# 150g Riparium project!



## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Well I'm ready for another tank and I finally think I decided on one, no one has them instock so it would need to be ordered in.

72x18x27 150g!

This will be setup riparium style and still have alot of planning to do. Total water volume will be about 56g. I'm considering drilling the back of the tank to allow for the filters to be completely hidden from view. Thinking 3 Eheim Classic 2213's spread across the back, 2 will have Hydor Inline heaters, the middle one will house a Turbotwist 3x UV and an inline CO2 reactor incase I go with CO2 down the road. 

I am considering 3 70 watt Viper HQI MH fixtures as I don't need a ton of light but the T5HO fixtures are almost null for a 6 foot tank. I figure with the 3 Vipers mounted as high as I can should create a good spread down at the bottom without to much worry of too much lighting.

Found a nice piece of wood at the local store that is mounted to a piece of slate so it would look like an old tree coming out of the water. Would be a good place for some moss and anubias to hang out. 

Stocking will be Cardinals and some various tetras.

What does everyone think? Who will be able to help with plant as the equipment will push the limit on my budget.

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Just a slight update, I will be ordering my tank tomorrow and it will be here Wednesday! 150g 72x18x17 with overflows. I will be cutting out the overflows so I can use a canister filter under the stand for that super clean install look.

Craig


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## legomaniac89 (Mar 16, 2008)

Alright! Back in the game! I can't wait to see what you do with a tank this size. Looking forward to see how this one comes together.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

legomaniac89 said:


> Alright! Back in the game! I can't wait to see what you do with a tank this size. Looking forward to see how this one comes together.


Thanks, I've got lots of plans made and most stuff ordered. May have to hit you up for some plants at some point.


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## Chrisinator (Jun 5, 2008)

Sounds like it's gonna be an awesome tank!


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

O.k. here is the plan:

150g with overflows removed and bulk heads for the filtration

Filtration: 2 Eheim 2213's setup with Loc Line fittings split to dual returns for customizable flow
Heating: 2 Hydor 200 watt Heaters In-Line ETH series
UV: Turbo Twist 3X 9w UV
CO2: None atleast for now
Lighting: 3 Viper 70 watt MH matched to 8000k Bulbs mounted over the tanks rim
Substrate: ADA Xingu Sand
Hardscape: Riaprium above, probably rocks down below, maybe a couple pieces of wood if I find something I like
Flora: Undecided
Fauna: Schools of different Tetras- Cardinal, Rummy, Black Neon, possibly something else; Otos; Possibly RCS; Cory Cats not sure which.

That is about all I got for now. My pocket book isn't fat anymore.

Craig


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## MrJG (Feb 21, 2007)

Can wait to see this develop. This tank isn't going to be rimless is it? 

subscribed.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

MrJG said:


> Can wait to see this develop. This tank isn't going to be rimless is it?
> 
> subscribed.


This one will be rimmed as I may be using the glass tops on it.


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## CL (Mar 13, 2008)

I would recommend 2 Rena XP2s for more flow, and maybe cut down on the species of fish to improve aesthetics, IMO.
It's gonna be good


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## RipariumGuy (Aug 6, 2009)

Sweet! I cant wait to see it finished!


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

CL said:


> I would recommend 2 Rena XP2s for more flow, and maybe cut down on the species of fish to improve aesthetics, IMO.
> It's gonna be good


Not a fan of Renas and got a killer deal on the Eheim 2213's 

Here is what I've refined on the Fish list:

Cardinal Tetra
Rummy Nose tetras/ or possibly Rasbora Espi
Otos
Corydoras CW021
Shadow Cats
Sparkling Gouramis

Don't forget These guys have a 72x18 floorspace to cruise around in and most max at 2.5". I think once they get into the tank it will make a great blend of colors and action.

Craig


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## Regloh (Jan 17, 2009)

*subscribed*

I also can't wait to see this tank to come together...

I always think that ripariums look better without the rim. Just curious what your reasons for the glass lid are? Don't want the cats to drown? :biggrin:


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Regloh said:


> *subscribed*
> 
> I also can't wait to see this tank to come together...
> 
> I always think that ripariums look better without the rim. Just curious what your reasons for the glass lid are? Don't want the cats to drown? :biggrin:


 
Cat, also with a little one I'm sure things will get tossed in or atleast attempted. :icon_mrgr

Also some plants require a much higher humidity and it is a good way to keep the humidity up when needed.

On the other hand I don't feel inclined to cut the rim off a new $650 tank either.

Craig


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## Regloh (Jan 17, 2009)

All very good reasons 

Hey, I just bought a 72x18x24 (125ga) for $300... Does the drilling make it that much more expensive?


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Regloh said:


> All very good reasons
> 
> Hey, I just bought a 72x18x24 (125ga) for $300... Does the drilling make it that much more expensive?


 
Depends on where you go. The place I'm going is only upcharging me $75 for the drilled tank. The place really close was $499 for the non drilled and $999 for the drilled version. The place I'm going is charging me ~$875 for the tank and stand minus lights and glass tops which will run me about $70 extra. I've been searching the locals for a tank but those that have come up are scratched or they want new price for them so I jsut figured I would buy it new.

I did look at the 125 several times but decided to go with the extra 5.5" of height which will allow some larger plants and more space for them without coming out the top.

Also I think the 125 is ony 21.5 or 22" tall. The 150 is 27 or 27.5" if I remember correctly.

Craig


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## Regloh (Jan 17, 2009)

Oh absolutely, for a riparium the added height is a real plus... I would have gone that way as well...
$800 just seemed really expensive, but I'm sure quality has something to do with it 

Your tank isn't acrylic, is it? Those are around $800 here as well...


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Regloh said:


> Oh absolutely, for a riparium the added height is a real plus... I would have gone that way as well...
> $800 just seemed really expensive, but I'm sure quality has something to do with it
> 
> Your tank isn't acrylic, is it? Those are around $800 here as well...


 
Nope just nice thick really heavy glass. There are few shops around my area so they can charge what they want for the most part as there is very little competition around especially once you hit hte bigger tanks. Only really 3 stores around to get large tanks the most expensive is 5 minutes away, the other two stores are 30 and 50 minutes respectively away.


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## Regloh (Jan 17, 2009)

Well, I'm sorry to hear that they can rip you off like that 

I actually planed to build a tank myself, but for 300 bucks it really wasn't worth the effort...

I will report back, when I get my tank on Tuesday... maybe it's just really badly put together...


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Regloh said:


> Well, I'm sorry to hear that they can rip you off like that
> 
> I actually planed to build a tank myself, but for 300 bucks it really wasn't worth the effort...
> 
> I will report back, when I get my tank on Tuesday... maybe it's just really badly put together...


 
Post pics once you get it. Mine should be at hte shop by Wednesday hopefully home by Wednesday night.

Craig


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## JennaH (Sep 28, 2009)

i'm super excited to see this come together! i've heard the winter in iowa has been rough this year, sorry to hear that. im so spoiled now thinking that 45 is cold haha.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

JennaH said:


> i'm super excited to see this come together! i've heard the winter in iowa has been rough this year, sorry to hear that. im so spoiled now thinking that 45 is cold haha.


 
Thanks!

Well my tank has been ordered and pending any problems it will be here Wednesday morning and I should have it home sometime Wednesday afternoon.

Craig


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## ldk59 (Jan 30, 2009)

Craig, 

Good to see you back! I'm going to enjoy seeing this come together...

Larry


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

ldk59 said:


> Craig,
> 
> Good to see you back! I'm going to enjoy seeing this come together...
> 
> Larry


 
Thanks Larry how is teh ADA wares treating you?


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## OverStocked (May 26, 2007)

I can't wait to see this unfold. I love ripariums, so it is always excited to see a new one come together. Devin and ripuariumsupply.com is amazing, too!

What are the decent fish shops in your area? Care to pm them to me, if you need. We make it down there about 3 times a year and I will be in the area in May.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

over_stocked said:


> I can't wait to see this unfold. I love ripariums, so it is always excited to see a new one come together. Devin and ripuariumsupply.com is amazing, too!
> 
> What are the decent fish shops in your area? Care to pm them to me, if you need. We make it down there about 3 times a year and I will be in the area in May.


What do you consider decent, not much other then common stuff around here as that is waht sells. I will probably be ordering all my fish in.

This tank will be setup with Nano sized fish to fit the scale of what I'm going for and think I have it narrowed down to 5 species total all from teh asian region.

Giant Sparkling Gourami x10 max ~2"
Microrasbora Kubotia x25 max 1.25"
Rasbora Espei x20 max ~1.25"
Sundadanio Axelrodi 'Blue Form' x20 can't find the max but probably pretty small 1.25" max
Hara Jerdoni x15 max 1.4" small catfish looks kind of like a Corydoras only from asia

Might seem like alot of fish but at there tiny full grown size and that large foot print I think it should work out well. Can't wait to get started the tank should be here Wednesday, will be painting the back of the tank Wednesday evening. Lighting and filtration wiht plumbing should be here Wednesday as well. Substrate is set to arrive Firday and Riaprium supplies on Friday or Saturday. Should be a busy week ahead getting everything setup. Also need to start getting some RO water into containers so I can get the tank filled up faster as our tap water is horrible so I will jsut add Tom Bars GH booster also the fish like softer water anyways.

The tank will have right around 60g of water space in it + or - depending on how I get it setup.

Craig


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## legomaniac89 (Mar 16, 2008)

_S. axelrodi_'s are sick! I've always wanted a school of those guys. The _H. jerdoni_'s are pretty awesome too, just be sure to keep the water on the cooler side to keep them happy :thumbsup:

I might be as excited about this as you are


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

legomaniac89 said:


> _S. axelrodi_'s are sick! I've always wanted a school of those guys. The _H. jerdoni_'s are pretty awesome too, just be sure to keep the water on the cooler side to keep them happy :thumbsup:
> 
> I might be as excited about this as you are



Can you tell me about how big hte axelrodies get as I can't find any good sources of info on them.

Craig


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## legomaniac89 (Mar 16, 2008)

Tiny. I think 1" is about max. The Shedd Aquarium in Chicago has a massive school of the reds and blues in one of their giant biotope tanks, if you ever get up that way. Truly a beautiful fish.

If you're looking at nano-fish, maybe try a Pygmy Cory school of some kind. I have _C. habrosus_ and they are one of the coolest little fish I've ever had.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

legomaniac89 said:


> Tiny. I think 1" is about max. The Shedd Aquarium in Chicago has a massive school of the reds and blues in one of their giant biotope tanks, if you ever get up that way. Truly a beautiful fish.
> 
> If you're looking at nano-fish, maybe try a Pygmy Cory school of some kind. I have _C. habrosus_ and they are one of the coolest little fish I've ever had.


Thanks, I had been looking at hte Pygmy Cories but they are South American. I've specifically chosen fish from the Asian area as they should all mesh well.

Craig


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

This sounds like an awesome project. I can't wait to see some pictures. I hope that I can put together a riparium in a six-foot tank someday. You will be able to put a lot of cool plants in there.

The Xingu Sand is a good choice. I bought a bag of that a while back. You will have to shell out some coin to fill that big tank, but the nice appearance will be worth it. 

Those fish selections sound intriguing too. I have never heard of "giant" sparkling gouramis. Where are you getting those from? That selection of nano/smallish fish will make that setup look vast in size. You know I think it could be cool for a tank with such a big footprint to include a group of active, bottom-dwelling shoalers. That catfish will be interesting to include, but I read that they are shy and retiring. What do you htink of a group of loaches?


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

hydrophyte said:


> This sounds like an awesome project. I can't wait to see some pictures. I hope that I can put together a riparium in a six-foot tank someday. You will be able to put a lot of cool plants in there.
> 
> The Xingu Sand is a good choice. I bought a bag of that a while back. You will have to shell out some coin to fill that big tank, but the nice appearance will be worth it.
> 
> Those fish selections sound intriguing too. I have never heard of "giant" sparkling gouramis. Where are you getting those from? That selection of nano/smallish fish will make that setup look vast in size. You know I think it could be cool for a tank with such a big footprint to include a group of active, bottom-dwelling shoalers. That catfish will be interesting to include, but I read that they are shy and retiring. What do you htink of a group of loaches?


I'm looking at loaches but trying to find a group from the same gerneral region that stays smallish ~2" max is proving difficult. I'll PM you list of fish contacts later rtoday.

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

hydrophyte said:


> This sounds like an awesome project. I can't wait to see some pictures. I hope that I can put together a riparium in a six-foot tank someday. You will be able to put a lot of cool plants in there.
> 
> The Xingu Sand is a good choice. I bought a bag of that a while back. You will have to shell out some coin to fill that big tank, but the nice appearance will be worth it.
> 
> Those fish selections sound intriguing too. I have never heard of "giant" sparkling gouramis. Where are you getting those from? That selection of nano/smallish fish will make that setup look vast in size. You know I think it could be cool for a tank with such a big footprint to include a group of active, bottom-dwelling shoalers. That catfish will be interesting to include, but I read that they are shy and retiring. What do you htink of a group of loaches?


 
PS. I know the price on the Xingu sand s high I think the shipping is worse though.... Still it sohuld be here Friday for me.


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## jmhart (Mar 14, 2008)

Just something to consider if you are really trying to hide as much equipment as possible:

I'm cycling my 120g right now, 4'x2'x2' with a 700gph corner overflow (Marineland tank). Anyway, I cut out the overflow and used the existing holes just as you are. One hole was dedicated to supplying a closed loop filtration system, and the other hole was the return to a substrate level spray bar pointing straight up the back wall. You can see the plumbing here:

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/t...-big-boy-120g-planted-updated.html#post994306

I don't have picture of the spray bar, but I'll get those up soon. I also included a mad drive pump pumping over the rim into a loc-line for more flow. I've had the 120g filled half way for about a week now with just the substrate level spray bar. It greats A LOT of circulation, and I mean circulation. Filled up have way, it shoots water up to the surface, then that water is force to head foward to the front of the tank, it hits the front glass, pushes down, and then gets pulled back by the filter intakes. It's one big loop 

Point is, it's awesome, and once planted will be completely invisible. Maybe something you want to consider.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

jmhart said:


> Just something to consider if you are really trying to hide as much equipment as possible:
> 
> I'm cycling my 120g right now, 4'x2'x2' with a 700gph corner overflow (Marineland tank). Anyway, I cut out the overflow and used the existing holes just as you are. One hole was dedicated to supplying a closed loop filtration system, and the other hole was the return to a substrate level spray bar pointing straight up the back wall. You can see the plumbing here:
> 
> ...


Great minds think alike, this is what I'm going to do is cut out the overflows on the 150 I'm getting. I will be using locline parts to have the returns split so I can adjust as I see fit. I will have a pair of holes on each side of the tank being a 6' tank and each will be setup with an Eheim 2213.

Craig


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## jmhart (Mar 14, 2008)

Craigthor said:


> Great minds think alike, this is what I'm going to do is cut out the overflows on the 150 I'm getting. I will be using locline parts to have the returns split so I can adjust as I see fit. I will have a pair of holes on each side of the tank being a 6' tank and each will be setup with an Eheim 2213.
> 
> Craig



Ok. I thought you were going to run the loc-lines over the back rim. I gotcha. Good deal. 

After a week of pumping, I am 110% satisfied with bottom of tank filtration.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Woohoo everything is now ordered and accounted for... Now the wait for everything to fall into place. Currently filling a new 50g trashcan with RO water to age it slightly before the tank comes as it will take alot to fill the tank and this way I won't ahve to wait forever for it to fill.

Craig


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

That's super. You must be having fun.

I think I noticed before that you are using RO water. It will be important to replace some hardness. I have seen that some plants, including _Spathiphyllum_ and _Anubias_, seem to be susceptible to magnesium deficiency when grow emersed. This is particularly true under pretty bright lighting.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

hydrophyte said:


> That's super. You must be having fun.
> 
> I think I noticed before that you are using RO water. It will be important to replace some hardness. I have seen that some plants, including _Spathiphyllum_ and _Anubias_, seem to be susceptible to magnesium deficiency when grow emersed. This is particularly true under pretty bright lighting.


 
I'll be using Tom Barrs GH Booster has all the thing to up my gh and I will use a tough of baking soda to up my KH. Our local Tap water is horrid the cats won't even drink it. They add ammonia to the tap water amoungst other nasty stuff and the water also goes through wild swings its jsut as easy to make waht I want for the plants.

I'm having a blast, by the end of next week the tank should start looking semi finished.

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Also figured I would toss in a couple of pictures of the wood I will be working with.

The larger one is ~36x19x11 









The medium one is ~24x14x12









Also is susposed to be sending me a 3rd stump to play with aswell. Now to find the right rocks to go with this scape.

Ordered from a member in the SnS hopefully they arrive soon.

Craig


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## ldk59 (Jan 30, 2009)

Craigthor said:


> Thanks Larry how is teh ADA wares treating you?


The love affair continues my friend :wink: 

That wood is sweet... your choice of substrate is (imho) spot on...

Can't wait to see what plants you choose for this!

Larry K

BTW, I had less than stellar luck with my Sparkling Gouramis (Trichopsis pumilus)... started out with six in my 36g... down to three now 

Four paired up, bullied the other two to death... then one of the two remaining females became egg-bound and died. (and on top of that, they killed fifty bucks worth of snowball shrimp) Grrrr


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

Those are excellent pieces of wood. I think that a third stump is a real good idea--best to use an odd number for the sake of composition.

I snooped around and it seems that the giant sparkling gourami is _Trichopsis schalleri_, aka, the threestripe gourami Like the standard sparkling gourami (_T. pumilis_) the threestripe is a very attractive fish with brightly sparkling scales.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

hydrophyte said:


> Those are excellent pieces of wood. I think that a third stump is a real good idea--best to use an odd number for the sake of composition.
> 
> I snooped around and it seems that the giant sparkling gourami is _Trichopsis schalleri_, aka, the threestripe gourami Like the standard sparkling gourami (_T. pumilis_) the threestripe is a very attractive fish with brightly sparkling scales.


That is correct, it is also slightly larger then its cousin T. Pumilis which maxes around 1.5". Pumilis is the term for Dwarf in latin I believe. 

Craig


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## jmhart (Mar 14, 2008)

That wood is sick! Reminds me of what I was originally going for in my 120g. Planning lots of crypts, anubias, and bolbitis? Cause that's where I'm headed.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

jmhart said:


> That wood is sick! Reminds me of what I was originally going for in my 120g. Planning lots of crypts, anubias, and bolbitis? Cause that's where I'm headed.


Anubias' yes atleast under water, above water lots of cool stuff is planned.

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Well teh tank is home awaiting reinforcements to help carry it up. I did find one tiny imperfection under the bottom silicone looks liek the glass has a small chip in it. It will be under the trim of hte tank and never seen once substrate is put in. To be on the safe side I will be test filling it sometime tomorrow to make sure that it is 100% not going to cause a problem as it is towards the top of hte silicone seem. Can't feel anything above it in the glass but before I paint the back and cut out the overflow boxes I want to be certain I won't have any problems from it. If so back it goes and I will have to await another tnak to be delivered and that will be approximately 2 weeks.

The plan was going so well until this....


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## Regloh (Jan 17, 2009)

Hey look at my tank 










































Ok for the last 3 pictures I was just playing with the super macro setting of the camera 

I have to go back downstairs and measure the glass thickness...
I double checked with the store people. The bottom glass is tempered, the side walls are not...
And all that for $300 plus tax...


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Regloh said:


> Hey look at my tank
> 
> Ok for the last 3 pictures I was just playing with the super macro setting of the camera
> 
> ...


You got a great deal! I'm going to post a few pics in a minute of the small chip inder the silicone and FedEx came while I was out also!

I can atleast start working on the under the tank plumbing and getting the filters ready to setup. I just ordered 4 2213 Lattice screens and some more Substrat Pro and some 2215 filter pads so I can make it like the others without that crappy white basket.

Also ordered some Dr Tims H2O fast starting bacteria similar to the old stuff that is refrigerated and some other odds and ends like test kits etc. everything but the lattice screens shouldd be here Friday.

Craig

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Here are a few pictures:

My RO Storage container has 2 large airstones in the bottom of it, a good place to store aged water.










Suprise from the FedEx guy - Left Monday and arrived by noon today from Drs Foster and Smith










































The chip in the tank, it isn't deep and looks to be right at the top of the silicone seem. Called the owner of hte shop I got it from I have 2 options.

1- return it now and wait 3 weeks for a new one
2- Fill it and test it to see if it leaks forsure. I've thought about skimming over the top of the silicone there with a tiny bead across the top to make sure it has a good seal. Owner said if I did and it leaked to bring it back and he will order another one.
3- My option is strip and reseal the whole thing I have enough silicone to do it and it wouldn't take more then a day to strip and reseal, cost would be zero as I have everything I would need as I had been getting old tanks and redoing them last year. Would also be better then waiting 3 weeks for a new tank to arrive. 


















Ideas, support, whatda think?

I will be removing the overflow boxes anyways which will void the warranty as I was informed by the All glass rep when we ordered the tank I had him ask about it. So resealing the whole tank wouldn't matter.


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## CL (Mar 13, 2008)

I'd say return it and get a new one. For a tank that pricey, I wouldn't want any chips in it.


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## AlexXx (Dec 1, 2009)

return it!


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

CL said:


> I'd say return it and get a new one. For a tank that pricey, I wouldn't want any chips in it.





AlexXx said:


> return it!


 
Tank is in the house, I'm going to try and mend it if that fails I will jsut reseal the tank. Once I cut the overflow boxes out it voids the warranty anyways. I trust my work better then the manufacturers. The chip won't bother me as it will never be seen. Also with the size and weight of the tank I don't think I will be moving it out of the apartment andytime soon. It was all 2 of us could do to get it in here.










Craig


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## Regloh (Jan 17, 2009)

Another thing to consider is that a defect like this could potentialy start to progagate in the future, once some stress is introduced by the water and changing temperatures and so on... 
I don't know.. It's not a crack, but never the less, it's not a smooth edge anymore and stress may concentrate there. 
You don't think you could keep yourself busy for 3 weeks while waiting for the tank?

EDIT: Hey I just noticed your little one in the picture  How old is he/she?


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

Are you sure you don't to just return it? It is hard to see exactly from the photo, but from here the chip looks pretty big. I'd be worried about it spreading. If you do an exchange the manufacturer might be just as likely to send you a replacement without the overflow boxes, if you make such a request, which would save you that step.

What would be the reason to strip and reseal the whole tank?

I have this first box of plants all ready to go in the post. If you do elect to send the tank back you could just set up the plants in a provisional way for a few weeks until you get the replacement.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

hydrophyte said:


> Are you sure you don't to just return it? It is hard to see exactly from the photo, but from here the chip looks pretty big. I'd be worried about it spreading. If you do an exchange the manufacturer might be just as likely to send you a replacement without the overflow boxes, if you make such a request, which would save you that step.
> 
> What would be the reason to strip and reseal the whole tank?
> 
> I have this first box of plants all ready to go in the post. If you do elect to send the tank back you could just set up the plants in a provisional way for a few weeks until you get the replacement.


Well teh overflow boxes have been sealed into to bottom seal of the tank. when I cut them out I'm pretty sure I will ahve to cut the bottom seal out. If I cut one seal they all will need to be cut out to make sure I have one seamless seal with the silicone. Time to cut it all out a couple of hours, time to reseal about an hour Then wait a few days. 

I had checked on getting one without the overflow boxes but still drilled wasn't an option unless I custom ordered through the local petshop and wait time was unkown.

Still up in the air. The chip is only about 3/4" wide and about 1/2" tall and barely more than a 1/16" at its deepest point.

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Well since the project is at a complete hault and the tank is going to be going back I have 2 weeks to work on keeping the plants alive.

Figured I would stick a light on and give you an idea as to what it is going to look like. There will be 3 of these lights going across the back of the tank. A total of 210 watt (3-70 watters) of MH in 8000k color spectrum. Once the new tank arrives again I will have everything ready to go. Actual dimmensions of the tank are 72 1/2 x 18 1/2 x 29 1/2. The lighting will be roughly 10-12" above the top of the tank. 










And just when everything was going so smoothly....

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Tried to call Aqueon (Allglass) directly and no answer as tehy clsoed at 4 cst. left a message and sent them an e-mail to see if I can get a tank brought in faster.

Craig


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## jmhart (Mar 14, 2008)

Regloh said:


> Hey look at my tank
> 
> 
> Ok for the last 3 pictures I was just playing with the super macro setting of the camera
> ...


 

The Aqueon 125g is significantly cheaper than the 150 for a couple of reason. One of which is the glass thickness of the 27" tall tank, but the other is economies of scale. The 125g is VERY popular size, and Aqueon produces a lot of them, so they are able to make them cheaper than the less popular(and larger) 150g. 

I was dead set on a 120g, but if I hadn't been, I could have gotten a NEW 125g for $150 on close out last October.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

jmhart said:


> The Aqueon 125g is significantly cheaper than the 150 for a couple of reason. One of which is the glass thickness of the 27" tall tank, but the other is economies of scale. The 125g is VERY popular size, and Aqueon produces a lot of them, so they are able to make them cheaper than the less popular(and larger) 150g.
> 
> I was dead set on a 120g, but if I hadn't been, I could have gotten a NEW 125g for $150 on close out last October.


Actually my 150 measures a full 29.5" tall and I swear the glass is all of 5/8" thick. It was all 2 of us could do to muscle it inside.

Craig


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## Regloh (Jan 17, 2009)

jmhart said:


> The Aqueon 125g is significantly cheaper than the 150 for a couple of reason. One of which is the glass thickness of the 27" tall tank, but the other is economies of scale. The 125g is VERY popular size, and Aqueon produces a lot of them, so they are able to make them cheaper than the less popular(and larger) 150g.
> 
> I was dead set on a 120g, but if I hadn't been, I could have gotten a NEW 125g for $150 on close out last October.





Craigthor said:


> Actually my 150 measures a full 29.5" tall and I swear the glass is all of 5/8" thick. It was all 2 of us could do to muscle it inside.
> 
> Craig



Both of these statements make total sense... a taller tank would naturally have thicker glass, due to higher pressures.

I can also understand the price considerations when it comes to higher volume manufacturing of these things...

I do still think the taller tank is better suited for what Craig wants to do. Unfortunately they don't make a tall tank with thinner glass, that is designed only to be filled a third of the way 

Craig, does that tank also have two braces over the top?


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Regloh said:


> Both of these statements make total sense... a taller tank would naturally have thicker glass, due to higher pressures.
> 
> I can also understand the price considerations when it comes to higher volume manufacturing of these things...
> 
> ...


It does have 2 braces make the perfect spacing to put on my 3 Viper K2 MH HQI lights. I know the new marineland 125 only has a single middle brace. I wish they made a thinner one I still hurt and tomorrow will probably REALLY hurt.

Craig


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## MrJG (Feb 21, 2007)

Craig sorry to read of the tank coming in dinged. I'm with everyone else. Return it and plan for 2 more weeks. 
The fortunate thing is you have the lighting and you can get your plants from Devin. Pot those bad boys up temporarily so they recover from the shipping strain. I'm sure you can rig your lighting up somewhere for them until the new tank shows.


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## Regloh (Jan 17, 2009)

I feel bad for you ... just make sure you don't drop the tank...

At least you'll have at least 2 weeks to recover for the next delivery 

The 3 segments also make it easier to cover the tank... the panels get pretty large and then you don't know what to do with them when you do a water change


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

Sorry again about the chip in the glass. You'll be relieved in the end to replace the tank. I always find the setup part to be the most exciting part of putting together a new display, so maybe you can consider the wait as a way to prolong the fun.

I got that first box of plants in the post today. I'll send the second tomorrow. Unless they run into bad weather they should be there by Saturday. Like MrJG says it could be good to set up the plants in a temporary way under the new lights--that way they can start to adapt to the new conditions and begin growth.

I like those lights. That 8000K ought to still be pretty white without much blue right? That should give you pretty good color rendering. The water and the fish will look great under that shimmering MH light.


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## Green Leaf Aquariums (Feb 26, 2007)

*I think this will be the largest Riparium to date?*


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

This will be a nice roomy setup. Craig should be able to get a little forest of flowering bushes going in there.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

hydrophyte said:


> Sorry again about the chip in the glass. You'll be relieved in the end to replace the tank. I always find the setup part to be the most exciting part of putting together a new display, so maybe you can consider the wait as a way to prolong the fun.
> 
> I got that first box of plants in the post today. I'll send the second tomorrow. Unless they run into bad weather they should be there by Saturday. Like MrJG says it could be good to set up the plants in a temporary way under the new lights--that way they can start to adapt to the new conditions and begin growth.
> 
> I like those lights. That 8000K ought to still be pretty white without much blue right? That should give you pretty good color rendering. The water and the fish will look great under that shimmering MH light.


I love the look of the 8000k bulbs always gave a nice hue in the tank. do have a plan of attack for getting them into rubbermaid tubs but not sure if I will hook up my MH or some Flourescents I have laying around.



Green Leaf Aquariums said:


> *I think this will be the largest Riparium to date?*


Possibly, Should be fun as I got a couple tricks up my sleve.



hydrophyte said:


> This will be a nice roomy setup. Craig should be able to get a little forest of flowering bushes going in there.


Extra roomy, There will be about 10-12" of water and ~17" of room for the riparium plant growth. Should be beautiful once it fills in.

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

I'm my current stage of not much to do till the new tank arrives I got the following things done.

Ordered CO2 Regulator, Tubing, check valves, Cal Aqua nano Drop checker, 5lb aluminum tank from Orlando at GLA 

Ordered my Lattice Screens, 2215 filter pads, more Substrat Pro for the Eheim 2213 to replace the white basket hence the 2215 pads as I need a larger pad for it now.

Ordered my Driftwood for the Hardscape from D.S. Drifter here in the SnS hope it shows up soon.

Ordered some test kits from Drs F&S

Ordered some 2" clear PVC from the SnS to make a Rex Reactor

Went and picked up supplies locally to get started on the plumbing of the tank, can't finish till the Clear PVC arrives though.

Later this weekend I will start setting up the filters and getting everything plumbed and attached to the inside of the stand, this will make setup once the new tank arrives super easy.

