# 75 gallon - it's been a long time coming



## goalcreas (Nov 20, 2006)

Well, this has been sitting around soaking wood for about 5 months. (see pic 1)
Had the tank for a year, the light since Jan and the stand since April, but no time and too many trips, work and family in between to ever get it done. I made a promise to do it this past weekend to myself as I saw a at least 5 weeks at home coming and just GOT ER DONE

75 gallon Oceanic 48 x 18 ft print I got last Sept off Craigslist for $70 (great deal)
Tek 4 x 54 watt T5 (2 x GE 6500k , 1 x Aquamedic 10,000k and 1 x Aquamedic Planta)
Took 6 months and 6000 headaches to get a stand I could live with, custom coated (clear) LeeMar
10lb Co2 tank with JBJ Reglulator and one Rhinox bubble counter + 1 Rhinox 5000 (thinking of splitting with another Bubble Counter and Rhinox 5000 on the other side of the tank)
Rena Xp3 filtration - Rena Spraybar outflow and ADA V-6 Lily Pipe inflow Fluval Prefilter and Eheim Lava rock media.
Will be Adding an Eheim Ecco or an Xp2 and using the ADA P-6 outflow with the FLO intake and have a hydor 300 watt inline heater to hook up on that one.

4.5 bags of Eco Complete and 1/2 gallon of sand.

I got 2 large bags of stem plants from Pets Inc, one LFS mainly just to throw in for set up and nutrient consumption which is mostly what was planted on Saturday as I worked until 1:30 am and just had to quit. So I left the tank sit overnight and durring Sunday Golf with just some plants thrown here and there and some x-mas moss tied on a couple of branches (have not decided if I want to cover the branches or to let the plants grow tall and just have some naked branches sticking out)
to see how it takes.

I have a 20 long that I have been growing and overgrowing with plants for this project since March, which is where I got most of the plants from and I just got 6 ost of hairgrass from jazzlvr123 THANKS, ANYONE LOOKING FOR HAIRGRASS, LOOK NO FURTHER THEN JAZZLVR123 and the Downoi from Orin999 THANKS ROB and some really cool narrow leav java fern back in march from Paradise thanks, it turned out great with a LOOOOOONG time to fill in for this tank

on to the pics, 
Picture a 75 gallon in the living room in the front of your house for 5 months soaking wood. Nice brown water, but just could not get to it 









Oh to finally get it cleaned out :heh:  
Oh, and that is the very basic set up, the Co2 ended up on the other side, but might get more central if I split it and put another diffuser on the other side of the tank, nothing is bolted down yet.









the outflow nothing fancy there









bag and 1/2 of Eco to get this started, those rocks are only there if needed to support some wood while I figure out what I am going to do.









here is what I came up with

















Done with the substrate and man am I getting tired, it is about 11:30pm now, been at it since about 3:30









These shots are really bad, my hands are a little shakey after trying to tie that moss without messing up any branches, and those little rocks by the river, what a pain to do those after this long day.

















This is the best I could do, just sticking whole bunches in the substrate with the lead and all now.
After these two photo's, I am calling it quits for the night, er make that morning, it is now 1:45am

















GOOD NIGHT, I AM GOING TO BED

SUNDAY, DAY 2

Now that I am good and tired from Golf, here I am to make my back ache some more with all this Hairgrass I need to plant.









Some Additions from my 20, not too much, I will let this go for a while and see how and where it may need more or less.

























and now the way it is now. I like it. It will change as it fills, I will be adding some low growing plants to border the river I think, don't know what yet, any suggestions. I don't know if I want to grow the grass all the way up the hill, or just let it fill in where it is and grow some hedge type plants to border the bananna plant, there is a tiger lotus bulb there also, I might grow the bananna to the surface and traing the red tiger lotus to grow lower, who knows we will see how it grows.









Thanks for looking, any comments or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.


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## travis (Oct 5, 2004)

It looks like your hard work is paying off  I'm anxious to see how it fills in. Very nice!

It's one of those things you can't really judge until you see it, but I wouldn't mind a few smaller pieces of wood on the right side to compliment the wood on the left.


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## ed seeley (Dec 1, 2006)

Very nice, great wood and really like the set up. The one bit I'd change, but only coz it doesn't quite look right to me in the picture is the piece of wood right at the front as it looks a bit odd. If it was a little bit further back I think it'd look way better. Of course in person it may look fine of course, so if it does please ignore me!!!!!
I really like the low piece of wood stretching across the 'stream'!


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## goalcreas (Nov 20, 2006)

First off, thanks guys.

Travis, I doubt I will put wood on the other side, but you never know. I will let the hairgrass and the rest of the plants fill in and see then then, I will keep it in mind.

Ed, there are two things tthings that might make it difficult to move that branch.
The first is that there is almost as much wood under the substrate as above and if I try to move it, there is no telling what might happen to the rest. 
Second is if you look at the side picture, all the branches are sort of on the same angle and I don't know how it will look from there to stand this one straight up. I will take a look and see if there is anything that CAN be done, but if it is too much trouble to the rest of the scape, it will probably just stay this way.

What are you thoughts with that in mind, should I really try to make it happen?


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## ed seeley (Dec 1, 2006)

goalcreas said:


> Ed, there are two things tthings that might make it difficult to move that branch.
> The first is that there is almost as much wood under the substrate as above and if I try to move it, there is no telling what might happen to the rest.
> Second is if you look at the side picture, all the branches are sort of on the same angle and I don't know how it will look from there to stand this one straight up. I will take a look and see if there is anything that CAN be done, but if it is too much trouble to the rest of the scape, it will probably just stay this way.
> 
> What are you thoughts with that in mind, should I really try to make it happen?


