Shambhalove's 75 :)

[Yankee]

Originally Posted by discuspaul

Your scape is looking very natural - simple, minimalist - VERY NICE !
That tank would be just superb as a single strain discus tank - it would be quite dramatic with 6 to 8 discus of your color/pattern choice !

+1 on the discus!

You have a very beautiful hardscape! If you want to get rid of the eyesore heaters then just get an inline one (Hydor ETH 300W). I'm not familiar with the eheim canisters so you might have to do some size adjustments. Are you liking the 2217? Is it enough filtration for you?

[HybridHerp]

There's an inline for the 2217, I have one on mine. I can tell you exactly what its called later if you need

[Desyx]

i dig it. like the look of the branches growing through the rocks

[discuspaul]

Really love your sand - looks somewhat like mine.
Is it simply white silica PFS ?

Have a look at mine: - a 70+ gal. planted discus tank with white quartz-based silica PFS:

http://s1105.photobucket.com/albums/...aul/lolliblues

Tell you what though - your arrangement of the driftwood and it's 'branchy' type, along with the rocks, would look a hell of a lot better than what you see in my tank - so give discus some serious thought - you wouldn't be sorry.

[shambhalove.]

HybridHerp: Very nice hardscape.
What are you thinking about for fish and plants in this thing?

Thank you! For fish i was kinda leaning towards a mixed community but i know i want a school of Rainbowfish and Corys but im still deciding the rest. Hachetfish are cool too, So many choices haha. As far as plants go i have no idea...open to all suggestions on that one. I've got a decent idea of beginner plants so ill just look for those to start. I really like how some floating plants roots hang down and would like to have some over the open area for sure. You wanna tell me about that inline? I can look it up too but how do you like it?

Yankee: You have a very beautiful hardscape! If you want to get rid of the eyesore heaters then just get an inline one (Hydor ETH 300W). I'm not familiar with the eheim canisters so you might have to do some size adjustments. Are you liking the 2217? Is it enough filtration for you?

Thats the plan, get something inline eventually and get those ugly things out. I love the Eheim so far, to be honest its my first and only canister but its awesome. Amazingly quiet, I keep touching it to make sure its on! I will be adding something else for extra circulation mind you.

discuspaul Really love your sand - looks somewhat like mine.
Is it simply white silica PFS ?

Have a look at mine: - a 70+ gal. planted discus tank with white quartz-based silica PFS:

http://s1105.photobucket.com/albums/...aul/lolliblues

Tell you what though - your arrangement of the driftwood and it's 'branchy' type, along with the rocks, would look a hell of a lot better than what you see in my tank - so give discus some serious thought - you wouldn't be sorry.

Its "Target Filter Sand", guy said 100% silica. It really has a more natural tan colour like beach sand that i really like but my camera is picking up on the light too much haha. Thanks for all the love man, your tanks and the fish in them are amazing looking! The only reason i dont want to put Discus in there is because i am very new to keeping fish but i will keep that in mind for the future when i am more experienced and the tank is more stable.

Thank you everyone for the kind words! I need to go look at what the stores around here have for plants and see what my options are. Should i be looking into some sort of co2 for this? Like i said before i dont want to over complicate things too much.

[HybridHerp]

I forget the name ATM, but it works well, very well in fact. I liked tank at a nice 78 or so, and this does the job just fine.

[alipper]

Love the hardscape. Great start.

[stevenjohn21]

your hardscape looks great ! Looking forward to seeing the progress on this .

[mitchfish9]

Hardscape is incredible. I love low tech tanks so I can't wait to see this one with plants!

[shambhalove.]

Thanks everyone!! I was planning on ordering some plants online soon, anyone one have experience shipping plants in the winter? Its like -20c here right now, is this possible? Was thinking aquariumplants.com unless you peeps got another suggestion. I got a basic idea of easier plants but would appreciate some feedback on what you would choose if his were your tank.