Got my 4' 10 outlet power strip mounted under the stand today, more then enough outlets for what I need and they are spaced out nicely to accept multiple timers as I will need 4 of them 3 for hte lighting and 1 for the CO2.

Probably won't run much CO2 as most of hte underwater plants are going to be lower light plants and most of it will be shaded by the riparium plants. Figured since I have the time I should just plumb in the CO2 incase I ever want it for higher light plants.

Oh yeah jsut finished what I can on the bulkheads. Got the inside the tank parts all setup and the Loc Line pieces all put together. I will be using 3/4" on the inside split to 4 returns to keep the flow now so high as the fish I want to work with prefer low flow water areas. Also got the strainers all setup ready to install with the hose barbs so I can drop those in and go. I will have to glue a couple pieces for the returns as I won't be able to put the bulkheads in if I glue them now.

Craig


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## A Hill (Jul 25, 2005)

Craig its good to see you back around! Hopefully life is looking up these days.

This tank looks like it'll be fun, you always have great journals!

I'm doing the opposite right now and going to be breaking down my 55g for a 60P or something like a couple Mini S or some nano tank. 

-Andrew


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

A Hill said:


> Craig its good to see you back around! Hopefully life is looking up these days.
> 
> This tank looks like it'll be fun, you always have great journals!
> 
> ...


 
If you go ADA I recomment hte Min M not to big but not to small with 2 of them side by side you could use a 36" light with some plants in the middle or 2 Mini L are ~36 together.

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Got some more goodies in today!

188 lbs of ADA Xingu Sand - Great texture and color, nice and light but with great color accents.

Dry good from Ripariumsupply.com

Some Anubias Nana and Anubias 'Petite' from gw11bc

8000k MH bulbs for my lamps now I can sell the 14000k bulbs

Fertilizers from Aquariumfertilizer.com

Last night I got the half the plumbing I could do done. 2213->quick disconnects->Turbotwist 3x->Hydor 200 ETH inline heater->quick disconnects-> can't finish as I need the new tank.

I will work on the other side as soon as my clear PVC arrives along wiht my CO2 tubing from Orlando, not sure how long I should make it thinking 18" max. I can then work on the rest of the plumbing.

Got the MH ballasts into the bottom of the stand, I want to find a neoprene pad for under them. 

Bulkheads are all setup and ready to be installed into the new tank when it arrives adn my driftwood should be here on Tuesday so I can figure out what I want to do with it.

I will update with pictures later this evening.

Craig


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## Regloh (Jan 17, 2009)

Awesome... I am confident you won't die of boredom, waiting for the new tank 

Did you already return it? 

Hope your back is ok


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Regloh said:


> Awesome... I am confident you won't die of boredom, waiting for the new tank
> 
> Did you already return it?
> 
> Hope your back is ok


Nope I'm returnign it Wednesday Morning when the truck shows up I can atleast look at the tank for a few more days, will probably load it Sunday sometime into my truck then lock it in the garage till wednesday.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)




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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

The burning of the lights! 



































They all work, these picutres were taken in a room with all other lighting turned off. Figured I would test out the new 8000k bulbs and get them burned in for a bit. I can now list the 14000k bulbs that came with my light fixtures in the SnS.

I like the color of these 8000k the color seems a tiny bit more blue then the HGN 8000k's I had a couple years back, but I like them.

The lighting is going to be 10.5" from the top trim of the tank and ~28" from the top of the water line. Should keep me in lower light territory and if not I will have the CO2 I can run.

Have a great night!

Craig


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

Wow. I like those lights. That looks super.


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## Regloh (Jan 17, 2009)

I like the lights, but I really like the sand... That's going to look awesome...


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Regloh said:


> I like the lights, but I really like the sand... That's going to look awesome...


That sand is really nice, I love the lighter look of it and that it isn't so brown as most of what I find around here. Also the varried grain size is a nice compliment.

Probably ordered too much but it is better then not having enough when it comes down to it.

Craig


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## Regloh (Jan 17, 2009)

That's right, better sell or RAOK it when you have too much 
Expensive shipping though


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Regloh said:


> That's right, better sell or RAOK it when you have too much
> Expensive shipping though


I wouldn't count on a RAOK with this stuff unless it was jsut a small amount of left over or something cost me an arm and 2 legs to get it here. Shipping would be hard I would have to see how much I could fit into either a medium or large flat rate box. Shipping for all of it to me was really expensive almost $140 in shipping alone. Came in 2 75 lb boxes and 1 40 lb box. Should have seen the UPS guy when I told him to go ahead and bring it up.... I was nice though and went and grabbed one of the boxes and met him at hte top of the stairs for the second box.

Craig


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## Regloh (Jan 17, 2009)

:drool:

You paid how much for shipping ???

If it wasn't written down and I could read it again, I would say I didn't hear you right... I'm surprised they didn't ship it UPS freight. I don't think it would have been super cheap, but I don't know...

Well, there is no way, my better half would let me spend that much money on a fish tank anyway... I envy you


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Regloh said:


> :drool:
> 
> You paid how much for shipping ???
> 
> ...


I asked if it could be shipped freight but they only ship this stuff Ground. Probably would have been slightly cheaper.

Craig


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## jmhart (Mar 14, 2008)

Craigthor said:


> I asked if it could be shipped freight but they only ship this stuff Ground. Probably would have been slightly cheaper.
> 
> Craig



ADG or AF?


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

jmhart said:


> ADG or AF?


AFA is who I go through 99% of the time.


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## jmhart (Mar 14, 2008)

Craigthor said:


> AFA is who I go through 99% of the time.



I'm sure you're not, but....don't beat yourself up too much about the shipping. AFA(and probably ADG) has different in-store(higher) vs internet pricing(lower)...after shipping, it usually comes out to be about the same price.

And before anybody thinks this is weird, that's to cover the storefront overhead...they could just be internet only and operate out of Missoula, Montana, but instead they have a storefront a stones throw away from Van Ness in San Francisco.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

jmhart said:


> I'm sure you're not, but....don't beat yourself up too much about the shipping. AFA(and probably ADG) has different in-store(higher) vs internet pricing(lower)...after shipping, it usually comes out to be about the same price.
> 
> And before anybody thinks this is weird, that's to cover the storefront overhead...they could just be internet only and operate out of Missoula, Montana, but instead they have a storefront a stones throw away from Van Ness in San Francisco.


I'm not beating myself up over it as it was worth every penny to have what I wanted for substrate. I looked all over locally and the surrounding areas and would never have been able to find anything close to this stuff.

I do know they charge less then in the store for that reason, I know there ADA AS is $10 cheaper online then in the store but once you pay shipping it is about the same.

Craig


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## jmhart (Mar 14, 2008)

Craigthor said:


> I'm not beating myself up over it as it was worth every penny to have what I wanted for substrate. I looked all over locally and the surrounding areas and would never have been able to find anything close to this stuff.
> 
> I do know they charge less then in the store for that reason, I know there ADA AS is $10 cheaper online then in the store but once you pay shipping it is about the same.
> 
> Craig



I figured you knew all that, but now Regloh knows too! :red_mouth:red_mouth


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## VadimShevchuk (Sep 19, 2009)

Wow this is gonna be awsome! You spent alot of $$$$ for something cool =D


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

I agree that that ADA gravel is worth the high price. Substrates are generally overlooked by the industry and hobbyists alike, but they are so important for creating a natural layout.

Hey I include a few notes here on the plants that I sent in box #1 and box #2:


*Spathiphyllum wallisii* "peace lily"--easy plant. Watch out for chlorotic (yellowed) leaves, which can result from too-intense lighting or nutrient deficiencies (Mg, Fe or N). 
*Spathiphyllum 'Domino'*--peace lily with white-variegated foliage. 
*Wedelia trilobata*--a viny plant that blooms with nice yellow flowers with plenty of ferts and good lighting. Grows leggy. Prune growing tips to encourage more bushy shape. Benefits from root fertilization.
*Ruellia brittoniana*--blooms with lavender flowers if provided good lighting and ferts. Watch out for spider mites on this plant when the weather warms--it is susceptible to mites and if they find it treat promptly. Benefits from root fertilization.
*Cryptocoryne ciliata*--unlike most crypts grows very well in moderate humidity. watch out for creeping rhizomes at plant base, which you can use to start new plants. Benefits from root fertilization.
*Echinodorus cordifolius*--easy. Grows large. Watch for plantlets on flower stalk, which you can use to start new little plants. 
*Asclepias 'Silky Gold'*--very easy. Will bloom with good ferts and lighting. Benefits from root fertilization.
*Pilea cardieri*--for Nano Trellis Raft. Makes a nice variegated midground hedge. As stems grow taller, prune tops and use cuttings to start new stems on additional rafts. Requires enlargement of notches--use a razor or other sharp blade to cut foam--in foam raft insert to accommodate fatter stems of this plant.
*Bacopa madagascariensis*--for planting with Small Hanging Planter + Trellis Raft. Plant ~6 stems per planter. Make sure to insert root end of stem (not the shoot end) into planter gravel. Makes an awesome floating carpet effect if pruned to encourage branching and bushy growth. Benefits from root fertilization.
*Xanthosoma 'Dwarf Green'*--a taro that stays relatively small. Plant in Large Hanging Planter. Good to position planter higher in tank so that tuber is somewhat above the water level.

Well those are just some quick observations anyway. I denote several plants as "benefits from root fertilization". I would have thought to mention this before, but if you can I would recommend getting some fertilizer roots tabs to include in planters as you plant.

I'll come back with another list for the stuff in box #3.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

hydrophyte said:


> I agree that that ADA gravel is worth the high price. Substrates are generally overlooked by the industry and hobbyists alike, but they are so important for creating a natural layout.
> 
> Hey I include a few notes here on the plants that I sent in box #1 and box #2:
> 
> ...


 
Thanks, I've got some Root Tabs from aquariumfertilizer.com will those work well enough. I also know over_stocked is going to be working on some riparium fert tabs later one.

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

hydrophyte said:


> I agree that that ADA gravel is worth the high price. Substrates are generally overlooked by the industry and hobbyists alike, but they are so important for creating a natural layout.
> 
> Hey I include a few notes here on the plants that I sent in box #1 and box #2:
> 
> ...


Got everything into the planters and stuffed into the rubbermaid tub, tomorrow I will probably bring a second tub in and thin down this one abit and get ready for the next box o plants. Great plants and superb quality.

Can't wait to get his tank into action, but slow and steady wins the race...


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## A Hill (Jul 25, 2005)

Sir I believe your lights are on backwards :flick:

Looks like its going to be one heck of a tank! Is anything going to inhabit the land section? 



Craigthor said:


> If you go ADA I recommend the Min M not to big but not to small with 2 of them side by side you could use a 36" light with some plants in the middle or 2 Mini L are ~36 together.
> 
> Craig


Well I think I'm planning to get a mini M for college next year possibly with the mini m solar light and the ADA advanced CO2 system or Do!Aqua version, but I'm not sure if I want to do something like this now or go with the 60p so that I can keep most of my CPDs and pigmy corry cats for a bit longer :icon_roll I'll probably figure it out towards the end of the month since ADG is getting a new shipment of goods:help:

-Andrew


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Nope there is not real land section just Riparium hangers on teh back of the tank.

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Well tank is loaded for the return to the shop on Wednesday and locked in the garage. Shop owner said he is 95% sure my new tank will be on the truck as well and we can just swap it out, woohoo... I so miss not even having hte empty tank to look at.

Got the filters 75% hooked up the rest I need the tank and bulkheads installed to do. The PVC reactor pictured is a temp as my clear PVC and CO2 stuff should be here Wednesday so I can build the reactor. Right side is my UV, Inline heater and eheim 2213. Left side is my PVC reactor, hydor inline heater and Eheim 2213. I'm going to switch out the Loc Line return parts I got and go with 1/2" pieces which I ordered this evening. They should be here Wednesday as well. 

If all goes as planned it may have water in it by the end of the weekend pending arrival of my driftwood.


































Craig


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## CL (Mar 13, 2008)

Wow that stuff looks fun. So they will have your replacement tank for you on Weds.? I'm not sure if I would stack those ballasts like that, the heat might get a bit extreme.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

CL said:


> Wow that stuff looks fun. So they will have your replacement tank for you on Weds.? I'm not sure if I would stack those ballasts like that, the heat might get a bit extreme.


 
Hopefully on Wednesday as I hate to wait another week for it. The ballasts won't remain that way; I think I will build a rack for them under the stand there so the CO2 tank can also fit in that middle bay aswell.

Also have about 8 peices of nice wood coming this week to choose from, have some great ideas to work with and some super unique peices coming. First batch will be here on Tuesday and the rest should be here on thursday or Friday. 

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Well I've been pondering how to hide the white PVC as the sand will be lighter in color and black just wouldn't do. The Loc Line and Intakes will be black nothing I can do about that I will have to creatively hide those behind some wood or something. So I covered the PVC couplers in silicone and covered them in the same sand I will be using for the substrate, should camoflauge them in nicely.










Like my Dell Mini 10?





























Oh yeah I think I'm coming down with something. 


































I couldn't keep the humidity up with the Rubbermaid tub so I got this, wife even approved!

Craig


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## CL (Mar 13, 2008)

Nice mini 10! I have the exact same one, but I'm running ubuntu on mine. How did you stick the sand to the bulkheads?


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

Careful, those riparium plants will march on invading one tank after another until they have taken over your home. That's what they did here.

That growout/holding setup looks good. You might stick an airstone in there to move the water around a bit if you hadn't done that already. I think you could also start rolling back the plastic cling wrap--those plants should all do OK with just moderate humidity levels--they don't need it super humidity.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

CL said:


> Nice mini 10! I have the exact same one, but I'm running ubuntu on mine. How did you stick the sand to the bulkheads?


Running XP sp3, my Mini 10 has the built in GPS chipset for GPS on the go, external DVD/ DVD RW. :icon_cool



hydrophyte said:


> Careful, those riparium plants will march on invading one tank after another until they have taken over your home. That's what they did here.
> 
> That growout/holding setup looks good. You might stick an airstone in there to move the water around a bit if you hadn't done that already. I think you could also start rolling back the plastic cling wrap--those plants should all do OK with just moderate humidity levels--they don't need it super humidity.


Got a 28" airstone across the bottom, gives a light tumble in the water for slight aggitation. I covered it up again as the 'Domino' was getting some really dry spots in multiple parts on each leaf. I had it covered and jsut opened it slightly last night as I was fighting the cling wrap on the rubbermaid tub. I think tomorrow I will open it up a bit again. The Dwarf Green is throwing out another leaf. Since covering it back up after the move to the new tank everything has started to perk up abit. Think I can fit that last box of plants in here aswell, might be tight?

I do need to get another bulb as I have 2 different color spectrums and want them to match. Also thinking about grabbing some 10" relectors for this so I can run larger CFLs in the propigation tank.



Craig


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## RipariumGuy (Aug 6, 2009)

WoW! That is alot of plants! Makes me wish I could get a larger riparium...[sigh]


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

JakeJ said:


> WoW! That is alot of plants! Makes me wish I could get a larger riparium...[sigh]


And that isn't all of them.  Once I get my tank up and running there are a few I want to start playing with in this tank.

Craig


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## RipariumGuy (Aug 6, 2009)

Craigthor said:


> And that isn't all of them.  Once I get my tank up and running there are a few I want to start playing with in this tank.
> 
> Craig


Lucky! You have totaly been sucked in to ripariums! :icon_mrgr


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

JakeJ said:


> Lucky! You have totaly been sucked in to ripariums! :icon_mrgr


 
I have, I have.... Better then alot of other things I could be doing though. Also I will have 6' of tank wall to fill in with these!

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Got some electrical organization done today. Holy zip ties batman. One of my pet peves is a clutter mess of wiring.










































The 3 lights are run to a heavy duty power strip attached to a heavy duty outdoor digital timer. I will also be running the CO2 to this strip as well so it will all be on one timer.

Clear PVC arrived today and the rest of the CO2 gear will be here tomorrow so I can finish the PVC Reactor.










Also the first shipment of driftwood arrived today with another set to arrive tomorrow!


























Craig


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## SearunSimpson (Jun 5, 2007)

Nice man! You defs gotta snap pics of you planting and setting up.


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## OverStocked (May 26, 2007)

Craig, i will try to get your tabs and rip tabs out by thursday. YOu should get them in one day since we are so close. 

Reformulating the riparium tabs right now, so we will see. And 7 degrees outside makes it hard to get the kiln to 700.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

over_stocked said:


> Craig, i will try to get your tabs and rip tabs out by thursday. YOu should get them in one day since we are so close.
> 
> Reformulating the riparium tabs right now, so we will see. And 7 degrees outside makes it hard to get the kiln to 700.


Thanks... roud:


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## macclellan (Dec 22, 2006)

Nice setup so far.

'Tis a shame that the Vipers have those clunky, hot, and inefficient magnetic ballasts though.  On the upside, they should help heat the tank through those IA winters.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

macclellan said:


> Nice setup so far.
> 
> 'Tis a shame that the Vipers have those clunky, hot, and inefficient magnetic ballasts though.  On the upside, they should help heat the tank through those IA winters.


Yep, they don't seem to get to overly hot IME, I can also add a couple of fans in the stand if need be. Or if I got motivated is switch them over to a couple of electronic ballasts I don't think they are too expensive.

Craig


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## macclellan (Dec 22, 2006)

Depends on the brand. I paid $100 for my 70w Icecap electronic, but that's topshelf and would be really hard to justify x3!


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## Tamelesstgr (Jan 11, 2008)

I have serious driftwood envy!
I must have organized cords too!
How much will that sucker weight when full?


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

macclellan said:


> Depends on the brand. I paid $100 for my 70w Icecap electronic, but that's topshelf and would be really hard to justify x3!


Yeah that still not bad. I think the ballastwise brand 70 watt electronic is only about $40-45. I could easily crack the case on one of these and install the electronic ballast in its place. 

Way to far over budget for that right now. Need to get my 70 watt JBJ 14000k bulbs sold so I can find some more 8000k bulbs. Would love to find a source of HGN 8000k again.

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Tamelesstgr said:


> I have serious driftwood envy!
> I must have organized cords too!
> How much will that sucker weight when full?


 
Only going to be ~50-55g of water in there but probably over 600 lbs with tank, stand, water, substrate, etc...

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Tiny update:


































Decisions decisions.....

Craig


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## Regloh (Jan 17, 2009)

Just throw them all in 
That would look pretty unique as well


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Regloh said:


> Just throw them all in
> That would look pretty unique as well


 
Don't tempt me.


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## Regloh (Jan 17, 2009)

I was actually serious, at least partially, but I'm taking it back... all that wood would be blocking too much of that awesome sand you got... you need a good sized clearing to feature that a little bit...


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Regloh said:


> I was actually serious, at least partially, but I'm taking it back... all that wood would be blocking too much of that awesome sand you got... you need a good sized clearing to feature that a little bit...


 
Thinking about using 5 pieces in the tank, have some ideas just need to get the tank going before I decide.

I will update later today once all the rest of my pacakges arrive and the tank is upstairs! 

Forgot to post that earlier my new tank is HERE! Now to get help bringing it upstairs so I can start cutting out the overflows, painting the back and so on.

Craig


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## RipariumGuy (Aug 6, 2009)

If you need some one to...Ah, take some wood off your hands. :icon_wink
Those are some amazing driftwood peices!roud:


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## CL (Mar 13, 2008)

wow, that's some very cool wood. I second using them all :thumbsup:
just swap the tallest stump with the second tallest one. The stump second from the right is amazing, as is the one in the back left.
If you ever want to use some different wood haha, you know where to contact me  (here) lol


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

CL said:


> wow, that's some very cool wood. I second using them all :thumbsup:
> just move the tallest stump over one spot so that it isn't on the end (the far right)


 
That was all jsut laid out for pictures... Where the drilled holes fall will really lay out how I can use the wood and which ones. There are 5 pieces I would really like to use the 2 flat back stumps, 2 tall stumps and the short stump on the far left side. The flat back and the small stump on the left side will both be almost completely covered be the water line minus a tiny amount above the water. Good place to place some moss to grow out or some other emergent plant that can have roots hanging over into the water.

Craig


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## !shadow! (Jan 25, 2010)

Just read all 9 pages  *subscribed* can't wait to see how the tank will look once everything is up and running.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Look what arrived today!

Smith Regulator and Fabco NV-55 custom from GLA including a 5lb tank wiht perma seal and check valves.










Cal Aqua Nano Drop Checker - its so tiny!










Clear PVC CO2 Reactor finished and plumbed inline!










The TANK! Just got done moving upstairs to the apartment, was all my brother and I could do. Setup so I can paint the back, cut out the overflows and get the plumbing setup. I will also silicone in my 2 flat back pieces that I plan on using in my aquarium and attachign the top portion of the lighting prior to lifting it onto the stand.


































No I'm just exhausted, tomorrow I want to get the overflows removed even if that is all I get done.

Craig


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## !shadow! (Jan 25, 2010)

l hate you, l'm still waiting for my drop checker.


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## jeepn4x4 (Jan 27, 2008)

Did this tank come in flaw free?


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

!shadow! said:


> l hate you, l'm still waiting for my drop checker.


I don't mind. :icon_lol:



jeepn4x4 said:


> Did this tank come in flaw free?


roud:


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## rrrrramos (Jan 24, 2008)

Isn't that drop checker awesome? I got it for my Mini-M


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Soooo, what does a 150g tank look like without those UGLY overflows....


























I will clean it up later today and maybe get the bulkheads fitted in place to check them out. 

Probably spend the rest of the night working on organizing the wiring on the tank, got the left side done last night all neat and tidy.

Dropped off my CO2 tank to get it filled should be ready in an hour to pick up the guy that fills them was out to lunch when I stopped in. $13.39 for a 5# refill not to bad.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

How's my scape, sorry I couldn't resist starting to play with it. The 2 pieces on the back wall are where they have to be due to the holes in the bottom glass. The 2 taller pieces on the left and right will hide the intakes and returns so they will be less noticeable. The Smalelr piece in the middle seems to fit well. 


























You can see the dish of sand in there for color reference and the light is a 5000k CFL in the lamp to show some color. Pictures taken with flash off as it realy washed everything out.

LMK what you think.

Craig


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## legomaniac89 (Mar 16, 2008)

I like, I like. The only thing that's throwing me off is the piece all the way to the left. Maybe if you had a smaller, less-straight piece, it would flow better?


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

legomaniac89 said:


> I like, I like. The only thing that's throwing me off is the piece all the way to the left. Maybe if you had a smaller, less-straight piece, it would flow better?


 
The darker one? That is my pride and joy as it is hollow in the center and will be home to a Pothos growing in and around it... The only other pieces I have are smaller then I want to use in this scape.

Also that piece is far from straight the camera jsut doesn't get a good pic of it. it has almost hte same angle as the far right piece only slightly more so.

Craig


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## !shadow! (Jan 25, 2010)

l like the look a lot specially the two center stumps, how would tilting the first and last dw pieces towards the center look? l think it might center the look a bit... just a thought anyways good job!


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## legomaniac89 (Mar 16, 2008)

Ah ok. Maybe a straight-on FTS would give a better perspective. This is really gonna look sick in a couple months


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

!shadow! said:


> l like the look a lot specially the two center stumps, how would tilting the first and last dw pieces towards the center look? l think it might center the look a bit... just a thought anyways good job!


That is the input I was needing! :icon_smil



legomaniac89 said:


> Ah ok. Maybe a straight-on FTS would give a better perspective. This is really gonna look sick in a couple months


I'll work on it in a minute. Kind of hard as it is all baracaded off to keep the little one out of the work area.

Craig


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## !shadow! (Jan 25, 2010)

yay, now l feel so special :icon_mrgr


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

3 without the flash, 2 with the flash. Best part about turnign the right piece is that it fits in perfectly and you can see the best side of this wood. It has a secondary stump attached to it which is how it grew. 

I'm really digging this layout.










































Craig


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## !shadow! (Jan 25, 2010)

niiiiice real nice, and even if you wanted to, once you add the substrate you could dig the dw in it and do even more tinkering. That's the part i'm really looking forward so that way i can get a better idea of how it's gonna look like. maybe add some substrate under the trunks to give it a slight tilt. i'm just throwing out ideas and giving you options. you got me excited about this project as if it were my own.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Well I modified the wood on the left slightly. It was actually 2 pieces as the bas was really thin, I now have slightly more angle on it so it will clear the glass tops and screwed the 2 pieces together with SS screws so it is nice and solid.

I'm thinking I really love the look, too bad you couldn't come see it in person as pictures don't do this justice.

Once the tank is all up and running I will have a guy form the club who does photography as a side job come take some pictures with his buku expensive camera and lenses....


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## !shadow! (Jan 25, 2010)

i need to get me a camera but l have no idea as to a decent one i could get for 100$ for simple aquarium picture taking. phone's camera doesn't cut it and l hate it when people can't see my aquariums the way i do.


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

That's looking great. Those sure are nice pieces of driftwood that you got.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

hydrophyte said:


> That's looking great. Those sure are nice pieces of driftwood that you got.


 
Thanks Devin!


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Last pictures of the night, think I finally nailed the look I wanted!


























Craig


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## legomaniac89 (Mar 16, 2008)

Ahh yes, it looks much better from the front. I think you nailed the hardscape right there.

Thought about trying a _Nepenthes_ in this tank? I bet the pitchers draping down amongst the other plants right above the water line would be pretty sweet.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

legomaniac89 said:


> Ahh yes, it looks much better from the front. I think you nailed the hardscape right there.
> 
> Thought about trying a _Nepenthes_ in this tank? I bet the pitchers draping down amongst the other plants right above the water line would be pretty sweet.


 
I'm always open to suggestions. :flick: Maybe some trading if that Marbled arrives in good condition! I know you have the goodies stashed away in your emersed tanks.  

The best part is the piece on the right has a perfect cover for growing something in it as it has a small opening that I can suspend a plant in. Now to figure out what would work best for glueing the pieces into the tank. I think Tom Barr used something to glue in some manzanita wish I could find that thread.

Craig


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

A _Nepenthes _really would look cool in there. Those vertical pieces of driftwood could accommodate some nice orchids and other epiphytes too.


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## legomaniac89 (Mar 16, 2008)

Some mini orchids would look _awesome_ attached to the vertical pieces of wood. Maybe some _Tillandsia_ bromeliads too.

If I get brave enough to take some cuttings of my _Nepenthes ventricosa_, it would probably do great in here. It's super-easy for a Nep and has these deep red pitchers that contrast well with the greens most other plants have. Plus you won't have to worry about bugs with one of those around


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

legomaniac89 said:


> Some mini orchids would look _awesome_ attached to the vertical pieces of wood. Maybe some _Tillandsia_ bromeliads too.
> 
> If I get brave enough to take some cuttings of my _Nepenthes ventricosa_, it would probably do great in here. It's super-easy for a Nep and has these deep red pitchers that contrast well with the greens most other plants have. Plus you won't have to worry about bugs with one of those around


:drool::bounce::drool:

Craig


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## !shadow! (Jan 25, 2010)

for some odd reason this set-up reminds me of this tank  geee i wonder why...

http://showcase.aquatic-gardeners.org/2009.cgi?&op=showcase&category=0&vol=2&id=97


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

!shadow! said:


> for some odd reason this set-up reminds me of this tank  geee i wonder why...
> 
> http://showcase.aquatic-gardeners.org/2009.cgi?&op=showcase&category=0&vol=2&id=97


 
Yeah but mine are actually stumps :flick:

Craig


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## jeepn4x4 (Jan 27, 2008)

This is coming together very nicely. That wood looks great.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Well a slight update. 

Bulkheads, intake and return fittings have been installed. 

Wood has been siliconed into the tank, hope it holds, will have 3-4 days of drying time before it sees water. 

First coat of paint has been put on the back of the tank, should get atleast one more coat on today if not 2. Then 1-2 more tomorrow. 

Possibly have it on the stand by Sunday, then I can start finishing up all the rest of the intake and return plumbing for the cannisters. Should have water in it by mid week at the latest.

Any suggestions on stocking? Here are my 2 ideas.

Asian fishes- 50 Axelrodi Sundadanio 'Blue Form' 1" max, 10 Giant Sparkling Gourami 2.5" max, 20 Burmese Rosy Loaches 1.25" max.

South American Fishes- 25 Neon Green Tetras, 25 Ruby Tetras, 20 Corydoras Pygmaeus

If I go the SA route I want to find a nice fish about 2.5" max that will be fairly peaceful. Scale is of the utmost importance.

Craig


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## jmhart (Mar 14, 2008)

I like the Asian idea, and this tank screams for 10-14 Sphaerichthys osphromenoides, Chocolate Gourami.

The Wet Spot just happens to have some:

http://www.wetspottropicalfish.com/


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## JennaH (Sep 28, 2009)

how many gallons of water space is it again? 56 gallons? the lists seems a bit excessive... what about 2 pair apistos, 25 ember tetras, 10 pygmy cories


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## !shadow! (Jan 25, 2010)

+1 on the apistos l got one electric blue ram they're awesome and hardy! you should try them.


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## dewalltheway (Jan 19, 2005)

Just read thur this whole thread and i have to say that you have an amazing setup going on! Can't wait to see this thing up and running as I am sure you can't as well. You decision to send the tank back was a good one and your stumps are just awesome. The substrate is superb and the lighting is awesome! You have so nailed this setup. Great job so far!


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

jmhart said:


> I like the Asian idea, and this tank screams for 10-14 Sphaerichthys osphromenoides, Chocolate Gourami.
> 
> The Wet Spot just happens to have some:
> 
> [URL="http://www.wetspottropicalfish.com/"]http://www.wetspottropicalfish.com/[/URL]


How big do these guys get? I know I could just look it up.



JennaH said:


> how many gallons of water space is it again? 56 gallons? the lists seems a bit excessive... what about 2 pair apistos, 25 ember tetras, 10 pygmy cories


~67g of water or where ever I stop filling it. Nope no Apistos or cichlids of any kinds, also Ember Tetras get too big. Only looking at species that stay 1" max except for the show fish.



!shadow! said:


> +1 on the apistos l got one electric blue ram they're awesome and hardy! you should try them.


