My new 55 gallon progress thread.

Sorry but I have a lot of fun being able to watch my tanks evolve and become better. I am kinda hoping a few of you will like the idea as well.

When I first set up my 55 gallon I took some equipment from the older tanks I had to make the 55 gallon usable.

So I have attached a couple of photos. The first one is when I first had it going with the old equipment. The second picture is with some new equipment and my new lights.

The difference is amazing and I am only using 1/2 of my new fixtures total output!!

Also just so you know I am checking the water params daily and have taken many precautions to ensure a safe transition for the fish. I can go into detail if you like.

P.S. Added what it looks like with the blue lights on as well...

 

This came out real nice. You are doing a good job.:kewlpics:

 

Thanks! I will keep this thread updated with pics and info of worthy note.

 

WOW great before and after pics...LOVE the blue lites! is that ok for the fish? as a newbie, I think different color lites are cool but don't wanna mess anything up..GREAT JOB

 

I think the blue lights really make the fish no difference. They mess with me something fierce though.. LOL!! They are very bright and meant for saltwater setups but came with the fixture. So think of 108 watts for High output blue filling your living room to the point your eyes feel funny.. LOL!!

Does look cool though.. I was thinking parties and such..

 

O my never thought about that lol...a few cold ones and that tank... it does look great tho..as long as the fish don't mind!

 

Love the new lights.. that's a great fixture!

 

Currently waiting on more available finds for further upgrades..

Once I get some cool stuff going I'll post it for all to see.

Sadly I have cloudy water now. I believe it is the beginning of an algae explosion. I have already done a 50% water change, added 6 bunches of stem plants, dosed excel, and added DIY C02 to the tank, not to mention I have 2 polishing micron filters running as I type. Hopefully byt the end of the day today a change will appear.

I also picked up a couple very pretty German Blue Rams. They are about 3/4 of an inch to 1 inch in length now. Very shy at this point. I will attach a pic. Not as nice as the last few but I am hoping to show a difference in water clarity with the next set of pics.

Latest Snap shot after the "cloudy water" has gone bye bye..

 

I love your setup, it is excellent! Congratulations on such a gorgeous tank.

 

Thanks a lot... I look at it frequently thinking it can be better or needs more plants, needs less equipment in the tank, etc... But I am doing the best with what I have and hopefully it will just get better..

I am wondering if a video is in order??

 

A video would be great. ;D

 

A video would be great. ;D

Ask and you shall receive.... I tried to capture how clear the water is, the plants expelling 02, the C02 misting, and a few of the fish in the tank. Hopefully I didn't move around to much.

 

Cool, it looks great!

 

looks good love the video. don't worry about cloudy water its better then my tanks. one is brown from the bog wood and the other is read from the meds for fin rot.

 

Great improvement. It's such a beautiful tank and I love your fish!

 

Little update.. It's been a while and the upgrades are still coming. But for now heres a photo to show the progress.

If you have any questions or comments I would love to read them!

 

Wow! the plant growth is great!

I'm changing my tank to planted and am getting an amazon sword, and Eventully I want it to get that giant tankbusting size, I thought it would take years, but your plants grew great in 2 months!

 

If the plant growth increases as I suspect it will with my new upgrades I will be selling plants to my LFS which my wife will love. Seems like every time I walk in there I walk out about 100 bucks lighter... LOL!!

Thanks for the kind words!

 

That is beautiful! As the plants continue to fill in it will be really lush looking.
Carol

 

Awesome tank!!!I love your fish

 

A quick little video showing progression up to the present. The photo more accurately shows the tanks current state. But this gives an idea of where it all started from.

Currently on day 3 of pressurized C02 injection...

All I can say is WOW! The plants are greener, the water the cleaner, and the algae is getting its tush kicked. The C02 is much easier to dial in than with DIY as well.

I honestly can't believe this kind of progress in less than 3 days. The plants are a simply beautiful shade of green.

I'm going to stare some more now.

 

Great job! Yea, I hear that's great for planted tanks.

 

I have more pretty pink flowers from my money wort. I honestly didn't know they flowered. But these are 100% submerged with flowers.. Pretty cool..

 

in your first video, I love the s of your ram (35-40 seconds), its truly beautiful in colour, do you find it hard to look after? because apprently theyre very sensitive.

 

No they are easy. Just keep the water clean and they do very well.. Careful of getting 2 males though.. They get a little mean with each other and one may die if not both.

 

AWESOME tank. This is making me want to put some plants in my tank, which I probably will. moneywort here I come lol

 

Great video, perfect music to go with it too ... do you have a background on the back of the tank, is it black?....
AS for the blue light, I really like the effect, my 12 gallon as a white light, blue and another dimmer light.... basically for sw, but I use them all as I like the effect.

very nice tank!!!! love the plants and choice of fish.

 

Great looking tank. I love all the plants and fish.

 

Well I know I have been gone for ever but just to update... Everything is going very well.. Maybe a little to well as I have a hard time keeping up with the plant growth so the tank gets kinda crowded with all the plants where I have to pull a bucket o' plants out of the tank to be able to work with it...

I'll work on getting a video up.. And more details of where the tank setup is now.

 

Beautiful!

 

Looks really nice!

 

I really like the no fishing sign in the middle! Watch those plants grow! ;D

 

Your tank is beautiful! I can't wait to see the new video

 

congrats! it looks amazing!

 

Well a little background of the last few months...

I have been experimenting with using plants as the "primary" source of filtration in this tank. So far it has worked out very well. I am still working out the proper fertilization cycle as I have not found a perfect one yet. I apologize for the blurry video as I normally shoot these at night and get a better quality video as a result...

Anyway here is the video... Any questions please ask..

 

I love your tank! it looks incredible! I also enjoyed the elevator music on the video

 

Sorry about the music.... LOL!!!

I have a new comp without any of my regular music and that was just a track that came with it...

 

haha it was actually really relaxing! it fit well with the video! What is your watt output from your lights?

 

There are 4 bulbs total.. In the video only 2 of them are on. 55watt T5 in all 4 slots.. I believe the 2 that are on are 6700's and the 2 that are off are 10k's.. I don't use the 10k's much unless I'm trying to boost the O2 output from the plants for whatever reason.

When people come to visit and ejoy the tank I'll flip on the other 2 so all 4 are on so they can see the pearling.. I know it's goofy..

 

brilliant set-up!