# 57 Gallon Rimless High Tech Planted Tank Journal



## Jimbo (Apr 23, 2013)

Here is the most recent tank shot Nov 20, 2013



I recently acquired a 58 gallon rimless tank and stand along with a whole bunch of loot from _TiDy_. I currently have a 29 gallon tank that was started to be a low tech tank and rapidly grew into a ridiculous collection of high techness.

Here is what it looked like at the beginning:










And here is what it looks like now:










My goal with this tank is for it be everything that I could want from a planted tank. I really only got into planted tanks at the start of this year and have completely fallen in love with them. I had a little community tank 10 or 12 years ago and my brother bred cichlids when we were teenagers but since then I haven't given it much thought. I have never done any kind of journal for a project so let me know if I am not doing this right. I am really hoping that this community can help me along in the process as I am still pretty new to all of this.

Here is what my office looks like until I can properly transfer to the new tank:










Here is what the tank looks like right now:










I am not sure at all what to do with the rocks or how I am going to set it up. I am also considering a dry start but I don't know a lot about that. Any advice or criticism anyone has would be most welcome. Thanks!

To be continued.


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## Jimbo (Apr 23, 2013)

Today I am replacing the hinges on the cabinet doors with euro hinges. It is a little bit more work than I anticipated but is coming along nicely.










I have been really torn as to what I want for a foreground plant. I went to Aquarium West this morning and I think I've settled on Dwarf Hair Grass. Is this stuff pretty easy to plant? Should I dry start it or just hop right into it? Does anyone know where I can get some?

Thanks for looking.


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## Jimbo (Apr 23, 2013)

Well the hinges turned out to be a gigantic pain. I'm almost done with them though. I don't think that I am going to have the patience to dry start it. I think I am going to try to flood it this week and then figure out what exactly to do with it. My plan is to have some kind of carpeting plant in the front and put a bunch of stem plants in behind. I have a bunch of plants in my 29 gallon that I will move over.

Does anyone have any ideas for how to best arrange it? Any help at all would be great. Also, some plant suggestions would be super helpful. Thanks!


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## Youmakemesohappy (Mar 19, 2012)

I don't have much experience in rock scaping, but I think your layout in terms of general placement looks good.
I would try to tilt the rocks so they are not all upwards but more on their sides, sometimes even flat, try to find the best faces for each rock, etc.
I would also try to have a little more space in between each rock.

You could do a Google image search for "Iwagumi hardscape" see if you find anything that inspires you for rock placement.
Usually what I've read recommends to place the biggest rocks first, then move on to the smaller ones.

Good luck!


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## Reckon (Jul 25, 2012)

Contrats on the 57 rimless. I'm super envious of your new set up. I'm also glad to see your plants are doing well in the 29gal 
I agree with youmakemesohappy's post above. 
In my humble opinion I'd suggest on the right side, to exchange positions of the leftmost rock to behind and the right of the biggest rock where the smaller one is right now. That will give the illusion of 'height.' 
On the left side, move the small rightmost rock down, lower and to the left of the big middle rock. 

I do suspect your rocks are a bit on the low side. 
Your mid ground plants may grow over them and you'd have to be persistent in keeping the foreground plants quite low.

This might be basic; however, assuming you aren't dry starting, I would strongly recommend only filling the tank to the point where the substrate is wet, then plant the foreground plants. Planting foreground plants is a ROYAL PITA and doing it with water up to your armpit, distortion, and plants tending to float up will only make it worse.
Lots of foreground ideas: hairgrass, HC, glosso, staurogynes repens are ones you can easily get in town. I love HC but my corys seemed to like digging it up. If you use it give it some time to grow before adding fish that like to dig. I'm now leaning to glosso or S. Repens as foreground plants. 
Choose your plants based on the aquascape style you want to achieve. I think that with such a nice deep tank to go with dutch or wilderness style and as such employ more stem plants as background. 

Ps. Is that pennywort in the back of your 29?


