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Santa came early this year with a new 75g tank. I've never owned a 4' tank ever been stuck on the normal 30" wide 29g and 20g's forever. I wanted the uns 90u 36x22x22 but 750.00 is nuts to me I don't have that much in all tanks and equip I own so went cheap route.
Saw the 75g at PetSmart the imagitarium brand for 150 on sale. Those cheapos have bad reviews on leaking and I believe it as I actually picked up a free leaky 75g imagitarium at petco last week and sold it for snake terrarium for 40.00. Went to petco they also have the 50% off sale on marineland and aqueon. The tank was 159.00 out the door. Got lucky the manager said take this set of new glass tops for free, were a return they cant sell it.I assume the made in USA marineland is a better tank than the other cheapos and I actually don't mind the black silicone.

Went to Lowes today for some wood 4- 2x4x8 and 2- 2x4x10 and sheet if 1/2 osb for top and bottom shelf and for extra strength. When I get done I'm sure it would hold a 300g tank. Will wrap the tank in either bead board wood paneling or 1/4" plywood with some nice moulding on corners. Def gotta make a lip to hide the bottom plastic rim as well so its not so ugly. probably build a hood to why not hide some rims! Just gotta build or find a pair of doors on something else I can steal and use for this stand. I don't plan on getting it setup for few weeks but want stand base 1/2 done now so I can try some diff dry scapes with wood and rocks in it. This will be replacing my 20long I was scaping in other journal its now a plant farm full of ludwigia and plants for sale.
Still not sure on the name on this tank, Whipple landing is where I took some pics I want to copy for the tank. Its feed by the great pee dee river here so name may change later.

Not literally take them away but a mass power out? I do not think my plants can survive a 2 week blackout

Plants make up a majority of my life and all the new things going on just might actually hit home..

Inspired by @gnatster 's Black Friday thread HERE. I'm curious what's on everyone's list this year. I need to come up with a list for the significant other aquarium or not. Not sure of much I want. I do want a small rectangle little tank to do a succulent garden and light like HERE, but I'm not sure which one to get. What are you asking for?

Hello all, my name is Mike and I just found this site by accident. I think @gjcarew told me @GreggZ had moved here but some how I failed to remember; so I'm glad I found this site today. I am a fan, as you can tell, of GreggZ. He taught me just about everything I know (through his journal on that other site) and I was also banned over a 0dKH discussion . So you know, I kind of feel close to the guy. Joking aside, I was able to go from this.
To this within a short period of time just by reading his journal.
And as time passed I was able to get this nice scape that made my wife happy.


Then I had the pleasure to meet @gjcarew over on a different site and I reached out to him with questions and such; through those conversations he motivated me to make an attempt at the 2022 AGA Dutch competition. Unfortunately, I messed the tank up right when I was about to take my photos and I couldn't recover the tank in time. Here's that tank. Obviously, there are tons of problems with it, but I was proud of it regardless. I believe it had a shot at a top 10. Not really.
I messed up the Myrio and started to get algae because I wasn't front loading properly and I didn't realize it. I believe I went too lean and thought the Landen would cover the difference.

I won't lie, I felt completely defeated and I kind of slowed down on all my tanks and didn't put my full attention into them anymore. Also, my wife and I were getting a bit burned out with so many tanks to maintain. This is where my journal begins.

I wanted a solution to reduce our work load, and I definitely wanted a bigger tank to house my livestock from the other tanks. I was also sick of lugging canister filters around the house then plugging them to realize I forgot to connect a tube. Fountains of water on our walls wasn't working out so well! I also wanted absolutely no water outside of the tank. By chance, I found the Innovative Marine SR Pro2 120 and bought it.

Now here's the cool thing that happened. I was using a 20 inch RO housing for my reactor, but the tank is only 16 inches high. Four inches of Cerge's reactor was incredibly ugly. And again, by chance, I found the solution. Enter the Yugang Horizontal reactor. I affectionally call it by his forum name because I couldn't be happier with how amazing this thing is. It's so simple, yet so brilliant. I reached out to Yugang and asked if he got the reactor to work. He replied with "my CO2 spray bar works so well I never tried it". I then asked if anyone else got it to work and he said no one has tried it. So I told him I would and apparently, I really am the first person to run this thing through some trials. I think that's pretty cool honestly! Yugang made some calculations for me and on the second build, we nailed it. I get a 1.5pH drop and the design makes it so no additianal CO2 can be added. It's seemingly impossible to gas my fish as the reactor has safety built into the design length. Amazing! I'm so glad there are so many people smarter than I am. It makes my problems so much easier to manage .

