Mike's 45 gallon long planted tank

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xxUnRaTeDxxRkOxx

xxUnRaTeDxxRkOxx

Candiru
MFK Member
Jul 10, 2011
696
104
46
Denver, CO.
So this will be a new thread for my 45 gallon long tank, guess you could say it's a continuation from my 30 gallon thread...

My 30 gallon thread can be found here
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/threads/getting-back-into-planted-tanks.652351/

Ok so I sold my pair of true festae cichlids that were in this tank, and now I'm working on the hard scape for this tank... I'll be using the driftwood scape from the 30 gallon tank for the left side of this tank, and I'm trying to make the right side look sort of like the left side. As like the 30 gallon tank, this tank will be a slow progression... But this tank already has a Beamswork AE 0.50 10,000k LED fixture on it which will give me the blue lighting that targets one of the peaks in both clorophyll A & B, and I'll be using the 36" T5HO from the 30 gallon tank for now which targets the other peaks in the chlorophyll stages.

I'll be upgrading the lighting in a couple of months to a 48" Odyssea T5HO quad fixture with timer, and I'll be using the following bulbs from front to back...

6500k
420nm actinic
12,000k white actinic
wavepoint ultra growth wave

With these bulb selections every peak in the chlorophyll stages will be targeted, and will produce optimum growth in all of the plants. I'll be planting the cabomba sort of like this...

79593-albums12702-picture58397.jpg


Except I'll line the back of the tank with it this way I have no need for a background on the tank... The 30 gallon tank will be turned into a native species tank with a couple of green sunfish...

Tank specs...
45 gallon long (48"x12"x19")
Lighting - 48" Beamswork ae 0.50w LED, 36" T5HO dual bulb
Filtration - Odyssea CFS-500
Heatng - 300w Hydor Theo submersible heater
Substrate - 3" Flourite/Flora-Max mix
Co2 - DIY co2 system using yeast
Fertilizers - EI classic dosing regime with osmocote+ root tabs

Fish Stock
2 - True Siamese Algae Eaters (in tank now)
20 - Neon Tetras
5 - Peppered Cory catfish

That's it for right now... You can catch up to this tank by visiting my 30 gallon tank thread...
 
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So my kids are coming over tomorrow which is perfect because they can help me tear down the tanks, and transfer everything from my 30 gallon into this tank!!! I also found a 48" T8 dual light fixture that I forgot I even had, and the 2 bulbs in it are brand new and only used for a month lol. So I'm going to use the T8 dual fixture, and the 48" 10,000k LED together on this tank until I'm able to get another 48" Odyssea T5HO quad w/ timer this summer.

And I can leave the 36" T5HO dual fixture on my 30 gallon tank, but I'm only going to use it as a single bulb since there'll be no plants in that tank. I'm having trouble making up my mind on if I'll use play sand to cap the flourite mix, or if I'll just leave the flourite uncovered in this tank, or if I'll pick up some pool filter sand to cap the flourite...
 
Ok, I wasn't able to get around to tearing down the 45 gallon tank, I was able to rise the bag of flourite and get it prepped. But this week I will begin to tear down this tank, then I can get started tearing down the 30 gallon tank. Once I remove all of the plants from the 30 gallon tank I can start clearing out all of the flourite mix and rinse it to remove all of the dirt, and debris from it because I decided I don't want the Amazon biotope look for the 45 gallon tank...
 
Well I finished rinsing the rest of the bag of flourite, and now I'm done for the day... I don't know if I explained what takes me so long to do things with my tanks...

I have relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis, and it's left me disabled and unable to work... With having MS it's left me easily fatigued, so just by rinsing the rest of the flourite I'm now exhausted. Some days are better than others, and I don't get out during the winter months but during spring and summer I go out fishing almost every day. So this is the reason why it's taking me a long time to get the 45 gallon torn down, then get started on the 30 gallon tank.
 
So today I cleared out all of the fake plants, and spent a good amount of time clearing out the duckweed and letting what's left of the duckweed to pool together so I can remove it tomorrow along with clearing out the sand in the tank. Then I can drain the tank, and get started on the 30 gallon tank!!!

So I'm slowly making progress lol, although it is slow >_<
 
Finally spent the time on getting my Durango running, the battery died like 2 weeks ago lol and I finally got some money to get a new battery!!!

I removed all of the sand, and I'll finally be draining this tank tomorrow... Then I'll start tearing down the 30 gallon tank, all of the plants will go into 2 buckets with T8 6500 lighting above the buckets to keep the plants alive. The driftwood pieces with moss will go into the 45 gallon with 3" of water, and I'll use some saran wrap to seal the tank and keep it air locked.
 
Well the tank is up and running!!!!!! But I still have some work to do tomorrow, like spreading out the cabomba along the back of the tank, and stuff... I spent all day tearing down the 30 gallon tank, and setting up the 45... So I'm letting the tank sort of calm down for the night, and tomorrow it's back to work on the tank lol...

I'll start a new thread for this tank, and will take some pictures once it clears up from working on it tomorrow!!!
 
Nah, no new pictures of the tank because I'll most likely tear down this tank over the weekend, add a different driftwood piece and remove all of the moss from the current driftwood and attach it to the new piece. But I plan on doing a 3:1 peroxide dip on all of the plants to help kill any algae... Then setting the tank back up...

The new piece of driftwood is way different than any other driftwood I have, I've had the "new" piece for years, and had it in a couple of past setups but I have this weird feeling that it would look amazing in a planted tank!!!
 
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