Newbie 55 gallon journal

[mike47517]

Lookin' good.

agreed

 

[addicted2fish]

that is BBA black beard algea, you can take excel and with a dropper or turkey baster treat it at the spot , and you can also use peroxide, yes, belive it !!! i did not , but I have watches it work in my bf's tank and it really works and does not hurt the tank at all . all compands are broken down as soon as its in the water colomn but it WILL get rid of bba, you should get 2 true' sae's , and maybye some amaono shrimp ,any shrimp will do the trick , do you still have the black skirt tetras ? i know they can get aggressive, esp towards your livenearers pretty tails .... so be careful there, the tank is coming along nicely !! cant wait to see a pic with all the new plants you got from me I am sure they will grow great in your set up and fill in quick !!! I love the sunset and when it reaches the top of the water, near the bulbs it will turn red on the top leaves, so pretty . and the diff color in the ceylon sp? is amazing . your tank will be a jungle in no time !! update !!!!

 

[addicted2fish]

get some 100% polyester from walmart . batting , or stuffing , your choice, and place in your hob on top of your other media , you will be amazed at how fast yoru tank clears up it will be cystal , just make sure to change out the filter floss *( same thing the sell you as filter floss at the LFS< its 100% polyester) and just change it out once every week or 2, it gets dirty fast , but as you see your tank cystal clear you will know why

 

[Jnam]

Hah yeah those posts were old. Ill post a nice big update later today But thanks for the help. I cleared the BBA up with Fertz and light and i kinda like the tannins in the water now. The fish like it for sure.

 

[Jnam]

Update 02132009

I feel like its time to make a little update to my 55 thread. Everything is different now. So Ill start with the stock list

10 Glowlight tetras (some days its 11 some days 9 to many plants to find em all)

5 Blackskirt Tetras (these puppies are HUGE 3 of them, maybe the females, are all about 2" tall and the others are 1.5" maybe the males)

5 extremely energetic LongFin Danios (these guys are so cool when the lights come on you can see em trying to spawn in the gravel dancing around all crazy like)

3 F Guppies (2 large blue ones and 1 blue and yellow)
2 M guppies (1 blue and orange half back and 1 Moscow purple)

A bunch of glass shrimp
5 RCS (1 female the rest males)
1 Common Pleco (makes a mess but he is the coolest looking pleco i have ever seen hes got tiger stripes)

Plenty of pond snails and ramshorns

Thats it for the newest evolved stock list. I have a male GBR in QT but hes not the best stock so he may go back to the LFS

So next are the plants Forgive my lack of spelling

Hygro Sunset(new just got it from addicted2fish)
red temple plant("")
bacopa
Amazon swords(they got HUGE!!)
Crypt sp red
C Wenditti
Jave moss
Flame moss
HM
HC
a few Vals that i am RAOKing

And now the major changes
I have been using my DIY UGF CO2 Reactor and it works wonderfully @ 4 bubbles i have about 30PPM of CO2. Still kickin it old skool with my DIY yeast in the bottle set up. I use the powerhead to circulate the water around and i love it. So do the plants. I still need to upgrade my bulbs My hood has a 65Wx2 PC fixture running 50/50 bulbs so i am only getting about 65W over the tanks thats just a little over 1wpg. ill be getting some 10k bullbs soon. I have starte to dry dose NPK as well as Flourish Comp for trace. So I DEFINATELY need some more light.
The heater got moved a less intrusive location. I plan on ditching the HOB as soon as possible and going for a Canister setup.
Got rid of the stock hood tank cover things and went with some glass tops for a 55 with center brace. They dont fit perfect but what the heck the light gets in there much better. My wife is out of town and she took the camera with her. But I am gonna get some pics up.

I started a 10 gallon RCS factory and thats been my main focus.

So here goes the question part (sorry for the previous book i wrote)
Where to get the lights from?
What else for stock?
Which Canister?
General comments would be appreciated.

Thanks for reading my book!!!!

Jason

 

[addicted2fish]

thank god you have a 10 fro the rcs I was going to say they will not last long in thier with the pleco, the skirt tetras, and most of the others. they will be a snack in no time ..... when you get a good stockful let me know, I am trying to add' to my colony of rcs. ~~~

I am fixing to get a magnum 350 for my 55 . I have the 250 hob magnum on my 45 and it works GREAT !! so I can only have high hopes for the 350 . also renas are good .

lights /bulbs, cheap place, ? good question , some say big als, I like a place that has a great price & cheap or free shipping as well, I will let you know what I find out

whne you do get the new filter put the old media from the hob in it for a few wekks to get it bio-ready . and skip a water change that week . I do IMO ~~

I cant give advice on your tank till I see it again , all these changes .

