# Neven's Planted Addiction - july 16, no more 29 gallon



## neven

*JUMP TO LAST PICTURE UPDATES:*
DiY Sump, mame overflow and light stand

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Ever since i rehomed my wifes beta, i've been attracted to planted tanks. Because of this pretty much every tank i've owned has become a planted tank. Since all my tank journals have this similar theme, i figured i might aswell combine my 3 tank journals into 1 single journal. So here is the start to my new Tank Journal, Neven's Planted Addiction.

A long while back i posted a thread that gave a quick reference to pictures of my start into this hobby, unfortunately the pic links went dead. I decided to rehost the pictures just for those who want to see the old thread: http://www.bcaquaria.com/forum/member-photo-video-gallery-17/my-old-scapes-2241/

Now to the journal

*Common through all tanks:*
EI dosed
Kent RO right + Kent PH Stable
Metricide 3xWeek dosing 3x recommended.

Flora:
Red Tiger Lotus
Anubias barteri 'nanas'
Anubias barteri 'Coffeefolia'
Bolbitis heudelotii 
Ammania gracilis
Glossostigma elatinoides 
Microsorum pteropus v. 'narrow leaf'
Microsorum pteropus v. 'phillipine'
Microsorum pteropus v. 'windelov'
Cryptocoryne beckettii 'petchii'
Cryptocoryne undulata
Proserpinaca palustris (Mermaid Weed) -recovering-

Fauna
11 black phantoms (half juveniles)
9 Yasuhikotakia sidthimunki
1 calico Bristlenose
Several Dwarf Otocs
Crossocheilus reticulatus

*9.8 gallons*
Substrate: Black Flourite Capped with Tahitian moon sand
Lighting: 4ft t5ho w/ daylight bulb
Filtration: Maxijet 400 w/ prefilter on each tank
Decor: pebbles, granite, manzanita and malaysian driftwood
Co2: pressurized via ceramic discs
tanks: custom made acrylic by Gklaw

Flora - Left:
Anubias barteri 'Petite'
Cryptocoryne parva
Singapore moss
flame moss
Ranunculus Inundatus
Pogostemon erectus
Echinodorus vesuvius
staurogyne repens
Red Flame Amazon Sword
Stargrass

Flora - Right:
Cryptocoryne Lucens
Cryptocoryne wendtii
Alternanthera reineckii 'roseafolia'
Fissidens
Lobelia cardinalis 'Small Form'
eleocharis parvula (Dwarf Hairgrass)
blyxa japonica
subwassertang
Red Tiger Lotus
Hygrophila pinnatifida
Pogostemon helferi (Downoi)

Fauna - Left:
5 Male Guppies
1 Dwarf ottos
3 Amano Shrimp
2 assassin snails
Fauna - Right:
Painted Fire Red Shrimp
4 zebra Nerite snails

*2.5 gallon*
Substrate: River gravel mixed with crushed coral
Lighting: Sideways twister CFL, 13W
Filtration: n/a
Decor: diy rock wall
Co2: n/a

Flora:
Cryptocoryne Lucens
Anubias barteri 'nanas'
Anubias barteri 'Petite'

Fauna:
n/a


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## neven

*29 gallon*

To kick off the journal, heres a pic of my 29 gallon










a little has changed. The crypt in the middle foreground was swapped out with another form, i think its an crypt undulata, definately can be wrong though. In the left side foreground theres a plant thats melted a bit atm, im not sure what that is, it grew great before i hooked up co2 again. Oh and i added 6 juvie black phantoms


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## Bien Lim

I like it a lot. looks very clean and healthy


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## crazy72

What a beautiful tank. The plants look amazing. Fish paradise, surely.


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## JohnnyAppleSnail

Very Nice Setup. I don't know much about the care or needs of the Red Tiger Lotus but is a favorite Plant of Mine,any secrets on growing a Healthy one such as Yours?


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## neven

*10 gallon*

10 gallon update:

This tank had a major outbreak of clado in my willow moss, so i had to remove the moss from the wood and give it a heavy metricide regime on its own. The clado left on the wood itself has pretty much died, as did the remnants of whatever willow moss was left on the wood thanks to dropping the water level down and dosing metricide directly on the spot. During tank maintnence, i removed pogostemon stellatus and replaced it with heteranthera zosterifolia for now. The reason for the removal was it simply needs a much larger tank to be able to space it out to do the plant justice.










eventually i'll get more manzanita wood for the tank, and give it a much nicer scape, but for now it'll do. Lastly, theres 1 new inhabitant, a Red Rose Guppy from IPU a few weeks back


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## Rastapus

Looking good!!!!


