My 450g Show Tank

**SpeshulEd** · 12-07-2009, 6:46 PM

Originally Posted by T@nkbuster;3680288;

Wow, I am so jealous! I love that tank!!! The thick acrylic makes it look super!! I need to get me a monster tank. Where's that thread that helps with convincing wives and girlfriends....

Ya know the funny thing is, I was told "its your money, do what you want" - they want no part in cleaning it or the maintenance that goes along with it, however, when people come over, they like to rattle off what each fish is, when we got it, its habits, etc. They also like to name each fish and then refer to them by name. I get a lot of strange looks because of this.

**qguy** · 12-07-2009, 9:58 PM

For algae on glass. My tank (48x22x22) has the same problem, I placed a three 6 inch plecostomus and algae is gone.

For the overflow, you can put a larger diameter pipe over your current pipe with large holes in the bottom, make sure that the larger pipe is higher than the water level

Originally Posted by SpeshulEd;3681138;

Right now, my biggest problem is the algae, but that is being taken care of. My other big problem is the poo seems to like to collect at the front of the tank. I need to reposition my returns and see what happens, but I think I'm going need some kind of pump/powerhead in the tank to stir it up and get it to the overflows. If I could have my overflows at the bottom of the tank, that would probably help suck it up, but I don't know how to rig the plumbing to stop the water from overflowing my sump (if the power went out) if they were at the bottom.

**SpeshulEd** · 12-07-2009, 11:20 PM

Originally Posted by qguy;3683116;

For algae on glass. My tank (48x22x22) has the same problem, I placed a three 6 inch plecostomus and algae is gone.

For the overflow, you can put a larger diameter pipe over your current pipe with large holes in the bottom, make sure that the larger pipe is higher than the water level

I'm afraid to put a pleco in there long term because of the rays, but I'm considering putting the one that I have in for a day and just watching the tank closely.

I like your idea for the overflow. Especially since I already have larger diameter black pipe over smaller white pipe. This will be an easy fix. Thank you.

**Sandman334** · 12-07-2009, 11:27 PM

I would drop the Pleco's and go with Geo's. Geo's are sand sifters and they will make it a lot easier on water changes.

**SpeshulEd** · 12-18-2009, 1:19 PM

Just a quick vid:

**G-Code** · 12-18-2009, 2:10 PM

Wow!!! Wish I could have a setup like that. Everything came together just right. Nice stock!!!

**kingyella** · 12-18-2009, 10:33 PM

nice tank, what is the substrate?

**Egon** · 12-19-2009, 2:08 AM

sweet! Love the stock!

**DucatiDragster** · 12-19-2009, 2:15 AM

Wow, that is gorgeous!

**SpeshulEd** · 12-19-2009, 10:42 AM

Originally Posted by kingyella;3713437;

nice tank, what is the substrate?

3M color quartz - S grade - black.

I like it, but almost wish I would have went with a white.

Thanks guys, still very much a work in progress. Every day I learn something new and end up tinkering with something, but its getting there.

I added sunscreens to the windows to help the sun issue, hopefully solving the algae issues.

The micro bubbles have went away.

I added 9 marimo balls to help with nitrate. This seems to be my biggest issue at the moment. I can't keep my nitrates lower than 40ppm. I do 50% water changes every couple of days and it doesn't seem to budge. Hopefully the plants will help out a bit.

I also would like to get the water crystal clear. I think this may be from the algae though. I'm going to let it run a week now with the screens and see what happens, but I'm tempted to hook up my extra FX5 that's sitting in the garage.