 
Eewww that Electric Blue ram IMO is horid looking, someoen had too much free time when they made this strain.

Craig


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## dewalltheway (Jan 19, 2005)

How about a large school of Threadfin Rainbows?


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

dewalltheway said:


> How about a large school of Threadfin Rainbows?


 
Not much of a Rainbows guy I know if I wanted them there are alot of Rainbow keepers locally.

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Also the fish will have a huge footprint to school around in 72x18, might seem like alot of fish but once you get them sprawled out in the large area probably won't seem like many. Also I can easily sell some if need be.

Craig


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

Hey Craig here are some quick notes on the plants in that last box.


*Spathiphyllumi* ??--these were bare-root divisions. Plant in hanging planter filling around roots to about 2/3 full with hydroton, then cap with planter gravel. These things are top-heavy, so it's a good idea to steady in planter with a few rubber bands while roots form.
*Syngonium*--plant as for _Spathiphyllum_, with plenty of hydroton in planter cup. Rubber bands also a good idea.
*Zephyranthes candida* "rain lily"--this is the lily with beautiful white blooms. Plant bulbs in Small Hanging Planter with planter gravel. Does best with rich planter media, so add a root tab or two also. To encourage blooming, try to give as much light as possible.
*Pothos*--a good plant for those pieces of driftwood. Roots should grow well right in the water. I suggest tying to driftwood piece so that base of stem is in water.
*Aponogeton* ?????--I don't know what this floating-leaf plant is, but the leaves look a lot like water hawthorn (_Aponogeton distachyos_). This plant is easy and makes a nice effect. I suggest planting in small flower pot or similar container with gravel and two or three root tabs. You can hide the pot with some rocks or driftwood.

I think that's everything (I'm away from my desk). Let me know if you have any other questions.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

hydrophyte said:


> Hey Craig here are some quick notes on the plants in that last box.
> 
> 
> *Spathiphyllumi* ??--these were bare-root divisions. Plant in hanging planter filling around roots to about 2/3 full with hydroton, then cap with planter gravel. These things are top-heavy, so it's a good idea to steady in planter with a few rubber bands while roots form.
> ...


 
Thanks! roud: May have a few plants left over to keep the 30g in the spare room going. :biggrin:


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Picture update for today!

Driftwood Siliconed into the tank, used 2 tubes for the 5 pieces, that should keep them in place for a long, long time.


















Bulkheads, Intakes, and retunrs setup with loc lines:


















2.5 coats of Low Order 0% VOC paint since we have the little one, stuff isn't cheap but keeps the wife happy.










GLA Smith regulator with Fabco NV-55 hooked to a 5lb tank.










How do you keep the little ones from getting into the stand?


















Organize them cords!


































That's all for now...

Craig


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## !shadow! (Jan 25, 2010)

You make me wanna organize my cords


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

A couple of quick teasers and back to work I go. I did pick up a couple of Koralia Nanos incase I need a bit of extra flow in the middle. Should be tiny enough to hide easily and not be too overpowering on the flow. We'll see how it goes if not off to the auction they go.


























A couple more coats of paint and I should be good to go! Might get it up on the stnad tomorrow or Sunday, then I have probably about a days worth of final plumbing and organizing to do before I fill it.

Craig


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## jeepn4x4 (Jan 27, 2008)

Looks great. I like the Asian fish idea as well. I also like the dining chair gate. Must be to keep the little one out.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

jeepn4x4 said:


> Looks great. I like the Asian fish idea as well. I also like the dining chair gate. Must be to keep the little one out.


:icon_mrgr Something about an 8.5 month old that thinks he need to try and climb everything, figured smacking his head on the glass corner wasn't a good idea.

Yeah teh more I look at fish I think I will be going the Asian fish route.

Craig


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## JennaH (Sep 28, 2009)

> ~67g of water or where ever I stop filling it. Nope no Apistos or cichlids of any kinds, also Ember Tetras get too big. Only looking at species that stay 1" max except for the show fish.


this is coming together quickly! i thought embers only get about 2cm.. hmm.. what about microrasboras? i think they are also called danio erythromicron


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

JennaH said:


> this is coming together quickly! i thought embers only get about 2cm.. hmm.. what about microrasboras? i think they are also called danio erythromicron


 
Kept those in the past. After some looking around I may try some Betta Rutilans as they are susposed to be fine kept in groups and max at around 1.5" Possibly a species tank and maybe a few Burmese Loaches to help keep the tank cleaned up.

I really liked the Betta Albimarginata but where I have alot of credit to spend can't get them. They do have Wild Caught Betta Rutilans though which should come out nice and red.

Craig


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

Those Burmese loaches are attractive fish. They would look cool in a good-sized group. It sounds as though they don't grow quite so large as yo-yos.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

hydrophyte said:


> Those Burmese loaches are attractive fish. They would look cool in a good-sized group. It sounds as though they don't grow quite so large as yo-yos.


 
They are susposed to be about 1 to 1,25" full grown.

Craig


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

I read 4" in a couple of different spots, but that's still smaller than yo-yos.

dewalltheway has a couple of fat, hefty yo-yos in his 90-gallon tank.


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## prototyp3 (Dec 5, 2007)

Looks like a fun project! I can't wait until the planting begins. 
That's a tall tank, I hope you got long monkey arms to make working in it easy. 

I would definitely use the nanos. More flow usually encourages more schooling in my experience.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

hydrophyte said:


> I read 4" in a couple of different spots, but that's still smaller than yo-yos.
> 
> dewalltheway has a couple of fat, hefty yo-yos in his 90-gallon tank.


 
Here are the loaches I'm refering to: http://www.loaches.com/species-index/tuberoschistura-arakanensis

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

prototyp3 said:


> Looks like a fun project! I can't wait until the planting begins.
> That's a tall tank, I hope you got long monkey arms to make working in it easy.
> 
> I would definitely use the nanos. More flow usually encourages more schooling in my experience.


Nope no Monkey arms but most of the plantign will be via Riparium stuff so I won't have to reach all the way to the bottom.


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

Wow that's a neat little fish.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Oh NO! Look what just happened. :eek5:


















Hi ho, Hi ho, off to working I go....

Craig


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## CL (Mar 13, 2008)

Finally! Now get some freaking water in this bad boy.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

CL said:


> Finally! Now get some freaking water in this bad boy.


 
Can I finish the plumbing so it doesn't leak first? :icon_eek: Paitence young grasshopper...


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Plumbing is in and the Xingu Sand has been added. Now to wait for the rest of the plumbing to dry out good then the real test begins.










































Now for a break!

Craig


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## cah925 (May 18, 2007)

Looks good with the sand in there. I was afraid the sand would cover too much of the very nice wood/root look. I also like the loaches you picked out. I spent a few minutes reading about them in the link you provided. I'm looking forward to seeing this planted.


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## !shadow! (Jan 25, 2010)

Craigthor said:


> Can I finish the plumbing so it doesn't leak first? :icon_eek: Paitence young grasshopper...


always obey masta yoda


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Hydrophyte- These should make you proud:


































I'll get some better ones tomorrow lights are about to go out. Still need to work on the left side but all in due time. PS I used all but 2 of hte plants you sent me.  Water should be cleared up by morning and I can snap some better pics.

Craig


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## legomaniac89 (Mar 16, 2008)

Oh snap! That looks awesome dude!


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

Wow that looks super already. It will be fantastic when the plants grow in. Excellent job with that driftwood. The pothos plant looks real nice on the driftwood.

That is nice bright lighting and so long as you can keep up with ferts the flowering bushes will give you lots and lots of blooms. I like the color of the lights too. Are you getting that shimmering effect in the water from the metal halide lights? It would be great to see video of this setup at some point.

I imagine there is substantially more space for fish here than you would get in a paludarium setup with a similar kind of planting. This will be great see fish in there.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

hydrophyte said:


> Wow that looks super already. It will be fantastic when the plants grow in. Excellent job with that driftwood. The pothos plant looks real nice on the driftwood.
> 
> That is nice bright lighting and so long as you can keep up with ferts the flowering bushes will give you lots and lots of blooms. I like the color of the lights too. Are you getting that shimmering effect in the water from the metal halide lights? It would be great to see video of this setup at some point.
> 
> I imagine there is substantially more space for fish here than you would get in a paludarium setup with a similar kind of planting. This will be great see fish in there.


 
Thanks Devin,

I used the Golden Ratio so there is only ~45g of water in there but a huge footprint. The pair of 2213s give it a dramatics effect and super calm flow. Yes there is the cool shimmering effect from the halides one of the resons I used them. I can shot some video at some point maybe once I get some fish in and the tank grows out abit. The left side feels a bit bare yet due to not having any tall plants on that side. I'll have to propigate a couple of them on the right side as I want to use them on the left side also.

I will be dosing EI in this tank more than likely I figure these guys will suck up what ever I give them. 

I'm going to set this up as a species tank of Betta Rutilans as they have a great red coloring that should compliment this tank well. 

PS I need more large planters...

Craig


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## CL (Mar 13, 2008)

Talk about an instant tank! That looks amazing. Museum quality, I bet, when the plants grow in :thumbsup:
Very cool. That much space above the water packed with plants and metal halides. Very cool.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

CL said:


> Talk about an instant tank! That looks amazing. Museum quality, I bet, when the plants grow in :thumbsup:
> Very cool. That much space above the water packed with plants and metal halides. Very cool.


 
You told me to get water in it how could I deny that request.


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## prototyp3 (Dec 5, 2007)

It lives!

I would totally kidnap butterflies and jam 'em in there to live out their lives fluttering for my enjoyment.


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## FSM (Jan 13, 2009)

The golden ratio would be 1:1.618, water to air, right?


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

FSM said:


> The golden ratio would be 1:1.618, water to air, right?


Yep, I'm a bit less as I did 25.25x.68 which left me ~17" of air space and jsut over 8" of water space. I did the area of exposed glass. 

Craig


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## F22 (Sep 21, 2008)

wow, off to an awesome start dood, im looking forward to where it goes


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## CL (Mar 13, 2008)

Craigthor said:


> Yep, I'm a bit less as I did 25.25x.68 which left me ~17" of air space and jsut over 8" of water space. I did the area of exposed glass.
> 
> Craig


I think that what you used was the rule of thirds.


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## JennaH (Sep 28, 2009)

this looks so cool already! the betta rutilans is a great choice! and so nice that they can be kept in groups. the loaches have great color, they're going to look great with the sand roud:


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

CL said:


> I think that what you used was the rule of thirds.


 
Ohy well close enough

Craig


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## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

That really looks good, and is a welcome variation on our usual riparium setup. It makes me want to try to fit some wood into my tank. This is the first time I can recall seeing the wood siliconed to the bottom of the tank too. That is certainly stable, but I could never avoid wanting to move something around a bit. Beautiful job you did!


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Hoppy said:


> That really looks good, and is a welcome variation on our usual riparium setup. It makes me want to try to fit some wood into my tank. This is the first time I can recall seeing the wood siliconed to the bottom of the tank too. That is certainly stable, but I could never avoid wanting to move something around a bit. Beautiful job you did!


Thanks Hoppy here is something for you:










































One Large, 2 Small, a Nano raft and a regular raft. Added the 3rd suction cup to the Large planter as it just holds better that way. I've got 3 setup this way.

Craig


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## F22 (Sep 21, 2008)

great work dude, i just gotta ask, maybe i'm an idiot... do you have to spray those plants down or are they cool with just root water?


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

F22 said:


> great work dude, i just gotta ask, maybe i'm an idiot... do you have to spray those plants down or are they cool with just root water?


 
These ones do well feeding from the roots.

Craig


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## F22 (Sep 21, 2008)

ok cool, well they look awesome. thanks!


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## prototyp3 (Dec 5, 2007)

Quick note on the aquarium sealant for those wanting to try it: don't do it in a full aquarium. It's working here because the entire wood isn't submerged. Fully submerged wood will try it's best to float up to the surface because of all the air that is trapped inside.
Silicone is a sealant, not a glue. You don't want wood rockets launching up and through your glass tops and lights. Speaking from first hand experience here..

Not trying to derail your thread, just trying to avoid property damage to those wow'ing at the fine setup you're building!


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

prototyp3 said:


> Quick note on the aquarium sealant for those wanting to try it: don't do it in a full aquarium. It's working here because the entire wood isn't submerged. Fully submerged wood will try it's best to float up to the surface because of all the air that is trapped inside.
> Silicone is a sealant, not a glue. You don't want wood rockets launching up and through your glass tops and lights. Speaking from first hand experience here..
> 
> Not trying to derail your thread, just trying to avoid property damage to those wow'ing at the fine setup you're building!


 
Great advice!, Actually I tried it because I saw wehre Tom Barr had used it to hold some wood into his scape, figured it should hold well enough till the wood gets fully waterlogged, also not being fully submereged makes a big difference here.

Criag


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## oldpunk78 (Nov 1, 2008)

^that turned out really well. i was kinda questioning the wood placement, but now with the water and plants i really like it. 

can't wait to see where it goes from here.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

oldpunk78 said:


> ^that turned out really well. i was kinda questioning the wood placement, but now with the water and plants i really like it.
> 
> can't wait to see where it goes from here.


Thanks, I will update with some more pictures later on, got to clean the glass below the water line should make a huge difference.

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Mini update, just got done playing with the arrangements of the plants. Added some Acorus from teh LFS on the far left side to help bring some height to the tank, don't know how it will do but atleast its more balanced.

Got some Peacock Moss coming next week and can start filling in a few more places abit.


















Craig


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

Nice!

The driftwood layout also looked a bit too evenly spaced to me at first, but now it looks great with the plants in there to break up outlines and soften everything.

This will look stunning when the plants have grown to about 2X bigger.


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## prototyp3 (Dec 5, 2007)

So are you planning on letting the plants spill out above the tank rim, or are you going to keep it more manicured and within the glass blox?


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

Hey that planter combination looks like a good way to get more plants into a real big tank like this one. I will be interested to hear whether the suction cups are able to hold up that much weight in the long-term. I have seen that it does certainly help to have the rafts snapped into place against planters with big heavy plants because the extra buoyancy takes pressure off the suction cups. 

I do see one issue with the planting here. The plant with the long leaf petioles and patterned leaves is actually a floating leaf plant. You can see it in this picture with the leaves flopping down to the tabletop. 



Craigthor said:


>


That plant would actually do best rooted down in the bottom of the tank. You could plant it in the gravel with a couple of root tabs, or use a small flower pot with clay gravel and root tabs.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

hydrophyte said:


> Hey that planter combination looks like a good way to get more plants into a real big tank like this one. I will be interested to hear whether the suction cups are able to hold up that much weight in the long-term. I have seen that it does certainly help to have the rafts snapped into place against planters with big heavy plants because the extra buoyancy takes pressure off the suction cups.
> 
> I do see one issue with the planting here. The plant with the long leaf petioles and patterned leaves is actually a floating leaf plant. You can see it in this picture with the leaves flopping down to the tabletop.
> 
> ...


I think the key is adding the 3rd suction cup as it otherwise leans the msalelr pots to far into the water, only way to find out is give it a go.

Craig


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## Outlawboss (Dec 30, 2008)

Just found this one. I'm so excited you're back in the game. Your nano tanks were one of the reasons I got back into this hobby myself. Can't wait to see this tank progress. I only wish I had the space and $ to do one. Someday I guess. 

If you need any MP, I could start saving up for you now. 

Subscribed!


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Outlawboss said:


> Just found this one. I'm so excited you're back in the game. Your nano tanks were one of the reasons I got back into this hobby myself. Can't wait to see this tank progress. I only wish I had the space and $ to do one. Someday I guess.
> 
> If you need any MP, I could start saving up for you now.
> 
> Subscribed!


 
Let me know when you get some MP saved up. I found some but it didn't look real clean so I may have to scrap it if it is as bad as it looked, won't know till later this week once it arrives.

The bad part is this cost about as much as my full out ADA Setup :icon_mad:

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Added a tiny bit of greenery to the underwater portion, really smoothed out the looks of it. Consits of 5 portions of Anubias 'Gold' and some Petite, I have alot of petite left and will probably put some up forsale in a day or 2 when I'm sure I don't need more. 

I really love the minimalist look of only a few plants down below the waterline.

Sorry in advance about the clarity as the water is still slightly cloudy from yesterday.










































Craig


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## legomaniac89 (Mar 16, 2008)

That really is looking awesome. I agree with you on keeping the underwater plants at a minimal. It doesn't distract your eyes from the main plant groupings up top.

It's great that you didn't leave us looking at an empty glass box for 4 months straight too.

*nudges CL*

:hihi:


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## CL (Mar 13, 2008)

legomaniac89 said:


> *nudges CL*
> 
> :hihi:


hey, hey now. it was just about the same amount of posts though (I think? maybe not :hihi


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

legomaniac89 said:


> That really is looking awesome. I agree with you on keeping the underwater plants at a minimal. It doesn't distract your eyes from the main plant groupings up top.
> 
> It's great that you didn't leave us looking at an empty glass box for 4 months straight too.
> 
> ...





CL said:


> hey, hey now. it was just about the same amount of posts though (I think? maybe not :hihi


:biggrin: I wasn't going to say it....

Anyone have any Anubias 'Gold'? I need like 6-8 more pieces of it and remove the 'Petite' all together. Redid the Anubias on the submerged piece of wood, much more minimalistic and flows better, hopefully the tank clears up overnight.

Craig


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## Voozle (Mar 22, 2009)

This is really impressive, right up there with hydophyte's ripariums. The arrangement of the wood is fantastic, I can't wait to see the plants fill in. If you're considering loaches, have you thought about dwarf chains? They're very small (one might say, _dwarf_) and disproportionately fun. Might liven things up, especially if you're only considering one or two species.


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

That looks great. You're right it doesn't take much just a few little splashes of green to make a nice effect. I gotta try some of that 'Gold' emersed someday.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

hydrophyte said:


> That looks great. You're right it doesn't take much just a few little splashes of green to make a nice effect. I gotta try some of that 'Gold' emersed someday.


 
Yeah, I want to find some more 'Gold' for this tank, I like the slightly larger leaf then 'Petite' and its yellowish color, I do have 4 plants worth of the oh so hard to get Anubias 'Marbled' arriving from over seas in about 10 days though.... :icon_smil Maybe I'll send a chunk your way to play with, and if I can get some more of the 'Golds' a chunk of that aswell.

Craig


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

Hey well I'll owe ya' one if you can send any spares. I am also on the hunt for more new stems to try out as emersed carpeting plants so I'd also like to exchange that kind of thing too if either one of us can turn any up anywhere. I might post a FT thread in Swap n Shop with request for funny stems.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

hydrophyte said:


> Hey well I'll owe ya' one if you can send any spares. I am also on the hunt for more new stems to try out as emersed carpeting plants so I'd also like to exchange that kind of thing too if either one of us can turn any up anywhere. I might post a FT thread in Swap n Shop with request for funny stems.


Well I have some emmersed stems coming from Zappins and Some from another member on another board. I've got the 'Golds' if I can't find more once they take off and start to grow I can pass some of them along. The 'marbled' I have to wait and see how it survies 14 days in shipping.

Now if we can get Lego to part with some of his pretty Pilea sp....

Craig


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## !shadow! (Jan 25, 2010)

NO MORE UPDATES(j/k) my email is filled up with like 20 notifications of this journal . anyways looking good especially that last tank shot with the first piece of dw.lt really catches my eye.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Well, I've got my fish ordered! they will arrive later this week. I should have the tank mostly cycled by then and also have 6 bottles of Dr Tims One and Only H2O (previously called biospira) in the fridge. 

I did choose to go with the Betta Rutilans as they should look the most natural in my tank. 

Craig


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## Ugly Genius (Sep 27, 2003)

I love it, Craig! 
Many ripariums I've seen have brought out the pessimist in me: they look half-empty.
This one, however, looks not half-empty or half-full -- it looks like it's supposed to be exactly how you laid everything down.
The eye for detail you honed in your nano coupled with your staggering drive to do things through to the tilt pretty much assure that the standard for what constitutes a good riparium just got raised. Meaning, people are going to have to try a lot harder to make an impressive rip now that you're in the game.
Keep it up!

(This also mean that I'll have to leave the safety of the Nano forum to visit this journal daily.)


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## jmhart (Mar 14, 2008)

Looks awesome....however, I offer one suggestion. It's one that Wasserpest made about my 120g, but I'm using a canopy (which he didn't know at the time):

Have you thought about popping off the top rim and replacing it with some eurobraces or something? Rimless ripariums are awesome because you are able to grow out of the top a little more seamlessly and it'd allow you a little more room for water if you wanted it.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Ugly Genius said:


> I love it, Craig!
> Many ripariums I've seen have brought out the pessimist in me: they look half-empty.
> This one, however, looks not half-empty or half-full -- it looks like it's supposed to be exactly how you laid everything down.
> The eye for detail you honed in your nano coupled with your staggering drive to do things through to the tilt pretty much assure that the standard for what constitutes a good riparium just got raised. Meaning, people are going to have to try a lot harder to make an impressive rip now that you're in the game.
> ...


 
Glad to see you venture out *UG*, thought I might have to fly over to SF and drag you over.... The tank is 100x's more stunning in person. The months I spent with my Nano really did help fine tune me for a project of this size. I started working on this back in October and spent 4 months researching tanks to find out what I wanted in the tank and what size to use. I started working with Devin in the beginning of Janurary once I had narrowed it down to 2 tank sizes. I think I really nailed this scape right from the start, the only minior adjustment to the wood was a turn of the right hand tall stump by 180 degrees which really allowed the tank to flow. I didn't realize how well everything was going to come together until it was on the stand with the substrate and plants in. Still a bit of fine tunign plant wise then I need to let it grow out and in a couple of months should have a really stunning scape. It is so peaceful to look at through out hte day I catch my self just drifting off watching it.

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

jmhart said:


> Looks awesome....however, I offer one suggestion. It's one that Wasserpest made about my 120g, but I'm using a canopy (which he didn't know at the time):
> 
> Have you thought about popping off the top rim and replacing it with some eurobraces or something? Rimless ripariums are awesome because you are able to grow out of the top a little more seamlessly and it'd allow you a little more room for water if you wanted it.


I had thought about it but I want to keep the options open to if I go high humidty that I can set my glass tops on

Craig


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## RipariumGuy (Aug 6, 2009)

That is _Awsome!_ I had thought of getting a big peice o' wood for my riparium. If this doesn't get me to get one, I dont know what will! :thumbsup::drool:roud:


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## Outlawboss (Dec 30, 2008)

Craigthor said:


> Let me know when you get some MP saved up. I found some but it didn't look real clean so I may have to scrap it if it is as bad as it looked, won't know till later this week once it arrives.
> 
> The bad part is this cost about as much as my full out ADA Setup :icon_mad:
> 
> Craig


Growing some emmersed right now. I'll let you know when I've got a bunch. As long as you get a good starting batch you could grow it out.


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## SearunSimpson (Jun 5, 2007)

With a tank that size and the plant choices, I think a nice school of splash tetra's would be really cool. Especially since they jump out of the water and lay eggs on the over-hanging leaves.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Well the good news/ bad news update...

Good news is that the tanks water is clearing up nicely, MH provide a nice shimmer effect, and Devins help has made this a wonderful tank.


























The bad new is that my Heavy duty out door timer fried yesterday so $20 down the drain for the old timer and $60 for a new Industrial Timer and cord setup - can't have the timer failing.










Also need to get rid of the protien film on the top of the tank. thinking about picking up one of the Subcurrent internal Wet/ Dry filters, nice tiny box and would be a good place to hide some purigen as well.

Did get my Fert bottles yesterday and some liquids mixed up. 










Craig


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## jmhart (Mar 14, 2008)

Thought about a Wasser-Controller?


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

jmhart said:


> Thought about a Wasser-Controller?


I did but wiht only needing 2 timers this works perfectly. One for the CO2 and one for the Lights. If I ever wanted to get crazy I would go Profilux, maybe if I get a super huge tax return next year. 

Craig


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## Regloh (Jan 17, 2009)

I have not been posting here for a while, but I have been watching :icon_eek:

I must say you and Devin have the best ripariums! 
Well, I like Hoppy's as well 

Throughout this build I remained skeptic about the rim, but seeing the final product I think it works nicely... even if some plants were to grow out of the tank (in case the little one shows no interrest in throwning things in there and you decide to keep it open  )


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Small update, think I will need to add a second PVC Reactor to the right side of the tank to get even coverage based on the flow patterns in this tank.

So I've e-mailed Orlando at GLA to see if he can set me up with the parts to upgrade the regulator to a dual. Sent a couple of PM's to try and find another piece of 2" Clear PVC about 15.5" long. Now I wait. Plumbing it in shouldn't be too hard to do as I've got disconnects in the system and can shut down and alter that part of the system. Hopefully Orlando and someone can come through with the clear PVC to match the other one.

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Well my Regulator leaves tomorrow for GLA to get an upgrade! Now to find that piece of Clear PVC....


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Found my clear PVC thanks to Airphotog! Also I won't be keeping Betta Rutilans. I paid for 40 of them with the information taht I would get atleast 26-30 that they had in stock. Was told they would ship today. Got an e-mail when I returned tonite that they didn't get shipped and they have at most 15 of them but couldn't get me an exact number. So I told them to cancel my order and refund the dough....

Going to be going with Betta Albimarginata instead, even more peaceful and great looking. Got a couple lines on some juvies and a reverse trio, hoping to get a decent breeding group going of them, maybe by the end of the year I can start selling a few juvies as well.

Craig


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## Regloh (Jan 17, 2009)

Sorry to hear about your troubles buying the Betta Rutilans. 
You are really going all out with the CO2 for the few submerged plants that you have in there. But it is a rather large foot print, so maybe you are doing the right thing here. 

I had a question about the Subcurrent internal wet/dry filters you mentioned. I have a pretty significant surface film issue in my tank as well and this could be a good solution for me. What about outgassing of CO2 with these things?


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Regloh said:


> Sorry to hear about your troubles buying the Betta Rutilans.
> You are really going all out with the CO2 for the few submerged plants that you have in there. But it is a rather large foot print, so maybe you are doing the right thing here.
> 
> I had a question about the Subcurrent internal wet/dry filters you mentioned. I have a pretty significant surface film issue in my tank as well and this could be a good solution for me. What about outgassing of CO2 with these things?


Yeah its all good, the fish I'm getting will be even more peacful the the Rutilans so the wife will be happy.

For the CO2 even with only a few plants they will still benefit from the CO2, also this will help fend of algae that may try to invade the tank due to the small area of the tank wiht High Intensity lighting. This also leaves me the option if I ever decide to flood the whole tank I could easily crank the CO2 up.

For the SubCurrent I'm not concerned about hte out gassing but don't see how it could really outgass much as the filter is submerged in the tank so no realy place for outgassing.

HTH

Craig


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## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

That SubCurrent filter will only do its skimming job if the slots extend above the water line. If it is underwater it is just another internal filter. I doubt that you will lose much CO2 no matter how you handle it, and increasing the bubble rate would fix that anyway.

Incidentally, your package is in the mail!


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

Craig, Hey I got that box of plants sent off. You might see it today or tomorrow. Here are some quick notes on the plants included.


*Spathiphyllum* ??--that same larger one that I had sent before. Plant in hanging planter filling around roots to about 2/3 full with hydroton, then cap with planter gravel. These things are top-heavy, so it's a good idea to steady in planter with a few rubber bands while roots form.
*Cyrtosperma johnstonii*--most amazing plant ever! This potted specimen was top-heavy and shallowly rooted, so I packed around base with spagnum moss. Unpack carefully.
*Cyperus alternifolius var. gracilis* "umbrella sedge"--awesome riparium plant. Forms an attractive and sturdy grassy background. Plant in riparium planter gravel with root tab.
*Limnophila aromatica*--plant several stems in small hanging planter with planter gravel and root tab.
*Dieffenbachia 'Camilla'*--plant in small hanging planter as for _Spathiphyllum_. I have potted several of these in this manner. Most began to root right away, but a couple of others instead succumbed to rot. I suggest positioning planter so that just the base is in water while new roots form, then when plant is established you can lower into water.
*Chlorophyttum* "spider plant"--this is an interesting plant. It has more sturdy and attractive foliage than the common houseplant variety. I don't know how well it might do as a riparium plant. I think it has the best chance if roots allowed to develop right in the water. You might try tying several pieces to a trellis raft with the bases down in the water.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

hydrophyte said:


> Craig, Hey I got that box of plants sent off. You might see it today or tomorrow. Here are some quick notes on the plants included.
> 
> 
> *Spathiphyllum* ??--that same larger one that I had sent before. Plant in hanging planter filling around roots to about 2/3 full with hydroton, then cap with planter gravel. These things are top-heavy, so it's a good idea to steady in planter with a few rubber bands while roots form.
> ...


 
Thanks! :drool:Can't wait to get everything laid out....


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## trackhazard (Aug 24, 2006)

I had a subcurrent filter on my 75 gal riparium for the same reason. It worked pretty well. Only complaint was that the suction cups were pretty cheesy and the thing would detach and end up sucking air. Also, you need to be good about changing the filter pad on top because it gets nasty quick with all the scum you are collecting.

The way the filter is designed, it only points one way so its nice it comes with the loc-line nozzles to direct flow better.

If I could figure out a way secure the ting with magnets (c'mon manufacturers, who uses suction cups anymore?), then it would be perfect.

-Charlie


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

trackhazard said:


> I had a subcurrent filter on my 75 gal riparium for the same reason. It worked pretty well. Only complaint was that the suction cups were pretty cheesy and the thing would detach and end up sucking air. Also, you need to be good about changing the filter pad on top because it gets nasty quick with all the scum you are collecting.
> 
> The way the filter is designed, it only points one way so its nice it comes with the loc-line nozzles to direct flow better.
> 
> ...


 
Thanks, I just ordered me one from Drs Foster and Smith. Should arrive by Friday and I can get the scum out of the tank. Also it will add a tiny bit more flow in the middle where it seems to lack slightly. It will be the one and only cord coming out of the tank. :icon_cry: Platns should hide it one it fills in fully though.

Thinking I may just stuff it wiht Poly Fil and Purigen even if I have to change it out every few days having clear water on the top is more important to me.

