Started my tank

[ksteady]

Well my stand and canopy finally arrived and last night was a late one trying to get in all setup. Here is a quick list of my progress.

Backdrop painted on
Tank is on its stand ( 90gal )
Undergravel heating installed
Probably to much Flourite droped in
Inline heater installed
Filter install
Tank filled
Some wood/rock placed in
T5 lighting installed ( 216 watts )

Thats was enough for my night... Didn't start till around 9-10 pm last night had had to work today. CO2 will go on Monday as I need to fill my cyclinder and from there it's go time... I can't wait

Ignore the fact my canopy is not on in my pics... Can't lift it safely into place myself. Still cloudy in the pics as they were taken shortly after the fill as well. Nothing is really set in final placement either, just wanted it all in to see what I got....

Will keep you guys up to date with progress and probably a ton of questions as I go...

 

[black hills tj]

I'm digging the driftwood. Now plant that bad boy!

 

[LazySlacker]

looks very promising. I'm still on my search for the perfect used aquarium... Too bad my budget it so very limited. I'm hoping to have something like yours, but maybe a little smaller. Speaking of something like yours, I'm curious, I've never seen exactly how a canopy attaches to the tank in person. I was thinking about building my own. Does anyone know of any plans that I can use?

 

[ksteady]

Ok... I have no CO2 until tomorrow but had the urge to setup everything so I could just connect my bottle and turn it on. Setup Regulator, through seleniod, needle valve, a bubble counter, and finally into the tank through the CO2 reactor. Now my question is this.. That reactor is kind big and ugly, plus has a co2 hose and a power cord running to it. Can I place it agaisnt a far side of my tank? Does the postion of it have a positive or negitave effect on how well my CO2 performs ? Better near intake or outtake side or dead center ?

 

[ksteady]

Woot... Full bottle of CO2... Time to get it up and running and should be planting in the next day or two. First off still looking for a little input on the above question as to placement of my reactor. Next up is plant questions. I have read many times over to make sure I start with several " fast growing stem plants ". I am looking to see what some favorites are out there for this type of plant. Maybe also favorites on backround, mid, and foreground maybe say 2 per... something like so....

Fast Growing Stem
1 - blah blah
2 - blah blah

Forground
1 - blah blah
2 - blah blah

Mid
1 - blah blah
2 - blah blah

Foreground
1 - blah blah
2 - blah blah


This will give me a chance to see what some others out there are using and I can google them and see some photo's and info about ideal conditions and such then compare it to what I can find here locally. Also if any of you took pictures of the first planting day of your aquarium I would love to see them, just to get a idea of what I am aiming for as a begining point. Thanks in advance again guys.... ohh and probably some gals too!

 

[ksteady]

Ok yet another question. Hopefully I don't get to bothersome.

How can I tell if my reactor is working correctly. I am using the Redsea kit and have set at about 2 bubbles a sec atm. About every 5-10 secounds a bunch of bubbles come out of the reactor and thats all i notice. I was under the assumption there was no visable bubble within the tank, or am I wrong ?

 

[Purrbox]

I would probably put the CO2 output under the filter input. This would allow any undisolved CO2 to get sucked in a chopped up.

I'm partial to Rotala rotundifolia and Ludwigia brevipes for fast growing stems.

You'll need to measure you're CO2 levels. The easiest way is to get a CO2 drop checker and fill it with 4dKH reference solution and add the indicator drops. When it turns green you'll have 30ppm CO2. The other way is to test your water after it has sat out for 24 hours or been aerated for an hour for both pH and KH, then check the CO2 chart to ensure that your results are about 3ppm. If so, then you can take a sample of aquarium water and test for pH and KH and the results will tell you your CO2 levels. If not, you won't be able to use the CO2 chart because there is a buffer other than KH present in your water. In this case your best bet is to get the drop checker, but you can also guesstimate by looking for a drop of 1 in the ph ie before CO2 7.6, after CO2 6.6.

 

[ksteady]

Yah the CO2 kit I have came with a drop checker and I am using it. Seems a little to east lol...

 

[Purrbox]

Yah the CO2 kit I have came with a drop checker and I am using it. Seems a little to east lol...

Make sure that you are using a KH reference solution and not your tap or aquarium water to make sure that you are getting good results. Otherwise blue/green/yellow really doesn't provide meainingful information.

 

[ksteady]

Ohh ? Where does one get this KH solution from. The way I have it now is 1 ml of aqaurium water and 2 drops of provided solution hanging 4" from top of tank.... Would you say this really a different reading then the KH way ?

 

[Purrbox]

There's actually a sticky at the top of the forum that explains both how to make your own reference solution and why it's necessary. http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forum...ce-kh-solution-for-co2-measurement-88293.html

 

[ksteady]

I don't know how you guys do it. Just tried planting my first batch of plants and let me tell you it was not as easy as I thought. This Flourite sure kicks up a huge cloud by moving very very little of it around. Does this eventually stop happening this bad ? I mean I put over half my plants in without even being able to see. it's so cloudy I bet I can't even see 6 inches into my tank. Its gonna take another day or two just see where they ended up. Also whats the secret to planting the things, If I try to plant one close to another I almost always kick that one out, it's like plant 1 lose 2. lol....... Learning curve I guess.... i'll take some pics in a few days when my huge *** cloud is gone.

 

[Purrbox]

The cloudiness will clear after awhile. How quickly it clears will largely depend on how well you rinsed the Flourite before adding it to the aquarium. It'll cloud up each time you disturb it, but over time it will cloud less and will take less time to clear.

 

[ksteady]

Yah I didn't do much more than a fast rinse.... Guess I am paying for that now.

As the plants grow and roots spread and such are they less likely to come unrooted form pouring water in to fast or disturbing the near by substate ? Sure seems way to easy to unroot them... Let alone once I have fish in there.

 

[Purrbox]

As the plants become established, they'll stay put much better. In addition it can be helpful to plant stem plants at a slight angle. This allows the weight of the substrate help hold them in place.

 

[ksteady]

My water is now clear enough for me to see how bad of a job I did planting them without being able to see. I can tell you every single one is on a angle lol....... Time to rip it apart and start over.

 

[ksteady]

Ok some pics of my plants. Yes I have no idea what I am doing yet. Yes I have not had time to plant them all. Yes some of the ones planted will be moving. Yes I still have to throw back in some wood and rocks. Yes my water is mega cloudy still. Yes most of the leaves are covered in dust from me disturbing my substrate way to much last few days. Just wanted to keep up my log

 

[brutus]

its a start.What filter did you go with?

 

[ksteady]

Ehiem 2028........


hope to get a spare hour tonight to move stuff around and finsih planting, should have a better pic up within a few days...

 

[brutus]

good choice