I LOVE your plants !!!! LOL ~~~ I am so glad you are happy with them and they will fill that tank in NO time !!! esp those hygros !! that red temple was sent to me, it needs some TLC badly , maybye put a root tab under it and do not move it for mths until it is growing healthy again ..

what about neon tetras, or cardinals they look GREAT in planted tanks ... hem ~~ see my pic for reference LOL ~~~ those are neon tetras,

 

[fort384]

Current USA

I just got a good price on a dual t5ho fixture from them (even though they sent me the wrong bulb, they are sending out the correct one tomorrow).

Love your CO2 diffusing method by the way... very slick.

 

[Jnam]

works perfect for me eliminates the little floating bubbles and gives me great saturation (co2 diffusion method that is) Yeah ill get some pics asap for you guys!

 

[dmoney87]

So here goes the question part (sorry for the previous book i wrote)
Where to get the lights from?
What else for stock?
Which Canister?
General comments would be appreciated.

Thanks for reading my book!!!!

Jason

Big Al's is a good place to get your lights from. They offer free shipping on orders over 35$ and they package the bulbs extremely well. Also FYI If your swapping out the 50 50's I would go for the either Dual 6700k & 10000k or just straight 6700K rather than just 10000k. I personally like the mix of 10000 and 6700 its not so yellowy green. As far as your stocking goes it seems to be good, maybe you want some bottom dwellers? Aldolphoi corys are nice if kept in groups of 6 or more.. smart move on chaning over to using canister from HOB I gurentee you will like it way more regardless of the brand you choose. I personally use a Rena Filstar xp3 on my 75g and I cant help but promote it.. its super quiet, lots of comparments for added biological media since I do not use any other filtraion besides foam inserts and the bio media, and when I have the extra money some micro polishing pads. Its probably one of the best investments ive made on my aquarium & You cant overkill on filtration, So I would recommend the same size for your 55.

-davE

 

[Jnam]

sweeet info thanks.

 

[sg3531]

Hmmm, will start a thread like this when I have my 55.
Thanks for sharing, beautiful aquarium.

 

[Jnam]

Updated pics

Well here is what we have. These are the changes so far.

Full Tank Shot (bad lighting and bad pic i am going to retake)

Right Side

Left Side

Right side again

The top of the DW it has a depression in it that allows for substrate to fill it. Kinda cool IMO

Let me know what yall think

And these are the befores

The tank with the black background before the DW

and the rest

its crazy the amount of growth by the swords i really hadnt noticed until now! Thanks to Happygirl for those

and thanks to Addictedtofish for all the plants on the left side of the tank!!

Comments and Suggestions please!

 

[fort384]

Looking good! I love that driftwood...

 

[Jnam]

thanks

 

[addicted2fish]

I WILL SEND YOU some subwarssertang (sp?) and place it in that hole in that dristwood, looks awesome when it attaches and fills in, you can just place a few gravel pc's on it for now to keep it down place *(some stems i am sending you ) in the right front corner, and in the back middle on the back wall, as a green stem wall in the back left wall . move your heater more behind the driftwood, and move the moss, and planst off that driftwood, will look much cleaner & very nice with what i will send you to go in it you can always tie plants to the back of it . i would place a wendi , or a red sword im front of that wood, just cover a little , cleaner look as well . always remeber uneven stem amounts look good, so like 3 or 7 not 2 or 4 . i will send you some stems, & the subwarssertang . I promise IT will make ALOT of differnace . and when it all grows in , WOW , and yes your swords look amaxing !! great job . you should put the hygro's one on one side, and the other in the middle, the sunset wopuld look great as that back wall, because it will be green, then when it grows in the tops at the top of the water turn red, really pretty !!! ~~~~~~~~~~ post a new pic after you get my next package ~

 

[Jnam]

Oh wow!! and yes pics for sure!!!

 

[Jnam]

Mostly the plants were placed where i could put them. I didnt really scape it. I really like the plants in the DW... You think it would be better without them?

 

[happygirl65]

Nice work!

 

[FishCrazyBenBOMB]

Lookin' good.

 

[Jnam]

The wifes fish

Common pleco