# "The Riverside" - Low Maintenance 75 Gallon



## tamsin (Jan 12, 2011)

That's an impressive makeover!


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## lamyers3 (Oct 17, 2017)

Great job.roud:


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## touch of sky (Nov 1, 2011)

It looks great. I like how you built up the height using egg crate.


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## Nubster (Aug 9, 2011)

Just FYI...if you're using CO2 you are high-tech. Not low-tech. CO2 what determines that. Not that is matters what you call it. Looks great either way.


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## KwhyLE (Nov 9, 2014)

tamsin said:


> That's an impressive makeover!





lamyers3 said:


> Great job.roud:





touch of sky said:


> It looks great. I like how you built up the height using egg crate.


Thanks y'all





Nubster said:


> Just FYI...if you're using CO2 you are high-tech. Not low-tech. CO2 what determines that. Not that is matters what you call it. Looks great either way.


Lol, I consider it low tech because plants in here aren't high demand by any means, light is low/med, I don't and will probably not dose daily and I don't have the auto dosing system running (jebao dp4, saving it for the reef). Also, everything in here was from the 55 gallon that was running off of 2-3 month water change schedule, no ferts, no co2, and low light. But I somewhat agree, its not a true "_low tech_" but in the way I have run tanks in the past, its very low tech.:thumbsup:


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## Milkman (Dec 26, 2011)

I wish I had seen your egg crate idea when I was rescaping a few days ago! 

Your tank looks great.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using Tapatalk


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## Greggz (May 19, 2008)

Very nice layout, beautifully presented, and one of the quickest, nicest transformations I have seen.

Looking forward to seeing how it goes from here.


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## Quagulator (May 4, 2015)

Definitely a solid medium tech setup, no intense lighting or water change/fertilizing schedules, just a low/medium light and some CO2 with the odd fert dose, I'm looking into doing something similar in the near future. I really like your layout, great job on the makeover.

How are you liking the raphael cats? Mine drove me insane in a planted tank so I ended up getting rid of them. I'm not positive but ammona shrimp might be the perfect snack for raphael cats...


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## KwhyLE (Nov 9, 2014)

Milkman said:


> I wish I had seen your egg crate idea when I was rescaping a few days ago!
> 
> Your tank looks great.
> 
> Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using Tapatalk





Greggz said:


> Very nice layout, beautifully presented, and one of the quickest, nicest transformations I have seen.
> 
> Looking forward to seeing how it goes from here.





Quagulator said:


> Definitely a solid medium tech setup, no intense lighting or water change/fertilizing schedules, just a low/medium light and some CO2 with the odd fert dose, I'm looking into doing something similar in the near future. I really like your layout, great job on the makeover.
> 
> How are you liking the raphael cats? Mine drove me insane in a planted tank so I ended up getting rid of them. I'm not positive but ammona shrimp might be the perfect snack for raphael cats...


Thanks all!

The raphael cats were purchased the same time I got the cichlids too. They were juvies also and I just couldnt give them up. They're nice and American now... (fat lol). Its funny though, they're big, fat and ugly, but I'm attached to them in a weird way. They were always hiding as well, but that is common behavior for catfish. I would only see them once every other week it seemed like and every time, they were bigger. Under the java fern in the back is a nice long cave for the pair. And last night I saw a lot of the cherries come out since I took the big angel out. With catfish, anything that will fit in their mouths are food, so I'm just feeding fairly heavy so they're not in "hunt" mode. I also feel like I can feed heavy because there are a couple hundred assassin snails in the tank serving as a pretty good clean up crew. When I was moving all the fish over, I realised that I couldn't find a platy that I've had for years. I suspect that it died and got completely polished off by the snails.


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## sevendust111 (Jul 15, 2014)

I get what you mean by "high tech". When I think of high tech I think of high maintenance. High light, EI dosing, and 30+ppm Co2 causing fast growth and thus more work. 