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## CRS Fan

I've always liked all your tanks, Rob (especially the 29 gallon ). Where did you find all those amazing plants? LOL. Most of them I no longer keep . One day I'll make it out to your place !

Best regards,

Stuart


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## neven

*2.5 gallon added!*

2.5 Gallon Added!

Since my betta died not to long ago i sat waiting wondering what to do with the tank for a few days. First i wanted to eliminate the heater death issue since i got hit with it twice now, second i wanted something different from my other tanks. The solution, a hardscaped background. I've been wanting to do this for a while, so i got started on one last week. I picked up a chunk of styrofoam from the scrap pile at work, grabbed my box cutter and went to town on it several nights throughout the week. Anywho, heres the progress on it:

the piece i started with









Cut it down to size









The filter and heater to be hidden, the styrofoams depth wasn't enough to cover these, so i cut the piece into a wedge shaped and added a spacer behind it.









the result of the first two carving nights, i added pieces of styrofoam to give more depth, siliconed them together. The intake is the bottom, i will use mesh over it when im done the coatings









the behind view where the heater and filter sit, the hole on the right is the outtake









front view of the outtake









To silicone the multiple layers easily i outlined them in pen and numbered the pieces by topography. This part is the entrance to a tunnel that exits on the right side.









Finsihed the carving up, the only work i did to the carving after this was to texture the flat areas a bit more









the background in place, view of the hidden equipment









front view









top view, the spout will be trimmed down once the coating is done 









veiw from the other side


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## monkE

Wow that looks great Neven, (as do your other two planted tanks) 

I would like to try a DIY 3d backgrownd and seeing how you created that rocky look is really giving me some ideas. 

What are you going to do for paint? Is there some aquarium safe paints or stains out there that will work on styrofoam? 

Please keep some updates coming on this project! Well done so far!


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## Rastapus

Wow,
Nice job!


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## neven

i am using Quikrete Hydraulic Water-Stop Cement. For colouring you can get integral colorants to blend into the concrete mix. Rona and home depot do not carry the colours in vancouver for some reason, however i believe there is a concrete place around willington and lougheed that does sell the powders. I plan to get black and brown during the week since i drive by every day

With the colours you can do two methods, one is to mix a batch of cement with a colour in it, this works if you want say a brown base colour. For those who are fine with the concrete base colour, you can do the other method. You mix the colours with water in several containers, and you use a brush to stipple (jab with short strokes) the colours from bottom to top asap after you apply the cement and its still wet. If its a larger project then you need to do this in stages


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## neven

*5 gallon pic!*

During maintnence today i removed a plant and added a crypt, heres how the tank looks now


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## Trouble

*I want to see the foam done.*


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## big_bubba_B

wow looks verry good cant wait to see finish product


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## neven

*DiY wall update! 2.5 gallon*

THis is the first coat, without any pigments or anything, it looks much darker since it was still wet, but when it dried it was too light of a gray imo, although when wet it wasn't so bad









heres what i used for the first coat, and also shows the scale of the mini project 









today i picked up black pigment. They did not have it at rona or home depot because Vancouver sucks for decent hardware supplies. Unfortunately i was stuck going to a cement wholesaler and paying $30 for a 5lb bag of pigment (only needed a cup or so of it). My second coat i decided to mix pigment into the cement to give a darker base colour, unfortunately i put way too much. The flash really drowned out how black it was









What i started doing was adding more cement to the pigmented mix to lighten it up and make a thicker coat. I Added texture this way and varied the tones a bit. Unfortunately i lost a lot of the dark first coat so i mixed some pigment with very little cement and mostly water. I cut up a foam brush so it would make smaller blotches, and i went to town, i also used a finer sponge brush and darkened the crevices.









to get the colours to blend better, i stood up the background and misted it, this allows for the pigment to follow the contours of the formation and spread its colour a bit.









after an hour, it started to look dried out, already lightening up a bit. The flash once again really brought out lighter areas making the it look more blotchy than the naked eye sees it









this is without the flash, big difference 









so once this dries, i'll make a decision as to give it another light coat to add more tones


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## InfraredDream

This look awesome!! Great project and a real inspiration! Looking forward for the next stage


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## monkE

well done man! looks great! Cant wait to see it in the tank


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## CRS Fan

Talking about a MAKE WORK project ! Very cool though !

Best Regards,

Stuart


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## Lan

That looks very good


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## djamm

very nice....


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## bingerz

thats looking real god neven! im working on one right now, but its going to hang on the outsde back of the tank. i used the white styrofoam cuz i had some extra left over from our furniture. cant wait to see it all finished in the tank!


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## Diztrbd1

the background looks great Neven! Been wanting to do one of these myself in the near future.


