55g planted project begins

Here's a shot of a 55 gallon setup I found on Craigslist a couple weeks ago. It also came with a heater, light, and a Rena XP4 filter. It was a great deal and I'm excited to get it set up. While the money investment was low, there will be some sweat equity involved to get this setup looking great. As this tank will be living in my family room, I'm more than happy to put in the effort to turn it into a great centerpiece.

First, as you can see, the acrylic was somewhat scratched and fairly hazy. What you can't see is that the back of the stand is missing the support piece and the wood could use some refinishing. I'm also going to be swapping out the background for a darker color, seeing about modifying the light hood to possibly add an additional flourescent day light and/or a blue night light, and a host of smaller details to make this tank something to be proud of (quality door handles on the stand doors, accessory/food shelves on the inside of the stand, automatic light controller, etc).

So far the plan for the tank itself is a planted setup with a dirt substrate. I'm new at just about everything involved with this setup so I'm going to be taking my time to research and learn so I don't end up killing all my fish and plants. I've been watching a lot of videos from dustinsfishtanks and others as well as reading the forums for ideas. Speaking of fish, so far the idea is to have cory cats on the bottom, neon tetras in the middle, and some sort of medium size fish up high. Right now I'm digging the idea of some roseline shark/torpedo barbs, but I'm up for any other suggestions on species that look good and will get along with the neons and cories.

I've already begun the work on the tank and stand, but the only picture I have right now is of the arrival of my new purchase. The 55 will eventually be located where the 10 is right now. Should be a fun project!

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Good luck! Planted tanks are a lot of fun

One pointer about dirt substrates - be careful with digging fish like corys. Smaller corys will be fine with a sand dirt cap of around 3/4", but less than that and you run the risk of their digging activities fouling your water. I've kept panda (about 2" max) and pygmy corys (about 1" max) with a 3/4" pool filter sand dirt cap and they don't dig through the cap, but I imagine some of the larger cory species would make short work of it.

Ah yes, dustinsfishtanks is where I got a bunch of ideas for my [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] too, in fact, I purchased my clay from his [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]. Good luck, look forward to see how it works out for you

Sweet! This will be fun to follow, as you update with your progress!

Here's a site that shows you how to mineralize your soil
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Here's another one:
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Sweet links angelo. Just helped me decide on some stuff for a few tanks!

BillHN, woo! Do it! Do it! Do it!

Thanks for the links, guys. I'm trying to take in as much information as I can before the actual dirting and planting starts. I've been busy at work all week and am finally enjoying some days off to relax and do some tank work. I've done some buffing on the tank and it's already looking much better. I'll probably go back and hit a couple rougher spots with sandpaper, then buff again, but overall I'm very pleased with the improvement in clarity. I decided to take a break from the polishing wheel to do some woodworking. I now have a full rear support for the stand, which I may have to further modify but at the very least provides solid support compared to how it was (the top piece was bowed in pretty good from holding the tank with water in it). Here are some shots of the beginning of the refinishing work. I'm going with a slightly darker, richer stain than the previous color that looked like Honey Oak. The first two shots are the "before" with the last shot being "work in progress".


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Picked up a nice fat chunk of driftwood at the B&I pet store the other night.

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Really great progress, Flyfalcon!! (odd... I could've sworn I made a reply to this, prior to you posting about the driftwood. Hmmm...) Anywho, that driftwood looks sweet!

Better be for 30 bucks (why can't I just walk into the woods and find something nice.....sigh.....).

Flyfalcons wrote:Better be for 30 bucks (why can't I just walk into the woods and find something nice.....sigh.....).

I lived by the woods (really close to a levee) back in Louisiana, and er....
I just called my neighbor to send over 40 lbs of nice looking driftwood, and some petrified wood. He made sure to know what to pick
Can't wait to get my free driftwood... [:

Doin' work. The stand has been stained, just need to finish the doors. Also have been working on polishing the tank. It's still not there yet but at least there's visible progress. I'm hoping that some of the crazing that I can't get worked out won't be quite as visible once the tank is filled with water. I test-fit the XP4 in the stand and it actually fit, so that's good news. I need to finish polishing the tank, then I'll get the dirt and Eco Complete soaking and the new (darker) backing on while making sure the light setup is good to go and fitting the filter and plumbing. Couldn't resist checking out the look of the tank and light with the newly stained wood. Also the plans for the fish have changed slightly, we're now thinking of 2-3 Angels to go with the roselines and the cory cats, no neons in this tank.

