J's 38gal - The One that Started it All

[JCoxRocks]

This tank is what started it all for me. Not only the planted tank hobby, but fishkeeping in general. I bought this tank from someone locally in the classified section of the newspaper when I was in highschool over 20 years ago. This tank has held all manner of fish, plants, and has been with me everywhere I have ever lived. It has changed so many times throughout the years. In the past 10 years, it has been my one and only truly planted tank. I have used DIY C02 on it off and on, with explosions, fish poisionings, spills, and all the unfortunate parts of that venture.

About 2 years ago I had a rediculous hair algae outbreak...



I completely tore the tank down and restarted it...



After some growth and liquid fertilizers, it began to thrive...



One of the two bulbs in this fixture stopped working and despite checking all the wiring I couldn't fix it. I sort of gave up on the tank and neglected it for a while. I moved all the best strains of angels from my grow tanks to this tank to fatten up before I move them to my larger tank. I just got lazy with replacing the lighting, and neglected the plants and let them overgrow. Here is the tank with the bad fixture...



And with the new fixture as it stands now...




Tank: 38 Gal Xtra
Filtration: Eheim 2236, Powerhead 201 for circulation (40gph), Eheim powerball (40gph)
Lighting: Custom T5 - 3x39w 6500K, 1x39w 10000K (built by Catalina Aquarium)
Heater: Stealth 200 watt
Substrate: Black & Natural colored gravel
Hardscape: Store-bought driftwood
Ferts: Flourish Excel, Flourish Iron, Flourish tabs, Flourish liquid

Flora: Amazon Sword, Anubias Nana, Java Moss, Crypt Wendtii, Limnophila aromatica, blyxa japonica, flame moss

Fauna 2 Bumblebee catfish, 2 black neon tetras, 1 otto

Future plans include a MAJOR trimming, possible rescape, relocation of angels from my smaller tank to grow out in this tank, possible C02.

J

[problemman]

um.....................

[pandjpudge]

and people say my tank is a jungle...talk about stuffed to the max!

[JCoxRocks]

Tell me about it. Its going to look so bare when I trim it out. Fortunately I need some plants for my 125, so nothing should go to waste. I never thought crypts would get that tall!!

J

[JCoxRocks]

Received my Eheim canister filter today and ordered a CO2 system to share between this tank and the 125g. I have a busy weekend ahead of me planned. I need to trim out this tank, install the Eheim and do a really good housekeeping mission and throw away all the garbage i've stored in the stand that I never use. I've moved all the angels and a couple of black neon tetras that I had no clue I even had into this tank from my 20g. I've decided to dedicate that tank to shrimp only.

More to come this weekend!

J

[JCoxRocks]

Spent the weekend cleaning out the cabinet underneath the tank. Embarassing, but this is how it was when I started...



Complete rat's nest of cords and chemicals. I can't believe I let it get this way. Easy to ignore when the doors are shut.



Purchased this battery powered LED light at Lowes. It actually mounts to a hanger by a magnet, so it can easily be removed and reattached if you want to use it like a flashlight.



Hooked up my Eheim 2236 (Thanks ClintonSParsons!!)



Everything underneath looks nice and tidy... next up, we move to the aquarium!



I need to focus on the 125g tank and once it is set up, then I will thin out this tank and re-work it a bit.

J

[JCoxRocks]

Got some shipments in today!!

Bella, my 9 year old cocker/dachshund mix checked it all out first to make sure she approved...


I received my 10lb CO2 tank with Smith regulator and dual-manifolds (cant really tell from the photo, but 2 needle valves and 2 bubble counters) from GLA as well as 2 diffusers and 2 drop checkers. Everything looks very well-built. Can't wait to get that tank filled and set up...


Any idea where the best place to get a CO2 tank filled?

I still need to do a full tear-down on the 125g and once that is complete I will transplant some of the plants from this tank there and clean it all up really good. That will probably be next weekend. It would be nice to get the CO2 tank filled by then and have everything compeltely set up before Monday.

J

[JCoxRocks]

Tore a bunch of stuff out of the tank and cleaned everything up. Hooked up the Co2 and planted some leftovers from my 125g.

FTS before the cleaning...


Draining the tank down...


FTS about 10 mins after fill..


About an hour after fill. A lot clearer...


This tank has regular aquarium gravel and I'm going to see how well the plants do in that. I may get ambitious at some point and use my leftover Eco Complete in this tank. Throughout the years, this tank has had some amazing growth with liquid ferts, root tabs and DIY co2, so I'll give it a shot. After doing a complete tear down and rebuild of my 125g, I wasn't in the mood to do the same thing to the 38g.

Thanks for checking it out... updates to come as it starts to grow out!

J

[Da Plant Man]

I liked the overgrown jungle, it had lots of personailty despite the fact that you let it be overgrown, it was special in its own special way, but I also like the new scape that you, I think it is pretty good. What was that fish I saw in the third photo in the first post with the pointy nose?

[JCoxRocks]

Originally Posted by Caton

What was that fish I saw in the third photo in the first post with the pointy nose?

On the left and near the top on the right are needle-nose gar. The one closer to the right side is a short-nosed gar. They were fun for a while. They eat rosies and its unbelievable to watch. I almost didn't believe it until I saw them snatch one out of the water in front of them as it swam by. They sort of look like a pelican how they jerk their beak around until the fish goes all the way down their throat head first. Fun little fish, but not so great for a planted tank.

J

[bsmith]

I would crank up the co2 to 11 with that much light. I have a catalina 4x24w t5ho over my 37g tall and I only have a 6 hour photoperiod and only with all four lights on for 1.5 hours.

[JCoxRocks]

Originally Posted by bsmith

I would crank up the co2 to 11 with that much light. I have a catalina 4x24w t5ho over my 37g tall and I only have a 6 hour photoperiod and only with all four lights on for 1.5 hours.

Any fear of gassing the fish?

J

[JCoxRocks]

Adjusted some settings on my camera and took a couple more FTS...



J

[JCoxRocks]

Added some angels from AngelfishUSA.com. All different phenotypes with Ken Kennedy's Phillipine Blue strain. I'll raise these guys up to size and then put them in the 125gal at some point to breed them with my other stock.

This tank had the beginnings of a hair algae outbreak, but some Excel dosing has curbed that very quickly. The tank is responding well to the CO2 and I'm getting amazing growth from my swords and even the anubias. I'm hoping to kill off all the hair algae in the flame moss as it would look really nice without all that extra fur all over it.

Also added some ottos and nerites to this tank for algae patrol. Really happy with the growth so far.

FTS




Some shots of the angels. Cant wait for these guys to grow and really show their colors!














J

[JCoxRocks]

No major updates here. I purchsed a Nikon D7000 and a macro lens shortly after Xmas. Here is a teaser shot I took while messing around with some settings.



These are my Ken Kennedy Phillipine Blue angels that I got late last year. They are still doing well.

I did a fairly major rescape and thinned out some of the swords and moved some anubias to another tank. Photos to come soon!

J