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Woohoo I will have fish on Friday! Tomorrow I will vaccum the tank and do a water change. Can't wait for the fishes.

Craig


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## Regloh (Jan 17, 2009)

Hoppy said:


> That SubCurrent filter will only do its skimming job if the slots extend above the water line. If it is underwater it is just another internal filter. I doubt that you will lose much CO2 no matter how you handle it, and increasing the bubble rate would fix that anyway.
> 
> Incidentally, your package is in the mail!





trackhazard said:


> I had a subcurrent filter on my 75 gal riparium for the same reason. It worked pretty well. Only complaint was that the suction cups were pretty cheesy and the thing would detach and end up sucking air. Also, you need to be good about changing the filter pad on top because it gets nasty quick with all the scum you are collecting.
> 
> The way the filter is designed, it only points one way so its nice it comes with the loc-line nozzles to direct flow better.
> 
> ...





Craigthor said:


> Thanks, I just ordered me one from Drs Foster and Smith. Should arrive by Friday and I can get the scum out of the tank. Also it will add a tiny bit more flow in the middle where it seems to lack slightly. It will be the one and only cord coming out of the tank. :icon_cry: Platns should hide it one it fills in fully though.
> 
> Thinking I may just stuff it wiht Poly Fil and Purigen even if I have to change it out every few days having clear water on the top is more important to me.
> 
> Craig


 
Ok, you guys convinced me... I just ordered mine from the drs as well...
with a flatrate shipping I just had to put all sorts of stuff on the order, so don't tell my wife


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Regloh said:


> Ok, you guys convinced me... I just ordered mine from the drs as well...
> with a flatrate shipping I just had to put all sorts of stuff on the order, so don't tell my wife


 
Tell the wife what? :biggrin:


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## JennaH (Sep 28, 2009)

> Woohoo I will have fish on Friday! Tomorrow I will vaccum the tank and do a water change. Can't wait for the fishes.


yay! can't wait to see them


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## D.S. Drifter (Dec 18, 2009)

just wanted to say once again great work and as i said before its projects like this that make the effort i put forth to gather pieces of wood like this well worth it!


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

A small update for everyone. Got some more plants in today from Devin and got the left side of the tank looking good.










































First half the fish will arrive tomorrow and the rest on Tuesday! I did put my glass tops on to try and trap a bit of humidity into the tank as I put a few of todays new arrivals in and they looked like they could jsut a humidty boost. 

Ordered 3 more 8000k bulbs as one of them is burning more yellow then the rest and this way I can get a set of 3 that are the same. I can then return the bulbs that don't match to get exchanged for ones that do.

The empty middle is where I hope to put the SubCurrent Wet/Dry filter if all goes as planned, I may have to do some rearranging to get it in though as it will be clsoe measurement wise. I will then let the plants hide it once they will in abit.

Hanging Planter count:

6 Large Planters
14 Small Planters
Several Nano and Trellis rafts.

I like the African Violets but want to find soemthing that will be slightly smaller as the flower bunches are kind of large but for now they are o.k.

Craig


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## Tamelesstgr (Jan 11, 2008)

Simply amazing. You make it look so easy.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Tamelesstgr said:


> Simply amazing. You make it look so easy.


 
May looks like it was easy but this is 6 months of back burner planning in total. Took me 2.5 months jsut to decide on what tank to attempt this in.

It was well worth all the time and efforts that went into it.

Just ordered some 4200k 92CRI 70 watt MH from a seller on ebay to give a try. Stausi (sp) has them on a 38g tank and the color looks really nice and clean but not overly yellow, we will see how it goes. I've also got some other 8000k CoralBlue bulbs comign to see how I like those as well. So there may be some 70 watters coming to the SnS soon.

Craig


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## JennaH (Sep 28, 2009)

nice pictures  do you have anything planned for the water area? rocks or plants?


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

JennaH said:


> nice pictures  do you have anything planned for the water area? rocks or plants?


There is some Apngeton species with nice top water leaves and Anubias 'Gold' below water, not going to be heavily planted in the underwater section as once the plants fill in above it will be really low light down there.

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

So how do I change the water with out lifting a bucket? 









































I start by closing the intake to the disconencts on the Eheim 2213. I had an extra set laying around so once I've seperated the disconnects I attach a piece that goes to the outside so I can drain the tank, takes about 5 minutes to drain 50% of the water through 1/2" tubing. To fill I start a siphon from water water holding container and get the air out and close the valve on the end. I hook this into the Eheim 2213 which then feeds the water back into the tank slowly allowing the heater to warm the water before it goes bakc to the tank. Takes about 15 minutes to slowly fill 50% of the water. I can add prime to the container in the room and will be putting Almond Leaves in there to help soften the water further before it gets to the tank. 


Aren't these little guys cute looking?


















Slowly drip acclimating these guys as the wtaer was very cold in there bags, tehy are starting to perk up now that I have them warming up. Figure in a couple hours they should be good to go.

Craig


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## RipariumGuy (Aug 6, 2009)

That is an interesting WC system. Keep us updated with the fauna!


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

JakeJ said:


> That is an interesting WC system. Keep us updated with the fauna!


They seem to be hanging in there, they are in the tank but have all gone in to hiding. Being they are only 1.25" right now and pretty dark in color.

If I cna snap some pictures later of them I will.

Craig


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## dewalltheway (Jan 19, 2005)

I would watch that trash can water holding system. I had the exact same trash can and mine sprung a leak at one of the seams. Luckly it was a drip leak and not a gushing leak. Now I use a 55 gal tank to hold my water.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Got the SubCurrent in, it was too tall for my setup so it got modified.

I removed the top half that snaps off, upon checking flow it was blowing everything around wild like in my tank. I snapped the pump out and low and behold it had the flow regulator on it and I turned it all the way down. Drilled some holes along the rim of it and cut them out to make new overflow channels. The mini bio balls still fit in next to hte pump and the blue pad sits just below the water line. All the way turned down is barely any flow but that is fine as long as it gets rid of hte film at the top of the tank. It does fit nice and hidden in the tank other then the cord coming over the top. I will update in a day or two and let you all know how its working out.

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

dewalltheway said:


> I would watch that trash can water holding system. I had the exact same trash can and mine sprung a leak at one of the seams. Luckly it was a drip leak and not a gushing leak. Now I use a 55 gal tank to hold my water.


 
Thanks for the heads up.... I'm actually thinking about getting an actual water container the white ones or going and finding a clean 55g drum.

Craig


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## OverStocked (May 26, 2007)

I have a 300g water container with wire shipping frame on it that I use to use for holding water.

It was really handy when I used it. Places like Mac's tools sell good used plastic drums. They often carried bleach, which is easy enough to deal with.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

I took the SubCurrent out already. It was doing its job slowly as I had to keep the flow turned all the way down to keep from a whirlwind in the tank. But I was OCD about the cord running up and over the back of hte tank. I will use it as needed and jsut hook it up for short uses on the front but as a permanent item I don't care for it. Atleast it wasn't overly expensive but it does still ahve its place I may actually use it in the holding tank as it can keeps it s bacteria going.

Craig

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Got some new 70watt Phillips Mastercolor bulbs 92 CRI 4200k. Holy crap are these things natural in color and not overly yellowish. Also got a large Taro plant from Hoppy and a few others to put in. Will update wiht pictures this evening!

Craig


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## !shadow! (Jan 25, 2010)

looking forward to see the pictures!


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Pictures galore! Sorry no pics of the fish yet as they only have been out before lights are on, as they get used to there surroundings they should come out more. I added some Mini Pellia into the driftwood above the water line where there are cracks in the wood and it has been soaking up water, this is more a test and if it goes as planned it shuld turn out great. Added some HC to the submerged piece of wood tucked into some cracks again just playing around as I was given a tiny portion and want to see what it does.

The color rendition on these new bulbs is great, the color is so natural and it makes the plants colors stand out. I altered my lights angles a bit so that we don't get blinded while sitting close to the tank or on the couch, also highlights the plants better.


















































































































Hope you all enjoyed this set of pictures!

Craig


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## Stasiu (Sep 9, 2007)

I'm glad you like the bulbs, the pictures look great!


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## AlexXx (Dec 1, 2009)

thats amazing, i love it. looks SOOO natural. and i love the wood.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Stasiu said:


> I'm glad you like the bulbs, the pictures look great!





AlexXx said:


> thats amazing, i love it. looks SOOO natural. and i love the wood.


 
Thanks this has been a well worth while journey so far now its tie to sit back and enjoy as it grows out and fills in.

Craig


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## FSM (Jan 13, 2009)

A surface skimmer would work well, but I don't know if it would fit.


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

Wow so you got new lamps into those fixtures(?). The colors look awesome now.

I'll be really interested to hear how that moss does on those rafts.

I'm not really sure, but I think that those _Chlorophyttum_ plantlets might need to grow with their bases in the water. It looks like they are now up higher on a stump. Maybe they will form roots if the air is humid enough right there, but you might just keep an eye on them to see what they do.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

hydrophyte said:


> Wow so you got new lamps into those fixtures(?). The colors look awesome now.
> 
> I'll be really interested to hear how that moss does on those rafts.
> 
> I'm not really sure, but I think that those _Chlorophyttum_ plantlets might need to grow with their bases in the water. It looks like they are now up higher on a stump. Maybe they will form roots if the air is humid enough right there, but you might just keep an eye on them to see what they do.


Actually one of them is in the water and trying to see if it will feed the rest from teh one if not they will get moved. 

Yep got some new lamp for the fixtures yet again. These have a great hue and highlight the plants nicely.

Criag


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Finally a couple of fihs pictures, these were the best out of about 60 shots.


































Craig


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

What fun! Those are cool.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Just did a 50% water change this morning, pulled all the planters out so I could vacuum the substrate at the back wall as I was seeing some build up there. It went super smooth and took hardly any time at all. Got most of the dirtys sucked off the bottom and it looks super clean now. Found 10 of the fishies hiding out as I had everything removed from the tank. Also swapped my filter sponges covering the intakes as they had a bunch of plant matter built up on them as well.

I should be good for atleast a month on the substrate vacuuming now as I wanted to get alot of the initial particles from setup and first planter spills cleaned up. I'll clean the glass later today once lights are on during normal operations.

Craig


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## Ugly Genius (Sep 27, 2003)

Craig, I'm loving this tank! It must be amazing to see in person.

When I see the FTS, the phrase, "Business on the bottom, party on top!" comes to mind.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Ugly Genius said:


> Craig, I'm loving this tank! It must be amazing to see in person.
> 
> When I see the FTS, the phrase, "Business on the bottom, party on top!" comes to mind.


 
Thanks *UG*, it is amazing in person as soon as it fills in abit more I will run some video of it and upload it. If the fish start breeding I may have to start a buiness out of the bottom based on how much I have invested in the last 4 weeks. Then again catching them would be a nightmare based on the design of hte tank.

Craig


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## MrJG (Feb 21, 2007)

Craig its going to look glorious when the plants settle in and start throwing new leaves. Fantastic job!


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Just got my upgraded regulator back from GLA. It is so purdy.  Now if UPS would hurry up and delivery my clear PVC today so I can get my second reactor built.










































Sorry the picutres suck I'll work on some better ones today.


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## Green Leaf Aquariums (Feb 26, 2007)

I thought your 2nd reactor was ready to go 

How is the flow water flow in the tank with the current status? Are the 2 filters enough for the length of your tank?


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Green Leaf Aquariums said:


> I thought your 2nd reactor was ready to go
> 
> How is the flow water flow in the tank with the current status? Are the 2 filters enough for the length of your tank?


It was susposed to be but alas UPS had a much slower shipping in mind I think they walked it from Wa to here. Flow is nice and gentle for the fished they seem to reall enjoy it. I may upgrade to a pair of 2215's at some point for the slightly better flow but right now funds are below the bottom with my fish purchase. :eek5: The 2213s do work perfect for my needs though.

Craig


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## Regloh (Jan 17, 2009)

Hey Craig, I just wanted to say how awesome this SubCurrent skimming filter works in my tank.. It had the film removed in less than 2 minutes... Only problem I have is that it is somewhat large... but it's pretty inconspicuous against my black background...


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## benon (Feb 18, 2010)

Hi Craig,

Is that a black background or painted on?

I am attempting a riparium style 40g for an axolotl and want a dark and murky environment. your black background is really effective with those plants! Very beautiful tank indeed...


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

benon said:


> Hi Craig,
> 
> Is that a black background or painted on?
> 
> I am attempting a riparium style 40g for an axolotl and want a dark and murky environment. your black background is really effective with those plants! Very beautiful tank indeed...


The background is painted on, about 8 coats of acrylic latex paint rolled on really thin and let dry between coats for a couple hours.

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

A few fresh pictures from today. The Albimarginata shown is the large male from one of the pairs I got. He has been in the tank less than 24 hours so I figure he will color up fully over the next few days as he settles in.










































I may try and grab some video in the morning when all the fish are out they kind of go into stealth mode this time of day.

Craig


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## RipariumGuy (Aug 6, 2009)

That looks great! I really like the floaters, they make it look very natual, especialy with the wood.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

JakeJ said:


> That looks great! I really like the floaters, they make it look very natual, especialy with the wood.


Duckweed at its finest, has kind of covered up the Red Root Floaters I had put in but the duckweed does make it look super natural. The fish seem to love it as well.

Craig


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## Green Leaf Aquariums (Feb 26, 2007)

Man!! this is cool!


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## Voozle (Mar 22, 2009)

Looking sharp! I can't wait to see better shots of the bettas, and I agree that the duckweed is a nice touch.


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

Hey that duckweed looks cool with the driftwood. It reminds me of the cypress swamp in that movie _Down by Law_.


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

In your tank, the duckweed looks amazing, but when I fish, its such a pain! :hihi:

Tank looks awesome mate.
Your pal,


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Some alright video of the tank. I'll shot some better one of these days when the wife is out with the little one so I can cover hte floor and eliminate all the glare.



Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Well, I removed the African Violets today, they jsut didn't flow with the tank very well. In there place I put in a few Epti-Trellis rafts with:

Trellis #1- Anubias 'Barteri' and Anubias 'Gold'
Trellis #2- Anubias Short and Sweet, Anubias 'Barteri', Anubias 'Gold'
Trellis #3- Anubias 'Gold'

I'm awaiting a shipment of Anubias Marbled which I hope will fill in the areas abit more. May have to find a crypt or something to fill a couple of planters. Any suggestions on a nice marbled or pinkish crypt? I want softer colored ones..

My Limnophilia Aromatica has gone to the wayside it jsut never took off and went the other way. I gave it time but it melted. 

I did add some more Anubias 'Gold' to the underwater portion as well in a few prime locations.

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

And the plant swap looks as follows:


































































Enjoy!

Craig


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## Voozle (Mar 22, 2009)

Is the water that dark because of the duckweed cover, or just in the photographs? Otherwise looking good!


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Voozle said:


> Is the water that dark because of the duckweed cover, or just in the photographs? Otherwise looking good!


 
Some of it is shadow from duckweed, part is the Indian Almond leaves and lastly I add Atisons Betta Spa. Tank is setup black water so it is dark but not nearly as dark as the pictures show. Looks much better in person.

Craig


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## zeldar (Jun 24, 2009)

I've been following this project for a while now and must say, it looks better every update. I think the addition of the duckweed really makes it look like a slice out of nature. Now that I have several aquariums, your riparium makes me want to "accidentally" break the top of one so I have an excuse to make one!

Once the riparium plants grow out, it will look like a full forest! You've done such a great job of hiding the equipment. I bet you can just sit back and stare at the tank for hours; there is just so much going on. Bravo


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

Those _Anubias_ on the Epi-Trellis raft should be perfect there in the layout midground. That _Pilea cardierei_ will be another good one to encourage there in that area.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Welp, I'm only running on 2 lights right now.  One of my lights ddin't come on so I thought maybe faulty bulb. That wasn't the case, so I checked the fuse on the Ballast and it was fine. Turned the ballast off then on again and it went up in smoke. My livingroom stink right now and the tank is runnign on 2/3rds lighting.

A quick call to Drs Foster and Smith and they are shipping me a new setup and I will send this one back via RMA to them. Was told 4-7 days but if it is like any other FedEx Ground shipment from them I should have it Monday or Tuesday at the latest.

Craig


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## F22 (Sep 21, 2008)

tank looks unreal dude... 
great work...

sorry about your lights.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

F22 said:


> tank looks unreal dude...
> great work...
> 
> sorry about your lights.


Thanks, it happens but the customer service is great and they will have one out to me today.

Craig


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## kcrossley (Feb 22, 2010)

Wow, that's looking great Craig. It really looks like the Amazon. Nice job.

K


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Well after a huge 95% waterchange yesterday and the starting to feed live foods the large pair has finally taken on some colors. Sorry the pics aren't better but I had just happened to walk by and this is what I saw. They were out hunting the black worms from yesterday afternoon that were left over.










































Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

And FedEx said let there be 3 lights again!


























































Woohoo all back up and running!

Craig


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## !shadow! (Jan 25, 2010)

nice nice, looks better than ever


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

!shadow! said:


> nice nice, looks better than ever


Thanks, gave the tank a good dose of Excel and ferts today as I saw some BBA forming and haven't been dosing and also upped the CO2 today as well as I was barely running any. Nothing out of the ordinary for a new setup though.

Craig


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## Voozle (Mar 22, 2009)

Those new shots made the underwater portion more visible, and probably closer to what it actually looks like. The Indian almond leaves are a good choice, but I really dislike their placement; to me it feels very unnatural. I'm the last person who should be preaching about precision aquascaping, but I couldn't help focusing on the "too perfect" distribution of the leaves across the front of the tank, and not on the otherwise very mysterious feel of your well arranged underwater grotto.

Constructive criticism is not my thing, but hopefully that's what this sounds like. I'm not just trying to be a jerk...


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Voozle said:


> Those new shots made the underwater portion more visible, and probably closer to what it actually looks like. The Indian almond leaves are a good choice, but I really dislike their placement; to me it feels very unnatural. I'm the last person who should be preaching about precision aquascaping, but I couldn't help focusing on the "too perfect" distribution of the leaves across the front of the tank, and not on the otherwise very mysterious feel of your well arranged underwater grotto.
> 
> Constructive criticism is not my thing, but hopefully that's what this sounds like. I'm not just trying to be a jerk...


Nope no jerkiness noted.  For the most part that is where they fell when dropped in, they do move around here and there as I top the tank off with RO ever day or 2 which is why they are probably more towards the front from pouring water in. When I top off next I'll pour some in the front of the tank to mix them around abit more.

Craig


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

Those almond leaves look perfect with those stumps and the duckweed. Someday I want to put together a riparium with similar elements for South American cichlids.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

hydrophyte said:


> Those almond leaves look perfect with those stumps and the duckweed. Someday I want to put together a riparium with similar elements for South American cichlids.


Yeah if I had gone with the SA theme I wanted to do:

30 Green Neons
Pair of wild Discus (probably would have started with 2 pairs to find a mated pair)
15 Corydoras Pygmaeus

Would have been a super active tank with bright colors, but in the end I really love the Betta Albis, atleast for now. 

Much more peaceful and slow going versus super active.

Craig


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

Many South American fish look best in setups with lots of driftwood.

Those betas are cool too.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

hydrophyte said:


> Many South American fish look best in setups with lots of driftwood.
> 
> Those betas are cool too.


I agree, also the SA setup even with the wild discus still would have been cheaper then what I spent on these Bettas.

I'm super happy with my decision on the Bettas though as is the wife which is most important.

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Well I decided to post some video over taking pictures.  Did some rearranging today, swapped a few plants around repotted a couple of them. I'm really starting to like this arrangement as it becomes more balanced everytime I make small adjustments. 

Sorry the video isn't that great but you'll catch the drift of things.



Enjoy!

Craig


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## Ugly Genius (Sep 27, 2003)

Love your videos. So far you've had cameos of your baby and your cat in each.


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

That's looking great. I bet that your betas love it there under all that duckweed.

Just keep trimming that _Bacopa_ as it grows and it will cover up those trellis rafts nice. Your peace lilies must be happy they have a couple of spathes on them. That _Chlorophytum_ looks great in there too.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Ugly Genius said:


> Love your videos. So far you've had cameos of your baby and your cat in each.


 They're such camera hogs!



hydrophyte said:


> That's looking great. I bet that your betas love it there under all that duckweed.
> 
> Just keep trimming that _Bacopa_ as it grows and it will cover up those trellis rafts nice. Your peace lilies must be happy they have a couple of spathes on them. That _Chlorophytum_ looks great in there too.


Yeah I need to trim the Bacopa a bit more but figured I would let it rebound from the move around the tank. The first spathe took 2 weeks to open. I jsut noticed the other lilies spathe today and looks like it will open soon. Must be due to the new Fertilizer Capsules from Over Stocked. :icon_cool

That spider plant is doing great. The part tucked into the water has 3-5" roots comign off of it, the piece tucked into the driftwood on top has roots starting to grow into the crack on the wood.

The Bettas really love the duckweed and hanging out under the trellis rafts. I see them taking air and picking at the duckweed from time to time. Can't wait for it to grow in now as I think it will flow much better then it has before.

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Well jsut got done placing and order through www.Glassworkshouse.com with shipping I spent $136 for plants to try out. Mostly a bunch of different Pilea sp for some Nano Rafts and a couple Cyperus sp for some planters.

Sold my Peacock moss afer only having it a few weeks as the deal was good and it will help fund the new plants. Here is what I picked up:

3- Cyperus Alternifolius Gracilis
2- Cyperus Alternifolius Varigatous
2- Pilea sp Moonlight
2- Pilea sp Pubescens Silver Cloud
5- Pilea Gluaca
2- Pilea Cadierei Minima Pattys Gold
4- Pilea Bertertonia Moon Valley

Saw some others I wanted but want this tank to grow in abit more before I make any more final purchases. This should really allow me to fill out the front of the tank nicely.

Can't wait but they don't gaurantee shipments right away depends on how busy they are.

Craig


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

Wow those look like good selections Craig. You will have a little _Pilea_ forest. Those _Pilea_ will probably all be pretty good for growing on Nano Trellis Rafts. Some of those will have pretty fat stems, so you will probably want to enlarge those notches in the rafts to accommodate them. I have some 'Moon Valley' going that I got at Home Depot a few weeks ago and so far it looks like it's doing great.

Those _Cyperus_ ought to do well, but that particular species prefers to have its crown a bit above the waterline, so the planter cup should be positioned with its rim an inch or so higher up.


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## VincentK (Dec 16, 2009)

Love it, I really like black water tanks too, although I will never be able to start one.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Video coming shortly! I managed to catch several of the fish getting there dinner out of the way. It is great fun watching them nab the live blackworms from the substrate.

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Dinner time.



Happened to catch these guys out for an evening snack of black worms.

Enjoy!

Craig


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## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

That looks very interesting! My grandson would spend a lot of time looking in that tank. He manages about 5 minutes at a time on mine, then his attention wanders - 4 yrs old can do that. I wish I had a video camera, but when I used to have one we took hours of videos, and almost never looked at any of them, so I gave up the idea. That was before the cameras were so tiny, and long before photobucket was available.


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

Those are really cool fish Craig.


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## Outlawboss (Dec 30, 2008)

That's cool stuff man. I love watching the fish hunt like that!


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Well I've started a small rearranging project maximizing the space available and have some cool plans. Finished the small section almost. Now I'm 12 small platners and an order of plants or two short on finishing the project.

I'm phasing out some of my larger species of Spathephyllums for some smaller and mid sized ones. Going to incorporate alot of Nano Rafts as the plants arrive and some other goodies up my sleves. 

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Been a few days and figured I would post a sneak peek of the tank. Lots to do yet but I'm told it will be 3 weeks before the rest of my plants arrive.


































I'm thinking about adding 2 more species of fish to this tank to make it slightly more active. I've got my eyes on 4 pairs of Dario Dario (Scarlet Badis), 10 Dwarf Bumblebee Cats, along with a few Nerites and Assassin snails now that the MTS are getting situated. I'm slightly rethinking the shrimp addition and doing strictly fish only in this setup but who knows. 

I did receive a few more small planters today now if only the plants would show up. After this rescape I will probably have a ton of great stuff available plant wise for the Riparium.

I'm also thinking of a filter swap, I really want a pair of Eheim Pro 3E 2076 so I can run the stream function on this tank I think it would give a really nifty look.

Craig


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## RipariumGuy (Aug 6, 2009)

That looks sweet! What plants are you adding?


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## benon (Feb 18, 2010)

eheim! roud:


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

JakeJ said:


> That looks sweet! What plants are you adding?


I've got 5 different Pilea sp on order and 2 different Cyperus sp coming as well. It will let me fill out the foreground with Nano rafts.



benon said:


> eheim! roud:


I know I had 2 Pro 3E 2078 2.5 years ago when they first came out, I kick myself for getting rid of them now. The stream funciton is really cool

Craig


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

That's looking great. It looks like you are getting a more harmonious combination of plants in there. That is good that that _Colocasia affinis_ perked up again that is a real cool plant.

A midground with _Pilea_ will make a great effect too and will be perfect with the rest of those plants, but it will take a while to grow in. _Pilea_ generally don't grow so fast.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

hydrophyte said:


> That's looking great. It looks like you are getting a more harmonious combination of plants in there. That is good that that _Colocasia affinis_ perked up again that is a real cool plant.
> 
> A midground with _Pilea_ will make a great effect too and will be perfect with the rest of those plants, but it will take a while to grow in. _Pilea_ generally don't grow so fast.


I've got time.


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

I think That I remember you had ordered that 'Moon Valley' _Pilea_. It looks as though that will be a good one. I have some going from a plant that I bought at home Depot a while back and it is developing very well on the Nano Trellis Raft.


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## RipariumGuy (Aug 6, 2009)

hydrophyte said:


> _Pilea_ generally don't grow so fast.


That is interesting. My _Pilea _(aluminum plant) has been growing like a weed by my standards. Or is aluminum plant an exception?


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

Maybe yours is growing faster because you are doing that more steady ferts dosing--my dosing is more casual than what you are applying.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

hydrophyte said:


> Maybe yours is growing faster because you are doing that more steady ferts dosing--my dosing is more casual than what you are applying.


Very well possible. I dose 2-3 times a week mostly as I remember or feel like it. Most of my planters have RootMedic Capsules in them, I will make usre they all do as soon as I get the tank all redone and planters in place.

That Nymphoides that came from you is just starting to make a come back. I had to trim the roots back to plant it and ended up trimming off all the leaves as they were doing there traditional melt as it works on regrowing the roots.

I will have a full fish load after tomorrow. :biggrin: 

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Well the tank received some new inhabitants today. They are still stressed out as they ended up in another town 2.5 hours away so the USPS had to truck them here and they were WAY late to arrive. They should have been here at 10 AM instead I ended up going to the Main PO distribution center in town and going to the loading docks and picking these guys up when they called me. 

Red Spot Nerites:










Scarlet Badis (Dario Dario) 3M 4F was 4/5 but a pair died in transit 










Dwarf Bumblebee Catfish (Akysis Vespa) 13 of them - They are the most stressed out, full grown just over 1.5"


















Not pictured are the Assassin Snails that came as well they have all since vanished into the depths of this tank.

Can't wait for everyone to settle in and relax again.

Craig


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## !shadow! (Jan 25, 2010)

l like the Scarlet Badis picture. He looks like he's right at home


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## F22 (Sep 21, 2008)

this tank is so pimp...


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

!shadow! said:


> l like the Scarlet Badis picture. He looks like he's right at home


Its amazing how tiny they are. :icon_cool Compared to the Duckweed above him.



F22 said:


> this tank is so pimp...


:thumbsup: :biggrin: :drool:


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Well I upped the water level tonite to accomatade a bit closer to the golden ratio. 9 5/8" would be ratio but I'm only at 9 right now. I will raise it more if need be but haven't decided yet if I will go that extra 5/8" yet. Total water volume now is about 50g from the substrate up.

Lost 2 of my Scarlet Badis and have only seen one other not sure what happened to the rest of them, hopefully they make it alright I should know more tomorrow once everyone settles in abit more. 

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Well its done, I hit tte Golden Ratio. 9 5/8" visible water as I only figured the ratio where the glass is visible not including the trim. It looks really great!

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Evicted!

I have done evicted the Dwarf Bubmlebees from this tank. They were upsetting the Bettas I have so out they went. Still ahve 3 left to catch but I will nab them over the next day or 2. They like to bury themselves in the sand so it makes it hard to find them. Grrr. Lost all of my Dario Dario over night, I think the shipping stress really got to them. The seller offered to replace part of them but I think I will decline and see if they can give me a few Cherry Shrimp in there place.

Tank will remain a species tank with just hte Bettas but also I will add some Cherries along with the various snails: Assassins, Nertites, MTS, Pond

Craig


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## benon (Feb 18, 2010)

*.*



> That is interesting. My _Pilea _(aluminum plant) has been growing like a weed by my standards. Or is aluminum plant an exception?


Just my 2-bit speculation, but I find that different water parameters allow certain plants to grow faster or slower, and not all plants grow at the same speed, even if they are the same variety.

I've got 4 different tanks growing moss and they all grow differently in shape, size, and appearance.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Quick set of pictures. Tank is now set at the Golden Ratio 2.618. Water line is 9.625" air space is 15.625" The right rear stump on the back wall is also set to golden ratio 27.50" 


































Craig


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## OverStocked (May 26, 2007)

hot....


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

Your plants are lovin' those metal halides. Look at those peace lily blooms!

I think I see a _Wedelia trilobata _vine making tis way up that big stump to the left. That plant will give you nice flowers too.










Has that _Pothos_ started to root yet?


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## Green Leaf Aquariums (Feb 26, 2007)

Craig, the tank is looking really nice. In the last pic of your fish photos its hard to tell what I'm looking at, is there any way you could get a close up?

-O


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

hydrophyte said:


> Your plants are lovin' those metal halides. Look at those peace lily blooms!
> 
> I think I see a _Wedelia trilobata _vine making tis way up that big stump to the left. That plant will give you nice flowers too.
> 
> ...


Yeah I took the long braches and wrapped them around the stump on the left. 

Nope the first cutting of pothos died off completely and the second piece I put in seems to be doing the same. Name have to look for another plant, maybe cut a branch off the spider plant and see how it does on that side of the tank.

