# BPB's 75 gallon medium/low tech planted



## bpb (Mar 8, 2011)

Hey there folks. With renewed interested in my planted tank i decided to go ahead and get a journal going. Not necessarily to track growth, but just as a home base for all posts regarding my tank. 

Been in the planted tank hobby for about 5-6 years. Jumped into planted tanks within a few months of getting my first fish, which was a betta in a plastic bowl on an impulse buy. I've been hooked ever since and had probably close to a dozen tanks of one kind or another, ranging from plastic betta bowl, to jam packed high tech SPS dominant reef tank, and everything in between. 

2009. I've had this 75 gallon tank for almost the entire time and it has had many faces. Started as a home for a very large and aggressive tiger oscar. I was quite bored with a tank with only one "pet" type fish which prevented me from having any plants or any other fish, so after rehoming him, I stocked a basic community tank with sand, rocks and plastic plants.

After growing bored with that, I removed most of the rock wall, and tried some super easy freebie plants from some locals. My little 2 bulb T5NO fixture was barely sufficient for visible light, and my inert play sand provided nothing, so naturally the plants died. I was on a very tight budget and super bummed out that I couldnt afford the high lights, plant substrate, and gadgets necessary to have a beautiful planted tank. 

2011. At one point I had a low tech 10 gallon (http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=143464&highlight=) which looked actually ok considering what I was using. I did my first batch of mineralized topsoil and plain black plastic gravel from walmart. It did ok for a little while but ended becoming more of a chore than it was worth and had a bad blue green slime algae outbreak that killed most of the plants. I shut it down a few years ago and consolidated down to just my 75 gallon and my 55 gallon reef at the time. 

2012. I eventually acquired a coralife 2x54W T5HO fixture and tossed a bunch of moss and java fern in the 75. It did ok for a while but just never really flourished and I constantly battled green spot algae. Decided to do another batch of mineralized topsoil, only I was incredibly particular with doing it totally by the book the way the orignal recipe intended. It was labor intensive and a total PITA, but I made a massive batch, more than I could use, and bought a bag of turface pro league from the irrigation shop down the road and replanted it with a more appropriate substrate. Added a bunch of swords and stems and that is how it was until last night.

Unfortunately I don't have alot of pictures from back in the olden days, as I wasn't really big into picture taking and it was just before smart phones had decent cameras

75 gallon a couple days after swapping substrate for turface. 


The smartest thing I've done in this hobby came in May 2014. After being fed up with years of slow growth, unhealthy plants, and becoming so discouraged I just stopped caring about my tank and wanted to take it down entirely, and just focus on my saltwater side, I bit the bullet and purchased a cheap pressurized co2 system and some EI fertilizers. I figured, I was working a much better job, making decent money, and I had already dumped thousands and thousands on my saltwater tank, I may as well invest a little in the FW tank and see if I can bring it up to snuff. The 2-3 months that followed were the most explosive growth I could have possibly imagined. Dramatic is an understatement. It grew so fast I literally didnt have time to keep up and it turned out looking almost as bad as before, only on the opposite end.



After seeing the results of even simple and cheap CO2 injection, I don't think I'll ever run a tank without it now. 

Fast forward to today!

I have never really fell in love with the color of the turface, so some months ago I decided I was going to go with a black substrate. I hate black substrates on salt tanks, but on FW tanks, black or very dark brown is the only look I seem to really like. I purchased 7 bags of caribsea floramax black to do the job. I've been putting this off for weeks because I knew what A pain it is to drain the tank, catch the fish, clean out the substrate and replant it. Last night I decided to just go for it. Rather than going gravel only, or mineralized topsoil, I opted for Miracle Gro Organic Choice Potting Mix. Ive had friends that have used it with tremendous success, and I figure it'll allow me to lighten my EI dosing, and use a little less ferts for the first 6 months to a year.

I'm also getting away from the heavy root feeders. I'll keep my Crypt Wendtii as a background plant but otherwise I want to go with carpeting plants and delicate stems. Really wanting to lean more toward the dutch aquascape style with reds in there, instead of the flooded swamp mess look I had going before.

Here's the last picture taken with the turface after a decent trim and cleaning. Couple days ago


aaaaaaand. empty


This amazon sword with root bundle was about as big as the 5 gallon bucket. The roots spanned the entire footprint of the tank


Temporary fish home. I didn't bother with filter/heater/flow as they were only in there for a couple hours.


A light dusting of aragonite and muriate of potash. I went with some left over caribsea special grade aragonite. I know dolomite is preferred for its magnesium content. but as I cannot source it locally, and didn't want to order a large amount online for just a couple handfulls of actual use, I went with aragonite. The low ph enviornment should dissolve it just as well over time and provide similar buffering ability. I've done this in the past every time without issue. 



Then down went the MGOCPM. I bough a large bag of it. I rinsed/soaked it for a day while I was at work to try to water log as much of it as I could. Nearly all of it wanted to float, but I ended up straining out about a 5 gallon bucket worth of good stuff. It made for about 1.5-2" or so of soil. Then down went the Floramax. I love this stuff. It's very heavy and fairly uniform in grain size. My biggest complaint about the turface was how light it was. Nothing would stay planted for long without strong roots. This will enable me to finally get more of a traditional carpet going. I have it sloping up to about 5" in the back. It looks thick, but my experience is that over time substrates will compact and I usually lose about 1-2" in height over the first few months. 7 bags was just about perfect



Time to start filling. I used the clarifier packs that came with it, but it wasnt entirely necessary. The water was fairly clear upon filling with minimal cloudiness and no excaped soil floaters.




Couple fish shots. Had to include one of the clown pleco. He's super elusive and I rarely ever see him. Got a nice clear shot of him right up front. Next is the big featherfin catfish. Ive had this one for 5-6 years or so I'd say.



So there it is for now. I'm working all afternoon, but I'll likely run up to petsmart on my lunch break and buy them out of all their stem plants and get everything planted today. Likely wont be permanant plant choices but It'll be something to start filling in and looking like a real tank again. All said and done from tear down to build back up it took 4 hours working alone. In opposite order of typical fashion. I'll put my tank stats at the bottom here

75 gallon Clear For Life acrylic tank standard 48"x18"x21" dimensions
Custom built stand, birch, dark stain. 36" tall so tank can sit closer to eye level
Eheim 2217 
10# CO2 tank with Milwaukee MA957 regulator. Junk. Id love a custom SS regulator but can't justify spending the 300-400 bucks until this one breaks
GLA inline atomizer
MGOCPM soil with Floramax black cap
Eheim Jager 300 watt heater
Fish: uncountable number of hybrid guppy/black bar endlers
featherfin catfish
clown pleco
tiger barb (straggler, waiting on him to die)
neon tetra (straggler, waiting on him to die)
3 otos

Stocking plans for the future are to get a handful of koi angels most likely and a couple dozen tetras of which I have not decided on. I don't like overly diverse fish populations despite what my list would indicate. I also don't like unnecessary culling of livestock so I'll patiently wait or possibly rehome them if we set up a little tank for my daughters room. I'd like to get more otos as well

Plants: sunset hygro
crypt wendtii
dwarf sag.

