My 20H UPDATES 10/16/08

[stev0205]

This was my first attempt at growing plants in an aquarium.




This is what I just rescaped it to...

[swylie]

The rescape looks good, much less chaotic looking. It'll look great when the stuff along the back grows in.

[Orlando]

I like it, if you find some anubias nana or any for that matter and plant it on top of your driftwood instead of the amazon. It might look a little nicer? Other wise looks very nice. Thanks for sharing

[eon17]

the amazon will prolly die there. they are havy root feeders and they just dont work on driftwood.

[Digsy]

I like what you've got so far. Like the others, my only comment is on the Amazon. It will quickly outgrow your tank and have to be moved. I can't even keep them in my 58 gallon because one plant can fill most of my tank.

[mrbman7]

I like the rescape, however it would be more pleasing to the eye if the driftwood was shifted either right or left so the tank would be divided using the golden rule (approx 1/3, subject of interest, 2/3).

1/3 from the left would look best IMO

[stev0205]

yea i wouldn't have the amazon attached to a piece of driftwood. I got that specific piece because it has a hole all the way through the center. I shoved the roots all the way down and filled it in with gravel.

As for how big the amazon will get, i've had it for about 4 months and it grows about as big as it is and then the leaves die. so i guess if i do a better job at keeping it healthy it might have to go. that's okay though

[stev0205]

I've been stuck at school on break working so i decided to hard plumb my tank, not sure if this should be in diy section, but i've already got this post going.

Under the tank


Inline CO2 diffuser


Canister filter I made a while ago


Backside of the tank


Spraybar


Fugly Bubble Counter


thanks for looking

[ikuzo]

i like the dark feeling of this tank.

[stev0205]

I decided to tear out the micro sword since it was covered in hair algae from a while ago. I threw in a bronze wendtii and some dwarf hairgrass. How do you think the hairgrass will do with about 2.25 wpg, 2 diy co2 2 liter bottles, and flourish dosing according to the schedule on the back of the bottle??

wendtii


hairgrass


new scaped portion


new co2 setup with repositioning of the bubble counter


thanks for looking and i welcome your comments

[stagius]

tell me more about your DIY canister filter! How much flow do you have in there ?

[fshfanatic]

Canister looks like it is sitting in a puddle of water.

[stev0205]

The pump in there is from lowes and it's rated at 150 gph. So assuming i've got like 18 gallons in it after the gravel etc, i should get about 8.3 cycles and hour. It took me a while to get everything working right in the canister portion. I used to have large gravel in the bottom of the filter, but it kept clogging it. So now i just use those rite size foam pads and some bioballs.
I imagine that the flow is still really close to 150 gph, considering there is very little filter material in the system.
Cost was around 40 bucks, most of which was in the pump. Maybe it was less, i can't remember.
Also to get a good seal around the pump cord i cut it right at the plug, and then just installed a new plug from lowes after i ran it through the lid.
If I could redo it, i would build in some sort of quick disconnect system so maintenance didn't involve so much water loss.

[stev0205]

about the canister sitting in a puddle of water... it is. Like i said in my post before, if i could change anything it would be some sort of quick disconnect so there would be less water loss during maintenance.. The puddle of water is from water shooting out of the lines when i was doing all the hard plumbing. It's all dry now

[Huntereastin]

I love this tank. The fish look great against your background, and that piece of driftwood is awesome. Nice job.