Craig


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

I really want to do a setup like this one with big pieces of driftwood and some nice big emersed swords and South American fish. That would be cool.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Green Leaf Aquariums said:


> Craig, the tank is looking really nice. In the last pic of your fish photos its hard to tell what I'm looking at, is there any way you could get a close up?
> 
> -O


 
I can try, they got evicted from this tank today for being roudy with the Albis. I've still got 3 that keep getting away but I will get them in a day or 2. They are the Akysis Vespa (Dwarf bumblebee Cats) great fish with alot of personality just to active for my tank.

Craig


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

Hey I ordered some of that _Syngonium wendlandii_ from Asiatica. That is another viny plant that ought to be able to grow with its roots in the water, and it doesn't look so big and coarse like pothos does.

I wonder why your pothos didn't take(?). You could perhaps try rooting some new pieces in a jar of water on the windowsill. That is an easy plant to root that way.


----------



## legomaniac89 (Mar 16, 2008)

Sick dude. Just sick.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

hydrophyte said:


> Hey I ordered some of that _Syngonium wendlandii_ from Asiatica. That is another viny plant that ought to be able to grow with its roots in the water, and it doesn't look so big and coarse like pothos does.
> 
> I wonder why your pothos didn't take(?). You could perhaps try rooting some new pieces in a jar of water on the windowsill. That is an easy plant to root that way.


Oooohhhh aaaaahhhhhh. :drool:



legomaniac89 said:


> Sick dude. Just sick.


Like cough, cough sick? :icon_cool

Thanks for the kind words.

Craig


----------



## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Not much going on everything is growing in and still waiting for my order from Glassworks House with some new plants to try. Also awaiting a few planters to finish up my new scape idea.

I did manage to catch another Dwarf cat today, still 2 to catch though. They seem to only venture out during a large water change and have yet to see them out after lights out. 

Also started making my own Betta Spa black water extract. Will save a ton in the long run as Attison's Betta Spa is $13 a bottle. To make use the following:

1g RO water
25 5-7" Indian Almond Leaves
15 Alder Cones
1/4 Cup Aquarium Salt

Boil the IAL and the Alder Cones for 45 minutes to an hour in RO water. Cover and let steep for upto 24 hours, I just waited a couple of hours.

Next remove the IAL but leave the Aldre Cones in the water. Add the IAL to your tank if you choose they will still leach out more tannins and acids. Also makes a great bio film for the shrimp and snails to eat.

Turn stove on medium-low temp and let the mixture cook down till you end up with 500mL of finished product. I added the aquarium salt during the last hour or so as it should disolve really well into the hot water. Cool and pour into a container of choice. I will use a fertilizer dispension container for mine.

I'm adding roughly 25mL per 10g of water. All depends on how dark you want it. I will probably pick up some peat moss to add to the next batch as well.

The Atisons also has Yucca Extract which I will watch for when I take my next trip the the health food store.

Craig


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## OverStocked (May 26, 2007)

I demand more pics....

How are the RootMedic Caps working?


----------



## VadimShevchuk (Sep 19, 2009)

cool idea


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

over_stocked said:


> I demand more pics....
> 
> How are the RootMedic Caps working?


If you insist! They are working great several of the plants are growing super fast and tall! Be back in a few with pictures.

Craig


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## OverStocked (May 26, 2007)

Craigthor said:


> If you insist! They are working great several of the plants are growing super fast and tall! Be back in a few with pictures.
> 
> Craig


Awesome! When you are ready to order more, let me know. I have a few tricks up my sleeve...


----------



## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

A ton of pictures just for Over_Stocked!

Pictures of the Xanthsoma 'Dwarf Green' was completely broken off at the base when it arrive. It is putting up a new leaf or plantlet every 3-4 days now and is about 12" tall. Really cool looking plant I got from Hydrophyte. It really took off the new plants at the front of the planter cup are since I put in your root tabs I believe version 1.0 they were the powdered formula ones.










A bunch of pictures just taken before lights off:


































































































Enjoy!

Craig


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## RipariumGuy (Aug 6, 2009)

Awsome Craig! The plants are really perking up, and those floaters. How much did they grow? From covering half the tank, to all of it in a week!
Keep it up.
Jake


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

JakeJ said:


> Awsome Craig! The plants are really perking up, and those floaters. How much did they grow? From covering half the tank, to all of it in a week!
> Keep it up.
> Jake


3-10-2010










Today 3-31-2010


















Craig


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## RipariumGuy (Aug 6, 2009)

Ok, maybe I was a "bit" off. Still really cool though.


----------



## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

JakeJ said:


> Ok, maybe I was a "bit" off. Still really cool though.


 
And I have removed atleast 5-6 handfuls I'm sure between working in the tank and bits sticking to me plus a sent a couple handfuls out as well. 

I love the look of it though and I bet it keeps my water clean.

Craig


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## OverStocked (May 26, 2007)

I love it!


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

over_stocked said:


> I love it!


Thanks!


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Just got home from a 14 hour day at the local spring show and banquet with one more day to go. The greenhouse where we host opened up to sell plants this year and I found some stems to try and at $2 a plant I couldn't resist:

2x Pilea Grandis 'Moon Light' - Single plants with about 4 leaves
4x Pilea sp 'Silver Tree' - Each plant has about a Nano Raft worhts of triming if I do it right
3x Pilea Serpyllifolia - Fern like single frond bunch in each planter
3x Pilea Nummulariifolia - Very low growth crawling Pilea sp. Each planter has tons of this in each one

I'll update with pictures on Monday as I'm headed to sleep and back to the show in hte AM and we tear it all down at 5pm tomorrow! I haven't seen my tank with lights on for 2 days now as I leave around 5:30-6 am and return around 9pm, it will be nice to see my fish again.

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Finally a few more shots, I really wish I would have picked up about 4 more of the Pilea Grandis 'Moon Light' but they only had a few and figured I should share. In the post above yo ucan see the description of the new Pilea sp.

Also spent a couple of hours and got the right side of hte tank redone and now jsut have the right side to do but am waiting on an order of plants from GlassWorks House that is still a couple- three weeks out. Also I still need I think 3 more small planters to finish the scape off the way I want.










































































Enjoy!

Craig


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## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

Those are some really nice plants! I wish I could find those at my local nursery. And, the riparium looks spectacular now!


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## MrJG (Feb 21, 2007)

agreed! Awesome new additions, that is some great leaf texture.


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

Nice going Craig. I have some of the _P_. 'Moon Valley' to and it's a cool plant--grows real well in the riparium. It looks like you also got some _P. nummularifolia_, anther good one for growing on a nano trellis raft.


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## legomaniac89 (Mar 16, 2008)

Hey, you landed some of that Moon Valley! Nice looking plant, but mine grows slower than any plant I've ever had. In a year's time, it's _almost_ doubled in size. Even my _Anubias_ grow faster than that


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

Hey lego I haven't forgotten about your box of stuff including those orchids--just need to make time for the trip to the post office.

That is probably an advantage that that 'Moon Valley' grows slowly because it ahs such big thick leaves. My stems of it have each grown one new set of leaves since I got the plant. This plant would make a nice showy centerpiece for a little nano riparium setup.


----------



## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

MrJG said:


> agreed! Awesome new additions, that is some great leaf texture.


Thanks!



hydrophyte said:


> Nice going Craig. I have some of the _P_. 'Moon Valley' to and it's a cool plant--grows real well in the riparium. It looks like you also got some _P. nummularifolia_, anther good one for growing on a nano trellis raft.


Just wish I would have been greedy and bought all 5 they had. :icon_cool They had a few in the green house I wanted but they wouldn't even let me buy a cutting off of it.

P.S. Ray Lucas (Kingfish Services) said he has talked with you before, I spent all weekend chit chatting with him.



legomaniac89 said:


> Hey, you landed some of that Moon Valley! Nice looking plant, but mine grows slower than any plant I've ever had. In a year's time, it's _almost_ doubled in size. Even my _Anubias_ grow faster than that


Don't tell me that!

Once I get the last order of plants in I will have 26 small planters and 1 large planter in this tank. :eek5: Along with many Trellis Rafts for various Pilea sp.

What works great also is that the method of stacking planters I did allows for an aisle between them and creates a safe haven for the fish, kind of fun to look in really hard and see them between the planters. 

I think I want to add a group of Chocolate Gouramis, saw a nice pair at the show nad they would make a great fish to add in.

Have a few more Cherries coming tomorrow to add as I want a huge population.

Have a great night all.

Craig


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## knm<>< (Mar 18, 2010)

first class as usual. Call me crazy but, I think the duck weed really takes this to the next level. I love it. Too bad I'm TRYING to have high light tank or I might get some. 

I keep looking at this thing and thinking that at any moment a flock of miniature ducks is going to fly in and land in your tank!!


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## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

Craigthor said:


> What works great also is that the method of stacking planters I did allows for an aisle between them and creates a safe haven for the fish, kind of fun to look in really hard and see them between the planters.
> 
> 
> Craig


What is the method of stacking planters that you are using?


----------



## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Hoppy said:


> What is the method of stacking planters that you are using?


I'll snap a few pictures tomorrow of how I'm setup.

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Woo Hooo! My large Albi pair spawned in the last few days. I haven't seen them for teh last 4 days but new they were getting close. Saw the male today and he has a HUGE mouth full of eggs. I would try to take a few pictures but I don't want to scare him or anything.

Hoppy- As to my planters I have 2 small planters, the one wiht suction cups was modified for 3 cups by adding one at the lower back of the cup with a stepless drill bit from Harbour Freight. I then drilled a small hole in the center of front of that cup and the back of the other cup. Approximately 1/8" hole and attached them via zip ties. I will take some pics soon but with my recent spawn I'm not going to move anything in the tank.

Craig


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## halcyon (Mar 26, 2010)

Congrats on the fry, can't wait for some pics. Enough people said it, but lookin good!


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## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

Craigthor said:


> Hoppy- As to my planters I have 2 small planters, the one with suction cups was modified for 3 cups by adding one at the lower back of the cup with a stepless drill bit from Harbour Freight. I then drilled a small hole in the center of front of that cup and the back of the other cup. Approximately 1/8" hole and attached them via zip ties. I will take some pics soon but with my recent spawn I'm not going to move anything in the tank.
> 
> Craig


That is an interesting idea. I haven't once thought about modifying one of the planters, other than wondering if I could cheaply convert them to magnetic supports. I'm still thinking about doing that. Magnets are cheap, but would corrode in the water, and coating them adds to the cost of them. Gluing them to the planters requires an appropriate type of glue. And, I haven't thought of a good way to use the suction cup mount holes for magnets.


----------



## VincentK (Dec 16, 2009)

I really like how the duckweed looks from the side.


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

Hey that's awesome about your fish spawning. How long is the gestation expected to be? Does it usually go pretty well with albis, or is there anything tricky about it?


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

hydrophyte said:


> Hey that's awesome about your fish spawning. How long is the gestation expected to be? Does it usually go pretty well with albis, or is there anything tricky about it?


Usually about 14 days before the male will release. They have been known to eat the spawns so I hope all goes well as he has a ton in there.

Considering switching to a Crypt, Java Fern setup and going full out biotope in this tank. Only an idea but I think a full blown biotope would be interesting.

If only I had the money to make the change. :icon_cry:

Craig


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## !shadow! (Jan 25, 2010)

Join the go big and go broke club craig. l think a biotope would be interesting lf you did what kind would it be?


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

One issue with growing crypts in a riparium is that they require high humidity, so you can expect the above water glass to be foggy much of the time. I also found most crypts to be so flimsy as emersed plant and kind of a pain to deal with. I grew two that have somewhat sturdier foliage, _C. ciliata_ and _C. pontederiifolia_.

I like that idea you have now for the _Spathiphyllum_ + _Pilea_ + _Cyperus_ theme. I would vote for letting that grow out and seeing what you get.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

!shadow! said:


> Join the go big and go broke club craig. l think a biotope would be interesting lf you did what kind would it be?


I already went big and broke. 



hydrophyte said:


> One issue with growing crypts in a riparium is that they require high humidity, so you can expect the above water glass to be foggy much of the time. I also found most crypts to be so flimsy as emersed plant and kind of a pain to deal with. I grew two that have somewhat sturdier foliage, _C. ciliata_ and _C. pontederiifolia_.
> 
> I like that idea you have now for the _Spathiphyllum_ + _Pilea_ + _Cyperus_ theme. I would vote for letting that grow out and seeing what you get.


Yeah I will definitely be letting this one grow out. I would hate not to be able to see the plants.

Craig


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

Hey Craig if you are still snooping around for plants at all there is another real good one that you might find easily, the umbrella sedge _Cyperus_ 'Baby Tut'. I used it to develop the background in one of the layouts for the 120-gallon tank.










It is an easy plant and undemanding. When planted outside 'Baby Tut' only grows to about 14", but it gets taller under fluorescents. I often see it for sale at garden centers as a pond plant and also just as a tall annual bedding plant.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Well the more I think about it the more I want to switch to emmersed crypts and java ferns and setup a complete asain biotope with Java Ferns and Crypts. Also Nymphaeas are susposed to be good as well.

I've posted a trade post in the SnS if anyone is interested, IF I get enough interest I will work out the details.

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Jsut started a test run of relative humity, air temp and water temp. I have minimal moisture on the viewing panes of glass with the glass top proped open about a 1/4" on the front. Current reading are as follows:

Relative Humidty 70-72%
Air Temp 80
Water temp 80

I will let this run all night and watch the fluctuations of the tank and see where it goes.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Well after watchign the tnak for a few hours I think I will be skipping out on the full out biotope as it will be nearly impossible to keep the humidity high and have the tank as a show piece in the living room. Oh well atleast I tested it out before buying anything.

Craig


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

Hey Craig if that glasshouseworks order arrives alright don't let me forget I still owe you some stuff for that trade.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

hydrophyte said:


> Hey Craig if that glasshouseworks order arrives alright don't let me forget I still owe you some stuff for that trade.


 
Will do, actually just got a letter in the mail today from them saying as soon as the weather warms up it will ship, was told probably 2 more weeks.

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Timber!

Well I tipped the tall trunk on the left side of the tank over. :icon_mrgr I really like it that way. Also used the rest of some credits I had to get a group of some Chocolate Gouramis for this tank. They really accentuate the Betta Albimarginatas and they move around in groups atleast right now. I put a rock in the end of the hollowed out trunk to hold it down till it stays on its own. This gives a nice safe place for fish and shrimp to hide out of view.


























































Enjoy!

Craig


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## RipariumGuy (Aug 6, 2009)

That does look alot better!

(Not that it didn't before!)


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

JakeJ said:


> That does look alot better!
> 
> (Not that it didn't before!)


roud: Also a school of Chocolate Gouramis is really sweet I'll have to try for some video later as they school around the tank.

Seems like every little change I make really sets the tank off more and more.

Craig


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## luke20037 (Jan 24, 2010)

really nice tank, the new gouramis look really good too!


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Shot some video from across the room of the school of Chocolate Gouramis, these little guys are really cool looking. I hope they keep schooling all the time. In the video you can also see the holding Albi tucked up at the top of some driftwood hanging out, that is his spot. The Albis don't seem to mind the Gouramis and vice versa so hopefully I found a really nice grouping of fish that will get along.



Craig


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## !shadow! (Jan 25, 2010)

Wow l love the schooling.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Well I really want to go full out Biotope and after starting some research I have some plants that will help start the transformation.

Acorus gramineus 
Crypt Cilata
Cyrtosperma Johnstonii
small unknown crypt may be a wendetii variety

Things I will need to trade for:

Limno Aromatica
Java Ferns
Crypts
Acorus spp
Java Moss


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## RipariumGuy (Aug 6, 2009)

Craigthor said:


> Well I really want to go full out Biotope and after starting some research I have some plants that will help start the transformation.
> 
> Acorus gramineus
> Crypt Cilata
> ...


We are now both biotopers! :icon_smil


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

Sounds great Craig. There are some pretty cool stems that you could consider too. Do you still have any of that hygro that you sent me? It's growing great. 

A dwarf taro could be a good choice too. Do you still have any of that 'Dwarf Green'?

Java fern goes real well on those Epi-Trellis Rafts.

It'd be awesome to get some _C. ciliata_ going in there too so you can get those fantastic blooms.


----------



## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

hydrophyte said:


> Sounds great Craig. There are some pretty cool stems that you could consider too. Do you still have any of that hygro that you sent me? It's growing great.
> 
> A dwarf taro could be a good choice too. Do you still have any of that 'Dwarf Green'?
> 
> ...


I do have the X. Dwarf Green it is growing like a weed but unfortunately its origin is SA naturally.

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

My Cilata is just starting to make a turn around as it had broke at the base when I got it and is just now coming back wiht several new leaves.

Also I have a nice Taro from Hoppy that is in here and is starting to look good.

Craig


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

Oh I just did a Wikimaybe search and Genus _Xanthosoma_ is entirely of tropical American origin. Wiki indicates that there are 50 or so species.

_Colocasia_, on the other hand, all originate from SE Asia and the Pacific.

Yeah those _C. ciliata_ are tough plants.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

hydrophyte said:


> Oh I just did a Wikimaybe search and Genus _Xanthosoma_ is entirely of tropical American origin. Wiki indicates that there are 50 or so species.
> 
> _Colocasia_, on the other hand, all originate from SE Asia and the Pacific.
> 
> Yeah those _C. ciliata_ are tough plants.


Yeah, this also will allow me to work with plants requiring less humidity, currently at 60% but allow me to mix in some nice crypt sp. to replace the Lilies

I think it will come together jsut a matter of finding the right combination of plants to use.

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Currently sitting at 62% and no fogging, at 70% I start to get alot of fogging with the glass. Now I need to find some sources for some emmersed plants to start replacing the 95% South American Collection I have.

Here is my plan:

Replace Spathephylum spp with Crytocoryne spp
Replace Cyperus spp with Acorus spp
Repalce my various Pilea spp with Pilea Cadierei which is from Vietnam
Replace my Ruellia Brittonia with Limno Aromatica
Replace my spider plant with probably Java Fern of some type (thinking Windelov or Trident)
Keep my Colocasia Dwarf plant
Keep my Cyrtosperma Johnstonii

Add some Emmersed Java Ferns to potters and floating rafts
Add some Java Moss

Already replaced my submerged Anubias 'Gold' with Java Fern 'Philipine'

Keep my Nymphoides Indica (snowflake)

Try out some Hygrophilia spp.

Now to try and find or trade for stuff.

Craig


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

SOunds like a good plan Craig.

I like the idea of using Java fern. It should grow well in there and make a nice effect.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

hydrophyte said:


> SOunds like a good plan Craig.
> 
> I like the idea of using Java fern. It should grow well in there and make a nice effect.


Here is my huge trade list:

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/s...ersed-plants-emmersed-crypts.html#post1042499

Craig


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

That's some great material in that FT list. It could be excellent for anybody pondering a medium-largish riparium setup.


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## luke20037 (Jan 24, 2010)

craig where did you get your lights from?


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

They are JBJ Viper K-2 70 watt Metal Halide HQI's paired with Phillips Master Colour 4200k 92 CRI bulbs. I bought them from www.fosterandsmithaqautics.com

Craig


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## luke20037 (Jan 24, 2010)

ok thanks


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Got my Misting System figured out  Man these things aren't cheap to get a nice setup. Probably be a couple months down the road before I can set one up.

Craig


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## gogreen (Sep 18, 2008)

Craigthor said:


> Shot some video from across the room of the school of Chocolate Gouramis, these little guys are really cool looking. I hope they keep schooling all the time. In the video you can also see the holding Albi tucked up at the top of some driftwood hanging out, that is his spot. The Albis don't seem to mind the Gouramis and vice versa so hopefully I found a really nice grouping of fish that will get along.
> 
> 
> 
> Craig


OMG those gourami schooled so beautifully! your tank looks amazing!


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Well hopefully by weeks end I should have some fresh pictures of hte new setup! Items I've gotten in or ordered:

Java Fern Tropica
Java Fern Needle Leaf
Java Fern Phillippine
Java Fern Trident
Group of emmersed crypts
Hygrophyllia 'Bihar'
Limnophila Aromatica
Poacea 'Purple Bamboo'
Java Moss
Pilea Cadierei
Cyrtosperma Johnstonii
Colocasia
Acorus sp
Duckweed

This should round out the tank nicely, hoping to get one more ememrsed crypts package but never heard back from the selelr.

Craig


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## luke20037 (Jan 24, 2010)

ive seen some java ferns in the trellis rather than emmersed is that what your going for?


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

luke20037 said:


> ive seen some java ferns in the trellis rather than emmersed is that what your going for?


 
Some will be submereged needle leaf, some will be in planters and some in Epti Trellis rafts floating at the front.

Craig


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## RipariumGuy (Aug 6, 2009)

Duckweed? I thought that is was from the Americas. Must be wrong! Just so you know, I will get your aluminum plants in the mail tommarow.
Jake


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## luke20037 (Jan 24, 2010)

its so annoying that I cant swap (when I get some!) any buy plants off you guys!


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## RipariumGuy (Aug 6, 2009)

luke20037 said:


> its so annoying that I cant swap (when I get some!) any buy plants off you guys!


It takes time... And alot of tanks!


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

JakeJ said:


> Duckweed? I thought that is was from the Americas. Must be wrong! Just so you know, I will get your aluminum plants in the mail tommarow.
> Jake


The searchign I've done is that duckweed is found world wide.

Criag


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## chuukus (Jun 17, 2008)

How are the Chocolate gouramis doing? Very cool fish Ive had a group for about six months one really interesting about these fish is that they breath air from the surface. I havent see my fish breath through there gills I think they only breath from the surface.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

chuukus said:


> How are the Chocolate gouramis doing? Very cool fish Ive had a group for about six months one really interesting about these fish is that they breath air from the surface. I havent see my fish breath through there gills I think they only breath from the surface.


Mine are doing great, they don't school back and forth as much now that they settled in but still hang out in a big group and move from one end to the other a few times a day. They really love there live food diet though.

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Well, I started my rescape last night. Flipped the lights back on, removed all the planters, scooped out all the duckweed, and freaked all the fish out. I took the opportunity to do a 50% waterchange and vacuum off the substrate as I hadn't done it in awhile.

Got 2/3rds of the scape redone and it looks barren. I figure I'm looking at 4-6 months of grow out before it fills in. After I get done my last couple of packages frmo the PO today I will finish altering hte rest of my planters and planting up the remainder of the tank.

Unfortuantely most of my Crypts were un labeled when they arrived and got mixed around I so I just stuck them in. I will worry about whos who on another date and time.

Craig


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## RipariumGuy (Aug 6, 2009)

Did the aluminum plant come yet?


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## waterfaller1 (Jul 5, 2006)

Almost 30 pages..wowie. Subscribed and will come back later to read through.:icon_smil


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## macclellan (Dec 22, 2006)

Pics!



Craigthor said:


> Unfortuantely most of my Crypts were un labeled when they arrived and got mixed around I so I just stuck them in. I will worry about whos who on another date and time.


They were sent individually bagged, I apologized for my marker running out, and invited you to ask if you weren't sure which is which....


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

JakeJ said:


> Did the aluminum plant come yet?


Was in my box this morning!



waterfaller1 said:


> Almost 30 pages..wowie. Subscribed and will come back later to read through.:icon_smil


:icon_twis Yeah it got long in a hurry!

Will update with fresh pictures later today.

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

macclellan said:


> Pics!
> 
> 
> They were sent individually bagged, I apologized for my marker running out, and invited you to ask if you weren't sure which is which....


I wasn't refering to yours they just came today a little bit ago. I've gotten them from about 4 different people now. :flick:


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## macclellan (Dec 22, 2006)

Craigthor said:


> I wasn't refering to yours they just came today a little bit ago. I've gotten them from about 4 different people now. :flick:


lol, phew - glad to hear that I'm not part of the problem. :hihi:
I thought you got them yesterday. Darn USPS inconsistency!


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

macclellan said:


> lol, phew - glad to hear that I'm not part of the problem. :hihi:
> I thought you got them yesterday. Darn USPS inconsistency!


I should have ordered all your Parva though as I think I'm going to do a field of it submersed. I've got some coming from Gatekeeper as well.

Craig


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## macclellan (Dec 22, 2006)

Craigthor said:


> I should have ordered all your Parva though as I think I'm going to do a field of it submersed. I've got some coming from Gatekeeper as well.
> 
> Craig


I still have several dozen... I'm out of town all weekend but can send more if you want. PM is key!


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Just afew pictures! Sorry they aren't very good but I'm running the tank with lids completely closed as I acclimate some submerged plants over to emmersed culture.

Still have some crypts I don't have room for not sure if I will jsut submerge them or sell them. Also I have a bunch more C. Parva coming and will use it through out the tank in the bottom. This is a long term grow out and I'm guessing a good solid 4 months before I see it really start to fill in. I've got a bunch of needle leaf java fern left and am conisdering moving most of my Phillippine over to emmersed and using hte needle submerged.










































Craig


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## Outlawboss (Dec 30, 2008)

I like this iteration...ALOT! This is so cool Craig. That picture with the horizontally placed submerged DW and the Java Fern growing out from between the pieces looks like it could have been snapped during a trip to the lake or something.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Outlawboss said:


> I like this iteration...ALOT! This is so cool Craig. That picture with the horizontally placed submerged DW and the Java Fern growing out from between the pieces looks like it could have been snapped during a trip to the lake or something.


Well if you liked those here are a few more. After uploading and looking at the pictures I removed all the Phillippine from below the water line. It is now on the Epti Trellis Rafts. I put the remainder of my Needle Leaf below the water line and am really digging the flow. The entire front of the tank will get a carpet of C. Parva scattered around.

What I enjoy about this tank is that every time I change something around it seems to keep getting better and better. I can't wait for everything to fill in but I know paitence will be the key from here on out.

Again sorry about the quality of the pictures, I will try a few after dark as that seems to help eliminate the glare.



























































Enjoy,

Craig


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## A Hill (Jul 25, 2005)

Those Chocolate Gouramis look great, so does the tank in general.

Keep up the good work, 
-Andrew


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## luke20037 (Jan 24, 2010)

looking good mate


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## CL (Mar 13, 2008)

I like the gouramis too. But man, doesn't that duckweed bother you? haha
Does salvinia not fit in with your habitat?


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

CL said:


> I like the gouramis too. But man, doesn't that duckweed bother you? haha
> Does salvinia not fit in with your habitat?


 
Nope I really like the duckweed. Also the Salvinia is central/ south american. :biggrin:


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## RipariumGuy (Aug 6, 2009)

What more can I say then awesome! I'm glad the plants made it OK, I was a little nervous it being the first time I have shipped plants.
Jake


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## legomaniac89 (Mar 16, 2008)

Is there water under all that duckweed? Looks awesome man!


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

legomaniac89 said:


> Is there water under all that duckweed? Looks awesome man!


:hihi: Yep!

And for those that haveripariums check out my RAOK that I just posted in the SnS.

Craig


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## Ugly Genius (Sep 27, 2003)

Looks awesome, Craig! It looks so natural. An ideal environment for the plants and fish. Is the wood the same as before the rescape? It looks like a whole new piece the way it's laid out now. I like it in that the focus is back to below the water line. 

'Cause we all know that all the fun happens beneath the surface.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Ugly Genius said:


> Looks awesome, Craig! It looks so natural. An ideal environment for the plants and fish. Is the wood the same as before the rescape? It looks like a whole new piece the way it's laid out now. I like it in that the focus is back to below the water line.
> 
> 'Cause we all know that all the fun happens beneath the surface.


 
Yep the wood and substrate are the only things to stay the same, 99% of my plants were of South American nationality so they are in holding tanks till I get them boxed and into someone elses tanks. Everything is now as clsoe to Asian Biotope as I can get. Java Ferns, Cryptocorynes, Cyrtosperma Johnstonii, Poacea 'Purple Bamboo', Hyrophilia 'Bihar', Java Moss.

I do really like the wood laying down into the water it really adds to the natural feel of the tank. This is the tank I've been wanting to create for a very long time. A calm, peaceful biotope that feels as natural as possible.

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

For my loyal viewers! I opened the top and wiped down the glass for a few snap shots of my new scape. In an hour so it will be fogged back over, can't waitto get a job so I can get a misting system so I can have the front partially open for a nice view through the front glass.

Just started feeding Daphnia Pulex to the tank and the Bettas love it, the Chocolates on the other hand aren't sure what to think. I've also dropped the tank temp a couple of degrees to try and find a happy medium between the Chocolates and the Bettas. The Betta love around 74 and the Chocolates love 82 so I'm, trying to hit the 76-78 mark.

Just cleaned out one of my Eheim 2213's today, Eewwww that thing was nasty. Hasn't been pulled apart since I put the tank together except once to rinse out the fine pad. I will do the other in a week or 2 then they will be cleaned on a monthly basis from here on out.

I've got a nice C. Parva field started with another 3 dozen coming next week to finish it off. In total I will have added about 6 dozen to start the foreground. I also really love the huge amounts of Needleleaf that I added into the tank as it just feels very natural. The emmeresed crypt section is starting to shape up as the Crypts adjust to there new home.

Sorry about the nasty glare on the glass I jsut don't get around to taking pictures once its dark outside and even with the blinds closed there is still a bit of natural light sneaking in.


































































































Craig


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

Tank looks great mate! I especially love the duckweed. I have some water lettuce and in a few weeks itll be that thick too. +1 on the parva and the needle leaf. 
Happy planting,
Your pal,


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## prototyp3 (Dec 5, 2007)

The chocolates look great. I hope they do well for you. I've read so many horror stories on how they usually drop like flies in captivity. It's a shame as they're such nice looking fish. I will let you be the guinea pig for me on their hardiness.

I hope you have plenty of patience in waiting for those parva to carpet. I'm thinking way longer than 4 months to fill in.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

prototyp3 said:


> The chocolates look great. I hope they do well for you. I've read so many horror stories on how they usually drop like flies in captivity. It's a shame as they're such nice looking fish. I will let you be the guinea pig for me on their hardiness.
> 
> I hope you have plenty of patience in waiting for those parva to carpet. I'm thinking way longer than 4 months to fill in.


