# Ryan's Custom AIO Tank



## burr740 (Feb 19, 2014)

Interesting read and nice looking build so far. I look forward to seeing it all come together.

You can edit the title. Top right under "display modes", switch to "threaded." Then edit your OP, from there you can change the title.


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## 691175002 (Apr 28, 2009)

burr740 said:


> Interesting read and nice looking build so far. I look forward to seeing it all come together.
> 
> You can edit the title. Top right under "display modes", switch to "threaded." Then edit your OP, from there you can change the title.


Thanks for the tip on changing the thread title.


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## 691175002 (Apr 28, 2009)

The driftwood arrived today. Finding decent driftwood locally is a huge PITA. Most of what is available is the commercial junk screwed to a rock, and its all extremely expensive.

There were a few online places that had a reputation for good driftwood, but I decided to go with Blooms and Branches for no particular reason.

I've always preferred more substantial driftwood, as opposed to the thin branchy type and when I saw the "Ghostwood" on their site I knew what I wanted. There isn't too much information on the stuff, but it should be aquarium safe.

I didn't know what to expect so I ordered a few extra pieces. In total my order was:

2x 10" Stick
4x 10-12" Branches
2x 14-16" Branches

And here it is:









With an 18" ruler:









So this ended up being a considerably larger amount of driftwood than I had anticipated. The longer pieces easily surpass 24". Pretty much everything is at least half again as long as advertised.

I'm really happy with the pieces, I expected a few of them to be boring but they all seem to have some character.

I don't have a container large enough to soak everything, but luckily it all sinks.


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## Syntastic (Aug 3, 2014)

Your tank is amazing. And very similar to a project I started 2 years ago (and since put on hold for my return to college). I have starfire glass on hand (3 panes) to make a 40g breeder (36"x18"x16"). The bottom and back pane are regular glass.

I'm graduating in May '15, after which I'll pick up where I left off. It initially was for a saltwater project...but I've since discovered planted tanks, so who knows what it will end up being! 

How much did Concept Aquariums charge you for the acrylic overflow part, if you don't mind me asking? Whatever it is, I suspect it will be way cheaper than buying a 4'x8' sheet of black acrylic to do it myself.

Definitely following this thread to see where this goes!


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## burr740 (Feb 19, 2014)

Man that wood is sexy. Looks like they have some good prices too. Bookmarking that for later.


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## Reginald2 (Mar 10, 2009)

Just here to subscribe. Looks like a great tank. This looks like it'll be a great tank, and I'm pretty jealous of your access to machinery.


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## 691175002 (Apr 28, 2009)

I started soaking the driftwood, and holy crap it has a lot of tannins. I gave up on trying to soak it in the bucket and decided it was time for the dishwasher. I ran the dishwasher for a cycle without soap or rinsing agent to be safe, and stuffed all the wood in. I'll probably run a few cycles per day until I need the wood.

I'm not against tannins, but I hope to do water changes once or twice a month once the tank settles in. I don't want the water to be dark yellow in the interim. Carbon/Purigen seem like a roundabout way of addressing the issue when I can soak them out of the wood ahead of time.



> How much did Concept Aquariums charge you for the acrylic overflow part, if you don't mind me asking? Whatever it is, I suspect it will be way cheaper than buying a 4'x8' sheet of black acrylic to do it myself.


Concept did the entire tank, so costs were not broken down. You don't always need to buy a full sheet of acrylic, Mcmaster-carr will sell 24"x36", 1/4" for 60$.
If you want someone to cut it, it mostly depends on finding the right place. If you have CAD then anyone with a cnc router can do it, but prices will vary a lot depending on how much work they do in acrylic. I'd expect to pay in the 100-200$ range.


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## Syntastic (Aug 3, 2014)

691175002 said:


> Concept did the entire tank, so costs were not broken down. You don't always need to buy a full sheet of acrylic, Mcmaster-carr will sell 24"x36", 1/4" for 60$.
> If you want someone to cut it, it mostly depends on finding the right place. If you have CAD then anyone with a cnc router can do it, but prices will vary a lot depending on how much work they do in acrylic. I'd expect to pay in the 100-200$ range.


Ok, thanks for the reply. I'll have to do my homework and see if I can find a place in Winterpeg that'll sell smaller sheets, then. I have free access to a cnc router and I've done some work with clear acrylic, so cutting (or assembling) was not the issue. I just didn't want to be buying a 4'x8' sheet only to use a tenth of it.


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## 691175002 (Apr 28, 2009)

Did a crazy amount of work today, I want everything set up this weekend. Photos are just quick cell phone pictures.

First up is the stand and light. Here is roughly what I want to accomplish:









First thing was to pull the wire mounts off the Ecoxotic E-Series. It was pretty simple, just two screws on each side.









I decided to use conduit hangers to attach the light mount to the stand:


















The stand will be encased by an Ikea Besta cabinet, which exists purely as a shell.


















A layer of cork for the aquarium:


















I made the light mount out of acrylic because I thought it would look nice.


















Bent 1/2" conduit (which is actually closer to 0.8" for some reason).









Painted:











Now for the plumbing, I am using 1/2" female threaded bulkheads.









I can just leave the returns as is, or screw in any nozzel:








I'm thinking of using the strainers to spread out the flow, but we will see.



Going to be a ridiculous amount of stuff in the sump.
Syncra Silent 1.5 Pump
Eheim Jaeger 100W
Tunze Nano Topoff
D-402 CO2 Reactor




















The CO2 reactor is a little too tall, so I decided to move the CO2 inlet inline.
Cut off the inlet, and silicone it closed.










Now time to make the riparium planters. Rough cut the acrylic on a table saw:









Finish on the mill:









Test fit:









Glued:



















I dont know why they put so many warnings on an extension cord:









I had a PID temperature controller sitting around, so I decided might as well use it. It will run inline with the heater.









Thermometer attached to the auto topoff.


