75 gal - The Embiggening

After far too long doing tedious planting and absolutely ravaging the 20g, here is what it looks like before filling. I will still move a couple of Crypts, but wanted to leave enough for the existing fish in the 20 to get by for a few weeks. Anything left will be put in the refugium.

The right 1/3 side is going to be a shadier area with an acrylic surface baffle to keep floating plants there. Lots of stem plants were hacked up into shorter bits for propagation, so nothing has much height. There is a lot more going on than there appears at first sight. Some of the really tiny things will get reasonably tall. This is going to be a "hurry up and wait" project. I'll post a bit more about some things I encountered along the way as well.

Some pics after filling. There really are a lot of plants in there. Stem plants are mostly in the back.



You can see the back a little bit better in this more overhead shot.

And some floaters behind the surface baffle. I was debating removing all duckweed, but I do like it some. If it gets out of hand, I will just take out all floaters and clean a few of duckweed to put back in. It's a good plant, but it just gets everywhere if you aren't careful.

An issue came up with one of the sump baffles. I may have neglected one of the seams, or it might just be the poor silicone bond on acrylic. Silicone is used all the time for acrylic baffles in glass sumps, but you have to get both sides of the seam properly. In any case, I had one side partially come undone so am doing a repair and slight redesign.

I will expand the pump chamber by an inch, and remove the final baffle. I just realized it does nothing. The original intent was to have the gap to hold a piece of filter sponge to prevent crud getting in the pump area, but I can do that with just a 2" or so strip of acrylic. Also, I will lower the final weir by 1/2". There is enough room for all of the backwash when the pump is turned off, but I prefer a bit more insurance room.

In any case, I will remove the sump, do the repairs, and toss the heaters in the display with a power head for a couple of days while the glue cure. I'm going to use this: Silicone for acrylic sheets on the recommendation of a reef guy instead of regular aquarium silicone.

Ooh I like your idea for constraining the floaters. Think I'm going to copy that. I used to have a distinct light and dark side but have let that lapse into full coverage.

So I went ahead and moved the fish from the 20. The tank was pretty ravaged after taking most of the plants, so I figured they would be better off even if this one is pretty fresh. My experience with the 20 and "live" substrate was that I never had any noticeable cycle, so I was pretty comfortable doing this.

They seem very comfortable in the 75 and seem to be settling in nicely. I will just keep a close eye on the params.

I'm now at that stage where you have to carefully balance the lighting and plants as they grow in. There's already a nice biofilm on everything, but also signs of algae starting. I will just monitor and adjust for the next months. Currently I am running the light at 20%. The stem plants are showing new growth at the nodes and everything seems pretty healthy. Here are a few pics.



I am debating on putting a needle-leaf java fern on the big rock as sort of an hairdo. I poked around a bit and people had good luck with it in high light. Here's a bit of a higher angle shot. You can see how many stem plants there are in the back. All were only about 2" cuttings.


Here are a couple of overhead shots. I absolutely love how the overflow/sump design keeps the surface nearly distortion free even with pretty good flow down below. The raised light makes it easy to look right in and enjoy the view.


One more overhead shot of the far left end. The big Crypt wendtii is from the 20. So are most of the stem plants. I'll share the plant list in the next post.

I swapped return pumps today. The Sicce Synchra 3.0 was noisy. I tried everything to get it to quiet down, but the noise was internal. I would have just lived with it, but my wife didn't like it, so I didn't need any more excuse to upgrade. I went with a Reef Octopus VarioS-2. It arrived a couple of days ago, and I made the swap today. Honestly, I can't tell it is even on. Currently it is on 2 (out of 5) which is about 500 gph. It seems like a nice flow that the fish and plants both work well with especially since it's split where it enters the tank.

Plant list for anyone interested.

Ammania senegalensis - new from Buceplant
Anubias congensis 'Mini' - from the 20g
Crypt. wendtii 'green' - from the 20g
Crypt. wendtii 'bronze'? - I am pretty sure. This was sold as Crypt. Crispatula 'tonkinensis', TC, but in no way turned out that way. It must have gotten mislabeled. It wasn't planned, but happened, so I will keep it. Also from the 20g
Crypt. 'Pink Flamingo' - new TC from Buceplant.
Crypt. albidia 'Red' - new TC from Buceplant
Crypt. crispatula var 'tonkinensis' - TC new from Buceplant (definitely the right thing)
Crypt. parva - from the 20g
Crypt. parva 'mini' - TC new from Buceplant
Buce. belindae - from the 20g
Buce. 'Red Scorpio'- from the 20g
Eleocharis pusillis - from the 20g
Monte Carlo - some new TC and some old from the 20g
Staurogyne repens - some new TC and some old from the 20g
Nesaea pedicellata 'Golden' - new from Aquarium Plant Factory
Ludwigia natans 'Super Red' - from the 20g
Rotala indica - from the 20g
Rotala H'Ra - from the 20g
Rotala rotundifolia 'Orange Juice' - new from Buceplant

Most of the stem plants I just chopped into 2" stems and planted in groups. The Monte Carlo, Eleoocharis, and Crypt parva I just intend to let mix together in the foreground and around the smaller rocks. The rest are just placed in groups or here and there with their long-term growth and habit taken into consideration. I really want the Crypt 'tonkinensis' to give some vertical appeal in both the mid and background. As I mentioned in a previous post, I am considering something on top of the big rock like a needle-leaf java fern.

Some updated pics. Plants are growing in!


I think I may have overdone the reds in that area, so will be moving some of the Rotala indica into that area.


Hair grass spreading nicely (and a smidge of hair algae).

Monte Carlo has been doing well, but there are some areas like this that continually get buried by aquatic worm castings. I am thinking long-term the MC will gain ground. In other areas it is doing the same growth without getting buried, so overall it looks like it is doing well.


Full tank shot. Overall, things are coming in well. I have a pretty decent bloom of HA, but it seems to be receding now that the plants are taking off. This stage of newness is always challenging.


If you look closely at the floaters, they are all very nitrogen deficient. There are no measurable nitrates in the water column, so they struggle. The soil has the stem plants covered, but the floaters suffer. The red-roots are almost petering out and the salvinia is almost white in the new growth. If things go similarly to the 20, this will correct with a bit more bioload. I am waiting on plants to grow in and more stabilization though before adding any more critters.

We did see a new baby shrimp though, so that was exciting. It was the first in this tank.

Some plants are just not doing well. The Ammania just doesn't seem to do well and I suspect it will wind up a failure. The Crypt. albidia 'Red' melted pretty hard, but might come back, and the Staurogyne repens seems to be Amano food. It was an issue in the other tank, but I thought more might overcome the browsing. It is doing "ok", but definitely picked at.