# The beginning of madness



## tekknoschtev (Feb 24, 2005)

First, a little back story - my brother has always wanted Oscars, and his sophomore year in high school, he got a 55 gallon tank for christmas. Some HOB filters and a cycle later, he had two small Oscars. He knew they'd outgrow the tank, but also planned on upgrading when that happened (which so happened to coincide with going to college and moving into our house up here for college with me - a college student too). His plan was for a 75-90...

Well... a good deal came along that we couldn't pass up. A 150 gallon aquarium. FANTASTIC. Perfect for two oscars and a pleco or two. And then the maddness began. I forefitted my coral propagation stand for his tank as I'm planning an upgrade soon, and so he just chopped the stand down a bit so it'd fit in the basement. A few back aches later, we got the 6' tank down to a basement that is a hair over 6' tall.









Note: my brother is by no means a giant - the basement is just short.









The drifwood we collected from the lake in our backyard back home. Previous experience told us that this wood will float, quite a bit, so we swung by Preuss and bought 16 lbs of slate. A trip to home depot for some stainless steel screws and a masonary bit, we had driftwood attached to slate that worked pretty well.









... but not well enough. The wood still floats a bit, but its already beginning to sink more.









And here's how it stands now. The plants are all trimmings from my sister and I's 55gal planted tank (which is amazing that the tank isn't bare after taking this many plants from it!).

And another note. We are both well aware that Oscars and planted tanks don't exactly mix  Previous experience tells us that plants rooted in substrate don't stand a chance unless in pots - hence the vast majority of the current and future plants being rooted to driftwood. We're not planning anything super over the top for this tank like CO2 or crazy lighting (heck, currently we've only got the 160W of NO Flourescent over the tank). We are going to fill out the ends with some smaller lights - its just that we couldn't find 6' fixtures anywhere locally, and plants were a secondary consideration to having the oscars in a bigger/better home, so if the plants grow horay, if not, I'll take 'em out and trade them in or something.

Substrate is going to be what we use in all of our other FW tanks - .5-1.5" of pea gravel. Works great for the oscars for ease of cleaning, and gives most plants that we keep just enough room to root so they cant be ripped up easily. As time progresses (and our bank accounts replenish from tuition payments) we might get something better for lighting, but for now this will have to do.

Let me know what you think, always open to suggestions/comments.


----------



## Ownager2004 (Apr 18, 2006)

Cool. Can we see a picture with the oscars in the tank?


----------



## tekknoschtev (Feb 24, 2005)

Its going to be a bit before the oscars are in the tank, but I will update when they are. My brother is stoked to be getting them up here but we don't have the funds to stock it with enough quick growing plants to avoid the fishless cycle so its going to fishless cycle and once thats done - they'll be up.


----------



## tekknoschtev (Feb 24, 2005)

Maddness completed.










This has to be the single largest piece of driftwood I have seen available that _didnt_ cost $100+. Rather, the piece only set my brother back about $38. The _real_ trick was just getting the dang thing into the tank. the 150 we have has 4 braces on it, and the piece weighs easily 30-40lbs dry. It took quite a bit of fenagling things to get it to fit into the tank.










Here are the two oscars. We were anticipating them looking tiny in the new tank, but surprisingly, they look very proportional to the size of the tank.










And here is the middle of the tank. I have to apologize for the poor quality images. Anyone who has ever attempted to photograph moving subjects in relatively low light conditions can understand/sympathize with me. My brother is looking at a 2 or 4 bulb VHO setup for the tank, or maybe a PC setup for the future, but for now this will have to do.

The plants consist of trimmings or off-shoots of plants in my sister's tank. Two amazon sword plants that outgrew her aquarium a long time ago and had been in the oscar's previous tank as well as several handfuls of stargrass that had been growing rampant in my sister's aquarium. There's some crypt lutea (walkeri?) that had been growing in a corner where it couldn't be seen so we brought it up, split it up and planted it. There's also the anubias v. nana and barteri in there and some java ferns. I'm sure some java moss hitchiked in on some of the other plants so in a few months, we'll know for sure 

Anyways, the maddness has begun. Its only going to go down hill from here.


----------



## standoyo (Aug 25, 2005)

Nice setup guys.

The only thing is I've seen plecos being swallowed by oscars so I hope you keep the oscars well fed! :lol:

Perhaps the type of wood should be the same[a single type] but that's probably too late now.


----------



## tekknoschtev (Feb 24, 2005)

Thanks for the compliments. As for the plecos being eaten - my brother feeds his oscars too well for them to even contemplate swallowing a pleco. That said, I'm going to beat him into a better water change schedule than he previously had 

And yes, from an aesthetic point of view, the driftwood should have been the same. I tried to convince him of that, but he _had_ to have that piece of driftwood. He has vowed to eventually change over all of the lake driftwood to the other kind (malaysian?) But its something he needs to save up for. I think it'll look even better when that happens.


----------



## gabeszone (Jan 22, 2006)

Man I always wanted oscars, but living in a Japanese house space is limited. I miss American size houses. Thats a nice 150gal tank, but that size of a tank wouldnt fit in my house.


----------



## standoyo (Aug 25, 2005)

tekknoschtev said:


> Thanks for the compliments. As for the plecos being eaten - my brother feeds his oscars too well for them to even contemplate swallowing a pleco. That said, I'm going to beat him into a better water change schedule than he previously had
> 
> And yes, from an aesthetic point of view, the driftwood should have been the same. I tried to convince him of that, but he _had_ to have that piece of driftwood. He has vowed to eventually change over all of the lake driftwood to the other kind (malaysian?) But its something he needs to save up for. I think it'll look even better when that happens.


Hmmm, you might find some from where Tom's[plantbrain] getting them in the states.

Have a look http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum/showthread.php?t=23245


----------