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## Sean W. (Oct 12, 2013)

oh man! this is a project i can get behind! joining two awesome passions, fabrication and fish tanks! awesome awesome awesome


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## zetvi (Jun 12, 2013)

subbed. Unbelievable! Make, sell and ship to the us? I got my deposit down asap


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

691175002 said:


> The driftwood arrived today. Finding decent driftwood locally is a huge PITA. Most of what is available is the commercial junk screwed to a rock, and its all extremely expensive.
> 
> There were a few online places that had a reputation for good driftwood, but I decided to go with Blooms and Branches for no particular reason.
> 
> ...


*OMG WAAAANNNNNTTT!!!*

SO wait is ghostwood a hardwood? did it come from a conifer tree? Be sure to update us on how it does for sinking, fungus growths in the aquarium, and such! I'm REEEAALLLLY tempted to buy some!


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## 691175002 (Apr 28, 2009)

Here is some more detail on the filter basket + riparium planters that I built.










The filter baskets are only about 8" high, to leave the upper section of the overflow empty. I am using a set of three sponges (coarse/medium/fine). My reasoning here is that if the detrius gets spread out over three sponges I can probably go longer between cleanings. The fine sponge is very fine, so if it clogs too quickly I may take it out.

There is a large box (1100g) of fluval bio-media split between the two filter baskets.

The riparium planters are essentially just boxes that hang in the overflow and sump area. I plan on filling them with a combination of Flourite and Aquasoil in layers, possibly with some lava rock on the bottom. 


Here is an overflow with the stuff installed:









Its pretty tight, but everything slides in and out easily. The riparium planter takes up a lot of space, but there is a small gap around it so water can still flow past.

When all three planters are installed, 14" of the total 20" overflow can be planted. Hopefully plants will completely conceal the overflow and equipment.


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## 691175002 (Apr 28, 2009)

AquaAurora said:


> SO wait is ghostwood a hardwood? did it come from a conifer tree? Be sure to update us on how it does for sinking, fungus growths in the aquarium, and such! I'm REEEAALLLLY tempted to buy some!


I couldn't find much information on it. Apparently it last a long time and is popular in terrariums. Some people who sell ghostwood recommend it for aquarium use, and their pictures look similar to what Blooms and Branches sells.

It sinks immediately, unless there are large bubbles trapped inside. Leaches a lot of tannin. I've run it through about 15 dishwasher cycles, and soaked it for a few days after and the water still looks like tea within a few hours.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Do you have a general plant list for your riparium yet?



691175002 said:


> I couldn't find much information on it. Apparently it last a long time and is popular in terrariums. Some people who sell ghostwood recommend it for aquarium use, and their pictures look similar to what Blooms and Branches sells.
> 
> It sinks immediately, unless there are large bubbles trapped inside. Leaches a lot of tannin. I've run it through about 15 dishwasher cycles, and soaked it for a few days after and the water still looks like tea within a few hours.


Have you considered oven cooking pieces that will fit? Or boiling (mm tannins soup). I boiled some manzantia I was sick of leeching tannins and dropping my ph, just boil 1 hour, dump water, rotate wood (was too big to stuff whole thing into pot at once), refill and repeat.


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## 691175002 (Apr 28, 2009)

AquaAurora said:


> Do you have a general plant list for your riparium yet?
> 
> 
> Have you considered oven cooking pieces that will fit? Or boiling (mm tannins soup). I boiled some manzantia I was sick of leeching tannins and dropping my ph, just boil 1 hour, dump water, rotate wood (was too big to stuff whole thing into pot at once), refill and repeat.


No plant list whatsoever, I'll need a lot of help when that time comes around. Hydrophyte gave me some suggestions, but I still need to see what I can find locally. I probably need shorter riparium plants since the light will be only a foot or so above the planters.

I will probably be buying most of the plants from http://www.theplantguy.org/ so anything there would be easy.

The Ecoxotic E-Series will probably be a total of 20-24" above the substrate, and the riparium plants may shade the back a bit. The aquatic plants will probably see 30-60 par.

I'd prefer the tank to be as low maintenance as possible, so slower growing plants would be nice. I have CO2 which I will probably run at a fairly low level just to keep things in balance.


Unfortunately, the wood is too large for me to boil, and rotating all the pieces would take a while. I did leave it in the dishwasher for 5 days, running a pots and pans cycle ~3-5 times a day. It made a big difference but it does still leech. A lot of the pieces are very thick which might contribute to it.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Below is a list of plants I easily find local, I'm not sure how available they will be for you though. Except for purple waffle and peace lily, they're not sold as aquatic, riparium, or marsh plants specifically but they adapt very well to ripariums (have all these on my 20g riparum).

An easy house plant that works well in a riparium is the pothos. It comes in a few varietals including variegated, marble queen.. and I don't know the name for the solid light green version.. But its a vine, it does grow semi fast, but its train-able and more likely to grow length wise than in height. Its roots get very long though and can get down into the substrate. Its very tolerant of having wet/submerged stem and leaves.

"Wondering jew" I usually find Tradescantia zebrine around me but there are some other variations. This one does well with wet roots but does not tolerate wet leaves (if constantly wet/submerged leaves will melt). Its a nice purple-ish hue and another vine like plant but its stem won't support it as will so it tends to droop/sag as it gets longer and may need trimmed or tried to keep where desired (pothos has a stronger stem and can be trained in any direction). I find my wandering jew actually grows faster than the pothos.

Syngonium, its got a lot of different members of its family with varying heights, it can get quite huge.. I have one (no clue what exact subspecies it is) its about 12-13" right now and converted to riparium from soil planter quite well.

Purple Waffle is also house plant that works for ripariums (its often sold as an aquatic plant at some lfs), I don't know much about it yet though, only just recently grabbed one at garden center in a hardware store (Lowes).

