# Video Journal: 75G Community Tank



## philipraposo1982

LATEST VIDEO:

youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=bKE3uM8qXQg


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## tranceaddict

cool bud...


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## philipraposo1982

Thanks I really love it.


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## philipraposo1982

Here is a quick shot of the tank from just moments ago. I will be making a new video on friday where I will be talking about some of the new plants I have added and an update on the SAE's and current algae situation.

Thanks for looking


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## philipraposo1982

Quick video update, video was taken right after moving some plants around so the water is a little dusty.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhU-1MMu0lk&list=UU1O6JBprlri4zBw9EeXVZ1A


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## philipraposo1982




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## solarz

Looking great man! Are you doing CO2 at all?


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## philipraposo1982

nope, no co2 or excel or glut.

just dry ferts


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## philipraposo1982

Video update:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGESYv_kiKo&list=UU1O6JBprlri4zBw9EeXVZ1A

Photoperiod: was 9 hours daily, now 10 hours a day via timer.

Dosing old vs new:
old
1/4 tsp kno3 2x/weekly
1/10 tsp kh2po4 2x/weekly
1/10 tsp plantex csm+b 2x/weekly

New
1/2 tsp k2so4 2x/weekly
1/4 tsp kh2po4 2x/ weekly
1/4 tsp plantex csm+b 2x/weekly

Green Spot Algae (GSA): I believe this is caused from low Phosphates, will see how the new dosing effects this algae in coming weeks.


Pin holes that continue to get larger with yellowing around the edges. I think this is caused my low potassium. Again, I will observe if this condition continues while dosing more potassium. This deficiency is really only noticeable on the hygro kompact. 


Random Pics:


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## philipraposo1982

New video coming soon, promise 

here are some updated pics from today. Water change and filter cleaning is coming tomorrow.


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## philipraposo1982

LATEST VIDEO:






enjoy.


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## cb1021

Dude you a running what I believe to be an epitome of a low tech planted aquarium. First of all the 4 footers just look spacious enough to get schooling behavior in the cardinals which is really cool that's a hardware thing - it doesn't give enough credit to you as the aquarist. 

Where the most credit is due is in the balance you have managed to achieve with your plant/fish selection. Everything looks in harmony especially with the strategic decision to remove the black skirts. 

Question for you - how do you find the flow in your tank. For a low tech tank - is it sufficient? I love how calm it is but for us high tech guys, it would be too low and would cause algae due to insufficient nutrient flow.


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## philipraposo1982

cb1021 said:


> Dude you a running what I believe to be an epitome of a low tech planted aquarium. First of all the 4 footers just look spacious enough to get schooling behavior in the cardinals which is really cool that's a hardware thing - it doesn't give enough credit to you as the aquarist.
> 
> Where the most credit is due is in the balance you have managed to achieve with your plant/fish selection. Everything looks in harmony especially with the strategic decision to remove the black skirts.
> 
> Question for you - how do you find the flow in your tank. For a low tech tank - is it sufficient? I love how calm it is but for us high tech guys, it would be too low and would cause algae due to insufficient nutrient flow.


Wow, thank you so much!

I just recently removed the spray bar because I felt its was just too much movement in the tank. Specifically, I was watching my gouramis and got a feeling that they were a little unhappy with the amount of movement. So before going ahead and drilling out larger holes in my spray bar I thought I would try simply removing it and see what happens.

I have a good amount of bottom dwellers who are constantly kicking debris up off the substrate so I'm not concerned with build up. I have notice my pearls seem to be responding to the change in a positive way. From a nutrient standpoint, I don't feel that the plants will suffer. There is still movement through most of the tank its just been taken down a notch. Time will tell and I will be monitoring my plants and fish very closely.

Its a learning experience, constantly trying to find the optimum balance between everything. I feel like I keep getting closer and closer to that goal which is great.

