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THE official "what did you do to your tank(s) today" thread!​

Let's keep it real by sharing our daily routine. Post daily if you want. It's nice to check in with fellow aquatic gardeners.

I often point out my love for double tap quick release valves. Chihiros currently has theirs on sale and since I was buying some other stuff I added a few to the cart. I thought they appeared to be smaller than the other brands I've used (UNS and Oase) based on the website images, and sure enough, they are. If you're in need, might be a good time to grab some. They also have the model that converts from 16/22 to 12/16. I made a big purchase so I had free shipping. Not sure if the price would still be great with shipping included.
Chihiros Double Tap Quick Connector

Hello everybody im new here and wanted to introduce my tank,

The tank is a 350 liter Juwel rio (120x50x60)
Pretty high tank but wanted to have 50 cm wide

Lights: 3 daytime onex (1x plant 2x colour)
Good for 180 par at the bottom, 1.5 hour build up/5 hours full and 1.5 hour build off

Co2 by Inline with a co2art series pro dual stage regulator dropping 1.4 in ph

Filtration: 2 external filters (1x crystal profi 900, 1x tetra ex 1500 on a spraybar) and a eheim skim 350

Substrate: mastersoil black powder with masterline root tabs

Fertilizer: apt e

Fish: cherry barbels, siamese algae eaters, kuhli, ottociclus and some bloody mary shrimps

Plants: rotala macandra, anubias tinto, reineckii mini, reineckki rosenarvig, rotala blood red, ludwigia repens super red, bacopa carolinia, lobelia cardinalis, crypto flamingo, crypto rosen maiden, staurogene repens, spiralus tiger, ludwigia inclinata meta, samolus parvifloris red.
Might have forgotten something

Currently battling algae and unhappy plants due to nutrient inbalances and a no3 tester that was not correct.

Under a pic of the current state and the state it was a little better in balance (not as it should tho)

Is there a magic number of fert to give after a what change? Is it 3x the amount that I give during any day of the week?
Example: I give 1ml every day then after a 50% water change should I give 3x (so 3ml?)

Hi guys!

I'm new here, but not entirely new to planted tanks though I've been out of the hobby for the better part of the last decade between kids and moving a couple of times - but finally in a spot where I can do something again. I'm mostly going to be making things up as I go along, but plan on a lot of automation (I want to integrate everything into home assistant) and a lot of DIY as I love the challenge of building things out myself.

The starting point:

I picked up a 90P rimless, low-iron tank on a great deal.



I have a rough idea in my head for a stand to be built from plywood - just have a couple other house projects to finish off before starting that built.

Wife says I can only have one aquarium, so for this tank, I want to go all out with a sump to allow for auto top off, and auto water changes, auto fertilizer dosing etc. etc. I have half a plan in my mind.

I've also started on the light fixture which I've modeled up in CAD, and plan on making out of an 8020 extrusion, and some 3D printed bits.

I'm using bridgelux gen 3 thrive CW (3000k) and WW (5000k) LED strips which have super high CRI at 98+ along with some specific XPE2 wavelengths that I'll solder onto some starboards. Far Red (730nm), Red (654nm), Cyan (495nm), Blue (455nm), Visible UV (415nm). Each segment of the white channels will be on its own driver so I can adjust left to right brightness in thirds, and each colour channel on its own driver so I can vary each channel on a time-based approach.

These will be run from a custom PCB board with Meanwell N-LDD drivers, and will run ESPHome on an ESP32 so it can link up with my Home Assistant installation.


That's it for now, this will probably be a very slow build so be warned if you follow along!

This is the future home for the announcements when someone obtains an achievement badge. Let the games begin!

Added 4 red fire cherry shrimps recently and I saw them for few days but now haven’t seen them for more than a week. Should I assume they are dead? Have checked the skimmer and don’t see them.

Since the tanks have been in such a state of disarray, I’ve been focusing on moving everything to emersed until life sorts itself out.

How I transition from submersed to emersed depends on the growth form of the plant.

