New Tank

[dSerk]

Sorry but I can't do the Nanay trip... this year (?) Beware the candiru! lol

Wow, my water was REALLY stained when I got home last night. Not that I'm complaining. I like the effect VERY much, however, the tint seemed pinkish.... odd. I thought it was an effect of the new pinkish 6700K and bright white 10000K tubes but I took a drinking glass of it and held it to a "regular" light bulb and it look pinkish.

I have no idea what kind of wood the driftwood is. There's alot of sycamore on the Potomac and the twigs in the tank are sycamore. I'm pretty sure the wood is not from a conifer. There are a few oak leaves. Do different woods and leaves just make a different color water?

I drained the tank completely and refilled it last night. I changed some more water today. I think we're ready for fish.

 

[dSerk]

New tank is doing well. Only problems are fungus on the wood and my ceratophyllum melted and made a mess (is that one of the plants that doesn't like Excel?)

Does anyone have advice on maintaining blackwater conditions?

Here's some cellphonevideo of the ram annoying the severum: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihmjB5fxNyI

 

[dSerk]

New Tank - Complete

This past weekend I picked up some Discus from Discus Hans, so I guess that my "New Tank" is now complete.... no more plans on adding fish or plants. A school of tetras or pencilfish which my Severum will not eat would be nice, but I can wait for the "right fish" to turn up.

Regrets and Post-mortem (How Would I Do it Next Time?)

1. Hardscape is kind of a maintenance nightmare. Lots of crisscorssing wood and lots of little hidey holes between the rocks where detritus comes to rest, out of reach of my vacuuming. My driftwood has had more than one bloom of fungus. One branch even grew some mushrooms.

2. Substrate is pure sand, pool filter sand from Leslies Pool Supply in Vienna, $10/bag, great color. Originally I was going to do CA cichlids, but peer pressure won out :blush: and I went with SA fish. No regrets there, however, it would've been nice to put down peat moss under the sand. My pH wants to be at 7.6, a nice soilly bottom might help edge that down a bit more. Well, in a year or two if I decide to go with CA fish, the tank really needs very little adjusting.

3. Extra Filter. I put in a second filter, an Eheim Ecco, to provide add'l filtration, water flow, drive a UV filter and provide an easy-to-access filter to load with leaves, peat, water conditioners, etc. Problem is, the stupid thing will not self-prime.... too much water "above" the filter in the UV filter, extra tubing... So that's not as easy as I would've liked. Also, could've cut some of the hoses longer. Meh. Leaves in the filter are not such a great idea methinks.... they lose their tannins pretty quick. Would peat last longer? I'm thinking of using a breeder-basket in the tank to hold oak and almond leaves while they bleed out tannins.

4. Lights. I wish I'd splurged on the lights. The lighting is adequate, total 108W in T5x2, 6700K and 10000K. Just wish I'd gotten lights with seperate on/off switch for each tube (or set of tubes on a bigger set up). An LED nightlight would be nice too, since the plecos and cories seem to be pretty active at night.

That's about it. Thanks to everyone for chiming in with advice. Big ups to Chris Todd for the egg-crate tip and for the Flame Sword.

 

[jonclark96]

Beautiful tank. I really like the aquascape.

 

[UNCLERUCKUS]

NICE SET UP. ARE YOU SAVING THAT WOOD FOR ANOTHER LARGER TANK? IM WONDERING WHY YOU DIDNT CUT IT DOWN TO FIT IN YOUR TANK WIHOUT IT HANGING OUT OVER THE SIDES THATS ALL. LOVELY DISCUS YOU HAVE THERE AS WELL.

 

[cmcpart0422]

Looks great and fish are beautiful. I agree with DQ though why not cut down the wood?

 

[johnscottant]

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Here is a picture of my 75 gallon I put together in late Feb. I have a Green Terror, Black (bi colored) Devil, Red Parrot, Jaguar Cichlid and a couple of Yellow canary. Not really the grouping most would recommend, but somehow all my fish get along fine.

 

[dSerk]

Looks great and fish are beautiful. I agree with DQ though why not cut down the wood?

First, because the wood was not sinking. I had to use rocks to keep them down. Second, I kinda like the wood sticking out of the tank. I like stuff coming out of the tank. I thought they'd provide support for some emergent plants, though I think my aptartment air is too dry. In the future I may submerse more of the wood when I rescape.