Journal: 55gal Planted Community
- Thread starter TwistedGA
- Start date
Thanks for all the kind comments! It definately helps motivate me to push forward with things. I managed to get the canopy knobs on last night in my drunken stooper. I took my time fillign it with water so as not to get any of the raw MDF wet(MDF is basically compressed cardboard for those that don't know).. I got all 38gallons in without a single drop, I get ansy and want to throw a small light inside it just to see what it looks like, spilling my corona and getting one of the doors wet, luckily I had a towl at my feet and got it off before it welped up and I had to sand it lol..
The only really crappy thing about this entire project is the lack of room for the tank in general and especially now with stand and canopy. As it sits in the closest, we have a couch blocking the entire stand, all you can really see is the tank and canopy unless you lean over it and look in there. When you live with your parents and plan on moving out eventually, selling or throwing out any furniture at all is hard as hell to do. Hopefully we'll manage to find a better spot for it(or the couch) and open it up so it's actually of use and I can start planning for the acrylic sump/refuge.
Lighting is our next project, since we have the 3d background, tradition placement for lighting doesn't work too well. It's definately gonna be a pain in the arse figuring out how we want to do it, but it'll be worth it in the end.
Thanks again for all the kind comments, they are greatly appreciated!
I forgot to update you all with a price of the total project, including everything you've seen done so far, it's close to the price of JUST a stand. $150 for the lot!
The only really crappy thing about this entire project is the lack of room for the tank in general and especially now with stand and canopy. As it sits in the closest, we have a couch blocking the entire stand, all you can really see is the tank and canopy unless you lean over it and look in there. When you live with your parents and plan on moving out eventually, selling or throwing out any furniture at all is hard as hell to do. Hopefully we'll manage to find a better spot for it(or the couch) and open it up so it's actually of use and I can start planning for the acrylic sump/refuge.
Lighting is our next project, since we have the 3d background, tradition placement for lighting doesn't work too well. It's definately gonna be a pain in the arse figuring out how we want to do it, but it'll be worth it in the end.
Thanks again for all the kind comments, they are greatly appreciated!
I forgot to update you all with a price of the total project, including everything you've seen done so far, it's close to the price of JUST a stand. $150 for the lot!
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Looks like it's going along great! What kind of fish do you plan on getting for it (sorry if you already said, and I missed it. 
)?
)?
We are overstocked in my personal opinion and the variety of fish really don't settle well together. The Bala is a beast, atleast 6" and thicker than my hand. I've always been told 1" of fish per gallon of water but I still think that's borderline clusterf*ck.
The cichlids are definately becoming my favorite, I can't wait to get them into a sand substrate where I hear they become very active and playful. One of our's looks to be a Cobalt blue, and the other looks just like him but with a deep yellow and black. The blue one is definately overdominate as the yellow fish is always up hiding behind the HOB. For some reason, the cichlids loose coloring when the lights are on compared to when we have them off and initially kick them back on, kinda weird, just more for me to read into I guess..
Sorry for turning this into a indepth post when you just asked for al ist haha, I'm cleaning house and bored as crap today. *BOUNCINGS *twirlysmi
I know for sure the Bala need's to make home in his 55gallon again considering he's been such a trooper. The cichlid's really don't mess with him at all because of his size so I think it'll end up with them aswell, from there I'm really not sure yet.
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Yea, they get up to about 12" from what the LFS said, which is pretty impressive for nothing more than a minnow. There's no way in hell my g/f will ever give him away so he'll be cramped until he passes. I personally wouldn't mind giving all but the africans up and gathering more of them for the tank. We'll see what happens when the time comes and I can get the water quality up to par.
What a mess we have here, I've got two pumps running through a total of 4 splitters powering tons of airstones to get things circulating. I plan to use two powerheads once the water quality is back on track, one on the lower left and another on the upper right, probably ditching the airstones all together since I'd say they stir up a mess when using sand for a substrate.
The moonlighting is pretty much taken care of, we used a 10" neon Stick made for a car, I've had them for several years, think I paid 1.99 for them at biglot's during some sidewalk sale lol. I mounted a single tube in the middle which lights it up pretty good as you can see in the pictures, I may end up moving this one and mounting up one on each side instead.
