# First Planted 55 gal. tank Journal



## Phaturkey (Jan 15, 2007)

Tank Specs:
-55 gal long 48" long 12" wide 18" high
-40 watt Power Glo light 
-Whisper 60 Power Filter
-Flourite substrate

I started out yesterday morning by filtering out the 7 bags of Flourite (for two hours) with much success, and a dirty bathtub. From there I set up my tank in my living room. I put the substrate and messed around till I liked how it looked. Added the water and noticed it started to cloud up like crazy. I cant lie, at first I was scared, I thought I didn't filter the Flourite enough (like 2 hours isnt enough?), but then I read up on it at these forums in one of these tank journals. So here I am, writing one so I can get some tips and suggestions( ! ).

Here's a pic of it so far. 









I ordered some driftwood off of ebay for $20, and thats with shipping and handling.

The driftwood looks like this

















Any Aquascaping ideas? Reading up on aquascaping I've learned a lot, but I feel I the need someone to give me some ideas.  Advice please?


----------



## nswhite (Aug 25, 2006)

Looks good so far, the driftwood should look good. Maybe get some large rocks or a bunch of small ones.


----------



## Drifty (Nov 28, 2006)

I dont think you have any where near aquedate lighting


----------



## Phaturkey (Jan 15, 2007)

> Looks good so far, the driftwood should look good. Maybe get some large rocks or a bunch of small ones.


Yeah, I thought of that this morning, going to make a stop to the neighborhood stream to see if I can find some slate rocks.



> I dont think you have any where near aquedate lighting


I realized that, my friend has an extra 100 watt light exactly like mine, he upgraded from it. I think that with my 40 watts should be enough for 2.5 wpg. Picking it up today sometime (roads got iced over)


----------



## Phaturkey (Jan 15, 2007)

:exclaim: Update for Jan. 15th at 1:09 pm

I went down to our local stream and found some rocks. Brought them home and boiled them (took forever!).

Here is a picture of the rocks boiled and dried on the towel. Just for some sizes the largest one in the back is 6". It was still steaming from boiling when I took this picture .









For the lights I dug up some of from my old 30 gallon DIY setup. Two 50 watt tubes and a 40 should be enough.

All the Lights being tested and circuits being tested\replaced. 









And finally here is a picture of my tank, all squeaky clean and ready for some plants. I added a rock in there so you could tell the contrast of them. 









Now I have to think of aquascaping, and what I can do with what I have.. I set a dot at where I want the focal point to be using the golden rule (you probly cant see in the picture because its so minuscule). I was wanting to go for a more triangular scape, Denser plants on the left going down to less dense on the right. Any suggestions?


----------



## Phaturkey (Jan 15, 2007)

I finnaly was able to run down to my lfs and buy some new plants and Florapride to help them grow.

While I was there I bought:
-(4)Alternanthere Reineckii
-(3)Anachris
-(1)Jungle Val
-(1)Java Fern
-(1)Ozelot Sword
-(1)Moss ball

Now, ,I have seen moss balls carpeted with great success, so I'm trying my hand at it. 









I hope in a few months they will all be grown in.

I also heard that with the Anachris plant you could separate each band and plant them in the substrate. So, I hope those will grow out big and strong also. My driftwood should arrive anywhere between 3-7 days now, which then I will be able to place it in. (I left space for it to fit)

Well, here is a picture of the tank as of today.









I hope it grows in nice and dense.


----------



## subundaortus (Jun 17, 2006)

Good start! What about a background? Plain black may look nice. Will you also be using CO2? Good luck and keep us posted.


----------



## BryceM (Nov 6, 2005)

Nice start with good aquascaping ideas - quite good ideas for a 1st try.

You rinsed flourite in the bathtub? Do you rent or own? Does your drain still work? I really wouldn't recommend this practice. It's no different than shoveling a bucket full of mud down the drain.

Alternanthera reneikii is a great plant, but I wouldn't try it in a first setup. It can be finicky at times and will definately not grow with 40 watts over a 55g tank.

Most of your other plants are slow growers, with aren't the best for breaking in a new setup. Better choices would be fast-growing stemmies like Rotala rotundifolia, Bacopa, Hygrophila species, Hydrocotyle leukocephala, the easier Ludwigia species, Hornwort, and the like. Most of them are pretty inexpensive here or at an LFS. You can remove them later once things are well-established and you learn how to keep things growing.

I'd also recommend a much, much higher plant density to start out with. It will help out greatly with algae issues and will fill in much more quickly. If you post in the For Sale/Trade forum I'm sure you could find a ridiculous quantity of starter plants for probably $10 or $15 shippped. I throw away a basketball size quantity of trimmings every week and there are people here that throw out much more than that. Many of them would be willing to help out.


----------



## Kelley (Aug 27, 2006)

Great start! Make sure you get your fertilization regimen in order. A great place to get cheap ferts is gregwatson.com. The sticky posts in the science of ferts forum explain different ways to use them. Are you planning on injecting some CO2? 

Good luck to you!


----------



## Phaturkey (Jan 15, 2007)

Thanks for all of your replies. 



> Good start! What about a background? Plain black may look nice. Will you also be using CO2?


I'm looking in for a DIY Co2 with a reactor or into a pump. 
For the background Im going to go for Plain black or blue, maybe a dark blue?



> You rinsed flourite in the bathtub? Do you rent or own? Does your drain still work? I really wouldn't recommend this practice. It's no different than shoveling a bucket full of mud down the drain.


