[Frshwtr]

Day 17
Decided I wasn't terribly happy with the amount of wood in the tank and took a large piece of spiderwood as well as some of the bigger stones out. I wanted to be able to provide plenty of growing room for the tank. I'm happy with the current layout and plan on leaving it be for the time being. The tank is starting to show a little bit of diatom growth but nothing too bad.

The tank is also now fully cycled with no trace of ammonia or nitrite. My nitrates are holding steady in the 20-30ppm range and my CO2 is holding steady at 30ppm during the day. Macros are being dosed at ~12mL daily, and micros at ~4mL daily. The amount of bubbles going through the counter is uncountable, but the reactor is doing a very nice job in dissolving it all. The monte carlo and stem plants are also growing well and showing quite a bit of new growth. I'm looking forward to getting the T5 fixture installed by the end of August. I'm planning on stopping by my LFS this weekend to pick up the first few fish and some amano shrimp.

FTS 9/16

 

[Frshwtr]

Day 21 (Livestock)
Was able to get to my LFS today and they just got in a big selection of rainbow fish. I wasn't completely sold on having a dominant rainbow tank, but they were too hard to pass up! I also picked up 5 Amano shrimp. I do plan on picking up a couple of other varieties of Rainbow's - probably from online stores in the upcoming weeks to fill out the rest of the tank. I also plan on picking up ~15 or so bloody mary shrimps to start a colony in this tank.

Plants are really taking off. Everything seems to be on point except for some mild diatoms popping up.

9/20/22 Livestock List:
3x Iranian Rainbow
3x Bosemani Rainbow
1x Turquoise Rainbow
3x Spotted Blue Eye Rainbow
3x Celebese Rainbow
3x Dwarf Pracox Rainbow
5x Amano Shrimp
15x Nerite Snails

9/20/22 FTS

 

[Frshwtr]

Day 28: More Livestock, First Trim, Auto Dosing

Did a 50% WC today as well as gave the stem plants their first big trim. I have been battling with diatoms over the past 2 weeks, but I think it's slowly going away. I also finally hooked up and calibrated the Jebao 3.4 doser. Was a bit time consuming, but I think will be really worth it. I also scrapped using PPS Pro method of dosing and switched to EI. I used a gallon container and measured out 3500mL of distilled water for both macros and micros.

I also added a couple new fish yesterday.

10x Rummynose Tetras
2x (M/F) Pearl Gourami
5x Otocinclus

Here are a few FTS. Microbubbles everywhere are from the WC.

 

[Frshwtr]

Day 35: Finished Livestock, Plant Addition, Excel Autodose

Spent a couple hours yesterday doing some tank maintenance while watching college football. I also went to the LFS to pick up the final stock of fish for the tank. Here is the final stocking list:

3x Iranian Rainbow
3x Bosemani Rainbow
3x Turquoise Rainbow
3x Spotted Blue Eye Rainbow
3x Celebese Rainbow
3x Dwarf Pracox Rainbow
20x Rummynose Tetra
2x Pearl Gourami
5x Otocinclus
5x Amano Shrimp
15x Nerite Snails

The rummynose Tetra really give the tank a cool look with how they school up together and swim across the tank. Definitely a relaxing yet interesting look with the Rainbows and Tetras. I am a bit concerned with the Pearl Gouramis as the male is starting to really chase and bully the female. I might take them back and exchange them for some more dwarf rainbows.

I also added a bit more monte carlo and some type of what I think is a variety of Ludwigia. It has pink stems with almost greenish/white leaves. If anybody knows what it is, I would love to know the variety.

All of the stems are growing like weeds. I'm having to do heavy trims to the rotala every week as it grows ~6-7 inches over the course of 7 days. The monte carlo is just limping along - I think it's primarily being driven by not quite enough light. I got word that the ATI fixture is leaving Germany on the 5th of this month and I should have it by the ~12th. I do have to say that the customer support with ATI has been top notch and very helpful. Each fixture is pretty much made to order unless they have a few in stock.

I also added a daily dosing of Seachem excel to the autodoser. Here is the current dosing regime:

100mL Macros every other day
100mL Micros every other day
8mL Excel daily

Here are the FTS from this week. I'm hoping once I get the T5 fixture installed that the monte carlo will really take off. Thanks for looking!

 

[feneco5]

Looking good. You've got quite the plant assortment in there!

 

[Frshwtr]

Looking good. You've got quite the plant assortment in there!

Thanks! This has been my first real foray into aquascaping. Definitely harder than it looks. I was going for a nature style of scape but it’s kinda morphed into a Dutch/nature/jungle hybrid.

im already thinking about my next scape!

 

[Frshwtr]

Day 56 - T5 Fixture (FINALLY!)

It took 2 months to get the ATI fixture in from Germany, but it's finally here and installed. All I can say is WOW! The fixture itself is very well made and the light it puts out is amazing. As of now, I finally have everything installed in the tank and it's running very well - for the most part 100% automated. All I need to do is add water every other day and feed the fish.