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## Jimbo (Apr 23, 2013)

That is really good advice. I'm going to move the rocks around tonight and maybe try to get a bigger rock. I've heard that you can get rocks at landscape supply places so I'm going to see if I can find a good rock for the right side. I am getting some hair grass and I have some glosso already so I might put both in for now on either side and see what I like best as they take off. I am going for a wilderness look I guess. I am going to try to have it really low in the front, with some mid ground plants in and behind the rocks and tons of stem plants in behind. I am going to take the 29 gallon down and put most of the plants from it into the new one.

Hopefully I will plant it tomorrow or Friday. I will try to keep updating this. Even for myself, I am really liking having a record of the whole process.



> Ps. Is that pennywort in the back of your 29?


Yeah it is. I really like it but it grows super fast. That and the Wisteria I have. Both will take over a tank if left alone. I don't even know how much of both I have pulled out of my tank. Right now the 29 gallon is covered in duckweed which suits me fine as it has significantly slowed the growth of the tank down while I am in transition.

I would really like to find some S. Repens for the middle and around the rocks but I have yet to track any down.

Thanks for the advice and kind words!


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## Reckon (Jul 25, 2012)

I used to keep wisteria but I found that keeping it with injected CO2 made it go berserk. Also stay away from Green Cabomba (you'd be trimming 6" off it every 2 days) or any low tech plants for that matter, they already grow well enough without CO2. 

There are tonnes of options for background stem plants. Several planted tank guys in BC particularly like the Hygro sp. Brown you got from me. 

Some Ludwigias are really nice as well. A few guys use Pogostemon Stellatus as background plants; while I'm not quite there yet in getting the plant to turn pink it's really pretty. 

Midground to background plants that look really nice include Rotala species.

I know Crimper uses Alternanthera Reineckii as his midground to background plant. It adds a lot of color. 

Blyxa Japonica is almost a must as a midground plant. Grows at a manageable moderate rate, adds an element of grassiness (which would complement hairgrass), very easy to care for.

Another great plant that seems to work as a midground plant is Ludwigia Ovalis. I believe someone in Port Moody is selling some. It's the slowest growing Ludwigia I've seen.

Many many other options. Have you checked out aquaticplantcentral.com yet? Some plants you see there are hard to get in BC but at least you'll be able to kill many many hours reading the information they have there.


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## Jimbo (Apr 23, 2013)

These looks like great plants! I'm really excited to get some of these. I haven't heard of that site but I am going to check it out right away. Haha half the fun with this stuff is researching into it. Blyxa Japonica looks fantastic. I'm going to get some of that for sure. Thanks for all this!



Reckon said:


> I used to keep wisteria but I found that keeping it with injected CO2 made it go berserk. Also stay away from Green Cabomba (you'd be trimming 6" off it every 2 days) or any low tech plants for that matter, they already grow well enough without CO2.
> 
> There are tonnes of options for background stem plants. Several planted tank guys in BC particularly like the Hygro sp. Brown you got from me.
> 
> ...


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## Reckon (Jul 25, 2012)

Shoot Crimper a PM and see if he has any extra Blyxa Japonica he can sell to you. He's got the biggest Blyxa I've ever seen. I understand he lives close-ish to you too.


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## Jimbo (Apr 23, 2013)

I figured with this update I would go into the tank specifics. Which I suppose I should have in the first post but oh well.

*Tank*: 57 Gallon - Oceanic Illuminata frameless tank with glass top
*Stand:* Custom built black ADA style stand built by _TiDy
*Filter:* Eheim Professional 3 Electronic 2076 Canister Filter
*Lighting:* Hagen 36 inch GLO T5 HO
*CO2:* 10lb tank, regulator, solenoid and bubble counter. Inline co2 reactor.
*Heat: *Hydor inline heater 300 watt 
*Substrate: *About 40 litres of ADA Amazonia
*Control:* Neptune Systems AquaController Jr. and DC8 with PH and Temp sensors.
*Miscellaneous:* Coralife Turbo Twist 18W UV sterilizer, glass lily pipes, a small koralia powerhead and probably some other things I've forgotten.

