ZxC's 30 Long high tech journey

[ZxC]

Fair warning to anyone wishing to follow along, this build thread will be picture and text heavy. This tank will likely replace my current 5.5 gallon, see photo.

I'll try and keep the first post within reason, so here goes:

Equipment setup:
36" long x 12" wide x 16" tall 30 gallon (wow, a 36" tank with no center brace!)
36" (although they should really advertise it as a 32") Fluval Fresh & Plant 2.0
Eheim 2213 canister (flow rate is a little weak for this long of a tank, I'll likely add a nano circulation pump if need be)
200w hydor inline heater
Marine Magic 3 way auto dosing unit (undecided if I want to use this or not)
DIY inline CO2 reactor
Red sea paintball regulator with Milwaukee solenoid.

Substrate: 3/4" of "seasoned" fluorite black with 0-0-58-0.5B, 0-0-22-11Mg-22S and 12-40-0-10S-1Zn granular fertilizer sprinkled in, capped with 1.5"-2" of new fluorite black.

Hardscape: Some type of rock, see photos.

Planned plants:
ammania bonsai
rotala macrandra
rotala walichii
staurogyne repens
AR mini
anubias nana petite
green wavy buce
Ammannia gracilis
ludwigia repens
cryptocoryne lutea "hobbit"
hygrophila pinnatifida
red melon sword
Proserpinaca palustris
Rotala 'Colorata'
Gratiola viscidula
Utricularia graminifolia
monte carlo
Hygrophila polysperma 'Rosanervig'
Myriophyllum mattogrossense

Still on the hunt for Myriophyllum tuberculatum.

Livestock:
12 celestial pearl danios
10-15 chili rasbora (maybe)
a pair of dwarf cichlids (undecided here)
an oto cat or 2
a neocaridina shrimp colony (if it will survive) I have a standard grade orange pumpkin strain in the 5.5 gal right now.

I think that is all for now, feel free to ask any questions on things I missed, here are some pictures for reference.

 

[coralbandit]

Nice !
I look forward to seeing this..
The 5g looks awesome....
A pair of apistos or rams would be cool for all but the shrimp probably?
I have never tried fish and shrimp together ....

 

[ZxC]

Nice !
I look forward to seeing this..
The 5g looks awesome....
A pair of apistos or rams would be cool for all but the shrimp probably?
I have never tried fish and shrimp together ....

I usually have success in my heavily planted tank keeping shrimp and fish, but i always keep small fish (CPD, chilli rasbora, pygmy cory, small orange glowlight danio etc etc.) And I always start with a massive colony on shrimp, then add fish, but in this case I cant do that because I already have the CPDs and 7 chilis so...

The cichlids will likely be the last thing I add, I have a lfs with quality stock, none grabbed my eye as amazing so... Apparently they are bred in the czech republic, and are accustomed to harder water.

I like either Apistogramma agassizi Fire Red to go with the "red" theme of the CPDs fins and the Chili rasboras, or have a nice contrast with some electric blue Germans... bright blue against the darker reds.... decisions decisions.

The tanks parameters will likely end up the same as my 5.5 gal:
pH: 7.2
kH: 3-5 (hard to keep the 5.5 gal stable)
gH: 6 -- although my tap water has 0 gH so I think I'm getting it from these rocks, I am dosing some MgSO4 slightly, which could also contribute, but that still leaves me with no Ca source other than what is leaching from the rockwork, or leaching from the granular fertilizer I use. Regardless I have some MgSO4 and CaSo4 in the mail, so RO water with a custom remineralized blend should work.


Check out the burried female below, I could have watched her for hours last night... waiting to see tiny shrimp pop out.

Side note, the 5.5 has a mild Hydra population, I have some fenbendazole based dog dewormer also in the mail, and will be treating the 5.5 with a full treatment PRIOR to moving anything into the 30.

 

[John Franzwa]

Those tanks are looking good!

 

[Funken_A]

Looks pretty awesome. I tried shrimp but I thnk my featherfin catfish ate them.


I'm guessing cichlids might fnd the shrimp to be a tasty treat..


