HybridHerp's 75 Monster Planted Tank

• Sometimes, I really hate this hobby. This week has been one of those times. My folks did the usual 50% water change this week, and something went wrong. Apparently there was extra chlorine or something in the tap, because on Tuesday all of the congo tetras died. When that happened a 50% WC was done, and a 3rd Eheim 2217 was placed onto the tank that had extra carbon and nitrozorb. Then, either late Tuesday or early Wednesday, my threadfin acaras died, my rainbow fish died, my EBJD died, and a rainbow cichlid died, as well as two adult SAE I had added to the tank a several weeks ago and my female super red Bristlenose. I do not know if the male Bristlenose is still alive, and the retropinnis bichir hasn't been seen (however I can only find him at 3am when I do find him, I'll assume he isn't dead unless he is found dead).

I'll do a sad, sad update once the tank settles down, but I'm upset. My folks and I have been doing everything we can to settle the tank down, and I'd like to thank my next door neighbor and my friend MonsterFish for coming over and trying to help me figure out what's going on. I'm hoping that the water changes needed to lower the ammonia doesn't do any more damage (ammonia now reads at 1-2ppm). I can almost guarantee I've lost some plant species as well…in that regard I have no idea what is or is not left.

Seriously, when random mishaps like this happen, I can really start to hate this hobby T_T

For now though, I'm just going to dump all my old photos of the tank that haven't been posted since the last update.




























God my hearts breaking looking at all these T_T

Sorry to hear your fish died!

Well, its surely been a while hasn't it? A lot has changed since I last updated this tank.

So lets first start with where things were when I left them.
After this, the tank got worse and worse. Something from the crash caused disease to take hold and BBA to become unimaginable. I did not take pictures, it was bad. Really bad. I was losing fish still and it was awful. I decided it was time for a complete overhaul.


I have to thank both Tom Barr and msjinkzed for the wood. Two big pieces of Manzanita, Rachel bought them from Tom Barr, a friend of mine visited Rachel and bought wood from her and picked up the wood I bought from her, to then have another friend pick up the wood from me from our friend to then give to me…man, I really need a car.


I soaked the wood for about a month and a half. I managed to find a lot of nice black lava rock at Monster Aquarium in Flushing. $2 a pound I bought more or less everything they had that was black. Not pictured, I also bought my substrate materials. I decided that eco-complete was not the way to go, and so I bought 100lbs of black beauty blasting sand, which is apparently the same stuff as black diamond just different company. Regardless my friend uses the stuff and it works fine for him. I had to rinse it like you wouldn't believe though, jeez. I'll talk about substrate later on this post though.


January 2nd, I began the process of re-doing this tank. I needed remove everything and bleach the tank. BBA and other nastiness was becoming a big issue and this was the only surefire way to stop it. My plan was to drain the tank, let it sit for a bit, then spray a bleach water solution onto the tank, then fill the tank with a bleach solution, then spray the tank with an h202 solution, then drain and fill the tank until if smelled normal.


This is where the fish were sent to live. My neighbor was lending me an Eheim 2217 so I had 3 of them running on a 33 gallon brute force Rubbermaid garbage can. And I needed those lids as I know my fish are jumpers. And hey, no one jumped. I did lose a few fish in the process though. One of my male gouramis wasn't looking so hot to begin with and ended up dying. My gouramis in general were in a bad shape when going into this, they had fungal infections so I had to treat the system with methylyne blue. The 3 bosmani I got on black Friday did not enjoy that in the least *sigh* I needed to do this though, I didn't have another choice, and I was prepared for the possibility that fish may die in the process. Tbh, fish were dying from me not doing this too, so it was a screwed either way, lesser of two evils scenario.


January 3rd, before bleaching I decided I'd try and scrap off as much BBA as I could. Man, I could not tell you the last time I actually saw the back on this tank. So much elbow grease went into this.


January 4th, this is what substrate removal and bleaching gets you. I was lazy and didn't clean up water stains on the front of the tank though…still should probably do that…but this was like a whole new tank, as if I had just freshly bought it.




The closest shots to the final from my hardscape planning stage. I did this on the 4th as well while draining and filling the tank a whole buncha times.


