Druxboy'z Planted 60 Gallon *Photojournal*

[druxboyz]

After seeing many interesting journals, I thought I would make one of my own to share with everyone. It would also be fun to look back at this thread a year or so down the line and see how the hobby and I have grown. That aside, here it is!


July 29th 2006

Having 2 lights on my planted 30g burn out, I thought whether i should buy a new light fixture for my 30g for $120 or just spend a little more cash and buy a 48" 260watt fixture and buy a whole new 60g. To get more bang for my buck, I chose the 60g from ADAfish.com for $49.00.

My reasoning. $130 light fixture for 30g = $4.33 per gallon. OR $150 light fixture for a 60g = $2.50 per gallon.

Wanting so much and having little $ (college student), I decide to go the DIY route with my stand for a 60g that i will buy in a week. Since my gf wanted to shop at Ross, i decide to waste little time and multitask. I bring along a pencil and paper and sketch out my plans for the stand.



I then went to Home Depot that night and bought some wood for $1.99 for 8ft.


July 30 2006

Bright early morning, I get up to make the stand.

I started out with the base of the stand.


cut up some legs


added some legs


added a few more legs


stood it up


made some doors


spray painted the doors with $0.99 glossy black from home depot. It wasnt too glossy, but hey, it was $0.99.








My Video for 12/16/06










..

[druxboyz]

August 5 2006

Having bought the 60g, I knew i had to finish the stand so that my baby guppies can have a larger home.

So i got right to it.

added the doors and side panel


added a base to the inside of the stand with a sheet of wood from home depot. I cut up the 2ft x 4ft sheet which was $1.99ish. The same from the side panel.


painted the whole thing black and my brother helped me bring it upstairs


placed the tank on top of it

[druxboyz]

Added the new 4x65watt (260wt) Odyssea on top. $140 total and it comes with 2x65 6500k bulbs, 2x65 12,000k bulbs, and 2x65 actinic bulbs. I'll be selling the 2x65 actinic bulbs on ebay



whats missing? oh.. substrate. As you know, i like saving money. So I went to walmart and bought 2 bags of 20lb Kitty Liter for $2.22 each.


mixed it up to get the fine particles out


and... BAM! isnt that beautiful? NO? k.. just wait a day for it to settle then.

[Momotaro]

WHOA! That is some stand! More like a foundation!

Everything looks really great so far! Can't wait to follow your progress!

Mike

[unirdna]

Now THAT is my kind of stand. Many of the store bought ones have good 90 deg support, but look like they would fold out if hit from the side. Your side-impact crash rating would definitely be a 5-star. Thanks for the play by play. Very nice for someone who may want to duplicate yours....

[Y0uH0]

Really great solid looking stand. Great job on the DIY. Keep on posting man.

[druxboyz]

Moved over the guppies and remaining plants from the 30g. I dont have a real layout for the tank yet and i currently cant move or plant much at a time because the substrate is still fairly new (1 week old) and it will create particle clouds which will hurt the newborn guppies. So.. i'll hold off for a while. Here is the tank a day after the cloudy mess!~



I'm going to be searching for a semi large piece of driftwood as a centerpiece. As you can see, i also need a larger variety of plants. Perhaps some reds. In due time, and as money permits.. as you can see i still have a HOB filter The plants didnt mind much before. They grew prety long..

[uncskainch]

Looking great so far! And that stand looks roomy, attractive and very, very sturdy.

[chinchek787]

I've never heard of using kitty litter before, do you have any links to others that have used it?

[druxboyz]

i did a few searches for you, couldnt really find the thread which made me want to try it. The fish dont seem to mind, and my parameters seem normal too. Mr Wasser has even tried it himself a while back.

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/su...er-brands.html

I'd stick with the walmart brand cat litter though. I've used about 8 bags total. 2 for my 30g, 2 for my 60g and 4 for my pond in the backyard. Works well imo. Only thing is is that i've never tried fluorite or eco-complete, so i cant really compare. My plants do well, so i dont even need to try those. I also use Jobe's Sticks as a root tab.

[druxboyz]

the real magic is in the jobes sticks imo.

[hazeen]

very nice job man, keep up

[chinchek787]

Thanks for the link!

[A Hill]

good luck with the tank! stand looks great.... your never going to have to worry about that 2x4 fort.

fish and plants also look great!

as for the filter.... hob can be fine when on a budget i know that well. try aquaclear. or if ur going to keep using that penguine take out the biowheel.

- fish newb -

[Adrian]

So far, so good.