Rebirth of the 79 gallon starfire

[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]

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]

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]

.....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?

[Selenacrowe]

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

[charlie]

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

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]

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.

[matttimms49]

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

[charlie]

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]

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]

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]

 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]

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