The Planted Tank Forum banner

HANdS 110G High Tech Community

9K views 40 replies 10 participants last post by  l8nite 
#1 · (Edited)
Pictures
28 April, 2013


24 February, 2013


12 February, 2013


4 February, 2013


25 January, 2013:


29 December, 2012:





Specifications
110G Oceanic Systems Tank
Dimensions: 60" x 18" x 24"
Substrate: CaribSea Super Naturals Tahitian Moon, half mixed with AMACO Mexican Red Pottery Clay
Lighting: Ray II 24" DS 24 Inches 7000k / 7000k, GLO 2x 54W T5HO (7000k bulbs).
CO2: 5lb canister into .5 micron diffusion stone
Filtration: Eheim 2217 with glass lily pipe outflow, Fluval 405, [STRIKE]Fluval 403 with spraybar[/STRIKE]
Fertilizers: EI dosing
KNO3 (K) - 2.173g 3x week (M,W,F)
KH2PO4 (PO4) - 0.347g 3x week (M,W,F)
CSM+B - 1.275g 3x week (T,Th,Sa)

Flora:
  • Anubias Nana Petite
  • Anubias spp.
  • Taxiphyllum Barbieri (Java & Flame)
  • Sagittaria Subulata
  • Alternanthera Reineckii
  • Hygrophila Corymbosa Kompakt
  • Bacopa Monnieri
  • Nymphoides Aquatica
  • Nymphaea Pubescens
  • Echinodorus spp.
  • Limnobium Laevigatum
  • Rotala Red sp. ?(Wild-caught Nevada)
  • Myriophyllum Mattogrosensis
  • Hygrophylla Polysperma 'Tropica Sunset'
  • Rotala sp. Vietnam
  • Rotala 'Magenta' Wallichi
  • Cabomba Furcata
  • Limnophylla Aromatica
  • Ludwigia Inclinata var. Verticillata 'Cuba'
  • Ludwigia Arcuata 'Needle Leaf' (tissue-cultured)
  • Rotala Indica
  • Pogostemon Stellatus
  • Vallisneria Americana gigantea

Fauna:
  • "Flotsam" and "Jetsam" Koi Angelfish (Pterophyllum scalare)
  • "Pongo" and "Perdita" Dalmation Mollys + Offspring (Poecilia latipinna)
  • "Bruce" Red Tail Shark (Epalzeorhynchos Bicolor)
  • "Otto" (Otocinclus macrospilus) & 3 friends.
  • 19x Neon Tetra (Paracheirodon innesi)
  • 7x Black Skirt Tetra (Gymnocorymbus ternetzi)
  • 9x Fancy Guppies (3 tequila sunrise, 1 turquoise, 5x random spots/stripes)
  • [STRIKE]"Burnout" - Tracked Nerite Snail, "Spirals" - Striped Nerite Snail[/STRIKE]
  • [STRIKE]Malaysian Trumpet Snails (Murder Mystery!)[/STRIKE]
  • "Peach" - Golden Apple Snail
  • Ramshorn Snails
  • Pond snails
  • Ghost Shrimp
 
See less See more
6
#2 · (Edited)
Picked up a used 110G tank last weekend with 2 canister filters (fluval 403 and 406) :flick:

It was in pretty rough shape, but I've got it pretty much entirely cleaned up now. It's going to take the combined contents of my 29G and my 10G tanks.

I'm going to put dirt in this tank, but I don't have the time to do MTS via the wet/dry cycle, so I'm going to try the "bake it in the oven" technique... we'll see how it goes.

Will post pictures soon.

Here are some "before" pictures. Extra thanks to my Dad for letting me borrow his truck and helping me move it.

You can see it was pretty much an algae farm:






Here it is after a lot of scrubbing:


And here are some of the driftwood and rock pieces I got with it:


I hooked up the two canister filters that I got with the tank to my 29G for now, so they can start getting some bacteria colonization going on while I prep things for the move:




(Ignore the massive amount of plant growth... one of the reasons I needed a bigger tank!).
 
#6 ·
The tank came with a dual T5HO light fixture -- I don't have any experience with these, so I'm not sure what these two bulbs are, but I'll probably replace them anyway.



I got the soil started yesterday with some help from my daughter:




And I played around with some hardscape ideas, but since I'm moving a couple pieces of driftwood and rock from my 29G tank too, it's hard to decide where I want things.