Plans for the main lighting is two 48" florecents and 4 mh's, not sure how high we'll do the wattage yet, but I'd like to do some mid-high plants rather than the low light plants we've done in the past. Definately do more reading and looking to decide what plants I want before I buy the bulbs. On with the pictures, I'm no photographer if you hadn't figured that out already...
The moonlighting is pretty much taken care of, we used a 10" neon Stick made for a car, I've had them for several years, think I paid 1.99 for them at biglot's during some sidewalk sale lol. I mounted a single tube in the middle which lights it up pretty good as you can see in the pictures, I may end up moving this one and mounting up one on each side instead.
Plans for the main lighting is two 48" florecents and 4 mh's, not sure how high we'll do the wattage yet, but I'd like to do some mid-high plants rather than the low light plants we've done in the past. Definately do more reading and looking to decide what plants I want before I buy the bulbs. On with the pictures, I'm no photographer if you hadn't figured that out already...
wow thats one awesome setup you got going there i cant wait to see it with fish and whatever else you are putting in it hope you dont mind me using your pics to build a canopy for mine i have already built the tank and had trouble with the canopy design but this is i give you ultimate props but how you supposed to see inside the caves?
I can blueprint the exact canopy design for you and also make a wasteless material list if you measure your tank top and post the size. I would need it exact so that I can add the play it should have. It's truely a breeze to build. Just let me know, my pictures really aren't very detailed. You will definately need a tablesaw to build one, having the guys at the store cut anything accurate is laughable, atleast in my area.
As for the caves, there are only three caves we wont be able to see them in clearly until we find a better spot to put the tank, flashlights will be how we check and clean them for now, once its moved it should be all good since the sides will be exposed.
As for the caves, there are only three caves we wont be able to see them in clearly until we find a better spot to put the tank, flashlights will be how we check and clean them for now, once its moved it should be all good since the sides will be exposed.
i think i can figure it out and as to wasting wood i have a huge pile of oak that im building it out of just couldnt figure out how i wanted it to open and i really like yours and i have all the tools i just got done building the stand not the best but as soon as i get a new cord for my cam ill put some pics up just dont laugh at my craftsmanship
Alrighty, time to update this thing. It seems like it's been forever with the list I have.. lol
After running the filters and airstones for about 48 hours, we purchased our sand substrate and gave it a good cleaning and started adding it to the tank. A lot of people talked about it causing cloudy water for days on end, but I guess we got lucky or I just picked the right stuff.. lol
While picking up the sand, I went ahead and purchased the tanks main lighting. I ended up bringing home a 48" Dual Light T12 Shop Light housing (8.99) and a pair of 32watt Daylight Deluxe T8 bulbs rated at 2800lumens and 6500K (4.99). I played with my camera a bit tonight trying to find the best setting for taking good shot's of it with the lighting on, I still haven't found the one thatshows the tanks true lighting, but this one looks pretty good..
...
This shows the pretty basic lighting setup we have, nothing fancy really. I'll be going back to home depot in a few days to pick up some acrylic to cover the top of the tank. Not shown in either picture is the pump we use for water changes. I picked up a 130gph pond pump from Home Depot for around 20 bucks to make things less time consuming and troublesome.
Yesterday marked the official start of the tank cycle. I spent a few minutes in access buildign a database to keep records of everything that goes on with the tank from testing to additives and additions. To start things off we did another 50% waterchange on the tank and inserted our pump to act as sort of a (weak)powerhead on the right side of the tank. I went to the LFS and picked up a new API FW Master Test Kit and Stress Zyme specifically for this tank. Readings of initial testing was as follows;
pH: 8.0
Ammonia: 0.50
Nitrite:0
Nitrate:5.0
It really wasn't as bad as I had expected, after logging the initial test results we started the cycle with ammonia and stress zyme. Cycling will continue as per Iggy's Recipe. This is the first time I have ever setup a tank without just using stress zyme and pH down to stabilize water for two weeks and then adding fish, never testing anything but ammonia and pH levels. I didn't know about nitrites or nitrates, or anything relating to them, now I have to read and read and read and still keep moving forward to please the future wifey. All while making her understand she got lucky by not even using stress zyme to setup the other tanks before adding the fish(how I was originally told to set them up, before even caring enough to read about them).
