Cgy_Betta_Guy Posted August 29, 2010 Report Share Posted August 29, 2010 Bought this tank back in September 10 of 2009 after seeing it posted on Kijiji. He had said it was a 40 gallon but I knew it was actually a 58. Came with stand, canopy, 2 working Fluval canister filters, 2 heaters, a big chunk of driftwood, digital thermometer, couple lava rocks, extra set of light bulbs, nets, gravel vac, carbon and lots of food that I ended up throwing away since I wasnt sure how long it was opened for. Not too bad for $300 and it matched my other tank and stand that I bought as they are both Hagen products. Despite all my denials about never succumbing to MTS I didnt really hesitate at picking this tank up for some reason...LOL After getting that sucker home in my car I had to clean it down with vinegar and a razor blade which took quite a long time. I then filled it and left it in the garage for about a week to make sure there was no leaking. Also ended up spraying the underside of the canopy white using Krylon Fusion paint for plastic. 20090930 I duplicated the foil and foam underlay I had on my 31 Gallon. This time went straight for a painted black background which was done with a quart can of CIL latex paint and applied with a roller. A sheet of foil was applied over that to help for insulating as well as to protect the paint from getting scratched off from the filter tubing. finally decided how to arrange the tanks in the limited space I am allowing myself for fish tanks. Moved the 31 gallon over a bit and moved the breeding/QT tank from where my 58 is sitting and over to the right wall. You can see I took the opportunity to get one of the filters running by taking a portion of the biomedia from my 31G and putting it to seed the new filter. I then left it running on the 31G while doing the cleaning and setup. 20091002 Setup time! wanted to try having a air disc underneath the substrate to see what the bubbles would look like coming from under the gravel. Arranging the tubing to be hidden behind where the canister filter inflow would be. Ended up also getting a Hydor Ario 4 with LED for the left side of the tank since it seemed to work so well in my 31G. This is a slightly bigger model than the one I had placed in my 31G. This time I oriented the white writing on the power cable towards the glass. I do learn from my mistakes sometimes. Also wrapped the Ario with tape to prevent the substrate from getting into it and buggering it up. By this time I had also decided that I was going to be stocking the tank with Bolivian Rams which really appreciate a sand substrate. Another big investment in the substrate at 30 bucks a bag of Fluorite Black Sand! I had rinsed the 6 or so bags and gotten it to dry out quite a bit in the garage ahead of time. Decided to use some of my left over Fluorite black gravel that I had left over from my 31G setup which was pre rinsed and dried and placed it around the Ario and over the air disc. The intent of using the gravel around the Ario was so that sand being kicked up wouldnt jam it up (hopefully) and over the air disc to allow the air to escape better from underneath. Had I known that the sand would kill it so easily I wouldnt have bought this. Not really sure how I missed it when I started painting the background but I was really wishing I had put that scratch (visible right next to the Ario) on the back side of the tank at this point like I had intended... oh well. filling it up... even after rinsing the sand I still got lots of crud being churned up. Pretty slow flow using my mag float to spread the water down the side of the tank. at this point I noticed how bad the water was looking. was hoping that with more water in it that it wouldnt look as cloudy as it was. It didnt work. Ended up churning it up a bit and draining it off then rerinsing the sand. took quite a bit of work after the fact. It was a long night. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cgy_Betta_Guy Posted August 29, 2010 Author Report Share Posted August 29, 2010 20091008 With some plants in it... looks so barren at this point. The majority of plants were cuttings from the 31 gallon. I had however attended my first CAS auction and got my hands on a Echinodorus compacta. Perfect timing . Was also still adding ammonia to the tank just to make sure the filter was cycled from being in the other tank 20091010 Added a few more plants one of which was a Echinodorus bleherae from my 31G that was getting to be a bit full. You can see the bubbles from the air disc in this picture. Still wasnt quite sure if I really liked it or not but then again I probably wouldnt use it much at all. Finnegan got to check out the new tank since there was no ammonia and nitrites showing at this point. Dropped in the foam cup to see if he liked to stay or not and by the next morning he had made a bubble nest. Stamp of approval given. 20091024 Test mounting of my DIY moon light. As part of the quick test I just tied it onto the fluorescent tube just to see what it would look like before doing some mounting work on my canopy. Looks pretty decent. DIY night light - initially my bolivian rams seemed to be freaking out at the light.... not entirely sure why. 20091030 Here are some confrontations between the Bolivians while feeding. Kinda slipped when feeding the fish and got a bit too much NLS in there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cgy_Betta_Guy Posted August 29, 2010 Author Report Share Posted August 29, 2010 20100121 Endler fry in a breeder trap. its a jungle in there. 20100331 20100722 Finally got my DIY moonlight mounted using silicon in this tank. Made a different selection in LED which gives me a wide variety of colors to choose from. Here is the tank with the stock canopy T8 lights I can now pick a color but I just use white as shown in this pic. The other colors Red Blue Green Turquoise Yellow Purple Refer to my DIY LED Moonlight thread on how to make this item for your tank! