90 Gallon Rainbowfish/Angelfish Tank [56K] **UPDATED 18 JUNE**

[JEden8]

Tank Specs:
48 x 18 x 25 (90 US Gallons)

Equipment:
Rena FilStar XP3
Odysea 4x 54w T5HO Fixture (3x 6700K & 1x Actinic)
Pressurized C02 with Ista Max Mix
Coralife 8 watt 3x Turbo Twist UV Sterilizer
Hydro Koralia 425

Flora:
Java Fern
Amazon Swords
Multiple Crypts
Anubias
Glosso
Tiger Lotus
Dwarf Sag
Jungle Val

Fauna:

2x Albino Cory
3x Peppered Cory
3x Albino Bristlenose Pleco
8x Boesemani Rainbow
2x Siamese Algae Eater
7x Whisker Shrimp
2x Assassin Snail
7x Emerald Cory
7x Red tetra
13x Neon Tetra
2x Angel Fish

Current Photo - 18 June 2013


3 May 2013


18 March 2013


25 February 2013


23 November 2012


28 October 2012


22 August 2012


24 June 2012


9 June 2012


31 March 2012


20 January 2012


17 December 2011


27 November 2011


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I bought this tank off of a guy that wasn't able to keep up with it anymore. It was completely covered in about an inch of algae. This is where I'm at after 2 weeks of cleaning and pruning.

All the plants pulled and cleaned of the algae:


Java Moss attached to the driftwood:


Front View:


Left View:


Right View:


Thanks for looking!

[JEden8]

Updated growth. Still working on getting some more 6700K bulbs. Currently only have 1 6700K 2 10,000K and 1 Actinic. I have 2 6700K on order right now. Still looking for some ideas for a good foreground plant. Anyone recommend anything?

[aXio]

I like the plant arrangement

[Doc7]

Originally Posted by JEden8

Updated growth. Still working on getting some more 6700K bulbs. Currently only have 1 6700K 2 10,000K and 1 Actinic. I have 2 6700K on order right now. Still looking for some ideas for a good foreground plant. Anyone recommend anything?

Tank looks good!

I'm no expert aquascaper but I feel like that foreground is begging for something other than HC. (not a hater of it, i love it in my tank, but dont think it would transition right to what you have behind it)

From what I have seen Glosso might look just right in yours or are you looking for a grassy plant? I like the Lilaeopsis mauritiana that I've seen growing particularly in Lauraleellbp's tanks.

[Jim_PA]

Nice setup. I have a question about your lights, I have the same lights for my tank, but was told by several people on this board to remove 2 of them, as it was too much light. Are you finding the same problem? My tank is heavly planted and has CO2 setup.

[JEden8]

Originally Posted by aXio

I like the plant arrangement

Thanks axio!

Originally Posted by Doc7

Tank looks good!

I'm no expert aquascaper but I feel like that foreground is begging for something other than HC. (not a hater of it, i love it in my tank, but dont think it would transition right to what you have behind it)

From what I have seen Glosso might look just right in yours or are you looking for a grassy plant? I like the Lilaeopsis mauritiana that I've seen growing particularly in Lauraleellbp's tanks.

Thanks doc! I've never had any luck with HC in any of my other tanks so I don't think I would go that route either. Don't think it would be tall enough either like you said. I've got mixed emotions on grassy like plants but love how quickly they fill in! I was thinking of just using some microswords but I like the thinner leaf of what you're recommending. I will definitely add it to the list of plants to look into! Thanks for the help and I'll keep ya posted on what I decide to do!

Originally Posted by Jim_PA

Nice setup. I have a question about your lights, I have the same lights for my tank, but was told by several people on this board to remove 2 of them, as it was too much light. Are you finding the same problem? My tank is heavly planted and has CO2 setup.

Thanks Jim! I'm no planted tank expert whatsoever to be honest with you. This is my 4th planted tank and have never had to deal with algae. All of my tanks have had 2 wpg, pressurized C02, and dosing dry ferts through the EI method. This tank does not have pressurized C02 as of yet. Still gotta refill my tank and build a C02 reactor. I'm going to be leaving either a 10,000K bulb or an actinic bulb in there so it doesn't drown the tank out with too much yellow color. So in my experience, no this is not too much light and have never had problems with anything around 2 wpg. The gentleman that owned this tank before me supposedly grew all the plants in there under 2x 10,000K and 2x Actinic. We'll see how changing the bulbs out will help. I've already seen a big increase in growth with only changing one bulb to a 6700K. Don't know if this helps at all. Hope it does!

