Well I guess I should actually post my build in the proper place and list the equipment, fish and plant stock. Hopefully the pictures are not too big, if so, I can reduce the sizes and re-post.

Tank:
Set up mid Feb
75g glass (48x22x18)
162w T5HO Current extreme lights (2x 10,00k and 1 freshwater pink)
10hr total photoperiod with 108w, 5hr with all 162w
CO2 paintball system with Red Sea reactor 500
Fluval 305
Rena XP3 (this filter is much better than a Fluval)
Homemade spraybar set midway down the tank
400w Hydro heater set to 84F
Green Monster 24w in-tank UV sterilizer
pH controller (monitors/turns off CO2)
Flourite gravel

Fish:
12 Cardinal tetras (want 20)
1 German ram, female
12 Albino Orange Von rio Tetras
1 Angelfish 3"
1 Brown Discus 3"
1 Red Scorpion Melon Discus 2"
5 Sterbai Cory cats
3 Otoculnus cats
2 Siamese algae eaters
3 Nerite snails
~shrimp (red cherry, amano)

Plants:
Amazon Sword
Red Tiger Lotus
Dwarf Sags
Cryptocryne Wenditii (brown)
Java moss
Anubius nana
Riccia fluitans (on rock)
Java fern (regular, narrow)
Windelov fern
Glossostigma elaninoides (not doing so hot)
Limnophila aromatica
Sagittaria subulata
Crypt spiralis
Rotala indica
...more to come, forget the names


March


April

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Wow! That's sweet! I want a bigger tank... Thanks for sharing.

Lol @ "this filter is better then a fluval" hahahahah. Good one.



Nice tank man. The scape and lighting looks good.

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why buy, when you can DIY

Here is a picture of my lonely emperor tetra:


Here is one of the SAE, he is about 3" long and is none stop. He cleans the tank, the plants, chases the fish, attacks worms,...etc.

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with the pics u just showed, it looks like the wild almost. adding lots of plants and fish from the same area do wonders for making a tank look really realistic. btw-what happened to the peacock gudgeons and the other emp tets.

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Nobody beats...
THE AVALANCHE!!!!!!!!!!

The peacock is still in there somewhere. He loves to sit on the bottom and hides in the sags. The other 2 emperors: 1 died, the other was too aggressive/territorial and was returned to my LFS.

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wasn't there 2 PG's

__________________
Nobody beats...
THE AVALANCHE!!!!!!!!!!

Posted these in the Discus area but never added them to my tank thread...enjoy:

2" baby red melon scorpion discus, just starting to get some blue


3" wild caught brown discus


The 2 swimming together. Notice the angelfish fins behind the driftwood?

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I just edited the first post comparing the plant growth from March to April. Quite stunning, looking back a month.

Some of the plants have really taken off like the dwarf sags, and the Limnophila aromatica. However the red plants in the back left corner continue to melt, and my lotus had to be trimmed down to the bulb and re-planted. The java ferns show little signs of growth but are considered slow growers.

Here is a close up of the Dwarf sags in the front left conner with some amano shrimp:


I also found some cool looking "albino" orange von rio tetras. They do not have the black bands like the regular von rios. I added 6 to my tank:

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nice!

__________________
Nobody beats...
THE AVALANCHE!!!!!!!!!!

Dmaaaaax,

This is awesome. Now I have a standard set for my tank.

Is that real driftwood in there?

Also if you don't mind can you show a drawing of you setup on how the whole sytem is put together.

Dmaaaaax, how do you "fight" the algae?
Do you use tap water? or it's filtered RO etc...

Thanks
Aram

I still us just tap unlike a lot of high tech planted tanks. The key to algae control is to know what your tap has in it and to keep that in mind when trying to balance the 3 key elements for a high tech tank:

1.) Lights (photoperiod, wpg, bulb type)
2.) CO2
3.) Nutrients (Macro, micro)

Even then, you have to be able to see signs in your plants like growth, dying, melting, and when to trim....and adjust your nutrients accordingly. Lights are the number one factor in algae control. If you increase your lights, you need to increase your CO2 and nutrients or you will get algae. My tap water has phosphates, my fish produce nitrates, so I basically just need to add Potassium for macros. For micros, I use Flourish from Seachem and chelated iron.

If plants are healthy then most algae does not stand a chance. You will always have some algae, this is normal, but leaves can be pruned, and algae eaters can keep it under control (SAE, shrimp, snails, bristlenose, banjo). And yes the ocassional scaping of the glass does happen.;)

My low tech tank is algae free, and that consists of just watching the lighting and doing regular water changes. No chemicals added here, however, it only has low-medium light requiring plants.

