# pandamonium's 40BR amazon setup (update 8/6/12) New fish



## pandamonium (May 14, 2012)

UPDATED TANK JOURNAL CONTINUED ON POST #30

Current Update: New Plants, Aquascape, Fish, and Equipment!
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So after keeping a handful of neon tetras at school, I became interested in biotope/habitat style tanks, especially an Amazon biotope. While up at school I couldn't do anything (the LFS had only 1 or 2 species of Amazonian fish), so I did a lot of research and shopping until I came home. This thread is just to track/share my summer project. If anyone has comments or suggestions, please let me know  
The theme for this tank was going to be a low-tech, DIY style tank that tried to simulate the low-lighting environment of the Amazon River. Anything that I could modify or build myself, I tried to do to save money as well as get a hand on aquarium DIY.

Tank Stats:
*Size:* 40 Gallon Breeder
*Stand:* DIY Stand inspired by an ADA-style stand
*Substrate:* Play sand
*Filter:* Eheim ECCO Pro 2232

Here are the pictures of what I have done so far. I'll continue to update as long as I add something new. 

*DIY Stand*

DIY Stand: Side panels and top panel. The skeleton inside is a typical dual boxframe setup. 








DIY Stand: Front trim piece








DIY Stand: Doors and doorknobs attached on









Total price for the stand was about $75. Panelling cost $55; Oak Supports were from my cousin's DIY staircase project; bottom 2x4's about $10; Iron-on Trim was $10.

Tank with Sand and Driftwood in Place








Filter plugged into mounted Power Strip








I intend to install a DIY inline heater following a design similar to someone on this forum. I'll be using a Eheim Jager 150W heater as the inline heater with a backup Aqueon 100W heater as a submersible heater. I'll post pics of that as I do it, as well as pics of the aquarium inhabitants.

*DIY Modification on Light Hood*

*Lighting:* 4 13W 6500K Sylvania MicroMini CFL Bulbs
Just finished modifying my light fixture. The 24-inch T8 that came with my tank was not adequate enough. Looking on some other threads I found that some people used CFL bulbs. So I got a dual socket out of a lighting fixture from Lowes as well as 4 CFL bulbs. 
Here are pictures 

The dual socket before removing the switch. Light bulbs installed.








Both switches removed on the sockets and wired together. I'll be using the switch that is already mounted on my hood. 








Wired in and screwed in. Drilled two holes to fix the light to the hood. Works like a charm. All that is left to do it use aluminum tape as a reflector. 









*Heater:* 1) Eheim Jager 150W DIY Inline Heater, 2) Aqueon 100W Submersible Heater
So I went to Home Depot and purchased the parts I needed to make a DIY Inline heater. The reason I wanted to make it inline was because this is a DIY themed tank so I had to kinda  And also because I read that inline heaters do a much better job of maintaining a uniform temperature throughout the tank. I read about the Hydor heaters and an issue in the way the switch works (bi-metal switch, I think it was) could cause it to jam either on or off permanently. As far as I know, normal submersible heaters do not have this issue as much. 
Here we go! So I bought a bunch of parts for the heater housing. This is listed as quantity, size, and part name.
1 - 1½'' Elbow, threaded on one side
1 - 1½'' Tee, threaded on one opening
2 - Reducers, threaded (1½'' to ½'') 
1 - 1½'' PVC pipe (approx. 7-8 inches long)
2 - ½'' Nylon Hose Barbs Adapter (½'' ID)
1 - Reducer, smooth (1½'' to 1'')
To join them, I used Teflon tape on all threaded ends and PVC cement on all smooth ends.

Assembly of the Tee and Elbow pieces. Attached the threaded reducers into the threaded elbow and tee pieces. Then put in the hose adapters. On the left side is another side project. I created an aquarium drain valve hooked into my intake tube for the canister filter. Makes draining water out of the aquarium a bit easier (I'm lazy, I know ). 








Rough assembly of housing. Thermometer not in place yet.








Thermometer assembly. I silicone glued the thermometer into the smooth reducer with GE Silicone 1. From what I have read, any 100% silicone glue with no mold inhibitors should work. There are aquarium safe silicone glues out there as well. A better option would have been to use a cordgrip, but I did not purchase one. I know Heyco sells them. 








