Nicklfires 55g Planted Journal

[nicklfire]

Well went into town last night with the g/f and purchased the most high end dual guage regulator with a solinoid and high end needle valve from a marine shop. Also came with a 5kg (10lbs) brand spanking new co2 tank. Everything was all fittted correctly so i was happy. AFter exiting that store i spent about 350$ canadian.O dont let me forget 8ft of co2 tubing lol.

So we than stopped off at the next store which would be BIG ALS here in vancouver. Had to stop off and get a diffuser , bubble counter, check valve, and some type of ph drop checker (co2 checker) to see how much co2 i have in the tank at all times. I found a ceramic diffuser,bubble counter and check valve all in one unit (valued at 34$, my opinion way over priced but whatever), and then i got a red sea co2 checker (pretty much exact like a glass ph drop checker works the same idea).

But anyways just wanted to update you. I'm getting the co2 tank filled for about 30$ from local fire protection company here. When i get home i'll take pictures and post them and put it all together.

 

[Castellop123]

Cool! Like the bogwood by the way...

 

[nicklfire]

hey guys,

sorry it's been a little bit before i could get the picutres up was having problems with my camera but.. back and working again. Anyways here's a couple of present pictures of the tank setup (not much changed with aquascape just a few plant additions plus we got the co2 up and running now) I gotta figure out the exact plants i need to order that i want to setup the design with, i'm looking for plants that i cant get in my area.. so i'm figuring i'm going to have to mail order my plants or somthing (not much info on canadian plant ordering i can find). Anyways... i bought a lotus.... and a anubis nana, a sword, and some crypt there it's coming along slowly lol. Also got my co2 all up and running it's working amazing.

Picture of the solinoid (Attaches inline on the reactor CO2 assembly and plugs into wall. When the power goes off the solenoid shuts down not allowing CO2 to flood your reactor)

.


picture of the solinoid and regulator (regulator takes the pressure out of the co2 tank and makes it alot more managable to use in a aquarium setup)

Here you have the tank attaching to the regulator and then to the solinoid. You can see where the hose is connected to that is the needle valve already attached (needle valve allows you to adjust the pressure of the co2 into the tank which lets you choose how many bubbles per second)

And this would be the ceramic diffuser/bubble counter made by red sea. works fine... about 3 inches tall. i think i want a out of tank reactor instead though.

picture of my shark

A bare tank still but the plants are going to come eventually lol

one of my 4 albino cory's just chillin

Had to put a shot of my plants pearling, and i have yet to dose macro nutrients yet, ei method in the works.

Here is one of my 4 glowlight tetras

Closeup of driftwood with java moss on it

picture of my anubis nana (rhizsoms out of water and roots in the substrate)

Picture of the lotus, just bought it, hopfully it will start shoooting up.

pic of the crypt

pic of my true flying fox not a fake lol

that's all for now i gues until i get plants.

 

[Dave Spencer]

Nice looking CO2 set up, especially the silver cylinder. I notice you Canadians are still sticking with good old psi.

Are you going to be upgrading the lights in this tank?

Dave.

 

[nicklfire]

Yea definately, once i can get more plants then i'll upgrade the lighting to the coralife 4x65 , right now i only got the 2x65
and yes we love the psi lol. I dont know too many canadian guys other then me on this forums lol

 

[cheesy feet]

hey guys,

sorry it's been a little bit before i could get the picutres up was having problems with my camera but.. back and working again. Anyways here's a couple of present pictures of the tank setup (not much changed with aquascape just a few plant additions plus we got the co2 up and running now) I gotta figure out the exact plants i need to order that i want to setup the design with, i'm looking for plants that i cant get in my area.. so i'm figuring i'm going to have to mail order my plants or somthing (not much info on canadian plant ordering i can find). Anyways... i bought a lotus.... and a anubis nana, a sword, and some crypt there it's coming along slowly lol. Also got my co2 all up and running it's working amazing.

Picture of the solinoid (Attaches inline on the reactor CO2 assembly and plugs into wall. When the power goes off the solenoid shuts down not allowing CO2 to flood your reactor)

.


picture of the solinoid and regulator (regulator takes the pressure out of the co2 tank and makes it alot more managable to use in a aquarium setup)

Here you have the tank attaching to the regulator and then to the solinoid. You can see where the hose is connected to that is the needle valve already attached (needle valve allows you to adjust the pressure of the co2 into the tank which lets you choose how many bubbles per second)

And this would be the ceramic diffuser/bubble counter made by red sea. works fine... about 3 inches tall. i think i want a out of tank reactor instead though.

picture of my shark

A bare tank still but the plants are going to come eventually lol

one of my 4 albino cory's just chillin

Had to put a shot of my plants pearling, and i have yet to dose macro nutrients yet, ei method in the works.