Thanks again for the great comments


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## mitko1994

Wow that's a great looking tank! What light fixture are you using? I'm also trying to grow low light plants but their leaves are no where near the quality of yours. I'm new to plants and so far I have anubias, java fern and java moss. My tank is 90g and my light is a current usa satellite+. Currently I'm not using any ferts but I would really like to know what dry ferts I should use and where I can get them. In your video you mentioned you do 50% weekly water changes, to keep up with nitrates. I myself have a problem with 40ppm of nitrates although I do 35-40% weekly wc, so would adding ferts increase my nitrates even more?

Thanks


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## philipraposo1982

Thanks 

My light is a finnex planted plus. I have it suspended 24" above the substrate. Its a powerful light for low light setups with no co2 or excel.

Your sat+ should be good for a low tech tank.

I got my ferts online from the plantguy. But I also have bough dry ferts from hydroponic stores. Just call around.

Every tank is different so which ferts you should be supplementing is Dependant on a lot of variables. For your tank I would step up the WC to at least 50% and try and do it a day sooner than you do now. Ideally your will be between 10-20ppm through the week.

Java moss likes low 70's and thus doesn't really do good in heated tanks. Most mosses prefer cooler temps, which is why I don't use it anymore.

Your other plants are very low demanding plants, nutrient uptake is likely really.minimal. java fern is a tough plant but hard to grow a really healthy specimen. I constantly remove older leaves that I don't like the look of. I find it grows best is really low light conditions. You will find your best looking ferts are generally small baby plants that have found a spot to hide and grow. Once moved into open light area they generally do poorly. 

All your plants are extremely slow growing plants too, this is not good. You should have a mix to balance things out. Put some pics up of your tank and I can make some suggestions of plants you might want to consider. 

Water changes provide more than just reducing nitrates. It will replenice vital minerals and also remove organics / TDs in the water. This will help fish and plant growth.

What's your goal for your tank? What style of aquascape do you enjoy? Low tech tanks can do well as jangle scapes or nature scapes. They don't do well as iwagumi scape.


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## mitko1994

Thank you for yor reply. I'm not exactly sure which plants will thrive in my tank because I find that some of my fish will pick on them, I bought a background plant from BAs(I don't know the name neither did they lol but it was a tall plant with really narrow leaves(almost like needles) that was growing well but my fish would pick on the leaves and it would get all ugly, and start to turn dark green and rough, then I would just have to get rid of that whole dead stem and plant its offshoots. The growth however couldn't keep up with the assault from fish and so it eventually disappeared from my tank. Honestly,I would enjoy any plant as long as they don't get really ugly leaves all the time and they can help me get my nitrates down(btw the plant I talked about above was recommended to me as a good nitrate control plant by the guys at BAs). I have mostly tetras and rainbows, but I think the main plant killers are my odessa barbs as well as my pleco when it goes to clean the algae of the leaves. I find that the java fern and the anubias are able to survive because the fish don't really bother them. I will post a pic of the tank as soon as I get home, but if you want to see the bad leaves I'm talking about you can go here

Thanks


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## philipraposo1982

mitko1994 said:


> Thank you for yor reply. I'm not exactly sure which plants will thrive in my tank because I find that some of my fish will pick on them, I bought a background plant from BAs(I don't know the name neither did they lol but it was a tall plant with really narrow leaves(almost like needles) that was growing well but my fish would pick on the leaves and it would get all ugly, and start to turn dark green and rough, then I would just have to get rid of that whole dead stem and plant its offshoots. The growth however couldn't keep up with the assault from fish and so it eventually disappeared from my tank. Honestly,I would enjoy any plant as long as they don't get really ugly leaves all the time and they can help me get my nitrates down(btw the plant I talked about above was recommended to me as a good nitrate control plant by the guys at BAs). I have mostly tetras and rainbows, but I think the main plant killers are my odessa barbs as well as my pleco when it goes to clean the algae of the leaves. I find that the java fern and the anubias are able to survive because the fish don't really bother them. I will post a pic of the tank as soon as I get home, but if you want to see the bad leaves I'm talking about you can go here
> 
> Thanks


the plant you bought sounds like vallisneria, maybe jungle val or val nana. They do well is low tech and high tech tanks. Stay away from java ferns, they are low tech plant and hardy BUT they tend to not look great as they age. Its hard to grow perfect looking java fern.


