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Ok, here's the one (some of) you've been waiting for!

We begin with this:



Yeah. I know. Lights don't match, everything's kinda haphazard, fake plants, you can see all the wires and stuff...totally unacceptable. Plus, I had decided to plant the tank. Well, the gravel's not good for planting. So I need new gravel. And a new light. And if I get a new light, I need a canopy. Well, this tank doesn't have a center brace, so the two-piece canopy won't work.

Enter the idea of changing tanks. A co-worker was selling her 55g tank, which was a lot newer than the one I have, so I purchased it off of her. It has trim around the bottom, better glass, and a center brace on the top. Purchased a 4x65w light. Ordered plants. Another coworker had several 25lb bags of crushed gravel, which is hard to find now since TopFin doesn't make it anymore - and I really like this stuff. It looks like sand, but is a heavier grain so the filter won't suck it up. Bought a new Filstar xP3 canister filter.

Everything is now ready to go!



The xP3 has been set up and running for a week now, along with the HOB on the current tank, beginning the bacteria cycle. The new gravel has been sitting in a bucket of water from a water change, and a used filter pad to try to help get some bacteria going on it.

Let's get started!



First we need a place to put the water (and fishies!) from the current tank. A 45g storage bin (rinsed thoroughly with hot, and then cold, water, and then splashed with stresscoat) does the trick here.



Just like a water change, only without vacuuming the gravel, the water is siphoned into the bin, and the entire time is spent chasing fish with the net. All are caught and accounted for except for one elusive bumblebee catfish, the king of Fishie Hide and Seek, but I'm pretty sure he's in the cave ornament. He'll show up.



Empty tank, except for gravel and a couple inches of water. Must acquire some help to get this sucker moved off the stand! I'm going to scoop out a good portion of the gravel, though, for use in the new tank, and also in a smaller tank we're setting up for the roomie's betta.



My cat, Loki, feels the need to inspect the new tank...you know, to make sure it's safe for the fish.



"Ok, you can put the fish in now!!"



The new tank up on the stand...but then I realized I completely forgot the background, in fact I'd completely forgotten to get something FOR a background. So after wandering around the house for 30 minutes or so, looking for poster board, an old sheet, a solid black towel big enough, anything at all I could use, it hit me. TRASH BAG! So I cut the edges off a garbage bag, stretched it out and taped it up, and it worked perfectly. Added the gravel, rocks, fake log and fake cave, to try to get an idea of how I wanted to lay things out before I started planting plants and putting the water in - always good to have some plan to start from, even if the best plan never survives the first engagement with the enemy (in this case, pouring water in the tank).







Please ignore the weird reflections of me in the glass, I'm taking all these pictures late in the afternoon in a very bright room.

Moving on, I filled up the tank as carefully as I could, but still, things moved around and I ended up having to re-sculpt the gravel and re-place rocks and stuff. And then had to re-sink the cave several times.

Planting took about 2 hours, separating all these plants:



I received the plants on Friday, and had to float them in my 10g tank until I could plant them Sunday so they wouldn't die.

After replanting and rearranging a few times, this is the finished product:



There's a few lines on the glass from the various water levels of refilling the tank, but once I get the glass cleaned up I'll take many many more pictures, with some good closeups of as many of the good plants as I can. There's a marble queen, an amazon sword, a ruffled sword, and a tiger lotus in there (of course the tiger lotus is easy to spot!)

Lots of crystal vals, red foxtail, ludwigia, several types of clover, giant hydro, regular hydro, and a bunch of others that I don't have the names of in front of me right now.

Listen! Do you smell that?

lysaer,

Seems like your image references are not working.

I think you use this:

"http://digitalphantasy.com/images/fish/newtank/103_0690.jpg"

Where you should use that:

"http://www.digitalphantasy.com/images/fish/newtank/103_0690.jpg"

The difference is the www. reference.

Otherwise, welcome to the world of logs

Ingo

---

Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Lysaer! wow, what a nice set up you have. I would love to start a new tank, a large one, but i got my new 10G to work with for now. i like the arrangement of decor and plants. Did you say you were gonna add co2 to the system as well? That would be awsome as well as excellent for your plant's. I would like to get into thet but dont have the time or $$$$ at the time. Anyhow, i hope to see the progress of your tank in the future.
GOODLUCK

"The Earth is God's Fish Tank"

Ingo,

I'll edit the references, but it should work regardless. The www is superfluous. And thanks for the welcome!

