# 46g still in progress



## lemuj

*46g finally filled with water*

Here's my 46g bow front tank, all equiptment connected. Still undecided which flourite I'm gonna go with, any suggestions appreciated. Looking to make it low maintenance planted tank, so far I pretty much set with the dw, but the rock placements could use a little more tweaking. Critics are all welcome.


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## brapbrapboom

flurite black or black sand will do well imo.


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## camboy012406

nice driftwood where did you bought that?


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## planter

Looks nice. I would also like to know where you found that wood. The rock is nice too. What kind is it?


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## lemuj

The rocks are called boulder rocks at the landscape supply store where I got them from, picked up about 70 lbs for $7. I got more than I need so anyone who wants the rest are more than welcome to pick it up. The dw there are six branches manzanita that I got from the guy who ordered from the US. There is also one branchy one that I got from superpet. I just tied all those manzanitas to it. Just ordered my WagJag coupon, so hoping I get to pick up the rest of the things need. Black sand, or just flourite black ? Hmmm...and yet still undecided what fauna I want to go with...


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## lemuj

today i bought me 3 bags of Flourite Black. So hoping i get this started by the weekend and start the cycling process....


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## jimmyjam

nice looking setup.. I would place the rocks again a few times with the substrate and brush the substrate to the desired effect. Then figure out what plants you want. How much light do you have? Are you going with co2? I would put at least dyi co2 if not pressurized. It will actually make your maintenance of algae even lower when you have healthy plants. 

medium light: I would go with java fern. anubius, different hygros, ludwigia repens, some crypts..


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## lemuj

i kept my previous equipments before i moved. I sold my tank and everything that was inside as it was too hard for me to move. But Light(Coralife Pc 90watts), pressurized c02 with diy inline c02 diffuser and my canister filters are all going to be use for this one.

here's how my previous tank evolved....

Initial setup









Then grown to this...









and was taken down and sold at this point...


















moving from a condo to a house means more chores. so hoping to setup the next one to be as low maintenance as possible. so Maybe i would go for variety of crypts, anubias nana petite, narrow leaf java fern, Blyxa Japonica, dwarf sag, maybe some sort of Bacopa. As for fauna, leaning toward on going for Cichlids not sure which ones would not tear that plants apart. Or maybe will go with discus, but will have to make sure the plants can handle the warmer temperature the discus needs. So your suggestions are all welcome...


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## jimmyjam

cichlids will def dig up the plants.. but ferns and crypts might be ok.. you might just have to mini put them down. If you want low maintenance.. discus is gonna kill that concept.. for sure. Good luck on the endevour ... either or .. get the co2 for the plants.. thats the only thing relatively mod maintenance I would have.


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## lemuj

Ok I want to put water on this tank and start cycling. My question is should I put the three bags of flourite as well or I can leave them out till I got my plants ready for planting.


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## jimmyjam

Err what? u want to cycle first then put substrate in? Dont do that.. your gonna cloud the water significantly.. and large part of cycling is getting the beneficial bacteria in the substrate.


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## lemuj

Im worried that due to excess nutrient if I dont plant right away, Im inviting algae bloom . Do I need the light during cycling? I guess leaving it without light avoids the unwanted algaes.


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## jimmyjam

yup run a lower photo period, 7 hours or so is good, But the plants will help the cycle process.


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## lemuj

Cleaned up and rearrange my equipments to make it look neat. Getting set to put my substrate by tomorrow. Hopefully this tank sees some water before new year. Upgraded one of the 2213 to 2215(WagJag baby!)

Plants I'm looking for:
Narrow leaf java fern
Crypt crispatula balansae
Cyprus helferi
Anubias nana and nana petite
Windelov fern
Crypt parva
Blyxa Japonica 
Staurogyne repens


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## lemuj

*finally filled with water...*

Finally got me some time to work on this tank. Gave three bags of flourite black three rinses and dump it on the tank. Took some of the plants from my 5.5 gallon tank. Picture below are below.

So here are the pics enjoy.
Initial planting, got anubias nana, java fern, dwarf sag, and hydrophila rosanervig.









And here it is two hours after its been filled and two filters running.









