The Planted Tank Forum banner

180 Gallon Long Take#3

35K views 225 replies 62 participants last post by  Amandas tank 
#1 · (Edited)
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&current=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........
 
See less See more
4
#4 ·
Thanks, I figured if 1" black neons liked 96" of swimming room bigger fish would be super happy. Guess I need to be searching for videos of these fish to see which one interests me most. Haven't had danios of any sort for a decade, roselines remind me of SAE - an interesting fish to watch and congo tetras are just magnificent. Both danios and SAE went overboard in an open tank, not going to be a problem with this set up!
 
#8 ·
Thanks for the help choosing fish. Congos, roseline, danios and species livebearers it is then. 3 of each?? What kind of livebearer? I have only had hybrid guppy/platy/swordtails.

Hairgrass is chugging along but I still have a really long time before deciding. My daughter suggested hatchetfish but from the videos I have seen I would be very frustrated when cleaning the tank.

I got to cut back a couple of plants this week! Attempted to glue stray java fern on wood but it really wants to take over the tank and bits keep escaping. Not much debris in the tank, may be over the hump and ready to grow.

Small hitch though. My 10 year old M3 regulator is acting very oddly. The big black pressure regulator knob is very hard to turn and the CO2 tank is nearly empty. Me thinks something is wrong here.

Finally put the cord cover on the wall. Modified the overflow mesh so it is less obtrusive and raised the overflow a bit.

This photo shows how this tank fits the 10' wall of the living room. I had to stand all the way to the far side of the room. This is a tiny house, I get one tank. Hehehe.

 
#10 ·
3 roselines in that big tank of yours?!! No way. 9-12 minimum. Nick/speedie408 has 10 and they look awesome schooling around very energetically in his ADA 120P.
 
#11 ·
The floaters are red rooted, Phyllanthus fluitans, and Salvinia minima I think. Neither are looking their best in the photo. In a pond they would be much prettier. They aren't going to look as good in my tank off to the side without much light either but they need to stay for grazing. The platies like RRF a lot.

Kidding, I will be buying a whole bunch of whichever larger shoaling/schooling fish - not a few of each. Tank looks busy enough at every level already. I don't know why the black phantoms are looking like a shoal now when I have had them for ages just hanging in the same area. Right now platies are all over but mostly at the top and feed together more than shoal, black neons are mid/upper level schooling when they decide to go for a tour of the tank, BPT shoal in bottom third of tank, corys hang out in small groups at the bottom.

My new overflow screen is great for keeping floaters away from the slots in the box but I had to rescue a platy and oto from it last night.
 
#13 ·
Kathy that's a nice tank and big too, I have some plastic conditioner I use on the Harley windshield that will not only remove scratches but any yellowing of the acrylic, there are a lot of companies that make this product (Rain-X) for cleaning and removing fog from the new style car head lights. It requires a bit of elbow grease and I did the windshield about 5 times but results were excellent, it might be worth testing a spot on your new tank (in the corner on the back) to get rid of any scratches, good luck with your new tank.
 
#14 ·
Thanks 150EH, I think the cloudiness is on the inside. It looks better in real life than in my crummy photos.

I am still doing searches, looking at everybody's tanks and poring over my fish books looking at new fish. No clear winner yet. Am wondering if just adding more black phantoms and black neons would get me where I want to be.

The regulator died so I put my spare one on and then of course the CO2 tank was drained and I had to start all over again pushing up the CO2, now I have some pearling and happy fish.

GDA and GSA has been growing very nicely on the tank's front pane. I think the tank is in a horrible GW state then I scrape it and everything turns back the nice colors again. Amazing I am fooled every time.

Loads of diatoms built up in the overflow box so of course the fool otos have to go in there for the great food. I cleaned it out and no otos have gone back. Sheesh, what nags those fish are!

Most of the plants are really perking up. The C. balansae seems to have double the leaves or they are twice as thick this week. Staurogyne repens has really deepened its color and thickened up. The Brazilian pennywort is still thinking about leaving me again, I sure hope it pulls through. Still have the floaters, water spangles looks nice but RRF is nearly gone.

Noticed none of the plants had closed their leaves up when lights went out so I increased the lighting period to 9 hours. Now to remember to notice if they are closed at lights off. The dog is so confused, I used to feed him at 3PM when the lights turned on and now the lights are on for an hour before he is fed.

Been taking photos of my purse surplus and hope to be making enough money at auction so DH won't freak out at a big fish and possibly new light purchase next month.



See the CLEAN overflow?


Got to trim the R. 'Green' again. HG is getting thicker but a long way to go yet.
 