The reactor is nothing more than cheap PVC with a gentle stream of tank water flowing under a pocket of CO2. Add a cheap bypass and a method of injection and you now have a Yugang reactor. This success has energized me enough to have another go at the AGA. I bought new lights (Weak Aqua P600's), jammed as many plants I could into the tank and I'm starting my plant selection now. I have a long ways to go but I'm hoping to achieve my goal. The tank is nothing to look at right now; getting plants here in Albuquerque is quite the challenge so I'm mostly waiting on submerge growth and to get them propagated. I also have way too many species but the selection process has begun. I just need to see which ones will grow in Ace Hardware pool filter sand. So far, all seem like they are coming along fine in the sand.

Oh, here's the reactor.

And here's the really ugly tank in it's current condition.


I promise, it will look much better soon. It's been a scramble to pull everything together so quickly.

I hope some of you follow along; I know I will have tons of questions soon enough for all of you!

As we all know, AI bots are all the rage now. As is usually the case, when new technology surfaces, people find nefarious ways to use it. I feel very negative saying that because I am an optimist by nature. Unfortunately, it's something to manage.

AI bots have found ways to function more like people and this is allowing them to bypass the SPAM measures that most forums have. You may have seen some new members that are posting very robotic replies to old threads. Sometimes it's very difficult to know whether it is a robot or not because some people use AI to clean up their writing before making posts, especially if English isn't their first language.

We have updated our sign-on Captcha to ask a question rather than simply require a click to prove you are not a robot. We also moderate a new member's first post as a backup measure. However, like I said, it's sometimes tough to tell. In such case, we usually send an email asking them to tell us about their tank(s) to see if that helps us spot a bot.

The risk is that if we allow that first post to go through, the AI member would be free to SPAM in the future instead of the current seemingly innocuous replies.

Anyway, no system is perfect. If you notice a post from a new member that seems to have that AI robot quality, please report it so we can check on it. We would really appreciate it.

Thanks,
Art

Hey everyone,

I'm Josh (JCole on most of the reef forums). I've been in the saltwater side of the hobby for over 20 years, mostly running Acropora-dominant systems. I'm officially getting out of reef keeping and converting my current tank to a planted freshwater tank. I'll be honest up front: I know almost nothing about planted tanks. So I figured the best move was to introduce myself, start a build thread, and beg for help LOL.

A little background so you know a bit about my previous addiction!

For a long stretch, my main tank was a 150-gallon Acro tank plumbed to a sump, a 20-gallon chaeto refugium, and a frag tank out in the garage. I crashed it in late 2020, lost over 70 Acros, and kept about six. Rebuilt it and kept going.












I eventually outgrew the 150 with coral colonies and needed to upgrade. My next tank was a 480-gallon acrylic peninsula, 8'x4'x2', with a 300-gallon stock tank sump in the garage.







The aquarium was a dream aquarium of mine, but with having a full time job running a company with 3 boys in travel ball baseball, it consumed all of my time and I just could not give the tank what it actually needed and deserved. I eventually reset it, built my own cement rock and shelves, and sold the whole system in early 2025.





After that, I downsized to a Marineland 180 (72x24x24) in the same room. This is the tank I'm converting to freshwater.



WHERE I'M AT RIGHT NOW

• Tank: Marineland 180, 72x24x24, glass.
• Goal: High-tech planted. CO2, good light, fertilizers, the whole thing.
• Cleaning: Done. I stripped the tank and sump with bleach and muriatic acid to get all the coralline algae off. It's clean and ready for water.
• Sump: My Trigger Triton 44 sump is already set up and staying. I'm not going canister right now.
• Controller: I've run an Apex for about 8 years, and I also wrote my own Raspberry Pi controller app that talks to the Apex and my Kasa, Shelly, and Jebao gear.
• Lights: I pulled the halides and kept the pendants. For now, each pendant has a 120V LED grow light bulb in it.
• Substrate: I have 19 bags of CaribSea Eco-Complete Planted ready to go.

