arcab4's 60 gallon planted tank adventure

arcab4

The Big Fish
The Big Fish
Oct 22, 2002
1,554
30
48
46
Sunny Southern California
#1
hey there everyone,

now that things are settling down for me and i have some few moments, i decided to start up my 60 gallon tank. I already have a saltwater tank and I actually miss my planted tank from years back.

The 60 gallon tank originally was for my arrowana but he unfortunately passed away so it was empty for a bit except for a few feeder fishes that survived.

I had regular pebbles in the tank so yesterday I removed them and bought two bags of flourite from my LFS to fill up the bottom.

OMG...dust storm galore. at this time, it's still pretty cloudy...

anyways....I found my old cannister filter (eheim 2223!) and put it together. Ofcourse I would probably forget something which was the seal and...now i have a huge puddle of water on the wood floors.

I'll post a picture soon but wanted to start this thread so that way I will keep it going. :D

in the meantime..for good old memory sake... my old 29 gallon tank.

http://www.myfishtank.net/my-fish-tank/my-29-gallon-planted-freshwater-tank/
 

arcab4

The Big Fish
The Big Fish
Oct 22, 2002
1,554
30
48
46
Sunny Southern California
#5
so the water is much clearer today. still tons of particles on the substrate now. when the shrimp goes by it kicks up a trail of dust. haha. going to do another water change today and try to suck up some more of the dust that has settled. post a picture soon.

the canister filter kinda failed last night so i unplugged it. have to figure out why the impeller makes this pinging sound. it sounds like it's hitting the housing around it and then fails.
 

arcab4

The Big Fish
The Big Fish
Oct 22, 2002
1,554
30
48
46
Sunny Southern California
#7
so i found out i was missing the shaft for the impeller so it was bouncing back and forth. lol. man..i'm so out of it. but it's all good now.

went to the LFS and bought some petrified wood? ..... was originally going to use my amano rocks but they dont' match so i'll retire them for a lil' bit and go with the new look instead.

here's a picture of it with the amano rocks on the left side.

 

arcab4

The Big Fish
The Big Fish
Oct 22, 2002
1,554
30
48
46
Sunny Southern California
#11
really? thanks. I'll take that into consideration. i have a good size driftwood but it's still leeching so i didn't want to discolor the tank. the one at my LFS has been there for awhile and it's a good price.

yea..that first 29 gallon tank i did was pretty high tech for a beginner. i'm more low-tech now. i want this tank to be more natural and less maintenance. :)
 

arcab4

The Big Fish
The Big Fish
Oct 22, 2002
1,554
30
48
46
Sunny Southern California
#12
went to my LFS today to pick up some plants. I ended up getting the driftwood with the anubias growing on it. the driftwood was actually smaller than i expected so that was fine. picked up two other potted plants and some more wood pieces to fill in the rest of the tank.

Will be getting some more plants...going to make it simple. Getting my old hood back from a buddy so it'll be running I believe a single 54 watt power compact. that should be enough for these low-light plants i hope.

fish-wise..i'm still debating but i'm leaning toward guppies. a huge school of guppies haha.

 

lauraf

Superstar Fish
Jan 1, 2010
2,181
0
0
Vancouver, British Columbia
#15
Here's some pics from a couple months back. It looks a little less lush right now because the cyprus (?) I had mixed in with the jungle val on the left hand side of the tank in these pics started to fail badly, so I removed it and am letting the val grow in with its runners all over that corner. But my tiger lotus (the red leaves) has since spread with its runners all over the front of my tank, intermingled with the low-growing varietal of anubias I have.
It's taken me some time to figure out what plants thrive in my tank - the swords, are, erm, okay but not great, the ludwigia pretty good, the val is in heaven, the mosses and fern are great, and the lotus and anubias are fantastic. I had trouble with anacharis (chucked it when it started to disintegrate), and only a couple of stems of hygrophilia are still here, limping along.
 

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arcab4

The Big Fish
The Big Fish
Oct 22, 2002
1,554
30
48
46
Sunny Southern California
#16
great looking tank! my hood that i'm getting back is actually 2x55watt power compact but i'm just going to run 1x54watt for now and see what happens.

ended up going back to the LFS today. picked up some guppies..the females i didn't realize were already pregnant so we'll see if we get any small guppies soon. picked up one more plant but need more.
 

arcab4

The Big Fish
The Big Fish
Oct 22, 2002
1,554
30
48
46
Sunny Southern California
#19
thanks! i'll take another picture when the lights are on but so far...got a couple more plants and the guppies had babies so there are a few roaming around.

but so far it's going the way i want. I'm getting my hood back from my buddy on wednesday so i'll be switching from a florescent bulb to a 55watt power compact. should be close to 1wpg..nice and simple.
 

arcab4

The Big Fish
The Big Fish
Oct 22, 2002
1,554
30
48
46
Sunny Southern California
#20
here's another picture of the tank. can't really see the fishes but they're in there. so far counted about 8 baby guppies. i've just crushed flake food and if it's small enough, they'll eat it.

so far..i think i have some anubias, laced madagascar, corkscrew vals and i forgot the other two. was going with 1x55 watt (power compact or t5) actually could be 2x55 setup but running only 1 bulb at a time...that should be close to 1wpg..should be okay?