# 60 Gallon Info(Pics)



## Wasserpest (Jun 12, 2003)

Looks good, only thing missing to get started are the plants. Also keep in mind that Eco-Complete doesn't have much in terms of nutrients, so you might need to get something (NPK + micros) later on.


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## Apteronotus Albifrons (Mar 31, 2009)

Sorry I forgot to mention I will also get fish + plants =)


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

That's an awful lot of light for a tank with no CO2. I suspect you'll end up needing to either incorporate floating plants or limiting your photoperiod to keep algae in check.

Or make sure you stuff that tank with tons of fast-growing stem plants right from the get-go.


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## Apteronotus Albifrons (Mar 31, 2009)

Will 4 bags of 20lb eco-complete be enough for about 3" depth? I think the tank dimensions approximately were 48.5x15.5x17.5, i would like to know from your experience about how much depth is needed. Also I noticed that this substrate is not needed to be rinsed before putting it into the tank?


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## Wasserpest (Jun 12, 2003)

Substrate depth needed depends a bit on your plants. If you grow stem plants and mosses and ferns and such, you don't need much. For larger rosette plants like Swords, Crytocorynes, or Nymphaea, you should plan on more depth.

Since you usually have smaller plants in the front, and larger in the back, many build their substrate height up towards the back. So you could have say 1.5 in in front, and 3 in in the back.

Four bags should be okay... and you don't have to rinse it, just dump any liquid that comes with it. Or not.


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## Apteronotus Albifrons (Mar 31, 2009)

Since I am going to have plants I would like to replace the carbon media in my HOB and canister with something else, do you have any suggestions?


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## oldpunk78 (Nov 1, 2008)

^ purigen (made my seachem). lots of us use it. it is also meant to be re-used.


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## Wasserpest (Jun 12, 2003)

I just use sponges... chemical filtration is needed only in exceptional cases, sponges are great for both mechanical and biological filtration, although plants do that latter part as well.


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## Apteronotus Albifrons (Mar 31, 2009)

Hello everyone I have finally got my tank put together about 5 days ago, I ended up using 5 bags of eco-complete, it was the new stuff with yellow stickers on the bags, but only 2 bags out of 5 contained a white packet with liquid in it to help the dust settle, so I went out and bought Seachem Clarity, its the same stuff, and settled all my dust in 2 days after which I rinsed my filter media to get all the collected dust out. After lurking for a while on the forums I ended up getting a sponge prefilter max 3 for my canister c-220 filter. Instead of Seachem Flourish and SeaChem Excel I got Brightwell Florinmulti and Brightwell FlorinAxis. The reason for that is the aquatic warehouse that I went to has a display tank with plants in it and the guy who runs that tank recommended Brightwell stuff instead of Seachem, he said he first used Seachem and then switched over to Brightwell which works a little better. I love the way the tank looks so far. I have a couple of questions -

1) How long should the lights run every day?
2) Can I just use my canister c-220 with prefilter max 3 only and not have to put in my aquaclear 70? It seems to be doing just fine on its own even though its rated 55g and my tank is 60g.


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## Hilde (May 19, 2008)

Apteronotus Albifrons said:


> How long should the lights run every day?


I like doing a split period photo session. That is lights on for 5 hrs , siesta of 4 hrs, then lights on again for 5 hrs.


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## Katydid (Apr 2, 2009)

Just popping in to say I think your tank looks very nice. I'm just starting a 50 gal myself (Sitting in the car still, too heavy for just me to carry!)
So I hope you'll continue to post picsof how you progress!!!!


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## marcus0655 (Feb 24, 2009)

I also like the big ship that sits in the corner it seems like the perfect hiding spot for some of your fish.


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## Apteronotus Albifrons (Mar 31, 2009)

Here are my readings today 5/2/09:

- PH 7.8
- Ammonia 1.0-1.5ppm
- Nitrite 0.25ppm
- Nitrate 5.0ppm

Its been up and running with fish and plants for about 3 weeks, I just did a 50% water change 3 days ago, starting to use FlorinAxis and FlorinMulti, I had to get rid of duckweed, it overgrew and covered the whole top of my tank in 2 weeks or so.


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## Apteronotus Albifrons (Mar 31, 2009)

Hi there, i want to post some pics of June:















All my plants are doing fine except this one - Does anyone know why it was doing so well and now as you can see in the pic something is wrong with its leaves - i have 3 different species of snails that might be eating the leaves? Also can you tell me what is the name of this plant. Maybe some of my fish could be also eating plants?


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## RamsRme (Mar 20, 2009)

_Do you plan on getting an apteronotus albifrons?:hihi:_ Nice tank!


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## Apteronotus Albifrons (Mar 31, 2009)

RamsRme said:


> _Do you plan on getting an apteronotus albifrons?:hihi:_ Nice tank!


 I had one about 2 weeks ago, unfortunately he had ich to begin with since the people at petsmart dont know how to take care of their fish grr, and I never had experienced ich myself so the couple of white dots on him when I first got him I ignored and they within a few days multiplied like crazy and I didnt know what it was until it was obvious something was wrong with Rufus :icon_cry:. I tried to save him with half dosing coppersafe, but he died 8 days later taking some of my neon tetras with him. I plan on getting another one this month so far my tank has:

1 bushynose pleco
8 neon tetras
2 clown plecos
2 angel rams
3 chinese algae eaters
5 serpae tetras
1 royal twig catfish
1 hillstream loach
4 pepperred cory catfish

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