# 75 Gallon Planted Paradise



## Will

*75 Gallon Planted*

*75 Gallon Planted*









I've had lots of my own fish projects over the years, but after having been laid off from my employment at a LFS I was discouraged and put most of them to rest. I moved some small tanks into my parents house and bedroom, and after a couple months of building this tank on a dresser, Dad came to me with a desire to setup his own large tank to overstock with a large variety of colourful fish. This is the progress of that project... fortunately I convinced him not to do an African Malawi tank... but then again, there are more rooms in the house!

Videos to come!
Now Video added!​




75 Gallon ~48x18x21
Custom DIY Stand/Canopy
Hydor Substrate Heating System
Hagen GLO 48" 2x54W T5HO
Fluval FX5 Cannister Filter
2L DIY CO2 Reactor w/ DIY Diffuser 
Digital Termometer w/ probe
Fluorite, Turface & Gravel Mix.

Fish include;
Otocinclus catfish
Siamese Algae Eaters
Amano Shrimp
Marble Hatchet Tetras
Rummy Nose Tetras
Glowlight Tetras
Dwarf Neon Rainbows
Turquoise Rainbows
Peppered Corydoras
Dwarf Sparkling Gouramis
Zebra Nerites Snail
Assassin Snails
Metallic Blue Ram Cichlid (Pair)
Super-Blue Kerri Tetras
etc...

Plants include...
Various cryptocorynes
Aponogeton Crispus
Melon Sword
Dwarf Sag Carpet
Valisineria spiralis
Java Moss
Anubias afzelii
Hygrophila polysperma
+ More...

Wideshot, showing custom DIY stand & canopy, ADA style in matte black.
Missing another bookshelf for on the right side. Rona sold out of them...









Canopy shown closed. black hinges, mini rubber feet for when it sits open.









Canopy shown opened. White interior, shelf for light's legs. Deep access.









Hagen GLO 48" 2x54W T5HO (Thanks Otaku). Cooling Fan on same timer. 









Timers, Supplies, 2L CO2, Food, Fluval FX5, Python. Stand doors open 120*









Full Tank Shot, after a very heavy trimming. (Taken Sept-13-2011)


----------



## Al-Losaurus

Very nice looks very natural. i also like your stand and canopy all around great set-up your right makes me want to do a planted tank and also finish off my diy stand maybe even a canopy. Aww i wish i did not look at that lol very nice will.


----------



## Will

Thanks Al, but this should be your inspiration and encouragement for your own project! Not discouragement. You'll do fine, especially with all the high tech gear you've come into possesion of. Thanks for the compliment, and looking forward to seeing your own project underway.

The stand and canopy are honestly amazing, not to toot my horn, but during and after the build I was increasingly surprized with how great it looked- and we are self proclaimed *crap*enters... We took the Japaneese ADA design and put our own spin on it. It wasn't any cheaper than buying a store bought stand, however it looks much nice than those barndoor/open-shelf types, is much sturdier, and is made of higher quality parts and materials. It isn't a 2x4 stand covered in panels like many, but built from the outside in. Asthetics first, structure inside.

Between the Canopy and the Stand, I'd guess around $400+ project. It might seem expensive, but compared to retail, and it's visual impact on the room, every penny worth it. It's painted in a black latex, which retards water from the 5/8" MDF and plywood.


----------



## 03pilot

Very nice Will! Everything looks perfect. It looks similar to one of the show tanks at Scarborough BA. I can't take my eyes off that tank whenever I visit that store.


----------



## coldmantis

looks awesome, great choice of plants, looking at your carpet makes me want to go out and get some dwarf sag myself


----------



## Will

Thanks guys! Love the compliments, suggestions welcomed too!

03pilot, There's a nice and often changing 90 gallon at Hamilton BA that's provided a bit of inspiration for us. Also there's a nice 90 Gallon at Oakville location that's not bad either, but a different style. Both are good for a few minutes of my time when visiting either store. Of course that beautiful 300gal reef in Oakville usually drags me away from the planted tank pretty quick.

Coldmantis, the Sag carpet is great for the larger tanks, and makes really wild looking scapes in smaller tanks. Unfortunately there's some black fuzz algae hidden in the old undergrowth on the right side. You can't see it unless you are looking closely but it's annoying knowing it is there. _I've been thinking that some peroxide treatment might be the best course of treatment, so I'd like to hear others thoughts on that._ We plan on adding in some pygmy corries & cherry shrimp that love to stay under the dwarf sag carpet, hopefully preventing any algae food sources. It is limited to growing on the anubias roots, old-growth sag, and the nylon thread that remains from tying moss down.