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Rehabbing an acrylic tank seems like a lot of work. My hat's off to you!

Does anyone recommend a foam pad between the tank and stand? The top of the stand has full support on all four side and it doesn't seem like the tank rocks at all, but I wouldn't want it to end up under some big twisting loads (even if I can't see it) when filled.

Filling the tank!

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This was taken last night after running out of gravel and planting the plants. Today I went and got more gravel and a couple other plants. Proceeding slowly but everything's looking great so far.

Flyfalcons wrote:Does anyone recommend a foam pad between the tank and stand? The top of the stand has full support on all four side and it doesn't seem like the tank rocks at all, but I wouldn't want it to end up under some big twisting loads (even if I can't see it) when filled.

trust me, you wont have an idea youre under twisting loads, until your tank tells you so...ask me how i know!
personally ive always had something under my tanks, usually a towell...even if it wasnt necessary i think id still be doing it

Ryan,
Looks like you're going to have a really nice tank.
Ron

Thanks Ron!

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Up and running for 24 hours now. Most of the gas bubbles on the tank sides are gone although the water cloudiness is still there. Much better than yesterday though. On the left side I have three swords in the background, java moss (poorly placed as of now) on the driftwood, and hairgrass up front. The right side is rocking a chunk of micro rotala, three wendti crypts, and three tall skinny thingys that I already forgot the name for.

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Here was a quick little DIY project for the tank. 36" blue water resistant LED strip found at the auto parts store, mated to a 12V power supply from Radio Shack. That'll be going in after I post this.

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Bling bling!

Very nice so far! I would suggest getting more plants if possible, you want as much plant coverage as possible gobbling up those nutrients coming from the dirt

I like the DIY LED too, very creative, just be sure you have enough light so the plants are happy

The string I did is a blue moon light, which looked great last night. I'll get a better idea of how well it illuminates the tank once the water clears up. My hood only houses a single T8 light and I am considering stringing two white LED strips together for more day lighting. We'll see; it would be less expensive than adding another T8 fixture or a T5 fixture to the hood, even after I add the power supply.

Got some more plants in, as well as the first occupants (Salt and Pepper). Got the fish at Tropical Fish World in Sumner and they seem to have been adjusting well over the last 24 hours. Going to let the tank sit like this for a little bit, then slowly add more fish. Looking forward to seeing the Roselines in here!

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Tank looks great man!

Thanks Bill, I can't wait to see it after the plants have had a couple months to grow out. Hard to see in the first photo but I have added a second batch of dwarf hairgrass on the left side and it's several shades different from the first batch. I'm hoping to propagate all of that into a nice bed of hairgrass on the left side. I suck at sticking the Java Moss down to the driftwood though, and may just give up on it and yank it out.

trust me, falcons, its more like weeks rather than months for them to grow out. i was surprised to realize this myself

Flyfalcons wrote:Thanks Bill, I can't wait to see it after the plants have had a couple months to grow out. Hard to see in the first photo but I have added a second batch of dwarf hairgrass on the left side and it's several shades different from the first batch. I'm hoping to propagate all of that into a nice bed of hairgrass on the left side. I suck at sticking the Java Moss down to the driftwood though, and may just give up on it and yank it out.

This last time I planted my tank I used a dremel and drilled small holes into my woods in key spots where I wanted to attach ferns. In some areas I could drill all the way through and use thread to tie the plant on, but I mainly used the holes as peg holes. I then used tooth picks to secure the ferns to the wood. It worked real well. After about a month the toothpicks kind of deteriated and the ferns left attached. Your wood looks like you may just wedge toothpicks in some cracks. This should be sufficient to lodge ferns or Anubis onto the wood...

Tank update!

Here's how it's looking right now. I am totally thrilled with the results so far. I made a plan, stuck with it, am learning lots in the process on how to make things work, and am just about at the point where I'd rather watch the tank than the TV. I do spend plenty of time sitting on the floor in front of it while giving my dachshunds the attention that they not so subtly demand when I get home. I purchased a couple antique brass knobs at Lowe's for the stand doors, which should match the hinges nicely, but still need to just drill the darn holes and screw them on. Soon. After a few days of wondering why the Angels were hanging at the top, I got an air pump and bubble bar to get the water O'd up. I'll be replacing the ugly bar soon with a stone at each end of the tank, which will clear things up nicely.