I mix in about a heaping 1/4 tsp of both epsom salt and another of Calcium Chloride at water change to get my gh up a degree or 2.. I usually run around 4 GH


Calcium chloride is not chlorine and can be found at any beer brewing website or store. It is also used as an ice melter, but I stuck with the brewers sites

 

[ZxC]

Looks pretty awesome. I tried shrimp but I thnk my featherfin catfish ate them.


I'm guessing cichlids might fnd the shrimp to be a tasty treat..


I mix in about a heaping 1/4 tsp of both epsom salt and another of Calcium Chloride at water change to get my gh up a degree or 2.. I usually run around 4 GH


Calcium chloride is not chlorine and can be found at any beer brewing website or store. It is also used as an ice melter, but I stuck with the brewers sites

I figure the cichlids may snack on shrimp, we will see what direction I take.

I have epsom salt for Mg, and gypsum for Ca, the best would be Gypsum for half the Ca and Calcium Chloride for the other half, i'll keep an eye out for some calcium chloride perhaps. I can get an RO:Tap ratio getting me a kH of 5 easily, but that will bump my pH up a tap opposed to using straight RO, but I will need some sort of kH so I will likely use an RO:Tap mix and then gH boost to 6 or so. That's the plan anyway, water will hopefully be going in the tank this weekend (just need the gypsum to come in the mail, and the hydra treatment meds)

 

[coralbandit]

I use 'ice melter' to remineralize and in my marine tank..$11.99 for 9 lbs as opposed to
$ per ounce...
I use this brand in particular but was not super concerned..
https://www.doitbest.com/products/701888

No joke !

 

[ZxC]

Thanks, my work sells thousands of tones of ice melted each year lol I picked up 1 lb of gypsum for a couple of dollars. It’s a powder form, should be easier to dissolve.

 

[ZxC]

Small update, I picked up 12 CPD's with some left over gift card money from Christmas, They have been in my 90 gallon for a week now, and are starting to colour up nicely but I'm not 100% happy with the quality of them so far, I have had better from the same store in the past. I did notice they are already spawning, which is neat, we will see if they stay in the 90 or come into this tank.

Tonight I will hopefully fill the tank, and get the system primed, but thanks to the weather my Hydra treatment is taking forever to get here, so planting will have to wait. I really want to treat the 5.5 gal prior to moving plants over. Speaking of the 5 gal, it's getting a little out of control, I'm not sure I can manage another week without chopping some out. I also put in a request for some final plants, I will likely be keeping small clumps of each stem plant, and only 1 or 2 of non-stems. I'm trying to emulate a bigger tank using smaller clumps of more plant species. Final planned plants:

ammania bonsai
rotala macrandra
rotala walichii
staurogyne repens
AR mini
anubias nana petite
green wavy buce
Ammannia gracilis
cryptocoryne lutea "hobbit"
hygrophila pinnatifida
red melon sword
Proserpinaca palustris
Rotala 'Colorata'
Gratiola viscidula
Utricularia graminifolia
monte carlo
Hygrophila polysperma 'Rosanervig'
Myriophyllum mattogrossense
Barclaya longifolia 'red form'
Blyxa japonica
Cryptocoryne albida
Ludwigia arcuate
Ludwigia palustris
Mayaca fluviatilis
Myriophyllum tuberculatum 'Red'
*Nesea pedicellata 'Golden'* sub for Ludwigia Cuba if not available

That is a lot of plants, I am accustomed to removing rock work as the tank fills in and rocks are consumed by growth, opening up room for real estate. My area is also starved of good plant suppliers and I have zero issues getting rid of my excess, so that list will likely be thinned down in time.

My poor man's attempt at a Utricularia graminifolia dry start has not shown a lick of growth, so my hopes remain low for that species. Now I need to get onto calculating my remineralzing values for tonight flooding of the tank.

Here's the 5 gallon as of last night:

 

[agrasyuk]

that is one crazy jungle in that little tank

 

[ZxC]

that is one crazy jungle in that little tank

Usually it's trimmed up nicely, with way less species, but I knew I was upgrading and wanted maximum plant mass day 1, so I have not been trimming, and have been buying plants as they come available tossing them into the little tank. Anyone looking for crazy high light on a 5 gallon, buy 2 x 15w LED flood lights... $40 later and the best growth I have ever had from my tanks.

