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March 13th, 2010
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| | Fish Keeper
| Working on the 120G angel tank
Many of you have been answering questions for me for months about setting up my tank. I am getting really close now. (finally)
Recap for those who haven't helped me already. It's a 120G tank that will have 8-10 angels, a school of cardinal tetras, a school of cory's, and some BN plecos. I might add some other stuff but this will be the main focus. I am also going to plant the tank as heavily as I can and stay low tech. ( no co2) I have to 96 watt CFL bulbs, 2 AC 110's, and two 250 watt stealth heaters. I also have a large air stone. 3 large pieces of driftwood and natural pea gravel.
The plants are going to be lower light plants, java fern, java moss, swords etc. I also plan on some floating vegetation.
Here are a few pics of how its coming, I'm getting ready to add the water tonight or in the morning.
I also have two bags of the ceramic rings from the AC 110's that have been in another tank for about a month so hopefully I can get a very quick if not instant cycle. I plan on adding some of the plants and the ceramic rings tomorrow and giving it a dose of ammonia to see how quick it processes that. I have about 10-12 small java fern starts from the other tank that will go in first.
Ive never aquascaped a tank like this before so any advice on placements of things would be great. Right now the rocks are sitting next to the driftwood to help hold it down. It has been soaking for about a week but the middle piece is the only one that will sink. | 
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March 13th, 2010
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| | Moderator
| Love your aquascaping. If you get impatient with the wood you can use a drill and attach flat rocks with stainless steel screws and washers.
Java fern, Bolbitis,Java Moss and Anubias along with a few crypts would be wonderful for your tanks.
This may help you with attaching your plants Plants with Rhizomes
Carol | |
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March 13th, 2010
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| | Fish Keeper
| The two outside pieces of wood have pretty large pieces of slate screwed to the bottom of them but it is not quite enough. I bought this tank back in August and have been waiting on some improvements at my house to get finished so I would have room for it. The good thing is I was able to buy the gear over time instead of having to drop all that money at once. | |
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March 13th, 2010
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| | Fish Lore Newbie
| Your tank looks great! Cant wait to see it with some fishes. | |
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March 13th, 2010
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| | Fish Master
| It's looking great!! I love 120's and I love your driftwood. It will look nice with some pretty Angels in there! | |
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March 14th, 2010
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| | Moderator
| 
Beautiful tank Flyin-Lowe!
Ken | |
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March 14th, 2010
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| | Fish Keeper
| I added 120g of water and two bags of seeded ceramic rings to the tank tonight. I also added one amazon sword that I rescued from my 75g tank. (it has less the .5 watts per gallon). I also added about 10 very small java fern starts from the 75g tank. I tested the water and got zeros across the board. I then did a small dose of ammonia to see how fast the tank processes this. The water was not as murky as I was expecting it to be. The pea gravel I used from Lowes had a lot of mud in it, I spent two evenings rinsing but it still wasn't perfect. The two filters should have it cleared up in no time.
Since I had the ceramic rings handy I used some of them to tie the small java's to. I tied a few to the driftwood as well. | |
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March 14th, 2010
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| | Fish Keeper
| Wow, that looks great!
It's really getting me excited to get my 180g! Thanks for the inspiration - keep the pics coming! | |
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March 17th, 2010
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| | Fish Keeper
| I added a few more plants today. (Not my final stock but I bought a couple on my lunch hour) 3 bunches of moneywort, 1 large sword of some type, and one large annubia of some type. The sword and annubias were each labeled Misc. and they were marked down. I also did a water change to help with the water cloudiness and get the level down to wear I could reach the bottom of the tank. | |
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March 17th, 2010
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| | Fish Mentor
| That is going to look really nice when you get it all the way planted. It looks great so far though. | |
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March 18th, 2010
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| | Fish Master
| Very cool. Excellent scaping job.
I like the rock & wood background. Quite effective for a roll out backing. | |
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March 18th, 2010
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| | Moderator
| Looking good FlyinLowe!
Question: Did you purchase the driftwood from a pet store or did you find it somewhere?
Thanks for keeping us updated!