Next I cut my canister intake tube to put in a brass T connection. The 2-vertical ends were hooked back into the canister tubing. The 3rd end was hooked into the valve which has spare tubing attached so I can drain water into a bucket so my dad can use it for his plants. 









So just finished raising my light using some metal cord that I bent into place and drilled into the side of the light fixture. 
And now the first legitimate picture of my tank since all the DIY/hardware work is done (mostly)








The background is planted with Brazilian Pennywort. Floating plants are mostly Amazon frogbit. The tank has right now 4 German Blue Rams and 3 Honeycomb Catfish (Centromochlus perugiae). I'm expecting 10 Golden Pencilfish on Tuesday. Most pictures now will be of fish additions or aquascaping 

This is the finished product of the DIY inline heater. It is a Eheim Jager 150W heater housed in a PVC case. Parts I listed above. I will be installing it tomorrow and will have pictures of it working (hopefully).









Installed the inline heater today and started the tank running. Here are the images of it. It's hooked into the stand behind the tank. 


















The heater was installed about an hour ago and I unplugged my submersible heater. So far temperature is remaining quite stable, about 81-82 degrees. Looking good so far 

So heater is having some problems calibrating but I am fixing the issue as I type. In the meantime, thought I would post some pics of the tank's current inhabitants. More are coming in soon.

Honeycomb Catfish (Centromochlus perugiae)
This is one of 3 I have in the tank. He came out for a picture, an opportunity I could not pass up!








This is all three of them the day I got them. Not used to the tank yet so they are just hanging out. 









*UPDATE 2*

It has been a while since an update. So far, the inline heater is working wonderfully. My temperature has not fluctuated more than 0.2 degrees in either direction. I definitely recommend this 

I received a shipment of plants and bought some lemon tetras to add to my tank. Since their addition, the rams have come out more and look really colorful. 
I also rescaped my tank with the new plants. In the left most corner is sunset hygro, pennywort is in the center and on the right most side, in the middle is blyxa (under the manzanita branches), in the foreground is staurogyne repens.


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## 2in10 (Feb 8, 2011)

Good looking start and a great looking stand, well done.


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## pandamonium (May 14, 2012)

thanks!  ill continue to update. next up in line is a DIY inline heater and once plants come in then those will go down. right now im searching for more species of plants and fish to go into this tank.


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## GMYukonon24s (May 3, 2009)

Great job on the DIY work. Keep it up!


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## kwheeler91 (May 26, 2009)

Nice diy work, interested to see the heater


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## pandamonium (May 14, 2012)

thanks  the heater i will start once it arrives. its scheduled to come in in about 3 days or so. once it is in ill buy the PVC and post pics of what i do. its based off of someone on the forum, but i forget who ><


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## BS87 (Apr 9, 2012)

Sub'ed. Looks great so far.


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## pandamonium (May 14, 2012)

posted images of heater and build as well as aquarium drain valve. feedback appreciated  also, if anyone knows how to make a valve that lets me suck up water from my bucket into the aquarium that would be awesome


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## pandamonium (May 14, 2012)

posted first pic of tank in entirety. any feedback on how to plant pennywort or how it looks would be appreciated. thanks!


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## Bananariot (Feb 28, 2012)

Very nice, I'm liking the look. Gitsum more tannins!


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## pandamonium (May 14, 2012)

thanks  im still using the temporary carbon filter to clean the last bits of dirt cloudiness from the water and then ill remove it next week. hopefully the driftwood will stain it enough. if not then i gotta find some peat moss.


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## pandamonium (May 14, 2012)

updated with 2 more pics of my GBR's first spawn!


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## Bananariot (Feb 28, 2012)

Did the eggs hatch yet?


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## pandamonium (May 14, 2012)

nope they were either dud eggs or they were abandoned. i think i had two females which just happened to lay eggs. they abandoned them later after i removed some dither fish. hopefully one of the others in the tank is a male and there will be pairing eventually. eggs just have fungus over them now. from what i read, rams are not known to be leaf spawners so this was strange. usually its in the substrate in a pit or on a flat rock.


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## pandamonium (May 14, 2012)

update with the heater. don't know why the picture came out so small though. hopefully you can still see most of it.


