My 55g Planted Tank Journal: Phase II - MyFishTank.Net Freshwater Saltwater Aquarium Fish Forum

FreshwaterJeff · 03-19-2007, 09:45 PM

March 19, 2007

After last Thursday's CO2 disaster, I decided it was probably time to start a new thread to track the progress of the tank rebuild, rather than have it be buried at the end of an 11-page thread.

Consider it a new beginning, if a painful one.

I spent about 6 hours yesterday breaking down the tank to the point of substrate-only still in the tank, then rebuilding, replanting, and refilling it. It was a lot of work, but I definitely found catharsis in the process. It was therapeutic, in a sense, in getting over what happened to my fish.

I set the CO2 back up today and dosed macro fertilizers on my Monday/Wednesday/Friday schedule:

5/8 tsp Potassium Nitrate (nitrate)
1/4 tsp Mono Potassium Phosphate (phosphate)
3/4 tsp Potassium Sulfate (potassium)

On Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday, I dose Plantex CSM+B mixture for micro fertilizers.

And now, some pictures:

The new tank set up:

A new plant: I think it's Alternanthera reineckii, but please confirm that if you can:

Another new plant: Compact Sword

Morimo ball, perched in the driftwood:

Anubias barteri v. coffeefolia, arranged on lace rock:

[For Reference: 55g Planted Tank Journal, Phase I: July 24, 2006 - March 19, 2007]

Plee_cO · 03-19-2007, 10:01 PM

totally sweet pics

Lonewolfblue · 03-19-2007, 10:16 PM

Looking really good. I believe you are correct on those plant names.....

Big Vine · 03-20-2007, 01:00 AM

Wow, Jeff...this looks great! I bet your hands are all 'pruny' now, eh?

BV

VirgoWolf · 03-20-2007, 01:55 AM

Yeah, I can only hope my tanks turn out to be half that good! Great new start!

MOsborne05 · 03-20-2007, 07:15 PM

Looks good Jeff! What are you planning on putting in it? I see you incorporated some rocks into the tank....................

FreshwaterJeff · 03-21-2007, 09:33 AM

Well, after two days of test runs, I think I've figured out what went wrong with my CO2 regulator and I think I've fixed it. I'm planning on running it through the weekend to make sure it's reliable before I put any fish in the tank.

Speaking of which, cycle-wise -- given that it's a decently-heavily planted tank, that I'm pretty sure I have a virtual army of MTS patrolling my substrate, that I haven't yet changed my top filter pad (even though I need to), and that the tank was cycled before the disaster -- so long as I add new fish slowly and keep an eye on my parameters, I shouldn't need to run out and buy a new batch of bio-spira (or otherwise re-cycle the tank), right?

I'm not 100% sure what I'm going to put in it, but I think it's going to be fairly similar to my old tank. The core idea is:

8-10 Pencilfish
7 Zebra Loaches
2 Siamese Algae Eaters

And then I'm not sure about feature fish and plecos. For the plecos, my initial instinct is: 2 L-134 Leopard Frog Plecos and 2 LDA-08 Gold Marble Bristlenose Plecos, just because I've kept both and enjoyed it thoroughly. But I could also see going the Hypancistrus route, or getting one L-134 and one L-204 (although that might mean adding more driftwood later on). I'm not sure.

For feature fish, I'm even less sure. I could very well go back to a trio of Rainbows, and I'm definitely going to have some kind of cichlid as the centerpiece, but I don't know what I want to do. I'm considering a pair of Rainbow Cichlids, but also considering a few pairs of apistos instead. And then again, Pure has offered me some angels. So, I really don't know yet - but I'd be thrilled to get others' input...

tom91970 · 03-21-2007, 10:21 AM

Looks pretty good. Hope you have better luck this time...

Lonewolfblue · 03-21-2007, 09:08 PM

You should be able to add fish slowly with no issues at all. The plants will help with that.

FreshwaterJeff · 03-22-2007, 09:17 PM

March 22, 2007

Well, as Avalon predicted (see BV's thread in the planted forum), I've got a little outbreak of green algae. I decided to test my levels, and I've really been overdoing it from a phosphate perspective.

Here's what I saw:

pH - I have more trouble reading my pH test - the color it turns out looks grey, not blue or green. It's closest to around 7.9-8.0, though (which means I'm not getting that much CO2 in)

Ammonia - 0.0 ppm
Nitrite - 0.0 ppm
Nitrate - 8.0 ppm (likely overdosing this as well)

KH - 100 ppm
GH - 140 ppm

Phosphate - 5.0 ppm

I'm going to do a decently-sized water change tomorrow, adding RO water, to try to bring down both the phosphates and the pH. I also think I'm beginning to trust my CO2 regulator (again, I think I identified the problem and that I've fixed it), so I might head to the LFS tomorrow to pick up a few new tank denizens...