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Hello Everyone,
I have been out of the planted tank hobby for nearly 4 years now and am finally able to get back into it.

This tank build is far from being complete. I still need to frame the canopy and skin the entire thing and create a back ground of some sort. I typically go black, but I think this time I am going to try a lighter color.

The tank is a standard 125g but I drilled 2 bulkheads on the far right end and created a acrylic coast to coast overflow. The sump is a 40g acrylic setup powered by a mag18. I recently scored a nice 5lb co2 tank and regulator and have just been running it for 2 days.

The wood is still buoyant so rocks have been placed on top to weigh it down. Now that the tank is cycled I have removed the majority of the starter plants and will now focus on acquiring the plants that fit my aquascape vision.

Please ignore the low quality, cloudy and dirty looking picture. This was taken on a prehistoric iphone 3g.

 

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Also, I wanted to see if I can get some opinions from the board.

Black background or a whitish grey?

Should I moss the wood, or leave it in its raw state?

 

[Stoneyfish]

Looks amazing!
Either background, but definately go with the mossing of the wood.

 

[micheljq]

The branches are very pretty.

 

[jmf3460]

love it! thankful to open a nautral looking scape. I like it dark. looks Amazonian. your manzi is leeching tannins now right?

 

[Aqualady]

nice looking

 

[talontsiawd]

Also, I wanted to see if I can get some opinions from the board.

Black background or a whitish grey?

Should I moss the wood, or leave it in its raw state?

I like black if you are filling the back up with a lot of plant mass. I like white more when there is purposeful negative space in back.

I think you should keep the wood as is, I would hate to see that wood get covered up.

 

[HybridHerp]

what theme are you trying to go for?

also, if you're missing that wood, I suggest using fissiden. Its tighter than other mosses so you'll still have the shape you want.

 

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The theme is in reference to more of the wood structure. Stems are fine behind the wood but I don't want to much obstructing the view of the wood structure. Fissidens is a good idea, and one that I have never kept before

 

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I have been running co2 for nearly a week now, and I have been simply running the co2 into the return pump(mag18). This is creating a thick mist of micro-bubbles from the co2. I know this isn't efficient and I am essentially wasting some co2, but I have been busy and haven't been able to build a reactor. After working on the tank last night some more, it is very apparent that I will need to build a reactor asap. I fly out to San Diego this week, so its going to have to wait until Monday of next week.....if I am lucky

 

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I am still fighting tannin's from both the driftwood and the topsoil used. Its getting better, but still not great.

Next question. Since adding the driftwood and Co2, I have noticed a huge increase in a fluffy green algae that grows over the wood and plants. Is this normal?

 

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Cleaned up the tank tonight.

Still struggling with some type of algae, any pointers?

 

[Vepr]

You could give it a peroxide treatment followed by excel and then a big water change. Probably not easy with that big of a tank though.

 

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You could give it a peroxide treatment followed by excel and then a big water change. Probably not easy with that big of a tank though.

As of right now I do a weekly 50% water change and at times a few 5-10% changes in between

 

[Vepr]

Might be a fertilization or light cycle issue possibly?

 

[UDGags]

Usually that type of algae is an indication of not enough CO2 or too much light.

What type of light cycle are you running?

 

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Might be a fertilization or light cycle issue possibly?

Usually that type of algae is an indication of not enough CO2 or too much light.

What type of light cycle are you running?

Thanks for the help guys
I am currently not fertilizing at all. Any nutrients would be coming from the top soil.
My light cycle is 8 hours of 2x250w 10k Metal halide.

My initial thought was that it was due to a lack of Co2. I am currently running the co2 directly into the mag18 without a reactor. I have not had time to build a reactor, but should next week. There are substantial microbubbles in the display tank from the co2 injection, so I am 100% positive I am losing a majority of it due to inefficency

 

[Vepr]

If it is a new tank with soil as the substrate I think there is a period after setup when you get a lot of nutrients leaching into the water. This combined with higher lighting will cause algae blooms. I have never run a soil substrate but I have read about this happening and it is supposedly normal. Maybe a reduced lighting period along with the water changes and maybe some frogbit or some other fast growing surface plant could help deal with the initial nutrient flood.

Maybe you could buy an in-tank CO2 atomizer for the short term until you get what you want set up in terms of an inline reactor.

 

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. Built this reactor tuesday
Ran this type of setup on the past 4 setups I have had.

 

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Quick update.
Since I put the new co2 reactor online, algae has decreased and growth of plants have exploded.
Got in a new shipment of plants from H4N from PlantedTank
Took out some of the algae infested plants and added a few powerheads for flow, thanks to JackD for loaning them out.
I planted approximately 100 nodes of a foreground plant (Marsilea Minuta) and 20-30 Bacopa sp. 'Japan'. Also planted Hygrophila sp. 'Araguaia' ,
Hygrophila Pinnatifida, Rotala Wallichii and a couple c. Balansea

Here is another low quality cell phone picture.