Those are the only 3 species I kept from the previous tank. I'll be looking to see how much Dwarf hairgras and downoi petsmart has today and probably begin planting my carpets this evening! Thanks for looking!


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## Freemananana (Jan 2, 2015)

That was one big sword! What did you do with it? I'm looking forward to seeing the tank reestablished since I just started a 75g of my own.


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## BBradbury (Nov 8, 2010)

*Your Tank*

Hello bpb...

Just keep up with the water changes and you'll have no tank problems. And "Go Aggies".

B


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## jimbo662 (Aug 4, 2013)

that pleco and catfish are cool!


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## bpb (Mar 8, 2011)

Lighting! Forgot to document specifics:
2x54 watt Coralife T5HO light unit with 2 GE6500k bulbs. 

@FreeMananana Thanks for joining the journal! It was a humongous sword. It actually had a flower shoot (no flowers though) that came about 12" out of the tank which was kind of neat. It's still sitting on the back porch. I'll be throwing it in the compost like I do with most of my trimmings. It wasn't in the best shape, and amazon swords are a dime a dozen so in the event I ever want another I'll just run and grab one. I don't know anyone in town with a big enough tank to have housed it. Oddly enough this sword never sent off runners or propogated itself.

@ BBradbury. Thanks for joining. I will likely do a water change today to clean up some of the plant matter that made its way over. Dead plant matter that is. The filter has been running for years and Was just serviced a couple months ago so it's running at a good flow rate. With my low bioload I'm not too concerned with any ammonia spike but I'll definitely keep an eye on it. I've got the co2 going again and the floating plants should help lighten the load as well. 

I'm considering adding a powerhead for a little extra circulation. Those eheim 2217 have such low flow. I'm also wanting to add more light. The single 2 bulb fixture is probably adequate but I don't quite have the coverage I want and suspending it way above the tank isnt an option, and I despise light spill into a room. I'm debating on either picking up another used 2x54 watt light fixture and adding a couple different color bulbs, undecided on what colors I would use. Another option is to get an LED bar as well. Ideas?

Bump: Yessir jimbo. Glad you found your way here.

and BBradbury. Gigem indeed. Co 2005


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## bpb (Mar 8, 2011)

Well. First bit of bad news. Unfortunately my clown pleco didn't make it. I feel totally responsible. While I won't require grieving counseling, I am a little bummed. Was a cool fish. I think it was likely due to the fact that I had a very hard time catching him and he probably was exposed to way much bad stuff when I was vaccuming up the substrate and pulling plant root bundles. I don't think I'll get another clown pleco. If I did get another pleco it would maybe be a rubberlip as those are pretty neat looking, but I'm not real certain that's what I want. I'm still leaning heavily toward a handful of different colored angels and some tetras. Possibly a pair of GBR or Bolivians. 

I didn't have the opportunity to plant my remaining plants yesterday after work. Wife and baby were out of town for a couple days and came home much earlier than expected so I was slammed with straightening up the house (oops, planned to have that done before they got back, didnt get around to it). I fell way behind on housework the past couple days on account of the 8 hour tank attention marathon of buying/selling corals for the reef, and redoing this planted tank. 

I also dropped by the petsmart with intention to pick up a bunch of plants but they were pretty much fresh out of everything. I really wish there were more planted tank hobbyists in the area to get stems from. Really wanting alot of red. I've got none.

My 5# co2 tank was reading about zero on the left pressure guage but it was still holding stead at 3 bubbles per second on the milwaukee regulator even this close to the end, I decided to swap it out for a 10# tank at about 6 am this morning. That's one good thing about having a baby in the house, forces me to be up when it's still dark and I can get alot of stuff done before work. The literature and instructions online for the Milwaukee regulator always say to adjust the pressure knob to where the right guage reads 10 on the outer numbers. I cannot figure out for the life of me why they do that. You have to completely close the needle valve, and even the SLIGHTEST bump of it will go from nothing, to a full violent stream of air shooting through the bubble counter. If I turn the pressure way down on the right guage to where it reads more like 2-5 or so, the needle valve actually works, and large turns will yield a reasonable change in bubble rate. I've been operating it at a lower reading on the right guage for this whole tank I just finished and the bubble count was WAY more stable through the life of the tank and didnt cause an EOTD when the high pressure guage hit 50 psi like it did on the first tank I had. 

I'm really considering ordering a couple higher end SS regulators with Burkert solenoids from a guy on Reef Central, but It's gonna take some convincing to talk myself into spending $700-800 on co2 regulators when A: I don't have a calcium reactor for the reef yet, and B: my Milwaukee regulator is still working fine. What can I say... I have expensive taste.

Still toiling over lights. I dont think my 2 bulb fixture will be adequate for growing a decent carpet and getting some serious reds out of some stems so I'm wanting to add another two bulb fixture for 4x54 watts total. Bulb combo I'm thinking is 6500k + 10000K in one, and 6500K + a zoomed flora sun red bulb. It'll be high light, but I've got a very nutrient dense substrate, plus all the EI ferts I can throw in the tank, and plenty of CO2. 

Hopefully I'l get to actually plant my remaining bundles after work today and maybe get a background up. Probably going with a black background again and I cannot stand seeing wires and filter tubes behind the back glass


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## bpb (Mar 8, 2011)

Got everything planted just now. Looks so bare in its current state. Almost all of these will be replaced as I'm able to source nicer stems. 

Picked up some alternanthera reineckii cardinalis from the petsmart today. Haven't tried it before. Was a beautiful magenta color in the gel pack. I hear they can be hit or miss. 

They also had an empty shelf labeled staurogyne repens, which is one of my planned carpet plants so I'll check back frequently for them to restock it. Also want to go with some downoi as well. 

I'm going minimal hard scape, with the driftwood only serving to sort of hide the heater, as well as split the two different carpeting plants. Wife demands a background immediately. That's all for now. 

Lol pic of tonight's work...it doesn't look "good" but I like to have ratty scraggly "before" pictures to track progress so here it is. Stems are all bent funny from curving toward the light when floating , they'll be right side up by tomorrow I'm sure. Usually are when that happens.


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## JasterMake (Mar 21, 2013)

Looking good. I really hope the cardinalis takes off. 

Sounds like another Aggie is in the house. Whoop!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


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## Freemananana (Jan 2, 2015)

What is a 'simple and cheap' CO2 system? I my have overlooked it. I am debating CO2 now on my tank. It is the same size.


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## The Dude (Feb 8, 2011)

Don't mind the tufts of green hair algae on the wood. That area is really close to the lights and I'm going to physically remove it all tonight. The AR in the picture is from Petsmart and it's doing really well. It only grows to maybe 2.5 - 3" but it doubles in size (additiona stems) every three weeks. I was able to cover the whole front middle of the tank in about 2 months from one package. I also don't use C02, just excel. It will be a much deeper red with higher light and C02. 
Tank looks good already. I think it would look better with more driftwood though. I'm a driftwood junky. I can't get enough of it

Bump: Your stocking ideas sound good. I absolutely love angels. I lost my Dantum when I moved... along with my feather fin Synodontis and my Clown Pleco as well as a bunch of other fish. It's hard to lose a fish that you've had for years and raised from a small guy. 
Look into Bloodfin tetras with Angels. They are a good size, school pretty well, and are really cool looking. My other Angel at several Cardinals. I actually just picked up a Beautiful Zebra Veil Angel the other day in addition to another 10 Bloodfins bring my school to 20+. They are super active and are always in either a large group or several small groups. 
Make sure you post pics of your Angels when you get them


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## bpb (Mar 8, 2011)

Freemananana said:


> What is a 'simple and cheap' CO2 system? I my have overlooked it. I am debating CO2 now on my tank. It is the same size.


