Hello All. I'm back after a long time away from Freshwater fish keeping, and while it will be closer to the spring when I set up my 54g tank, I've decided to get a little bit of a head start with some plants by setting up a 14g sort of biocube growout tank.
TANK - main
54g Planted
36l x 18w x 20h
Lighting
2 x Par38 12k bulbs 21watt (2 Blues, 3 Whites), 60 degree optics made by Clive at Nanotuners - turned off now
1 x Par38 10k bult 18watt (3 Blues, 6 White), 60 degree optics made by IceCoo-Led - turned off now
The Par38's will be replaced in April or early May with the following:
1 x 36 inch Fluval Fresh & Plant 2.0 (Stated to have 66 par at 18 inch subtrate level).
1 x Par38 12k bulb 21w as posted above, used for 1 to 2 hours to suppliment high light area in the middle only on the right side, with a potted plant directly under it to shade from the part of the tank that doesn't need the extra light.
Lighting schedule will be on a split 4 hour time period. 4 on, 4 off , 4 on, then off for 12 hours to help prevent algae as I won't be running CO2 while having moderate to high light.
Filter
AC70
2x Foam
1x BioMax pellets
1 x prefilter foam
- While going through my old stuff, I found a sealed back of biomax pellets for the AC70. So I opened those up and added 50 extra pellets each to the 2 bags that came with the boimax 110 box and the rest to a bag of AC30 biomax.
Subtrate
ADA Amazonia Aqua Soil x2 9l
ADA Substrate Additives: Bacter 100, Clear Super, Tourmaline BC
National Geographics Black Sand 4lbs.
Putting some base aquarium gravel in the back to raise the level artificially without using up my good soil, particularly in areas of water wisteria and vals. Aquasoil with then go over top of this.
Flow
Ecotech MP10 (old original one) Will put it on a constant light flow.
Plants
Corkscrew Val
Italian Jungle Val
Water Wisteria
Blyxa Japonica
Alternanthera Reinickii "Mini"
Crypt. Nevillii
Crypt. Pygmea/pigmea
Crypt. Parva
Crypt. Willisii
Rotala Rotundifolia Pink
Ludwigia sp super red.
Ludwigia Grandulosa
Salvinia Natans.
Frogbit or Red Root Floaters (If and when I can find some)
Livestock
Cardinal Tetras - small school (10+)
Rummynose Tetra - small school (6+)
German Blue Rams Pair
Dark Knight Rams Pair + extra femal
Pygmy Corydora school x 12-15
Habrosus Corydora school x 12-15
Otocinclus x 6
Nerite snails x 3
Siamese Algae Eater if required.
Instead of completely waiting until spring to set everything up, I decided to do something a little proactive and set up my 14g sort of biocube, as a grow out tank for some plants.
I'm not a fan of Petsmart, but managed to get some of these plants today as they had a very, very tiny plant order come in. So I took all 8 of their Corkscrew vals and all 8 of what were labelled as Jungle Val, but are much thinner than the corkscrews, plus a potted wisteria with lots of leaves of it (needs to grow into it's aquatic form), BEFORE they touched their yucky water.
I put 2 inches of the Amazonia Aqua Soil in the tank and planted everything. I cut the wisteria into 7 seperate plants just below where roots were forming and leaves growing out. I'm hoping in a few months they will have some good growth on them.
Now, the custom 14g Biocube (reversed set up and wrong hood), has 2 x 27 watt Power Compact bulbs in it. Both of those fired up with no issues. Mind you, the second bulbs is a dual actinic, which is the light blue actinic and what's called the Marine Pink these days. It's not ideal, but I'm hoping it will work just fine.
In the back I put in 1 AC Foam Pad, a few extra finer foam pieces, in addition to 1 of the AC110 Biomax bags with the extra balls I put in it, and the AC30 Bag (without extra balls).
This should hopefully give me a good surface areas to grow bioload that I can transfer over to the main tank on it's set up day, in addition to the soil and tanks from this tank that would be added to it.
I'm aware there will still be a cycle to happen in the Main tank, but I'm hopeful it will go a little quicker with the added cycled bioload.