Listen! Do you smell that?

Looking great so far Lysaer! Great idea for using the trash bag! I would have never thought of that!
The only thing I would take out, is the bubble wall. IMO it looks a little cheesy, but if that's what you want, then go for it. It'll look very nice when the plants get really lush 'n stuff.


~Morgan~

Thanks!

I know the bubblebar's a bit cheesy, but it's only there for a temporary time right now. I had it out, but the fish were breathing heavier and some of them starting hitting the surface of the water a little, so I put it back in for some surface agitation until I have time to get the spraybar positioning figured out right.

Listen! Do you smell that?

lysaer,

Maybe it was my old browser or something, now they are there and I can follow the setup visually as well.

Seems like you planned the whole thing very well

If you don't mind, here are a few questions/suggestions:

- What kind of substrate is that crushed gravel? Did you add any kind of fertilizer to it, like Laterite?
- Which brings me to the next question: Do you plan on using any fertilizer for the water column?
- How long are you planning to leave the lights on for?
- Can the lights be triggered by 2s, meaning can you turn on only one row of lights? Having 4x65W over 55G is more than low light and may cause some issues with algae.
- Plants look very nice, but it may be that they are not enough to withstand the startup. I would suggest to add more fastgrowers, they don't need to be there for the long run, only to help the tank to get settled.
- The rock in the left back will eventually dissapear in the plants and loose its impact. Planted tanks need much larger hardware (rocks/wood) to make them a permanent mark in the scape (at some point, only 2 or 3 of maybe 10 rocks in my earlier 125G setup were still visible, the rest just used up valuable space).
- I assume you keep this a low tech tank, right?

Ok, I guess that is enough for now, more later,

Ingo

---

Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

- What kind of substrate is that crushed gravel? Did you add any kind of fertilizer to it, like Laterite?
- Which brings me to the next question: Do you plan on using any fertilizer for the water column?

It's crushed gravel by TopFin - they don't sell it anymore. It's basically ground-up plain brown gravel.

- How long are you planning to leave the lights on for?
- Can the lights be triggered by 2s, meaning can you turn on only one row of lights? Having 4x65W over 55G is more than low light and may cause some issues with algae.

The light is a 3-fer, has 3 switches, one for each set of bulbs and then a "lunar" light set of blue led's. Right now just one set of 55w bulbs is running, for 2wpg. the 65wx4 is the capacity, not current output. I should have stated that and may need to edit that in. Right now I run the lights for about 10-12 hours depending on when they get turned on. Usually around 11-12am every day, and then turned off around 10-11pm at night. I'm getting a timer for them within the next couple of weeks to automate that, and will probably run them 12 hours, 9a-9p.

- Plants look very nice, but it may be that they are not enough to withstand the startup. I would suggest to add more fastgrowers, they don't need to be there for the long run, only to help the tank to get settled.

I'm not sure what you mean by adding more fastgrowers, the crystal vals in there are definitely fast growers. I received about 10 vals in the mail Friday, and just having them floating in the 10g tank, by Sunday afternoon when I pulled them out to plant them they had so many offshoots that were growing and throwing offshoots I planted over 25 total vals! And every plant had already started growing new roots or runners. There are several stem plants in the back and corners of the tank that you can't see from these shots. I'm going to take better close ups either tonight or tomorow when I've got the glass cleaned so you can see them better.

- The rock in the left back will eventually dissapear in the plants and loose its impact. Planted tanks need much larger hardware (rocks/wood) to make them a permanent mark in the scape (at some point, only 2 or 3 of maybe 10 rocks in my earlier 125G setup were still visible, the rest just used up valuable space).

I know. It's more or less just there until things start to grow in and I figure out a place to put it near the front, maybe around the log/rocks there where things aren't planted as much.

- I assume you keep this a low tech tank, right?

More or less for now. No CO2 injection yet, though that may come. I haven't decided. I have a 75g tank in the works for a few months down the road that I may save the high tech for.

Listen! Do you smell that?

Hi Ly,
"Fast Growers" are generally stem plants. You put them in
the gravel and in a day (24 hr) they have grown an inch
or more. I swear I can practically watch mine grow.
In the process they take up nitrate which removes it from
the water and the equation. Val is not considered a fast
grower. The plant has to settle its roots grow a runner
x nr of inches long, the plantlet has to develop, then grow
roots, and then start toward the surface while it sends out
yet another runner.
One normally plants a new tank with lots of fast growers
to absorb the rising organic compounds as the tank ages
and cycles. Then when the tank settles down, you remove
some of the fast growers and replace them with slower
growing plants such as swords, vals, etc.

