# Mayphly's 12 Gallon RimlessTank



## alkatraz (Jul 28, 2012)

It's a nearly empty tank...

.. yet, its beautiful. 

How the hell does it look so beautiful...


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## KenRC51 (Oct 13, 2011)

Looks really nice. Does that light light up very end of the right and left side of the tank?

What kind of fish or shrimp you plan to get?


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## mayphly (Jul 20, 2010)

haha! I was thinking the same thing. Looks sorta cool just the way it is. I took the pic with the lights off in the room.


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## mayphly (Jul 20, 2010)

KenRC51 said:


> Looks really nice. Does that light light up very end of the right and left side of the tank?
> 
> What kind of fish or shrimp you plan to get?


I'm planning on adding one more light to even out the spectrum. However, I think plants would still do well with the one since the tank is so shallow. 
I'm thinking of adding a school of chili rasboras and maybe a few cpd's.


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## micr0 (Aug 27, 2011)

Nice!roud: This tank is a lot of fun to work with. Look forward to watching yours develop.


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## if_fishes_were_wishes (Jul 29, 2007)

ooh, that piece of wood is perfect! Looking forward to more pics and updates!


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## mayphly (Jul 20, 2010)

I think I'll be replacing the stone on the left. It's just too darn colorful. :icon_eek:
I'm not sure if it's slopped enough towards the back. Should I exaggerate the slopping more? I'm afraid when I fill it I'll loose some of the slope. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks!


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## HypnoticAquatic (Feb 17, 2010)

i love these tanks still hung up on one of these and a 33 long, i like the wood placement in the empty tank better but it really depends on the layout i like it like that so u can have a low groundcover and some moss or something on the wood without having them blend together. looks like you have a great start already though.

i did notice ur fauna is actually all flora ;p didnt know if u caught that. curious to see what your going to put in there i like either some shrimp only or some micro cichlids maybe some micro pikes 2-3inch might look really good. hope u get those plants i might have to try some downoi if you get it going good. and i would probably try to slop that from the front *lower to the back higher* and see if that subtle change dials it in to where u wanted it, i can make a huge asthetic change when done imo.


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## mayphly (Jul 20, 2010)

I just finished planting all the plants that I received from some very generous people here on TPT. The only thing I want to add are some Fissidens splachnobryoides that I will plant in the stone and manzanita. So far I'm happy with it.:biggrin::biggrin:


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## ThinkTank (May 24, 2011)

Nice tank! When are you planning to fill it?


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## mayphly (Jul 20, 2010)

ThinkTank said:


> Nice tank! When are you planning to fill it?


I'm gonna let things grow out for at least a couple of months. I want to establish good root growth in the plants and good bacteria growth for the fauna that will be living in there. I'm in no hurry.:icon_mrgr:icon_mrgr:icon_mrgr


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## sayurasem (Jun 17, 2011)

What filter are you running? 2215 or 2217?


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## mayphly (Jul 20, 2010)

Eheim Classic 350 - (2215)


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## sayurasem (Jun 17, 2011)

mayphly said:


> Eheim Classic 350 - (2215)


May I know if the input & output hose are the same diameter?


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## mayphly (Jul 20, 2010)

Both input and output are 12mm. 1/2 inch. They are the same diameter.


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## mayphly (Jul 20, 2010)

*Added UG & Downoi*

So, I received 2 small clumps of UG and some downoi. I planted the downoi (which was previously submerged) in my tank growing it now emersed. I burried just the roots and kept the stem above the substrate. I read that this may be the ticket to keeping it alive in amazonia soil. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. 
I have some of the UG growing on a piece of driftwood and some other small pieces growing directly on the ada soil. Again I have read both horror stories and success stories about growing UG on ada amazonia soil. I also have a small piece growing in some sphagnum moss in my terrarium to see how well it does. Has anybody had success dry starting UG and downoi in ADA Amazonia soil? I'd be interested in hearing if it did good or not.

Thanks!


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## sayurasem (Jun 17, 2011)

Nice! btw you would want to drain the water until nothing above the surface.
Btw I'm not feeling the UG on the driftwood. Was it shipped to your door? It looks pale already... :/


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## mayphly (Jul 20, 2010)

Yeah, the UG looks pretty sad
That's part of the reason I put some on the driftwood to see if it grows there in case it doesn't take off in the ada soil.


