[Angella]

Hello!
I was redoing my 55gal.... looking for LED lights on craigslist and ended up buying an entire 150gallon aquarium!

I have lots of driftwood and gravel, there is 14kg of flourite mixed in (bought this weekend), too. Gravel is 3-5 in deep, depending on where you look.
I want to do a pretty low tech planted. I have seachem flourish for weekly dosing, I want to have vals and maybe some other rooted plants, so I have seachem flourish root tabs that I have not put in yet.
I do not want to do CO2....
Need help with picking filter and also lights!!
I'll have my fish and plants I want below the specifications of the current set up.

SPECS
72 x 18 x 28 dimensions, standard 150 Gal

Beamswork EA Timer 6500K 0.50W LED Aquarium Light Freshwater Plant
Two of these guys came with the tank, 36". Definitely need to get more supplemental light, OR should I replace both of these entirely? They get oddly warm when running, didn't think LEDs did this...
Lights sit on a glass sheet on the top of the tank. (pics next post)
SHOULD I BUY 2x THESE?
Should I add those to the current set up or replace the others with these... and another light?

Heater, tank is constant 78-79 degrees.

Filtration is a Fluval FX5. Filled with foam and filter stuff and the biomedia.
Is this too much? Plans below.... I want to have neons and shrimp and I'm slightly worried that they'll get sucked up!

I also have a Cascade 1500 that I plan to keep as a back up in case anything ever happens to the Fluval FX5. I could also run them together?

STOCKING
Currently...
2 albino cory
2 emerald green cory
3 peppered cory
15 harlequin rasbora
1 ghost glass catfish

The first additions once everyone gets settled in from the move from the 55g will be 6 more corys, so 5 peppered and 4 albino and 4 emeralds after the new additions.

My roommate put her ghost cat in my tank two weeks ago and I haven't been able to get more yet! I plan to have 10 glass cats, but I want to wait about three weeks to add the others (as soon as they are available, too), so the tank is more stable.

Current final stocking plans:
5 peppered cory
4 albino cory
4 emerald cory
30 harlequin rasbora
30-40 neon tetra
6 pairs of angel fish.... (opinions on variety??? :grin2: I was thinking 3 types, 2 of each color)
4 Kuhli Loaches (if they are ok with my pH and normal gravel substrate.... I also have two lava rock pieces... cuts???)
SHRIMP - I want to get 1-2 varieties of shrimp, will see which ones my water parameters fit best!

Any other ideas???


I would really like some pretty lush and relatively dense vegetation.... Even if it is mostly low light plants!
Currently have a few vals from my 55 gal... it was a FOREST two years ago but now there is only 7 plants left.

I have a giant anubias and two smaller ones.
One java fern (Need to get it to make babies!!!)
Some moss ball moss (6 years old).

I have hornwort, two dwarf lilly bulbs, and 4 jungle vals coming on thursday.
I ordered this weird seed stuff and want to plant it too....
weird plant seed stuff
Has anyone ever used this????

I want to get a lot of moss, might be buying some flame moss from another user soon.




I greatly appreciate any help, WILL POST WATER PARAMETERS by the weekend!
I think I covered all the other bases, my biggest concern right now is getting the right lighting! If I could get some medium light plants it would be amazing. Was thinking about getting some floating plants and then just doing the low light plants but I don't know yet!
Going to move the driftwood around soon, I have 3 XL, 3 L and several medium pieces.

Any advice about plants or fish welcome. I've never had anywhere near this much to work with and I really have no idea what opportunities there is out there!

SOOOOO excited! :grin2:

 

[MasterofCloak]

150 Gal planted community tank 😀

Get the DA Fspec. I bought them and I'm very pleased with what they are for the price.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Angella]

Get the DA Fspec. I bought them and I'm very pleased with what they are for the price.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

As I'm reading this I have 4 of these in my cart. Came to the same conclusion when I was looking them up! Thank you.

 

[geektom]

Be cautious using those seeds- they are never what they are advertised as being. I am cautiously experimenting with some in a 1.7g tank on my desk- but from everything I have seen, I am due for a massive melt and/or change into a voracious weed any day now.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[geektom]

Desktop Shrimp Tank https://r.tapa.../forums/showthread.php?t=1183633&share_type=t


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Angella]

Be cautious using those seeds- they are never what they are advertised as being. I am cautiously experimenting with some in a 1.7g tank on my desk- but from everything I have seen, I am due for a massive melt and/or change into a voracious weed any day now.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I can't open the link in your post... but thank goodness you warned me. I have a small 5gal that I could put a light over and grow half of what I get... I guess I truly don't know what it is so I will be careful with it.

 

[geektom]

The link is for my post about my experience, and includes links to others. Look for "Desktop Shrimp Tank" in the journals here.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[The Dude1]

Angels will eat the shrimp. If its heavily planted and you get a huge colony going beforehand it may work, but you'll still lose a lot. Ive got an FSPEC and a DA on my 150. Its perfect.

 

[Angella]

Angels will eat the shrimp. If its heavily planted and you get a huge colony going beforehand it may work, but you'll still lose a lot. Ive got an FSPEC and a DA on my 150. Its perfect.

