GTA Aquarium Forums banner

90 Gallon Custom

35K views 197 replies 22 participants last post by  hendy8888 
#1 · (Edited)
It's been a while since I tore down my 5ft planted. I always had intentions of doing another build but life got in the way and I have been slowly turning my plans into reality.

I enjoy documenting the progress of each build so I can easily see the tanks progression and have decided to play a little catch up.

Spring 2015

It started with a custom 48"x24"x18" rimless low iron tank ordered from Krakens Reef. It was a long time coming and got rejected by customs the first time because of wood shipping material.



Very impressed with the craftsmanship.



 
See less See more
3
#116 ·
I almost always feel better after the trim, I procrastinate when I know it will be a long maintenance day but feels better once the plant mass is out.

S. Repens looks like it will be just fine, showing new growth on the bare stems. Upped the calcium last week, felt like it was a bit low and have seen some improvement already. Some of the troublesome plants perked up and are showing better growth then I have seen in a while, hopefully the trend continues.

Tillandsia putting on a show.
 
#117 ·
Awesome work!

Can't even imagine how much devotion and dedication has gone into this, but it looks amazing. The colors are popping, the scape is sweet on the eyes.

Great job, mate. I've been away fer a while, so I'm taking great pleasure in going thru this thread, and enjoying the buildup to current day.
 
#118 · (Edited)
Awesome work!

Can't even imagine how much devotion and dedication has gone into this, but it looks amazing. The colors are popping, the scape is sweet on the eyes.

Great job, mate. I've been away fer a while, so I'm taking great pleasure in going thru this thread, and enjoying the buildup to current day.
Thanks Mlevi!

A few observations I've made the past few weeks:

Increase in calcium absolutely transformed the L. pantanal and R. wallichi. Both are showing more normal growth after increasing it by 8ppm. Shortly after I realized that the micro dosing was incorrect, I was adding only 10ml/day instead of the 15ml/day that the micro solution is made for. This had been going on for some time after making the last batch of fertilizers. It's been a week or two since and during maintenance today I noticed larger leaves on quite a few species, especially the rotala's.

Another observation is that the fish have been very shy, they hide anytime theres movement in the room. More so then they ever have been. This has me checking the co2 but they seem to be just as shy in the mornings when alot of the co2 is off gassed.

Things I want to change are:
Slowly reduce PO4 dosing.

Increase the Zinc to more modern levels. This was a non chelated CSM+b clone and I've proven to myself that both grow plants just fine at CSM ratios.

Build a led strip light for extended viewing time.

Since there are no fish to be seen here are some plant photo's.

H'ra' and pantanal looking better than ever.


Macrandra is very fat considering this is all new growth from last trim. Normally it only gets this large if I replant the tops.

I love how the top of the leaf looks like pearl paint. (hard to photograph)

Trimming recovery.


That side view is comming back.

FTS

Full setup shot

First week in a long time where I think the GSA and bba are receeding, hopefully I didn't jinx it.
 
#119 ·
Did some trimming and took a pic. Ran out of KNO3 and the local hydroponics store had some Ca(NO3)2 so on a whim I am using a mix of the two. Only problem was it doesn't mix with KH2PO4 so made a separate container for that.

R. Macrandra Caterpillar and L. Aromatica mini starting to get established.


Monte Carlo needs a trim but not motivated since I want to replace it at some point.
 
#121 ·
So the past couple weeks have seen a major lower leaf ejection from S. Repens, H. Araguaia, A.R. Mini, and H. Pinnatifida. This is the second time for the S. Repens not too far apart. It's a major PITA with the overflow clogging, I resort to taking out the steel mesh insert and letting the leaves go into the pre filter which mitigates a flood.

That's no big deal and is easy to clean every couple days but the shrimp are also free to make it through and are drawn to the decomposing leaves. If anyone knows a method of separating leaves from shrimp in an overflow....just take my money now!

After ignoring the situation in the overflow for a while I saw the shrimp had eaten a ton of leaves on the sponge. The sponge should have been basically clogged but only a fraction was there.

At the same time both the L. Pantanal and R. wallichii immediately stunted hard. Sorta frustrating since my last update had some of the best growth I've seen in this tank.


I did some testing and based on the plant colour I knew the NO3 was low so I did a one time dose. Ignored it for another week.
H. Pinnatifida was getting extreme pinholes and losing leaves so I threw in some K since I have been slowly reducing it. The bump in No3 sped up the growth of all the plants but also the algae.

Still looked decent even through it had some problems.


I got fed up with leaves and shrimp so I hacked everything back that was a culprit. The monte carlo was overgrown and I promised to give a local some so shortly after it got leveled too.

I actually felt alot better with this

Some plants were were doing just fine. R. Mac. Caterpillar


I knew I trimmed the monte Carlo too short and there was alot of dead but I left it in just to see. The shrimp ate it but also resulted in roots bulding up in the overflow so I just ripped it all out and finally did a good vacuum of the front substrate.

