GTA Aquarium Forums banner

90 Gallon Custom

36K 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
#74 ·
Well I spent a great deal of time the other day ripping out and replanting most of the tank. I picked up 5 new tissue cultures that needed a home which led me to organize the plants a bit more how I envisioned it at the beginning. The right side I am happy with, the left side still needs work, I need to see how the new plants grow but will need to angle the rocks around to get more angled pathways. I forgot how dense plants grow after a few trimmings and simply gave up since it was taking so long to organize the plants.

Most you can't see yet but the new additions are:
Ludwigia arcuata
Ludwigia peruensis
Ludwigia pantanal
Rotala 'Vietnam'
Proserpinaca Palustris

I know there will be too much red but I havn't come across my need to have green plants that I want to try yet. As predicted no plants got the boot, I did take out all the Pinnatifida except for 4 stems and put it in a low light tank. If it does okay there I will replace that plant..I was thinking staurogyne purple but don't know if I will ever find it.
 
#75 ·
Spectacular tank. I love it. I definitely want to make something like this next time. wow.
How do you keep the plants red? My plants are not staying red long term...I am using a twinstar 600SA which is pretty high light. I try dosing fluorish iron and tropica advanced nutrition once a week...my rotala H'ra is red blush but the blood red rotala wallichii has become green and coated with dusty algae.
 
#76 ·
Thanks vraev! In a balanced high tech environment healthy plants that are red will stay red. That being said I run alot of purple bulbs and pink plant spectrum bulbs that will enhance the reds and make them pop. It has nothing to do with the plant being more reddish, only that the red spectrum is being reflected more to the human eye. If I changed out all the bulbs to 6500k the reds would look very different even though it's the same plant.

I suspect that if your Rotala H'ra is the proper colour and healthy (mine is more orange then red, which I like) then the wallichii may be unhappy. I have never kept it but have read it is a demanding plant that prefers soft water. If you have hard water it will struggle to grow well leading to algae growth on it which then makes the plant stuggle even more since it blocks out the light and nutrients.

If your light is strong make sure your nutrients including co2 are sufficient to utilize the light intensity. I run macros and micros relatively lean compared to EI levels and my co2 is more or less maxed out to where the fish are still happy. Even though the macros/micros arn't high I make sure none bottom out. The green Tropica fertilizer has a bit of N, P and micro's all in one I believe but not positive it has everything a high light tank needs. Flourish iron is okay since it works well in a wide range of ph. I make my own mixes out of dry fertilizer since it's more cost effective and allows me to control the amounts easier.
 
#77 ·
No huge update but did a trim so thought I would log a photo. I have been dealing with some GSA and some what I call pre BBA that forms around the edges of slow growers. It's being managed as of now but still enough to keep me on edge. The ATO ran dry while I was away and the tank must have had low co2 for at least one day as the main pump was sucking air. I think this was the main trigger but I also noticed the nitrates were alot higher then I thought they should be...still not sure why unless it's the fish feedings. Regardless, 2x water changes per week for a bit, tweaked the macros slightly and have some tank water waiting to see off gased ph.

I topped the P. Erectus since it works better that way in a row, going for the giant stems now for a bit. I will do the same to the Pantanal once they grow out a bit more.

The trouble plant for a while has been R. Bonsai. I trimmed some stems that never re-grew, it went through a time with much smaller leaves and stunted growth. It's just starting to come back around so I got rid of all the crappy plant mass, and planted the tops. The other surprise is how fragile mermaid weed is...it is still transitioning and the tops keep popping off the old growth. The plant stem is so tiny I feel it's not normal.

R. Macrandra and P. Erectus have been bulletproof which is nice, the Macrandra is waiting to be sold so it will get trimmed early next week probably.
 
#78 ·
I think this was the main trigger but I also noticed the nitrates were alot higher then I thought they should be...still not sure why unless it's the fish feedings. Regardless, 2x water changes per week for a bit, tweaked the macros slightly and have some tank water waiting to see off gased ph.
Are you mixing your own ferts? What recipe are you using as your base?

I topped the P. Erectus since it works better that way in a row, going for the giant stems now for a bit. I will do the same to the Pantanal once they grow out a bit more.
I like P. Erectus a lot. For me it grows well for a period of time and then something happens causing the growing end to stunt. Then side shoots appear, but it doesn't look as good at that point. I haven't given up on it yet.

The trouble plant for a while has been R. Bonsai. I trimmed some stems that never re-grew, it went through a time with much smaller leaves and stunted growth.
I've had a similar problem. I gave up on it... for now.

Despite the challenges, your aquarium still looks great.
 
#83 · (Edited)
Saw a big improvement in plant growth the past couple days which is encouraging. It's amazing how when the plants take off the algae recedes at the exact same time. Last water change I did a spot dose of hydrogen peroxide and was surprised how effective it was with my trouble spots. I would have done it alot sooner if I had known.

