Lemmon in Tucson. I went for a little drive to get them (30 miles into the middle of nowhere).
I organized my electrical chaos today:
It may look like a mess, but it's 10 times easier for me to deal with!
And here's the tank this morning:
CRYSTAL CLEAR!
~ Wonderboy!
The light you see lighting the tank in the previous post is the dusk/dawn light. I have a 48" 4 x 54 W Tek light on there (it isn't on right there). I also have a 130 W Compact Flourescent just to have a 3 hour mid-day burst of 346 watts. So we'll see if it's enough...
UPDATE:
I planted all the plants and took pics of each individually.
My next post will be a bout 300 pictures, so hold on tight...
OH! And want to hear something exciting? Ok. My glass brace that goes across the middle of the tank broke in the middle, and I had to fix that! I'll show you what I mean next post as well.
Okay - here's the broken brace problem I encountered:
The glass cracked like so and the whole tank was flexing outwards
[
So, I had to drain the tank to here (where it stopped flexing)
And then I attached two panes of glass to it (one on bottom, one on top) with silicone.
And I'm still waiting for that to fully cure.
Fun, huh?
~ Wonderboy!
OKAY!!! I want to let everyone know before you start looking at this post that I went nuts with plants and got $100 worth in wholesale plants (no shipping - special LFS order - yay for working at a fish store). So this is going to be chaotic, but hang in there.
I decided that while my tank was drained, I will plant EVERYTHING! So I started with the glosso carpet (which is going to be ALL of the lower part of the setup). In this picture, you can see that I already have planted the glosso:
And now, here are all of the plants to be added (they're already in there, but it's too murky for a photo):
Rotala Indica
Ludwigia Arcuata
Bacopa Amplexicaulis
Hygrophila Corymbosa
Limnophila Aromatica
Narrow Leaf Ludwigia
Crypt pontederriifolia
Alternanthera Rosaefolia
Lobelia Cardinalis
Crypt Mioya
M. Micranthemum
Byxa Japonica
Myriophyllum heterophyllum
Crypt Petchii
And, there will be Java Moss, Christmas Moss, Phoenix Moss, and Riccia in there as well, but not quite yet.
Pictures of CLEAR tank with plants coming soon (when I can fill the tank back up...)!
~ Wonderboy!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Okay - after a huge wait, I finally got started on my "big" tank! I've decided to keep it pic for pic so you could easily understand my craziness, and hobbyists new to planting can follow what I might be attempting! Haha.
First things first: Wash the gravel - as a lot of you know, I decided to wash 3 out of 8 bags of substrate to create a "clean" top layer that would "trap" the unwashed bottom bags of substrate. I used flourite (so you know). I was recommended to create a "giant strainer". So, here it is!
The skeleton:
The finished strainer (that's window screen on top):
This creation held three 15.4 lb bags of flourite easily! Here's the raw stuff:
And here's the washed stuff:
Quite a difference, huh?
And now, the tank (it measures at 48" x 18" x 24"):
Rocks and substrate (including clean layer):
In order to fill my tank slowly, I used two airlines and syphoned from the bucket sitting on my tank:
I'm not crazy, I swear!
Once it got about half way, I took the bucket down and filled it pitcher by pitcher:
AND FINALLY!!
That's clear enough to work in for sure! And it's now been about a half hour with the filter running, and it is nearly crystal clear! The reason I filled it without planting also is because I took the tank from phx (which has been running for over 3 years) along with all the original water and filter. There's hopefully an "already cycled advantage" I can gain from this... And also, I filled it up without planting because I don't have my plants yet (they come in Monday or Tuesday)! AND I don;t have my light (hopefully Wednesday or Thursday)! But I do have all this other stuff:
Tomorrow, I can hopefully post planting pictures!
~ Wonderboy!
The filter is a Marineland Magnum 350 - I've used it on this tank (for fish only) for over three years, and it has never let me down; so, I've decided to stick with it. But the new addition to the filter is a hydor heater that you can see in-line with the filter return. I use one of these on my 180, and I love the "not-visible" factor, not to mention that they're effective too. So, I got one for this tank, too. If you look at the pictures again, you'll notice all my equipment that runs into the tank is in the top right corner (includes inlet, outlet, and CO2 reactor). I was trying to keep things "low profile".
The rocks came from the mountain range behind Mt. Lemmon in Tucson. I went for a little drive to get them (30 miles into the middle of nowhere).
I organized my electrical chaos today:
It may look like a mess, but it's 10 times easier for me to deal with!
And here's the tank this morning:
CRYSTAL CLEAR!
~ Wonderboy!
The light you see lighting the tank in the previous post is the dusk/dawn light. I have a 48" 4 x 54 W Tek light on there (it isn't on right there). I also have a 130 W Compact Flourescent just to have a 3 hour mid-day burst of 346 watts. So we'll see if it's enough...
UPDATE:
I planted all the plants and took pics of each individually.
My next post will be a bout 300 pictures, so hold on tight...
OH! And want to hear something exciting? Ok. My glass brace that goes across the middle of the tank broke in the middle, and I had to fix that! I'll show you what I mean next post as well.
Okay - here's the broken brace problem I encountered:
The glass cracked like so and the whole tank was flexing outwards
[
So, I had to drain the tank to here (where it stopped flexing)
And then I attached two panes of glass to it (one on bottom, one on top) with silicone.
And I'm still waiting for that to fully cure.
Fun, huh?
~ Wonderboy!
OKAY!!! I want to let everyone know before you start looking at this post that I went nuts with plants and got $100 worth in wholesale plants (no shipping - special LFS order - yay for working at a fish store). So this is going to be chaotic, but hang in there.
I decided that while my tank was drained, I will plant EVERYTHING! So I started with the glosso carpet (which is going to be ALL of the lower part of the setup). In this picture, you can see that I already have planted the glosso:
And now, here are all of the plants to be added (they're already in there, but it's too murky for a photo):
Rotala Indica
Ludwigia Arcuata
Bacopa Amplexicaulis
Hygrophila Corymbosa
Limnophila Aromatica
Narrow Leaf Ludwigia
Crypt pontederriifolia
Alternanthera Rosaefolia
Lobelia Cardinalis
Crypt Mioya
M. Micranthemum
Byxa Japonica
Myriophyllum heterophyllum
Crypt Petchii
And, there will be Java Moss, Christmas Moss, Phoenix Moss, and Riccia in there as well, but not quite yet.
Pictures of CLEAR tank with plants coming soon (when I can fill the tank back up...)!
~ Wonderboy!