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## pandamonium (May 14, 2012)

another update with the DIY inline heater installed completely!


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## pandamonium (May 14, 2012)

update with pics of catfish and ram


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## Centromochlus (May 19, 2008)

Love those pics of the honeycombs! roud:


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## Bananariot (Feb 28, 2012)

Dude I think you're gonna need more cover to save those pencil fish from those angry females....they got a temperament similar to a certain person's mother if you get my reference...


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## pandamonium (May 14, 2012)

yeah i am not getting the pencilfish until everything else is in the tank. my next shipment is lemon tetras which i hope will be good dither fish to encourage the rams to come out more as well as give my tank some life. by the time the pencilfish come in, im hoping the plants will come in as well. and also hopefully by then the males will mature so pairing will occur and actual breeding can happen. today i found a dead ram. i doubt its ich because he was clean. probably violence from the others...a trait not far removed from someone's mother...


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## Bananariot (Feb 28, 2012)

hahaha yeah.......dude the Hyphessobrycon genus is awesome. They contain piranhas so all the tetras look like mini piranhas. Some have the same temperment as well >.> 

Also some eat plants.....my Buenos aires tetras are huge...they're meanies too....tore one of Sammy's gouramis to shreds lol....the gourami went to pick a fight like it did in sammy's tank.....but uhh yeah my fish wouldn;t have any of it.....They also eat my dead shrimps whole......

Surprisingly they leave my mini danios and rasboras alone lol....


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## pandamonium (May 14, 2012)

its too small to eat hahaha. talking about those rasboras, i bought 4 espei rasboras for really low price at a local wholesalers. you should look into them. they look like harlequins but more colorful. my dad wants more color in the community tank outside. i figured for the next set of lemons (and a replacement honeycomb for the dead one) i have to find a certain fish food i forget the name. apparently lemon tetras get brighter when fed certain foods. the water quality here should help with the yellow hue but i want it to really stand out. ill post pics of them when i get them in the bag and in the tank.


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## Bananariot (Feb 28, 2012)

I imagine foods high in protein and carotin or whatever you call it will get colors out of fish nicely.......you should see the colors of my Denisoni barbs after they got a buffet from eating all the dead cherry shirmp I lost from the bact. infection. Their stripes are like neon pink along with their fins....

Yeah I uhhh......am not going fish anymore lol. Completely in the land of invertebrates.....too far in to turn back now. Though I still do like my 110.....Corydoras army and alll.....and that one momma ghostie......dude she's likke 2.5" now and she's not even a macro species with long claw arms.......she somehow lives with all the predators around......


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## pandamonium (May 14, 2012)

momma shrimp...it was my pure respect for her that led me to saving her from being flushed when we left. pure respect. the others were not so lucky. the frogs had a feast with them. there is a food product that they have it might be color max or something. i figure i will just do bloodworms/brine shrimp once or twice a week. should give them enough protein to show some color. 
and i am the opposite of you. no invertebrates ever. treated my tank with coppersafe which though mild is still chelated copper. which means it will insta-kill any shrimp i think. though i found 1 snail. i quickly fed him to the turtle.


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## pandamonium (May 14, 2012)

update on tank rescape! comments welcome!


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## Bananariot (Feb 28, 2012)

Lookin good man! Shoulda gone black sand, would have looked epic ;D 

After the problems go away, those red coral pencilfish would look nice and color up the tank as well as those lemon tetras!


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## pandamonium (May 14, 2012)

yeah i looked up the new sand, like tahitian moon sand. its like 20 dollars a pound. my fish store sells a 30 pound bag for 50 bucks though haha. but its basically blasting sand so i was concerned about its quality and how sharp it was. i went with the playsand because it simulates the amazon substrate the best and it was also 5 bucks for 50 pounds haha im so cheap. though no, lie, black sand could have been sweet looking. only issue was what it was too expensive  i have been looking lately into partitioning my tank into sand and like aquasoil or whatever other plant substrates there are. i saw a really nice aquascape where a guy did that and it turned out really nice. but do i really want to replant....hmm hahaha
and yeah the lemons are in already now i gotta feed them to make the colors pop. i really want that yellow to glow strongly. once the pencilfish are in i should be good to go. im thinking about going to cardinals since they can tolerate the slightly higher temp in my tank. i want a nice schooling fish so im gonna look around for that.


