125 Gallon Journal

[Kevin F.]

Got the plants in Saturday.  I still need more to finish it up, but I think it's a good start.  I'll try and post a new pic every week.  Not in this photo is a red sword behind the drift wood on the left. The substrate is 160lb of eco complete, filters aquaclear 110 with sponge and purigen with bio media on top, Emperor 400 with sponge and bio media. The heater is a marineland. The lighting is 2, 36 inche Nicrew skyled with timer.  The lighting will have to be upgraded at some point. Dosing the water column with Easy Green and root tabs in the substrate.  Plants are Tiger lotus, cryptocoryne wendtii, micr sword, scarlet temple, red flame sword, corkscrew val, dwarf sagittaria and pilot moss. The only fish at the moment are 10 zebra danios.  Water 10 nitrate, 0 nitrate, hardness 300, buffer 80, ph 7.2, chlorine 0, ammonia 0.

[Betsy]

This looks like such a dream build! 😍

I've always wanted to try the tiger lotus...it's actually in my cart as we speak!  Excited to follow along with ya! 🥳

[Patrick_G]

It looks great. I just started with Micro Sword a few weeks ago. It’ll be interesting to see how yours does. 

[Kevin F.]

It really is.  When I use to have multiple tanks I always wanted to plant this one, but never did.  Now that we're in the new house and I can have tanks again the wife is encouraging me to do run with it.  As long as she gets some of her fish in it.  The micro sword is new to me also.  Hopefully it does well.

Edited July 18, 2021 by Kevin F.

[lefty o]

looks good, nice start!

[Jungle Fan]

Looks like you're well on your way. Nice tank.

[Kevin F.]

Week one down. Everything is going well.  I've added some more plants to the tank

1 Cryptocoryne Wendtii Green

2 Cryptocoryne Parva

3 Anubias Nana petite

1 Windelov Java fern it had one big plant and two smaller ones in the pot.

The Tiger Lotus bulb had got knocked off last week but the plant is doing great three  new leaves have grown.  I put in a extra root tab for it.  The Scarlet Temple is doing don't know if it likes my water though.  Everything else is doing well.  The tank over all looks a lot better.  We arw thinking of adding some more fish.  Next week we're adding 20 neon tetras.  In the future (later this year into next) we'll add 4 Denison Barbs, 4 Reticulated hillstream Loach and 6 Giant  Danios.

[Kevin F.]

Just noticed my camera made a lot of the plants look more yellow than the really are.

[Kevin F.]

This one looks a lot better.  I took the brightness down.

[Kevin F.]

I know I said we were going to wait for the fish.  We'll last night we did a thing.

20 Halequin rasboras

6 Giant danios

3 Denison barbs

 

[Scott P.]

Your tank looks nice. Needs a few larger plants to take up some of that space.

[Kevin F.]

Ya there are some just still really small.  Behind the drift wood on the right are 2 red flame swords and left of it is a tiger lotus.  They are just really small right now.  The corkscrew val is starting to grow and the scarlet temple is just not doing well at all melting back to nothing. So I need a different stem plant for the back any suggestions?

[Scott P.]

On 7/25/2021 at 3:06 PM, Kevin F. said:

Ya there are some just still really small.  Behind the drift wood on the right are 2 red flame swords and left of it is a tiger lotus.  They are just really small right now.  The corkscrew val is starting to grow and the scarlet temple is just not doing well at all melting back to nothing. So I need a different stem plant for the back any suggestions?

I would put 5-6 Amazon Swords in the corners and back.  A tank that big can hold a lot of plants.

As far as your tiger lotus goes. I've got one that I have had for about a week. It adds a new leaf almost everyday.

[Kevin F.]

The Tiger Lotus is growing great one large one medium and two small leafs in a week.  I was really hoping the red sword s would grow faster but the are taking a while to adjust.  I would love to just get a huge bunch of plants.  But right now I'm seeing what will grow well in this water.  It's really hard and has nitrate in it from farming.  The val will fill the middle when it grows in.  I like the idea of swords on both sides.   I'll have to source them locally.  It's way to hot for plants  to get mailed right now.  Mailman puts packages in his trunk and they may be there until after lunch.  Thanks for the suggestion, anyone else got a thought?

 

[Lifeisgood]

Hard water has been fine for my plants.  In fact they absorb the calcium out of it and I have to add Wondershells to keep it mineralized.  Are you finding it hard to reduce the nitrates with water conditioner?

I am searching for a 125 tank right now too so thank you for sharing your process!😊

[Ponyoryx]

What's your dosing schedule for the easy green? I also have a moderate/lightly planted tank and I'm still trying to figure out dosing

[Kevin F.]