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## mayphly (Jul 20, 2010)

*Algae*

I noticed a little bit of green algae growing towards the front of the glass today. I think I had too much water in my tank. My water was pretty much level with the substrate. I drained some water, raised my lights, aired out my tank a bit and added excel to my misting bottle. I had been using excel in the mist bottle since I started the tank and stopped using excel a few days ago when I planted my UG. I switched to distilled water and then the algae appeared. I'm back to using the excel. I hope this helps.


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## mayphly (Jul 20, 2010)

*Please help!!! CO2 question & plant ID Thanks!!!!*

Here are a couple of pics of how my tank is doing. The Syn 'belem' I planted in the beginning of Sept and it wasn't looking promising. It started to turn brown. However, last week new little bright green crowns started forming. I'm hoping they will still grow well once flooded. Got my fingers crossed.:flick: In the last photo is a pic of a plant I cannot ID. Can someone tell me what this is? I should be receiving my GLA regulator on Wed and plan on filling the tank this Saturday. I read an article that said to start the CO2 at 3-5 bps for the first 2 weeks and then to 3 bps after that. I have a 10 gallon tank that only uses about 1 bps and is heavily planted. However, it wasn't a dry start tank. At what bubble rate do most people start at in a 12 g tank and when should it be lowered after the initial filling of the tank? Thanks to all the folks who helped me out with plants,advice and suggestions! :smile::smile::smile:


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## somewhatshocked (Aug 8, 2011)

First: This tank looks stunning! Woah. Can't wait to see it filled.

Re CO2: If you don't have any critters in the tank, you can crank it up as high as you want. But just using a drop checker and estimating based on its color will work fine when you first transition from dry start. You likely won't have much (if any) melting because you've kept things so moist.


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## mayphly (Jul 20, 2010)

somewhatshocked said:


> First: This tank looks stunning! Woah. Can't wait to see it filled.
> 
> Re CO2: If you don't have any critters in the tank, you can crank it up as high as you want. But just using a drop checker and estimating based on its color will work fine when you first transition from dry start. You likely won't have much (if any) melting because you've kept things so moist.


Thanks for the compliment and the quick response. 
Eventually I will be putting fish in there. I'm just concerned on how much for how long on the co2. Im sure some of the plants will be adapting to their submerged state. Does it make sense to lower co2 once the plants have adapted? Or, does it not matter at all?


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## Neatfish (Jun 22, 2012)

Looks great already. 12g long is going to be my next tank hopefully.


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## mayphly (Jul 20, 2010)

Neatfish said:


> Looks great already. 12g long is going to be my next tank hopefully.


Thanks!


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## NJAquaBarren (Sep 16, 2009)

Looking good.


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## somewhatshocked (Aug 8, 2011)

Most people aim for about 30PPM (or corresponding pH color in your drop checker). That should be fine once you have fish in the tank.

You can crank it up in the beginning to make sure plants have all the CO2 they need. I've never done it for more than a few days. 

A note about bubbles per second and such: each setup is different, pressures are different, diffusers different. So it's tough to say what you should set things at. Just start at a bubble per second and let it run for a couple hours. Then look at your drop checker. If it's not where you want it to be, turn it up another bubble and wait a couple more hours. That'll help you really fine tune things and get them right where you feel comfortable.

People mostly run into problems with serious melting when they don't keep things moist. Based on your photos, it looks like you've done a great job keeping things misted and sealed up. 



mayphly said:


> Thanks for the compliment and the quick response.
> Eventually I will be putting fish in there. I'm just concerned on how much for how long on the co2. Im sure some of the plants will be adapting to their submerged state. Does it make sense to lower co2 once the plants have adapted? Or, does it not matter at all?


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## mayphly (Jul 20, 2010)

somewhatshocked said:


> Most people aim for about 30PPM (or corresponding pH color in your drop checker). That should be fine once you have fish in the tank.
> 
> You can crank it up in the beginning to make sure plants have all the CO2 they need. I've never done it for more than a few days.
> 
> ...


Awesome! Thanks for the advice! I'll post pics once I flood it.


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## andrewss (Oct 17, 2012)

tank is looking really great


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## Kai808 (Jul 19, 2011)

Great job! It looks so good that I don't want to see it with water. But every tank deserves to be filled. Good luck! 



mayphly said:


> In the last photo is a pic of a plant I cannot ID. Can someone tell me what this is? :


It looks like some kind of crypt.


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## mayphly (Jul 20, 2010)

Thanks for the comments! 
I went to get my co2 tank filled last Sat and the place was out of co2:icon_cry::icon_cry:
I'll be making a road trip this weekend for co2 so that I can finally fill my tank! The suspense is killing me:bounce::bounce::bounce:


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## mayphly (Jul 20, 2010)

Finally filled my tank on Monday!:tongue:
Lights on for 3hrs a day for the first week with co2 cranked up to 4-5 bps and dosing ferts. Did 50% water change today. 
I swear since i filled the tank the plants appear to be growing faster. I trimmed the HM today.

