Hi,
In late 2019 I started getting the itch again, having not owned a tank in about 15 years. My last tank was a 75 gallon heavily planted with CO2 and a sump filter.
I decided to start "small" and picked up a 25 gallon Landen rimless, low iron tank which I documented here. Once it was up and stabile I started yearning for a larger tank for more room for scaping and especially so that I could give some schooling fish more room. I decided that another 75G was a good size so I embarked on the big task of safely moving the 25g tank contents over to the new tank. I decided to run both tanks in parallel so that I would not be forced into a stressful and possibly disastrous “moving day”. It would allow me to fully cycle and dial-in the new tank. My plan was also to only move some of the old plants since my Java ferns had not done too well. I moved a very big sword over and a lot of Buce, Anubias and Crypts. I also bought a lot of other plants so that I could start with a heavy planting.
New Tank: Here are some specs:
- Waterbox rimless low iron 120P/75 gallon. 48”x20”x20”
- Aqua Forest Aquarium Archaea 120P stand.
- @Bettatail custom made CO2 regulator
- Oase Biomaster Thermo 600 filter
- CO2Art inline CO2 Atomizer/Diffusor
- Twinstar 1200SA LED light with dimmer
- Substrate: Fluval Plant and Shrimp Stratum mixed with Seachem Fluorite. Pool sand for front “beach”
- FZONE Aquatic Glass Lily Pipe set with Skimmer
- Jebao DP-3 Programmable Auto Dosing Pump
- Kasa Smart HS103P4 Plugs by TP-Link, Smart Home Wi-Fi Outlet
- Locally sourced stones plus driftwood purchased online.
- Livestock includes: Nerite snails, Bloody Mary Shrimp (Neocaridina davidi, 12 Pygmy Cories, 5 silver tipped Tetras, 3 Otos, and 20 Glowlight Rasboras.
I use the Kasa smart wi-fi outlet with an Amazon Echo Dot to time my CO2 and to turn my pump on and off. With my old tanks I too often would turn off the pump to feed the fish and then just walk away. Also my filter has the heater built in and is on a separate cord. It needs to be turned off whenever the pump goes off. The other reason for the Kasa is that I have on occasion done a water change and forgotten to add Prime. Usually, I remember in time however once with my old 75 I forgot for several hours and had a terrible “Bad Dad” event where fish were lost.
Now I can say “Echo. Turn off pump” and do my water change. When I say “turn on pump” I have Echo programmed to say “Did you remember to add Prime?”.
I also can say “Feed fish” and the pump will turn off for 10 minutes and then back on.
I moved some filter media over to the new tank to help speed up cycling. I also added some bacterial starter, a bit of fish food, and occasional drops of ammonia. Once the chemistry showed that it had cycled I tried moving a few shrimp over. That did not go well. They would race around for a day and then die. Oddly, snails were fine. I eventually did multiple water changes and added both carbon and Purigen to the filter. After a while I was able to keep shrimp and then the big day came and I moved everyone over. So far everyone is thriving. Today I am added 20 Glowlight Rasbora (Trigonostigma hengeli).
I am using an inline diffusor for CO2. I tried a Griggs reactor but it was trapping too much air which caused gurgling, especially when I changed the prefilter in my Oase. Since I clean that weekly, and it takes a day for the air to get expelled from the RG reactor, I went back to the atomizer which is silent and gets the job done. I see no haziness from the microbubbles and I get a Ph drop of about 1.0.
Original 75g tank: ~15+ years ago:
Wet/dry filter with Quiet One pump. Pump output is divided in two to the tank and each then divided in two again to get flow to different areas of the tank.
Substrate: 100% Seachem Fluorite gravel. 3 to 5 inches.
CO2 Added: 10lb tank to bubble counter to diffuser. All bought from Monolith Marine Monsters (great folks). Diffuser in sump with outlet pointed right at inlet of return pump. Diffuser run from split-off of output.
Lighting: AH Lighting PC kits in a wooden hood. 4 x 55w. 2 @ 5300k and 2 @ 6700K
Chemistry: ph ~6.9, kh ~4, gh ~8. Nitrates < 10. Phosphate < .1
Fertilizer: KHCO3, MgSO4, Flourish iron, barley straw extract(Flora APM), and Tropica Master Grow(TMG), Jobe's palm and fern spikes.
Critters: Cories(julii) 7, Rummy Nosed Tetras ~15, SAE 3, Farlowella 1, Red Whiptailed Catfish 1, White Cloud Minnow 7, Rainbow Shrimp ~several, Malaysian Trumpet Snails ~many.
New tank...