I didn't get email notifications for these replies so sorry took a couple days. Simple and cheap CO2 system to me was what I purchased. I bought mine used for $100 and it included:

5# CO2 tank
Milwaukee MA957 regulator with solenoid and bubble counter included
GLA atomic inline diffuser

It's a step above paintball, and alot better than DIY CO2, but this regulator will not last forever and the solenoid will likely need replacing at some point. I am almost certain it leaks. I can't verify that and I havent leak tested, but it's a cheap brass single stage unit, and those almost always have small leaks. Not a deal breaker. I would love to eventually invest in a not-so-cheap stainless steel custom regulator with high end solenoid, dual stage, and that'll likely run $350 plus. One day I'll purchase one down the road when I can't possibly think of anything else I need and have money to blow. You can buy a unit like that off of GLA, but you could build, or have someone build, an even better one using better components for about half the price. 

Either way, pressurized CO2 is basically the tipping point that kept me in the planted hobby. If I hadn't gotten this running, Id have likely pulled all the plants and possibly even taken the tank down entirely. I was just never able to have healthy growth without it. Leaves always fell off stems, developed holes, and melted. 

My only issue now has been BBA, but I imagine with time and enough CO2 that'll start to fade away. I'd like to get some shrimps to help keep my leaves clean but my fish stock prevents that, as they'd all get eaten.

Also, with each CO2 tank refill, I'm replacing it with a larger tank. The 5# tank, running at 3 bps, for 10 hours a day, only seems to last me a few months. I upped to a 10# tank last refill, and next time I'll likely go with a 20# tank.


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## bpb (Mar 8, 2011)

@ The dude:

Thanks for the reply. The AR looks fantastic in your pic. Love those congo tetras as well. They don't munch on your plants? My AR is actually growing and has put on about 1.5-2" in the last week. I've dosed my full strength EI a couple times since I refilled the tank, which is probably not necessary being that it has brand new soil under the gravel, but it was more to encourage the plants to grow and root a little so they can actually reach that soil. I'll probably cease EI dosing for a couple months now unless I start seeing signs of deficiency. 

The sunset hygro is growing tremendously fast. I'm going to wait until tomorrow, but I'll post a "1 week" picture. I know sunset hygro is cheating, but it's comical how fast it's grown. Literally sprouted back up probably 6-7" in just 5 days and the leaf bundles on the top are a beautiful pink color. 

Another thing I've done this time around is I removed the acrylic top that set on the eurobrace and I moved the light to where the bulbs shine into the tank unobstructed. They used to shoot through a 1/2" thick layer of acrylic. I know that doesn't attenuate the light TOO much but when It starts getting that moisture film/algae/mildew on it, that shades the light quite a bit. No more par reduction with that, which is probably why the sunset hygro has turned red.

Shame about your featherfin. Mine has definitely become a true "pet fish" moreso than any of the others in the tank. I got the little guy when he was less than 1" and now it's humongous. Definitely a conversation piece. While it doesn't really fit at all with the Dutch scape theme I'm shooting for, and he may do a bit of bulldozing, he hasn't been too much of a bother with the plants and is pretty benign as far as cooperating with my aquascape. He stays. 

As far as driftwood and hardscape goes, I'm really shooting for minimal and functional. Right now what I have serves to help hide the heater some, and gives the catfish and pleco something to cling to/munch on. I am contemplating adding a couple more small manzanita type pieces on the substrate to break up plant groupings a-la Tom Barr's 120 gallon dutch how he does, but in general I'm going minimal hardscape as I'm avoiding the flooded riverbed look. Not that I don't like it, just not going for it. Besides, it took this driftwood about 3 years to stop leeching tannins so I'd hate to go back to that all over again. i don't care for the blackwater look too much.


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## The Dude (Feb 8, 2011)

The Congos did develop a taste for my Downoi and crypts, but it wasn't too bad of a deal. I got to setup my 11gallon rimess tank as a result. Its going to eventually be a shrimp tank, but the Downoi is going crazy in there so I've started to refer to it as my Downoi farm. Everytime I've sold shrimp or Downoi I've literally had to turn down 4 or 5 people the first time I get around to checking my messages.
Ya the feather fin Synodontis was very cool. It.was.pretty rare for him to mess stuff up, but man was he cool. I'm liking where youre going with the tank and I always love seeing new scapes. It helps me get closer to my perfect scape. 
When are you adding the other fish?


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## bpb (Mar 8, 2011)

I feared that about congo tetras. I had a real nasty battle with a 9 fish school of buenos aires tetras which I purchased before I wanted to go planted and they're the most herbivorous fish imaginable. Nothing was safe even java fern and mosses. I hate getting rid of fish because I never know who the person is getting them and never know if i can trust their skills, but I had to rehome these as it was ridiculous, and the tank was so stable, they would likely live for years longer. Becasue of that i researched the larger bodied tetras extensively and it seems most of them develop a taste for some plant matter at some point. 

I suppose I'm not in a huge hurry to add new fish. Fish have never been the primary focus of the hobby for me, it's always been the scape, so I'm really thinking about where to acquire some nice stems from. I've got a friend here that I can get some rotala from here soon, but I'd like 3-4 more varieties as well. The big box stores here are lacking in the plant department, and the wife wouldnt take kindly to me paying a stranger on a forum for plants to ship/giving our address out. She's paranoid, so I've gotta wait around until I can manage to get to an LFS out of town or a friend can stop by for me, which happens fairly often. It'll happen eventually. I'm very patient. I'll keep trimming my sunset hygro in the mean time lol. 

I suppose I could technically add my angelfish any time. The sooner the better, so they'll get big. And start eating my guppy/endler fry, so that population will dwindle. I just would like to avoid the big hodge podge look of too many fish species and some adult angels would be very helpful in humanely culling some unwanted fish. Don't know anyone locally who wants any, and the big box stores don't take them in, even for free. So it's either net and flush, which i would never do, even to a 1cm sized fry, or allow them to be eaten by predators, which seems like a better plan. I do have one remaining tiger barb but he is like 6 years old now and doesnt bother anyone. When my full tiger barb school was going, they made short work of some angelfish I tried to add, so I've been hesitant to try them again, but now that I'm down to one barb it may be safe enough. I'll likely grab 4-5 angels at some point in a week or two, to see how it goes. I'm going to be limited to the veiltail koi type angels which is fine by me. Those look every bit as pleasing as the expensive rare varities so I'll be happy with that. What is everyone's thought about german blue rams at lower temps (79-80ish?) Can they tolerate it, or is it certain death?


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## Freemananana (Jan 2, 2015)

I'm not positive on GBR, but my LFS carries blue rams (look like GBR) at room temperature. They have no heaters or coolers at all in their system. I'm pretty sure they can live in those temperatures. I've seen people, on here, keep them in 76* tanks. Probably not ideal, but liveable.