Here's a couple of pics


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## Kado (Oct 30, 2012)

Looks awesome!


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## awdturbo04 (Mar 12, 2004)

out of curiosity why are you only running lights for 3 hours a day?


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## mayphly (Jul 20, 2010)

awdturbo04 said:


> out of curiosity why are you only running lights for 3 hours a day?


I know a lot of people have had success using different methods of starting their tanks. I've tried some methods with success and some with no sucess. I decided to give this one a shot. I found this article on the ShrimpNow forum.The co2 at 5bps for two weeks seems a bit much. I ran my co2 close to 5 bps for the first two days. I'm running it at about 3 bps right now. Sounds crazy, but, after filling the tank I swear the plants started growing noticeably faster. Especially the HM.
If anyone had success with this method it would be great if they chimed in about it. 

"Once the plants have filled in like shown above, it's time to fill the tank with water. Once the water is filled, CO2 injection is required and needs to be kept very high for 2 weeks close to 5 bubbles per second (bps). Afterward, bring it down to 3bps. Setup lights as per the plants requirements. (Cuba is not a very light demanding plant). Setup filter that you have decided on using. If you are using nutrient rich substrate like ADA Amazonia II, follow the below light and water change routine.

Week 1: 3 Hrs of Light , 50 % Water change once in 3 Days
Week 2: 5 Hrs of Light , 30 % Water change once in 3 Days
Week 3: 7 Hrs of Light , 30% Water change once a week
Week 4: 9 Hrs of Light , 30% Water change once a week

Your tank is completely cycled after this stage and if you follow the above routine you will have minimal algae issues except for some diatom algae during the first 2 weeks on the glass which is easily wiped off during your water changes.

NOTE: A correct combination of amount of Light , CO2 and nutrients is required to keep a planted tank free of algae bloom. In most cases it is excessive light that causes the problem. Keep your lighting moderate and you will have minimal algae issues."


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## marioman72 (Jan 22, 2010)

very nice set up


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## awdturbo04 (Mar 12, 2004)

Hmmmmm well I filled my first ever dry start last night and have the nutrient rich soils as well. I have my co2 running at about 4 bps at the moment. I may just have to run this same light procedure. You are only running hte co2 when the lights are on right?

Thanks for the very in depth answer im really excited to finally get my tank rolling


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## mayphly (Jul 20, 2010)

Kado said:


> Looks awesome!


Thanks! Glad you like it.



marioman72 said:


> very nice set up


Thanks!



awdturbo04 said:


> Hmmmmm well I filled my first ever dry start last night and have the nutrient rich soils as well. I have my co2 running at about 4 bps at the moment. I may just have to run this same light procedure. You are only running hte co2 when the lights are on right?
> 
> Thanks for the very in depth answer im really excited to finally get my tank rolling


I start my co2 1 hr before the lights come on and turn it off with the lights. I wish you success on your tank. It'd be great if you started a journal to share with the community. I'd like to check out your set up.

Thanks!


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## awdturbo04 (Mar 12, 2004)

> I start my co2 1 hr before the lights come on and turn it off with the lights. I wish you success on your tank. It'd be great if you started a journal to share with the community. I'd like to check out your set up.


ha ha way ahead of you bud check it out 
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=174832


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## mayphly (Jul 20, 2010)

awdturbo04 said:


> ha ha way ahead of you bud check it out
> http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=174832


Your tank looks great! Looks like you put some work in to it and it has paid off nicely!


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## mayphly (Jul 20, 2010)

Here are a couple of updated pics of my tank. The manzanita is almost completely hidden now. The UG,rotala macaranda and Syngonanthus belem are growing super slow. Everything else grows like wildfire. I started out with six downoi and now have about 17 new plants growing. I have some diatom algae and minor thread algae going on. The nerite snails and ottos do a very good job of keeping the diatom algae at bay. The thread algae only grows near the powerhead where the curent is swift. It grows mostly on the mini fissidens and the downoi. It's easily picked off by hand. I currently have 3 nerite snails (one crawled out and dried up), 2 ottos, 13 CPD's, and 8 CRS's.


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## mayphly (Jul 20, 2010)

*Youtube vid of my creepy tank*

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQ_eQKXslDM

Hope you enjoy this quick clip!


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## tropicalmackdaddy (Mar 7, 2012)

Haha nice video and cool tank. 
when can we find it on Bluray?


