The Planted Tank Forum - View Single Post - 55g in progress (dialup warnin)

**pet-teez** · 02-24-2008, 07:01 AM

I picked up this tank during the last Petco sale, it was supposed to get set during Sep. for my birthday but I finally just worked on it this month.
90% of the work was done today (eegads, toting 1g containers across the house to get 55g was evil... tiring for sure) but it still needs things.
The stand is just a heavy duty storage shelf (aka gorilla rack) which we'll be making a facade for later:

Step one, tank in place and layer of SMS Charcoal in place:

Step two, added some ADA amazonia on both sides, a spot in the middle for fun and some along the front (don't ask why, no idea. heh):

Step three: lay down some flexible plastic cutting boards to keep the water from roughing up my substrate and have a crazy sister help start the water process!

Step four: keep adding water forever than remove cutting boards and start putting plants in at about half full:

Step five: wow, this turned out dark and murky! Added my three pieces of chosen malaysian driftwood towards the left and big manzanita (or ribbonwood, I forget which these are) branch and smaller branch:

Step six: fill up the rest of the way and try out filter which works, I need a spraybar... also realize your smaller branch needs to be held under for awhile so it looks weird right now... start tying moss onto branch and add a couple Lobelia plants

Step seven: was to add my three special lumps of petite Anubias... they are mounted to a sponge like product called EpiWeb which is used for orchid growing and more recently used for dartfrog tanks... the anubias is one of two experiments I started with it in this tank...

Step eight: toss on my "new" light fixture and show my sister what it looks like with 4x65w over the top...

Step nine: place three groups of three large rather bright "pebbles" just for fun... and now sit back and figure out what your going to want to change, and think about how weird it looks to have two different growth styles of those Lobelias together and wonder what I wanted to put in front of the cut end of that malaysian driftwood towards the middle...

- Tank is an AGA 55g standard
- Filter (for now at least) is a Marineland H.O.T. Magnum, I've had one for about 8 years and it has served me well so I bought another.
- Heater is a, uhm, one of those Stealth ones... works like a trooper, 200w
- Light is a 4x65w JBJ thingy
- Used SMS Charcoal color, ADA Amazonia and am testing some EpiWeb
- Malaysian driftwood and either Ribbonwood or Manzanita

Current plants are:
- Hygrophelia (polysperma? unsure, back left)
- Pygmy chain swords (supposedly, the tallest leaf is about 7-8" though, front right)
- HM (back left next to hygro and front right)
- Lobelia cardinalas "small form" (middle leftish)
- Crypt wedntii (back right)
- Moss (gotten as Taiwan but once grown it's looking like Willow to me, three spots on the branches)
- Anubias barteri nana petite (three spots on the branches)

Planned inhabitants are:
Endler's livebarers, Coryadors, Otos and RCS... hopefully a couple bristlenose plecos

02-24-2008, 07:01 AM	#1 (permalink)
pet-teez Planted Member (View User Tanks) PTrader: (13) Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Oceanside, CA Posts: 259	55g in progress (dialup warnin) - a journal I picked up this tank during the last Petco sale, it was supposed to get set during Sep. for my birthday but I finally just worked on it this month. 90% of the work was done today (eegads, toting 1g containers across the house to get 55g was evil... tiring for sure) but it still needs things. The stand is just a heavy duty storage shelf (aka gorilla rack) which we'll be making a facade for later: Step one, tank in place and layer of SMS Charcoal in place: Step two, added some ADA amazonia on both sides, a spot in the middle for fun and some along the front (don't ask why, no idea. heh): Step three: lay down some flexible plastic cutting boards to keep the water from roughing up my substrate and have a crazy sister help start the water process! Step four: keep adding water forever than remove cutting boards and start putting plants in at about half full: Step five: wow, this turned out dark and murky! Added my three pieces of chosen malaysian driftwood towards the left and big manzanita (or ribbonwood, I forget which these are) branch and smaller branch: Step six: fill up the rest of the way and try out filter which works, I need a spraybar... also realize your smaller branch needs to be held under for awhile so it looks weird right now... start tying moss onto branch and add a couple Lobelia plants Step seven: was to add my three special lumps of petite Anubias... they are mounted to a sponge like product called EpiWeb which is used for orchid growing and more recently used for dartfrog tanks... the anubias is one of two experiments I started with it in this tank... Step eight: toss on my "new" light fixture and show my sister what it looks like with 4x65w over the top... Step nine: place three groups of three large rather bright "pebbles" just for fun... and now sit back and figure out what your going to want to change, and think about how weird it looks to have two different growth styles of those Lobelias together and wonder what I wanted to put in front of the cut end of that malaysian driftwood towards the middle... - Tank is an AGA 55g standard - Filter (for now at least) is a Marineland H.O.T. Magnum, I've had one for about 8 years and it has served me well so I bought another. - Heater is a, uhm, one of those Stealth ones... works like a trooper, 200w - Light is a 4x65w JBJ thingy - Used SMS Charcoal color, ADA Amazonia and am testing some EpiWeb - Malaysian driftwood and either Ribbonwood or Manzanita Current plants are: - Hygrophelia (polysperma? unsure, back left) - Pygmy chain swords (supposedly, the tallest leaf is about 7-8" though, front right) - HM (back left next to hygro and front right) - Lobelia cardinalas "small form" (middle leftish) - Crypt wedntii (back right) - Moss (gotten as Taiwan but once grown it's looking like Willow to me, three spots on the branches) - Anubias barteri nana petite (three spots on the branches) Planned inhabitants are: Endler's livebarers, Coryadors, Otos and RCS... hopefully a couple bristlenose plecos __________________ -Cassie S.