Chelseanr Posted January 1, 2014 Report Share Posted January 1, 2014 Hello all, I thought I would share my aquarium with you all. I started this tank back in July following the alberta floods. I was evacuated for several weeks and the animal rescue team poured an entire container of food into my tank, so I had to tear down and bleach the whole setup and start over again. I didn't have anything special prior to the flood, just an empty tank with 2 giant goldies and some substrate. I've always wanted a beautiful planted aquarium so I set out to fulfil that wish. It's been an interesting journey so far. I've learned a lot and still have much to learn. You can see some of the changes I've made quite obviously, and the horrific algae outbreaks that I've been fighting. It's still not perfect but it really truly makes me happy. I don't mind working on it, so the algae s just been a good excuse to hang out for hours cleaning. Here is a link to the album of my tank http://imgur.com/a/BsDvH#0, any thoughts, constructive criticism, advice, all are welcome. Thanks for taking the time to check it out! Here it is as it stands today: 55 gallon tall Flourite black substrate Penguin biowheel filter 1 powerhead for flow Dosing excel daily Flourish 1x week 2x T5HO bulbs - 1 12000k, 1 rossette (2 6500k's are in the mail this week) Home made co2 Small heater for otto central over there Have flourish trace and a few other goodies coming later this week. Fish: 1 oranda 1 blue oranda 1 telescope calico 4 otto cats 1 nerite snail Plants (from left to right): Amazon sword Jungle vals (front) Anubias x2 Java fern Junctus repens - they are looking very sad, which is very sad because I really wanted them to do well. We'll see though. Barcopa carolina Willow moss on wood???? not sure but it is pretty with pink/purple undersides. I.D would be lovely! Ozelot sword Wisteria Junctus repens Looking for specific advice/thoughts on: I added the blue background which matches my wall paint nicely, however I feel like the tank lost something when I added it... Junctus repens are yellowing/browning, very sad looking. Anubias plant leaves are developing brown patches and yellowing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nanmer Posted January 1, 2014 Report Share Posted January 1, 2014 Your commitment inspires me! I have recently discovered the joys of goldfish. Cute little guys with tons of personality. I also love planted tanks and hope to get up the nerve to combine the two. Algae is usually caused by either too much light or too much nutrients. You may want to plant your tank a bit heavier or reduce the duration of light. If you want, I have a ton of tiger vals that I can give you. A tank that is in balance usually has little algae. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishclubgirl Posted January 1, 2014 Report Share Posted January 1, 2014 Your mystery plant is probably ludwigia repens and nice looking tank!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McTurtle Posted January 2, 2014 Report Share Posted January 2, 2014 Beautiful tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lemonaidjay Posted January 2, 2014 Report Share Posted January 2, 2014 very nice tank :thumbs: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chelseanr Posted January 3, 2014 Author Report Share Posted January 3, 2014 Your commitment inspires me! I have recently discovered the joys of goldfish. Cute little guys with tons of personality. I also love planted tanks and hope to get up the nerve to combine the two. Algae is usually caused by either too much light or too much nutrients. You may want to plant your tank a bit heavier or reduce the duration of light. If you want, I have a ton of tiger vals that I can give you. A tank that is in balance usually has little algae. Aye they have always been my favorite fish. When I decided to redo my tank I considered getting different fish, but they just pull my heartstrings too hard. And yea, you wouldn't believe the amount of changes i've made over the past few months trying to drive the algae back. This is like 50x's better than it was a few months ago, and I still have a few things to change. You can see the die-off happening on the log if you look closely, so I have my fingers crossed! I don't mind a little for the ottos and snails, and my fish love it too! I would never say no to free plants, that's very nice of you to offer! Let me know wherer/when I could pick them up :] I come into calgary for work. Thank you! Thanks everyone else for your kind comments. I hope that it just keeps getting more beautiful :] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckmullin Posted January 3, 2014 Report Share Posted January 3, 2014 How much glutaraldehyde do you dose daily? I like 10k and a 6700 dual bulb mix, suggest to look @ that as well. dyi yeast? are you getting a ph drop in that 55 gal tank? if so what ph drop are you getting? Suggest to get mts. Don't over gravel-vac your tank as you are removing good plant nutrient. Suggest to look at root tabs, soil balls, clay balls, fertilizer sticks etc for under your substrate. Flourite is a good product but supplementation will help your plants. