Zimmanski's 120 build

[mattcham]

Yeah, price for 72" was one of the reasons I went with BML.

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[Zimmanski]

Today seems like a good day for some red dwarf lily and barclaya longifolia love. The B.longifolia I just got yesterday, my LFS had them for $1 a bulb/plant

 

[Zimmanski]

Put in some red myrio, purple cabomba, and 3 new veil angels this weekend. Sent a message to BML to check the status, I was told I should get it Tuesday probably. I'm getting pretty anxious

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

Today seems like a good day for some red dwarf lily and barclaya longifolia love. The B.longifolia I just got yesterday, my LFS had them for $1 a bulb/plantView attachment 242130View attachment 242131

Oh cool, I'm interested to see how that barclaya longifolia grows out. Online, they look real cool. Especially if you can get it real red.

And wow! $1? Can you get me a couple if i PayPal you? Haha

 

[Zimmanski]

Haha yea I was surprised and I thought they were cool when I looked them up. The seem to be doing really well but I'm having to revive them a bit and they're transitioning some. If these recover well I'll pick the rest up haha

 

[jaketetra28]

Subscribed! I need some inspiration, if you can plant a 120g I can plant my 75g when I set it up


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[Zimmanski]

Subscribed! I need some inspiration, if you can plant a 120g I can plant my 75g when I set it up


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Welcome aboard! Hope you enjoy my journey and good luck with your tank. I welcome any opinions and I'm happy to help you out if I can.


Update: I'm in love with fedex!
Look what came for this guy today. I'll post up a bunch of pictures this evening!

 

[Zimmanski]

Got my BML XB today and its up and running. Man is it bright! We tested it out off of the tank first and it lit up the living room more than any of the other house lights combined haha. I feel pretty confident I can go plenty of plants with it, I do have a couple negative thoughts on it though, not necessarily BML's fault or anything negative against the light, more personal preference things. 1- I wish I had gone with a narrower beam pattern, this one fills the tank with light with minimal spill over, though I think the 70 degree pattern would have filled the tank, less spillover, and would give me a little more par. (30 days to change my mind). 2- I wish the light had a little more in the red spectrum. If I remember right the red color drops off faster than other colors and being a deep tank I think I get that. 3- no off switch? It's either timer or unplug it, even with the dimmer. That's an unnecessary hassle and a switch would be an easy thing for BML to include. All in all I'm very pleased with my purchase and the company is incredible. Cara at BML actually noticed that since I was in Texas it would be cheaper and faster to fedex ground it to me instead of the two day I selected, she refunded me the difference and the light got to me overnight. Anyway I'll stop rambling and throw out some pictures, the iPhone really doesn't do it justice though. Gotta let the plants grow and hopefully I'll see some pearling tomorrow after such a long time without seeing it!
Current USA(before)

BML XB (after)


Here's with it dimmed down to 10%

 

[Zimmanski]

Here's the recovering barclaya longifolia

 

[Coyne]

Man-O-man! This is getting me depressed about my empty 45 gallon. Its also getting me re-excited about my hopefully soon to be not-empty 45 gallon. Ive got just about all the stuff.

That light looks great! My BML is sitting in a closet right now , but seeing how yours looks has me a feeling a bit giddy about it again.

 

[Fresh2o]

Everyone's getting a BML. I should form a non-BML group
Keep taking pics and post updates when you can. Tank looks great already.

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

You can join my camp, Fresh!

Anyways, nice update Zim... I'm happy for you. BML produces an impressive product! Tank looks good already but will be even better grown under that new light! Looking forward to the updates.

 

[schoeplein]

1- I wish I had gone with a narrower beam pattern, this one fills the tank with light with minimal spill over, though I think the 70 degree pattern would have filled the tank, less spillover, and would give me a little more par. (30 days to change my mind). 2- I wish the light had a little more in the red spectrum. If I remember right the red color drops off faster than other colors and being a deep tank I think I get that. 3- no off switch? It's either timer or unplug it, even with the dimmer. That's an unnecessary hassle and a switch would be an easy thing for BML to include. All in all I'm very pleased with my purchase and the company is incredible. Cara at BML actually noticed that since I was in Texas it would be cheaper and faster to fedex ground it to me instead of the two day I selected, she refunded me the difference and the light got to me overnight. Anyway I'll stop rambling and throw out some pictures, the iPhone really doesn't do it justice though. Gotta let the plants grow and hopefully I'll see some pearling tomorrow after such a long time without seeing it!
Current USA(before)

1) Be glad you didn't. The 75 angle is incredibly focused and doesn't lightt up an entire tank as well. I built mine with the 75 angle to focus on my short plants, while the CFL's on the back of the tank light up the taller plants.
2) It's better than you think. Red just isn't as perceptible to the human eye. Your plants will definitely dig it.
3) No timer?? I have all of my lights plugged into a strip.

I'm in Austin and I picked mine up locally.

 

[Zimmanski]

Thanks everyone for the encouraging words! I'm going to do my best to keep the journal updated for everyone, mostly for myself haha. My last tanks I started journals and got lazy, but this is as close to my dream tank as I'll probably ever get so I'm really trying.

Schoeplein - thanks for the input, glad to here that I made a good choice. I definitely want as few fixtures as I can get away with, I could just do with the BML but the little kid in my likes the control and lightning storms of the current USA haha. Yea, I have like 6 timers, all but one crapped out on me in the last 6 weeks, maybe some were just not meant to be used constantly for years and maybe the coralife digital strips don't like being in storage for 6 months haha. I'll replace them.

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

...but the little kid in my likes the control and lightning storms of the current USA haha.

Yessir... I can certainly relate to this statement! Brook?

 

[Brookster123]

Yessir... I can certainly relate to this statement! Brook?

Yessirrrrr, I've recently aquired 2 sat +, the effects are pretty cool! I kind of feel guilty messing with the lightning though.. it's stormy out today so I may set it off later.. at least the atmospheric pressure will match the lighting sequence.. could actually create some interesting behavior in the tank..

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[TXaggie]

Really looks good! Even in the online photos you can really see a difference in lighting intensity. I'm sure your plants will love it!

 

[Zimmanski]

Thanks tx!

Did water tests today, not sure how to feel about them just yet. I think I need more time with the tank and the light to get a good trend going. I did the tests because I noticed some slight yellowing around some older leaves that I thought could be a nitrate deficiency.
Nitrate - 10ppm, maybe 15ppm
Ph - 7 (need more DW)
Phosphate 3ppm (gonna lay off of that one a bit)
Didn't have time to test iron, and I really doubt I need ammonia/nitrite tested, still need to get my gh/kh done but I'm rushing off now haha.
Everything is doing great other than that. New growth in the cabomba is deep purple, new growth in the myrio is blood red, my lilies flattened out and shot out more leaves. Minor fixes and I'll be happy as a... clam? Haha


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[Zimmanski]

Update time!

Hey guys, its been a while so I thought it was time for an update. I was getting a little disappointed with the growth for a while until I looked at some of the beginning pictures and then I felt so much better haha. I have added a few fish since my last post, 3 denison barbs, 3 flying foxes, a peacock eel, 2 rubber lip plecos, and 3 green swordtails. I finally found some wood that I really liked so its in the tank now, the piece on the far right hasn't sunk yet so it will be a little lower when it does and will look more like a tree stump. Still having a BBA issue but I think its slowing down and i may be getting it under control. The barclaya longifolia is really starting to take off, and here's the kicker, BOTH PLANTS ARE STARTING TO BLOOM! I'm pretty excited to say the least. What do you guys think?

 

[Zimmanski]

The buds!

Edit: dont know why theyre sideways