Social Feed

The adventure begins...again. After a substantial absence from the hobby, I dunked my toe back in last fall with a small 60F shrimp tank, a Chihiros WRGB slim, and a Chihiros CO2 (citric/baking soda) system. A lot has changed since I started this hobby in the 90s, and it's been about 20 years since I tore my last tank down. 'Aquascaping' per se wasn't as much a thing back then. I didn't know anyone running CO2, and LED lights didn't really exist. The 60F was fun, and the shrimp seem happy, but I have been itching to get to building something with more elbow room.

I did happen to find a pic of my old 75 gallon bowfront tank a few weeks ago that was taken just before I tore it down prior to a big move. It ran great for 7 years. Was a simple low tech setup, with one hunk of driftwood, no rocks, plain gravel (no soil) a lot of simple plants (the sword plants did great), and some peaceful fish. Algae wasn't an issue, filtration was pretty subpar by current standards, but the tank did well despite that, and algae wasn't really an issue. Aesthetically blah by today's standards, and certainly not my goal for this build, but I remember being proud of how well this tank ran back then, and wasn't too demanding. Important as my life was very hectic back then.



So, the tech plan so far for the new 150U:


I ordered the tank and stand from UNS, and to my amazement, despite the worst mid-January winter storm we had in some years here, it was delivered on time by the freight company. I do not recommend trying to move a 5ft wide 400+lb tank and stand across snow and ice, down a slope, into to basement. Very thankful to have a tractor with forks, but still was a bit stressful getting this into the house. Miraculously we got it in the house in one piece, and I seriously questioned ever getting a tank larger than this in the future!



It did require disassembly outside the basement door to actually get it into the house around a berm of snow, along with some extra muscle from a few friends. (This was originally meant to be a 120P, until I realized the hardscape plan I had wouldn't quite fit. What's a another foot in length? )



Just getting the tank through the snow and ice was enough, and the base cabinet and tank just sort of landed in the room, and stayed there for a few days while devising a strategy for the next step. After recruiting a tall and strong friend, and sourcing some of those giant suction cup handles you use for moving shower glass walls, a few days later the tank was finally hoisted up onto the base.

As there is a dropped ceiling in the basement my plan was to hang the lights directly above the tank from the ceiling, rather than using a light stand. A few tiles were removed to investigate the structure above, and with some 2x4 extra bracing for the anchors, as none of the joists were in quite the right spot, two Chihiros Vivid 3 lights were installed directly above the tank. At this point I discovered that none of the electrical circuits in the basement were GFCI protected, so obviously that was immediately remedied. Too much gear and too much water to mess around with unprotected circuits.




With the ceiling open, I decided to run the lighting cables over the top of the wall to the left of the tank, and down into the mechanicals room there. The advantage being that the power cords are hidden from view after going through the ceiling tiles, and it's two less large power sources cluttering up the cabinet under the tank. Had to add an outlet in that closet, but I like how it turned out.

With the tank in position and leveled, and the lights finally installed, the next big issue is water. The well water here is liquid limestone. That was the initial mistake I made with the shrimp tank. Sure, neocaridina like hard water, but not THAT hard, and I quickly had to shift to remineralized distilled. I knew before even getting serious about planning this tank that the only reasonable option, for any future tanks here, is RO. The well water might be fine for Malawi Cichlids, but that's not my plan for this tank, but it will be great to have flexibility going forward. It's a big glass box, at just over 140 gallons, and it won't be the only one here (I hope), so the water part I want to get right from the start, and to make it easy to do water changes. The basement is a walkout, so draining water during water changes will be easy, and I would like to make filling it just as easy. I sourced two 70 gallon storage tanks for the RO water from Northern Tool, and ordered a Vectra S2 pump which will help with transfering water between tanks, as well as pumping it out through a hose to the aquarium(s) during water changes. Forgot to take a pic when I was done, but the pvc is all glued up now. I will finish installing the RO unit this weekend.



So, aquarium set up, lights in, and RO system with storage in progress. Next up? The exciting part. Hardscape! I have been hoarding Manzanita, Hakkai stone, and substrate for several months, so I'm excited to move on to the next step! Tank so far pictured below (although I have already removed the privacy film on the back in favor of adding the ARC RGB light screen in part due to the stair rail being visible and distracting. First screen was damaged in transit, so waiting on a replacement).

