This is my first tank. I picked up the entire setup off craigslist for $150. I have been eyeing this tank for over a year... everytime we walk into Petsmart to get Catfood... but I just could never justify spending what Petsmart wanted.

This tank came setup as you'll see in a moment. With some fake plants, blue & white aquarium gravel and a Rock. It also came with a Rena Filstar XP2 canister filter & some other odds & ends... overall I think i got a great deal





I added that piece of wood. I found a Local Aquarium Store not far from my house and the guys there are real great and know their stuff! They had some pieces of wood they just got and i was able to score this gorgeous chunk. After talking to the guys there they sold me on some live plant and i picked up 3 anubias.
Before I set the wood in the tank I drilled a couple nice deep holes for them to root in, and secured them with some thread so they wouldnt try to float away...



I am aiming at this being a community tank with no agressive fish or fin nippers. I started the tank with 3 black skirt tetra's & 5 neon tetra's.

__________________

So after the first setup, i let the water cycle a week, but I couldnt deal with the white & blue aquarium rock for long... and i knew i wanted some larger rocks to act as hiding spots. I do not mind having fake plants, but I absolutely refuse to put fake plastic rocks or plastic wooden ornaments... and I had this one rock I have been holding onto for over a year waiting for some special occasion... i think this is it



As you can see this rock is quite large. It dwarfs the soda boxes right behind it. This is obviously too large and not very practical. So I ended up making it less large and even more practical.



After cleaning and soaking the rock I felt comfortable with putting it in the tank. I also went to the local aquarium store and picked up some sand and black rock to replace the blue that was in the tank. Did a slight adjustment to my plants and came up with what I call "Version 2".



The rocks worked out great. The way things broke made it easy to stack them. The fish really loved them.






Just prior to all this I had introduced 6 new guppies to the Community. 2 turquoise, 2 yellow & 2 tequila sunrise. Along with a snail to help keep the floor clean. The snail is by far my favorite in the tank... I could sit and watch him for hours.

__________________

Great work on the tank! And you know, I find my see pressing my face againt the glass to see what's new with my snails as well. Almost more than I watch the other fish in the tank.

__________________
100G->African Cichlids:Kribensis-2,Bumblebee-2,Red Zebra-2,Elec. Yel. Labi.-2, Acei-2, Elec. Blu. Johanni-2,Peacocks-2 / Community: Australian Rainbow-3,Turquoise Rainbow-4,Dalmatian Mollies-2,white molly-1,Dojo Loaches-1/Cleaners:Chinese Algea Eaters-5/Murderers: Dinosaur Bichir-1And lots of other tanks,2-Gourims,6-Rams,1-Arrowanna,6-FW Flounder,1-Farlowella CF, 1-Spiney Eel

So after a couple weeks I was only down 1 neon Tetra, i decided to get a few more to help keep them 'schooled' and picked up 6 addtional neons to round out the number to 10. The next day I noticed only 9 swimming and wondered about the tenth. After a small search I found one of the strangest things ever... my snail had gotten my Neon Tetra?!?!??!



After some reading I determined the fish was most likely already dead and the snail found him afterwards. Still was strange seeing, after he let the corpse go I extracted it.

I also got tired of looking at the tubing that runs to my airstone. I was at the pet store and found this awesome air tube that is green and looks like a plant!! I had to get it, it worked perfectly and you would never think it was supplying my airstone!

__________________

Ha, nice. hide it even more of you move the tube to the otherside where the similar looking plant is.

__________________
100G->African Cichlids:Kribensis-2,Bumblebee-2,Red Zebra-2,Elec. Yel. Labi.-2, Acei-2, Elec. Blu. Johanni-2,Peacocks-2 / Community: Australian Rainbow-3,Turquoise Rainbow-4,Dalmatian Mollies-2,white molly-1,Dojo Loaches-1/Cleaners:Chinese Algea Eaters-5/Murderers: Dinosaur Bichir-1And lots of other tanks,2-Gourims,6-Rams,1-Arrowanna,6-FW Flounder,1-Farlowella CF, 1-Spiney Eel

The next addition to the Community would be Gourami. I had spent weeks reading about them and the different species and decided on a Blue Gourami & a Pearl Gourami. The local aquarium store had just got their shipment in and I was able to pick the best of the litter (in my opinion). The two gourami are beautiful but need alot of vegitation to claim. I wanted more vegitation but not quite at ground level. I did alot of shopping but couldnt find what it was I wanted, not until i turned around and looked at the Reptile side of the isle!
I came across a bag full of fake vine leafs. It was a 6' section of vine with leafs scattered for like $9! Far cheaper than an assortment of Aquarium plants that probably wouldnt even look right anyway!

So I cut to length a section that would run across the back top of the tank and comes down to hide my heater in the left-rear-corner. I also took three sections cut at about 10" tall, and wound them together to create a type of bush that fills in the back right corner (doing a great job hiding the pump's pickup tube as well!).



Along with all this, i redirected the pumps output so that the current is only flowing on the left side of the tank, and put an adjusting valve inline on my airpump to restrict the amount of air comming from my airstone.
The change in current and air seems to have made my fish a whole lot happier. The neon tetra's come out more often, the guppies look alot friendlier. But my Gourami still like to hide when I come by to look them over.

__________________

So this pretty much catches us up. Its been aprox 4 weeks since I got the tank, and I think everything is comming together perfectly.