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

Ahh, ok, Frank. Gotcha.

I've got .. about 40 total stems I think? Though I'm not sure if the reallly skinny little ones are actually considered stems.

And as I understand it, once the stems start growing, I can cut them off and replant the cut part and they'll just keep growing on both sides, right?

Listen! Do you smell that?

Hi

Very nice looking tank Lysaer - I'm very impressed and I'm sure the fishy inhabitants will love their new surrounds once they settle in.

I love what you have done with the two types of gravel. How are you planning on keeping the two types separated and the sculpted substrate mounds intact?

You mentioned fertiliser tabs for under the substrate in chat... did you end up putting them in? just randomly scattered through the whole tank? or targeted towards areas of densest planting?

As for your query about trimming and growing stem plants, you are correct about most of the stem plants that I have had experience with. The only one we currently have in our tank is wisteria and both the top and the bottom of the plant once trimmed gets replanted. Both sections will usually regrow and will often branch out forming denser plantings (the bit cut from the bottom usually gets planted a bit towards the back of our tanks, out of sight, until it starts branching out and looking prettier).

Well done on a beautiful looking tank, can't wait to see how it fills in.

G_T

Never be afraid to try something new. Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark. A large group of professionals built the Titanic.

lysaer,

Wow you are off to quite a start! Pictures are so nice as they help tell the story when it's hard to explain in words.

Lighting ~ As you already are on, a timer is great for a planted tank. Being your tank is so new I would start with around 7-8 hours a day of lighting. This will allow the plants to get used to the tank better. You will also have less chances of an algae break out.

Here are some links that might be helpful.

Estimative-Index (EI)
http://www.barrreport.com/estimative-index/62-estimative-index-dosing-no-need-test-kits.html
EI made simple
http://www.barrreport.com/estimative-index/2819-ei-light-those-less-techy-folks.html
Dry Ferts (Cheap!)
http://www.aquariumfertilizer.com/store/aquaticplantfood.php

Great start! I can't wait to see more!

55G Planted tank thread
19G Container Pond
[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/Wingsdlc/Ric

Good goin' lysaer!

All that's missing is that little stool to go in front so you can admire all your hard work & fish close up.

Awesome start! Can't wait to see it in a couple of months!

---

I used to be Snow White, but I drifted.
~ Mae West

Definatly an upgrade. Looks good


PS: The Romeo and Juiliet in the backround is a nice touch. Is that on for you or Loki?

"No whammy, No whammy, No whammy, STOP!!"

1984-Michael Larsen On Press Your Luck

You mentioned fertiliser tabs for under the substrate in chat... did you end up putting them in? just randomly scattered through the whole tank? or targeted towards areas of densest planting?

I got Flourish fertilizer tabs, they came 10 to a pack. I put them down in the gravel, targeted towards plants in 6" radii more or less. Basically where there's a concentration of plants, there's a fertilizer tab in the middle of them, or between two concentrations. I didn't put them right at the roots.

PS: The Romeo and Juiliet in the backround is a nice touch. Is that on for you or Loki?

Nice catch on the movie. And it was for me. Hehe. And actually, the course of the day went through Romeo+Juliet, Titan A.E., and the majority of Disney's Three Musketeers.

"For a chase, the Cardinal recommends his excellent '24 Cabernet. You can't have any, you're too young."

Listen! Do you smell that?

Nice tank LYASER! I look forward to reading and following your thread to see how your tank progresses and evolves. I haven't been doing planted tanks that long IMO (1 1/2yrs), so am always looking for new ideas! Good luck with it and nice start!

I forgot to mention.......I was in a pinch for a background awhile back too. I didn't think of trash bags though, but I thought of aluminum foil. I put the dull side in, so that is what you see.

lysar i cant wait to follow this luck you have done great so far and i wish you good luck

33 gallon 7 neon tetras-5 platys-3 bleeding heart tetras-2 corys-1 rainbow shark-2 L83 gibby plecos

Some closeup pics and a link to a *somewhat* panoramic of the ank (or, a series of closeup shots of the tank plugged together side by side )

































Panoramicish view

Listen! Do you smell that?