# Jaye's New 125



## Jaye (Mar 11, 2015)

Two Ecoxotic 36' fixtures were wating at my door when I got home from work this afternoon. I took them out of the box and fired them up. Both work. Played around with the various settings for half an hour or so. Now to figure out how to hang them...


----------



## Jaye (Mar 11, 2015)

Slow day at work today, so I've been trying to plan out a bit of plumbing. The tank has two overflows on the back - obviously the conventional way to plumb this would be with an drain and a return in each. But... I want the extra margin of safety afforded by a Bean Animal, or at least a Herbie.

There's basically three ways I could do this, I think:

Two returns, one from each overflow. One overflow drain is the Herbie siphon, one is the the trickle. I don't know of the trickle would be enough to keep the water in overflow #2 from becoming a bit stagnant, which I don't want. 

Plumb one overflow with the drains, the other with two returns (one aimed down into the overflow box to eliminate the possibility of stagnant water). 

The only option that would get me a full on Bean Animal would be to have the siphon and the dry standpipe in one overflow, and use the other for the trickle and the return. But could a single return keep up? And I still have the problem I have in my first option - will the trickle be enough flow in the second overflow.

Anyone else done anything like this? Any suggestions?


----------



## Jaye (Mar 11, 2015)

This is really getting going now. The stand (Perfecto Monterey in red oak) will arrive on Friday. I ordered the tank and sump from my LFS yesterday - they should arrive next Friday. The wall where the stand will go is painted, and the last of the electrical is theoretically getting done today. We are in the middle of a kitchen remodel, and the tank is going on the other side of the wall where the kitchen sink is. Naturally, I had the plumber add taps and a drain in the living room:


----------



## Jaye (Mar 11, 2015)

Stand arrived Friday, installed motion sensing ligts inside yesterday. Tank and sump coming Friday, I think.


----------



## Jaye (Mar 11, 2015)




----------



## burr740 (Feb 19, 2014)

Sounds like this will be a interesting build, look forward to updates.


----------



## Jakabjp (Feb 22, 2014)

Just subbed can't wait to see how this goes


----------



## Jaye (Mar 11, 2015)

Thanks, y'all. I'm having a lot of fun with this - although it's frustrating to be trying to set all of this up right before the big boat show out here. I sell boats for a living, so we're super busy at work right now. My power strips came in today:


----------



## Jaye (Mar 11, 2015)

It's on the stand (and partially plumbed). The boat show is going to slow my progress a bit. It's really a big tank. I'll admit to feeling a little bit intimidated. Looking forward to having the time to get it set up.


----------



## Jinduan (Apr 16, 2014)

Nice!! I am thinking of doing a 5ft planted tank with a sump as well. May I know how do you plan to feed the pressurised CO2 into the tank?

edit: spelling


----------



## Jaye (Mar 11, 2015)

Jinduan, I'm planning to use basically the same setup I have on my 29 - an inline diffuser feeding into a cerges reactor. 

Boatshow and cleanup from same being (finally) done, I spent today plumbing and scaping. All four drains are done, I'll do the returns and the plumbing for the reactor next weekend (my weekend is Sun-Tue). 

Can't wait to fill this up and start planting, but the three x 50lb bags of tahitian moon sand I ordered on Amazon netted me two bags of sand and one of wild bird food. They told me to give away the bird seed, so I freecycled that, everyone's happy there. However, the third bag of sand won't be here until Friday. So no water until then, no matter how fast I am with the plumbing.


----------



## Jaye (Mar 11, 2015)

Returns plumbed. I think I'm going to re-do the one long run - it's headed slightly uphill, which I don't like. First time ever working with PVC - I'm quite surprised how quickly it all went together, although it's messier looking than I'd like.


----------



## abaker1961 (Jan 29, 2016)

Jaye said:


> Two Ecoxotic 36' fixtures were wating at my door when I got home from work this afternoon. I took them out of the box and fired them up. Both work. Played around with the various settings for half an hour or so. Now to figure out how to hang them...


