100 gallon, finally getting more interesting.

[Odd Duck]

So this is the tale of my biggest tank.  It was purchased used in June of last year as a birthday present from my hubby.  Due to other circumstances (unplanned breeding of rescued Jack Dempsey’s and over 1500 fry taking over my world) it wasn’t set up and started until mid-March this year.

I wanted to plant heavy from the beginning and I started accumulating plants around December or so.  I found a used piece of driftwood that I liked for the right price and started soaking it, then found a couple more pieces with a similar texture and look and started them soaking, too.  They even froze inside their barrel of water during Snowpocalypse in February.

Finally got it started on March 13.  Put black, opaque, cling window film on the back.  Carefully layered my baked clay dirt, Osmocote granules, then black blasting sand.  Very carefully placed my wood pieces.

First pic is the main inspiration piece, then substrate added, all wood added, fiddling with placement, planting process, floating wood after filling with water despite rocks on top (🤦🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️), additional rocks attached to wood by those super sexy zip ties, then current wood placement and first day planted.

[Odd Duck]

A few progress pics but with some big gaps.  I should have taken more pics.

First is about 6 weeks after planting.  You can see there is a UV sterilizer in there.  I had a huge issue with green water (have I mentioned the Overfeeders Anonymous membership?) and that was what finally tipped the balance and got things going in the right direction.  I actually don’t have any photos of the pea soup stage.  Sooooo embarrassing for an “experienced” aquarist.  🤦🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️  I just couldn’t bring myself to take pictures in that stage, but it was an impressive, beautiful green.  😆 🙄🤪  I’ve never managed that much green even when I was *trying* to grow green water!

Next pic is the Gold Nugget pleco that really isn’t the right size for the nano fish “theme” but was the right price at the right time (went to get some lights from a guy and, he said, “Oh, by the way”).  Third is a red pearl sword I really like.  Fourth is a Crypt ‘Green Gecko’ that really isn’t.  I’m 99% sure it’s actually Aponogeton, probably ulvaceus.  Fifth is my clown pleco, yes, I actually got a picture.  Haven’t seen it in at least 6 weeks now.  Sixth is cory eggs, assorted swords, other Apos, some Anubias and Buces (and my Gold Nugget again, he’s very brave).  Seventh, and last for now, is some Crypt ‘Pink Flamingo’ in mid transformation from emerse to submerse.

So, I FINALLY have some nano fish in here to go with the 6 adult bronze corys (and now at least 2 fry) and 5 total plecos (Goldie, clown, 2 lemon drops and a blue eyed lemon).  A whole 5 ember tetras so far.  But I have more embers, a bunch of chili rasboras, Kubotai rasboras, celestial pearl danios, and otos that are 6 to 10 days away from going in depending on which quarantine group they made it into.  I’ll get some new pics tomorrow.

Edited July 21, 2021 by Odd Duck

[KentFishFanUK]

Awesome pictures and write up! Can't wait to see all the other nano fish go in. I've always thought if I ever do a larger tank I will still stock it with nano fish, think that will look amazing. Following the topic, keep us updated! 

[lefty o]

tank looks really good. that 1st piece of wood is really nice. if the wood keeps floating, you can drill a hole in a piece of slate, and screw it to the bottom of the wood. then push it into the substrate, it wont float no more.🐌

[Patrick_G]

Wow, it looks great! I would have bought the gold nugget too, he’s a looker. 
I had the same problem with large pieces of wood. I set up the entire scape  ,planted it and it was all destroyed by the floating wood. 

[Colu]

Beautiful tank great looking gold nugget plec

[Odd Duck]

@lefty o  I have ordered some black slate pieces to do exactly that.  The wood has been in water another 4 months, but I have similar wood I got from the same source that went into water about the same time and it still floats.  Low, but it floats.  I’ve been waiting patiently for *those* pieces to sink as a way to “time” when *this* wood may be ready to remove the weights.

But I need these rocks for my 75 gallon project.  There are some very nice petrified wood pieces wasting their time and beauty zip tied to this wood!  It’s already going to disrupt this tank like crazy to pull out and modify this piece now.  The longer I wait, the more it will disrupt.  And I’m *really* over the zip ties!

