55 gallon Excel tank (NEW UPDATE 8/14/09 WITH PICS)

[hungtran10]

Hello everybody.

I just wanted to take this opportunity to introduce myself and my fish tank. I want to first off thank everybody who participates on this wonderful website. I've learned so much here and I think it has helped me to get off to a good start. I took about a month to read up on planted fish tanks. My research included the following:

1) Ecology of the Planted Aquarium by Diana Walstad. One of my main goals was to try to keep maintenance simple. I also wanted to employ techniques to keep algae problems to a minimum so that I could spent my time enjoying my fish tank instead of fighting with it.

2) Nature Aquarium World vol 2 by Takashi Amano. This was more for inspiration in aquascaping.

3) The Barr Report website. I've decided to follow Tom Barr's Excel dosing method as my technique for carbon supplementation instead of injected co2.

4) This website of course.

I was lucky to find a 55 gallon fish tank and unfinished pine tank stand on Craig's list for $70. Score! I took it home, sanded the stand down and varnished it.

My equipement is as follows:
- Marineland Magnum HOT filter.
- Corallife compact flourescent light 55watts (6700 K) x 2 ( giving me 2 watts per gallon). I specifically wanted to avoid too much light which could potentially add to an algae problem.
- Maxijet 600 pump
- 4 bags of Eco complete for substrate. ( I love this stuff. Very little water cloudiness even with the first filling).

Plants:
- Amulia (Limnophila indica)
- Hornwort Ceratophyllum demersum
- Water Sprite(Ceratopteris thalictroides)
- Wisteria (Hygrophila difformis)
- Telanthera Rosefolia (Alternanthera reineckii)
- Ludwigia, Broad Leaf (Ludwigia repens)
- Vals, Jungle (Vallisneria gigantea)
- Baby Tears (Hemianthus micranthemoides)
- Regina Red (Syngonium podophyllum)

Fish:
- 14 Cardinal Tetras
- 10 Harlequin Rasboras
- 4 Otoclinus
- 2 Angelfish
- 2 Fantail Guppy Males
- 1 Pineapple Lyretail Swordtail Female
- 2 Bolivian Rams
- 1 Betta
- 4 Rummy Nosed Tetra

I dose the following:
- Excel 1/2 cap 3 x per week
- Seachem Flourish 1/2 tsp 1 x per week
- 1/4 tsp KNO3 1 x per week
- 1/16 tsp KH2PO4 1 x per week

Ok enough with the chit chat, here's the pics I promised. Please click on the individual pics for the original full sized pics.

1) Initial set up





2) 1 month of growth later.


3) First trimming and some minor rescaping work.


4)

5) Redfantail Guppy


6) Pineapple Lyretail Guppies (as of this date the male has unfortunately passed away)


7)


8) Soon afterwards, one of my male guppies moved in quickly to "comfort" the grieving widow swordtail. Frisky little fellah.


9 )


10 ) German Blue Ram


11 ) Betta


12) Harlequin Rasboras


13)


14) Zebra Angel Fish


15) Rummy Nosed Tetras


16) Cardinal Tetras


17)


18) Otoclinus hard at work.


19 )


Best regards,

- Hung

[dhgyello04]

no plant exp.... but pic number 9 is a German blue ram not a Bolivian ram

[SpeedEuphoria]

Originally Posted by dhgyello04

no plant exp.... but pic number 9 is a German blue ram not a Bolivian ram

Yep my thoughts also, GBR.


Anyway nice tank, I just setup a 55G low tech that is similar except I'm using some ODNO lighting to get me ~2wpg. I'm following the same dosing except no Excel yet(I just put an order in as I decided to try it).

[Chrisinator]

Great set-up! and awesome pictures but that's a German blue ram not a bolivian ram

[JRB77]

Gorgeous photos! Inhabitants all look healthy & happy. Any plans of adding more plants?
Any problem with fin nipping between these fish?

[Kolkri]

Looks great but you'll need to remove the betta the angel well make short work of his tail in now time. And the don't care for all that current or depth.
Nice looking tank. Thinking I may use excel in my 75 gallon.
Hope you keep us updated on how this works out.

[Aquarist_Fist]

Beautiful fish. Can you recommend a source for pineapple lyretails?

[hungtran10]

Originally Posted by dhgyello04

no plant exp.... but pic number 9 is a German blue ram not a Bolivian ram

Ah! Thanks for the correct ID. Much appreciate.

- Hung

[hungtran10]

Originally Posted by SpeedEuphoria

Yep my thoughts also, GBR.


Anyway nice tank, I just setup a 55G low tech that is similar except I'm using some ODNO lighting to get me ~2wpg. I'm following the same dosing except no Excel yet(I just put an order in as I decided to try it).

Thanks! I'm all new to this so I have nothing to compare it too. So far after 1 month, I have definitely seen significant growth in most of the plants. I think I might have taken a pic before the first trimming. I'll look for it and try to post a shot so that you can tell the difference in growth.

- Hung

[hungtran10]

Originally Posted by Chrisinator

Great set-up! and awesome pictures but that's a German blue ram not a bolivian ram

Thanks Chrisinator. I appreciate the comment and correction.

- Hung

[hungtran10]

Originally Posted by JRB77

Gorgeous photos! Inhabitants all look healthy & happy. Any plans of adding more plants?
Any problem with fin nipping between these fish?

Thanks for the comments. I am definitely adding more plants but in stages. For the first month I wanted to establish some fast growing stemmed plants to help combat any algae. As things stabilize, I will be adding more slow growth foreground plants. I have a shipment of Anubias Nana and Sagitaria Subulatta coming tomorrow I hope.

As far as fin nipping, I have only seen it with my Zebra Angelfish. It happens rarely. He took a bite out of my red fantail guppy and occassionally nips at the Betta. Not often though.

- Hung

[hungtran10]

Originally Posted by Kolkri

Looks great but you'll need to remove the betta the angel well make short work of his tail in now time. And the don't care for all that current or depth.
Nice looking tank. Thinking I may use excel in my 75 gallon.
Hope you keep us updated on how this works out.

Ya I think you are right. My betta seems a bit lost. He tends to hide in the plants and I've seen my Zebra Angelfish nip his tail a few times.
I'll definitely keep updates coming as long as there appears interests. Thanks for the comment and goodluck with your 75 gallon.

- Hung

[hungtran10]

Originally Posted by Aquarist_Fist

Beautiful fish. Can you recommend a source for pineapple lyretails?

Thanks! I got my Pineapple Lyretail Swordtails from Tong's Tropical Fish in Fountain Valley, California. Not sure where else that can be found. This was the first time I've encountered them at a local fish store.

- Hung

[Brette]

Well this is just lovely. You're a great photographer too!

I was thinking about getting a blue ram like yours. Do they move aroun a lot? Or just sit still? They're very pretty.

[hungtran10]

Originally Posted by Brette

Well this is just lovely. You're a great photographer too!

I was thinking about getting a blue ram like yours. Do they move aroun a lot? Or just sit still? They're very pretty.

thanks brette. i appreciate the comment. i have 2 blue german rams. they are active. they tend to scoot around the bottom of tank in and out of the plants. they will hover and extend their fins too. they seem to get along fine with the other fish. no agression that i have seen.

- hung