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## neven

*2.5 gallon*

thank you all for the compliments.
The wall is in the midst of curing at the moment. I've been spraying it about 5 times a day with water to help it harden. Last night i siliconed it in the tank, and this evening i finally filled it with saltwater and put my 390 gph powerhead in it.

The plan is to change the water daily (3 days), each time with a 1/2 of salt to help cure the concrete quicker. Then i'll fill the tank with tap water changing it every two days for around 10 days, after that i'll leave the water in it and throw in the heater and see if the PH stays low after a week. Two weeks without a rise in PH is my goal before introducing plants and livestock.


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## monkE

wow i wish i had your patience! I would be so excited by the new background that i'd want to see it in a populated tank right away! Well done so far. I'm learning more and more with every post.


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## CRS Fan

bingerz said:


> thats looking real god neven!.....


Neven is God...... LOL

Stuart


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## neven

*2.5 gallon*



monkE said:


> wow i wish i had your patience! I would be so excited by the new background that i'd want to see it in a populated tank right away! Well done so far. I'm learning more and more with every post.


the downside to using concrete is the PH will rise to 9 from all the lime that leeching out, so lots of dead fishies. Patience is a must in this phase. Some will epoxy coat the concrete in hopes to lessen the curing time, but what happens when the epoxy gets scraped off by an aquarium tool? To save a little time can cause an expensive headache. I'd even be wary using a potable top coat, just because i'd be wondering what if i missed spots.

What i've done since the update is submerse the whole tank in a 22 gallon rubbermaid bin, threw the power head in there and added 1kg of salt. The greater volume allowed me to wait a couple days rather than do daily changes. I just started the fresh water soaks today and plan on changing that water every day for a week. To avoid not getting impatient i placed the bin in the furnace room thats behind a closet door, this way not seeing it means i wont be tempted to start it up prematurely.


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## bingerz

CRS Fan said:


> Neven is God...... LOL
> 
> Stuart


lol...that's the new word the kiddies use nowadays!! cmon...get with the program...heheheheh!


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## neven

*Various tanks!*

With the 2.5 gallon curing, i figured it was best that i distract myself with my other tanks.

So for the *29 gallon*, i made a trip to Aquariums West and picked up 6 chain loaches  i've been waiting on these little buggers for a long time. They are still a bit timid in the tank, but theres plenty of cover for them atleast to reduce stress. Their colouring returned the same night i got them, which is a good sign. Oh and theres signs of them borrowing more paths around driftwood, i think they've made one piece their home.

Now for the *5 gallon*, i decided to remove the plumbing under the sustrate and keep the offset to the corner though. This really freed up the right back corner of the tank. While i was at work my son rescaped the tank for me again.... took me a couple hours to fix it. When i was at aquariums west i picked up a pot of crypt lucens, a small variety of crypts. This plant is intended for the 2.5 gallon when its done, but i planted it anyways. Im thinking of keeping a small bunch in the 5 gallon. No major changes that warrant more pictures.

The *10 gallon* received a lot of love this week. I traded for some manzanita wood with a member and gave the tank a complete overhaul. Because the wood wasn't water logged yet, i had to weigh them down with some granite from outside. Some plants i didn't move as their rooting was too deep, so i made the scape work around them. Some plants are hard to see atm since i really gave it a good trimming. The java fern on the left side of the tank (next to the needleleaf java fern) will go when i find a suitable replacement, once that happens the needle leaf will stand out a lot more.

time for some pics of the 10 gallon


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## CRS Fan

neven said:


> time for some pics of the 10 gallon


Looking good Rob.

My 27 is quickly becoming a crypt tank too!

Best Regards,

Stuart


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## neven

*2.5 Gallon*

Since a couple people were harassing me for pics of the diy wall, i figured i'd post an update. The tank is filled, and still in the process of curing, i need it to drop about 1 ph now before im willing to stock it. If it drops another 1/2 ph, i'll go ahead and put more plants in it. The ones in there now are just so i dont need to look at an empty tank. The manzanita isn't really placed where it goes, its currently waterrlogging right now, and has a bit of growth from it. Not really worried about it though.

Since i plan on putting cardinal shrimp in the tank, the substrate is a mix of river gravel and crushed coral.


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## CRS Fan

The rock wall is the bomb my friend . Looks like it could use some Fluval Stratum! Let's do a trade for some Cardinal Tetras ! I may have the perfect manzanita for you too.

