Well here it is on week 2 after setup.
Many things left to do like canopy and lighting, but the lights on there now are not doing all that bad. I am running my old lights from the 30gallon.
Its a 4' shop light with one T-8 5500k bulb powered by the original ballast (for 2 bulbs) and the other bulb (T-8 6500k) has a 3X ballast that I added to power the second bulb. Then in front of that , laying on them dang glass tops that I hate so much is the stock T-8 flourescent light strip that came with the tank, I just changed the bulb to a 8500k Flora-Sun bulb.
WEEK 2
I also was looking for some change with this tank and went with a blue background... I think the blue really freshens up the tank... of course it looks a little overpowering now but I think with a few months of growth and maturity of the plants it will be very nice looking.
Pay no mind to the equiptment, Im working on that also... I am definately going to add my other XP2 to the tank for filtration as there is only one on there now with just a small powerhead for circulation.
i don't think it is. Did you cycle the tank before you added the fish? You said after week 2, tanks don't cycle that fast, IMO unless you used Bio Speria and then I still don't trust it. Some people said it works, others don't. :roll:
I normally do paint my backgrounds but not on this tank. Its one of those reversible black and blue's... I didnt have the guts to paint blue... LOL ...I did use some veggie oil and a credit card to apply it though.
Cycling? What is cycling?
I have not cycled a tank in 2 years since going planted... no need. I do 2 - 15% water changes a week for the first month and then life goes on... :wink:
i don't think it is. Did you cycle the tank before you added the fish? You said after week 2, tanks don't cycle that fast, IMO unless you used Bio Speria and then I still don't trust it. Some people said it works, others don't. :roll:
Cycling is only really neccesary when you start with all brand new(read sterile) stuff. The plants use up the ammonia plus they have a coating of beneficial bacteria all over them. The substrate, unless he did a heavy rinsing, is also loaded with the good bacteria. The only thing in that tank that was sterile was the tank itself.
Hmmm ... I tried something similar, but I used baby oil. I think it evaporated or dried up or something because a few days later it had big bubbles in it :?
Would I have better luck with veggie oil?
BTW, I like the blue color. Very "amano-esque". I've been trying to convince my wife that the blue looks better but she keeps insisting on the black. :roll: (Who's dang tank IS it anyways???)
Looking good Buck!
I also like the blue background. It makes the aquarium look sunnier and brighter.
The wood looks great, and I can already see your plant layout. It is going to look great in another couple of weeks.
I have one question: How long did it take to plant all of that Glosso???
Nice tank, the Blue background looks nice but if you use the Black side it will make the viewers focus more on the tank itself rather than the background!
It does look good with the blue. But since it's just one of those plain reversible blue/black backgrounds, it's easy to change. I painted mine blue and I've thought about going to black for the very reason Raul stated - to bring the focus back tot he fish and plants and make the background disappear.
Right now, it's too hard to tell which will be better in the long run, with the tank being so young. I think you'll be better of with blue, if for no other reason, simply because those black marble Angels will tend to disappear against a black background.
Marcel I put the tank against the other wall in the dining room, this way here if she cracks it all flows towards the kitchen instead ! :wink:
chinaboy1021
I love these bulbs, these are the only flourescents I really like. I am using the TropicSun, FloraSun and the UltraSun bulb right now over this tank Check out the bulbs here... http://www.zoomed.com/html/lites.html
I am thinking of using them in conjunction with 2 of the 55W pc's I have from AHSupply. Although so far the glosso seems to be doing O.K. , still need some more time to decide.
Mike, that dang glosso was a pain in the *** to plant but thanks to a "tweezer"lesson from Marcel at my house one day it helped me cut the time down to about an hour and a half... LOL
I cant wait till that fills in some.
But since it's just one of those plain reversible blue/black backgrounds, it's easy to change.
Dont bet on it Sam... what a mess I made with the dang oil ! LOL
I do like the blue background but I am hoping to only see hints of it through the plants in time. I think the blue backgrounds add depth to a tank for some reason...also , my wife loves the blue ! heh
My only concern right now is the amount watt's, but the plants seem to be holding there own, I still want to get my CF's over this tank but its a "mounting" issue.