Don't you just love to come home to find stuff at the door? It's like a little mini Christmas!:laugh2:


----------



## Jaye (Mar 11, 2015)

Filled the tank on Monday - everything is now working and leak-free. Need to re-build one of my returns because something about the way I've routed it really magnifies the vibration of the pump. I have three of the same pump - each runs nearly silently hooked up to the other return or to my water change hose, but they all make a pretty good racket hooked up to the return on the right side of the tank. Other than that it's all looking good. I should be able to start planting (at least some trimmings from my 29) later today - big planting will probably be Monday afternoon. Still trying to decide whether to hang my lights or just set them on top of the tank. I'm planning to start with just the two 36" Ecoxotic fixtures - will add 2 planted
+ 24/7's if the Ecoxotic's seem like too little light.


----------



## Jaye (Mar 11, 2015)

Discovered that the glass lids I bought won't work with the returns as currently configured. They project too far into the tank. Since I was going to rebuild one return anyway, guess I'm rebuilding both this weekend. The trimmings I stuck in there this afternoon will just have to make do with ambient light until Sunday.


----------



## Jaye (Mar 11, 2015)

Set the lights up tonight. Well, one of the lights. I need to do a little rewiring. I'm really impressed with the shimmer I'm getting from the Ecoxotic lights. Sort of wishing I'd bought four 36" fixtures instead of two, but since that's not what I did, or possible now, I'll probably just get a couple of Planted+'s. 

My weekend is pretty spoken for, but I'm hoping to rebuild the returns on Sunday afternoon and to get the co2 set up on Tuesday. Planting will get pushed off yet another week, with the exception of trimmings from the 29. Monday, we're going sailing, and Sunday morning we have brunch, so Sunday afternoon and Tuesday are all I've got, which as I type this strikes me as the definition of a first world problem.


----------



## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

this tank is going to look awesome!

hahah, yes, sounds like first world problems indeed!


----------



## Jaye (Mar 11, 2015)

Did a little more planting - trimmings from the 29 - yesterday. must try to get a picture in the dark tonight so you can actually see the whole tank and not half tank/half house across the channel.


----------



## aja31 (May 25, 2013)

Looks awesome so far!

Would love to see a close up of your sump/plumbing setup at some point as well!


----------



## Jaye (Mar 11, 2015)

Finally got a picture of the tank at night










And this is the sump










It's a bit of a mess, and I'll probably neaten up and improve over time, but hey, it works. 

The clear plastic hose on the left leads from a pump to the drain, and the metallic line draped over the other plumbing is the supply line. I went with regular timers I had on hand because I'm spending waaaay more than I'd planned to on this whole setup -I'll switch to the home automation stuff over time, but this works for now. The controllers for the lights are mounted on the left side, and the heater controller (for the two Eheim 150 watt heaters) is on the right. The Co2 system is out of the frame, on the left.

My new Eheim pumps are supposed to arrive tonight - I'm hoping they'll be quiet enough that I don't have to go with a couple of canister filters on this instead.


----------



## Greggz (May 19, 2008)

I love threads like this. I show them to my wife, and she thinks I am relatively normal:grin2::grin2:.

But seriously, very, very cool and looking forward to more updates.


----------



## Jaye (Mar 11, 2015)

Glad to be useful, Greg.


----------



## Jaye (Mar 11, 2015)

Installed the Up-aqua inline diffuser and a cerges reactor after it today. There are 10' of hose between the diffuser and the reactor in an attempt to increase dwell time - we'll see if that makes any difference. This is the same setup as I have on my 29 and it works well. 

I had been using an Ista Mix-Max due to lack of time to source parts for the cerges, and well... let's just say it's not a purchase I'd make again - noisy and flimsy and didn't seem to ger much CO2 into the water. Diffuser + cerges = line green drop checker = happy Jaye. And hopefully happy plants - mine are looking a little sad and melted and I'm not sure why. I'm running this tank pretty much the same as my 29, which is healthy and lush.


----------



## Jaye (Mar 11, 2015)

I put 10' of hose between the inline diffuser and the reactor and that appears to be enough to get very close to complete dissolution of a steady stream of bubbles in the drop checker - too fast to count. I love it when something works as I thought it would.