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## bpb (Mar 8, 2011)

Another update. Stopped by one of the big box stores and horribly overpaid for some plants, but I wanted to start filling things out, so I said what the heck. It's only money.

New additions:

Pogostemon helferi "carpet" started (front left of FTS)


Staurogyne repens "carpet" started (front center FTS)


Lobelia cardinalis planted (front right FTS) - I'm now reading this is not a true aquatic plant, but also reading that here and there people are having long term success with it under high light and co2. Damage is done, it's in the dirt. If it stays ratty and ugly looking over the next few weeks, I'll just pull it and go with something different. Pictures of this grown submerged look really nice though and I love how thick and bushy it can get. Also, being that I have a moderate interest in terrestrial gardening as well, I'm considering pulling a couple stems and planting them in a pot out back and seeing if they'll flower. The emersed pictures look real nice too.


Lastly for now Bacopa caroliniana planted (rear center FTS)


And the FTS for today, taken last night just before lights out. The sunset hygro is growing unfairly fast, and the AR is actually looking ok. Top sides of the leaves are bronze colored but the undersides remain red and it's grown a couple inches or so. 


Suggestions for front center/left right in front of the driftwood?
Suggestions for center middle between the S. repens and B. caroliniana?
Suggestions for rear middle/right between the C. wendtii and B caroliniana?
Suggestions for what to replace the dwarf sag and C wendtii with entirely?

Also that's not sloppy dirty water spots on the glass, those are CO2 bubbles making the close ups look messy. Iphone also does a funky auto-white balance depending on where I take the pics at, so it looks like the lighting changes from picture to picture. If I adjust it to make the substrate look the same in all of them, it'll oversaturate the plant leaves.


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## bpb (Mar 8, 2011)

More changes. Did my first water change since I set the tank up last week. 50% water change (roughly 30 gallons) with 2 TBSP of GH booster added. I haven't ever really been big on testing the planted tank but as I was curious, I decided to check the nitrates the other day and I only got about 1 ppm on the Elos kit, which is a good bit lower than I'd like to be, so despite having fresh dirt under the gravel, I went ahead and did a full strength EI dosing, which I will continue to do twice a week now at this point. I haven't checked my phosphates yet, but I will eventually one of these days. That's the beauty of also being a reefkeeper. I've collected some fairly high end tests that are also good for FW as well. I only check phosphates on my reef once a month or so, and I've got a giant stack of reagents for the Hanna low range phosphorous colormeter. 

Drop checker installed now as well. I havent been running it for several months. My bromothymol blue was long expired and was unable to hold any color at all (went clear almost an hour after putting into the 4 DKH solution. Thanks to forum member JasterMake for hooking me up with some plants and a fresh batch of blue liquid! Nice having a fellow high tech hobbyist only a couple miles down the road.

Speaking of. Added three new species to the tank this morning.

Hygrophilia Thai (brown). I understand this hygro will tend to hug the substrate if light is high enough. I planted it in the negative space just to the left of center, to separate the two carpets, I'm ok if it grows up a little even though it's in the front. I'll keep it about 4" tall at most though through frequent prunings. Looks ratty now since it was just planted,

Rotala rotundifolia planted rear right just next to the crypts. Quit a bit of this. Also kind of twisted up and funny looking, but as it grows I'll likely remove the crypts bit by bit and allow it to wrap around right behind the lobelia (which is actually growing and sprouting new leaves).

Rotala occultiflora planted in between the AR and Bacopa which i have condensed a little bit. Love this type of needle leaf delicate stem and I'd like more in this style, only with reds. As it grows Ill wrap it around in front of the bacopa to meet the rotundifolia


That's it for now. Here's a FTS. I'm really happy with the growth I'm getting so far. I have the co2 goosed with the drop checker yellow. The fish don't seem to be in distress so I'll leave it running full tilt for now. Hopefully the BBA dies away soon. It sure its ugly. Seems to be limited to my filter intake, back glass, and the crypts/dward sag. I trimmed down and replanted some sunset hygro stems as well to thicken up the bundle behind the logs. It grows unfairly fast.


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## bpb (Mar 8, 2011)

Best kind of update. More pictures. My catfish has done a little bulldozing and I'm having to replant a stem every now and then but nothing real catastrophic. Last night I trimmed a few BBA covered leaves. I'm not positive why I'm still having it with my drop checker at bright yellow all of the time (even at night when the CO2 is off it doesnt get a chance to return to all blue. At any rate. Pretty happy with growth rates so far. Things are definitely looking happy and growing at a manageable pace. Took some top down shots for a change.







Bump: I'm also beginning to wonder how necessary another light really is from a par standpoint? I don't have a par meter. I'm wondering if more light will merely increase growth speed and not have any measurable impact on actual plant health and appearance. I know I'd be able to take advantage of more color options than just 6500k, which I know is perfectly adequate for growth alone, but it doesn't have the most pleasant appearance to me. If/when I do add another light, it'll mostly be to staggar the two lights, and run one, for 6 hours and the other for 6 hours with maybe a 2-4 hour overlap in the middle for an 8-10 hour total photoperiod


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## Freemananana (Jan 2, 2015)

More par would just be faster growth most likely. After medium light and CO2, more light and more CO2 are just faster growth. You can sustain almost all plant life with medium light and CO2.


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## bpb (Mar 8, 2011)

Not a bad call. I'd still like a wider variety in color. More of a blue sunrise, and a red sunset, meaning on the front fixture I'd likely run a 6500K and a 10K, and on the rear fixture I'd run a red bulb and a 6500K. My GE6500k bulbs i'm using now are about a year old and could probably stand to be replaced. I cannot source them locally at all, and I'd hate to pay in shipping from another carrier just for those two bulbs alone. I'm placing a large bulkreefsupply.com order and unfortunately they dont carry the GE 6500k bulbs, but they do carry the Giesemann midday, so I'll likely add a couple of those onto my order, and for the 10k I've got a spare ATI Aquablue Special and for the red bulb I'll likely use an ATI Purple+


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## jimbo662 (Aug 4, 2013)

Tank is looking great!


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## Smudger (Jan 19, 2015)

2 pence, if your having slight bba problems, adding light will only worsen that, unless your upping the co2+ferts.

Looking good, will fill out in no time 👍

Richard - Happy Fish Keeping


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## bpb (Mar 8, 2011)

Thanks guys. Being a total noob at BBA and not having researched it that much, I pretty much am reading that low/inconsistent CO2 is generally the cause. Now if I'm running very heavy co2 injection, and dosing the full EI amount, will the BBA tend to fade away on it's own or is this something that requires direct manual intervention? I've always had patches here and there, but it would be nice to eliminate it entirely. Will fresh bulbs help also? I know we commonly read how old/shifting bulbs will increase algae growth


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## Beefy (Mar 6, 2015)

I would suggest supplementing your CO2 with Excel, many have great success in using it against BBA. No harm in having both carbon sources in the water.


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## Smudger (Jan 19, 2015)

Yes I've heard spot treating the bba with flourish excel works well with a syringe of some sort, inject straight onto the area

Richard - Happy Fish Keeping


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## bpb (Mar 8, 2011)

I'll have to pick up a bottle from the store at some point in the next few weeks in that case.