The bad news is my Coralice PC Light decided to die on me, not sure if it's just the bulb or the whole fixture, someone please help. For now I guess no point of connecting my co2, using the regular fluorescent light for now just so I have light it in.

Any advise, comments, criticisms are always welcome.


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## lemuj

7 days after that tank has been filled. White cottony stuff can be seen on the driftwoods, I believe this is normal and shouldn't be harmful for any fish? Although I don't have any in it yet. 2213 filter came from my 5.5g tank and was running for two months, do you guys think it be ok to add fish this weekend? I don't have a test kit and never had and used one before but I usually wait about a month before adding fish.

As for the light, Gucci had offered to test it for me this Saturday so really hoping that it's the bulb, otherwise I will need a replacement.

Also,these driftwoods used to have mosses on them on my previous setup, but over 9 months now that has been dried. There are still little bits of pieces sticking on some spots, makes me wonder if those mosses would actually come back to life.

Picture update will be posted on the weekend.


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## Rmwbrown

Nice set up with the two canisters. I'm thinking about doing the same, however, i might try chaining the two - put the mech and blue filter pads in one and then fill the other with substrat pro and the fine pads. That said, it has to be nice having all the room to mount the diffuser and and the heater.


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## lemuj

Not much have change with the scape,,,i did some wood scrubbing to take those white cottony stuff...and did a 50% water yesterday. Went to BA today to get my water tested and was told that parameters are good and ready for fish.

Algae eating shrimp was on sale so wrote down 8, and to my surprise I got home with way more than that . Dwarf neon Rainbows was on sale too, so grabbed six, too bad no extras. . Comment about the BA, i asked the guy about sexing the fish and since the sale says $2.99/pr. His answer was, "can't really tell with these fish." And also asked him i like the ones with the red fins better than the yellowish one, and he tells me, "don't worry, they will all have red fins when they get older". I got home sure enough i did my research, and found out that red fins are male, and yellowish are females. So, i got me 5 males and 1 female, arghhhh....


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## pat3612

Correct me if I am wrong but I thought you should not rinse it . I never rinse mine.I thought thats where all the minerals are.ps shrimp are Amanos


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## lemuj

pat3612 said:


> Correct me if I am wrong but I thought you should not rinse it . I never rinse mine.I thought thats where all the minerals are.ps shrimp are Amanos


yes you do have to rinse it(actually says that in the bag) otherwise you will end up with a cloudy water when filling up and everytime you plant or disturb your substrate.. Rinse them just enough to take the dusts away...


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## lemuj

14th day today, no plant was added,but all hc that I planted had been pulled out by the rainbows. DW is still growing out some cottony stuff. I've also moved my CPDs over from my shrimp tank. And still looking for a replacement light.

Anyway, here's a few pictures that need your comments/suggestions and criticisms.


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## Chris S

You might be asking for some algae, as the tank is not planted heavily at all.

In the future, you can safely add fish/plants right away if you plant heavily right away.


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## lemuj

*GOOD news BAD news....*

GOOD news BAD news....

Good news is that i got a really great deal on brand new Hagen 36" GLO Dual T5 HO fixture....Bad news it didn't come with bulbs...if someone can point me to the right direction would really be helpful...


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## lemuj

Today, picked up two life glo bulbs at PJs square one. All their Marine glo was marked down from 50 something to $24. So I had to asked about the life glos coz it didn't have the red sticker on it. And yep! It was priced at $24 + change as well. Also bought a few bunches of plants. I think its some type of ludwigia, bacopa, and corkscrew val.

Questions, tank still is not heavy planted, should I use both bulbs? When I have both bulbs on, is it considered low, medium, or high light. Last but not the least, anybody in Halton-Mississauga area care to throw me some of your plant clippings?


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## Beijing08

dude, the GLO will only run with both bulbs on. just a heads up.
For planting, I think lower foreground plants might be a challenge because you've filled up your tank. Those vals and bacopas should be a breeze.


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## lemuj

Thanks Leon, but the tank only planted on the left corner, for now. I have a whole lot of open field beyond those driftwoods tba I think are begging for lower foreground plants. Will put up a pic later in the day when I find time. For now just had to have some plants in there to compliment the light I have.The list of plants I had still is what I planned to stock in it, so the current ones I have now will go once I find all the plants I wanted.