Fittonia albivenis (aka angel snow, pink variety often sold as: pink angel, angel kiss, red angel) which is semi popular/common house/garden plant, its slow and low growing so far, won't tolerate constantly wet leaves, the white or pink veins give a nice 'pop'.

I also have dwarf palm but that will get bigger than your height limitation.

Peace lilies start small but can turn into 3 foot monsters depending on which kind you get (some stay about a foot tall). Its commonly sold for ripariums but also as a house plant.


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## 691175002 (Apr 28, 2009)

Thanks for the list of plants, I'll start looking around. I really like the look of the Fittonia Albivenis.

I pretty much did a full test assembly today. I set everything up in the middle of the room so I could see behind it. I'll drain the tank and slide it back against the wall in a few days.

Pictures are of varying quality, I found that the aquarium light is so bright that it overpowers the image.

Close up of the light hanger:









Tank on stand:









Filling:









Here is an elbow I modified to allow CO2 to be injected inline.









Test assembly on the "wrong" side of the baffle, so its easier to work with.








I chose to use elbow joints despite the flow reduction they cause. The pump is rated 360GPH which is a lot of flow for a 26 gallon display section

Here it is in the sump. My CO2 tank is being retested so I left the CO2 inlet unconnected:









And the rest of the equipment in place:









Here is the temperature controller I installed in the cabinet:








It uses PID control so it will be much more accurate than the built in thermostat. It also adds a second level of protection, since the heater is set to 82 degrees. Both the PID controller and the heater must fail to cook the tank.

From the front:


















Splitting the flow between two stainers really slows things down. The flow is very well distributed over the entire tank, but it is also very gentle. I'm not sure how it will be with plants in the tank.

I'm pretty happy with how everything has come together. I'll be experimenting with hardscape designs during the week. I'm not sure if I will be able to get plants in next weekend, but we will see.

I have a suspicion I will be wishing I used clear or black acrylic instead of blue for the tops of the riparium planters.


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## Emplanted (May 3, 2014)

Wow! Such an amazing build. What a fun but I imagine time consuming project. Can't wait to see how this turns out


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## tanksagain (Feb 24, 2014)

I just wanted to say your entire set up is beautiful. Very inspiring and I can't wait to see it filled!


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## zetvi (Jun 12, 2013)

Here is my money, take it please! Amazing set up!


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## pandacory (Apr 18, 2011)

Pretty slick!

I agree that all in ones don't get enough love. It will be interesting to see how much co2 control you have in this kind of setup. 

One question, though, in the tank design, why not let the sump be the entire back wall of the tank if you knew you were going to black out the sides anyway? Is there any particular advantage to the island style?


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## Morbo (Feb 10, 2013)

Awesome build -- your tank looks incredible already and there's nothing inside yet! Really happy you decided to go the riparium route too. 

Those acrylic light mounts you made are especially slick... Ever thought of selling them? *hint hint*


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## 691175002 (Apr 28, 2009)

I've discovered a minor oversight in my sump design. If you look closely, you will see the heater is in the same chamber as the pump, but does not really have any forced water flow. With the heater running, the water in the sump is about 1.5f hotter than the display section. Luckily since I am running an external temperature controller, I can just move the probe into the display tank.



pandacory said:


> I agree that all in ones don't get enough love. It will be interesting to see how much co2 control you have in this kind of setup.
> 
> One question, though, in the tank design, why not let the sump be the entire back wall of the tank if you knew you were going to black out the sides anyway? Is there any particular advantage to the island style?


I have a large inline reactor in the back (rated for tanks up to 120g) so getting CO2 distributed throughout the tank should be very easy. I'm not sure what PPM to target for a lower light tank though. Do I still go to 30ppm, or should I be aiming lower?

Only the back has been blacked out, the sides are still viewable (refraction can make them look black in some photos).

I chose the island style for a few reasons. The main one was that a freshwater tank really doesn't need 36" of sump. I also wasn't sure that I could effectively aquascape a tank that is only 10" front to back. We will see how the hardscape ends up working out, but I should be able to completely hide the sump and have the tank look 14" deep for its entire length.




Morbo said:


> Awesome build -- your tank looks incredible already and there's nothing inside yet! Really happy you decided to go the riparium route too.
> 
> Those acrylic light mounts you made are especially slick... Ever thought of selling them? *hint hint*


Seeing all the amazing pictures of ripariums made me want one too, and the idea of putting the planters into the sump was just too perfect to resist.

It really wouldn't be viable for me to make the acrylic mounts one at a time, but if someone has a router table they could easily do a dozen in a minute or two. I can post CAD if anyone wants it.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

691175002 said:


> I have a suspicion I will be wishing I used clear or black acrylic instead of blue for the tops of the riparium planters.


Yeh black or clear would be better. You can try putting riccia or mosses over those parts and the top of the substrate once the main larger plants are in to hide it all and look a bit more like planted banks/water edge. If you do this make sure the riccia or moss can get wet, having a tiny bit of it hanging over the edge to touch the water will help it wick up moisture. Another option is to mist it 1-2x a day, which I'd recommend if transitioning from submerged to emersed growth, it helped mine transition well.


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## 691175002 (Apr 28, 2009)

AquaAurora said:


> You can try putting riccia or mosses over those parts and the top of the substrate once the main larger plants are in to hide it all and look a bit more like planted banks/water edge. If you do this make sure the riccia or moss can get wet, having a tiny bit of it hanging over the edge to touch the water will help it wick up moisture. Another option is to mist it 1-2x a day, which I'd recommend if transitioning from submerged to emersed growth, it helped mine transition well.


Good ideas. I'll definitely try to get some moss on there.


I've been brainstorming a potential plant list for the tank. I feel like I may have chosen too many different types of plants here, but I was thinking of just seeing what I like best in the tank, instead of trying to pick only a few plants based only on pictures and descriptions.

*Purchase Online:*
Anubias barteri var. nana
Anubias barteri var. coffeefolia
Anubias minima

Cryptocoryne wendtii sp (Brown)
Cryptocoryne wendtii de Witt (Red)
Cryptocoryne growers choice!

