Gamer

Welcome to Gamer's new and improved 55 Gallon Planted Tank Journal. Here you'll get regular updates on my tanks progression which through hardwork and dedication I hope to make into a sheer underwater masterpiece.

Tank Size: 48.25x12.75x21
Filtration: Rena FilStar xp3 (2 fine sponges, 2 coarse sponges, ceramic rings; no carbon)
Lighting: Two AHSupply.com 2x55 Bright Kits
Substrate: AquariumPlants.com's freshwater soil
CO2: Milwaukee CO2 Regulator and a Reactor 500
Decor: Malaysian and canopi driftwood pieces
Fish: 1 young pair of angelfish, 8 corydoras catfish, 3 BN pleco's, 1 gold inca snail and 6 serpaes which are about to be moved into another tank
Plants: Amazon swords, red melon swords, narrowleaf ludwigia, chain swords and jungle vals
Fish To Come: 1 farlowella, a banjo catfish (if I can find one), 8 or so hatchetfish
Plants To Come: Anarcharis, cabomba, more jungle vals and some floating hornwort

I've cleared up the clutter on this board and hope to keep everything related to my current 55 gallon in one thread. This one. Not much to report today except, I am removing the serpaes later this morning and hopefully am ordering my anarcharis, cabomba and other plants by this weekend. Sometime next week, I want to order my hatchets.

Blub

Do you have pics?! It sounds cool.

Gamer

Hey Hatchet. I was going to wait until the tank is complete to post updated pics.

Btw, I am using Takashi Amano's golden rule of aquascaping in selecting a focal point and planting that first. For the foreground, I have 4 extra long pieces of slate rock and what I'll be doing is wetting them down, adding riccia on top of them and then tying that riccia down with a hairnet to make a grassy lawn.

Blub

I love aquascaping! I mean, like the sort your talking about, not, 'This castle looks nice here'... That is acctualy taking over from the fish for me! You don't have to wait until it's finished - often pics of it before and then a month later are really cool.

Gamer

The goal is to create a beautiful and healthy home for my fish. In time, I hope to do something bushy and red in the focal point. The plants may not be lush at first but with my lighting and the CO2 and ferts to come, they SHOULD surely pearl week after week and I hope to have weekly prograss pics once it gets started.

My digi cam is not with me at the moment but I'll have before pics by weeks end. I found a store near me with hatchets. It's also said to have a good selection of plants so I am going to look there before I place an order on aquariumplants.com.

BTW, I sent back the stand alone Reactor and I am going to be plumbing the CO2 in right through my Rena FilStar. Wish me luck!

Other than that not much to report yet. The Rena FilStar is pretty new on my tank so as it gets established, I am also running an old Penguin Bio-Wheel (no carbon, just a pad with foam) until it gets more beneficial bacteria built in it. Not sure if this is necessary I just wanted to do it this way for now but eventually, in a few weeks, I plan to just be filtering with my Rena.

mathas

As another FilStar owner who will need to move to CO2 eventually, I'm quite interested in how this works out for you!

Blub

Check out http://www.aquatic-eden.com/ - it really helped me on a lot of subjects, especially aquascaping.

Gamer

I apologise for the delay but things have been crazy around here. My angelfish are spawning and I had already gotten a new tank for them. It's a 60 gallon hexagon. It's not cycled yet, otherwise I'd just move the pair over to it.

Plus, I experienced some leaking with my xp3. Perhaps I didn't push down the quick disconnect hard enough but after my first maitenance job, it leaked. All over. I've heard nothing but positive reviews on this canister so I chop it up to one single bad unit or a stupid mistake on my behalf. Maybe I can still use it. Perhaps on my 60 gal.

I purchased a Magnum in it's place. It's an oldschool canister but instead of filling it with carbon I filled it with ceramic rings and it makes a great CO2 reactor and with all the plants, I get some biological filtration anyway sooo I am happy with it.