As it sits today.


Something needs done with this...but I'm ignoring it still.


The Glandulosa is on the mend, Pantanal might be a goner and wallichii shows promise. I find it interesting that the Pantanal and wallichii are on the same schedule, when one stunts so does the other. I can't confirm it's wallichii forsure though, it was a mislabled AFA tissue culture (Rotala sp. Vietnam) I think.

I have just gone back to the very 1st edition of remineralizer, the ever changing water conditions continue. Next macros will be with KNO3, just don't like how the calcium nitrate mixes. I had 1 week where everything was happy...I have no idea why though lol.
 
#122 ·
I really admire how you maintain your tank man. I love your plants. Thanks again for your P. eructus. it is the jewel of my tank. I finally lost the ability to grow things like wallichi and R. macranda in my tank. I think my ADA substrate is loosing it's buffering capacity now that the tank has been set up for over a year and my tap water is extremely high GH & high pH. Do you ever consider changing the substrate since your tank has been setup? what would you even do for a tank that size? Root sticks or a new layer of Amazonia?
 
#123 ·
Thanks and I'm glad the plants are doing well for you. P. Erectus is one of my favorites too. Wallichii is a mystery to me but Macrandra is an absolute weed. Test your KH if you can and see how much your substrate is used up. All 3 of those plants should like a similar environment.

I certainly have thought about adding some fresh aqua soil or root tabs, I might take the opportunity before planting the carpet again. I have an open bag of Tropica soil and will just dumb it in using the inverted pop bottle trick to catch all the dust. Tropica soil doesn't release ammonia as far as I can tell from when I set it up so shouldn't be a big deal.

I'm using RO that's at 5GH and 1KH, also started fertilizing a bit early so the substrate may go a little further then with your tap water. I would guess you're right and the soil has lost it's ability to buffer the KH down which all 3 of those plants are easier to grow with lower KH. I'm curious what your dosing is like for macro and micro fertilizer?
 
#124 ·
Honestly i have pretty much stopped dosing. Almost 2 months ago (IIRC) I inserted 4 Seachem root tabs into the back part of the tank (stem plants). I also had some issues with staghorn algae growing all over the leaves of my plants. I read that excess iron causes it, so I stopped dosing flourish iron. My current fert regime is : 1 pump of tropica premium nutrition (green liquid: macros + micro) once a week right after a 50% water change. What would u recommend ? I have a set of test kit strips..would those parameters help to suggest dosing?
Thanks
V
 
#126 ·
Lean dosing is probably better with high KH tap water and the macrandra/wallichii/erectus species. They tend to not grow very well in high KH but seem to do better when given minimal nutrients in the water column. When the aquasoil was new it buffered the KH and those plants arn't as picky with low KH. It also was a rich substrate which those specific plants seem to prefer with high KH water. That being said Tropica are pretty lean fertilizers and I might try adding 1 pump every day since your tank is heavily planted. If you can test nitrates, use it to see if your dosing is too much or too little. The only other fertilizer your not adding is magnesium since your tap water GH is mainly calcium I would suspect. Adding a bit of epsom salt (MgSO4) should help if thats the case. 1/2tsp + 1/8tsp = 5ppm Mg in your tank. You can dose that once per week if you want. With tap water it's best to try and find a water report for your specific source, that way you can try to add what you need. A weekly water change will help keep accumulation down.

Easy solution, add more aquasoil and try to minimize the ammonia the first week. I found Tropica soil to not leach ammonia FWIW.
 
#125 ·
A little rainy day trim job after almost 3 weeks neglect. TDS was creeping up and a bit of algae but that's to be expected. Fish are still skiddish unfortunately, most plants are fighting off the GSA (which is nice) but rocks tell a different story. L. Glandulosa has been shedding lower leaves so hopefully after the trim it stops. Thinking about running all 8 tubes for only 4 hours or giving a midday burst for an hour. Having a 4 hour light cycle will give some incentive to make a LED light bar that I've been meaning to.
Overgrown

Half done

End result

 
#127 ·
Growth seems to have sped up considerably for P. Erectus and Mermaid weed. Nitrates were creeping up after an excessive feeding (I think that was the cause). Instead of changing the dosing I just did a midweek water change. I scraped the Calcium nitrate and made new macros that now include KN03, KH2PO4, MgSO4, and K2S04. I had extreme pinholes in H. Pinnatifida and H. Corymbosa compact, this mix seems to be helping that out a bit.

I also added a 30minute burst of all 8 bulbs at mid day to experiment.

Pantanal is long gone (died off) and just removed the Heteranthera Zosterfolia, added in Tonina Fluviatilis, UG, and Eriocaulon King Crimson.

Removed all the Glandulosa from the left front, I always cram too many in and it drops leaves from being shaded. It grows better near the centre and will keep those.
Not final by any means, left the Monte Carlo up the centre rear for now not to make too much of a mess. I want to move stuff around a bit until I find another centerpiece plant like Ludwigia white or Nesaea pedicellata. Added a bit of fresh Tropica aquarium soil for all three new plants.

