84 Gallon Fluval Osaka - (Set up and Planted 7.25.09!!)

[rhytemaker]

Ok, been waiting for ther driftwood to sink and we are finally there. I also hooked up 80 lbs of black eco complete substrate. I am thinking the tank changover will go down this Saturday.
The only problem I have run into is the driftwood had grown a white filmy moldy looking grossness. I had it prepping in the tank with a Korillia and a Fluval 404 running with carbon and foam only (no bio yet). I was changing the water 100% every 3-4 days. I plan on taking the wood out and scrubbing it before I put it back in with the substrate, but was wondering if I should do anything else to it before it goes in the tank? Should I even be worried about the white stuff messing up the new tank?

[malaybiswas]

That white goop will go away after some time. If you keep SAE/pleco, they'll clean up too.


I am going to get some rocks today for my tank. Looking at your dw, I am greedy (chuckle) now to get some dw as well.

[Digsy]

Nice looking driftwood. I'm looking forward to seeing the tank filled!

[rhytemaker]

So yesterday was the big day and I spent over 12 hours getting this set up. This will be a long entry with lots of pics.

I had to drain the 85, 40 and 20 gallons so I could move them all. I figured I could do a water change on the 40 and move that to the wall by the door while the water was out for the change. Worked pretty well. Here is a pic of before and after the physical move. I grew out all the plants in the 40 getting ready for this move. Check out my pennywort forest. looks cool when the water is down.
before move

pennywort forrest

after move
I set up the 40 to keep livestock alive while the 80 cycles. Then its comming down completly and I will start another journal when I upgrade my 75g bichir tank with the light/filter from the 40. That will be a sweet project too.


I managed to get the lights all worked out on timers. I have all three tanks on the same light schedule (12pm-9pm), and the 80 gallon gets a 54w t5 kicker from 2-5pm. The lighting worked out easier than I thought.

all lit up. small t5 on the 20g and 2x54w T5HO with 1x54W T5 noontime burst on the 80. (its technically 84 gallons but 80 is easier)

here is the 40g running as well.


next step was add the substrate. 8 bags eco complete black.


I piled all the substrate in the back and sloped it down to the front. The local tapwater is about 7.0, so i mixed in 30 gallons of RO water. The PH is around 6.8. Once the water was in I moved the co2 over to the 80g, currently around 4bps. I put the diffuser under the korillia and the stream of bubbles gets blown everywhere and the ones thet miss get spread by the fluval return. Here it is filled up with the driftwood before the water cleared up.





It took the eco complete, with the fluval 404 and a small korillia about 3 hours to clear the water. Next step was to start picking plants. Luckily I have a good farm system. Here is the source.

Sad to see this tank go. It taught me well. We went to battle quite a few times together. From the fluval hose spraying all over the room, to the great BGA breakout of 08...it has been an adventure but the results are now showing I think.

Here is the 40 after the tall plants got raided.



I pulled some fissidens moss out and used fishing line to tie it to the end of some driftwood branches.



Ok ready to see the start of the scaping? I know your anxious so here you go. Left side I am going with anubis, crypts, pennywort and amazon sword.

right side has ludwidgia repens, camboba, and some sunset hygro behind the amazon sword.


here is the fissidens branch. its going to be sticking up out of the hairgrass field.


The next few track the progress as I add more plants to the mix. Starting to,take great shape I think. I added java lace fern in the midground between the grass field and the tall stem plants on the back right.





Its getting pretty late and at the point of this next pic I had been at this nearly 14 hours. time to shut it down. My feet and back were killing me, but its so worth it to be able to see this before bed. Too bad the 40 is comming down. What a cool wall.


So this morning I finished up planting the grass, breaking up my crypt and making sure the light cycles are all good. There is nothing left I want to take from the 40 so I think I am done with this for now. The water tested well this AM with trace amounts of amonia and no nitrites. I added a bunch of ramshorns to get started on the nitrates, but the ph and temp look good.

Here are some pics of the finished scape...for now. What do you think? I will do a better job of hiding the heater later, but the cord doesnt reach for now.








Whole tank. Official start date 7/25/09

[fastfreddie]

Wow! You did an awesome job. I can't believe you had enough plants packed in that 40 to make such a great start on the 80. It already looks great! I love the selection of plants too..... especially the Java Fern Lace in the front (did you purchase all of the plants in the Swap n Shop?)

I'll definitely be following this one!! Your wife might not end up mad after all, as I speculated after your purchase, because it looks great! Is the flat screen mounted yet?

[rhytemaker]

Originally Posted by fastfreddie

Wow! You did an awesome job. I can't believe you had enough plants packed in that 40 to make such a great start on the 80. It already looks great! I love the selection of plants too..... especially the Java Fern Lace in the front (did you purchase all of the plants in the Swap n Shop?)

I'll definitely be following this one!! Your wife might not end up mad after all, as I speculated after your purchase, because it looks great! Is the flat screen mounted yet?

Thanks man. Much Appreciated. no flat screen yet, lol. I still need to keep the 40 up and running for livestock untill the 80 is cycled. once the 40g comes down, the 46in comes home. I was thinking of switching fluvals for a day and getting a kickstart. I just dont want the old filter to vomit all over the new tank (stirs up crap when moving it)so I think I will just let it go natural.

