Vanish's 150G Tall DIY Underwater Island

vanish · Nov 3, 2014

Current FTS

Original Post

Let's just say, I started with this SEVEN months ago...

Tank Build Thread: http://diyfishkeepers.com/forum/showthread.php?12076 ( I apologize if moderators don't like me linking offsite, but I don't want to force everyone to read the build for this tank. There are dozens of photos of the process. )

Stocking Planning: http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=701545
Aquascape Planning: http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=701561
Lighting Planning: http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=677209

I'm really beat from planting this beast this past weekend. I mean physically tired. I had to use a step ladder. Using a lot of java fern and anubias was a good idea as I didn't have to get them into the substrate. Everything looks a bit messy while the roots re-establish.

I'll go into much more detail later.

Fauna

None Yet, still showing a little ammonia, but the cycle is going because I have nitrates. I'd been running the media for the sump in its own container.

Flora

Giant Vallisneria
Java Fern
Narrow Leaf Java Fern
Windelov Java Fern
Needle Leaf Java Fern
Anubias Nana 'Petite'
Crypt Wendtii 'Bronze'
Water Wisteria
Sunset Hygro
Unknown Hygrophillia ( Bonus plant

)
Marisela Minuta

( All these plants were sourced from 1.) Forums Members 2.) My 75G and 3.) A guy around the corner )

Equipment

55G Custom Sump
Laguna Max Flo 2000
Main Lights - Track Lighting with 4 (can go more) 13x2 Watt Par38 Bulbs
Accent/Night Lights - DIY 4 foot LED Tape Strip Light

Obviously there is still some more work to do. I need to do the finishing for the canopy, but dw said "it needs to get out of the garage... now! I want to park my car in there before it snows!"

Also regretting the decision not to paint the overflow box, which I will probably replace sooner rather than later. Luckily I can still run the tank with it removed. And, of course, put some fish in there! Oh yeah, there's a rock in there you might be able to see holding down the center branch. It had been waterlogged but I guess it dried out too much while waiting for me to set up the tank.

vanish · Nov 4, 2014

Building the stand:

Frame

Floor and White Paint

Skin Test Fit

Staining

First Assembly

Moved inside

Trimmed

pewpewkittah · Nov 4, 2014

REALLY AWESOME! That tank is huge

.

The island really stands out against the white sand, its going to look so good once everything grows out. I really wish I had used white sand for my open area...

vanish · Nov 5, 2014

Thanks pewpew! Yeah, it is really big ... Maybe too big! We'll see how water changes go. I told my wife to not let me set up any more aquariums or I won't be able to keep up with maintenance.

The white sand definitely gives the effect I wanted, but we'll see how long I like it. It does show dirt very easily. I'm hoping the cory cats will keep the surface mixed up.

Considering Malaysian Trumpet Snails, as well. Pond snails breed but don't seem to get out of control in my tanks, maybe hard water eats their shells?

EndlerGame · Nov 6, 2014

That's a really awesome setup. Great job on the build, from fixing the tank to the stand to the scape. I love it all! It will look incredible as the java fern contines to fill in on the branches.

The cories will love that sand, it will keep them up front to be easily viewed. They should do a good job of keeping it stirred up, but Malaysian Trumpets will also help mix the substrate, especially down deeper, too. I'm surprised to hear you're "considering" adding snails to your tank. Every one of my tanks has a thriving population of several kinds of snails with no help from me...I didn't know anyone managed to keep their tanks snail free!!!

Also, water changes shouldn't be too bad. With a 150 gallon tank, a 55 gallon sump, and appropriate stocking, you could get away with doing a large change every other month...I know people with big tanks who only do them quarterly. And if you've got a Python or similar system, you don't have to worry about hailing buckets.

