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Tank update
About three weeks ago I mentioned that I had just decided to setup a 100
Gallon tank which I had obtained from a friend.
I would like to thank everyone for their kind emails. I haven't had a chance
to answer them until now but here goes.
A couple of you asked how much I paid for the 100 Gallon tank (72 X 18 X 18
inches) including a steel stand, Biowheel filter, submersible heater, some
fish and some live plants. I paid $200.00 CDN. Personally I think it was a
good deal.
Even more important I live in an apartment where both water and electricity
are included in the rent so my ongoing operational costs will have no effect
on my costs. Still I like to be as efficient as possible to prepare for the
future big move that will ultimately happen.
Now on to more exciting things:
I've been working at getting my tank setup. I've added the following (thanks
for all of the good advice).
1 additional 2 bulb shoplight giving me a total of 4 - 48" 40 watt T12
bulbs.
4 new 48" bulbs. 2 Home Depot Daylight Plus bulbs. 2 Home Depot Full
Spectrum bulbs.
10 Otto cats (talk about full time vacumn cleaners)
3 Flying Fox (active but no real conflicts even though they are usually
recommended in ones).
4 more juli Cory Cats.
1 Container of Tropica MasterGrow (actually only at half the required dosage
for my tank size as recommended on the bottle).
My surface water now is very minimally agitated. The Biowheel filter is
still on the tank but no longer running. I am still not using a heater in
the tank. The tank does have a 2 to 3 degree temperature variation between
day and night. The tank is located about three feet back from a South facing
window which means that for a brief period each day full sunlight reaches
the tank. In warmer weather I'll need to watch the temperature variations
even more to make sure that the temps don't reach to high a point. Algae is
not currently a problem but I'll keep an eye on it.
When I originally added the Tropica Mastergrow I saw some limited grow but
certainly not a significant amount. However I will point out that the
previous owner still had the plants in their pots. Last Saturday I removed
the plants from their pots and planted in smaller bunches thoughout the
center 48 inch light zone (since I have a small amount of light 160 watts on
the tank rather then overlap the two fixtures I have centered them both in
the center 48 inches of the tank. This concentrates the light which should
make a difference. The plants are also centered in this area as well so my
72 X 18 X 18 is effectively a 48 X 18 X 18).
I will admit to a sense of nervousness when I started removing these plants
from their pots after they had been in them for greater then 3 months. Root
growth thoughout the glass wool was quite extensive. I have four different
plants in my tank. Luckily only one type was extremely difficult to remove
from the wool. Even using small tweezers it was impossible to clear around
the roots for this plant.
As of yesterday it had been two days since the plants were replanted
directly into the substrate without the wool and pots. Yesterday I began to
notice some significant growth with several of the plants having growth up
to 1.5 cm in length.
Water changes occurr weekly and average approximately 20 percent.
Yesterday I added two clay flowerpots which will act as caves until the
plant growth becomes more extensive and until more lava rock is added to
more naturally create the caves. I basically purchased two new clay pots for
$3.00 and then with some new hacksaw blades (10 for $3.99) I cut these pots
into two pieces giving me three and a half caves (it would have been four
but I dropped one in transit).
I currently feed the fish once a day. They eat a varied diet including
frozen blood worms, OSI spirulina flakes and Savoury sinkers. Surprisingly
enough many other fish seem to enjoy the sinkers besides the cat fish. It's
truly amazing to see about 20 neons attacking a sinker on the bottom.
There is minimal Algae in the tank. I actually have an Algae tank growing in
a well lit bucket near the tank. Currently about 20 baby platys are resident
but I plan to occassionally have rocks in the tank so that Algae can root on
them. When Algae growth is too low in the main tank I'll move a rock into
the tank to provide food for the Algae eaters.
I've also been very lucky in that I managed to find the last 4 months worth
of Aquarium magazines at one of the LFS. I also understand that there is a
local aquarium club in town as well (London, Ontario, Canada).
Next steps:
1) I am currently pricing out the supplies to build a wood top for my
aquarium. I plan to have 8 T8 48" bulbs staggered thoughout the tank which
will give high light intensity in the center tank area with moderate tank
intensity to the sides. The inside of the canopy will be painted white and I
will likely include a fan to maintain a cooler light bulb temperature as
much as possible.
As an alternative to the 8 T8 48" bulbs I am willing to consider 8 T8 72"
bulbs if I can locate them around here.
I also intend to build a small matching enclosure type screen which will
surround the bottom of the stand to hide the filters etc which are located
beneath the tank.
2) I also intend to pick up a high pressure CO2 device once the lights have
been setup.
3) Test kits for ph, iron etc.
4) More plants once I get a feeling for how the current ones are doing. I
also need to continue to work on identifying the ones I have.
Anyway that's the update for now. I have to admit that I am really enjoying
watching my tank in the evenings when I come home from work.
Karen Randall:
I know that you've been on the list since I've been here. I just wanted to
thank you for the interesting articles you've written in the past few
months.
~Jamie N
jnoble123 at hotmail_com
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