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120 Gallon Journal - 8/5/11

22K views 78 replies 19 participants last post by  BoxxerBoyDrew 
#1 · (Edited)
Well to begin with, I moved from my beloved city (NYC) to Petersburg Virginia! I left my wonderful job with the FDNY to be with my family and basically have a better life more suited for me (slower paced and less expensive homes lol). So I had to break down this tank and start new. I'm glad I did because I realized a few mistakes I had been making and then learned from them. I feel better about the tank and how things are turning out for me. I learned patience and research are very integral in this hobby. I noticed making a habit of the good things aren't as hard I thought they were. I even have a "journal" or Record book of all the ferts, water changes and parameters for the week! I'm usually not that organized lol. I have a small room in the back of the house to keep all my things including the tank. I cant seem to find my CF card which had the original photos of the beginning of this tank ( I did mention I am not very organized right?) so we're going to have to jump right into this one.

So here she is:

Moving day


The new home. Yes, that's a window but its only view is of the dining room lol.







Some better shots of how it is now. It's actually gotten a lot more clearer.














All in all, the tank is doing fine. I had a bacterial bloom that lasted about 2 weeks maybe less. I just kept up with my normal routine with it.

Plants list:

Blyxa J.
Giant HairGrass
Purple Bamboo
Rotala Macandra
HC (I'm going to be ordering a lot from a member here, who I keep forgetting to email back, Sorry!)

Equipment and Ferts:

Giesemann AquaFlora x2 and Midday Sun x2 T5HO x8 hours.
Co2 via GLA 10 lb double manifold into 2 Inline Atomic Diffusers.
Two Eheim 2217s with full media and 100ml of Purigen in each.
ADA Aquasoil 2 with PowerSand Special.
RootMedic Root Tabs in the rear of the tank.
Dosing RootMedics Macro/Mirco solution.
Micro 12 pumps on Sun-Tues-Thurs-Sat. Macro is Mon-Wed-Fri-Sun.

Current inhabitants of the tank are a few dozen Pond Snails and about 50-100 Ramshorn Snails.

I still have a GH of 8-9 and KH of 2-3. I'm thinking if I can acclimate CRS/CBS or RCS very carefully I might be able to start a colony, but I don't know if that water might be hard enough to cause molting problems. I'll try anyway.

I need to get the HC ordered so I can get that carpet going. I was thinking about holding off on shrimp till the HC can get a good grip. ODing with Co2 should help this process.

I don't like the GHG. I would like to get E. Vivipara back there instead. This is just way too stiff! Blyxa is growing very very well. Purple Bamboo not so well. R. Macandra is doing ok.

Hope you enjoy and stick with me on this 2nd or 3rd journey lol. :cool:
 
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#2 ·
BTW that Eheim 2215 was added to help with the cleaning of the water. It's packed with about 500ML of Purigen and numerous fine filter pads. It worked lol.
 
#3 ·
I like the layout of your drift wood. I really like the piece on the right. How did you make it appear to float like that? Is it hooked to some slate or something that was then buried in the substrate?

I am sure it will look great when you get your carpet going and your other plants take off. I kind of like it now, though. The brown spots in the substrate in the full tank shot almost looks like leaf litter on the bottom of a forest floor. I don't know if you see that, maybe I am just crazy.
 
#6 ·
Im2smart, thanks. The branches on that piece actually come out of the tank and they just happen to hook perfectly onto the center brace. I see what you mean about the forest look. It looks good from far but once you get up close the possessor stones you see are actually kinda ugly lol.

Thanks Wolfgang. I agree less is more. I was thinking about leaving the wood pieces totally bare except for one spot on the base of the really big piece. I want to attach HC.

Thanks Amy. It was a great thing I go to start over because it totally sucked before lol. I'm going with a large school of Rummynose tetras. But that's a maybe because of the shrimp. I know Rummys can get aggressive sometimes. So I was think micro rasboras.


I installed the Hydor Inline Heater today. Looks pretty good. Happy I got it. No more in tank heaters !
 
#8 ·
Update coming soon. Planted 20 pots worth of HC. Unfortunately I think I still need another 20 lol,
 
#12 ·
New Update:


Water is totally starting to clear up very well!!! I'm so happy !!









I ripped out all the Giant Grass in this back corner because the Rotola Macandra is really, really taking off now. I had to trim it because it grew over 24 inches lol! I chopped them in half a few weeks ago and they reached the surface again so now I have probably tripled the amount I had before. I am going to replace the entire Giant Grass from the background and corners with the Rotola Macandra.