WHERE I NEED HELP AND FEEDBACK

1. CO2 with a sump: I know a sump gasses off CO2. Since I'm keeping mine, what tips do you have to keep the loss down (lower the return, cover the sump, change the overflow, anything else)?
2. CO2 control: I can run a solenoid and a pH probe off the Apex or my own app. Do you control CO2 by pH, by a timer, or both? Is a drop checker still the thing to trust? And what do you use to actually get the CO2 into 180 gallons—an inline reactor on the return or diffusers? What safeguards do you run so a stuck solenoid doesn't gas the fish overnight?
3. Lighting: Are LED grow bulbs in the pendants enough for a high-tech 72" long, 24" deep tank, or is that a stopgap? If I upgrade, what would you put over it?
4. Substrate and hardscape: I read that people put lava rock in filter bags on the bottom to build up hills and slopes so the deep rooting plants get more depth. Is that the way to do it, and how deep should the Eco-Complete be on top? Is 19 bags enough for what I'm trying to do?
5. Fertilizers: EI or lean dosing for a first-timer? I'm used to dosing two-part and testing a lot, so numbers do not scare me.
6. Plants and fish: I want to start with beginner plants, but I'm not scared to try the harder stuff. Acros taught me patience, so I'd like to work up to the more advanced plants. What would you start with in a 72" high-tech tank, and what would you add later? And what fish do well in that setup?
7. Water: I've always run RODI for the reef. For planted, do I use straight tap, RO with remineralizer, or a blend? Which GH and KH numbers should I be shooting for?
8. Cycling: Plants change how you cycle, right? What's the order of operations?

Fair warning, I'm a gear nerd and I tend to wing it, so feel free to tell me when I'm about to do something dumb. I'll keep this thread updated as I go.

Any help or guidance would be appreciated.

Thank you!!!

Will be continued!

There are several threads discussing the new Aquael Hypermax 4500BT. I'm sure many would like some reports on it's performance over time. We have a thread discussing nano canister filters. We're all waiting for one of @Naturescapes_Rocco in depth write-ups discussing his filtration set-up. @Pepere and @*Ci* have unique set-ups as well, @Kwyet has used a matten filter, and we have several other members running sumps. That doesn't even include all those running sponge and HOB filters.

The idea is that we can consolidate a lot of filter information in one place making it easier to find rather than searching through so many threads. Maybe this won't work but I thought it was worth giving it a try. Perhaps it may be better listed as an article at some point.

I'm going to get things started by discussing factors I feel are most important to me when choosing a filter.

1) Filtration Performance: This goes without saying. The filter’s primary job is to keep our water clean and free of anything that harms the inhabitants. Of course, there are multiple factors that play into this. Some say flow is most critical, while others claim media volume is most important. Are there other factors? I still have limited experience, but my view, having done considerable reading, is that flow tends to be a bit overblown. You’ll see recommendations of anywhere from 4 to 10 times turnover rate with most leaning toward the higher end of that. I don’t think turnover rate is really the detail to be concerned about, at least with heavily planted tanks like are the norm here. I think the focus should be simply on ensuring flow achieves the goal of effectively moving water through the system to remove toxins/waste, delivering nutrients, and aiding gas (oxygen/CO2) transfer. If a turnover rate of 3 or 4 does that without dead spots in the tank, you should be good. After all, most of us here are plant focused and therefore, the fish we generally have are smaller community species that typically don’t care for high flow (there are, of course, exceptions).

I think there’s a simpler answer regarding media volume; more is better. Obviously, there must be a balance between internal volume and overall size of the filter. Real estate in and around our aquarium stands is precious. Filters like the Fluval FX6 and the newest Aquael Hypermax are huge. If you’re going for one of those, you’re likely putting it on a large tank with plenty of space underneath but again, it’s a matter of finding the right balance that provides the performance you need in a manageable size.