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## Bananariot (Feb 28, 2012)

Dude.....your neons got FAT. They're still punk (butt) wussies and hang at the bottom but they got big. My power feeding to pump up some corydora fry benefitted them a lot. 

Oh dude look into this plant: http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/plantfinder/details.php?id=53

It looks nice, but I'm outta space or I would have that in my tank. It's a kind of pennywort, similar to what you have. I saw it in youjettisonme's tank, looks sweet.


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## pandamonium (May 14, 2012)

hahahaha nice! im amazed they survived that long. i dont know the water quality up at school but i guess they acclimated well. if they are hanging out at the bottom, its probably because they are still scared or the tank doesnt look enough like the amazon or the fish farm. i guess ill call the neon experiment a success then 
yeah dude that plant is related to the pennywort. same genus i think. i dont have it but i have seen it here. it looks nice but if it grows anywhere as fast as the H. leucocephala, then it will be tough to keep under control haha


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## pandamonium (May 14, 2012)

*UPDATE: *
New fish!

Finally got around to getting some pencilfish. Had originally wanted N. mortenthaleri but saw N. rubrocaudatus and liked those as well. Also, could not find the morts in the city for a decent price. The rubrocaudatus look AMAZING. The pictures don't do them justice. 

Also grabbed some F1 rams from a local breeder. Parents were wild from Brazil and he sold me these ones to pair with the ones I already have. 

PICTURES!



















So I went to a LFS and was going to get some fish when I struck up conversation with the owner. He gave me a whole talk about water quality which was very detailed, complete with demonstrations using his own merchandise that I did not have to purchase. Showed me safely how to keep my water quality good to keep my fish happy. Started by lowering my pH very slowly. I'm on day 8 of 12-16 days of treatment. No algae blooms yet so I'm happy (phosphate based buffer). 
I redid my substrate from playsand to medium grain sand (1-1.5mm) to keep an anaerobic and an aerobic layer. my plants have responded well so far to this treatment 
I also got a powerhead (Hydor Koralia Pico) to circulate water in my dead spot but also to use as a CO2 diffuser. One of the most efficient ways to diffuse especially in a low tech tank. One person I read about here used a ceramic diffuser which flowed into a powerhead for "double diffusion" he called it. Tested this and the diffusion is great too.

OK so pictures! 

The whole tank shot. I moved the stauro from a line to discrete patches. I like this look better to be honest. 









Stauro and blyxa









New Plants! Alternanthera rosefolia from AFA and Stargrass (Heteranthera zosterifolia) from Han









Sunset Hygro growing quite well. Had to replant due to rams plucking the stems til they died. Plant is ok now.









New fish added!

Corydoras venezuelanas (Venezuela's Cory). Got these from SFBAAPS 

















Cories in the tank by the inflow









*UPDATE: *

New pictures of plants, fish, and tank update. 

S. hygro









E. parviflorus









S. repens









M. mattengrossense









Blyxa









A. rosefolia and H. zosterifolia









H. leucocephala









E. tenellus









GBR

















Total tank


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## Bananariot (Feb 28, 2012)

pandamonium said:


> *UPDATE: *
> tank rescape, new plants added, new fish, powerhead, and CO2 (not shown yet)
> 
> So I went to a LFS and was going to get some fish when I struck up conversation with the owner. He gave me a whole talk about water quality which was very detailed, complete with demonstrations using his own merchandise that I did not have to purchase. Showed me safely how to keep my water quality good to keep my fish happy. Started by lowering my pH very slowly. I'm on day 8 of 12-16 days of treatment. No algae blooms yet so I'm happy (phosphate based buffer).
> ...


Nice co2 setup. I had the co2 diffuser hookedup to my powerhead going lengthwise in my tank....however it combined with my spraybar going width wise to form a co2 cyclone of death so I had to remove it lolol


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## pandamonium (May 14, 2012)

lol keep the Co2 in there long enough and you will kill everything haha. i just have it misting (i think thats the term) the plants in the back. the bonus is that the powerhead created circulation so now my biofilm is gone and my frogbit floats lazily in a circle.