Best Regards,

Stuart


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## neven

*2.5 gallon - DiY Wall tank pics*

The wall is no longer swinging my ph like mad, the tank housed a guppy for weeks before my son pulled it out. Not sure how i want to aquascape this one, the crypts are there to stay for sure  One of the reasons i stuck with just black pigment (besides having to drop $30 more on pigment) is i figured as the wall aged, it would colour from the biofilm and stain a bit, it worked a bit so far.

heres a zoomed in shot on the colour and texture, its pretty close to how it looks with the naked eye










the top view, the upper reaches is a bit behind on the staining due to water line dropping on me.










side view and full shot 



















overall im happy with the way my first diy wall ended up, there is only one flaw, the water intake hole is a bit too small, so if i set the filter on a too powerful setting, the intake chamber empties below the internal filter line. I may change over to a nano canister that i can hide behind the tank to correct this.


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## neven

*5 gallon - New Pics*

This tank is one that i am constantly playing around with. The main reason, my son. turn your head when the bedroom door is unlocked, and suddenly its rescaped with hair grass and staurogyne becoming floating plants, and a piece of wood or two on top of the Alternanthera reineckii. Livestock wise, i had all the cherry shrimp females berry and carry for around 4-5 weeks, then my son dropped a baby monitor and a handful of pennies in the tank. Seed shrimp, limpets and other small tank lifeforms still seem plentiful, so its an indication that its still balanced after that predicament.

I removed a couple more plant species and it really opened up the tank imo.

Now on to pics.



























also, this tank has zero algae issues, there was a bit of clado on a piece of wood, like 1 branch, but i introduced amano shrimp and they fixed that up. Green spot only appears on glass if i dont clean it for a few weeks, and BBA is unseen if theres any.


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## CRS Fan

Once again Rob, stunning pictures of your beautiful little tanks. Thanks for sharing!

Best Regards,

Stuart


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## neven

thank you, sometimes the point and shoot camera is on my side, other times, not so much


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## Diztrbd1

tank looks great Rob & great photo's as well!


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## IceBlue

Very nice tanks. I don't know how you got the texture on your diy background but that's a work of art. Enjoyed the thread, now I need another tank.

Cheers


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## neven

The texture was made by using various brush strokes in different directions and stippling. After the first couple coats, I made the mix much looser and with various shades of grey thanks to the pigment. By using the darker mix in the crevices or places that would be shadowed, it really helped highlight the edges

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## Jasonator

WOW!! Looks fantastic!

Thanks for sharing! I appreciate seeing such a detailed step-by-step, as it takes a lot of guess work out of a DIY project, for other DIY-ers


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## SeaHorse_Fanatic

Nice work on these little tanks. The rock wall is coming along nicely in terms of colour so you didn't have to waste an extra $30 on colouring agents after all. That's always good.

BTW, your son sounds like a typical boy (someone on Canreef had a 3 yr. old son give his dad's sw fish tank a shampoo/bath by dumping shampoo into the sump).

Anthony


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## neven

i still bought the black pigment, i just didn't waste another 30$ on the brown, i figured the biofilm will establish and colour it further. But that 5lb bag of pigment didn't even have a 1/4 cup used, lol. Maybe i'll package it up in smaller portions for resale so other DiYs dont need to buy a full bag.

Just an unrelated FYI, the 10G and the 5G have been taken down. I'll start off the new 9.8G tanks soon, i took pictures of the set up


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## Claudia

I was just looking at all the pics, Rob your tanks look so nice  (my daugther was about 1 and a half when she put noodles in the ex tank, all fish died of course lol)


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## neven

*New Tanks! 9.8 Gallons!*

a while ago i requested information on custom tanks and after i had trouble finding a manufacturer who would do smaller tanks, gklaw came to the rescue. He custom made me the two tanks to the specifications i provided and did an excellent job!

the water test









the location the tanks are going, and the 5 gallon being removed









The left tank in place









Both tanks









Filling them up, and emptying (*tear*)

















The power center









what is to change, the filters will be replaced, new heaters, and a 4 foot single tube t5ho would be perfect mounted on the underside of the above shelf. Manifolds are on order to run co2 from the cylinder to this location


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## neven

Here's the progress so far, the temporary scaping i did. I used the 5 gallon tank's black flourite as an undercoat. I hated the look of all my plants floating so i used the little substrate i had (and rocks) to anchor the plants.










then i picked up a bag of tahitian moon sand, started working on the tanks. here is the left tank, not nearly scaped the way i want it, but if i spend more time scaping i'll get wife aggro.









the right tank i put most of the effort in atm, I stuck to the golden ratio a bit with this one, a first time for me.









and both of the tanks


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## jobber

The way you placed it makes it look like one tank. Nice scape!
What type of lighting/bulbs are you using?


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## Ra's al Ghul

sweet tanks,awesome job Gordon.


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## gklaw

Thanks Alesio. Not taking any order though. 