Main idea/inspiration:​

Since my main 150p aquarium is in our front room and is the first thing we and our guests see, I can't afford to experiment much with it. I also spent like $600 on aquasoil to fill it, so I thought I'd like to try something different.

This tank will be 100% BDBS substrate, no fertilized substrate. No root tabs (yet), no aquasoil. Only water column fertilization, to challenge myself to see whether I can grow plants well without aquasoil or not! Inspired by the @Burr740 BDBS journals and many other amazing inert-substrate aquariums out there. This isn't a dutch style, only a general "garden" style tank.

I am planning my next tank and need some recommendations for a specific plant. I just don’t know enough and never really get the info I need from vendor sites. Any recommendations will be welcomed. Pictures of the plant in a/your tank would be awesome. Here is what I am looking for.

1. Height 2-6” (or easily trimmed to maintain that height)
2. Color, but not predominately red or predominately light green
3. Easier care is a plus
Tank will be CO2 injected

Anubias petite white is what I have in mind, but curious what else might be there.

It seems to be official. After 10 years, Takashi Amano's largest work is closing to the public on June 30th. Honestly, I was hoping for it to be a permanent exhibit.

I was fortunate to go see it a few months back. Tremendous experience. If you have a chance to go see it, now's the time.

I have rarely kept journals for my tanks, mostly because I tend to not think about it until it’s too late. I have missed the jump on this one too, but as it has only been running for 2-3 months now I think it’s newish enough to start a journal.
Tank:
80cm x 45cm x 40cm (32” x 18” x 16”)
About 130L of water, or 34 US gallons.

I upgraded from a 60L tank that had been running for about 7 years, fairly steadily. I have always enjoyed smaller tanks and so kept this upgrade fairly modest.

Here is a picture of the tank as it is today:





As you can see, I suffer from collectoritis, and have definitely prioritised lots of plant species over ‘scaping’. One of the joys for me in this hobby is growing lots of different plants, so I tend to end up with jungles with many different stems.

The tank is just beginning to stabilise now, with the fresh soil finally not messing around with the water parameters so violently.
I use remineralised RO water cut slightly with tap water at the moment, as I find that ‘matures’ the soil faster in the beginning of a tank.
Below is the running sheet for this tank, which gives a good idea of the water parameters.

Hi all, I’m wondering if many use magnetic stirrers on their dosing pump containers to prevent concentrated mixes from precipitating or growing mold etc?
I am looking at the Chihiros ones, as I have their dosing containers, does anyone have one in use they can share a review on?
Or any other brands worth looking at?
Thanks!

In the AGA Convention thread, a few of us discussed going to Aquashella Dallas which is May 16 and 17
I'm not committed to going yet, but I want to go, and I thought I'd open up this thread for anyone else who might be considering it.
I'm waffling hard on it. A lot of money basically for an aquascaping demonstration.
What do you say?

OK, some of you brilliant folks need to develop this for our aquatic plants. According to the ad I just saw for this APP, not only can it instantly identify the plant, it can also tell you what specific mineral deficiencies the plant has just from the photo.

Picture This

P.S. Not sure I believe it works that well.

Hello everyone,

Excuse my multiple posts - I'm new here and trying to determine the best way to ask all of my questions!

As I have stated in a few other posts, I am starting a high-tech, 235g planted tank. Tank dimensions are 72" L x 30" W x 25" H.

I'm still working out many of the details, but for now I plan to make this a South American themed tank centered around a few Electric Blue Acara. And yes, I know they'll dig I don't plan to have a ton of red plants, if any, in the tank, but I do want a light that has potential in that I can use it in any situation should I choose to redo/rescape the tank a few years down the road.

My requirements:

1. Must be able to be mounted via hanging kit/pendant mount
2. Dimmable
3. Usable App for initial setup with customizable channels - I typically loathe preset specs.
4. Reliable
5. Budget - nothing set in stone - but I would assume somewhere around $1,000.00 USD would be sufficient.

I'm an old school T5HO fan, but I thought I would change it up a bit for this tank and see what I am missing out on.

My current top choice is the Week Aqua (version 3) P900 Pro x 2.

I welcome any input on these specific lights (is 2 enough?) as well as any other lights that would be comparable and fit the criteria noted above.

Gran Cubic Absolute AR Vision

I wonder when we'll see tanks with this glass in the U.S.