Tank breakdown, and the rebirth of a 38g. (PICS june 20 , 56k beware)

748 Views 8 Replies 7 Participants Last post by 2wheelsx2, Jun 21, 2007

Ryzilla

Discussion Starter · Jun 14, 2007 (Edited)

I had a 38g angel tank. I gave my angel away and now there was nothing in it. I know how much I hate to see empty tanks laying around the house so I decided to go for the low-tech route.

SPECS

Equipment

38g AGA
1x39w 6500k and 1x39w 14000k actinic (for looks) all t5ho SNS retro.
emperor 400 for that extra special water flow.

Substrate

2 3/4 bags of flourite mixed with a 10lb bag of black gravel. The black gravel is now buried below.

Decor

African root wood - many thinner pieces aranged carefully.

Flora

anubias barteri
anubias nana
anubias petite
anubias coffefolia(soon to be added)
crypt lutea
crypt wendtii
x-mass moss (soon to be added)
narrow leaf java
java windelov
Fissidens fontanus

Fauna

Cherry shrimp
Endlers
Apple snails
Red ramshorns
cory's
bushynoses (soon to be added)
nerites
Ottos

Pics will be coming soon. Just thought I would list what I got going so far.

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Ryzilla

Discussion Starter · #2 · Jun 20, 2007

I am going absolutley low-tech. No dosing, no co2, no weekly water changes, monthly 20% only, and top offs. I think the emperor 400 is going to add more co2 to my tank then using my xp2. Here are some some pics of what I have so far. Only the left side of my tank is scaped. There is nothing in the foreground yet, I have decided the forgroung will be mainly fissidens and other mosses and maybe some dwarf hairgrass. Happy viewing.

Here is the full tanks shot. Please excuse the dirty glass, I had been scaping for the last 3 hours.

Here is the corner shot that seems to be mandatory.

I took some shots of the the left side of the tank at different angles so you all could get a better perception of the scape.

And of course i had to take some shots of little creatures that call this home.

anyone know the name of this kind of cory?

One of my julli's

a cherry

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rendos

· #3 · Jun 20, 2007

Ryzilla said:
I think the emperor 400 is going to add more co2 to my tank then using my xp2.

Tank looks great. Did you mean O2? Because I can't figure out how a power filter or canister is going to add CO2.

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Gatekeeper

· #4 · Jun 20, 2007

Hairgrass may not do well for you with no CO2 and that low lighting.

Looks great though!

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OverStocked

· #5 · Jun 20, 2007

rendos said:
Tank looks great. Did you mean O2? Because I can't figure out how a power filter or canister is going to add CO2.

There is co2 in the air we breath. Quite a bit in reality. Using a filter that takes that air and puts it in the water, will, hypothetically add co2 to the tank, just not at the levels that injection can add.

It isn't enough to sustain highly demanding plants, but it is there. In some areas the Atmospheric co2 content is significantly higher than others.

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jpfelix

· #6 · Jun 21, 2007

in the winter and summer, with the house closed up, there's enough co2 build up to cause a significant ph drop in my reef tank.

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Ryzilla

Discussion Starter · #7 · Jun 21, 2007

gmccreedy said:
Hairgrass may not do well for you with no CO2 and that low lighting.

Looks great though!

what really is low lighting? Do you think a 1x39w t5ho with a parabolic reflector beaming 20" ontop of dwarf harigrass is lowlight? I think I might have some decent success growing dwarf hairgrass under these conditions.

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klintman

· #8 · Jun 21, 2007

in the winter and summer, with the house closed up, there's enough co2 build up to cause a significant ph drop in my reef tank.

then you need to have a competent hvac specialist figure out whats going on. ambient co2 levels that would cause any ph drop in standing water will also be causing a serious drop in o2 in you and everyone in the house!!! how old is your hvac system?

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2wheelsx2

· #9 · Jun 21, 2007

klintman said:
then you need to have a competent hvac specialist figure out whats going on. ambient co2 levels that would cause any ph drop in standing water will also be causing a serious drop in o2 in you and everyone in the house!!! how old is your hvac system?

Agreed. If you have that much of a build up of CO2, I'd be more worried than just about the tank. I can't imagine any buildup like that unless you have NO fresh air intake.

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