59g take 2... take 3 now! (2013 update)

[magnosis]

I'm restarting my 59g freshwater tank with tons of plants, tetras, rasboras, bn plecos, shrimps and a few other specimen I haven't decided on yet.

This morning, while cleaning up the tank, I noticed some serious water damage on the cheap-o mdf stand I've been using.  Guuurh !    Looks like one of the side panels (holding 1/3 of the tank weight) is about to give up.  I should've known this sub-150$ Ikea-style piece of junk wouldn't last.

So I tossed the baby in the car, went to Reno Depot, came back with some shiny new tools and a pile of 2x4", and went crazy with the saw bench  .


Here goes my new start !  Half a stand, 4 buckets (and a bath!) full of new plants, an empty tank and a busy week ahead of me  

Stay tuned !

[dan2x38]

Wow what a project. Where do shower all week?

With a tank that big I suggest placing foam under it like 3M insualtion foam. Cut it so the tank sits on top of the foam. This is a good idea especially with a DIY stand. It will not level the tank but places where there are slight differences on the surface it will relief pressure. Picture pressure points all along the edges. They create what is called stress risers. After some time these pressure points can cause a piece of glass to fail. Maybe just a seam will start to leak or an entire pane may explode and cuase a nasty flood plus kill the contents of the tank.

If ya already knew this sorry just offering some friendly advice. All my tanks over 30gal. have all had foam under them.

Staying tuned for pictures and updates...

[magnosis]

With a tank that big I suggest placing foam under it like 3M insualtion foam.

Yup, already taken care of   Aha, all the wood cost me was 16$, but the sheet of 3M R5 foam itself was 14$ 

[magnosis]

Argh I had all the wood cut to near perfection, started to assemble the stand, and realized that by keeping the same dimensions as my old stand, my CO2 bottle won't fit through the door !! because of the added 2x4" making the opening smaller    Now.  I have to get more 2x4" and redo all the legs a few inches taller.

Aha! This is so dumb

[White Lightning]

Bummer! Good luck . You gotta love trial and error.

[magnosis]

I think I might just beat HomerJ for "slowest build ever" 

The stand is still not done, painting being the main blockage.  A first coat of primer at 8 degrees C had to be sanded down, even though the label claims it can be applied at 5C, that was way too cold and came out nastily rugged.

Oh, and drilling about 216 holes took some time, too   I'm using two 5/16" dowels at every joint.

In the meantime, I had all my plants waiting in 5g buckets, and I lost about 1/3 of them (mostly all the red ones, which needs a lot of light to thrive).  So I took a break on the stand build, re-setup my 59g in a temporary location and gave the plants a better chance of making it through the long delayed build.  This was a good occasion to work on a few ideas for my new hardscape.

I'll post pics of the stand build once it's in a more presentable state 

[magnosis]

Ressurecting this thread as I am finally seeing light at the end of the tunnel

My DIY stand has been over 18 months in the making.  Not that it was complicated, I just kept finding higher priority projects to work on during that time... But finally, it's primed, siliconed in every single seam and crack, and has got a first coat of paint in the weekend.  2 more coats, then I install doors, wiring, plumbing and ta-da, time for some major aquascape fun !

Stay tuned. Pictures to follow in the next few days.

Oh by the way, anyone has got driftwood to spare ? Looking for a few big pieces somewhat along that style.

[Medym]

Oh by the way, anyone has got driftwood to spare ? Looking for a few big pieces somewhat along that style.

I have one driftwood, sitting in my garage right now since I switched over to salt.  It isnt big, but it certainly looks like that style.  I can take a picture tonight should you be interested.

[charlie]

Ressurecting this thread as I am finally seeing light at the end of the tunnel

My DIY stand has been over 18 months in the making.  Not that it was complicated, I just kept finding higher priority projects to work on during that time... But finally, it's primed, siliconed in every single seam and crack, and has got a first coat of paint in the weekend.  2 more coats, then I install doors, wiring, plumbing and ta-da, time for some major aquascape fun !

Stay tuned. Pictures to follow in the next few days.

Oh by the way, anyone has got driftwood to spare ? Looking for a few big pieces somewhat along that style.

Wow if you get it anway close to your goal, it is going to be one good looking tank, maybe you can have the plant freaks over to watch you scape & pass stuff to you 

[magnosis]

Wow if you get it anway close to your goal, it is going to be one good looking tank

Especially that I've had so long to plan this up, I've got my hopes & expectations real high... it will be quite a challenge to make it look half as good as what I have in mind

maybe you can have the plant freaks over to watch you scape & pass stuff to you 

Ahah nice try you will either die of boredom watching me carefully analyze how every single pebble should be aligned (yes, I am quite a perfectionist, borderline obsessive-compulsive disorder), or otherwise laugh (cry?) watching me handle tweezers with very unsteady (parkinson-esque) hands and let out 24 swear words for every plant I try to lay down (and even dirtier language when I notice I've mistakenly moved 6 pebbles in the process)

Just ask my fiancé how much of a perfectionist I am. She'll just laugh.

[magnosis]

It's been quite a long time since I last updated this thread.  A lot of catching up to do

- When I started to rebuild this tank, I setup a temporary 20g long to house the fish. This was supposed to be a hospital tank & temporary housing.  Well, suprise surprise! It quickly transformed into a new aquascaping project of its own and I had to re-setup my 59g on a temporary stand. Aha!  There is an incomplete build thread on this tank and some more recent pictures here.

