# aXio's 29 Gallon and 55 Gallon.



## aXio (May 29, 2011)

Been lurking for years now. Signed up earlier this year meaning to post some pictures but never got around to it.

*55 Gallon* 7/31/2011










Equipment:

- Fluval 304 Canister
- Coralife Lighting Fixture w/ 2 x 65w Bulbs @ 6,700k\9 hrs a day.
- Ehiem Jager 250watt Heater
- Seachem Liquid Fertilizers
- Flourite Bedding
- Root Tabs

Flora:

- Ludwigia 
- Amazon Swords
- Ozelot Sword 
- Tiger Lotus
- Anubias Nana


*29 Gallon * 7/31/2011










Equipment:

- Fluval 205 Canister
- Coralife Lighting Fixture w/ 65w Bulb @ 6,700k\9 hrs a day.
- Seachem Liquid Fertilizers
- Root Tabs

Flora:

- Anubias Nana
- Anubias Coffeefolia
- Anubias Barteri
- Anubias Gracilis
- Ludwigia
- Amazon Swords


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## Plant keeper (Jan 27, 2011)

wow like the 55gallon.


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## aXio (May 29, 2011)

Plant keeper said:


> wow like the 55gallon.


Thank you.


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## kangared (Apr 7, 2011)

I like them too. Very clean. Makes me miss the gold gourami I had awhile ago. Did your cherry barbs have babies also?


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## aXio (May 29, 2011)

kangared said:


> I like them too. Very clean. Makes me miss the gold gourami I had awhile ago. Did your cherry barbs have babies also?


Yes I just let them do it naturally in the tank. I didn't do any moving of eggs or parents. I went from having 5 to about 21.


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## kangared (Apr 7, 2011)

Cool, same for me, I had 2 now I have 6.


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## nalu86 (Oct 19, 2010)

Found your tank, looks pretty cool.
If you don't have a ride to the fall meeting, I have a place in the car


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## aXio (May 29, 2011)

Updated pictures for my tanks...

The 29 gallon as you can see has become a bit of a jungle. But the fish love it that way. Oh and sorry for the float plant mass... stuck that in there for the time being after the fish auction I went to yesterday.










The 55 Gallon is pretty much prefect as ever...











I did also get 9 new discus which I am currently keep in a bare bottom 40 gallon for growing out. I'll see about getting some pictures... although it's nothing spectacular =)


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## Plant keeper (Jan 27, 2011)

^ no pics..


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## nalu86 (Oct 19, 2010)

Good deals at the auction 
You should consider swapping your 55 for a 75 or bigger if you want to keep all those discus in 1 tank. Just some advice


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## aXio (May 29, 2011)

nalu86 said:


> Good deals at the auction
> You should consider swapping your 55 for a 75 or bigger if you want to keep all those discus in 1 tank. Just some advice


Oh I would never put all those in a 55! That would be absurd! I have a 125 gallon that will be their home once they grow up =)



Plant keeper said:


> ^ no pics..


Shrug... I see them up there just fine. Any else having problems seeing my pictures?


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## beastoise (Apr 17, 2011)

Pics are fine here. The 55 looks great, and that is one massive gourami lol.


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## aXio (May 29, 2011)

I was thinking about hanging my light above my 55 gallon instead of using the stands. I have a pretty high light output for not having CO2 on my, so I was thinking about raising it about a foot above my tank. I was planning on using hangers from wall and just hanging the light using chains. If anyone has a better hanging idea or any recommendations on how high I should hang my light they would be much appreciated.


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## aXio (May 29, 2011)

10/10/2011 55 Gallon Update










I move a lot of the plants around. Added the pot. And my Tiger Lotus had sprout 2 runners. I'm going to let it shot out a few more for shade.


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## 2in10 (Feb 8, 2011)

Tanks look good, congrats


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## aXio (May 29, 2011)

2in10 said:


> Tanks look good, congrats


Thank you sir.


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## nalu86 (Oct 19, 2010)

How are the discus? We want to see some pics


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## aXio (May 29, 2011)

nalu86 said:


> How are the discus? We want to see some pics


I'll post some pictures of the little ones for you tomo =)


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## Plant keeper (Jan 27, 2011)

Any more pics?