The only plants I got on s&s were the fissidens and sunset hygro. The rest came from LFS and friends tanks. I had tons of the lace fern left over so I have some for sale right now in S&S if you want any.

I was pretty happy with the amount of plants I had in the 40 too. The hairgrass especially. It was packed really thick. Thats what took the longest to plant. What a pain. I think I need some color (ludwidgia glandulousa maybe?) between the camboba and the hairgrass. I just had trouble keeping it alive before.

[rhytemaker]

Bonus! I found cherry barb fry in the 40g after taking most of the plants out. Cool. I had no idea!

[monkeyruler90]

wow, the tank looks great!! if i were you id just keep the 40g running and hang the 46incher on top of it

once that lawn fills in it'll look great. and x2 on that java. ive never seen it, looks very similar to windelov but finner.

[rhytemaker]

Originally Posted by monkeyruler90

wow, the tank looks great!! if i were you id just keep the 40g running and hang the 46incher on top of it

once that lawn fills in it'll look great. and x2 on that java. ive never seen it, looks very similar to windelov but finner.

thanks for the compliment! Its hard to take that 40 down for sure, I kind of want to make it a shrimp tank but I have a 75, 85 and a 20 going without it. I dont want 4 tanks worth of maintenance...and the new 46 inch TV needs to go in the living room. The man cave is getting the old TV where the 40g is sitting now.

The java lace fern is a really cool plant. It actually propagates in 2 ways. I started out with 2 rhizomes with 4 leaves on each about 3 inches long. Leaves grow on the rhizome just like an annubis, but once the leaves get older, they start to get a little black stripe down the middle and the leaves split. Then they grow little brown hairs from the leaves at the point of the split. At first I thought it was some type of algae, but turns out its new roots for new rhizomes that start on the leaves themselves. Its hard to describe unless you see it happen, but when it bloomed that way I got tons of plantletts. I might be able to find a piece later that is starting to drop the hairs and will post a pic of that too.

[rhytemaker]

added some fish yesterday. everybody looks good this morning so I am thinking today will be move the livestock day.

I have run into a problem with surface movement. The co2 bubbles are not breaking the surface. Its like there is a thin layer of something trapping them in. You can literally see hundreds of little bubbles moving along just under the surface. I turned on the airstone and it cleared up in a few minutes. I dont want to run the airstone 24/7 tho so I may have to adjust the fluval return hose to disturb the surface some more.

I also noticed some hair algae starting....Dosed big with excell and adding SAE's today. LFS near me just got a ton of Ottos and SAE's. I am going to pick up like 10 more ottos and 2 more SAE's today.

[skratikans]

what is the plant in the middle of the third pic called?
Beautiful tanks. btw!

[rhytemaker]

Originally Posted by skratikans

what is the plant in the middle of the third pic called?
Beautiful tanks. btw!

Thank you! Is this the one?



It is a ridiculiously thick bush of java lace fern.

[rhytemaker]

Here is an update on the tank.
Livestock
16 neon tetras
2 SAE's
4 male and 5 female fancy guppies
3 cherry barb fry
3 Ottos
9 Amano Srimp
4 Adult RCS - 20 baby RCS
Red Ramshorn Snails

I moved the heater out of sight and replaced all the clear tubing inside the tank with black. This is how its grown in so far. (slight trim today)
Full view

right side tall view

right center

left side


this is a shot of the tank from the left side long view.


with the 40g taken down, the old tv went in its place.

and the new TV went on the dresser the 40g was sitting on.


I also moved the fluval and the light from the 40g to my 75g bichir tank, along with a ton of java lace fern and the driftwood.







Major work is done and now i am enjoying the fruits of the labor very much..will be even more when football season rolls around.

[CL]

Wow! That bicher tank is freakin' sweet! Those fish are sooo cool. The windelov looks incredible in there on the lace rock. What kinda cat is that peeking out from the cave, bottom left, 8th & 9th pic.

[rhytemaker]

Originally Posted by clwatkins10

Wow! That bicher tank is freakin' sweet! Those fish are sooo cool. The windelov looks incredible in there on the lace rock. What kinda cat is that peeking out from the cave, bottom left, 8th & 9th pic.

Thanks! The poly's are some of my favorite fish. They remind me of water dragons. I am looking at adding a big endlicheri (sp?) to the collection soon. They have great personalities and they way they move around the tank is so much more relaxing than jerky ciclids. Plus they are awesome hunters. I threw 20 large goldfish in there last night and all gone this AM.
I went with the windolev, lava moss and annubis because this is low tech, no CO2 and I dont dose anything but excell on this one. I may start EI if I start to see problems, but I dont want to have excess ferts with no CO2, especially right by the window.
I dont even remember the type of cat he is anymore, but ill try to post a better pic of him later. I have had him for nearly 6 years now. Hes actually the only original inhabitant of that tank. The evolution included mixed ciclids, convict breeder tank, then green terror breeder, and slowly became a poly tank. There is also a 8-9 inch Marble Goby in that tank, another really cool fish.