- I finished my DIY stand in late 2011.  It's way overwill. I think it could support the weight of my car without flinching lol.

- I did half of a new aquascape early 2012. Never got to the point where I was really happy with it, but then I decided to just let go and plant away. The fish desperately needed a new home.  I managed to get a fairly big (like, 30" x 10") carpet of HC, a football size mound of Pearl Weed, a bit of needle-leaf java fern as well as phoenix moss and some type of grass I don't even know the name of.

- As I described in a forked thread, I ran out of CO2 in the second half of 2012 (maybe earlier, can't remember exactly), and never refilled it.  I also stopped fertilizing on a regular basis.  And things went surprisingly well okay from that point on.  My HC and HM kept on growing like weeds. The ferns and moss slowed down quite a bit but I was okay with that.  I was doing bi-weekly 60% water changes (I'm averaging here; sometimes weekly, sometimes monthly WC, but always between 50% and 75%). I did have persistent GSA and GDA issues though; those have always been and issue in this tank but it intensified when I stopped injecting CO2 and fertilizing.

- I got caught up in life (I have 2 kids now!) and in the last couple months, I completely neglected maintenance on the tank. I didn't do a water change for maybe a month? 6 weeks? Can't remember. But it got out of hand.  The HC carpet became overly thick, the bottom later started rotting, I got a bunch of BGA which I tried to clean up with H2O2, that made things worst, and found myself with a 4-foot long patch of BGA lol.

- 2 weeks ago I removed ALL the BGA   Most of it by hand (I lost over 75% of my plants in the process) and stopped BGA from appearing altogether by means of an Erythromycin treatment.

- I started gathering new plants here and there - from you awesome folks some from LFS, and some ordered from aqmagic.com

- I spent the last 3 evenings redoing the hardscape.  I can finally say I'm quite happy with it. There are some minor tweaks to be made tonight then I'll snap a couple pictures for your enjoyment but above all, for advise, suggestions and helpful critiques


Here are the most inspirational sources for my new build:

Horizon & overall shape / direction line:
http://aac.acuavida.com/gallery/AAC_2010/grandes_acuarios/G0028/G0028.jpg.html
http://showcase.aquatic-gardeners.org/2011/show94.html

Wood placement:
http://showcase.aquatic-gardeners.org/2012/show56.html
(I really wanted to replicate that 'uprooted tree' look, but I changed my mind yesterday after fighting with it for too long)

Plants arrangements: 
http://showcase.aquatic-gardeners.org/2009/show180.html
http://showcase.aquatic-gardeners.org/2012/show47.html

I'll make an effort to stay on top of it this time and stop abandoning my build threads halfway through lol 
Stay tuned!

[magnosis]

Allright, it's moving along!
Aquascape: done
Plant acquisition: done
Planting: 80% done

I ran out of driftwood so I'm not 100% happy with my scape but it will have to do for the time being.
Will try and finish planting this weekend and hopefully, at last! I can post some pictures

Plants:
Bolbitis Heudelotii
Needle Leaf Java Fern
Narrow Leaf Java Fern (not sure I'll keep this one, too big)
Rotala Indica (the reddish one, not sure if I got the name right)
Hygrophilia Polysperma
Eleocharis Parvula
Lilaeopsis Braziliensis
Glossostigma Elatonoides
Hemanthius Callichotoides Cuba
Phoenix Moss

Fish:
12 oto cats
8 zebra danios
7 tuxedo platties
4 x-ray tetras
1 blue neon tetra (poor guy, I killed his bro yesterday during a water change, found him in the sink)
1 sae
Soon: 30-40 of either rummy-nose or blue neon tetras, or less of those + a whole bunch of mosquito rasboras (found these guys at La Niche yesterday, they are awesome!! but I'm not sure they will do well with my other fish and 7.5-8.0 PH)

[daworldisblack]

I like the sounds of what you have for flora! Should be looking real nice when it all grows in. As for livestock, mosquito rasboras are tiny! May be expensive feed to your larger fishes. You also probably need a great number of them to feel like they are making any visual impact in a 59G - they are not the cheapest fish either. They'd be better suited to a nano tank i think. I'd say neon-tetra sized fishes are going to be pretty awesome - Rummynose tetras school real well. Or even bigger fishes like Congo Tetras. I am not sure about parameters for the livestock recommendations but just thought I'd pop some ideas in I find my mosquito(aka chilli) rasboras like more acidic water as well, just as a side note. We need some pictures!

[Shawn84]

I agree with Rah on the chilli rasboras. They do like soft water and they will be snack for your other fish. You would need around 50+ of those guy to make them noticable in that big of a tank. I would recommand taking out the zebra danios as those guy will put compete your other fish for food and mind tend to be a xxxx disturber. They go and break up the schooling.

[magnosis]

Thanks for the recommendations guys! It's true that my zebra danios are quite agitated compared to the others.  It also makes sense that it would need quite a lot of chili rasbotas to make the impact I'm looking for in a tight shool. I've also heard good words on rummy-nose from other folk in that regard and got to see them in action at La Niche. I like them.

[magnosis]

Unfortunately, due to personal circumstances, I've been forced into the decision of getting rid of my 59g planted tank.

I'll try my best to put it back into shape, then post into classifieds.

I'm posting here in the meantime in case someone rises to the occasion and wants to either pick it up as-is, help put it back on track, or suggest alternative solutions.

What is certain is that I no longer have time or funds to maintain the tank. You have no idea how sorry I am, my 3yo son and myself are quite sad about it, but that's life...

To be continued.