Shaina

A little update on the 90g...

The whole thing has been running very well since the end of the build thread (90gal System Build). The only problem I had was that the evaporation rate was dropping the level in my last sump compartment too quickly...I had to top it off every 2-3 days. I had the choice of either building an automatic top-off system so I could leave town or finding another remedy...I ended up snapping the last baffle in half horizonally so that the pump compartment level was the same as the two previous compartments, giving an overall larger volume of water with which to work. Seems to have worked like a charm.

Some stock changes have taken place. Originally it had a 2" Green Terror, and 3x ~1.5-2" Firemouths. Added 3x 2" Pictus, 3x 1.5-2.5" Albino Bristlenose, and 3x SAE.

Then the Green Terror "Banner" got sick so he was taken out. The two larger Firemouths paired up around 2.5" (male) and 2" (female), but were fine with the other fish so long as the others stayed off their turf.

Fast forward...added my koi Angelfish "Bruiser" from my 29g to the 90 and reintroduced my baby Green Terror at the same time. I was worried about how the Firemouth would react, but from what I can tell my Angelfish (2.5") beat up my Green Terror (2.5")...not exactly expected. I took him out but it was too late, and he passed away last week of his injuries.

Moved the piece of driftwood from my 29g to the 90g, and added a 3.5" Royal Panaque, who I adore. Then again I also love my male FM and the Angelfish...

So, after 5 months or so, the livestock as it stands is...
- 1x pair Firemouths (3.5, 2.5")
- 1x Angelfish (3")
- 3x Pictus Catfish (4")
- 1x Royal Panaque (4")
- 4x Albino Bristlenose Catfish (2-4")
- 3x Siamese Algae Eaters

I'm considering adding a small school but we shall see.

Plants, all cuttings/excess from my 29g, include
- Jungle Val
- Anubia (coffeefolia)
- Java Fern
- Java Moss

System Specs:
pH 7.1
Temp 78F
Substrate: Pool Sand w/ Fluorite in pots for the vals
Lighting: 2x 55W CFLs
Water volume: 95-100gallons
Hardscape: Malaysian driftwood, pink granite I collected

Pics...
"Bruiser" (on his un-bruised side):


Male Firemouth...I'm biased but he's the prettiest FM I've ever seen lol:


Pictus, after having eyes WAY too big for his stomach (can't see pot from front):


Mr. Handsome himself, the Royal Panaque (I adore these guys...can't wait til he's big):


Albino BN, with then-living Banner the GT behind him:


Whole Tank...cleaned up the Java Moss since this pic, but it's the most recent I have:





That's it...thanks for looking!!

Amanda

B-E-A-U-tiful!

suemvb

Wow! I love your aquascaping

aquarist48

I love it. Nice job.

Beth1965

Tank and inhabitants look lovely.

MissMTS

Shaina your tank is gorgeous! It sounds like a great mix of fish I am glad that the angel worked out with the FM, but I am so sorry to hear about your GT....he was gorgeous I love the java moss that you have in there. I am thinking of adding some to one of my tanks sometime soon. The sand and driftwood combo looks great! You should deffinetly enter this in the tank of the month competition Your hard work has deffinetly paid off!

Lucy

I love the drift wood, good job!

kahuna

That is one impressively designed tank.

Speedy

Amazing looking tank!

MaddieLynn

Wow Shaina! Great tank!

This is a tank that doesn't have the size listed in the Craigslist ad - I got a little bit of an idea of scale from the doorway, and the aquarium calculator said that my estimations were those of an 90 gallon tank. Do you think it's the same size as yours?

Attached Images

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GypsyGirl71

Gorgeous tank!

Shaina

Thank you very much, everyone This whole project has been a lot of fun (and work!) lol


MaddieLynn - assuming it's one of the standard sizes (since there's no way to measure depth) and a 48" tank, I would say that's a 90g...too tall to be a 75g, not tall enough, proportionally, to be a 110g. That's a lot of assumptions though, lol.

mare2009

Ohhhh Yahhhh that is a beautiful tank, and the FM's face and markings are gorgeous for sure! I agree..put your tank in the aquarium contest

agabr123

gorgeous!!!

Shaina

Thank you very much

I did my weekly 50% water change today, rinsed filter media, trimmed the moss and added some gravel because I felt the plain sand was too stark (and shows EVERY little thing...fish waste, broken off bit of driftwood, etc.)...still waiting for the water to clear due to stirring up the sand .

Shaina

So in what I can only describe as a fit of insanity I decided last weekend that I didn't like the white sand (seemed too unnatural) and that I was going to switch to more naturally-colored pea gravel. I picked up a couple big bags and rinsed the gravel repeatedly with a hose in 5g buckets, but otherwise didn't have time for such an undertaking over the weekend.

So last night we pulled the canopy off the 90g and I set to work draining the tank, removing all the decor, netting fish (and catching 5" pictus catfish with a terracotta pot...not so fun. But they survived the experience with their barbels and my nets and fingers all intact).

The fish, StressCoat, one heater, and a sponge filter went into a rubbermade for the evening. Sand was scooped out into two 5g buckets and replaced with the rinsed gravel and some flourite from the 6g I'm taking down. Replaced & rearranged decor (hopefully better territories now), cleaned the sump in some of the used tank water, and suctioned out the sump to really get debris out of the bottom of some of the early compartments.

Then it was time to dump in my water treatment and refill the tank. I added carbon and extra filter floss to the sump to help take care of anything nasty that was intro'd to the tank and speed the removal of suspended fines). After letting the whole system run for about an hour to eliminate hot/cold spots as much as possible, everyone was reintroduced. As of this morning all were accounted for though still looking a bit pale as they reestablish territories (3x 5" Pictus catfish, 3x 2.5-3.5" Geophagus surinamensis, 1x 5" Angelfish, 3x 3-3.5" Siamese Algae Eater, 1x 3" Albino Bristlenose, 1x 4" Royal Panaque).

Hopefully the fines will work themselves out of the system today and I can get pics tonight. It ended up taking pretty much the entire evening...~6pm to 11pm, with a lot of "hurry up and wait" for water to drain, refill, circulate, etc.

Lucy

Wow, that was some job!
I bet it looks great, please post some pics soom.

Shaina

Okay there is still a LOT of fines in the water but I really want to post pics so we're going to go ahead and call it an Amazonian Whitewater tank for the time being...play along, okay?

Here it is!


Note: How many fish can you see? I see all three Geophagus, the Angelfish, the Royal Panaque, the Albino BN, one of the four Rosey Tetras, two of the three Pictus, and no SAEs...

Attached Images

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