The drop checker is lime green, finally.


----------



## Jaye (Mar 11, 2015)

Went to an SFBAAPS meeting yesterday and picked up a bunch of new plants (thanks, folks!). I'm happy with how the right side of the tank is shaping up.










The right side needs work:










Right now I'm just focused on growing out the plants and cycling the tank - once I have enough plant mass I can start actually scaping the thing.


----------



## ROYWS3 (Feb 1, 2014)

Jaye said:


> Right now I'm just focused on growing out the plants and cycling the tank - once I have enough plant mass I can start actually scaping the thing.


Good thinking


----------



## Jaye (Mar 11, 2015)

Ugh, diatoms. They are all over everything. I spent a couple of hours this afternoon wiping off everything i could, but stuff like cabomba? I hope mine survives. At least I've got a fairly robust bunch of it in the 29.

Honestly, the big tank looks horrible and i'm a bit disheartened. The 29 chugs along on the same ferts, same water, albeit different lights (planted+ and monster ray on the 29, ecoxotic series 3 on the 125) a few plants are growing well. Chain sword is going wild. The two java ferns seem to be holding their own, hairgrass is bravely sending up shoots, but they're quickly covered in brown dust.

I'm beginning to think I got lucky with my first tank.


----------



## Jaye (Mar 11, 2015)

I had been thinking that the diatoms were due to too little light, and this afternoon, i realized I was right. Last week, right after I did my weekly maintenance on the tank, a couple of plants - a Bacopa and an AR Mini - floated up to the top. Being a lazy person, I just let them float all week until maintenance day rolled around again today. Those two plants had no diatoms whatsoever on them after spending the past seven days about 3" below the Ecoxotic lights. Seems pretty clear that the light isn't getting to the bottom of the tank. Ordered two Planted+ 24/7s, whch should be here in a couple of days. Dosing 60ml of Metricide daily is keeping the diatoms more or less at bay for now, but I'm pretty sure the real solution is going to be light.


----------



## Jaye (Mar 11, 2015)

The planted+'s came on Monday and I swear the plants already look better. New growth starting all over the place.

I'm having a weird thing going on with my nitrites, though. I am dosing 57ml of ammonia nightly to feed the filter bacteria. My routine is test ammonia and nitrites, 20% water change, add ammonia. Originally, I was testing ammonia after dosing it to make sure I was adding enough, but at this point I'm starting from 0ppm every night, so the dose is constant and testing twice every nght seemed like overkill. When I test in the morning, the ammonia is at 0-.5. However, the nitrites are up -a lot- like to 5ppm. What the heck is going on here?


----------



## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

hmmm 
have you added any live bacteria starter solution? 

sounds like the first bacteria to convert to nitrite are kicking in but the last bacteria to convert nitritie to nitrate hasn't fully kicked in .


----------



## Jaye (Mar 11, 2015)

Yes, I added some Tetra Safe Start about a month ago. That makes sense, although it's so weird with the morning evening apattern, I guess that must be what's going on - the bacteria aren't fully estabished. They may be getting there finally. This morning the nitrite test is lavender, not purple, so that's progress.


----------



## skystrife (Feb 20, 2010)

Pretty common phenomenon for me in all three tanks I've set up. It seems like the Ammonia -> Nitrite phase goes a lot faster than the Nitrite -> Nitrate phase. It's hard to be patient when you see all the Ammonia being used up so quickly and the Nitrite just sitting there, but it'll be done pretty quickly, especially since you've started to see the Nitrites drop.


----------



## number1sixerfan (Nov 10, 2006)

Nice looking tank... I'd just suggest a LOT more plant mass just to start. Makes it a bit easier for the tank to get established. More plants to outcompete algae for nutrients, also helps with the cycle. 

Just some fast growing, cheap stems you can toss out after it's fully cycled.


----------



## Jaye (Mar 11, 2015)

Thanks. It's got quite a few more plants in it now - most everythg seems to be rebounding from the diatoms, although some may yet be doomed - I've had plants that were completely "gone" (as in you see none of it at all left in the tank) come back months later, so I'm not removing much. i'll try and get some pics tonight.


