[Brian_Cali77]

That looks great! Did you have to reinforce the Besta cabinet?

No reinforcement... I know others who have used it and even drilled it with no ill-effect to structural integrity. I sat on it prior to putting my tank on it! It's fairly solid! Lol

 

[parrottbay]

Nice, keep me updated!

 

[AnotherHobby]

Yeah I considered building a DIY stand but it would have costed more and like you said, more work. Glad there's this option. Your stand is nice though...it has character! Are you thinking of switching things up and repurposing that stand?

I don't know. I just know that if I'd seen this first, I would have gone this direction. I have other things I want to get first, but I won't be surprised if I end up swapping out.

 

[FlyingHellFish]

I was sticker shocked to discover the gray glossy door and some other glossy finishes are $50! Quite the markup!!

DUDE, same thing happen to me! :icon_eek: They only had the glossy red glass one on sale, I guess nobody liked red. I got two doors for 40.

IKEA for the WIN!

 

[Brian_Cali77]

DUDE, same thing happen to me! :icon_eek: They only had the glossy red glass one on sale, I guess nobody liked red. I got two doors for 40.

IKEA for the WIN!

That's awesome and a nice come up! Those red doors definitely sets that stand off. I like that white glass top too!

60P + Besta pimp club!

 

[FlyingHellFish]

^ You can be 1, I'll be 2. :bounce:

 

[Brian_Cali77]

^ You can be 1, I'll be 2. :bounce:

I'll set it up... but I think you should be #1 and I'll be #2 (or three)... I know for sure you rocked the Besta with a 60p because I recall you recommending it when I was researching in some other thread roud:

 

[Brian_Cali77]

Update Time!

Initial hardscape up... I'm going to tweak it a bit so it doesn't look so linear. I also need to smooth out the stand and clean that up a bit. The stones along the sand look like crap right now, but once the carpeting plant grows out, I think it will look good (enough). roud:

I decide to flood it before fully planting it... Still waiting on some UG, mini AR, and a few other things. I have a bunch of stem plants, but those are easy to plant submersed anyway.

I tied some mini fissidens on the DW. I also tied some fissiden fontanus on some of the stones.

And just some fun with the LED lights (Sat+ and ambient mood lighting)

The water is still cloudy, but that's to be expected. I need to do some PWC's today. While the water level is low I'm going to plant some stems.

Stay tuned!

 

[talontsiawd]

Looks good so far. I know you already said it but I would either add to the driftwood or tweak it so it has more movement, it's a cool looking piece but looks a bit "stiff" right now. It's not bad, just needs that little "something" to be excellent. Really liking the setup though.

It looks like you only have one fixture on but do both work well of one remote?

 

[Brian_Cali77]

Thanks!

I tied a bunch of mini fissidens to the branches of the DW. I'm not sure what else to do to it...it will take sometime to grow out to be more noticeable.

When I plant, I'll add both lights. But yes, they both work off one remote.

 

[keats]

It's looking good Brian! I like the sand around the front, although I'm afraid that the stones might get lost in the UG. It will look awesome with a splash of red from the AR mini.

 

[Brian_Cali77]

Thanks Joey.. yeah we'll see about the stones. Luckily I grabbed some GLA aquascaping wave scissors before they disappeared from that sale. I have no excuses to not keep the UG maintained

I have a lot of stems that turned green under wack lighting, like L. Aromatica, Rotala magenta, and r. colorata. Hopefully they'll color up after I move them.

 

[keats]

I didn't get anything. I'm broke from setting up my tank lol. I like the look of all those stems. One I want to get is Ludwigia Senegalensis.


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[Brian_Cali77]

Update: Day 1 Planted!

I'm not sure if I'm feeling the "collectoritis" aspect of it... I just decided to plant heavy to help getting the tank cycled and to help with the AS ammonia leaching. I'll probably start subtracting species of plants here and there... I might get mini AR so I'll definitely need room for that.

Also, I decided to plant some HC throughout the front until I get some UG. I'm in no particular rush so I just wanted to get something going in the meantime.

Here are some pics:

More fun with the LED colors... this one was taken at night on the sunset mode and my moodlighting set to purple

Here's a close-up of the sunsun 301 skimming... it works like a charm with just a couple slight modifications. I had a load of brown stuff floating on the surface after flooding the tank from the substrate... after I ran this little surface skimmer, it cleared it up like in 10 to 15 minutes (maybe less, I wasn't really timing it):

Video of the surface skimmer in action.

 

[talontsiawd]

I don't think it looks too collectoritis. I think that as long as you keep the wood in mind as you trim, you can very easily achieve a nice background without it being over kill. When I saw the first sentence on my phone, I was like "oh no, not another natural scape with every species on the planet." But I think you did well so far, it will be more telling when it grows in. The background does make the wood's character show up more as well, which is a good thing.

 

[keats]

Looks good Brian. The AR Mini will give a nice accent to the other plants. Excited to see it fill in. When you get that AR Mini going maybe we can trade some plants


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[Brian_Cali77]

I don't think it looks too collectoritis. I think that as long as you keep the wood in mind as you trim, you can very easily achieve a nice background without it being over kill. When I saw the first sentence on my phone, I was like "oh no, not another natural scape with every species on the planet." But I think you did well so far, it will be more telling when it grows in. The background does make the wood's character show up more as well, which is a good thing.

Thank you for the reassurance that I just didn't blow the scape. You're right, I'll see how I feel after it grows out a bit. Yeah...I'm actually liking the black background. I honestly didn't think I'd like it because the majority of rimless tanks either have no background or a frosty opaque one. My other rimless tanks are that way, so I guess that's why I went this route with the 60p. Plus it's saving me $100+ on not having to buy a canister (yet)! Maybe Black Friday might change my mind? Lol

 

[Brian_Cali77]

Thanks Joey! No doubt, if I get them, I'll hook you up.

 

[bud29]

That scape definitely has potential Now comes the ever-present wait in planted tanks for things to fill in...

 

[carpalstunna]

man those lights are cool, I wish they could produce the par I need, if they did they would be mine!!!