ingg

This is a cross post with another forum, I wanted to post it here too because reading Guaiac_boy's journal made me determined to try out a really big tank... so here it is!

Before showing, first, a BIG thank you to GWAPA. Couldn't have done it without you guys, thank you for all of the learning in the past year, all of the coaching, and all of the help in the layout and planting of this monster, too.

Been up for a week. Had to do a huge water change yesterday because of some inline plumbing mistakes, hehe, but so far so good. Water is staying a little cloudy, I think it is green water waiting to explode...

Specs:

180g AGA Reef Ready tank.

2 TEK 6x39w T5 fixtures, running 8 of the 12 bulbs 9 hours a day
Pressurized CO2, 20 lb tank and Milwaukee regulator
Fed into inline loop powered by a MAGDrive 9.5
Filtration via Eheim 2260

Mineralized soil substrate capped with 3M T grade sand and 3M Accent Stone

I have yet to even think about fertilizing this tank. The mineralized soil substrate method has been used in the club many times now, and has many times resulted in tanks barely needing water column ferts, so, it is a wait and see for now.

Plants consist of:

"Low grow" Hygro
Hygrophile Corymbosa Angustifolia
Crypt Balansae
Crypt Spiralis
Crypt Parva
Crypt Wendtii 'Green Gecko'
Crypt Lucens
Crypt Willissii
Anubias Barteri
Anubias Barteri nana
Anubias Lanceolata
Bolbitis Heudulotti (sp)
Pogostemon Stellatus
Echinodorus Vesuvius

Tank shot:



Green Gecko and Lanceolata:



Center section, Anubias, Lutea, Low Grow Hygro, Parva



Echinodorus Vesuvius:

BlackTop_Kings

Looks great i love the diftwood- Huge! Dude and the rocks fit righ in . Cant wait to watch this grow

djarmstrong

First post !!! lol

Very nice love the driftwood the size and shape of it .

AaronT

Lookin' good man! I can't wait to see it at a future meeting when she's all grown in.

BryceM

Very nice! I love the texture of the wood - very interesting pieces. It looks like you plan on keeping mostly slow-growers. Keep an eye on that E. vesuvius. Once it starts growing it can spread everywhere in about 10 minutes. It will also become a bit too tall for the foreground, even for a 180g.

With the exception of P. stellatus, your plants shouldn't be too demanding about ferts.

Keep posting updates. It'll be fun to watch. What are your plans for fish?

ingg

Oh, have no fear, the vesuvius has a corner of the tank to grow out in, but isn't the foreground - the front and center section is planted with C. Parva.

Already seeing some crazy growth, and some minor algae has shown itself, about exclusively on the wood, some fine green fuzz algae. That Angustifolia is now twice as bushy, to the top of the water line, and laced with pink leaves - I never even knew it could be pink!


Well, now, fish/livestock are things I keep changing my mind on!

The ones I'm pretty sure on:

I've already got a starter crew of nerite snails in there, evntually to be about 20.

I've dropped in a bunch of cherries. Having issues with them finding the overflow with the closed loop and ending up as chum spit back out into the tank. I cut some screen and put it across the low side intake of the overflow, see if it helps.

I know I'll have Amanos. Once the cherries stabilize and look good, I'll drop in Amanos, probably 15-20.

For fish....

I'd really like a colony of dwarf neon rainbows. A local fellow in our club has some incredible stock he occasionally thins out - I have some, and am waiting for more. About a dozen in the colony will be nice.

Im leaning to Green Eye Rasbora, also called eye spot or high spot rasboras, as my second school. They are a little unusual, and hard to appreciate if you don't see them in person. Their eyes glow as brightly as the blue side of any neon, pretty neat to see.

Others:

Some otos, waiting for the tank to settle a bit more. I may be asking a certain guy about these funky little red ones he has, see if I can buy a few.

Debating on plecos, maybe some bristlenose. I don't honestly know enough about plecoes to know if they are a good fit or not.

And the last one:

I got a gift from a kind friend of some absolutely incredible dwarf african cichlids. Pelvicachromis Taeniatus 'Nyete". I am about dying to put them in, and keep debating with myself because of the shrimp. My hope is the cherries get established, and then outbreed the inevitable predation, but I'm still worried about trying it.

Carlos1583

nice tank...i'll definitely look back at this journal when I (hopefully) start a big tank one day

ingg

Well, things are progressing pretty well! Haven't dosed a thing, tank has been up a month. Still running 8x39w in TEK fixtures 9 hours a day. Green spot Algae is hitting the glass and anubias leaves now, so I may start dosing some P soon.

I've started adding livestock. Cherry shrimp are in, about 50 of them. Hald dozen Amanos, dozen nerites, 6 otos, a small school of about 20 pygmy cories who are impossible to photo for me.

I also got my first school in place! I've been waiting a while now to get some stock from a local club mate, a really nice gentlemen who happens to have line bred the first female Preacox Rainbows that hit the states. He's been line breeding them for over a decade. His males are incredible, and his females make a lot of the males that are bought today pale in comparison. He was very short females the last few months, so I did add 4 females of decent looking stock from a LFS to round out the school. I now have 3 awesome males and 11 females.

Also added a few new plants. Echinoduros Midifleur was a nice gift from another club mate, as was the Microsorum pteropus "Fingers" or "Trident" as I guess it is being called. Both of these were brought over from ECS last year, and are rather uncommon in the states.

So... photos! My camera is slightly sub par - my photography skills horridly so. Hope these will do.

The whole Tank:


These fish are definitely not used to being in front of a lens, they are very shy yet, but here is a male and female:



And part of the group:



The Pogostemon Stellata, has grown 6" easily in the month, and showing color 12" from the water surface:



Echinodorus Midifleur. This never showed bright red leaves like this in less light. 3 new leaves in a week and a half in the 180g now, and all bright pink/red new leaves:



The new Java fern cultivar:



Echinodorus Vesuvius going crazy! At least three runners shooting out now, were none when planted:

AaronT

Resist the urge to dose! Trust me, the green spot and green dust will settle down after a bit. You need more nerites in there, probably another 2 dozen or so.


It's looking good though man.

Jessie

What a fantastic tank and a wonderful selection of fish! I'm excited to watch this progress. How do you like those T5s?