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Here are the Angels, being awesome. I used to think of Angelfish as cliche but now I absolutely dig them. They have great personality and glide through the water like, well, an angel. I changed Pepper's name to Peppah. Sounds more gangster. So far they are getting along with each other and the other fish really well. Love them. Also, you'll notice I secured the java moss to the wood much better than before. I was in Tucson last week for training and visited this store: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] . Way cool fish store; the owner had set up his own biological filtration system to filter all tanks and it was incredible how clear they were. Anyway, they had some ADA moss thread and I picked some up. I definitely have higher hopes now for succeeding in getting the moss to attach itself to the driftwood.

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Finally, the piece de resistance of the tank! I learned about roseline sharks when visiting a small fish shop in Juneau a couple months ago. Since then I could not wait to get some of my own. These were purchased at Tropical Fish World in Sumner and had a very interesting acclimation to my tank when I discovered, about an hour after releasing them, that my heater had stuck and the tank was at 85 degrees and climbing! I immediately disconnected the heater, freaked out that all the fish in the tank were breathing rapidly (and one roseline was spending a lot of time just sitting on the bottom of the tank), and felt helpless as I had to leave the house to work night shift. In the morning my wife texted me to say that all fish were alive and accounted for, and all roselines were swimming normally! Relieved, I picked up a new heater on my way home from work. So that pretty much does it for stocking the tank - five Roselines, five Cardinal Tetras, two Angelfish, and two bronze (standard) Cory Cats. Now it's a matter of keeping everyone happy, and getting those plants to grow better. I'm thinking I may need to upgrade the lighting soon as a single T8 probably isn't going to do the job. Having fun!

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Good call on the Roselines, very pretty fish. You're correct about the lighting, a single t8 ain't gonna do the job. As far as I can tell most of your plants are lowlight, so you wont have to worry about overkill lighting. A 48" dual bulb T5HO fixture would probably be sufficient enough, I'm sure you can find some good deals on one around the web (or if JimA still has his availible).

Also, I know you said you did a lot of research on planted tanks, but I just wanna make sure you removed any activated carbon from your filter. Activated carbon=sad plants

OMG~! take those roselines back ASAP! if you want plants at all please return those guys. i added some awhile back thinking "nah ive got enough plants they couldnt possibly eat them all" and i swear almost 2 days later my tank was destroyed. easily 200$ in plants.

A short video update of the tank.  Overally I'm very happy with my tank, but there is room to improve.  I believe a lighting upgrade is in order to help the plants out a bit more.  I'm currently scouring the interwebs to see if I can find an LED light strip at 6700K.  So far no success other than purchasing a premade light hood for aquariums at considerable cost.  I just want to set up an LED light strip to complement the T8 light in use now.  Other than that, the Roselines have decided that the hairgrass and blyxa works great as a salad bar.  So those plants have been thinned out a bit, but the rest of the plants haven't been touched.  I'm probably going to get more plants to fill in where the others were thinned out.  I also added a Clown Pleco and a couple snails to help with clean up duties.

Ooooooh nice!  really great footage you have there! Keep it up!

Flyfalcons can you pm me the place and what items you bought for the DIY led strip. Thanks your great.

The LED strip itself was purchased at a local Auto Zone. I forget the brand but there are various made-for-car LED light strips with a sticky backing and are water resistant that you should be able to find at any auto parts store.

The power supply was purchased at Radio Shack. I asked them for a 12V power supply and got a 1-amp power supply with selectable voltage. Later I realized I could have gotten the 300mah power supply and it would have powered the strip just fine, either way it was only a few dollars difference.

Soldering them was really easy; just match the positive and negative wires on the power supply and light strip, solder and shrink tube them, and you're done!

The cost for buying those two items retail was something like 40 or 50 bucks. I'm sure I could have done it much less expensively with a brief search on Amazon.com, but I was in one of those "I want it NOW" moods and was eager to do a small project. Hope this helps.

For LED DIY projects I like these guys: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Flyfalcons, the tank really looks nice!