Oriental (Echinodorus 'Oriental')
Vesuvius (Echinodorus 'Vesuvius')

Salvinia (Salvinia natans)

Hairgrass, Dwarf (Eleocharis parvula)
Micro Sword (Lilaeopsis brasiliensis)
Baby Tears (Micranthemum Micranthemoides)

Hygrophila difformis (Wisteria)
Hydrocotyle leucocephala (Brazilian pennywort)
Bacopa monnieri

Monosolenium tenerum

_ Emersed:_
Radican, Marble Queen (Echinodorus cordifolius 'Marble Queen')​*Purchase Locally* (~3 depending on what is availaible):
_ Emersed:_
Fittonia albivenis
Tradescantia zebrine
Pilea cadierei
Hemigraphis sp
Spathiphyllum ​Most of the plants are in the low/med light range, and I selected only from what was in stock at http://www.theplantguy.org/

Still not sure what the hardscape will look like, but I should probably get the order of plants in soon because it may take a while to arrive.


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## pandacory (Apr 18, 2011)

Since the sump is in the tank, any plans for auto dosing or top off hidden in the stand?

AIO tanks seem to create the opportunity for freeing up the stand to house all support/maintenance equipment and stop the spill of hobby gear into every corner of life.


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## Ach1Ll3sH33L (Mar 1, 2012)

Beautiful craftsmanship on the custom parts, and all around nice concept. Cant wait to see what you have in store for the hardscape. Most the plants you ordered are low light, and relatively slow growing, i think the large variety will create a diverse look!


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## 691175002 (Apr 28, 2009)

pandacory said:


> Since the sump is in the tank, any plans for auto dosing or top off hidden in the stand?
> 
> AIO tanks seem to create the opportunity for freeing up the stand to house all support/maintenance equipment and stop the spill of hobby gear into every corner of life.


Absolutely! I already have the ATO set up, and plan on using a doser if ferts become a chore. I'm still not sure how much fertilization I'll need though, and it seems like a good idea to do the first few weeks by hand.


Didn't get much done today, just pushed it against the wall. It felt like a big milestone though.


I placed the light controller discretely, but where it could still be accessed by the remote control.










You can see the steel frame underneath the Ikea stand, but it is fairly unobtrusive if you aren't looking for it.










I didn't have time to put in the substrate, but I couldn't resist trying out the driftwood. I was hard enough to get the pieces to stand up without support so this is far from a final layout, but it kind of has the feel I'm going for.










I want to blend the transition between aquatic and emmersed growth by having a lot of plants growing on the driftwood both below and above the waterline.








Having a vague idea of what the hardscape will look like makes me want to revisit the plant list.


Not much has changed, but having something in the tank makes it look a lot nicer.


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## oldpunk78 (Nov 1, 2008)

Everyone already said it but dang!


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## 691175002 (Apr 28, 2009)

Okay, so I had a pretty nice hardscape going in the dry tank, and as soon as I was confident enough to fill it the water let the aquasoil shift just enough to send it all tumbling down.

I spent a few minutes trying to put it back together, but only ended up stirring up the substrate and clouding the tank even more.

Luckily I have a few days to work this out, and I'm pretty sure I get by with rocks as support. I probably should have thought this through before putting in the substrate though.


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## pandacory (Apr 18, 2011)

I guess I didn't catch on the first time around, but I like how you cut the ikea stand to fit around the supporting stand. For someone with no carpentry skills, I might have to store that one away in the noodle bank.


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## FlyingHellFish (Nov 5, 2011)

Fellow Canadian! My hat off to you on an amazing build! How do you get the glow around your tank? And what Co2 system are you running? Got a picture of it?


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## NWA-Planted (Aug 27, 2011)

Very nice! I am always impressed by people with your patience and skill! So you had the tank built and did all the rest or did you assemble the tank as well? All in all superb build!!!!

Sent from my SM-P600 using Tapatalk


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## 691175002 (Apr 28, 2009)

pandacory said:


> I guess I didn't catch on the first time around, but I like how you cut the ikea stand to fit around the supporting stand.


There is actually a funny story there, because originally this aquarium was supposed to be very small, and the Ikea stand was going to be the only support. I ended up wanting this 30g tank but already had the cabinet. Fitting it around a real stand seemed like the appropriate thing to do.



FlyingHellFish said:


> Fellow Canadian! My hat off to you on an amazing build! How do you get the glow around your tank? And what Co2 system are you running? Got a picture of it?


The glow is from the LED light. Since its raised so high above the tank, a lot of the light misses and hits the wall.
I purchased my CO2 system a long time ago, I think its an aquamedic system based on a 5lb tank. The tank is getting recertified so I haven't set it up yet. It looks very basic but was quite reliable. 
The CO2 is being dissolved using an ebay reactor (D-402). Its the green cylinder in the earlier photos. Normally these things leak and are therefore in-tank only, but I can just put mine in the sump.



NWA-Planted said:


> Very nice! I am always impressed by people with your patience and skill! So you had the tank built and did all the rest or did you assemble the tank as well? All in all superb build!!!!


I did the drawing for the tank, but had Concept Aquariums build it. I'm normally all for DIY, but I'm not foolhardy enough to attempt a 30g rimless as my first tank. Their silicone looks a lot better than I could have achieved as well.

Thanks everyone!


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## mosART (Nov 5, 2013)

Hot damn! After you finish can I get the manual to this?


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## talontsiawd (Oct 19, 2008)

I saw your post in the E-Series thread, had no idea that this was a lot of DIY/custom work. Figured it was some nice off the shelf tank I didn't know about. That is super awesome and the level of detail is fantastic. i have wanted to try in internal sump with areas to grow emmersed plants for awhile, I just haven't had a tank with the right depth and don't necessarily want to try any off the shelf solutions. I will live vicarioously through this journal for now, haha. Absolutely stellar work thus far.


