The "rebirth" of my 75 gallon

[Khazmachi]

I have been in the process of revamping my aquarium, and thought I'd share the progress with everyone. Over the last 3 and a half-ish years I have moved around quite a bit (two of those moves long distance), and took my tank along with me. During that time I didn't put too much effort into it because I would soon have to tear it down and move again. So now that I'm someplace I plan on being for a while I've been able to focus on it again.

What had started out as a semi planted, fully stocked, nicely scaped tank had become this...



No more plants, (couldn't get em to grow when living in Vegas) three fish who had been with me for years, only one HOB filter, and a couple peices of driftwood. One of which was starting to fall apart.
After 6 months of living here one of my three survivors past and I decided it was time to bring this tank back to life. I had a few bucks and after many visits to the LFS one day I ended with a second HOB filter (AC 50 best I could afford at the time until I could replace my burnt out canister) and this guy, a severum.



A few weeks later my old man Red Tail Shark passed. What a story he had, been passed around through many people (and not in the best conditions) before I picked him up. I had him for six or seven years and I have no idea how long he was around before... sorry got side tracked ha! So now I have just one of my original stock, a Boesemani Rainbow who out lived his brothers and is still going strong.

Next upgrade I did was add plants. I was tired of live ones dying, and heard mixed reviews of how the Severum would treat them, so I went with fake. Now things were looking a little better



This was about four months ago. Much more has been done and I'll get everyone up to date in the next day or two when I have more time, and I'm sure I'll have some questions when we get there. Thanks for checking this out!

Dave

 

[Oohitsae]

Wow, I love your tank! It looks so natural.

Nice job!

 

[Khazmachi]

Wow, I love your tank! It looks so natural.

Nice job!

Thanks! It looks even better now that I got rid of that gravel. I've wanted to replace that stuff forever. It would have been alright without that green mixed in.

 

[Khazmachi]

Okay on with the journal...
After I had it all set up with fake plants I let my girlfriend go with me to pick out some new additions. Still not sure if this was good idea or not, but I want her to be interested in the fish too. That way she understands when I upgrade to a bigger tank someday
The LFS had a couple beautiful angels that she fell in love with, and here is what we brought home









This totally threw off my ideas for stocking. I was initially thinking of doing some other rainbows, but now I plan on doing a South American tank... or at least SA/CA. Still researching potential new additions.

So my next project was to build a hood. I had a glass cover for a 55 gallon that I had gotten my with for some time, and an unsightly shop light, that had started rusting and falling apart. I had no idea how badly until I got into this project. Here is what it looked like.



I had another project to do and found some great wood in the cull lumber at Home depot for real cheap, so how could i not grab some for my fish tank? It is a real simple design. I somehow forgot to do 45 degree cut for my corners, but its works great. I took apart the old shop light and just fixed the electrical hardware to the inside of the hood.






I put hinges on both front and back so i could access filters without having to remove the hood. Then i painted the inside white to help reflect the light, and painted the outside black to match the stand.
Here is the after picture with the new hood (still could use a second coat of paint)



I was really surprised by how much brighter everything was!! I had made room to install another set of lights in there if i wanted to later, but when I hooked it all up I felt the lighting was a bit too much for the fish and unplugged one of the light bulbs, so I just have one 48inch T8 bulb.

 

[Khazmachi]

Annnd finally I changed the substrate. I used play sand. Had to rinse the crap out of it of course, but sooo worth it. Luckily it was a really nice day and standing in the sun with the hose in one hand and a beer in the other wasn't too bad at all.






I freaking love it! I looks so much better. I'm pretty sure the fish like it too.

 

[JacobThomson]

Great journal to read. I wish you all the luck with your new tank!

 

[Khazmachi]

Great journal to read. I wish you all the luck with your new tank!

Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it. It was fun to look back and see the transformation side by side. It is quite the change.

 

[Surfer]

Nice progression

 

[Dallascowboys16]

Looks great!

 

[Rodeo one]

Really nice, especially what you did with the hood.

 

[Khazmachi]

Thanks everyone! I think I'm done with the big changes now, and I'm about ready to add some more fish. I know i want to stick with a south american theme, and I think I might try and add a couple more peaceful-ish cichlids from that area. Maybe a couple keyholes and some larger bodied tetra. Do you think i could add some cories to that as well or am I getting to be overstocked? I'll see what the ol LFS has in stock. I'm open to any recommendations. Thanks again.