# TimR's 100 Gallon ***MAGIC TRICK***



## timr (Mar 23, 2005)

Equipment:

Eheim 2215 with surface extractor, running external co2 reacor and heater capsule
Eheim 2213
350watt Titanium heater with external temp control
5lb co2 tank with milwakee regulator
4 x 96w CF 6700k (10 hour photo, 2hrs start and finish with just 2 bulbs)

Water params:

PH ~ 6.9 (i'm finding it hard to keep my bubble count steady)
KH - 5.5
GH - 5
No3 - 10ppm
Po4 - > 0.5ppm

Fish:

3 Angles
3 Celebes Rainbows
15 Cardinal tetras
6 Corys
1 Botia loach
3 Ottos
5 SAE's

Current plants:

Jungle Val
Italian Val
Corkscrew Val (which suddenly appears after atleast 6 months with no sign of it)
Dwarf Sag
Red & Green Crypt Wendtii
Crypt Balansae
Sunset Hygro
Java Fern
Star Grass
Ruffled Swords
Red Melon Swords
Red Rubin Swords
Red tiger lotus bulbs (currently dormant)
A few Aponogetons


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## shalu (Jan 16, 2003)

how come your tank looks so much longer than mine, mine is 5 feet long. It is at least 6 feet?


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## timr (Mar 23, 2005)

yes, 6' X 1.5' x 1.5' 

It's an all glass aquarium, they don't make this size any more. They have a 125 or 150 in the same footprint.


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## bellisb925 (Jul 3, 2004)

Gotta love big tanks. It's good to hear that most of your problems with algea have been solved. Your a lucky one. One comment on the tank is in regards to the dwarf sag in the middle foreground. I think it may look a little nicer with a smaller foreground plant. Maybe some baby tears in which you could start it as a foreground and let it get bushy as it gets closer to the Cyperus helferi. By the way, I really like the look of the Cyperus helferi. It takes out a lot of light penetration though, right?


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## Buck (Oct 13, 2002)

C. Helferi likes the light, mine has taken a hit since lowering the lighting on my tank for the summer months. The color is not as nice but it is still growing slowly.

The tank is looking good Tim :icon_bigg


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## timr (Mar 23, 2005)

Cyperus helferi? What's that and where do you see it in my tank? hmmmm

I'll edit my post above and put a list of the plants in there too. Atleast what i think the plants are. 

Can someone please give me some tips on taking good pics? I have a fuji e550....i should probably read the manual.


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## timr (Mar 23, 2005)

someone please help with the pics, i realize mine are terrible.


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## Georgiadawgger (Apr 23, 2004)

That tank is a monster!! It would probably take me hours to prune and stuff. Nice job...it should fill out nice....

As far as a camera...I'm using a canon...but check the manual about adjusting your white balance, and see if you can control the aperature.


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## timr (Mar 23, 2005)

Ok here are some better pics i think, now keep in mind that i did prune some val and a lot of the Sunset Hygro, i should have taken a pic before i did it, i don't even think it was a week yet and the hygro was HUGE!!

SURPRISE: The first pic shows how a PH swing can be good. 

second pic is of the tank.

Surprisingly i never tried to take pics with the camera on auto....DUH! i think they came out pretty good.


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## Tino (Jan 9, 2005)

Real, real nice roud: .


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## Thanks (Oct 9, 2004)

timr said:


> !
> 
> SURPRISE: The first pic shows how a PH swing can be good.


are those angel eggs I'm seeing? roud:


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## timr (Mar 23, 2005)

yes those are angel eggs, the first batch i've gotten from my Veil Gold marble, and the male is a gold (standard), so i don't know what to expect for the fry, but i will wait it out and see. I plan on removing them from the 100 when they hatch, probably tomorrow, and give raising them a shot. I have plenty of extra equipment i may just have to buy a tank or 2.


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## timr (Mar 23, 2005)

*updated pics*

Well here's the progress after a few weeks. I guess i update everytime my angel lays eggs now, every 2 weeks. This is only her 2nd batch and there's right around 500 eggs (yes i counted roud: ). which is a big improvement from the first batch which was around 70. But i don't understand how she fits 500 eggs, she's not even full grown maybe half dollar size. In a day or 2 i will see if the male did his part. But unfortunatly i don't think i can raise these ones. I will be going away for a week starting saturday, so basically when i get back it will 11 days from today, and i won't have any live food to give them, I don't think they'll make it, but i might try anyway, seeing how they will just get eaten. 

So not much has changed with the tank, removed a piece of wood and added some red shale. Mostly just growth, i will be very slowy scaping this and swapping out plants.


