[mcfly84]

This will be the first of many to come just wanted to get things rolling with the first post.

30 gal long? lol 36x12x16
2x Hagen aqua clear 20 H.O.B. filters
17lbs flourite
40lbs caribsea peace river gravel
coral life 36" 2x39W T5 HO fixture
giessemann powerchrome aquablue 39W 60/40 6000k/15000k daylight(achieves an 11000k mixed bulb)
giessemann powerchrome aquaflora 39W 6700k growth
Aquatek cool touch solenoid dual Gauge CO2 regulator with 10lb bottle


Intial setup will be complimented with pictures after Christmas.

Wish me luck guys. Time to finally dive back into the hobby.

Initial setup cost including everything listed above $330.00

 

[mcfly84]

56kkkkkk warning

Okay so, here we are time for some photos. Please be kind lol I got a little over zealous with the driftwood and skipped the most important "STEP" curing it prior to placing in the tank. As you'll obviously notice from the photos I made a rookie mistake and worst of all I knew better.

My substrate depth is approx. 3" deep a 17lbs of flourite capped by 40lbs of peace river gravel.

Now one issue I have is; identifying the driftwood my not so LFS guy claims it's mopani but I really don't have a clue. It did end up taking almost six weeks to soak and let it finish leeching particulates into the water(in the tub with a dechlorinator of course).

As you can clearly see I'm lacking my plants. Not to fear tho they're getting ordered tonight. I'll keep updating as I do little by little guys and gals.

 

[karce87]

They do look like mopani. Btw, they look awesome.

 

[mcfly84]

Thanks very much wonder if others think it's mopani. I played around with 4 diff configurations. I'm trying so hard to be patient with it. I like the way I just kind of threw them in there via the last two pics and they look better than when I was actually trying to figure out a layout lol.

 

[Aquaticus]

I like the driftwood. Keeping an eye on this one, since I've got a 30 long in the garage waiting to be set up.

 

[mcfly84]

Hey yeah I'll be sure to keep updating photos and events as they happen.

Well plants are on order and should be here friday.

Last thing left is my CO2 tank. Local welding supply shop does $49 10lbs bottles pre filled then a $9 exchange when you're empty. Sounds like a really good deal to me.

 

[Aquaticus]

Sounds like a good deal to me too. It costs me about 7 bucks to get my 5 lb filled.

 

[mcfly84]

Update

My apologies for the poor photo quality took them with my cell phone and was a lil shaky today as usual lol.

More pics to come once it clears up, stirred up a bunch of brown algae growth while planting and placing my root tabs.

Hope I did okay still a rookie at this. I'll have CO2 up and running next week hopefully.


Also I have no idea how long I should run my lights? I'm running them 10am-8pm so that I can enjoy them in the evening and I'm not sure if that's too long or not long enough. Also I hope that I have enough lighting too.

 

[mcfly84]

update

Okay so after being setup for almost a week I've had a bloom of the so called brown algae. After doing a little reading I'm pretty sure that it's a diatom bloom so today I added a powerhead to increase the flow in the tank. I also scraped as much off the glass as I could and cleaned my filter sponges. I'll be adding my CO2 later this week or early next week.

Some of the plants have rebounded from shipping and already have new growth along with roots. Others seem to be struggling mostly due to the lack of CO2 injection I'm guessing. The HOB filters do however churn up quite a bit of bubbles as they return water back into the tank as the water level drops from evaporation.

 

[mcfly84]

latest pic and update

Here's the latest pic and an update.

Added some livestock sunday
3 chinese algae eaters(will be removed once the algae is under control and will be replaced by a fancy pleaco or otto's)
2 yoyo loaches(they're extremely shy at the moment)

Since adding the algae eaters and cutting my lighting down to 4hrs a day I've gotten the diatom bloom some-what under control for now.
I'll be increasing my lighting an hour a day until I'm back to 10hrs a day.

I've also added a DIY co2 with a diffuser for the time being. I will be upgrading to a canister filter and adding my pressurized CO2 with inline reactor some time this summer.

 

[TonyK]

The tank looks great. Do you plan on adding more fish?

 

[mcfly84]

Yeah I plan on adding some dwarf gouramis and shrimp to the tank.


So a few days after adding the algae eaters, the diatoms are almost completely gone with the exception of some of the fine leafed plants.

The plants have responded really well to the addition of the CO2 and I've gotten a lot of growth. I haven't started using liquid ferts yet but I did use the aquariumplants.com root tabs that they have made.

I also want to note that I have the diffuser in a spot where the return flow from the HOB filter hits the bubbles keeping them in the tank and then being swirled around the tank by the powerhead to aid in disolving the CO2.

 

[walluby]

I think it would look good if the substrate was sloped,
or you had a small hill on one side.

 

[mcfly84]

I think it would look good if the substrate was sloped,
or you had a small hill on one side.

I was thinking the same thing, but I used all of my substrate to get it to the way it is. This is my first go around on my own with a propper light and substrate setup I've got 3 more tanks just sitting around so maybe next time.

Good news and bad news.

I'll start with the bad I lost a couple of plants due to the algae problem and me putting in a power head that was uber strong for this tank. I lost a couple stems of Telanthera Rosefolia, ambulia and rotala. The flow up rooted some and the fish were too harsh on the telanthera breaking two stems in half.

Good news is algae is gone and I do still have a couple of the stems mentioned above making a come back. I've got tons of new growth over this past week or so and all the plants are starting to put off roots and runners.

 

[RobMc]

Awesome 30G, love that size tank - It's the perfect compromise. Also liking that piece of driftwood - will make for an awesome shrimp hide-out.

If you'd like a bit of flow I can recommend the oceanic bio-cube circulation pump. You can grab them off of e-bay for $18-20

I run this off of my main light timer on a 2ndary timer set to "random" half hour - 2 hour intervals. This way the pump is off at night, and during the day it adds some random flow to the tank, giving the fish exercise and stirring up any detritus pockets.

Good luck,
Rob

 

[hisxlency]

Love the plant/wood layout. Well done

 

[mcfly84]

update

Okay it's been a couple weeks with out an update so here I am.

I'm currently fighting off some thread algae going to do the H2O2 treatment when my new carbon shows up and I'm due for a 50% water change as well.

I've since hooked up 2x 2L DIY setups for my CO2 added a solids separator and added my bubble counter.

I've also started liquid dosing as of 4-9-13 using the super concentrate from aquariumplants.com.

I'll also be switching up the filter media to chemipure elite and filter floss in my aquaclear filters.

The anacharis is doing great as expected and the microsword has taken off the DHG has since finished it's dye back and is also spreading.

Getting some pretty leggy growth on the cabomba and Myrio. Hopefully things will brighten up and I'll get strong consistant growth with the ferts.