I think the turn around really had to do with 2x per week water changes to reset everything and I brought my dosing inline to what I thought would help. It could have been a better batch of csm+b too...(I will most likely roll my own soon but I have so much csm+b stock piled)

I was worried about the new layout not looking as good as I thought it should but now the bunches have been shaped a bit and the plants are growing better I am excited to see how everything comes together.


P. Erectus is very large and am liking it. Very different look then before when it was branching, now the largest stem is easily 3.5" diameter.


The L. Pantanal has already peaked my interest, I'm letting it grow out a bit before topping. The last couple days I think it's just starting to straighten out the leaves which is encouraging, hopefully the growth continues to get better.


I ended up re calibrating the ph probe and noticed co2 crept up a bit. The green neons have distinctive behavior in regards to high co2. They become skiddish and hide when anyone passes by. If the co2 is correct they are indifferent to what goes on outside the tank and continuously play in the current. They are more useful to me then any drop checker or ph chart could be in regards to proper co2 levels. They are even better then a ph probe since I can now use their behavior as a sign I need to recalibrate it.

FTS
 
#93 ·
Any recommendations where to get plants?
So far all the plants except some pathetic Buce's are tissue culture. I ended up getting in on a group order from Aquascaperoom.ca that was posted on this forum. I believe the price was a buck or two cheaper than everywhere else and I could order the quantities I needed.

SKA shrimps out of Calgary has a nice selection of plants normally. For 'some what' local your best bet might be Angelfins (Guelph) or get Big Al's in London to order you some Tropica plants in. Ofcourse there are members here who sell too, I tend to sell alot locally but don't bother with shipping.

Other online stores are theplantguy.ca, thewetleaf.ca, and aquabotaniccanada.ca.
 
#96 · (Edited)
Looks like today is the day to do planted tank maintenance so I thought I would share as well. Tank is doing pretty good, I am two days behind on the maintenance and it needed a trim. I have a bit of a GSA problem (have for a while), really the only algae that is bothersome right now. My dosing is dialed in for after a trim but it consistently appears very rapidly once the plants all peak at the same time. I think I will be tweaking the macros up a bit on the same mix and see how that goes. Another option is to ramp up the dosing as the plants get thicker but the doser would need re-programmed every trim...

Pre trim

Post trim

The S. Repens, H. Araguaia and even the AR mini are going to get hacked back to the nubs next week I think. I love how dense they grow in and don't have it in me to rip them out and re-plant. (It would make a mess too)

Beauty shots..



I don't get to see the tops all the time due to ripple.

I love that purple..
[/url
 
#101 ·
Finally on the flowmeter bandwagon, snagged a Dwyer RMA-1-SSV on Amazon for $25 that I couldn't pass up. Bought it as BV version but turned out to be SSV, nice bonus. At first installed it inline after the Fabco NV to find out a starting point that is currently being injected (0.3 SCFH (140cc/m)[emoji15])and then removed the Fabco and hard plumbed it to the regulator.

Don't mind the messy wires, I'm not shoving everything into the cable slot until after the lights are finalized.



Tested it to make sure it works, time will tell if I like it. So far so good, I rely so much on the ph controller, if that ever failed on the fish would be done. Now the flowmeter will allow fine tuning to slow down the co2 a bit I think.
 
#105 ·
Thought I would mark the last day of CSM+B with some Macrandra. I actually switched over a couple days ago and wanted to keep the micros the same by doing a CSM+B clone but I fudged the Boron and it came out a bit higher. Most plants seemed to be okay with the variations in CSM+B but I swear I could tell bottle to bottle with the Pantanal.

I will say mixing up the new micros is a royal pain in the butt. Now that I visualized how much of each ingredient "should" be in the CSM+B it's a bit of a joke how different each mix must have been.
 
#106 ·
So as anticipated the big winners from the new micros was L. Pantanal and R. Wallichii. Unfortunately, they showed the best growth only shortly as I decided to cut the phosphate dosing that crept up to 18ppm /week back down to 7ppm. Needless to say Pantanal likes a bit of phosphate in the water column and it stunted. The only reason I have been chasing phosphates is to get a bit in the water column even though it's dosed daily. Really only change my dosing to limit speed of growth, to see if it helps with the GSA and ofcourse how it impacts the Pantanal.

Another winner I believe is Lilaeopsis brasiliensis, it's spreading everywhere. I didn't mind a little mixing with it's neighbours but it's a problem now.

Not the best that the Proserpinaca Palustris has looked but it's being propagated and filling in nicely. It is indeed a very slow transitioning plant from emersed. That Monte Carlo on the rock above it grew from a piece that got lodged into a hole..I hope it wasn't a mistake letting it attach to the rock.

Full tank shot, nothing new really, the background plants got yanked and the tops replanted today.
[/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