Journal Greggz 120G Rainbow Fish Tank - Part Deux!

[GreggZ]

Shaping up to be an excellent journal as always @GreggZ. Wish you still updated your journal on the other forum. We miss you

LOL thanks Tim but I have barely had time lately to keep up with this one. But I will drop in over there and see what's new.

 

[GreggZ]

I thought some of you might enjoy this. Opened the mail today and there was my new Aquatic Gardeners Association Journal.

I am pleased and honored to say my article on creating custom micros made it into the latest addition.

 

[Tim Harrison]

More than deserved. Congratulations.

 

[Art]

Congrats, Gregg! Spreading the knowledge online and in print. Well done!

 

[Burr740]

Now that youre a published author Gregg, dont forget about us little people!

 

[Mr.Shenanagins]

@Burr740

 

[GreggZ]

Now that youre a published author Gregg, dont forget about us little people!

LOL my friend!!! I remember the first time someone reached out to me about writing something. I asked Tom Barr about it and he basically said.......If they ask, you do it. So they asked, and I did it.

And of course you know you are one of the reasons I am in the hobby, and much of what I learned has been from you and a few of the other usual suspects. And I wouldn't have went to custom micros without you asking me to come along for the ride when you got started with them. I hoped you liked the "plug" for Burraqua!

On a side note, the really great part of getting something printed is the reaction from my wife and family. They get a big kick out of it and find it fascinating that anyone would listen to this old guy!!

 

[Mr.Shenanagins]

On a side note, the really great part of getting something printed is the reaction from my wife and family. They get a big kick out of it and find it fascinating that anyone would listen this old guy!!

In this hobby, spousal approval is EVERYTHING! Great work Gregg

 

[BryceM]

Gorgeous tank. The most striking thing is that the plants appear to be stunningly healthy. This thread has given me tons to consider when it comes to my 180g tank. I'm thinking a deep substrate clean would be quite beneficial. You would be appalled to know how long the substrate has been sitting there without a thorough clean. Getting all the fish out though...... that'll be a trick! There's usually 2 or 3 different spawns of Kribs here and there in different hidey-holes.

Also, I think I'll gradually keep trending my KH downward. I'm mixing tap and RO at present, and I don't want to get my GH too low, but I've got a little room. Right now I'm at a 3:1 ratio. 4:1 seems like the next step. I'm guessing I can end up in the KH 2-3 range without being too low on the GH.

I love rainbow fish, but I've never had great luck with them. Most likely, as you say, the problem has been lousy stock to begin with. Yours are incredible.

 

[GreggZ]

Gorgeous tank. The most striking thing is that the plants appear to be stunningly healthy. This thread has given me tons to consider when it comes to my 180g tank. I'm thinking a deep substrate clean would be quite beneficial. You would be appalled to know how long the substrate has been sitting there without a thorough clean. Getting all the fish out though...... that'll be a trick! There's usually 2 or 3 different spawns of Kribs here and there in different hidey-holes.

Also, I think I'll gradually keep trending my KH downward. I'm mixing tap and RO at present, and I don't want to get my GH too low, but I've got a little room. Right now I'm at a 3:1 ratio. 4:1 seems like the next step. I'm guessing I can end up in the KH 2-3 range without being too low on the GH.

I love rainbow fish, but I've never had great luck with them. Most likely, as you say, the problem has been lousy stock to begin with. Yours are incredible.

A clean substrate makes everything else easier. If you do it a portion at a time no need to remove the livestock.

If you end up at 2 - 3 dKH you can grow just about anything. A small subset would be even happier at lower dKH, but for vast majority of plants that is a good level. If you need to add a little dGH back in that's very easy to do.

In general Rainbows are easy to keep. I've had them make it a decade or more. But there are some strains in the hobby that are generally weak. LFS Praecox are the worst, and that's what many start out with.

And by the way great build thread. I am looking forward to seeing where it goes. Loads of great potential there.

 

[SkaleyAquatics]

Hey @GreggZ I am curious to where you are getting your bulbs at for you T5 HO? I am going to be setting up a 60gal cube and want to do T5 on it instead of led after watering at the mouth over your aquarium for the last few years?

 

[GreggZ]

Hey @GreggZ I am curious to where you are getting your bulbs at for you T5 HO? I am going to be setting up a 60gal cube and want to do T5 on it instead of led after watering at the mouth over your aquarium for the last few years?

I've been loading up on bulbs for some time now. I use Giesemann (Super Flora, Tropic, Super Purple) and Hortilux Powerveg (660). They are available but it takes some work to track them down. You can find the Giesemann's on line, but Powerveg's are tricky. I'm fortunate in that I have a local hydroponics store near me that has a bunch of Powerveg's on the shelf so I load up from time to time.

