i have been trolling these forums as a guest for a few months now reading ALLOT. i decided to finally register since i started my first planted tank its a 55g. my goal for this project was a low tech, low light, low cost tank with as much DIY as i could. heres my journal
i decided to take the planted route about a week ago. for the past 3 years i had kept all kinds of CA/SA cichlids. always with fake plants for obviouse reasons. a couple of months ago i decided to downsize from 3 tanks (180,110,55) to just one simple little 55g and make it a nice heavly planted tank that i have always wanted and seen on forums like this. here is what the tank looked like before i started.
Oscar, Jack Dempsey, Playsand, fake plants, AC110, AC50, 150w heater poster background.
so my goal was low light low cost DIY. first thing was to get some lights. i went to home depot and picked up two 4 foot worklight red steel fixtures for $36.00CAD each. i also got four 32watt 6500k phillips daylight bulbs came in packs of two for $8.99 each.
i had to get rid of the original hood and lights so the shop lights would fit. in order to still be able to sleep at night, i phoned up a local glass shop and got 2 pieces of 1/4inch thick glass cut to fit the two openings $25.00CAD.
i ended up painting the background and the light oak plastic trim a flat black color using Krylon flat black spray paint $5.00CAD Painters tape $3.00CAD.
i made a DIY yeast based co2 generator and a DIY diffuser. the cost at the time was nothing because i had all the parts around the house. but the powerhead was around $25.00CAD the gravelvac was $10.00CAD and the tubing and check valves were about $5.00CAD. here is the artical i followed to the T A Treatise on DIY CO2 Systems for Freshwater-Planted Aquaria
and heres a short video of it working: DIY Co2 Video
i decided to change my substrate from playsand to flourite dark and found a great lfs that sells very healthy looking plants and its 2 for 1 all the time. so i picked up 8 plants for $25.00CAD and two bags or flourite dark pretty expensive at $23.00CAD each. i plan on getting two more bags after the holidays. heres a couple pics of the progress.
12/17/08
12/24/08
STOCKLIST:
6x Neon Tetra
6x GloLite Tetra
1x Pearl Gourami
1x Gold Gourami
1x pepper cory
1x Tiger Barb (gonna get 5 more)
1x algea eater
1x Gold algea eater
if you have any suggestions feel free to post them positive or negative. i plan on updating this thread every few weeks to show my tanks progress ill also be picking up more plants after the holidays. merry christmas everyone!!
i decided to take the planted route about a week ago. for the past 3 years i had kept all kinds of CA/SA cichlids. always with fake plants for obviouse reasons. a couple of months ago i decided to downsize from 3 tanks (180,110,55) to just one simple little 55g and make it a nice heavly planted tank that i have always wanted and seen on forums like this. here is what the tank looked like before i started.
Oscar, Jack Dempsey, Playsand, fake plants, AC110, AC50, 150w heater poster background.
so my goal was low light low cost DIY. first thing was to get some lights. i went to home depot and picked up two 4 foot worklight red steel fixtures for $36.00CAD each. i also got four 32watt 6500k phillips daylight bulbs came in packs of two for $8.99 each.
i had to get rid of the original hood and lights so the shop lights would fit. in order to still be able to sleep at night, i phoned up a local glass shop and got 2 pieces of 1/4inch thick glass cut to fit the two openings $25.00CAD.
i ended up painting the background and the light oak plastic trim a flat black color using Krylon flat black spray paint $5.00CAD Painters tape $3.00CAD.
i made a DIY yeast based co2 generator and a DIY diffuser. the cost at the time was nothing because i had all the parts around the house. but the powerhead was around $25.00CAD the gravelvac was $10.00CAD and the tubing and check valves were about $5.00CAD. here is the artical i followed to the T A Treatise on DIY CO2 Systems for Freshwater-Planted Aquaria
and heres a short video of it working: DIY Co2 Video
i decided to change my substrate from playsand to flourite dark and found a great lfs that sells very healthy looking plants and its 2 for 1 all the time. so i picked up 8 plants for $25.00CAD and two bags or flourite dark pretty expensive at $23.00CAD each. i plan on getting two more bags after the holidays. heres a couple pics of the progress.
12/17/08
12/24/08
STOCKLIST:
6x Neon Tetra
6x GloLite Tetra
1x Pearl Gourami
1x Gold Gourami
1x pepper cory
1x Tiger Barb (gonna get 5 more)
1x algea eater
1x Gold algea eater
if you have any suggestions feel free to post them positive or negative. i plan on updating this thread every few weeks to show my tanks progress ill also be picking up more plants after the holidays. merry christmas everyone!!