January 7th. I let the tank air out for a bit, also had some holiday and family matters to attend to given the time of year so I had to wait a few days to get the ball rolling. This is where we talk substrate. I decided that I wanted this tank to be more like my 10 gallon which has had a lot of success with few setbacks. I attribute that to my usage of dirt capped with sand. However, for my 75, I wanted to do things up even more, given the larger plants I'd be using and the desire for better colors. I decided to take a page from the mineralized top soil ideas. I couldn't mineralize top soil myself and it wouldn't have paid to attempt to buy enough MTS online, so I improvised a little. I sprinkled potash and dolomite onto the glass, as well as some Osmocote + and earthworm castings, 1tsp of osmocote plus per 10 gallons and 2 tbsp of earthworm castings per 10 gallons. Not pictured, I ripped up something like 2lbs of red clay (that stuff was annoying as all hell to find) and threw it in as I was dirting the tank with miracle grow organic potting mix. I sifted out any overly large pieces of wood as well, but left a decent amount of smaller soggy wood pieces in, as I know they will be breaking down and adding nutrients over time.


Hardcape in the tank. I recently wound up removing the larger middle rock and the rock furthest to the right in the tank in order to make more planting space. Kinda bummed about that but, it's a planted tank with dirt so I needed the space.


January 8th. Fun fact, if you soaked your wood for a month and a half and then keep it out of water for like two weeks, its going to want to float for about a week. Luckily it didn't really float but it kept trying to so I put these two rainbow rocks there to weigh the whole thing down and let it re-soak. I threw in what plants I salvaged and could clean off from my previous iteration of this tank.


January 9th, added the plants that I bought from Ebi that I had sit in my high tech 10 gallon and my quarantine 10 gallon.


January 16th, replaced my t5ho lighting. Another fun fact, I totally forgot to update my record I keep on my computer for my tanks about what bulbs I bought…ugh. I'll post that information tomorrow when I write it down myself. I still have the boxes in my basement haha.


January 18th, took a picture of one of the MTS I am trying to get to populate this tank. My quarantine has a population of black MTS. I posted this on facebook and someone thought it was a rabbit snail. It's not I can assure you, these popped out of a batch of MTS I've had breeding in my tanks for a while now. Seems like a lot of MTS from that tank are this color, they start off light and as they get bigger the shell eventually becomes this super dark brown/black. Might have to distribute these to some local buddies.


January 22nd, finally was able to get in 2 order of plants from MadMax and from 2ManyHobbies. This particular plant is Myriophyllum tenellum. I won't go into detail about each species like I normally do but I think in another post after this one I'll write up some stuff about the plants specifically and give more details on the specs of the tank. This post is going to be running long as is.


Took me a few hours to get everything planted. But I am very pleased with the results.



Helanthium sp. "Sao Paulo"



Rotala ramisori "Florida"

Ludwigia brevipes


And until tomorrow I leave you with a picture of things to come.

Enjoyed the pics, especially the ludwigia tornado, ludwigia senegalensis, and the Rotala florida. Can I have a stem or buy a stem bud?

So already I’m thinking I may want to move some of these plants around haha. I’m looking at the left side of my tank and am realizing that the Helanthium sp. “Sao Paulo” is going to dwarf a lot of the plants around it, so I’m thinking at some point I should put that one where the Alternanthera reineckii “Variegated” and move the A.R. more to the front of the tank…although I’m debating about that too because I know the variegated can get a bit taller eventually. However I know that the H. sp. “Sao Paulo” is going to dwarf the s. repens and the Myriophyllum tenellum so I may have to re-arrange for the sake of those plants anyways. Not entirely sure how I’m going to do that but I’ll think of something to make it look nice.

I also have to let the red Barclaya and the green Barclaya grow out more, and wait for some Ludwigia my friend gave me to grow out so that I can ID them. He thinks he gave me some combination of Rubin, palustris, and atlantis…he grows low tech so its hard to differentiate them and the stems aren’t in the best of best of shape…time will tell though. I already have Rubin going decently and I wouldn’t mind keeping atlantis but I’m not sure if I’m feeling palustris…then again if it’s a palustris variety that gets a nice color I’ll probably keep it. I got my Rotala macrandra as Variegated but honestly it looks more like Japan Red or the normal form to me…not sure if I want to eventually switch it out then or leave it as is…meh. I may also in the future switch out my Persecaria sp. “Kawagoeanum” for the “Sao Paulo” one but that remains to be seen.