L. Rugosa




 
#128 ·
Was away on vacation for 9 days so thought I would do a before and after FTS to show growth. The tank faired very well for having lots of shedding leaves and running out of top off water. I'm just glad I didn't come home to a clogged overflow. The 5 gallon top off only lasts a week in the winter and sort of got lucky the return pump was still running even though was sucking in air. I will plumb in another 5 gal bucket before leaving the top off that long again. It was the lesser of two evils since I didn't want to rely on a simple float valve and keep the RO going.

Since it's on a controller with an auto doser the tank runs the same way regardless if I'm away or home.

The UG is mostly gone, I caught the Amano's out in full force every night after lights out just ripping it up and eating it. I assumed it was melting but they were making a midnight snack out of it. I'll give them them benefit of the doubt they were after the melting parts. A couple spots are still there, so at least it's not a total loss, plants will grow.
Before

After 9 days of growth

Plants are loving the noon burst, still only 30 min, probably will leave it for the time being. Getting the itch to try some red bulbs though, maybe just test out a new combo or two.

King Crimson still doing it's thing, it's very buoyant so happy to find only 1 little floater.


Unfortunately can't trim for a couple days and it won't get much attention for the rest of the month but I can't complain so far.
 
#130 ·
Been awhile since an update, did what felt like two extensive trimming sessions a couple weeks apart. Looking at the pictures I feel like not much changed though. Moved a couple things around and started to fill in the foreground with whatever I had. Down to one patch of growing UG but still pretty buoyant and the shrimp don't get fed well sometimes. I'm getting fairly protective of that little patch now..

The S. Repens has been determined to shed every leaf over the course of six months it seems so I finally ripped every patch out and re planted. While I was at it I did the same to a couple others to thin them out. Most of those roots hadn't been touched for a while so I had a little aqua soil mess on my hands. One thing about having a sump is the soil cleanup is a breeze. Can uproot with the filter going and it clears it up as I go. After just crank the pump output and turkey baste the tank a bit. Maybe 10 min later I took these pics with the pump still on high. Just change out the filter socks and your good to go.

Next up is polishing off the stand interior. Having a hard time finding sheet metal plugs in small quantities though.


 
#132 ·
Incredible job. You are truly a master at this Sir. Fantastic. I still dose ferts just randomly / once a week right after a water change and don't monitor it as thoroughly as you do. Also, in my case, the use of tap water throws a wrench in the whole thing as toronto/mississauga water is pretty hard. Someday in the future, I need to replace this whole thing with pure RO water and see if that can help me reach some of the amazing growth levels/form you observe. :)
 
#134 ·
Thanks @planter and @vraev, I appreciate the kind words. This is my first time using RO water and have learned a lot. I don't use tap at all, just RO and remineralize to 5GH and 1KH using Calcium sulfate, calcium chloride, magnesium sulfate, and potassium carbonate. Barrie has pretty hard and alkaline water and a lot of medium to difficult plants just are harder to grow in those conditions. If I used tap water with what I know now, I would have a very rich substrate (aqua soil and maybe root tabs) and have very little water column fertilizers. This seems to allow the plants to grow a bit easier, I haven't tried it but that's my understanding.

The main factor some "difficult" plants don't like is KH, two options to get rid of it are RO water or burn it off with HCL. I don't recommend playing with acid in an aquarium but it has been done successfully by some.
 
#135 ·
Yeah you have some delicate plants in there. I am really impressed with the amount to time and planning you put into this. You also have a very good handle on to put it all together. Even if I wanted to put a system like this together I wouldn't even know where to start.
 
#136 ·
A couple nice plant pictures.



A couple not so great pictures. Trouble plants at the moment.
S. Repens (assuming a mobile nutrient issue)

Rotala Wallichii?
Really as never taken off, showed signs of happiness only a couple times very breifly. Lava rocks are seasoned with algae.


This week I changed up the trimming style, everything got the tops taken off and the stumps left to regrow. First time doing this to a couple of species so will see how they react. I like this look especially once the colours start to come back. Only the P. Erectus got the tops replanted.



 
#141 ·
Thanks! @j.thomson

Finally got some time to clean the tank a bit today. I have been meaning to take some more algae photos and the plants are still recovering from the big trim so why not.
Standard BBA, Littorella uniflora handles H2O2 very well not concerned. Hopefully it fills in, the Lilaeopsis brasiliensis over ran it in the previous spot.

Now the interesting one, if anyone can ID it please do. Seems more resistant to H2O2 then BBA but does kill it. Was very isolated and just started to spread. Makes for some unique rocks. Hasn't attached to any plants yet. Has to be a favorite of mine so far, some kind of red algae.




Hygrophila Compact was shaded and green under the Macrandra, once it got trimmed the increase in light stressed it out. (don't mind the pin holes)

[/url
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top