I'll add pics tomorrow when the water clears up a little bit and I figure out which free hosting service now allows you to post pics.
Feel free to comment and ask questions.
TANK - main
54g Planted
36l x 18w x 20h
Lighting
2 x Par38 12k bulbs 21watt (2 Blues, 3 Whites), 60 degree optics made by Clive at Nanotuners - turned off now
1 x Par38 10k bult 18watt (3 Blues, 6 White), 60 degree optics made by IceCoo-Led - turned off now
The Par38's will be replaced in April or early May with the following:
1 x 36 inch Fluval Fresh & Plant 2.0 (Stated to have 66 par at 18 inch subtrate level).
1 x Par38 12k bulb 21w as posted above, used for 1 to 2 hours to suppliment high light area in the middle only on the right side, with a potted plant directly under it to shade from the part of the tank that doesn't need the extra light.
Lighting schedule will be on a split 4 hour time period. 4 on, 4 off , 4 on, then off for 12 hours to help prevent algae as I won't be running CO2 while having moderate to high light.
Filter
AC70
2x Foam
1x BioMax pellets
1 x prefilter foam
- While going through my old stuff, I found a sealed back of biomax pellets for the AC70. So I opened those up and added 50 extra pellets each to the 2 bags that came with the boimax 110 box and the rest to a bag of AC30 biomax.
Subtrate
ADA Amazonia Aqua Soil x2 9l
ADA Substrate Additives: Bacter 100, Clear Super, Tourmaline BC
National Geographics Black Sand 4lbs.
Putting some base aquarium gravel in the back to raise the level artificially without using up my good soil, particularly in areas of water wisteria and vals. Aquasoil with then go over top of this.
Flow
Ecotech MP10 (old original one) Will put it on a constant light flow.
Plants
Corkscrew Val
Italian Jungle Val
Water Wisteria
Blyxa Japonica
Alternanthera Reinickii "Mini"
Crypt. Nevillii
Crypt. Pygmea/pigmea
Crypt. Parva
Crypt. Willisii
Rotala Rotundifolia Pink
Ludwigia sp super red.
Ludwigia Grandulosa
Salvinia Natans.
Frogbit or Red Root Floaters (If and when I can find some)
Livestock
Cardinal Tetras - small school (10+)
Rummynose Tetra - small school (6+)
German Blue Rams Pair
Dark Knight Rams Pair + extra femal
Pygmy Corydora school x 12-15
Habrosus Corydora school x 12-15
Otocinclus x 6
Nerite snails x 3
Siamese Algae Eater if required.
Instead of completely waiting until spring to set everything up, I decided to do something a little proactive and set up my 14g sort of biocube, as a grow out tank for some plants.
I'm not a fan of Petsmart, but managed to get some of these plants today as they had a very, very tiny plant order come in. So I took all 8 of their Corkscrew vals and all 8 of what were labelled as Jungle Val, but are much thinner than the corkscrews, plus a potted wisteria with lots of leaves of it (needs to grow into it's aquatic form), BEFORE they touched their yucky water.
I put 2 inches of the Amazonia Aqua Soil in the tank and planted everything. I cut the wisteria into 7 seperate plants just below where roots were forming and leaves growing out. I'm hoping in a few months they will have some good growth on them.
Now, the custom 14g Biocube (reversed set up and wrong hood), has 2 x 27 watt Power Compact bulbs in it. Both of those fired up with no issues. Mind you, the second bulbs is a dual actinic, which is the light blue actinic and what's called the Marine Pink these days. It's not ideal, but I'm hoping it will work just fine.
In the back I put in 1 AC Foam Pad, a few extra finer foam pieces, in addition to 1 of the AC110 Biomax bags with the extra balls I put in it, and the AC30 Bag (without extra balls).
This should hopefully give me a good surface areas to grow bioload that I can transfer over to the main tank on it's set up day, in addition to the soil and tanks from this tank that would be added to it.
I'm aware there will still be a cycle to happen in the Main tank, but I'm hopeful it will go a little quicker with the added cycled bioload.
I'll add pics tomorrow when the water clears up a little bit and I figure out which free hosting service now allows you to post pics.
Feel free to comment and ask questions.