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Crazydaz's Square 200G RIPARIUM Stikes back-The End Teaser shots of new set up 7-24

253K views 848 replies 191 participants last post by  leequan 
#1 · (Edited)
Just finished up with the move from old rental property to new home. Life sure has been hectic lately!

So, the Journal starts over, and as much as I hated to tear down the tank from this:


and this:


To THIS:


and this:


.....but it had to be done. To re-set and try to go with the same aesthetic would have been uncreative and boorish. Everything was sold or given away. Many thanks to Tlyons01 who spent a "fun" afternoon tearing the tank down with me. It only took about 7 hours. :D

Prior to that, the outside of the stand/pedestal was removed. It was made of 2x4's: very solid construction, but the outside was made of pressboard. A terrible choice, in retrospect, for obvious reasons. It had been warped and bubbled, and was a total eyesore. So, I stripped it down and threw it out.

Here are a few pics of the new pedestal:




That is red oak stained with walnut with iron hinges and knobs. We're going for more of a "rustic" old-fashioned look for the sitting room, and I thought that this would look nice. Eventually, the pendant above the tank will be redone either in black, or it will be done to match the pedestal. Probably happen in January. In the new design, I added side doors in order to make accessing the equipment in the back easier to do. It has been triple coated in poly on all sides to ensure water resistance, and almost "water proofing."

The day following the drain and dis-assembly, we moved the tank, lighting, and new pedestal to the new house. This was all done within two hours, which was faster than I had anticipated. The move went flawlessly, and I was ready to re-start the scape. So....

IN went custom made Manzanita branches that came from hydrophyte, plain kitty litter (about 30lbs), and that was topped by MTS made by DogFish. The Manzy branches are semi-poseable that will allow me to move the "joints" as needed in order to access equipment with relative ease, or to alter the hardscape as desired. You will notice screws in some of the future pictures; these are the "joints" I refer to....just a simple screw and nut assembly. Hydrophyte did do a marvelous job cutting the ends of the branches into simple fittings through which the screw passes through and is held on the other side by the nut.

DogFish sent six large Flat Rate boxes of MTS to me months ago, and makes about a two inch layer in my tank. Wonderful stuff!:





Sprinkled on the potash, pressed it into the MTS, and then topped that with some of my old tank's substrate. Added the Seriyu stone and the old stone from CraigThor's tank, and now this is how it looked:





Three rock "peninsulas" are featured in this set up for bucephelandra, anubia, and java fern species; the substrate will feature mostly crypts.

More pictures tomorrow!!
 
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#30 ·
Robotpony--Thank you! We had been moving small things over since the close on the house, and we had to get that tank out of there over a weekend where I had time to focus "only" on the tank....the following weekend would have been too chaotic as we would have had to do all of the tank stuff in addition to moving furniture, getting one house set up and the other one cleaned, and so on. Too much!!

Frank, I might be able to trade with you in a few weeks for some crypts, if you want some gasser and gracilis. PM me!

Izabella--Thank you! I can do it!! :D What other option is there? I'm a big fan of your different set ups, btw.

Chaoslord--The bar has been set high from that last tank, and won't have the same array of colorful stems as my former set up....so the challenge is to use different textures and focal points with the hardscape in order to (hopefully) surpass the last scape. It will take some time. Thank you for the compliment!

Obakemono! I love the FX5! It's adjustable in terms of flow, and an all-in-one filter and powerhead. No worries ever about filtration or flow using this beast! I had it when it first came out several years ago, and should have stayed with it instead of trying Ehiems. How would you connect this to a reactor, though? I'm using a different method via needle wheel pump to do my CO2, mainly because I couldn't think of a feasible way to connect a reactor to the outflow hose. Do tell!!

Jiinx! You just want more plants, is all. Quit trying to butter me up!

New pics after dinner tonight!
 
#32 ·
Obakemono! I love the FX5! It's adjustable in terms of flow, and an all-in-one filter and powerhead. No worries ever about filtration or flow using this beast! I had it when it first came out several years ago, and should have stayed with it instead of trying Ehiems. How would you connect this to a reactor, though? I'm using a different method via needle wheel pump to do my CO2, mainly because I couldn't think of a feasible way to connect a reactor to the outflow hose. Do tell!!
Well I need to see how large the hose barbs are on the FX5 but I was really planning on running 2 FX5's for the main filtration and then a 406 for the reactor. Still thinking of a reactor design that would minimize flow restrictions (DIY pvc).
 
