55 gallon tank: 5-5-07 Update

[raykwonx]

I've been building this tank since about february. It's finally to a point where I can call it "NEAR" complete. My plants need to grow in a bit more before I can truely be happy with it, but I really like where it is now. Here's the progression. I kinda skipped the middle part because I had a few hiccups and didn't document anything that was going on during that time. Anyways, here are the pics.


my stand after buying/assembling it

stand with new tank on it

filling the tank up after washing fluorite gravel for 2 hours

pic to show how cloudy the fluorite made the gravel

pic of tank going through new tank syndrome during the cycling process

[raykwonx]

tank setup shortly after cycling finished

another pic of tank setup after cycling

finished tank

finished tank

finished tank

finished tank

[raykwonx]

Tank specs:
55 gallon 4' long
30 lbs of fluorite gravel
15 lbs of plain black gravel
DIY C02 injector thanks to the forums here :-)
Tetronic 200W heater
Aquaclear 300 power filter
Aquaclear 802 powerhead with attached filter
coming soon: DIY moonlighting

Lighting:
40Watt Aqua-Glo
40Watt Plant-lite (forgot the brand, comes in a green box)
15W Aqua-Glo
15W Plant-lite

Fish:
1 roseline shark (Crossocheilus denisoni)!!
5 bala sharks
3 dwarf gouramis
7 zebra danios
4 otocinclus
1 red tail shark
4 corydorus catfish
1 hifin plecostomus
3 mystery snails

Plants:
amazon sword
red ludwigia
sunset hygrofilia
microsword
anachris
banana plants
water sprite

The few hiccups I had mentioned was a bad outbreak of black hair algae and ick from an unquaranteened fish, but that's all better now. My roseline shark eats up all the black algae now, and ick is long gone. Anyways, thanks for viewing my setup. I'll post more pics once I get my moonlighting set up.

[unirdna]

Originally Posted by raykwonx

Anyways, thanks for viewing my setup. I'll post more pics once I get my moonlighting set up.

No. Thank you for making the effort to share with us . Is that the water sprite floating? It's very pretty.

[Raul-7]

Nice start! Just one suggestion, take off the driftwood on the far right and move the one in the middle in it's place, just to start you off in the right direction with the aquascape . I really like that branchy driftwood, where'd you get it?

[raykwonx]

Is that the water sprite floating? It's very pretty.

Yes it is, I agree. I bought a large bunch of it for $0.99 and spread it out to all 3 of my tanks. It's growing nicely and my gouramis like to hide in it.

Just one suggestion, take off the driftwood on the far right and move the one in the middle in it's place, just to start you off in the right direction with the aquascape . I really like that branchy driftwood, where'd you get it?

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind next time I decide to rearrange. Sounds like a good idea so that it will keep your eye drifting up and right. It'll be a big pain in the ass though, but I probably will do it when I get around to it. The pic on the right is the only fake thing in the whole tank. It's one of those plastic petsmart pieces. I'd take it out but my pleco has taken up residence inside and I can't get him out for the life of me.

I bought the driftwood on ebay actually. I bought 2 pieces for $6 each, the smaller one is in my 20 gallon cichlid tank now which I am also in the process of redoing. I treated them and soaked them for about 2 weeks after which is was still not waterlogged. I read online that sometimes it takes months, even years, to waterlog a piece of wood and I'm not that patient, so I finally just went out and bought some slate for $3 a piece from the hardware store, drilled holes in the slate and screwed the driftwood into place. This was after I tried gluing the wood in place with silicone, which didn't work well at all. This was probably about a total of a 3 week process before I finally stuck it in my tank. It hasn't leached any tannins at all nor affected any of my water measurements. The seller's name was gardenia1650 and here's her online store http://stores.ebay.com/The-Back-Porch-Shoppe

So for about $35 (including purchasing a cheap drill) I got huge awesome driftwood. This probably would have been at least $60 in the LFS who sells small pieces for $20+. It's questionable whether or not the wood will rot after a long period of time, so please don't hold me liable if you try this.

Here's a pic of my 20 gallon, still a work in process.