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## mitko1994

No, it definitely was not valisneria, although I should probably get some, but I again I don't know if my fish will chew on it or not. I forgot to take pics and my mom has the camera today, so I will post them soon. However, what I notice is quite weird though, I have a tall driftwood( sitting around 6-7 in from the light) which I surrounded with java fern and that bunch seems to be showing the best results even though the PAR is probably quite high at that point in the water column. Anyways It would probably be good for me to get some background plants to cover the plain glass in background so if you have any plants in mind that will not be ripped apart by my pleco barbs, I would gladly like to know about them. 

Thanks

Edit: just found a previous thread of mine regarding plants, you can see some pics of the plants I had on the last post of the first page, the plant I was talking about above, is on the left side of the right most picture


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## mitko1994

Here are some pics of the tank. Btw what do you think of frogbit? I read that it's good at sucking up nitrates and spreads pretty fast. Would my pleco and Odessa barbs pick on its roots?
















Thanks


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## philipraposo1982

Its a nice tank that's for sure.

I personally like mini water lettuce more than any other floater so that's what I use in my tank. But frogbit is nice too and very popular.

Its really hard to say what you fish will or will not eat. Best thing to do it try it out. I have had to remove some plants due to sae's eating them. Its not that big of a deal. Normally just trade em.

Trial and error my friend


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## philipraposo1982

And you can try some willow hygro for a background plant. I love this plant. Grows at a fairly steady pace even in a low tech tank. Very flowy


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## mitko1994

Thank you for your reply. The only reason I'm thinking of getting frogbit is because of its thicker leaves. It looks like it can withstand moderate fish attacks lol. I read online that the trick to floating plants is to keep their leaves dry at all times.This looks to be tricky with wc and surface agitation but I guess if I'm careful enough I can get it to work. I will certainly look into the hygrophila, it looks nice. I also saw some ppl suggesting water wisteria as a beginner plant as well. What do you think of that? Where do you buy your plants? 
Offtopic: If I'm not mistaken you have a ram as your avatar. Have you had any luck breeding these guys? I got 4 of them around Christmas and they seem to be doing fine so far, even though their care level is listed as "difficult". I've seen vids on youtube of how they breed and it looks to be really cool, especially the fact that they actually take care of their fry rather than snack on it lol.

Sorry for flooding your thread but, it seems like you have answers to all my questions. 

Thanks.


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## philipraposo1982

mitko1994 said:


> Thank you for your reply. The only reason I'm thinking of getting frogbit is because of its thicker leaves. It looks like it can withstand moderate fish attacks lol. I read online that the trick to floating plants is to keep their leaves dry at all times.This looks to be tricky with wc and surface agitation but I guess if I'm careful enough I can get it to work. I will certainly look into the hygrophila, it looks nice. I also saw some ppl suggesting water wisteria as a beginner plant as well. What do you think of that? Where do you buy your plants?
> Offtopic: If I'm not mistaken you have a ram as your avatar. Have you had any luck breeding these guys? I got 4 of them around Christmas and they seem to be doing fine so far, even though their care level is listed as "difficult". I've seen vids on youtube of how they breed and it looks to be really cool, especially the fact that they actually take care of their fry rather than snack on it lol.
> 
> Sorry for flooding your thread but, it seems like you have answers to all my questions.
> 
> Thanks.


You are right, frogbit does have thicker foliage. It is also big and can block a lot of light as it fills the surface.what kind of filter do you have? I use a canister and never had a problem growing plants are the surface. As long as you don't have a hob that keeps drowning the plants you should be fine.