I also need to figure out where I want to put my Piptospatha sp. Kalimantan as I’m not entirely sure how large it will grow under submerged conditions. Not a whole lot of info on these plants in terms of aquarium growth. I also have to figure out if some really badly stunted stems I have from the previous setup or worth or even possible to bring back to healthy growth. Specifically some Pogostemon stellatus Needle Leaf and Ammania praetermissa. I’ll also, eventually, be adding a few more plants here and there. And more fish.

Anyways enough rambling, lemme post the lists.

Current Fish/Inverts
• Herotilapia multispinosa – “Rainbow Cichlid”
• Ctenopoma acutirostre – “Leopard Leaf Fish”
• Trichopodus leerii – “Pearl Gourami” x2:1
• Polypterus senegalus – “Senegal Bichir”
• Polypterus retropinnis
• Polypterus delhezi
• Erpetoichthys calabaricus – “Rope fish”
• Melanoides tuberculata - “Trumpet Snail” x#
Current Plants
• Carpets/bushes
o Myriophyllum tenellum
o Ammania praetermissa
o Staurogyne repens
o Helanthium sp. “Sao Paulo”
o Cryptocoryne x willisii
o Eriocaulon parkeri
o Hygrophila sp. “Araguaia”
o Eleocharis belem - “Dwarf Hairgrass”
o Alternanthera reineckii var. ‘Mini’
o Blyxa japonica
• Foreground
o Alternanthera reineckii var. “Variegated”
o Cryptocoryne affinis cv. “Metallic Red”
o Cryptocoryne sp. “Green Gecko”
o Cryptocoryne becketii petchii
o Echinodorus parviflorus - “Tropica Sword”
• Mid-ground
o Lagarosiphon madagascariensis
o Cyprus helferi
o Cryptocoryne cordata cv. “Rosanervig”
o Cryptocoryne wendtii x hybrid
o Nymphaea micrantha
o Cryptocoryne nurii
o Ludwigia glandulosa
o Ludwigia x lacustris
o Hyptis lorentziana
o Bacopa salzmannii
o Cuphea anagalloidea
o Didiplis diandra – “Blood Stargrass”
o Rotala ramisori var. “Florida”
o Rotala sp. ‘Nanjenshan’
o Pogostemon stellatus cv. “Needle Leaf”
o Persecaria praetermissa
o Rotala macrandra cv. “Variegated”?
o Aponogeton madagascariensis – “Lace Leaf”
o Ludwigia brevipes
o Ludwigia simpsonii x repens
o Rotala sp. “Vietnam”
• Background
o Cryptocoryne crispatula cv. “Balansae”
o Barclaya longifolia cv. “Red”
o Cryptocoryne usteriana
o Cryptocoryne cordata cv. “Rosanervig”
o Staurogyne stolonifera
o Ludwigia sp. “Atlantis”?
o Ludwigia inclinata var. verticillata cv. “Twisted”
o Piptospatha sp. Kalimantan
o Eriocaulon compressum
o Persecaria sp. “Kawagoeanum”
o Helanthium bolivianum cv. “Angustifolius” – “Vesuvius”
o Blyxa aubertii
o Ludwigia sp. ‘Rubin’
o Hygrophila lancea
o Hygrophila polysperma cv. “Ceylon”
o Ludwigia palustris?
o Ludwigia alata
o Echinodorus sp. “Paul Klocker”
o Echinodorus sp. “Red Devil”
o Echinodorus x “Tanzende feuerfeder”
o Echinodorus x “Altlandsberg”
o Vallisneria americana var. “Nana”
o Hygrophila sp. “Brown”
o Hygrophila sp. “Tiger”
o Barclaya longifolia cv. “Green”
o Rotala mexicana cv. “Bangladesh”
o Ludwigia ovalis var. “Pink”
• Surface
o Lemna minor – “Duckweed”
o Pista stratiotes var. ‘Dwarf’ – “Dwarf Water Lettuce”
o Spirodela polyrrhiza – “Giant Duckweed”
o Hygroryza aristata
• Wood
o Burl
• Microsorum pteropus cv. “Trident”
• Microsorum pteropus cv. “Narrow”
• Bucephalandra sp. “Brownie Red”
• Bolbitis heudelotii – “African Fern”
• Microsorum pteropus cv. “Needle”
• Microsorum pteropus cv. “Windelov”
o Front branch
• Anubias barteri cv. “Nana”
o Front laying down branch
• Anubias barteri cv. “Petite”
o Back rising up branch
• Anubias barteri cv. “Petite”
• Stones
o Front wood stones
• Bucephalandra sp. “Shiny Purple”
• Bucephalandra sp. “Unknown Ebi”
• Bucephalandra sp. “Mini Catherine”
• Bucephalandra sp. “Silver Powder”
• Back left wood stones
o Bucephalandra sp. “Shiny Blue”
• Back right wood stones
o Bucephalandra sp. “Centipede”
o Bucephalandra sp. “Mini Belinda”
• Middle back stone
o Anubias barteri cv. “Congensis”
• Anubias hastifolia
• Back right stone
o Lagenandra meeboldii cv. “Pink”
• Substrate
o Dirt capped with sand
• Additional additives
o Dolomite
o Potash
o Osmocote +
o Earthworm castings
o Red Clay
• Hardscape
o Rocks
• Black Lava Rock
o Driftwood
• Manzanita x2
• Heater
o Inline Heater set at 76
• Lighting
o Catalina Black Solar T5 HO 4x54W with 8 dimmable moonlights
o Wave Point Tropical Wave
o Wave Point Color Wave
o Wave Point Ultra Growth Wave
o Giesemann Super Flora
• UV sterilizer
o Vecton 600 25W Sterilizer
• Filtration
o Eheim 2217 x2
• Circulation
o Koralia 750 x2 (only using the one on the right atm)
• Fertilizers
o GH Booster – 1tbsp after water change
• Carbon Dioxide
o Dual Stage Regulator on 20lb tank
o Up Aqua Inline CO2 Diffuser
• Aeration
o 2 air stones on one aerator