I look forward to seeing this tank as it develops, both plant growth and the addition of fish. If I was stocking this tank, I'd love to see it with about 20 cories of various species(sterbai, trilieanatus or melini), 6 Bristlenose Plecos, 20 Emperor or Congo Tetras, and 6 Pearl Gouramis. This would be just about my dream stocking for a real "show tank".

vanish · Nov 6, 2014

EndlerGame said:
That's a really awesome setup. Great job on the build, from fixing the tank to the stand to the scape. I love it all! It will look incredible as the java fern contines to fill in on the branches.

Thank you so much! It was a much bigger project than I expected at the beginning, and its really coming together. I originally projected having it up by mid-July. HAH! Life said NO.

Its already looking a bit better as the plants straighten out, though I have seen some algae, too. Hoping its just readjustment/was there before I planted ... Yah that's it.

EndlerGame said:
The cories will love that sand, it will keep them up front to be easily viewed. They should do a good job of keeping it stirred up, but Malaysian Trumpets will also help mix the substrate, especially down deeper, too. I'm surprised to hear you're "considering" adding snails to your tank. Every one of my tanks has a thriving population of several kinds of snails with no help from me...I didn't know anyone managed to keep their tanks snail free!!!

I like snails. This tank has pond, ramshorn and one I don't recognize already in it. It looks like a ramshorn that's been rotated and flattened. (research indicates my bigger ones are colombian ramshorns and the smaller are small ranshorns) My other tanks all have snails but they never get out of control. I think my water corrodes their shells eventually.

EndlerGame said:
Also, water changes shouldn't be too bad. With a 150 gallon tank, a 55 gallon sump, and appropriate stocking, you could get away with doing a large change every other month...I know people with big tanks who only do them quarterly. And if you've got a Python or similar system, you don't have to worry about hailing buckets.

Heck, I'd take monthly. On my other tanks I try to do weekly, or even bi-weekly on my planted tank with the Discus, so monthly would be easy!

EndlerGame said:
I look forward to seeing this tank as it develops, both plant growth and the addition of fish. If I was stocking this tank, I'd love to see it with about 20 cories of various species(sterbai, trilieanatus or melini), 6 Bristlenose Plecos, 20 Emperor or Congo Tetras, and 6 Pearl Gouramis. This would be just about my dream stocking for a real "show tank".

I'm going back and forth on the pearl gouarmis. I think the flow may be more than they want. I could reduce it but I like how it currently sweeps the crud back up and into the overflow. I keep changing my mind on how I want to stock this tank.

vanish · Nov 7, 2014

Well, I thought I was done with adding plants to this tank, giving it time to grow in and see how things perform, but a member of the forum is sending me some xmas moss that I plan to tie on some of the cholla.

To top it off, while looking at fish at Petsmart yesterday (I went to buy frozen bloodworms .... left without them >_> ), I looked at their sale section and found this nice 'Anubias afzelii' marked down to $2.50 ... Couldn't leave it there. I also put 5 trilineatus cories into my QT yesterday. Definitely QTing these after AquaAurora's issues recently.

I also got in contact with another forum member and I'm going to give the Malaysian Trumpet Snails a whirl. Hope I don't regret it! I doubt I will as I even like the pond snails and they've never taken over my other tanks.

Picking up a couple of BNs from a local this afternoon. The tank is cycled and the diatoms are coming in hard. Strangely I'm even getting some white growth on the wood even though they already spent a couple months in another tank prepping for this.

AquaAurora · Nov 7, 2014

Your anubias looks healthy at least, no extremely deficient looking leaves, and I see roots, but better safe than sorry! Because man will you be sorry if you loose $100-$400 in anubias for not qting new/suspicious ones ugh x.x speaking of.. another of my new ones fell apart today :c
btw I think you need more java fern variates! ^.~
Only downside to snails and white sand is you're gonna see the poo.. did you see my 20g long after not doing a water change for a few weeks with just snails in? Black substrate was brown x.x but then I do have a [censor] load of snails... I'm tempted to confiscate my husband's dwarf puffers and put them in the 20g for 2 weeks to get fat dumb and happy, but have to wait until my recent qt fish are done and I can take the filters back fr the 20g (currently on 10g).

vanish · Nov 10, 2014

Diatoms kicking in hard! I missed this phase in my last tank for some reason, probably because I ran it for a month before planting.