Neven's picture did not pick up a few flaws. Craftsmanship is looooooooong way from Titan's. I could have done a better job in wood but then you cannot see through them 

Have to clear my last little bit of acrylic to clean up my shop a bit. It is one of a kind special project for this very special guy.


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## neven

jobber604 said:


> The way you placed it makes it look like one tank. Nice scape!
> What type of lighting/bulbs are you using?


The lighting at this point is just two cheap lamps with daylight twister cfls in them, it will be changed to one fixture with a t5ho geissmen mid day bulb.

And gordon, the flaws are not even noticeable, you just know they are there so you will always see them

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## neven

after another tip from a member, the two lamps were replaced with a 46" t5ho w/ reflector strip, now i need to wait on aquacave to ship my co2 manifolds


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## neven

Good news, after a long time of being unsuccesful, my pfr shrimp have finally multiplied! I though I lost yet another clutch from my 3 remaining shrimp, but when I went to do a water change, I noticed atleast 15 lil guys. The new tank is working great so far!

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## neven

During the week my manifolds arrived from aquacave and after hunting down the right fitting (thank you rona) i was able to finally get pressurized co2 to the kitchen. My 29 gallon tank has its power fed from a storage area under the stairs through an open ventilation duct, so i ran the co2 line from the tank on a shelf above the duct, through the storage area, then through the wall into a kitchen cabinet, and finally onto the alcove the tanks are on.

heres the tank w/ one manifold








and the second manifold to split between the two 9.8 gallons









I set them up with chopsticks for a diffuser for a day, then i got the news i had friday off so i made a pilgrimage to J and L for some equipment.

I bought:
25 Watt Jager Heater x2
75 Watt Jager heater (to replace broken rena smart heater)
Co2 Indicator x2
Small 3 in 1 Ceramic Disc Diffuser x2
Large 3 in 1 Ceramic Disc Diffuser
Maxijet 400 x2

Pretty much i got all the loose ends i've had on my to buy list for a while.

heres a new heater and a diffuser hidden









the Co2 indicators, love how easy they are to fill, makes up for them being a bit larger than i'd like. Theres one of the baby PFRs swimming by it.








and a full grown PFR









and the powerheads were installed to replace the HOBs. With my tanks being planted, and not overloaded, a sponge prefilter should be able to handle the bio load without issues, since theres plenty of surface area and plenty of current aswell. Plus with them being upside down, they help skim away film, and make it a breeze to clean the prefilter. Plus they create heat, which allows me to use a slightly underrated heater for my tank size. Once i switched out the filters, i had little shrimpies swimming everywhere.










and a full tank shot (and my sons' drawing on the wall >.< ), i switched a couple plants around in the guppy tank and added some Anubias barteri 'Petite'









now i need to get back onto my EI dosing regime and fine tune my co2. My laziness has caused me a bit of algae in some tanks.


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## neven

updated front page to include these tanks and removed the old tanks

*9.8 gallons*
Substrate: Black Flourite Capped with Tahitian moon sand
Lighting: 4ft t5ho w/ daylight bulb
Filtration: Maxijet 400 w/ prefilter on each tank
Decor: pebbles, granite, manzanita and malaysian driftwood
Co2: pressurized via ceramic discs
tanks: custom made acrylic by Gklaw

Flora - Left:
Anubias barteri 'Petite'
Cryptocoryne parva
Cryptocoryne wendtii
Microsorum pteropus v. 'narrow leaf'
Singapore moss
Ranunculus Inundatus (not making it)
Ammania gracilis
Proserpinaca palustris (Mermaid Weed) (barely making it)
Lilaeopsis brasiliensis
Flora - Right:
Cryptocoryne Lucens
Microsorum pteropus v. 'narrow leaf'
Alternanthera reineckii 'roseafolia'
Singapore moss
Lobelia cardinalis 'Small Form'
eleocharis parvula (Dwarf Hairgrass)
Lilaeopsis brasiliensis
staurogyne repens (pitiful atm)
blyxa japonica

Fauna - Left:
3 Male Guppies
1 Dwarf ottos
3 Amano Shrimp
Fauna - Right:
Painted Fire Red Shrimp


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## jobber

Nice new CO2 rigging. Plants are going to flourish...and no BBA!


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## neven

no bba is entirely dependent on me not missing a few doses


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## jobber

Haha. Hate bba. Look forward to seeing the tank evolve.

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## monkE

bba = my arch nemesis 

nice setup Neven... i love the use on the single light to cover both tanks. Can't wait to see these explode now that you've got them on pressurized.


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## neven

Can't beat the price of the fixture, $35 with bulb.

