Can I have someone change the title of this thread to "55gallon planted build log". Thanks.
Did some work on the tank this week, slight and almost un-noticeable change in some of the rock. I finally removed my BN pleco and passed him onto forum member Polish along with 3 GAE's that had gotten to be agressive towards my gourami's in particular. Replaced the BN with a gorgeous young L134 Leopard Frog Pleco (thanks to 33 Aquarium who's a member of the Monster Fish Network) and 1 Otocinclus (to be joined by half a dozen more this week and an amano shrimp or two). I also removed my large green lotus as well as a sprouting red lotus from the front right of the tank as it was just getting too crowded their and the large leafs of the lotus were blocking out light to the other plants.
L134
When I built my lighting I'd followed the advice of the Hagen company who had me order up a couple different bulbs to give me "a vast array of spectrum coverage". Problem is that two of the bulbs they reccomended were 18,000K and were nearly useless when it comes to growing plants. I ran out today and picked up two 10,000K 32watt bulbs to go along with the two 5200k 40 watt bulbs I was running and the tank already looks brighter. **** near UV with those other bulbs. I ordered some Riccia from another website and it's in the tank floating (some has been anchored below) but it's not doing well right now, I believe partly because I really only had 80watts of light that it could use in a 55 gallon tank.
Floating Riccia
Just checked online and my new filter media has shown up for my Biowheel 330 and my whisper 30. I installed a pair of pantyhose to filter the intakes for both filters and will now be using these instead to filter the tank out.
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+4136+13374&pcatid=13374
I'll make sure and let everyone know how they work. Hopefully I can get some design time in on re-covering the tank's stand. the core support is sturdy, but not pretty and we need to bring it up to par with the top of the tank. Going to be doing some measuring and plan it all out in cad first before putting pencil or saw to wood.
Did some work on the tank this week, slight and almost un-noticeable change in some of the rock. I finally removed my BN pleco and passed him onto forum member Polish along with 3 GAE's that had gotten to be agressive towards my gourami's in particular. Replaced the BN with a gorgeous young L134 Leopard Frog Pleco (thanks to 33 Aquarium who's a member of the Monster Fish Network) and 1 Otocinclus (to be joined by half a dozen more this week and an amano shrimp or two). I also removed my large green lotus as well as a sprouting red lotus from the front right of the tank as it was just getting too crowded their and the large leafs of the lotus were blocking out light to the other plants.
L134
When I built my lighting I'd followed the advice of the Hagen company who had me order up a couple different bulbs to give me "a vast array of spectrum coverage". Problem is that two of the bulbs they reccomended were 18,000K and were nearly useless when it comes to growing plants. I ran out today and picked up two 10,000K 32watt bulbs to go along with the two 5200k 40 watt bulbs I was running and the tank already looks brighter. **** near UV with those other bulbs. I ordered some Riccia from another website and it's in the tank floating (some has been anchored below) but it's not doing well right now, I believe partly because I really only had 80watts of light that it could use in a 55 gallon tank.
Floating Riccia
Just checked online and my new filter media has shown up for my Biowheel 330 and my whisper 30. I installed a pair of pantyhose to filter the intakes for both filters and will now be using these instead to filter the tank out.
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+4136+13374&pcatid=13374
I'll make sure and let everyone know how they work. Hopefully I can get some design time in on re-covering the tank's stand. the core support is sturdy, but not pretty and we need to bring it up to par with the top of the tank. Going to be doing some measuring and plan it all out in cad first before putting pencil or saw to wood.