[raykwonx]

Well it's been a while since I posted any pics. There have been many many changes since the last pics I posted, but unfortunately I did not keep track of what I've done. I kind of gave up on taking pitures because they would never come out right, and always be blurry. I finally got a good digital camera for christmas and I took pics of my tank AFTER I did a major overhaul on my tank. I wish I had pics of what it looked like before so yuou could see the difference, but unfortunately I don't. A while back I bought the book "Nature Aquarium World: Book 3" by Takashi Amano and realized that the key for planted tanks to look good is to plant bunches of one species together in clusters. By clusters I mean many many bunches. When buying plants from the store I would always buy one bunch, but I've realized you need to buy many bunches at once for it to look any good. So I've taken all the plants spread out throughout my tank and bunched them all together. It used to take up my whole tank, now all my plants take up just over half my tank...leaving more room for more plants. This will be an ongoing process for the next few months since I'm a poor college student and beer comes before plants for my aquarium . Anyways, here's my current tank and its inhabitants.

[Clueless]

That's a really nice Denisoni you got there. Why just the one? It'd like some friends ya know

Very good quality one you got there. Intense colors

I could have SWORN I saw a paradise fish of some sort in one of the pics...?

Am I crazy or did you just forget to list it :P

Nice fish. Nice setup. I want wood like that with little "legs" but I can never find any... Btw is that a turtle shell in the middle of the tank? :P

[Jdinh04]

Tank looks nice, possibly a couple more plants.

[teddo10]

Did you realise which size those Bala sharks will get?

(app 1 foot)
Ed

[raykwonx]

"That's a really nice Denisoni you got there. Why just the one? It'd like some friends ya know"

Yes it is, and I do realize he needs friends. If I can find any more in my area that don't cost $60 I will be sure to buy it. I've been looking for months and have only found 2, both costing more than $60. I got lucky and got mine for $20 because it was shipped to a small pet store by mistake and they didn't want to carry it for some reason. I've had him for about 6 months now, he schools with the bala sharks actually.

"I could have SWORN I saw a paradise fish of some sort in one of the pics...?"

you are correct sir. I there are many many things in my tank not on the list, I'll update my list tonight but I'm posting quick before work.

"I want wood like that with little "legs" but I can never find any... Btw is that a turtle shell in the middle of the tank? :P"

I got mine from ebay. It was a pain to mount it on some slate, but it worked fine. I boiled the wood and soaked in a bleach treatment for several weeks before putting it in my tank. It was also a pain. Ys that is a turtle shell. My cories and khuli loaches like to sleep in it at night. It is also acting as a makeshift bell for my DIY C02. If you look at my tank you can see the line running behind my amazons to the shell. I need to figure out a way to hide the line, but I have not yet other than get more plants and wait for my swords to get bigger.

"Tank looks nice, possibly a couple more plants."

Yes, lots more plants. I stated earlier that I will continue to plant the tank for the next few months, but right now I'm broke and I haven't quite decided what plants I want yet.

"Did you realise which size those Bala sharks will get?"

Yes I do. These bala sharks were previously in a 20 gallon tank and they were gettin big so I bought them the 55. I figure I have a few years before they get that big and hopefully I'll be out of my apartment and into a house by then where I can buy them a bigger tank. Hopefully I'll the money for a bigger tank by then too.

[raykwonx]

"I'm a dwarf cichlid addict ... "

You should check out the pics of my German Rams. The link is in my signature.

[raykwonx]

Specs:
55 Gallon
Emperor 400 filter
Aquaclear 300 power filter (for added circulation, I was gettin some dead spots)
2x40 watt fluorescent
2x15 watt fluorescent
110 watts total
Tronic 200 Watt Heater
DIY C02 (with turtle shell bell )
Fluorite Gravel

Supplements:
Seachem- iron, potassium, flourish, trace - twice a week

Flora:
Sunset Hygrophilia
Amazon Swords
Various other swords
Java Moss
Anubias Barteri
Taiwan Nymphoides
Onion Plant
Water Sprite
Java Fern (the kind where the tips get branchy and thin)
Bolbitis
2 unknown plants

Fauna:
5 Bala Sharks
1 Roseline Shark
1 Red Tail Shark
1 Paradise Fish
2 Neon Rainbows (Praecox)
2 Celebes Rainbows
2 Threadfin Rainbows
3 Rainbows (unsure exact species)
2 True Siamensis
3 Aeneus Corydorus
2 Neon (red lazer?) Corydorus
1 Butterfly Loach
2 Kuhli Loaches
1 African Butterfly
4 Otocinclus
1 Clown Pleco
2 Clown Loaches

[Clueless]

YOU PAID SIXTY DOLLARS FOR YOUR DENISONI BARB!

I can get those for $16 Canadian, which comes out to about TEN BUX American. If I buy ten I can get em for six. hehe. There's a guy who breeds them up here.

hehehe

[Ahkuma]

Your red tail shark looks super healthy and has great shape. One of my favorite all time fish.