Just spent the last two hours at work reading this thread. Wow! I'm on the edge of my seat to see some new pics of the setup. You have the patience of a Tibetan Monk. Good work, and keep those posts coming!
Brentling's 125 Startup Thread - Lots o' Pics
- Thread starter brentling
- Start date
Water! It's Got Water in It!!! (More pics)
No fish yet
As promised, some pics of the "finished" product. It has plants, water, and a few snails in it, but no fish yet. The little killifish I talked about is nowhere to be seen, but since I moved many of the plants out of the killifish tank, I have a feeling a few might pop up.
The HC seemed to thrive for a bit, but when I added an inch of two of water to combat the fungus, it seemed to mostly die off... This pic shows the fungus.
This is the ten gallon work tank I have been growing the plants out in. I have Scleromystax barbatus and Jos Plateau killies in it.
Here are the plants generally just before I flooded the tank.
The equipment:
And some very poor pictures right after the great flood:
I had 2 specific recommendations from you kind folks that I ignored, much to my peril and dismay.
1. As Sploke warned me, the tank did bow a little bit when I filled it. Shortly after completely filling the tank, I heard "Crack!" "Thunk". I about soiled myself. It turns out that the glass braces I had siliconed to the upper frame did indeed come loose and the lights were falling into the water. You owe me an "I told you so", Sploke. I was able to reattach the braces with a tiny bit to spare, but almost had to start over. The moral of this story is to wait until the tank is filled to measure and cut the braces, I suppose.
2. The big driftwood stump on the left of the tank is very buoyant. I did not, of course, tie it down or otherwise make it stay at the bottom, so it popped up to the top of the tank just as I was wrestling with the braces, lights, etc. Mindcrime and TopHat told me to watch out for this. You were right! I simply forgot since this project has been never ending. It crushed a few plants and uprooted others, but nothing permanent. I have now tied rocks to the bottom of it (which worked well), and sunk a screw into the top of it and attached it to the cork background.
The water looks like iced tea now as the cork is leaching out its tannins, but for the intended purpose, I am OK with it. For those who do not want a "blackwater" tank, beware! I think it is pretty cool myself, and am fairly certain that this is only temporary. I do not have carbon in my filter so as not to absorb the ferts I am using.
The cork bark background looks absolutely amazing! It makes the whole tank. It was totally worth it.
I'll try to take some much better pics. These were all done hastily as I had a lot to do finishing the setup. I need to find some fish now, too. My favorite LFS has gone out of business.
No fish yet
As promised, some pics of the "finished" product. It has plants, water, and a few snails in it, but no fish yet. The little killifish I talked about is nowhere to be seen, but since I moved many of the plants out of the killifish tank, I have a feeling a few might pop up.
The HC seemed to thrive for a bit, but when I added an inch of two of water to combat the fungus, it seemed to mostly die off... This pic shows the fungus.
This is the ten gallon work tank I have been growing the plants out in. I have Scleromystax barbatus and Jos Plateau killies in it.
Here are the plants generally just before I flooded the tank.
The equipment:
And some very poor pictures right after the great flood:
I had 2 specific recommendations from you kind folks that I ignored, much to my peril and dismay.
1. As Sploke warned me, the tank did bow a little bit when I filled it. Shortly after completely filling the tank, I heard "Crack!" "Thunk". I about soiled myself. It turns out that the glass braces I had siliconed to the upper frame did indeed come loose and the lights were falling into the water. You owe me an "I told you so", Sploke. I was able to reattach the braces with a tiny bit to spare, but almost had to start over. The moral of this story is to wait until the tank is filled to measure and cut the braces, I suppose.
2. The big driftwood stump on the left of the tank is very buoyant. I did not, of course, tie it down or otherwise make it stay at the bottom, so it popped up to the top of the tank just as I was wrestling with the braces, lights, etc. Mindcrime and TopHat told me to watch out for this. You were right! I simply forgot since this project has been never ending. It crushed a few plants and uprooted others, but nothing permanent. I have now tied rocks to the bottom of it (which worked well), and sunk a screw into the top of it and attached it to the cork background.
The water looks like iced tea now as the cork is leaching out its tannins, but for the intended purpose, I am OK with it. For those who do not want a "blackwater" tank, beware! I think it is pretty cool myself, and am fairly certain that this is only temporary. I do not have carbon in my filter so as not to absorb the ferts I am using.
The cork bark background looks absolutely amazing! It makes the whole tank. It was totally worth it.
I'll try to take some much better pics. These were all done hastily as I had a lot to do finishing the setup. I need to find some fish now, too. My favorite LFS has gone out of business.
That looks great man. I wouldn't worry about the center brace too much, like I said, neither of my 6' tanks have them. Siliconing the brace in after it is already bowed isn't going to provide any support, but if you're using it to support glass tops or something, it should still work for that.
Did you ever work out how you are going to hang the light?
Did you ever work out how you are going to hang the light?
I will use cables hung from the ceiling. I will drill small holes in the top of the lights and attach clamps inside the light. There should be nothing to see outside the light at all except a simple cable entering the housing. I am stalling right now because I am afraid I won't install the ceiling hooks in the exact right locations. I have made this mistake before and it ruins the whole effect.
Sorry to read about the misshaps, and as for the rocks holding down the bottom of that log, you could wrap one rock a half dozen timeswith 30 pound test, leave some slack in the line to go over the log and wrap the 2nd rock the same way then drape the set over the wood so as to place the rocks in a more natural position. Could even go back and forth between the rocks 2 or 3 times to place more line across the wood if it's extremely bouyant. The background looks awesome though, really nice work there. Double check it as it ages to ensure the silicone you put between the sheets is holding though. As for the HC I'm thinking maybe it will bounce back and just lost a lot of the leaves that had grown emersed and will evenually come back in a fully sumbersed form. Good luck.
afterthought: Anyone ever tried drilling holes in the underside of their wood and stuffing large fishing sinkers in and siliconing them into place out of sight? Was considering trying that trick myself... just occurred to me while hunting wood for my 100 gallon setup I'm working on.
afterthought: Anyone ever tried drilling holes in the underside of their wood and stuffing large fishing sinkers in and siliconing them into place out of sight? Was considering trying that trick myself... just occurred to me while hunting wood for my 100 gallon setup I'm working on.
