[madmax666]

Hello Hello
I have a 10 gallon tank that will be moving into a new 55 gallon.
This is the 10 gallon now
This is the plan for the 55 gallon
This is the piece of drift wood that will be taking the space on the left
It is soaking in a 15 gallon hight atm and it takes up the whole tank...

Equipment-
55 gallon tank
Stand
Hydor ETH In-Line Heaters 300 watt
Rena XP3
Tom Aquatic Gardener 27" Long
Current USA Nova Extreme 48" 2x54W T-5 10,000K - Freshwater


Decor-
Driftwood (have and water logged)
River rocks
Seachem Onyx Sand 7 Kg
1xEcco complete (there is already 1 bag in the 10 gallon)
Estes Marine Ultra Reef 4x5lbs


Stock List-
Neons-30
True Rummynose Tetra -15
Oto-12
Pepper Cory Cats-10
German Blue Ram-2
Some kind of show fish. Thinking of some type of apistogramma

I have ordered or have all of the materials and the stand is level and the tank is outside testing for leaks. I orders my stuff off big als online today so i will have it soon and the tank will be cycled SOON too. After that i will need some more plants and the fish. The place i saw to buy fish is Liveaquaria.com and my lfs...is there another good online place that people trust???
Thanks,
Matt

 

[Centromochlus]

Very nice start. Love your layout plans for the 55g!

I've heard some good things about liveaquaria.com, but i've never ordered from them myself.

 

[Ethics]

Nice to see more 55g's in here. Looking forward to see what you do with yours, your 10g looks amazing.

Can't wait for your updates

 

[madmax666]

Well last night i emptied the tank and brought it up earlier today. Put the estes marine ultra reef in the tank and the stone work. But the only things is the big piece of drift wood that has been soaking for a month and a half but it isnt ready yet.
The eco-complete and the oxy sand along with lights r on there way.

 

[Centromochlus]

Very nice.
One thing you can do to speed up the sinking process of the driftwood is to put it in a bucket with a powerhead. The water movement helps it sink faster. You can also put a rock or something on top of it and let it sit at the bottom, that helps a lot too.

 

[madmax666]

THANKS! It is being held under the water by the black trim and bracing on the top of the tank. The HOB filter is also right there so i am hoping that that current will help like you said...i dont have a spare power head or anything...:icon_frowI wish i fit it in a bucket with a power head.

 

[madmax666]

I got my stuff from Big Als in THREE DAYS! I am very impressed with their servise. All of the new subtrate has been in scince 10:20. I did a 20% water change. All of the reading are fine so once the particles settle i will be letting my neons and otos break the tank in for new coming fish. I will helpfully be going to walmart/fish store to get some plexi glass to go on the lid to keep water from evaporating into the new light! I had some help setting up! He made sure no water was under the tank.

 

[Centromochlus]

Adorable cat! :flick:

Did you try pointing the large driftwood the other direction? So it's standing on it's roots.

 

[madmax666]

Today i went to the LFS and go some fish.
Stock List Up to Date-
20 Neon Tetras
6 Rummy Nose Tetra's
10 Oto Cats
2 Red Claw Crabs (brother dropped them in there against my will...i will hopefully removing them once all other fish are in)

I am going to be getting-
4 more Rummy Nose Tetra's
Maybe 5 more Neon Tetra's
10 Pepper Cory Cats
2 Starry Night Pleco

I will add the cichlids after i get all the other fish. I want them to be ajusted to the tank first.
2 German Blue Rams
3 Assorted Apistogramma

 

[Coltonorr]

that is a very, very, very cool piece of driftwood on the left.
I'd put more plants in and around it especially anubias:thumbsup:

 

[cah925]

I agree on the wood. It looks very nice in there, almost natural looking from left to right. I think a nice bronze Crypt in between the 2 pieces of wood (closer to the right piece) would have a nice contrast in color. I'm not sure I like the mini stonehedge on the right, but if it makes you happy, keep it.

 

[madmax666]

Where does every one get all of the rocks for a iwagumi setup? I want to replace the "stone henge" with some sort of rocks like that or i have a rock like those i have now but it is much taller and just bigger. Any ideas? I will be getting more anubias for the front of the large driftwood. I will also look for some kind of red or brown plant for contast. I will hopefully get these when i get some more of my stock list! Any suggestions wanted! Thanks,
Matt

 

[madmax666]

Well i have a lot of setbacks. When i put on some new moss on the big drift wood it floated right up to the top of the tank and ruined everything. I spend 2 hours getting it down, moving ecco-complete, moving plants. I was going to take a pick of the tank with the new plant layout but i found out that all of my neons and rummy nose have ich. i am treating now and will do a water change tmrw and re-dose it with quiCK qure. I think the ich came off of a pond plant that i bought...not so happy! But it happens so after the ich is cured i will be making a trip to the fish store to get the rest of the fish (hopefully). Last time i went they were out of every fish i wanted! go figure!