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## Kindafishy (Jan 14, 2015)

You had asked for some recommendations for that front right area and it struck me that either Ranunculus inundatus or Eriocaulon sp. would be an interesting addition. As your other foreground plants fill in, either of these would add a different look and visual interest. Just my $.02.


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## Freemananana (Jan 2, 2015)

Metricide14 found online is about $20 a gallon and is several times stronger than excel (aka just water it down) if you plan on using a decent amount of it. Just a FYI.


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## bpb (Mar 8, 2011)

I wonder if I could snake some from work. I work in radiology and I know they use that stuff to clean the ultrasound probes. 

@ kindafishy: Those are fantastic suggestions. I've been really drooling over the Erios but they carry a hefty price tag and are hard to find locally. I tend to avoid online ordering of livestock currently, but I may have to make an exception or try to go in with others on some. I love how tom barr has his in his dutch tank. That's the plant that really takes it over the top. Looks like 200-300 worth of erios there in that little section though lol. The Ranunculus looks awesome too. I haven't heard much about that plant or seen it used often. Perhaps I just overlooked it


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## bpb (Mar 8, 2011)

Fighting with the tank. Things happening so quickly with it I'm torn as to whether to react immediately or just let it ride. BBA worsening daily. The driftwood is nearly covered as well as all artificial surfaces (heater wire, filter intake, back panel). It's so strange. Everything I've read points to inconsistent co2 as the root cause. I don't know how to make it more consistent though. I'm injecting at 4+ bubbles per second and my drop checker is yellow yet the bba worsens. I do have the solenoid on a timer which cuts off during the dark hours. Wondering if I should just keep it on all the time? I would think that would lead to more inconsistent levels since plants don't use co2 during the dark cycle and that would lead to a big time buildup overnight. Nitrate tested in at about 2.5 -5 ppm using the Elos test kit. I'll test phosphate this week but I hear those are essentially unrelated to bba. Might it possibly be the high organic content in the MGOCPM under the gravel? Or might this just flat out be new tank woes due to all new substrate and water and reducing the plant mass by like 90% upon initial rebuild? 

I'll keep with the weekly 50% water changes. Maybe even do a little more than 50%

Bump: Stem growth on the rotala and sunset hygro is super leggy too. Wondering if it's from low light levels. With this bba I'm hesitant to increase the light though. I'll soon be replacing my year old GE 6500k bulbs with some Giesemann Midday 6000k bulbs


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## Carp3Diem11 (Dec 17, 2014)

I read somewhere that too much Co2 will also cause BBA, another member here pointed me to this link, perhaps this will help:

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=203684&highlight=one+two+punch


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## Beefy (Mar 6, 2015)

Seriously, try hitting it with Excel. Use the initial big dose exactly as recommended, then use double the typical maintenance dose, and see what happens.

When everything balances out again, you can dial it back.


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## rebelbuck1993 (Sep 3, 2014)

the best way to kill BBA is H2O2( Hydrogen peroxide ) use a syringe or dropper and spray the BBA with it, scrub off next day and wala gone, i have had to breakouts of it and this did the job, also my cousins tank had it bad on the driftwood and filter this was the only thing that killed it and it has been gone for 2 months now


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## andrewss (Oct 17, 2012)

the tank is lookin great! once it grows in it will be amazing!


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## bpb (Mar 8, 2011)

New regulator in today! This thing is a beast! 
Concoa 312 with Burkert solenoid and hoke needle valve. I wasn't ready for how heavy this thing is so I bought some bungee cables to strap the co2 cylinder down in the stand. Haven't hooked it up just yet. Hopefully it performs better than the Milwaukee, which I haven't had any issues with. Next step cerges reactor.


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## jimbo662 (Aug 4, 2013)

Congrats! So did you end up getting the BRS dual reactor? Mine has been working great.


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## bpb (Mar 8, 2011)

Negative actually. I had a Home Depot gift card so I went ahead and bought a water filter canister which I haven't hooked up yet. My regulator has a 30 psi max operating pressure and most atomizers need more than that so I pretty much have to use the reactor if I hope to use the regulator, which was my plan anyway so I think I'll just be hooking it up to my canister filter rather than buying another pump. I'm not that concerned with filter turnover rate since I have a powerhead and am densely planted now


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## Beefy (Mar 6, 2015)

bpb said:


> I wasn't ready for how heavy this thing is so I bought some bungee cables to strap the co2 cylinder down in the stand.


I would strongly recommend that you get yourself a proper wall-mount bracket with a non-stretchy strap. A top heavy gas tank that falls over will damage your regulator, and in some rare instances cause catastrophic tank failure. In my lab facilities, OHS will absolutely rip you a new one if the find an unsecured tank......


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## bpb (Mar 8, 2011)

While I can certainly respect the dangers of a gas tank falling, I'm 100% confident I'll get it died down well enough. I have a plan that will pretty much be identical to a prefab bracket that I'm assembling inside the stand. I'm pretty certain as it is, most of our tanks wouldn't pass official safety inspections, especially not my reef. I'm in a constant brainstorm on how to make it all safer. I'm more concerned with wire management. One of my tanks uses over 15 outlets. 

At any rate. I was going to do a large water change today but didn't get any sleep last night and forgot to make rodi water so I'll have to do that tomorrow along with beginning excel dosing to hopefully get the upper hand on this bba. 

I've decided I'm going to go ahead and plumb my cerges reactor into my eheim 2217. It'll reduce the flow some, but I have a powerhead in the tank so that should be negligible. I'm not worried about nitrification on account of the dense plant load, light stock, plentiful substrate and mature filter. I see it as more dwell time than anything. 

In other news my featherfin catfish bit the dust while I was at work. While I'm not super upset because he made life very hard on me with keeping plants down with his constant bulldozing and plant uprooting. He was about 8 years old. Didn't live out its max expected lifespan so I'm a little bummed about that. I tried to rehome it aggressively but couldn't find any takers including stores. My plants will be happier though

Here's an fts from today


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## bpb (Mar 8, 2011)

Time for some updates...After sitting on my thumbs for a couple weeks and not doing anything about my co2 situation I finally did some work today. Swapped out the Milwaukee regulator with the dual stage concoa. As mentioned before. It's a beast. I strapped the co2 tank to the stand to keep it from falling over. This regulator adjustment knob and hoke needle valve are just buttery smooth and reek of quality. Never knew what I was missing. The solenoid is hotter than a firecracker though.



Also finally pieced together the adaptors I needed to run the Bulk Reef Supply dual reactor inline with the canister filter as a two chamber cerges reactor. I wish the planted tank community was aware of this device!! It's only sold through BRS and it is advertised to be used as a GFO/Carbon reactor for phosphate and organic nutrient reduction in a reef tank. Pull out the sponges and run it in reverse and you have a perfect Cerges reactor, with a clear internal tube inside the clear canisters, that have great rubber gaskets and everything, plus they already come with all the tubing you could need. All I had to do was pick up a couple adaptors from Lowes to make it fit my Eheim canister lines which wasn't too difficult. It's a little more expensive than the Whirlpool or GE water filters planted tank folks typically use, but I already had one, and I like how they don't require a ton of DIY. I love the dual canister design too that way if any bubbles sneak through, they'll get caught in the second canister and dissolve there. I'm loving the 100% dissolution rate. Still hard to wrap my head around how that many bubbles are going in but not building up. Love the water clarity now that there aren't a trillion micro bubbles from the diffuser. You really do waste so much gas with ceramic diffusers and atomic inline diffusers...