----------



## ScubaSteve (Jun 30, 2012)

Can't wait for some updated pics....love this tank!


----------



## Jaye (Mar 11, 2015)

Thanks, Steve. My big camera is currently lent out, but I'll try for some phone pics tonight, because today, I ADDED FISH! Finally. 20 cherry barbs, 10 zebra danios and 7 (all Albany Aquarium had - I'd like at least 10) albino cories. The danios and barbs seem sort of freaked out - hiding in the plants, schooling tightly, initially all together, now separated into barb/danio groups - and the cories are being cories.


----------



## The Dude1 (Jun 17, 2016)

Great thread! One thing I've learned after setting up tank after tank is to always start the new tank with some media. I assume by now your cycle is all caught up though. I had Congo tetras in my 75 gallon before I switched it to a tanganyikan tank. They ate fresh leaves on the Amazon swords and Downoi. Unfortunately they didn't survive the move and the tank breakdown and set up... there is nothing more beautiful than a full grown dominant Congo tetra.. in a 6 foot tank you could have a tremendous school of them


----------



## Minhha2006 (Oct 14, 2014)

Wow, this is awesome!


----------



## Jaye (Mar 11, 2015)

I've moved all of the inhabitants of the 29 into the 125. The 29 is for now my quarantine tank, which is currently housing 5 congo tetras and 5 black mollies, who are happily chowing down on the green hair algae that has been bothering my hair grass in there. I want to get 10 congo tetras total, but Albany Aquarium only had 3 males, so I got two of them and three females because I want the males to color up but don't want the females harassed. Even the females are gorgeous -they're gold, the males are silver and orange and blue.


----------



## Jaye (Mar 11, 2015)

Photos, finally.

Albino Cory:









Lemon Tetras:


















FTS:









The cories keep uprooting plants. More re-planting in store for tonight.


----------



## Immortal1 (Feb 18, 2015)

Looking good Jaye! Have 5 albino corys myself - fun fish. Can't say they have pulled up as many plants as the bushy nose plecos :-(


----------



## Jaye (Mar 11, 2015)

It's actually the salt and pepper cories that do most of the uprooting - the albinos seem to go around.

Here's a better shot of the tank from last night:


----------



## ScubaSteve (Jun 30, 2012)

Looking good!


----------



## Jaye (Mar 11, 2015)

Night shot:










Reflection-y, but this is the tank with the lights on nearly max. I have 2 36" Planted+ 24/7's and 2 Ecoxotic E-90's on the tank. The Ecoxotics are on from 11:00 - 5:00, the Planted+ is in 24/7 mode. No algae problems to speak of at the moment- the diatoms are mostly gone and aside from the rocks, there's very little algae of any other type - just a bit of BBA on the rocks, which I scrub at with a stainless wire brush every time I'm in the tank.










There's a brief period every afternoon when, if the neighbors across the water don't have their third story window open, it reflects the sun straight into the tank. The congo tetras look absolutely spectacular in the sunlight - this isn't the greatest shot, but it'll give you an idea.


----------



## Jaye (Mar 11, 2015)

Went to another SFBAAPS meeting this Sunday and picked up a bunch of plants - an anubias to put on the wood below the Christmas moss, a couple of new ludwigias and rotalas. Transferred the three additional Congo Tetras to the main tank on Monday, bringing me to total of three males and five females (I want four males/six females eventually, but the males are hard to find locally). I'm going to stop using the 29 as a quarantine and convert it to a shrimp tank, so I went out and got 10 RCS yesterday. They're in there with five hillstream loaches that i originally intended to put in the big tank - I'm afraid it's a little too warm for them in there so I'll leave them where they are for now. I'll get a dedicated tank that I can set up as needed either at the next $1/gal sale or when I find more Congos, whichever comes first. Here are a couple of shots of the big tank from Saturday before I added all the new plants.



















The hairgrass has never been happy in there, so I think I'm just going to let the stauro carpet along with some other interesting low growing plants I've been picking up at swaps. For some reason it grows great in the small tank and slowly/poorly in this one. Substrate in the other tank is gravel, this one is sand. Who knows?


