jeremoose Posted February 6, 2012 Report Share Posted February 6, 2012 (edited) Hey all, first off a picture of a 30 gallon that I just bought new substrate for, I wanted to go heavily planted with it right from the start. Sitting on top of it is my new LED light setup (Beamswork Power LED 400). I have a ton of plants sitting in a bucket waiting to go in, once they're in I'll be adding some inert sand on the surface since I heard my Flourite Black Sand is bad for my Cory's barbels. Anyways, here's the tank half-way through the substrate switch: Next we have my CA/SA Cichlid tank. It's a 50g currently housing 4 Convicts (all female), 2 Firemouths, 1 Jack Dempsey, and 1 Severum. I realize it will be overstocked in the future (the JD will be getting a 50g of his own, the Severum will be hitting a 60g with my Angels, and I'd like to keep the Firemouths and Convicts together in this tank). Anyways, my wife has been getting increasingly frustrated seeing the eyesore that this tank had become.. We couldn't use any live plants since they just eat/uproot them all and we hadn't taken much time to really aquascape it. After a little research we decided to go with some silk and plastic plants from Michaels. Here's the finished product: Thanks for looking! I will be updating this thread with the progress of the 30g planted once it clears up enough to aquascape. Edited February 6, 2012 by jeremoose Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeremoose Posted February 6, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 6, 2012 This is the 30g about 15 hours after the substrate switch: More to come shortly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeremoose Posted February 6, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 6, 2012 And just a little over 4 hours later, things seem to be really clearing up: Hopefully I will get some interesting posts for you guys soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeremoose Posted February 7, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 7, 2012 The next (not-so-great) update. We thought that the tank had cleared enough to aquascape but within 2 minutes of starting on it we were back to square one for clarity. Here's the tank with some haphazard greenery in it, I'm scared to see what it looks like when the water settles again. More pictures to come once it settles a bit. I'm also picking up a Rena XP2 filter in the morning for it, pictures will follow. Additionally, I sprinkled some coarse sand on the top hoping it would weigh the finer Black Fluorite down enough that I can actually work in the tank without it being reduced to an impossible, cloudy mess. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sprucegruve Posted February 7, 2012 Report Share Posted February 7, 2012 lookin good so far, i really like the driftwood peice you have Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hackerberry Posted February 7, 2012 Report Share Posted February 7, 2012 Can't wait to see the tank clear up. Have you tried using Clarity by Seachem? It helps a lot. hb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeremoose Posted February 7, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 7, 2012 Thanks for the replies! I have tried using Clarity and it cleared up fairly quickly, but as soon as I started rooting around in there again it got clouded quickly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeremoose Posted February 7, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 7, 2012 (edited) Also, I just picked this up this morning, it's a Rena XP2. It's my first canister filter so I hope it's easy to set-up. More pictures to come once it's installed. Edited February 7, 2012 by jeremoose Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeremoose Posted February 7, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 7, 2012 (edited) So, that took forever. The tubing the guy gave me with it was a little too big so there was steady leak problems.. Additionally, the tubes were kinked to hell and look like they'd been rolled up for ages so they were impossible to get straight, but we made it work until we get something better. Makes me want to buy the actual Rena tubing or something similar that will work a little better. Thoughts? Also, here's the filter setup: As you can see, there's quite a bit of water on the floor from trying to get the fittings tight enough.. Also, as soon as the canister is cycled properly I will be taking that HOB filter off the side and putting the LED fixture back on the top. Additionally, this is NOT the way the tank will be aquascaped, I just wanted to get the plants into it. Edited February 7, 2012 by jeremoose Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hackerberry Posted February 7, 2012 Report Share Posted February 7, 2012 Looking good. The water cleared up nicely. hb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jvision Posted February 7, 2012 Report Share Posted February 7, 2012 I picked up a XP3 from a guy who hard-lined the intake using 1/2" PVC - I'm thinking of converting my Eheims to PVC as well. Already done it for my FX5. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeremoose Posted February 7, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 7, 2012 (edited) Looking good. The water cleared up nicely. hb Thanks! Once it really clears up I will be aquascaping it a lot differently, just wanted to get the plants into that nice fertilized water! I picked up a XP3 from a guy who hard-lined the intake using 1/2" PVC - I'm thinking of converting my Eheims to PVC as well. Already done it for my FX5. I was at Home Hardware considering doing something similar, seems like it might be the way to go, would just need to get the measurements exact and do it right the first time is all. Do you have pics of your setup? EDIT: Also, does it look like I have my intake and spray-bar positioned more-or-less correctly? Edited February 7, 2012 by jeremoose Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jvision Posted February 7, 2012 Report Share Posted February 7, 2012 Your positioning looks good. I don't have any pics bc I don't have it anymore. I believe I sold it to someone on AA, so pics may show up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeremoose Posted February 7, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 7, 2012 Your positioning looks good. I don't have any pics bc I don't have it anymore. I believe I sold it to someone on AA, so pics may show up. Okay thanks! I will be moving the spray-bar into the corner more once I am able to take that HOB filter out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonNeko Posted February 7, 2012 Report Share Posted February 7, 2012 Looking good so far, and that's a nice piece of driftwood! I was really lucky and actually found a piece of drifwood at AC that I liked...so much for not spending much there lol How are the val's doing? I hope I was right about how many I gave you. Look forward to seeing it after it's cleared up more and rearranged the way you want it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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