New meeting location for the 2023/2024 Season will be at J.A. Dulude arena.  Meetings start at 7 pm.

Rebirth of the 79 gallon starfire

Started by charlie, June 03, 2017, 07:19:44 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

charlie

After having this tank set up since 2011 - 2017 with the same soil ( Fluval Stratum) from it`s inception and the focus of down sizing the number of tanks i will keep, the tank was totally emptied and cleaned.
My initial plan was to get rid of it and buy a 48 gallon, after cleaning and examination , the tank was still structurally sound with some minor scratches, i decided to keep it and try a new soil ( Netlea soil) and different scape, my goal was for a minimalistic simple scape.
here is the tank with Netlea soil and rock scape.
Thanks for looking

matttimms49

Wow, this looks like its going to be epic and beautiful.

Any idea what you are going to stock it with?

charlie

Quote from: matttimms49 on June 03, 2017, 09:38:21 PM
Wow, this looks like its going to be epic and beautiful.

Any idea what you are going to stock it with?
Thanks Mat.At the moment the plan is to have a large school of ember tetras and a pair of orange flash Apistos with a clean up crew.
Regards

matttimms49

That sounds great. I really like the idea of a big tank with a school of smaller fish and tetras are pretty tiny right. That's going to look great!

Dxpert

Looks great so far. Tagging along to see the progress. Will you use the same lights?

charlie

Quote from: Dxpert on June 04, 2017, 04:40:55 PM
Looks great so far. Tagging along to see the progress. Will you use the same lights?
Thanks Mike,Yea i will be using the Tex 4 X54 watts, will probably add some led stunner strips as supplementary lights.
I will be planting tomorrow and will update with pictures.
Regards

Jody

Looks great.
I look forward to seeing the updates

Jody

wolfiewill

Quote from: charlie on June 04, 2017, 08:46:36 PM
.....will probably add some led stunner strips as supplementary lights.

I'm thrilled to be know you're keeping that tank, and that you'll have another work of art to see! But I've a question: What LED strip lights are you considering?
"Don't tell fish stories where the people know you; but particularly, don't tell them where they know the fish." Mark Twain

Selenacrowe

Looks amazing excited to see end result and tetras are great!

charlie

Quote from: Selenacrowe on June 05, 2017, 11:26:10 AM
Looks amazing excited to see end result and tetras are great!
Quote from: wolfiewill on June 05, 2017, 11:18:48 AM
I'm thrilled to be know you're keeping that tank, and that you'll have another work of art to see! But I've a question: What LED strip lights are you considering?
Thanks .
The led strips are the ecoxotic stunner strip lights(4), i had picked these up from another member who was shutting down his tanks for another project , turns out that project is no longer in the cards, so figured I'll play with them on this project.
On another note spent the better part of the morning planting, will update later with pictures, still some hardware tweaking to do
Regards

charlie

#10
A couple of pictures , first one is after planting - Rotala Rotundifolia 1 2 grow at the back,Elatine hydropiper i had growing emersed,Rotala 'Bonsai' from previous scape.Alternanthera reineckii 'Mini' Thanks Greg,Eleocharis acicularis 'Mini' from one of my scapes, 3 x crowns Pogostemon helferi that survived a melt.

Second picture shows my 4 x54 watt T5 HO tek light with the ecoexotic stunner strips.
[Regards
Full disclosure, i stole this scape   ;)from a build i saw a while ago and always wanted to copy it

exv152

I like the new iwagumi look Errol.
Eric...
125g, 32g, 7g

matttimms49

Looks awesome, can I ask how many bags of soil were used?

charlie

Quote from: matttimms49 on June 06, 2017, 12:59:06 PM
Looks awesome, can I ask how many bags of soil were used?
Thanks Eric.
Thanks Mat, i used about 3.5 9L bags of Netlea, this was achieved because i cheated on the high corners of the tank with some used substrate i had cleaned and reused.
Regards

Gilbotron

Did you put anything under the substrate (i.e. retaining walls) to keep its shape?  Do you expect the high corners to stay or will it level out over time?  Curious if that soil has better sticking power vs the pea gravel/flourite that has a tendency to level out (fast!).