Whatever tech level you want to call it, the tank looks great. I had a medium low light tank with co2 and it was the lowest maintenance tank I ever had. Almost no algae growth and plants grew healthy but not too quick. I would suggest sticking to a consistent fert regiment though since your going with co2. I did 1/5 EI dosing on that tank. I currently have a medium low light grow out tank that gets a double shot of excel (no co2) daily and is dosed at 1/5 EI. The tank gets 1 or 2 water changes a month and is doing pretty well.


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## The Dude1 (Jun 17, 2016)

That really looks fantastic. Even with no "filling in time" I think it's nicer than anything I've ever done! Great job! I'm also getting away from the cichlid thing... well... at least the common Africans and such.
One of my 75 gallons has some Thomasi and Nigerian Red Kribensis and 3 schools of fish. I can tell you a group of 50+ Neons looks REALLY cool in a 75. I think I've got maybe 20 Cardinals and 35 Neons. Next I'm going to work on getting the Rummynose group to 25. 
How do you like subwassertang compared to other moss - like plants? Does it attach to wood and stones?


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## KwhyLE (Nov 9, 2014)

sevendust111 said:


> I get what you mean by "high tech". When I think of high tech I think of high maintenance. High light, EI dosing, and 30+ppm Co2 causing fast growth and thus more work.
> 
> Whatever tech level you want to call it, the tank looks great. I had a medium low light tank with co2 and it was the lowest maintenance tank I ever had. Almost no algae growth and plants grew healthy but not too quick. I would suggest sticking to a consistent fert regiment though since your going with co2. I did 1/5 EI dosing on that tank. I currently have a medium low light grow out tank that gets a double shot of excel (no co2) daily and is dosed at 1/5 EI. The tank gets 1 or 2 water changes a month and is doing pretty well.


yeah, I mean its not a perfect schedule as in dosing at the same time every time. I just suspect that I'll dose when I feed the fish. I'm tempted to just mix macro/micro together and dose small daily to see how that goes for awhile. Thats what Cory from Aquarium Co-Op's "Easy Green" is. He was discussing it in one of his live streams. (I listen to some of them while I do tank maintenance)



The Dude1 said:


> That really looks fantastic. Even with no "filling in time" I think it's nicer than anything I've ever done! Great job! I'm also getting away from the cichlid thing... well... at least the common Africans and such.
> One of my 75 gallons has some Thomasi and Nigerian Red Kribensis and 3 schools of fish. I can tell you a group of 50+ Neons looks REALLY cool in a 75. I think I've got maybe 20 Cardinals and 35 Neons. Next I'm going to work on getting the Rummynose group to 25.
> How do you like subwassertang compared to other moss - like plants? Does it attach to wood and stones?


Thanks! Yeah I want to get my harlequin rasbora population up to at least 12, get a good school of otos and amanos. We'll see theres always ideas going through my head for my tanks. Its hard for my reef, because I dont want to keep changing everything in the tank every week. What I've learned in the short amount of time for reefs is to just let them be. Stop dunking my hand in there and everything in the tank including coral/inverts/fish are a lot more sensitive to param swings.

Anywho, subwassertang is super easy for me. I've noticed it likes to attach itself to wood more so than rocks, but it might depend on the type of rock surface. Other mosses are hard. I cant even get java moss to grow. I had Chistmas moss awhile ago and I could only get that growing correctly in high tech conditions. Fissidens wouldnt even grow in high tech.


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## The Dude1 (Jun 17, 2016)

Interesting... there are so many out there... my Gertude breeding tank is low tech, but my others are high tech.. I want to replace the 5" deep mounds of moss in the Gertrude tank with something more aesthetic and then have some branches coming up out of it reaching the surface with another type of moss. Subwassertang looks unique enough that it might look cool. 
Are you planning on adding anything or filling any areas out better? Kind of anti climactic to put a tank together and have it look that killer from day one isn't it?? I mean I would do it if I could, but I don't have the vision. Any thoughts on future stocking?


