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  • New here...my SA 85 gallon pics...

    Here is the 2nd week of my SA 85 gallon biotope tank. Its a custom made 60X13X25 and I am running an Eheim 2028 with the upgraded spraybar and pickups.

    I had to compromise with the wife for a slimmer (13") tank so there would be no problem getting by the island in the kitchen. I also have a 36 gallon bowfront in the livingroom which serves as a community tank with 5 Austrailian rainbows, 3 Julii cory's, a yellow lab that I've had for about 4 years, and a rainbow shark. Its quite a tank, everyone gets along and there's always something going on...lots of movement.

    Anyway I am into my first week of the fishless cycle. I am using pure ammonia from Ace Hardware and I seeded the new tank with used filter media from the very healthy community tank. You can see it in the pic behind a piece of driftwood.





    I now realize that pics just dont do these tanks justice...so many small details cant be seen. Background is painted and looks darker in person...its textured sandstone type paint....overlayed with a coat of polyurethane. Came out really well...and yes its painted on the outside BACK of the glass...

    I just planted it yesterday, 3 different SA swords, Vals, and Cabomba...substrate is a flourite bottom with Odessea black pearl on top. I am running 24" twin bulb Day-Glo T5 HO fixtures (48w each) on each side of the tank and mounted them to the wall on custom brackets, leaving a nice shadow in the middle of the tank over the driftwood. I plan to buy a piece of black acrylic to put over the center glass top to make the shadow even more pronounced. Im sure tank will look much different when everything grows up...

    Anyway, Im taking it slow and steady...adding ammonia and testing daily...Its the first week of dosing and I'm already reading some nitrates! That is a good sign indeed, I'm sure that seeded filter is helping a ton.

    I'd like to stock with some rummynose, silver or marbled hatchetfish for the top levels, plus some cardinals, cory's, bristlenose...and maybe some juvi silver/peruvian angels last after the cardinals grow up some. I also like the bloodfin tetras, they seem to school well.

    Thanks for looking, and hello to all at the Houston FishBox...

    By the way, any suggestions on running peat to lower the PH and add some color? Is it better to add it as filter media or boil and bottle it to make blackwater additive?
    Last edited by Matt in Houston; 03-29-2009, 04:30 PM.
    15g column BB low-tech driftwood/planted - Dwarf Puffer Tank :lupe:

  • #2
    Welcome! Nice tank!
    Fish are people too, they just have gills.

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    • #3
      Welcome to the Box!
      Tank looks like it's off to a nice start and you seem to be doing your research!

      As for the peat I would probably add it to the filters to be more stable and consistent.
      700g Mini-Monster tank

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      • #4
        I love the "new tank-scape" look. Its like "new car smell!" Looks good! :emt_thumbs:
        Experiencing an aquatic renaissance!

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        • #5
          Thanks for the kind words...its been a great way to spend some time.

          I also did have a question about oxygen levels...I have adjusted a section of the spray bar to shoot upward toward the surface and it creates a gentle ripple current almost 2/3rds of the way across the length of the tank. The other two sections are verticle and shoot water over my heater and along the back side of the tank...I can see tiny cabomba hairs gently be blown across the back almost all the way to the pickup on the other side of the tank.

          So will the spray bar that shoots water toward the surface be enough to add the needed oxygen of my future livestock? I didnt want to have any bubblers/air stones if I could help it, plus I have the plants and I didnt want to steal too much CO2 from them.

          In addition, the tank has glass tops...only small cut-outs were made on each side for the Eheim tubing. Will this "suffocate" my livestock if I dont supplement air under the glass tops?

          Thanks in advance...
          15g column BB low-tech driftwood/planted - Dwarf Puffer Tank :lupe:

          Comment


          • #6
            Great looking Tank. Welcome to the Box
            Go to Heaven for the climate Hell for the company.

            125g SA/CA
            125g Red Jewels, and mbuna
            90g Hex Angels, Tetras, and Cories
            55g Low Tech Planted. Guppies, Neon Tetras, Red Cherry Shrimp
            55g peacock pair
            45g Fry tank
            12g Hospital Tank
            75g Coming soon....Geos?

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            • #7
              UPDATE:

              Pulled all the messy and melting cabomba, as well as the val. The val didnt do well during the fishless cycle, and the cabomba didnt do well after the fishless cycle. lol...but the swords all did great so I purchased 2 more large ones from Dan last week.

              3 Amazon swords
              1 Argentine Sword
              1 Ozelot Sword
              1 Dwarf lily

              10 Rummy nose
              8 Cardinals
              10 Black neons
              4 Emerald Catfish (Brochis)
              4 Oto Catsfish
              6 Silver Hatchetfish
              3 Blue Rams (1 is stunted, freebie from HAW)

              Everyone is doing great...I lost a couple of small otos and cards about 2 weeks ago, but thats it so far.

              PH 7.3
              Ammonia 0
              Nitrites 0
              Nitrates between 5 and 10

              Looking for 2 more SA dwarf cichlids then I'll probably add 4 or 5 angels as the final centerpiece. Im hoping my cards grow up fast, I hear they can disappear by morning each day from the angels looking for a midnight snack.

              Some pics, you cant really see the hatchets the photo is too bright. The last two are of the female blue rams.








              15g column BB low-tech driftwood/planted - Dwarf Puffer Tank :lupe:

              Comment


              • #8
                Originally posted by Matt in Houston View Post

                So will the spray bar that shoots water toward the surface be enough to add the needed oxygen of my future livestock? I didnt want to have any bubblers/air stones if I could help it, plus I have the plants and I didnt want to steal too much CO2 from them.
                Hi Matt! welcome to HFB. I think the portion of spray bar you have angled up should work for you. If you run into oxygen problems later you can always adjust the direction of another or add a powerhead, but the one will probably be fine. Off-gassing of co2 shouldn't be a problem as long as you're not causing a lot of surface agitation. Gentle ripples shouldn't be an issue.