#33 ·
Thanks gwinner! I'll try to point the screw and bolts out in the next set of photos. I guess that I was tired of having to wait for the "perfect manzanita" branches, so I thought that if they could be custom made to fit, so much the better. Devin did an excellent job with them, I feel.......it also makes routine maintenance easier for me as well...just loosen the bolt a bit, bend the branch out of the way, tighten, do whatever I need to do, and then move it back again.

The joints will be covered, but I'm keeping that a secret for the time being. Have to get a few things ordered first, but same to say that it won't be moss. ;)

I love the "Bario"....it should make it much easier to part out and sell from time to time for a decent price. It's been a wonderful plant to have!!

Obakemono--do you need 800 gallons worth of filtration?

Anyhow....next set of pictures were taken October 1st. I added 25lbs of Seriyu stone, mostly to the left-side peninsula. I think that I'm finally starting to achieve the look that I was going for. Still, I need probably another 50lbs more to finish it. The height that I would like is nearly there...just need to "fortify" it a bit, and add some additional height to the other two peninsulas in the tank. This was a blue-colored Seriyu which contrasts with the brown stone that I received from CraigThor....still, it looks nice, and in a few months, any visible rock work will either have enough patina for it to all blend together nicely, or it will be covered by anubia, java fern, or bucephelandra species.

In addition, taking pics of this tank has become unexpectedly tricky, simply due to the height of the lighting....it casts light onto me taking the picture as well. Slight annoyance, and I'll have to figure something out.

At this point, I could already start seeing new leaves forming on the crypts and buces....the coffeefolia quickly grew a nice new leaf, too. The growth is amazing, and I'm not even running CO2 yet! I'm excited to look at the growth after I can get my CO2 up again!

Here is right side of the tank, if you click on the picture you can see a "hinge" on the manzy branch sticking out of the water:


Close up of the right side toward the front....the buces are getting ready to flower in the midground:


A look at the Keei "Jambusan" patch:


Here is a look at the forming crypt "field" between the right side peninsula and the two left side peninsulas...and my hand in the upper-left part of the photo:


This is the same area, just looking towards the left side of the tank...and you can see my camera and hand in this shot as well:


Nice shot of the Left side of the tank with the extra Seriyu stone:


Another shot of the left side...you can see the "hinge" joint on the manzy branches in this picture as well:


Left Oblique:


Same angle, but further away....potential problem is that the walls in this room are painted brown, so it is difficult to get a good shot that really stands out. I may have to re-paint the room:


To make matters more interesting, this is really heavy on the peat right now...so it's basically going to be blackwater for a little while. It's neat to look at in person, but it doesn't really photograph well. Especially against a brown wall.



Thanks for looking!
 
#37 ·
Oddly, I did not get the crypts yet that you sent, which bummed me out a bit! It'll be here tomorrow!

I did get my riparium package from Devin today, though! I'm pretty stoked about that. I have some rearranging to do in order to make everything fit, and I should be good to go!!

I have decided on the what will be used on the wood. Just have to order them is all! When I get paid!

Yeah, Frank's miracle dirt is the real deal!
 
#38 ·
Don,
Do you think one FX5, with media, will be fine for an 8 foot long tank? (165gallons) I'm a bit worried that if I have the filter on one end or even in the middle that the tank curculation would suffer.

OT: New growth so fast, that can only mean one thing: You are going to be trimming allot more!!!
 
#39 ·
not sure about franks MTS, but i know im in love with the stuff. since i tried it, i put it under everything. even under ADA aquasoil (and i notice an improvement in growth rate too, though not a very dramatic one).

maybe you should put some cool black-water fish in there. like betta macrostoma.
 
#40 ·
Xue: got the crypts and Buces this morning, and they look great! The mailman said that he forgot to leave the package yesterday. Ok..... ;) in any event, they are in the tank, adding to my collectoritis crypt and buce setup!

Obakemono: an 8ft long tank? Dios mio! Maybe if you put it in the middle with some powerheads at each side. If it will be heavily planted, it should be fine. PM me with more details so I know what you are planning!

Trimming shouldn't be too problematic....it's still a predominantly a crypt and buce tank!