Thanks again everyone!

[JEden8]

Well I had a bit of a problem this week. Started with one of my rainbows getting a really bad fungus on the eye and one of the gills. I put him in a quarantine tank and am currently treating. After noticing that I started watching my other fish really close to see if anything else would happen to any of them. Couple days later I noticed two of my rainbows had ich. They each had 2 spots so I decided that night I would do a 50% water change and raise the temp up to 86* to see if I could kill off the ich. When I got the tank about 90% refilled I noticed the fish were starting to act weird. I checked the temp of the water and it was only 1* off. I checked the water parameters and got 0ppm Nitrites, 0ppm Nitrates, 7.2-7.4ph, and 1-1.5ppm Ammonia. I thought that was crazy after just doing a 50% and the weekend before after doing a water change my numbers were zero'd out as well. I checked the tap water and the ammonia comming from the tap was 1.5-2.0ppm. After doing some further research, this was due to the water company adding more chloramine to the water for the winter and my tap water conditioner wasn't enough to handle the spike. I'm now switching over to Prime to do my water changes to help account for the higher chloramine. First time this happened in almost 2 years that I've lived in this place. Well I learned the hard way as I lost 6 rainbows and 1 neon. All the other fish are doing well and the ich is beginning to drop. Here's an updated shot of what the tank looks like after 2 weeks:



Still waiting on the new bulbs as my LFS had a problem with shipment where they were all shattered. Should have them in this upcoming week...I hope. Once I get a chance to get out to my other LFS I'll be looking at getting some low lying plants for the front.

[JEden8]

So I'm debating on if I should go get some Micro Sword Narrow Leaf (Lilaeopsis 'Mauritiana') or not. Right now I only have 1 6700K bulb but should have 2 more this week. I also have the temp raised to 86* to help with a small amount of ich noticed on 2 fish. Do I wait to add buy the plants and put them in or is it ok do add them now? Thanks for the help!

[frenchymasters]

im so sad for your rainbows! they were so pretty! so your down to the bosemoni and the sexlineata?

[JEden8]

Originally Posted by frenchymasters

im so sad for your rainbows! they were so pretty! so your down to the bosemoni and the sexlineata?

Yea I know...Me too...Those were the fish I didn't want to lose and that's why I did the 50% to ensure they had some clean water. Then it just ended up killing them. I have 1 boesemoni and I don't know what the other one. If it is even a rainbow either. I'll post a pic of it here in a little bit to have someone help me identify it.

[JEden8]

Well another week has gone by. The remaining fish are doing better. No signs of ich anymore and will be keeping the temp up till Tuesday to be sure. I haven't seen it on any of them for 4 days now. Finally got two more 6700K bulbs and am currently working on making a C02 reactor using Tom Barr's design. Hoping to get that accomplished next week and hooking up the C02. I'm going to be hooking up a 24oz paintball setup temporarily until I get a 5# setup. Any ideas on how long it will last? I haven't been able to find any info for that.

Well here's an updated shot for now. Probably won't post any more pics until I get the C02 up and running fully and notice a big difference in growth.



I'm also looking to get some Dwarf Sag for the foreground as that's the only low lying carpeting plant I can find around here. Anyone from the Tampa area know of somewhere that has a better low lying carpet plants?

Thanks all!

[matty26]

You should try glosso or mm, also, i would suggest a background on your tank, it will hide all the wires and what not

[JEden8]

Originally Posted by matty26

You should try glosso or mm, also, i would suggest a background on your tank, it will hide all the wires and what not

Well I was planning on painting it black but got some feedback from my post that it may be a bad idea to paint it. So now I'm reconsidering everything. Don't know what I'm going to do now. I mean I doubt I'm going to get rid of the tank so that makes it worth to paint to me. But what about losing light reflections that are valuable to the plants? What if I don't like it painted. Ya know what I mean?

[JEden8]

Just picked up 3 whisker shrimp today and added them in.

Got my cracked stand repaired and now am fighting a battle of BBA which the tank was completely covered in by the previous owner. I cleaned it up the best I could but it's starting to come back. So the battle begins...

Edit****

Just picked up 2 more whisker shrimp and 4 Siamese Algae Eaters to help with my case of BBA

Edit****

[JEden8]

Had a chance to take a couple photos of 2 of my Whisker Shrimp. Thought I'd share them.