The packaging the fixture came in was really well done. ATI tests each fixture prior to sending it out once they arrive from Germany into the USA. That process took another week or so.

Here are the pictures of the bulbs. The bulb combination are Giesemann Flora 2x/Tropic 2x/Actinic 1x/Powerveg633 1x.

Here are some FTS - lots of microbubbles from the WC.

Thanks for looking!

 

[mourip]

Nice color rendition.

 

[Frshwtr]

Day 90

It's now day 90 of the build. So far, the only big issues that I have had up to this point is some BBA that popped up, as well as some string algae. I think it was mainly due to overdosing iron. I dropped that dosing down by about 40% and the BBA is going away. I also introduced a small SAE into the tank and he went to town on the majority of it. Tank is pretty autopilot at this point!

 

[Edsland]

Beautiful tank, your plants are looking great, and I really like your choice of fish. I can only dream of a tank that size, even your plumbing is top notch.

 

[Frshwtr]

Beautiful tank, your plants are looking great, and I really like your choice of fish. I can only dream of a tank that size, even your plumbing is top notch.

Thank you for the kind compliment! Been planning this tank for quite some time. Definitely a labor of love!

 

[oldpunk78]

Great looking tank! They still haven't been able to beat the color rendering from that combo of bulbs. I'm surprised that a LED manufacturer hasn't been able to copy it yet.

 

[Count Krunk]

Great tank! How is it doing now? How do the angelfish and rainbows get along?

 

[Frshwtr]

Tank is still humming along. The only squabbles in the tank are between the male and female pearl Gourami. The female tends to hang out in the dense plants until it's time to eat. All of the other fish leave each other alone. Plants are growing like wildfire. I'm selling my LFS huge bunches of rotala and other stems almost every other week now. Here are some recent pics. The actinic light kind of throws the white balance on my phone camera off giving everything almost a neon glow to it. It doesn't look like that in person though.

 

[Joeyvan172]

Tank is still humming along. The only squabbles in the tank are between the male and female pearl Gourami. The female tends to hang out in the dense plants until it's time to eat. All of the other fish leave each other alone. Plants are growing like wildfire. I'm selling my LFS huge bunches of rotala and other stems almost every other week now. Here are some recent pics. The actinic light kind of throws the white balance on my phone camera off giving everything almost a neon glow to it. It doesn't look like that in person though.

View attachment 1050184

View attachment 1050185

this is a beautiful tank i love it. Hoping mine can look like these real soon, im currently dealing with new tank syndrome. Sometimes try selling to the people lol id love some nice ass plants one day.

 

[Frshwtr]

Thanks for the kind compliment! I get great store credit for the stems especially because of the color. The T5 lights really bring out the reds in the rotala.

 

[Frshwtr]

Big Update!

New year - decided to redo the scape. Much of the rotala and monte carlo needed a huge trim. The jungle vibe just wasn't cutting it. Once I started trying to thin out the monte carlo, it all started coming up in a big mat and at that point, I just started tearing everything out. I salvaged what I could from the trimmings and went to a more minimalistic triangular look. The rest of the trimmings went to my LFS.

I also placed an order with Buceplant.com for a couple other finishing pieces for the foreground and midground. Here is the new order list:
Cryptocoryne Yujii
Cryptocoryne Spiralis Tiger
Hydrocotyle Tripartita
Ranunculus Inundatu
Rotala Bonsai
Bucephalandra Arrogant Blue
Bucephalandra Black Pearl
Pogostemon Helferi 'Downoi
Hygrophila Pinnatifida

I'm going to let it grow in a bit and possibly add some finer details with rocks and stones that I still have. The floating monte carlo is going to drive me crazy!

 

[minorhero]

Big Update!

New year - decided to redo the scape. Much of the rotala and monte carlo needed a huge trim. The jungle vibe just wasn't cutting it. Once I started trying to thin out the monte carlo, it all started coming up in a big mat and at that point, I just started tearing everything out. I salvaged what I could from the trimmings and went to a more minimalistic triangular look. The rest of the trimmings went to my LFS.

I also placed an order with Buceplant.com for a couple other finishing pieces for the foreground and midground. Here is the new order list:
Cryptocoryne Yujii
Cryptocoryne Spiralis Tiger
Hydrocotyle Tripartita
Ranunculus Inundatu
Rotala Bonsai
Bucephalandra Arrogant Blue
Bucephalandra Black Pearl
Pogostemon Helferi 'Downoi
Hygrophila Pinnatifida

I'm going to let it grow in a bit and possibly add some finer details with rocks and stones that I still have. The floating monte carlo is going to drive me crazy!

View attachment 1050663

View attachment 1050664

Everything is fun when making a new scape. This one looks nice!

What is the stem plant with the broad leaves in the middle, cardinal plant?

 

[Frshwtr]

Yes it's a cardinal plant. I took 4 trimmings off the mother plant I had and sold the rest of it to my LFS.

 

[Count Krunk]

Looks really great!