First New Tank In Almost a Decade, Freshwater

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hpiguy

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Jul 18, 2012
Messages
421
First New Tank In Almost a Decade, 55

Got out of indoor fish for quite some time, been working on outdoor ponds, waterfalls, bamboo features.

Got a wild hair about setting up a tank again, so I dug everything out and got to it recently. Like riding a bike, you never forget how.

55 gallon Aqueon and stand, running two Penguin 200s. One for mechanical filter with carbon and replaceable cartridge, and one that I rigged with a thin prefilter, then foam inside with the biowheel running as usual as a bio filter that will only be rinsed as needed (back in the day this was the way to do it if you only wanted h.o.t. filters). Two Jager 150Ws, one runs this summer, both will be turned on in winter as I keep the house very cool. One heater would never keep up or keep a constant temp across entire tank. Plus I'm a fan of the backup system methods in case of a failure. Mild aeration. Caribsea gravel substrate, 80lbs.

I changed the stock purple 8000K bulbs out for some white 5000K Phillips Daylight bulbs. I personally cannot stand the purple glow look of stock bulbs.

Still a bit cloudy, but fading fast.

Planning on all community fish, small, lightly stocked. Tetras, cory's and such. I'll decide when I get to stocking it.

Here is the result:

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Picture is with cell phone, so I can't get it perfect. I can try to get better shots if you decide you want to see more.
 
Thank you everyone.

Found my better camera, and took some pics, will post more in-focus stuff later.

Took one of the pics and messed with basic settings in Window Picture Gallery to make things pop and look a bit different:

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Here we go finally, more in focus, not perfect in focus, but better.

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Thank you.

Currently it is all artificial plants. Plastic and silk.

I finished soaking all the real driftwood and added it. I'll add another pic of the slightly different appearance.

It has a few fish in it now, and they seem very content with all the cover. When they were at the lfs they were very pale, very withdrawn and stressed. In this tank they are at full brilliant color and casually exploring every nook and cranny.

Of course the bug has bitten again. Tank #2 is in the works. A very different aquascape from this tank.
 
Here it is with the driftwood placed, things moved just a bit to accommodate.

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Wow, all of those plants are fake?!?! They look amazing!!!

Thank you (y) , and yes. The only thing "real" are the three dark pieces of driftwood in the center and the few giant danios zipping about. The stump/root piece on the left is an OSI product. I tilted it on it's side as if the tree collapsed and would protrude through the left glass panel.

I've always felt if you do it right, buy quality artificials and light it correctly (no purple stock hood lights) they can be made to look nice.
 
Thank you. I'll have to get a pic of it up again with the fish in it.
 
Here it is, stocked and running very well. Lighting has been changed out to a double bulb shop light.

Fish are basic tropicals that I've always liked:

Giant Danios
Three Spot Gouramis
Red Eye Tetras
Emerald Corys
Upside Down Catfish
Black Mollys

I also posted a short low resolution video to see the fish moving about the tank.

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To watch the video, just click the pic below and it plays on photobucket.

 
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