As you can see there is no shortage of algae eaters in the tank. Until today there was even a beautiful Garra in the tank, who died today, just a month after it's mate died. It seemed lonely since then, often doing small laps or perching for long hours.


----------



## Al-Losaurus

Hey Will
Sorry to hear about your Garra's Btw it was not a discouragement seeing it at all i just have so many projects on the go and now i cant get having a planted tank off the brain lol that is why i said ugh the wife is going to kill me if i set up yet another tank. Just in the last few months i took down a few tanks and put them in storage and i already caught myself pulling out the tape measure looking for free space to add a tank lol


----------



## coldmantis

Al-Losaurus said:


> Hey Will
> Sorry to hear about your Garra's Btw it was not a discouragement seeing it at all i just have so many projects on the go and now i cant get having a planted tank off the brain lol that is why i said ugh the wife is going to kill me if i set up yet another tank. Just in the last few months i took down a few tanks and put them in storage and i already caught myself pulling out the tape measure looking for free space to add a tank lol


you see a new area to decorate with a fish tank, your wife see an empty area that news a new couch.


----------



## Otaku

that's a great looking tank will! 

i'm also really glad to hear that you're satisfied with the light fixture


----------



## Will

Sure am! There are downsides to the GLO fixtures, but it was just what we needed to replace the 220W of compact fluorescents that were on it before. Plugged in with a fan on the same timer solves the lack of built-in cooling and on/off switch.


----------



## Will

I am excited to show some new additions to this tank. A pair of beautiful adult Metallic Blue Rams, and 10 beautiful Super Blue Kerri Tetras. The Kerri Tetras aren't yet settled in enough to show their "Super Blue" trait, so to begin with here are those Metallic Blue Rams.

Unfortunately, I've not captured the blue on these fish to do justice, unlike Electric Blue rams, the metallic blue is in the scale's sheen and all but dissapears in the photos I've taken. They looks like regular variety rams in the photo almost, the blue is truely hidden in the photos, but notice the different patterning on the female's flank.

This pair is adult sized, and large at that, I had seen the parents which were absolutely massive, the female was the size of the largest male blue ram I'd ever before seen, and the male would have made an adult Bolivian Ram look small, pushing 3.5" I'd think.

No flash used, ISO was 1200, so that's why pics are grainy.



















Such a beautiful addition to the tank. What do you think!??


----------



## 03pilot

Wow. They are absolutely gorgeous!! I always wanted a pair of German Blue rams but I think my planted tanks are too small. And they don't stand a chance to survive in my malawi tank. btw, what's the minimum tank size to keep them? I heard they are territorial and aggressive at times. 

The Kerri Tetras look amazing too! Good buy!


----------



## Will

(The little Kerri Tetra pic I linked to wasnt mine). But they are still very young, and have lots of blue to come in yet.

You can put a pair in 10-20 Gallons. In smaller tanks you can have disputes, usually breeding related, They are nice enough on their own im, but it larger tanks they have room to define as their own if needed. Not a big problem causer imo.

Odd that two blue fishes were added, seriously, those metallic blue rams are blue!


----------



## 03pilot

Will Hayward said:


> (The little Kerri Tetra pic I linked to wasnt mine). But they are still very young, and have lots of blue to come in yet.
> 
> You can put a pair in 10-20 Gallons. In smaller tanks you can have disputes, usually breeding related, They are nice enough on their own im, but it larger tanks they have room to define as their own if needed. Not a big problem causer imo.
> 
> Odd that two blue fishes were added, seriously, those metallic blue rams are blue!


Thanks. I have never seen Kerri Tetras until today. Any chance they school? It would be awesome.


----------



## Will

They do, currently mixed in with the white clouds in the upper region of the tank. I'm not sure if that's a permanent mixing, the tetras that have been added into the tank have usually mixed with others for the first few weeks in the tank before becoming a segregated school.


----------



## 03pilot

Will Hayward said:


> They do, currently mixed in with the white clouds in the upper region of the tank. I'm not sure if that's a permanent mixing, the tetras that have been added into the tank have usually mixed with others for the first few weeks in the tank before becoming a segregated school.


Cool. Blue Kerri Tetras is now on my wish list! Thanks for sharing.


----------



## Will

Normal Kerri tetras are a dullish fish with a black stripe on them, which have a blue sheen to them, these 'super blues' had almost a purple body with a blue sheen over it.