 
#8 ·
I must be doing something wrong with this mineralized soil process.
So, I was. Turns out I wasn't doing the soak right, I was literally running the hose into a bin of the soil and letting it overflow for awhile, but I guess that was washing away most of the stuff you actually want to keep :-/

Anyway, I said screw it and went out to buy some CaribSea Super Naturals Tahitian Moon Sand... I'm going to do a test mixing some clay into it but will probably just end up using that plus the 45G of Flourite Black Sand in my 29G, plus some root tabs.
 
#9 ·
Hi l8nite. I see that you're from the Bay Area. If you are looking for a quick way to do MTS, I'd recommend going to a local rock quarry and picking up a couple bags of dirt. If you go to a good one, you can find different types of dirt. I try to choose the ones that have higher clay content and less debris. Usually quarry dirt has been sitting out in the sun for long periods of time. I've used it (minimal washing) with great success. Good luck! Looking forward to seeing your progress.
 
#11 ·
My brother helped me move the tank into the house on the 24th:



I never took a picture of the clay+substrate mix that I poured into the tank, but I did sprinkle some dolomite powder and muriate of potash into it before hand. I also stuffed some root tabs into the muck before capping.



Filling it was pretty fun. I've done a couple of water changes since then to clear up a little bit of cloudiness, but things are looking pretty great now :)





FTS after filled and planted up:

 
#14 ·
Flotsam and Jetsam


Bruce


Peach


Cranky


Still trying to get a good picture of the Tetras and new Guppies. Can't use my iPhone for that ;-(

Also, trying to figure out why all of my Malaysian Trumpet Snails have suddenly died. If you have any ideas, please visit my Malaysian Murder Mystery! thread.
 
#18 ·
Quick update.

Had 3 guppies die in the last 7 days or so. The first was my turquoise with a spinal defect, and I think that was due to the increased flow in the new tank & his inability to swim very well. The other two were my red-tail guppies, and I'm not sure what happened to either of them. Water parameters have been fine, the other fish all look fine, etc. Going to chalk it up to stress.

We increased the school of Neon Tetras significantly (by 12, up to 19 now), as they are a lot of fun to look at and the 7 we had were getting lost in the huge tank.

Our red tail shark "Bruce" is an aggressive chaser, but there is enough hiding places throughout the tank that I haven't noticed too many problems.

We added about 20 ghost shrimp the other day, most of them became Angel food heh.
 
#22 ·
Algae is driving me nuts. I must be doing something wrong with my dosing, lighting, or CO2...

I turned the CO2 way up this evening, but my fish didn't appreciate that too much (started hanging out at the surface), so I brought it back down. I'm sure the fluctuating levels aren't helping things out. My drop checker has been yellowish-green the entire time.

I'm dosing approximately:
KNO3 (K) - 2.173g 3x week
KH2PO4 (PO4) - 0.347g 3x week
CSM+B - 1.275g 2x week

I dropped the light period from 9 hours per day to 6 per day.

So far, the BBA hasn't shown signs of stopping. Once I get it under control, I'll do the Excel treatments to get rid of it.
 
#23 ·
Not sure how high you have the light above the tank, but if shortening the photo period/raising the co2 doesn't help you could try raising the light. I had to do that with the t5ho i had on my 29g. The t5's put out a lot more light than other lights. Your dosing of ferts looks good to me though, with regular waterchanges. Might try dosing CSM+B the times a week as per the EI method which it seems like you are doing. That is what i do with my 55g anyway, with no ferts on the wc day. Tank looks great though! Keep up the good work!

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2
 
#24 ·
Thanks - I'll be building a DIY CO2 reactor this weekend to hopefully help with CO2 dissolution. My filter was burping quite regularly once I turned up the gas, and I don't like the bubble mist created by my diffusion stone.

I'm going to take the lights off the tank tonight and measure PAR at my substrate depth using a LUX meter as well, so I can get an idea of the light output from those T5HO bulbs.

I can't wait for my plants to start growing well again - this transition from my 29G has been fun, but I miss how hassle-free that tank was :)
 
#26 ·
Tank looks awesome! I like setup, can't wait to see it grow.
 