Yesterday I paid a visit to the local aquarium store to get an companion for my Blue Gourami. She has been hiding alot and the Pearl seems like it bullys her, so i picked up a small Dwarf Gourami to maybe keep her company.

I was also so intrigued by my Snail I had to get 2 more. I have been doing alot of reading lately and really liked the Zebra snail. I have been bugging my aquarium shop the past 2 weeks to get some in, and yesterday his shipments arived! When I showed up he showed me some of the Onion snails he just got in, and i couldn't make up my mind... so I got one of each!

The Onion Snail:


And my Zebra Snail:


While I was there, i spoke to the guys about feeding and they suggest I do Black Worms. He suggested I get a bottom feeder to help keep the loose worms in check. It didnt take me long to pick out this Cory Catfish he had hiding



I couldnt seem to get any pictures of my Dwarf Gourami. She is small and shy and has been hiding alot. I did get a few good pictures last night without any glare on my tank.

Here is my Pearl Gourami. He loves to hang out and never really hides at all:


Here you can see my Blue Gourami. I got a quick pic as she was moving from one hiding spot to another. You can also see 2 of my Black Skirt Tetra's trying to get some camera time:


I will be posting up more soon when progress continues. I just ordered some adjustable R-G-B LED lighting and I am working on some PVC plumbing to help the pump circulate water better and control the underwater current.

Soon I would like to start replacing some of these fake plants with more live plants too

__________________

nice tank. i always have a trouble getting the right light for live plants to grow in a bowfront but if ur going with plastic it should be good. do u drive a wrx?

Nice work dude, welcome to the forums! Let me know if you need a hand with anything!

__________________
- 10 Gallon -
1 - Spotted Puffer
1 - Dalmatian Molly
1 - Pleco
fake plants and custom fixture

- 55 Gallon Acrylic -
1 - Bala Shark
2 - Plecos
2 - Black Skirt Tetras
5 - Guppies
2 - Guppy Fry (in custom nursery box)
1 - Koi Angel
1 - Brown Knifefish
1 - Golden Lyretail Molly
1 - Black Molly
2 - African Dwarf Frogs
All live plants and a custom fixture

- 55 Gallon Glass-
1 - unknown south american freshwater fish

HA! I think you missed the fish and hooked yourself.

Don't worry I started with a 10G tank with a red eared slider turtle (daughters). Now I have 3 - 10G (one empty), 20G Tall, 30G, 37G, 40G (Turtle only), and the new 125G.

Just started working on rescaping with live plants, I love it so much to do and a lot of it can be done individually.

__________________
100G->African Cichlids:Kribensis-2,Bumblebee-2,Red Zebra-2,Elec. Yel. Labi.-2, Acei-2, Elec. Blu. Johanni-2,Peacocks-2 / Community: Australian Rainbow-3,Turquoise Rainbow-4,Dalmatian Mollies-2,white molly-1,Dojo Loaches-1/Cleaners:Chinese Algea Eaters-5/Murderers: Dinosaur Bichir-1And lots of other tanks,2-Gourims,6-Rams,1-Arrowanna,6-FW Flounder,1-Farlowella CF, 1-Spiney Eel

No, now I drive a Toyota Land Cruiser... just sold my Subaru Brat. Ive had alot of Subaru's but never an Impreza.

What kind of issues will plants have with lighting regarding a bowfront?? I guess I have alittle more reading to do.

__________________

I almost forgot! I have a short video I made a few weeks ago.

Forgive me for my crappy camera quality. I think its time to upgrade my camera, or at least invest in a camcorder instead of using my Digital Camera's movie mode...



I have alot of new footage ive been collecting, soon i'll have a newer video

__________________

Nice looking tank.

Has it gone completely through the nitrogen cycle?

Not sure. How can I tell?

__________________

Water testing kits can help you tell if the cycle is finished. You can get them at your LFS or you can take a sample in for them. (The loss of Neon's could be because the tank wasn't finished cycling).

Love your set up. Very creative with the reptile plants, and LOVE the air stone plant tube! I have an air stone and want on of those plant looking tubes for mine! :D

__________________
20g Heavily Planted http://www.aquariumforum.com/gallery...00&ppuser=8981
36g Bow Front Heavily Planted http://www.aquariumforum.com/gallery...00&ppuser=8981

Sorry I didn't think to ask first did you test the rock with Vinegar to see if there was a reaction? Might cause a change in the PH. Just something to see an eye out for.

__________________
100G->African Cichlids:Kribensis-2,Bumblebee-2,Red Zebra-2,Elec. Yel. Labi.-2, Acei-2, Elec. Blu. Johanni-2,Peacocks-2 / Community: Australian Rainbow-3,Turquoise Rainbow-4,Dalmatian Mollies-2,white molly-1,Dojo Loaches-1/Cleaners:Chinese Algea Eaters-5/Murderers: Dinosaur Bichir-1And lots of other tanks,2-Gourims,6-Rams,1-Arrowanna,6-FW Flounder,1-Farlowella CF, 1-Spiney Eel

No, i have a few chunks of that rock I didnt use. I could test those with vinegar. What kind of reaction am I looking for?

__________________

NOT bubbling.

Thanks! I'll do that right now

__________________

Ok so i think it failed.

I put a chunk of the rock into a glass of vinegar, and sure enough i got bubbles :(

So whats that mean? What can I expect this to do to my water/fish??

Thanks in advance,
-Brian

__________________