Journal 75 Gallons of Bliss!

Well, hopefully it works out that way.. I am not convinced there wont be some “Blood, Toil, Tears, and Sweat” along the way. A common saying during WW2 in Europe was that the road home went through Berlin…


The stand is built and moved in to the bedroom. I have completed Spring cleaning the bedroom and rearranging furniture in the room.


I moved my 2 tier fish tank stand across the room. This frees up space by my recliner. Puts the CO2 tank between them so I dont need to route the hose in front of the door, and gives me much nicer access to my closet.
I like the extra room by the recliner. I feel much less cramped and it gives me better viewing of the 29 gallon across the room rather than next to me.

Thats my Grandfathers Grandfather clock. He built it in 1976. He passed 12 years ago at 96. I remember him building it. My parents gifted it to me as the chiming kept my mother awake. To me the chiming is soothing and drifts me off to sleep at night..



Power strips mounted on the cabinet side out of view. The strip closest to the front will power the Inkbird, canister filter and any other in tank electrical devices added. 1 switch to flip shuts off power to all in tank conductors before sticking my hands or tools in. And the lights will stay on…

All the wires will be coiled and have tie wraps to prevent wire spaghetti on the floor. And if I spill water on the floor I wont have to worry about it getting into the power strips..


I mounted a magnet strip on both doors. Now I just need to find the rest of my Aquascaping tools and maybe I can avoid misplacing them again…



Also nice storage for magnet scrapers too…


I bought some storage bins…

And filled them, organizing fish meds in one, equipment in another, testing supplies by themself, cleaning supplies in another. I just need to make some labels for the bins..

I have never been this organized in my life…

I am hoping Petco has a half off sale on tanks for March..

I plan to update this journal as I progress with the build…

 

[Pepere]

It looks like she found a great home, canned salmon for lunch!

Well, it was all I had on hand suitable for a cat…

I now cook her up a pound of turkey burger and supplement it with 2 ounces of beef liver pate I cooked down, a scrambled egg, well cooked carrot slices, chicken bone broth, and calcium, krill oil, and taurine supplements, ground flax seed and to each serving I add a multivitamin and probiotic supplement for cats. I cook a batch weekly and freeze half and thaw out a few days later..

Most cat food has lots of grains and fillers. And the goid stuff prices out over $10.00 a pound…

Maybe she likes the top down view on the glass top, but you probably don't need the cat teetering on top of expensive aquarium lights.

Starting canopies this afternoon. The idea of the glass lid cracking worries me…

 

[Pepere]

Well, yesterday I assembled 4 canopies for my other tanks to keep Mittens the kitten off of the glass lids and lights.

Today I put trim on the corners and edges. Removing screw tomorrow and filling holes and sanding up to start staining them Vintage Aqua blue stain to match the cabinets…

And as I sat in my recliner it dawned on me that I ought to install the crown moulding I bought to go around the base of the 75 gallon to cober up the bottom frame and plywood it is sitting on…. That Way when the stain is open I can put the finishing touch on the stand I built.







So at 9:00 at night I was using a Japanese pull saw and a miter box to cut the miters and then glued the chrs together and tacked it in place with self tapping finish screws.

Tomorrow I will back out the screws and drill out some counters so I dont split the moulding when I drive the finish screws home.

A but of wood filler and clean up with sandpaper and it will be ready for stain.


I think it dresses up the tank nicely. It covers over the bottom frame completely and the canopy covers the top frame.

There is enough of a gap between the glass and wood I will be able to fit a thin trim piece between to cover the substrate up completely as well.

 

[Pepere]

Stain and polycrylic applied…

 

[Jeff Miotke]

Wow! Really great work!

 

[Pepere]

No more monkeys jumping on the bed!


And,

No more kitties tap dancing on my glass lids!!!

Mittens the Kitten has been insisting on climbing on my aquariums and tap dancing on the glass lids, knocking off expensive aquarium lamps….

