Hello all,
Couple year lurker here. I have been reading and keeping up with a number of the journals on the site for quite a few years. I am excited to finally start a journal of my own.
My Background:
I have had an ongoing love affair with aquariums for the past decade and a half. It has shifted and morphed over the years as my interest in different areas of the hobby have waxed and waned. About a year and a half ago my father ,who is big gardening nerd, came across an ad for some red mangrove seed pods and bought them for me as a present. I had no idea what I was doing but went ahead and dropped them in the fish only 20 long I currently had. Turns out mangroves are pretty resilient plants and they didn't mind my ignorance so much. Pretty soon I was getting new leaves about once a month. I would get so darn fired up to see these new leaves that I started looking to add some other plants to my tank. I didn't really do any research before buying ,but In retrospect I chose some great plants to start with (java fern, rotala rotundifolia). Pretty soon after, I was fully bitten by the planted tank bug. After many months learning about fertilization, co2 injection, and lighting periods (PAR , PUR) thanks to this community, I had some success converting my fish only 20 long into a moderately lit high tech planted tank. It has been steadily running for about 6 months in its current state and looks the best it ever has.
![1030912]()
Moving Forward:
I learned a lot of lessons from trying to convert a tank into a planted aquascape. My new plan is to take what I have learned from my last tank and build a better system with a central focus on growing plants. Conveniently, I have also recently graduated and started a full time job in my field. With some extra income at my disposal and the approval of my wife, I have selected an 80g rimless tank made by deep blue. The tank is 48" x 24" x 16" giving me almost 8 square feet of real-estate to play with.
Goals of the project:
1) I am a scatter brained and fast moving kind of guy. I tend to not plan my projects all that well. As a result many of my aquarium projects in the past look rather thrown together and tend to not run as well as I had hoped. Taking inspiration from some of the more meticulous folks on this site, I am trying to force myself to move slowly and really think this thing through.
2) Budget. I have seen instances of people dropping 1500 bucks on a 20 gallon high tech tank. There is no problem with that ,but I also think there are better ways to spend money. This isn't a "budget" build in the sense that I plan to pinch pennies on every peace of equipment. I am however planning to focus my funds on the things that I believe add value to the function of the tank. Items that provide less value per dollar I am planning to go DIY or budget minded. I hope to share in my wins and failures in this strategy so that others can benefit from what I learn.
3) "lowish" maintenance. I'm not really married to using and particular species of plant at the moment. My working plan is to mostly go with some of the easier epiphytes and crypts but also include some more moderate carpeting plants like S. Repens and Monte Carlo. Whatever plants like my water and fertilizations strategy will stick around and if a plant melts, I don't plan to spend much time chasing parameters to make it grow. My hope is that this strategy will simplify maintenance to essentially weekly water changes and trimmings with less focus on testing params constantly (lol we will see how that goes).
4) Documentation. I have loved watching the progression of tanks on different threads in this forum. I plan to consistently update this thread for my own journaling purposes and hope that some find it interesting or valuable and would like to follow along with me and provide much appreciated advice.
Current status:
I found an insane deal on a used deep blue rimless 80g. I intended to buy new, but per goal #2 I had no choice but to go with the used tank. Also In the spirit of goals #1 and #2 I sat down and decided exactly what I wanted in terms of a stand. I just finished building a DIY stand and placing the tank in its new home. I started to fill the tank (leak test) and found quickly that the floor is not level at all (should have checked that first haha). That means next step is shimming the stand so that tank sits level.
I intend to organize my progress in phases. phase 1 was building the stand and getting the tank ,which is now essentially done. Phase 2 is building the semi-DIY sump and complete all plumbing. For now I will be acquiring parts to move forward with phase 2.
![1030919]()
![1030920]()
Couple year lurker here. I have been reading and keeping up with a number of the journals on the site for quite a few years. I am excited to finally start a journal of my own.
My Background:
I have had an ongoing love affair with aquariums for the past decade and a half. It has shifted and morphed over the years as my interest in different areas of the hobby have waxed and waned. About a year and a half ago my father ,who is big gardening nerd, came across an ad for some red mangrove seed pods and bought them for me as a present. I had no idea what I was doing but went ahead and dropped them in the fish only 20 long I currently had. Turns out mangroves are pretty resilient plants and they didn't mind my ignorance so much. Pretty soon I was getting new leaves about once a month. I would get so darn fired up to see these new leaves that I started looking to add some other plants to my tank. I didn't really do any research before buying ,but In retrospect I chose some great plants to start with (java fern, rotala rotundifolia). Pretty soon after, I was fully bitten by the planted tank bug. After many months learning about fertilization, co2 injection, and lighting periods (PAR , PUR) thanks to this community, I had some success converting my fish only 20 long into a moderately lit high tech planted tank. It has been steadily running for about 6 months in its current state and looks the best it ever has.
Moving Forward:
I learned a lot of lessons from trying to convert a tank into a planted aquascape. My new plan is to take what I have learned from my last tank and build a better system with a central focus on growing plants. Conveniently, I have also recently graduated and started a full time job in my field. With some extra income at my disposal and the approval of my wife, I have selected an 80g rimless tank made by deep blue. The tank is 48" x 24" x 16" giving me almost 8 square feet of real-estate to play with.
Goals of the project:
1) I am a scatter brained and fast moving kind of guy. I tend to not plan my projects all that well. As a result many of my aquarium projects in the past look rather thrown together and tend to not run as well as I had hoped. Taking inspiration from some of the more meticulous folks on this site, I am trying to force myself to move slowly and really think this thing through.
2) Budget. I have seen instances of people dropping 1500 bucks on a 20 gallon high tech tank. There is no problem with that ,but I also think there are better ways to spend money. This isn't a "budget" build in the sense that I plan to pinch pennies on every peace of equipment. I am however planning to focus my funds on the things that I believe add value to the function of the tank. Items that provide less value per dollar I am planning to go DIY or budget minded. I hope to share in my wins and failures in this strategy so that others can benefit from what I learn.
3) "lowish" maintenance. I'm not really married to using and particular species of plant at the moment. My working plan is to mostly go with some of the easier epiphytes and crypts but also include some more moderate carpeting plants like S. Repens and Monte Carlo. Whatever plants like my water and fertilizations strategy will stick around and if a plant melts, I don't plan to spend much time chasing parameters to make it grow. My hope is that this strategy will simplify maintenance to essentially weekly water changes and trimmings with less focus on testing params constantly (lol we will see how that goes).
4) Documentation. I have loved watching the progression of tanks on different threads in this forum. I plan to consistently update this thread for my own journaling purposes and hope that some find it interesting or valuable and would like to follow along with me and provide much appreciated advice.
Current status:
I found an insane deal on a used deep blue rimless 80g. I intended to buy new, but per goal #2 I had no choice but to go with the used tank. Also In the spirit of goals #1 and #2 I sat down and decided exactly what I wanted in terms of a stand. I just finished building a DIY stand and placing the tank in its new home. I started to fill the tank (leak test) and found quickly that the floor is not level at all (should have checked that first haha). That means next step is shimming the stand so that tank sits level.
I intend to organize my progress in phases. phase 1 was building the stand and getting the tank ,which is now essentially done. Phase 2 is building the semi-DIY sump and complete all plumbing. For now I will be acquiring parts to move forward with phase 2.
. Thank you for the kind words as well. 
