Ready to go!

[Beamesmar]

Hi everyone! Thanks for welcoming me to the group. After living in China for 8.5 years for work, I return to the states in the summer of 2015. At this time I had a choice: either pay a landlord rent, or refurbished my brother's basement to thank him for the years that he help me with all of my domestic situations. I ended up doing the latter, and we converted his basement into an entertainment room, a full wet bar, full bath, and bedroom.

Now that all is complete with the renovations, we had one large wall which was in desperate need of a fish tank.

I picked up a 60" x 18" x 25" tank and stand. Little did I know, this is really an oddball size and had loads of difficulty finding any lights or canopies to fit it. Time to diy.


I constructed a canopy and installed 3-48" Finnex 24/7 lights inside the hood.

Here is the final product....


I picked up a Fluval FX6, 2-300watt hydor heaters, and plan on building a 24"x2" inline reactor for CO2 injection triggered by running a pH probe and a pH controller connected to an Insta CO2 regulator.

I hope to create a hybrid Natural/Dutch style planted aquarium with small, schooling fish to keep the bioload to a minimum and extend the time I need between FX6 cleanings.

I'll be frequenting this forum, I'm sure, to get your advice as I know I'm going to drive myself nuts with this.

First off.... substrate recommendations... anyone? Anyone??

 

[Sharmon]

Welcome to AA. This is a great place to learn all about fish keeping.

 

[toolman]

Welcome!
For planted tanks I use pool filter sand, many use black diamond blasting media or soil also.

 

[Beamesmar]

Welcome to AA. This is a great place to learn all about fish keeping.

I had some Tinfoil barbs and a silver dollar as a kid. I had a 45 gallon with an Oscar in my first apartment after college. Time has gotten away from me, and I realize that was 22 years ago!! So much has changed!!!! Thanks for being the first to respond to my first ever post!!

 

[Beamesmar]

Welcome!
For planted tanks I use pool filter sand, many use black diamond blasting media or soil also.

I would like to go the soil route, but don't want that brown murky color to the water. Thinking about aqua soil, power sand, or something similar. Been watching too many James Finley videos!

 

[toolman]

Could use soil with a sand or black diamond blasting media cap over it.

 

[Beamesmar]

Could use soil with a sand or black diamond blasting media cap over it.

Would that keep my water from turning to iced tea?

 

[bananna]

Hi everyone! Thanks for welcoming me to the group. After living in China for 8.5 years for work, I return to the states in the summer of 2015. At this time I had a choice: either pay a landlord rent, or refurbished my brother's basement to thank him for the years that he help me with all of my domestic situations. I ended up doing the latter, and we converted his basement into an entertainment room, a full wet bar, full bath, and bedroom.

Now that all is complete with the renovations, we had one large wall which was in desperate need of a fish tank.

I picked up a 60" x 18" x 25" tank and stand. Little did I know, this is really an oddball size and had loads of difficulty finding any lights or canopies to fit it. Time to diy.
View attachment 298734

I constructed a canopy and installed 3-48" Finnex 24/7 lights inside the hood.
View attachment 298735View attachment 298736
Here is the final product....
View attachment 298737

I picked up a Fluval FX6, 2-300watt hydor heaters, and plan on building a 24"x2" inline reactor for CO2 injection triggered by running a pH probe and a pH controller connected to an Insta CO2 regulator.

I hope to create a hybrid Natural/Dutch style planted aquarium with small, schooling fish to keep the bioload to a minimum and extend the time I need between FX6 cleanings.

I'll be frequenting this forum, I'm sure, to get your advice as I know I'm going to drive myself nuts with this.

First off.... substrate recommendations... anyone? Anyone??

I use the fluval stratum substrate but I also rinsed before adding it to my tank. I mixed in some seachum fluorite dark but that took forever to rinse off prior to going in my tank. I only got tea colored water from adding almond leaves for my shrimp. Used spider branches also to limit tea color in the tank as well.

 

[Beamesmar]

I use the fluval stratum substrate but I also rinsed before adding it to my tank. I mixed in some seachum fluorite dark but that took forever to rinse off prior to going in my tank. I only got tea colored water from adding almond leaves for my shrimp. Used spider branches also to limit tea color in the tank as well.

Thanks! That give me some research to do....

 

[bananna]

Here is a picture so you could see the color.

 

[bananna]

Clearly my tank is way too small for the Madagascar but Im planning on getting a larger tank already lol this is a fluval flex 15g

 

[Beamesmar]

Clearly my tank is way too small for the Madagascar but Im planning on getting a larger tank already lol this is a fluval flex 15g

Any fishies in there?

 

[bananna]

Shrimp and a few guppies

 

[bananna]

Here is l'otange my orange shrimp

 

[bananna]

nerite snails and my blue shrimp

 

[Sharmon]

They are cute. Nice tank.

 

[bananna]

Thank you

 

[toolman]

If using soil you run the risk of it getting stired up, I have not used it for that reason but many swear by it for planted tanks. Sand and black diamond blasting media are cheap and easy to get for a large tank but are inert so you need root tabs. Root tabs are easy to make or buy online. You can buy several substrates specifically for aquarium's but I have no experience with their use (pricey for large aquarium's).