# my 125g makeover



## sadchevy (Jun 15, 2013)

Never done a tank journal before so here goes. Tank started out semi planted with fake driftwood and plants. Substrate was black aquarium gravel. Lighting consists of stainless steel 2x32w shoplight with phillips daylight deluxe bulbs(6700k). 

Torn down and cleaned, new substrate (STS), real driftwood. Plants as of now are: cabomba, red myro, E. tellinus, and crypts. Lighting has been upgraded with the addition of 2 clamp lights sporting 23w 6500k CFLs. Filtering is handled with a Rena xp3 and 2 powerheads with sponges. Suggestions welcomed, want to keep it medium to low tech for now. plant ideas and donations would be gladly accepted(alot of tank to fill in)LOL.


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## rustbucket (Oct 15, 2011)

Looks nice already. That wood is really big. I would cover it with petite anubias.

Any fish at all? or is this a complete start over with new fish as well?

Also I would suggest some type of background, just to clean up the back a little, if you like the brightness you could go with a white or light blue background, I prefer black (boring I know) but best for me.


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## du3ce (Jan 26, 2013)

that wood looks like a stick figure falling


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## HybridHerp (May 24, 2012)

while I'm not a fan of that piece of wood.....for some reason....I envision it being covered in african fern

not java fern, the african stuff, idk why


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## sadchevy (Jun 15, 2013)

That piece of wood was a gift from the better half (any support for the hobby is nice) so I'm gonna make the best of it. I do envision seeing it covered with plants one day. Would be awesome with some xmas moss covering the center section leading up to anubias and ferns of some variety. Probably gonna do a few amazon swords and dwarf sag to help fill in the ends of the tank. Possibly a broad leaf madagascar lace as a center piece.
As for the background, I'm thinking of going with a dark grey. It was black before but I'm looking for a change, although not to bright. 
Stocking hasn't been the focus yet, but 100 rummy nose would look great. As always I would love to hear some ideas, suggestions, or awesome acts of kindness thrown at this tank. I'm hoping to make this a 50th birthday present to myself, as I have always wanted a fully planted tank. I will most likely go pressurized CO2 at some point.
Thanks to all who generously give their advise, help, suggestions and such. Also a ton of love goes to the better half for supporting me.


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## Rodneywt1180b (Jun 22, 2013)

I think it's an awesome piece of wood for your tank. You should get some plants on it. Java fern, anubias, maybe some sort of moss on the tall branch on the left. Your tank is going to look good when it's filled in.
Rodney


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## sadchevy (Jun 15, 2013)

Nothing new yet. I was wondering if anyone has used American pond weed in their tanks? I have a couple ponds on my property and all of them have some in them. Also have some stuff growing that looks to be hair grass but could be really small cattail sprouts. Anyone use plants from ponds successfully before?


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## sadchevy (Jun 15, 2013)

I've been looking at the tank and have been trying to picture if the wood would look better oriented differently. Maybe flipped to form an arch, or one end lower and let it climb towards the surface at a corner, or possibly cut it into 2 pieces and add more. Maybe add some large rocks to one end of the wood and scatter a few random pieces along the length? 

Any suggestions? Really need some ideas here ,this is a lot harder than it looks to visualize. I've seen the amazing tanks members on here have and I know there is lots of very creative people here. I, myself, am more mechanically inclined, I can see and build just about anything. There is no artist in me.


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## Petri (Jul 12, 2013)

Perhaps this might be an inspiration:


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## BHolmes (Aug 23, 2012)

> I've been looking at the tank and have been trying to picture if the wood would look better oriented differently. Maybe flipped to form an arch, or one end lower and let it climb towards the surface at a corner, or possibly cut it into 2 pieces and add more. Maybe add some large rocks to one end of the wood and scatter a few random pieces along the length?