Wisteria is great if you like a big bushy plant. It grows fast and generally does well in all tank environments.

I occasionally will buy a plant or 2 from a pet shop like PJs or pet smart or even big Als if they have a good deal on something. Or if they get a random plant that I wanted but couldn't find. Otherwise, I have gotten plants through actions or here through the forums. Trading plants etc.

I did have a pair that had eggs but all 3 time they ate them. The female died shortly after the last clutch of eggs randomly. My male just passed after 10 months in my care due to what I believe was hith. Combined with the fact that my dog spoked him and he leaped out of the tank, he never recovered from that.

I have made the decision not to keep rams anymore because of how overbreeding has made them very weak and susceptible to diseases and random deaths. With time they can be good parents but generally it takes them a bit to learn. If you have a lot of fish in their tank they will have a hard time defending their eggs.

I don't mind you asking questions at all, 11 months ago when I first came into the hobby and had only been researching for a few months o was the same way. I couldn't tell you how many questions I had and still have as I learn more and more.

I am part of many forums and I have probably 5k posts in total. That's 500 posts a month. That doesn't account for the hours and hours I spend online and on forums reading through posts and articles.

With that said if I can help, I gladly will 

If your ever by pickering you should drop buy I will toss you a bunch of plants I got in just floating in my grow out tank. Watersprite, hygro polysperma, maybe some others.


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## mitko1994

I actually have 2 canisters on my tank both are Eheim. One is the eheim pro 2 and the other one is a 2213. I guess it's all about figuring out what plants will grow without being assaulted by my fish. Thank you for your offer. I actually go to UofT Scarborough, but I've never been to Pickering. My rams are young still, they are only about 1in so I guess it would take time for them to mature. I guess the other fish in the tank are a problem, most breeders have their pair in a separate tank but if I notice that they are breeding I will just separate them.


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## philipraposo1982

new video, enjoy.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzzTzS4wwyk


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## brycon

Looks great!

I've been thinking about getting some yoyo loaches but read that they will dig up the plants. Do you have that issue? And do they bother your pepper cory's?


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## philipraposo1982

Thanks.

They don't dig up my plants and they don't bother any fish. Jus get a group and you should be fine.


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## cb1021

I really like how you went into details describing all the decisions you made for the change in dynamic. I was at the DRAS auction too, first timer. I was surprised plants were going for so high.

Anyhow, regarding your light. Do you know how that light compares with T5HOs? I mean - if I were to mimic your low-tech setup on a 75g, but I only have T5HOs to work with, how many (or how few) should I use?


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## philipraposo1982

Its a guess but from what I understand 2 t5ho would be higher light than I run.

I have 24" of space between my substrate and my finnex planted plus. Are you going to use excel or co2? Because I don't use either.

How new is the tank? Do you have lots of plants?


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## cb1021

Well it was a hypothetical question - I was just wondering how soft (dim) your lighting is. I'm running my 75 low tech with 160 watts T5HO with co2, heavily planted. I just started the tank.


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## philipraposo1982

Yeah into high tech there my friend. Co2 and that much light is not low tech. None the less, are you having difficulties with algae or.plant growth?

My tank is well lit, but its hard to comment on how dim something is. Par readings for my fixture at the height I have it is probably like 20-30 par.


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## cb1021

I just started it last night but I would like this tank to be a stable low-maintenance tank.


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## philipraposo1982

Oh okay, well for starters I would probably run 1 t5ho bulb for the beginning. And if your looking to be low maintenance then plant choices are going to be key. Stay away from stem plants.

Look at my plants and basically get something similar. These are low maintenance as they get.


