Trio123

My 65 gallon tank is now completely planted, no fake plants except those that were attached to the decorations that I didnt feel like taking off. Here is what's in there (I drove an hour and a half to a large fish store that carried lots of plants and yes I went crazy )

Cryptocoryne retrospiralis
Crytpocoryne walkeri
Crytpocoryne wendtii
Crytpocoryne lutea
Green Tiger Lotus
Red Rubin
Amazon Sword
Rotala Indica
Anubias Coffeefolia
Anubias nana petite
Dwarf Sagattaria
Corkscrew Vallisneria

I also got some nerite snails.

The fish in there currently are:
Congo Tetras
otto cats
Precious my Angel
Bristlenose Pleco
Whiptail Pleco
African Knife
and the nerite snails

I've got two 54 watt T5's with individual reflectors. I am also in the process of hooking up a DIY CO2 system which will have two 2 liter soda bottles and a reactor chamber with a powerhead that will bring the water to the CO2 and force close to 100% dissolution. Im so excited I am a little worried about the oxygen concentration in my tank though because I cut off my power head as the plant prefer the stiller water... But Im worried about my plecos as the tank is two feet tall. I could try to add a bubbler again, I broke the last pump by hanging it upside down.

Lucy

Wow, you've been working hard.
Sounds nice, but where's the pics? You know we love them!

Trio123

Yes, but right now the tank looks bare because the plants in the back have to grow. But I guess I dont need to be embarrassed of my bare tank with you guys. Here you go

Attached Images

	east side.jpg (64.6 KB, 10 views)
	west side.jpg (75.1 KB, 8 views)
	central.jpg (80.7 KB, 8 views)
	whole tank.jpg (59.3 KB, 14 views)

Shawnie

embarrased? HECK NO!!!!!! it looks awesome....I cant even imagine when its fully grown! thanks for sharing!

Trio123

and a few more, notice the rotala indica... it is really gorgeous stuff harvested from thier display tank in the front of the store, cant wait till it grows taller and I cant see it yet

Attached Images

	rotala and red rubin.jpg (49.6 KB, 6 views)
	zoomed out.jpg (62.4 KB, 3 views)
	precious and coffeefolia.jpg (83.0 KB, 4 views)

Trio123

Thanks Shawnie

MissMTS

Congrats! That is quite a good looking tank.....especially for your first planted tank! Great job and thanks for sharing the pics!

Coryd55

Looks great!

Rotala indica is one of my favorite plants! It looks amazing when its nice and lush and tall.

ShaynaB

Wow! Your tank looks fantastic! Great job!!!

Trio123

so now the co2 is actually hooked up. took a while cause I have been really busy with school and work. didnt realize how time consuming graduate classes are compared to undergrad... alot more reading and 7 page papers are expected to be written in a week... ugh

any who here is a pic of the system and some pics to show how the tanks doing.

oh and I took out the big piece of fake drift wood because it was getting wierd white fungiesy (you know what I mean) stuff growing in it.

oh and one more thing, I got a pair of german blue rams... a little worried cause the angel does not, absolutely does not like them. She isnt nipping them (thier tails look fine) but she charges them when them come up top (she thinks she owns the top layer of the tank). The other thing that worries me is the female keeps just going up and down the glass... hope she is alright. And lastly Im worried about the CO2 I just hooked up because it could 1- lower oxygen at night and 2-low the pH in the tank... But I have alkaline buffer on hand so hopefully it will be ok............

Attached Images

	center of tank.JPG (71.8 KB, 9 views)
	TankSept08.JPG (60.0 KB, 10 views)
	westside of tank.JPG (81.1 KB, 2 views)
	east side of tank.JPG (85.0 KB, 2 views)
	CO2 Injection.JPG (79.1 KB, 2 views)

Trio123

oh boy oh boy oh boy!!!! There are bubbles lots of bubbles in my reactor!!! YEAH! and the pH this morning is 7.6 so hasnt changed at all.

Trio123

well my reactor slowed down... now there is hardly any bubbles... dont know if it is supposed to do that or not...

Trio123

This tank is going to be a masterpiece, if the amount of money I've spent on it has anything to do with it I'm going high tech, pressurized CO2 and EI dosing of dry fertilizers.

I was a little worried about my fish when I first set up the CO2 (the idea of the pH dropping is a bit worrisome) but they seem to be perfectly fine so far.

The tiger lotus and the dwarf sagataria died a few weeks after purchasing them. I have also added 2 German Blue Rams which are absolutely beautiful. I will take some pictures after Christmas. We will see if a month of steady CO2 injection and fertilizers are worth thier weight in fish food

matt

AAAAAWWWWEEEESSSSOOOOMMMMEEEE TTTTAAANNNNKKK!!!!!!!!!

Awesome Tank

When that is fully grown it will look brillianter


From Matt

isis

That is a seriously fantastic job you did there!!!

matt

I cmpletely agree Isis. LOL. as if i didnt make it clear enough


From Matt

isis do u support the bokke?

From Matt

Trio123

thanks guys but save your praise till after we see the results of my efforts

those pics are after the initial plantings, the trick is to keep the tank stable and the plants and residents beautiful/happy

angelfish220

It is going to look so COOL!!!!

I wish I had the time/money to have a big setup like that.