125 Gal. B-day Present: 10/23 pics (56k)

[@marko@]

for a leafy forground you cant beat the look of glosso, IMO. HM also works in large tanks, since it looks very similar and has the same growth pattern. just a slight bit more yellow in tint.

[AzFishKid]

Originally Posted by yikesjason

The 48" works well for me. I have the high light plants in the center and there is plenty of light for low light on the ends. Most of the time I only run 2 out of 4 bulbs as it is. Still, I would have liked to get a 72" fixture, but there was a very big price difference at the time I bough this one. I had never seen the one you mentioned. How is the quality on that light? Have you seen many reviews on it? The no-name lights on ebay before were not getting very good reviews.
There are quite a few upgrades I would like to do once I can renew my budget for this tank. I have spent $800-$900 already this year getting it started.

There were only a few reviews, but they were all very positive. I'm very satisfied with it, the light is super bright and the plants seem to love it. It has 4 switches as well, with 2 bulbs per switch, so it's nice being able to control the light intensity at certain times of the day.

[Birds'nBunny]

Great journal! I liked reading about the trials and tribulations of the camera, especially when you mentioned the cord getting burnt in the waffle iron : )

Your 125 is beautiful, especially for a semi-newbie tank. That was so ambitious to jump from a 30 gal to a 125! I'm not sure I'd have the guts to do it.

My fiance and I have a very small house, and right now there's nowhere to put a large tank. I've been trying to convince him that we could get rid of the couch, but he has this crazy idea that we need to have a place to sit that's not the floor (yeah, sure... whatever)

Will you be driving down to Salem for the next swap? It's pretty far, but I'm thinking about going. I was in Mexico for vacation during the last swap. I was so sad about missing it, that I seriously considered changing my travel dates.

Keep up the good work, this is a very entertaining thread!

[yikesjason]

Thanks Birds,
I am planning on going to Salem. It is a trip, but I will be nice to go somewhere. With the new baby, we haven't gotten out much lately.

I need to do an update on my journal, but I think I will wait until I get my new camera. But I will say that I got some wild angelfish that I am pretty excited about. I like them a lot more than the golds I have now, even though it is pretty cool to seeing this second generation.

[malaybiswas]

Originally Posted by yikesjason

My first question has to do with the lights.

I did my homework and am confident that I want to get the CA Solar T5. What do you guys think of using a 4' fixture on a 6' tank?

It all depends on the type of plants on the darker sides and how high you put your fixture. If it is 3-5 inches above the tank the sides should get enough light for stem plants to grow but probably not show enough color

[yikesjason]

Originally Posted by malaybiswas

It all depends on the type of plants on the darker sides and how high you put your fixture. If it is 3-5 inches above the tank the sides should get enough light for stem plants to grow but probably not show enough color

Having a 4' light on my 6' tank has worked out just fine. By placing the low light plants at the end, I don't have problems filling the whole tank. The only time I ran into problems was when I had floating plants that blocked out even more light.

[CAM6467]

Great tank man. I really liked reading this thread. It's nice to see that you've gone from a total novice killing fish left and right to this! You've really done well, and I'm definately going to be watching this thread! By the way, you are so very lucky to have a mother in law like that!!!

Thanks for the cool thread,

Charlie

[gdcox76]

Those lights on Ebay are in no shape or form even remotely close to the same as the ones from Catalina. For starters they are not HO (High Output)

[yikesjason]

Originally Posted by CAM6467

Great tank man. I really liked reading this thread. It's nice to see that you've gone from a total novice killing fish left and right to this! You've really done well, and I'm definately going to be watching this thread! By the way, you are so very lucky to have a mother in law like that!!!

Thanks for the cool thread,

Charlie

Thanks Charlie! I am glad you like it. It is amazing how much there is to be learned just by reading on this forum. This is where I have learned most of what I now know about aquariums. But even so, I don't know that much about the science side of aquariums.

I will have some new pictures in about a week when the new camera comes.

[yikesjason]

I have been needing to update this journal the last couple of weeks, but I have been holding out for my new camera. I think these pictures are better than my old ones, but I still need to learn a few things.

FTS


I took out all of the micro sword that was in the front center. I think that makes it look a lot cleaner. The blyxa is spreading and filling in better. Last Saturday we had a local plant swap and bbq. While not as big as some of the first plant swaps were, I was still able to get some nice plants to add to the tank.

Center Detail


I also have some new fish additions. I won $50 from a soda bottle cap about a month ago, so I figured I would just put it all in my tank as new fish. I have been thinking about trying discus, but the cost of getting my tank ready and buying the fish, it would just be too much. So then I started looking at Altums and wild Scalare. They can still be just as expencive as discus. So I get to my LFS and they have wild angels for $4! I bought 10.

Wild Angels


I have asked multiple people at the store if these were wild caught, and if they were, from where. None of them knew where they are from, but they claim they are wild caught. Even if they are F1s or F2s, it is a great deal.

Does anyone have any idea where these might have come from by looking at the pictures?

[hydrophyte]

Your tank is gorgeous. What a wonderful display this must be.

[yikesjason]

I was able to verify with the owner of the LFS were I got the wild angels that they are from Peru. They are called Peruvian Altums a lot even though they are scalare, not altum. But they are still doing great.

Angelfish are Pigs! When I drop a cube of frozen bloodworms or brine shrimp, it is like a classic piranha movie. It is fun to watch. And they see me coming from across the room.

[legomaniac89]

Very nice scape you got there!

[problemman]

love it!!!! love the altums god how i would love to setup a special tank for those!!!

[Coltonorr]

Fantastic!!! Plants look great...
Thats a great piece of driftwood!