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## timr (Mar 23, 2005)

well i haven't updated in a while.

Here's a pic just before i went on vacation in may


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## timr (Mar 23, 2005)

this is what i came home to a week later...


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## timr (Mar 23, 2005)

the GW cleared up quickly while i stuck to my routine. i don't know what brought it on my tank, maybe my brother fed too much. 

and then this is about a month later, still not a current pic but there isn't much of a difference except some growth and some trimming. 

**I'm looking for someone to take the ruffled swords.


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## Jdinh04 (Mar 15, 2004)

Looking good, that dwarf sag is looking pretty nice!


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## scolley (Apr 4, 2004)

timr - the tank is looking great. A steady progression of improvement IMO! roud: 

What are you going to do in the place of the ruffled swords? And have you though about possibly filling in that back left corner?


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## timr (Mar 23, 2005)

Scolley, yes i will be filling in the corner, i've got a nice package of plants coming from Jdinh04. I will probably be planting the baby tears in that area. Probably will be replacing the sunset hygro on the right eventually also. I've got some Java fern on the drift wood there but the hygro makes everything blend. I'm still undecided on a foreground plant as the glosso has been giving me trouble (gowing verticle), and i don't have the patience to keep my HC planted. It's tough with a yoyo loach, 5 SAE's and 7 cory's.

It will keep improving.


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## timr (Mar 23, 2005)

So i figured out that if you have a big tank and you put huge plants in it, it feels small. See what i mean......


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## timr (Mar 23, 2005)

So i have removed those 3 ruffled swords. And did a little re-arranging.


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## timr (Mar 23, 2005)

That brought a lot more light in. But I still wasn't happy with the tank and i still had that huge Red Rubin sword, and red melon. They are relly nice plants but they take up way too much room. I liked all the swords much more before i added pressurized co2. After the co2 system the growth imediatley blew up to alteast twice the size on every sword. Those ruffled swords would be awsome in one of those extra tall show tanks. 

Anyhow, I did some scaping today, and i really think i like the hardscape. Some of the stems need to grow in, and the aromatica needs to straighten out a little from shipping. But i think the tank is much better now. There will still be some arranging and changes made, but i think i've got the look i was after. Now it's time to get some moss on the driftwood to go with my Bolbitus heteroclita. And i've added some crypt parva to the foreground. So now i have to wait and see what grows in for the foreground, i've got HC, Glosso, Parva, and a couple dwarf hairgrass plants. 

Let me know what you think about the layout now.....

p.s. i'll post a better pic as soon as the tank clears up and the sun goes down.


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## scolley (Apr 4, 2004)

timr - you've got a real challenge, and opportunity, around aquascaping in a tank with those dimensions. You've got great healthy growth, and now some plants that actually befit the size of the tank. All good stuff! roud: 

But as you imply in your post, the challenge now is the aquascaping.

I'm still a newbie in this space, but IMO your tank begs  to have a hard right, and hard left concentration of plant, with a massive "open" space in the middle. And that space in the middle would not be completely open, but just enough (keeping height low) so that the viewer's eye would be drawn back and forth, left to right - playing the size of your tank to the max!

But that means your largest leaved, darkest green, and tallest plants all the way to the right and left. And descending toward a fairly open middle the plants would get smaller leaved, greener, and shorter.

I think it would make for a very dramatic tank. Just my three cents.


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## Jdinh04 (Mar 15, 2004)

Nice, I liked your old scape better. To make an oustanding scape, I would limit the plants and do some sort of dwarf hairgrass all around and rock cliff from one end and another at the other end. But keep it up!


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## TheOtherGeoff (Feb 11, 2003)

i think that looks amazing.


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## Sweet Violet (Aug 10, 2005)

Wow... wish I had a tank that long~! Keep up the good work~!


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## timr (Mar 23, 2005)

Sweet Violet said:


> Wow... wish I had a tank that long~! Keep up the good work~!


 roud: :icon_bigg 

Thanks for the compliments...since I haven't upated in about a month, here's a new pic (sorry about the quality), nothing has changed, except growth and I propagated some plants a little. I love starting with a few stems and turning it into a nice stand.


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## Urkevitz (Jan 12, 2004)

Lots of different leaf shapes, very interesting. I would look at that tank for hours.


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## Momotaro (Feb 21, 2003)

It really is an amazing aquarium!

Mike


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## Troy McClure (Feb 22, 2004)

I can't tell what's in front of the lotus on the left side...sorta looks like blyxa, but really tall.


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## timr (Mar 23, 2005)

Thanks Guys!

Troy, to the left of the lotus is blyxa, just in front of the blyxa is a few standard vals, in front of the lotus a little to the right is pygmy chain sword.