 

[madmax666]

Well im back in the game now...or at least i hope. I havent seen any fish with ich in there (i could never find all of the otos in there...they are too buisy cleaning i guess!) so i got more plants and fish.
All fish in there now are:
10 julii cory cats
1 german blue ram (male i believe)
11 neons
2 bristle nose plecos
7 or 9 otos
7 ghost shrimp (i think)
3 amino shrimp

 

[madmax666]

Well i havent had an update in a while...
i have been having trouble with my LFS with buying fish! I had gone there 3 times between a time period of 2 months and every time they sold me fish with ich . Now i have had a long period without problems so i visited the LFS again today to stock up on fish . I think the stock list is finished now.
Stocklist:
5 gold barbs
25-30 neons
4 algae eating shrimp
4 or so gost shrimp
4 otos
3 bushy nose plecos
5 silver hatchet fish
6 cory cats
New show fish are.... 2 Angle fish! One is a high fined marble angle and the other is just a marble.

I have had lost of growth with my plants. The water sprite is more than 6x as i started with. Double of some sort of floating plant. Triple the amount of x-mas moss. 5 more Amazon sword. more valls. There has been quite a bit of algae browth on the glass. I do not scrape it off.
http://s354.photobucket.com/albums/r406/madmax666_matt/planted%20tank%20october%20eight%20teenth/
What would everyone say about removing the smaller piece of drift wood and filled it with those valls n amazon swords?

 

[madmax666]

Well i did lots of trimming, cleaning and did a rescape for the tank. The Xp3 was nasty. I have that filter running on the tank but for some reason it isnt cleaning that well for being "over" the recommendation for tank size. Does anyone have any other opinions on better filtration? I was thinking that maybe sell the rena and try something different. For the rescape i took out the smaller piece of wood and scattered the rocks. For moving plants i moves most of the vaills and amazon sword to the right of the wood and i moved the anubus in and in front of the wood. I removed a lot ( 2 medium net fulls) of the floating plants. I was thinking of adding riccia to cover a large area of in front of the vails and swords. Would it grow in my tank? Im going on a 5 day vacation so im going to hopefully get a pic today and get one when i get back!
Thanks,
Matt

 

[whickerda]

Would love some photos please?!?!?

 

[madmax666]

okay here you go!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/sets/72157622628577654/if it does not work ill load it on photo bucket. I was thinking of planting riccia in the front middle of all the sword and vaills. or maybe a new idea would be to get a big carpet of it in the sand! i would love to get a huge carpet of it in the sand! How many watts does this plant need? Co2 recommended? Supplements? Substrate?

 

[madmax666]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/sets/72157622691101654/
As you can see over my vacation some algae grew on the front glass. Also now the angles are a lot better in the tank with swimming around more and eating. They have been eating lots of krill and bloodworms! The x-mas tree moss is growing A LOT and i have had many new plants of amazon sword along with valls. I would still like to know if anyone has info on the riccia? Also how do people ship plants in the mail? Do you just get a bag and put the plants in there full of air?
Thanks,
Matt

 

[urbguy]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/sets/72157622691101654/
As you can see over my vacation some algae grew on the front glass. Also now the angles are a lot better in the tank with swimming around more and eating. They have been eating lots of krill and bloodworms! The x-mas tree moss is growing A LOT and i have had many new plants of amazon sword along with valls. I would still like to know if anyone has info on the riccia? Also how do people ship plants in the mail? Do you just get a bag and put the plants in there full of air?
Thanks,
Matt

I grow riccia and i have grown riccia in a carpet. i basically use a net because i dont exactly like wire mesh in te water thinking it could rust. but i basically fold it in half and then place the riccia in there. then i would take some sewing thread and just sew the edges and then sew a grid pattern into the mesh. i then just place it right into the substrate. here is a pic. http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/9346/dsc05321p.jpg
and about the plants shipping, i once got it in a plastic sandwich bag with a piece of wet paper in the middle. then the whole bag was placed into a bubble wrap envelope. hope this helps!