100 Gallon "South American" themed aquarium

[Luke78]

Almost one year ago today, i launched my first project by aquiring Wild discus(Tefe),various tetras,and cories all in a 65 gallon setup.Its been a pleasant experience learning and maintaining a proper environment for all my fish.Along the way, various species of plecos and corries were added and even smaller cichlids as well.Creating a similar environment (biotope) where all these creatures come from is a quest on its own,but i tried to add a bit of everything to bring it close to what its really like.

A few months ago,with the help of Patrick and Charles from Canadian Aquatics,i managed to pick up a 100 gallon acrylic 'Truvu aquarium' with a nice black stand for an excellent price.This unit is amazing and in pristine conditon considering it was used.No marks,no deep cuts,bends or cracks!I was completely taken away.It came with a paper background(wont change it i like it,a special acrylic cleaning glove, and Patrick threw in a sheet of wood for all of it to properly sit on.So the plans for this setup are to be based on a "South Amercian theme" again, but with more concentration on creating an exact biotype from where most of my present stock is actually from.I will list my stats and specifics below, and update this thread with tons of pictures(everyone likes those) and news as i go along! Feel free to comment,like or dislike,recommend, or take ideas from this for your own benefit! I wanted to thank several people specifically here whom have been patient,giving,understanding,helpful,and good friends to me along the way:Patrick and Charles(Canadian Aquatics) for all your services,April-Shelley-Francais-Joseph for all your discus knowledge,Gary-Ming-Nat for your pleco/cat knowledge! A thanks also goes out to all the members here as well whom ive come across as well and see day to day on the forum!

Heres the stats:

Truvu Aquarium 100 gallon: "48X"24X"20
Black Stand with bottom shelve :"51X"24X"28
Marina Paper background
Eheim Ebo Jager Heater: 300 watts
Eheim Canister Filter: 2080 PRO3
Lighting: 1 "30 T8 trip now(will upgrade to possible LED setup)
Hagen stick on thermometer/Coralife digital unit
Hydor Korlia Evolution 550gph


Flora: No plants as of now(considering some floating ones/undecided)
Substrate Carib Sea "Super natural" line/Sunset gold sand (0.1-0.3mm size)
Manzanita branches and stumps (2),rocks-stones-pebbles,and pleco caves

Fauna:

-1 Cardinal Tetra
-12 Lemon Tetra
-8 RummyNose Tetras
-15+ Bloodfin Tetras

- L15,L46,L129,L147,L177,L201,L204,L226,L377
-6 Corydoras Reticulatus
-13 Corydoras Agassizi
-7 Corydoras Melini
-10 Corydoras Sterbai
-5 Corydoras Gold/Green
-5 CW026 Corydoras
-8 Corydoras Metae
-4 Corydoras Loxozonus C079
-4 Mouse catfish


Wow, this was a long post sorryHeres a few pictures of the stand i cleaned up and put into place.More pictures in the coming days!

[Luke78]

Ok, no attachments will upload they are to big so it looks like photobucket or flickr account for me

[2wheelsx2]

Ok, no attachments will upload they are to big so it looks like photobucket or flickr account for me

Sounds exciting. Yep, photobucket, picasa, flickr are the best way to go.

[monkE]

Sounds like a great project Luke! can't wait to see some pictures! You know where to find some floating plants if you want em!

[Luke78]

Thanks guys, iam looking forward to it and hopefully this week or next it gets underway.I forgot to mention that with all this space,iam hoping to add a few more wilds and increase the pleco population.Two different "fish bugs" that bit me bigtime As for equipment, i also forgot to mention that one or two water movers will be added as well but can choose between the various models.Any thoughts,comments,or opinions per your own choice or experience?

Sorry with the photo comment,was trying to upload a few but iam having some issues with size.Plus iam new to all those free photo sites!Gonna go with flickr but dont know how to bring them up here! Help please April, i will be coming by your shop to pick up the substrate soon thanks for being patient, if you read this already! Updates will come soon!

[monkE]

I havn't used flickr but i know that photobucket is very easy to use. once you upload an image, there is a link bar on the right side of the page that has different codes for embedding the pic on different types of pages. You simply click on the <IMG> code and that automatically copies it. Then simply hit paste or CTRL + V to paste that IMG code into any post on this site and bingo! your picture will now be shown in full size.

[Diztrbd1]

agree with Mike (monkE), I like photobucket the best and its actually the [IMG] code you copy :P the one with < > is for HTML & won't work on here. Sounds cool Luke, look forward to seeing pix soon

[Luke78]

[IMG][/IMG][IMG][/IMG][IMG][IMG][/IMG][/IMG]

Well i finally figured the photo issue,sorry with the size! Thanks Mike and John.I left a few things inside the aquarium(branches and rocks in the bag).I did not remove the paper sheet covering the bottom(came to me like this) due to protecting the acrylic from scratching.Looks like tommorrow i will put it on top the stand and take a few photos then.Its collected some dust and needs a good clean! So here we are so far!

[monkE]

close... but your missing the final piece of the URL..... after it say's /luke78_photo/ there should be more

[Luke78]

Pics aint showing ? Oh man i suck at this!

close... but your missing the final piece of the URL..... after it say's /luke78_photo/ there should be more