A full tank shot to start this off. Its been a while since I last posted but man, the tank has been looking nice.


Here's my latest cichlid addition to the tank. Several months ago I got a group of Cryptoheros cutteri at a local auction and have been growing them out. This one was the dominant male, and while his fins are either genetically a little funky or just healed weirdly while growing idk but he's got some nice color to him.


This guy has been doing well, definitely funny to think of how small he was when I got him (or she, I forget how you sex these things, I know it has to do with spines on the gill plate or something) and how he got super beat up for a while and was difficult to get eating. Eats like a champ now that's for sure haha


A nice shot of the dominant male angel. Might possibly be the boss of the tank too, but he doesn't mess with the cichlids or bichirs so (shrug)


Love these guys but this one in particular is a little snot. I tried adding an elephant nose to this tank and this guy just would not leave the poor thing alone. But he's a pretty fish, just can't have anything too too meek in the tank.


This rainbow cichlid colors up only when he wants to haha, but I've had him at least 4 years now and he's definitely one fun fish and has been through a good amount of things with me. Definitely the biggest cichlid in the tank atm.



The pair.


One of the rose lines. Nice fish, I need more, they have to be near full grown though to play with the Polypterus though.


An assortment of plants, notably Rotala ramisori var. Florida, Rotala Colorata, Limnophila Mini Vietnam, Rotala indica, and Tonia fluviatilis Lotus Blossom.


Blood ***** that's been buried a little too deep, can't see the red super well, I'll bring it up higher in the substrate later on.


Some more cool plants. Rotala ramisori var. Sunset, Limnophila sp. Dwarf, Ammania pedicellata, Limnophila sp. Belem, Ludwigia sp. Atlantis, and some others.


Some Ludwigia Pantanal.


Some Rotala macrandra in front (the red one) and some Didiplis diandra (the green needle leaf one) behind it.


Nothing much to look at now but this is something relatively new to the states called Hygrophila Cherry. Its not the same as the Cherry leaf from what I can see, that plant has a much wider leaf and tends to be a lot greener and grow faster, this thing is growing at a moderate rate at best and is staying a nice red color.


Red Hadi Pearl Sword, a real nice dwarf sword (doesn't get taller than 4 or 5") that gets some nice color to it. If I can get it to flower that'd be fantastic lol


The lady pearl gouramis.


This is a new lotus I got from a buddy (Tinanti on several different forums) called Nymphaea sp. Santorum. Stays small (4-5" tall, leaf not too too wide) and has that nice reddish color.