I did notice that my drop checker immediately went from bright yellow to dark green/blue. I can suspect this is because the diffuser was filling the tank with so many bubbles they were collecting in the drop checker and giving it a false high co2 reading. Now that there are zero bubbles it's able to truly read what is in the water, and I can tell you, I was running too low of co2 before despite the yellow drop checker. Since increasing the bubble count to make the drop checker green/yellow again, the plants look tremendously better. That combined with the daily Excel dosing has all but eliminated the BBA issue I had entirely. I can seriously only find it on a couple leaves, whereas before it was covering everything.

I also have been noticing some potential nitrogen deficiencies and my Elos NO3 test always reads low, so I've doubled my EI dosing amount for only nitrate. It's only been a week but things look a little better. I may increase it further. 

Lastly, cleaned up under the stand. Had a trash bag full of junk i tossed. It's still crowded because it is housing all my dry goods and test kits for both the planted tank and the reef tank. 

Now that I have the co2 situation all figured out and finalized, I'm letting the stems really fill out, until I have a sufficient mass, to where I will likely pull EVERYTHING and rescape with better and tighter lanes and groupings. Once that is finished I will start adding more fish. Tentative plan is to add 4 angels, as large as I can find, a pair of GBR, and several Otos. I need to get a temperature controller first though. My thermostat on the Eheim Jager heater isn't working well and no matter what I set it at, it tends to stay on and heat the tank to a steady 85 degrees which is too warm for my taste. Everything looks happier since I unplugged it, but now the tank stays between 76-78 degrees which may be a little cool for GBR. We shall see if I can find a cheap one.

I also still need to slap a background back up on there. I hate seeing the algae on the back wall and I cant quite reach it to scrap it off. Here's an FTS pre-background



Excuse the GH booster granules on the substrate, they take a couple hours to dissolve. Also had some odd melting of all my S. Repens but it is growing back like a champ. Also finally getting lots and lots of pearling.


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## jimbo662 (Aug 4, 2013)

Great progress! When are you in Austin next? Aquatek had some amazing quarter size koi angles that were like 95% orange. I picked up 3 of them and the dome had some huge GBRs. They're like 1 1/2" + long.


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## bpb (Mar 8, 2011)

Oh man that sounds perfect! I'll be in town on Saturday for a gig but don't know if I'm ready to add new fish just yet


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## bpb (Mar 8, 2011)

Feel like the tank is really starting to hit its stride. The cerges reactor has really paid off and allowed me to actually increase my bubble count significantly and stabilize my co2. I also have doubled my nitrate dosing and been using a double daily dose of excel as well to try and suppress algae growth. Loving these lights as well. Here's an updated fts. Plants are pearling like mad now finally. Fish don't seem to be gasping or in distress despite the canary yellow drop checker. Yet I seem to be losing then a bit more frequently than I am used to. Makes me afraid to try out those Angels I've been talking about. 











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## jimbo662 (Aug 4, 2013)

Tank is looking great!


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## burr740 (Feb 19, 2014)

That's coming along nicely. Glad to see you got the algae under control. I think you'll find as plant mass increases it gets easier and easier to keep it at bay.


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## bpb (Mar 8, 2011)

Thanks guys. I'm loving how warm/red the color rendering is with this bulb combo. I don't care for a cold/cool looking spectrum with plants. Now if the ludwigia glandulosa and AR would just come around I'd be pretty happy with the direction it's all headed. Those struggle for some reason. That empty spot slight left of center is a lane that either of those two plants are supposed to fill in if they just start cooperating. Getting under curled green/olive leaves out of them and slow growth. Added an osmocote tab or two under each mass to try and find the deficiency


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## electromango (Jul 22, 2015)

Hey bpb , how did you like the MGOPM compared to the MTS? How was algae with both? Also, did you experience and raise in pH with the flora max sand/what's your pH now? thanks, and cool tank!


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## bpb (Mar 8, 2011)

Truthfully it's hard to tell to be honest. I replaced all my old substrate, tossed 95% of my plant mass, and my filter started acting up. I also changed from an inline atomizer to a cerges reactor shortly after setup so there were way too many variables to measure. I don't know what my ph is but I inject co2 heavily, to the point that I'm probably losing fish from it so my drop checker is always bright yellow. I have battled algae heavily but that is likely due to the massive change of substrate causing a cycle in addition to fluctuating co2 levels. At this point I have 100x the growth and color I ever did before...however that is also likely do to improved light, ferts, and co2, as well as removal of all nuisance fish. In short, too many variables have changed from when I used the classic MTS from when I made my own substrate this time using MGOCPM. if you look at the front page of the build you can see I basically did a slightly modified version of the MTS substrate, only with potting soil. I didn't use clay in this substrate but I do dose CSM+B as well as iron chelate so I'm at no shortage. Hope that helps 


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## BoxxerBoyDrew (Oct 16, 2005)

bpb,

Your tank is looking GREAT!!! It is really growing in since you got the Co2 dialed in! I have tried all kind of reactors, but I always go back to the cerges type! They just work! I built mine from an old r/o unit, so it didn't cost me anything. It has the least affect on the output from the Fluval 205 it runs off of, and NO BUBBLES in the TANK!!! That setup you have is a AWESOME reactor 4 sure!!! I am going to put a link to that for my next reactor I need to build! THANKS!!!

I can't wait to see the Angels in this tank! Angels in a Planted 75g is one of my FAVORITES! They looked good in my 55g when I had them, but the depth of the 75g seems to make them look even better! Do you still have your Endler Hybrids in there? I would like to try to buy some of the Hybrids from you the next time I am in C.S., if that is possible! You can p.m. me if you would like to talk about it!

Also, I must have missed the post about which bulbs you went with, or did you go ahead and add a second fixture?

Sorry about the loss of your Plec and Catfish! They were both very cool fish, and the cat at 8yrs! I know they can go longer, but still that is much longer than most will ever get to see! I lost a Albino Cory female this winter " Big Mamma" that was over 5 years old, and I still find myself looking for her at feeding time every now and then! Funny, how we get used to "fish" like that!

Well keep up the GREAT work on your tank, and glad you got the BBA figured out! Hopefully you can get the other couple of plants going so you can get it going just like you want it to, but it is looking great to us so far!

Take Care!
Drew


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## bpb (Mar 8, 2011)

Drew! Thanks for the comments man. Ever since I got everything dialed in the tank seems to show daily improvement. Did some more trimming today. To try and fill out the front to back sloping lanes of certain stems. 

The cerges reactor is just terrific. I've honestly got so much pearling going on in the last few hours of the day i actually don't like the look. Totally covers up the red plants. Can't see their color at all just a mass of bubbles. I'm having a heck of a time adding new fish though with such high co2 levels. Just lost 5 Otos a few days after adding them. Scared to add the Angels considering. I will try amano shrimp next though since I have no algae eating livestock at all. The bulk reef supply dual reactor is literally the perfect co2 reactor design. I can't imagine a better one. And zero DIY needed. Single canister one can be had for the same price as a water filter from the hardware store and requires no modding. 

