http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/f...idHerp-s-75-gallon-Planted-Monster-Tank/page2
I am continuing this thread in the general discussion area, as it gets more traffic and this tank has a lot of different components to it. This shall be a bit of a re-cap.
This tank has been up and running for over 7 years, but this iteration, doing well with plants, is but a year old, and only a few months on the plants ACTUALLY DOING WELL (selling an endli I had for like ever helped with that a lot, thanks f22).
This tank, in many ways, is the combination of everything I know about fish keeping. It has fish of all kinds, plants like you wouldn't believe, and care like you wouldn't imagine. Now, I know most on MFK do not care about plants, and that's fine, but I want to make a point with this tank, and that is that planted tanks can still having amazing scapes and plants, AND amazing fish. Things you might not have tried or thought possible.
Anyways, I'm going to go back in time a bit, and show in pictures where this started, right after I re-homed my endli. But first, lets give the specs on this tank.
I'm running two eheim 2217's, great filters and love them to death. On top of that, for added water circulation, I have a korelia 750, important for being a planted tank of this size. Because this is a planted tank, I'm using Eco Complete.....more of it than I care to say, but the substrate is 3-4 inches deep all around. Normally, had this tank not been set up prior to being planted, I'd have used a combination of organic potting soil capped with sand.....but whatever. I supplement the substrate with gro-soil and bro-humate tabs, and osmocote+ capsules. I do dry dose ferts, using the EI method. I'm still tweeking the exact amounts, but atm its just standard EI with some added KSO4 and GH Booster, also some added Iron....although I might phase that out since more iron=/=more reds. Its a myth my friends, a myth. Color is all due to light and good nutrients.
Speaking of which, my light is a t5-ho 4 bulb 54 watt Catalina fixture, with 2 bulbs on for 8 hours and the other two on for 4 hours in the middle of the 8 hour period. I'm still playing with my lighting periods though. Watts don't really matter, its the type of fixture and the reflectors that determine light intensity. Btw, this fixture has LED moonlights.....which is pretty nice This fixture puts me at high lighting, which means, I need to assist plant growth with added co2. And there is only one way to do that in a tank this size that makes sense.....
Dual stage co2 regulator and a 20lb co2 tank. Being fed into a Green Leaf Aquatics in line co2 atomizer. Basically meaning, super fine co2 bubbles are put out from my eheim.
But, because I had it and as a precaution, I have a big old air pump attached to two airstones in this tank....just for the evening to be sure that there is enough O2 in the tank. The korelia and the filter outtakes create some rippling at the surface as well, to keep oxygen in the water during the day. The co2 is on a timer and goes off half an hour before the lights go out, as it would be a waste of co2 otherwise.
I have an inline eheim heater, set to 76, as that is warm enough for the fish to be healthy, without being too warm for some of the plants.
Decor is 6 pieces of Malaysian Driftwood, and some Rainbow Rocks.
Anyways, on to the pictures.
I am continuing this thread in the general discussion area, as it gets more traffic and this tank has a lot of different components to it. This shall be a bit of a re-cap.
This tank has been up and running for over 7 years, but this iteration, doing well with plants, is but a year old, and only a few months on the plants ACTUALLY DOING WELL (selling an endli I had for like ever helped with that a lot, thanks f22).
This tank, in many ways, is the combination of everything I know about fish keeping. It has fish of all kinds, plants like you wouldn't believe, and care like you wouldn't imagine. Now, I know most on MFK do not care about plants, and that's fine, but I want to make a point with this tank, and that is that planted tanks can still having amazing scapes and plants, AND amazing fish. Things you might not have tried or thought possible.
Anyways, I'm going to go back in time a bit, and show in pictures where this started, right after I re-homed my endli. But first, lets give the specs on this tank.
I'm running two eheim 2217's, great filters and love them to death. On top of that, for added water circulation, I have a korelia 750, important for being a planted tank of this size. Because this is a planted tank, I'm using Eco Complete.....more of it than I care to say, but the substrate is 3-4 inches deep all around. Normally, had this tank not been set up prior to being planted, I'd have used a combination of organic potting soil capped with sand.....but whatever. I supplement the substrate with gro-soil and bro-humate tabs, and osmocote+ capsules. I do dry dose ferts, using the EI method. I'm still tweeking the exact amounts, but atm its just standard EI with some added KSO4 and GH Booster, also some added Iron....although I might phase that out since more iron=/=more reds. Its a myth my friends, a myth. Color is all due to light and good nutrients.
Speaking of which, my light is a t5-ho 4 bulb 54 watt Catalina fixture, with 2 bulbs on for 8 hours and the other two on for 4 hours in the middle of the 8 hour period. I'm still playing with my lighting periods though. Watts don't really matter, its the type of fixture and the reflectors that determine light intensity. Btw, this fixture has LED moonlights.....which is pretty nice This fixture puts me at high lighting, which means, I need to assist plant growth with added co2. And there is only one way to do that in a tank this size that makes sense.....
Dual stage co2 regulator and a 20lb co2 tank. Being fed into a Green Leaf Aquatics in line co2 atomizer. Basically meaning, super fine co2 bubbles are put out from my eheim.
But, because I had it and as a precaution, I have a big old air pump attached to two airstones in this tank....just for the evening to be sure that there is enough O2 in the tank. The korelia and the filter outtakes create some rippling at the surface as well, to keep oxygen in the water during the day. The co2 is on a timer and goes off half an hour before the lights go out, as it would be a waste of co2 otherwise.
I have an inline eheim heater, set to 76, as that is warm enough for the fish to be healthy, without being too warm for some of the plants.
Decor is 6 pieces of Malaysian Driftwood, and some Rainbow Rocks.
Anyways, on to the pictures.