                Mark
                What are the facts? Again and again and again--what are the facts? Shun wishful thinking, ignore devine revelation, forget what "the stars foretell", avoid opinion, care not what the neighbors think, never mind the unguessable "verdict of history"--what are the facts, and to how many decimal places? You pilot always into an unknown future; facts are your only clue.

                Robert Anson Heinlein

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                • #9
                  I used peat in one of those cheep corner air/filter combo things from petsmart years back and with in 2 days the tank had a nice amber color to it.
                  People who stand for nothing will fall for everything.


                  30 cube ( Hi tech planted)(for sale)
                  29 bio cube (reef)
                  20 cube (kids tank)

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Originally posted by wesleydnunder View Post
                    Hi Matt! welcome to HFB. I think the portion of spray bar you have angled up should work for you. If you run into oxygen problems later you can always adjust the direction of another or add a powerhead, but the one will probably be fine. Off-gassing of co2 shouldn't be a problem as long as you're not causing a lot of surface agitation. Gentle ripples shouldn't be an issue.

                    Mark
                    Thanks for the info...I went ahead and bought a powerhead with a sponge filter on it and angled it toward the surface to create a gentle ripple across the tank. Its supplements the spray bar great, everything flowing from the same direction. Works great and no sign of stress due to lack of oxygen.
                    Last edited by Matt in Houston; 04-25-2009, 06:34 PM.
                    15g column BB low-tech driftwood/planted - Dwarf Puffer Tank :lupe:

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Originally posted by dustin View Post
                      I used peat in one of those cheep corner air/filter combo things from petsmart years back and with in 2 days the tank had a nice amber color to it.
                      Yeah, I bought a bag of peat from Ace and I decided to boil and bottle it. The tank takes about 4 cups of extract to get it nice and amber, then I replace with 2 cups every 50% water change.

                      I was going to put it in my canister filter but decided against it. Besides the way our water is, the water would end up very dark to get the PH below 7. Even when its a nice amber color the lowest I have seen it was around 7.2....I think its around 7.4-7.5 out of the tap.

                      The tank is clear water now, I thought my hatchet fish had ich and have been doing a 1/2 dose quick cure treatment with water changes and elevated temps. I'll add the extract again when I'm sure everything is clean...its looking like 2 of my hatchetfish must have some tiny injured scales that made it look like ich in the light....they are still looking pretty much the same after over a week so I doubt its ich, but maybe it was and they are healing now. None of the other fish have any signs after 4 consecutive days of water changes and treatments early last week. Now I have slowly lowered temps back down to 80-81 and I'm going to dose once every three days twice more just to be sure.

                      I need to get a quarantine tank but I'm almost done stocking so I'm not sure its worth the trouble and expense, but something tells I need one anyway.

                      How do you keep a quarantine tank cycled?...or does it matter as long as your doing daily water changes?
                      Last edited by Matt in Houston; 04-25-2009, 06:41 PM.
                      15g column BB low-tech driftwood/planted - Dwarf Puffer Tank :lupe:

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        UPDATE:

                        Purchased 5 angels, 2 Bristlenose cats, 2 compacta swords and some micro sword. Removed the hatchetfish to remove the glass tops. More light and no top of the tank glass glare. Also installed a 3ft blue LED night light. Its awesome and the fish seem to enjoy it for a few hours after lights out.



                        Installed two 3L bottles of DIY co2. Recipe is making ~35 bubbles per min and I'm sending it up the intake of my Eheim 2028. PH has dropped to ~7.1 without having to use boiled peat water extract. Here is the tank now.



                        Not sure if the BNs were eating my amazon swords. I added more ferts and trimmed the dead leaves.



                        All fish are doing well except I lost some cardinals to a strange disease that seemed to kill one each night for about a week. Now there are two left doing great for the past 10 days, whatever it was seems gone now. Here is a pic with the flash on, you can see the water is slightly amber colored but the painted background makes it darker than it really is. I like it! Just need more plants.



                        I also setup a 10g quarantine tank and for a filter just bought an identical sponge filter powerhead that I have in my big tank, so when I want to cycle the quarantine tank I can just pull the sponge from the big tank.

                        So next up Im adding more plants, probably some Val, more compacta swords and maybe a big red rubin. Need more plants!
                        Last edited by Matt in Houston; 05-14-2009, 10:33 PM.
                        15g column BB low-tech driftwood/planted - Dwarf Puffer Tank :lupe:

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Looking good.Im shure with the new co2 the plants will be growing in a hurry now. I cannot wait for my discus to finish growing out, the bare tank thing is getting old quick! lol
                          People who stand for nothing will fall for everything.


                          30 cube ( Hi tech planted)(for sale)
                          29 bio cube (reef)
                          20 cube (kids tank)

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            were do you get those little blue lights i cant find them anywere i want a strip exactly like yours
                            210 gallon ~ S/A, C/A build; jaguar, dovii, flowerhorn, gold doviI, 2 red devils, pacu, shovel nose cat
                            125 gallon long ~ African cichlids
                            10 gallon ~ ghost shrimp breeding (fish treats) haha

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                            • #15
                              They have them at Fish R Us, but I think I got the last one that long but I'm not sure. Either way, they have many boxes of the 1 ft ones for just over $30 each.
                              15g column BB low-tech driftwood/planted - Dwarf Puffer Tank :lupe:

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