75 BIG BAD GALLONS OF PLANTED GREEN & FISH (work in progress)[many pix i prmomis]

[dmoney87]

Hey so Ill give you the run around on whats the plan and the man behind it. My experience? Id like to say novice, I currently have a 30 gallon fancy goldfish tank. I decided to go big or go home (not so much after reading about plecos 450 gallon amazon tank daayym lol) I found a 55 gallon used tank on kijiji.. complete with filter, hood, lights, heater, gravel, extra power filter, plants etc.. all for 150$ good deal right? .. ya no .. someone had went bought used 10mm thick plate glass and built there own aquarium..that was least of my worrys..the glass was pretty much scratches on all four sides inside and out..the hood was so old.. it was still using incadesent bulbs! give me a break.. ( i even remember asking on the phone " what size are the lights 24"? because i knew there were two one for each hood, he replies ugh yeah I think so ) lol what bs anyway the filter that came with it was probably just as old.. anyone heard of a magnum 350 canister filter? lol thing was garbage if you asked me.. so anyway I scrapped that tank.. went out to Big Al's Aquarium Wharehouse located here in my own city .. bought myself a brand new 75 gallon perfecto tank for 139.99, perfecto glass canopy 50$, Rena xp3 canister filter 159.99, Rena 300w smartheater, and a few other supplys. Im still in the process of ordering the substrate which will be flourite black sand. Im stil unsure as how much I need for a 75 g. It read somewhere that one bag 15lb I believe will cover 2in in a 10 gallon. So i figured Multiply that buy 7.5. So probably 8 bags of sand to be on safe side (does that seem like to much?) Im cringing at the price tag for freaking sand! but I really wanted the black sand and you cant buy black play or pool sand from home depot lol so yeah the sand is defintly the next thing to come because im really itching to get this thing going. After that will be the lights. This is the light setup I have chosen and believe it to be sufficiant for 75g planted.

http://www.bigalsonline.ca/BigAlsCA...484x65wattpowercompactlightstripw2lunarlights

After I get the sand and the lights Ill be ready to really get down to buisness. Here are some pix of my setup thus far.



The Setup

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e19/dcstarzz/IMG_0725.jpg

Massive heater, Direct connects to xp3 filter inlet tube.

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e19/dcstarzz/IMG_0737.jpg"

No sand yet soon to come, same with the light (still have to cut the slits in the silicone back strip for the filter inlet and outlet)

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e19/dcstarzz/IMG_0727.jpg"

Rena Filter

http://s36.photobucket.com/albums/e19/dcstarzz/?action=view&current=IMG_0733.jpg

lots of space a good canvas to work with i think, not to sure wheater i should have gone with the bubble wand setup or the powerhead on the filter outlet. any pros cons btwn the two?

http://s36.photobucket.com/albums/e19/dcstarzz/?action=view&current=IMG_0724.jpg

Just my 30g goldfish tank

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e19/dcstarzz/IMG_0707.jpg"

More Updates soon As I get the sand and lights.

-dC

 

[dmoney87]

Anybody know how much sand I will need @ 15.4 lbs perbag and I have a 75 gallon 48lx21hx18w ?

 

[brutus]

yeah sounds about right was looking at same .8 bags cost more then tank lol i shop big als here too i looked at the 75 but bought the 90 liked both sizes though

 

[dmoney87]

Yeah I wanted the 90 but I had already unfortuantly bought a 55-75g stand from stupid petsmart (never go back there again compared to big als) I decided to scrap the black sand idea (I really want it) but at amost 250 dollars for sand i decided the 9 dollar 50lb bag of pool filter sand is a much better investment. Leaves me with more cash for more plants,fish,DW,Rocks / the lights im getting of ebay.

Newest Update

Re-Sold that 55 gallon tank I bought on kijiji for 130$ took a 20 dollar loss but Im just glad its gone and i got my brand new 75

-Finally decided what kind of fish Im going to have and its DISCUS with some corys and cardinals!
-Purchased 100lbs of Pool Filter Sand
-Purchased FW master test kit
-Some more mopani wood
-Ordered a RO water filter
-digi thermometer
-Seachem flourish (I want to get co2, that can wait for now)
-Ordered my Light setup off ebay
-and a Giant Marimo ball for the **** of it

So far so good cant wait to get all the stuff I have on order!