Why did you position your wood right in the middle of the tank ????. This is probably the most common mistake done by many hobbyists but could be easily avoided in your case since you setting up your tank from scratch.
But that piece is actually going to be the "rightside" edge more or less of more woodpieces. I have 2 beautiful pieces that I found in my "honey hole" of a pond this weekend. They are soaking in the barn as we speak and wont see the tank for a couple more weeks.
I want the glosso and stargrass to get good and established before setting them in. There is also a small sword right there that wont be small for long to help with centering.
End product will be lots of wood left and open water to the right of the centered wood. I want the sword, stargrass and ludwigia stems to "swallow" the wood eventually.
Hopefully the look works or by then the plants will be that much more established and harder to move. I am still searching for one more nice branch as I want lots of wood in this tank for the M/F pair of Bristlenose pleco's.
I think that wood pieces can make an aquascape , as can stone also and dang it if you didnt pick right up on my wood being centered ! LOL
It is very common to see tanks with focal point right in the center. I'm not saying it is wrong !, all I'm suggesting is that its not good on your overall aquascape look. I saw many tanks with the same concept and their owners are looking for improvement soon after the initial setup.
Same goes for photography - Rule of Thirds :idea:
At the end, it is your own personal preference. Just trying to provide hints.
Hey Buck, that's the start of a beautiful thing. I would move the piece slightly ooff centre or into one end. just my opinion.
Green touch, have not heard from you for a while. Didn't this conversation about rule of thirds happen on another site, I remember it getting quite heated after a while. Never mind.
Instead however I think I am going to try to grab a few tall pieces of stone, I found some pretty nice colored stuff , its like a dark grey but Im not sure what it is, I will have to hit it with the acid.
I still want to add some wood but I think it will be in branch form around stone to finish my plan for the tank since the wood I had soaking is garbage. :evil:
Well dont that figure...I was ready to do some planting of my latest stream finds and add some stone to the 'scape and my angel laid eggs in the afternoon :shock:
These are the first eggs since setting up this tank, she laid them on my filter outlet so I guess I cant seperate them from the population. Mama was busy fanning the eggs and papa is busy defending them. I should have known this was gonna happen because they ripped up a couple plants as you can see... LOL
Why can't I take pics like that :lol: Awesome picture Buck. Leave a little night light on by the tank so the angels can defend thier eggs at night. Thats when they'll get eaten by other fish. Check out this interesting link for raising angel eggs and fry.http://www.aquahobby.net/board/viewtopic.php?t=7121 Those guys over there are teaching me a lot about rasing babies. My Rams just spawned again, I'm gonna try letting the parents raise them this time around. These rams are quite the propagators They're averaging two spawns every 8-10 days, which gives me lots of opportunities to try different methods.
I added more wood and a piece of stone. I have one more piece of wood getting flushed down in the stream and after a good inspection it may hit the tank next week.
Whoa Buck!
It is looking great! I really love the new wood. It is really going to look interesting once the Balansae thickens up and grows in and around it. Your foreground is also coming along quite nicely.
Those Vals on the right hand side are going to look sweet with those Angels. I said it before and will say it again... Vals and Angels just go together. I bet Marcel helped out with the Vals! :wink:
You cant really see it in that photo but there is a wall of stargrass that reaches from the left side to just about behind the balansae, when that grows out it should flow nice around the wood.
As far as the foreground goes I am thinking of moving all the left side glosso to the right and replacing it with the taller Marsilea in the left third of the tank.
Im going to the stream to get some more to keep aside while I decide. The glosso is really starting to take off now and I have yet to get the pc's over it. :? Im very surprised at my growth right now, Im not sure if Im going to add them just yet.
The native Ludwigia stems in the rear left corner are growing like crazy but I am not getting the red hues to the tips as I did in the old tank with the pc's.
Decisions , Decisions... LOL
What do you think of the foreground idea ? I intended to let it "mix" with the glosso over there but now I am having second thoughts.
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