Ken | |
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March 18th, 2010
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| | Fish Keeper
| Thanks for the compliments.
All the driftwood was purchased. I had a "native" piece but it was starting to rot and I was not sure on the type of wood so I figured better safe then sorry. I added more plants today so here are some updated pics. | |
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March 18th, 2010
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| | Moderator
| Nice looking tank!
Carol | |
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March 18th, 2010
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| | Fish Addict
| That looks amazing. Can't wait to see it with some angels in there!  | |
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March 18th, 2010
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| | Fish Keeper
| Wow, that setup looks really good | |
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March 19th, 2010
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| | Fish Mentor
| Very nice!!!! I love the aquascaping!!!!! | |
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March 19th, 2010
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| | Fish Keeper
| Hopefully it won't be too long. I had some seeded material in the filter and I have been dosing with ammonia to see where I was at. Last night my ammonia was about 1.0 and nitrites were zero. This morning my ammonia was about .5 and nitrites were off the charts. Still no nitrates. I sent the ammonia back up to about 2.0 this morning and I am going to see how long it takes that to come down. Hopefully I will see some nitrates soon. | |
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March 19th, 2010
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| | Fish Master
| GREAT looking tank ...you should be so proud!!
that driftwood is just amazing! | |
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March 19th, 2010
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| | Fish Helper
| You have the patience of a saint! Your tank is wonderful and beautiful. | |
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March 19th, 2010
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| | Fish Bum
| very pretty... it makes me want to have a 120G now too  | |
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March 19th, 2010
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| | Fish Keeper
| I really can't wait until all the plants start to fill in. You cant really see but there are about 10 small java ferns around the front but most are less then an inch tall. I think they a slow growers so that might take a while. | |
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March 21st, 2010
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| | Fish Keeper
| Its kind of hard to tell but in the original pics if you look you can see I had some blocks of wood holding my lights above the glass lids on my tank. It was temporary until I could find a way to lift them up. Today I was in the garage and saw a piece of 2 inch PVC and got an idea. I cut it into 8 pieces and then cut a slot in the top of each piece. I put a piece of the pvc under the corner of each light and the edge of the light sits into the slot for stability. I painted them black and the whole thing only took about 10 minutes plus it looks 100 times better. | |
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March 21st, 2010
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| | Moderator
| Excellent idea!
Carol | |
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March 21st, 2010
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| | Fish Master
| wow great idea...but curious why they arent just setting on the glass top? am i missing something? LOL | |
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March 21st, 2010
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| | Moderator
| Quote:
Originally Posted by Shawnie  wow great idea...but curious why they arent just setting on the glass top? am i missing something? LOL | Sometimes lights build too much heat sitting on the glass. Mine sit on the glass but I have some that are above the glass also.
carol | |
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March 21st, 2010
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| | Fish Keeper
| When I got them I put them directly on the glass. Within an hour it had cracked one of my glass hoods. I put 1 block of wood under each corner (a 1x2) and the next day another hood cracked. I was shocked because the glass tops were pretty thick glass. Anyway it's a heat issue, I even mounted the ballast's on the outside of the lights on the back to help release some of the heat. The are hot to the touch but won't burn you which I am told is normal for the CFL bulbs and ballast's. I called Fosters and Smith and they replaced my tops for me since they were new. If I have and future problems I will probably get a couple of the small fans from a computer and mount on them somewhere out of site. | |
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March 21st, 2010
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| | Fish Master
| wow never knew that TY both !
does it make the lights less weak from being further away? all my lights sit on the top and never had an issue ...YET ....but id love your idea to set them up flyin_lowe! | |
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March 21st, 2010
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| | Fish Keeper
| I don't know what kind of lights you use but basically if they are not to hot to hold onto I think directly on top is fine. I didn't notice much difference in the amount of light hitting the bottom when I raised it up. It might have actually spread the light out so more is hitting the front and back edge at the bottom (if that makes sense to anyone besides me  ) | |
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March 21st, 2010
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| | Fish Lore Newbie
| I read both pages and now it's like I'm waiting for my favorite tv show to come on. Only now I'm waiting to see the fish in your tank. It looks awesome by the way. | |
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