I have some stock in there, but I won't be getting my BN Plecos until tomorrow or wednesday as I will be getting them from a local, not a fish store.

2 Pictus Catfish (Sad story there, started with 6 in QT, lost 3 to Costia before I could stop it and one to "aggressive exploration" )
9 Trili Corydoras
6 Giant Danios (will be getting more tomorrow or wed, all LFS out of stock)

I really like the Giant Danios. I was skeptical at first recommendation, months ago while planning, but my princess immediately picked them at the store. It helped that they are very affordable. I figured it had to be! They love to school about half the time, and the other half they are zipping around all through the plants. I want to double the school, there is plenty of space for them.

Also browsed the LFS yesterday but I couldn't decide upon anything more.

AquaAurora · Nov 10, 2014

Will you try to have a larger 'centerpiece' fish in this tank like the others (discus and angelfish)? Maybe pearl gourami?

vanish · Nov 10, 2014

Pearl Gourami was my original thought, but I have pretty strong flow in this tank and I don't think they would like that. I'm considering red rainbows, but I haven't found any locally.

vanish · Nov 25, 2014

Still trying to decide on a centerpiece fish.

I added another 6 giant danios and more recently 4 bristlenose plecos (1 albino). Wow, they really did an amazing job on the diatoms. There is still fair amount on the plants, but the hardscape and plumbing is squeaky clean. They are also adorable.

I haven't been able to do a whole lot with this tank in the last week, as we've been preparing for Thanksgiving. I assembled the canopy as people will be sleeping in this room but its been far too cold to stain it. I still need to attach the handles/magnets (the magnets will remove that bar of light at the bottom of the door) and add some trim, but I think its going to look swell.

I took a bunch of photos of the fish this morning, but they all sucked!

AquaAurora · Nov 25, 2014

So many plecos and a light substrate... you're gonna see a lot of poop x.x
I'd offer the suggestion of a larger fish like a datnoid (omg love them!!.. dream to have a tank that could house one someday) but I think full grown even the small specie of datnoid would eat your other fish so that's a no-go

vanish · Jan 16, 2015

Scheduled for a major water change / cleanup this weekend, but since I'm FINALLY working in my office again I thought I would post a pic of "before", from my desk.

I think things are growing...

AquaAurora · Jan 16, 2015

It's definateky a GLOWING tank! *que cathedral chior singing (that aaAAAaaAAaa holy sounding stuff)*

vanish · Jan 29, 2015

Not sure why that photo was so glowy.

We shut down our fry tank a couple of days ago and moved them fry into the bedroom. This entailed moving the residents of the 55 Gallon into other tanks. The Angels are in this tank now and they LOVE all the space. It makes them look small though.

We also found a few hitchhikers while emptying the fry tank, including a cherry shrimp and this fella:

vanish · Jan 29, 2015

Most of the time the fish won't hold still long enough for a photo.

vanish · Mar 5, 2015

I just pulled two lights off the bar, leaving me with only two. I put a bit of diffuser between them and the tank for spread, and while I get a bit more spotlighting than I want, the four lights were just too strong and I've got many different kinds of algae to deal with.

Going on vacation next week and when I come back I might investigate CO2 options, plus setting up the same type of auto-doser I use on my 75G.

AquaAurora · Mar 5, 2015

Wow tank looks awesome!!!

andrewss · Mar 5, 2015

great tank! and nice handwork with the stand and built in wood work

vanish · Mar 19, 2015

I just want to mention that this tank is a pita!

Being so tall and on a tall stand makes it really hard to work in. I use a step ladder when I am doing serious work on it and I can just barely reach the bottom.

