[Mark Brown]

So I just wanted to jump on the tank journal band wagon. This is my newly started 40g planted.

3 x sunburst platys
3 x mickey mouse platys
1 x hitch hiker snail that came home from lfs

Co2 injected 5lb can, aquatex regulator.
Aqueon led light with some hacks added on
fluval 300w heater
260 gph sub pump...forget the brand
10ish gallon sump filtration filled with carbon, bio balls, sponge and bio cubes.
sub state is black and white sand with fluorite dark buried.
Paramaters

pH 7.5
kh 7
gh 7
temp 74 f
ammo 0.0
nitrite 0.0
nitrate 0.0

That's about it for now. Just getting her started and hope for the best. For anyone that is wondering that java fern is planted in the substrate....but not for long. I have to tie it off to the driftwood in the next little bit. Just haven't had the time. oddly enough though. the roots have moved above the substrate to get into open water. Suppose that makes the plants smarter than I am.

 

[VElderton]

That tank and equipment set-up looks very well put together Mark. As the tank matures it will be interesting to see how it develops.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[2wheelsx2]

Tank looks great. One suggestion I might have is to fit the tank with a lower wattage heater. A 300 w heater is way too much for a tank of that size unless your room is ice cold. It would lead to the heater to cycling on and off more frequently than a lower wattage heater and earlier thermo couple failure. Should it fail closed your fish could get cooked in a very short time. I would normally use 200 w or less in a tank that size. Even 100 w heater would be adequate.

 

[Mark Brown]

the heater does nothing =) it is set at 18 just in case the fireplace goes out! The wife is away some days and it can chill down a wee bit. The pump does the majority of the heating from what I can gather. The heater is a wee bit beefy for the tank to be certain.

 

[2wheelsx2]

the heater does nothing =) it is set at 18 just in case the fireplace goes out! The wife is away some days and it can chill down a wee bit. The pump does the majority of the heating from what I can gather. The heater is a wee bit beefy for the tank to be certain.

Haha...ok then it's probably fine if your house is warm enough that it rarely comes on. Yeah, with a big pump going on in there is probably plenty of heat.

 

[Mark Brown]

Added a school of 8 Rasbora to the mix today. They seemed to take well last night. Now we hope it stays that way. Need a bigger bio load in that tank and they seemed like a fun little bunch of fellows. They are so shifty me and the wife could only count 7 over and over last night so i actually went out onto the lawn and tried to find the 8th where i emptied the bucket from drop acclimatizing them. Lo and behold, come back in and hey, there ARE eight.
Hopefully i can see some nitrate in there now after a couple of days, unless the plants eat it all. Which really, wouldn't be so bad.

 

[Mark Brown]

Added some little friends =)

 

[Gaia]

Looks great!

Sent from my SM-G900W8 using Tapatalk

 

[Dou]

Looking good! If there is one plant you ought to try it would be cyprus helferi - it would fill the back left tank right up and it goes well with you current plant selection. I just updated my journal with my Brio35 with it in there.

 

[Mark Brown]

I will look into that thanks for the suggestion! I find it hard to get plants over here on Vancouver Island unless I want to drive to Victoria.... grrrrr. I see all the wonderful things all you lower mainlanders have for sale/access to and I get all jealous

Side note, it is 1:30 in the am and for whatever reason I am awake, well lucky me. The power just kicked out and I was here to notice so on went the generator and my fishy friends were saved. Thank the heavens for gas powered gennys living in BC

 

[Mark Brown]

side note... I just looked up that plant and I think I have 2 of them.... lol

I have no idea what any of them are I just buy them because they look nice then I spend hour Googling them to try and sort out what they are... which is hard because they all look the damn same

 

[Dou]

side note... I just looked up that plant and I think I have 2 of them.... lol

I have no idea what any of them are I just buy them because they look nice then I spend hour Googling them to try and sort out what they are... which is hard because they all look the damn same

That's how it starts haha - what looks good and fits the idea you have in your head. If you are willing to pay for shipping I am sure that April's or other online retailers can send something over to you...

 

[Mark Brown]

So I just wanted to say, second time in a week that I'm up in the middle of the night running my generator trying to keep my little buddies alive during another weather related power outage. Keeping fish is almost more work than my three year old

 

[Mark Brown]

Lost a Rasbora today. Not the figurative sense of lost that we get when someone dies or grows apart from our lives but the literal kind. I lost it. I tore my sump apart, scoured the tank and looked everywhere on the floor. Gone.

I'm not even sure what to think at this point. so much for a "closed" loop system.

 

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Tank looks great. Very clean and beautiful. Sorry about the rasbora. Little fish tend to do that once in a while.

I bought a generator years back for our house and my father-in-laws. Turns out our power is supplied by underground powerlines so not as much worried about these storms (but still vulnerable to earthquakes I guess). I also have battery-operated air pumps, big box of D cells, and a couple of UPS battery backup systems in case of power failure. Then again, my reef tanks are $$$ so I have to protect my "investment"/addiction.

Looking forward to seeing more pics as your tank matures.

Anthony

 

[Mark Brown]

Twilight in the magic kingdom.
That side light is my aero garden sprout. It isn't so bright in the real world over here but unfortunately it shows up kinda bad in photo.

 

[The Guy]

Tank looks great. One suggestion I might have is to fit the tank with a lower wattage heater. A 300 w heater is way too much for a tank of that size unless your room is ice cold. It would lead to the heater to cycling on and off more frequently than a lower wattage heater and earlier thermo couple failure. Should it fail closed your fish could get cooked in a very short time. I would normally use 200 w or less in a tank that size. Even 100 w heater would be adequate.

Another good option is a Finnex controller to run the heater if it's a bit big otherwise I would run a smaller wattage for sure.
Beautiful looking tank, can't wait to set up my Osaka 155 cube hopefully it looks as good as yours. Nice job

 

[Mark Brown]

Happy everyone is happy me.
Gravel vacs wreak havoc on white sand capped on black sand. Now I have salt and pepper sand. I kinda like it so it's OK!
Someday when I can get my hand on something I like it will be carpeting plants of some kind or other.

 

[Mick2016]

Funny. I tried to do a sand and gravel floor once, but keeping the two separate became more work than it was worth (unfortunately). So . . . out it all came, sifted the sand from the gravel, and put the sand ONLY back into the tank. After all was said and done, I actually do prefer the uniformity of the sand along the bottom - and a lot less fiddling when it comes to vacuuming time.

 

[Mark Brown]

Mistakes were made, I'm not gonna lie. In truth white sand was a horrible idea. If cleanliness is godliness then aquariums fall somewhere close to Charles Manson when it comes to keeping things stark white. Live and learn.

Started dosing some nitrate today seeing as mine is at 0 all the time which with even the moderate plant load I have is no good. Hope to see some promising results.

For anyone wondering, don't ever buy "glosso" root tabs on amazon. They might say for aquarium use however given the amount of ammonical Nitrogen they contain they are not an ideal choice. I learned this the hard way. After am initial ammonia spike of around 1.0 ppm from zero a couple of water changes and some late night prayers, things have leveled off. Nitrites followed suit for about 5-6 days afterwards. Spikes hit over 2.0 ppm. Repeat water changes and prayers. All this leads me to believe that the ammonia is still being released however the bacteria are doing their job. Nitrite has gone down to about 0.25 ppm and stabilized. Water changes are down to once every two days which I figure another day or two should be over. Back to my previous point, somewhere in there nitrate has to be occurring however with the water changes and the plants it reads zero constantly. Solution....douse it and see what happens. More hope for the best and pray.