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## TLE041 (Jan 16, 2010)

Great work so far! Nice to see another Canadian on here. I've made purchases from most of the retailers you listed as well.


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## 691175002 (Apr 28, 2009)

Fixed up the hardscape a bit today. I ended up taking it in a different direction that I was planning. Originally I just wanted to stuff a bunch of wood around the sump, but I realized that probably wouldn't leave as much room for plants as I wanted.

I got some of my favorite pieces in on the left, and filled in a smaller section on the right. I left a few areas open and have plants in mind for them. In particular, the Oriental Sword will probably become the focal point mid-right.

Made a huge mess when moving the driftwood around.









A careful waterchange cleaned it up nicely.


















Quick shot of the auto topoff in action and the overflow. The overflow has been amazing at pulling off surface scum, the aquasoil seems to make a bit when disturbed but it disappears in seconds.









The plants are actually set to arrive tomorrow, which is much faster than I anticipated. I'm not sure if I ordered enough plants, but we will see.


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## skoram (Aug 9, 2012)

Really jealous of your DIY skills. I wish I had the ability to come up with a great design and build something to my exact specifications. 

can't wait to see how this will turn out.


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## limz_777 (Jun 29, 2005)

what livestocks you intend to house inside ?


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## 691175002 (Apr 28, 2009)

limz_777 said:


> what livestocks you intend to house inside ?


I'm still working through that. I will definitely start with cherry shrimp and then take a month or so to decide which fish will also go in. 

There will be fish that eat shrimp, so I've been careful to introduce hiding spots using rocks hidden behind (and supporting) the driftwood.

Fish that I have always wanted are Blue Rams, Dwarf Gouramis, and Celestial Pearl Danios. I probably shouldn't put all of them together though.

In terms of fish, I am currently thinking a dozen rummy nose tetras and a few ottos, then adding a pair of blue rams later. I'd also like a dwarf gourami, but I'll have to read up on compatibility (and will they jump out of an open top tank?)

I feel like my tank will have more hiding places than the typical community tank, so hopefully the shrimp can maintain a population.


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## dru (Mar 9, 2013)

Can't wait to see this planted! 

Love your setup


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## BoxxerBoyDrew (Oct 16, 2005)

FREAKIN' AWESOME!!!

You really have thought everything out very well!!! I can't wait to see it all planted! A good friend developed a internal wet/dry in the late 80's, and I still have one made to fit a 55g tank. I was just thinking a few days ago of setting it back up, and you have inspired me on how I will do it! Thanks! subscribed!

Keep up the awesome work, and best of luck with the tank!!!
Drew


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## 691175002 (Apr 28, 2009)

The plants arrived yesterday. It was enough to mostly fill the tank, but I didn't order enough foreground plants (at the time I wasn't anticipating having a large foreground).

I lost most of my substrate slope in the planting process, I can see why people try to do everything at once while its dry.

CO2 is setup and working fine, although the ebay bubble counter I purchased has a check valve that does not work.

I'll drop by the LFS today and pick up a few more plants, and possibly a fast grower to get things started since I have a lot of slower plants.


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## 691175002 (Apr 28, 2009)

So I've finally got it planted. Took two days for me to be satisfied, but I'm fairly happy with its current state.

Plants came in a surprisingly small box.









But it was fully packed:









Peace lily in a planter. I didn't really know what I was doing here, since the peace lilly I purchased was pretty large. I basically ripped it apart.









Here is my first attempt at planting:









I wasn't entirely happy with how I chose to place the plants, and I felt like I should probably add a few more fast growing stems to fight off algae.

Second attempt. These pictures are literally minutes after replanting, so its still cloudy. I have a feeling by the time it clears up most of the crypts/emmersed plants will have melted...



























So I pretty much bought any plant I thought I'd like and stuck it somewhere. We will see what ends up growing, and what I like.

The front-left corner has a few pieces of random, unidentified plant pieces that rode along. They were too cute to throw out, so I'll see if any take hold.

In the stand:









Now I pretty much play the waiting game. I'm a bit nervous about everything since this is my first planted tank of this type. My only previous planted tank was years ago, and just stem plants in flourite.

I threw in about 1/64tsp of csm+b and phosphate since the aquasoil is leaching ammonia. Anything else I should do to help things along? I was going to dose excel for its algaecide properties, but apparently it will kill my moss.


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## alemao420 (Jul 12, 2013)

That's an inspiring design man.
I love how clean it is, and nothing but the necessary hanging out inside the aquarium.
I really it, and I'm even considering copying the exact same project (glass wise).
Just a few questions, Those plants you keep emersed, do you have to keep its leaves constantly wet? Could the heat produced by the lights harm them? And what's with that sump in your cabinet? Auto top-off?

Again amazing work, looking forward for updates.

Cheers


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## 691175002 (Apr 28, 2009)

alemao420 said:


> Just a few questions, Those plants you keep emersed, do you have to keep its leaves constantly wet? Could the heat produced by the lights harm them? And what's with that sump in your cabinet? Auto top-off?


The emmersed plants are just common houseplants (Peace Lily and Nerve Plant) so they should require no special care. The LED light stays pretty cool so I don't expect heat to be a problem.

The 5.5g tank in the cabinet is the ATO reservoir. I probably lose ~1/8g per day to evaporation. Since the water level in the display section stays constant, a day of evaporation takes a good inch or two off the sump so the ATO is actually quite helpful.

Water parameters this morning:

```
pH: 6.6-6.8
kH: 4
gH: 4
Ammonia: 1ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 0-5ppm
Phosphate: 0.5ppm
```
Pictures now that the tank has cleared a bit:


















Anything in particular I should be doing to help things along?