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## mitko1994

Hey Philip,

The last time we talked I had a nitrate problem in my tank and was looking to get some floaters to control them. I was able to pick up a few frogbit plants from a another user on the forum and after 3 months they've tripled and most importantly sucked up all the nitrates. I'm at the stage now where I want to get background plants. I'm looking into hygro and vals, but I've been warned that they are heavy feeders and root tabs are recommended especially with my inert gravel. I will probably order osmocote tabs from ebay as they end being the cheapest even with the shipping. Now when it comes to getting the plants, I've researched a few options. I can try and buy some off a member here on the forum, although no one is currently selling any.I can order from the plant guy but his plants seem to be grown emerged so I don't know how the plant will react when I plant it under water.Did you ever order any plants from him? I guess I can buy them from BAs but they are so overpriced. Do any of the other chain FS sell plants? I did also look into getting aquarium plant seeds from china and growing these in little seedling trays under water and planting the plants when they grow. What do you think? Should I be getting the fert tabs before the plants?


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## philipraposo1982

Congrats on resolving the nitrate issues, that's good news.

What size tank did you have again? Can you send a pic?

Vals are root feeders where hygro willow is not nearly as heavy of a root feeder. Its too bad you didn't message me, I threw out ally val nana tiger not long ago.

I use hygro willow as my background plant with some other large aponogeton crypts and swords.


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## philipraposo1982

I never bough from plant guy. If you want to buy some hygro willing and want to drive to pickering I can sell you some at a good price. 

Big Als and pet smart and PJs all carry plants, most have been emersed grown. They will melt back but will adjust and regrow, most of the time.


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## mitko1994

which of these stores would u say has the best prices? Unfortunately Pickering is too far for me? The closest I get to you is UofT Scarborough. If you are ever close around there we could meet up.


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## philipraposo1982

Retail plants are never cheap. I will just go to each of them or whatever is closest.


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## philipraposo1982

Hello Guy and Gals,

Today was one of the most exciting days I have ever had in the hobby. I been planning to do a rescape on my 75g for a while; there were numerous reasons as to why I wanted to change things up. For starters, my old substrate (safe-t-sorb) was nothing but problems and I regret using it as a substrate. I would advise against it for most hobbyist but it does have its benefits, but it simply wasn't working for my tank.

As I was completely new to the hobby when I first started this tank just over a year ago I didn't plan things out very well and ended up change a lot of things over that time. Only in the last little bit is when I really knew what I wanted out of my tank. I decided pretty early on that I wasn't to focus on non-stem plants for my scape because of the low maintenance aspect as well as the beauty that they posses. I been slowly collecting all the species that I thought would work out nicely together and quickly fell in love with crypts.

Fast forward to 14 hours ago where I began tearing down my tank. I started off by bringing in the 200lbs of PFS that I had washed last night, it took me about 2 hours total to rinse it to the point where I felt it was clean enough for the tank.

Once all the sand was inside I moved onto setting up the temp home for my fish. I used a 15g cooler filled with tank water and adding my canister filter which has an in-line heater. I also treading the water with a dose of prime to ensure levels don't spike while the stressed fish are in there.

I was able to catch all non-bottom dwellers pretty easily, didn't have to remove any plants other than some really long hygro willow so I could see what I was doing. I quickly came to the conclusion that there was no way I could possible catch the corys and loaches with the amount of plants I had in the tank. I also couldn't even locate my 3 vampire shrimp..

I decided I had to remove all plants. I was very careful not to be too quick or rough on the plants. I wanted to avoid any major stirring of the substrate as I would then lose visibilityn and the whole even would of been halted. I also didn't want to stress out the fish too much as I was removing the plants.

Once I removed everything, minus the hard scape (bolts down to slate tiles under the substrate) I was able to catch the rest of the fish pretty easily. I used 2 big nets (14x10) as well as a few smaller nets as needed.

All the plants where laid out on a tarp then covered with newspaper and sprayed with water to keep it damp. Occasionally throughout the day I would mist the paper to ensure my plants didn't dry out. It seemed to do the trick perfectly.

On to removing the substrate and the hard scape. Then came time to clean the tank and get the glass looking like new again.