Here is some tank video footage that my sister edited into a video using her new Mac. Unfortunately it's from clips taken from before the new fish were added. Video for 75 Gallon tank. She went a bit crazy with the clip transitions.


----------



## 03pilot

The link is not working.


----------



## Will

Just uploaded, I think the site is still "working on it"? Might take a while I guess.


----------



## Will

Link is working now: Video for 75 Gallon tank Let me know what you think.

It's a nice and brief video just showing everything in about a minute. There's several other videos of my other tanks too.


----------



## 03pilot

Will...holy cow! You were making a TV commercial? Impressive!


----------



## Will

Haha, like I said, I just sent some video clips I took to my sister, who is off at college with her new Mac. She put together the video for me. I think the other videos on my youtube channel are much better, but this one is short and to the point, with great music.

Go ahead and click "LIKE" and give my videos a Thumbs Up. Thanks


10 Gallon Planted Tank 1 - Celestial Pearl Danios
10 Gallon Planted Tank 2 - Catfish, Gourami, Snails
10 Gallon Planted Tank 3 - Badis badis & Friends
Amano / Yamato Shrimp
Celestial Pearl Danio - Danio margaritatus
Dymax IQ3 Pico Reef


----------



## 03pilot

Yeah. They are all very nice. But Emerald Sword is my favorite by far.  it must have been fun to shoot a video like that with all you pals!


----------



## Will

Haha, filming Emerald Sword was so fun, and remains such a great video. There are plenty other awesome and also hilarious videos from High School's CommTech classes. It's pretty epic considering this was done before digital video cameras and most of the editing was done on VCRs tape to tape instead of on a computer.


----------



## 03pilot

Wait a minute? How old is your video? DV came out more than a decade ago. NLE has been around for a long time. Tape to tape editing with all the effects? That's really good.


----------



## Will

03pilot said:


> Wait a minute? How old is your video? DV came out more than a decade ago. NLE has been around for a long time. Tape to tape editing with all the effects? That's really good.


That was in 2004, and remember, we were using highschool video equipment, real green screens, minitape handycams, super8s, even the soundtrack was recorded from a CD directly onto a VHS. You know, just the newest hitech stuff... from the 1980s... lol

The final video effects were later applied on computer, namely the animation of the dragon (drawn in MS Paint), the lightning bolts, and the 2 lightflares. Our video lab had two of those original iMac G3s, this was the most advanced equipment in the lab even though it had only the stock mac programs on it, and you had to book time on them. Everything was long overdue for updating and was updated the right after our class-year finished there.

So yeah, those technologies were invented then, but weren't available at public schools, and were not yet popular for families to have and use. So I exagerrated a bit as those few effects were later applied. My sister went through the same program years later and had no idea what analog was.

She probably spent 5 or 10 minutes on that 75 Gallon videos. We spent 5 minutes booting up the computer and a program and 10 minutes winding the VHS tape to the right frame.


----------



## 03pilot

Will Hayward said:


> That was in 2004, and remember, we were using highschool video equipment, real green screens, minitape handycams, super8s, even the soundtrack was recorded from a CD directly onto a VHS. You know, just the newest hitech stuff... from the 1980s... lol
> 
> The final video effects were later applied on computer, namely the animation of the dragon (drawn in MS Paint), the lightning bolts, and the 2 lightflares. Our video lab had two of those original iMac G3s, this was the most advanced equipment in the lab even though it had only the stock mac programs on it, and you had to book time on them. Everything was long overdue for updating and was updated the right after our class-year finished there.
> 
> So yeah, those technologies were invented then, but weren't available at public schools, and were not yet popular for families to have and use. So I exagerrated a bit as those few effects were later applied. My sister went through the same program years later and had no idea what analog was.
> 
> She probably spent 5 or 10 minutes on that 75 Gallon videos. We spent 5 minutes booting up the computer and a program and 10 minutes winding the VHS tape to the right frame.


I love videography. I was a part time pro wedding videographer between 1999-2004. DV was kind of new, PC based NLE became available, and home made DVD etc.. It was really fun. Then I moved on to photography right after. I have a videography partner now and I am kind of his advisor. Of course things are quire different now. Steady cam, HD Cam, Digital SLR...Bluray . Everything has changed...


----------



## Otaku

hey Will, where did you buy the Turface??


----------



## Will

I didn't, someone from GTAA (I think, maybe from PN, named Greg?) dropped it off to me. I got about a half bag of it.

I have a lot of this gravel mix left if someone wants to buy some? It's largely fluorite.


