75 gallon planted Journal (slow process)

FishLuvr

FishLuvr

Large Fish
#1
Jun 19, 2005
406
1
0
50
Pittsburgh, Pa
#1
This will be my Journal for my new Tank. I plan for it to b e heavily aquascaped. with (maybe) even a diy cave/raised forest system, i have what i want to do in mind and even how to do it weather it comes to fruition or not is another deal lol

I Love Craigslist and found a 75 gallon tank, and custom made stand and coralife 48" dual compact flourescent light fixture for sale for 250 dollars. I had to drive about 45 minutes out of my way to pick it up but i felt at the time that it was a steal, the light fixture alone cost just under that price. Unfortunantly the custom stand was huge, the original builder of it wanted a stand where he didnt have to bend over to look at his tank, and i have a Jeep liberty (too small to fit both the tank and the stand) , so the 45 minute one way trip became a 2 day excursion, with me paying him half the money to hold the stand there while i took the tank home, then me coming out again the next day to pick up the tank and lights. BUT i sucked it up and dealt with it. Got the behemoth of a stand home and with the help of a friend and blood sweat and many many tears we got it up to my second floor apartment.

You can see how heavily built this tank stand is here....

and...

I swear he made the stand strong enough to park a tank on it.

A week later, and again on craigslist i found a guy selling a ton of stuff for very very cheap, i thought this must be a crackhead looking for a fix, but i took my chances (along with my 9mm sig sauer to the meet point in case i had to put a couple of extra holes in the assumed to be crackhead) also i made sure that we met in a well populated place being it was at night lol.

His ad listed a rena xp2, 2 300watt heaters, 1 50 watt heater, a huge (and i do mean HUGE) piece of driftwood, a aquaclear 110 and various other items for 100 bucks, all in working order (do you see why i thought he was a crackhead)........
 

FishLuvr

FishLuvr

Large Fish
#2
Jun 19, 2005
406
1
0
50
Pittsburgh, Pa
#2
BUT low and behold the crackhead was not a crackhead, a littel generous maybe, naive maybe, but whatever the case i was happy as a lightning bug.






so there now i have a two filters to work with two heaters to work with and a beautiful piece of driftwood for my aquascape. But wait, look at the pics again, do you see how freaking big that driftwood is, it's not driftwood its a freaking petrified tree stump from the land of never-gonna-get-water-logged land. UGHHH, 4 weeks now and this thing has not sank a single cm. it just floats, i do have a couple of ideas on what to do to get it to be wieghted down but even that is gonna be a pita.



now on to lights, while trying to remove the bulbs from the fixture i got from the first craigslist post, i broke the end cap, then another endcap, then finally a third one, they were brittle as all hell, after a little research i found this to be a common problem with coralife fixtures and salt creep, from saltwater tanks, the third endcap was so bad i actually ripped out a wire. UGHHHH, i think okay this is basic wiring i could search for some endcaps and re-wire this myself. then i my mind goes crazy and images of my apartment up in flames appear, firetrucks, and and angry landlord (who just so happens to live right next door) not good images might i add. do i gave up and tossed it.

BUT (oh theres a BUT, you say, YES there is a but i say) with a handy little app for my android phone, i have several keywords flagged for retrieval, the app works as a spider (web spider) if you will, using the key words it constantly searches craigslist for them, and when found it alerts you to the post. I used Coralife as one of the keywords and in a couple of days BOOM BANG BING! i find a post only 2 minutes old of a guy selling two coralife 48" dual compact floursecent light fixtures. for 200 bucks, and he is only 15 minutes away from me. SCHWING!!!!. i go and grab them up now i have one for my already running 55 gallon and one for the new setup. one of the light fixtures even has 3 led lights built in SCHWING AGAIN!!.


and thats where im at now, in a couple of weeks ill get the...
substrate
glass tops
eggcrate
slate (for tree stump)
and misc items
 

FishLuvr

FishLuvr

Large Fish
#3
Jun 19, 2005
406
1
0
50
Pittsburgh, Pa
#3
Today, i picked up a coralife digital power center (already have one on my 55 gallon and i love it) progammable timers for lights and 4 constant power sockets for filter/heaters etc.

a floating themometer, a black background, and filter media for the xp2 and the ac110 I'm adding the xp2 to my currently running 55 gallon tank to seed it while i wait for paychecks to come in to get my other items for the 75 gallon, so that way (along with slow stocking) i should have a instantly cycled tank.
 

nanu156

nanu156

Large Fish
#4
Mar 8, 2010
745
0
0
Detroit, Mi
#4
hey I might be alone here but the stick on thermometers actually work better for me. They tend to me more accurate.

Take the tank and paint the back instead of using the "wallpaper" then you wont ever have water-spots between the paper and the tank I promise you will tank me later.

That's a real nice piece of wood, needs a real nice herd of plecos to make it a home :)
 

FishLuvr

FishLuvr

Large Fish
#5
Jun 19, 2005
406
1
0
50
Pittsburgh, Pa
#5
yea it will have some plecos calling it home, i was on aquabid yesterday and saw a zebra l046 (a fish that i have wanted for ever) for 150 bucks, thats the cheapest ive seen in a while. but sadly this tank is no where near ready for anything living, and especially for something that cost so much
 

nanu156

nanu156

Large Fish
#7
Mar 8, 2010
745
0
0
Detroit, Mi
#7
L046 are fantastic, be wary of them on aquabid, you are in a big city you will probably see a local breeder on craigslist if you keep your eyes peeled.

The L046/L199 (same fish has 2 L#'s) would be a great match for the leopard frog you posted on the other thread. :) You could add a king tiger, a flyer tail and a Colombian zebra to round out the mix, all are around the same size and have similar diets :)

Good luck :)
 

FishLuvr

FishLuvr

Large Fish
#8
Jun 19, 2005
406
1
0
50
Pittsburgh, Pa
#8
WOOHOOO!!!!! found a guy selling a Fluval FX5 filter today for 75 dollars. Picked it up and bought some media for it. THIS THING IS HUGE!!!!!!!!!! i actually need to get more sponges for it the 3 large ones i bought were not enough i need 3 more, two for each basket.



it works, ive already tested it, and came with everything except one part, one of the hose connecting rim clips which i already purchased online for 12 bucks shipped.
 

FishLuvr

FishLuvr

Large Fish
#10
Jun 19, 2005
406
1
0
50
Pittsburgh, Pa
#10
big54bob said:
Do yourself a favor and go buy some NYLON pot scrubbers at a dollor store. You will save more money then buying the filter media.
Click to expand...
good suggestion, but actually i just bought the sponges, since this tank is WAY WAY WAY more filtration than ill ever need on a 75 gallon tank, i plan to use the bio-max media i have in my two aquaclear 70's and store those away.

plus since getting my first canister filter 2 months ago and loving it a gazillion times over HOB filters, i will probably be upgrading my 55 gallon tank to a rena xp3 and doing the same with that one =)
 

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