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## SKYE.__.HIGH (Mar 18, 2017)

Wow, lovely tank. Looks like it flows very nicely. More pics would make me love it more!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## sevendust111 (Jul 15, 2014)

Nilocg sells an all in one fert called Thrive. I have no experience with it but I do have his DIY EI package which are premixed dry packets for macros and micros that you mix with ro water. I like them.


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## KwhyLE (Nov 9, 2014)

The Dude1 said:


> Interesting... there are so many out there... my Gertude breeding tank is low tech, but my others are high tech.. I want to replace the 5" deep mounds of moss in the Gertrude tank with something more aesthetic and then have some branches coming up out of it reaching the surface with another type of moss. Subwassertang looks unique enough that it might look cool.
> Are you planning on adding anything or filling any areas out better? Kind of anti climactic to put a tank together and have it look that killer from day one isn't it?? I mean I would do it if I could, but I don't have the vision. Any thoughts on future stocking?


I can send you a large clump of subwassertang if you want to send some of that moss over :biggrin:. I'm going to let this tank go to see where it ends up in a few months. I'm super into my reef tank right now, so thats why I set this tank up and traded the cichlids. But who knows, I might see someone's tank and try to emulate it somehow. I really liked setting this rescape up and wanted low light/slow growing plants to reduce work. Most likely some buce and more fish to plump up the shoals.



SKYE.__.HIGH said:


> Wow, lovely tank. Looks like it flows very nicely. More pics would make me love it more!
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


I'll try and snap a few pics when I have a little more time. NYE, and work have got me pretty busy as of late.



sevendust111 said:


> Nilocg sells an all in one fert called Thrive. I have no experience with it but I do have his DIY EI package which are premixed dry packets for macros and micros that you mix with ro water. I like them.


I have seen that before, but just got the GLA EI ferts when I was high tech.


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## C5rider (Dec 30, 2017)

Nice tank! And thanks for the eggcrate idea!


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## KwhyLE (Nov 9, 2014)

A couple snaps from last night



















Had these guys for around 2.5 years









The Larger angel that I traded was beating this dude up. Since the 55 was in the garage, I never really paid attention to it, just fed it and did water changes when I felt like it. I'm gunna bring this guy up then trade em for some amanos. (most likely with the raphael cats:icon_neut )


















Here's how I tied down the subwassertang


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## jercarr2018 (Jan 3, 2018)

beautiful tank!! seeing yours makes me miss my 75 setup. But I dont want to setup a big tank since I'm moving in less than a year.


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## Williak (Jun 26, 2012)

Man this is beautiful, great pictures as well.

Will be following for updates!


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## KwhyLE (Nov 9, 2014)

Quick iPhone shot update. 

Things are going well. I have only performed 2 water changes since setup. One was because the tank was overfed by a family member and I noticed the fish were gasping when I got home one night at 11pm. That was fun... The other was because I just felt I should so after testing (I was in a reasonable range of nitrate) I had time and just did it. 

I turned off the 1W beamswork light with the blue leds because I started to notice more algae growth. I then increased co2 to 8bps within a span of two weeks and then the algae seemed to subside. 

Growth is pretty steady. The sword is the fastest thing growing and I really regret putting it in the front. I stopped dosing liquid ferts after I added osmocote+ root tabs under everything that can utilize them. The crypt parva isnt doing so well but on some of the clumps I do see new growth so I'm pretty hopeful. After the co2 increase, every old leaf of the java fern has multiple pups and both anubias species always have a new leaf popping up. Subwassertang is growing nicely and the crypt spiralis looks like they are taking off as well. The hydrocotyle was just thrown in without much planning and its been growing. If or when I decide to move the large sword, I'll likely find a place for the hydrocotyle too.

