fishyjoe's rebuilding/scaping the 55g journal

[fishyjoe24]

do to finding a bag of fish food open with ants all over the inside of my stand.. I'm moving the tank, and rescaping it. i found some interesting driftwood branches at dallas north aquarium.

this is how my tank currently looks.







used canopy,stand,and tank from LFS(the fish gallery). $150.00+ tax. tank became a leaker so it was replaced..
stank is 36 inches tall, and the canopy is 5.5 inches tall
tank is aqueon 55g 48x13x21
lighting is a coral-life retro fit kit. 2x96w ballast with dual day light 6,700/10,000 96w bulbs and using the reflector from a coral-life fixture.
substrate - soil master select.
filter- Hagen fluval 205 canister
heater some used 150 watt, was giving to me. it does it job.
fish - 5 ottos, x amount of cherry shrimp,35 rasobra hets., 20 rummy nose tetras.
plants, rotala rounilifia(SP?),and some plants that came out of tex gal's 125g.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

the reason for the change. I don't like how the inside of my tank looks it doesn't look natural......... plus the soil master select seems to be lacking in ertz. my power compacts well to much light in my opinion....

what will I be changing.
the aqua scape. plus i will be changing the substrate to ADA soil mixed with organic potting clay on the bottom with soil master select... the light will be changed from power compacts to t5 HO to save electricity, and me money. plus they won't heat up my tank water as much as the power compact bulbs have. (would rather pay 15-20 a bulb, then 60 to 80 a bulb.)
will also be changing the location of this tank in my room away from the window. also will be shorting the school of rasobras, and will trade them in for more rummy noses(I love how the rummy noses school very tighly together). oh I will also be adding presured c02 to the tank too.

now it's time to go drain, and drag some stuff in. yep even at 1:30am i will play with my fish tanks.

[nemosreef]

This should be an interesting setup. Something differet.

[fishyjoe24]

look for a updated rescape soon.

[fishyjoe24]

so I started the rescape this morning about 1:30am. here is the temp home for the fish. mixed with water from the 55g and new water.


here is the tank drained, EK YUCK! look at the algae on the front and back walls.


here's my little HELPER, that didn't even help me and I've been doing this all by my self.


and here is the driftwood I got from Dallas north aquariums.

[fishyjoe24]

here is my inspiration, and why I chose to re-scape my tank.. to me my tank was missing stuff it didn't look natural.. here is a tank I feel in love with, that looked to me more my style and what i like in a planted tank.



here is my tank cleaned out no more algae.....(YAY LADY YAY! <----crank yankers)

AND here are a few aqua-scape's i was playing around with out side.



now with the black backing, I think I will keep the backing.



here is the fine scape.. with the tank in it's new place.

[Couesfanatic]

What's the carpet plant in your inspiration tank? Looks nice

Is it trimmed dwarf HG?

[fishyjoe24]

Originally Posted by Couesfanatic

What's the carpet plant in your inspiration tank? Looks nice

Is it trimmed dwarf HG?

HI you are correct, it's dwarf hairgrass that was trimmed down. if I remember right plant brain posted it. it's a ada 70 gallon with 1.5wpg (t5HO) with c02 and only took 3-4 months to look like that...

[Couesfanatic]

Cool, thx. Your tank looks good. Keep us updated. When are you going to throw plants in?

[fishyjoe24]

Originally Posted by Couesfanatic

Cool, thx. Your tank looks good. Keep us updated. When are you going to throw plants in?

as soon as I go fill it up, and the water clears so i can see in the tank to plant it.

here is the start of laying down the potting clay( I think that is what chlorphil/ phil edwards had in his tank) along with the ada mix with soil master select on top.


not mind my ugly feet and here it is in the tank.
yep even at 6'1 I had to take the canopy off to touch the bottom of the tank. my stand is 36 inches tall.

and here it is all in plant and me starting to fill it with some water, and stop. don't know how long this tank will be cloudy... hopefully since I pulled the canister off, and have it running on a 15g with water out of the tank it will clear up and cycle fast.

[fishyjoe24]

so yes it is dusty.


http://here is the plants in the temp home saying please put us back in are home.


I'm going to let it clear up a little more.. I will run out to pets mart/ pet smart? and get some stability and clearity... to help it along then I will plant. I need to find middle ground, and fore ground plants.

[fishyjoe24]

hit a snag, the ada did a ammonia spike and the water turned to green water algae getting that taken care of.. I will need a plant Id.

[fishyjoe24]

so I guess 3rd times a charm the organic clay and ada with soil master gave a high ammonia jump in the 55g. so I took it out cleaned up my tank and hopefully 3rd time will be the charm.
going to use aquarium silicone to keep the branches down and from floating to the top. will use soil master select because I know it works, and I will use what I know works..

desided on a different placement of the driftwood branches.
the driftwood is cypress or manitiia(spelling?).
I'm going with this aqua-scape

and found more inspiration from tom's 180g tank.

[fishyjoe24]

so I guess 3rd time's a charm. here is it cleaned out for the third time, and the driftwood in a different location.


here is the DAP aquarium silicone I used to hold down the driftwood.




me throwing in some brown gravel to also hold down the driftwood.


here is me doing a light switch arooooooo . so far I'm lighting the t5's. lights 2- 36inch, t5 ho 39w ballast hagen glo ballast 2x24/2x39w t5 ho ballast, reflectors hagen glo metal reflectors x2.(single bulb reflectors).


here's the substrate and hard scape in place. used soil master/soil master select as the substrate. then laid down the fore ground plants- chain sword/mix with I think a few dwarf sags.( I got this stuff from a local guy here in the dfw area howard aka txaquagardens).


here is filled up with hydrogen oxide OH NO I HAVE HYDROGEN OXIDE in my tank. what do I do , what do I do.

[fishyjoe24]

[fishyjoe24]

HAPPY NEW YEAR: going to give you and up date of as jan 06 5:00pm.
so this tank was the practice tank, it went throw many what is happening, and no I don't like this and that so i would change it. now i'm happy with it. so here is the final hand scape.

then me starting to fill it up.




stayed with low light plants. java fern around the driftwood, with anuibias nana in the back by the right side driftwood. with a tall anubias in the back forgot the name of it.
and dwarf sag as the fore ground....

now on to the next project tank. a 40g long 48x13x17 on a metal stand with two 20's on the bottom...