Reentry--my 45

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Tacit Blues

Aquarium Advice FINatic
Joined
Sep 14, 2014
Messages
751
Location
Western Colorado
So after much hemming and hawing, I decided to forgo resetting up my old beat up tank and instead bought a new one. Since I have most of the equipment now, figured I would start a thread to catalog where it goes.

Here's the pile of stuff I got today in the mail:
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That's a finnex planted+, Fluval C4, 200W heater, ricepaper cling-on window film for the back, some chemicals, test kit, and some more tubing for my siphon that was just long enough to give you a false sense of confidence before spraying water all over the floor. Still on its way is a glass top, because I don't like plastic hoods.

And here's it unboxed in the new 45gallon aquarium, in its possibly not final location:

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I've also got a couple pieces of driftwood soaking, a pile of rocks that I've vinegar tested/cleaned up, and I've got a bag of blasting sand and some ecocomplete (not sure what proportions I'm going to wind up with in the final form, though I've read that going below 50% ecocomplete is just wasting time... but who knows, it was just something I read on the internet).

I was aiming for medium-low light, and it sounds like with this tank's ~24" height and the planted+, I should be about right. I have a vague desire to do an Amazon-themed tank--though I am not above cheating, I don't want it to be a biotope. But I know I do want plants and a gob of Neons or Cardinals, within those parameters I'm open to suggestions.

In short, I'm a re-newbie who knows how to abuse the "search forum" function well enough to find three different opinions for any question I can think up. Wind me up and watch me go, and let's see what happens!
 
Great Start

Lots of towels!!! Good item for the list, lol.

Glad to see the new build thread.

What is your water pH after sitting out for 24-48 hours?

It should mello a little too with DW.

If it is around or below 7.4 pH, I would do Cardinals, much over (unless it is close), I would do Neons. I favor the Cardinals. ;) Though many people said they get used to the changes of pH.

I have light envy, I have to admit.

Congrats on taking the plunge :lol: You guys are gonna LOVE it.
 
The glass lid came today, which I guess means now I need to chose which side the filter is going to go on.

I just sat out some water to test it tomorrow as you suggest (should I treat it?), but out of curiosity I tried it right out of the tap, and measured 8 or 8.2 (dang high scale pH test is kind of hard to read). Also tested the water the driftwood's been soaking in and it's slightly tea colored but 7.2 pH, and the water that the blasting sand has been in, and it's right at the max of the high range pH test, so I guess maybe I should rinse it some more. From what the magic search box has revealed to me, pH doesn't matter as much as swings in pH, is that correct?

Sadly, I've still got a few things to move around (wall decorations and the like) before I think I'm ready to start putting stuff into the tank, but it's probably for the best, planning on a trip to Lake Powell the first week in October and I don't want to leave too much for the poor house sitter to have to deal with... in any case, one step at a time, onwards towards victory and all that jazz. I'll let you know tomorrow what the water sitting out tests like.
 
Water!

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Only used about half of the blasting sand (with two bags of ecocomplete). Maybe I'll hit up the fish stores tomorrow to look for plants.
 
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Picked up some Anacharis from a LFS (pretty much the only plant they had--there's a reason it's called a fish store and not a plant store). I think I might put in an order from an online place for some better variety...
 
Ok, I admit that I went with fish-in--actually I went totally dark side and threw in a bottle of Safestart. Don't worry, I'm doing regular tests and water changes.

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Right now there's 10 Head and Tail Light Tetras, and they all seem to be doing fish-y things. I picked up a gel pack of Bacopa caroliniana from [Petschmo], and just did an order for some more stuff, dwarf sag, micro chain sword, some Italian val, and an anubia nana. Oh, and another driftwood branch. Getting pretty off track from an authentic Amazon theme, but what are you gonna do? When things settle in a bit more I think the next addition will be a herd of corys of some sort (now taking reccomendations...). One of the LFS's had a bunch of Panda Corys, so I might do that--I think they'd look pretty nice against the dark substrate.
 
Was dinking around with my Big Camera.

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I put the macro extension tube one, and could get some good ones of the the Tetras when the camera was facing straight in, but when it was at an angle it did a totally weird tilt-shift thing and I couldn't focus on anything. Darn refraction!
 
Trouble in River City, what I got home from work today, one of the tetras was dead and stuck to the filter intake. No obvious signs of injury or disease. Just did a 10 gallon water change yesterday, and everyone else seems to be doing fishy things. Going to do a water test to check but this may have been just one of those things...
 
I'm surprised to hear that- head and tail lights are typically pretty bulletproof and IMO are a good choice for the way you're starting out. Hopefully it's just one of those things.

I miss my old 45 gallon. I sold it along with some others in 2008 when I moved.
 
Nothing died today, thankfully, though one of the Tetras looks like he had his tail bit on or otherwise injured, and seems to be hiding under the big piece of driftwood. I wonder if the other one was bullied to death? Not sure what would be causing those behavioral issues, though. I have an old (and I mean old, it must be about 2 decades by now, I think my very first fish tank when I was in elementary school) 2 gallon hex tank and am wondering if it would be worth setting it up as an R&R for him. Otherwise I got in my plant and driftwood order and it all looks healthy, but I had some friends over for dinner this evening so planting/rearranging decor will have to wait til tomorrow...
 
The injured one died this morning, and sitting there watching them for half an hour there does seem to be one who is a pretty big bully. Not sure what his issue is, all the tank parameters seem to be in line, and I've been doing water changes every day or two, not to mention that the new plants came in and there's plenty of places to hide in.
 
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In happier news, I think it looks pretty nice. Though I can't help but think between the rocks and driftwood maybe there's a little bit too much decor now...
 
Looks good! My anacharis never grows if I plant it so I leave it floating. lol
 
Dwarf sag would benefit from root tabs. Would probably be worth a try. :)
 
Well, it's only been in there for a few days and it's still green so I think I'll just wait to see how it does in the next week or two... though pretty soon you people are going to have me buying a big tank of CO2, probably!
 
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