Not to mention that I’m very tired of having a conspicuously empty 14 G cube in the center of my “Low Row” in the master bedroom.  The other soaking wood is meant for the cube.  I bought enough slate to sink those pieces, too.

This AM pic attached.

Edited July 21, 2021 by Odd Duck

[Odd Duck]

Thanks all, for the compliments.  This is definitely my favorite tank right now, and it’s really just beginning to get good.  Another couple weeks and it will have bunches of nanos in here zipping around (I hope, don’t want to jinx anybody that’s in QT).

[Torrey]

I finally resorted to running one tank specifically for getting wood ready for other tanks.

So, it's pretty much a combination grow out (fish & plants) and sink tank🤣

Big pieces take forever. 

 

As you can see between the top pic and the bottom pic, it's not always even the biggest pieces. All of these went in the tank at the same time.... but it's the 1.5" diameter that hasn't quite made it to the bottom yet🙄

 

Looking forward to watching your progress, and you have nudged me into working up my bravery to document my tank builds.

[Odd Duck]

@Torrey I have my “spare” wood pieces outdoors in a big trash barrel (never had trash in it, just water).  I have them braced against each other and weighted down with a brick.  I just checked them yesterday and they all still float and they’ve been in water since very early February!  2 of the pieces were one piece that was too tall for the tank so I cut it close to where the water line will be (hopefully) so I can make the 2 pieces look like parts of a rotted out stump, at least that’s the idea.  I was hoping that exposing end grain would help it sink faster, but, well, . . . . .  February!

So I’ve ordered slate pieces to make bases.

[Odd Duck]

Thought I would add the plant list for this tank.  I think I got a little carried away!

100G

Alternantheria reineckii ‘Roseafolia’

Anubias nana ‘Golden Coin’

Aponogeton madagascariensis

Aponogeton sp. probably ulvaceus

Bucephalandra ‘Rainbow Frost’

Buce. ‘Black Pearl’

Buce. ‘Dark Skeleton King’

Buce. ‘Green Skeleton King’/‘Green Achilles’

Buce. ‘Velvet 3 Color’

Cryptocoryne pontederiifolia

Crypt. wendtii ‘Red’ and ‘Green Gecko’

Crypt. retrospiralis

Crypt. axelrodii 

Crypt. ‘Rosen Maiden’

Crypt. [wendtii] ‘Pink Panther’

Echinodorus hadi ‘Red Pearl’

E. barthii x E. schlueteri ‘Red Flame’

E. cordifolius ‘Marble Queen’

E. grisbachii (Amazon sword)

E. major/martii

Homalomena insignis

Hymenasplenium obscurum (Dark spleenwort fern) on small driftwood piece with Anubias (poss. ‘Mini Coin’?)

Nymphea lotus var. ‘Zenkeri’ (Red Tiger Lotus)

Vallisneria torta

[Patrick_G]

Nice list! I’m picturing a mid light Nature/jungle type scape. 

[Scott P.]

The tank looks great. I love a planted tank.

[Odd Duck]

On 7/23/2021 at 1:19 AM, Patrick_G said:

Nice list! I’m picturing a mid light Nature/jungle type scape. 

It’s definitely semi-jungle.  Some plants have overprformed and some have underperformed for me.  It seems like it took forever to get some height to the taller plants in the back.  I had Echinodorus vesuvius behind my main driftwood piece on the left but it just wasn’t growing tall enough.  Sending out plenty of runners so I know it was happy, but maxing out at only 6” or so and I needed more height in that spot.

Luckily for me, some of my Crypt. ‘Green Gecko’ turned out to be an Aponogeton (I think ulvaceus) that suddenly shot up in height and started producing surface leaves.  I pulled the E. vesuvius and moved the Apo. back there and it looks much better on that end.  This left room for the crypts to expand to their vacated spot.  I now have a 10 G plant holding (did I *need* another plant holding?  No.) that is full of E. vesuvius.  Guess I’ll have plenty for the next swap meet.

