12 Gallon Long Banana~Updated Pics 8/15/12

[Bananariot]

Updates:
8/15/2012- #113-114
7/13/2012-#85
6/30/2012-#72-74
6/23/2012

Current FTS


Fauna:
Invertebrates:
8 Fire Red Cherry Shrimp
~20 Red Rili Shrimp
~20 Tangerine Tigers

Plants:
Marsilea Minuta
S. Repens


So I impulse bought a 12 gallon long Mr. Aqua up at school. Finally able to come home and set it up for college summer vacation

My goal: Buy only what was really necessary for my project and save as much money as possible.

Additional goal: Setup a 5 gallon setup as well with the extra supplies

12 Gallon Setup
Filter: Eheim 2213 DIY UGF PVC setup + spraybar
Substrate: 1 layer Lava Rock (BBQ type from home depot, smashed the big pieces) & Azoo Plant Grower Bed (1.25 bags)
Decor: Some stones I found at my school, some sort of quartz

Focus
To breed PFR's and either Golden Bees or BTOE and OEBT. The substrate buffers to ph6.5 from what I heard but my source's water for BTOE is around the same, so the BTOE should be fine.

No lighting so far, ran out of money xD

All my shrimp from college are in a melting pot of a 10 gallon, hopefully they'll cycle soon!



Followed Liam's design. 1/2" PVC piping with holes drilled every 2". 20" x 5" about. Fluval biomaxx cylinders to prevent clogging hopefully.



Home Depot BBQ lava rock, broken into smaller pieces....somewhat and form the bottom layer of the substrate.



Layout of the quartz rocks I found at my school, lol they pile these at the drainage sites. I tested it to make sure no water params are affected.



Oops realized I couldn't use the kitchen counter because the eheim needs gravity to do work lol. Moved to a vinyl table.

[Bananariot]

UGF, ultimately decided powerhead wasn't gonna work and used a AC20 instead.



FTS, just finished cycling.....added/saved my crs and orange sakuras from a diseased 10 gallon.

5 gallon Setup:
Filter: AC20 with DiY pvc ugf, 10 gallon sponge filter
Substrate: Azoo Plant Grower Bed
Lighting: T5NO Deep Sea

Fauna:
Invertebrates:
12 ss-sss CRS
1 ss CRS
4 Orange Sakura Neos
10 Golden CRS

Plants:
Cambomba
Fissidens Moss
Water Wisteria

[speedie408]

Me likey!

That's a fresh looking tank there. Can't wait to see it filled with shrimperoos!

[diwu13]

Hm.. why only cover such a small section of the tank with the UGF?

[sayurasem]

Wow I think 12 gallon longs are perfect for anaerobic bacteria.

[Bananariot]

Lmao I couldn't afford enough fluval cylinders. The only ones I could find, can only use cash and not card cause my bank is local to western ny and my account is drained.

That stuff is expensive! lol 2 boxes to fill that thing and it cost me about $22 and change. I could've used lava rock but I really tried to follow the guide lol. Also.....lava rock is surprisingly hard to smash into small small pieces.

[dasob85]

scape looks great loving it

[diwu13]

Ah I see. I think you're supposed to put the lava rock in some rough texture bag (like the reuseable grocery bags) and then smash all of it with a hammer. The bag will keep the pieces together so it's easier to break apart.

[Bananariot]

Yeah I broke a bag, lol my promotional vagisil bag that my mother got from a drug rep ages ago...

OH I FOUND BABY CRS in my 10 gal melting pot. Lol baby crs are awesome when I see them in person.

[meowschwitz]

Vagisil. Nice.

[Bananariot]

Originally Posted by speedie408

Me likey!

That's a fresh looking tank there. Can't wait to see it filled with shrimperoos!

Yeah! Your shrimperoos! May need more OEBT's

Originally Posted by sayurasem

Wow I think 12 gallon longs are perfect for anaerobic bacteria.

I think the lava rock will make some great places for the bacteria to live. Just gotta hope for no explosive gas pockets lmao.

Originally Posted by dasob85

scape looks great loving it

Thanks!

Originally Posted by meowschwitz

Vagisil. Nice.

Lol I used to tote that bag to football practice......it held so much stuff

[meowschwitz]

Originally Posted by Bananariot

Lol I used to tote that bag to football practice......it held so much stuff

That gives me too many good ideas...

[sayurasem]

Originally Posted by Bananariot

Lmao I couldn't afford enough fluval cylinders. The only ones I could find, can only use cash and not card cause my bank is local to western ny and my account is drained.

That stuff is expensive! lol 2 boxes to fill that thing and it cost me about $22 and change. I could've used lava rock but I really tried to follow the guide lol. Also.....lava rock is surprisingly hard to smash into small small pieces.

this is madness. My lfs sells 1lb generic bio rings for $5. Plus he would sell me the cycled bio rings(from his tank) too!

[Bananariot]

Originally Posted by sayurasem

this is madness. My lfs sells 1lb generic bio rings for $5. Plus he would sell me the cycled bio rings(from his tank) too!

The disadvantages of living in NY, the prices aare steeeeeeeppppp

[diwu13]

Any city really. And any college town as well. Anywhere besides those two places, and prices are much better .