Redoing My 75 Gallon

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
JasonG75;4945965; said:
I know I can cram two boxes of bio pads in mine (which is rather expensive at 10.99 a box) so I am looking for alternitives. I just picked up another one Saturday for my 75gal upgrade. So now I have 2 1000 on my 55 (getting it ready for transition to the 75)

I seem to clean mine once a month.


Do you have trouble with getting air in the canister??
 
None at all. Since both are now on the 55 I have to throttle back the return to almost half.

Here is how I have my baskets setup
Bottom basket (bottom-up) black pad - 3 white bio pads
Middle basket (bottom-up) 1 white bio pad / Purigen /3 white bio pads
Top basket (bottom-up) 1 white bio pad / ceramic rings/ 2 white

10 pads
 
I also have a couple of questions for you, as I am seriously thinking of doing this in a couple of weeks.

1. What did you do with the excess clay? Selling?
2. I have 2 bags of Clay "like" Flourite planted substrate..Think I ought to just throw it in there as well?
3. Did you use Playsand or PFS as your topper?
4. How long was your ammonia spike, and if using a "SEASONED" filter do you think it would shorten the period some.

If you want to do this VIA PM I am down with that.
 
JasonG75;4948849; said:
I also have a couple of questions for you, as I am seriously thinking of doing this in a couple of weeks.
I'm red!
1. What did you do with the excess clay? Selling?
have about 15lbs of it left. I got it at a craft supply store.
2. I have 2 bags of Clay "like" Flourite planted substrate..Think I ought to just throw it in there as well?
I had flourite previously on this tank. If your going to use clay use that and not the flourite. If your not going to use clay, use the flourite. But IMO Clay seems to work best for people.
3. Did you use Playsand or PFS as your topper?
I used play sand, Home depot in 50lbs bags 1 1/2 should do it for a 75 gallon. WASH THE SAND UNTIL YOU THINK ITS NOT GOING TO CLOUD THE WATER, AND THEN WASH IT 5 MORE TIMES.
4. How long was your ammonia spike, and if using a "SEASONED" filter do you think it would shorten the period some.
After about 3 days, with a seasoned filter, all parameters were back to normal.

If you want to do this VIA PM I am down with that.

Your will not regret dirting your tank.
 
WOW that's a lot of sand... I currently have sand in my setup.

Did you "prep" your soil? Like a lot of the thread that I have read over at the Planted Tank they all say to wash it, let is dry....wash again, break it up...avoid AIR BUBBLES. What did you do with your Miracle Grow?

I am thinking of going with PFS just to avoid SO MUCH washing..I will do a lot of water changes and filtering. Washing that much playsand is an ALL day project in itself.
 
What they did was mineralized the soil. I did not do this.

I went around last night poking the soil and had lots of air bubble coming out of the soil. I will do this every couple of days. It smelled sorta bad but it was mainly bubbles of Co2.
 
Sorry, been really busy with school.

everything is doing great.
Sag is spreading out nicely, water sprite is becoming a noosence. The Italian Val is spreading like I want it too. Red Flame swords are getting redder by the day.

I may do an update video sometime this weekend... maybe....
 
I don't know what it is, maybe its the SUPER nice Seattle weather. But tonight I will be making a ton of videos on the stuff thats been happening in my aquariums.

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Subscribe to my youtube channal!!!!
 
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