Well, This tank is done...Will start planning my saltwater tank, Hmmm.

SMI

Non-member
While I was feeling this tank I had this giant gorgeous piece of Driftwood in there that I got a Craigslist for like I think like 30 or 40 bucks I thought the substrate alone would keep it down but I'm thinking it's more like teak bamboo or Cypress it's never going to build water is it because this thing was pushing against my hand probably about 4 or 5 lb of buoyancy so I got to figure out a way to tether this thing down like I said my new LED setup just almost went for a dip by the way thank you for everyone for helping me up to this point because I'm doing really well budget wise and knowledge wise with freshwater so thanks again Steve
 
Disaster averted reposition the Driftwood that barely fit to begin with basically wedging and in there without breaking it done looks pretty cool too
 

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I like it better upside down like that! What are your plans for fish? Cichlids angels, or others?


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I wanted to do Swordfin mini koi however they are jumpers so now Imstill doing my home work, I want to do shrimp, snails, live planted once I get the tank stable. Moss etc. I like tetras? Like I said Im still doing some reading on options :) Steve.
 
I bought 2 wave makers, because they were like $18.00 like 12 years ago when I did may SW set up 2 wave makers were $400.00, lol
 
I enjoyed he beginning stages of my cichlid tank. Started with 15 in a 30 gallon. Down to two. I had one go on a killing rampage and killed off 5 in one month. We called him highlander. In the end there can be only one!


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I tried planted tank before. It was a hobby until the plants started to take off. Trimming baby tears carpet is a chore worse than trimming sps. At least you can sell or give aaay the corals. Nobody wants the plants. So your success goes into the garbage.
However, I do find a well scaped and maintained planted tank off the zen that a reef cannot offer. I feel calm when looking at a planted tank. Not so much on a reef tank.
 
Fun to see your planted tank. You can also boil the wood and it makes things much easier.

I have many buces and other low-mid light plant if you want any.
 
Thank you very much I appreciate that I got another slight bump in the road but I know how to rectify it my tank is getting cloudier and slightly green ear which I don't think we'll be a problem because I got to you know I bought the freshwater Master Test Kit I bought all new biomedia cup of cartridges and you know basically a Water Conditioner cuz I used all tap water so you know I don't think it's a big deal and not to mention I've been so excited I've been playing with the light all day so the lights been on for like 15 hours I'm clearly growing something I.e algee to check temperature variations based on color you know of the water and everything and everything seems to be stable at around 77.5-78.25 based on what K value I've been playing with the light with
 

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I mean I think I got to consider the fact that the substrate although I rinse it for like hours and hours and hours it's still incredibly nutrient-rich and there's a lot of it in a small tank you know and the light is incredibly effective and the water movement is very good I and the temperature is basically fairly consistent and accurate so on one hand I should be pleased at the effectiveness at my tanks ability to grow he can only mean so it's kind of like taking the good with the bad type of deal like I said I'm going to do a lot of chemistry soon as I finish my pizza
 
The best quick advice I would give you is to take it slow, just like a reef. Initial cloudy water and fungus growth on wood is normal. Be careful with the lights. You either need to add a lot of plants or reduce lighting back a lot. Otherwise you are likely gonna get a big bloom.

Happy to give more advice on your tank if you wish. Planted tanks are great but can get tricky.
 
Oh and the other thing I would do for the next few weeks at minimum is BIG water changes. Either 50%, twice weekly or 80%, weekly.

My normal WC change schedule for a estimative index (EI) dosed, CO2, high light tank is 50%, weekly; no slacking or skipping. Water changes are key for the first few months.
 
Should I add plants now even though there's such an ammonia and nitrate Rich environment or should I let the biological process continue to do what it does and do water changes you know and keeping the light off as possible?
 