The difficult part for you will be the tank size. I believe a 60G cube is 24x24x24? If so will be even trickier finding 24" bulbs. I haven't done any searching for 24" bulbs so don't have much frame of reference. I wish I could be of more help. Maybe someone else knows of a good source?

 

[SkaleyAquatics]

I've been loading up on bulbs for some time now. I use Giesemann (Super Flora, Tropic, Super Purple) and Hortilux Powerveg (660). They are available but it takes some work to track them down. You can find the Giesemann's on line, but Powerveg's are tricky. I'm fortunate in that I have a local hydroponics store near me that has a bunch of Powerveg's on the shelf so I load up from time to time.

The difficult part for you will be the tank size. I believe a 60G cube is 24x24x24? If so will be even trickier finding 24" bulbs. I haven't done any searching for 24" bulbs so don't have much frame of reference. I wish I could be of more help. Maybe someone else knows of a good source?

Yes, its 2ft cubed lol. I am still trying to decide. If I have trouble locating bulbs i'll ultimately have to look into RGB. This is a slow burn sorta product and I am just at the beginning stages of planning currently.

 

[GreggZ]

It’s been a long time since I provided an update on the tank. The summers are short here in Michigan and between work, golf, travel, the lake, my home projects, my daughters home projects…..well let’s just say it flies by and the tank gets put on the back burner for awhile'

So fall is here and I thought it’s about time I updated what has been going on with the tank.

A warning what I am about to say may shock some and make them gasp.

As I have mentioned I believe that substrate health and cleanliness plays a greater role in our tanks than most give it credit for. I’ve mentioned how every so often I thoroughly clean my substrate which seems to put the tank on cruise control for a while. I switched over from BDBS to soil over four years ago, so the soil was getting pretty old. I began to find my “cruise control” period getting shorter and shorter.

So I reached out and had a few discussions with some folks I greatly admire in the hobby. One in particular was @Marian Sterian . He said with a Dutch type garden tank with lot’s of uprooting that soils can release a lot of nasty stuff in to the water column, which is why he runs his tank with inert substrate. This is something I had been thinking about for a while. When he confirmed what I was thinking that kind of sealed the deal.

So I got up one Saturday morning went over to my local Tractor Supply Co. Figured I can sit here thinking about it or just do something. So I picked up 5 bags of BDBS for $60 and went home to make the swap.

I took out all the plants and left the fish in the tank. Took out all the old soil and vacuumed every last thing out of it. Kept the filters running. Not gonna lie tank was the water was really dark. Did a large water change and in about two hours it had cleared up pretty good and tossed the BDBS in. No rinsing. No nothing. Just opened the bags and dumped it in. Another two hours later replanted everything. That's it. Ammonia never got over 0.25 or so.

One of the most immediate things I noticed was how clean the glass stayed. When the soil deteriorated one of the signs for me was algae on the glass. It pretty much instantly went away. Why? I don’t really know but it sure caught my eye. Of course I have also mentioned that Barclaya hates being moved, and it melted away to nothing. Good news is as usual it sat there for a while mad at me but then suddenly showed signs of life and is almost back to it’s former glory now.

There was a short period of rebellion with other plants as well, but all in all everything went very smoothly. Tank has been pretty much back on auto pilot for a while now, even during the neglectful summer months. With a high energy tank it’s easy to let things go, and when you are not trimming, pruning, arranging, etc. the presentation is what really suffers.

So this past weekend I decided it’s about time to give the tank some love and try to whip things back into a more presentable shape. Here’s where it’s at today after a major trim. Going to let things grow out a bit and get more serious about the presentation over the next few months.

 

[LRJ]

Great to see an update! Tank looks stunning!

Interesting to see you switched to inert. I'm trying to remember whether you had BDBS in this tank in the past.

I used ADA Amazonia for a number of years when I first started out with planted tanks. Once I starting getting into Dutch style, I grew to hate dealing with it. I came to the conclusion that there's a reason many of the NBAT competitors use inert substrates and made the switch. I could not see myself switching back unless I was going to do a nature style or Iwagumi with a carpet and plants that mostly stay rooted.

I initally tried various light-colored sands after making the switch, but they're tough for me to keep looking clean. Plus, I had difficulty doing effective deep vacuuming. I'd always end up vacumming up a layer of sand accidentally. Now I'm using small gravel, which I like because I can actually plunge a vacuum all the way to the bottom of the substrate and suck up only the dirt while the gravel stays put. I have yet to try BDBS but I would like to eventually.