Plants that are primarily basal form (not stems) go in square nursery pots with one of two substrates. First choice is long fiber sphagnum (dried and then rehydrated) topped with aquasoil, straight aquasoil, or a mix of peat moss/perlite/coco coir/aquasoil. The sphagnum wicks better than aquasoil. Alternatively, I use straight aquasoil, I line the bottom of the pots with a coffee filter to keep the substrate from falling through. Both work equally well. The bin needs to be filled with a little more water than if dried sphagnum is used which is why the first method is preferable.

The nursery pots are kept in a clear plastic container. Sterilite are the typical go-to, but I actually prefer the tall clear shoe boxes from Walmart. They have built in ventilation holes which is handy because I need to drill holes in the sides of any other container near the lid rim. Ventilation is key.

The shoe boxes are cheap too. I fill the bins as much as possible but a little leftover space is okay.

After filling the bins with pots, I fill all the voids with live sphagnum and fill with enough distilled water to saturate the sphagnum. The sphagnum has antimicrobial properties (so I’ve read, and it seems to check out in practice). This keeps the water from developing algae almost entirely. I dress the tops with live sphagnum too if something needs a little help rooting. Depending on the space, I throw rhizome plants right into the sphagnum as well. They develop excellent root systems and are very easily removed and cleaned when needed compared to conventional soil.

I fertilize everything with a foliar spray of Maxsea 16-16-16 diluted to 1 teaspoon per gallon. It’s a kelp based fertilizer with micronutrients. I highly recommend it.












I’ll follow up with emersed stem plant propogation and other methods for the full greenhouse.

Tank: Waterbox 20 AIO
Return pump: AI Axis 40
Lighting: (2) AI Blade Fresh 12”
Dosing pump: Ecotech Marine
CO2 injected

The purpose of this tank is to maintain a healthy planted tank for at least 1 year. There is a stipulation that I must be able to do this using my tap water for water changes.

Hello All! I saw GreggZ post about this website on one of the Facebook groups and figured I'd come start a journal over here and join the conversation.

Specs

• Dimensions: W24 x D18 x H18 (in)
• Eheim Pro Ultra G90 w/surface skimming intake
• Pressurized CO2 via inline diffuser
• 6 x 24W T5Ho
• 3 mm river gravel

This tank has been set up since 2015 and has gone through many iterations. I briefly tore it down in 2020 in anticipation of completing a 125 gallon build I had been working on. Here is a photo of the tank not long before I tore it down.



Ultimately, I resurrected it when progress on the 125 stalled due to the pandemic and responsibilities at home. Since that time, the tank has essentially been existing in the background as a low tech set up without much thought given to it: sponge filter, in-tank ceramic diffuser, osmocote balls, little no water column dosing, unscaped.

Fast forward a couple of years, and I now have enough time to be engaged in the hobby again and ramp this tank back up. I started preparing for this over this past summer by making some modifications to the build. I wanted a glass lid to limit evaporation and keep fish from jumping. I re-purposed the douglas fir from the enclosure pictured above and used it to make a lid with openings for the filter inflow and outflow and a lip to hold a sheet of glass. I am very happy with the way it turned out.





I also made some changes underneath the tank. I took a piece of white oak plywood Ieft over from the 125 build and installed a panel to hold electronic equipment. The open space on the electronics wall is where I plan to put a controller. I purchased a GHL ProfiLux Mini Wifi for the 125 that has been sitting in the box, so figured why not put it on this tank in the meantime. I also installed a proper mount to hold the CO2 cylinder upright and secure.



For aesthetics and to keep the kids out, I made some panels to hide the equipment under the stand. I would have loved to have used douglas fir for this, but couldn't justify spending a couple hundred dollars to buy a sheet when I still had extra white oak plywood leftover from the 125 build. My wife doesn't care for the two-tone look, but I don't mind it too much.



There isn't much to show in terms of the actual tank yet. Most of the plants are still growing out or converting over from emersed form, so I'll save tank shots for a later date. The plants I currently have in the tank are Dutch staples:

• vallisneria
• hygrophila difformis
• green myrio
• crypt wendtii tropica
• bacopa caroliniana
• red tiger lotus
• ludwigia ovalis
• cardamine lyrata
• java fern mini trident
• mini christmas moss
• fissidens fontanus

The goals for this tank are:

1. Dutch it up!
2. Save time where I can. For now I'm buying premade ferts and mix for reconstituting RODI water and keeping light around medium intensity to make plant growth more manageable.