The Great 12 Gallon Long

I've seen so many great iterations of the 12 gallon long aquarium that I had to get one. They've been on a long back order but I found that Marine Depot gets them in pretty regularly. The tank total costs about $82 after shipping. I was worried about shipping a long skinny tank, But boy do they pack it tight with bubble wrap.

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I dont have it up and running yet because I'm waiting on my Amazonia substrate to show up. It should arrive on Wednesday.

Here it is outside of the box.
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Here's what I had in mind for a design. I want to do an Iwagumi style tank with T5HO lights, seiryu stones, CO2, perhaps some DIY Lilly pipes, riccia carpet, and some pennywort to balance the middle.

I found the stones from Midway and am ordering the other items online.

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I am most likely keeping some kind of blue or red shrimp to speckle the substrate with color.

Cool tank!

another neat idea (or something i went for w/ my long narrow tank) was like a bamboo forest, tops of plants poking out the top and the inside looked very cool. just an idea. anyways loving the idea so far, really excited to see it come along.

I've seen that I believe it won some aquascaping contest. It was a beautiful tank. That takes some serious skills.

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I'm going for this Iwagumi look. I hope not to screw up so badly but I think it will be a fun little journey.

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My ADA aquasoil is here! OH YES!!

I got amazonia and africana. It took 3 weeks to get here so I'm a bit excited that it's here.

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amazonia - buffers to about 6-6.4 PH
africana - can buffer the water into the 5PH range.

I'm using RO water so it should be able to hit the lower end of the range.

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Have fun setting up the tank! That's a great form factor to work with.

Very nice. Keep us updated throughout the process would you? I admire these type landscapes and often wonder how its achieved , what plants are used, & where to find those type rocks.

plants: RICCIA and pennywort for now. I may add an HC carpet since I will use CO2 and high T5HO lights.

The rocks were found at Midway Pets. It's amazing what you find there if you look.

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HC carpet
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RICCIA tied down on rocks
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Do you have the pennywort yet? If so, where did you buy it?

Yes I got if off of ebay. $13 for about 12 stems. thats including the shipping.

The tank has found it's home spot.

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Time for the amazonia.

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Here it is with nearly the entire bag in the tank.

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Next came the stones. I tried to stay with my initial design, but I think I'm short maybe about 3 more stones.

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For the time being I used one of the stones I had from a previous tank it's not seiryu so it kinda sticks out like a sore thumb. I'll probably swap it out so I can get a more consistent look.

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moving onto the light.

I did a ton of research for a light that had great ratings, T5HO, and about 36" long. Coralife lights have some bad batches of ballast that go dead about 6 months into their use. Aquaticlife works great but is pricey and kinda bulky.

I found some odyssea dual bulb fixture 39W on amazon that was priced right about $60 bucks. It has a sleek design and great ratings.

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Here it is mounted on the tank. I dont think I love the blue light and perhaps will replace it with another T5HO bulb. Which maybe overkill considering how close the light is to the tank. I may have to devise some kind of fixture mount to raise it.

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Awesome.

so I got 3 more rocks today. That works out to be about $55 total in rocks. And About 47 for one bag of amazonia.

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Now to place them in the tank and remove the big eyesore that was in it's place.

This is the new scape with the 3 new stones. OMG I'm starting to hate the blue bulb.

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Oh yeah notice how the legs look different? The odyssea lights has legs that are removable so I pulled them out and did a few 90 degree bends in the metal rods and was able to raise the lights to a much better height.

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I will do substrate soak with some water today to let is soak while I wait for my plants to be mailed to me.

Update: Today I replaced the actinic blub with a 6700 T5 bulb and it makes the tank look a ton better. I've also started a dry soak.

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I was also going to put some pennyworts in there, but found these pennywort like plants clumped and carpeting a piece of my backyard. I thought they looked pretty so I dug some up rinsed them and planted them in.

Can anyone identify it. I highly doubt they are aquatics plants and I suspect once I do a fill that they would completely rot.

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after some research, looks like what I found the yard was Dichondra carolinensis (pony's foot) they dont do too well submerged so out they go.

The new bulb looks a lot better

thanks $17 for the bulb, but the satisfaction was priceless. =)

It also gave me an excuse to go to Midway.

So I've been waiting for my pennywort bought off of fleabay but it hasnt shown up. Probably lost in the mail. So i've ordered some off another site to make sure I get some in.

I've added a few things to the tank while I'm waiting though. I bought some cabomba and added it to the right side as a background plant. I like how these look and wanted to mimic a bamboo forest in the back ground. I still have some of the pony's foot found in the backyard in the tank. As you can see they are beginning to melt. I have added a few brazillian pennywort that were shipped free from some shrimps I bought a while back there were only a couple of leaves but they've begun to spread out a bit. These guys are up against the rock.
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I also bought a bunch of riccia and spent a couple hours meshing them to little rocks. I'll use these as a border to fence in the HC once they arrive. I have some homemade CO2 in there at the moment and highlight these things are pearling a ton.