The pleco was sad to see go because he had great markings. I had been aggressively trying to rehome the catfish. He was so big and clumsy he made a planted tank impossible honestly. At least the kind I want. Oh well. 

For the lights I had been running a coralife 2x54 watt t5ho fixture using 2 ge sugarcoat 6500k lights. I recently bought a zoomed 2x54 watt fixture to run also. So now I'm running 4x54 watt t5ho, directly on the tank rim since the reflectors are lousy. For bulbs I'm now running Giesemann mid day 6000k and Giesemann aqua flora (red bulb) bulbs. 2 of each. The two red bulbs are sandwiched in the middle of the 6000k bulbs. The color is spectacular. I just love it. I have considered changing it up and trying some LEDs but I would want it to be an upgrade, not a lateral or downward movement, so I'm fairly set on something like Kessils or BuildmyLED so I haven't really decided yet if I need to spend the $300-400 if I'm not convinced it will improve my tank health and growth. 

I do still have a TON of endler guppy hybrids. Probably 100. Even some albinos showing up in the mix. You're free to some if you like. 

Are you nearby College Station? If so you should really hop on and create a profile on our local reef club. Hope mods don't slap my hands here but the link is bvreefclub.com
As the link suggests there are a lot of saltwater folks on the forum, and the admin/forum mastermind is a reef keeper, as am I, but there is a fw section and lots of interest anyway and several planted tank builds up on the forum. Come check it out


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## bpb (Mar 8, 2011)

Got a 20# co2 tank filled and installed today. If nothing else this will help me keep track on how long it lasts. Happy they actually filled it sufficiently this time. They normally only fill to 800 psi. This one is reading 1200 psi full. 


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## Squeaks5635 (May 2, 2015)

bpb said:


> Got a 20# co2 tank filled and installed today. If nothing else this will help me keep track on how long it lasts. Happy they actually filled it sufficiently this time. They normally only fill to 800 psi. This one is reading 1200 psi full.


Just a heads up since I have had to deal with people underfilling my tank when I bring it in. 

The only way to check how much CO2 is in the tank is by weighing it. pressure will change with temperature, and since CO2 around room temperature turns to a liquid between 800 and 900 psi that is why most tanks stay at this pressure for the life of the tank until all the liquid CO2 is used up. 

All tanks should have a tare weight stamped on them and this is of course the empty weight. After the tank is filled put it on a scale and subtract the tare weight, this is how much CO2 they actually gave you even though you may have paid for more. The last time i tried to get my 10 lb co2 tank filled (at a dive shop) they only put just over 6 pounds in it, but I paid for 10 . I ended up calling and finding out that they do not fill it based on weight which is the standard way to fill CO2 (all welding supply shops and airgas fill with this method). After talking with them I returned and they filled it again this time weighing it until they got all 10#'s in the tank.

Hope this helps even though you might not be filling that 20# very often.


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## bpb (Mar 8, 2011)

Good to know. I was unaware of all that. This is a fairly reputable welding shop here in town. Probably the largest in the Brazos valley. I understand 800 psi to be an acceptable full pressure (now knowing temperature dependent). At any rate. Good to know. I've been in the aquarium game for many years but truthfully pretty new to the high tech planted area. 


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## bpb (Mar 8, 2011)

Did a little trimming and replanting the other day. Tough to get daytime shots due to window glare








Have a bit of an algae increase from being without co2 for a day. It's taken a while to get the drop checker yellow again. Still not there. May have to do another peroxide treatment. 









And an fts of the saltwater tank just for fun


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## bpb (Mar 8, 2011)

Another water change, another FTS. Working on "training" the stems into thick dense bushes through frequent trimming. I've really goofed on placement of a couple things. I accidentally put the ludwigia peruensis and the AR next to each other. The green and red myrio next to each other, and the lobelia and bacopa next to each other. I have poor juxtaposition of leaf texture. I can't fathom pulling it all and rescaping again yet though. Maybe a while in the future. Otherwise it's on the up and up. Algae majorly clearing up. Bba all but gone. Reds really starting to show. Oddly enough the plant in my tank that struggles the most is the rotala rotundifolia


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## jimbo662 (Aug 4, 2013)

Wow...both tanks looking great!


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## bpb (Mar 8, 2011)

Right side of the tank beginning to take definite form. I learned I had been trimming all wrong. After watching videos and reading instructions from Xiaozhuang here on the forum, I changed my way of trimming and it's been a few weeks. Really happy with the result. Snapped a pic immediately post trim yesterday. The left side is a little less composed because the Limnophilia sessiflora and dwarf sag look over grown, but happy with the direction at any rate 











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## bpb (Mar 8, 2011)

Simply lowering my light levels has done wonders for tank health. The Nesaea golden is coming around and the crowns on the lower portions look terrific. Bba and gsa are all 99.9% gone. I don't see any anywhere so if there is any it's hiding in the dark. Pretty happy with the overall look of things. The only thing still struggling is the AR which I may give up on temporarily. It's easy to acquire. Did a huge trimming today. The right side looks much more composed than the left. The Limnophilia sessiflora, dwarf sag, and downoii all just grow so fast it looks ratty in a hurry on that side. I've considered simplifying and culling one or two of the plants on that side and either getting new stuff or moving duplicates from the right side over. Here's a before pic. 










And after. I forgot to trim the downoii so tomorrow morning I'll be chopping that down to the substrate level. Too bad there aren't any interested locals on this plant because it's not super easy to come across this amount of it, healthy, and free. Oh well. To the compost it goes. 










Also decided to keep some of my lobelia cardinalis floating in the tank to plant in pots outside. Interested in seeing how this goes since I understand it isn't actually a true aquatic plant and has nice flowers if grown terrestrially. I just wonder if I should grow it in like a bog type condition like I do my sarracenias or just in some miracle grow. I don't see how they'll survive the transition to open air


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## bpb (Mar 8, 2011)

Beginning to look ratty again! I'm expecting about 2 more months before I need to go in and pull many many stems and clean it up. Really want more reds. 


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## bpb (Mar 8, 2011)

WOW it's been a while since an update. 

My substrate became problematic. The amount of organic matter was just uncontrollable. No matter how high I ran co2, how much excel I dosed, how low I ran the lights, or how much much water I changed, the algae was unreal. I grew a full carpet of cladophora algae that I would peel up in mats weekly. The maintenance was ruining it for me. Had to do something. 

So I sacrificed 7 bags of floramax and tore the entire tank down. Tossed 90% of the plants. Kept only a few stems which I soaked in peroxide. For substrate I laid down 2 inches of black diamond blasting grit. And popped in a grid of osmocote tabs every few inches. Eheim filter also crashed so I replaced it with a sunsun. 

Also replaced one t5ho fixture with a BuildmyLED Dutch XB strip as well. Brings us to today. 

I've tossed the AR and a couple other species that just weren't working for me. I'm sticking with what works and the scape is more conservative now. Much to my surprise, dwarf hairgrass LOVES the tank and is growing like mad. The carpet you see started as a single tissue culture pack from petco, planted sparsely. About 2 dozen little crowns. It's filled in a lot. Here 'tis. Growth has been slower but the algae is under control and the plants are ALOT happier. Cannot seem to get red in my rotala though. Either of them 











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## AquaPlants (Mar 22, 2014)

Wow that's incredible! I think I would of lost my patience and gave up! 

