# Zen aquarium



## ctclee (May 3, 2010)

Hi !!

New-ish here, and am thankful there is a place i can go that some other people may share similar views. I have friends that do not have tanks that consider me a fish geek sometimes. I usually tell them I'm more into aquariums than fish. It's that slow moving waiting and knowing no matter how long it takes I did this!

I come from instant gratification and fish keeping is not INSTANT by any means. 
I like that part.

I have been doing this for a few years now and my multi tank syndrome has gotten me up to my largest acquisition my new (used) 75 gallon.

Currently we have 6 tanks (5 running 1 for sale)

I do not understand all of this GH KH stuff. And that bugs me a bit but I'm sure it will click someday. Patience young grasshopper.

I did all this for my daughter because we lived in a very small place for a while. Pets not allowed and allergies pushed a couple other choices out the window too. It's really more my obsession now but she still maintains her own tank that I have barely touched in about 3 years 

All I've ever done is added DIY co2 (sometimes) I've had less fish fatalities than any other member of my household. I don't know what the deal is. But I think it may have something to do with a good friend that got me started. He was a little old school an told me " you can't force it! If something is wrong do a water change, then wait!" so far sound advice. He has quite the lush tank with nothing but the occasional dose of excel.

Anyway this is my current tank. I'll post more in a bit 








this is about week 4 or 5 before the extra gravel I added from a tore down tank. 
Once I added the extra gravel then I had to rearrange everything.








I'm pretty happy about it right now. 
I run DIY co2 when I remember and just tried to make my own fertilizer tabs. So I put them in with the new gravel. I'm in the less is more category so I've stopped dosing flourish to see how the fert-tabs do 

What do you think ?


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## Pamela (Apr 21, 2010)

Very nice, healthy looking tanks


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## Alkatraz (Jul 20, 2012)

Welcome 


> Currently we have 6 tanks (5 running 1 for sale)


Jealous!


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## IceBlue (Mar 17, 2011)

Why can't my tank look like that?:bigsmile:


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## ctclee (May 3, 2010)

I'm sure your tank could, it took very little effort. 
I bought the tank from a friend a couple months ago and gave it a huge overhaul. Mostly paint and elbow grease.







I added a piece of pegboard 6$ish 







painted with some satin black 25$ish.













btw I ended up adding more gravel than that 

I have done everything very cheaply. Besides the tank, I've spent very little. I have another hobby that is proving quite expensive at times


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## ctclee (May 3, 2010)

I made some DIY fert tabs and placed a few. I think I will need to revise the recipe. I like to proceed under cation while dealing with my plants and livestock. I grossly under did the amount of ferts I added. But .... Nothing bad has happened. In fact slight growth improvement even though I stopped using flourish. It's been a couple weeks. Might be in my head but I'm upping the dosage of ferts for sure. I read 10-12 granules of ferts in a clay ball and I only tried 1/4 the dosage. And only put in 3 DIY clay root tabs. 1 under three things that did not want to grow.


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## Fish rookie (May 21, 2012)

You are very handy, beautiful stands there. Love your plants they look very healthy.
Welcome to the forum.


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## ctclee (May 3, 2010)

Wow does this look like a bow front or what ?!? Nope just my tank in the beginning


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## TomC (Apr 21, 2010)

Nice tanks. I would be interested in knowing how you made your own fertilizer tabs.


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## ctclee (May 3, 2010)

OMG !!! I'm sooo sorry about the pictures ...... Why did no one tell me they were garbage? I used the tapatalk app to upload them.... I signed in on the pc for the first time in eons and took a look wow it almost doesnt look like my tank. I promise I'll fix this soon.



TomC said:


> Nice tanks. I would be interested in knowing how you made your own fertilizer tabs.


No problem Tom I might do a lil DIY but I'm still learning and tweaking...


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## ctclee (May 3, 2010)

This is tonight 









I hope this works .......

\m/ ( '_' ) \m/


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## jobber (May 14, 2010)

Very nicely done. amazing how much nicer the newly refurbished and repainted stand looks. Great job!

Sent from my Samsung Mobile using Tapatalk


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## crimper (Oct 20, 2010)

you just turned it to a stunning tank... great job!


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## Vancitycam (Oct 23, 2012)

wow very nice set up, i was thining about something floating in my planted aswell but how are things under your floating plants still getting good light?


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## Vancitycam (Oct 23, 2012)

oops double post


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## ctclee (May 3, 2010)

Vancitycam said:


> wow very nice set up, i was thining about something floating in my planted aswell but how are things under your floating plants still getting good light?


Thanks vancitycam. Yeah there is plenty of light but I think I may have too much light anyway.... Mostly low light plants under the floaters anyway. It's my attempt to keep algae off my slow growing plants.

Good god I wish I could ID every plant in my tank.... Is there somewhere to do that ?


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## Reckon (Jul 25, 2012)

ctclee said:


> Good god I wish I could ID every plant in my tank.... Is there somewhere to do that ?


Here you go
http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/plantfinder/all.php

Great looking tank. I'm curious what that red plant is on the right. Maybe some sort of Ludwigia.


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## Reckon (Jul 25, 2012)

I see Cabombas, Bacopas, and Rotalas. Hard to tell what the other ones are.


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## ctclee (May 3, 2010)

A) Rotala







B) Ozelot Sword







C) Pennywart (the bright lilypad type plant)







D) Wisteria







E) Anubias ???