Leave it!!! I bet it doesn't look anywhere near as prominent in real life! I thought it might be easy just to move it back a couple of inches! After all that hard work mate it looks amazing and don't ruin it for such a minor detail!


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## goalcreas (Nov 20, 2006)

some updates from two weeks ago.
there have been some more changes, so I will probably post more pics this weekend.
The right side of the tank is pretty much complete as far as plant selection.
I am very happy with it.
I have since changed some of the wood, changed some of the plant locations and added some rocks to the left side of the tank.
I have now decided to plant the left foreground with hairgrass also.
more pics coming this weekend after I do the seeding of the hairgrass.


































































Thanks for looking


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## goalcreas (Nov 20, 2006)

I need to add, that the right side of the tank has been cleaned up a bit.
When I say that I am happy with it and it is about complete, I am talking about how it is now (not pictured here) and not what you are looking at.
A bit confusing, but when I post the pics this weekend, you will see what I am talking about.

The hygro compacta has filled in completely and there is no breaks in the shrubs.
I really cleaned up the Val Nana and got rid of the rotala.
You will have to wait for the photo's, but it looks much nicer then what is pictured above IMHO


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## Aquaspot (Jan 19, 2006)

Nice tank and healthy plants! 

Agree with travis that some nice branches on the right will balance up the scape nicely.


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## goalcreas (Nov 20, 2006)

Thanks, I still will fight the urge to put wood on the right side.
This is far from complete, and what I picture as the final result, it just won't fit.
If it never gets to what I want it to be, then I will go for it.

I also forgot to add a note about the photo's.

1, right after I took these pictures and added them to Photobucket, so I could post them to AAPE, I noticed the dirty lily pipe and filter lines, cleaned them right away.

2, living in Phoenix, don't need a heater until real late in the year. I added that because I did not have my 2nd filter so I could add my Hydor inline. I am adding that filter this weekend with the Hydor so that black heater next to the lily pipe will be gone very soon.


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## SKSuser (Mar 20, 2006)

Argh!
Do you have a way of posting a picture thats wider than 640?

Did you intend for your sand street to be covored as much as it is?

Lastly,
I hate to go against the common recommendation, but I'm going to. :-D
I appreciate that there are no branches on the right side of the tank. The eye expects them to be cliched into place over there. Your setup reminds me of a forest's transition into a clearing. I expect to see a herd of deer walk out from between the narrow leaf javas.

Perhaps since I live in a semi rural area with many ~5 acre plots, tanks like this are my brain's way of making sense of the contrasts. One guy has a forest right beside another guy's lawn which is better cared for than stadium turf. Sure, its a little odd, but I enjoy the beauty that they create as they contrast each other.

Anyway, as a substitute, to let the two sides mesh better you might let some dwarf sag grow in heavy on the left front in the same manner that it covors the right.


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## ballsmyberries (Feb 21, 2007)

somehow it looks rather bare to me on the left hand side. probably add more plants will make it look more thicker thus giving you a more natural feel to it, and i personally thinks that it lacks some wood too somewhere from the first and the third branches from the left. overall, nice tank.


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## goalcreas (Nov 20, 2006)

Thanks for the comments.

Just remember it is very much a work in progress, and I was not really that happy with the left half of the tank, I liked it, but yes it was missing something. 

And these photo's are about 2 to 3 weeks old and I had spent the last several days playing with the scape a great deal.
I have removed some wood, added some rocks and changed / rearranged most all of the plants on the left side not to mention the right side looks much better fuller then the pics above show.

I had planned on posting pics up on Sunday, but I did so much work and made so many changes to the left side of the tank, (planted some more hairgrass, and dwarf sag is a good suggestion, might let it be a mix of the two over there) and right now it looks completely bare on the left. Almost looks like a freshly planted tank on that side. I may post up one pic tomorrow if I get a chance to give you an idea of where it is going, but this tank is now YOUNGER then the last updates shown.

I would say the tank is probably about 40% complete.


And all suggestions are welcomed and appreciated. Might not go with some of them (like wood on the right, most likely not gonna happen), but I love hearing ALL of them.


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## goalcreas (Nov 20, 2006)

SKSuser said:


> Argh!
> Do you have a way of posting a picture thats wider than 640?


Just copied the (img) links from Photobucket, don't really know if I can resize them or not, never really tried.



SKSuser said:


> Did you intend for your sand street to be covored as much as it is?


No, I was just letting mosses grow so they would take rood to the rocks and wood.
I have trimmed it back a bit and opened up that area a bit.
I actually plan to make it a bit larger, but want to change the sand to something darker or redder, one of the ADA sands most likely. Have to get it first then find the time to do it. Seems like I do a lot of work for a week, then can't find the time for about 3, then do it for a week, then can't find the time for 3 (had 10 day family vacation,then get back into the groove of life, then holiday travel, back into the groove, so on and so forth)



SKSuser said:


> Anyway, as a substitute, to let the two sides mesh better you might let some dwarf sag grow in heavy on the left front in the same manner that it covors the right.


I just seeded that side with hairgrass last night. I think that I like the dwarf sag idea and that I will get some and mix it in, try to get the dual growth WILD look going on.


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