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1,211 Posts
Hi all!
It's funny, I've had this whole monologue that was in my mind ready to translate into digital ink and now I don't even know where to start.... OK, first I need to bore you with some reflections so skip this part if you don't want to fall asleep in front off your screen
Looking at my old tank journal thread I see my last real update dated at 04-04-2010 which would translate to an almost 4 years break from freshwater aquariums. When I bought my first saltwater tank I still kept the 75g discus planted tank, although slowly but surely my interest switched to reefkeeping and after few months I decided to break from the planted community (it wasn't easy back then) and keep saltwater tank only. Long story short, I upgraded from the initial 34g cube to a 59g tank that I have a real success with ( not trying to sound like a douchebag, but that was my best period in reefkeeping, where I could grow and propagate Acropora species and my tank looked like a real piece of the reef) to my current custom build tank that is 48x24x20 high and around 100g in size. I also managed to create a website with reef and diving pictures (link in signature), met many great people by being a member of a New York saltwater forum and gained tons of knowledge about the ocean that surrounds us as well as reefkeeping in general. I wrote several articles about the saltwater side of the hobby, you can check them out if you're interested here:http://www.reefs.com/blog/author/Marcin-Smok/
Anyway, I started having problems with my 100g tank several months ago and to this day I can't explain what went wrong and why my tank doesn't look like it used to. I learned that a reef tank is a great challenge and people who manage to keep their aquariums in great shape for years are the best breed of aquarists out there. I love the challenge of reefkeeping to this day and I would love to take action to restore my aquarium to it's former beauty, but with saltwater fishkeeping comes a great deal of money I need to spend to correct mistakes I made and at this point in life I just can't justify these costs. I have to lower my electricity bill significantly due to recent rent hike and other factors so with a great pain in my heart I need to call it quits and break down my tank. However, being a hardcore fishkeeping fan, I need to have fish in my everyday life, which brings me back to my roots...
I will start the process of selling my corals and fish next week and while everything is gone I am going to take a break and travel a little bit. I'm planning for a two weeks trip and will be back first week of June. I would love to start a process of gathering equipment for FW setup to fill it up with water after I come back. I didn't make up my mind regarding the setup I would like to start and since I was absent for so long I have tons of questions for you guys/gals...
First of all, it's good to be back. I remember this forum was full of really cool, informative and friendly people and I made a lot of friends while being active here. From what I see lurking on the site now not much changed and I see that few old friends are still here (you might not remember me but I sure remember you and help you provided while I had my FW setup. Since I was absent for so long I wasn't following advancements in planted tank keeping and so I need your help with my planned build
Second of all, just to give you an idea of what are my goals regarding planted tank, I would love to have something like my old tank (here's thread http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=92339)- a high-tech, pressurized Co2 and ferts and I want to have Discus and apistogramma cichlids in my tank. Here are my thoughts:
1. I will be starting from scratch, most of my FW equipment is gone and I am hoping to do it without spending any extra money (if possible) beyond what I'll gain selling my SW equipment. As I mentioned before, I have a custom made 100g tank that is 48x24x20 high and it's drilled with central glass overflow and two outputs on either side of the tank and a sump beneath(here's a link to my journal http://www.manhattanreefs.com/forum/tank-threads/139549-smoqs-100g-reef-tank.html) My first and biggest dillemma is what to do with the tank. On one side, I would like to reduce the size to something like I used to have, which is AGA 75g, but it's only 25g which don't seem like a big downgrade. Other than that, I spent some time and money building the stand and tank and will certainly not get it back. The problem is that it's a reef ready tank and I've read that sump is not the best option with CO2 dosing. I can always modify outlets to be connected to canister filters and just lower the water level to kill the overflow. My question- does anyone have experience with having a high tech aquarium with sump? How bad is the CO2 outgassing? Does it make sense?
2. Lighting- oh boy I am backwards in this topic. Since I switched to saltwater my lighting changed dramatically. I used to have a 4x54W Catalina Aquarium fixture on my planted tank, but when I took down that aquarium and went saltwater I pretty much abandoned T5 in favor of Cree LED fixtures. I built a LED light for my reef tank (check my SW thread to see how it looks like) and I was thinking if planted tank keepers also adopted the new technology or T5 is still king. I would love to save money on electricity and I've seen these Finnex FW light strips so my question is- how good are they for high-tech tanks? I can modify my Led light to planted tank but I am afraid it might be way too much light and unnecessary $$$ spent on electricity, but please correct me if I am wrong. Just FIY, I currently have three channels with 24 3W Cree Leds each on my reef. What's your opinion on lighting a tank like mine?
