MFK's Official Minitank - Rebuild (ZERO NITRATE)

[OddBallKeeper]

Oh that pic with the pleco is hilarious reminds me of when i started keeping tropical fish. €400 of this 3D backround put in and i Lost 5 Serpae tetra and a few more other fish and My Rope Fish loved it in the back

 

[dotbomb]

Love the tank! Can't wait to see it completed.

I have been considering that dinky eheim. Could you tell me real quick, by way of experiment, if it runs fine sitting at the same level as the tank? I have a 20gl that sits on a bar counter and I absolutely HATE my HOB but don't want to toss cash at a canister only to find the suction pressure is too weak.

 

[andyjs]

This is a cool little project. I'm a big fan of plant filtration. I've been messing with it for the past 2 years or so. Right now, I'm running my 75 gallon a little understocked with some pothos growing right in the water column and the nitrates stay REALLY low, maybe 5 ppm at the highest.

What are the plants with the lighter coloration in the middle of the leaves?

Looking forward to seeing the finished remodel

 

[JK47]

Love the tank! Can't wait to see it completed.

I have been considering that dinky eheim. Could you tell me real quick, by way of experiment, if it runs fine sitting at the same level as the tank? I have a 20gl that sits on a bar counter and I absolutely HATE my HOB but don't want to toss cash at a canister only to find the suction pressure is too weak.

I think the 2211 was designed to sit next to the tank. I tried both and there is no noticable difference in flow. I was only doing "the hand test" though so take it for what it is, opinion.

This is a cool little project. I'm a big fan of plant filtration. I've been messing with it for the past 2 years or so. Right now, I'm running my 75 gallon a little understocked with some pothos growing right in the water column and the nitrates stay REALLY low, maybe 5 ppm at the highest.

What are the plants with the lighter coloration in the middle of the leaves?

Looking forward to seeing the finished remodel

Thanks Andy! Good to see you around bro. I use pothos as well. The roots alone of one of the pothos in my 120g are over 6 feet lonng.. Not sure on the plants in the middle, sorry. Maybe Hydrophyte will be kind enough to pop and let me know. They were "get well" plants I wanted to hang onto.

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The piece I removed I left tucked away so I didn't break off the edges. When you snap a BG it breaks like a puzzle and fits back together perfectly, you can't see the join. Cutting it removed some material and is really notacable when two pieces are joined back together.







The silicone all over the edges of the faux wall were nasty. I actually had to remove a little material to get all of it off.





Before sanding off the edges..





After sanding off the edges.. Looks much better. Rolling the silicone with your finger back and forth lets it work itself off the BG without tear color off the BG. BTW





This little Eheim is freakin sweet!!! It had the tank 200% better in about 10 minutes..





Before and after of scraping off all of the silicone and material from the glass. I had to actually use new razors since there were allot of really thin spots of silicon that would have been caught under the foam. (< would bug me forever)











^ next up, gutter foam cutting and pond foam spraying I LOVE that stuff. So much fun. So still no takers on filling in the edges or not?

 

[aclockworkorange]

Don't fill in the edges.

 

[JK47]

Don't fill in the edges.

Any suggestions on how I might go about doing that? You've played wiuth pond foam, you know how sticky that stuff is. You think taping it off might work? Pull it off while it's still wet like with silicone?

 

[dotbomb]

I think the 2211 was designed to sit next to the tank. I tried both and there is no noticable difference in flow. I was only doing "the hand test" though so take it for what it is, opinion.

That was my hunch. Thanks for the quicky confirmation!

 

[dragonsong]

This is coming along nicely, I like the bettas you had in there.

 

[andyjs]

Thanks Andy! Good to see you around bro. I use pothos as well. The roots alone of one of the pothos in my 120g are over 6 feet lonng.. Not sure on the plants in the middle, sorry. Maybe Hydrophyte will be kind enough to pop and let me know. They were "get well" plants I wanted to hang onto.

6'? That's impressive. I have Pothos on my 150 as well and the above water portion is MASSIVE (some of the actual vines are over 10'), but the roots are in a Penguin 330, so they're somewhat restricted and when they grow into the tank, they're kept well trimmed (I'm assuming mostly by my sev and little uaru). Since the 75 is only my SAL and some tetras, I'll get to see what kind of growth the roots can actually achieve.

I've been looking for other plants to try out growing this way in my 75 and future tanks. I was already planning on getting peace lilies and I like the unIDd ones you have. I didn't think about Hydrophyte. I'll have to check out his riparium threads for potential species. Thanks for the idea!

 

[andyjs]

After I little poking around in some of his riparium threads, I'm thinking the plants in question are Dieffenbachia aka "dumb cane"