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## dru (Mar 9, 2013)

Already looks fantastic, love the flow as my eye travels around the scape

Just keep up on the water changes every couple of days for the first few weeks


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## Varmint (Apr 5, 2014)

Hi Ryan, 
I came over fom the "Your Betta's personality" thread to check out the heater. I'm floored that you designed everything for your tank including the heater and none of it looks DIY. Amazing work! I look forward to seeing how your tank develops.


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## pandacory (Apr 18, 2011)

Lookin good! That over the water driftwood would look pretty awesome with some airplants attached, perhaps an orchid or other tropical epiphyte


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## 691175002 (Apr 28, 2009)

Thanks for the compliments everyone! I've been doing a 50% waterchange every second day, which seems to be helping a lot.

The trick to good looking DIY is to hide it all behind things that look nice .



pandacory said:


> That over the water driftwood would look pretty awesome with some airplants attached, perhaps an orchid or other tropical epiphyte


I've been meaning to get some more emergent plants but I'll have to do some more research. Can orchids grow attached to the driftwood without any additional care? How much of the plant should remain in the water?



I had some spare rocks so I glued them to make small caves, and hid them in the dead spots behind driftwood. It fills some space, and my hope is that it will help shrimp deal with any fish.










I'd post pictures, but the tank looks pretty much the same. Nothing is dead, which is good, and most of the stem plants have put out new leaves. The Bacopa is in the worst shape, with most of the original leaves dying, but there is new growth at the top of the stems.

The only real annoyance is white fuzz appearing on my driftwood. I read it's normal so I'll probably just let it run its course. I've been pushing the CO2 hard and so far there are no signs of algae.

I was thinking of adding shrimp this weekend, but it may be too soon for that. Ammonia has come down from ~2 to 0.5, but there are no nitrites or nitrates so it could just be the plants using it.


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## Varmint (Apr 5, 2014)

Orchids love humidity but if their roots stay wet, they get root rot. You can probably tie them onto the exposed wood above the water line. Cover the roots in sphagnum moss before you tie the plant down so that the moss is secured over the roots. Water once a week letting the moss dry out a bit between watering. You can use a mister or a spray bottle to water so that you don't drench the roots and sphag. Once the orchid is established, you can remove the sphagnum moss, the orchid should attach to the wood. You may have to water more frequently at that point


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## AnotherHobby (Mar 5, 2012)

This build is mind-blowingly awesome! I'm incredibly impressed with all the DIY skills! Good job on the planting and wood work too. It should look great as it fills in.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Well I loved your driftwood so much I ordered some as well (from the same place). Since the site lets you put a note in to help customize your order I told them I wanted thick twisty old pieces (to make a tree trunk and roots from) I even linked the photo you posted of them laid out with a rule, pointing out I'd like simular thick wood, not too "branchy"/stick like, and specifically called out *not *wanting ones like the top left piece in your photo... Well guess they can't read.. every piece I got is like the "branch"/stick like piece from you photo. 
Did you include a note when you ordered to help specify the wood type you wanted? If so I'm curious what it said that you got such nice pieces.. and I got such meh..
Also their packaging job was worse than the driftwoods I've received from e-bay from casual sellers, the box was falling part and several pieces were broken or had punctured the box.

Ok I'm gone ranting now... and envy your driftwood set up more. Look forward to seeing the plants grow in.


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## 691175002 (Apr 28, 2009)

That is really disappointing. Did you order the ghostwood in particular? The pictures on their webpage all show the thicker stuff so I'm surprised they even had that many branchy pieces.

I did not include any comments, but I had them ship to Canada so they might have tried to use compact pieces so it would fit in a smaller box. My driftwood was also just thrown in a box with no additional packaging, but the pieces were probably better shaped to handle the abuse.


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## 691175002 (Apr 28, 2009)

So its been just under a week since I first set up the tank and things are sort of progressing.

The tank is still not cycled, but ammonia has been getting lower by the day. I suspect this is quite a feat given the quantity of dead plant matter in the tank.

Here is a full tank shot. Some of the stem plants have seriously taken off while the slower growers (anubias, crypt, java fern) haven't done much.









This is a picture of what the average plant seems to be doing:








There is some new growth, but a lot of the original leaves are being shed.

The dwarf hairgrass has it the worst, probably because it was grown emersed. I also have a pretty bad case of driftwood fuzz.









A massive number of snails have also appeared, pretty much overnight.








Can anyone ID these for me?


My plan is just to keep up the water changes, since any kind of real cleaning will be difficult without removing the driftwood. I should probably trim some of the stems as well, since the lower leaves are getting no light and dying off in some cases.

The driftwood fuzz is quite unsightly so I'll try to pull some of that out as well, but it might be hard to get at in the back corners.


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## animalcules (Aug 27, 2014)

Great tank! Snails look like physa gyrina, common North American pond snail. They stay under a half inch and eat algae and anything rotting, and their babies are tiny and soft shelled (good fish food) so I welcome them.


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## Sean W. (Oct 12, 2013)

You gotta seed it with bacteria from mature tanks and get it cycled as quickly as possible, then buy a small army of Ottos.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

The slower growers like java fern and anubias can take a few weeks to adapt. Stems like to melt off old leaves and grow new ones adapted to their new environment. I had no luck with giant hairgrass, if the roots aren't brown it'll get new growth soon, if all roots and the grass is grown it's completely dead. Your snails are pond snails they eat algae, dead plant matter, biofilm, and uneaten fish food. They are easy enough to kill just crush them (very soft shell) but they're harmless so I let them live in all my tanks and harvest them for dwarf puffer food (they love snails).


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## 691175002 (Apr 28, 2009)

Thanks for the help, I'll probably leave the snails around since they seem to be cleaning up the tank pretty well. I'm pretty sure they are eating the driftwood fuzz which is pretty nice.

I noticed a few critters hanging out on the glass today:




























I don't particularly mind their presence if fish will enjoy eating them. Pretty sure the worms are planeria and the last one is cyclops, but I don't know what the first picture is.

