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Seth's 72g low tech "the reject tank"

6K views 57 replies 12 participants last post by  Sethjohnson30 
#1 ·
My girlfriend use to have a big problem with buying fish before doin the neccasary research.

This tank was originally a brackish tank for her green spotted puffers and other bw fish we picked up to go along.

She slowly stopped maintaning the tank and I hate mixing saltwater every week. I also dislike her black ghost knife eating all my cardinal tetra an tearing up my ground cover.

So I convinced her to go low tech fw planted. I killed two birds with one stone. The bgk is out of my tank and I gave the bw fish to another member.

I cannot post pictures right now due to a server error :( this makes this pointless lol)

Fish
1 black ghost knife
3 geophagus sp.
4 angels
3 Congo tetra
10-20 varied nerites
1 bala shark(soon to go back to the Lfs)

Plants
Blyxa japonica
Crypt wendti
Amazon sword
Echinodorus bleheri
And a few others in not sure of the name

I will get pics posted ASAP.



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#32 ·
I think I'm just gonna yank it it didn't turn out the way I wanted it to. That dw is not staying there I plan on moving it. My girlfriend rearranged because she was bored and now she's complaining about how it looks.....so now I get to spend hours getting it just right again. Yay :/
 
#43 ·
I have 3 6500k t8's ATM

It just looks bright because I took the pic during a wc and the tank wasn't completely full

Im currently dosing 6ml of excell daily

I have not had to fertilize this tank yet(except root tabs on start up). I actually still have to do large wc to keep my N and P down......it's like the tank is even planted. The plants aren't dying but they aren't growing either.
 
#53 ·
So, I've wired up and installed the lights!

I also removed all the blyxa, it wasn't doing well so I traded it out for some crypt wenti out of my other tank. I thinking about replacing the unplanted area with sand, what do you guys think?


That's 2x20w 7000k and 2x10w 6000k led floodlights
I'm going to run them for a while and see how my growth is, of neccasary I will be replacing the 10w lights with 30w 7000k floodlight led's
 
#54 ·
I think that it looks great, Seth!! Both tanks are coming along very, very well and I especially like the system on the right.

I would add some other plants instead of adding sand. It's hard to keep clean and overdone in this hobby in my opinion. Try a foreground of Marselia minuta, or get some of that "true" Sagittaria sibilants that Aaron is selling right now. That would be a nice bright foreground that would probably do well for you!
 
#58 ·
I know the sand may be overdone, but I believe there is a good reason for that. It looks nice and is easier to maintain than foreground plants,especially in a low tech tank with diggers. The diggers are the main reason I'm considering sand. I have two geophagus(earth eaters) an one black ghostknife. The Eco complete is not very nice to them. I'm hoping if I added the sand they would prefer to dig in that area and leave my plants alone.
 
#55 ·
Would you need more light in the front and back of the tank? The led floodlights throw more light left to right than they do front to back. Turning the 10w's sideways may increase the the light getting to the plants in the back.

If you get a chance I just did a tear apart on the 10w flood you may find interesting. Check the first post in my sig link for a link to it.
 
#56 ·
The lights are set over the back Of the tank where all th plants are, If I do a foreground plant I may add more light to the fRont.

I've taken these apart before I had a driver go out in one and they told me if I smashed the emiter they would send me a replacement. I bought a new driver and emiter for 6$ and rebuilt the fixture.
 
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