Here is one of my 4 glowlight tetras

Closeup of driftwood with java moss on it

picture of my anubis nana (rhizsoms out of water and roots in the substrate)

Picture of the lotus, just bought it, hopfully it will start shoooting up.

pic of the crypt

pic of my true flying fox not a fake lol

that's all for now i gues until i get plants.

Nice pics.Lovely praecox rainbow fish...Only if i could find somewhere where they don't cost more than £4.00 each(i only have 1).The driftwood and java moss looks qaulity btw!

 

[Themuleous]

Got a lot of promise that tank has Is that ADA aquasoil? Did you run the tank with no live stock for a bit first, while you got over the NH3 and NO2 spikes AS seems cause?

Keep us posted on your progress, should develop nicely

Sam

 

[lljdma06]

This is going to be one of those tank when fully setup that'll make jaws drop. That, coupled with your good photography skills, makes for an excellent combination. 55g are gorgeous tanks.

What plants are you getting?

llj

 

[nicklfire]

no it's not ada soil it's actually flora base substrate (picture on first page). And no i didnt run it without any livestock in the beg. I was hoping to but due to me moving into my new place there was no way i could setup and let it run... was more of an emergency at the time. I'v been monitoring water param's and doing water changes as needed. Also took alot of media from last tank and encorporated into this one. My filter from the last tank was setup for approx 1 month so it had alot of beneficial bacteria needed for the current tank so i think i'm fine as far as cycling went.


and yes i hope that it will be a jaw dropper i'v spent alot of time and alot of money into this project so hopfully it will do good in the not so far distant future. And as far as my photography skills are concerned i'm a big amatuer haha.. i just used a pretty basis canon 2.8 mega pix dig camera and used the close up features to take the pictures.. i thought they pretty bad actually lol but thanks for the props. No i dont know what type of plants i want yet.. still trying to figure it out, i know i really want some dwarf hairgrass and riccia but they are impossiable to find where i live.. maybe i can find somone who has some where i live (british columbia canada) that can supply me with some... hopfully

anyone have any suggestions on anything i'm doing yet?

 

[BNyleen581]

I love what you’re doing, hopefully sooner than later I will be following your footsteps on my dream tank system. All I got is an under-lit 16 gallon filled with plants and some fish. I spent about $800 USD learning how to keep everything alive, then I found this forum. I guess everyone learns somehow.

I did want to mention with your Co2 system that I have read a lot about diffusing Co2 by tying your Co2 line directly into your intake line for your Eheim 2028. I have no experience with any of this, but have read about a bunch of people doing this and noticing the same amount of diffusion as a reactor (if not better diffusion than a reactor). I don’t know about Airlock, but it has been mentioned that some canister filters will not allow this. I haven’t heard anything about this not work with your model though and it would look a lot better not having the fizzer thingy in your tank plus saving on Co2.

Good Luck! I'm Jealous.

 

[nicklfire]

Hey guys,

Been a while since i last updated and put some pictures on so here we go. From the last time i'v bought a bunch of plants and planted those so it filled alot better now. I went to this new pet store that had some good exotic plants i am going to be going back to see if i could get some dwarf hairgrass, they are the only place i could find that actually had any in the whole province.

Also supercorey1 is sending me some 4dkh solution, some dosing ferts (for ei) and some riccia... that i'm going to layer the bottom which will turnout awesome. I'm also in midst of buying a hagen 29 gallon square open top tank to do a new scape and maybe a shrimp farm.. or albino corey breeding tank.. not sure yet...

But here's the pic's i'd like to share with you, good good shot of my flower shrimp. Any comments more than welcome.

Here's a great shot of my flower shrimp

My java fern that i bought from the store, it's rare apprantly cause it have very narrow leaves... i dont know how rare that is though lol

This thing has definately grown out within the last month.

at that store i bought 2 planters of micro amazon sword... hopfuly i can use it as a foreground grassy plant.. cause that guy wouldnt sell me any dwarf hairgrass. GRRRRR

Here's my java moss on my drift wood and my ana nana, (selling java moss on ebay currently), also split up my driftwood from last picture.

here's a full tank shot, got some vals on the left with smaller minature vals

Side Tank shot

Picture of my flying fox eating away on his shrimp pellet (guess there's no algae ZINGGGGG lol)

here's some rotala i think... i forgot what kind, hasnt grown that fast regardless

blurred picture of the java moss

thanks to everyone who's helped me over the course.. again any suggestions comments welcome

 

[SuperColey1]

Keep it up Nicklfire, tank looks great and I'm sure you will have some more plants and EI ingredients soon, wink wink.