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Also going forward I'm definitely buying biomedia Rings or balls or whatever in bags preferably nylons they don't absorb water I would imagine they all are because frankly reaching in and scraping out a billion little ceramic impregnated tubes kind of a pain LOL
 
Something kind of is interesting is happening with my tank interesting igood I think well it was definitely starting to get in a bit of an algae bloom and cloudy which is expected because it's only about 72 hours old it's starting to clear up but just in case I bought a used $32 UV compact sterilizer I think it's 9 Watts at 210 water movement which frankly isnt quite worse than the powerhead and hopefully with the little bit of Ingenuity and my Dremel I'll be able to replace the power head with the sterilizer because the footprint should fit in there nicely so we'll see I'll let you know how it works it's rated for 20 gallons which between the giant piece of Driftwood the rock and all the substrate and all the other crap in my tank I would say I got about actual 20-25 gallons of water here

the filtration compartment has sunk maybe a good eighth of an inch and the pump side a quarter of an inch and water levels right as risen you know do the math you know cordingley I don't know if my power is getting stronger.

and as far as the middle cartridge being upside It's not actually see I just using that old cartridge I basically ripped off the filtration and the carbon and I'm pinning down the new quote-unquote Coralife direct replacement cartridge that's supposed to fit a 29 gallon Cube that doesn't because it's just basically floats in there so it just holding down the other cartridge so that's why it to be upside down but it doing nothing more than just holding down a cartridge but it's like I said it was just interesting and the tank without a water change yet is getting less cloudy and less green I'll let you know how the top and it's green $32 UV sterilizer works , Steve.

Budget up-to-date getting close to 300
I enjoyed he beginning stages of my cichlid tank. Started with 15 in a 30 gallon. Down to two. I had one go on a killing rampage and killed off 5 in one month. We called him highlander. In the end there can be only one!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I enjoyed he beginning stages of my cichlid tank. Started with 15 in a 30 gallon. Down to two. I had one go on a killing rampage and killed off 5 in one month. We called him highlander. In the end there can be only one!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

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ARESANGLE, I know I shouldn't be laughing because you know a lot of fish died in that story but I can't stop laughing. That's that's that's an interesting didn't leave really funny story You know everybody's curious to see what I'm going to stock my tank with and everybody keeps mentioning cichlids and I would say something like aren't they kind of like semi pissed off and then people would correct me and say just me to do you mean semi- I'll be like no I mean semi pissed off well when I was just a kid kid who remembers PJ's Pets in like Saugus I bought a fish called the green terror I think they imported it from Area 51 it was a like some sort of hybrid between Oscar and a cichlid it was really really pretty but I didn't ever want to go near it or money let's just put it that way
 
My fish tank seems to be clearing up the algae bloom is dissipating as well as that microorganisms which with which would explain the cloudiness so the biofiltration is doing its thing is starting to clear up but just in case I threw a towel over it because I you know occasionally need to live in light you know and I mean I like natural light and I live in at like a 275 square foot apartment so you know well it's likely you would sing and I have nothing in there to eat the nutrients I just assumed the private of all the lights units and possibly get but I am looking forward to Amazon showing up with that mini UV sterilizer you know the tiny one that's like 30 bucks and I'm going to retrofit it into the pump tank Tom side of the tank I should be able to do a pretty good job like I said I'm very handy in that way I'm licensed plumber HVAC technician handy electric man and not licensed and I went to school and finish carpentry and I just left fish tank so it should be fun it should be interesting to say the least when I think the most interesting thing about this thing I just bought it's basically like $34 for the entire unit or $33 for the replacement bulb need I say more
 
Well the tank seems to be doing what I thought it would be doing which is clearing out the algae bloom is gone so evidently the bio media is doing what it's supposed to do I packed the hell out of it with the Fluval ceramic rings and the reason the filtration is becoming more efficient not because of how it's getting better it's because the water that was like gelatin before is now more like water and if you're on this site you know what I'm talking about I am still looking forward to the UV sterilizer showing up which we should be tomorrow kind of like someone saying I'm looking forward to doing heart valve bypass surgery on a hamster because that's kind of what's going to be like because I plan on putting the UV power hub power pump sterilizer in a footprint that's for X2 on a step with no assistant I have to figure out a way to put tools in something I mean I'm almost six feet tall but I still can't comfortably get to the back of the tank so it should be interesting hopefully I don't break a leg or the tank
 

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On by the way the budget Remains the Same as prior noted water change has not been done yet I'm plan on doing a water change once I install the UV sterilizer cuz I figured I'm going to be doing all swishing and squashing around and I haven't tested the water yet because I figure that's futile at this point there's nothing in there doing a number one or number two
 
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