From reef to planted: musings and build thread

[Anonymous]

Plastic airline tubing gets hard and inflexible when CO2 is run through it, but this are hard plastic elbows to begin with so that shouldn't be an issue. Plastic also leaks a few percentage points of the gas, but for the less then half inch length we're talking about, right before it hits the water, I'm thinking that's probably not a big concern.

But I'll keep looking for something more definitive

[EDIT TO ADD:

Think plastic airline elbows will be okay. The only warnings about plastic I can find all relate to plastic airline tubing itself. It also seems like all the check valves recommended for use in CO2 kits are themselves made of plastic, so hard plastic parts would seem to be okay.]

 

[Anonymous]

It seems we are having a private chat here :lol:

 

[Anonymous]

Well, if you don't count the one post by Vitz 8O

I'm not too surprised, though - it's a freshwater tank on a reef board, and an empty one at that. Maybe a few photos of it filled with plants will draw folks in, after I get to that point.

Until then I'll just enjoy your company

 

[Anonymous]

wow...nice!

 

[Anonymous]

Nice build. I kept threadfin rainbows a few years ago. Pretty finicky about water quality and not terribly long lived compared to other rainbows but displaying males are awesome to behold. I think most of mine slowly died off after about the 2 year mark.

 

[Anonymous]

i assumed a build thread wasn't for dialogue-and actually felt abit odd/ill-mannered posting what i did :wink:

 

[Anonymous]

i assumed a build thread wasn't for dialogue-and actually felt abit odd/ill-mannered posting what i did :wink:

Mine is

 

[Anonymous]

well then, damn you for finding the perfect piece of driftwood !

 

[Anonymous]

well then, damn you for finding the perfect piece of driftwood !

:lol:

Don't even ask, though. I went through more stacks o' wood then I can count trying to find what I was after. Had Jeff Senske of ADG do the same thing with his supply of ADA "Old Blackwood" too. In the end I only found the one piece - and it's five inches shorter than I was looking for.

At least with live rock if you need a specific shape and size you can just buy a large piece and bust out the hammer and chisel!

Nice build. I kept threadfin rainbows a few years ago. Pretty finicky about water quality and not terribly long lived compared to other rainbows but displaying males are awesome to behold. I think most of mine slowly died off after about the 2 year mark.

One of the reasons I picked threadfins and p. gertrudae is that both will spawn fairly easily, and that the young of both species have a shot at surviving to adulthood in a planted tank with their parents. Both species have very small throats so their fry don't have to survive for very long before they've grown too large for their parents to swallow. The hope is to have a self-sustaining colony of both species with no direct intervention required.

If it doesn't look like that will work I'll set up a seperate small breeding tank and make a real effort at it.

 

[Anonymous]

Im bookmarking and visiting...looks pretty interesting thus far...

 

[Anonymous]

cjdevito, how did you arrive at the composition for your substrate? And yes, I'm still kicking around the idea for another planted tank

 

[Anonymous]

I spent a lot of time looking at other people's tanks on the web and I found that without exception all the ones I liked the best were using the ADA line of substrates. That's what got me looking at it in the first place. Did a lot of reading up on people's experiences with it and, while it does have some negatives (the biggest being the amount of ammonia it tends to leach in the first few weeks immediately after being used) they were dramatically outweighed by the positives people were reporting.

The fact that I liked how it looked helped, so did the fact that it isn't particularly more expensive than competitor aquarium substrates like Eco-Complete. Once I decided to use it I pretty much followed ADA's suggestion of which products to use and how much of each. They have some .pdf files floating around on the web I could probably dig up for you if you're interested.

ADA does have several, um, questionable soil additives which are optional. The Tourmaline BC I used is one of those, and in the end the only reason I used it was because some folks reported that it did seem to help somewhat. The others I'm not bothering with, because I haven't seen anything except advertising copy to suggest why I might want to include them.

 

[Anonymous]

I surfed around and found ADAs website, and it seemed a few of the products bordered on Alchemy

 

[Anonymous]

I surfed around and found ADAs website, and it seemed a few of the products bordered on Alchemy

Alchemy is a good word for it. Their core line of fertilizers are good, if overpriced. But most of their other additives I wouldn't bother with.

Their substrates and glassware, on the other hand, are peachy

 

[Anonymous]

I loved the cube tanks, and thought the price was reasonable. The tanks, eh not so much-too expensive.

 

[Anonymous]

I loved the cube tanks, and thought the price was reasonable. The tanks, eh not so much-too expensive.

The stuff under 20 gallons (the 60P and smaller) is pretty reasonable and quite nice, as long as you don't mind an open top tank.

But for the real jaw dropper, notice they want over $500 plus shipping for an ugly wooden stand for their 60P (18 gallon) tank.

 

[Anonymous]

Just a quick (non) update. Getting the plants and filling the tank has been on hold because of nuttiness at work. Been stuck with so much overtime the last week and a half that the tank has been the last thing on my mind. Going to see if I can't make arrangements to have the plants delivered this coming saturday and get this project back on track.

 

[Anonymous]

Bump for an update

 

[Anonymous]

Well, good news/bad news.

Bad news: the guy who runs the plant company I'm getting the plants from was on vacation for a week, so I wasn't able to get them ordered up when I'd hoped to.

Good news: he's back now, and I just placed the order this morning for delivery later this week.

15 blyxa japonica
12 pots of hemianthus callitrichoides
10 portions of ludwigia repens
8 pots of dwarf hairgrass

I wasn't sure on how much of each I'd need, quantity wise, so I ended up ordering more of each type then I'll (hopefully) need. Mind you, the total cost of all of the above was about all of what three corals would go for.

Hopefully by friday I'll have a pic to post of the initial planting. The tank is pretty much ready to go otherwise, all the equipment is hooked up and sitting dry waiting for the plants so I can do the initial fill.

 

[Anonymous]

Well, looking forward to pics later this week!