#15 ·
The tank is starting to look planted now! I lost a few species of plants and a couple are still in intensive care but most everything looks pretty robust now. Got the CO2 nearly where it belongs I think.
"]
So far no surprises from the plants, they are behaving as anticipated, that will surely change. Fish are fat and happy, especially the otos. Apparently there are plenty of diatoms and GDA to please them.

Was admiring Amanda's new Melanotaenia maccullochi today. May visit my favorite LFS and see if they can help me out.
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/fish/140379-i-got-6-mccullochs-rainbows.html

The water change yesterday was still ridiculous. 90 minutes to dump and fill 90 gallons. I could do 50 gallons in 20 minutes. Since all I needed to do was cut the Rotala 'Green' and Bacopa, scrape the front pane and thin out the floaters I don't understand why it took so long. Other than taking longer than it should and finishing up in the dark it was drama free, no water on the floor or balky pumps.

I cribbed feral13's most excellent light shield for the fishneedit metal halide fixture. I had a bit of thin acrylic and with taken apart hinges and some nuts and bolts made up this. I used hammered gray paint and it didn't want to cover completely but I am leaving it for now. Some light comes through when lights are on but the shields look opaque when lights are out. Maybe I will buy more acrylic and make shields for the back and paint the inside with white, might make them opaque. They don't seem to get very hot, probably ought to see how these do before making more anyway. Will buy the acrylic cutter too, scared the dog big time breaking it.

Here is feral13's journal.
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/tank-journals-photo-album/120702-new-house-new-office-new-aquarium.html
 
#16 ·
Kathy I didn't think the tank looked cloudy but I suggested the scratch remover/polish because you had mentioned it looked scratched when you purchased the tank, it looks clean and clear from my house. It looks as if growth is at a snails pace but I guess the tank is only a month old or so, do you use any substrate fertilizers or water column dosing???? Keep up the good work and don't forget to post a pic for every event, you know how we love pics and updates.
 
#17 ·
I am not the best photographer and had to rush to get the shot without my tripod as the lights were about to go out, lighting isn't helping and the changes are subtle. The plants are looking fat, thick stems and sturdy growth now. The fish are weaving among the plants now, somehow that wasn't happening before.

January of '10 I replanted the 100 gallon tank with only sad anubias, C. pontederiifolia and wendti and loads of red lilies present. It took about 4 months to attain a state that looked fully planted. This time it looks like it will take about 2 months. Part was just adding more species of plants, part was recovering from the move and part was just growing out. Just wondering if I have learned enough over the many years I have had a planted tank to get this scape looking not only fully furnished but the way I would like it. Sort of doubt it. Poor fish, they don't care whether the hairgrass and C. wendtii is shoved up against the glass or not.

Tank is getting EI and big water changes. No substrate dosing which the crypts and stauro would like. I want to dig out some clay from the yard and make up little balls with osmocote and micros but haven't gotten around to it yet. I meant to under lay the substrate with a small amount of osmocote and clay but forgot all about it when I set the tank up. Hardness booster really perked up the plants and my soil is high in magnesium so perhaps it would be a good thing.

The only scratch that bothers me is a doozy. It looks like a couple bits of tape stuck to the lower front of the tank but isn't. How does that happen?
 
#18 ·
I had fun making stuff for the tank this week.

First, two days in a row a real smart platy went into the overflow. I made an oversized slip cover for the overflow box from fiberglass window screen, nylon upholstery thread and a couple cable ties as stiffeners weaving in the overflow slots and keeping the screen away from the walls of the box which I learned in only one lesson years ago reduces water flow and the tank will overflow. I learn pretty fast if the tank or sump threatens to overflow!


I got to go to my local planted tank club meeting, SCAPE, this past Sunday and had a very good time. I won a baggie with some daphnia. I want to use them to eat up my GW. This is 96" of water but it is definitely green! Oddly my other two new inhabitants are present here. A red calico bristlenose is on the left hand spray bar at the very bottom AND a Malaysian Trumpet Snail is at the bottom of the spraybar on the right! Hoping both do well. I hadn't been impressed by RCBNP photos but in person this one is just beautiful. I lost my horde of MTS at some point this past year, hope they do their thing again. Neat critters.


I cut the foot off a pair of pantyhose and put a strawberry basket inside for stiffening. I knotted it but should have used a rubber band and wedged it next to the sponge filter hoping some GW gets in the daphnia cage. They seem happy and are pecking away. They are huge, you can see two, they are white blobs, in the center bottom arch. Fun to watch, I really like inverts, hoping some sort of shrimp will work out.


Then DH fixed my memory card and I can take a bazillon pictures without downloading and deleting from the camera's internal memory so I had more fun taking pictures this week.

No good full tank shots at all. The HOT is put away, just the biological medium holding thing is in the sump now. Just couldn't put it back, it looked so bad. I did put the larger powerhead back on the right hand side without the concentrator on it and covered with more nylon to keep leaves out. The nylon is doing a great job hiding it but not sure there is much flow!