Have you changed your lighting hours and dosing after the rescape? 

How much money have you invested into this tank so far?

Good luck! 




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## bpb (Mar 8, 2011)

Thanks for the kind words! I really did want to give up. It's been so hard and such a long time coming before I finally caught my stride on this tank. Which has been especially frustrating because I do well with my reef tank and consider myself a smart guy. It's finally come together though. I think. 

Dosing has been adjusted basically to just adding a tiny dash of micros and about 1/8 tsp of iron twice a week. The fish alone are keeping nitrate and phosphate well above ideal levels and I'm not able to do as many water changes as I'd like. Too many little ones running around. 

Light, i run the BuildmyLED XB strip at 100% for 8 hours a day. On the back half over the tall stems. They are getting 200-300 par up in the top half directly under it but they eat it up. The 2 bulb t5ho is in the front over the carpet and runs for 4 hours in the middle of the photoperiod. 

How much have I sunk into this tank? Surprisingly not much. The tank is a rimless acrylic I got for free. 

Custom built stand: ~$200 in wood
Eheim 2217 (dead & gone) $20 used
Sunsun canister $75
Hydor koralia 1050 $?? Too old to remember. 
Floramax i tossed $140
Black diamond sand $8
Co2 tank 20# $20 Craigslist
Concise 312 regulator $250
BuildmyLED Dutch XB $200
Coralife 2x54 watt t5ho $75
Eheim heater $20

That about covers it. Can't really itemize plants and fish. Just bought so many and been gifted so many can't keep track. 

Not too bad honestly. 

Don't ask me to itemize what I've spent on the saltwater tank...I don't even want to think about that. 


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## AquaPlants (Mar 22, 2014)

Yeah it takes a whole lotta passion to continue after all that! 

I had lots of struggles in the past with a few tanks and finally I just stop being so critical with every step I do with my current planted tank. I'm very laid back with it and started with baby steps when it came to dosing and lighting. It's been working out nicely! 


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## bpb (Mar 8, 2011)

Very nice man. If there's one thing I've learned in my 10 years in this hobby, it's to listen to what your tank tells you and act accordingly. I know that's kind of cryptic and perhaps an over generalization, but so many steps will compound and lead up to a result. I like to look at where I'm at from a tank health standpoint and if improving it and correcting problems is something I can easily identify, afford to fix, and have time to fix, I'll make necessary changes...on the flip side if my complaints are either too expensive to fix, or I cannot find a logical reason for the struggle, I instead focus on what IS working and run that direction. It's served me well. Sometimes it gets to the point you take what your tank gives you and build on that. 


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## bpb (Mar 8, 2011)

Growth still doing very well. Even after just a few days. I see some trimming in my future 


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## ThePlantedMedic (Dec 29, 2015)

All of the searching across this world wide web and this tank journal finally speaks to me. This is like an exact replica of the problems, in order, that I experienced with my tank (75G). It inspired me to get off the couch, cut and pull all the algae out I could and fire up the newly filled CO2 tank and EI macros. 

I have a question about the lighting.

I have the same size tank with same measurements as you, I am running an AquaticLife dual bulb T5HO set up with two new bulbs, one is a 6500K 54W and the other is a "flora" bulb 54W, the K was not listed on the packaging for some reason, lots of red. Is this going to be enough for me or should I be looking at a second fixture? I do not have any access to a PAR meter aside from renting one online, which I may do if necessary down the road. I just planted some H.C. Cuba, I guess seeing how that does in the next few days will answer my question at the front of the tank...

I am breaking this tank down within the next month to rescape and pulling out the dirt and blasting sand cap and replacing with some eco complete and amazonia, do you have any suggestions or tips before I dive into this?

Thanks for posting this journal!!


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## bpb (Mar 8, 2011)

Thanks for stopping by! Genuinely glad to have been able to help someone just through observation alone if nothing else. 

I honestly think from an intensity standpoint 2 bulbs alone is sufficient. Especially if they're fairly close to the water. The problem I run into is spread though. But running 4x54 watts directly on the tank was too much. Even with the LEDs and the t5ho now I don't run them all at once. I kind of stagger them on and off with only a 3-4 hour overlap. I've read that it's difficult to get good refs from LEDs and I can attest to that. Even with a top shelf unit like BuildmyLED running at 100%, slight pink hues out of my rotala is the best I can get even with the plant crowns only an inch or two away from the light (realistically getting several hundred par at that point). But I digress. 

As far as swapping substrate. I've done it many many times. Luckily for me my tank is acrylic so I can remove it entirely and spray it out with the hose in the yard. It's only about 30-40 pounds total so easily manageable. 

Just be fast. I advise tossing a lot of plant mass. Get rid of scraggly stems and unsightly portions. I also peroxide dipped the portions I keep just to get any algae bits dying before the transition. You'll probably want to turn down the co2 a pinch due to the reduced plant mass. I don't use a drop checker anymore though I literally turn it up till the fish are near death, then back it off just a hair. Otherwise like I said just be fast and the fish should be fine in a temp container for an hour or two. 


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## bpb (Mar 8, 2011)

It's common place for some but I'm still excited to have my first actual carpet in a tank in my 9 years in this hobby. DHG literally growing perfectly. Perfect height and density. 











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## bpb (Mar 8, 2011)

Another check in. Couple FTS pics from the two tanks. Nothing new. Just grow. Chop. Grow. Chop. Recently had our third baby and this many has REALLY done a number on my ability to maintain tanks. I can fully understand why some people will get out of the hobby when they have babies. It's just a lot to manage. I'm keeping mine up for now. I keep kicking around ideas of downsizing, upsizing, taking a break, going huge, going nano. I can't make my mind up so for now both tanks will stay the same. 


















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## BettaBettas (Aug 21, 2016)

Love seeing my SW dream tanks, one day...
If you have the money go huge because it can take a couple days without fertilizers I would think, larger and more able to maintain itself. If using Co2, well another story. Good luck on the third baby!


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## bpb (Mar 8, 2011)

Appreciate the reply. I am running co2. But my schedule has all but destroyed any water change regiment I may have been keeping to, so at this point I've been topping off with Rodi and dosing potassium, micros, and iron once every 3-4 weeks. 


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## JasterMake (Mar 21, 2013)

Did you ever do that rocks-scape?


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## bpb (Mar 8, 2011)

Unfortunately I never did. And I’m regretful. I spent all this time searching and searching for a good deal on seiryu stone high and low. Way overpaid from a member on here who runs a specialty shop. Ended up needing 3-4x as much as I got and couldn’t stomach spending $500 on seiryu stone. Then I find out chewy.com has it for less than half what I paid. Oops. But I ended up trading it to another hobbyist for about 90 pounds of reef rock for the saltwater tank upgrade. As of now this is the state of the 75 gallon planted tank...










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## JasterMake (Mar 21, 2013)

Bummer. But looking at your empty 75g I think it would look awesome if you just grew another carpet of hair grass and nothing else.


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## bpb (Mar 8, 2011)

Yeah it would look pretty good and be easy enough to maintain


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