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I've also made an attempt at making my own lily pipes for the Eheim canister filter 2213. I used a heat gun some salt to bend the acrylic tubes into shape.
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Heat and salt? Like hydroforming metal only instead of water injected steel you use salty Mcdonalds french fries and a heat gun? This I gotta see. Roll that video!
My guess is you fill the tubes with salt to keep the tube shape then heat the tube up to bend into the shape you need, right?

LOL - I used the salt I shook off of the fries to fill the tubes.

Yes the salt keeps the walls of the tubing from collapsing on itself.

total cost for 3ft long tubes off of ebay, which can make 6 pipes, was $26 bucks.

If you buy the much more beautiful pipes off of this site its about $150 for a set. before shipping.

Of course mine is acrylic but it serves the purpose. =)

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.oO Impressive DYI! Thanks for sharing this, I know I'll be using this at some point.

Loving watching this thread and all the info you are sharing in your build...very nice aquascaping with your rocks..that layout looks awesome. Keep up the feed

Indeed; I'm looking forward to grow-out photos of the riccia. It's tricky business to maintain in the long term, from what I've read; good luck!

Not as nice as PBmax's marsilea carpet =) but I plan on growing these guys nestled between some HC carpet on the left side of the tank. It should offer up some nice texture contrast in the carpeting


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Nice M. Minuta.

2 day update:

The riccia rocks are starting to poke pass the meshing and its only been a few days. The light leaves you see on the inner part are elatine trianda.

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I ripped out the pony's foot and replaced it with Glosso. This is about one pot's worth.

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I received a small patch of baby dwarf tears (HC) from an issaquah planted tank pro. I have that planted on the left side of the tank. I hope they fill in with plenty of light and CO2


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I planted some micro swords on the left back ground and received some elatine trianda from a friend I received it in the plastic pot today. This is another type of carpet plant that looks awesome when it fills in. It's pretty undemanding but can melt if not taken cared of properly.

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love the idea of the molded tubing.

Looks great! The riccia is definitely happy.

update:

Today. I bought a few bacopa and more HC from a place for pets and rearranged my riccia rocks to the base of the stones. I think it gives it a very natural look. I read online that seiryu stones from ADA can raise PH. So I ripped out every single rock today and did a quick acid test. Luckily mine do not. While I had them out I scrubbed them down and now each rock has a brighter sheen to them.

Since I almost sold them off today. I went out and bought some petrified wood and was about to do a complete rescape but since the PH test shows negative ill affects. I'll save those stones for another scape in the future. =)

Everything still looks a bit messy and cloudy because I just finished cleaning off the stones and rescaping about 70% of the plants.

I've also installed my new eheim 2213 with extended spray bar. I added an inline heater so I can keep the tank looking clean and uncluttered.

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Wow, looks fantastic!

really liking that one. wheres that lily u wanted from the get go tho?

Very impressive. Good job...

I have future plans for a long aquarium, your set up is my inspiration.

Thanks for sharing!!

Anthraxx wrote:really liking that one. wheres that lily u wanted from the get go tho?

Are you referring to these pipes?
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I made and extended spray bar with the same acrylic tubing by drilling holes every couple inches.

I ended up snaping the piece on the right though when I was trying to adjust the angle of the spray. I man handled it a bit too much. Got lazy and used the original green tubing. =)

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Quick Update;

I've added a Pair of threadfins and 5 gertudaes. One of my males however rammed himselff into the glass during a water change and knocked himself out. He is in fishy heaven.


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My pennywort arrived but it's no where near what it looked like on the ebay auction. It was pulled up from some pond. and came completely broken and full of pond dirt.

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Im trying to get it accustomed to being submerged with high light. which should cause it to grow smaller and shorter leaves then I'll cut the gigantic leaves.

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the marsilea is coming in but kinda slow for my liking. I've added some hydrocotyle sp japan to help fill in the tight corners.
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Pay attention to this Rotala Indica. It looks like it was grown emersed and so If and when it adjusts to my aquarium I have a feeling it will transform quite a bit.


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Some picture updates:

I've trimmed the cabomba. Interesting thing here is that when I put it into a lower light tank it sees to do a bit better.

The glosso is growing like mad and beginnig to carpet nicely. I've also added some cardamyne next to the rocks to give it the old rock covered in vine look.

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The rotala Indica, is actually more of a rotala Rotundifolia. check out the transformation to pink leaves. I really like it , gives the tank a splash of color.
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The HC and Glosso are starting to meet in the middle. I've put down a some staurogyne repens next to the pennywort.

It took a couple of weeks being submersed but the pennywort eventually shot out some small shoots and it's looking more like what i had imagined.