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## aXio (May 29, 2011)

I'll get some up tonight or tomorrow the latest I promise. The SLR is at the girlfriends house... and I keep forgetting to pick it up when I'm there =/


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## aXio (May 29, 2011)

Well I did a lot of changes on my 55 gallon. Moved/removed a lot of the plants and took out the biggest piece of wood as well as added some Manzanita. Still kinda sleeping on the new design as I feel like it's not entirely there yet, but today I'm going to be working on hanging up my light about a 1' above my tank. I'm going to use cast iron bird feeder hangers that I bought at Home Depot for 10$/ea. So I'm going to wait to post pictures of it until tomorrow once everything is done with the light and I do my weekly water change =)

But in the mean time since you guys want some pictures here are some crappy shots of my 40 gallon grow out tank I took really quickly last night before going out.. Hope you guys like them any way.


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## aXio (May 29, 2011)

I also got in my new Fertilizers in from Pfertz! Been using them about 4 days now and the plants are already responding well... and the easy of use is just awesome =)


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## aXio (May 29, 2011)

29 Gallon picture update 10/31/2011...


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## aXio (May 29, 2011)

Anyone know if it's bad that my nerite snail laid eggs on my apple snails?


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## aXio (May 29, 2011)

Water Change/Sneak Peek shots of the new setup...




























Beautiful Pennywort...


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## Uptown193 (Apr 25, 2011)

Hey nice tank and set up.


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## aXio (May 29, 2011)

Uptown193 said:


> Hey nice tank and set up.


Thank you.

I just spent a few hrs on my new lighting setup. I'll post pictures of it later on.


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## touch of sky (Nov 1, 2011)

Beautiful tanks. I have enjoyed your pictures.


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## aXio (May 29, 2011)

touch of sky said:


> Beautiful tanks. I have enjoyed your pictures.


Thanks, I'm doing my best to post many of them to keep people interested.


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## aXio (May 29, 2011)

So I finally got my light hanging contraption pretty much done. I need to do more adjusting to the chains to get the light in the proper position that I need it to be. The black strings I'm using currently are temporary until I get more hardware to do it properly.

Now before you guys go telling that there would have been much better ways to do it then what I did. Which I understand and agree with you guys. But I wasn't allowed to drill holes into wall and I wanted to do my best to use supplies that I already had here at the house. As well as doing it quickly and easily. So here are some shots of setting it up...

The cast iron bars I got at Homedepot for 10$/ea










The hardware I got from my old man. The copper brackets or whatever you would called them are really meant to hold copper piping in place, but they worked really well for me here. I hammered them down a bit to fit around the cast iron bar more snugly.










Some quick measurements to make sure the 2x4s were the proper length.










Here is the best pictures I could get of how I attached it at the back of the tank.










Shot of inside the stand. As u can see I used the extra prong/leg on the cast iron bar to my advantage. I used shims and one of the copper brackets to secure it even more to the stand.










I spent 7$ on this hanging hardware at Homedepot.




























So here are the pictures with the light hanging and the tank. Yes I know the light isn't hitting the tank properly right now, which I'm going to work on correcting during the next few days. 























































So there you have it. If you guys have any suggestions on how to set the light more properly above the tank so that the light is hitting the tank evenly please let me know it would be greatly appreciated.


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## aXio (May 29, 2011)

So anyone with a suggestion on how to get the light to hang better so the light is hitting the tank at a more proper angle?


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## aXio (May 29, 2011)

I stop by the LFS today on the way home to see what they had plant wise. When I got there I saw that every single one of the plants where melted or completely dead. So after talking to the manager for a little bit he offered to sell me 3 plants at half price and then i could have a handle full of stems free. 

Here is what I got. These pictures were taken after a LOT of pruning. There is almost nothing left of the stem after I got through with them.










These were labeled as Anubias Minima. I had to take off about half the leaves off each plant but the ones left are in good condition.










This was label as an Oriental Sword. I took off a good 75% of the leaves off this one. It's in pretty bad shape.










These weren't label. Can anyone give me an ID on these? It looks like some kind of Ludwigia.










ID on these as well anyone?










I put the Oriental Sword in my "sick pot" with the Ozelot Sword.



















So... I just can't seem to take pictures with out massive glaring now with the light being raised. So you get to see my socks in this picture =)










More glare shots... =/ But my beautiful Fire Red finally came out a bit for me during picture time. He loves the new lighting.


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## aXio (May 29, 2011)

tough crowd


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## ptr (Sep 23, 2011)

That's a beautiful mega-sword you have here !


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## rockwood (Jun 19, 2010)

aXio said:


> These weren't label. Can anyone give me an ID on these? It looks like some kind of Ludwigia.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Don't take these ID's as gospel because I'm still learning to identify things and someone will probably come behind me and correct it (but at least you'll get an answer .) I'd say you're right on the first pic. If I had to guess its Ludwiga Repens or maybe green but I don't think the green has the purple underside. 

