# 75 Gallons of Life



## GreenGirl (Dec 6, 2014)

Hello,

i was feeding the tank tonight and everyone was really showing off their colours. I decided to take a few pictures.


The tank is a standard 75 gallon (~280L) with a variety of plant species and the starting of a fish community; It is about 6 months old. The current inhabitants are 8 male congo tetras (pictured; females coming soon :wink2: ), a large school of pepper copies I have had for years (also pictured), amanos, nerites, a clown pleco, some honey gouramis and a betta that just happens to now control the tank.


I am still a novice photographer and fish are fast creatures. Excuse the blur 0

Cheers!


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## JMCMark (Jul 12, 2018)

Beautiful planted tank right there. I'm also amazed your betta hasn't started tearing down the fins of the other fishes. Btw, check out adobe lightroom cc on apple or android. It's a fun tool for photos and editing.


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## Fishtanks (Nov 21, 2016)

You built an incredible little world for your fish.


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## JJ09 (Sep 11, 2014)

Nice tank, I love how thick the plants are. Is that the betta top edge (red)? I'm surprised he does well in such a deep tank- you must have a gentle filter?


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## GreenGirl (Dec 6, 2014)

Thank you everyone for the kind words 0

That is indeed the betta, the red guy. I have a HOB penguin filter as well as a canister, all supported by about 3 power filters to keep the circulation going in the tank. The betta does ok, the surface area in the back left of the tank is pretty calm because of the swords and the anubis covered driftwood, so he and the honey gouramis usually chill there. I know its not ideal to have him in there but like I said he was homeless and he is able to get sufficient food in this tank so Im just letting it play out. I only have one other tank going at the moment and its a 30 long invertebrate tank, and the betta is a very voracious shrimp hunter.

This tank has been a blast to set up. Im currently in school doing a bachelors of zoology and maintaining planted tanks has really revealed the impact organisms have on everything in their environment. I don't understand the full correlation yet, but simple things such as when I have been keeping up with ferts and the plants are at there best is when the fish go into full spawning behaviour, or how the addition of a sunrise/sunset cycle has gotten some plants to display better than I've ever been able to get them to. We fish keepers definitely create our own little worlds in our tanks.


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## GreenGirl (Dec 6, 2014)

Some editing practice (thanks for the software recommendation @JMCMark ) and a bonus shrimp photo. Previewing the photos makes it evident that the editing may be a bit too much, but those colours!!

Unnecessary side note:
My Bucephalandra sp. has been a very productive bloomer this year and is sending out another flower shoot despite being accompanied by BBA 24/7; the only place in this tank besides the co2 filter diffuser outlet to have BBA, even the anubias sp. remain clear > . The shrimp tank is run using DIY CO2 though so I do believe CO2 levels are the culprit, oh well.


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## Mohairyuma (Oct 20, 2018)

*Beautiful Tank*

Hello,

How did you get the plants to grow so well? I had a 20 gallon that I planted and one plant grew really well and the other turned black. What kind of lighting do you have and what is the PH of your water?

Thanks


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## Kalyke (Dec 1, 2014)

GreenGirl said:


> I am still a novice photographer and fish are fast creatures. Excuse the blur 0


I am wondering if you have used the "sport" settings on a simplified camera, or if you have a fully manual SLR type camera if you can fiddle with the f-stop and exposure time. 

You need to have a fast shutter speed, and open the aperture wide f/5.6 or so, and use a good high ISO. ISO used to refer to film sensitivity but in digital cameras, it refers to sensitivity to recording the image for instance, in a dark room or gloomy light you want a higher ISO. 

These three settings and stability from a tripod (or box or something steady) will lead to frozen images (with a lot of practice). 
Here is a decent guide explaining things more clearly. https://digital-photography-school.com/shooting-fast-moving-subjects-how-to-stop-the-blur/


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## GreenGirl (Dec 6, 2014)

@Kalyke These photos were all taken on an iPhone 6, so unfortunately I do not have the ability to play around with the settings until post-editing. I do have some photography friends that may be willing to capture some shots though.. hmm.. 

@Mohairyuma
So the shrimp tank pictures (no FTS) is a 30 long, and has a Finnex Planted + on it, 10 hour cycle (recently upped it from 8 hours but trying to promote algae/microbe growth for the shrimp and the plants seem to be responding well). The tank is also dosed 2-3 times a week with NiloGC's comprehensive fertilizer, though the larger tank is fertilized using dry ferts. My water pH is about 7.4 and the substrate is simple pool filter sand (PFS). I have researched and tinkered so much with my tanks; it takes awhile for each tank to 'settle' and there is always new information being put out. The best advice anyone has ever given me is just research (this forum is a great place to start) and observe how changes affect your tank's flora. This hobby isn't one that ever really stops spewing out information and it really is forever evolving as new products and practices are discovered. There are many wonderful people on here with more experience than I to answer any questions you have related to your tanks.


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