I think you are spot on with all of those ideas. The scape as of now is too left, right, center, front, and back. 
If you can, position the wood differently in the tank and take a pic of each layout. That would give us all a better idea. I like that piece of wood because it's different and a challenge to scape with. Anyone can take a piece of manzi and make it look good because it's simple.
I would find rocks from large to small so you could have more to work with. 
I would also heavily plant with a big tank and hardscape like that. Pond plants work great too. That's where all these plants come from in the first place.


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## sadchevy (Jun 15, 2013)

Thanks for the words of encouragement. I really don't want to cut the wood as it is different from what you usually see. I'll see about doing some rearranging and adding some stones. As for planting heavily, that is my goal. I'm going for not really low tech but not high tech either. I'm working on an easily maintainable tank that falls somewhere in between. For now I'm off to see the stone wizard, and possibly rob some plants from the ponds.


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## sadchevy (Jun 15, 2013)

Showing some growth. Not sure of exact species. 

Known Flora
E. tellinus dwarf chain sword

Amazon sword :melted from H202 bath to remove algae starting to grow new leaves

Cabomba, Myrio red, Crypt wendtii?, a stem of Wisteria and water sprite that got in there somehow, and some duckweed that is slowing gaining ground.

Just added some lily bulbs from walmart today.


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## sadchevy (Jun 15, 2013)

Just a quick update. What plants i have in the tank are showing growth. The amazon swords that melted are putting out new leaves. Crypts are getting bigger. 
Seems I have an outbreak of diatoms starting so this weekend will be wipe and water change. I also have got some trimming and replanting to do of the cabomba and myrio. 
Still haven't found any rocks I like, but the search continues. 
I do have a question for the shrimp keepers. With STS my waters Kh has more than likely dropped to next to nil and the Ph is at or near 6.4, Gh has remained fairly constant in the moderately hard range, would this work for ghost shrimp? I ask because I would like to get something in the tank to help with cleanup. There are a few pond snails in the tank that seem to be healthy and happy.


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## sadchevy (Jun 15, 2013)

Update ..... Removed wood, just didn't look right to me. Will be picking up new wood tomorrow. Did some trimming and replanting. Will be painting the back today, gonna be a greyish black. Added a few cuttings from some kind of weed that was growing submerged in my bird bath, don't know if it will actually last, but we'll see. All other plants seem to be growing well, although slowly. Still haven't found any rocks that excite me, plenty of choices but nothing that's caught my eye. 
Here are the pics......If anyone can identify the plant under the filter it would be nice.


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## sadchevy (Jun 15, 2013)

Quick update: Painted the back, plants standout a little better now. Added some more plants, some ludwigia and rotala , if I identified them correctly.


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## DvanK (Feb 27, 2009)

You are making progress although removing wood looks like it was a step back. Painted back wall looks good. I would look into stone yards around you and get couple big rocks for cheap although I would wait for the wood to show up first before investing in rocks. Also look into vallisneria species they are fairly easy to grow and they should do well in your tank.


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## sadchevy (Jun 15, 2013)

small update : added some more rotala and ludwigia. The CFL on the right is a 16w 3000k? has more of a reddish glow to it. I'm trying to figure out if it looks better, seems plants are growing better under it but could be they are just getting leggy trying to reach the light. Any thoughts?


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## papa_mcknight (Aug 3, 2013)

I think that wood should reappear covered in some small anubias and mosses, a bit like this =)

/Users/BaoBao/Desktop/tree2.jpg


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## papa_mcknight (Aug 3, 2013)

Wasn't sure if that pic worked so here it is again


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## sadchevy (Jun 15, 2013)

The wood would look good covered like that. Unfortunately the wood had some issues with splitting and some rot. If I could use it like you have shown, it would take massive amounts of anubias to cover, it was nearly 5 feet long.


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## Seedreemer (Sep 28, 2008)

That's too bad. I really liked the wood. Otherwise I think it's going to look good once it's grown out.


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## sadchevy (Jun 15, 2013)

Thanks.....Still on the hunt for another piece of wood. I have kind of let it sit on the back burner and have been focusing on getting the tank filled in. Been thinking about possibly adding some shrimp to the tank. 
Update: crypts are doing great, red tiger lillies taking off, and a FTS.


