First planted tank-55 gal with lots of DIY!

[jamesbaptista]

First planted tank-55 gal with lots of DIY! xcited about it. I've been piecing it together for about a month and it's finally coming together! I know its far from perfect but I'm pretty happy with it as a first go. I'm definitely on a budget so I've done a lot of DIY stuff, plus I live working on the projects and watching my own handiwork become a reality!

Setup:
55 gallon tank (nothing fancy, purchased at PETCO)
DIY stand
DIY canopy with 4 32w 6500k T8 bulbs
DIY overflow and sump filter
DIY yeast CO2 system with reactor

I gathered my own driftwood and soaked and cleaned it for a while. It hasn't waterlogged yet so I had to keep it from floating. I ended up placing a thin plastic sheet in the bottom of the tank and securing the driftwood to that with fishing line. That way all of the substrate weight is being used to anchor the driftwood. Worked well!

Still need to figure out a background.

Pics of tank after planting:





Pics with water in tank:

[akdylpickles]

pics are a little small. Can you make them bigger?

[jamesbaptista]

Fixed! Took me a while to figure out how to not put in thumbnails from imageshack. And I'm doing this all from my phone so that adds a bit of a difficulty factor

[jamesbaptista]

I need to clean up the sand/substrate line. It got messed up during the fill up. I'll get that done tonight.

[GMYukonon24s]

Welcome to the forum and nice start to your tank.

[matty26]

Nice start!
once you decide what color background to put on your tank, I suggest painting the pvc the same color, Krylon fusion paint is aquarium safe, I used it for my overflows

[rocksmom]

Very nice. I like how you incorporated the wood into the scape instead of just sitting on top.

Welcome to TPT

[Hilde]

Originally Posted by jamesbaptista

Still need to figure out a background.

Easiest and versatile form is silk fabric. Just get some cardboard and tape the fabric to it. Then tape the board with fabric onto the tank with gorilla tape.

Love the scape. How are you keeping the white and black substrate separate?

[jamesbaptista]

Originally Posted by matty26

Nice start!
once you decide what color background to put on your tank, I suggest painting the pvc the same color, Krylon fusion paint is aquarium safe, I used it for my overflows

That's a great idea! I was hoping the plants would help cover the PVC but blending into the background would help a ton! I've read that a lot of people like to go with a black background... anyone agree/disagree with that?

[craigofva]

how excatly are you using all thoes pvc pipes?

[jamesbaptista]

Originally Posted by craigofva

how excatly are you using all thoes pvc pipes?

DIY overflow and sump return. I found the design online and it works great. Once you get it set up its pretty much a self starting siphon that feeds down into the sump. I'm doing my filtering and stuff in the sump to keep the inside of the tank uncluttered. Then I pump it back up into the tank.

[jamesbaptista]

Ordered my dry ferts last night. Planning on EI dosing based on the sticky in the fertilizer forum. Ordered from GLA, seems like decent prices and should last a while!

[jamesbaptista]

After reading some more about dwarf hair grass (dhg) here on the forum I decided I should replant mine. I separated into much smaller clumps (3-8 blades) and used tweezers to push it back in. I also trimmed the tops off with sharp scissors to encourage more runners and better carpeting.

Picture of replanted hair grass:

[Hilde]

Great start!

How are keeping the black sand and white sand separate?

[jamesbaptista]

Originally Posted by Hilde

How are keeping the black sand and white sand separate?

Some separation from the hard scape (rocks and driftwood) but that's it. I read about people using plastic but I didn't know how to do that.