Ok, well the name "Diary of a 55 gallon planted tank" was already taken, but here are all the pictures I have been promising you guys for a very long time now. Some of the idea's in the design of this tank were not mine, I just compiled them for my own purposes. I am going the concentrate on the stuff that I did, rather than the stuff I bought in this thread. The tank equipment is in my signature.
You should check out LoneWolfBlue's "Diary threads" to see the tank painting ideas in several colors. So here we go, like any new aquarium setup, today we will start with... a new aquarium. As you can see the tank is outdoors. I did have the benifit of learing from LWB's mistakes after all.
I chose the black paint that LWB used on his 29 gallon tank.
I also taped the entire tank where I didn't want the paint to go, including over the top of the tank.
And when finished, the setup was well underway.
Next, I started thinking about the mechanical aspect of the aquarium. Specifically, my plants are going to need carbon dioxide. I opted to go with DIY setup as opposed to a pressurized system due to the relatively low cost. I began by assembling materials for the inline reactor and generator.
I began by drilling a hole in the PVC and the 3 bottle caps. I used the epoxy to adhere the airline connectors and used silicon glue to give it an extra seal.
Assembling the airline was easy enough, I used a t-connector and 2 check valves. One has an air filter but thats just what I had handy.
So I connected the airline to the generator caps and put them togehter. For the reactor I put the bioballs inside and glued the pieces together tight.
And finally I had a working CO2 Generator and Reactor.
At this point I started thinking about what would go in the tank. I had a terracing effect in mind based on an article at plantgeek.com. I ended up with something completely different than the original idea, but I liked it and thats what counts.
I went down to walmart and found some pond pebbles which were identified as quartzite rocks. I cleaned them and boiled them for a few minutes. After the rock had dried I began to glue them together with silicon to create my decor.
Continuing to stack them up, the first large terrace is now complete.
I decided I needed more than just 1 and I wanted them to be at different heights to add depth to the tank (get it? depth. muahahaa).
Finally I wanted a cave, I knew I would probably look for a BN pleco so why not give him a home to hide from the evil light, right? Later I decided the cave alone looked boring so I constructed another small terrace to branch from it.
It was all coming together at this point. I got the aquarium up on the stand, filled the tank, and added ammonia to get the cycle started.
Now the real fun begins. I placed the terraces and cave inside the tank. I bought some background plants to start but later realized the Red Wendtii was actually a mis-raised foreground plant. I'm just now getting it to stay low and turn red again.
The cave
Added the terrace later
Added some driftwood and Giant Hairgrass to the center
And there she is, currently I have seen a Nitrite spike and I am dosing ammonia and fertilizers regularly. I do intend to get more plants, I think I have all the background I need but would like to get HC or glosso, and I need to choose some midground plants as well.
You should check out LoneWolfBlue's "Diary threads" to see the tank painting ideas in several colors. So here we go, like any new aquarium setup, today we will start with... a new aquarium. As you can see the tank is outdoors. I did have the benifit of learing from LWB's mistakes after all.
I chose the black paint that LWB used on his 29 gallon tank.
I also taped the entire tank where I didn't want the paint to go, including over the top of the tank.
And when finished, the setup was well underway.
Next, I started thinking about the mechanical aspect of the aquarium. Specifically, my plants are going to need carbon dioxide. I opted to go with DIY setup as opposed to a pressurized system due to the relatively low cost. I began by assembling materials for the inline reactor and generator.
I began by drilling a hole in the PVC and the 3 bottle caps. I used the epoxy to adhere the airline connectors and used silicon glue to give it an extra seal.
Assembling the airline was easy enough, I used a t-connector and 2 check valves. One has an air filter but thats just what I had handy.
So I connected the airline to the generator caps and put them togehter. For the reactor I put the bioballs inside and glued the pieces together tight.
And finally I had a working CO2 Generator and Reactor.
At this point I started thinking about what would go in the tank. I had a terracing effect in mind based on an article at plantgeek.com. I ended up with something completely different than the original idea, but I liked it and thats what counts.
I went down to walmart and found some pond pebbles which were identified as quartzite rocks. I cleaned them and boiled them for a few minutes. After the rock had dried I began to glue them together with silicon to create my decor.
Continuing to stack them up, the first large terrace is now complete.
I decided I needed more than just 1 and I wanted them to be at different heights to add depth to the tank (get it? depth. muahahaa).
Finally I wanted a cave, I knew I would probably look for a BN pleco so why not give him a home to hide from the evil light, right? Later I decided the cave alone looked boring so I constructed another small terrace to branch from it.
It was all coming together at this point. I got the aquarium up on the stand, filled the tank, and added ammonia to get the cycle started.
Now the real fun begins. I placed the terraces and cave inside the tank. I bought some background plants to start but later realized the Red Wendtii was actually a mis-raised foreground plant. I'm just now getting it to stay low and turn red again.
The cave
Added the terrace later
Added some driftwood and Giant Hairgrass to the center
And there she is, currently I have seen a Nitrite spike and I am dosing ammonia and fertilizers regularly. I do intend to get more plants, I think I have all the background I need but would like to get HC or glosso, and I need to choose some midground plants as well.