The tank is now read for substrate. I decided to lay about an inch of substrate down and then insert my diy root tabs right at the bottom. I spaced them all out perfectly even to ensure I didn't overdue it.

The hardest part of this whole thing was deciding what to do for the new scape. I struggled on how I was going to shape the substrate; I wanted to have some depth to my tank so I decided to make some slopes. Ready for the plant, I was a little in shock when I realized how many plants I actually had crammed in there previously. I decided to work largest to smallest plants, picking the plants that I wanted to stand out the most first and giving the the best spots. I didn't want to group plants together but didn't want it to look too random either.

As the planting moved along I realized I was not going to be able to achieve the look I wanted if I used all the plants I had. It was simply too much and would crowd everything. I also wanted to ensure I didn't have no plants pushed up against the front glass like I had in the other scape. It was also import that I left some of the substrate in the front of the tank exposed. I feel like these little details really enhance the looks of the scape and adds depth to almost any tank.

Another important consideration I had while planting was to make sure that the plants that required more light was placed closer to the centre of the tank. This was they would get the most par out of my 48" finnex planted plus.

Tank was finally all planted and ready for fresh water and moving the residence back in. I have so many crpyts and loads of hygro willow to sell now. Also have a bunch of other plants like swords, ferns, and stuff left over. I have counted but you can see the pics  It was pretty easily to get all the fish back in to the tank which was nice because it kept stress as low as possible given the situation. The fish seemed to be fine in the cooler for the day. I did lose 2 young cherry barbs which I am bummed about, the stress must of been too much for them.

Everyone is now in their new home and they seem to be adjusting well. The yoyo loaches are still a bit frantic but that's to be expected. The gouramis seem fine just not as colourful as normal. I expect that by tomorrow night everything should be back to normal.

Here are some pics of the process and a before shot of the tank, lemme know what you folks think. I really really like it so far. Enjoy! I keep updating this thread as the plants and fish continue to grow.

















BEFORE
AFTER


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## cb1021

Haven't read your commentary but look forward reading it in detail later. I just need to say - beauuuuuutiful new scape. I like the smooth river stones, crypt-focus, and white background with sand. The fact that the substrate slopes towards the middle - I've never seen this, very pleasing and refreshing. 

I hope you enjoy it.


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## philipraposo1982

cb1021 said:


> Haven't read your commentary but look forward reading it in detail later. I just need to say - beauuuuuutiful new scape. I like the smooth river stones, crypt-focus, and white background with sand. The fact that the substrate slopes towards the middle - I've never seen this, very pleasing and refreshing.
> 
> I hope you enjoy it.


The river stone was picked up at the shore of lake Ontario in pickering. Its slate that has been shaped smooth. There is tons of it down there too and the price is great 

There is no background on the tank. What your seeing is the wall; its a light blue color which seems to look really nice with the light color pool filter sand substrate.

I forgot to mention that I made my own substrate supports for this rescape. I went to Lowes and bought a roll of black garden edging. It was like 4.99 for 20' of this stuff. Its 4" tall and can be cut very easily to sizes required. I have these shoved in the substrate to support the slopes from sliding down. Its the first time I have done something like this but I think it should work well.

All in all, I really love the way it has turned out. The pictures don't do it justice!

Thanks for the compliment, glad you like it


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## brycon

Great job!  You have lots of patience removing all the substrate and taking pics and all.


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## philipraposo1982

Thanks, patience is something I know all too well with a low tech tank


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## philipraposo1982

Hey everyone,

I recently got a new camera (Olympus tg-4) and since the only camera I have ever owned were built into cell phones, I am a bit overwhelmed with all the features and settings. Anyhow, I thought I would post up some underwater test footage I took today, its crappy I know but I will get better I promise

As for the tank, I have recently added a 15lb pressurized tank with a co2art dual stage regulator. I built a Cerges reactor for diffusion which seems to be working perfectly. I am running 17-18 psi as a working pressure and more bubbles than I can count, but I monitor ph drop, which is .8-.9 over the course a few hours and it seems to hold all day till the co2 is off. I have it running on a timer, 2 hours before lights come on and 1 hour before lights go out.