You'll notice a yellow fish in there. Thats a juvi yellow lab cichlid. I guess a fry found its way into the tank with everything else. I need to figure out a way to catch him without a net because once he sees it, its into the caves. I need to do something about it before he devours my RCS colony. Also, one the raphael cats found a new place, next to the intakes.


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## Williak (Jun 26, 2012)

Man that looks great!! You’re making me want to rescape my already recently rescaped 80 lol

Love the sand and rocks border. 


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## KwhyLE (Nov 9, 2014)

1 Year Update. Quick iPhone pic for now.










I was still doing co2 for around 4 months, but when my tanks went out, it was camping season, so I was gone most weekends on 4x4 and hiking trips. So waterchanges and co2 were maybe once a month. Come to think of it, I might have only water changed this tank 5-6 times over the past year. 
Swords got too big, so I moved them to the back, 
Hydrocotyle seems to die off
Crypt parva is one helluva slow grower. 
anubias nana/nana petite is now the most prevalent grower
Java Fern had a big die off but is still around. 

Fish given away: angels, yellow lab cichlid, sae
Fish moved on: some neon tetras and some harlequins. Not sure why. (Also, why are neon tetras so expensive now?! At the big box and lfs they're ~$2.50/fish when a couple years ago, they were $0.50-$1 each. Just interesting) 

I need to give away my striped raphael catfish. They grew A LOT and push everything around when they're zooming around at night. Once I got rid of the angels and sae, I noticed they shrimp population boom. 

Currently, fish stock is 2 Striped Raphael Cats, 5 Neon Tetras, 1 Harlequin, 100s of Shrimp, and 1 Assassin Snail, though I want to remove him to get a couple nerites.

This year's plan is to lower the temp from 78 to 75, add a faster growing plant to outcompete algae and dose ferts maybe once a week and adjusting when needed. (pearlweed? I want something lighter in color than the dark anubias and dark subwassertang. I want to fill out the school of neons again, but I also want to get smaller fish to increase scale of the scape. Maybe embers? I do not want to set up co2 again, I have a paintball tank setup, but it seems like a lot of paintball places near me are switching to compressed air and co2 is becoming more scarce unless in a traditional tank and going to airgas. But I dont want to have to worry about that so I will probably not be running co2 anymore.


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## SKYE.__.HIGH (Mar 18, 2017)

KwhyLE said:


> 1 Year Update. Quick iPhone pic for now.
> 
> 
> 
> ...




I would recommend rotala green or even rotundifolia (spelling lol) I have pearl weed and it grows way to fast and never stays in its area. Rotala green is a very bright green same as pearl weed but has a nicer leaf pattern imo. Both of the suggestions are easily kept and they don’t grow near as fast as pearl weed. Hope this sways you. Looking nice by the way. Wish my Anubis’s grew that fast.


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## germanblueramlover (Jun 9, 2013)

Don't think you'd need to worry about your assassin snail with nerites, just make sure they're bigger than him! I've had them at the same time and never bothered each other, but the nerites were about 3/4" - 1" in diameter.

Gorgeous tank!


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## KwhyLE (Nov 9, 2014)

SKYE.__.HIGH said:


> I would recommend rotala green or even rotundifolia (spelling lol) I have pearl weed and it grows way to fast and never stays in its area. Rotala green is a very bright green same as pearl weed but has a nicer leaf pattern imo. Both of the suggestions are easily kept and they don’t grow near as fast as pearl weed. Hope this sways you. Looking nice by the way. Wish my Anubis’s grew that fast.


I actually got "giant baby tears" (Micranthemum umbrosum) along with some dwarf water lettuce to help with the added fish. I added 22 neons. Mysteriously, 4 of them disappeared after the first night and the bigger catfish had a fat belly. Both raphael catfish are getting rehomed. Neon shoal at 21. I also started up my fert dosing. Going very slowly since most plants are slow growers. Started with 1ml micro, 2ml macro, 1ml iron per week. Fert solutions are calculated with EI method for a heavily planted 20gal, so take those measurements with a grain of salt. 



germanblueramlover said:


> Don't think you'd need to worry about your assassin snail with nerites, just make sure they're bigger than him! I've had them at the same time and never bothered each other, but the nerites were about 3/4" - 1" in diameter.
> 
> Gorgeous tank!