 
:hihi: I was mostly refering to the emmersed section. I know the Parva will take a year to carpet in probably.

Craig


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## demonbreedr16 (Jan 10, 2008)

Wow! Your tank is very pretty! And kinda tempting me to go to the dark side [duckweed] in my rip. even though it's only 10gal's. roud:


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

demonbreedr16 said:


> Wow! Your tank is very pretty! And kinda tempting me to go to the dark side [duckweed] in my rip. even though it's only 10gal's. roud:


Just remember the Duckweed isn't for the faint of heart. :icon_twis


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## demonbreedr16 (Jan 10, 2008)

^ LOL, I'm sure I can handle it.


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## chuukus (Jun 17, 2008)

Hey craig I was wondering what is your water temp? Ive been looking for some tankmates for my chocolate gouramies my understanding is the bettas like low to mid 70s and the gouramis are accustomed to 80%-82%. My gouramis start loosing there color and acting sluggish at 78% but once it goes back up a few degrees they are right back to chasing each other all over the tank.

What other fish would could you use in a biotope situation like yours?


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

chuukus said:


> Hey craig I was wondering what is your water temp? Ive been looking for some tankmates for my chocolate gouramies my understanding is the bettas like low to mid 70s and the gouramis are accustomed to 80%-82%. My gouramis start loosing there color and acting sluggish at 78% but once it goes back up a few degrees they are right back to chasing each other all over the tank.
> 
> What other fish would could you use in a biotope situation like yours?


Water temp depends on the time of day. 

Like now with the lights off for 3 hours tank is at 76.8 with air temp roughly 80 and 55% humidty

Before lights off tank temp was at 79.5 air temp roughly 82 and 60% humidity

This is due to the heating that is created by my Metal Halides which recreates a much more natural feel in my opinion. Just as water temps rise as the sun is out and fall after the sun sets. 

I haven't noticed any lack of coloring in my Chocolates and have seen very little chasing even with warmer water temps. They, atleast in my tank, hang out in 2-3 groups and occasionally all one large group.

The Albis do like coler water but when they were originally found, here is a bit of info that was provided to me by a breeder locally that breed these 5 years ago. The article is by Jesper Thorups and here is what was sent to me.



Jesper Thorups said:


> Copy and pasted article
> 
> 
> There was a time when everyone thought of Betta splendens whenever the talk was about Bettas. This is changing. A growing number of people are now showing interest in some of the other species in the genus Betta. The genus currently includes over 50 species, a number that keeps growing, as the Southeast Asian rainforests are explored and new species are found and described by scientists.
> ...


As far as other tank mates I'm sure if you have Chocolates you have done your research on there needs and realize it's best to keep them in a species only tank. They are conisdered an extremely difficult fish to breed and have very specific needs. 

I took a risk after doing some consulting with a breeder locally, mostly a killie guy now but has breed over 360 species of fish I know I can ask these kind of questions and get good answers from him.

Let me know is I can be of more help.

Craig


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## !shadow! (Jan 25, 2010)

My favorite picture so far:









one of the most naturalistic tanks i've seen in a while without ada written all over it(l have nothing against ada). That needle leaf java is really a masters touch. l think your pictures would come out better if you took them at night.


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## speedie408 (Jan 15, 2009)

Thanks for sharing that tidbit of Albi history. It just reinforced everything Ive been witnessing . Tank is coming along nicely. I'm partial with all the duckweed but hey, it works for what you're trying to achieve.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Well a small update. I thinned out alot, think 75%, of the Duckweed. I really like the looks of it but it needed a bit of managing. I can even see in the bottom of the tank now, yah! I think this will be on a monthly list of things to do: clean cannisters, vaccuum substrate, remove duckweed mat. 


















































Enjoy!

Craig


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## legomaniac89 (Mar 16, 2008)

You need to buy yourself a nice tripod, my friend


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

legomaniac89 said:


> You need to buy yourself a nice tripod, my friend


I know, I know but I keep spending my money on the tank. :flick:


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## !shadow! (Jan 25, 2010)

lol l am the same way craig, l keep procrastinating. l like the new look with less duckweed.


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## MrJG (Feb 21, 2007)

Bah you don't need a tripod. I use a bar stool and a cardboard box. Works like a champ. 

The new tank iteration is looking great. I can't wait to see it in a few months as things adjust and start settling in.


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## chuukus (Jun 17, 2008)

You have created a perfect habitat for both species. That was some great info on the betta I guess that temperature your at is the perfect happy medium for both the betta and gourami.


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## FSM (Jan 13, 2009)

You shouldn't need a tripod with that much light. Increase the shutter speed.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

FSM said:


> You shouldn't need a tripod with that much light. Increase the shutter speed.


Not possible as its jsut a point and shoot.

Craig


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## Makoto (Mar 23, 2009)

Great build, black trim killing it though, rimless starphire will be the only way to go if i ever jump back in this hobby.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Just a quick update. Everything is starting to bounce back. Crypts are going to town with a few new leaves starting to show up, java ferns making the transition to emmersed fine and added even more C. Parva. Almost half of the originally planted Parva melted but I expected it. Fish seem to really feel at home and I added even more Java Moss. I'll probably add 2-3 more trellis rafts with Java Fern and Java Moss to the tank yet as I still have plenty to spare. 

I did manage to do an upgrade on my fish room yesterday and it looks great, I'll have to snap a few pictures. I've got 2 tanks with Daphnia Pulex, several containers of Micro and Walter Worms, a few Wingless fruit flies and some Vinegar Eels along with the California Black worms in the fridge.

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Still dreaming about setting up a misting system on this tank so I don't have to mist it by hand.... Hopefully I get my job so that I can soon own one. Also need to get some stuff sold in the SNS which will help.

Craig


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## A Hill (Jul 25, 2005)

Craigthor said:


> Still dreaming about setting up a misting system on this tank so I don't have to mist it by hand.... Hopefully I get my job so that I can soon own one. Also need to get some stuff sold in the SNS which will help.
> 
> Craig


I haven't read every single post, but have you looked into the DIY misting systems using ultrasonic humidifiers? Much cheaper in the short term.

Looks better with less Duck weed but I still am thinking, look at all the room he is wasting :hihi:

-Andrew


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

A Hill said:


> I haven't read every single post, but have you looked into the DIY misting systems using ultrasonic humidifiers? Much cheaper in the short term.
> 
> Looks better with less Duck weed but I still am thinking, look at all the room he is wasting :hihi:
> 
> -Andrew


But that is fogging different concept with different results. :icon_lol:


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

Hey Craig I got your box sent off yesterday I hope that you will see it tomorrow or Tuesday. The Java fern on Epi-Trellis Rafts ought to start growing in quick when you get it into that warm + humid environment. Have you managed to turn up any _C. pontederiifolia_?


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## macclellan (Dec 22, 2006)

Tank looks good!

You may want to shoot smaller photos (camera setting) or resizing. They are ginormous and difficult to see. Also, almost all are out of focus - not sure what's causing that.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

hydrophyte said:


> Hey Craig I got your box sent off yesterday I hope that you will see it tomorrow or Tuesday. The Java fern on Epi-Trellis Rafts ought to start growing in quick when you get it into that warm + humid environment. Have you managed to turn up any _C. pontederiifolia_?


Thanks, yeah I found a couple of Pontederiifloia not sure which they are as most of my Crypts are un marked right now.

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Have a bunch of Trident coming this week and will be shipping out the Tropica tomorrow. That should help balance out the tank as the Tropica leaves were jsut to big for my liking.

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Got some more Crypts in the mail today and probably the rest of them next week, will do a little rearranging more then likely to get some good mixes and height into the tank. Also I will have a nice set of leaf colors that should mix well.

I will then move everything else over to a holding tank or possibly set up an emmersed setup!


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Well got my Trident in and I have to say it looks really sweet! Also just ordered 15 pots of Crypt Parva as most of what I had melted off.  I figure it was my fault as I let hte duckweed get to thick and probably cut off most of the light. My sand has comapcted which isn't good so hopefully getting the C. Parva growing should help keep it loosened up. I did remove 90% of the duckweed as I will need to stay on top of it once I get my new Parva planted.

Future upgrades that I'm considering:

A pair of Ehiem 2217's with the 2215 Impellers in there places
Mist King Misting System

Those are the only things I would really like to change yet. 

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Firgured it was time for a small picture update. I should have some more pictures end of next week once I get the C. Parva and some more emmersed crypts swapped around.


























































































































Craig


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## VincentK (Dec 16, 2009)

Nice tank yo, I really like your use of the driftwood, I don't know if you said already, but how did you get your water like all dark? Did you add leaves or something?
Also, too bad about that duckweed, maybe it's just because I like duckweed


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

Hey that's looking great. I imagined this would take longer to develop, but you got a lot of volume of nice stuff in there quick. It looks like it is transitioning well in that warm, humid environment.

Did you end up using those latest Java ferns that I sent? Those things were pretty ratty and didn't have much leaf, but there was quite a bit of rhizome and they should start growing quick in there. 

These pictures are much better. Did you get a new camera?

I like the duckweed change too very much. Duckweed is really nice in small quantities as an accent.


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

...have you considered any arboreal epiphytes for the above-water driftwood? _Dendrobium_ or _Bulbophyllum_ sp. orchids might do well and would be pretty representative for SE Asia.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

VincentK said:


> Nice tank yo, I really like your use of the driftwood, I don't know if you said already, but how did you get your water like all dark? Did you add leaves or something?
> Also, too bad about that duckweed, maybe it's just because I like duckweed


I use a mix of Peat and Indian Almond Leaf Extract along with adding Indian Almond leaves in the tank as well.



hydrophyte said:


> Hey that's looking great. I imagined this would take longer to develop, but you got a lot of volume of nice stuff in there quick. It looks like it is transitioning well in that warm, humid environment.
> 
> Did you end up using those latest Java ferns that I sent? Those things were pretty ratty and didn't have much leaf, but there was quite a bit of rhizome and they should start growing quick in there.
> 
> ...


Yes I was suprised at the growth rate but several daily mistings and high humidty has really made these guys take off. Most of what I planted only had 3-5 leaves and several have put out a couple of leaves over the last couple of weeks. 

The Java Ferns from you are in a propigation tank growing out. Not a 100% sure I will use them I got my hands on some more Philippine and fits the up front bill a bit better once grown out. I forgot how big the regular Java Fern was. I've really taken a liking to the Needle Leaf, Trident and Philippine varieties due to there slender size.

Same old camera but I took the pictures about 15 minutes before lights out so the sun wasn't full blast in the room.

Yes I really love the looks of just a touch of Duckweed. I'll just have to stay on it a couple of times a week to keep it under control. I must have pulled 5-6 cups of it out over the last week.



hydrophyte said:


> ...have you considered any arboreal epiphytes for the above-water driftwood? _Dendrobium_ or _Bulbophyllum_ sp. orchids might do well and would be pretty representative for SE Asia.


I have but really want to get the main display fine tuned before I spend any more money on other plants.

Craig


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## benon (Feb 18, 2010)

This is looking really good. Just had to comment again. Plants are all looking really good.

One Q : where do you get those rafts in bulk? I just want the rafts, nothing else.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

benon said:


> This is looking really good. Just had to comment again. Plants are all looking really good.
> 
> One Q : where do you get those rafts in bulk? I just want the rafts, nothing else.


Thanks, The rafts came from Hydrophyte here on the boards. He runs www.ripariumsupply.com

Craig


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## benon (Feb 18, 2010)

*asdf*

Thanks Craigthor,

I forgot to add one more Q :

Did you convert all of those plants yourself? Or was there a supply store where one can purchase aquatic plants that are growing above water?

Thanks. Just ordered a bunch of those rafts, they are cool


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

benon said:


> Thanks Craigthor,
> 
> I forgot to add one more Q :
> 
> ...


Most of my Crypts came in emmersed form, I converted the stems, java ferns, and moss over.


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## benon (Feb 18, 2010)

Where would be a good place to buy emmersed crypts? They look really good.

By the way, I ordered some rafts and planters from the Riparium Supply


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

benon said:


> Where would be a good place to buy emmersed crypts? They look really good.
> 
> By the way, I ordered some rafts and planters from the Riparium Supply


I just watched the Swap n Shop here for them.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

I'll have to update soon, but time for some lunch. Just got done planting 15 pots of C. Parva in my tank. We'll see how much of it melts off before it establishes itself. Thinned out the duckweed even further and added some new Cryptocorynes into the Riparium planters and removed a few other plants.

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Well after a few sales and some side work I've finally ordered my Mist King system. It should arrive sometime next week and then everything will be grand. I've been misting about 4-6 times a day now it will all be done by timer from then on out. I'll take pictures of my setup as I install it.

Also another thought is I'm really contemplating upgrading my Eheim 2213's to Eheim 2217's with the 2215 Impeller Assemblies. I would love just a touch more flow and to be able to go longer inbetween cleanings. Currently I'm cleaning out the Fine filter pads every week or every other week. This is mostly due to all the oragnics that are breaking down in the tank like the IAL, Driftwood, plant matter, live foods that die, etc. Though having the bigger filters may not make much of a difference on my cleaning routines though.

Craig


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

With that Mist King you could get some really nutty plants going in there. It will take a few months, I bet that you will be able to grow some of those crypts into nice full specimens. This C. wendtii ?? That I had going a while back would scale well in there.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

hydrophyte said:


> With that Mist King you could get some really nutty plants going in there. It will take a few months, I bet that you will be able to grow some of those crypts into nice full specimens. This C. wendtii ?? That I had going a while back would scale well in there.



Although expensize I think in the long run it will pay for itself many times over both in time and effort.

Craig


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

I think that _C. cordata_ and _C. usteriana_ would be other good ones to look into as plants that could grow to >12" tall.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

hydrophyte said:


> I think that _C. cordata_ and _C. usteriana_ would be other good ones to look into as plants that could grow to >12" tall.


 
I've got both of those. A C. Cordata Rosenervig and an Usteriana, I just need to figure which is the Usteriana as it is one of my many unlabeled Crypt species.

Craig


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## macclellan (Dec 22, 2006)

C. usteriana (which I sent you labeled BTW  ) is pretty distinctive looking: long and somewhat thin bullate leaves, light green on top, purple underneath... gets absolutely massive, 24"+ leaves.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

macclellan said:


> C. usteriana (which I sent you labeled BTW  ) is pretty distinctive looking: long and somewhat thin bullate leaves, light green on top, purple underneath... gets absolutely massive, 24"+ leaves.


I just have to go looking then, I actually got them from 2 different people so the one from you is probably labeled the other is not. From your description I think I know where it is at will have to look in the morning once lights are back on.

Craig


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

My _C. usteriana_ also has relatively stiff leaves, so it should stand up better than most crypts do.

Mine bloomed the other day. The spathe was awesome. I need to make some time to edit and posts some pictures.


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

Where does one aquire 15 pots of C. parva? :hihi: Thats sure is alot. Do you plant them by the clump, or do you seperate and conserve?


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

pianofish said:


> Where does one aquire 15 pots of C. parva? :hihi: Thats sure is alot. Do you plant them by the clump, or do you seperate and conserve?


 
Got them from aquabotanic.com Each pot container anywhere from 8-15 plants once divided out. It gave me enough to put a nice patch work carpet in my tank, now to wait to see how well they do. Probably be some melt off as they are more then like in emmersed form so there will be some transition time.

Craig


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## macclellan (Dec 22, 2006)

Gosh, that must have been tedious planting 15 pots worth!


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

macclellan said:


> Gosh, that must have been tedious planting 15 pots worth!


Took about an hour and a half, but I gotta get packing up your order to go to the PO. :biggrin:


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## macclellan (Dec 22, 2006)

Saweet!

Remember that parva needs a good amount of light which that duckweek sure seems to be blocking!


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

macclellan said:


> Saweet!
> 
> Remember that parva needs a good amount of light which that duckweek sure seems to be blocking!


What Duckweed, I've removed 98% of it so that the Parva gets enough light. :biggrin: Your package is off, I included a Becketti and another un marked one. Thought I had another Mi Oya but it seems that its not as it is throwing out green leaves.


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## macclellan (Dec 22, 2006)

Craigthor said:


> What Duckweed, I've removed 98% of it so that the Parva gets enough light. :biggrin:


 Touché!


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

macclellan said:


> Touché!


:hihi: Think I figured out where the Usteriana is. Think I found it in my emmersed planting cups in the propigation tank. Didn't get it labeled but I'll snap a couple of pictures and have to eyeball it for me to be sure. I'll have to move it to my Riparium as I don't see one in there.

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Mac is this the Usteriana that came from you. Looks like the only one I have that matches the descriptions and pictures I can find.


















Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Just a slight update though. Started a substrate swap today of Turface Pro League Natural. There is a distibuter about 10 minutes from my place and I picked up a 100#'s for $19.80. Has the really rich clay coloring I was looking for at a price that I can't beat. I've got tons of Root Medic Fertilizer Capsules and can dose the water column easily so it won't make a big deal on having AS.

Lost a bunch of my snails and shrimp and all of the 15 pots of Parva I planted last week after the sand bed went anerobic on me. Happens to the best of us. The Xingu sand is great but needs to be in a shallow 1/2" or so layer to keep from compacting.

craig


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## jmhart (Mar 14, 2008)

Craigthor said:


> Just a slight update though. Started a substrate swap today of Turface Pro League Natural. There is a distibuter about 10 minutes from my place and I picked up a 100#'s for $19.80. Has the really rich clay coloring I was looking for at a price that I can't beat. I've got tons of Root Medic Fertilizer Capsules and can dose the water column easily so it won't make a big deal on having AS.
> 
> Lost a bunch of my snails and shrimp and all of the 15 pots of Parva I planted last week after the sand bed went anerobic on me. Happens to the best of us. The Xingu sand is great but needs to be in a shallow 1/2" or so layer to keep from compacting.
> 
> craig



I don't mean to ask an obvious question, but are you sure the parva just didn't all melt away? I hate for you to throw it all out if it only melted.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

jmhart said:


> I don't mean to ask an obvious question, but are you sure the parva just didn't all melt away? I hate for you to throw it all out if it only melted.


 
Roots turned mushy and stinky definitely bad, trust me I checked as I planted so much of it only found 3 pieces I planted that hadn't gone bad.

Craig


----------



## jmhart (Mar 14, 2008)

That really sucks, but you're right, it happens.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

jmhart said:


> That really sucks, but you're right, it happens.


And if you could smell how bad the sand stinks taking it out. :icon_mad: My once nearly white sand is almost black, nothing a good rinse and sun wont fix but as far as using it as the sole substrate bad idea.

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Substrate change is DONE! What a chore, but am so glad I jsut decided to finish it. Filled the tank about 3/4 of hte way full then decided to do the other half. 99% of my duckweed is gone sure it will make a comeback shortly but atleast I can take a week or 2 from thinning it out. A single 50# bag was enough to do my whole tank with almost 3" all the way across, figure I will ahve to remove some but can do that when I siphon it during a water change. Had to fun to the LFS and get some more RO as my system couldn't keep up with pretty much two 100% water changes.

Removed alot of dead snails in the substrate along with a few lives ones that just got in my way. Now I'm going to have to buy more C. Parva pots as I lost the 15 I had just planted. 

Well gotta run, fish club meeting is in a little bit.

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Figured it was time for a new picture update!










































































Craig


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## chase127 (Jun 8, 2008)

I like the new look


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

Wow that's looking great Craig! I have a plan in mind to start a new riparium for crypts. I have a number of nice specimens right now, but they are mainly in scuzzy culture tanks. You are going to have quite a nice collection there.

Do you know what sp. this brown one is?



Craigthor said:


> Craig


You know what else would be neat to look for for this tank would be some _Lagenandra_. I don't have much of any experience with them, but it looks as though some _Lagenandra_ grow into nice sturdy, erect plants, and they are probably more strongly inclined to grow as emersed aquatics than crypts are.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

That brownish one in the back is Legenandra Meboldii 'Pink' it has more pinkish hues in person but they don't show as well in the pictures. It has some nice rhizome and hoping it takes off fast. The one in front is C. Ideii I believe kind of a creamish color with green accents. I've got some nice specimens just need for them to start growing out. My Mist King system will be here Thursday and next week I will probably get in another order of C. Parva, going for 16-20 pots of it to get me started with. 

I will probably update next week after I get my misting system hooked up, a few more crypts coming in this week and the C. Parva next week.

Craig


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## RipariumGuy (Aug 6, 2009)

That new substrate is rather spiffing!


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

JakeJ said:


> That new substrate is rather spiffing!


 
And cheap $9.80 to do my entire tank!


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## RipariumGuy (Aug 6, 2009)

Craigthor said:


> And cheap $9.80 to do my entire tank!


Even more spiffing! :biggrin:


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

Oh well there you go that is a _Lagenandra_. Where did you get it I have been trying to track them down?

Is your moss growing in there, and how do you have it planted?


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

hydrophyte said:


> Oh well there you go that is a _Lagenandra_. Where did you get it I have been trying to track them down?
> 
> Is your moss growing in there, and how do you have it planted?


I got the Legenandra from Mr Ghori. Not sure he has any for sale I just ordered a bunch of crypts from him a couple weeks back and he offered me this portion for a good price so I jumped on it. My moss is growing great on the rafts it is turning a nice light green color and sticking up slightly. I'll try and get some better pictures of hte moss next time. I just layed it on there no tieing it down or anything only seems it would fall off if I turned it completely upside down and didn't hold on to it.

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

All I have to say is Mist King is AWESOME! Came today and I got it put together, still need a few parts but they will come shortly in a few weeks but for now it is up and running. 10-15 seconds and I can mist my entire tank with a light fine mist. Have to say with an emmersed setup it is great as I was misting 3-4 times a day now it will mist 6 times or every 2 hours of lights on for me!

Craig


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## chase127 (Jun 8, 2008)

We need a video of the misting


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

chase127 said:


> We need a video of the misting


Soon young grass hopper, I've got lots of cords to clean up and some supports to build to hold my lighting ballasts, resivoir, misting pump, misting manifold. Did I say lots of cords to clean up. :flick: Looks like a bomb went off under my stand. Also have to local fish auction on Saturday so tomorrow I will be packing up goods to go.

Hopefulyl by weekends end I will have some pictures and video up.

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Got a few awesome stems from Crispino today. Got them in not to convert htem bacvk to emmersed form!

Polygonum 'Kawagoeanum' - Put it where my Purple Bamboo was as I needed a splash of color in that spot.

Pogostemon Erectum- Removed my Hygrophila 'Bihar' and planted this and Poacea 'Purple Bamboo' together in a large planter. Should make for a nice effect once it all grows in.

Got my C. Parva ordered and should be in next week along with a pair of Eheim 2217s as the flow diminishes to almost nothing after a couple of weeks on the 2213s so a bit more flow and twice the bio filter on the way. I can always tone down the flow if need be!

Oh and the Mist King systems is great, got it mostly tuned in and running. Comes on for 10-25 seconds every hour and a half so I can mist 8 times a day. Only adding 6.5 oz of water a day and with filling up green water bottles for my Daphnia nothing to worry about as I usually remove more then that anyways.


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## Da Plant Man (Apr 7, 2010)

Haha! That is your 5,555th post! Great tank BTW. Just wondering, how much have you invested in a tank like this? I am really considering getting a larger size tank. I really am considering african cichlid but a riprarium looks nice also. Hope you dont mind me asking

-Caton


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Caton said:


> Haha! That is your 5,555th post! Great tank BTW. Just wondering, how much have you invested in a tank like this? I am really considering getting a larger size tank. I really am considering african cichlid but a riprarium looks nice also. Hope you dont mind me asking
> 
> -Caton


Alot $6K or so probably a bit more. But that includes plants and everything.


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## msnikkistar (Mar 23, 2010)

Craig, I wish I could spend 6k on a tank. My husband would laugh at me if I asked him to spend that much.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

msnikkistar said:


> Craig, I wish I could spend 6k on a tank. My husband would laugh at me if I asked him to spend that much.


 
My wife would probably kill me if she knew exactly how much I spent, but in my defense she enjoys this tank over any I have done in the past so to me the money aspect was worth it. She will sit and watch it for hours at times. Also I spared no expense when I set it up as I only had to purchase each item once and not replace it down the road. Well except for the Eheim 2213's that are getting upgraded to a pair of 2217's almost made the swtch when I ordered them but didn't.

Craig


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## msnikkistar (Mar 23, 2010)

Craigthor said:


> My wife would probably kill me if she knew exactly how much I spent, but in my defense she enjoys this tank over any I have done in the past so to me the money aspect was worth it. She will sit and watch it for hours at times. Also I spared no expense when I set it up as I only had to purchase each item once and not replace it down the road. Well except for the Eheim 2213's that are getting upgraded to a pair of 2217's almost made the swtch when I ordered them but didn't.
> 
> Craig


Not fair, my husband gets that glazed look when I try and get him to look at my tank 

I told him a few weeks back about my plan to get the 33 gallon rimless going, and he just looked at me like I was crazy when he saw the $240 I would spend on the tank alone. That was until I told him that was cheap, and I showed him the ADA one, and told him he should be happy I wasn't ADA crazy


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## kcrossley (Feb 22, 2010)

msnikkistar said:


> Not fair, my husband gets that glazed look when I try and get him to look at my tank
> 
> I told him a few weeks back about my plan to get the 33 gallon rimless going, and he just looked at me like I was crazy when he saw the $240 I would spend on the tank alone. That was until I told him that was cheap, and I showed him the ADA one, and told him he should be happy I wasn't ADA crazy


That just means you haven't sold him properly. The first trick in selling somebody on your idea is to make them think it's there's. Works every time.


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## benon (Feb 18, 2010)

Craigthor - post pics of that mist king in action! Mine should be here next week.

Also, I'm curious about the K-2 70watt that you have - how do you like it? I want to use two of them on my tank, as a linear strip might feel kind of cramped due to the emmersed tanks and driftwood sticking out of the top of the aquarium.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

benon said:


> Craigthor - post pics of that mist king in action! Mine should be here next week.
> 
> Also, I'm curious about the K-2 70watt that you have - how do you like it? I want to use two of them on my tank, as a linear strip might feel kind of cramped due to the emmersed tanks and driftwood sticking out of the top of the aquarium.


 
I will eventually, currently working on a piece for under my stand for holding my ballasts and misting pump, manifold, etc then I will post some new pictures.

I really love the K-2 70 watters. Not a ton of light but jsut enough and they don't throw out tons of heat either. Also IMO it gives a very nice modern feel to my tank.

Craig


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## benon (Feb 18, 2010)

*deal*

Did you happen to get some kind of special deal on yours?

Curious, but how come you're using 8000K bulbs?


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

benon said:


> Did you happen to get some kind of special deal on yours?
> 
> Curious, but how come you're using 8000K bulbs?


The Viper K-2's were on sale for $165 each when I got them. I'm actually using Philips Mastercolour 4200K 92 CRI bulbs. The Viper K-2 come with JBJ 14000k bulbs which are pretty worthless for planted tanks, way to blue. I did try out some 8000k bulbs but still didn't care for them when compared with the old Astralux HGN 8000k bulbs I had in the past which are no longer marketed. The Phillips bulbs are about $38 ea at www.1000bulbs.com. Color rendition is superb and they look so natural to the eye.

Craig


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## benon (Feb 18, 2010)

*Bulbs*

Is it ok if the bulb is 4500k rather than 6500k? I never understood the level of importance here.

http://www.jbjlighting.com/prod-bulbs.html

This page has a 6500k bulb for the viper 70.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

benon said:


> Is it ok if the bulb is 4500k rather than 6500k? I never understood the level of importance here.
> 
> http://www.jbjlighting.com/prod-bulbs.html
> 
> This page has a 6500k bulb for the viper 70.


None of the bulbs listed on that page show anything for a 70 watt MH jsut compact flourescents. Bulb color between manufacturers can very alot and may not look the same. Bulb color is recommended between 6500-10000k for plants but mostly what looks good to your eyes.

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Video of the new layout, sorry my filming techniques aren't that great but you get the idea!


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

Wow that is looking cool. I wsa sceptical at first about using emersed crypts in such a large riparium setup, but this will be amazing when those plants grow in some more. That _Lagenandra_ is the coolest of all your plants.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

hydrophyte said:


> Wow that is looking cool. I wsa sceptical at first about using emersed crypts in such a large riparium setup, but this will be amazing when those plants grow in some more. That _Lagenandra_ is the coolest of all your plants.


 
Thanks Devin, I can't wait but know it will be 4-6 months before this tank really starts to shine. The Mist King misting system is great and will be superb once I go back to work. The Legenandra is a super nice plant and is growing fast. I had trimmed off alot of its leaves when it arrived so most of what you see is new growth over the last week and a half.

If it wasn't for your Riparium Supply products I could have never combined and came up with this layout which satisfies all of my wants in a tank.

Craig


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## CL (Mar 13, 2008)

Very cool. I miss my mistking system.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

CL said:


> Very cool. I miss my mistking system.


I know they are nice systems, can't believe you would get rid of one!

Craig


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## benon (Feb 18, 2010)

*asdf*

That is really cool...

Is that bucket your reservoir for the mist king?

I'm also kind of worried now, that mist king is powerful...

I am not concerned about my 60-gallon long, but my 20-gallon long. I think even one nozzle in there might be too powerful?


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

benon said:


> That is really cool...
> 
> Is that bucket your reservoir for the mist king?
> 
> ...


Yep the bucket is the resivoir. It is a 2g bucket from Home Depot. You also have to realize I have 10 Nozzles in my tank and the systems doesnrun run more then 10-30 seconds at a time depending on what I have the timer set at. It doesn't come out like a jet stream but a nice fine mist that is almost fog like.

Craig


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

How frequently does the Mist King run? I still think it would be cool to get some orchids going in there. You could mount them right on those driftwood stumps, or find a way to attractively hang them on the back rim. Most orchids wouldn't tolerate being wet all the time, but you could probably find some that would work well enough so long as there was some time to dry out during the day.


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## RipariumGuy (Aug 6, 2009)

The first official high tech riparium! The misting system is so cool!