2) Reliability/Durability: This is where solid reviews come in handy and why getting feedback from users here is invaluable. Filtration performance becomes moot if the filter isn’t running, or worse yet, just flooded your house. Being able to easily source spare parts is also valuable, which is why sticking to the top well-known brands is often a safe route. It’s also why many aquarists place canister filters in protective containers, something else to consider when taking into account, size of filter. (this is something I should really do as I’ve had to clean up a few significant spills after filter maintenance and not getting the top secured in place properly )

3) Tie – Maintenance/Noise Level: These two factors are equally important to me. If the filter is a pain to maintain, I’m going to put it off, and that’s bad. It affects the performance. But equally important to me is how noisy it is. I tend to be sensitive to annoying little sounds regardless of where I am; at home, in the car, at work, you name it. If the aquarium is in a part of the house I spend a lot of time in, well then, it’s even more important.
I don’t know if Oase was first to do it, but the idea of the prefilter was, I think, a game changer for many. I imagine it was derived from people installing foam filters on the intake pipes. Having an easily removable section with foam filters that catch a lot of large particles before entering the primary filter chamber is a great idea, resulting in expanded intervals between main filter head removals for cleaning.
Another aspect of maintenance is ease of priming. This could also be an aspect of performance but I don’t think it is quite as important. I’m not sure there is a canister filter that is truly or consistently easy to prime. Some may start out that way, but over time, become less and less so. This is an area I’d really like to see product designers put more serious thought. My experience so far is with Oase and the Fluval 07 series. Hated the Fuval priming and I’m just so-so with the Oase. Let me know your experience with priming other brands.

As for noise, I don’t mind the slight hum of an impeller as long as it’s steady and consistent, much the same way some people, including myself when I was younger, like the smooth steady sound of a fan at night to help them sleep. It’s when the sound becomes inconsistent, I’m bothered. I also don’t care for the sound of splashing/trickling water while I’m focused on other things. Only when I’m camping near the banks of a creek or other body of water is this OK . This is one of the main reasons I’m not a fan of HOB filters. I’m also tweaking my CO2 reactor designs to minimize the bubble sounds of CO2 entering the reactor.

4) Cost: Let’s be clear, the cost doesn’t stop when you pay the retail price for the filter. There’s the cost of media and spare parts plus the cost of electricity. What’s the rated wattage of the filter. I see the Aquael filters claim to consume lower power and are therefore cheaper to run. What about special filter cartridges or foam. Is it easy to cut foam filters from inexpensive bulk material? How often are gasket replacements necessary, or are there common issues with parts failing over time. Of two Fluval 07 filters I’ve used, both needed replacement impeller shafts. Oase Biomaster filters seem to have an issue with the input/output head often needing replaced.
I admit cost isn’t a critical factor for me, but I know it is for many others, so this is another instance where finding the right balance is key, in this case, the balance between price and performance.

Share your thoughts. Do these factors seem to align with yours or do you think I’m way off base. Tell us what types and brands of filters you prefer and why.

​

Boring title, but oh well . I’ve been thinking about a second tank for a bit and wanted something smaller than my 120p. The thought being I’ll rescape more often due to the smaller size and hopefully become a better scaper and get to enjoy a new scape more often. So I went with an ADA 60p. It’s on a Garden Stand and will be filtered by a SuperJet ES600. I’m still mulling over the light and leaning toward a Hyperspot. Way more light than I need and way more than I would prefer to spend, but I like the shimmer, shadows and such that come from point source lights.

I’m planning on an “old school” nature style layout, at least as well as I can put one together. I’ve been playing around with a layout while waiting on a delivery of Hakkai stone from ARC that should arrive tomorrow. Here’s a pic of what I’ve zip tied together so far.

For those not aware, tomorrow is Waterbox Aquariums annual Blue Friday event. Their week long sales will go live (usually 15% off all tanks) and they give away mucho $$$$ in gift certificates during each of their live stream sessions throughout the day and have a $5000 gift certificate raffle at the end of the day. I'm not quite the fan I used to be as I've been a bit frustrated by the long shipping delays on some of their tanks and I think a few others here have dealt with the same, but the deals are still good and who doesn't like a chance to win free stuff?

Waterbox Aquariums Blue Friday