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## scolley (Apr 4, 2004)

Momotaro said:


> It really is an amazing aquarium!
> 
> Mike


Yeah, but you gotta see it in person to appreciate it. That is one awesome tank TIMR!!!

Thanks for letting Michael (my 10 yr old) come by to see it today. Man! It just goes to show how much pictures just cannot do a tank justice. Especially that one, being so wide.

To see such a lovely tank up close and personal was such a kick! Great job.. beautiful tank! roud:


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## timr (Mar 23, 2005)

scolley said:


> Yeah, but you gotta see it in person to appreciate it. That is one awesome tank TIMR!!!
> 
> Thanks for letting Michael (my 10 yr old) come by to see it today. Man! It just goes to show how much pictures just cannot do a tank justice. Especially that one, being to wide.
> 
> To see such a lovely tank up close and personal was such a kick! Great job.. beautiful tank! roud:



Some people (like me) loose more in pictures than others. But yes it's hard to take a good pic of a tank so long. You are more than welcome Steve. It's nice to show all that hard work to someone who can appreciate it. Thanks a lot!


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## scolley (Apr 4, 2004)

For the record - my apologies! In my earlier post, I said "to wide" when referring to your tank. I've corrected that to the "so wide" that I meant. Sometimes a little typo can really mess up your meaning...

Your tank's width, IMO, is one of its great strengths! It makes an awesome visual impression. Hard to photograph, sure. But in person - WOW!


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## dss2004 (Apr 1, 2005)

WOW!! I love your aquarium. I love the size and the flow of the tank. It has a very natural feel to it.


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## timr (Mar 23, 2005)

OK, so the tank got moved last weekend. That was interesting to say the least. I had a lot more plants i there than i thought. And of course you can not re-plant the way things grow in. I've attached a pic of the tank just before i tore it down, some pics of the crazy amount of plants (that was overwhelming), there is a pic of a giant val streched out the length of the tank.


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## timr (Mar 23, 2005)

Tad da!!!! here's the new twist on the scape. i'm going trying to keep it more open, more field like. i've also got a few less species in there now. opinons please....


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## PuffNatic (Oct 5, 2005)

3 feet long Indica!!! 

Im loving the new scape though.


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## Buck (Oct 13, 2002)

What a job that must have been ! The tank looks good though and change feels nice, dont it ? roud:

Love that sword !


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## timr (Mar 23, 2005)

Thanks guys! 

Yes the change is nice, but i don't feel as excited about it as i have been about other layouts, so i may not have this one perfected yet, but i'm going to let it grow in and see how it works out. Now i just need to figure out a new dosing schedual, as you can imagine that overgrown mass of weeds sucked up a lot more nutrients that what i have now. I was dry dosing a 1/4 teaspoon of trace every other day. That should last a week now.


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## Buck (Oct 13, 2002)

*1/4 tsp DRY ?* :eek5: 

Now thats some micro's man! It dont matter anyway Tim, just after the excavation of the swords and crypts alone you may be in for a time of it if your tank is anything like mine. I feel like I have been fighting it forever. 
Good luck with the reset, I hope it all goes smoothly...I like the layout !


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## timr (Mar 23, 2005)

yeah i found that any less than that or if i skipped a day, my crypts and dwarf sag would start to melt. i have my fingers crossed, i really don't want to deal with any algae problems.


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## timr (Mar 23, 2005)

a little more then 2 weeks later....


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## timr (Mar 23, 2005)

i've got hair algae!! Yeah! All my aromatica has melted from the bottom up while still growing. and i am loosing all the lower leaves on my indica. Cool, I love restarts!!


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## scolley (Apr 4, 2004)

timr said:


> I've got hair algae!!


Welcome to the club pal! I've got some sympathy I can offer you... but that's about all. Good luck!


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## timr (Mar 23, 2005)

Thanks for the sympathy Scolley. I'm sure that everything will settle out in a while, till them i'm just gonna continue my dosing and all that and i think things will be fine.


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## Georgiadawgger (Apr 23, 2004)

Sorry to hear about the algae woes...things do appear good. You mentioned your L. aromatica and rotala are melting from bottom up, how is your co2 level? Maybe bumping it up to drive growth in the other stems too?


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## timr (Mar 23, 2005)

After battleing algae in my 100 for about a year i got fed up. Time for a more manageable tank right now. So I cut my 100 in half now i have 2 50 gal breeders. One will be planted, the other will recieve my african cichlid collection that currently resides in a 30 gal. 

I'll post some details later, for now just a sneek peek of the 2 tanks in the raw.


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