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

hydrophyte said:


> How frequently does the Mist King run? I still think it would be cool to get some orchids going in there. You could mount them right on those driftwood stumps, or find a way to attractively hang them on the back rim. Most orchids wouldn't tolerate being wet all the time, but you could probably find some that would work well enough so long as there was some time to dry out during the day.


Currently 10-30 seconds every 1.5 hours of lights on. Most average around 20 seconds of mist time.



JakeJ said:


> The first official high tech riparium! The misting system is so cool!


Thanks!


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

That sounds too moist for orchids, but I bet that the crypts love it in there.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

hydrophyte said:


> That sounds too moist for orchids, but I bet that the crypts love it in there.


 
The crypts do love it, I will be uploading some pictures here in just a bit after I get everything cleaned up. I just finished up my new station in the stand that holds my ballast, misting pump, misting manifold, resivoir all in a nice neat package that by removing a few screws can easily be removed if ever needed.

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Pics of the cleaned up stand, can't wait on Wednesday my 2217's should be here to replace the 2213's.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Badis Badis have been evicted. Just didn't fit the long term scheme, also conisdering rehoming my Chocolate Gouramis and really focusing on my B. Albimarginata group.

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Well I've found a home for the Chocolates as well. They will be leaving me this weekend for a Species tank with a breeder I know locally. This is going to allow me to put more time and effort into breeding the Albi's which was my original goal. Just got side tracked for a couple of months.

Craig


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## jmhart (Mar 14, 2008)

Bye bye Chocolates...such great fish.

Good luck with the Albi's


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

jmhart said:


> Bye bye Chocolates...such great fish.
> 
> Good luck with the Albi's


 
Chocolates are great but they caused my Albi's to stop spawning and with as much as I have invested in them I would like to make some of it back. Also the Albimarginata don't come out to the frint of the tank as much as the gouramis use the frint half of the tank for hte most part.

On a promising note my C. Parva should be here this week so I can plant it and get a carpet going of it.

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Well, I decided to pull an all nighter on Aquabid and won 2 more pairs of Albi's. One pair is a wild caught pair the other a piar of F1's

Craig


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## speedie408 (Jan 15, 2009)

Craigthor said:


> Well, I decided to pull an all nighter on Aquabid and won 2 more pairs of Albi's. One pair is a wild caught pair the other a piar of F1's
> 
> Craig


You're now officially in over your head.







haha Welcome aboard!

Now to get them to start breeding successfully.


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## kcrossley (Feb 22, 2010)

Craigthor said:


> Well, I decided to pull an all nighter on Aquabid and won 2 more pairs of Albi's. One pair is a wild caught pair the other a piar of F1's
> 
> Craig


Thank God! I was worried there wasn't anybody as obsessed with this hobby as me. :thumbsup:


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

speedie408 said:


> You're now officially in over your head.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I know I'm actually amazed at how much the price of htem has come down in the last 3 months since I bought mine. But in that time one guy was flooding AquaBid with them every week for about 6 weeks time.



kcrossley said:


> Thank God! I was worried there wasn't anybody as obsessed with this hobby as me. :thumbsup:


Oh, I'm so more obsessed then you.

Craig


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## RipariumGuy (Aug 6, 2009)

kcrossley said:


> Thank God! I was worried there wasn't anybody as obsessed with this hobby as me. :thumbsup:


You thought you where obsessed! Thank again! :icon_eek:


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

JakeJ said:


> You thought you where obsessed! Thank again! :icon_eek:


 All of us cool fish people are obsessed, jsut some more then others. :icon_cool


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## kcrossley (Feb 22, 2010)

JakeJ said:


> You thought you where obsessed! Thank again! :icon_eek:


Okay, I'll respectfully bow to the obsessive masters on this board. Perhaps one day I can achieve your level of obsession. Hey wait a minute. Is that a good thing or bad?


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

Hey Craig that sand came in the mail yesterday. Thanks!

Hey if you think of it next time you have the camera out I would be interested to see close-ups of what the emersed mosses are doing in there.


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## ch3fb0yrdee (Oct 2, 2008)

Craig, is that your auto fill system in one of those pictures?


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## kcrossley (Feb 22, 2010)

Holy plumbing Batman! 

Craig, I just reviewed your pictures. What the heck is all that stuff under your tank?


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## Minsc (Jul 9, 2006)

I can't believe you are doing that big tank as a single species, that takes some dedication!
It is going to look great when it fills in, like an actual chunk of river


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

kcrossley said:


> Okay, I'll respectfully bow to the obsessive masters on this board. Perhaps one day I can achieve your level of obsession. Hey wait a minute. Is that a good thing or bad?


Definitely a good thing!



hydrophyte said:


> Hey Craig that sand came in the mail yesterday. Thanks!
> 
> Hey if you think of it next time you have the camera out I would be interested to see close-ups of what the emersed mosses are doing in there.


I'll grab some here in just abit just got done swapping cannister and uploading those pictures.

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

ch3fb0yrdee said:


> Craig, is that your auto fill system in one of those pictures?


Nope jsut my Mist King misting system for the emmersed section of hte tank



kcrossley said:


> Holy plumbing Batman!
> 
> Craig, I just reviewed your pictures. What the heck is all that stuff under your tank?


Which parts: 

Left side of the tank:

DIY CO2 Reactor
Hydor Inline Heater

Right side of the tank:

DIY CO2 Reactor
Hydor Inline heater
Coralife Turbotwist 3x 9 watt UV sterilizer

Middle of the tank:

Mist King misting pump, resivoir, manifold to the misting system



Minsc said:


> I can't believe you are doing that big tank as a single species, that takes some dedication!
> It is going to look great when it fills in, like an actual chunk of river


Dedication it does but hte long term outlook should be sweet in 4-6 months

Thanks. 

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Well they came in today. Now running 2 Eheim 2217's which I should have done from the get go. These things are beasts in every which way, flow seems about right for the tank, maybe a tad high but give it a few days and it should be perfect. Should have been there when I removed the 1/2" tubing from the bulk head barb and put the 5/8" tubing on there while the tank was still full!


















































Enjoy!


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Just for you Devin! Java Moss grown emmersed:


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## RipariumGuy (Aug 6, 2009)

Those things are monsters!


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## benon (Feb 18, 2010)

*asdf*

Looks like this tank is well established and everything is thriving. And with that mist king it's unstoppable!

Did you get any kind of confirmation for your order when you purchased from them? I haven't received anything yet - not even an e-mail.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

benon said:


> Looks like this tank is well established and everything is thriving. And with that mist king it's unstoppable!
> 
> Did you get any kind of confirmation for your order when you purchased from them? I haven't received anything yet - not even an e-mail.


I had to e-mail Marty to get it as the system didn't send it out.

Craig


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## macclellan (Dec 22, 2006)

Laganderas & Spiralis show up?


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

macclellan said:


> Laganderas & Spiralis show up?


 
Figure they will be here today. I've finally got my PO delivery schedule figured out and tehy milk as much time as they can.

Craig


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

That moss looks great. Has it grown much while in there?


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

hydrophyte said:


> That mss looks great. Has it grown much while in their?


Grown abit seems to grow really slowly above water. I did manage to find some Mini Pellia growing out of the large wood on the back wall of the tank. I stuck a few pieces in there and they all melted away. Now with the mister keeping everything nice and moist I'm seeing a couple of sprigs show up. 

P.S. You have a plant headed your way for Saturday. :icon_wink


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Received 2 more pairs if B. Albimarginata today. The wild caught pair is stunning in color and attitude. Really looking forward to getting my tank back to a species tank and getting some spawing going on. The Chocolates will be headed to there own species tank end of next week.

Craig


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## speedie408 (Jan 15, 2009)

Craigthor said:


> Received 2 more pairs if B. Albimarginata today. The wild caught pair is stunning in color and attitude. Really looking forward to getting my tank back to a species tank and getting some spawing going on. The Chocolates will be headed to there own species tank end of next week.
> 
> Craig


I wanna see. Post up some pics mang.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

speedie408 said:


> I wanna see. Post up some pics mang.


 
Will do once i catch them out again, had a pair spawngin a bit ago not sure which male it was but 2 males were trying to get in on it at the same time and the female kept chasing one of them off. I really love the coloring of hte females in spawn.

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Well I now have one holding male and wouldn't be suprised if I have a second by the end of the day. The new fish are settling in nicely and enjoying some nice live foods.

Craig


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## speedie408 (Jan 15, 2009)

Good to hear brotha. Hope they hold to term for you. Beleave it or not I got a male Albi that spawned with a female Channoides (don't ask). I see little black eyes now in the eggs and moved him into a breeding net. How do you think the babies will come out? lol I can't seem to find any literature on such hybrids.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

speedie408 said:


> Good to hear brotha. Hope they hold to term for you. Beleave it or not I got a male Albi that spawned with a female Channoides (don't ask). I see little black eyes now in the eggs and moved him into a breeding net. How do you think the babies will come out? lol I can't seem to find any literature on such hybrids.


Sounds like lunch for the Macrostoma Juvies  I hope they hold to term as well this time. I've got 31 of them all together so I should get some good breeding going soon, hopefully after the Chocolates are gone. I'm watching your tank to see how the VWCM do with them if it deters breeding at all.

Craig


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## speedie408 (Jan 15, 2009)

Craigthor said:


> Sounds like lunch for the Macrostoma Juvies  I hope they hold to term as well this time. I've got 31 of them all together so I should get some good breeding going soon, hopefully after the Chocolates are gone. I'm watching your tank to see how the VWCM do with them if it deters breeding at all.
> 
> Craig


haha if these babies come out all mutated/deformed, they'll for sure be Mac snacks. 

As for my Albis, I sold 2 pairs of my more mature fish. Now I've gotta wait for the other fish to sexually mature before I get any Albi action going again. The VWCM add a nice touch to the tank IMO. You should get some. roud: I'll keep posted tho... I'm looking for some males atm.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

speedie408 said:


> haha if these babies come out all mutated/deformed, they'll for sure be Mac snacks.
> 
> As for my Albis, I sold 2 pairs of my more mature fish. Now I've gotta wait for the other fish to sexually mature before I get any Albi action going again. The VWCM add a nice touch to the tank IMO. You should get some. roud: I'll keep posted tho... I'm looking for some males atm.


I'm going to keep my eye out for them but will probably have to find someone online that can ship them as the local LFS is crap


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Just got some great stuff in today. Got some more RootMedic from OS, Nice big Usteriana and Becketii Petchii from a member at APC, and 18 pots of C. Parva from www.sweetaquatics.com. Rich over at Sweet Aquatics was great to deal with and the pots were so full. I got 10-25 plantlets out of each pot, enough to heavily carpet the 150. The Turface was great to plant in and had no problems with it. Once my hands recover a bit I will go in put RootMedic into the substrate throughout the tank. Took about 2 hours to split and plant 18 pots of C. Parva.  Thursday the Chocolate go to their new species tank in hopes of some breeding action.

I'll try and get pictures up a little later today.

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Just got done putting 53 RootMedic capsules into my substrate! That along with a light EI dosing regime and I'll be good to go!


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## RipariumGuy (Aug 6, 2009)

Craigthor said:


> Just got done putting 53 RootMedic capsules into my substrate! That along with a light EI dosing regime and I'll be good to go!


Holy cow that is alot of capsules! I can't wait to get mine! roud:


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)




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## benon (Feb 18, 2010)

Very nice. The crypts look great, and the emmersed growth looks really healthy. I can't wait to see those crypts fill in.

I just had some crypt wendtii brown melt in my 60-gallon. Of course, they went from pressurized CO2 and T5HO to flourish excel and T5NO. I expect they will come back - I'm already seeing some new leaves.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

benon said:


> Very nice. The crypts look great, and the emmersed growth looks really healthy. I can't wait to see those crypts fill in.
> 
> I just had some crypt wendtii brown melt in my 60-gallon. Of course, they went from pressurized CO2 and T5HO to flourish excel and T5NO. I expect they will come back - I'm already seeing some new leaves.


Thanks, just swapped a few Crypts around today in the planters and will probably do that a few more times as they grow out and I see where they will look the best.

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Found what I would like to add to the above water part. The Jade Tree Frog - Rhacophorus dulitensis - Found in SE Asia Primarily Borneo and Sumatra along with a few other locations. Found in wet humid low land marshes and in the rain forest. Sounds like a perfect match for my tank! http://www.ecologyasia.com/verts/amphibians/jade-tree-frog.htm Now to find out if they are even available in the US, if they would survive in my setup, and if it is even a possible idea. Not much information is available that I have found mostly just repeating what everyone else says. 

Craig


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## msnikkistar (Mar 23, 2010)

http://petlifeforms.com/amph.html  Found one in the US


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Thanks to MsNikkiStar I have found out that I can't get this species of frog.


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## msnikkistar (Mar 23, 2010)

But you can get the other one that is similar!


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

msnikkistar said:


> But you can get the other one that is similar!


Yeah maybe they will get more in, would really need 4-6 of them for my tank considering they max at 2-3"

Craig


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## msnikkistar (Mar 23, 2010)

Call them!


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## speedie408 (Jan 15, 2009)

lookin good brotha. Those frogs would be SICK in this tank.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

speedie408 said:


> lookin good brotha. Those frogs would be SICK in this tank.


:icon_twis Yep, I think the search will continue!


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## benon (Feb 18, 2010)

*Good*

This tank is definitely begging for a creepy crawly. A frog is a genius idea.


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

It think that it would be pretty rough to mix frogs with those emersed crypts. Any animal weighing more than a gram crawling around on the plants would knock down the crypt leaves into the water and muck up the layout.


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## RipariumGuy (Aug 6, 2009)

Although having the frogs would be sweet, I have to agree with Devin.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

hydrophyte said:


> It think that it would be pretty rough to mix frogs with those emersed crypts. Any animal weighing more than a gram crawling around on the plants would knock down the crypt leaves into the water and muck up the layout.





JakeJ said:


> Although having the frogs would be sweet, I have to agree with Devin.


:icon_cool That is why I was after a dwarf species. The one I really wanted was full grown at 2" and really light weight.

Craig


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## RipariumGuy (Aug 6, 2009)

Craigthor said:


> :icon_cool That is why I was after a dwarf species. The one I really wanted was full grown at 2" and really light weight.
> 
> Craig


:thumbsup:


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

Two inches still sounds like it could be pretty hefty (for a frog) but I guess you'd just have to see what they do. If it is enough habitat for them they might potentially spend most of their time up on those stumps. It sure is an intriguing animal, and it sounds like it's a good biotope match too. I wonder if they do any kind of chirping or other vocalization(?).


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Got some more wood in the mail today from Rod (D.S. Drifter) here on the boards. Ended up using one 35" piece in my tank. After the tall stump on the left side got layed down the tank had a small balance issue in my mind. I was always drawn to the right side with the 2 exposed pieces of wood. I knew I didn't want a huge piece but something that looked like a young tree that got flooded and died off. Rod had just the piece for me! With a small cut to make it fit properly and a couple of zip ties to hold it to the fallen log I got my balance back. It does look a bit out of place right now but I think once the Cryptocoryne and Lagenandra species behind it fill it what will smooth the transition. Also once the Java Fern Trident and Java Moss fill around where the 2 pieces meet will help as well. Looks like the big stump toppled in and the small tree got pulled over partially because of it. Here are a few almost decent pictures of the new piece of wood:


















































How does it look to you guys? I think I will really need to let it grow in behind it for everyone to get the feel of what I picture in my head.

Craig


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## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

Looks wet:icon_cool

I wonder about Ripar's versus just using the full tank volume and letting the weeds come out the top:










I suppose for most real needy humidity plants......but many are pretty good at the emergent thing, even moss, which I use as sediment on the wood will suck up water a few inches above the water level and grow well.

This can still be done, or adjusted either direction should you chose that later, or if I chose to lower the water in my own tank. I dry my plants out a bit when I had Crypts in a tank like this, I got mold otherwise.

Nice mister, mister.

Regards, 
Tom Barr


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## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

BTW, it will be a lot of work, but I'd try and kill and get rid of the (d)yuckweed.
That weed is tough to stop, but constant picking and getting in there aggressively can help remove it. It will take time.

It's bad due to removing the nutrients that the other plants should get, blocks light etc.

Took me awhile, so I watch for any new plantlets or incoming plants I buy or add. Riccia and baldderwort are the other two nuisance weeds.

If you want some the water sprite I have, you are welcomed to try it. 

Regards, 
Tom Barr


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

plantbrain said:


> Looks wet:icon_cool
> 
> I wonder about Ripar's versus just using the full tank volume and letting the weeds come out the top:
> 
> ...


Thanks Tom glad you could comment here!

The main reason for the tall tank and keeping everything enclosed was I had 2 plans. One was I wanted to take it to the local show and show rules require everything to be contained inside with a top on it, well full weight of the tank I decided I wasn't moving it again! Two is with a new son now 11 months at home having it covered was a request. I would also like to get some frogs for it at some point when I can find some that would be suitable.

Mostly it looks realy wet in those pictures as I had to run the mister for a couple of minutes while I readjusted the heads after adding the wood a couple of them were blocked with the new addition. The mister runs 8 times per day for the following:

9am - 30sec
10:30- 15 sec
Noon- 20 sec
1:30- 20 sec
3- 15 sec
4:30- 10 sec
6- 20 sec
7:30pm 10 sec

off from 7:30pm -9am

I haven't seen any mold at all and watch for it daily. The mister is a nicety as it will allow me once back at work to not have to rely on the wife misting it for me.



plantbrain said:


> BTW, it will be a lot of work, but I'd try and kill and get rid of the (d)yuckweed.
> That weed is tough to stop, but constant picking and getting in there aggressively can help remove it. It will take time.
> 
> It's bad due to removing the nutrients that the other plants should get, blocks light etc.
> ...


Actually I added the duckweed on purpose and like it in small quantities. I do remove it 2-3 times a week so it doesn't get out of hand but I think it fits the natural look of what I was trying to accomplish. There is much less of it now then there used to be when I wasn't regularly thinning it out. Conisdering the Riparium planters all have RootMedic capsules and the substrate where the C. Parva is has 53 RootMedic capsules as well I figure the bit hte Duckweed soaks up is minimal wiht EI dosing and the heavy root fertilization I have done. 

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Really bad fish pictures as they like to hide in the spots I can get to with a camera. The big one in one of hte pictures is a holding male, another week and a half he should release if he hold to term!





















































Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

As you can see they really like to hang out between the riparium planters, it is kinda funny seeing them all tucked in there.


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## Minsc (Jul 9, 2006)

It is hard to tell how well the new wood works without a full tank shot. It definitely helps connect the upper and lower in your shot though. The only thing that is distracting is how vacant the upper area looks at the moment.

Coupla q's: Are you taking these pictures post misting, or is the front glass always fogged?
What sort of light levels are the 3x70 MH providing on this size tank? Penetrating to the bottom? Do you think you could get away with no CO2, or is it still too bright?


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Minsc said:


> It is hard to tell how well the new wood works without a full tank shot. It definitely helps connect the upper and lower in your shot though. The only thing that is distracting is how vacant the upper area looks at the moment.
> 
> Coupla q's: Are you taking these pictures post misting, or is the front glass always fogged?
> What sort of light levels are the 3x70 MH providing on this size tank? Penetrating to the bottom? Do you think you could get away with no CO2, or is it still too bright?


Glass is always slightly foggy. It was really foggy in these as I had to readjust the nozzles as a couple were right at the wood so I had to run the system for a minute to get them realigned. Hadn't planned on pictures tehn couldn't help it. I'll get a full tank picture in the morning when lights are back on.

The upper area will fill in but that is going to take several months as the crypts and lagenandra sp grow. A couple are just now starting to bounce back from transition.

I would guess light levels at the substrate are low to low-medium. The bottom of the lights are ~36" off the top of the substrate. As far as I know I'm probably one of the only ones running pressurized CO2 on a riparium. Could I get away without it, yeah probably but when I set up the tank I wanted everything to be plumbed inline ahead of time. I only run about 0.75 BPS through each reactor, so not much CO2 for as much water as I have and surface area. I figure it can't hurt.


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

That's all looking great Craig. I agree the crypts will make an awesome effect as they grow in. It looks like they are already putting on new leaves.



Craigthor said:


>


When the heater ran (all winter long) that high-humidity crypts riparium that I had going always had foggy glass. The only time that I got a clear view was when I wiped down the glass for picture-taking. It was still a great display anyway because the plants were so awesome.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

hydrophyte said:


> That's all looking great Craig. I agree the crypts will make an awesome effect as they grow in. It looks like they are already putting on new leaves.
> 
> 
> 
> When the heater ran (all winter long) that high-humidity crypts riparium that I had going always had foggy glass. The only time that I got a clear view was when I wiped down the glass for picture-taking. It was still a great display anyway because the plants were so awesome.


Thanks Devin! I actually like the look of the foggy glass as does the wife, which means it was a great project to tackle. She calls it her slice of the rainforest and the foggy glass just adds to that feel. 

I think once the plants really start to fill in that will make a huge difference in feel but we all have to be patient while that happens. I'm guessing around 4 months before it really starts to fill itself in.

On a quick side note: The C. Parva hasn't melted off hardly at all so far which is a good sign I hope, I couple of leaves here and there but nothing like the C. Parva I planted any other time that be day 5 had pretty much completely melted to nothing.

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

A couple full tank shots, one thing I've noticed is the pictures look much more fogged up on the pictures then in person here. I also shifted a couple of the planters around behind the wood aswell which helps.


















Enjoy!


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Swapped some planters around today and adjust the new piece of wood slightly. The tip of it is now at about 3" higher tehn in the pictures as I tweaked the wood slightly more upright. Looks much better now that the angle isn't quite so radical. Next week I get some moonlighting. At which point I will probably drop from 11 hours a day down to 9 and run the moonlighting in the early morning and late evening. I got 3 of the Coralife Lunar Lights in Moon White. Each has its own plug which will be plugged in to a dedicated powerstrip hooked to a timer. I know they sell linking kits for these but the link cord was way to short to be done neatly as I have the 3 seperate lights suspended. I will also be replacing the tacky Temp and Humidty Gauge with a ZooMed set in black so it should blend in more. Everything should be here in a week or 2. 

The Chocolate Gouramis will be headed to a species tank on Thursday then I will be looking at bringing in either some Wild Type Neocaridinia or Vietnamese White Clouds or possibly both. 

Craig


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

Hey Craig I forgot to mention that I got that _Lagenandra_. Thanks! It pretty quick melted down to just a piece of rhizome, but if it is like most crypts I should see it growing again soon.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

hydrophyte said:


> Hey Craig I forgot to mention that I got that _Lagenandra_. Thanks! It pretty quick melted down to just a piece of rhizome, but if it is like most crypts I should see it growing again soon.


Let me know if it bounces back, mine is just starting to put up a couple of new leaves.


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## A Hill (Jul 25, 2005)

Craig I found this post from your past life, thought It was funny and I'd post it here.



Craigthor said:


> Oh so much nicer. I can't even bring myself to buy another rimmed tank. :confused1:
> 
> Craig


Back to this life, your tank looks great seems a bit empty to me though :hihi: Those frogs may make a great addition crickets are such a pain though... Or are they small enough to take FFs?

-Andrew


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

A Hill said:


> Craig I found this post from your past life, thought It was funny and I'd post it here.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


 If I could have afforded the ADA Version I would have, but alas I wasn't spending $5000 on just the tank alone... :eek5:


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Also once the Crypts start to fill in it should fill in really nicely. Right now I have most of my plants are jsut coming back and the bigger/ taller species only have like 3 leave at most on them. I'm tihnking the frogs I want can take FF as tehy are pretty small, but that is only if I can find the ones I want.

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Well, I found a single dead B. Albimarginata today. It was DOA in the back corner of the tank and I couldn't find any reason it should have been dead. Fins were perfect, body was perfect other then being pale, not sure how long it may have been dead we were out most of the day. So I'm chalking this one up to a rare occurance. 

I decided to go ahead and do my water change after removing the body and added a couple of teaspoons of Baking Soda and a Tablespoon of GH Booster. I noticed that the snails were starting to show a bit of piting in their shells. I attribute this to the new Turface and the fact it probably absorbed the small amount of KH my water has to begin with. I'll check GH and KH in the morning once everything has time to get diluted into the water. My guess would be a KH of about 1-2 and a GH of about 2-3. A couple of the fish are acting a tiny bit stressed so I that would make me believe the Turface has been buffering out the KH and GH to nothing which may have created an enviornment to acidic and that may have caused the death of the Albi.


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## benon (Feb 18, 2010)

*asdf*

Craig,

How many root tabs are you using?


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

benon said:


> Craig,
> 
> How many root tabs are you using?


Alot! I put 2 in each of my Riparium planters and 53 into my substrate where the C. Parva is planted.

Criag


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Getting some good ideas on making this more naturalesque. Based on some info Lego linked me to here is what I'm thinking about doing:

http://www.asiarooms.com/en/travel-guide/malaysia/malaysia-overview/malaysia-climate.html

1- October through February is the rainy season, September seems to be one of the dryest months, rain is negligible during hte rest of the year

2- 89.9 F during the day 71.6F during the night

3- About 6 hours of direct sunshine a day on average

This gives me some good ideas

1- Cut back on misting except during rainy season maybe 5 short mistings a day through September then 3 times a day during September then back to 8 longs mistings in October-February.

2- Put heater on a timer and set it at ~82 F have it come one mid day for a few hours during peak lighting then back off. This should allow the water temp to vary slightly during the day to replicate mid day warming and slight cool down in the night. Considering there is almost a 20 degree temp change during the day the shallow waters where my Bettas are found probably have slight fluctuations.

3- Bump MH down to around 7 hours and run the moon light more to have visuals during low light hours.


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## benon (Feb 18, 2010)

*Mist King*

I'm in the process of setting up my mist king.

How often and for how long do your misters turn on for?


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

benon said:


> I'm in the process of setting up my mist king.
> 
> How often and for how long do your misters turn on for?


I mist 8 times a day, for anywhere from 10-30 seconds at a time.

craig


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## Kwazar (Apr 23, 2010)

this setup is awesome


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Kwazar said:


> this setup is awesome


Thanks!


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

Craig,
that new idea for the rainy/dry season, and the temp change sounds pretty groovy, but how will your fish adjust to the temp difference? or will you only change the temp above water?
Can't wait to see the changes,
Your pal,
Pianofish


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

pianofish said:


> Craig,
> that new idea for the rainy/dry season, and the temp change sounds pretty groovy, but how will your fish adjust to the temp difference? or will you only change the temp above water?
> Can't wait to see the changes,
> Your pal,
> Pianofish


Shouldn't be any different then in the wild, also the temp changes will only be a degree or two above tank temp. My tank varries a few degrees anyways based on room temp.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

The Chocolate Gouramis have been rehomed. They left for a species tank this afternoon. It is amazing the in the difference of the Betta Albimarginata since the Chocolates are gone. The Bettas are slightly more active and hanging out a bit in the tank.

Saturday morning I have a school of Burmese Gold Ring Danios coming to act as a dither fish, hopefully it works as planned to get the Bettas out more and eliminate some of their shyness.

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Got hte first Cal Aqua Oracle drop checker today, this one is used off the forums. I ahve a second that should be here in another week comign direct from Cal Aqua. Holy crap these things are big! After putting in the biger filters I'm slowly upping the CO2 as I now have more surface movement that I didn't had before and now to get back to a nice CO2 level. Can't wait for the second one to arrive as I can then tune both sides of the tank at the same time, currently just setting them about the same and will fine tune more once I do a few tweeks to the tank. My moon lighting will arrive in the next several days then I will start playing with the shorter light periods, CO2 levels will need to be readjusted again, and the misting system will need to be tweaked. 

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Started some Maracyn dosing to nuke the BGA I have, mostly caused by lower then expected CO2 levels as I hadn't checked them since putting in the new filters along with an insanely long photoperiod as I waited on some moonlighting to play with. I know its not Nitrates or flow related due to the fact that I've been dosing Nitrates at 2x EI level and added extra flow going from the 2213s to the 2217s. After the additions of hte 2217s I noticed the BGA has become worse. What slipped my mind was after the 2217s were put it in, it created more surface aggitation which lowered my CO2 levels to barely in the tank. I've now reduced my light period from 11 hours to 7 hours and will be supplementing with moon lighting for a couple of hours before and after on Monday once they arrive. Over the next week I should have the tank dialed back in all nice again.

Craig


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## MrJG (Feb 21, 2007)

Craig you are doing the right thing in regards to the BGA just be careful that you don't nuke your biofiltration with the Maracyn. The few times that I've had BGA pop up was in the high flow areas as well which was odd. I ended up increasing my nitrate dosing even more and it quickly receded and has never returned. Are you actively testing your levels? Is it possible that all of the new submersed plantings along with the heavy terrestrial load is stripping it out of the water?


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

MrJG said:


> Craig you are doing the right thing in regards to the BGA just be careful that you don't nuke your biofiltration with the Maracyn. The few times that I've had BGA pop up was in the high flow areas as well which was odd. I ended up increasing my nitrate dosing even more and it quickly receded and has never returned. Are you actively testing your levels? Is it possible that all of the new submersed plantings along with the heavy terrestrial load is stripping it out of the water?


I haven't tested in awhile but with loads of RootMedic in the planters and Substrate with 2x EI dosing I don't think it would be stripping the water that fast. I will test it later on though to see. Yeah it was wierd as it usually would pop up here and there when I was to lax on Nitrate dosing so I would dose and it would go away. Now with manual removal it would pop up the next day in the same high flow spot. I did a full dose today and will do 1/2 dose the next 4 days. Not too wworried about the BioFilter but will keep an eye on everything.

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Well after testing Nitrate levels ( I dosed 2x EI dose of them yesterday after waterchange) I got a reading of 5 ppm. Tomorrow I will dose 2x again and test later in the day. One thing I'm wondering is if the new Turface substrate is absorbing alot of the fertilizers out of the water coloumn? I know it will drop the KH to nothing wihtout trying and being it has such a hign CEC capacity that it is soaking everything up. I may have to start dosing daily to keep the levels up, oh well no biggie.

Craig


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## jmhart (Mar 14, 2008)

Craig,

Turface will definitely strip nutrients out of the water column. People don't mention it because, well, most people don't test....they just dose e.i. and only worry about it if they notice a problem, however you're right in that the high CEC doesn't just pull KH, but all sorts of ions out the water. 

