# 40 Gallon Aquascape



## AheartlessFish (Mar 18, 2008)

2nd attempt at aquascaping...this time with driftwood since i didnt wana buy rocks.

40 gallon breeder
Metal halide 175watts magnetic ballast (mogul base)
Custom built stand and light housing
Temp: 80F
Substrate: Onxy gravel (currently my favorite out of the seachem brands)
Co2 injected: 2-3bps via fluval output nozzle with gravel tube attachment
Dry fert IE method
Filtration: x2 Fluval 404s

Fish: red serpaes, checkerboard discus, otto crew, albino corries, columbian tetras
Plants: Trying to get my hands on HC, either that or waiting for glosso to take over in the 20 gallon.

40 gallon on top
20 gallon below: http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/aquascaping/83447-20-gallon-aquascape.html#post626321
bulb is currently 20000k from the old owner, 6700k coming in the mail
Excuse the cloudiness, just added gravel today.









Custom built light housing...not the best job, but does the job regardless. Its not balanced, will deal with that later, just happy to see it works









Right side shot









Left side shot









above shot









Im aware of the 1/3 focal point idea with the wood but not going for that effect  40 gallon is quite small compared to 100 gallon long.

04-05-12

Added my fish in, added plants in (not much of a selection, gave away tons of my plants from the 100 gallon that was shut down)

6500k bulb came in them mail. tank looks ALOT brighter however i miss the 20000k, it made my discus and cardinal tetras blue colors show more. O well a small sacrifice for healthy plants 









Also noticed today one of my crypts flowered (atleast i think its a crypt, came from a bulb plant package bought at petsmart)









Any comments appreciated


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## bratyboy2 (Feb 5, 2008)

Thats a serious driftwood piece!


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## AheartlessFish (Mar 18, 2008)

its a bunch stacked ontop of each other


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## AheartlessFish (Mar 18, 2008)

04-08-12. HC planted. Plants shot out 3 flowers (im assuming one for each of the buds) However in the process of planting HC i broke one of them .


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## Josea (Feb 28, 2007)

AheartlessFish said:


> 04-08-12. HC planted. Plants shot out 3 flowers (im assuming one for each of the buds) However in the process of planting HC i broke one of them .


Love your tank! It is gorgeous!!!!!!!!!!


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## aquaman555 (Mar 22, 2011)

Very nice looking.


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## AheartlessFish (Mar 18, 2008)

Thanks guys  Im not a fan of the driftwood in the middle...taking up too much space but im waiting for the HC to fill in then im gona remove it and prob find some stones to scape with ^^

Updated picture will be posted tomorow


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## AheartlessFish (Mar 18, 2008)

04-15-12. HC is growing but not in the way that i like it...seems like they are slowly dying off but im not sure yet. Today i removed all of the drift wood except one of the pieces...i think i will remove it as well but not yet. Checked my leaves today and saw pin holes...im assuming its a Potassium difficiency...gona increase K2so4 or Kno3 tomorow, gona test the waters to see if Nitrates are high or not.


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## AheartlessFish (Mar 18, 2008)

04-23-12. Hc did not do well in the tank...im not sure why...blasting co2 and ferts. I think the light wasnt bright enough? (ud think 175 watts of halide over a 40 gallon would do the trick). maybe i had it too high? Most of it is dying off but i see small growth. So i simplified the setup now. Took out all of the driftwood. Move plants towards the center, had my 3 crosses in the middle. took some trimmings of glosso from the 20 gallon and planted them in front. took the back slope of the gravel and made the whole tank 1 even layer (this covered the hc in the front, i think they will still grow, only about 1cm of gravel on top of them). Also lowered the light fixture and also balanced it (not properly but by the naked eye close enough)










IMO, fish look happier and plants look happier since they are directly under the Halide.


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## AheartlessFish (Mar 18, 2008)

Also forgot to add that i have 70 bucks worth of plants coming in the mail ^^. They will fill in the gaps hopefully ^^


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## thankgodforthesuffering (Aug 24, 2008)

really nice discus.


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## Mr. Fish (Oct 24, 2007)

I think your HC didnt do well because of the substrate you are using.

Its not nutrient rich, had you used ADA soil it would have thrived.

You should have added Fert tabs to the onyx it woulda blew up! Good luck and keep us posted on ur new plants


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