My 6' 125-gallon Low-tech Planted Aquarium

[xJake]

Tank Size: 6' 125-gallons (not sure of actual dimensions)

Substrate: All-purpose sand/Pea gravel mix

Lighting: 2- 96w CFL (6700K), 1- 40w NO Fluorescent (Pink-ish Color Enhancing Bulb)

Filtration: 2- Penguin Bio-wheel 110 (Bio-wheels removed), 1- Rena Filstar XP4

Quarantine Tank: 55-gallon drum in basement storage room next to tank with a Rena XP3 (used to be on the main tank) with sponge media normally kept in the main tank's filters

Stocking List:
1 Brown Gourami
1 Gold Gourami
1 Blue Gourami
1 Silver Angelfish (recently rescued from my neighbor's 10-gallon)
2 Black Angelfish (in 55-gallon drum for quarantine)
7 Colombian Tetra
7 Harlequin Rasboras (3 in quarantine)
2 Common Plecos
4 Otos
5 Bronze Corys
5 Clown Loaches (2 in quarantine)
4 Bolivian Rams (1 male, 3 Female)

Maintenance: 25% Water Changes every sunday morning with Ice-cold tap water, substrate vacuuming through a filter sock 2x a week.

Additives: Seachem Flourish, Seachem Trace, Seachem Potassium, Seachem Iron, Seachem Prime

Pics (sorry for the quality, they were on my phone; my only digital camera)

Full Tank Shot:

Left:

Middle:

Right:

Silver Angel:

Clown Loach Manicure:

Camera Hogs:

The Rams:

Equipment:

Thanks for looking! I'm gonna try to get a friends camera and post some better pics.

 

[marcan]

I like it! It looks great

4 ottos in such a big tank, it must be hard to find them!

 

[Mystix212]

Its not that planted is it? Just some ground things. Add Java Fern on to the bogwood.

 

[paul_219]

Very nice tank. I liked your gouramis they re very beautiful. And so the other fish.

 

[Dave Spencer]

You have a lot of light over this tank! How long has it been running, because algae could become a major issue for you?

Your tank may be low tech, but your lighting levels are for a high tech tank.

Cheers, Dave.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Awesome tank !

 

[xJake]

You have a lot of light over this tank! How long has it been running, because algae could become a major issue for you?

Your tank may be low tech, but your lighting levels are for a high tech tank.

Cheers, Dave.

Really? My LFS has been trying to tell me my lighting levels are inadequate and they keep trying to get me to buy a new fixture from them with 4 PC Bulbs. That makes me really suspicious of my LFS now.

I just recently tore down and rebuilt this tank because of a huge ich outbreak while I was on vacation and bought all new plants (luckily I got home in time to save the hardiest of my fish). I certainly learned my lesson about quarantining new additions.

I took a look at your aquarium threads and you obviously know what you're doing. Would I need to decrease the actual light intensity or would decreasing the photoperiod be enough to keep algae from taking over? I'm not currently having algae issues but I was having problems with BBA and Green-spot algae that I was treating (successfully) with Flourish Excel before the ich.

And thanks for the comments everyone. I've been feeling kinda down since I lost most of my fish including 5- 4inch clown loaches.

 

[lljdma06]

You have a lot of light over this tank! How long has it been running, because algae could become a major issue for you?

Your tank may be low tech, but your lighting levels are for a high tech tank.

Cheers, Dave.

You are at right around 1.86WPG, which normally wouldn't raise my eyebrows, but you've got a much larger tank, so I'm inclined to agree with Dave. Larger tanks don't behave like smaller tanks and it taks less lighting to achieve the same results. You may have to consider CO2 injection and a dosing regimen like EI. 1.86 is actually an adaquate lighting level for most tanks, except for those under 20g. I wouldn't be concerned about upgrading. If you want to keep your tank low-tech, which it really technically isn't since you're already adding all the ferts for a high tech system and your substrate isn't what the low-tech methodology advocates, you would have to make quite a few adjustments.

You can do several things.

A. Keep the lighting you have, and buy a pressurized CO2 system. And go high-tech, which you're already half-way there. Plant densly with weeds and do weekly water changes.

B. Loose one of the 96W and have only 136W, giving you around 1WPG. Plant densly with weeds still and either try mixing some laterite, fluorite, or some nutrient-rich substrate into your soil, or just add rootabs (the easiest solution). Gradually increase your bioload, and opt for a hybrid method, neither low-tech nor high-tech, but somewhere in between. Consider adding some CO2, but don't worry about the levels or add another filter or powerhead to increase gas exchange, which I find helps a lot in my non-CO2 systems.

If it were me, I'd go for option B just because I'm poor and I'm thinking about what would give you a nice tank without costing too much money and allow you to work with what you've already got.

llj

 

[Dave Spencer]

Beaten to it.

I get the impression that you only have plants as an enhancement rather than the focal point, so option B will be your better choice. I think I can see some Cryptocorynes in there, which are primarily root feeders, so they will benefit from some kind of substrate additive. Root tabs would probably be the easiest option.

I don`t know if you have experienced it already, but you may well get a lot of die off of the Crypts at first, but they soon bounce back. Yours are looking pretty healthy at the moment.

Dave.

 

[Matty P]

Nice, but i agree with Mystix212 I would add a few more plants.