There has also been some new plant additions. I placed an order for some crypts to grow my collection, nothing too fancy but I like em Here is the list.

Anubias Nana
Anubius Petite
Anubias Congensis
Aponogeton Boivinianus
Aponogeton Crispus
Aponogeton Madagascariensis
Aponogeton Undulatus
Aponogeton Ulvaceus
Bolbitis Heudelotii
Bucephelandra Brownie Blue (new)
Crinum Natans
Cryptocoryne Aponogetifolia
Cryptocoryne Balansae (new)
Cryptocoryne Becketii (new)
Cryptocoryne Cordata 'Grabowski'
Cryptocoryne Crispatula Balansae
Cryptocoryne Griffithii (new)
Cryptocoryne Green Gecko
Cryptocoryne Lucens (new)
Cryptocoryne Nevelli (new)
Cryptocoryne Parva
Cryptocoryne Petchii (new)
Cryptocoryne Pontederiifolia
Cryptocoryne Spiralis
Cryptocoryne Walkeri var. Lutea
Cryptocoryne Wendtti (Tropica, De Witt Red (new), Green, Brown)
Cryptocoryne X Willisi
Echinodorus Amazonicus
Echinodorus Argentinensis
Echinodorus Oriental
Echinodorus Osiris
Lace Fern
Red Tiger Lotus

The fish have been doing great, so not much to report there.

Since adding the co2, I have lowered my light back to the rim of the tank (a 6" drop), I suspect my growth rate should improve greatly as well as the overall health of the plants. I am watching very carefully for any signs of algae and will adjust accordingly.

I have also started ageing my water instead of going right from the tap to the tank. This is because I feel the gasses trapped in the water are bothering my fish and causing stress. Using a 55g food grade barrel as the container with a 400 gph pump and a heater to match temp.

In general, since switching to PFS from safe t sorb, all my plants have improved in health. The root systems are far stronger and growth has been great. The bottom dwellers are really enjoying it too.

That's all for now, I hope to be doing more videos (better quality type stuff) for my youtube channel and to share with you all here.

Here are the links to the videos: 
Test video 1: 



Test video 3:


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## philipraposo1982

Here is my latest video after a big rescape. I am really excited to see how this is going to mature over the next few months.

The video is currently processing and will be a little bit before completely uploaded as its a big file. Its a long video, I was using my new camera and clearly still don't hve it dialed in all that great so I apologize if its not the best footage.

The close up stuff at the end of the video is pretty good though


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## Professor Monkey

Looks fantastic. I really like the open swimming space and leveled flow of the scape from right to left.

Can't wait to see the growth in the coming weeks.


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## philipraposo1982

Thanks, things are going good so far but as you can imagine the growth of the crypts are slow and steady.

The hc carpet is just not an option with 14 corydoras, so I have decided to do phoenix moss attached to rocks instead. They can't uproot it that way


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## philipraposo1982

Disaster strikes...

Right before Christmas I woke up one morning to find a crack on the bottom right font corner of my 75. After getting some experience aquarist to have a look, I decided to buy a new tank and tear the old one down.

That same day every I moved all the fish to a smaller holding tank and put all the plants in a heated water barrel with no light.

Bought a new 75g rimless tank from big Al's on boxing day and spent a few days after getting everything setup. The co2 just got turned back on yesterday.

Here is a pic of the tank right before it got torn down.
View attachment 169138


Here is the tank as of today.




















It's still a crypt tank but has a few other species mix in, see if you can point them out  (besides the moss of course).

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## Professor Monkey

Oh my that is terribly unfortunate. 

Good thing you caught it before it had a serious structural failure and that you were able to save the fish and plants.

On the plus side, that is a beautiful rimless tank 👍love the crypt balansae.


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