My last DIY was fun for the fish. I use a metal kabob skewer for veggies.
Three platies, an oto and a snail enjoying the zucchini.


The reason I am reluctant to get any shrimp just yet. The two Laetacara curviceps [not sure they are a pair] in the tank inspect every inch looking for stuff to munch on. I only have good sized ramshorn snails, never babies even though I see lots of eggs. Maybe if I start seeing small snails that are escaping the LC shrimp will have enough cover to survive.


Here is Mr. BNP. A brown calico?


I cleaned the GSA off the back and left side of the tank but missed some front and center. There doesn't seem to be any GDA left, no green ring around the tank at water change time.

Plants are doing great except for Hydrocotyle sibthorpioides which is looking very sad. HM has completely vanished but I found a 1/2" stem that could be a remnant, stuck it in where the Hs is doing best, will see.The floaters have mostly perked up which is odd as the upper antisiphon hole is making them whirl all over the tank now and floaters aren't supposed to like that. I pulled the Rotala 'Green' off the substrate as it wants to creep, not sure that will work or not. I also combed the bent over C. balansae leaves up and some seem to have decided to stay up.
 
#19 ·
Looks really good, so the daphnia got rid of your GW?? My GW got so bad and I was suprized at how fast my 2 new circ pumps got rid of it, just 2 days and the UV strilizer I ordered hasn't even arrived. It's nice that there's group close to you, here if I want to try one it's almost a 2 hour drive, keep up the good work.
 
#20 ·
No, GW is in full swing yet. The daphnia have been in the tank for 4 days is all. If they can make a dent it would take weeks I suspect. Don't really care, I just love watching them and maybe they would increase enough so I could dump some out for a fish feed every once in a while. My plants don't seem to be moving much but the fish have to swim to stay in one spot in more than half the tank.

SCAPE meetings are ~100 miles from me most of the time across LA yet. My sister lives over that way so I can spend the night and get twice the fun from one trip, might be able to do this on occasion. It took having Tom Barr as the speaker to get me to travel all that way! Been reading his info for a decade, hoping HEARING the words will get it into my brain better.

Thanks, it is looking better each week. It sure was scary the first couple of weeks!

Still haven't decided what school of larger fish is going in. Tank still looks too crowded as most all the fish are visible most of the time yet.

Day tank was planted.

To this, look at the big Anubias on the far right, completely melted. The tank looked worse in IRL.

Couple weeks ago, GW apparent!

Yesterday, the floaters have really taken off.
 
#21 ·
So what happened to your old 100gal tank after you broke it down?

I have my eye on a 100 gal 60x18x24 inch tank at the LFS. He said he'd let me have it for $200 as he is having trouble moving it due to it not having a stand. Apparently 60" tanks and stands aren't standard and don't sell well.

My dream size would be a 180gal 72x24x24 inch tank, but I'm sure the cost would be several times more than $200.
 
#22 ·
I sold it and the home made stand and two Fluval canisters that were missing a lot of bits and the gravel I didn't use and the lights and top that came with the tank that I never used for $100 on Craig's List. As is usual I was very happy to get it gone and the buyer thought he was getting a great deal. I think the tank cost about $200 new over 10 years ago and the stand probably cost me $50 to make from 2x4"s and a lot of screws.

That tank might be a good one to get as it is big but not huge. I doubt I will get to 1800 gallons of water movement in this tank but 1000 gallons of WM isn't too hard to get in the 100 gallon tank.
 
#24 ·
Well, more fish in the tank, more light this week and less algae!

The daphnia? Anyway GW is better now. Even though my lousy photos don't show it there is good contrast even at the rear of the tank. I shaded directly below the lights and let the floaters take over the tank and not only does it look clearer the front pane seems clean.

Of course I couldn't let well enough alone and bought another FNI fixture so the light would be more even. Hoping hairgrass will be happier at the center back with more light and those shadows be gone from the back corners. I don't know for sure if the new center bulb is 8000K, look at the difference between 1 year old lamps and the new lamp! I have taken some precautions. Fixtures are up 6 additional inches, the top is completely covered with window screen [and driving me nuts] and I cut back on the lighting period a bit. Of course I did remove about 2/3 of the floaters too.

All three lights on.

Just the new light on.


Plus there was a big sale at my favorite LFS, TAT in Ventura so I went shopping. Got more Black Phantom Tetras and some silver hatchetfish now that I have a covered tank. BPT were thrilled to see more of their kind and were flirting and shoaling right away. The hatchets might not be my kind of fish. That platy saving overflow box cover makes a dandy hatchetfish trap as there isn't much room behind the box now and one is gone now. Oddly they venture away from fewer floaters but stay under cover if there are lots of floaters. Really neat to watch them though, they look especially great with the lights off with the big silver body flashing.