I have 3 stems of Purple Bamboo but they look pretty crappy. They have doubled and are peeking out of the water currently but the leaves look really bad.

HC is starting to spread now, but I just ordered a lot more to cover up the bald spots in the back.

I also will be ordering more Blyxa to put in the center towards the rear in a half circle to match the corners, and have the new HC planted around them. In about a month I will be ordering from MsJinkzd aka Rachel aka awesome, a large, large school of Chilli Rasboras and then a massive order of CRS. No specific grade yet but I'll update as I find a good source.

I added a Koralia 800gph powerhead to help get the co2 mist to the bottom of the tank and man things are already looking better. I am upping my Macro Micro dosing up to 24 pumps per bottle, 3 days each.

My waterplant DC keep leaking into my tank, spilling out all of the chemicals into my tank. Is that going to be a problem? I did a 60% water change yesterday, but that was just my normal maintenance. I think I am going to purchase a new glass DC because they also keep losing suction from the glass.

Also I am planning on doing my own 42 LED DIY fixture for the tank with a sunset/sunrise feature (and maybe lighting haha lol maybe).

I think thats about it so far.

Thanks for looking!
 
#13 ·
Lol Please don't mind the cardboard box blocking out the light. It really spills light everywhere. Pictures never come out right.
 
#14 ·
Any answers on the 4dkh question? Should it be a problem that the 4dkh spilled into the tank?
 
#16 ·
I am really considering getting rid of the giant grass. I also have a ton of frogbit I need to get rid of as well.
 
#17 ·
So I left my tank under the care of my cousin and I am pretty sure i wont do that again.

Looks like she or my nephew pulled on the cord for the Koralia powerhead and it came loose. It also raised the spray bar above the water level (pretty much canceling out any co2 being introduced into the tank because of all the violent spraying it did on the surface).

So the powerhead was pointing down ward and it made a 4 inch deep and 10 inch wide crater in the Aquasoil.

Those of you that know how bad AS is when it comes to being disturbed can understand my grief. Months and months of waiting for the water to clear up from this soil, it finally cleared up last week only to be thrust back into pee colored water yet again. Not to forget about all the freshly planted HC that is floating everywhere. About 10 pots worth I would say.

I didn't even bother fixing anything. Too exhausted from a 6 hour drive. I guess I have all day tomorrow to fix it. Hopefully it'll clear up soon.

Blah .....
 
#18 ·
wow your an artist !! I LOVE IT bravo:)
 
#19 ·
Thanks Nick! Well I am happy to announce ........ I am moving again. We just got an apartment at the Mayton Transfer Lofts in Petersburg, so I'm going to be draining this tank down and try to keep everything the way it is during the move. It'll be a 100% water change lol. Any advice?

All the drift wood is tied to the braces and to the spray bars.
 
#21 ·
LoL about 15 minutes. I'm going to put plastic wrap on the top to keep the moisture locked in bus I need to empty as much water as possible. Any ideas on how to drain this sucker. At 8.5 lbs per gallon any water I can get out the better. The tank is at the back of the house with a maze of built in counters and hall ways haha. Worst and best place to have a fish room. I have a pond pump that can get the water down to about 4 inches from substrate which is 2 inches high. After that I'll use the python. Ugh. I'm not looking forward to this!!


I was think about salvaging about 20 gallons of the water plus what ever is in the two 2217s. Is that enough water to help prevent a bacterial bloom? I doubt any of the bacteria on the sub and wood will die but I don't want to chance it.
 
#22 ·
From my experience of moving tanks 4 times a year at college for 3 years and then again 9 hours west after college, you should be fine with that amount of water you described. In particularly I've never had a bacterial bloom with a planted tank after a move. The biggest thing you might have is a algae bloom after setting it up again from kicking up the substrate, but if you stay on top of water changes it shouldn't be a problem.
 
#23 ·
Thanks Rion. So should I even bother saving any of the water when I get it to it's new home? Just the water in the canisters should be enough correct?
 
#25 ·
Haha JKan. You're so right about that! I haven't been able to enjoy this tank till recently and then we moved again! We are in the new apartment now, but haven't moved the tank. I'm waiting for some help lol. My uncle lives across the street but I don't think I want him helping me lift this tank. There's about five 9L bags of Aquasoil in there lol.
 
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