Haha, we own, and I had some fun with the plumbing, 



> Alternanthera reneikii is a great plant, but I wouldn't try it in a first setup. It can be finicky at times and will definately not grow with 40 watts over a 55g tank.
> 
> Most of your other plants are slow growers, with aren't the best for breaking in a new setup. Better choices would be fast-growing stemmies like Rotala rotundifolia, Bacopa, Hygrophila species, Hydrocotyle leukocephala, the easier Ludwigia species, Hornwort, and the like. Most of them are pretty inexpensive here or at an LFS. You can remove them later once things are well-established and you learn how to keep things growing.


First, I wouldent mind at all buying lots of plants for $15, where could I find this? I also added another 65 watt light on the top of the tank, idk if you can tell in the picture becuase its covered. Which is about 1.9 wpg, which is average? I think.. lol. And do you have some of the plants listed? I would love to buy some, as previously stated.

And thanks again for all your postes and help so far, Ill take pics as soon as the driftwood comes in.


----------



## BryceM (Nov 6, 2005)

If you watch the "For Sale or Trade" forum here at APC you'll frequently see plant packages for sale. Also, I sent you a PM.

1.9 wpg should be just fine. I'd recommend using some form of CO2 since you'll see much, much better growth from the plants. Good luck!


----------



## Phaturkey (Jan 15, 2007)

What would be the best way for a DIY Co2? I have about $100 I could spend. I know I need the bottle, regulator, hose, and something to dissolve it into the water. Any ideas??


----------



## BryceM (Nov 6, 2005)

"DIY CO2" usually refers to a sugar/yeast mix. This can be done for about $5 using a juice bottle, a bit of air tubing, and some method of diffusion. Many people just feed it into the inlet of their canister filter or powerhead.

If you're referring to pressurized CO2 (much nicer ), then you'll need a CO2 cylinder (usually 5lb), a regulator (many options here), and a method of diffusion. You might also like a solenoid and bubble counter. You can get all of this for around $100 or so.


----------



## Phaturkey (Jan 15, 2007)

haha, woops. Yeah one with the C02 cans.. . 

So, is it ok if I buy some of your plants? I would love to take you up on the offer.


----------



## Kjm (May 27, 2005)

Kelly,

If you live in Crowley, you are right down the road from me. I just did a major pruning right before the meeting last Sat., but I will have some clippings before too long and you can have all that you want for free.

I have several fast growing plants that will help you with establishing your tank. I made the mistake of only adding a few plants when I first started my tank about a year ago and I went through the algae battle from hell. I'll PM you with my contact information. Here's how the tank started back in March.










and here is a horrible picture (but you get the idea) taken just a couple months ago when I really let the tank get out of hand. So as you can see, I have lots of cuttings to share.










It's a little late for this, but I also have some handy hardware for rinsing gravel. I got this idea from Nikolay.

















These pieces were purchased at The Container Store. You insert the mesh cube inside the crate, pour your gravel in, and spray the heck out of it with a water hose. I laid two scrap pieces of 2x4's underneath the crate to raise it up off the ground for better drainage. It was dark outside when I finished rinsing, so I didn't get any pictures past this. The crate and mesh come in all kinds of pretty colors too!

One last thought, on those rocks that you collected nearby...they are probably limestone. I have heard that limestone can really effect your water hardness (and maybe other things like pH). I got my river rocks at Whiz-Q-Stone over off of I-820 for next to nothing.

Kathy


----------



## Troy McClure (Aug 3, 2005)

I like your rock arrangement but it's way out of proportion. I would be very impressed if this was 20gal long Iwagumi style but as it is right now, once you get more plants in there half those rocks are going to be hidden.


----------



## Phaturkey (Jan 15, 2007)

Hey guys, havent updated in a while. I've received plants from my new friend on these forums. And thank for em. Here are some of the first pictures taken after i had everything planted.


----------



## Phaturkey (Jan 15, 2007)

ok, I did a major upgrade on my setup.

Bought a new 48" lighting ficture with compact fluorescent bulbs. Holds two of them totalling for 130 watts of light.

That plus the light that came with the tank of 40 watts ends up to 170 watts with 3.09 wpg.

The lighting period I have figured out are. 6 hours of low light, 4 of high light, then two of low. I had to bend this to fit my schedule, I am going to soon invest in a timer for the light system.

I have the new system up on legs and the other one infront of it for airation with the water. 









I have also rescaped my whole tank and added a few fish after.

The New fish are:
-3 neon tetra 
-5 black tetra
-3 clown loaches
-1 knifefish
-1 Rhino Pleco

I am thinking of investing in some shrimp, some algea has appeared on a few leafs, black and spotty in appearance. I have removed them but I still want to prevent future algea.

Going for more of a concave look, I rescaped my tank, below is a picture with a concave rule.










The older one just had clumps of a certain plant here and there without any thought into what grows faster and how the final look will feel. Also, I flipped the wood on its side to get a more tree root feel to it (also created a cave that my clown loaches love).

Co2, I had thought about it and purchased a kit for my tank, but the packets that came with it never started up or had any bubbles. So, seeing it was a basic yeast/sugar/water/baking soda mix I created my own following some recipe tips I found on this site. I can say that its producing plenty of bubbles and how fun it is to watch them get smaller as they go up the hagen ladder.










This is my tank now, after all of the rescaping and thought.

I can't wait for it to grow in! 

Any thoughts or concerns would be greatly appreciated. Give me some constructive criticism.


----------