The Crypt. spiralis has done it’s part on filling in some height in the middle (Crypt. retrospiralis was planted much earlier and is looking good, but not getting anywhere near the height and heft of the spiralis.  You can see it in front of the right hand driftwood.

The Echinodorus grisbachii has *finally* started to reach the size I was hoping for, just in the last month or so.  The Vallisneria torta is disappointingly puny and small and has now gotten overshadowed by the E. gris. and is fading away.  I should probably try to rescue it.

The Nymphea lotus ‘Zenkeri’ I love!  That color with no CO2 injection?  The best!  And big, fluttery leaves, too!  So striking but I wish I knew how to convince them not to send up so many surface leaves. I removed 6 yesterday and it’s sending up 2 more already.  It’s a fine balance between trimming out the surface leaves without triggering melting of the submerged leaves.  I find that I have to let it have a surface leaf occasionally to keep the whole plant healthy.

Most of the Buces have grown slightly faster than I expected, so that’s really nice, but they are always a long term project.  I only have 2 Anubias in here which was not at all my plan, but I’m still waiting to get the right side driftwood to stay down.  Once that little devil is in place and I no longer have rocks zip tied around it, I will probably explore putting more Anubias on that piece and on the center, horizontal piece.  I’m really liking the clump of Anubias nana ‘Golden Coin’ on that middle piece.

I keep waiting for the Apo. madagascariensis to reach for more height.  It’s beautiful and has always been a dream plant for me since I was a kid, so I’m very happy it’s doing well.  I just need to have patience!

Speaking of patience, when is my AR ‘Roseafolia’ going to get some height?  It’s *finally* starting to peak up around the wood and over the Crypt. pontederiifolia over on the left, but really?  Growing far slower than a Crypt?  It ought to be embarrassed at such underperformance!  It’s my *only* stem plant, for crying out loud!  It’s supposed to grow faster than this!  😆 

It’s only a few more days before a good sized group of fish are done with quarantine, then if params stay stable (they should), then a few more days and I’ll have the next group out of QT.  Then I’ll have some real action going on in here!  I love corys and plecos, but it’s way past time for more mid to upper water activity.

[Jungle Fan]

Looking really great. I'm looking forward to see how it will all come to together when it fills in. Nothing quite as satisfying as to see a well developed concept for a tank come together. How is the Homalomena insignis doing for you? I was looking at them when I put my tank together, but went with some bucephalandras instead.

[Jungle Fan]

On 7/21/2021 at 1:05 PM, Odd Duck said:

@lefty o  I have ordered some black slate pieces to do exactly that.  The wood has been in water another 4 months, but I have similar wood I got from the same source that went into water about the same time and it still floats.  Low, but it floats.  I’ve been waiting patiently for *those* pieces to sink as a way to “time” when *this* wood may be ready to remove the weights.

But I need these rocks for my 75 gallon project.  There are some very nice petrified wood pieces wasting their time and beauty zip tied to this wood!  It’s already going to disrupt this tank like crazy to pull out and modify this piece now.  The longer I wait, the more it will disrupt.  And I’m *really* over the zip ties!

Not to mention that I’m very tired of having a conspicuously empty 14 G cube in the center of my “Low Row” in the master bedroom.  The other soaking wood is meant for the cube.  I bought enough slate to sink those pieces, too.

This AM pic attached.

Instead of using slate I've sometimes also used bigger pieces of Mopani wood that I had pre-soaked to remove some of the tannin to screw them to a particularly stubborn piece of driftwood that would keep floating somewhere in between the substrate and the surface, to weigh them down.

[Odd Duck]

@Jungle Fan As quickly as this right hand piece popped up even with rocks on top of it (and it had soaked for a couple months already), I’m pretty sure it will need slate.  Plus now that plants have grown in for 4 months, I need it to have the smallest foot print at the base as possible.  I have a gut feeling I’m going to be using 2 layers of the thin slate pieces I ordered or I may cut one and double it.

I just got my 75 settled for at least a week or so.  Once my slate arrives, I’ll cut my oh, so fancy zip ties and see if it still floats, or maybe I should say, how *high* it floats.  Then decide on how much weight it needs.