 

[ZxC]

Figured I should do an update, tank has been planted with the plants I had available, still waiting back on a plant order request at a LFS. Things are growing fairly well.

5.5 gallon filter biomedia transferred over to the new tank, added the 7 chili rasboras, whatever adult shrimp I could catch, and whatever shrimplets I could catch.

Good pic of father and son shrimp below!

 

[ZxC]

A few more pics

 

[V227]

I admire your Aqua gardening skills, and well constructed scape designs.

 

[ZxC]

Still trying to figure out how to get some good shots using my good camera, but for now I am stuck with the less than ideal Iphone. I'll keep trying.

 

[ZxC]

Yes, this tank is still up and running, not much too report, still looking for a few species/swapping out some in the tank. Battling some stubborn staghorn and BBA, but other than that things are good.

 

[V227]

The tank is still looking good. What will be your next move with it? New fish, rock, DW combinations.

 

[ZxC]

The tank is still looking good. What will be your next move with it? New fish, rock, DW combinations.

Next move is to get the plants growing the way I want them too, I can't get enough CO2 into the tank without a giant gas bubble being created in the reactor, which annoys the daylights out of me. So I'm looking for a ball valve to splice inline after the reactor to create some back pressure hopefully dissolving more CO2 into the water.

I'm also going to play with the flow, currently it is too linear for my liking, so I may place a "Y" fitting and run 2 outputs, one at each back corner pointing towards the center of the tank, maybe this might create enough back pressure to get more CO2 dissolved, we will see.

The algae seems to REALLY like the linear flow pattern, and my **** plants are getting blown one way and I REALLY do no not like the look of plants folded over 90 degrees from straight up. I figured a 2213 with a reactor and inline heater would be too little flow, but it's more than I wanted.

As for stocking:

Currently:
1 powder blue gouramis
11 celestial pearl danios
7 chili rasboras (will be moving them eventually)
2 apisto agassizi "fire gold" (not sure on the genders, they like to have stand offs, and their own territories, but they also will sometimes sit real close to one another and seem to enjoy each others company)
1 juvy purple mystery snail I bred from a different tank.

Future stocking:

Maybe a few peacock gudgeons
6 dwarf neon rainbows
whatever amano shrimp my wallet allows

 

[V227]

I think the Neon Rainbows will be a very good addition to the tank, filling the mid level with color and movement. CO2 systems are all Greek to me. The majority of the fish I keep are either plant eaters or plant destroyers, so I haven't had any reason to explore CO2.
Since CO2 is apparently a PITA in your situation, have you considered going old school with this tank, by slightly overstocking, relying on fish waste fertilization; upgrading the lighting, and ditching the CO2.

 

[ZxC]

I think the Neon Rainbows will be a very good addition to the tank, filling the mid level with color and movement. CO2 systems are all Greek to me. The majority of the fish I keep are either plant eaters or plant destroyers, so I haven't had any reason to explore CO2.
Since CO2 is apparently a PITA in your situation, have you considered going old school with this tank, by slightly overstocking, relying on fish waste fertilization; upgrading the lighting, and ditching the CO2.

It's not so much of a PITA for me, it's just getting enough dissolved into the water, which should be helped out by adding some back pressure to the return line/reactor from the canister.

You must be in foreign territory if you're telling me to ditch the CO2, upgrade my light and rely on fish waste now that would be an absolute algae mess.

I've got 130 PAR of light at substrate level, which is twice as much needed to grow any of these plants. Light is the throttle of growing plants, CO2 is the fuel and fertilizer is the air, so with more throttle input, you need more fuel and more air to keep the motor running. So, CO2 is a must (it's an easy fix I just need to buy the right pieces to get more dissolved) and fertilizing is certainly a must, I'm dosing EI with a 50% weekly water change so my limiting factor at this point is CO2. I'm only sitting at a pH drop of 0.6, I'm looking to get that to a 1.0 - 1.2 peak pH drop.