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chelseanr Posted January 4, 2014 Author Report Share Posted January 4, 2014 (edited) How much glutaraldehyde do you dose daily? I dose 5ml of excel once a day, I was dosing 2x for about a week, and have eased down 1ml a day down to 5ml. If that makes sense. I like 10k and a 6700 dual bulb mix, suggest to look @ that as well. I have "6,500K Ultra Sun T5-HO Fluorescent Lamp" x2 coming sometime next week, was going to switch to them or try a rossette/6500. Or should I go 2x 6500? dyi yeast? are you getting a ph drop in that 55 gal tank? if so what ph drop are you getting? Yes, and I don't know. I have a new test kit coming as well, I lost the card for my ph test years ago. It has changed though. Suggest to get mts. What is a mts? Don't over gravel-vac your tank as you are removing good plant nutrient. I try not to. I like to get in around the rocks where there aren't plants as my nitrates have been a bit high at times, but I like to leave around the plants mostly alone, sometimes I use the powerhead to blow off some of the crud and then clean my filters. Suggest to look at root tabs, soil balls, clay balls, fertilizer sticks etc for under your substrate. Flourite is a good product but supplementation will help your plants. I have root tabs :] My root feeders seem to do really well, the ozelot sword never stops putting out new leaves. How often should I put new ones in? Thanks for the advice! I appreciate your time. Edit: oops messed up this post and am not quite sure how to fix it. Edited January 4, 2014 by Chelseanr Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckmullin Posted January 4, 2014 Report Share Posted January 4, 2014 (edited) It looks like when you quoted and then typing below my own sentences you will become 'part' of that quote. No worries tho. Since the purchase was made for the lights throw in the two Ultra suns. The reason why I asked about if it was yeast and then if you had a ph drop was to see indirectly if the yeast co2 is 'doing enough' for that larger 55 gal. 'Doing enough' is relative to your specific tank for quantity of stock fish/plant. For yeast unless you gang-chained a half dozen 2L bottles I would never recommend yeast for much more than a 30 or so gallon tank and I would never recommend a half dozen gang-chained bottles as the cost of maintenance on this method will add up to the cost of a pressurized co2 cylinder system! With my 75 gal setup I calculated the yeast method cost and found out pressure co2 was cheaper despite the upfront cost...so the pressurized was done. To that...anything helps than nothing but for a 55 I'd rather use glutaraldehyde than yeast if pressurized will not be done. On costs don't use Excel but grab Metricide. MTS, malaysian trumpet snail. I'm a big advocate of snails in a planted tank and in my opinion these guys are needed for a healthy planted tank substrate. They burrow in the substrate and move things around so there are no dead pockets. They also eat any dead or decaying matter which is what you want. No these will not eat healthy plants. For the root tabs I will not say a time frame because again each tank is relative. What I will say is to know your tank and view changes in the plants such as that sword. When growth stops or is slower give it a piece. Don't throw a new piece in every few weeks as this is too much. For dosing of glutaraldehyde everyone has a different opinion and I have my own as well. I'm not telling you to dose at my levels but take from this info that OD'ing on glutaraldehyde will take quite a bit so don't worry about if it's 3.2ml or 3.9 ml etc! On my 75 I dose glutaraldehyde everyday, if I forget then every 2nd day. So sit down now...on that 75 I dose 45 ml each time. Since Excel is 1.5% glutaraldehyde (general agreement) and Metricide is 2.6% I dose roughly 78ml of Excel each dose. You can easily triple or more your dose. If you want to give it a go, double first to 10ml for a couple weeks and see added plant growth then go from there. If you have dumb fish who hang around @ the top of the water I always recommend to dilute the dose. 100-200 ml of tank water is just fine for your Excel dose. So I give 78ml per dose AND run high co2. Do that and it's jungle time....but I sell plants...so that is what I want. Always happy to help. Any questions on the above just give a shout. Edited January 4, 2014 by ckmullin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chelseanr Posted January 24, 2014 Author Report Share Posted January 24, 2014 (edited) Update : got some tiger vals and that other green plant intertwined into the driftwood from the lovely nanmer, I can't get over how good it looks :] I'm looking into getting some low ground cover for the front there by the ozelot sword, but am not sure what yet. Things are coming into balance, and the army of snails she gave me have been working hard! Edited January 24, 2014 by Chelseanr Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckmullin Posted January 24, 2014 Report Share Posted January 24, 2014 I like it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dillpickle Posted January 24, 2014 Report Share Posted January 24, 2014 (edited) Looks great! That driftwood looks awesome!! Edited January 24, 2014 by dillpickle Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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