Here is a picture of the inside of the stand. I plumbed it all the other night. The intake goes directly to the filter, then to the co2 reactor then the UV sterilizer then to the inline heater behind the filter. You can also see the new hinges that I spent about a day installing.










I have planted my foreground plants as well. I figured I would dry start it just for a little bit to hopefully give the plants a chance to grip a bit before I flood it. I planted most of the front with Dwarf Hair Grass and a bit of Glosso on the left side as well as some micro sword on the right by the rocks. I am still not set on the rock positions and will probably try to find a bigger rock or two for the right side. Does anyone know a good place to get a rock or two?

Planted last night:









What it looks like this afternoon:


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## Jimbo (Apr 23, 2013)

Well it's done. Basically 2 full days getting the tank filled, planted, fish transferred from both my 29 gallon and my shrimp tank, as well as everything cleaned out and packed up and moved out of my office. It's been a blast though. I just love big projects like this.

Here are some pictures:










Here is the office wall now:










I am running the old filter on the tank for a bit. I am not sure how long though. I put some filter media from the shrimp tank into the new filter to get it going and I am dosing stability to help seed the new filter.

I am pretty darn happy with it all. It's everything I wanted in a tank. It felt so good to tear everything else down and make it perfect in a new tank. On a side note, I am never doing a dirted tank again. I had the 29 gallon as a Walstad tank originally and what a massive pain to clean. It smelled like death and was such a mess. So glad it's done. Now I can sit back and enjoy the tank.

I have tons and tons of extra stuff now. Look for a huge for sale thread soon. Thanks for looking!


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## Jimbo (Apr 23, 2013)

Well it's been 5 days and things have been going great. I built a light stand out of electrical conduit and moved the plants around some. I also added some Amano Shrimp and a pair of Dwarf Flag Cichlids. I still have my old filter on the tank as well as the new one but I will most likely take it off today. I took the glass lid to a glass shop last week to get a notch cut for the lily pipes but I don't have it back yet. Which is unfortunate because the cat found one of the Amano Shrimp on the floor last night. Fortunately I got it back into the tank and it seems fine. I really need to get the lid back on though.

Here's a shot of the tank.









Here is a picture that shows the stand I built.









I am really happy with it all. The current from both filters together is pushing all the plants away from the back corner but I'm not worried about that. The Hairgrass is starting to come in which is really exciting. There are still a couple of plants that I am going to add but I am very happy with it all. The plants are really taking off. I'll try to update again as the plants start to really fill in.

Oh funny story. I did a small water change right before going away for 2 days and left a bucket with about 2 inches of water right beside the tank. When I got home I was looking at the tank and couldn't find one of my Emerald Eye Rasboras and I look down and he's frantically swimming in the bucket! I couldn't believe how lucky he was. He must have jumped out and landed in it... The bit of water in it was tap water and wasn't water from the tank. It was pretty surreal.


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## _TiDy_ (Apr 29, 2010)

Tank looks great! Glad it went into good hands. Also very glad u managed to get the hinges on there! Hope all goes well from here on out


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## Jimbo (Apr 23, 2013)

Well it's been a month so it's time for an update.










I was travelling for most of August and got a pretty bad algae bloom on account of inconsistent co2 and fertilizers. I had a lot of problems with the needle valve slowing getting less and less open and whenever I would leave for more than a day it would basically shut itself off. I have replaced it now and am dosing ferts regularly again so things are back on track. The picture above is after a much needed trim and a bit of rearranging. The lily pipes are very dirty from the algae. I ordered a long flexible brush to try to clean them. Can't stand how bad they look right now.

I bought a dosing pump tonight from deepRED which I am pretty excited about. I am going to try to set it up to be completely automated. I just need to get some good containers for it to pull from and mix up some ferts for it. Anyone have any suggestions for containers? I saw someone using canning jars but I am not sure what to do to the lid to make that work. May just try to find some plastic bottles or something for now.