Ah well I may change my stocking then... was hoping to get shrimp first, get them stable and breeding, and then get the small angel fish... I'll have to look into that. Thanks! Can't wait for mine to come.

The link is for my post about my experience, and includes links to others. Look for "Desktop Shrimp Tank" in the journals here.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I found some threads, I think one was yours, and now I am even more excited and a bit more wary haha. Thanks.


UPDATE
Monday: Fluval Fiasco
Tuesday: Water Change
Wednesday: Bliss

So Sunday night after setting the tank up I hooked up my little Sunsun that's good for tanks up to 75gal since it is from a mature aquarium. I thought the fluval would be full of great bacteria so why not set it up too?

I let it run and it cleared everything up but Monday night all 16 of my rasboras were glued to the surface for the 4 hours after I got home from work at 7pm. Watched them do this for 4 hours and dosed with prime because I thought it might be ammonia or nitrites. No one died and they looked pretty normal the next day. Got water tested and it was good, but nitrates were 80 and my fish were used to under 30 I believe.
Changed water and now have the Cascade 1500 running (after cleaning the gunk out in water treated with prime).
Everyone is ok!


tldr; Set up used Fluval Sunday. A poop cloud came out since I didn't clean it first. Thought everyone was going to die Monday, took off Fluval and set up cleaned (in dechlorinated water) cascade, did 50% water change. 0 Deaths.

I snapped these pictures this morning before going to work.

I have 4 Beamswork DA FSPEC 30" lights on the way from Amazon.com right now.
Considering sending 2 back and getting the 72" DA 6500k Beamswork, to go across the back and have two FSPEC in the front? I don't know if the FSPEC will be too much light, or too little at this point... still researching. It is 38" deep sooooo? I don't understand why but I think the 6500K one is more geared toward plants. Thought they would benefit from the red in the FSPEC???

I have center filter pads and some ceramic rings coming for the fluval and can't wait to hook it back up. It has a ton of Purigen in the center of it right now (unless there is a look alike out there?) and I may bleach some and use it but I don't understand how it isn't bad that it soaks up the ammonia and stuff, as well as nitrate? Once the bacteria are solid the ammonia won't be a problem, and I thought plants needed nitrate.
Maybe it will be good for shrimp in the future though, I think they need low low nitrates...?
Also got some Excel on the way I'll have to be careful with because of my Vals.

Thanks for reading, and especially thank you for any experience and advice!

PS. I take it back. The media that I thought was purigen isn't "black" so it must be something else.
To buy a liter of purigen or not to buy?!?!

I have prime, so free returns.

 

[viwwo]

I will follow this!!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[The Dude1]

Your scape already looks really good. You would be very happy with an FSPEC and DHL combo. The DHL is a little too yellow and the FSPEC is a little too blue... together they look perfect.

 

[Angella]

Your scape already looks really good. You would be very happy with an FSPEC and DHL combo. The DHL is a little too yellow and the FSPEC is a little too blue... together they look perfect.

Awww thank you so much! I'm about to post pictures after today's activities, and an update. I received the 4 FSPEC today and they are HELLA bright. Wow. I hope it doesn't freak the living daylights out of my fish? The ghost glass cat is still in there strong but he was certainly not coming out today with those suns on there. I can return two FSPEC and get a long DHL... I'm curious how the DHL will be if I had it in the front, if it would bring out my fish and plant colors well, since that would affect what we see when we look in the tank?

My tank came with two 36" Beamswork light fixtures that look EXACTLY like this DHL... but I think they could be other models, too?
I looked everywhere and can't find more info. They have metal/wire legs. Any way to find out what they are? I could just take down the two FSPEC in the front and see how it looks with these in the front instead.

Thank you!

 

[Angella]

- Ok so yesterday I got water tested again after fish settling in and doing a 50% water change (because nitrate 80ppm), ammonia and nitrite were 0 and nitrate was 15-20 it appeared. Great! I also brought home some more Corys. Numbers are now 8 peppered cory, 7 albino cory, 4 bronze cory (or a variety that looks like that) including my friends matriarch bronze cory that she put in my tank.
Ghost Glass cat is still alive. Hoping to get him some friends in the next two weeks.

I also got a dwarf lily bulb, hornwort, and one jungle val. (I don't know what vals I had but now I realize they were different *shrugs*. My 7-8 are still in here and planted with the jungle one).


TODAY

- I got my 5 30" Beamswork DA FSPEC lights. Wow. They are bright. Pic is with them on. I hope the frogbit grows like crazy so that the fish that like dimmer water won't loose their minds. From above I may switch the two on the front to the DHL type ones that I'm not sure of the specific model for a more natural look. I think they are 6500k, whatever they are.

- I got a plant package from Aquatic Arts. 2 anubias nana, 2 java fern, a bunch of moneywort (bottom right corner) 7 marimo moss balls and a lot of java moss (reason I bought it).
The Java moss is all attached to three pieces of driftwood on the left side of the tank with fishing line, hopefully it will get attached and in a month I can remove the line... and add RCS or ghost shrimp I may not get angels because I really want to have shrimp. And neons.

