barakainus

After being in the hobby slightly over a year, I decided it was enough of ugly AGA tanks and I bought myself a new rimless tank from LFS in SF. Then, it was in my apartmentfor two months, waiting for me to find the time to actually set it up. The waiting was frustrating but on the other hand, I had so many ideas how to scape it that I couldn't decide So, the extra time was useful to make my mind. And also to get the right driftwood and rocks.

Equipment:
Tank - Do!Aqua 90p 94x45x45 cm (36x18x18") That's about 48 gallons
Stand - half-DYI 36x18x33"
Light - GLO light T5HO 2x39W, both 6700K, one Lifeglo, one Coralife
Filtration - Eheim Ecco 2232 (35gal) and 2236 (80gal) with Do!Aqua and Aquamagic glass lily pipes
Heater - Hydor In-line 200W (on 2236)
CO2 - pressurized 5lb, 24/7 at about 0.5 bps. Diffuser under small powerhead (for now)

Scape:
Bottom layer - mix of natural Fluorite, Laterite, Turface and sand
Upper layer - mix of black Fluorite, Laterite and black Onyx sand.
Front - Sand from Lake Tahoe
Manzanita collected in East Sierras and Lake Tahoe area (soaked and hand scrapped)
Rocks bought from fellow aquarist

Animals:
Cardinal tetras (Paracheirodon axelrodi) - 10
Rummynose tetras (Hemigrammus bleheri) - 30(?)
Columbian tetras (Hyphessobrycon colombianus) - 2
Panda cory (Corydoras panda) - 5
Mystery cory (Corydoras ????) - 2
Otto (Otocinclus affinis?) - 2
Pitbull Pleco (LDA-25) (Parotocinclus jumbo) - 1
Amano shrimp (Caridina japonica ) - 1
MTS (Elanoides tuberculata) - many
other snails (Helisoma sp. (?), Physa acuta, Lymnea (?), Planorbis sp.)

Plants:
Java fern 'narrow leaf', 'windellow' and 'trident'
Anubias nana and nana 'petitte'
Bolbitis heudelotti
Crypt. wendtii 'mi oya', 'Florida sunset', 'green gecko', (?)
C. lutea
C. parva
Eleocharis acicularis
Glossostigma elatinoides
Hydrocotyle
Hygrophila corymbosa 'compact'
Lobelia cardinalis
Myriophyllum mattogrossense
Mayaca fluviatilis
Rotala macrandra
R. indica
R. colorata
Potamogeton gayii
Polygonum sp. kawagoeanum
Blyxa aubertii
Echinodorus 'vesuvius'
Fissidens fontanus

barakainus

This is how it all started


Tank on secondhand stand and trying some scape ideas...


After many trials, I settled on this

and from top

barakainus

The stand was 36" tall and only 15" deep, so I had to add top plywood 18" deep and then styrofoam and all that would make the stand almost 38" tall. That was decided to be too tall and so I collected some serious tools and cut the stand all around and made it few inches shorter.
And while I was in the process, I actually turned the stand upside down.
The stand was built like a fortress and was very very hard to remove some parts of it.


Some kick-ass tool and my old tank in the back


Stand cut down 4" and ready to be assembled to my liking. The top was previously bottom


Cutting holes for filter. They are on both side. Couldn't decide which side I will route the filter, so I rather made them on both sides. It was a good decision because in the end, I have two filters.
You can see the demage caused by removing the rims on the stand

And holes done

barakainus

Painting the stand


And done. Doors are down and will be mounted after the tank is set up

barakainus

Day of setting up
Fill with water to level it and test for stability and leaks. All good


I was going for front strip of sand. Here is plastic strip hold by styrofoam peices in place. The stones are there to hold the styrofome from floating. Base layer of fluorite mixture is there.


Balck fluorite mixture and sand is in
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_cUV6A0O0UEc/S9...58_akva48G.jpg

The hardscape. It surprisingly stayed as planned.


With java fern and anubias


Filled and after half an hour of planting


Done for today. And it's not even midnight yet


Fish are in buckets with canister filters hooked up to them. they will wait till tomorrow and then go in the tank. As I'm re-using filters from my old tank and also half of the gravel is old, I'm not expecting any problems due to new-tank-syndrom.

Oscar17

Wow.. looks good! I like it!

londonloco

WOW! What he said.....just beautiful!

Chris Noto

Very nice work, Pavel. I love what you did with the stand. It is now a very tasteful setting for your aquascape. The 'scape, itself, looks amazingly good for just having been planted. I have a great feeling, as I look forward to seeing how it develops.

inghamb87

Amazing work and all the details you shared is very much appreciated. If you just look at the few pictures above you would have never thought it would come out so beautifully. It's amazing and satisfying to see something that was started from scratch turn into such a beauty.

Great job!

bbehring

Looks super! Love the manzanita branch look. Where'd you buy your plants from? Also, how'd you attach the java fern to the branches?