This is my first real venture into aquarianism? I bought this used and it was pretty dirty.

72 Gallon Bow with matching stand
Pool Filter Sand Substrate
FluVal 405
Freshwater
Going to go with a large school of Zebras, Rasboras, and a few cory cats to start when the cycling is done.

Here it is in our dining room:

IMG_0286 by iadubber, on Flickr

Hoping to start setting up the substrates tonight and get the fishless cycle going. Lastnight I spent a few hours scrubbing and rinsing all the components with warm water and steel wool.

I bought some amazon sword and java fern at PetCO that needs to get in there soon.

I purchased some rock on ebay
Aquarium Stone-Tiger Stripe Rock- Cave Kit Sale 20+ lbs | eBay
and a nice piece of driftwood. It's going to be tough filling this baby up right away.

I highly recommend that you inspect the top center brace for signs of
UV damage from florescent lighting.
if it has an band of lighter color where the light is directly over it be careful not to
pull or put any vertical stress on it or it will break and the tank will useless.

Also if it is used I would put it out outside on a patio or deck and fill it and mark the water level and put the cover on it. and leave it for a day or two and check the water level to see if it leaks.

Also I would get rid of the old florescent lighting and get LED lighting.
that will extend the life of the tank.
I suggest the marineland series of LED lights.
Pet smart sells them for 100 bucks or so and I love mine.
So does my plants.

IMG_0295 by iadubber, on Flickr


IMG_0294 by iadubber, on Flickr


IMG_0292 by iadubber, on Flickr

It's a little bare now. The driftwood and rocks that are coming should fill it up a little better. I need to ditch the Emperor 400, dang thing is so loud. I've fiddled and filddled with it and it's not any better. I have an email into Marineland, but I can't deal with it for too many more days. I'd like to get my cycle going with a new filter.

I use a fertilizer called flourish and it works great.

I have an canister power filter that is in the stand of the 46G bow front I have and I love it .
it is very quiet.
I forgotten the make and model but here is a picture of it.
it holds a lot of media in 3 baskets inside of the filter.
each basket has a velcro mesh bag that holds the media in the basket.
I do 2 of them are carbon and 1 amo-carb that absorbs ammonia.

not a bad start! cant wait to see what comes next lol

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10g- 2 hi-fin fm platys, 3 koi & red wag sword fry
40g Breeder- 6 danios, 4 female swords, 1 male swords
"I was born with nothin and I still got most of it left."- Seasick Steve

Looking nice!

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http://bountifulbettas.blogspot.com/

"Come to the dark side....we have cookies...and filters/heaters/and water changes!"

You did a great job cleaning it if it was very dirty.

If the center piece ever does break the tank is not useless. You can fab up your own center brace or even better, order a new rim for the tank from your lfs.

The center bar is perfectly fine. It was just coated in deposits so it's a little discolored. I'm excited to get this going! It's been a couple years I've been wanting to start this hobby.

Just purchased a FluVal 405 so I can ditch the emperor. I may opt for an AQ50 or 70 in the future for double filtration, but I like the idea of having the tank up against the wall better for now.

looks good!

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"Being ignorant is not so much a Shame, as being unwilling to learn".-- Benjamin Franklin

very nice job on setup looks great

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What happens if you get scared half to death, twice?

Got the FluVal 405 today and my god I'm in love already. Glad to get rid of that Emperor 400 biowheel and enjoy whisper quiet filtering. Now I just hear my air pump.

I wasn't sure if that was your Java Fern that is planted in your sand so I thought I would mention that the root stem thing(forgot the name of it) should not be buried in the substrate. It will do much better tied to a piece of driftwood or something. I used fishing line to tie mine down and it does great.

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75 Gallon Planted

ok, thanks. I'll tie it to my driftwood when it comes and I'll pull it out of the sand for now. Glad to have you guys!

Yes thanks for the java fern tip.
I have heard that java fern does well in brackish water and I plan on stewing up a brackish tank soon.

So I'm pondering what we are going to stock this bad boy with when the cycle is done.

I am kind of confused on something. Ok, so in doing the fishless cycle we introduce ammonia to create the beneficial bacteria to consume the ammonia when actual fish are introduce.
I would assume that you need to have a certain amount of fish to provide enough ammonia for the bacteria to stay alive.

This would be my proposed stock, any issues I will have? Will they all get along? Are the numbers correct?



Also another question I've been wondering about. Our tap water is softened, so I have to go outside to our faucet to get unsoftened water. It's pretty cold. How do you guys acclimate the water temp when you have fish before pouring it into the tank? A separate heater for the bucket?

By adding the ammonia to your tank you start the cycling process. As you continue to feed the beneficial bacteria with the daily doses of ammonia the bacteria multiplies to the appropriate amount of nitrites to consume the ammonia, and the same is true with nitrates consuming nitrites. The cycle eventually completes.
At that point you have a decent amount of Beneficial bacteria to support the bio load of your fish. If you add 10 fish then the beneficial bacteria will either increase or decrease depending on the amount of ammonia your 10 fish that you just added produce. This is exactly the reason when you add fish to an established tank that you do a few at a time, opposed to 15-20 at a time so the bacteria has time to adjust to the increased bio load.
I hope that makes sense.

Edit: That is 29 fish that you are planning to start off with. Just make sure that the level of ammonia that you are cycling with is high enough to produce the amount of BB to support that many fish.

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75 Gallon Planted

Well I am planning on having a 55G plastic drum to condition the water.
I have a source of used food grade drums (lucky me)

I plan on putting it in my workshop and running a 1/4 tube to each tank
using a windshield wiper pump.
I know it will be slow but adding new water to a tank slowly is a good thing.

Two 200W submersible heaters and a aerator.
A water heater insulation jacket.
During the winter this will be a must.

Thankfully I have a 4 inch conduit in between my house and the shop.
That runs from the utility closet on the house to the shop.
I just have to insulate the tubing under the house.

I already have two whole house water filters that have activated carbon.
I plan on using them to fill the barrel

Then my wife can do water changes with a turn of a valve.

I suppose that makes sense. I wasn't planning on adding the 29 at once. I was looking that to be about the quantity I want total.

Finally got the water under control after putting the FluVal on. My ammonia was off the charts for some reason. I didn't have an ammonia test kit when I added the recommended 2tsp. So I did a 25% WC and that brought it down some. I did another 20% WC and now it's around 4ppm.

Finally have the ammonia under control. What temp is recommended for a fishless cycle? I've been running mid 70s.

Pic of the anubias.

IMG_0300 by iadubber, on Flickr

Pic of some rocks I pulled from our landscaping, boiled and brushed them off.

IMG_0307 by iadubber, on Flickr

Gotta give this beauty a shout out!

IMG_0303 by iadubber, on Flickr