After running the filters and airstones for about 48 hours, we purchased our sand substrate and gave it a good cleaning and started adding it to the tank. A lot of people talked about it causing cloudy water for days on end, but I guess we got lucky or I just picked the right stuff.. lol
While picking up the sand, I went ahead and purchased the tanks main lighting. I ended up bringing home a 48" Dual Light T12 Shop Light housing (8.99) and a pair of 32watt Daylight Deluxe T8 bulbs rated at 2800lumens and 6500K (4.99). I played with my camera a bit tonight trying to find the best setting for taking good shot's of it with the lighting on, I still haven't found the one thatshows the tanks true lighting, but this one looks pretty good..
...
This shows the pretty basic lighting setup we have, nothing fancy really. I'll be going back to home depot in a few days to pick up some acrylic to cover the top of the tank. Not shown in either picture is the pump we use for water changes. I picked up a 130gph pond pump from Home Depot for around 20 bucks to make things less time consuming and troublesome.
Yesterday marked the official start of the tank cycle. I spent a few minutes in access buildign a database to keep records of everything that goes on with the tank from testing to additives and additions. To start things off we did another 50% waterchange on the tank and inserted our pump to act as sort of a (weak)powerhead on the right side of the tank. I went to the LFS and picked up a new API FW Master Test Kit and Stress Zyme specifically for this tank. Readings of initial testing was as follows;
pH: 8.0
Ammonia: 0.50
Nitrite:0
Nitrate:5.0
It really wasn't as bad as I had expected, after logging the initial test results we started the cycle with ammonia and stress zyme. Cycling will continue as per Iggy's Recipe. This is the first time I have ever setup a tank without just using stress zyme and pH down to stabilize water for two weeks and then adding fish, never testing anything but ammonia and pH levels. I didn't know about nitrites or nitrates, or anything relating to them, now I have to read and read and read and still keep moving forward to please the future wifey. All while making her understand she got lucky by not even using stress zyme to setup the other tanks before adding the fish(how I was originally told to set them up, before even caring enough to read about them).
Test Results of day 3 in cycle;
pH: Not Tested
Ammonia: 5.0 (Added 2 caps Distilled Ammonia to bring to this level)
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 10
I'm pretty confused on this cycle method, but I think* I have it figured out.. I started adding the ammonia yesterday(until I hit 5ppm, today I tested Ammonia prior to adding the 2 caps and even if it still reads 5ppm I add the 2 caps, eventually the ammonia test will read 0ppm after 24hrs.
Nitrites should at some point begin to rise(unlike now)... I keep adding the ammonia until both ammonia and nitrites both drop back to 0ppm after 24hrs. Then the two cycles are complete and the nitrates should be so high it'll require a 75% water change. After the refill I should be free to stock the tank... If I have somehow misunderstood the general jist of this process, please fill me in..
pH: Not Tested
Ammonia: 5.0 (Added 2 caps Distilled Ammonia to bring to this level)
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 10
I'm pretty confused on this cycle method, but I think* I have it figured out.. I started adding the ammonia yesterday(until I hit 5ppm, today I tested Ammonia prior to adding the 2 caps and even if it still reads 5ppm I add the 2 caps, eventually the ammonia test will read 0ppm after 24hrs.
Nitrites should at some point begin to rise(unlike now)... I keep adding the ammonia until both ammonia and nitrites both drop back to 0ppm after 24hrs. Then the two cycles are complete and the nitrates should be so high it'll require a 75% water change. After the refill I should be free to stock the tank... If I have somehow misunderstood the general jist of this process, please fill me in..
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Another day of testing..
Ammonia: 8.0+
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
So now I'm really confused on how this is actually suppose to happen. I figured the nitrites would have started rising by now, and the nitrates would have continued to rise aswell, they for some reason dropped back to 0 from 10 in 24hrs. :\
Ammonia: 8.0+
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
So now I'm really confused on how this is actually suppose to happen. I figured the nitrites would have started rising by now, and the nitrates would have continued to rise aswell, they for some reason dropped back to 0 from 10 in 24hrs. :\
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The nitrites should start rising after a while. It takes a little patience. This article shows it graphically (which is nice), and also has a great description: Aquamaniacs :: View article - Cycling Safely: The Fishless Method - by Phantom of Tetra
You probably won't see nitrites for a few more days.
You probably won't see nitrites for a few more days.