----------



## Jaye (Mar 11, 2015)

*Disaster*

So yesterday morning, I'm mucking around in the stand, trying to decide if I want to replumb to install my new Jebao return pump. I move a bag of floss, and there's water on the floor of the stand. Quite a bit of water. No idea where it's coming from, but obviously this is baaaad.

I was able to find the source of the leak fairly quickly - a joint in one of the returns. This line has always had a lot of vibration, and I'm guessing that when I shoved it to put in some foam between it and the tank stand I moved it too far. The joint probably wan't glued very well in the first place...

Whatever, it is what it is. 

This looks (don't they all?) like a fairly straightforward repair. But wait - don't I want to plumb in the Jebao? That would have the advantage of solving the problem of vibration as well. First I have to get the water out of the sump so that I can elevate it and dry out the stand underneath. To move the sump at all I need to disconnect the union fittings in the drain lines. I move the sump about three inches to the right so that I can prop one end of it up on a couple of 2x4s and aim a blow dryer at it. This is when I notice that one of the bulkheads on the other side of the tank is dripping. I try, with a huge pair of channel locks, to tighten this, but nothing seems to help and the bulkhead nut is getting shredded. Water is dripping now from two other bulkheads as well, but I'm able to tighten them. I have some spare bulkheads, but they're for hose. I call my LFS, and they do have a regular bulkhead in stock, but It's at least an hour round trip, probably more like 1.5. I decide to go with what I've got. 

I draw down the level in the tank to a few inches below the overflow teeth. Then I siphon the water out of the overflow (in retrospect, it would have been easier to just pop the standpipe, but I was sort of panicked and not thinking all that straight at the time). Take off the shredded bulkhead, install the new one, which unlike my past experiences with these, installed easily and sealed on the first try. 

I have been meaning also to install gate valves in my drains. I stupidly used ball valves when I set the tank up and they are a PITA to adjust. But, the bulkhead that stripped is the emergency drain. No problem, just cut the main drain short and re-plumb so that it terminates in the return section of the sump, making it the emergency drain, and route the new plumbing to the filter socks. The hose from the bulkhead seems smaller than I thought it would be, but I press on. However, routing it to the gate valve I have is going to require some step up/step down hose barb adaptors. Off to the hardware store (the first of six trips of the day.) 

Realizing this isn't going to be a quick fix, I stop to set up an air pump and move the biomedia from the now empty sump to a bucket full of tank water. The hairdryer has, by this time, overheated and died. I find a fan and prop that up to blow under the sump. The stand is getting close to dry. I can't finalize the plumbing until it's completely dry, because I need to put the sump in it's operating position. Finally, around 1:00, the stand is sufficiently dry. I pull the 2x4s and let it down. 

The plumbing is not going quickly. I realize I need more adapters, and I've bought all of the ones that the close by hardware store has in stock. I head off the the one on the other end of the island. Great, they have adaptors, but not the 1"ID hose I need. Back to the other hardware store. Get home and realize I've bought the wrong size hose clamps. Back to the store.

Around 5:00, I finally finish the drains. Now it's time to plumb the two new returns to the one pump. Previously, I was running to Eheim pumps, one for each return, so this is pretty major surgery to the pipes. I make one final trip to the close by hardware store to get some stuff I may need before they close at 6:00. The far away one is open until 8:00, but I really don't want to drive over there again. I have one moment of panic when I realize I'm short one 1" slip to NPT straight connector and one 1" NPT to 3/4" hose barb when I when I find a 1" to 1" NPT/barb connector and a bag of additional connectors in the garage that contains several slip/NPT fittings. Score! Last up is reworking the CO2 reactor and getting CO2 back in the tank. I'm actually scrapping the reactor on this tank and going with an inline diffuser on a closed loop in the sump. The output feeds to right in front of the closed loop intake, so the bubbles get chopped up truly tiny. It saves a lot of space in the sump, too. I still have the reactor, obviously, and if this doesn't work as well as I think it will, I'll put it back in.

