# 135 gallon Natural work in progress



## guppyramkrib (Sep 5, 2007)

Hi I wanted to share my 135 natural approx 6 weeks old and still needs much work but its a start.Thanks

Fish- approx 30 angels DD blacks and gold pearlscale,10 Red Eye Tetras. Many of the angels will move to other tanks soon.

Plants-Amazon swords,Ozelot swords,Martii Ruffled sword,Val spiralis,Sagittaria subulata,Marsilea sp?,Aponegeton Madagascar lace,Myriophyllum,Horn Wort,Rotala "teardrop",Rotala magenta,Java fern and moss,Red Temple,Water Hyacinth,Crypt lutea,Crypt blassii?,Crypt.wendtii red,A few plants are from a eBay vendor and are recovering from shipping.Most were miss labeled unwanted subs i had to throw away but thats another story. 
All my tanks are in the basment and not fancy.



























Thanks for looking


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## Homer_Simpson (Apr 2, 2007)

That is a really fine looking tank. Please provide updates on how these work out for you. I am really curious if you end up with less problems with the 135 gallon vs the 40 gallon. They say that normally, due to greater volume level, it is easier to maintain or achieve a balance with larger tanks than with smaller tanks whether it be saltwater tanks or freshwater tanks, so I will be curious to see if this also holds true in the world of Natural Planted Tanks or an invention of one's own natural planted tank.


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## DataGuru (Mar 11, 2005)

Looks great! 

It'll be interesting to see if your sag subulata stays short. Mine does not. In my NPTs, sag grows like a weed and gets like 2 foot tall.

So what's your lighting like?
any sunlight?


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## Esteroali (Oct 1, 2007)

Why are these in your basement? I would have them in my bedroom or den where I could look at them all the time. Or sleep downstairs.


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## guppyramkrib (Sep 5, 2007)

DataGuru said:


> Looks great!
> 
> It'll be interesting to see if your sag subulata stays short. Mine does not. In my NPTs, sag grows like a weed and gets like 2 foot tall.
> 
> ...


Thanks!
I have a 400 watt MH and a 250 watt MH on this tank.I had them from other plant projects so i used them.No natural sun light. My tanks are in the basement.The floors in this old house won't support the weight of all my tanks.


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## DataGuru (Mar 11, 2005)

Wow... that's high light. Is the tank deep?

I'd have my office and my bedroom down there! LOL


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## guppyramkrib (Sep 5, 2007)

DataGuru said:


> Wow... that's high light. Is the tank deep?
> 
> I'd have my office and my bedroom down there! LOL


Hi Betty
The tank is 24 inches tall with the lights another 12 inches above.I had many more floaters in this tank until thinning for the photos.I removed 10-15 big hyacinths,lots of duck weed and a bunch of hornwort that shaded the stuff below.I think i should turn the 400 watt on the right side around and raise it up some.What do you think? 
I'm also now getting a bright healthy green algae growing on the right side under the brightest light and think it maybe time for a pleco or i can wait it out and see if it passes like it did in the 40.The little snails don't seem to be keeping up with it in the 135 under the brighter light and fewer plants so far.Do you know if gold nugget plecos do a good job on algae? I really like them and want to order one.

I checked out your tank link and all i can say is WOW!!!!!!!!!!!! I love it.I have another 135 gallon i think ill sent up natural with pool filter sand if i can find it.Im hooked! Best wishes


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## Mr Fishies (Apr 9, 2006)

DataGuru said:


> Wow... that's high light. Is the tank deep?
> 
> I'd have my office and my bedroom down there! LOL


High light is right! Where I live, electricity is between .05-.06 / kWh depending on time of day. For me, the lights over your tank would cost about $250 / year in electricity.

I hope for that outlay, your dwarf sag stays low too!


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## guppyramkrib (Sep 5, 2007)

Update 
Moved the light around on the right.I also added a sm power head.Added 2 small Anubias coffeefolia and removed the Marsilea to another tank.I need a new bulb for the fixture on the right with better color.6700k? This one is yellow and starting to bug me. All the angels are doing great!










Thank you


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## DataGuru (Mar 11, 2005)

yea, 6700K should be excellent!

So how do your angels act?
(I've only had two at a time before)


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## onemyndseye (May 12, 2006)

Nice tank!.... Id love to have space for a 135!! 

There shouldnt be any problems running a tank this big - Plenty people here on the forums have run NPT's of 100 gallons and up 



"....t'll be interesting to see if your sag subulata stays short. Mine does not. In my NPTs, sag grows like a weed and gets like 2 foot tall....."

