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trodi · 07-01-2009, 09:15 PM

After having moved to a new house I realized with the space we wanted to create my 55 g was just not going to fit. the Plan was to downsize to a 30 G.

I built a nice stand to match the furniture in the dining room.

Also with a new house comes many new tasks leaving me less time to tend to my tank. Which had me considering a NPT.

I've had Diana's book for some time and have read it over and have visited many chapters again and again. I liked the idea of the soil and low light, sunlight and nutrient from fish feedings. very natural.
I've had a high tech for the past two years. I've been satisfied at times, frustrated many times and have made friends and enemies with various types of algae. It is jsut too much for me right now.

So I set up my 30 G with organic top soil about 1" about 1.5" of gravel. 10 sagittaria, 1 anubia, 1 java fern, , 3 groupings of crypts, 1 hygrophila, 2 african ferns, 1 ludwigia, 1 group of rotala indica, some various vals and I bought some fourleaf clover because it looked interesting.

The problem is the fish load. I didn't plan in advance and feel i have too many fish for this tank. 4 bosemani, 1 red rainbow(glosso), 1 ornate rainbow, 1 dwarf rainbow, 2 dawrf danios Ive had for years, 2 Columbia tetras, 2 loaches (left over from past snail control experiment), 3 pictus catfish, 1 cory cat and 3 snails.

I just purchased a fluval internal filter U3 (removed the carbon). so far it seems ok. It's a little bigger than I was hoping.

I ran into a problem with my hood design. I was going to set 2 36" 32 watt fluorescent bulbs but they wouldn't fit into the hood. So I temporarily rigged up two clamp shop lights with a 60 watt daylight energy saving bulb (6700K) and a 40 watt soft white bulb.

I'm most concerned right now about the amount of fish and my lighting. I like the look of the open top. I thinking of using those lighs and rigging up something to hang them directly over the tank instead of clamping them in from the side. I get some morning south sun for a couple hours.

Day 1:

Ammonia 0
Nitrates 7
Ph 7.6
Nitrites 0
Phosphates .25
I have very hard tap water as well.

I'll have some pics tomorrow, I have to ge my wife to re-size the pics for me.

I appreciate any comments, thoughts and suggestions. thank you

07-01-2009, 09:15 PM	#1 (permalink)
trodi Junior Member Join Date: May 2007 Posts: 14 iTrader Ratings: 0 Plant Points: 1100	the switch After having moved to a new house I realized with the space we wanted to create my 55 g was just not going to fit. the Plan was to downsize to a 30 G. I built a nice stand to match the furniture in the dining room. Also with a new house comes many new tasks leaving me less time to tend to my tank. Which had me considering a NPT. I've had Diana's book for some time and have read it over and have visited many chapters again and again. I liked the idea of the soil and low light, sunlight and nutrient from fish feedings. very natural. I've had a high tech for the past two years. I've been satisfied at times, frustrated many times and have made friends and enemies with various types of algae. It is jsut too much for me right now. So I set up my 30 G with organic top soil about 1" about 1.5" of gravel. 10 sagittaria, 1 anubia, 1 java fern, , 3 groupings of crypts, 1 hygrophila, 2 african ferns, 1 ludwigia, 1 group of rotala indica, some various vals and I bought some fourleaf clover because it looked interesting. The problem is the fish load. I didn't plan in advance and feel i have too many fish for this tank. 4 bosemani, 1 red rainbow(glosso), 1 ornate rainbow, 1 dwarf rainbow, 2 dawrf danios Ive had for years, 2 Columbia tetras, 2 loaches (left over from past snail control experiment), 3 pictus catfish, 1 cory cat and 3 snails. I just purchased a fluval internal filter U3 (removed the carbon). so far it seems ok. It's a little bigger than I was hoping. I ran into a problem with my hood design. I was going to set 2 36" 32 watt fluorescent bulbs but they wouldn't fit into the hood. So I temporarily rigged up two clamp shop lights with a 60 watt daylight energy saving bulb (6700K) and a 40 watt soft white bulb. I'm most concerned right now about the amount of fish and my lighting. I like the look of the open top. I thinking of using those lighs and rigging up something to hang them directly over the tank instead of clamping them in from the side. I get some morning south sun for a couple hours. Day 1: Ammonia 0 Nitrates 7 Ph 7.6 Nitrites 0 Phosphates .25 I have very hard tap water as well. I'll have some pics tomorrow, I have to ge my wife to re-size the pics for me. I appreciate any comments, thoughts and suggestions. thank you