I wish the plants looked as good as they do in my 75G but I'm not pumping excel or ferts into this one so I am not surprised. It could really use excel but it would cost a fortune on a tank this big, and CO2 is a large upfront expense at this point.

Thanks! It was a lot of work.

andrewss · Mar 19, 2015

^ Well it looks great and is a project you can be proud of

EmilyKale · Mar 19, 2015

It looks amazing! The angels are very pretty, too.

vanish · Apr 2, 2015

Well, I've had some clown loaches in QT for a couple of weeks. Last night I moved them into tank. Between then and this morning, two of them went adventuring into the sump. :icon_roll I don't know how they managed to do it. They are both still alive. One of them was in the proper isolation chamber, but the other had managed to wiggle through the foam block. I had to pull out almost all the media to get the little bugger out because he kept finding a new place to hide!

This prompted a nearly 100 Gallon water change as it was pretty gnarly in there after moving all the media around. I'm also reconfiguring how the media is placed to once again try to kept fish that make it into the sump within the isolation chamber ( like they what is supposed to happen ).

andrewss said:
^ Well it looks great and is a project you can be proud of

Thanks to you both!

vanish · Apr 17, 2015

We're currently out of town, but I'm thinking about this tank. We put the clown loaches back into QT before we left as they were showing possible signs of ich :/. Here's hoping I don't come back to a whole tank of it! We did several large water changes before we left.

This tank doesn't get as much love as it should because its in my home office, in the back basement corner of our house. I originally built it so I could have fish to watch during the work day, but I don't actually work in my office very often. I work on a laptop and find myself at the dining room counter where I can watch the backyard, or even on the back porch.

We would love to move it upstairs, but there's nowhere for us to put something that heavy in our house, and the basement is completely finished, so there is no way to reinforce anything. Also, someone might die if we tried to move it up the stairs.

------------------------------------------------------

My Laguna Max Flo 2000 GPH, at its current head height, should be pumping around 1400 gallons per hour. That's a fair bit more than your average planted tank. I have a Tee below the pipe to the spray bar with a ball valve on each side. This let's me adjust the amount of flow going into the tank, with the excess going back into the sump. The piping for redirecting into the sump isn't glued because even if it became detached, the water would still go into the sump.

I'm considering adding another Tee and valve after the sump redirect, and splitting off some of that extra flow to a set of aquaponic grow beds on a stand next to the tank. Each growbed will be ~30 Gallons. I'll light the grow beds with another light bar like I built for the tank, as I have all but the power cord already (4 bulbs/fixtures were extra from this build, too much light, and the track I picked up second hand cheap.)

I calculated it out, and each bulb, being on 12 hours a day would cost me ~$12 per year. If I use all 4 bulbs, that would be ~$48/year. Could I grow that amount of herbs, emmersed aquarium plants or houseplants in one year? I think so.

vanish · Jul 13, 2015

No progress on the aquaponics idea. I'm not certain I have the room to run the pipes.

Saturday I went to wipe some algae off the glass, and next thing you know I spent 2 hours swimming in there. Pulled out all the dead leaves and algae covered bits. Cleaned a lot of black beard algae off some of the anubias. Found and attached a couple dozen baby java ferns. I also hooked up a simple dosing system like the one on my 75G. Starting it off with low amounts to see if there is any noticeable effect.

AquaAurora · Jul 13, 2015

Phhhooootooooooos

Mariostg · Jul 13, 2015

+1 photos wanted.

ZeeDeveel · Jul 14, 2015

Are those Celestial Pearl Danios?

vanish · Jul 16, 2015

Watch the video in HD or its hard to see much of anything.

Giant Danios

The Dude · Jul 17, 2015

This is really a beautiful tank. I have both of my 75 gallons so that I can see both from the treadmill. I've gotten significantly leaner since doing this!

AquaAurora · Jul 17, 2015

Wow tank is looking awesome! Love how active it is in there in the video

Vanish's 150G Tall DIY Underwater Island

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