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## exv152 (Jun 8, 2009)

I think removing the straight log wood was a good call. If you want to add more driftwood I would go with placing an interesting twisted wood, like manzanita, or branch root at 1/3 of the view. That or either fill it in with more plants. I like the setup, has lots of aquascaping potential.


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## sadchevy (Jun 15, 2013)

My goal is to be heavily planted. I'm leaning towards 1 large school of black phantom tetras (50-60), and smaller schools of cories and oto's. For right now though my goal is to get it planted.


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## angelcraze (Aug 20, 2013)

sadchevy said:


> I do have a question for the shrimp keepers. With STS my waters Kh has more than likely dropped to next to nil and the Ph is at or near 6.4, Gh has remained fairly constant in the moderately hard range, would this work for ghost shrimp? I ask because I would like to get something in the tank to help with cleanup. There are a few pond snails in the tank that seem to be healthy and happy.


Just to let you know, I have this problem too, softish water/low KH. I have to run crushed coral in my filters, (I add a bit to bags of cut pantyhose) and adjust accordingly to keep my KH ideally at at least 3 for a low tech tank with no CO2 and slightly acidic water loving fish. For shrimp, you could go even higher, I do keep shrimp, but not an expert, I *do* know that keeping an aquarium with nil KH is opening it up to too much ph swing. I ran into this problem first hand.


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## rustbucket (Oct 15, 2011)

Really coming along. 

I like your fish suggestions, and if I could add my two cents, I would add no more or only one or two more species. I love all my fish, but being my first big tank I felt like I needed so many different fish, and now I am wishing I had just kept it simple.

The other mistake I made was putting fast eating and slow eating fish together, what a headache when your afraid some of the fish may starve, so watch for that.


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## sadchevy (Jun 15, 2013)

update: all seems to be going well....been staying on top of a black hair algae problem. Toothbrush trick works well for the longer strands, but the shorter stuff growing on my chain sword and some of the plant leaves is tougher to remove. Thinking about changing my light schedule when I can remember how to reset my timer LOL. A. crispus? flowered!!! Crypts sending out new leaves. Lillies doing great. Some side shots jut to be different.


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## sadchevy (Jun 15, 2013)

I need to take some updated pictures today and post. The tank is looking great. All plants are growing at a steady rate. Crypts look great and are spreading but are staying low. Rotala and ludwigia are probably due for a trim. Watersrite and wisteria are starting to take off. Lillies are throwing leaves constantly, need to trim off some of the floating leaves. 
I have kind of let the tank do it's thing and the results are positive for the most part. I have been battling staghorn algae, it's not bad but it is annoying. Would love to know a better way of getting rid of it, manual removal works but is lots of work. 
Overall I am happy with the way it's going. The setup has worked well enough that I have changed the substrate in my 75g and replanted it also. Will most likely change over the 55g too.


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## sadchevy (Jun 15, 2013)

Just finished a small trim. Everything is doing good, staghorn algae is almost gone.


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## sadchevy (Jun 15, 2013)

Just a quickie until pics. Algae is all but gone, plants growing great, duckweed is rockin. Added a dozen cherry barbs and started some S.Repens. Will get pics up soon and thanks for looking.


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## sadchevy (Jun 15, 2013)

Everything is going good. S.Repens growing well. Added some A.Reineckii. Tank is filling in nicely. still looking for just the right piece or pieces of wood to finish it off.


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## sadchevy (Jun 15, 2013)

Well it's been a couple months since I updated this.Tank is filling in nicely. Any suggestions?


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## rustbucket (Oct 15, 2011)

wow its looking nice!!!
No suggestions really, except keep trimming and filling in, and add more fish?? LOL I only see about 3, you ram is a beauty though


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## KatherineL (Nov 8, 2013)

It looks really nice. Love your curtain of stems there. Can't believe you got enough growth to cover the back of the entire 125 without co2! 