By 8:00 I've got all the plumbing in. There are plumbing parts, filter socks and various soggy things that I pulled out of the stand all over the living room on plastic sheeting. The last thing I feel like doing at this point is cleaning this mess up, but I have to. Not before pouring myself a shot of Cazadores and getting a Pacifico, though. First things first. Fortified by my shot and beer, I just dump all the spare plumbing stuff into a box. At least it's out of the way. I find other places to store all the other stuff - I've realized there's a real downside to keeping a bunch of crap in the stand - it's harder to notice when there's a problem. I grab another Pacifico and sit down to watch the news. My husband is by this point asleep upstairs. 

Final result. Tank is dead silent. Drain with gate valve is much easier to adjust (drain with ball valve is a still a PITA.) Everyone in the tank is still alive. Amazingly, somehow it appears that no water actually made it out of the stand onto the hardwood. I am beat up and beat. Realize putting plumbing parts away that the reason I needed so many adaptors is that I had two different sizes of hose barb bulkheads. I used the smaller one, which was the first one I found, not realizing I had a larger size of these as well. That will be getting swapped at some point, probably when I have time to replumb the other drain to use a gate valve.

That was a somewhat more exciting day than I'd planned.


----------



## FishyIdea (Dec 11, 2014)

Hi Jaye,

Following along as I am about to plumb a 90g. You did a week's work in one evening. Inspiring 

What do you think was the solution to the vibration problem? The new pump? 

I was watching some Youtube videos from Bulk Reef Supply. One thing they recommended is using a length of soft silicone hose as the first stage from the pump to the hard pipe as a vibration dampener. I bought some but obviously not at the stage where I can tell if that is an effective solution.

Good luck and thanks for all the helpful details.

Joe


----------



## Jaye (Mar 11, 2015)

Lost one black molly to the lack of filtration, I guess. Will be moving the five loaches from their tank to the big tank, then moving theirs down next to the big tank. It will eventually be a shrimp tank, but really needs a complete tear down first.

Glad the detail is helpful, Fishyidea. I am possibly the least handy person on the planet, so all this plumbing has been a steep learning curve for me. Adding hose between the eheims and the hard plumbing reduced the vibration somewhat, but the DC pumps are silent. There's a slight hum if you really listen, but if anything else in the living room is on - TV, fireplace, fan - it's completely inaudible. I should have used these in the first place.


----------



## Jaye (Mar 11, 2015)

My tiger lily is blooming! One flower is open now, but there are two more on the way. So pretty! I've had this plant in my tanks for two years - this is the first time one of them has bloomed.


----------



## MUTigers (Oct 26, 2016)

Wow! That is so pretty!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## vanish (Apr 21, 2014)

Pretty rare for them to bloom indoors, awesome!


----------



## Jaye (Mar 11, 2015)

So it's really hot here. Like 100°+ kind of hot, which is definitely not normal on the water in northern CA. Tanks were up to 80° last night, this morning they were both at 81°. Ice in zip locks has solved it for the shrimp tank (20L), but the icemaker in the fridge isn't keeping up with the amount of ice I'd need to cool the 125. No AC, because we "never" need it. Took the covers off the sump and aimed a fan at the surface. Taking the lids off the tanks would also require removing the lights, which I'm trying to avoid. After today, it's only supposed to be in the 90's, so I'm hoping a couple of 10 lb bags of ice will do the trick.


----------



## sdwindansea (Oct 28, 2016)

Good luck with the heat. Same situation in coastal San Diego (although not quite that hot). Had the lid open to get some evaporative cooling earlier and found one of the rasboras on the floor a couple hours later. The lid is back on, just propped open a little with some computer fans pushing air around. Looking forward to seeing some more pictures of your tank.


----------



## Jaye (Mar 11, 2015)

Thanks. I've got a bunch of fans (elevated on inverted buckets, boxes and chairs - our living room is sort of chaotic at the moment) on both tanks and the sump. I also turned pff all the lights. The shrimp tank (20l) is down to 76°. The big tank is still at 78.7°, but i've been putting ice packs in the sump as quick as I can get them to freeze, and it's coming down. Slowly.