Santa might even get you some 4kDH if youre lucky (Canada is GMT -5months isn't it)

Just a note. Not sure about the diffusor you have but I don't agre with the poster above dissing Ceramic diffusors!! CO2 is widely said to be the best method of CO2 distribution out.

Tom Barr has stated in one post that he likes the Rhinox series (1000 - under 20 Gallons,2000 20-40 gallons,5000 upwards)

I bought a Rhinox 2000 in February and can vouch for this, although I bought it before I saw Tom's comments and it was cheap.

Have a look on AquaticMagics ebay shop on the US ebay. postage is the same all over the world and he has some excellent plants and equipment on there.

By the way Christmas is next week I think

Andy

 

[BNyleen581]

SuperColey1, I wasn't dissing Ceramic Diffusers I was giving an idea for a cheaper method of diffusing Co2. I have seen this method used a few times with similar results as a ceramic, but you don't need to buy anything except a little $1 T-junction for your piping. And it looks better not having to mount a reactor on the back of your tank or dropping more equipment in the the water. It was just an idea. But yes there are many really good ways to diffuse your Co2.

This guy posts some good stuff: http/www.gpodio.com/co2_setup.asp
Here are a few more, somewhere on this sight there was a guy posting some very interesting methods of diffusing: http/www.thekrib.com/Plants/CO2/

Nicklfire It still look amazing and I am still jealous. Keep it up!

 

[cheesy feet]

Hey guys,

Been a while since i last updated and put some pictures on so here we go. From the last time i'v bought a bunch of plants and planted those so it filled alot better now. I went to this new pet store that had some good exotic plants i am going to be going back to see if i could get some dwarf hairgrass, they are the only place i could find that actually had any in the whole province.

Also supercorey1 is sending me some 4dkh solution, some dosing ferts (for ei) and some riccia... that i'm going to layer the bottom which will turnout awesome. I'm also in midst of buying a hagen 29 gallon square open top tank to do a new scape and maybe a shrimp farm.. or albino corey breeding tank.. not sure yet...

But here's the pic's i'd like to share with you, good good shot of my flower shrimp. Any comments more than welcome.

Here's a great shot of my flower shrimp



My java fern that i bought from the store, it's rare apprantly cause it have very narrow leaves... i dont know how rare that is though lol


This thing has definately grown out within the last month.


at that store i bought 2 planters of micro amazon sword... hopfuly i can use it as a foreground grassy plant.. cause that guy wouldnt sell me any dwarf hairgrass. GRRRRR


Here's my java moss on my drift wood and my ana nana, (selling java moss on ebay currently), also split up my driftwood from last picture.


here's a full tank shot, got some vals on the left with smaller minature vals


Side Tank shot


Picture of my flying fox eating away on his shrimp pellet (guess there's no algae ZINGGGGG lol)


here's some rotala i think... i forgot what kind, hasnt grown that fast regardless

blurred picture of the java moss


thanks to everyone who's helped me over the course.. again any suggestions comments welcome

It looks like rotala rotundifolia,mine has slightly pinky red leaves underneath though

 

[nicklfire]

Hahah.. when did santa start charging for his gifts... that's jipped lol. Cant wait for that stuff to arrive, i gotta buy some type of rock probably granite to layer the bottom for the riccia... I also talked to that Rex guy.. he's a pretty cool guy and he supplies Fertz for ei to canada and all the other stuff i dont know how i was not aware of his site before it's awesome. Yea cheesy i think that was rotala rotundifolia, when it grows bigger i will change colors... so must be the same one, just a slower grower, i think i gotta move it to give it more light. and the diffuser i have in my tank it's behind the driftwood so you cant even see it, maybe for style i'll go with a glass diffuser, but that's all i'll really be paying for.. I chose not to inject into my canister cause regardless it's probably not good for it, and a inline reactor... i probably would have done, but my uv sterilizers hooked up already so.. was too lazy to redo all of that lol. I guess i'll just wait till my gifts comes from supercoley lol
anymore comments welcome