#27 ·
Thanks! I'll try and take some more full-tank shots this weekend. Things have changed a bit, as I went to the SFBAAPS meetup and received like 16 more species of plants :D

New plants, some of these I didn't add to the 110G (the Frogbit went in my 2G and 5G, the Guppy Grass and Cryptocoryne Hudoroi) went in my 10G

A. Frogbit


B. Rotala (from Nevada Hot Springs)


C. Flame Moss


D. Guppy Grass


E. Myriophyllum Mattogrosensis


F. Hygrophylla Polysperma 'Tropica Sunset'


G. (Rotala wallichii)?


H. Cabomba sp.?


I. Limnophylla Aromatica


J. Ludwigia verticillata (either Cuba or Pantanal)


K. Ludwigia Arcuata 'Needle Leaf' (tissue-cultured)


L. ?


M. Rotala (rotundifolia perhaps)


N. ?


O. Cryptocoryne Hudoroi


P. Jungle Valisneria
 
#28 ·
I feel terrible. I was getting ready to replace the impeller on my Fluval 405 (was making an awful noise), when I saw this (on the intake line to my Eheim 2217):



For the past 7 days or so I have been wondering what happened to 2 of the 3 baby otocinclus that I added... yes, that is one of them in the tube. He actually didn't seem too bothered. Apparently there was enough algae in that tube, plus space for him to turn around, that he quite handily moved about in the tubing.

Then, I noticed that I was missing one of my guppies... so I decided to pull the whole canister out, remove all the filter media and lo and behold, at the bottom of the canister is one of my guppies (his fins are a little shredded, but he is swimming regularly at the moment) and the other Otocinclus too!

The second rescue-cinclus is in pretty poor shape. He is clearly famished and not too active... I don't know if he'll survive or not.

Here he is, looking rather meager:


Finally, as I was sorting through the ceramic-ring media in the lowest compartment of my filter, I saw something else moving... then another thing... then another. There were 4 Molly fry in there too! That makes 14 in the containment unit (10G tank) now... plus, I'm not sure how many were eaten by my angelfish before I started rescuing them.

The cause of all this mayhem? I completely forgot that I cut a couple of the grills off the intake-cover in order to put my CO2 tubing in there. When I turned the CO2 way up to help fight the BBA, it was causing my Eheim 2217 to belch and so I removed the tubing from the intake cover, but never patched up the hole :-/

Sigh.

I posted about this in a separate thread, but I accidentally spilled about 150ml of Flourish Excel into my tank last Sunday during my normal maintenance window. To make it worse, I only had about 30% of the water volume in there when it happened. A bunch of my plants were injured or killed. After several large water changes, things are under control again now, and I'm just waiting for some new growth to pick up and help fill in the damage.

Double Sigh.

School started this week, so my time for working on the tank is going to be limited to mostly a few hours on the weekend.

Triple sigh.

Other things that I've done in the past week or so:
- Planted most of the new plants I got from SFBAAPS. No scape, just stuck them in wherever I saw a bare spot of substrate until they grow up a little.

- Removed 3 big pieces of driftwood in an attempt to open up the tank a little for more plant growth :)

- Removed and treated (H2O2) some of the larger Anubias that had BBA on them.

- Set up the 10G fry containment unit and transferred some plants/wood/filter material/etc., there. I'll resurrect the tank journal for that tank this weekend.

- Cleaned my canister filters and and fixed the impeller on the 405

- Built and tested a CO2 reactor. It failed (leaks). I have an idea for a very simple in-tank reactor that I want to try before I try fixing the one I built.


Mostly heartache this week :-/

I think that catches me up to today.

Today, I did a bunch of filter maintenance. After reading a thread about running a tank without a filter, I started day-dreaming about noise-reduction, and so I shut down the Fluval 403 (1 of 3 canisters I had running...) and removed it entirely.

I also removed about 2/3 of the media in the other two canisters (2217 and 405) leaving one tray of ceramic rings and then the large sponges for mechanical filtration in the 2217 and only sponges in the 405.

I should be receiving some Koralia nano 425 powerheads early next week, and once I receive those I might even shut down the Fluval 405 too, leaving me with only the Eheim 2217.

I was supposed to receive my new lights (2x 48" Finnex Ray 2 DS) today, but they haven't shown up yet and my tracking # doesn't show any change in status.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top