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## Bananariot (Feb 28, 2012)

Haha that's good....I was too lazy to turn off my co2 before vacation.....so....I left the lights on.......lol gonna have an algae problem when I get back...


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## pandamonium (May 14, 2012)

BBA, GSA, oh boy you better get that scrubber out hahaha. right now actualyl i have an issue with rhinoclozium on my java moss. gotta get rid of that with CO2 and circulation.

edit. or excel/h2o2


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## PlantedVirgin (Feb 17, 2012)

pandamonium said:


> Cories in the tank by the inflow


This is an awesome tank setup. Question, you said this is playsand? Where did you buy this sand? it looks more like small gravel pieces not sand, lol. I want some of this exactly.

PV


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## pandamonium (May 14, 2012)

update with new pics of plants and tank!


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## Centromochlus (May 19, 2008)

How are those honeycombs doing? :flick:


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## pandamonium (May 14, 2012)

Honeycombs are doing great! I'm training them to feed at around 6 or 7 pm so that I know they will get food  Mostly they hide out. I guess they are wed fed since they don't come out of their holes much. Today was feeding day for them again. Maybe they are out later than I think but haven't seen much. Usually when its pitch black at night I can hear them hitting things haha


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## pandamonium (May 14, 2012)

NEW UPDATE WITH FISH! N. rubrocaudatus and F1 GBRs


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## Doc7 (Apr 7, 2011)

Those Cories are really cool! Never saw those before.


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## Bananariot (Feb 28, 2012)

I demand......picture update!


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## pandamonium (May 14, 2012)

Doc7 said:


> Those Cories are really cool! Never saw those before.


Yeah I never did either but I got them through a local guy who ordered them. They are like bronze cories but more red? They are doing really well in my tank so far.



Bananariot said:


> I demand......picture update!


Dude I just did! haha not of the full tank but of anything new. Full tank wise, I trimmed the S. hygro and scooped out literally 5 packages of frogbit that I RAOKed away. Should be enough in about 2 weeks to do again haha


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## Only One Haze (Nov 10, 2011)

Great looking tank! I did the same thing with my light by converting it to screw in CFLs. I love your idea about the standoffs though. Do you have any more pics of those and how you attached them. How do you have it sitting on the tank? Is it just on top of the glass top or does it sit on the lip of the rim of the tank? Sorry for all the questions...Great setup!


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## pandamonium (May 14, 2012)

No problem  Thanks for the compliments. I attached some pictures of how I made the raised legs. I basically took some metal wire and I bent it to make a base. Kinda like this shape
----Light Hood
|
|
| <--- Leg
|
|___

I wasn't able to get a good picture of this because I have it covered in styrofoam so it will not scratch the glass. The other two images show how I bent the top part of the metal to create a "nook" in which the screw sits. I drilled holes in the side and put a washer under a screw as a way to fasten the legs to the hood. Tightening the screw pushes the top "nook" and secures it to the screw. I did that on both sides. If you have questions, post them here or feel free to PM me and I can try to get better pictures of it  Also the light sits on my glass and my glass is on the lip of the tank


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## Only One Haze (Nov 10, 2011)

Awesome! Thank you. Seeing it from that angle helps a bunch. Might try this myself tonight with an old metal coat hanger.


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## pandamonium (May 14, 2012)

Yeah just make sure you pad the bottom with something. The metal on glass sound isn't pleasant. Neither are the scratches!


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## TonyK (Aug 29, 2012)

Really nice looking tank. Thanks for posting pictures of the feet for the hood. I am about to pick up a 40B and wanted to light it without spending a ton of money.


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## pandamonium (May 14, 2012)

No problem  The tank looks massively different now that its matured and things are starting to settle but I haven't had time for an update. However if you have any questions on how to make the legs, shoot me a PM and I can get better pics for you


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## johnson18 (Apr 29, 2011)

pandamonium said:


> No problem  The tank looks massively different now that its matured and things are starting to settle but I haven't had time for an update. However if you have any questions on how to make the legs, shoot me a PM and I can get better pics for you


Ooooooohhhh Pics!!!!  I bet it looks really cool now! I really like the layout!


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