Lagenandra Red, like the previously mentioned lotus it stays on the smaller side. I just want to get some moss or a liverwort growing on the wood that separates this two plants and I'll get some real nice looking contrast.


Rotala H'ra, Anubias petite, and a bunch more.


Vallisneria Nana, has a lot of tiger striping and likes to spread more than grow tall, definitely a nice Vallisneria and weirdly the only one I've ever had luck with (shrug).


Some wave moss, a nice sized Anubias hastifolia.


A lot going on plant wise here. This tank has over 100 different plant varieties in it :S I may or may not have gone overboard with my plant collecting haha


A nice little view at some of my crypt collection. I'm just not sure about wendtii tropica…it seems like its just a nicer name for wendtii bronze, and I have way too much of that plant given that it looks like nothing special. I'd rather have my special crypts take over anyways…striatola and silver queen are taking their sweet time to grow in (like, literal months). Nurii has started doing well for me as well.


Polypterus palmas polli, definitely my most outgoing bichir right now.


Staurogyne sp. purple looks really nice, way cooler than repens imho. Plus you don't see purple too often in fresh water aquariums.


Several java fern varients (trident, thor's hammer, narrow leaf, needle leaf), some xmas moss, some Anubias coffefolia, among others.


Anubias Pinto, definitely an algae magnet, trying to get some of the plants behind it to shade it so that it gets less algae and grows a bit better…but right now I'm just happy that it's growing. Not a cheap plant.



Some misc. plant shots.


Now this one is cool, its Ludwigia glandulosa x palustris from my good friend Barthog, who has a pretty nice website online with plants for sale. This one was also one he collected locally from his area. This one is going to look NICE when it grows in.


Tonia fluviatilis Lotus Blossom.


Bucephalandra centipede.


Java fern Windelov.


Tire track Nerite snail, great algae eaters and very colorful little guys, they do well with the cichlids because unlike other snails these guys tend to stay very close to the glass and leave very little gap between the glass and their shell.


Whiptail Cat is pretty cool, I have two of them, might add a third but idk. Pretty gregarious and never completely out of sight in the tank, pretty active at night and unlike many plecos don't lay a finger on the plants.


Reason they are called whiptails.


St. Elmo's Fire…this thing is going to look SICK once it grows tall.


Rotala macrandra Variegated…super pretty plant, grows slower than regular macrandra, but man oh man am I excited for this one to grow in. It took me a FOREVER to find some.


A side view. Aponogeton capuronii is a really cool Aponogeton that I hear is hard to grow (in reality it just seems to demand softer water than most people probably grow it in) and while it grows decently quickly its not a monster like some of the others that needs constant pruning. I've had to cut no leafs off from this plant (aside for old growth that looked meh from when I bought the plant) and it's a blast.


Zebra Nerite, another cool Nerite.


The rope fish being silly.

These pics are about a week old now, and I've since added a few more plants, so I'll have to do some updates in another week or so and at that point I'll give an updated full stocking list…also that's going to be a monster of a post when that happens. But thanks for reading this far and tank on people.

A full tank shot to start this off. Its been a while since I last posted but man, the tank has been looking nice.


Here's my latest cichlid addition to the tank. Several months ago I got a group of Cryptoheros cutteri at a local auction and have been growing them out. This one was the dominant male, and while his fins are either genetically a little funky or just healed weirdly while growing idk but he's got some nice color to him.


This guy has been doing well, definitely funny to think of how small he was when I got him (or she, I forget how you sex these things, I know it has to do with spines on the gill plate or something) and how he got super beat up for a while and was difficult to get eating. Eats like a champ now that's for sure haha


A nice shot of the dominant male angel. Might possibly be the boss of the tank too, but he doesn't mess with the cichlids or bichirs so (shrug)


Love these guys but this one in particular is a little snot. I tried adding an elephant nose to this tank and this guy just would not leave the poor thing alone. But he's a pretty fish, just can't have anything too too meek in the tank.


This rainbow cichlid colors up only when he wants to haha, but I've had him at least 4 years now and he's definitely one fun fish and has been through a good amount of things with me. Definitely the biggest cichlid in the tank atm.



The pair.


One of the rose lines. Nice fish, I need more, they have to be near full grown though to play with the Polypterus though.