I really need to go back and try to identify all the plants that are in the tank. I really should have kept track of what was what when I was buying different plants but I never did and now I don't know what half of the plants in the tank are.

The fauna though I have kept pretty good track. Currently there are:
2 x German Blue Rams
10 x Cardinal Tetra
3 x Peppered Cory
1 x Albino Cory
2 x Otos
4 x Zebra Danios
7 x Harlequin Rasboras
8 x Emerald Eye Rasbora
1 x Lonely Assassin Snail

I would like to add a bunch of Amano Shrimp. I had some but I had a pair of Dwarf Flag Cichlids who went rambo on them and all my cherry shrimp. Got rid of them fast but now I have no shrimp at all. I'm thinking of maybe adding snails back again as well. Not too sure though.

Let me know what you think. Thanks.

Here's a picture of my male Ram


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## Jimbo (Apr 23, 2013)

Update.










The left side is a little bare as I had to move some rocks out and some plants over to put the branch from my office cube in there until the cube is ready as well as put in some other plants that will go into my office tank. The glosso will fill it all in again pretty quick.

I added an automatic dosing system for my fertilizers. It's one of these that I got from a member on here. I am only using 2 of the pumps currently. One is dosing KNO3 and KH2P04 and the other is dosing CSM +B and some extra iron. It's pretty great. I set it for how many ml/day and how many times to dose and it takes care of the rest. I am currently doing a modified EI dosing regiment until I can get the tanks exact needs dialed in. This tank is almost completely automated now. All I do is feed the fish and do water changes. If I wasn't in an apartment I would probably try to set up some kind of drip system so I didn't need to do water changes either. I am pretty sick of buckets.

I am also getting a new light for the tank soon. I am getting one of these from Frank (aQ.LED). I'm pretty excited about it. It should be a lot more light than my 2 T5's and will last so much longer.


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## Jimbo (Apr 23, 2013)

*Nov 4, 2013*

I let the tank get pretty overgrown as I have been really busy. Here are some before and after pictures:

*Before*










*After*










I also got a new light from Frank (aQ-LED) and am super happy with it. I got this one. It's way brighter and has so many options. It also has moonlights which I didn't know. Within an hour of setting it up everything starting pearling like crazy. When it's on full tilt there is so many bubbles coming up from all the plants. I am really excited to see what kind of growth I get.

I had to pull all of the Brazilian Pennywort out of the tank as it was growing way too fast under the old lights and would probably just be worse. I am contemplating replacing the Hygrophilia on the left side as well because it grows super quick and just goes everywhere. I would also like to add some more color to the tank. I did buy a Purple Hygro Alternanthera reineckii to add some color but for whatever reason it died pretty quickly. It wasn't in the best shape when I put it in but I think the biggest problem was that it got shaded out pretty quick by the Hygrophilia without me noticing. Does anyone have some ideas for some really colorful plants I can add that would really pop?

It has also been almost a month of not having to dose ferts anymore and I am loving it. Takes all the guesswork and time out of it. I can tweak it super easily as I see what happens in the tank. Here is a new picture of the guts of the tank.










Thanks for looking.


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## Fish rookie (May 21, 2012)

Your set up with automation is so cool it makes me so jealous.


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## aQ.LED (Nov 13, 2012)

looking great!! Good to know you like the light, keep us posted on the growth as I am interested to see the result.


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## Tommy72a (Jan 6, 2013)

Oh man... Your dosing pump unit looks sweet! It's got four pumps right? If I had one of those, I would calculated how much water evaporate in a day and program it to top it off. Nice job the whole thing!


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## Jimbo (Apr 23, 2013)

I got a big plant package from Bien Lim on here and had to work really hard to fit it all into my tank. I tried to pull out a bunch of the plants that I had double of and give them away and some of the plants I got went into my small tank. The plants are fantastic and I am really excited for them to start to fill the tank out. Enjoy


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## Reckon (Jul 25, 2012)

Looks great, the wood is much more striking now


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## _TiDy_ (Apr 29, 2010)

i'm living my dream vicariously through you. Great set up!


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