Scape looks amazing.  Nice rock work - should have a great tiered effect once plants fill in.

charlie

Quote from: Gilbotron on June 06, 2017, 05:08:42 PM
Did you put anything under the substrate (i.e. retaining walls) to keep its shape?  Do you expect the high corners to stay or will it level out over time?  Curious if that soil has better sticking power vs the pea gravel/flourite that has a tendency to level out (fast!).

Scape looks amazing.  Nice rock work - should have a great tiered effect once plants fill in.
Hi Mike , yes there is retaining walls, for this I used the black corrugated plastic board, hopefully along the strategic placement of some rocks it will help.

charlie

#16
10 days in , the tanks is moving along nicely.
The new Netlea soil is cycled thanks to my seeded filters and 100% water changes daily for 1 week .
Live stock went in last night and are doing swimmingly good, plants are are taking hold and growth is on the way
Still no dosing and tweaking of CO2 is on going. Temporary filter to help cycling will be removed soon..
Regards

charlie

#17
 Approx.2 weeks since my last up date and almost 1 month since the start of this build things are progressing nicely.
I have switched out the Rotala rotundifolia and replaced it with Rotala 'Vietnam H'ra' a new offering from Tropica 1 2 grow.
all the plants are showing signs of good healthy growth, especially the Eleocharis acicularis 'Mini' with the Elatine hydropiper spreading it`s legs at a good clip, I`m over the moon with the progress so far and hope it stays that way  ;)
Excuse the reflection in the phone snap shot
Regards

matttimms49

This is looking amazing, really like the choice of plants. Are there any further updates now things have grown a little more?

charlie

Quote from: matttimms49 on July 27, 2017, 09:52:56 AM
This is looking amazing, really like the choice of plants. Are there any further updates now things have grown a little more?
Thanks Matt, everything is going good, the hair grass ,Elatine hydropiper, Rotala  Bonsai & Alternanthera reineckii 'Mini' has filled in nicely , in fact i just trimmed the Alternanthera reineckii 'Mini' yesterday to  shape it - now the  wait to fill back in.
The Rotala 'H'ra'  is coming along, pretty happy with the growth so far, I will snap a picture later although the  reineckii is a bit ragged from trimming.
Errol

matttimms49

I really like the look of Alternanthera reineckii mini. Does it definitely need Co2 to grow, or would it do alright without?

charlie

Quote from: matttimms49 on July 28, 2017, 11:47:38 AM
I really like the look of Alternanthera reineckii mini. Does it definitely need Co2 to grow, or would it do alright without?
I have never tried it without CO2, that said Dennis Wong claims it can be done without CO2, but the coloration will not be as intense .
Regards

charlie

Here is an updated picture from this morning .

Gilbotron

Looks amazing!

How many Embers do you have in there? Nice sized swarm and they really stand out against the frosted back.

What plant is this?  I really like it.

charlie

Quote from: Gilbotron on August 02, 2017, 12:33:16 PM
Looks amazing!

How many Embers do you have in there? Nice sized swarm and they really stand out against the frosted back.

What plant is this?  I really like it.

Thanks Mike.
There should be around 110 Embers, the plant is Rotala " Bonsai"
http://tropica.com/en/plants/plantdetails/Rotala'Bonsai'(033ETC)/4451.
Regards

charlie


matttimms49

This is looking great, the carpets look really good. :)

Kalemh

tank looks really good i love the rotala bonsai. what did you use to on the sides of the tank is it just paint? or ?
TIA

charlie

#28
@ Matt & Kalemh  thanks for the compliment.
I used white vinyl on the back and sides.
Regards

Jeff1192

Looks awesome as always.  Love the white background and sides. Very different but works really well!
17 Gallon Seapora Crystal:: Cherry shrimp and red crystal shrimp

90 Gallon:: p. acei itunji, p. elongatus chewere, p. Saulosi, cyno zebroides jalo reef

"People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf"
                        - George Orwell

charlie


fischkopp

Looking pretty nice, looks like you go the hang of it ... :P ... seeing that really wants me to go out and fill up my CO2 bottles again.

Is this just plain hair grass?

be aware of the green side
my fish suck
L007 ♦ L014 ♦ L034 ♦ L046 ♦ L106 ♦ L128 ♦ L134 ♦ L136B ♦ L183 ♦ L191 ♦ L200 ♦ L340 ♦ LDA031

charlie

Hi Robert it's Eleocharis acicularis 'Mini'