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Hello all. I am about 2 months into my first aquarium. It was a 20g for a while, but I expanded the 20g contents into a new tank. It is a cycled 38 gallon tank (measures 36"x12" and 20" tall). Black quartz substrate mixed with Seachem flourite.
Filtration
Aquaclear 30
Aquaclear 50
Lighting
Hagen Glo T5 HO double fixture
2x39W Hagen Life-Glo T5 HO bulbs
Digital timer on an 8 hour photoperiod
Most of the fish are young, I may expand this tank to a 55g if it begins to get too crowded.
Fertilization
I bought seachem root tabs as well as Brightwell Aquatics FlorinMulti liquid fert. I have only dosed one weeks worth of the liquid so far. Should I use both?
Carbon
5lb tank - Regulator from GLA with built in solenoid and bubble counter. Ceramic diffuser and glass drop counter.
Right now, the tank has been suffering from too much light and not enough fertilizer and CO2. I have a fair amount of fuzz algae growing, and although I do see growth in my plants, its small amounts of growth. The algae is quickly growing on anything more than a few days old. Hopefully once I have my CO2 dialed in, things will begin to look better. Here is the tank as of right now, stay tuned!
Pictures time! I hope to have a dense background of swords going up and over the large driftwood root, with a semi-dense midground of mid height plants. In the front, I want the DHG to carpet a little more.
close-up of the driftwood cave/tunnel. The pleco and shrimp love to hang out here when the light is on. Occasionally corys nap here.
this is the back side of the cave. I left space open here so you could view whoever is hiding inside from the right side of the tank.
detail on the rocks I gathered from the mountains in NC. Can anyone identify the light green plant with round leaves? Is that a pond penny?
detail of the left side of the tank from the front. I hope it looks better when the plants fill in some. I tried to make a cliff there to have different heights, but it looks a bit contrived. Anyone know what species of Rotala I have here?
Looking through the tank from the left hand side.
Another from from standing height. Its a low stand.
Last edited by jprime84; October 30th, 2009 at 02:46 PM.
I put all the fish in another tank and just spent a few hours moving everything around. I reccomend that if you want to just try things out with your tank. Remember to keep the plants damp when they are out of the tank.
Too bad I can't see the pics @ work but when I get home I will check them out! I will definitely keep coming back to check your progress. Can you take a picture of your SAE?
Instead of trying to get photos of the fish I just took a video. Sorry about the cameras metering mode, it couldnt decide whether or not to expose for the brights or the darks. Is my tank overstocked?
Wonderful set up Jprime. Any problems when vac'ing the tank with the substrate separating? When you say black quartz I assume you are using 3M Colorquartz T or S grade? If not what product is it? Thanks!
By the way tough to tell on the pics of the Rotala. Some closer pics might help. Does it have pink in it at all? Once the Co2 really settles in you may find it looks completely different. As a side note if you trim the tops off of Rotala it really encourages bushy growth like some of the dutch style aquariums you see. I am sure you know you can plant the trimmings as well.
You may find in time all those swords will get to big for the tank but right now they look amazing.
Keep up the nice work and I look forward to seeing more pics!
Wonderful set up Jprime. Any problems when vac'ing the tank with the substrate separating? When you say black quartz I assume you are using 3M Colorquartz T or S grade? If not what product is it? Thanks!
By the way tough to tell on the pics of the Rotala. Some closer pics might help. Does it have pink in it at all? Once the Co2 really settles in you may find it looks completely different. As a side note if you trim the tops off of Rotala it really encourages bushy growth like some of the dutch style aquariums you see. I am sure you know you can plant the trimmings as well.
You may find in time all those swords will get to big for the tank but right now they look amazing.
Keep up the nice work and I look forward to seeing more pics!
I dont vaccuum all that often. Usually its just the spots with no plants nearby. Its not 3M colorquartz, and unfortunately I dont remember the brand name. I researched my Rotala and the fine haired variety is Rotala Wallichii.
Brought the CO2 kit home yesterday. Got the tank filled (about $22 for the 5lb tank). The system was pretty easy to setup. The worst thing was that the tank and regulator were about a half inch too tall to fit in the cabinet below my tank.
I connected everything and turned it on to ensure it was all setup correctly. I turned the gas off at the tank afterwards, because I didnt have a big enough crescent wrench to tighten the connection to the tank well enough. I didnt want to leak all my CO2 overnight.
That drop checker was a pain to install. I will probably turn the gas on saturday morning when I have some time to monitor the tank. I plan on starting on a conservative 0.5-1 bubbles/second and increasing from there.
Congrats J! I am really excited to watch this tank transform. Good call on waiting until you have some time. GLA walked you through the process I assume?
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