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cgy_Betta_Guy Posted August 29, 2010 Author Report Share Posted August 29, 2010 (edited) 20100802 added a spray bar to the left side of the tank which seems to get the water circulating much better. No pics. 20100817 Sold off my 2 biggest swords to Evolution and did a bit of rearranging. The rummys and rasboras love the extra swimming room now. Been almost a year of ownership on this tank now and I like the progress its made! Edited August 29, 2010 by Cgy_Betta_Guy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kronosdelsol Posted August 30, 2010 Report Share Posted August 30, 2010 This journal has been a fun read. Thanks for sharing. What is your favorite plant so far? All the leaves look very healthy. Can you share more on the spray bar? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cgy_Betta_Guy Posted August 31, 2010 Author Report Share Posted August 31, 2010 Thanks for reading! My favorite plants thus far are the cryptocorynes. They dont really require much maintenance, look great, reproduce readily and get to be a pretty decent size as well. I also like the windelov java fern because it is unique looking for leaf shape. I had thought about making my own spray bar using PVC piping but I figured it would be a hassle and probably not as cheap as I thought it would be after buying all the bits needed. Instead I bought mine on eBay and the seller has it in 2 sizes. The first is a 12mm connector(which I think is good for Eheim filters) and 4 lengths of tubing, 2 elbows, end plug and suction cups. The one I used comes with 2 elbows, an end plug, suction cups and 9 segments of tubing for 18mm connection (good for Fluval filters) with each being 6 inches (15.5 cm) long with holes drilled in them. They interlock together for a total possible length of 1.4 meters and because they are individual segments you can have them shooting in all different directions if you wanted to. I used 7 of the segments and have it extending down vertically along the left side of my tank and across the bottom about 2/3rds of the way to the right. Since the tubes are black they blend in nicely with my black background. Using the picture above from 20100817 as reference, the 2 vertical sections of the bar are between the heater and the inflow on the left and the end of the horizontal section reaches to about midway into the Anubias in the foreground (about where that triangle of cardinal tetras is). The 2 vertical segments on the left of the tank point slightly towards the glass and the 5 horizontal segments are arranged with one segment shooting up to the top of the tank, 2 across the surface of the sand and the final 2 again pointing to the surface. I will have to do some more tinkering with flow positioning just so I have areas where the fish can get out of the current and rest. I can see bits of debris floating around the tank which show me that the flow around the tank is decent. Some of the finer particles of food as well as bubbles from the CO2 diffuser seem to stay afloat for long periods of time in the good currents generated which is great for a planted tank as well as keeping the sand cleaner. :thumbs: Is that the kind of info you were looking for regarding the spray bar? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kronosdelsol Posted August 31, 2010 Report Share Posted August 31, 2010 That is wonderful. Thank you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cgy_Betta_Guy Posted December 13, 2011 Author Report Share Posted December 13, 2011 20111213 This tank has been a little neglected over the past month and and a half and the stem plants have grown rampant shading everything, so much so that my big rock solid anubias started to get yellowed leaves. Decided to hack and slash and give away TONS of the stem plants. Looks so much better trimmed up a bit I felt I needed to post an update. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meeiu Posted January 1, 2012 Report Share Posted January 1, 2012 Very nice! Everything I received are doing well. Thanks a bunch Victor! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Candy Posted January 1, 2012 Report Share Posted January 1, 2012 Love the tank. What kind of sand did you use? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cgy_Betta_Guy Posted January 3, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 3, 2012 @Meeiu good to hear the plants are doing well. @Candy Thanks! The sand is fluorite black sand with a tiny bit of fluorite black gravel tossed on top just for a bit of texture. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cgy_Betta_Guy Posted December 31, 2012 Author Report Share Posted December 31, 2012 (edited) Added 6 hillstream loaches to this tank about a month ago and just finally caught this action. A little out of focus but had to get the camera set up quick to catch this and reencoded the video a couple of times to get it smaller so the picture quality might not be the best. I just thought it was interesting to watch. 20121224 Edited December 31, 2012 by Cgy_Betta_Guy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wingin' It Posted January 1, 2013 Report Share Posted January 1, 2013 COOL! I like how the endler just kinda shows up and snoops around! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iceturf Posted January 1, 2013 Report Share Posted January 1, 2013 I'd love to see some more pictures of those hillstream loaches, where did you get them from? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cgy_Betta_Guy Posted February 7, 2013 Author Report Share Posted February 7, 2013 (edited) Sorry.. completely got sidetracked after taking these pics 20130103 got these guys from Francos topside underbelly comparison with the ones I got from Pisces back in November on the left. 20130113 got some good side by side shots of the 2 different ones in my tank while they were feeding. Might be the same ones dueling in my video. Edited February 7, 2013 by Cgy_Betta_Guy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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