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Unzan 75-P

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75p ada unzan
31K views 170 replies 45 participants last post by  davidj12 
#1 · (Edited)
Last shot



As of 7/20/2013 (full sized)



As of 6/27/2013



As of 4/11/2013




As of 3/27/2013




As of 3/11/2013



3/3/2013



3/1/2013



First Night



So here I go. I started my planted tank journey with a Fluval Edge. I had no idea what I was getting in to and the further I went toward high tech the more difficult it became to manage. Well I finally did it I talked my wife into letting me have a bigger tank (more on that struggle later).

Equipment List

ADA 75-P
Home Made ADA style stand http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=195788
Solar I light
Solar I Arm Stand
Ehiem 2217 Filter
ADA Lily Pipes 13mm Outflow 17mm Inflow
GLA Primo C02 Regulator
GLA 5LB C02 Tank
GLA Atomic Inline Diffuser
Hydor Inline Heater 200W
WeMo Light and C02 timer

Hardscape

ADA Substrate System
Unzan Stone
[strike]Ryuoh Stone (This is what I have got it at AFA in SF but I really like the Unzan Stone better)[/strike]

Flora

HC
DHG
Hydrocotyle SP
[strike]Staurogyne Repens[/strike]
Micranthenum Micranthemoides
Rotala Rotundifolia

Fauna

Amano Shrimp
OTO of some kind
Cardinal Tetra


The Start


Side View


Inside Cabinet


Got an LED light from Ikea


Start of the Plumbing & Wiring (sorry it's a little blurry)


So now with the story. Originally this was supposed to be next to my couch in the living room. My edge used to be there and I liked to sit there and day dream while staring at my tank. Got the whole thing together and powered on the light.... The look on my wife's face was well... not good. She did not even say anything but I knew:icon_eek:. (those of you who are married know what I mean) I have to admit the light cast on to the couch was like sitting under a baseball stadium light. Well we spent the whole night re-aranging furniture and it all worked out. In retrospect even thought she really does not want a larger tank she was being a champ and trying to make it work because she knew how long I have been planning this. Later on in this process I found out that what she really did not like was the color temperature of the light. The Solar I came with the NAG (green) bulb and I have to say when I plugged it in I thought it was a mistake and I had received a marine bulb on accident it was extremely BLUE. Well I got the regular NA bulb and it is definitely a warmer tone. I know the NAG bulb will burn in to be a warmer color but trying to explain that well.... easier to just change the light.

Here is the NAG bulb (sorry about the cruddy photo)
 
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#38 ·
Plants!!!!!

My plants are on the way! :bounce: This has been a really long and tedious wait but I wanted to start it off right.

Since I decided to go all in on this one I also decided to try 100% Tissue Cultured plants. Tomorrow should be the big day for planting!

I'm really excited to start off on the right foot with plants that have no algae or snails from the very beginning. BBA was the bane of my existence in my Fluvial Edge (not the right tank to learn hi-tech principals on for sure) and I hope (probably naively) never to see it again.
 
#44 ·
Anubias is an Italian TC plant grower. I was able to place an order with ADG for these. They have the best customer service I have ever run into. Frank has been very helpful thought this process.

The plants look a little beat up (I'm sure they have been in a box that was not handled lightly) but not too bad. I'm anxious to get them home and wash the gel off to see what I'm working with. Stay tuned... this should be interesting.
 
#49 ·
For some reason my small unzan stone floats and actually turned over. It seems they are quite buoyant.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2
Wow that is super weird. Since they are lava stone I know that they have bubbles in them. Maybe you stone has a giant bubble in it? It's a shame you can't use it. Mine are staying down fine so far.
 
#47 ·
While Planting I noticed how much was really in the TC cups. It is quite deceptive. Looks like not much but I just kept on going to one cup and planting and planting and planting. There is really quite a bit of plant mass in each cup although it looks like not much. The only weird thing is the way the roots grow. It is completely different than a plant in rock wool. The plant grows in a kind of nest looking thing and the roots are only a few mm long.


HC




Inside the cup




Attempting to wash the black goo out of the plants




Planting after three cups




DHG




The MM looked kind of weird. I'm interested to see how it grows out.




So it was getting late by this point and I forgot to take pictures of the other two plants sorry.


I realized that equilibrium sucks soooo bad. I had to mix some up to re-constitute my RO water and it made the tank cloudy for the rest of the night. It also did not mix well and some of it is still on the bottom of my tank :angryfire





Next morning

 
#55 ·
I realized that equilibrium sucks soooo bad. I had to mix some up to re-constitute my RO water and it made the tank cloudy for the rest of the night. It also did not mix well and some of it is still on the bottom of my tank :angryfire





Next morning


Give Aquavitro Mineralize a try. I've started using it instead of Equilibrium because I don't like waiting for the cloudiness to clear. It's a liquid hence no clouding. It doesn't contain any potassium like Equilibrium though. So you'll need another source for that if it's important to you.
 
#57 ·
#58 ·
Something kind of weird is going on with my drop checker. Yesterday it took FOREVER to turn green. Like not until 5-6 hrs of blasting C02. When I woke up this morning it was still green... The C02 had been off all night... In my other tank it turns back blue over night.

To add another part to this I had to change the water this morning because I won't have time tonight. With all the aeration (my water filter takes forever to make up the 10gal I changed) going on for a few hrs I thought it would change but it's still green.... not quite sure what to make of this.

Now the C02 is back on and its just barely turning back blue.
 
#63 · (Edited)
What are those "clips" that you use to organize and attach your tubing to the walls inside your stand called? I looked all over Lowe's and couldn't find anything similar. Thanks.

edit*** nevermind I found it. I guess they're called "Garnder Bender Mounting Pads". Well, the one's I was looking for at least.

Awesome tank by the way, hopefully my next tank will be a 75-P!
 
#66 ·
I know you already found them but I just wanted to let you know I found them in the electrical section at Home Depot. The were with all the zip-ties. I've seen them at Fry's Electronics too, again near the zip ties. I hope your next tank is a 75-p too!

Tank is starting to look great. What is your lighting schedule like?
I'm burning my MH 8hrs a day right now. Have the Co2 coming on 1hr before the lights and turning off 1 hr before as well. My DC is lime green all the time these days and the plants start pearling about 30min after the lights come on.

BTW this is a good point for me to say how feaking awesome those wemo timers are. I've had to do a few little tweaks with the co2 timing and WOW they make it so much easier. I can make changes from my office on my iPhone if I wanted :biggrin:.
 
#69 ·
I want to so this but my other tank has BBA in it and I have been battling it for a year. I have taken a lot of steps to try and make sure that this does not transfer over to the new tank, new tools, washing my hands after touching it then the other etc.... this includes beneficial bacteria from the other filer. Guess it will just be a long wait.
 
#71 · (Edited)
I am not sure that you may not want to add any chemicals in your tank but I used the API Quickstart and seem to help my tank cycle a little faster. Still in the process but I have not had a huge ammonia spike since I started to use it. I made some large errors on the setup of my first tank but that is what makes this so fun.

Love the setup in your cabinet, wish mine look that cool. Love your scape and can't wait to see your plants grow in.
 
#73 ·
Week One

So It's been a week. All the plants look to be growing like crazy. I'm concerned that the HC is pearling so hard that the bubbles are lifting all the new shoots up! So far it's the plant that is growing the slowest for now.

With daily water changes the ammonia is 4ppm and nitrite is still 0ppm.... Not quite sure what that is all about, I would imagine that I should have at least some nitrites by now.

This is my first time dealing with Aqua Soil so, at this point I need to decide. Continue with the daily water changes or move to every other day... thoughts?

 
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