Mitch P's 75 Gallon Jungle ( UPDATED 2/9/13)

[mitch p]

Originally Posted by Tomasz

How do you find the Catalina light set up? I'm thinking of ordering the exact same. 2 6.5K lights and 1 plant grow.

A few questions:
(1) How did you test for the ammonia (you mentioned it went down?)
(2) What size bag aqua soil
(3) Did you find the powersand special M was enough or would you have prefered L?

I LOVE the Catalina light. The dual light switches and power cords allow me to have a Noon-Burst for 2 hours with all 3 lights on and then the rest of the day with 2 lights on

1)I Used the API Master Test Kit. I checked every other day!
2) I used 5 bags of 9L Ada Aquasoil
3) Yep! The special M was plenty!

[Tomasz]

Did you just use a single bag of the special M?

[mitch p]

Originally Posted by Tomasz

Did you just use a single bag of the special M?

Indeed, you will spread it out with a 1 inch gap to the front. The gaps to the side are much more (2-3 inches) but it was def more than enough

[ChadRamsey]

Originally Posted by mitch p

Thanks! I would love to trade/buy plants if you have any!

I get my Co2 filled at a place called Smith Welding! Here is the website!
http://www.smithwelding.com/

I use Smith as well

Ill pm you

[mitch p]

Originally Posted by ChadRamsey

I use Smith as well

Ill pm you

Excellent!

[Rush3737]

I really like the branch/stone halves of the tank, looking forward to seeing this when the plants grow in a little more.

[mitch p]

Originally Posted by Rush3737

I really like the branch/stone halves of the tank, looking forward to seeing this when the plants grow in a little more.

I believe I currently have it a little overplanted xD. I will probably be shifting some plants around pretty soon but I think I am gonna let this grow in a fair bit before I decide. Besides if I wait a bit, I can create more stems to redo the planting with

[mitch p]

My first UV Sterilizer is here! Will post pics in the AM!!!

[mitch p]

Just a quick update with some pictures!

Here are some of the fish . After getting my tank cycled, I added a couple drops of ammonia for a few days to make sure it went to 0 in the Ammonia and Nitrite categories before adding any fish to the tank.



Here are some of the fish . After getting my tank cycled, I added a couple drops of ammonia for a few days to make sure it went to 0 in the Ammonia and Nitrite categories before adding any fish to the tank.

Current stocking list:
Guppies
Mollies - May get rid of the mollies not sure.
Platys
German Blue Rams
1 Albino Bushynose pleco

After moving all my plants from the 15g, I noticed I had some babies in the tank! Here is a picture of 1 of them growing up pretty well. I have since had more babies that include guppies and platys!



After moving all my plants from the 15g, I noticed I had some babies in the tank! Here is a picture of 1 of them growing up pretty well. I have since had more babies that include guppies and platys!

I did have a bit of an O2 problem at night but that has been fixed by putting 2 airstones with check valves and putting them on a timer for whenever I stop my Co2. Problemo solved!




And now here is a full tank shots! This was taken before running the UV Sterilizer a few days ago. When I get home I will take another picture and post it for a before and after effect.




I have had some pretty good growth as you can see! I did actually change the bulb timings I have and the length of time they stay on. I currently have this setup:

8 AM : Plant Grow Bulb turns on (simulates sun rising )
9 AM: Plant Grow Bulb Off - 2 6500k Lights on
4:30 PM: 2 6500k lights off -Co2 Off - Airstones on - Plant Grow Bulb on -
6 PM: Plant grow Bulb off.

This seems to be working REALLY well for me for growth, algae, and fish happiness.

My dosing/ Waterchange schedule is currently:

Sunday: 50-60% water change + Trim + ADA Phyton Git+Dose ferts (Pfertz dosing)
Monday: ADA Green Bacter
Tuesday: 15% water change
Wednesday: Dose Pfertz
Thursday: ADA Green Bacter
Friday: Rest
Saturday: Rest


So far this really seems to be working for me.

I also have a bunch of Nerite snails on the way to help out as well!

Comments welcome!

[mitch p]

Hey guys! I am back with another update of the tank! Today was a big day! Had to do a water change, spot treat some algae spots with Excel and cleaned the glass of the tank. But no trimming this week. So I decided to show some of my methods for water changing and then show the tank!

For Starters, it is always good to have a wingman or a wing-woman. This is vital to your success. Here's mine:



Next We go on to taking out the water of the tank:
The water goes into a bucket on a board on wheels xD. Its a 25-30g bucket ( I really can't remember which one ). I then just wheel the bucket out towards back yard and use some powerheads to water flowers and other things
I have 2 of these buckets at the moment, one for taking water out, and one for putting it back in.





So at this point ( around 2 buckets full of water is out so roughly 50 gallons of water ) is out of the tank. This is when I took just a small medicine pipette and started spot treating some of the problem algae spots. I choose to use this method for algae spots as opposed to treating the whole tank just out of safety. I also clean the glass as best I can at this point as well!

Next comes filling the tank back up. Remember that massive bucket I used to take out the water? Well I use another to put water back into the tank! I simply roll it over to my water source, fill up some 5 gallon buckets from home depot and pour them in. I then take a power head and use it fill the tank back up.



I use my Magnetic Algae scrubber as a way to kind of break up the flow of the output from the powerhead.



It takes quite a while to fill the tank back up, but it keeps from disturbing my fish and it makes life easier!

[mitch p]

Now onto the pictures of the tank filled up!

Here is a full tank shot:


I know its blurry but these are my GBR's. I found a breeder who said he was on his 6 or 7th generation of Blue Rams. So this meant that even if the original parents had hormones injected in them, it wouldn't be a problem for me. As you can tell they aren't the normal bright variant of the GBR. The hormones really make a difference. However I enjoy the fact that they are healthy!




They love this area around the base of the driftwood. They seem throughout the branches and under the gap at the base. They LOVE this crypt for some reason tho. Please ignore the algae on some of the plants ( those were the places I spot treated today xD)

[mitch p]

As you can tell I am really proud of my GBR's!

But I do have other fish! Like Guppies! And guppy babies!!!


So hard to get good pics on my S3 xD. Really sorry for the blurry photos!



Some of my baby platys are growing up:

http://s1215.beta.photobucket.com/us...tml?sort=3&o=1

Another group Shot:



And one last one:




Thanks for looking guys! Comments are always appreciated!

[angelsword]

I just grabbed the mag float algae scraper and put it under the water flow on my currently filling tank. Brilliant! Thank you

Your tank looks great!

[mitch p]

Originally Posted by angelsword

I just grabbed the mag float algae scraper and put it under the water flow on my currently filling tank. Brilliant! Thank you

Your tank looks great!

Glad I could help! Thanks for the kind words!