I'd say the second is some kind of rotala, maybe sp. green or macranda. 

As for the lighting, you had the EXACT same idea as me. I'm renting so I can't put holes in the wall. When I did mine I actually put the chain in an upside down V so I can make the back or front different lengths which will cause the light to cant forwards or backwards. That's how you can adjust the downward angle to get it centered up a little better. 

I'll try to get you some pics of it tomorrow sometime.


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## aXio (May 29, 2011)

Ya picture would be nice and that's kind of what I was thinking with the V shape. I just need to get some kind of clamp to attach bar at a different spot where I have the current chains coming from.


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## aXio (May 29, 2011)

55 Gallon 11/6/2011 Update.

I added even more plants last night. As well as got myself 6 Otocinclus Catfish. Took out the wood that was sticking out into the middle of the tank to make more swimming room for my big guy.

Current Flora:

Amazon Sword
Ozelot Sword
Oriental Sword
Red Rubin Sword
Anubias Nana Petite x 5
Anubias Coffeefolia x 3
Anubias Minima x 2
Anubias Gracilis
Green Tiger Lotus
Ludwigia
Eusteralis ( I believe)


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## nalu86 (Oct 19, 2010)

Looks good! Looks better every time 

Keep a close look at your otos, see if they don't harass your Discus to much (sucking on the slime coat)


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## green_valley (Sep 14, 2011)

Nice Discuss. I was wondering what's your substrate? they seem to be pretty big gravel.


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## aXio (May 29, 2011)

nalu86 said:


> Looks good! Looks better every time
> 
> Keep a close look at your otos, see if they don't harass your Discus to much (sucking on the slime coat)


Thanks nalu! I'll make sure to keep an eye on the otos. I wanted them keep all my plants clean.



green_valley said:


> Nice Discuss. I was wondering what's your substrate? they seem to be pretty big gravel.


It's Florite Black mixed with Florite Black Sand. It's about 2 years old now, so it's got a good bit of built up mulm. I supplement it with root tabs every so often.


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## nalu86 (Oct 19, 2010)

aXio said:


> Thanks nalu! I'll make sure to keep an eye on the otos. I wanted them keep all my plants clean.


They will keep your plants clean from diatoms, but for the rest, I never saw them touch any other algae in my tank. 

I just read that a couple of times about otos and discus, If they don't, I will try to keep a nice big school of them with my future discus.


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## mjbubbles (Aug 26, 2011)

Looking good! The 55 is so clean and I like the way you've arranged the plants. If you don't mind, I'm going to use it as a template for my 55 that I'm setting up in the next few weeks. I'll post pics once it's done.
mj


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## aXio (May 29, 2011)

mjbubbles said:


> Looking good! The 55 is so clean and I like the way you've arranged the plants. If you don't mind, I'm going to use it as a template for my 55 that I'm setting up in the next few weeks. I'll post pics once it's done.
> mj


No by all means. Go right ahead. I'm still evolving the look myself as you can see. I've seen some discus keepers use the pots and I really liked them and have been trying to incorporate them here. I actually got 2 little tiny pots at Home Depot earlier today and I got them in the tank. They aren't shown in my shot from this morning though. I get some up tomorrow. Please show me your pictures once you get your tank running. I'm eager to see how your version will come out.

Anyone with a good solution for surface film? I don't really want a big surface skimmer. I already keep my outlet agitating the top of the water at all times. I've thought about installing a 2nd filter and have outflows on either side of the tank. I have another Fluval 304 thats not being used. But 2x 304s might be over kill. My tank stays very clean as it is. I do about 50% water change weekly. How about a spray bar? How effective is that and how easy would be to make one?


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## nalu86 (Oct 19, 2010)

Very easy to make a spray bar. They are pretty affective in spreading the water flow. 
For the surface film, just make yourself another intake for your canister filter and put a little pipe just to the surface, easy to make and if you spray paint it black its not visible anymore.

I had a fluval 305 and a cfs 500 (with spraybar) on a 55 in the past an it was not overkill. But I don't know if discus really like a lot of current, but the 304 also has valves on it, right? so you can start with a lower current and let the discus and angel get used to it and pump it up little bit like little bit over the next weeks. 

I never cared about the surface film and it always goes away after couple of days/ week.