3. Substrate- in my 75g tank I used to have a mineralized topsoil I bought from a friend who's screename was “torpedobarb “ (he is TheCryptKeeper nowadays). And I have had a great success with it. My question is, does anybody still sell this stuff? Do we have better, commercial options for planted tank substrate? Secondly, I've topped MTS with a product called 3M Colorquartz Black “T” grade mixed with Saechem Fluorite Sand and it was a perfect combination of money saving and looks as the Colorquartz was jet black, just like I wanted. Unfortunately, this stuff is very hard to get I heard and was thinking if there are any alternatives to this stuff nowadays. I am looking for a very fine gravel that is black and doesn't cost a fortune. Please correct me if I am wrong and you still can get Colorquartz anywhere (I live in the NYC area).
4. CO2 setup- here is what I used to have (http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=90710) and I would like to replicate a similar setup with a 20lb cylinder ( places close to me only swap tanks so it would be the best option). What are good options on press.Co2 now? Is making your own regulator and solenoid combo still a cost-effective option? Also, what is the best way to dissolve Co2 nowadays? I used to have a custom build PVC pipe reactor and I was happy with it, although it took an almost constant flow of bubbles to my bubble counter to achieve a light green color in my drop checker.
5. Manzanita wood- I remember buying a bunch of branches from a guy named Jake aka badcopnofishtank but I found out he's not around anymore and since I loved the look of manzanita in my hardscape, is there anyone here on the forum that sells manzanita for a good price these days?
6.Dosing- this is the part I completely forgot about. From what I do remember, I was dosing my tank everyday and did a 50% water change on the weekend, so I am pretty sure I was following a EI dosing regime using dry ferts. I have an automated doser for my reef tank now, how does dosing planted aquarium look nowadays? Dry dosing was very cost effective and I didn't mind doing that, but I remember you couldn't really mixed these ferts with water and store them to accomodate a liquid doser (or maybe I'm wrong) so my question is- should I sell my 3 pump doser and come back to dosing manually or are there automatic methods now where my doser could be used for?
I think these are all my questions for now, thank you in advance for your help and once again- I'm glad to be back. I love this hobby and coming back to the roots feels right. I am not in a hurry and would like to make my decisions and purchases slowly since I need time to get rid of my SW setup first to save money for FW. Thanks everyone!!!
It's funny, I've had this whole monologue that was in my mind ready to translate into digital ink and now I don't even know where to start.... OK, first I need to bore you with some reflections so skip this part if you don't want to fall asleep in front off your screen
Looking at my old tank journal thread I see my last real update dated at 04-04-2010 which would translate to an almost 4 years break from freshwater aquariums. When I bought my first saltwater tank I still kept the 75g discus planted tank, although slowly but surely my interest switched to reefkeeping and after few months I decided to break from the planted community (it wasn't easy back then) and keep saltwater tank only. Long story short, I upgraded from the initial 34g cube to a 59g tank that I have a real success with ( not trying to sound like a douchebag, but that was my best period in reefkeeping, where I could grow and propagate Acropora species and my tank looked like a real piece of the reef) to my current custom build tank that is 48x24x20 high and around 100g in size. I also managed to create a website with reef and diving pictures (link in signature), met many great people by being a member of a New York saltwater forum and gained tons of knowledge about the ocean that surrounds us as well as reefkeeping in general. I wrote several articles about the saltwater side of the hobby, you can check them out if you're interested here:http://www.reefs.com/blog/author/Marcin-Smok/
Anyway, I started having problems with my 100g tank several months ago and to this day I can't explain what went wrong and why my tank doesn't look like it used to. I learned that a reef tank is a great challenge and people who manage to keep their aquariums in great shape for years are the best breed of aquarists out there. I love the challenge of reefkeeping to this day and I would love to take action to restore my aquarium to it's former beauty, but with saltwater fishkeeping comes a great deal of money I need to spend to correct mistakes I made and at this point in life I just can't justify these costs. I have to lower my electricity bill significantly due to recent rent hike and other factors so with a great pain in my heart I need to call it quits and break down my tank. However, being a hardcore fishkeeping fan, I need to have fish in my everyday life, which brings me back to my roots...
I will start the process of selling my corals and fish next week and while everything is gone I am going to take a break and travel a little bit. I'm planning for a two weeks trip and will be back first week of June. I would love to start a process of gathering equipment for FW setup to fill it up with water after I come back. I didn't make up my mind regarding the setup I would like to start and since I was absent for so long I have tons of questions for you guys/gals...