I never noticed a problem(as in lack of water column nutrients) when I had straight SMS in a 45g. I dosed EI and had about 25 lbs of SMS in there. Levels were probably low, but never too low. All that turface you've got in there(in about 60g of water, I guess) is probably sucking everything right out. That's an interesting effect....at least you know it's creating something awesome for your roots.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

jmhart said:


> Craig,
> 
> Turface will definitely strip nutrients out of the water column. People don't mention it because, well, most people don't test....they just dose e.i. and only worry about it if they notice a problem, however you're right in that the high CEC doesn't just pull KH, but all sorts of ions out the water.
> 
> I never noticed a problem(as in lack of water column nutrients) when I had straight SMS in a 45g. I dosed EI and had about 25 lbs of SMS in there. Levels were probably low, but never too low. All that turface you've got in there(in about 60g of water, I guess) is probably sucking everything right out. That's an interesting effect....at least you know it's creating something awesome for your roots.


 
Actually I have right around 45-50g of water and almost 50lbs of turface so water to turface ratio is about 1 lb turface to 1g of water. Not a problem to start dosing EI daily and to dose normal strenght daily as well. I do dose all my Macros and Micros at hte same time so I will jsut start doing it daily.

craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Got my moonlights but unfortuantely they were the link kits not the base kits, when I selected I guess I didn't pay attention to what I got. They are going back as I have new ones coming from Foster and Smith aquatics on Thursday or Friday. The last place took almsot 2 weeks from order date to the time I received them. I am almost tempted to keep them and run them all for a fun night effect, but not sure. After the car seat got took today I'm going to be much shorter on cash then planned but we will see.

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

A few pictures and a video. Sorry the quality isn't that great I can scape a tank but photography and videography are another story.

Pics:


































Video:



Craig


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## dj2005 (Apr 23, 2009)

This is one of my favorite riparium setups. Thanks for the new pictures and video.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

As far as my BGA problem I haven't dosed Maracyn in a couple of days once I realized my KNO3 was low I upped the dosage. I've dose 4x the teh regular EI dose in the las 2 days so 2x EI yesterday adn 2x EI today. BGA looks like it is retreating and if I have to kep dosing heavy I will. I will test Nitrate levels in teh mornign before I dose to see where they are at before I upped teh EI dosing I was at 5ppm.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Daphnia frenzy!


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## luke20037 (Jan 24, 2010)

looking great! hows the misting going? Have you ever thought about de-rimming?


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

luke20037 said:


> looking great! hows the misting going? Have you ever thought about de-rimming?


Mister is working great but with a covered top derimming isn't even a consideration.

Craig


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## Germitune (Oct 24, 2009)

Hey Craig, I just found this thread... great looking tank! So, I am not too far from you... near the Quad Cities in IL. I noticed that you have some Betta Albimarginata, I have 2 males that I've had for about a year. They were supposed to be a pair but they were so young... they ended up being two males. Anyway, if you ever breed out some adults I'd love to buy a female or 2 from you should you choose to sell some.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Germitune said:


> Hey Craig, I just found this thread... great looking tank! So, I am not too far from you... near the Quad Cities in IL. I noticed that you have some Betta Albimarginata, I have 2 males that I've had for about a year. They were supposed to be a pair but they were so young... they ended up being two males. Anyway, if you ever breed out some adults I'd love to buy a female or 2 from you should you choose to sell some.


Yep I have a large group of Albimarginata (29 in total) I have had a couple of spawns but none that have held to term yet but I'm also not really focused on too much breeding of them mostly they are part of the natural scape of the tank. Got pics of your males? Also if you are ever coming this way let me know and if I'm available you are more then welcome to stop by to see it in person.

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Got my moonlights hooked up today!


































What happens when you over feed Brine Shrimp? You get Hydra!










Tried to get a picture of a Danio but yeah that didn't work, can you spot the Bettas' tail though?










Craig


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## RipariumGuy (Aug 6, 2009)

Those moonlights are wicked cool! I gotta get me some live food...


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## legomaniac89 (Mar 16, 2008)

I'm going to steal your tank.


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

That _C. parva _lawn is really cool. 

They are already starting to reach up higher and the layout will look fantastic when the taller _Lagenandra_ and crypts grow up to add some more dimension.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

JakeJ said:


> Those moonlights are wicked cool! I gotta get me some live food...


I love the look of them, especially cool to turn everything off and just sit back and watch the tank in a completely dark room.



legomaniac89 said:


> I'm going to steal your tank.


roud:



hydrophyte said:


> That _C. parva _lawn is really cool.
> 
> They are already starting to reach up higher and the layout will look fantastic when the taller _Lagenandra_ and crypts grow up to add some more dimension.


 
Yeah its just now starting to show its potential.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Well upgraded the CO2 reactors to a new design, you can see the thread in the DIY section. They allow more flow through them which was evident of me having to turn the flow rate down on the 2217s. They also seem slightly more efficient then the Rex Style reactors.

On another note I'm thinking about removing the B. Albimarginata for a larger centerpiece fish that will stand out better in the tank. I'm thinking a harem of Pearl Gouramis would look wonderful next to the Gold Ring Danios that are in the tank now.

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Well the tank is getting a huge update. Fish stock is getting mostly redone to create a natural SE Asian community that will be much more interactive in the tank.

Looking at stocking some of the following:

Gold Ring Danios - Check
Pearl Gouramis - Check
Dwarf Chain Loaches - Hopefully on Friday!

Going to move my Bettas out until I can get them all sold. Great fish wiht great coloring jsut want something more interactive to watch as my tank matures and the little one grows.

Craig


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## FSM (Jan 13, 2009)

the condensation would make me insane.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

FSM said:


> the condensation would make me insane.


Not nearly as bad in person really shows up in the pictures though.

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Pretty much uprooted alot of Parva when I chased out the Bettas. Found one that I hadn't caught and thinking of turning the lights on to put the tank back into order.

Current Stock:

30 Burmese Gold Ring Danios - Would like more but it will have to wait a couple of weeks.
10 Pearl Gourami - Will cut this down to 2 males and 4 Females shortly
16 Dwarf Chain Loaches - Will be here Friday! 

Can't wait to get everything back into place.

Craig


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## rockwood (Jun 19, 2010)

Hey Craig have a question. You originally had 2213's which have default 1/2" tubing on them. So I'm assuming you ordered the ETH's that mate to the 1/2". When you upgraded to the 2217s how did you handle adjusting the tubing down to the correct size?

The reason I'm asking is I have a 2215 and 2213 using the 1/2". The 300w ETH only comes in 5/8" couplings so I'm going to have to deal with the diameter shift somehow without blowing up my flow rate.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

rockwood said:


> Hey Craig have a question. You originally had 2213's which have default 1/2" tubing on them. So I'm assuming you ordered the ETH's that mate to the 1/2". When you upgraded to the 2217s how did you handle adjusting the tubing down to the correct size?
> 
> The reason I'm asking is I have a 2215 and 2213 using the 1/2". The 300w ETH only comes in 5/8" couplings so I'm going to have to deal with the diameter shift somehow without blowing up my flow rate.


The output of the 2217 uses 1/2" tubing so no change. The input is the only side upgraded to 5/8"

Craig


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## rockwood (Jun 19, 2010)

well crap.... now I have to figure something out on my own :tongue:


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

rockwood said:


> well crap.... now I have to figure something out on my own :tongue:


Why not run 2 of the 200 watters that is what I do. One on each side of the tank.

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Tank has been restocked along with a few other tweeks. 

Fauna:

Neocaridina Wild Type
10- Pearl Gourami
30- Gold Ring Danio
15- Y. Sidthimunkis

Will probably thin down the Pearls and want to up the school of Gold Rings some. The ever evolving tank, now if I could just get some decent pictures of it.

Craig


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## legomaniac89 (Mar 16, 2008)

Craigthor said:


> now if I could just get some decent pictures of it.


*coughgetatripodcough*

:flick:


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

legomaniac89 said:


> *coughgetatripodcough*
> 
> :flick:


It's more of a cheap point n shoot camera that I can't fine tune to get good pictures. There is alot of glare caused by the MH reflecting off of the glass sides.

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)




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## rockwood (Jun 19, 2010)

Craigthor said:


> Why not run 2 of the 200 watters that is what I do. One on each side of the tank.
> 
> Craig


Well, that's one of the big things I've been waiting for feedback on. I've been told by a friend that its not good to have heat that overpowers the tank because it will turn on and off too much. This provides it more opportunity to fail. I'm also planning on running the Hydor Hydroset controllers as a fall back shut off safety. So we're talking $250 in heaters with 2 ETHs and Hydrosets. 

Anyways, I don't want to hijack your thread. I went ahead and did what I said on the other forum and made a thread here. If you want to head over there and answer that stuff heres the link: http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/t...0514-75g-planted-tank-journal-advice-help.htm

I know you've been about the only person willing to provide advice regularly though. I really appreciate it.


----------



## rockwood (Jun 19, 2010)

Oh, also, the tank is looking great. I'm excited to see how it fills out once you get some more plants filling up that height.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

If you click on the pictures it will load some video!

Got the final stock list figured out and should have everything by the end of next week.

5 Pearl Gourami 2 Male and 3 Female
60+ Burmese Gold Ring Danio
29 Dwarf Chain Loaches (Y. Sidthimunkis)

Craig


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## mistergreen (Dec 9, 2006)

nice! the gouramis seem very well behaved.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

mistergreen said:


> nice! the gouramis seem very well behaved.


They are, I have 10 in there right now and in a couple of weeks will thin them down as I think I know which 2 males and 3 females I will keep outof the group.

Craig


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## speedie408 (Jan 15, 2009)

Sad to see the Bettas go, but at least the little one will see fish that actually move now right lol. I know exactly what you mean though.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

speedie408 said:


> Sad to see the Bettas go, but at least the little one will see fish that actually move now right lol. I know exactly what you mean though.


Tank is much more fun and enjoyable with the way it is setup now.


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

Those fish that you have in there now make an awesome display.

It's cool to see the misting system in action too.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

hydrophyte said:


> Those fish that you have in there now make an awesome display.
> 
> It's cool to see the misting system in action too.


 
Thanks Devin, jsut added 55 more of the Gold Rings today and will be finishing off my stock list mid week with another 14 Dwarf Chain Loaches from Invertz Factory. The following week I will probably start removing some of the extra gouramis to get down to 5 of them.

Plaed an order for more dry ferts today so I should be stocked up for awhile since I will be hammering away at work from here on out.

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Been awhile figured I should post an update.

Now have around 60 of the Gold Ring Danios. I've lost a few here and there but most were super thin when they arrived, going to treat with a run of Maracyn and Maracyn II as it may be an internal parasite.

Got more Dwarf Chain Loaches, unfortunately I lost 8 of the 11 new arrivals within 8 hours of going into my tank. Only thing I cna think of is that it was a full 3 days in shipping so I'm guessing high stress.

Next week I will be removing 5 of the Pearl Gouramis to get the school down where I want them.

The C. Parva is sllllllllloooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwww groing. the old leaves have a bit of Diatoms on them but they are just now starting to put out roots after 5 weeks in the tank.

Everything else is growing slow and steady.

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Mist King in action: http://s160.photobucket.com/albums/t164/craigthor/150g Setup/?action=view&current=M2U00099.mp4

Feeding Time: http://s160.photobucket.com/albums/t164/craigthor/150g Setup/?action=view&current=M2U00097.mp4

Pictures from just a few minutes ago:


































































Enjoy!


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## ryndisher (Jun 1, 2010)

Looks great still a bit more space for some vertical plants.


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## jmhart (Mar 14, 2008)

What's the deal Craig, get a job and now have no more time for updates?:red_mouth


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

jmhart said:


> What's the deal Craig, get a job and now have no more time for updates?


That and spending more time enjoying my tank and less time posting about it. That and have got a new job that is taking up alot of time.


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## Da Plant Man (Apr 7, 2010)

Now that you have a job you should be getting more things and posting about that :hihi:


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Caton said:


> Now that you have a job you should be getting more things and posting about that :hihi:


Not much left to get! Except for a controller, 4 dosing pumps, possibly upgrade the lighting to 150 watters some day with dimmable ballasts, etc.

I have thought about doing a canopy on the tank but still undecided on it. Will be adding a few more loaches to replace the ones I lost though hopefully this week.

Craig


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## Chrisinator (Jun 5, 2008)

Amazing set-up craig! This has inspired me to riparium my 38G


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## RipariumGuy (Aug 6, 2009)

Chrisinator said:


> Amazing set-up craig! This has inspired me to riparium my 38G


Yeaaaaa!!!!roud:


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## kwheeler91 (May 26, 2009)

those are some GOOOD lookin gouramis. love the stocking choice, i went with dwarf chain loaches and danio kyathit, so similar, but nowhere near as sweet as this tank. the parva does take a LONG time to get established but it will grow well after those first couple months.
awesome


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

fresh video of the inhabitants.

~110 Gold Ring Danios
30 Dwarf Chain Loaches
10 Pearl Gourami
Wild Type Neocaridina

http://s160.photobucket.com/albums/t164/craigthor/150g Setup/?action=view&current=M2U00104.mp4

Got a super cool crypt coming next week too.

Craig


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

Nice going Craig. Those danios are awesome. You really got some great fish for this setup.

That moss has grown into wonderful emersed pillows with that misting system. Does the emersed moss grow very fast?


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

hydrophyte said:


> Nice going Craig. Those danios are awesome. You really got some great fish for this setup.
> 
> That moss has grown into wonderful emersed pillows with that misting system. Does the emersed moss grow very fast?


The moss actually grows very very slowly. if ytou touch it it turns dark green and stops all together for a few week where it will slowly bounce back.

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Here is the change I made last night. I removed all the rafts from the tank. The Java Fern Phillipine got moved to the wood on the far left. I took the moss from the rafts and placed it in the planters and draped it over the planter edge to hide the cup slightly. It will take some time for it to turn nice and green but then should look like the edge of the stream bed. The water is low as I was midst of a water change and figured it was a good time to snap a few pictures. I feel this looks much more natural but will still allow the crypts to grow well. Also hides the platner gravel from view.


































Enjoy.

Craig


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## Chrisinator (Jun 5, 2008)

Dude, you've made me spend money just to riparium my tank! Thanks for the inspiration!


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Just got back with a few critters for hte above water portion. Vampire Crabs! They will use both the above nad underwater portions of the tank. I added a dozen of them and they are one of the few crab species that don't require salt water for breeding. 


































Craig


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## Chrisinator (Jun 5, 2008)

OMG! Those are beautiful! I'm getting some Vampire Crabs also!


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Chrisinator said:


> OMG! Those are beautiful! I'm getting some Vampire Crabs also!


Actually I'm not a 100% sure they are vampires I think they may have been miss labeled! They jsut aren't matching up picture wise, now to try and identify them.

Craig


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Well after a few mintues of looking they aren't Vampires after all.  They are actually Red Thai Crabs- they stay small and most say they are good in a community tank so we will see. Atleast they are regionally correct!

Craig


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## Chrisinator (Jun 5, 2008)

That was my second thought. Vamps are more purply with the oranges and yellow on their back.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Chrisinator said:


> That was my second thought. Vamps are more purply with the oranges and yellow on their back.


Yep, as long as these guys don't cause any problems they can stay, if not off the ye old frying pan they go!


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## boon (Mar 29, 2006)

Those looks like red claw crab that they sell at petsmart. I could be wrong though. Anyways tank looks awesome. The moss idea is a really great one. I
Might have to give that a try, I don't know how it would work though.


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## RipariumGuy (Aug 6, 2009)

That moss idea is great! No more rafts from now on eh? I like the rafts, but they do seem to take up alot of space. Maybe I should try the moss. What moss are you using? Java moss would probably work right? Another plus with no rafts would be the aquatics get alot more light too... Those crabs are so cool looking! What size tank do they need? 
Regards,
Jake


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Well the crabs are already getting eveicted. Turns out they like to eat my prized cryptocoryne sp...


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

JakeJ said:


> That moss idea is great! No more rafts from now on eh? I like the rafts, but they do seem to take up alot of space. Maybe I should try the moss. What moss are you using? Java moss would probably work right? Another plus with no rafts would be the aquatics get alot more light too... Those crabs are so cool looking! What size tank do they need?
> Regards,
> Jake


I'm using Java Moss through my tank. Don't use these crabs if you have plants though....


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## boon (Mar 29, 2006)

I forgot to mention that they are also herbivores. I had some red claw a long time ago and it was a mess.


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## xGROMx (Sep 2, 2008)

I would have to say, this is one of the most thought out gorgeous tanks I have seen. Congrats on having this in your home!


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

xGROMx said:


> I would have to say, this is one of the most thought out gorgeous tanks I have seen. Congrats on having this in your home!


Thanks! It is a pleasure to have to veiw in the room.


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## OverStocked (May 26, 2007)

must. have. updates.


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## Da Plant Man (Apr 7, 2010)

"Tank journals are good, but great ones are a drug"
-Caton's mind three seconds ago

So update it or we will having withdrawals.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Update?

In the last 3 weeks I have seen my tank with the lights on twice. It has gotten 1 water change and the wife has been feeding the fish and topping off the misting system for me. I have stopped all live foods as I'm working more then I am home and the wife didn't want the responsibility of taking care of them. 

I haven't dosed the tank in over a month now and the tank is jsut doing its thing though very slowly.

Craig


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## jmhart (Mar 14, 2008)

Craigthor said:


> I haven't dosed the tank in over a month now and the tank is jsut doing its thing though very slowly.


Only one thing to do:

Overview of Autodosing Methods



That is, when you have some free time.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Well, not much to update on. My CO2 tank ran out in the last week and since today was the first time I've seen the tank with lights on I found some BBA. Looked under the stand and sure enough the tank was empty. Not bad though over 4 months out of a 5#'er for this tank. Dropped it off to have it filled should have it back tonite or tomorrow sometime. Everything is growing slow and steady. I'm down to doing a water change every 3 weeks and the tank is running high tech but low speed which is great with my new job and schedule. I haven't dosed in 2 months which is great just lots of RootMedic in the tank. Also I have stopped all my live foods and gone to a variety of commercial grade foods like NLS, HBH Super 8 Veggie, Aqueon Bottom Feeder Tablets, Algae Wafers, frozen brine. Once I get the CO2 up and running I will snap a few pictures once the BBA is gone. 

Craig


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## RipariumGuy (Aug 6, 2009)

How is this tank and life going for you Craig? I must have pictures! :icon_wink


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## CL (Mar 13, 2008)

How's the tank doing, Craig?


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Fighting off some algae but nothing major.


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## CL (Mar 13, 2008)

Looking sharp, dude!


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## OverStocked (May 26, 2007)

He's alive!


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## RipariumGuy (Aug 6, 2009)

over_stocked said:


> He's alive!


YESSSS! 

The tank is looking beast man!


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

over_stocked said:


> He's alive!


Barely, work keeps me pretty tied up nowadays.



JakeJ said:


> YESSSS!
> 
> The tank is looking beast man!


Thanks, I spent about an hour and a half today doing my once a month maintence. I forgot to up the CO2 when i switched back to tap water from RO so the CO2 was low and algae took hold. Also cleaned out my 2 Eheim 2217s that haven't been cleaned in about 3.5 months but were still flowing good. 

It is great having such a low maintence tank that doesn't need me to trim 3 times a week. Most days I don't even see the tank with the lights on.

Craig


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

Wow that is looking awesome Craig. I though we would ever hear from you again!

That is crazy awesome growth of moss that you got going in there. How the heck did you plant those crypts over on the far left? Are they just growing on driftwood too.

I love that _Lagenandra_.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

hydrophyte said:


> Wow that is looking awesome Craig. I though we would ever hear from you again!
> 
> That is crazy awesome growth of moss that you got going in there. How the heck did you plant those crypts over on the far left? Are they just growing on driftwood too.
> 
> I love that _Lagenandra_.


 
On the wood is Java Fern and against the wall in planters are the crypts. I covered the planters with moss to help hide them and it has grown in well. If I get time I will try and snap a few more pictures for you. That Lagenandra now has grown into 2 planters and doesn't look to stop expanding any time soon.

Craig


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

Congrats on the new job, Craig!


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## Da Plant Man (Apr 7, 2010)

Is there any new pictures?


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Caton said:


> Is there any new pictures?


Not yet soon though. :icon_mrgr


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## RipariumGuy (Aug 6, 2009)

Sweet... I can't wait.


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## macclellan (Dec 22, 2006)

crypts are maturing nicely...


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## Scyry (Dec 16, 2010)

Craigthor said:


>


What is the name of this outflows? Can you use them directly as a bulkhead through the glass? Thanks.


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## OverStocked (May 26, 2007)

You still alive, Craig?


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## Gatekeeper (Feb 20, 2007)

Just coming in to wipe the cob webs off this place....


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## Da Plant Man (Apr 7, 2010)

I saw this thread and was like: "YUS! AN UPDATE!" But then I see it was only gatekeeper doing some spring cleaning... DISAPPOINTMENT.

No offense Gatekeeper


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Well here are some final pictures of the setup:


































I will be selling this tank off to fund a new tank that is in the works.....


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## boon (Mar 29, 2006)

And ladies and gents, he is alive!!!!!!!

Are you going to part out some of the plants/equipment?


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

boon said:


> And ladies and gents, he is alive!!!!!!!
> 
> Are you going to part out some of the plants/equipment?


That I am, been insanely busy with work and life plus in the planning stages for a new tank! 

Craig


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## OverStocked (May 26, 2007)

Wow that is nuts! New tank? What about it?!?!? 

Hope you and yours are doing well, Craig. BTW we will be down there round September.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

OverStocked said:


> Wow that is nuts! New tank? What about it?!?!?
> 
> Hope you and yours are doing well, Craig. BTW we will be down there round September.


 
Turned out to be a beaut huh? :icon_mrgr 

Here is the basis of the new setup:

Tank: http://www.picoaquariums.com/index....tegory_id=39&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=107

Lights: http://www.aquaillumination.com/sol/

Just a bit of a new challenge.


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## ldk59 (Jan 30, 2009)

I gotta ask.. Salt or Fresh ?


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Well after some thought and discussion with the wife we will be keeping this tank. Woohoo! I will be tearing it down and giving it a new theme. Any ideas folks? I will keep it as a Riparium either way.

Craig


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

Hey Craig it's great to see you back here. I hope that all of your things have been going well. 

So you want to keep this setup as a riparium? How about a brackish tank with mangrove plants and some of those killer brackish fish? With such a big tank you should be able to keep archerfish or maybe even some _Anableps_. That would be amazing. I would normally think that a mangrove riparium setup would be better in a tank filled all the way to the top and with the plants growing above, but if you want to keep it as a lowered water level setup then it would be perfect for archerfish. 

If you could build some kind of island or have some driftwood sticking up above then you might also be able to have mudskippers, although for them you would probably need a tight-fitting canopy--this would limit the height of the plants--because they would would just climb right out of an open top tank.

Is this tank something like 30" tall? There are several pretty easy to get and pretty easy to grow mangrove plants that would be perfect in there...


black mangrove (_Avicennia germinans_)
_Cryptocoryne ciliata_
mangrove leather fern (_Acrostichum danaeifolium_)
red mangrove (_Rhizophora mangle_)


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

hydrophyte said:


> Hey Craig it's great to see you back here. I hope that all of your things have been going well.
> 
> So you want to keep this setup as a riparium? How about a brackish tank with mangrove plants and some of those killer brackish fish? With such a big tank you should be able to keep archerfish or maybe even some _Anableps_. That would be amazing. I would normally think that a mangrove riparium setup would be better in a tank filled all the way to the top and with the plants growing above, but if you want to keep it as a lowered water level setup then it would be perfect for archerfish.
> 
> ...


Yep it is 30" tall. Not sure I want to venture into brackish though.


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

Well all of those plants should work in freshwater too and they all look good together too. For a freshwater setup they would be great in combination with some kind of robust cichlid or catfish. There really are some amazing choices for cichlids and cats for a pretty big tank.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

hydrophyte said:


> Well all of those plants should work in freshwater too and they all look good together too. For a freshwater setup they would be great in combination with some kind of robust cichlid or catfish. There really are some amazing choices for cichlids and cats for a pretty big tank.


 
I was eye balling some Firemouths when I was at the pet store earlier would just need to find some suitable tank mates maybe some pairs of cool plecos.

Craig


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

Another idea would be a more or less representative South America setup with discus or other SA cichlids. You could grow swordplants along with something grassy (_Cyperus_ woudl be good) and various emersed stems above water.


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

A setup for unusual and larger plecos could be _amazing_. There is an incredible tank over on planetcatfish.com that a dude from Finland put together. 

Plecos could be rough on plants though. You might not be able to keep plants in the riparium trellis rafts at all. Really i don't know much at all about those larger plecos.


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## trackhazard (Aug 24, 2006)

I see an african riverine tank with a small group of butterfly fish, a school of yellow tail tetras and an Spotted Climbing Perch. Lots of emergent anubias and bolbitis anchored to emergent driftwood. Minimal to no plants in the water.

I think that would be nifty.

I wish I had my space for my 4' tank again! I have to convince the wife that she really doesn't want her sps reef anymore...

-Charlie


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

Oh that's another good idea. For very many _Anubias_ though it would require a canopy mostly closed up and high humidity.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

trackhazard said:


> I see an african riverine tank with a small group of butterfly fish, a school of yellow tail tetras and an Spotted Climbing Perch. Lots of emergent anubias and bolbitis anchored to emergent driftwood. Minimal to no plants in the water.
> 
> I think that would be nifty.
> 
> ...


That sounds kind of cool, now to go google up some pictures!


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## Gatekeeper (Feb 20, 2007)

I would leave it as is and just swap a few plants maybe and certainly change fish.

I am all for change, but a total tear seems a bit extreme, but I guess if your sick of it, go for it. But to just go back again as a riparium seems like a lot of work to just build it back up again when you can just simply swap a few things.

I am going to throw a wacky suggestion at you, but man, would be a crazy conversation piece. Aulonocara jacobfreibergi (Undu Reef)

Now wait! I know they are africans, but man... how banging would that look with those crazy colors swimming and sparing around under a sea of foliage with a whole bunch of rock work and formations underneath. 

Could be sick looking.

But that is my pipe dream.

Teaser though !!!!


----------



## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Gatekeeper said:


> I would leave it as is and just swap a few plants maybe and certainly change fish.
> 
> I am all for change, but a total tear seems a bit extreme, but I guess if your sick of it, go for it. But to just go back again as a riparium seems like a lot of work to just build it back up again when you can just simply swap a few things.
> 
> ...


I thought about some small changes but in the end I want to go slightly different. I've learned alot from this setup and looking for a bit more color plant wise with some flowering plants to go in to the mix this time. 

As for those Jacobs I spent years breeding africans and lost interest in tehem some time ago. 

This time around I want nice vivd colors in the tank. A pair or 2 of wild discus, school of tetras of some kind, maybe green neons, and either some odd ball plecos pairs or a school of cory cats.

Craig


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## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

I have thought about ripariums with Rift Valley cichlids, but there is something about those fish that I think they look best in a pretty authentic kind of setup. A Rift Valley lake reef just doesn't have much to do with the shoreline vegetation. 

There are certain Rift Valley cichlids that do associate with the shoreline vegetation, which includes papyrus reeds and a few other nice plants, but they are a relatively small number of species.

I think that those Rift Valley fish are probably better displayed in a regular setup with real nice rocks and/or sand bottom.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Tank is filled to the brim with water.


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## Da Plant Man (Apr 7, 2010)

Pictures!!!! Por favor!


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Da Plant Man said:


> Pictures!!!! Por favor!


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## pianofish (Jan 31, 2010)

Egad, there's water everywhere!!!  Nice job buddy, As cool as your riparium was, I think this will be even cooler!. Can't wait to see more indef pics and your plant plan!
Your pal,
Pianofish


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Starting to get a concrete plan together now. 

The driftwood that was laying down on the left is now upright again as with a tall tank it needed the height of the driftwood to fill it in. 

Stocking will be something like this:

10-15 Altums
Couple groups of Oddball Plecos looking at the L204 which is fairly biotope specific and maybe another or jsut one large group of them
Maybe a dither fish or couple pairs of Rams that are specific to the Rio Orinoco 

Plants:

Swords of several varities that are region specific - Amazon, Brazilian, Parviflorius, Tennellus, some brazilian pennywort and maybe some Sagitaria 

Nothing super off the wall plant like as the Rio Orinoco doesn't offer alot of variety in plant life.

Craig


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## RipariumGuy (Aug 6, 2009)

Very cool Craig! The Orinoco is a very interesting river system. I am not sure how aggresive altums are, but for dither fish you could try some Green Neon tetras. They are native to the Orinoco, along with some species of _Corydoras_. Again though, not sure how the altums will like them...


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

RipariumGuy said:


> Very cool Craig! The Orinoco is a very interesting river system. I am not sure how aggresive altums are, but for dither fish you could try some Green Neon tetras. They are native to the Orinoco, along with some species of _Corydoras_. Again though, not sure how the altums will like them...


Tetras are pretty much out as they will become easy food, also wouldn't want them to nip at the fins of the Altums... May still consider them though if i need more color.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Plants are slowly going out and new plants will start arriving end of the week.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

My first 2262 is on its way. Highly recommend Kens Fish for Eheim filters, got a price for filter and media that was even better then was listed on his site. Should be here next week then I can take one of my 2217s down. Should be an adventure as I will have to drain the tank completely to change the barbed fitting on teh bulkhead in the tank. Nothing better then a 100% water change. Will be starting to tear out the rest of the plants over the next few days as I have some of the new plants that will soon be arriving.


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## Da Plant Man (Apr 7, 2010)

YAYAY! Very cool! I love it already! Can't wait to see what is coming next!


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## jart (Jan 17, 2003)

Wow, great thread... didn't quite get through it all tonight!


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## shrimpNewbie (May 6, 2011)

what kind of sand did you use?


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

shrimpNewbie said:


> what kind of sand did you use?


What you see in the last few pictures is Turface Pro League in Natural color. This stuff is super cheap and has a great CEC for absorbing nutrients.

Craig


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