Sent from my XT1049 using Tapatalk


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## horsedude (Nov 10, 2012)

Looks really good! I think with more of a thicker background and middle ground it should look awesome!
good luck...


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## sadchevy (Jun 15, 2013)

The tanks community hasn't grown much. Last added was a chocolate BN. 

as of now the list looks like this:
1-GBR male
4-Bolivian (males I think)
4-Phantom tetras all males (looking to get a dozen females)
4-peppered corys
2-bronze corys
12-14- cherry barbs (2 males 12 females)

As for the stem growth, it's been a trim and replant thing. I only have basically 2 stem types in there and both are easy to work with. I wish my cabomba would have done better as it made a good contrast with leaf shapes. The S.Repens has done exceptionally well, as has the A.Reineckii. My crypta are spreading slow but steady.


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## sadchevy (Jun 15, 2013)

I got wood!!!!!!!!! I also trimmed and replanted, added 3 pearl gouramis. In addition to the work on the 125g, I setup a new 75g in the kitchen as sort of a room divider. It's going to be a challenge to come up with a pleasing scape viewable from three sides.


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## lamiskool (Jul 1, 2011)

peninsula esk scapes are fairly easy to do and make it great at viewing from three angles!


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## Getcusome (Feb 17, 2014)

looks great!! other half's wood was awesome, just maybe shifted away from center. or chop it up and stack. just throwing out ideas. or i'll take the wood! otherwise the growth and plant placement is really well done.


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## sadchevy (Jun 15, 2013)

Still chugging along. I need to fill in the background with some more stems. Probably should start dosing some ferts, my rotala hasn't been growing as fast or as full since trimming. This tank over the summer is going to get pushed back into the wall behind it. Well at least that is the plan.


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## sadchevy (Jun 15, 2013)

Didn't realize it's been so long since I updated this. The tank is chugging along great. Lost a couple rams to old age, added a Bristlenose. Plants are growing at a steady rate.


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## rustbucket (Oct 15, 2011)

oh pretty! I like how the plants come across the back and around both sides tall, and the middle is nicely filled in. I can't seem to get that look right myself. 

Your pleco is a beauty, I have a couple females which I love, but now I am growing out a few of their babies and really hoping to get a male.


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## tylergvolk (Jun 17, 2012)

The plants in your tank are really filling in nicely. I'd love to see more pictures of the tank as it stands today. keep up the good work.


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## sadchevy (Jun 15, 2013)

Thanks guys, I really appreciate the support. It's been a long slow journey getting to this point. Last pic is pretty much how it stands at the moment, will be doing some maintenance today, so hopefully will get a few better pics up later. Here in a month or so I am planning on pushing this tank back into the wall behind it, making it a built in. When that happens, I am planning to change the scape and lighting. I want more wood, probably go with more of a riverbank type look, branches hanging down in the water. Lower light plants like anubias, java fern, crypts with a overall subdued light with spotlighted areas as accents. That way I can still keep some of my higher light plants like S.repens. Any thoughts or additional suggestions/ideas would be appreciated as this is going to basically set me back to square one.


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## Jessica (Mar 1, 2007)

Looking great as it fills in! I love the addition of the driftwood.

I would consider adding more mid-level plants to break the wall of stems from the low foreground. That will add more dimension


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## sadchevy (Jun 15, 2013)

Thanks to all of you. My inspiration comes from watching your tanks evolve.


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## sadchevy (Jun 15, 2013)

There haven't been any changes on this tank lately. I'm still kicking around the idea of making it a built in. On other fronts, my kitchen tank is doing great. I also picked up a "FREE" 150g tall last week. I'm in the process of resealing it. It's going to be a challenge working with it's 30 inch height. My angels are going to love the extra height. I have an idea in my head to make a 12 foot long display setup with it flanked on each side by my 2 75g's, should be interesting if I can get it done. Also picked up a 30g long, not sure what to do with it yet, but it was another freebie.


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## andrewss (Oct 17, 2012)

^ sounds like you have MTS


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