Im going to go out and start rinsing of the sand In buckets with the garden hose.

check back soon

dave

 

[dskidmore]

Good start. I think you'll find the pool filter sand looking much more natural, which I think is part of the point of a planted tank.

As for the amount of sand to buy:
Here is a good aquarium calculator.

The 100 lbs should be plenty for 2" deep.

 

[Purrbox]

Plant heavily enough and you won't see the substrate, which makes the color a lot less important.

 

[dskidmore]

You're so practical Joy. Although I'm a ways off from a "green substrate" myself.

 

[dmoney87]

thanks for the calc skid, & True enough about the "if its planted well enough you wont see it" not sure if ill want to get a chain plant and cover the entire bottom as i do like the look of sand but well see what happans. I really wanted to get my gravel rinsed and put into the tank earlier today but of course my buddys came over and I got side tracked but tommorow its going to be 30c outside so its going to happan tomorrow. Quick question. Will it really matter If i rinse the sand with regular dechlorinated water and not RO water? Oh and I was wondering if any of you canucks (fellow canadians) have any experiences with regards to ordering 200$ plus items from states on ebay. As far beyond the regular shippingwhat are the eg taxes, ups fees, and whatever else it might encounter be like. Because Often I find considerbly lower prices on same products found here but hesitant as If it will be a worth while deal at the end of it all. Ive bought plenty of smaller items but non that expensive so I havent really had to pay duty.

thanks again,

Dave

Ill be posting new pics of the tank full of sand sometime tomorrow

 

[dskidmore]

The sand is dead when you buy it. Chlorine won't hurt it. By the time you fill the whole tank, what little chlorine was left on the sand will be too diluted to do any harm. If I was transplanting sand from an established to a new one, I'd be more gentle with the biofilter I hoped to import with the sand.

 

[Zagz]

Congratulations on the new setup. Discus are a great fish. I also keep them. Please do cycle the tank well before adding the discus. They are sensitive to parameter changes.

 

[dmoney87]

Ok thank you dskid, Yes of course. Ive been reading and reasearching for about the last couple months on the subject. Its not my first aquarium, but the first of this size. As far as planting goes (Ive never had a real planted tank) Does planting take place after the tank has cycled or am I able to plant after the substrate is down and the water is declohrinated? Second question: I rinsed my sand throughly all day today, got it into the tank and obviously its still cloudy, now how long should I wait until I get my Rena xp3 up and running? will that cloud in my tank ruin the filter?
thanks for the advice guys and girls

Newest Updates

-Rinsed 100lbs of sand for about the last 4 hours in buckets
-Filled the tank via garden hose run up to my second story level through my window. (i hate ladders)
-added the water conditioner & such. (would have liked to wait until my RO system comes in the mail but I figure ill get it up and running until than and replace 50-75% of the water with RO filter water. (reading about them kinda scares me though, the one I got (a cheapo i guess u cud call it, still over 70$) only can do about 10 gallons and hour.. yikes 7+ hours to fill my tank?? crazy.
-going to let my mopani wood soak in a couple buckets to release the tanin

Thats all for now (I cant post pictures yet, my rents went on vacation and took there camera with them)

Thanks again,

Dave

 

[SpeedEuphoria]

Did you boil the wood? You should

 

[dmoney87]

No I did not, but I havent done it yet. What would that require just pouring boling water from a kettle into the bucket? (thinks thats going to take alot of kettle water lol.) I heard somewhere that discus actually dont mind or prefer slighting tannin water is this true?

 

[SpeedEuphoria]

I'm not talking to remove tannins, I'm talking about killing any unwanted bacteria or fungus that could be living on the wood.

You should put it in a large pot on the stove and boil it, if you dont have a big enough pot then I guess you could pour boiling water on to it or get a large tub and boil it over a fire.

