My wife and I have a spot in the family room that we agreed when we bought the place would be for a corner fishtank. Well after 4 years and another boy it looks like now might be the time to finally set this one up.
So here's what we are planning.
92 gallon corner bow front.
Black stand and hood (been trying to get her to budge on skipping the hood but no dice).
Stocking - Guppy's.... Yep Guppy's. My wife loves them and it's the only way I'm getting the tank.
The 125 is the lush jungle of vals, swords and crypts. This one I'd like to be more organized and designed.
The big restriction is I travel quite a bit for work and my wife only feeds the fish and dumps in ferts. So I need to set up a big Guppy tank that can survive getting a water change a few times a year.
Directly above the spot is a recessed spotlight. I'm thinking about a hydroponic setup to grow some orchids, pathos, etc. built into the back of the hood.
For lighting - I've got to do a DIY setup. They are too much fun to do.
Substrate - Thinking about a dirted setup but not sure. The 15 gallon I'm testing this out on is leaching tannins like crazy still.
Plants... open book. Medium to low light non-CO2 is probably my only choice. Preferably different from my 125.
Without something bigger in there you will have more guppies than you can count in a few months. They will school much better with that also.
Something which will not get large enough to eat adult guppies.
LOL - The guppies are non-negotiable. I intend for it to be an all male show tank. The breeding of these little monsters will be done in a couple of 10 gallon tanks in the garage.
I got exactly what you're looking for. I never test my water, rarely prune anything, and even more rarely do water changes. But my tank looks presentable and the fish are happy and breeding. http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=535418
That's a dirt substrate with a sand cap.
If I had put some planning into the plant selection and placement I'm sure the tank would look quite a bit better. But I have absolutely no interest in creating a show tank. And if you do a little maintenance when you're home it will survive just fine with no maintenance at all while you're gone.
Southern Gorilla - Yeah you missed the point:. This is a low Tech show tank. Gotta up the challenge a bit. I'm talking about getting it as close to CO2 level as possible with a limited amount of input. Impossible? Perhaps...
I'm asking for recommendations of species - light levels, water flow, and substrate. Assume weekly dry-ferts dosing for a monthly E.I. water change for balancing.
I've got some dwarf sag's growing in the low tech 15G test tank. The crypt lutea is also doing very well. The Rotalla started off strong but is now starting to show signs of stress. I don't know if it's going to make it. What stem plant can I use that can grow in these conditions?
For those recommendations you will need to supply the dimentions of the tank.
By "getting as close as possible to CO2 level" I assume you mean mostly the light level ? You have other tanks, familiar/w EI ? Their drop list where "Low light EI/weekly"
list is ? I use a modified version of that and water change only 20% weekly so a large water change monthly would work also on that but I do dose once/w Macros and then twice/w Micros each week. The idea of using one large dose per month doesn't sound like it would work well from what I've heard on that but the water change would.
"Low light weekly" found on "yet another calculator" at top of fert section in first thread.
Weekly ferts then Monthly water changes. You know the the drop the python in and forget about it until the kids say the 'fishy's are splashing" method that none of us admit too.
I use a modified EI in my 125 that I made up before I got around to actually reading Tom's stuff (E.I. = common sense for anyone with a hydroponics/farming background). I've kicked the dirt in something like 17 countries now with farmers. Gonna add another one in April - Quick find Uzbekistan on a map.
Fun Fact: You can amend 48 visa pages to a U.S. passport. It does look really funny when you do it however. You can use it to flick pennies when you first get it.
There only one dimension for a 92G corner bow and it's a standard 24" height. So I'm not punching light down that far. I'm thinking that I'd do a CFL setup like in my 125 (72X18X24). Maybe make some good reflectors and do eight to ten 23W CFLS. Pricing wise, picking up a fixture would probably be about the same, but it's not as much fun.
Now for increasing the CO2 available from the atmosphere and offgassing O2, I'm thinking about ways to increase the current. Basic principle of diffusion - higher movement of molecules increase the rate of diffusion. It won't do that much but it will help a bit especially for the smaller plants. I'm tempted on picking up a few of those micro saltwater power-heads to point some type of carpeting plant. (dwarf sags seem to be working in the test tank). Guppies like to play in the current
Still stuck on what plants to choose and the layout. I'm leaning toward some major hardscaping on this one. I'd like this one to be more open to contrast better with the Jungle in the other room. I've also got all rosette's currently. Wouldn't mind some stem plants.
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