As for exploding, I really hope it doesn't, normally I don't use stems unless they are slow growers, I'm hoping the foreground plants explode though! If it gets too much to maintain, ill need to swap out for more rhizome plants and crypts

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## neven

More plants and more livestock!

the left tank now has 2 more guppies and 2 assassin snails, as for the plants im unsure of what i put in there exactly so here is the list
Anubias barteri 'Petite'
Cryptocoryne parva
Cryptocoryne wendtii
Singapore moss
flame moss
Ranunculus Inundatus
Ammania gracilis
Proserpinaca palustris (Mermaid Weed)
Lilaeopsis brasiliensis
Ludwigia inclinata var verticillata 'Cuba'
??? Pogostemon erectus (may be wrong)
??? spirally wavy green grass like stem (like echinodorus vesuvius)










then there is the right tank
I got more a few more PFRs to speed up the colony and 4 nerite snails for a clean up crew. the new plant list:
Cryptocoryne Lucens
Microsorum pteropus v. 'narrow leaf'
Alternanthera reineckii 'roseafolia'
Singapore moss
Fissidens
Lobelia cardinalis 'Small Form'
eleocharis parvula (Dwarf Hairgrass)
staurogyne repens (starting to grow!)
blyxa japonica
subwassertang
Red Tiger Lotus
Hygrophila pinnatifida
Didiplis diandra (Blood Stargrass)
??? tonina sp. ???
Pogostemon helferi (Downoi)
??? Erio sp ???


















The pressurized is working great and has finally breathed some life into my mosses that were barely making it by, the singapore moss is now more compact, and the Fissidens is actually turning a healthy green. Once i planted all the new plants i then spiked the substrate extensively with job spikes since i dont want the tonina and erios to die. Im not to sure what PAR erios needs, so im crossing my fingers it survives. I may toss a couple plants between the tanks, but for now im concerned with propogating a few of them rather than getting them in the prefered places.

further additions is the reintroduction of glosso back into my 29 gallon, aswell as the cardinal tetra's finally being rehomed to someone else and replaced with a Crossocheilus reticulatus. The Crossocheilus reticulatus was a bit of a prick and forced all my chain loaches out of their favourite driftwood area, which worked out in the end because now they roam the foreground a lot more since they wont even try booting the BNP out of his driftwood hang out. Now i only have the one unwanted fish left, the zebra danio whos so far surpassed his life expectancy.


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## tang daddy

Nice tank, what kind of tanks are those?


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## neven

Acrylic made by gklaw

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## Morainy

Absolutely gorgeous tanks. I did not know that gklaw made tanks. There are so many talented people here on the forum!

Your tanks look clean, modern, healthy and gorgeous. Wow!


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## BubBleBee

Wow...your plants look oh so healthy and vivacious...I have a 12 gallon glass tank similar to yours...where did you get it from....I only ask because I need to get a cover for mine...?
Wish I had your luck with my plants...=)


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## neven

The tanks were made custom by a member here because I had trouble finding a custom tank maker. As for covers, I don't use any because it reduces the light so what you see is bracing (like a frame) to strenthen the acryllic

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## Captured Moments

Nice tanks. I don't have any luck with Mermaid weed.


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## BubBleBee

neven said:


> The tanks were made custom by a member here because I had trouble finding a custom tank maker. As for covers, I don't use any because it reduces the light so what you see is bracing (like a frame) to strenthen the acryllic
> 
> Sent via Tapatalk; SGH-T589R


Not your big one...the lil guy that you made the background for which by the way I luv..is the one I was referring to. I wanna try something like that in the near future....


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## neven

I got that tank from crs fan, he sold his betta tanks a while back

As for the mermaid weed, half of the stem is in pitiful shape from when it had no co2 just metricide. It did fine when its original tank was on jello co2, but didn't have the room to grow out much

Sent via Tapatalk; SGH-T589R


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## CRS Fan

neven said:


> Pogostemon erectus (may be wrong)
> spirally wavy green grass like stem (like echinodorus vesuvius)
> ??? tonina sp. ???
> ??? Erio sp ???


The mystery plants above are:

Pogostemon erectus
Echinodorus vesuvius
Tonina sp 'Manaus' and Tonina sp. 'Goias'
and Eriocaulon sp 'Goias

I hope that helps Rob !

Best Regards,

Stuart


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## neven

thank you stuart!


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## neven

Plant package arrived from pat!

i gots:
red flame sword
Cyrptocoryne nurii
Hemianthus callitrichoides 'Cuba'

the Crypt is going in my 29 gallon to soften the transition from glosso to taller crypts 

the HC will take the place of the Lilaeopsis brasiliensis in the guppy tank as i find it to be a BBA magnet (although a very slow one). the red flame also will go in that tank  My wife thought i'd need to plant the HC node by node.. my god that would take forever


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## Fishman21

Very nice setup!