An assortment of plants, notably Rotala ramisori var. Florida, Rotala Colorata, Limnophila Mini Vietnam, Rotala indica, and Tonia fluviatilis Lotus Blossom.


Blood ***** that's been buried a little too deep, can't see the red super well, I'll bring it up higher in the substrate later on.


Some more cool plants. Rotala ramisori var. Sunset, Limnophila sp. Dwarf, Ammania pedicellata, Limnophila sp. Belem, Ludwigia sp. Atlantis, and some others.


Some Ludwigia Pantanal.


Some Rotala macrandra in front (the red one) and some Didiplis diandra (the green needle leaf one) behind it.


Nothing much to look at now but this is something relatively new to the states called Hygrophila Cherry. Its not the same as the Cherry leaf from what I can see, that plant has a much wider leaf and tends to be a lot greener and grow faster, this thing is growing at a moderate rate at best and is staying a nice red color.


Red Hadi Pearl Sword, a real nice dwarf sword (doesn't get taller than 4 or 5") that gets some nice color to it. If I can get it to flower that'd be fantastic lol


The lady pearl gouramis.


This is a new lotus I got from a buddy (Tinanti on several different forums) called Nymphaea sp. Santorum. Stays small (4-5" tall, leaf not too too wide) and has that nice reddish color.


Lagenandra Red, like the previously mentioned lotus it stays on the smaller side. I just want to get some moss or a liverwort growing on the wood that separates this two plants and I'll get some real nice looking contrast.


Rotala H'ra, Anubias petite, and a bunch more.


Vallisneria Nana, has a lot of tiger striping and likes to spread more than grow tall, definitely a nice Vallisneria and weirdly the only one I've ever had luck with (shrug).


Some wave moss, a nice sized Anubias hastifolia.


A lot going on plant wise here. This tank has over 100 different plant varieties in it :S I may or may not have gone overboard with my plant collecting haha


A nice little view at some of my crypt collection. I'm just not sure about wendtii tropica…it seems like its just a nicer name for wendtii bronze, and I have way too much of that plant given that it looks like nothing special. I'd rather have my special crypts take over anyways…striatola and silver queen are taking their sweet time to grow in (like, literal months). Nurii has started doing well for me as well.


Polypterus palmas polli, definitely my most outgoing bichir right now.


Staurogyne sp. purple looks really nice, way cooler than repens imho. Plus you don't see purple too often in fresh water aquariums.


Several java fern varients (trident, thor's hammer, narrow leaf, needle leaf), some xmas moss, some Anubias coffefolia, among others.


Anubias Pinto, definitely an algae magnet, trying to get some of the plants behind it to shade it so that it gets less algae and grows a bit better…but right now I'm just happy that it's growing. Not a cheap plant.



Some misc. plant shots.


Now this one is cool, its Ludwigia glandulosa x palustris from my good friend Barthog, who has a pretty nice website online with plants for sale. This one was also one he collected locally from his area. This one is going to look NICE when it grows in.


Tonia fluviatilis Lotus Blossom.


Bucephalandra centipede.


Java fern Windelov.


Tire track Nerite snail, great algae eaters and very colorful little guys, they do well with the cichlids because unlike other snails these guys tend to stay very close to the glass and leave very little gap between the glass and their shell.


Whiptail Cat is pretty cool, I have two of them, might add a third but idk. Pretty gregarious and never completely out of sight in the tank, pretty active at night and unlike many plecos don't lay a finger on the plants.


Reason they are called whiptails.


St. Elmo's Fire…this thing is going to look SICK once it grows tall.


Rotala macrandra Variegated…super pretty plant, grows slower than regular macrandra, but man oh man am I excited for this one to grow in. It took me a FOREVER to find some.


A side view. Aponogeton capuronii is a really cool Aponogeton that I hear is hard to grow (in reality it just seems to demand softer water than most people probably grow it in) and while it grows decently quickly its not a monster like some of the others that needs constant pruning. I've had to cut no leafs off from this plant (aside for old growth that looked meh from when I bought the plant) and it's a blast.


Zebra Nerite, another cool Nerite.


The rope fish being silly.

These pics are about a week old now, and I've since added a few more plants, so I'll have to do some updates in another week or so and at that point I'll give an updated full stocking list…also that's going to be a monster of a post when that happens. But thanks for reading this far and tank on people.