55 Gallon cube

[houstonhobby]

This tank was started on January 1st of this year, then emptied and restarted about the eighth. The first time I used some old sand that had been in my 120 gallon for years (maybe a decade). Seemed like a good idea, except the tank water started out a nice light tan (like tea with cream) and just stayed that way. Here is the tank shortly after I reworked it.

And here it is on the 29th.

I am violating one of the rules here, using algae as a plant. The large green item on the right is a piece of DW covered in algae. This particular algae only seems to attach itself to wood (and the silicon corners of the aquarium) so I don't mind it. No doubt it will someday cover the stump in the back, but I think that might be kind of pretty.

This is a low-light (AH supply 36 watt X 2 CF kit), no CO2, no ferts tank.

[Phoenix-cry]

Wow...this is 55 gallons? Looks so much smaller. What are the dimensions?

I like the algae on the wood!

[houstonhobby]

The base is 24 x 24 but it is not quite a cube. It is around 22 inches tall. I take my sobriquet "Algae Grower" seriously. I actually sort of like algae, as long as it does not attach itself to the leaves of my plants.

[Down_Shift]

WOW amazing depth. Algae looks awesome too (can't believe I just said that lol)

[CL]

Those are awesome dimensions! Where'd ya get it?

[Kayen]

That algae looks amazing.

[Phoenix-cry]

Cool! I love odd sized tanks!

[houstonhobby]

clwatkins10, I bought the tank at Andy's in Houston. Actually that isn't the name of the place but it is an LFS here in Houston and Andy is the name of the guy that owns it. They had it sitting up at the front on special and my wife seemed to want me to buy it. I'm usually pretty easy to convince if the question is "Should we buy a new aquarium?"

[houstonhobby]

Over the weekend I added 9 Emerald Green Corys. This will probably be known as the Cory tank henceforth.

Here is a picture of one of my leopard leaf fish. These guys drive the stocking decisions in this tank to a large extent, since anything small becomes dinner.

One of my Anubias has a flower!

[houstonhobby]

The emerald corys last weekend represented a classic mistake. I should not have bought them. I saw sick fish in the tank and I knew that they had just arrived from the importer. But I wanted them so I went ahead anyway.

Then I dumped (okay acclimated) them straight into the tank, no QT.

They had fin rot really bad. Some of them looked like balls of fuzz two days later. I took out the carbon and Purigen and started dosing with Mardel Trisulfa. I think I still have 4 left. I don't know if these four are going to make it or not.

But I discovered something really interesting. The Purigen really works! Within 24 hours the tank was the color of weak coffee. There is a large piece of driftwood in the tank. I had never noticed any water discoloration. But boy, does that thing color the water! By the time the dosing is done and I am ready put the carbon back I'm not sure I will be able to see into the tank at all.

Thanks,
Rod

[dewalltheway]

I like the depth of that cube. I also made that mistake once but didn't know the fish were sick. Now. I always acclimate new fish in a 10 gal tank for 2 weeks before putting them in the main tank. Hope things go well for you and you don't lose anymore fish.

[mizu-chan]

Originally Posted by houstonhobby

clwatkins10, I bought the tank at Andy's in Houston. Actually that isn't the name of the place but it is an LFS here in Houston and Andy is the name of the guy that owns it. They had it sitting up at the front on special and my wife seemed to want me to buy it. I'm usually pretty easy to convince if the question is "Should we buy a new aquarium?"

I live like 2 minutes away from that LFS. He's a god guy, and the people working there are pleasant too.

I like this tank so far. The algae looks stunning (don't think I'd ever say that!) Can't wait to see this mature.

[houstonhobby]

I should clarify that the sick corys did not come from Andy's. But I am not going to say where I got them because the guy who sold them to me is a good guy and I don't blame him.

[Pinto]

Nice tank.
Algae has an odd texture nonetheless it looks really cool!

[houstonhobby]

A bad situation with the sick cories got suddenly worse on the fifth day of treatment, The two largest leapard leaf fish were dead when I got home from work. I stopped treatment and put purigen and charcoal back into the filter. The water had become the color of old office coffee and I could not even see into the tank to know how many other deaths had occurred.

The next day, the water was clear, but the remaining leapard leaf fish was dead. I moved the two cories who were obviously still sick into a bare 10 gallon tank and continued treatment there. The other inhabitants, three cories, two orange sailfins and an albino pleco, seem to be in reasonable shape. Some of the plants took it on the chin because there was very little available light for 5 days.

I wish I knew what killed the leapard leaf fish. I mean, I know that ultimately they died because of my stupidity, but I don't know if it was toxicity from the trisulfa or a problem with whatever it is that is leaching from the wood. I don't think it was an ammonia spike. I have one of those ammonia alert things in the tank and it never wavered.