I will get some new shots of the tank tonight - it looks a lot different than when I last posted. I've sort of let this thread languish.


----------



## Jaye (Mar 11, 2015)

Some pics. I've had a dust algae explosion since last weekend's hot weather


----------



## Jaye (Mar 11, 2015)

Finally got my terrible phone pictures to embed


----------



## Greggz (May 19, 2008)

Haven't seen any pics of your tank in a long time. 

It's filled in beautifully and looking great. Nice work!


----------



## Jaye (Mar 11, 2015)

Thanks, Greg. It's been through a lot of iterations. For a while all of my rotala-type plants were dying. The "rotala kill tank" thread at the Barr Report as been really helpful there. My buces were alive, but barely. I reduced nitrogen and traces, and started adding magnesium in the form of epsome salts and things started bouncing back.

One buce, and an anubia, are currently getting ready to bloom:

Buce:









Anubius:


----------



## Jaye (Mar 11, 2015)

Blooming anubius:










Buce:


----------



## Jaye (Mar 11, 2015)

So the tank is still up and going strong - it suffered mightily in the spring of 2018 when I went to work for HR Block as a manager. It was bad. BBA everywhere (I ran out of CO2 at the end of march and couldn’t get it refilled until after tax day)

This year I went back, but just to do taxes. That was muuuch less crazy, and the tank made it through tax season this year. I started dosing Metricide in addition to CO2 last month, and the results have been quite amazing. My buces have really taken off. This tank took a long time to get it close to where I want it, but I feel like I’m finally getting there. Pics to follow.

Bump: FTS


----------



## Jaye (Mar 11, 2015)

https://i.imgur.com/EIRtDEr.jpg

Bump: https://imgur.com/gallery/6Eenzfq

Bump: Apparently it’s been so long since I posted a photo that ive forgotten how,


----------



## Jaye (Mar 11, 2015)

So this is happening in my tank:









Full tank shot:










Buce is getting large. That’s _after_ I took two sizable chunks of it to Albany for store credit.


----------



## Greggz (May 19, 2008)

Hey good to see this tank again.

It looks like things are going well. 

Would like to hear more about what is working for you.

You need to update more than once a year!:wink2:


----------



## Patric (Jun 14, 2019)

That looks fantastic. Stay away from H&R:grin2:


----------



## Fish Guy84 (Jan 3, 2019)

Wow this is incredible. So cool how the flowers bloomed outside of the tank! love it


----------



## Jaye (Mar 11, 2015)

Thanks. The tank was really nothing I could be proud of until a month or so again. Not as terrible as it got last year, but not good. 

As I mentioned above, the tank went to hell last spring. And it didn’t come back easily. Plants I’d grown easily in my other tank just could. not. get. going. in this tank. My first problem was lights. I was trying to use the 24/7 feature, and getting that to work withCO2 but no ph controller was not going well. So I went back to the same split photoperiod I’d used with success (although different lights) on my 29. That helped some. Second was flow. With 3 powerheads in the tanks, I actually had too _much_ flow. Taking them out did a lot. 

The last issue was, of course, CO2. In the interest of getting equipment out of the tank, I’d put my diffuser in the sump, but I was having to run a ridiculously high bubble rate just to maintain adequate CO2. This was also causing my to go through about a 10lb tank of CO2 per 6 weeks. Moving the diffuser up into the tank helped some, but I was still using a lot of CO2. This slowly got worse and worse until I was using a tank every couple of weeks, but it didn’t really sink in until I was deep into tax season and working a kajillion hours a week again, and at that point it was easier to swap tanks a lot than to troubleshoot. Once tax season ended, I was able to find the leak (check valve) and fix it. However, some plants (I’m looking at you, H’Ra) were still not great. So what was I doing in the 29 thatI wasn’t in the 125? Metricide. Lots and lots of Metricide. I started dosing 70ml/day with my ferts in the morning, and the results have been fantastic. I was an Art major, so I don’t have ppm of the various nutrients or even a spreadsheet, but my current routine is:

