55 gallon planted retrospective.....LOTS of photos!

[newfound77951]

I have had my 55g planted set up for 2.5 years now. The tank has gone through a lot of changes and I thought it would be interesting to post pics of it over time.

Tank specs: standard 55g. Eco-complete substrate (80lbs). 2x1 liter DIY CO2. Lighting initially 2x96 watts PC (~4 wpg), switched to 50:50 bulbs about a year ago (~2wpg). Filter initially AquaClear 70, now Rena Filstar XP3.
The beginning:

Starting to get the hang of things. Oddly this is one of my favorite looks for the tank, that I never replicated.





This is what happens when you leave a tank with 4 wpg for a week.....

[neilanh]

Always cool to look back over the history of a tank in this manner. Thanks for sharing!

[newfound77951]

More....site limits me to 8 pics at a time...



The overgrown jungle look again...

[newfound77951]

And more....

My favorite scape for the tank...



This is after the switch to 50:50s....replaced a lot of plants.

[newfound77951]

And the last set.....





A recent pic. Getting back to the stem plants a little.

[rich311k]

Awesome tank. The progression shots are great.

[Purrbox]

Thanks for sharing. I think my favorite scape is actually the 7th photo in post #3. It really is quite intersting how the scapes evolve over time.

[Alaris]

What fish are the blue school?

[newfound77951]

They are turquoise rainbowfish (Melanotaenia lacustris)

[rachael.chesnutt]

Awesome tank. I'm still getting the hang of mine. So far I really like my tank set up! But someday I'll have something likes yours. Give me time! I'm still reluctant to keep real plants. =/