The city water here is a blend.  The well water has nitrates too high for human consumption (all the farming) so they mix it with water from a reservoir. The reservoir has really high dissolved organics.  Wich in turn when mixed with chlorine produces trihalomethsnes. Once the tank has settled in this won't really be a problem.  My dosing schedule right now is one time a week.  Other than the one plant it seams to be working.   Noticed 2 new vals and some new dwarf val growing yesterday.  I do plan on adding more plants , I just wanted to see what would grow best here before I  spent a lot on plants that won't. 

[Patrick_G]

It’s looking really nice. It’s a good idea to wait and see what plants grow best. With a tank that size it’s going to take either time or money to fill it in. 

Edited July 26, 2021 by Patrick_G

[Taco Playz]

I love your tank! Good selection of crypts too!

[Odd Duck]

I have recently learned that it is sometimes very worth it to go ahead and buy some big swords.  Check my sig for the link to my 75 gallon redo project.  I was very lucky to find really tall “mother” swords (Echinodorus bleherii) for $24.00 for 2 pots.  Those 2 pots held 5 large swords plus 2 small ones, plus about 8 more baby swords on runners that I’ll remove once they get more roots.

When I unpotted the “mother” plants and teased the rock wool off the roots and stripped off broken/cut stems, I could then see that it was multiple plants.  I just kept wiggling, gently tugging, and swirling in water until they eventually came apart.

For your tank, you would be able to pin those runners down with a couple rocks and get them rooting right away.  That’s what I’ve done in other tanks - check the back right side of my 100 gallon - also in my sig.  That was only 3 large swords (not “mother” pots).  It’s now about 7 plants.

It is soooooo gratifying to put those big plants in place.  I’ve grown them up from little, and now I’ve gotten big, and sometimes it’s worth doing some of each.

[Kevin F.]

I really thought about driving up to Oklahoma city getting some large swords, but I've done a regular sword tank before.   That's why there's only two red swords in here.  I really like the way you have your tank, and I to live the satisfaction of putting in full grown plants.  This time I wanted to watch them grow in.  Aging there is nothing wrong with putting in a bunch of fully frown plants, it's instant gratification.  I'm looking at the long run.  Watching a system start from a bunch of small plants and grow in and spread.  That said I am about to place another order of a couple more cryps, java fern and a stem plant of some kind.

[Odd Duck]

On 7/26/2021 at 9:26 PM, Kevin F. said:

I really thought about driving up to Oklahoma city getting some large swords, but I've done a regular sword tank before.   That's why there's only two red swords in here.  I really like the way you have your tank, and I to live the satisfaction of putting in full grown plants.  This time I wanted to watch them grow in.  Aging there is nothing wrong with putting in a bunch of fully frown plants, it's instant gratification.  I'm looking at the long run.  Watching a system start from a bunch of small plants and grow in and spread.  That said I am about to place another order of a couple more cryps, java fern and a stem plant of some kind.

Driving *up* to OK City, where do you live?  If you are close enough to Dallas I can tell you exactly where to get a couple large, ‘mother’ swords cheap if you decide to do that.  😉 

I completely *get* the “watch it grow in” thing.  I’m completely addicted to plants and regularly get tissue cultures, just so I get more plants for my money.  Hmm, I want 3-5 plants, let me get a TC, then I’ll have plenty to sell or trade at the next swap meet.  😆 

My most recent was Crypt. ‘Pink Panther’.  I’m very excited about this one!  I’ve already got several Pink Panthers, but I’ve been trying to get a TC of it for so long that even though I don’t really *need* any more, I still had to get it when one became available.  🤷🏻‍♀️

[Kevin F.]

Im about 2 hours 45 min from Dallas off I44. I'm very limited on stores other than petco and petsmart and a places I won't walk in again there is one more to try this weekend. As for the crypts I really want to get a pink flamingo.  

[Kevin F.]

Week 3 down.  Pla ts are starting to grow, corkscrew val is sending out new plants so are micro sword and dwarf sagittaria.  All the cryptocoryne are growing new leafs and the Tiger Lotus is really starting to take off. Algae has started ( green and hair) moved the lighting back to 8 hours a day.  The scarlet temple has mostly melted away but a couple of stocks have so.e really tiny green leaves.  The fish are all doing well.  Not all 6 of the giant danios were giant danios.  Two were peal danios. Water is 

Ammonia 0

Nitrate  25

Nitrite 0

Hardness 150

Buffer 120

Ph 7.2

Chlorine 0

These are numbers before dosing fertilizer.  I am only going to dose half fertilizer today.  After dosing all numbers were same except Nitrate  it's darker than 25 but not as dark as 50. 

[Taco Playz]

That tank is so beautiful! 😍