MFK's Official Minitank - Rebuild (ZERO NITRATE)

[JK47]

That was my hunch. Thanks for the quicky confirmation!

Of course, anytime! BTW welcome to MFK!!!

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

Thanks Stacy! Something about a "ninja" betta just makes it more monster for some reason lol. Besides some kid would have them in a bowl if I didn't take them right? Now they get to live out their days in pristine water and a pimp tank

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!

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

Well maybe he can jump in and help. I'll drop him a PM. If should be pretty easy for hardcore plant guys. Just not me.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

First things first, I always keep an extra water alarm handy in case the holding tank pops a leak (has happened in the past) Heaters burn through styro really fast FYI.. This should wake me up if anything goes wrong.





Just when you think you can see where the two pieces come together............



Nope, like I mentioned earlier the "snap" is easily 10 times less visible than cutting. The thick line where the seams meet will be hidden by an Eheim green hose. Those will be hidden by ma nature green plants





I am using 3/4" ID PVC to use as a rough scale for how thick I want the plant wall to be.



I reversed the intake hose on the 2211. I want it pulling water high up in the tank so that it has a chance to pass through the plant roots first, before entering the canister.



The output is going to be pretty high resting on top of the Owens Corning foam blocks. The green colored plant stalks should hide the return well. For once the Eheim green hoses may actualy be less noticabe...







more in a sec

 

[JK47]

I started by using a few different size drill bits to drill holes into the 3D background. The lower the hole, the larger the bit. That is the rule of thumb I use. I am drilling holes because going over the top, the AC50 did not provide enough flow to keep the substrate clean. I am hoping between the new canister, higher flow rate and flow going through, not over the BG will make the impact I am looking for.









I drill the holes in an upward fashion so when looking at the tank straight on, you cannot see the holes are there. If I call out where they are, the holes seem obvious but if your new walking up to the tank you would never notice they are there. That's the goal, is to hide all equipment...







GO TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



more pics in a sec..

 

[JK47]

Lift off...! This stuff looks like crap day #1 but once you carve it up, it is awesome. Why people use the other Great Stuff brand foam then seal it is beyond me this model is where it's at.. I've used it on every 3D BG installed to date..













This stuff is STICKY! make sure you have plenty of gloves and towels on hand to keep things clean. You have to consistantly keep shakin the can so have lots of paper towels and a place to set down the can handy, like an old paint tray.









I had allot of pond foam left in the can so I decided to cover a clay pot (hate how they look in a tank) to see if carving it up tomorrow night will make it look any cooler or not..? Not sure but this could be a good a good idea IMO...

 

[prober]

Looks great so far. I am looking for a cool way to make caves so if this works I will make one as well.

 

[JK47]

Looks great so far. I am looking for a cool way to make caves so if this works I will make one as well.

Do it!!! I use this stuff on all my 3D backgrounds and it's fish safe. It's all about how you carve it.. It looks bad until you carve it

 

[JK47]

Pics from today. The foam expanded A LOT..






I messed in a couple places so I will have to clean up with a razor.



The clay pot is huge now! I am probably just as excited to play with this idea as I am with the tank..







Off to carve me some Pond Foam!!!

 

[aclockworkorange]

Did you get another day off from work to play with pond foam?

ANSWER YOUR TEXTS BUDDY!

 

[JK47]

Did you get another day off from work to play with pond foam?

ANSWER YOUR TEXTS BUDDY!

Yeah work was lame so I left to play with my tank..

Before and after... Not completely done, I need to keep working on blending the sides but it looks tons better..





I peel off the foam in chunks until it it just a thin layer on the glass.





Then I use a razor blade to scrape off the excess and clean off the glass.







Once the glass is cleaned up I flipped the tank on it's back to scrape off the foam that I mistakenly let expand onto the background (I used too much foam)







It cleans off pretty easy. I probably have another hour on the other side. Lots more foam expanded on that side.

 

[OddBallKeeper]

Looks Great Justin.

 

[honda237]

I haven't been on MFK to much but it looks like your always doing something new. lol
looks good so far, i like the 3d background. It will compete with my girls 5.5g and my 20g (Still needs to fill in and reproduce).