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## jonathan (Nov 29, 2012)

I thought about getting a nerite snail, but I am afraid it will crush my new planted UG -- But I see you have UG. How does a snail that big do with these smaller plants ?


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## mayphly (Jul 20, 2010)

jonathan said:


> I thought about getting a nerite snail, but I am afraid it will crush my new planted UG -- But I see you have UG. How does a snail that big do with these smaller plants ?


He's no problem at all. Most my plants are very well rooted for the most part. I have smaller nerites as well that are much more scale for the size of the tank. They do a great job removing all the diatom algae in the tank.


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## Big O (Jun 28, 2011)

*Awesome!*

love the tank and video,

big o


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## mayphly (Jul 20, 2010)

Big O said:


> love the tank and video,
> 
> big o


Glad you liked it!!


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## mayphly (Jul 20, 2010)

Here's another video I made of my tank.
Not as horrific as the last.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhkpX7sSoHA&feature=player_embedded


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## mayphly (Jul 20, 2010)

I was battling hair algae and bba. I tried doing a blackout to my tank and ended up killing a lot of my plants. I decided to tear it down and rescpe it. Here's some pics of how its looking now.


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## mayphly (Jul 20, 2010)

Everything is coming in nicely. I bought all this downoi at Petsmart for $7. It's doing great and actually growing kinda fast. It looks like each stem is going to be a crown? Comments? I dosed tank with fenbendazole last night due to recent hydra colony and planaria outbreak. I will dose again tomorrow to play it safe.


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## mayphly (Jul 20, 2010)

the newest addition.


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## mayphly (Jul 20, 2010)

my pencil fish will out smart this guy and steal his food. While one distract him the other sneaks up from behind. I hand feed him Jake's om nom nom foods.


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## Bear Sage (Mar 18, 2012)

Sweet cray. What is it?


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## mayphly (Jul 20, 2010)

Bear Sage said:


> Sweet cray. What is it?



Mexican Dwarf Orange Crayfish, Cambarellus patzcuarensis
CPO for short


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## mayphly (Jul 20, 2010)

*Petsmart Downoi*

What a great deal for the Downoi from Petsmart. There has to be about 50 crowns in a package for $7.


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## Bear Sage (Mar 18, 2012)

Great tank dwellers, some of my favorite. 
I have a flatworm issue, how did the dewormer work out for you?


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## mgdmirage (Mar 30, 2009)

Nice tank even after tear down and replant.


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## mayphly (Jul 20, 2010)

The dosing went well. No more hydra or planaria that I could see. Usually the planaria would show up in the bottom of the water changing bucket. I haven't seen any lately. Shrimp and fish were unaffected by it. roud:


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## mayphly (Jul 20, 2010)

mgdmirage said:


> Nice tank even after tear down and replant.


Thanks!


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## mayphly (Jul 20, 2010)

Those Current Satellite Plus lights sounded so cool I broke down and replaced my Archea lights with one. The Archaeas were very white compared to the full spectrum setting on the Satellite which gives off more of a natural color. I can see my algae better now. :icon_mrgr


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## Brian_Cali77 (Mar 19, 2010)

Nice upgrade!* I want your CPO!!!* Too bad crays aren't allowed in AZ!


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## mayphly (Jul 20, 2010)

Brian_Cali77 said:


> Nice upgrade!* I want your CPO!!!* Too bad crays aren't allowed in AZ!


Thanks! I saw your 60f journal on another site were you explained how you made the light stand. I thought that was a great idea! Hope you don't mind if I steal it? :tongue:


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## Brian_Cali77 (Mar 19, 2010)

Yeah go for it. It's not my original idea. I linked to my sources of information to how I formulated my strategy in building it. Glad it helped though!


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## mayphly (Jul 20, 2010)

I just updated the first page since it's been a while since I wrote anything new in it. The last pic in the first post is what the tank looks like today.

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=187147&highlight=

I have maybe 1% algae (bba) in the tank that is kept in check with excel that I spot treat 10 min before a water change. 
I just watched two of my BD shrimp mate (i think). Looks like the female has the male pinned down. They were stuck together for like a minute flicking about in the tank.


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## mayphly (Jul 20, 2010)

*Video Update of My Tank*

Thought I'd share a quick video update of my tank. Hope you like it.


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## mayphly (Jul 20, 2010)

Two of my cpo's became berried a couple of weeks ago. Today I saw the first babies crawling around. What a great feeling to see the new life in the tank!


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## newbieplanter (Jan 13, 2013)

Nice work!


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