You mentioned that you had a lot of pigment left over - i am tackling a 210G polystyrene background and would likely need some pigment - are you willing to part out & how much $?

thanks


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## Bien Lim

very clean set up, and awesome quality pictures


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## neven

*29G Equipment stuffs*

THank you for the compliments. Unfortunately i parted ways with the pigment not too long ago. I figured if i plan on another rock wall, i'll likely buy more 
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Now to a new post:

Theres been a bunch of things my 29 gallon has had done that i never bothered to document yet. So i'll start with item 1. My conversion from diy spiral CFLS to t5ho's!

To some it up, i had time to kill one afternoon at work, since i finished my duties for the day, i grabbed a 1/2 emt bender and some scrap pipes. Lucky for me there was a lot of scrap pipes due to a few incompetent pipe benders. The goal, a stand for my diy fixture so i could pop the third lamp back in and raise it higher. I know my stand had a lip in it so i guessed the offset. I made the light stand in two pieces on each side, with a coupling there to pop out the upper portion whenever i needed. Once i got home i busted out the black paint and went to town on it. Unfortunately my father heard me painting out back (rent from him), so brought me some weather beaten house numbers to sand down and paint....

Once i had it all done, i thought hmmmm, J&L has cheap fixtures, i'll just buy one. Then i came home with two.

the result:

























oh i ditched the background long ago cause i was tired of water getting between the glass and background, so i installed a curtain in front of the hot water tank, Hides my co2 set up very well.

Something unrelated, we got tired of cleaning up train tracks all the time and had some wood handy:









back on topic!
There was another project that caused me to start taking photos. I wanted to convert to a sump from my canister filter. Why? because i want gear out of my tank, i want my surface skimmed of build up (been a problem lately) and i wanted greater o2 concentrations. Now comes the problem, i wasn't drilled, and i wanted the least space possible in my tank to be taken up by equipment. When i saw tom barr's tank thread on another forum (his), i noticed the MAME overflow, so i started researching it and found a diy guide that was very detailed, but lacked one key piece of information, how to create the vacuum needed efficiently.

For those who don't know, the MAME overflow is to salt water nano tanks as lily pipes are to planted tanks. Rather than use a pump or float switches as a power outtage fail safe, they use the venturi effect to restart the siphon from the return. Also they are self priming.

First we'll tackle the sump. My original plan was to place it in the cabinet, so i made it to fit in there. Unfortunately my tank stand has shelving on one side behind the doors. So a 5 gallon bucket was my only choice. Since the tanks current location leaves me with a lot of room i opted to put it behind the stand and use the space in the stand for much needed aquarium maintnence storage. I wanted some sort of baffles but buckets are not the best to silicone too, so i decided to go for pvc pipes. the pictures explain themselves better than words.

the intake bottom









where the tube goes in









the second baffle, filled with filter floss and granite to weight it down.









ziptied in place, just tight enough to keep it inplace. the airline is to a wood block that goes into the intake pipe, in case i wanted to turn the sump into a co2 reactor  Will be trying it out this week for sure.









and the bucket









and the sump running









Now for the stages, i have pot scrubbers loosely in the intake section to slow co2 bubbles if i turn it into a reactor and to prefilter large particulate. Its removable to easy to clean
stage 2 is filter floss
stage 3 is free floating bio stars and pot scrubbers to maintain bacteria when i need to clean the previous stages
stage 4 sponge filter (hydor III) on Rio 1400+ return pump

Now from what i learnt, stage one had an issue where i had one too many pot scrubbers stuffed in the tube, so i removed 1 and didn't jam them in. It wouldn't keep up with the pump flow when i had the pot scrubber jammed against the tube.
Second issue, moving the hydro 3 sponge into the sump, forgot to clean it, so it raised the water level a bit, but not much.


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## neven

Onto the actual mame overflow









There were a couple issues i had with this one. it took 26 attempts (and 2 tank overflows) to get it to run right. First issue, the venturi on the diy guide was left out because they couldn't get it to work so they used a venturi adapter on their return pump to pull the air out of the siphon. I tried notching the airline tubing, using a barbed fitting, different depths, etc. It was a balancing act. Of all the methods, there was only one way i was able to get the suction without sacrificing flow this:









The best i managed to do was 2 minutes until tank overflow (kid distracted me). So it was apparent i had a design flaw. Upon looking at other sources i noticed the T fitting was much lower on some peoples tank, and the render i was going off of showed it too high, causing a lot of the velocity to be lost from the siphon. So i had to hack my construct apart to try it out. Here is the butcher job, i ran out of pipe and didn't want to spend more money on a whole new set of fittings, so i made it work with as few new fittings as possible. notice the hack work i did on the standpipe portion...









