Crazydaz Square 200 Gallon-The End w/Teaser Shots of next set up!!

[crazydaz]

I've had my tank up and running since the middle of October, but never had time to sit down and upload the pictures to Photobucket. So, this will be an ongoing series....kind of like a "Journal" that you might see on other sites. I'm a little annoyed too because I can't figure out how I upload the "high quality" shots that I can see on my laptop to Photobucket....the resolution seems to disappear when they are uploaded to that site. If any of you photographers out there want to give me a hand, I would be appreciative!

Anyhow:

Right Side:



Left Side:



Front Shot:



Right Oblique (only one set of lights are on in this picture):



I decided to try a light substrate this time; I've never used light substrate with a white sand cap before, and was initially encouraged by the clean look. Water is still tannin-stained, as you can tell. At the time, I think that I had planted MM and had some java moss in there. The tank was cycled using Orange Flame Tetras, which are pretty cool. Lighting: 6 Giesemann Mid-day and 6 AquaFlora, somewhat staggered for "dawn" and "dusk" effects.

More to come a little later.....I've got two more sets of photos.

[aretreesfree]

Awsome tank!!! Please share some more info about it!

[crazydaz]

This small set of pics is after I received a wonderful anubias package and placed them in there, along with some Rotala Macranda and Vietnam. I also received some Fissidens and Staurogyne species. 10/20/2011, I think. About two days after the previous photos above.

Right Side


Front:


Tried a close up of an Orange Flame Tetra....

....maybe Santa will get me a macro lens??


@Aretreesfree-what would you like to know? Anything specific?

[aretreesfree]

Length x width x height, who made it/ where'd you get it? Filtration, lighting. You know, the fun stuff.

[HolyAngel]

Nice shots/tank!!

And to answer your question, photobucket automatically downsamples all pics unless you pay them for a premium account. Then they will be HD or whatever quality you took the pics with.

[2in10]

Great looking scape.

[crazydaz]

HolyAngel-THANK YOU! That's stupid, but it makes total sense. I just upgraded...no other choice, really. What's the point of taking photos with a pretty nice camera if they just look so-so on here? And thanks for the compliment!

2in10 and treesarefree-Thank you both....the tank is presently much further along, but you know, it's a journal. I need something to do for tomorrow, which is when I'll post some pics from a few days ago.

Trees-the tank dimensions are 4 ft. Long by 4 ft. Wide by 20 inches Tall (48x48x20); it was a custom build from a shop up in Madison Heights, MI called Great Lakes Aquariums which I have taken with me to St. Louis and now, Nashville. It was very well constructed to have gone through two moves! The lighting was and stand were also custom builds by a buddy of mine; the pendant holds 12 Geisemann bulbs (6 Midday+6 AquaFlora). For now, they are on a 10 hour photoperiod with 30 minutes "rest" about halfway through the cycle to help combat algae until I have enough plant mass in there.

Filtration is two Eheim 2217's.....CO2 is passed through custom built diffusor at about 2 bubbles/sec and introduced through a spraybar.

[Dave6265]

That looks awesome! Driftwood looks good, and I really like the Orange Flame Tetras. I've never seed them around here.

What are your plans for the tank? What species of fish are you planning on keeping in there?

[crazydaz]

Thanks! I hadn't seen them for a long time, and now they have started popping up everywhere around me. Well, this is a journal and the pics that I posted today are from 10/18/2011, so the tank has matured quite a bit since then. I have added Blue Kerri Tetras, snails of various sorts, and about 15 Rainbow Cichlids. I'll post more pictures tomorrow, but here's another Orange Flame shot....it's the best I can do without a Macro Lens, but I thought that it was pretty good: (CLICK IT!)

Orange Flame School

[crazydaz]

After the pictures above, I went through an absolutely horrendous algae cycle. First, I went through the brown algae stage, followed by green water. I few blackout days did clear it up, but it lead to clado formation. Luckily, by then I had a lot of plants mass, ottos, snails, and dosed it with a Ich medicine which (oddly enough) seem to take care of a lot of my remaining algae issues. I do have hair algae which I am dosing with peroxide via syringe; I am slowly winning. Of course, now I am going out of town for a week, so I worry what the tank will look like when I get back. So much work to get it to this point.

So, the tank is probably "mature" at this point. You see in photos below that there are a lot of plant species in there, including some rare anubias and crypts which I am espeically proud of. And probably $300 worth of Hydrocotyle 'Japan' that IS GOING NUTS!! I thinking about just letting it spread and be the carpet plant. I mean, I am not strong enough to combat it, so if I can keep it away from some of my crypts, it can go any where it wants to. The point: I just have to let a few things either grow and split into more groups, or fill in. It is still very much a work in progress.

On that note, too, my next door neighbor is going to help redo the pedestal and the pendant. Originally, my buddy who made both the pedestal and pendant used pressboard where he could. After a few years of Don Abuse and water changes that didn't go so well, the outside pressboard has bubbled, torn, been gouged, and just looks beat up. The guts that support this monster are still in excellent condition....just the outside aethetics.

Anyhow, here are the next set of pics (taken on 12/15/11)

Front:


Right Oblique:


Right Side "close up" or something....:


Right Front Looking Down:


Left Side looking towards the front Side:


Left Side "close up":

[thrak76]

That's an awesome tank! You don't see a tank with that kind of depth too often.

[madness]

Definitely the size/shape of tank that would make a great display in a room.

I like the scaping as well - manages to feel unique.

[crazydaz]

Thank you very much Thrak and Madness! I felt that it would be a little more original, so I had it custom built. At the time, everything was pretty dominated by big aquariums that were only "meant" to be viewed from the front which is fine, but I felt it was a little too vanilla. In purusing some of my LFS's, I had noticed that the coral tanks were stand along units, and would make awesome planted tanks! So, knowing that I didn't have the know-how to make it viewable from all four sides, which would require all filtration and plumbing to be house in the pedestal and come up through the bottom of the tank and the pendant which would require electrical to run straight into the ceiling, I decided to make it viewable from three sides instead. Three sides is enough, though!

Madness, it isn't scaped yet. I finally got all of the species I want in there. It is "growing" time right now, and I have to do a lot of trimming and replanting to get the necessary groups. It will be a while before this tank is fully scaped.

Some additional pics-

Another Orange Flame School shot:


Rotala Vietnam:


Hydrocotyle 'Japan' "Field"-This stuff grows and spreads like crazy!!!!:


Another shot....

[Kworker]

inspiration.. great tank

[The Gipper]

Is the hydrocote Japan a ground cover