DataGuru,

This just reminded me (sorry not trying to trample your thread)....this must have something to do with your water chemistry or other environmental factors. The Sag. that you sent me quickly lost the form it was showing and grew a nice short 3" mat for me.

*shrug* go figure, huh? 

Take care,
-Justin
One Mynds Eye


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## guppyramkrib (Sep 5, 2007)

Swords have made it to the surface.They are getting BIG

















Fish are all Great! I moved out a doz blacks a few days ago due to fighting.The larger fish were picking on the smaller ones.Thanks


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## flagg (Nov 29, 2004)

Real nice tank! Looks great! I'm in the process of trying to get money to set up my 125 gal. and I was wondering, what do you have for filters/water movement in that tank? My only concern w/ my 125 (aside from having to add a little support to the floor) is what filter to use and if my water with dKH of 36 is too much for an NPT tank. Still debating whether to go planted or Lake Malawi (or Tanganyika) with this tank..... Argh! Decisions decisions decisions....

-ricardo


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## guppyramkrib (Sep 5, 2007)

flagg said:


> Real nice tank! Looks great! I'm in the process of trying to get money to set up my 125 gal. and I was wondering, what do you have for filters/water movement in that tank? My only concern w/ my 125 (aside from having to add a little support to the floor) is what filter to use and if my water with dKH of 36 is too much for an NPT tank. Still debating whether to go planted or Lake Malawi (or Tanganyika) with this tank..... Argh! Decisions decisions decisions....
> 
> -ricardo


Hi Ricardo

I don't have a filter on this tank.I added a small power head set on low a few weeks ago.The only other equipment i use are lights,and heater.The bacteria on the surface of the plants,sand,driftwood ect. do the filtering and the plants use the by products from the fish and food for growth. This works just fine for me. I like to keep it simple.Good Luck!


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## guppyramkrib (Sep 5, 2007)

DataGuru said:


> Looks great!
> 
> It'll be interesting to see if your sag subulata stays short. Mine does not. In my NPTs, sag grows like a weed and gets like 2 foot tall.












DataGuru 
"Dwarf" Sagittaria is on the way out! Ill replace with E.tenellus when i have enough from my other tanks.

On another note i moved 9 gold pearl angels to the other 135.So now have 12 DD black angels and 10 red eye tetras in this tank. I plan on adding a gold nugget pleco and turq rainbows.


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## Kurt Reinhart (Mar 4, 2003)

Nice tank. The Sag is getting a bit big for the foreground. I'm guess you want it to stay a bit more open. The tank is definetly growing nicely though. Hopefully, the E. tenellus will work better. 

It seems aquascaping is difficult to maintain with a NPT... I've thought about adding structural fences (e.g. rock) to contain plants and also using flat pieces of rock in the foreground to maintain open areas. This could be problematic though if a lot of substrate goes anearobic below the rocks... If the substrate is thin (like a depression) with the rock it might work. Just another couple of ideas.


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## orlando (Feb 14, 2007)

No filter, this looks like a fun tank. Thanks for sharing this, subscribed..


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## guppyramkrib (Sep 5, 2007)

Kurt Reinhart said:


> Nice tank. The Sag is getting a bit big for the foreground. I'm guess you want it to stay a bit more open. The tank is definetly growing nicely though. Hopefully, the E. tenellus will work better.
> 
> It seems aquascaping is difficult to maintain with a NPT... I've thought about adding structural fences (e.g. rock) to contain plants and also using flat pieces of rock in the foreground to maintain open areas. This could be problematic though if a lot of substrate goes anearobic below the rocks... If the substrate is thin (like a depression) with the rock it might work. Just another couple of ideas.


I agree the sag is out of scale.I have E.tenellus in a few other natural tanks and they stay low compact and grow well.Ill change them out soon.

I think most natural tanks look good or better than many hi tec co2 tanks on any given day.Many hi tec tanks seem to change every week and need constant trimming moving and care. I do very little other than adding top off water and thinning duckweed and hornwort and cleaning the front glass every week or so.

Best Wishes


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## guppyramkrib (Sep 5, 2007)

A few new photo's



















Thanks for looking!


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## guppyramkrib (Sep 5, 2007)

Update
I'm bored to death with this tank and might take it down and start again.(NPT of course)
Nothing changes much at all.It looks OK and the angels are doing great. I have moved three pairs out in the past week to their own tanks.I might just try some new different types of fish?









Ideas anyone


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## orlando (Feb 14, 2007)

Im glad I subscribed to this one. Very nice!


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