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## ctclee (May 3, 2010)

F) Cabomba







G) a larger anubias ??







H) Bacopa ??? caroliniana







I) I do not know what these red things are....







J) Vals ??? and a mirimo ball ?


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## crimper (Oct 20, 2010)

ctclee said:


> View attachment 12915
> 
> View attachment 12918
> I) I do not know what these red things are....


Those are Alternanthera reineckii if I'm not mistaken


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## ctclee (May 3, 2010)

Well I'm going to tear down the tank soon. We are moving to a bigger place ! So this is probably the happiest I've ever been about my tanks. 
It's the biggest tank I've ever had and the most variety of plants as well. 

Once we move and settle in I want to re-examine my views dwarf cichlids. I was hoping for a pair of German blue rams for Xmas... But some of these apistos are looking REALLY nice !!! Sooo many apistogramma species !!


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## Reckon (Jul 25, 2012)

ctclee said:


> View attachment 12919
> J) Vals ??? and a mirimo ball ?


Believe those are cryps
If you close down your tank, how are you gonna zen? 
best of luck on the move.


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## ctclee (May 3, 2010)

Reckon said:


> Believe those are cryps
> If you close down your tank, how are you gonna zen?
> best of luck on the move.


I'm not sure how im gonna zen. Maybe dig a whole and fill it up... 
I'm stressing already, good thing I have a good friend willing to put in an entire day to help relocate the tanks. Hopefully it doesn't take all day.


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## ctclee (May 3, 2010)

Well that was a horrific but organized move. With only a few casualties  

4 tanks, 20g,20g,29g,70g most went well. 

My little girls 20g went well as we were able to transplant the fish and the plants in two 5 gallon buckets and a 5 gallon bucket of gravel. So really it was a 25% water change. Plus her tank is grossly under stocked right now. A couple neons, a glass fish, a glofish danio, and an albino corey. All survived !!

The next 20gallon was taken over by my gf's endlers as a grow out tank. So nothing but endlers and a zebra snail(and a ton of rams horn snails). Same deal about a 25% waterchange. No casualties that we found.

Next was the gf's main tank 30gallon. One she just got from me to replace her 27tall(I think...not sure but she hated the tallness of it) this one had the krib babies and not even two months old, born/hatched oct 13th. This is the unhappy tank. We did everything in the same order and process and damn we had some casualties.... Of the 40 or so fry that survived us (forgetting to cover intakes on filters and generally not being prepared for fry) we now have 6 or so after the move.... This saddens the girlfriend to no end...  but all her other fish, chilli rasboras, endlers, Otto cat, and rainbow threadfins all survived. 

And now on to my tank. 70gallons. Never moved a tank this large ever! The krib parents that were starting to quarrel about a month ago in the 29 had been moved into my tank one at a time, first mom then a week or two later when dad was letting the fry go anywhere in the tank we moved him to my tank to join his girl  
Things looked good no caves for them to lay eggs in and everyone in my tank was getting along. Until.... The damn krib's found a spot that was covered by some plant and they tore it away to make room for EGGS !!! Omg they decide to lay eggs 2 days before we move !!!! This looked problematic. The only thing we could do was hope and pray the eggs would survive the move. So we put all the fish in one bucket (except kribs and eggs) and all the plants in another with the rock that had eggs on it and the parents. Hoping that without the other fish next to the eggs they may not be as stressed. 
The move is done in the rain in the back of a pickup. And several buckets of gravel. Once I got across Abbotsford and to the new house I started prepping the tank, level, placement ect... Dump all the gravel in and attempt to use the python I've only used twice now to fill it. Get the filters started and plants are in the tank but floating. Then a bunch of prime wait a bit longer and make sure there is a ton of water movement. 
I should stop here and say I understand his is not best practices with acclimating ect... But you do what you gotta do. 
So with plants gravel water filters and prime in the tank I decide it's all or nothing time. Pour in all my livestock and carefully place the egg rock in the tank and then the parents. Off go the lights and I continue my move. Now the tank was on the cold side of safe because I realized that these buckets in the past hour got fairly cold so I didn't want to shock them any more than needed. I turn off the lights and go back to moving and unpacking the essentials for work in the am. 

By the way the move started at 6:30 am and didn't end until 2:30 the next day. Poor weather and friends that no-show stretch things out I'm sure. But it was a one day move! 
Over the next few days I get some plants rooted (still not all of them lol) and do a 10 gallon water change every 2 days. I did a water change the next night when I got home from work, this is when I realized I had forgotten tho plug in the heater!!! With testing the water the only thing bad was around day 3 or 4 a huge ammonia spike ! Now the tank hasn't had a waterchange in 4 days and it's 0,0,5!!!!!! And only 1 Otto did not survive  BUT even through all of this 2 maybe 3 days after we are in the new place, the eggs all hatch !!! Holy crap there are a lot of krib fry !!!! 

This is very sad for my gf but as I see it the fry are hers and she can have them once they have grown out. But as always our tanks are separate. I do no go in hers (except to fish out dead fish) and she does not go into mine either. 

I will get pics later. I'm not happy with the layout of my new tank but.... I have time to fix it. The longer I stare at it the calmer I get  

Ahhhh my little zen garden is now a playpen for fry.


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## ctclee (May 3, 2010)

I have taken the background off and now i can look through it !! kinda neat 

I have bought some myriophyllum tuberculatum.

I hope it survives and flourishes in my tank! Fully grown, google shows a spectacular plant !!!!


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