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## aXio (May 29, 2011)

nalu86 said:


> Very easy to make a spray bar. They are pretty affective in spreading the water flow.
> For the surface film, just make yourself another intake for your canister filter and put a little pipe just to the surface, easy to make and if you spray paint it black its not visible anymore.
> 
> I had a fluval 305 and a cfs 500 (with spraybar) on a 55 in the past an it was not overkill. But I don't know if discus really like a lot of current, but the 304 also has valves on it, right? so you can start with a lower current and let the discus and angel get used to it and pump it up little bit like little bit over the next weeks.
> ...


So I would just split my intake tubing? With like a 2 way plumbing split?


So I added even more pots. The little one the right side that is sitting upside down will probably be moved or turned over a different way. I'm just not liking the way it is now very much.










Also I wanted to share with everyone that I landed a new job today. And the reason I wanted to share is because it is at an aquarium store. I'm going to be in charge of the entire fresh water section. I'm in a good mood today to say the least =)


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## aXio (May 29, 2011)

A little update on the 55 since it's been a over month. I took out the big amazon sword and put in one of my small ones from a different tank. Also you might notice some one hiding behind the new amazon sword. It's a new Green Tefe Discus I picked up from work.


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## aXio (May 29, 2011)

Update on the 55 gallon. I moved the Brazilian Pennywort to the right side of the tank because I have more Anubias on that side I'd I started to see some algae on the leaves. I also rigged up a spray bar with some extra Fluval parts I got from work. It's actually working very well.


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## aXio (May 29, 2011)

Low Quality Picture update... =)


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## aXio (May 29, 2011)

My 55 is now a bare bottom discus tank =) The discus will be moving into a 150 gallon tank in about 4-5 months.


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## aXio (May 29, 2011)

Updated on the potted 55 gallon. The fishes are enjoying their water change =)


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## nalu86 (Oct 19, 2010)

waaw, your bb looks amazing 
I would take out the older discus. 
You know that discus give off hormones that can prevent your other discus to grow. 
They will stay smaller and stunted (I read that on Simply Discus.)
Put him in your 40 or 29


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## mdreher (Jul 31, 2011)

The tank looks great. I really like how you used the driftwood. So when's the 125 gonna be up and running?


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## aXio (May 29, 2011)

nalu86 said:


> waaw, your bb looks amazing
> I would take out the older discus.
> You know that discus give off hormones that can prevent your other discus to grow.
> They will stay smaller and stunted (I read that on Simply Discus.)
> Put him in your 40 or 29


Thanks Nalu. The little discus is only with me for a few weeks. I was nursing him back to health. He's going back to the store soon. I only own the bigger 3.



mdreher said:


> The tank looks great. I really like how you used the driftwood. So when's the 125 gonna be up and running?


Thanks. It's actually just a 120 gallon. But it will get the job done =). I'm going to wash it out and do a water test on it this Monday during my day off. First on the list is to get a hold of some equipment for it. Planning a Fluval FX5. Maybe some regular LED stunners for nice lighting that won't be too bring for the discus. 


Now a little update on my 29 gallon that I messed with this past week.

Before:










After:














































Sorry for the cellphone pictures.


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## aXio (May 29, 2011)

Update...


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## LetThereBeFish (Dec 7, 2011)

Both tanks look great! roud: Love how the 29g layout looks. Always liked how pennywort looked as a floater. All you have to do now is smack a black backround on that puppy!:hihi: Oh, and what fish are in the 29 gallon now? All I see is the BNP.


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## aXio (May 29, 2011)

Just the BNP for now. I'm thinking about a school of CPDs. maybe like 15-20.


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## aXio (May 29, 2011)

Picture Update...


































































































And some shots of my Discus...


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## thenameless (Dec 12, 2011)

aquariums look great jakub, i didn't know you had a journal on here lol, but im glad i found it. man those discus' are beautiful, im jealous, i would like to have some in the future too.


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## Brian Mc (Feb 9, 2012)

Looking good man, what kind of substrate did you go with on the 29?


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## aXio (May 29, 2011)

thenameless said:


> aquariums look great jakub, i didn't know you had a journal on here lol, but im glad i found it. man those discus' are beautiful, im jealous, i would like to have some in the future too.



Thank you the Discus are my pride, joy, and obsession. =) Soon I will be putting up a journal for the 120g.



Brian Mc said:


> Looking good man, what kind of substrate did you go with on the 29?


My old substrate I pulled out of the 55 gallon. Flourite Dark. Old substrate is perfect for a nice anubias/crypt tank.


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## alipper (Nov 6, 2012)

Love the look of your tanks, great work.


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## fishboy199413 (Jan 20, 2010)

I would love to see more of your tanks, especially the 29g. How is it going? Did you ever get any cpds?


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## aXio (May 29, 2011)

What I've been up too...


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