Here is a pic of the tank when the "power is out." Looking closer you will see another issue i came across, the tubing was kinking and affecting the vacuum in the siphon. So i had to replace it.









Once i am happy with how it works, i will be remaking the whole build. The parts i will change, the street elbows i'd like replace with U fittings wherever i can, if not 45 degree ones would help reduce turbulence. The more flow across my low pressure area, the greater the vacuum, and the less turbulence in the siphon, the greater the pull, win win. The 5/16 ID tubing will be shortened via a 90 degree barb, this will help prevent the kinks. I can place the hole into the siphon portion more angled towards the intake to also reduce the stress on the tubing. I plan on having the overflow portion a bit longer and the T not so low as my hack job revision. I will also be painting it black.

The biggest thing i got out of this whole project is the time i spent on nano reef reading into overflows that my wife now wants a saltwater tank


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## neven

what! no comments on the train table!


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## gklaw

What train table - I thought you rebuilt the train track pieces  ?

Quite a contraption you made there !! When you have the final design, bring the pieces over, and I can tap a couple holes for a proper fitting for the hose - take about 30s each. Silicon on PVC may leak eventually.


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## neven

the silicone isn't actually holding it in, its there to help prevent it from being pulled out if i move it around, a strain relief of sorts. As for the train tracks, my kids had a lot of them, and they always ALL had to be out. So we made a permanent table for the tracks, painted the surface and added a road for the cars since they are obsessed with both. Now we just pick up the whole thing, saves a ton of clean up time


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## Flygirl

Great stuff... really enjoyed the write up. Your tanks look awesome and DIY background is inspiring. So much so, that I'm going to try that for my discus tank - love it!

Sorry to digress a bit, but had a few questions about the background. The cement you bought, any specific kind? Same for the colouring - brand? Are they all the same out there or are some better, or more fish safe than others? 
Same for silicone, any particular brand you favour?


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## Nereid

You have beautiful tanks. The wall looks fantastic  Thanks for the step by step, i'll have to try making one myself now.


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## neven

Flygirl said:


> Great stuff... really enjoyed the write up. Your tanks look awesome and DIY background is inspiring. So much so, that I'm going to try that for my discus tank - love it!
> 
> Sorry to digress a bit, but had a few questions about the background. The cement you bought, any specific kind? Same for the colouring - brand? Are they all the same out there or are some better, or more fish safe than others?
> Same for silicone, any particular brand you favour?


the silicone is GE type I, its trusted by many people here despite saying not for aquarium use. Its a quarter of the cost compared to regular aquarium silicone, but same ingredients. If you wish to offset the buoyancy you can imbed rocks into the background, but it will make it difficult to blend in for a rock only back ground.
The cement i used is Quikrete hydraulic water stop cement. Like most cements (minus a few top coats), its filled with lime that will leach out and throw your ph through the roof, so you will need to cure the rock wall.

The colouring had to be purchased at a wholesaler, get the cheapest black concrete colouring they have. Like ceramics, the colours chemical composition will be the same brand to brand unless you go for the pricier options  Remember, Black colour = greyscale, greens and browns come from biofilm, so you only need the one colour if you are doing rock only. For fancy art work, you may be better off with acrylic coloured paints and sealants mean for aquatic use

best of luck to both of you making your walls, be sure to post a pic by pic thread about the project when you get around to it!


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## neven

and a fishie!


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## Fish rookie

I spent the last hour reading and looking at your pictures and I really enjoy your wonderful tanks. Thank you so much for sharing.


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## neven

Some pictures update! My tanks have been neglected a bit, none of them have seen an EI dose in probably a month, so i decided to finally hedge them back.

the 29 gallon:









the twin tanks:

























and yes i know, i need to clean the back of the right tank  noticed after the pics, hard to see normally


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## neven

The end is Nigh! My 29 gallon has been finally torn down after so many years. It was leaky so it was inevitable to happen. What i did was first remove the plants and place them in buckets of water, then i caught all my fishies, then i used the 29 gallon to give the sand a good rinsing. The process took a while, especially the rinsing and picking out cobbles and plant roots from the substrate. Because everything was being temporarly housed in a 33 Gallon tank on the floor, i decided to pot the plants for now, the ones needing to be that is. I placed a very thin layer of filter floss on the bottom, filled it one third with sand, added some slow release fertilizer pellets, and then added the plants and the rest of the sand.

In time i will have a stand built, then use another 33 gallon set up with a river manifold (different style than typical pvc type). The tank they are in atm is my future reef tank.


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