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## Beijing08

no no I meant they will float up when you try to plant them once the tank is filled.


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## george

Leon, I have tiger vals in gravel and it started to take over. So Lemuj, once it starts to get big, i will give you 1-2 babies.


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## Beijing08

george said:


> Leon, I have tiger vals in gravel and it started to take over. So Lemuj, once it starts to get big, i will give you 1-2 babies.


? I was talking about his foreground plants. For instance, planting HC in there is near impossible with water filled to the top.


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## jimmyjam

Hey dude, your kinda far but if your around scarb area, I have potted blyxa jap and crypt sp tropica, 2x2 squares of phoenix moss, taiwan moss, ludwigia arcuata, 3x2 riccia mats attached to stainless steel mesh, bunches of e,tennelus, and bunches of hemianthus microanthemoids all 4 bucks each. let me know before I put up the buy/sell ad. I have recently been playing around with potted aquarium plants and they are kicking ass. The roots are growing great and sometimes out of the pots just in 3 weeks of growth.


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## lemuj

*algae invaded my tank...*

due to busy work and to much things are going on...haven't been very good on catching up with my maintenance. Black beard algae have formed in the edges of my plants and driftwoods. Also tons of green hair algae growing all over the whole tank. I'm at the point that about ready to give up planted community tank. Contemplating on switching to cichlid tank. If anyone interested on starting a planted tank and you see something that you could use from my set-up...shoot me an offer. Will picture of the tank when I get a chance to to do maintenance this weekend. Equipments stayed the same but plants have really grown...


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## lemuj

*a month later*

summary of what happened the past month: BA had an oto cat sale added 8 of them, only one survived to date, 7 died after two weeks of adding them and didn't put much dent on my algae problem. Nov 14, was around Franks area bought me 3 BN plecos, boy these guys are hard working ones. Also started Spot treatment of excel, which the pleco and my lone oto cat luv. Also found out that my co2 wasn't going in my reactor, airline were cracked main reason of the algae bloom. Really need to have a c02 checker in place. Anyways a month later of algae battle, i can proudly say that my algae fishies and i beat the heck out of algae. And now i'll let the pictures tell the rest....


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## Rmwbrown

Nice work. It's pretty amazing what a few changes can make. This is a great example of why you really shouldn't waste your time freaking out about algae!

My bulbs stopped producing anything usable a couple of weeks ago and I had a massive hair algae break out. I slowed down my dosing to respond and ended up with a massive blue green break out after the nitrate dropped way to low. New bulbs, a few water changes and everything is as good as new.


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## cold

I am battling with the same kind of algae in my 75 gallon tank. would you mind giving me some tips to recover the plants and decoration back to normal from the algae...


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## lemuj

I've never dose any ferts on this tank. All I did was used tooth brush to remove as much as I can those long green hair algae. Fixed my co2 issue, and spot treated the bba with excel. After treating any visible algaes with excel, they start becoming gray in colour, and that's when my oto and bn pleco started munching them.. And of course water changes..


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## lemuj

*long overdue update*

Here's some photo update as of today

here's a full tank shot, the two blue pinoy angels and the koi in the right behind the windelow fern are my most recent additions. I can't believe after a couple of days that these pinoys were harrased, now they have become the bullies and keeping the other three in the corner most of the times although all these three are way bigger.










again one of the Pinoys can be seen on this left side..










and here's the left side where the other big three hangs out.










again same Pinoy angel and the new Orange Koi looking on.










i will be removing the driftwood on the right side for my Ebi. The Windelov and the anubias growing in it will be for sale. Watch for plant for Sale thread.


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## Kimchi24

Any updates?


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## pyrrolin

the green hair algae can sometimes look nice in the right amounts and right places. You really had it bad and it is amazing to see it gone


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## lemuj

*last pics before tear down*

I'll be closing this tank slowly and will sell most of the things you see here. For the mean time I'll be moving most plants that are attached in driftwoods and rocks to my 125g tank. Along with the plants I may just move all inhabitants to the 125g as well. Thinking with the move of plants and filters I could have an instant cycled tank.

So here she is, farewell my 46g its been fun!


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## lemuj

this is now in the For Sale section...


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## jimmyjam

it was nice while it lasted.. but 125g... pimp!


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