freshwater rebuild

[StirCrazy]

well, I decided to strip down my freshwater tank and start all over. sence I took down the salt water one I might as well put the time and energy into this one for now.

this was the tank befor it got neglected
http://www.members.shaw.ca/cyltic/temppic/Tank.jpg

here is what I started with.
http://www.members.shaw.ca/s.l.s/freshwater/tankempty.jpg

this is what I pulled out of the old tank

http://www.members.shaw.ca/s.l.s/freshwater/plantsect.jpg

I added florite substrate, used my wood, and some Java fern to start.
http://www.members.shaw.ca/s.l.s/freshwater/rebuild.jpg

after using a particulat clearing agent and a micron filter 1 hour later it looked like this
http://www.members.shaw.ca/s.l.s/freshwater/clearing.jpg


the next day I went out and bought a couple more plants. I still have to plant them after I decide where. I also found some rocks next door where he is building a rock house.
http://www.members.shaw.ca/s.l.s/freshwater/new%20plants.jpg


If anyone local has a planted tank with some nice plants to get rid of let me know.

Steve

[dsaundry]

Nice tank, Be careful on rocks though. I got some rocks from a nearby river and they had some toxins on them. Wiped out a number of my cichlids. If you are over in the Chilliwack area in the near future I have some freshwater plants you may be interested in. Don't know what they all are but can e-mail you pics if you like. I also have a lot of Mopani wood that I will be getting rid of soon as I am putting my 90g back to salt.

[Delphinus]

So Fluorite is black? Man I wish I knew that about a year ago when I was setting up my FW and I wanted more Eco-Complete and freakin' NOBODY in town had any. So I ended up putting in a bottom layer of Volcanit (which is brown) and then on top a layer of the black. It looked good for about 8 months but it is starting to shift around and mix up now and it doesn't look as good. I'm not sure what it would involve to swap out the substrate at this point, I'm thinking that's basic complete tank turnaround and I'm not sure I'm up for that challenge at the moment.

I have a question for you Steve, is the hang-on filter the only thing you have for flow in there? Will you be putting more flow in the tank at some point?

Anyhow, it looks great so far. What is the light you're using? PC's?

Oh and what size tank is it?

[kwirky]

Nice tank, Be careful on rocks though. I got some rocks from a nearby river and they had some toxins on them. Wiped out a number of my cichlids.

I've always cherry picked my freshwater rocks from national parks on the hiking trails. They're super clean that way. My gf yells at me constantly though as I hike back down with a 30 pound rock straddled in both hands. "We're going to get caught! just leave it! SEAN!!!!!!!!"

i bought brown flourite. it comes in two colours. the black stuff's a little harder to find but I like the brown stuff myself. The red hue contrasts nicely with green plants.

[StirCrazy]

So Fluorite is black? Man I wish I knew that about a year ago when I was setting up my FW and I wanted more Eco-Complete and freakin' NOBODY in town had any. So I ended up putting in a bottom layer of Volcanit (which is brown) and then on top a layer of the black. It looked good for about 8 months but it is starting to shift around and mix up now and it doesn't look as good. I'm not sure what it would involve to swap out the substrate at this point, I'm thinking that's basic complete tank turnaround and I'm not sure I'm up for that challenge at the moment.

I have a question for you Steve, is the hang-on filter the only thing you have for flow in there? Will you be putting more flow in the tank at some point?

Anyhow, it looks great so far. What is the light you're using? PC's?

Oh and what size tank is it?

the hang on is a HOT magnum 250, I am almost thinkingit is to much flow for the tank, but thats ok, just means when I run out of my carbon additive I might use a bit more CO2 when I start pumping that.

the light is the hagen GLO set up. It is a twin HO T5 unit, lights my tank way better than the 4 T8's I had on there
http://www.hagen.com/canada/english/aquatic/glo/GLOT5_LightProg2_EN.cfm

I found flrite dark (which was a redish/brown color) florite black, and florite black sand. I felt the black sand was to fine to hold the plants good so I just went with the black.

I took 4" of small natural looking gravel out of there, all that was involved was a big container and one of the kids plastic shovels :mrgreen:

Steve

[StirCrazy]

Nice tank, Be careful on rocks though. I got some rocks from a nearby river and they had some toxins on them. Wiped out a number of my cichlids. If you are over in the Chilliwack area in the near future I have some freshwater plants you may be interested in. Don't know what they all are but can e-mail you pics if you like. I also have a lot of Mopani wood that I will be getting rid of soon as I am putting my 90g back to salt.

I might... I have to see if the wife wants to go see here mom in Kamloops over christmas some time. some pics of the plants and wood would be great, my tank is 22" tall and I am looking for a taller hunk of wood that is say 20" when propped upright. just send them to s.l.s@shaw.ca

Steve

[StirCrazy]

OK, I finally got around to planting some stuff in the tank, I ran out of Glossostigma so I need to find some more. Right now I have the high output lighting and I am dosing two seachem products, one is a complete formula for planted tanks and the other is an organic carbon substitute. when it runs out I will start injecting CO2.

Whole tank
http://www.members.shaw.ca/s.l.s/freshwater/08dec07/tankplanted1.jpg

Right side

http://www.members.shaw.ca/s.l.s/freshwater/08dec07/rightside.jpg

left side

http://www.members.shaw.ca/s.l.s/freshwater/08dec07/leftside.jpg

and the center

http://www.members.shaw.ca/s.l.s/freshwater/08dec07/tankcenter.jpg

so we'll see how it fills in.

[StirCrazy]

well a couple new additions and hardware. I took off the HOT magnum 250 and replaced it with a fuvel 404, after I went and bought the casing upgrade. I have this discharging through 2 feet worth of spray bar.

http://www.members.shaw.ca/s.l.s/freshwater/05jan2008tankfront.jpg

and I think my glosso is growing, I am only using a organic carbon source right now untill I figure out which way I want to inject it.

http://www.members.shaw.ca/s.l.s/freshwater/05jan2008tankside.jpg

Steve

[Skimmerking]

Looks good Steve, I like the wood in the tank, I remember when I had my 280 gal FW, I couldn't keep the wood down.I ended up using a piece of rock and drilled into the wood

[banditpowdercoat]

Lookin good, just upgrading my FW tank as we speak. Just waiting for more RO water to be made.

[JoelV]

Have you been using Co2 before you did the rebuild? Cause those plants look great!

[StirCrazy]

Have you been using Co2 before you did the rebuild? Cause those plants look great!

nope, but they were all lower light plants. I just used a ton of fertalizer.

Steve