June 17 2012 - how it looked last night before the fish went back in.
Here is a short slide show of its first year.
http://s38.photobucket.com/albums/e139/msmaynard/?action=view¤t=efabb4bd.pbw
Since the 100 gallon tank was finally looking awesome it had to be time to completely mess things up and get another tank, right? Saw an ad on Craig's List - 96x18x24 acrylic tank, clear all around with a taller stand. Not perfect, acrylic is cloudy and lots of scratches but I have my slice of water on the wall without the annoying black silicone and trim. And I can see the whole tank over the top of the sofa too! I can have my hairgrass lawn and a jungly java fern/anubias/wood spot and a nice Crypt. balansae grove as well. No open top, it is at my eye level already and so much of the top is covered AND I am attempting do this with the same lighting as over the 60" tank so floaters will be gone.
Hardware
180 gallon long - 96"long by 24" tall by 18" deep
32" tall brown painted stand with DOORS!
2 - 150 watt 8000K fishneedit metal halide lamps hung ~30" above the substrate. May buy another one in the future.
Pressurized CO2 system run 24 hours a day to CO2 reactor kept in tank.
25 gallon rubbermaid sump with commercial overflow at right rear run by Rio 2500hp to a 3/4" vertical spraybar at left rear of tank.
In tank Rio 1700 with foam filter at right rear of tank run to 3/4" vertical spraybar at left front of tank.
Total turnover is about 800 gallons per hour due to head and elbow joint losses. Spray bars are to the left and intakes to the right yet the current seems to be headed towards the spray bar, looks good anyway. Hoping to keep power heads out of the tank this time.
1 - 150 watt heater is keeping tank at 76*F.
Substrate -
1.5" of old Schultz's Aquatic Soil with 1.5" of mixed grain gravel on top. Old substrate wasn't cleaned before put into new tank. New gravel looks very coarse but there is a lot of fine grained stuff mixed in.
Hardscape -
1-2" thick manzanita branches fastened with stainless steel screws into a frankenstump.
.5-1" thick sycamore branches fastened with stainless steel screws into a frankenstump.
Idea here is for a close in tangled jungle with larger scaled plants to further bright hairgrass path/river with far away open 'forest' with smaller scaled plants. Hoping hairgrass will spread under the Crypt. balansae as well as it undoubtedly will into the Stauro.
Plants -
Anubias 'nana'
Bacopa monnieri
Crypt. wendtii red or bronze
Crypt. balansae
Eleocharis acicularis
Eleocharis 'Belem'
Fissidens fontanus
Hemianthus glomeratus aka Hemianthus microanthemoides
Hydrocotyle leucocephala
Hydrocotyle sibthorpioides
Hygrophila difformis
Marsilea sp.
Microsorum sp - narrow leaved java fern
Myriophyllum mattogrossense
Nymphaea pubescens
Riccia fluitans
Rotala rotundifolia
Rotala 'Green'
Staurogyne repens
Taxiphyllum barbieri aka Vesicularia dubyana - java moss
Animals
Ancistrus sp. - bushynose/bristlenose pleco - 1
Corydoras paleatus - Peppered Cory - 11
Hyphessobrycon megalopterus - black phantom tetra -7
Hyphessobrycon herbertaxelrodi - black neon tetra -30
Laetacara curviceps - Dwarf Flag Cichlid -2
Otocinclus sp. - oto - 15
Xiphophorus sp -platy - 11 at the moment
Panorbarius sp. - Ramshorn snails - maybe 20-30 at the moment
+ 12-24
Roseline barb?
Rainbow fish? esp. looking at dwarf neon M. praecox and M. splendida australis
Hemiodus?
Giant danio?
Cardinal tetra?
Congo tetra?
? other bigger than black neon tetra that like to hang out together that look good in bright light
All the other fish are American but whatever. Also thinking about adding a couple more bushynose plecos and more black phantoms as they are shoaling nicely in this huge tank.
So I am crazy but I took down this pretty tank.
for this sad looking thing - the black on the left is the H.O.T. HOB I use for quarantine and to hold fish in the temporary tub while I set up the new to me tank. Plant placement is about the same in both tanks, just stretched out with a lot more room allocated for the hairgrass.
The fish have been doing a great job cleaning up the wreckage from the melted plants. Even though they looked fresh after a week out of the tank within a day the plants started dissolving - even the Anubias.
The black neons are thrilled with all the room but the black phantoms and dwarf flags are extremely pale yet. All the fish did just great in a 25 gallon tub covered with floaters filtered with the HOT and a 50 watt heater outside for a whole week.
I just increased the cory and oto numbers but will wait on the main new group of fish until the hairgrass has formed a turf and the black phantoms and dwarf flags are colored up showing that there is enough cover in the tank for comfort. May attempt cherry shrimp if cover seems really good as well.