First of all, it's good to be back. I remember this forum was full of really cool, informative and friendly people and I made a lot of friends while being active here. From what I see lurking on the site now not much changed and I see that few old friends are still here (you might not remember me but I sure remember you and help you provided while I had my FW setup. Since I was absent for so long I wasn't following advancements in planted tank keeping and so I need your help with my planned build
Second of all, just to give you an idea of what are my goals regarding planted tank, I would love to have something like my old tank (here's thread http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=92339)- a high-tech, pressurized Co2 and ferts and I want to have Discus and apistogramma cichlids in my tank. Here are my thoughts:
1. I will be starting from scratch, most of my FW equipment is gone and I am hoping to do it without spending any extra money (if possible) beyond what I'll gain selling my SW equipment. As I mentioned before, I have a custom made 100g tank that is 48x24x20 high and it's drilled with central glass overflow and two outputs on either side of the tank and a sump beneath(here's a link to my journal http://www.manhattanreefs.com/forum/tank-threads/139549-smoqs-100g-reef-tank.html) My first and biggest dillemma is what to do with the tank. On one side, I would like to reduce the size to something like I used to have, which is AGA 75g, but it's only 25g which don't seem like a big downgrade. Other than that, I spent some time and money building the stand and tank and will certainly not get it back. The problem is that it's a reef ready tank and I've read that sump is not the best option with CO2 dosing. I can always modify outlets to be connected to canister filters and just lower the water level to kill the overflow. My question- does anyone have experience with having a high tech aquarium with sump? How bad is the CO2 outgassing? Does it make sense?
2. Lighting- oh boy I am backwards in this topic. Since I switched to saltwater my lighting changed dramatically. I used to have a 4x54W Catalina Aquarium fixture on my planted tank, but when I took down that aquarium and went saltwater I pretty much abandoned T5 in favor of Cree LED fixtures. I built a LED light for my reef tank (check my SW thread to see how it looks like) and I was thinking if planted tank keepers also adopted the new technology or T5 is still king. I would love to save money on electricity and I've seen these Finnex FW light strips so my question is- how good are they for high-tech tanks? I can modify my Led light to planted tank but I am afraid it might be way too much light and unnecessary $$$ spent on electricity, but please correct me if I am wrong. Just FIY, I currently have three channels with 24 3W Cree Leds each on my reef. What's your opinion on lighting a tank like mine?
3. Substrate- in my 75g tank I used to have a mineralized topsoil I bought from a friend who's screename was “torpedobarb “ (he is TheCryptKeeper nowadays). And I have had a great success with it. My question is, does anybody still sell this stuff? Do we have better, commercial options for planted tank substrate? Secondly, I've topped MTS with a product called 3M Colorquartz Black “T” grade mixed with Saechem Fluorite Sand and it was a perfect combination of money saving and looks as the Colorquartz was jet black, just like I wanted. Unfortunately, this stuff is very hard to get I heard and was thinking if there are any alternatives to this stuff nowadays. I am looking for a very fine gravel that is black and doesn't cost a fortune. Please correct me if I am wrong and you still can get Colorquartz anywhere (I live in the NYC area).
4. CO2 setup- here is what I used to have (http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=90710) and I would like to replicate a similar setup with a 20lb cylinder ( places close to me only swap tanks so it would be the best option). What are good options on press.Co2 now? Is making your own regulator and solenoid combo still a cost-effective option? Also, what is the best way to dissolve Co2 nowadays? I used to have a custom build PVC pipe reactor and I was happy with it, although it took an almost constant flow of bubbles to my bubble counter to achieve a light green color in my drop checker.
5. Manzanita wood- I remember buying a bunch of branches from a guy named Jake aka badcopnofishtank but I found out he's not around anymore and since I loved the look of manzanita in my hardscape, is there anyone here on the forum that sells manzanita for a good price these days?
6.Dosing- this is the part I completely forgot about. From what I do remember, I was dosing my tank everyday and did a 50% water change on the weekend, so I am pretty sure I was following a EI dosing regime using dry ferts. I have an automated doser for my reef tank now, how does dosing planted aquarium look nowadays? Dry dosing was very cost effective and I didn't mind doing that, but I remember you couldn't really mixed these ferts with water and store them to accomodate a liquid doser (or maybe I'm wrong) so my question is- should I sell my 3 pump doser and come back to dosing manually or are there automatic methods now where my doser could be used for?
I think these are all my questions for now, thank you in advance for your help and once again- I'm glad to be back. I love this hobby and coming back to the roots feels right. I am not in a hurry and would like to make my decisions and purchases slowly since I need time to get rid of my SW setup first to save money for FW. Thanks everyone!!!