Phish's 40g upgrade to 75g breeding Ram build

[Fresh2o]

Lol that grill is actually a extra shelf from one of those kitchen pantry shelves on wheels from Costco. I meant it to be temporary but it's a perfect fit and working out well! Plus I don't mind how it looks. So it may stay but Im thinking of painting black. The lights are just cheapo clamp-on work lights with the clamps removed. I painted them flat black. I'm using 23w 6500k CFL's from Lowes. They work really well and from what I can figure the par rateing on the 4 is somewhere between 40 and 60. So mid to high light.

I didn't say your tank looked ghetto with the grill I'd paint them black to match the fixtures though. Really cool that you used the CFLs with inexpensive fixtures. I like that you found readily available materials and made them work for you. Much cheaper than LEDs. Not busting on LEDs, but they are relatively new on the scene and IMO have a great potential to mature and evolve (and come down in price). Thanks for the light specs; very useful info.

 

[phishfriend]

I didn't say your tank looked ghetto with the grill I'd paint them black to match the fixtures though. Really cool that you used the CFLs with inexpensive fixtures. I like that you found readily available materials and made them work for you. Much cheaper than LEDs. Not busting on LEDs, but they are relatively new on the scene and IMO have a great potential to mature and evolve (and come down in price). Thanks for the light specs; very useful info.

I didn't think you were at all! Typing it just had me laughing. And thank you : thumbs:

 

[phishfriend]

i would really love to try and get something like this going when i get my big tank, is there anyway you can list the plants you used? until i become great at this would be brilliant if i can use your tank to try and model

I keep looking over and over at the pictures, simply stunning, what is the black substrate i get that you use here? you are tying some of the plants to the driftwood i take it?

I'll Try and list everything for you.

First the substrate is black diamond sand blasting sand. I chose this because you can get a 100 lbs for 19 bucks. That's what I paid.

Back- left to right
Italian Vallisneria, brazilian penny wart(behind DW), amazon swords, Aponogeton (behind DW)

Center- left to right
Rotala Magenta(I think), banana plant, water lily,Telanthera Rosefolia (Alternanthera reineckii)


On DW right:
Java fern and Anubias

on DW left:
Vesicularia montagnei 'Christmas moss'

And just a tiny bit of Dwarf baby tears in the front.
I'm going to swing by a LFS today and see if I can find anything good!

 

[Wy Renegade]

Nice change up. Those driftwood pieces are nice.

 

[musicmarn1]

AHH brilliant thank you !! i was up half the night trying to research what plants do well with Rainbow fish and Angels and got crypts, tall annubias, java fern, bolbitis etc and now will cross reference to make sure some of these other ones you have, will make them happy or if i can add some of these in too without getting them eating. but i cannot see why not!

This morning i was a bit sad to notice some of my plants seem to be falling apart ! i think its all the water changes i have to do, because others that have a better root system are happy and i dont think its light or food because i did get the right ( i think bulb when i bought the plants i asked for the moderate light bulb to go with the low to moderate light plants i got) so the ones that are falling out dont yet have good roots and now i see there is a lot of plant matter floating, i spent half the morning vacuming out what i could, replanting (need those forceps for sure!) and changing water as gently as i could.......

i think the plants that are failing are going to add a lot of bioload to my tank and im a bit worried about that. Any suggestions? i also need to know how to put in a simple, cheap co2 unit and not sure exactly which one for a 30g tank would be best if you have any ideas anyone

 

[Sillyfishies]

Plants remove bio load...?

 

[Rivercats]

Plants remove bio load...?

Decaying plants add to it.

 

[Sillyfishies]

Oh I'm sorry I didn't read that right

 

[phishfriend]

Did a bit of rearranging today because I got some Nesaea 'Golden' and Wendtii, bronze. Tank is a bit cloudy from the rearrange. I apologize.

Wendtii, bronze W/oto's cleaning it up!!

Nesaea 'Golden' Hope this does well! fingers crossed

 

[Sillyfishies]

Have you gotten any fry to make it very long?

 

[Sillyfishies]

Oh and can you give me a link to where you bought the light reflectors? I've been looking for some!

 

[phishfriend]

Have you gotten any fry to make it very long?

I have three left from the last spawn. At, first I was trying to let the parents do the raising. That went south really quick. When the fry got big enough to wander the tank. They went right thru other pairs spawning areas and got eating. So I setup a fry tank but struggled with feeding something smaller the n the size of a pinhead. But I think a have a good process for it now. Survival rate should increase with the next batch.

 

[phishfriend]

Oh and can you give me a link to where you bought the light reflectors? I've been looking for some!

The fixture
http://m.lowes.com/product?langId=-...0051&productId=3122291&store=0086&view=detail

The light bulb I use
http://m.lowes.com/product?langId=-...0051&productId=3202347&store=0086&view=detail

 

[Sillyfishies]

I have three left from the last spawn. At, first I was trying to let the parents do the raising. That went south really quick. When the fry got big enough to wander the tank. They went right thru other pairs spawning areas and got eating. So I setup a fry tank but struggled with feeding something smaller the n the size of a pinhead. But I think a have a good process for it now. Survival rate should increase with the next batch.

My extra female ram has been raising some of my cichlid fry. Quite interesting I thought

 

[Sillyfishies]

The fixture
http://m.lowes.com/product?langId=-1&storeId=10702&catalogId=10051&productId=3122291&store=0086&view=detail

The light bulb I use
http://m.lowes.com/product?langId=-1&storeId=10702&catalogId=10051&productId=3202347&store=0086&view=detail

Since my tank is only 2 feet wide could I fit 2 lights on it?

 

[phishfriend]

Since my tank is only 2 feet wide could I fit 2 lights on it?

I would start with two but you may need three. How deep is your tank!

 

[Sillyfishies]

I would start with two but you may need three. How deep is your tank!

20" :/! If each fixture is 12" wide I could only fit 2... I wish I knew this much about fish when I first bought this tank!

 

[Rivercats]

I see your Nesaea 'Golden' came emmersed growth too. I'll be curious how long it takes yours to change to immersed growth. Mine seemed to take forever, can't remember how long anymore but it was slow. It also grows slow in my tank. I'm glad I've got someone I can compare with. You'll like the yellow color it gets as it makes a great accent.

 

[phishfriend]

20" :/! If each fixture is 12" wide I could only fit 2... I wish I knew this much about fish when I first bought this tank!

I think I have the smaller....I have to check in the am

 

[Sillyfishies]

The 75 watt version is much smaller. I think 6 inches.