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I've also trimmed the bacopa and the marsilea are starting to fill with the hydrocotyle japan.

Here's an interesting fact. Bacopa are also used as a brain supplement to enhance memory and other brain functions.

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I think my tank is at a bit of an imbalance though since thread algae has started to grow on everything. It may have been introduced from one of the plants I bought but I've hit it with hydrogen peroxide, raised my light and shortened my photoperiod to 6.5 hrs. The peroxide has killed off some of it but has damaged some of my riccia in the process.

Looks great! The glosso is doing really well.

Great inspiration! I have a Mr. Aqua 12g long still in the box out in the garage. I want to put my Danio erythromicron in there eventually, but have to figure out where to put it.

I've been waging the slow war against Riccia for about a year. It's NOT a good plant for me as it gets into everything, breaks off bits that plug the filter and is all-round a nuisance. It's hardy as well....so what got tossed outside over the winter is still going strong. At least the over-wintering seems to have killed off that pesky, thready pest Utricularia! Glad Riccia works for others.....I am starting to toss the pickings now.

Did I mention your tank looks amazing?

Couple of birds eye view shots.

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Haika,

I would love to see what you turn your 12G into.

Coming along nicely

Quick Update:
My Riccia Rocks have been pulled from the tank. They no longer want to play nice and I was getting tired of playing pool boy every other day.
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I also did a big hacking trim, since going to the GSAS auction. I had lots of fun at this event. My wife went to police my bidding. So I didn't get a chance to go to crazy like Poke. =)

I believe I saw a few of you folks there. I'm sorry I didnt get a chance to introduce myself. Perhaps at the next event.

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Score some beautiful Staurogyne repens and Alternanthera reineckii.

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Here is the right side with the S. repens in place. The glosso has been in rough shape late. I dont think I've been dosing enough. I've been using the Seachem flourish products and followed the weekly dosing chart but just realized I under calculated my doses. Not good the glosso have been suffering because of it.

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Everything looks pretty rough after the trimming but I've upped my doses correctly so I hope to get them back to being green and lush again.
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Full shot after rescape.
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I've ordered some dry ferts. and Thanks to Jacko for putting it in my head. I'm going to start doing the EI dosing popularised by Tom Barr. We'll see how it goes. =)

BillHN wrote:Did I mention your tank looks amazing?

Thanks Bill. Did you end up with some good stuff from the auction?

Good luck with the dry ferts! I WAY over-dosed my tanks with dry ferts starting with the EI dosing according to this site:

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Granted, your tank is way fancier than mine (CO2 and all), but my advice is to be careful. I have my dosing back where it should be now and all is well again, thankfully.

HUGE money saver though - definitely the way to go.

Riccia didn't like me either... not worth the trouble.

Your tank is looking great! Please continue to post updates.

binbin9 wrote:

BillHN wrote:Did I mention your tank looks amazing?

Thanks Bill. Did you end up with some good stuff from the auction?

Me and my wife were seated behind Angelo and next to lamental jester and another fish boxer!
I had loads of fun man! I bought a bunch of stuff for my tanks and now I have A boat load of chems!! I scored two test kits for ten bucks. Along with a beautiful branch of manzanita woos from graham. And some Madonrona from my friend Tanya! I met a bunch of cool people,and went on a nice fish adventure in china town, for my first trip to Seattle!

I spent a hundred but got way more than my money's worth.
It was AWESOME

Thats awesome. None of my friends are into the hobby so, when I get a chance to chat with other hobbyist, it annoys my wife bcuz I'll end up going for hrs.

Hopefully I'll see you guys at the next event.

We're gonna checkout midway petstore tomorrow.

binbin9 wrote:.....it annoys my wife bcuz I'll end up going for hrs.

It's hard to balance wives and the fish hobby, or any hobby for that matter, if you're really passionate about it. I've learned that if my wife shows any interest at all in part of my hobby, besides just enjoying the fruits of my labors with my aquaria, I try to do it for her. EG when we were at Wet Spot she fell in love with the 12g Mr. Aqua bookshelf tank. It was $75 and I cringed at the price of the tank...a little over $6/gallon. I seldom pay over $1/gallon because I buy mine used. It's probably the best money I've ever spent for or with her. It's HER tank and I maintain it for her; and I maintain it the way she wants it done. She loves it. I love it, and now I have little problem with her about the time I spend with my fish.

Another thing I did was when we moved, I told her I wanted to our den where we watch TV arranged so we can have aquaria in it. I used to have a fish room and spent a lot of time in it in the evenings while she watched TV and wanted me in there with her. So I got rid of my rack of breeding tanks and now I keep the tanks as showy tanks as much as I can. So while the TV is on I'm in there with her and I can mess with my fish and we're all together...Linda, the fish, the dog, and I!

So I give up my breeding and now go for décor. And we're both happy campers!