LadyKatze's 75 Gallon Journal (56K Warning)

[Ladykatze]

After procrastinating on cleaning out the space for the 75 Gallon Set up I received as a Christmas Gift from my family, I finally “got around to it” on 5 April. So here goes my first attempt at an Aquarium journal. I know that there will be more changes down the line, but this is a start anyway!

Hardware
1-All-Glass 75 Gallon Aquarium
1-Eheim 2215 Canister Filter
1-48” Coralife Freshwater 2x65 W
1-hydor 200 external heater installed inline on filter
2 – 24X18 Versa-top glass covers to minimize evaporation (and keep any athletic fish in the tank!)
All glass Oak color stand for the aquarium
1 - Automatic Fish Feeder (battery operated)
1 25’ python system for water changes.

This Photo is from 5 April, after I got the room cleared out and the Stand and Tank in place. This picture has an Emperor 400 filtration system, and a standard submersible heater, plus the Coralife light fixture. I decided to go with the canister filtration system and inline heater the next day.


Substrate:
3- 25lb bags of Spectra-Stone medium size, neutral color mix, gravel
6 - bags eco complete substrate
I mixed the first 2 bags of eco-complete in with the gravel to create the deeper substrate towards the back and sides, then added the other 4 bags of eco on the top and the rest of the tank. I have one more bag of eco if I need it to build up more around the Cory Cove or wherever.

Décor:
I used a commercial dark blue background on the back of the tank, since I didn’t have the energy to paint it.

Large piece of slate mounted Driftwood


Large piece of Quartz


I plan to add Florite black sand to the low spot/Cory cove just to the left of the center front, and a few largish pebbles around it, but that just hasn’t happened yet. So far that is where the majority of the uneaten food ends up (according to plan), which makes it easy to siphon out.


Low light plants (If I have identified any of them incorrectly, or not identified them, please let me know what the plants really are, Thanks!)
2 crypts


several ferns (2 different kinds) on driftwood
bolbitis heudelotii




2 Large Aponogeton in rear left & right corners


The ones on the right are already flowering!


Several stands of luwidgia sp palustris



5 Bunches of rotala sp rotundifolia along the back


2 Pygmy Chain Sword (?) in front of rock


3 more Pygmy Chain Sword (echinodorus tenellus) in front of the driftwood


Fish:
Gouramis
2 Dwarf Powder Blue Gouramis



2 Dwarf Honey Gouramis (moved from the Hex tank)




5 Albino corys



@10 Platys (fry to adult size)


Ferts
On top of the layer of eco/gravel mix I placed Flourish Tabs about 8” apart along the sides and back, concentrating on the deepest parts of the substrate. Then I added the layers of plain eco on top. I have not dosed any additional ferts at this point, but I have Kent freshwater Liquid plant food to add to the water column, probably starting next week. I have a Seachem Plant Pack Enhancer: NPK if I need it. I have no plans to add CO2.

Water Parameters:
I tested Tap water: (cold water from the tap) with no additives other than what the city puts in, for a baseline. Here are the results:

Aquarium Pharmaceutical Freshwater Master Test Kit:
Nitrates: 0 - expected
Nitrites: 0- expected
Ammonia: 0- expected
High Range Ph Test: 7.8


Here are the water parameters on 18 April:
Aquarium Pharmaceutical Freshwater Master Test Kit:
High Range Ph: 7.4
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 1.5
Ammonia: 0.5

I also purchased a Tetratest Laborett so that I can test for GH & KH, as well as the other parameters. Here are those results as of 18 April:
PH: 7.5
Nitrite: 0.3
NH3/NH4 + Ammonia: 0
GH: 4
KH: 14

Here are some additional photos of the evolution so far:
6 April


6 April Left Side:


6 April Right Side:


Then I was out of the picture for 10 days, so we jump to 16 April.
First a full view:


Then the Right Side of the Tank. (I forgot to turn off the flash for a few of these photos, sorry.)


Now the left Side and Middle of the Tank


A view of the Driftwood with the Platys swimming through:


The “Cory Cove” (it’s not finished yet):


And finally what it looked like yesterday.


I’m waiting to see how the Pygmy Chain Sword and grassy stuff in front of the wood fills in before I order any more foreground plants, but I know that I’d like to use Downoi and/or Anubias Nana Petite. I know that I also need some midground plants, but I haven’t really made up my mind on those yet. I’d like to find a moss to put on the top few inches of the driftwood, but all that I can find locally is Java Moss, and I would like to use something a bit different in this tank.

So, any corrections, comments or suggestions?

Thanks for looking!

Cheryl

[theinjected1]

What are the little blue tupperware tops for? Are you planning any CO2?

[fishscale]

You do realize you're doomed right? A little over a year ago, I said, "well, I guess splurging on a canister filter won't hurt..."

I now have 5 fish tanks in my 2 bedroom apartment. Welcome to the hobby, you're addicted for life

[Ladykatze]

Originally Posted by theinjected1

What are the little blue tupperware tops for? Are you planning any CO2?

Sorry, I forgot to explain those. Gouramis and Platys thrive with a certain level of Aquarium Salt added to their water. Corys are sensitive to salt. Each of the 2 small plastic containers holds 7 tablespoons of salt, and the lids have holes punched in them. That way, the salt leaches out into the aquarium very slowly, and I can monitor the corys for distress. If the corys start to look like they are distressed I can pull the salt containers and do a water change before things get too bad. It will take weeks for all the salt in the 2 containers to leach out into the water column, and the corys will have plenty of time to adjust to the changing levels. Meanwhile, the other fish are happy, because the have about 1 tablespoon of salt to each 5 gallons of water being added to the tank.