W-F-Su: 2g KNO3, 2g KH2Po4, 7g K2SO4, 70ml Metricide
Th-Sa-M: 2g Plantex, 70ml Metricide
Tu: 70ml Metricide, 50%+ water change, 4g MgSO4, 2g CaSO4, 2g KHCO3

Lights 4xFinnex Planted Plus 24/7 36” on full blast 9:00-noon and 3:00-9:00

Ph pre-CO2 7.2
Ph post-CO2 6.1

Fish: 3x Congo Tetra
4x SAE
10x lemon tetra
5x Bronze Cory
15x black neon tetra
1x Cardinal Tetra
8x cherry barb
2x Hillstream Loaches

And I have 12 more lemons in quarantine. My quarantine’s tiny, so that’s about as many fish as I can do at once. I want to get lots more of everything but the SAEs and Congo Tetras - large schools or small fish is my current goal for the tank.


I’ll try to update more often. Now that I actually like my tank, it should be easier to do.


----------



## Jaye (Mar 11, 2015)

I have been having a lot of trouble keeping the tank temperature at a reasonable level this summer. I can keep it below 82° with a fan and ice packs that I re-freeze in the freezer, but that’s still too hot. I think the four Planted+s are a) covering too much of the surface area and b) generating too much heat. They are only ~3” from the surface of the water. I’d just raise them somehow, but I don’t think the tank would take the reduction in light intensity. I hate the idea of spending $1600 on lights, but I am starting to think about Kessils. They have a smaller footprint, and can be mounted farther off the water for the same amount for par, both of which should help with the temperature issue. But aaargh! $1600! Other options I should be considering? 

Otherwise, tank is doing well. Two of three buces are blooming and the tiger lily has been sending up flowers nonstop. I’ll try to get pictures tonight or tomorrow.


----------



## Immortal1 (Feb 18, 2015)

Jaye said:


> I have been having a lot of trouble keeping the tank temperature at a reasonable level this summer. I can keep it below 82° with a fan and ice packs that I re-freeze in the freezer, but that’s still too hot. I think the four Planted+s are a) covering too much of the surface area and b) generating too much heat. They are only ~3” from the surface of the water. I’d just raise them somehow, but I don’t think the tank would take the reduction in light intensity. I hate the idea of spending $1600 on lights, but I am starting to think about Kessils. They have a smaller footprint, and can be mounted farther off the water for the same amount for par, both of which should help with the temperature issue. But aaargh! $1600! Other options I should be considering?
> 
> Otherwise, tank is doing well. Two of three buces are blooming and the tiger lily has been sending up flowers nonstop. I’ll try to get pictures tonight or tomorrow.


With you discussing $1,600 in lights, I'm wondering if 3 of my Radions would be any cheaper? They do put out plenty of light and I have not really had any issues this summer with heat (house is kept at 77 degrees, tanks stay 77 degrees). I do know there is a new Kessel that looks less like a beer can (shorter, fatter) and seems to have some pretty good reviews. 



Beyond that, I guess you would be onto other hanging options. Personally, I did not want to "hang" anything over my tank. Best of luck in your search.


----------



## Jaye (Mar 11, 2015)

I fixed my temperature problem this afternoon. 

So..... on the down side, I feel like a bit of an idiot. On the upside, my problem can be fixed for $29.95 instead of $1691.00. So that’s a definite plus. I finally asked myself: what has changed? You didn’t have this problem last summer except when it was super hot. (As a former systems analyst I was a bit surprised this wasn’t my first thought- guess I’ve been retired for a while.)

And literally nothing had changed except that I stopped using glass lids on the aquarium, but that should make it cooler, not warmer, right? I changed the water this morning, and what I was feeling out of the tap was no way 80°, yet the controller was registering 82°.

You can probably see where I’m going. I grabbed the heater and controller out of the other tank. It’s the €£&*;*$€ controller. The water is actually about 74 degrees in there.

New controller ordered. It should be here tomorrow. While I would love a set of Kessils, I’d like to buy them with a bonus or tax refund or something, not because I have to


----------

