[Nubster]

And we have water! Got all the plumbing done this morning and filled the tank up. Ended up with air in the reactor making it very loud but I was able to tilt it enough for the air to escape so now it's dead quite! The pipes look like arse so I ordered a stainless set with surface skimmer. Should be here Saturday. I was going to go glass but I like the stainless as well. Might do glass later. I do with the stainless output was a lily pipe rather than just a round cutoff tube.

No plants yet, ordered a big trim pack from a guy on Fb. Should be here Friday. Check valve ordered because I forgot one. I'll just leave CO2 off and needle valve closed until it gets here Saturday. Also ordered some ferts from Nilocg. Got the liquid for now just for the ease of dosing. Ordered the two bottle macro/micro set. After that I'll by dry and mix my own most likely. Probably look into auto dosing sometime this summer once I get everything ironed out and working well. Also ordered a glass drop checker since I also forgot I didn't have one. So after Saturday I should be set! I'll let the plants grow in a week or two and depending on how water parameters are looking after that...start considering livestock. I'm still thinking White Cloud minnows. Maybe a second contrasting tetra of some sort. I'd like to have 20+ smallish schooling fish for mid water. And I'm getting some native fish...Rainbow Darters. I need to confirm their compatibility and preference...groups or solo...but I'd like 3-5 of them if that works out.

Not crazy about the white frosted background so I think I might change it to black.

Here's some under tank shots...don't mind the mess...still need to move my tools, clean up the saw dust from cutting holes in the back, and tidy up. I also need to get a power strip in there and some timers for lights and CO2.

Rainbow Darter...

 

[Nubster]

Plants have arrived and are in the tank. I'm not really up on all the names and which is which so for now I just clumped them all together and I'll let them grow in a couple weeks. Then I'll rearrange as needed. I'll probably still need to get some mid/foreground plants. Maybe some dwarf hair grass and some Alternanthera reineckii 'Mini', perhaps a little Staurogyne repens. Who knows what else I'll end up with. I still have some Java fern and Bolbitis to move over from my old algae tank as well.

7x Hygro sunset
1x Sao paolo
1x bacopa caroliniana
2x ludwigia cuba
4x hygrophila sp bold
3x creeping Hygro
5x hydrocotyle Tripartita Mini
4x limno heterophylla
6x Limnophila aquatica
1x myrio romima
2x ludwigia needle leaf
2x limnophila belem
2x Pogostemon stellatus
2x limno aromatica mini
1x cabomba furcuata
2x Eichornia diversifolia
1x Rotala mini butterfly 4
2x ludwigia super red
1x ludwigia ovalis pink
1x ludwigia senegalensis
3x ludwigia Repens Rubin
4x Rotala goias
1x Hyptis lorentziana

 

[Nubster]

Plants are growing in. Installed the drop checker and new stainless pipes. Looks MUCH better with the stainless. Went with the surface skimmer intake and is seems to be working well. Double timer came in yesterday as well so now I can set my CO2 to come on/turn off before the lights using one timer which is nice. Set it to 90 minutes before lights on because it seems like it takes quite a while for the drop checker to change from blue to green...so I want to make sure I have as much CO2 in the water when lights come on as I can. Especially now because I want maximum growth of the new plants. Started using the Nilocg Macro/Micro set but only at 1/2 dose since the plant load isn't a lot yet but I am going to check with them to see if that's ok or if I should use the max dose. I just don't want to risk algae but I guess not feeding the plants enough and slowing their growth would be worse for causing algae than over fertilizing since I do my 50% water change each week. Still something I'll have to get the feel for, lights and fertilizers.

Other than that...not much else happening at the moment. I'll get an update pic when the lights come on. Which reminds me, I still need to figure out a light hanging option so I can get rid of those fugly legs on the light.

 

[Nubster]

Growing in nicely...not bad for only 6 days....

 

[monkeyruler90]

love the stainless steel tubes!

Bump: lol btw, still bitter about the wood? not going to include it in this tank?

 

[Nubster]

I haven't decided on whether I want to use it or not. I really want to let the plants grow in first. I removed the wood to make initial planting easier. Once they are established and I start moving them to more permanent spots I may try to fit the wood in there and see how it works.

 

[Nubster]

Bump: Seeing some pretty good growth! Have some AR mini on the way for some nice foreground pop. Hoping my setup will support it.

 

[Nubster]

 

[Nubster]

Day 19...

 

[andrewss]

Growing in nicely! Cycle well on its way by now then?

 

[Nubster]

I had a little ammonia from the Tropica for the first couple weeks but now it's 0. Nitrites are also 0. I think with the plant mass and weekly 50% water changes, I'm going to just adding fish slowly and allow the tank to acclimate to the new load for a couple weeks then add more and just do that until I'm fully stocked. I'm hoping my LFS has some White Cloud Minnows. If they have them in stock I'm probably going to pick some up tomorrow.

 

[Nubster]

Added 9 Golden White Cloud Minnows and 5 Gold Pristella Tetras the other day. All doing well. Probably should have got something with more contrast to the White Clouds but I really like the clear body tetras and these have a nice gold tint. Planning to add some more of each most likely. Like 3-6 more minnows and probably 5 more tetras. Then a small school of pygmy cories. I'd like to maybe get something of a centerpiece fish, nice pop of color. Undecided about that though. Perhaps some Rainbow Darters if I can find some of the lake variety.

And yes...my rock is going great at growing some algae...definitely need to figure that one out before it gets out of control.

 

[Nubster]

Added 8 more regular White Clouds and 3 Emerald Cories. I want 2 or 3 more of the cories but they were a little pricey so I only got 3 this time. Plants are bonkers now...it's a jungle tank at this point. Did a huge trim and I can barely tell. Crazy thing is...I haven't dosed in a couple weeks due to high nitrates I believe from the soil causing some hair algae which is getting better now that I cut light intensity back some and stopped fertilizing. I'll probably start dosing again this coming week at half dose and not everyday like I was. See how that goes. I'd like to try to start working on maybe a less jungle look and start moving, removing and adding some new stuff to get a more manicured look. More Dutch-ish style than nature/jungle. Any ideas? All the plants I have now except for the AR Mini are tall plants. They grow so tall so fast they end up bending over and shade the AR Mini. Not a bad problem to have. But I'd like to see about some mid-ground plants and maybe another foreground to contrast with the AR Mini which has gotten pretty dark...I assume from being shaded.