A few questions from a n00b

[Dakfish]

Yeah, that's a nice looking tank! I'm putting more plants in tomorrow. JM for the driftwood and more anubias for the foreground.

Here's a link to some pics I found showing growth rates and yes, this a pampered plant tank, but it gives me hope!

3 months from this

to this

and finally

and a link to the page
http://www.projectaquarium.com/default.aspx

 

[DAVIDFBT]

That's some awesome progress for 3 months, we need up close pictures! Do you use CO2 injection on the last tank?

 

[Dakfish]

That's some awesome progress for 3 months, we need up close pictures! Do you use CO2 injection on the last tank?

That's not my tank! I wish it was, maybe someday I'll have those kinda skills. Follow the link I posted and you can see more of that guys work.

I just wanted to show that a newly "heavily" planted tank looks a little bare at first, but fills in over a few months time.

 

[shawnhu]

Thanks everybody for the kind words! I love building things so when I started to gather all the equipment to get into the hobby (a life long desire that I'm just getting to), I saw a cool looking stand in the store for the tank I purchased. But at 250 bucks for some cheesy press board I knew I could better for half the price and twice the structural integrity.

In the end it cost me 70 bucks for wood, 10 for hardware, 20 something for the finish and 12 hours (over a couple of days) to make. The hardest part was gluing up the poplar into planks with biscuits. Once glued up, I set the tank on the top and bottom and traced the tank with a 1 inch relief. Then routed the edges.

I kinda eyeballed how wide the sides and middle should be, cut those and attached to the top and bottom pieces with screws and glue. Cut the door, routed the edges and attached with barrel hinges. The back of the stand is 7 ply 1/2 in. plywood that I drilled 3 large holes at the top center to run tubes and whatever else and 2 large holes in the bottom center for wires and plugs.

I stained it with gel stain mostly because poplar's kind of a pain to get a good even finish on, and then shot it with 3 coats of satin varnish. I like it. It came out nice. Now if I can figure out this whole fish keeping thing!

Seems like you are pretty handy with wood. That is really a great looking stand, well worth the hrs and cost of materials. I love building things myself, but something about choosing the right materials for the right application, gets me fustrated. I always want the "best" materials for the "right" job. I end up not making anything at all!

If you plant to cycle a tank with plants, you may very well not see anything at all, since the plants may take up all the waste produced. I would consider your cycle complete once you get readings of 0 ammonia and 0 nitrites over a period of 2 days. Your bioload will be small, and whenever you increase the load, it'll be a mini-cycle until you get 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite again.

 

[StarStruck8]

Yeah, that's a nice looking tank! I'm putting more plants in tomorrow. JM for the driftwood and more anubias for the foreground.

Here's a link to some pics I found showing growth rates and yes, this a pampered plant tank, but it gives me hope!

and a link to the page
http://www.projectaquarium.com/default.aspx

I've seen that tank before...one of my personal favorites!

 

[Dakfish]

Update:
Yesterday I added javamoss to the driftwood. This turned out to be a pain and had to take the wood out of the tank in order to get it tied on properly. I also planted giant hairgrass in the back middle, and put dwarfhair grass in the front along with some baby tears. I don't have high hopes for the foreground stuff as they both require high light and I'm still uber-confused on how much light I have.

Before yesterdays gardening

And after, cloudy water and all

I purchased some Flourish and Flourish Excel with the intent to upgrade to CO2 down the road.

And I added one small fish thinking that he wouldn't upset the tank balance too much at this point. An Albino Blue Eyed Bristle Nose Pleco

Isn't he cute!

Checking out his new buddies

And finally, my favorite pic so far

 

[bushwhacker]

dak as a cabinet maker for 30 years i can see quality work and that stand is great. your tanks looking good man it'll fill in.. not to mention the superb photograpy

 

[irishspy]

Wow, great pearling on the sags!