----------



## Otaku

Will Hayward said:


> I didn't, someone from GTAA (I think, maybe from PN, named Greg?) dropped it off to me. I got about a half bag of it.
> 
> I have a lot of this gravel mix left if someone wants to buy some? It's largely fluorite.


i'll buy some substrate off you, I'm looking for substrate to use in two ~3 gallon nano tanks

what's your price?


----------



## Will

New additions.

Half dozen more assasins and 3 Honeycomb catfish _Tatia perugaie_










Going to have to hide some pvc toube caves. But this was a hilarious sight.

The white thing is a Mag Float positioned very close to the top corner of the tank.


----------



## Otaku

Will said:


> New additions.
> 
> Half dozen more assasins and 3 Honeycomb catfish _Tatia perugaie_
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Going to have to hide some pvc toube caves. But this was a hilarious sight.
> 
> The white thing is a Mag Float positioned very close to the top corner of the tank.


cool, where'd you find those honeycomb cats??


----------



## Will

Sunday's Auction. Scored a bag of three! One of Charlie Drew fish. 

Awefully cute so far.


----------



## Will

The large apognogeton crispus sold at auction, but Rotala rotundifolia took it's place. I have collected several plantlets from the crispus though. Since it started to cool outside last month, the under substrate heater was turned on, and the Sag carpet filled in in the center of the tank and the giant sword under the driftwood doubled in size- its really boosts the root growth. The Valisneria spiralis sends out a lof of runners that duck under the wood, and dive through the fence of crypts and sneak up in the Sagittaria subulata. 

I have some Java fern to be put on the driftwood soon. It was grown in the ten gallon.


----------



## Will

Will said:


> I am excited to show some new additions to this tank. A pair of beautiful adult Metallic Blue Rams, and 10 beautiful Super Blue Kerri Tetras. The Kerri Tetras aren't yet settled in enough to show their "Super Blue" trait, so to begin with here are those Metallic Blue Rams.
> 
> Unfortunately, I've not captured the blue on these fish to do justice, unlike Electric Blue rams, the metallic blue is in the scale's sheen and all but dissapears in the photos I've taken. They looks like regular variety rams in the photo almost, the blue is truely hidden in the photos, but notice the different patterning on the female's flank.
> 
> This pair is adult sized, and large at that, I had seen the parents which were absolutely massive, the female was the size of the largest male blue ram I'd ever before seen, and the male would have made an adult Bolivian Ram look small, pushing 3.5" I'd think.
> 
> No flash used, ISO was 1200, so that's why pics are grainy.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Such a beautiful addition to the tank. What do you think!??


Well, I managed to get a better photo of the Ram s pair Male, showing his blue more adequately in this photo. Thanks again Charlie!

How about them apples!


----------



## max88

Nice fish (and photo too)


----------



## Will

Everyonce and a while I get one... (A nice fish/photo)


----------



## Will

Just one week ago, a tiny _Cryptocoryne wendtii_ leaf popped up against the glass, in a dense carpet of _Sagittaria subulata_. Normally I'd pull a plant growing in an area I've reserved for another species, but it was too small and delicate. Two days later, a second leaf unrolled, and then later a third. So today I decide that the plant is growing very fast and it's time to come out and be relocated.

So I gently pulled...

...and pulled...

...and pulled...

...and finally this popped out.










It was located, just below where the assassin snail is on the glass. It's root went more than 15" towards the Cryptocoryne 'fence'. Perhaps it was a little plantlet that was adrift in the current, and caught in the carpet, which somehow grew an enormous root because it was able to reach deeper than the Sag? Or perhaps the root actually started as an undergravel runner that came from the larger _Cryptocoryne wendtii_ plants, which couldn't poke through the tight weave of the carpeting Sag roots, until it hit the glass. Not sure, but I guess I've got proof a very fertile substrate.

I cut the root, and put the plant into it's species zone, and I put the long root into the fine sand of another tank. Maybe the root has enough energy to sprout a new leaf.


----------



## Nasir

amazing!! I love the space in the middle and your fish are looking real healthy


----------



## Will

Nasir said:


> amazing!! I love the space in the middle and your fish are looking real healthy


The space thats filled with sag, sword and hygro now? LOL


----------



## Will

I'm just going to resurrect this thread to include a current updated short video of the tank, one year from start date. Please watch and enjoy! Comments, Thumbs up! and subscriptions are great if you like it! Thanks for viewing.


----------



## 03pilot

Amazing tank and awesome videography! Two thumbs up!!!


----------



## joe

can you post another pics with the plants grown out i wanna see that floor coverd in vals


----------