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Thanks for reply.

Do you use compressed tank CO2 or DIY
And what type of gravel is that? Do you use layers of garden soil?
Also UV sterilizer, what is it kills (sterilize)?

Sorry for so many questions I just want to understand what I will need, when I am ready to switch to the new 55Gal tank.

I use 20Oz paintball tanks for CO2. They are pumped into the tank with a needle wheel pump. DIY are great for smaller tanks (~30g), but if you try to put them lower into the water, the pressure slows down the bubbling. For substrate I use flourite and flourite black from Seachem. If I had to do it again, I would mix it with some larger gravel so that it stays aerated better. Here is a picture of my paintball setup now:


...and here is a simplier setup when it was in my 29g. This setup should be ok for a 55g. You see the tank, the regulator, the bubble counter, the needle valve (to control speed), and in the tank is the reactor, to diffuse the gas into the water.


Here was my over-planted 29g with CO2. Look how small my angel fish was!!


UV sterilizers are used to get rid of green water. This is the floating algae that makes your water green but does not grow on stuff. This can also be removed with micron filters. UV sterilizers can also kill certain bacteria and parasites that can harm fish. The key to both is that you need a high wattage UV bulb and a relatively low speed water flow through it so that it has enough time to kill.

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Thanks for the pictures. Very nice!

Can you please tell me why do you need solenoid right after CO2 regulator? and one on the water filter line?
Do you shut the CO2 injection at night?

I see that you have your fish tank facing directly to the window, I think if you move it from direct sunlight, you can elemenate that UV sterilizers.
Sometime ago I use to have a tank facing window, about 10- 15' away, plants was nice and green, no CO2, nothing!!! Just WC, and air stone ... I had so much plants that I was pulling them out and trowing it to the trash.
But my problem that time was green long algae! It was so many that fish was getting caught in it ... and time to time water was turning green. All that was gone, as soon as I move my tank away from sunlight, but then plant's was not as green


With current 7 Gal tank I have different type of algae, it's more like an dark green ink on the limestone on the gravel, and looks like a velvet on the big leaves and some parts of java moss. It must be a light or lack of CO2...
Because fish feels fine, all 8 in good shape and breading like crazy (fancy guppy and corydoras).

I have a solenoid valve hooked up to a pH controller that is hooked up to a timer. If the pH drops below 6.0 the CO2 is turned off. It is also turned off at night. You can leave it on at night but then I would not have it as strong as I have it now. The reason is at night your plants acutally give off CO2 and use oxygen. So pumping too much CO2 at night could drop the pH more and deplete the oxygen.

Although my tank is by the window it never gets direct sunlight. The house leave a 10ft shade in front of that window all day, and on top of that there is a screened in porch. I also have blinds in front of the window that are closed most of the time. I use the UV mostly to make sure my fish never get sick, it also controls green water, but it cannot stop any of the hair or spot algae. Fortunately I do not have any hair algae at all, just the normal spot algae that likes to grow on shade loving plants that grow slow. This type of algae is normal in most tanks.

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Dmaaaaax, what controls the level of pH? So when it drops below 6.0 it triggers the solenoid to shut the CO2, or its manual…

Can you please give me some ideas about gravel? I am not sure about your 75Gal tank, but in 55Gal I see you have multiple layers.

I have a pH probe in the water that tests the pH. It is hooked up to a controller that shuts off at a specific low and high pH that you can set. As you add CO2 to your tank your pH naturally goes down. If it goes below 6.0 my controller shuts off which shuts off the solenoid to the CO2.

For gravel in my old 29g tank I was using a thin bottom layer of cat litter (pure clay, no scents..Petco brand) and dirt (soil not potting soil or manure) 1" or so, then held it down with sand, and the top layer was just gravel. In my 75g tank it is 100% Flourite from Seachem. This substrate is clay based and is high in iron.

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So basically for CO2 control you have something like this:





What if I have always low (~6.3 pH API drop tester) it goes up around 6.9 - 7.1 after WC, but in day or two it drops back to 6.3.
I don't want to add any pH UP, all I add is some broken coral in the filter, and rock (looks like lava rock, but it's white). In this case I can't add any Co2 until pH problem is resolved right?


In what tank you like plant growing process more? in 55Gal multilayer gravel or 75Gal w/ Seachem extract