I don't have another tank to borrow filter media from, so I'll have to cycle the slow way. Its getting there, although there has been a persistent 0.25ppm of ammonia for the past few days.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

I finally went back and looked at the ghostwood I ordered again (I refused to look at it after opening it and getting so pissed)... those morons sent me 3 manzanita branches (1/3 of the order).. I only ordered ghostwood. So either that's the "secret" wood they use and they're definition of what qualifies as 'ghostwood' and 'manzanita' is rather flimsy.. or that site has bloody monkeys fulfilling their orders... grrr
Have you considered selling any of your leftover ghostwood? *hint hint*


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## BoxxerBoyDrew (Oct 16, 2005)

WOW!!!

The tank looks AMAZING!!! The arrangement and plant selection is spot on! I hope the hairgrass comes back for you, as it looks quite nice there. I vote for leaving the pond snails too! They do a great job with most algaes, but dying plant matter and extra food they do a awesome job on! Now with out fish in the tank they will populate very quickly. Usually not to bad before a normal cycle is done though, but once fish are introduced they will pick off most of the eggs and babys so the population is better in check. Like outers have said though, they are easy enough to smash, or you can put a few algae wafers in the front corner of the tank and they will cover it very quickly, then scoop them up with a net and trash them! But right now they are probably helping you out allot by eating the dying plant matter!!!

I can't wait to see it fill in more and watch it mature!!!
Take Care,
Drew


p.s. Your pic are great too! Those tiny critter pics are soo close! What camera ya using? Sorry I can't help ID them for ya, but I bet someone here will!


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## 691175002 (Apr 28, 2009)

My ammonia has finally hit zero. It read zero yesterday and I checked again today to confirm. I never saw any nitrite or nitrate, so the plants have probably been consuming that as it popped up.

I can spot a few new snails every day, and they have started working on the driftwood fuzz which is nice. They stop it from spreading but haven't started working on the larger clumps.

I haven't decided where to go from here. I could add some cherry shrimp right away to try to speed things up, or just let the tank shake itself out for a week or two and see what happens.

There are still a bunch of critters on the glass (Upon further inspection, probably detritus worms) and adding fish or shrimp limits my options if I need to deal with them.

I won't be around this weekend so if I add anything they will be on their own.

Camera is a D60 with the stock 18-55 lens. It can get pretty close, and then I just crop the image to get the last bit of zoom. Some of the pictures were taken with the 35mm f1.8 as well.


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## AnotherHobby (Mar 5, 2012)

I'd throw in a bunch of amano shrimp. They can't breed, so you have no issue with population control. They eat algae like it's going out of style. They are relatively cheap. And since they are relatively big, they are pretty easy to find and catch and move for a little bit if you have to treat your tank.

No worry about feeding as long as you have some algae. I've never fed my amanos.


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Oh no, not driftwood fuzz! Was hoping your dishwasher treatment would have helped prevent that :c I ended up with a lot of baby snails (ramshorn, pond, and Malaysian trumpet snails) from them feasting on my manzanita driftwood fuzz in the 20g long, harvested a lot for the dwarf puffers.. some got turned into tannins soup when I boiled the wood too.

Bump: Oh no, not driftwood fuzz! Was hoping your dishwasher treatment would have helped prevent that :c I ended up with a lot of baby snails (ramshorn, pond, and Malaysian trumpet snails) from them feasting on my manzanita driftwood fuzz in the 20g long, harvested a lot for the dwarf puffers.. some got turned into tannins soup when I boiled the wood too.


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## 691175002 (Apr 28, 2009)

AnotherHobby said:


> I'd throw in a bunch of amano shrimp. They can't breed, so you have no issue with population control. They eat algae like it's going out of style. They are relatively cheap. And since they are relatively big, they are pretty easy to find and catch and move for a little bit if you have to treat your tank.
> 
> No worry about feeding as long as you have some algae. I've never fed my amanos.


I love Amano shrimp in theory, but I've read stories about them climbing out of tanks.

A cherry shrimp I can probably deal with, but I am terrified of crossing paths with a 2" long Amano in the middle of the night


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## AnotherHobby (Mar 5, 2012)

691175002 said:


> I love Amano shrimp in theory, but I've read stories about them climbing out of tanks.


I've had cories, rasboras (pork chop and galaxy), neon tetras, and rummynose all jump my tank at one time or another (probably only 1 or 2 of each over a couple of years). I've even had 2 of cherry shrimp make it out. I think that's part of having an open top tank with a high water line. But I've never had an Amano jump out.


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## 691175002 (Apr 28, 2009)

I ended up buying a couple shrimp on Monday. The LFS was quite expensive so I only purchased 3 Amanos and 6 Cherries.

I have put in an order for 6 Ottos and 25 Cherry shrimp which should arrive next week.

The shrimp were all looking pretty good yesterday when I put them into the tank, just kind of moving from leaf to leaf and eating or whatever they do.

Today I haven't seen more than one cherry at a time (probably the same one). One of the Amanos seems to have molted, but the remaining two seem fine.

The brave cherry:









Amano:









What I hope is just a molt:


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## AnotherHobby (Mar 5, 2012)

691175002 said:


> What I hope is just a molt:


Dead cherries don't look like that. They typically look meaty and like a very obvious dead shrimp.


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## burr740 (Feb 19, 2014)

What a great read. This is coming along so nice. It's kind of a shame to put this tank against the wall, because the sump is almost as interesting as the tank itself!


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## BDoss1985 (Sep 15, 2011)

How did I miss this? Awesome tank subscribed.


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## 691175002 (Apr 28, 2009)

I finally put some fish in yesterday. I purchased 6 Otos online and had them shipped ground. I chose to have the fish shipped because the local stock wasn't that great, and I plan on purchasing more fish online in the future.

I was planning to acclimate using a long drip with prime given how delicate Otos can be, but when the fish arrived there was a partially disintegrated DOA in the bag.