Thanks! My assassin snail is maybe 1 to 1.5inch long. It is the lone survivor that eats everything and anything it can so, hes jumbo. I found a baby ramshorn the other day with the new plants and caught the assassin snail to see if it'll growup. I'll probably add a few nerites next week after everything else new have a change to settle in.

I was worried with the new addition of fish so I tested nitrates for a couple days. It was steady at 5ppm, so I'm pretty happy with it. Theres also something happening with my old 4gal cube that I'm working on. I just need to get all the plants for it first so I can start the build.


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## KwhyLE (Nov 9, 2014)

A few things. 

I gave away both catfish. They were eating my new neons and all the shrimp were hiding. After the cats were gone, neons are more spread out and I finally realised just how many red cherries I have. They're not hiding anymore! A couple from this 4 year old colony have started to turn blue and some red rilis are starting to show up. I've considering culling, but I do not have another tank setup for holding. A project for another time. Another thing I noticed was after the SAE were gone, black beard/black brush algae started to pop up again. I need to consider bringing back co2 or something else. I thought about raising the light or purchasing Asta 120s, but as this tank is on the opposite side of the family room TV, it causes too much of a glare already. I have added 4 nerites and they are doing a lot for the weird red algae I have (still dont know what it is but have had it since the cichlid tank) but they have not touched the bba. I read that ramshorn snails will eat bba when there is no other food source. I just dont want to add much more of a bioload to overwhelm the beneficial bac. I have used matrix from my reef tank, but I'm skeptical of washing and reusing as it can start a re-cycle from the dead bac dying. 

I added dwarf water lettuce to help with excess nutrients and there was some duckweed and salvinia minima stuck in its roots. I really disliked the way the dwarf water lettuce roots were in the way of the scape, so I took some airline and suction cups and corralled everything into the dark corner of the tank away from the skimmer and outflow. I also tried to separate the species as much as I could, but I'm quickly finding out that its difficult to keep everything separate when moving plants around and h2o2 treatments for bba. 

Other than all that, plants are doing well. I'm seeing new growth everywhere its just a matter of battling bba and balancing everything out again.


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## tamsin (Jan 12, 2011)

Is it mainly on the backwall? Have you considered just embracing it? It looks quite nice! Looks like there is the odd bit on old leaves but they can just be trimmed off - I think it takes advantage when they start getting tatty.


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## KwhyLE (Nov 9, 2014)

BBA came back after Excel treatment so I got my paintball tanks refilled and set up CO2 again. But the Aquatek paintball regulator failed and kept co2 flow on 24/7 with power on or off. I guess I got the best out of it. 4 years of ownership. I didnt want to buy it again and I wanted a better solution. 20lb CO2 tank from craigslist for $60. SCORE! I picked up a regulator on amazon, and went to get it filled. Well, turns out I got a 15lb tank, and it was due for a hydro. I just paid airgas to hydro, then the guy there helped me out and upgraded me free to a 20lb tank. It JUST fits under the 75. I had to angle the regulator to fit the tube up to the diffuser.

I also added alight to my cabinet. Seems to be holding fine.


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## burr740 (Feb 19, 2014)

Nice tank!


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## KwhyLE (Nov 9, 2014)

burr740 said:


> Nice tank!


Thanks! I really need to take some proper pictures of it. After this past water change, I moved some plants and rocks around to get the detritus under them and I really like how it all came back together. With all the anubias growth, its making me want to start a smaller tank with just driftwood and dwarf anubias/ buce species. I currently have Anubias Nana 'Micro' and nana petit and some buce species (Dark Green Hulu & Hulu Boyan).


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