Logan's Daddy

Here it is, my 34 gallon Journal, detailing my custom equipment.

Tank: 36"w x 14"d x 16"h = appx. 34 gal.
Substrate: 40 lbs eco complete mixed with 20 lbs black moon sand


Stand: Homemade black lacquered MDF with matching hood, power controls and storage integrated




Lighting: Custom DIY Setup with up to 8 screw in cfl's (currently running 5 @ 23w each)



Filtration: Marineland HOT Magnum with spraybar fitted to outlet for better distribution


CO2: Diy reactor made from Hagen elite mini filter (thanks niko!) fed by pressurized system from a 20oz paintball co2 tank @ 1bps



Ferts: currently dosing Flourish and Flourish Iron, plan to switch to EI with product from aquariumfertilizer.com soon

Flora: Amazon Sword (echinodorus bleheri), Water Wisteria (hygrophila difformis), Red Rotala (rotala indica), Red Ludwiga (ludwiga repens), Moneywort (bacopa monnieri), Java Fern (microsorum pteropus), Bacopa (bacopa carolina), Micro Sword (lilaeopsis novae-zelandiae), Giant Hairgrass (eleocharis montevidensis), & Java Moss (vesiculara dubyana)

Fauna: 2 SAE's, 4 OTO's, 1 Blue Spot Gourami, 1 Pearl Gourami, 1 (surviving) Red Rasbora, 1 mystery snail, and 1 big fat Pictus Catfish.

Bert H

Nice! That sword will very soon become a problem, though.

Logan's Daddy

It takes a lot of aggressive pruning to keep that sword down to size, It've had it for over a year and probably trim off about 1/4 of it every week or so...

keeps it looking nice and fresh though.

ranchwest

Nice setup!

Logan's Daddy

Thank you kindly.

davemonkey

Very nice tank and impressive customs. I really like the cabinet storage and the canopy.

Do you ever have problems with your Pictus cat? I've got one (4-5") and he tends to uncover plant roots ALL THE TIME in his favorite spots. I've considered removing plants from those spots altogether or trading him in for something less 'active'.

Logan's Daddy

Aside from swallowing every shrimp I've ever tried to put in my tank, My Pictus is a model citizen...

Really though, I think I got lucky. One thing I have done for him is to leave a gap between the back glass and plants, so he has a "tunnel" to swim through in the shadows and out of sight, stays back there most of the time but does get a bit spastic at feeding time

He's about 5-6" at this point, looks like I may have to get the 75 up and running soon...

Logan's Daddy

Recently I've received a few questions about my lighting setup, I thought I would put a little more detail here to show how I did it.

the Hood.

The Inside Shot

I built the hood itself from MDF and it is sized so it just fits over (and covers) the rim of the tank, there are cleats inside that hold it at the right level. The outside if black lacquer and the entire inside is flat white. As for the lights I used some porcelain sockets from Home Depot and mounted them to metal L brackets inside the hood with threaded nipples. I set the L brackets up so that the bulb position alternated from front to back along the width of the tank for better coverage.

My awesome handmade diagram...


...and some Photos

I then connected all of the black wires to the black wire from a heavy duty power tool replacement cord and all the white wires to the white one, and plugged it into a heavy duty timer.

I put more sockets in than I would ever use at once so I could fine tune my bulb placement over time.

I use the 23 watt cfl's (100 w equivelant) from lights of america at 6500k, but have used other brands, as long as they are at least 5500k I've never had any trouble.

Tex Gal

Very nice! Your tank looks great, your lighting hood is awesome! You DIY guys are amazing!

Logan's Daddy

Thanks for the compliments guys! I really appreciate it.

Bratboy - there has been a bit of growth since last photos, but when I started dosing my plants started pearling like crazy!
I expect them to be flowing out of the top within the week. I'll post some pics next weekend, should be a pretty dramatic difference...


**edit**
Today I did a major rescaping, nothing I had was surviving in the shadow of my sword, and my big driftwood burl was not displayed to it's fullest. So I pulled everything out from under the sword and laid the burl in it's shadow! Now my low light plants (java fern and java moss) are in the low light part of my tank. Looks awesome, when the muck clears a little more I'll post a few pics...