Jelisoners 125g journal ...YAY ALGAE update 12-2-08

[jelisoner]

ok after what seems like 5 years (61/2 months) ive finally got my 125 up

I picked up my 125 gallon craigs list gem for $200 after driving a 3 hour round trip (1.5 hrs driving 2 inchs away from the steering wheel since it just barely fit in my trailblazer) i got it home



I hated the color of the tanks rim/stand so i decided to paint it



as far as equipment list it goes:
2 eheim 2217s
1 ehiem 2215
catilina solar 72 inch 6x80 t5ho
1 hydor 300 watt in line heater (i keep my house at 72 to 74 all year round so 1 should do )
13 bags of eco complete
10lb co2 tank
ultimate co2 regulator from green leaf (thanks orlando)
and green leaf drop checker

insteadof running 3 intakes and spray bars i decide to plumb all three into a modified rex grigg reactor and make 1 big spray bar out of black pvc




after many months of remodeling my house (i hate redoing hardwood floors)
i finally got to set my tank up with a catch from my wife .... the 125 can go in the living room if you take down all the other tanks ....sadly i said deal



this thing was filthy from setting for 3 to 4 months untouched but after 3 hours of hard cleaning to get all the dust spiders and hard water from the pervious tank owner off i put down some peat


next picking out the driftwood i wanted to use and putting in 200 lbs out of the 260lbs of eco complete in i wont be able to add the last 60 till i tear down my 29 and transfer all my fish


filler up!


the hard scape is far from final some rock will be coming out some others going in will be adding at least 1 more piece of driftwood extending out father right and some wood is still floating so its not in place i have some plants coming in wed. will be tearing down the 29 tomorrow and setting up all the filters co2 etc etc im dead tired its 5 am night everyone!

[gmccreedy]

The driftwood is awesome! Not sure what your plant list is going to be, but one suggestion before even knowing the plants would be to slide that DW stand about 3-6 inches to the right.

[cah925]

The driftwood is very nice. I also agree with gmccreedy about moving the wood to the right a little bit. I have some wood in a tank that I placed to close to the glass and it is difficult to get plants in and around the wood.

[jelisoner]

so great news and bad news ...i was tearing down the 29 and after acclimating the fish ive found 2 celestial pearl danio fry about 1/8 inch long bad news i didnt know they where in the 29 and probably sucked a bunch up

[manhatton]

I picked up my 125 gallon craigs list gem for $200 after driving a 3 hour round trip (1.5 hrs driving 2 inchs away from the steering wheel since it just barely fit in my trailblazer) i got it home

Hahaha. Good to know in the future I can fit a 125 in my vehicle!!!

[jelisoner]

plumbing didn't work at all the eheims didn't have enough power and it had almost no flow pulling it all apart and just going with 3 intakes and 3 spray bars till i can figure something else out ...more wasted money im going to hear about from the wife

[gmccreedy]

I kind of figured you would get some serious resistance. The three combined into one intake and outflow just seems counterproductive.

You could just sell the filters you have and buy two new (or used) bigger ones instead.

[jelisoner]

after Christmas ill probably buy a fx5 and keep one of the 2217s

[jelisoner]

been about 2 weeks since setup all i can say is ALGAE ALGAE ALGAE rhizoclonium algae everywhere i blame it all on me not having time to set everything up properly right away took me about 5 to 7 days to get everything going as far as timers and my co2 but i spent 2 hours tonight manually removing this stuff turned the co2 up slightly and started dosing excel


im waiting on the last few pieces of driftwood to sink on their own before i scape everything the rhizo algae was so bad on the wood i just pulled it out and cleaned it under the sink
even though there is no scaping and i just have my plants thrown in there everywhere and it looks horrible heres a full tank shot



but i do have some good news! while cleaning all the algae i found eggs only thing i know has spawned is my cpd's so im hoping some make it

edit: looked up all my fish and the only fish i have that lays eggs on the glass are the albino corys



you can see some of the awesome algae in this shot an thats after 2 hours of removal

hopefully next update will be better

[gabriella]

You have a nice piece of driftwood in there! I have a similar tank (125g, 5 ft long) and I'm very curious to see how you're going to rescape yours. I haven't done anything significant to mine yet because I'm still waiting for the driftwood to arrive. Very nice tank, please keep us posted with pictures!

[jelisoner]

update coming soon finally getting it filled better with plants and have the algae under control so ill have pics in a week or 2

[malaybiswas]

beautiful tank. Love the driftwood setup