 

[dmoney87]

Oh i see, the package said it was precleaned (obv i guess you cant always believe that. So its not like i went down to the river and picked some up but i see what ur getting at. well a) no i dont have a pot big enough (barly can fit into my buckets) and b) fires and or fire pits are not permitted where im located (eg in a large city of about half million people, and my house is surrounded by forest lol) The last time i tryed to have a barrel fire to burn off sum extra **** laying around in the yard my neibours called the fire dept on me haha so yea ive just been pouring boiling water over the wood in the buckets for bout an hour or so. so back outside I go.

dave

 

[Purrbox]

As far as when to add plants you have a couple of options. You can plant heavily up front with lots of fast growing stem plants (these don't have to be what you want to have long term), let them get established for a few weeks and then do a silent cycle by slowly adding fish. Once the aquarium has been established for a few months you can work on slowly replacing any of the stem plants that you used for the cycle but didn't want long term. Another option is to keep the lights off and do a fishless cycle, then finally plant the aquarium once the cycle is complete. With the second option you wait to plant because high Ammonia Levels + Lots of Light is a recipe for green water.

 

[dmoney87]

ah I see, Ill probably just wait it out until the cycle is complete. save a few extra dollars out of it anyway. I have another question regarding my 30g goldfish tank. Before I only had ph test kit now that I have the master kit i used it for my 30g and Nitrites were 0 nitrate was in good levels under .30 but my ammonia test was off the charts like super dark purple. :S typically if it was that high I would have expected my fish to be dead by now but they all seem in very good health? so i dont know whats going on with that.. I did a water change and ill test it again In awhile.

 

[dskidmore]

As far as planting goes (Ive never had a real planted tank) Does planting take place after the tank has cycled or am I able to plant after the substrate is down and the water is declohrinated?

Depends on how heavily you want to plant. If you plant densely with fast-growth plants from the beginning, then you can run with full normal lighting from the get-go, and probably get an instant cycle. (The plants do the work the bacteria would do, only you can buy a whole lot more plant biomass at a reasonable price than bacteria biomass.) If you plant only lightly, you want to wait until after cycling the tank, so you don't have to choose between light starving your plants and an algae bloom.

Second question: I rinsed my sand throughly all day today, got it into the tank and obviously its still cloudy, now how long should I wait until I get my Rena xp3 up and running? will that cloud in my tank ruin the filter?

If you have a some fine floss filter material it should be fine, but if you are just running ceramic media and carbon, I'd wait for the cloud to settle. I run a minimal tech tank, but I have a little powered filter just for the purpose of clearing the water when I stir up the sand. I use regular poly batting from the craft store for filter material, and I change it a few hours after any major stir-up, and check it the next day too.

-Filled the tank via garden hose run up to my second story level through my window. (i hate ladders)

Oh, that's a bit of a tricky matter. Was that a drinking water rated hose, or a python, or is it a standard garden hose with an algaecide coating in it? I think I'd actually leave the lights on during the cycle until you started to see algae, to make sure the algaecide isn't too concentrated in the water that went through that hose. I wouldn't buy plants for a tank that might still have too much algaecide in it. I'd hold off until I saw the first signs of algae.

 

[dskidmore]

You should put it in a large pot on the stove and boil it, if you dont have a big enough pot then I guess you could pour boiling water on to it or get a large tub and boil it over a fire.

A hypertonic salt solution soak should do in most critters that could be in the wood, if the wood is too big to put on the stove.

If it's ocean derived driftwood, I wouldn't really worry about sterilizing it. Very few pathogens are common to both SW and FW.

If I had bought big pieces that would be a pain to sterilize myself I'd also just ask the company what method they used to preclean. If it was a power washer, the extra trouble to re-do it yourself could be worth the effort, but if they used heat or chemicals, then you don't have to repeat the effort.

 

[dskidmore]

my ammonia test was off the charts like super dark purple. :S typically if it was that high I would have expected my fish to be dead by now but they all seem in very good health?

Ammonia at very high levels can be smelled. Do a sniff test and see if it agrees with your test kit. Does your test kit have an expiration date printed on it? Some companies can tell you the expiration date if you give them the lot number. If there's no expiration date or lot number, you can't be sure the box didn't sit too long on the shelf at the store before you got it.

Have there been any changes in the tank lately that could have sparked a spike? Especially a death or a missing fish? A well meaning visitor with a liberal hand on the fish food container? It can take a little while for the more hardy fish to start showing respiratory distress or fin damage from the high ammonia levels.