- Ghost Glass catfish is still alive, doesn't come out during daylight except *occasionally* when I feed, he senses it.

-Hooked up the fluval with the new media I ordered on amazon, it's doing great. Sunsun is still running since it's very well established and I want to have it going for two more weeks at least before I remove it and just have the fluval. I had to clean the impeller and WOW I don't know if it had been cleaned in all 6 years it was so dirty.


I want to raise live Daphnia and feed them twice a week, but I've heard they are really high fiber, so I don't know if this would be good or if it would be too much?

 

[Angella]

Here's a picture with two beamswork FSPEC in the back, and the "mystery" blue and white 6500k led in the front.
But it's only in the front on the right side, before I added it on the front left my harlequins started spawning.
It's morning, so that's why there's reflection on the glass.

But anyway three harlequin pairs were embracing and laying/fertilizing eggs upside down under the giant anubias leaves, and on one of the new nanas on the left side of the tank!!! I love these little guys, and I guess the tank water must suit them, too.

On right behind the giant anubias where the large clump of java moss is where the Fluval output is, I think they really like the current because last night they would hardly leave that area, after I set it up. They would just swim right into it.
So now I am thinking maybe I should have another filter on the other side, too.

 

[The Dude1]

Do you know what species of anubias the tall ones are?? Your tank looks awesome.

 

[Angella]

Do you know what species of anubias the tall ones are?? Your tank looks awesome.

It's a trooper. It was actually one plant a long time ago and the rhizome has been growing out, it had leaves coming from both ends and it broke in half when I was trimming the dead leaves off after the move to the 150gal!
I honestly have no idea... I bought it off ebay when I was a 13 or something and it was supposed to be a brilliant red plant of some kind, I thought after a few months it would turn red but it never did. A few years later I realized it was an "anubias"...

And thank you so much I love all the driftwood and can't wait for the plants to grow more.
I got 8 amano shrimp friday and I just counted them today, everyone is still alive and looks good.

I'll probably get 15 more harlequin rasboras next week.

 

[geektom]

I think it is anubias hastafolia, but I could be wrong


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Angella]

Update:
Everyone is doing great. No deaths so far, and I count everyone pretty frequently

I have decided to make the temperature 75-76 after reading more... no idea why I thought they needed 78-82, but I realized 78 was the high end for all my fish. Today the temp has been 77, and I'll lower the heater a bit more in the morning.

So Friday (5 days ago) I went ahead and got 8 amano shrimp from petco, and they checked my water pH and nitrates and my pH was 7.6 (what it had been reading at my LFS too) and nitrates were 20ppm. Great.

Yesterday I checked all the amanos, and was able to find them all when I counted fish!

Today I did a small water change and vacummed some gravel since I read that was nice for Cory's and that dirty gravel could hurt their barbels. Then a few hours later I went to my LFS and got my nitrate, phosphate, and pH tested again.
Nitrate 20ppm... nothing to see here... Phosphates were 1.5ppm which the employee said was high but I don't know I think 0 is too low considering I have plants?.
pH was 6.6!!! Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!! So it dropped from 7.6 to 6.6 in 5 days!!!!
Everyone is fine and their color looks great... even the ghost glass cat is alive and seemed well.

I'm assuming the change was gradual from the driftwood leeching? Though it had been heavily used so I didn't think it would buffer very much.
I hope it's relatively stable and doesn't continue to drop lower...

Current Stocking Plans
8 Amano Shrimp (two of them at least have molted since Friday!)
30 Harlequin Rasbora
7 albino, 8 peppered, and 4 bronze cory
40 neon tetra
12 Celestial pearl danio
12 Cherry Red Shrimp
36 Ghost shrimp
6 Honey Gourami

Maybe 8 Glass catfish
I hardly ever see the glass cat in there, and don't have a quarantine tank... I hear they frequently carry parasites? I don't know what I'll do with the one that's in there... I think if there was 8 they might come out more, but I am not sure if it would really happen...

Pics were all taken today, sorry though sun was up, hard to avoid the glare.

Two cute little amanos near the moss balls

Here is a molt

View from the right side, you can also see the one disfigured Harlequin that came in my last batch two weeks ago. It's tail is stuck closed, poor little guy. I was going to return him but he's been getting along fine and I worry it would be a death sentence, so here he is.

 

[finfan]

Nice tank. You had angels in your stocking plan earlier, what happened?

 

[The Dude1]

I think it is anubias hastafolia, but I could be wrong


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I thought it looked like hastifolia as well, but Ive been reading that it isn't truly aquatic and eventually dies and rots under fully submerged conditions. I've got a large anubias that is doing well, but I don't know what it is. I need to get several more, but I want to order the larger ones. The arrangement in your tank looks amazing. I personally wouldn't trust others to test my water... I've heard some crazy things come out of people's uneducated interpretations... and I'm somewhat color blind... so there are those factors to consider.

Bump:

Nice tank. You had angels in your stocking plan earlier, what happened?

I think shrimp trumped the angels... at least for now. It's pretty awesome to have a sizable shrimp colony in a tank for any number of reasons.