Marko--you have to try DogFish's (Frank) "premium blend" MTS for your next set up! It's perfect! Better than Aquasoil. Planning to do some microdarios, if Rachel ever gets them in again from her suppliers! :(
 
#41 ·
well i am just about out of MTS anyway...
alrighty, looks like i know what im using for the next setup.
BETTER than aquasoil? now this i have to see. ok for my next setup ill get some and cap with inert silica sand. never did a sand scape actually ill probably leave some sand open in front of the foreground, might look nice (dammit, i just setup one scape and now you have me think about another, im a college student, not a millionaire).

you mean microdEVario? m. kubotai? http://msjinkzd.com/species/fish/microdevario-kubotai-neon-yellow-microrasbora/
i saw pics of them in francis xaviers nano recently. they look cool, and you could stuff a massive shoal of em in there.
 
#42 ·
Did you get your riparium stuff planted? Would love to see shots of that and your new crypts and buce.

Wish my wallet and wife would let me do something as amazing as this....guess staring at a computer screen of yours will have to do haha.

Just guessing you gonna do something like Orchids or something on the branches? Knowing you you probably have something more amazing in store though.
 
#45 · (Edited)
Marko....yes, much better than AquaSoil!! DogFish's prices were perfectly fine, and you could always get some and use it later!

gwinner....I did and got the arrangement finally ready for pics. The wife knows who wears the pants in my family. If I want something, I simply buy it. And the beg her not to get mad at me for doing it! LOL!

Thanks Keith!! I've gotten some great growth already, and I just got the CO2 up and running again.

Frank....thank you! I really like the new riparium plants! They look great!!


Just got the CO2 system up and running, as I said yesterday. It was a pain in the butt, however I was successful. New needle wheel pump, tubing, spraybar. The whole 9 yards! If anyone wants me to make one, just let me know! It's even better than my old one! Even without it, I've gotten some really good growth on everything, even my Nasaea crassicaulis and Ammannia latifolia put on some healthy growth without the CO2.

But, I was in there and kicked some dust up, so I'll have to post more pictures tomorrow of the tank. For now, here are a few pics, mainly looking at the new riparium plants from Devin. This should add a REALLY nice element to the tank over the next month or so.

Front:


Top looking down:




Right side of the tank:


Left side of the tank:


Still pretty hazy:


More pics tomorrow! Thanks for looking.
 
#47 ·
Hey Don, been a while decided to see what you were up to on this forum. See that your into a house now...thats great! Ill be moving in less than a month into a house finally. I cant wait to get a freshwater tank again. I will be setting up a planted tank this time! I still have the nano cube its up and running still. Ill be following this thread, cya
 
#52 ·
Thanks BeachBum2012!

Good to hear from you again, 11f150, and I'm happy to hear that you are moving on to bigger and better things yourself! Keep me posted on your planted freshwater set up, and let me know how it is going!!

Yeah Im still working on closing so its going to be a few months before I consider getting a freshwater tank going. Yours is looking great so far keep it up.
 
#50 ·
Hi Gwinner.....I'm not too sure yet. I was thinking Microdevario to go along with my tangerines and orange shrimp in the tank already. I have to think about it.

The ruellia will be a nice touch, especially as it fills in and blooms. I'm looking forward to it!

Will start backing off the updates, though there will be some major changes coming soon (additions). I'll try to post those changes before heading up to Michigan this weekend for my nephew's baptism. FINALLY, I'M going to be a Godfather! Muahh hah hah ha....

The water is clear, but tannin-stained....first three are of the front of the tank:






You can see the challenge of taking pics of this tank....if you look closely, you will see the photographer's knobby knees: ;)


Left oblique:


Right Oblique:


Devin's riparium plants! Love these guys!! I will need to get some more to properly fill out the tank the way I want:


Top down.....gives you a better idea of the layout, and how it's coming along:
 
#51 ·
Nice tank!
I believe the outlet size of the FX5 is 5/8" ID tubing. Use the tubing from the filter to a DIY spraybar if you need to. PVC chunck shaved into a barb, 2 90's to hang over the edge of tank, one more to send it along the back wall, long bar drilled every inch for spray, 3 more 90's to hang over tank again, cap end. Scuff up the PVC and spray with Krylon fusion. FX5 spraybar that is 4' long, works like a champ. I did that in my 125 for my Oscar.
 
#53 ·
Turtle....that's a pretty cool idea! I don't think that I would have enough room back there for a four foot spraybar, but I like the idea of that type of flow through the system. Do you have a picture? Why did you decide to do that for your Oscar tank?

Yeah, it's difficult to start one if you haven't even moved into the new place yet, huh? ;) HA!! Give yourself time and start planning now. Let me know if you have any questions!
 
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