I am seeing new growth even furthest from the light but we will see........
Here is a short slide show of its first year.
http://s38.photobucket.com/albums/e139/msmaynard/?action=view¤t=efabb4bd.pbw
Since the 100 gallon tank was finally looking awesome it had to be time to completely mess things up and get another tank, right? Saw an ad on Craig's List - 96x18x24 acrylic tank, clear all around with a taller stand. Not perfect, acrylic is cloudy and lots of scratches but I have my slice of water on the wall without the annoying black silicone and trim. And I can see the whole tank over the top of the sofa too! I can have my hairgrass lawn and a jungly java fern/anubias/wood spot and a nice Crypt. balansae grove as well. No open top, it is at my eye level already and so much of the top is covered AND I am attempting do this with the same lighting as over the 60" tank so floaters will be gone.
Hardware
180 gallon long - 96"long by 24" tall by 18" deep
32" tall brown painted stand with DOORS!
2 - 150 watt 8000K fishneedit metal halide lamps hung ~30" above the substrate. May buy another one in the future.
Pressurized CO2 system run 24 hours a day to CO2 reactor kept in tank.
25 gallon rubbermaid sump with commercial overflow at right rear run by Rio 2500hp to a 3/4" vertical spraybar at left rear of tank.
In tank Rio 1700 with foam filter at right rear of tank run to 3/4" vertical spraybar at left front of tank.
Total turnover is about 800 gallons per hour due to head and elbow joint losses. Spray bars are to the left and intakes to the right yet the current seems to be headed towards the spray bar, looks good anyway. Hoping to keep power heads out of the tank this time.
1 - 150 watt heater is keeping tank at 76*F.
Substrate -
1.5" of old Schultz's Aquatic Soil with 1.5" of mixed grain gravel on top. Old substrate wasn't cleaned before put into new tank. New gravel looks very coarse but there is a lot of fine grained stuff mixed in.
Hardscape -
1-2" thick manzanita branches fastened with stainless steel screws into a frankenstump.
.5-1" thick sycamore branches fastened with stainless steel screws into a frankenstump.
Idea here is for a close in tangled jungle with larger scaled plants to further bright hairgrass path/river with far away open 'forest' with smaller scaled plants. Hoping hairgrass will spread under the Crypt. balansae as well as it undoubtedly will into the Stauro.
Plants -
Anubias 'nana'
Bacopa monnieri
Crypt. wendtii red or bronze
Crypt. balansae
Eleocharis acicularis
Eleocharis 'Belem'
Fissidens fontanus
Hemianthus glomeratus aka Hemianthus microanthemoides
Hydrocotyle leucocephala
Hydrocotyle sibthorpioides
Hygrophila difformis
Marsilea sp.
Microsorum sp - narrow leaved java fern
Myriophyllum mattogrossense
Nymphaea pubescens
Riccia fluitans
Rotala rotundifolia
Rotala 'Green'
Staurogyne repens
Taxiphyllum barbieri aka Vesicularia dubyana - java moss
Animals
Ancistrus sp. - bushynose/bristlenose pleco - 1
Corydoras paleatus - Peppered Cory - 11
Hyphessobrycon megalopterus - black phantom tetra -7
Hyphessobrycon herbertaxelrodi - black neon tetra -30
Laetacara curviceps - Dwarf Flag Cichlid -2
Otocinclus sp. - oto - 15
Xiphophorus sp -platy - 11 at the moment
Panorbarius sp. - Ramshorn snails - maybe 20-30 at the moment
+ 12-24
Roseline barb?
Rainbow fish? esp. looking at dwarf neon M. praecox and M. splendida australis
Hemiodus?
Giant danio?
Cardinal tetra?
Congo tetra?
? other bigger than black neon tetra that like to hang out together that look good in bright light
All the other fish are American but whatever. Also thinking about adding a couple more bushynose plecos and more black phantoms as they are shoaling nicely in this huge tank.
So I am crazy but I took down this pretty tank.
for this sad looking thing - the black on the left is the H.O.T. HOB I use for quarantine and to hold fish in the temporary tub while I set up the new to me tank. Plant placement is about the same in both tanks, just stretched out with a lot more room allocated for the hairgrass.
The fish have been doing a great job cleaning up the wreckage from the melted plants. Even though they looked fresh after a week out of the tank within a day the plants started dissolving - even the Anubias.
The black neons are thrilled with all the room but the black phantoms and dwarf flags are extremely pale yet. All the fish did just great in a 25 gallon tub covered with floaters filtered with the HOT and a 50 watt heater outside for a whole week.
I just increased the cory and oto numbers but will wait on the main new group of fish until the hairgrass has formed a turf and the black phantoms and dwarf flags are colored up showing that there is enough cover in the tank for comfort. May attempt cherry shrimp if cover seems really good as well.
I am seeing new growth even furthest from the light but we will see........