 

[GreggZ]

Great to see an update! Tank looks stunning!

Interesting to see you switched to inert. I'm trying to remember whether you had BDBS in this tank in the past.

I used ADA Amazonia for a number of years when I first started out with planted tanks. Once I starting getting into Dutch style, I grew to hate dealing with it. I came to the conclusion that there's a reason many of the NBAT competitors use inert substrates and made the switch. I could not see myself switching back unless I was going to do a nature style or Iwagumi with a carpet and plants that mostly stay rooted.

I initally tried various light-colored sands after making the switch, but they're tough for me to keep looking clean. Plus, I had difficulty doing effective deep vacuuming. I'd always end up vacumming up a layer of sand accidentally. Now I'm using small gravel, which I like because I can actually plunge a vacuum all the way to the bottom of the substrate and suck up only the dirt while the gravel stays put. I have yet to try BDBS but I would like to eventually.

Yes I used BDBS for many years. Then I swapped to Landen Aquasoil. Now back to BDBS.

You should try it. It's a pleasure to plant in, easy to keep clean, plants do great.........and one other good thing it's cheap!

 

[Joel Armstrong]

It’s been a long time since I provided an update on the tank. The summers are short here in Michigan and between work, golf, travel, the lake, my home projects, my daughters home projects…..well let’s just say it flies by and the tank gets put on the back burner for awhile'

So fall is here and I thought it’s about time I updated what has been going on with the tank.

A warning what I am about to say may shock some and make them gasp.

As I have mentioned I believe that substrate health and cleanliness plays a greater role in our tanks than most give it credit for. I’ve mentioned how every so often I thoroughly clean my substrate which seems to put the tank on cruise control for a while. I switched over from BDBS to soil over four years ago, so the soil was getting pretty old. I began to find my “cruise control” period getting shorter and shorter.

So I reached out and had a few discussions with some folks I greatly admire in the hobby. One in particular was @Marian Sterian . He said with a Dutch type garden tank with lot’s of uprooting that soils can release a lot of nasty stuff in to the water column, which is why he runs his tank with inert substrate. This is something I had been thinking about for a while. When he confirmed what I was thinking that kind of sealed the deal.

So I got up one Saturday morning went over to my local Tractor Supply Co. Figured I can sit here thinking about it or just do something. So I picked up 5 bags of BDBS for $60 and went home to make the swap.

I took out all the plants and left the fish in the tank. Took out all the old soil and vacuumed every last thing out of it. Kept the filters running. Not gonna lie tank was the water was really dark. Did a large water change and in about two hours it had cleared up pretty good and tossed the BDBS in. No rinsing. No nothing. Just opened the bags and dumped it in. Another two hours later replanted everything. That's it. Ammonia never got over 0.25 or so.

One of the most immediate things I noticed was how clean the glass stayed. When the soil deteriorated one of the signs for me was algae on the glass. It pretty much instantly went away. Why? I don’t really know but it sure caught my eye. Of course I have also mentioned that Barclaya hates being moved, and it melted away to nothing. Good news is as usual it sat there for a while mad at me but then suddenly showed signs of life and is almost back to it’s former glory now.

There was a short period of rebellion with other plants as well, but all in all everything went very smoothly. Tank has been pretty much back on auto pilot for a while now, even during the neglectful summer months. With a high energy tank it’s easy to let things go, and when you are not trimming, pruning, arranging, etc. the presentation is what really suffers.

So this past weekend I decided it’s about time to give the tank some love and try to whip things back into a more presentable shape. Here’s where it’s at today after a major trim. Going to let things grow out a bit and get more serious about the presentation over the next few months.

View attachment 3181

I was reading through your build thread again last night, and was wondering when your next tank update would be.

Do you still use your pH controller, or have to change the settings at all?

 

[GreggZ]

I was reading through your build thread again last night, and was wondering when your next tank update would be.

Do you still use your pH controller, or have to change the settings at all?

Hey Joel yes I still use the pH controller and the drop is still the same. dKH is still at close to zero, and fully degassed pH is 6.25 every time I check it.

 

[Unexpected]

Did you lower nutrients when you made the swap or kept running full blast?

 

[Mr.Shenanagins]

Really cool to see this, and just goes to show that the commercial stuff is not necessary or even always the best route to go for every setup. Inert in your case allows you to control the breakdown of matter in your tank somewhat since the substrate is not slowly rotting and releasing whatever it may have absorbed. Glad it solved the issues you were having, did you stop and grab a 12 pack after leaving tractor supply?