It is finally warm weather here, drat, and the tank is at 80*F. The Laetcara curviceps have disappeared and the last sighting was a vicious charge at a platy. Both fish were in excellent color. Could be I have a pair after all. It has been so long I don't remember what the nuptial colors are.

I dearly want to chop down the Rotala 'Green' and plant the trimmings on the left hand side but I got a major blister and need to keep my hands out of the tank until it is better. The Bacopa needs a trim too. If the poor hairgrass was just holding up its end it would be about the way I wanted to see it. Probably should pull out some Bacopa as the HG is nearly dead center.

Just now saw both baby red calico bristlenoses! First time since they arrived.
 
#27 ·
Thanks, if nothing else so far it is maturing without any glaring planting oopsies. The C. balansae are a little creepy looking with the long curved leaves moving like alien arms in the current, didn't think that was going to happen! C. balansae would be amazing in a 28" tall tank. Or Crinium.

Ooooh, what a deal, bet you are having a blast planning it all. Go through the Tank Profiles to see what others have done with big tanks.

Adding the new light produced more green water despite the screening and all the floaters. The stauro is shedding old yellow with green veined leaves too. I wonder if the light+no water change meant hardness was stripped and there was a magnesium deficiency? I only dose NPK+trace. Why would I need GH booster if my GH is 4? This is my water report.
http://www.amwater.com/files/CA_5610040_CCR.pdf Likely I need more CO2, I STILL am moving it up a bit every other day.

Anyway, the blister was more or less healed so I got a water change in after 12 days. Trimmed the Bacopa and Rotala 'Green'. Bacopa trimmings were stuck in the bare right hand corner and Rotala was planted over the grave of the MM. Wisteria is looking so pretty and so in need of a trim but I didn't do it. I did cut/replant the tallest Myrio stem and the bit of diatoms it had seems to be gone. Pennywort is still sulking. I twice took out half the floaters. Red rooted floater is growing fine and there were tinges of pink on the leaves but virtually no roots as they are super yummy. Interested that the floaters are doing okay under cover.

I treated the BBA fuzzy wood with excel but no change after 3 days. Front pane was green at the top few inches probably because of the new light but no fresh GSA. I took the daphnia cage out for a couple days because of the excel and when I put it back there was a huge air bubble in it. Hasn't gone yet after a whole day. Very odd!

No baby Laetacara! Baby plecos are doing fine I think. They are persistent little things, on top of the food and all the other fish are on top of them! Another hatchetfish is lost. Loving watching them, they are different than I thought, quite playful and curious fish.

Baby platies can get though the platy suicide guard but haven't had any other fish get through. It seems to keep snails out as well and so far hasn't clogged up and overflowed the tank but I sure keep my eyes on the water level!

From last week as once again I haven't any new photos but I did play with contrast and color balance a bit to make it closer to what I see. Interesting that the off white plastic cord cover doesn't reflect the light the way the beige wall does. Guess I need to paint it when I take it off to stick the other light cord in there.
 
#28 ·
I finally painted the cord cover this week! Since the GW is rampant this week it blends in really well, hehe.

This is with only the center MH on just before lights out. Really more shadowy on the ends.


I hadn't cleaned the gravel or rinsed the sponges or cleaned the overflow box cover the previous week. That isn't going to help GW go away.

This week I did all of the above but didn't scrape the tank panes - not much on there. Keeping the screen on of course as well.

Plants looked much happier with more NPK. Even the sulking Hydrocotyles aren't declining further. I have my first invasion of HG into the Stauro! Took out some of the java fern and will attempt to grow stems in the corner if the crypt decides to stay short. Annoying plant, 10" tall for a decade, grows 18" tall earlier this year and now that I wish it was tall it is staying low. Put a bunch of Rotala 'Green' in the right hand wood and a bunch of Bacopa in the right hand corner behind the crypt. Of course the Myrio will flourish since its spot is now filled.

Overflow box didn't have any BGA on it, just green algae. GSA is mostly gone, probably because of the Excel treatment. BBA is gone too. It never turned that satisfying pink, just sort of shriveled away without me noticing. Gravel had had some green on it, gone. Front pane is pearling so must have algae on it but cannot SEE it so it doesn't count, right? Fissidens that got undiluted Excel turned brown but is green again? That doesn't sound right. The Anubias leaves with GSA that got squirted got big holes in them. Shouldn't have bothered, just cut them off!

HOT filter is back as a powerhead, CO2 troubles this week. One of my tweaks was apparently a super tweak and fish were gasping. CO2 off and HOT on and all was well within an hour. Leaving it there until I have it dialed in. Easier to push the button than run around in a panic looking for it when it is needed NOW.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top