As for CO2: No. I have no plans to add CO2 to the tank. I travel a lot for work, and that is just one additional headache that I don't need. This is supposed ro be a "low tech, minimal care" tank. CO2 would increase plant growth and health, but there's no way that my husband would keep up with it when I'm out of town for a couple of weeks at a time, not to mention the friend that comes over to feed the critters when we go on vacation! I can deal with the slower growth. That just gives me another excuse to take pictures, so I can see how much things (plants AND fish) have grown amd changed!

[Ladykatze]

Originally Posted by fishscale

You do realize you're doomed right? A little over a year ago, I said, "well, I guess splurging on a canister filter won't hurt..."

I now have 5 fish tanks in my 2 bedroom apartment. Welcome to the hobby, you're addicted for life

I think that with a 75, a 28 Bowfront, a 20L, a 14 hex, and a 10 it's already too late for me. They are all planted to some degree. All low tech, no CO2 for any of them. I have to agree that it's an addicting hobby. This all started with a Betta!

[triple red]

plant id for you
the fern looks like bolbitis heudelotii
your bacopia is luwidgia sp (looks like palustris)
your grass plant is echinodorus tenellus
and your stems look like rotala sp (rotundifolia)

[Ladykatze]

Thank You so much for your assistance in identifying the plants... You would think that I would know what plants I got, right? I probably would have remembered, except that somehow (still a mystery) I had a major allergic reaction to something in the middle of the night on the 6th, and ended up in the hospital for a week with that and a couple of broken ribs, a punctured lung, and to top it all off - pneumonia because I wasn't breathing very well (go figure!) . So, based on trauma and pain drugs, my memory is a little fractured at the moment... It took about 2 days to put this main post together, since I'm not concentrating real well most of the time. (Really good pain meds will do that for you.)

Any assistance with correcting my mis-identifications is a great help! So thank you very much!

Cheryl
(who is doing fine, and healing slowly .)

[A Hill]

Sorry to hear about that fun filled trip to the hospital!

I really like the driftwood but think the quartz is a bit out of place, maybe some more subtle rocks would look better (maybe its just the pictures).

Get well soon, and off those drugs

-Andrew

[triple red]

hope you get well soon

[eyebeatbadgers]

I've kept both Gouramis and Platys without any salt. In fact I've never added salt to any tank with the exception of a hospital tank a few times.

Your plants will appreciate you removing the salt, and your fish will be fine. The level at which you are dosing the salt may or may not be detrimental to the plants, but I'd remove it as one less thing to worry about.

[Ladykatze]

Originally Posted by A Hill

I really like the driftwood but think the quartz is a bit out of place, maybe some more subtle rocks would look better (maybe its just the pictures).
-Andrew

I think that the quartz will be great after I do a couple of things:
1. Add some small white rocks around the finished cory cove, and scattered around the tank so it isn't so "alone".
2. Add some moss to it, to break up the solid, standout white.

I think I'd like to use some Flame moss on the rock, and either Flame or Christmas moss on the wood. At 1.7 wpg and no CO2 these should grow all right, shouldn't they? I have Java Moss in ALL of my other tanks, except the 20L, and it gets looking kind of messy, so I think I'd like to use something more structured in this tank.

Pain drugs may be my new best friends, but I'll be more than happy to kick THEM to the curb, believe me. So I'm trying really hard to get healthy again, but the healing will take time. It's a good thing I have lots of accumulated sick leave at work (about 500 hours), NO WAY could I drive every day. There's a good possiblilty that I will either only go back for half days on the 28th, or take another week or two off after that. My darling husband (who is retired) has decided that even if I only go back for half days, he should maybe take me to work and pick me up at lunch... something about falling asleep watching TV, and my afternoon naps... Oh well, it's not an issue for at least another week anyway.

Cheryl

[Wingsdlc]

I now have 5 fish tanks in my 2 bedroom apartment. Welcome to the hobby, you're addicted for life

Been there and done that. I had 6 tanks in a studio apartment a couple of years ago. Then I moved 12 hours away and down graded to just two tanks and a small pond.

The tank is looking pretty nice. Beware that your Aponogeton will get huge. I had one about out grow a 120G (the 5 footer) when I worked in a LFS. It is a very cool plant but I think it needs a huge tank.

[Ladykatze]

Well, I HAVE been trying to talk my husband into a water feature/ pond in the back yard.... but then the raccoons & o'possums would probably try to eat the fish! On top of the squirrels using it as a bathtub. LOL
I'll just have to try and keep it trimmed back.

Speaking of which, what do I do when the flowers fade? Just cut that stalk back as far as possible? Or what?

Cheryl

[Wingsdlc]

Speaking of which, what do I do when the flowers fade? Just cut that stalk back as far as possible? Or what?

Think thats right. It has been a while since I have had to deal with that...

[eyebeatbadgers]

When you get tired of the flowers, you can just yank them up by the stem, and they should completely remove from the plant. Personally, I remove them as soon as I see them so that the plant can use it's energy on making new leaves, and not wasting it all on trying to reproduce.