For the past week, I have been building 4 canopies to protect the lights, and to protect Mittens, who doesn’t understand such things, from breaking a glass lid and hurting herself or going for a swim.






These were made to complement the stands and emulate the canopy of my 75 gallon tank, but made far cheaper and quicker. Consequently they look a bit chunkier, but, Mittens, my fish and my lights are safer.

 

[Pepere]

Pulled excess species I am not going to use in this tank and put them in basement plant farm.

Trimmed and pruned a bit, and rearranged a few plants…







I had an eriocaulen Lineare. It melted back a fair bit, shot out new leaves, then some of the newer leaves started melting faster than new growth.. and it started shooting out plantlets…

I split it up to 4 plantlets, excavated the BDBS and sunk some Amazonia 2 there, planted them and covered back up some.

Read 2 hr Aquarist advocating kh under 2 for Erio. Well, my KH is 2 from tap. So I mixed in some Seachem Acid buffer to drop KH just under 1 degree. And I moved the light forward to be over them….

I will watch and see what develops here…

 

[Pepere]

Trimmed down the Cardinal Lobelia to extend the street.



Moved the Hygrophilla Corymbosa Compacta to put in Eriocaulen Lineare. Broke it up into 4 plantlets.. now I wait for it to recover and establish.



eriocaulen Featherduster growing in well and getting denser as well as a Myrio Golden bush behind.



Pogostemon Kimberly continuing to grow in out back.



Limnophilia Wilsoni just going nuts… big trimming planned this weekend for it to tame it …

 

[DutchMuch]

Gosh that Wilsoni is just absolutely stunning…! Huge fan of the plant choice in this layout.

 

[Pepere]

Huge fan of the plant choice in this layout.

Thanks again to @Unexpected who sent me a large care package of plant trimmings…about 3/4 of the plant in this tank are from him..

9 weeks out from receiving 3, 4 inch long segments of the Wilsoni…. That plant grows fast…

 

[Unexpected]

Thanks again to @Unexpected who sent me a large care package of plant trimmings…about 3/4 of the plant in this tank are from him..

9 weeks out from receiving 3, 4 inch long segments of the Wilsoni…. That plant grows fast…

Most welcome, the plants you sent me were awesome and I appreciate the trade. This is why this hobby is so fun. Getting to know literal strangers a thousand plus miles away is amazing. To those who may not know, Ray and I talk almost every day and nerd out on plants and planted tanks.

 

[Pepere]

6 weeks of growth….

 

[Unexpected]

6 weeks of growth….


View attachment 10743

Lush!

 

[Naturescapes_Rocco]

Based on how bronze those blyxa are, I'd say this is pretty high light! Do you have any idea what your PAR readings might be? If not no worries.
Looking beautiful.

 

[DutchMuch]

6 weeks of growth….


View attachment 10743

Absolutely gorgeous, beautiful work.

 

[Pepere]

Do you have any idea what your PAR readings might be?

Not really.

Two 60 cm Chihiros wrgb2 Pros

90 R 45 G 80 B 80 W

 

[Koan]

Two 60 cm Chihiros wrgb2 Pros

 

[Pepere]

It can’t be too bright… there is still power to spare…

 

[techman81]

View attachment 10750

Yeah, I was going to comment that PAR was definitely high with those lights and those settings. LOL!

 

[SkaleyAquatics]

6 weeks of growth….

Stunning! Absolutely love it.
That is some extremely happy Ammania in the back left you should be proud of that. Many/most of us dutchers cannot grow it at all. Im jealous. One day ill grow pedicellata 'golden'.

 

[Pepere]

That is some extremely happy Ammania in the back left you should be proud of that. Many/most of us dutchers cannot grow it at all. Im jealous.

It grows rather prolifically. It goes through periods when the leaves tend to have more surface algae on them, then periods it is clear.

It is certainly a plant that makes its presence known and demands its space..

It seems to like macros with nitrates in the 10-20 ppm range and lots of light.