Oh and got the light mounted to the ceiling, primed the outside for some flat black and was thinking of lining the inside with mylar. Pics when paint is dry

[sonoralinda]

Hello all, I too am setting up my first 75 planted tank. I bought a filter from the local store and it was cracked so I'm waiting for a new one to come in the mail as they only had the one. I put playground sand in and looked at it for a few days (without water) and read some bad stuff so I took it out and put in the red color fluorite alone. I want to do a low tech tank also without the C02. Would a 4x54w florescent light hood be too much light for the 75 gal. tank to grow moderate light plants and not have an algae problem? I love your wood! Mine is still soaking. I ordered a 10000K led light from ebay thinking more is better, not knowing anything. I will send it back when it comes. I'm going to do a tank of angels and cory cats, I love them. Love your wood!

[shambhalove.]

Originally Posted by sonoralinda

Hello all, I too am setting up my first 75 planted tank. I bought a filter from the local store and it was cracked so I'm waiting for a new one to come in the mail as they only had the one. I put playground sand in and looked at it for a few days (without water) and read some bad stuff so I took it out and put in the red color fluorite alone. I want to do a low tech tank also without the C02. Would a 4x54w florescent light hood be too much light for the 75 gal. tank to grow moderate light plants and not have an algae problem? I love your wood! Mine is still soaking. I ordered a 10000K led light from ebay thinking more is better, not knowing anything. I will send it back when it comes. I'm going to do a tank of angels and cory cats, I love them. Love your wood!

Im assuming your talking about t5ho bulbs, if thats the case that is way too much light to not have co2. I am new at this though so we'll see what other people say. You can always raise your light too but it seems like a waste of energy. Starting your own thread in the lighting section will probably help too.

I missed the first couple lines on aquariumplants.com shipping info...the arent shipping to canada at all right now
Any other suggestions?

[shambhalove.]

Plants!!

Got some Vals, Hornwort, Anubias Nana, Amazon Swords, Micro Sword and Wisteria. Some of them are pretty rough looking because overnight shipping turned into 3 day shipping they were all really squished when i got them but I'm hoping the majority makes it. Plants have only been in since 21/02/2013.

Still wanna get some floaters and maybe some more micro sword to help it fill in faster. I'm thinking I'll try and find some Frogbit and then wait and see what does well and replace accordingly.

Also painted/hung the light, ditched the Jagers for a 300w Hydor inline and put in a Koralia Nano 425. Still need a background...

My plan is to seed my 2217 with some media from my 29 gallon and move a Gourami over to help start the cycling process but i want to give the plants a chance to establish first...which leads me to some questions...

Since there wont be any fish for a week or two should i add some root tabs and start fertilizing the water right away?

I'm only running the light from 12pm-6pm for now, should i change that at all?

[shambhalove.]

Added some Frogbit but it was like a plant tornado lol...
So i improvised a "trap" with 2 airline holders and some fishing line

Also got some MTS.

[shambhalove.]

So its been a while and quite a bit has happened

First off, changed out the micro sword for some dwarf sag and picked up a few others. Mostly everything has taken off and has been trimmed already a few times and replanted or put in another tank. Seems like my wisteria likes to grow sideways though

I also got a new stand, the other bare metal one was ugly and unstable.

Things are going pretty well now after everything got over the shock/abuse from draining the tank completely and moving it onto the other stand. Before that i was trying to keep the water changes to a minimum, at least until any critters were in.

Now the tank has more than snails! So far, a gourami from another tank, some amanos and cherries, 2 zerba nerites, 5 horned nerites, and from what i can see ramshorns, bladders and mts are doing great.

And algae, of course. Seems like the big water change and move threw the plants off for a couple weeks. Nothing too crazy though, some stringy/hair type stuff that i have removed (only once) with a toothbrush and some newer green patches growing on rocks (2nd last pic). Both seem pretty slow growing for now so ive let the frogbit fill in more and raised the light a tad, i also started dosing lightly.

Some pics