At that point I figured my only option was to get them out ASAP so I did a straight drop and plop after a few minutes of temperature acclimation. They were out within seconds of the bag opening to avoid ammonium conversion due to CO2 release.

Tested bag water:









A few minutes later:








There must be something about this Crypt, because the shrimp were stuck to it for their first few days in this tank and the Otos love it as well. I don't know what type it is, I purchased "Growers Choice".

This morning. There are actually four Otos visible in the picture if you can spot them:








I'm hoping to entice them with a skewer of apple/spinach/cucumber/zucchini.

It's pretty much impossible to get all five in a single picture since there is always one guy hanging out on the other side of a leaf.

They all look to be in decent shape, although they are understandably thin. Still skittish but you will see them eat a bit if you are far away from the tank.

I'm really hoping they all make it, but surviving 4+ppm of ammonia has got to be tough.


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## BDoss1985 (Sep 15, 2011)

Really...ottos die on me with perfect conditions.


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## 691175002 (Apr 28, 2009)

It seems like their desire to eat vegetables is pretty much dependent on their location. I slipped the pair of tweezers against their favorite wall and they were on it within minutes.

Finally got all five together:


















I've had my share of Oto troubles in previous tanks, but these guys are eating so much I really think they are going to make it.


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## pandacory (Apr 18, 2011)

Ive noticed that otos in my tanks that are darker have a better survival rate. I.e. my big dark one just died at about 4 years in various tanks. I don't know if it is a type locality for collection, or just an indicator of health, or just dumb luck in my part.


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## 691175002 (Apr 28, 2009)

It seems like a lot of wild caught fish prefer dim lighting. Just to give them the best chance possible, I stopped CO2 and all fert dosing a day before their introduction. I will probably start with half CO2/EI today and go back to full a few days later.

These Otos really like zucchini. Four of them slept attached to the slice, and the fifth was right next to it. You could see them take the occasional munch then go back to sleep which I found hilarious.

According to the E-Series specifications, my substrate should be at 30 par given its distance from the light. I am running my light at 80% power and have emergent and floating growth so my actual par is probably closer to 20.


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## 691175002 (Apr 28, 2009)

I haven't updated the thread, but a lot of stuff has happened.


The first major hurdle was the growth of white fuzz on the driftwood. I'm sure that in normal quantities this stuff is harmless, but my pieces got a lot and the snails stopped eating it. I tried to wait it out, but that was a mistake.

After a few weeks I finally decided to pull the driftwood out for a proper cleaning, and when I did I realized that white fuzz smelled awful. I scrubbed and boiled the pieces, and there has been no additional growth on the driftwood. I think the fungus consumed whatever it liked from the driftwood then started dying off, and took the shrimp with it.

I had a hard time with red cherry shrimp, about about 2 of the 25 I added to the tank ended up surviving. I suspect the driftwood fuzz but it could also be the tap water which I have not tested for copper. The Amanos were fine.


The plants have been doing quite well. The combination of floating and emergent growth seriously sucks up nutrients because even at low light I need to dose more than full EI to have nitrates/phosphate show up in tests. I have had almost no algae - a bit showed up for a few days but went away on its own.

I need to do a fairly considerable rescape now that I know which plants I want to keep and which need to go. A lot of the plants also need to be moved into areas where they will get the proper amount of light. My original placement was fairly arbitratry, and several of the stems aren't doing so well in the shade. The riparium setup makes this challenging as the back of the tank gets much less light than the front.


Anyways, I finally decided to add some more fish to the tank this weekend. I hadn't decided on any particular fish, so I checked out the LFS to see what looked nice.

On Friday I grabbed 6 Pygmy Cories to keep the Otos company, and a school of 14 Glowlight Tetras. Both have been great additions to the tank, the cories are amazingly fun to watch and the Tetras keep the tank occupied without being too flashy.

Finally, I grabbed four Dwarf Gouramis as centerpiece fish a few hours ago. I'm not sure how well they will get along, but I'll keep an eye on them. Hopefully they will all be able to stake out some territory as my tank is fairly dense.

I might add a few more pygmy cories later, but I'm pretty happy with how my tank is now stocked.























































And some full tanks shots. I'm not entirely happy with the locations of the plants, so there will be changes in the future.


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## twkoch (Aug 29, 2013)

Looks awesome! Since you were talking about changing the plants soon, I think an Asian themed tank would look amazing with this setup. Mostly crypt varieties for plants and dwarf gouramis, rasboras, barbs, and loaches would tie everything together perfectly with the Asian theme. Just my 2 cents.


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## Sean W. (Oct 12, 2013)

looks fantastic!


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## J.Kirk (Jan 4, 2013)

I love all the custom work. You have some great ideas like hiding the steel stand inside an ikea table, definitely gonna borrow that one. Thanks and keep up the good work on a great build.


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## kman (Dec 11, 2013)

Bummer about losing the shrimp, but this next round should be better now that everything is more stabilized.

Tank looks amazing! I LOVE that overflow setup. I wish I could copy that into my tank...


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## Chris_Produces (Feb 19, 2014)

Looks great! Love the emergent growth! (I think that's the correct term lol)


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## exv152 (Jun 8, 2009)

Great tank build. I would suggest some red coloured plants, like red crypts etc. But nice to see another Canadian on the site.


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## 691175002 (Apr 28, 2009)

Tank is still doing well. I moved some plants around, its mostly crypts now.

I swapped out the HC for marsilea quadrifolia since the HC was growing upwards too much. All the other plants are growing pretty slowly so not too much has changed.










And I'm planning a new setup as well. Still in the early stages, but I'm hoping to plumb the top three tanks together using the bottom one as a sump.









Weight testing the bookshelf. I did the math and things should be okay.








I'll probably need a few months before these guys see water.


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## lamiskool (Jul 1, 2011)

someone has gotten the MTS bug. Love it!


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## dru (Mar 9, 2013)

Any updates?


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## theatermusic87 (Jun 22, 2014)

Very very nice build thread


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