I have a very cool, small burl of what is almost certainly mopani that I got decades ago.  It was dry for nearly a decade and when I stuck it back in the water, it sank immediately.  Stuff is dense and heavy!

[Jungle Fan]

One thing about Mopani though, I used one piece I've had for 20 years, and since I had soaked it for 4 months when I first got it I thought for sure it wouldn't leach anymore. I was glad I had soaked it in some water with hydrogen peroxide after bringing it out of storage because sure enough after all that time It started leaching again for about another 3 weeks.

I too have a few really nice Mopani burls in my tank, and the stump island on the left side of my tank consists of a really cool hollow Mopani stump that now has Java fern growing out of it and a tall Pacific driftwood stump, with a smaller spiderwood stump right beside it, all covered in Anubias nana petite, Anubias nana, Anubias afzelli, and Java fern, all of it providing several very nice caves for my otocinclus, shrimp, and Bolivian rams.

[Odd Duck]

On 7/24/2021 at 10:51 AM, Jungle Fan said:

Looking really great. I'm looking forward to see how it will all come to together when it fills in. Nothing quite as satisfying as to see a well developed concept for a tank come together. How is the Homalomena insignis doing for you? I was looking at them when I put my tank together, but went with some bucephalandras instead.

Thank you, it’s coming along.

The H. insignia melted slowly but significantly, but is slowly coming back now.  It has 2 new leaves that look OK, but not great.  I have it pretty high on the wood to the right trying to get it some good light to improve color.  It’s not very remarkable at this point, but it needs some time, for sure.  This is a pic from just now.  I didn’t fan any debris off it, just gave it to you real life.  😆 

Edited July 24, 2021 by Odd Duck

[Odd Duck]

On 7/24/2021 at 5:19 PM, Jungle Fan said:

One thing about Mopani though, I used one piece I've had for 20 years, and since I had soaked it for 4 months when I first got it I thought for sure it wouldn't leach anymore. I was glad I had soaked it in some water with hydrogen peroxide after bringing it out of storage because sure enough after all that time It started leaching again for about another 3 weeks.

I too have a few really nice Mopani burls in my tank, and the stump island on the left side of my tank consists of a really cool hollow Mopani stump that now has Java fern growing out of it and a tall Pacific driftwood stump, with a smaller spiderwood stump right beside it, all covered in Anubias nana petite, Anubias nana, Anubias afzelli, and Java fern, all of it providing several very nice caves for my otocinclus, shrimp, and Bolivian rams.

Yep.  My mopani is probably over 40 years old and it leached tannins after getting wet again after it’s dry decade!

[eatyourpeas]

Beautiful tank! As far as I know, one can't have too many plants. I like your list very much! 🙂

[Odd Duck]

Now I finally have more fish swimming around and in a couple more days I’ll have about 30 more (all nanos), assuming all goes well between now and then.

Edited July 26, 2021 by Odd Duck

[Odd Duck]

Of course, the chilis are all hiding.  I’m hoping when another 15 chilis go in with the next bunch coming out of QT, I might actually see more than a hint of a chili now and then.  😆 

[Odd Duck]

Whatever you do, don’t tell the other fish, but s/he’s my favorite.

[Odd Duck]

So I had posted a while back about the Crypt. ‘Green Gecko’ in my 100 G tank that wasn’t actually a Crypt. and I had pretty much decided it is was almost certainly an Aponogeton.  I originally thought it was most likely to be an ulvaceus, but I’m suspecting it’s A. crispus instead.  It has produced an inflorescence that is none too pretty (especially since it’s bent from hitting the glass cover).

The leaves aren’t as wavy as most pictures I see of ulvaceus and the inflorescence doesn’t look like the pics of an ulvaceus inflorescence, but it does resemble the few pics I found of a crispus inflorescence.  Plus crispus is apparently prone to throwing up surface leaves and ulvaceus doesn’t seem to be likely to throw surface leaves.  Mine likes to throw surface leaves on the regular.

First pics are the plant before I moved it farther back in the tank (base, then submerse leaves), a pic of the surface leaves, a pic after moving where you can see it behind the driftwood piece on the left, then a pic of the rather awkward inflorescence.

Any Aponogeton experts out there that can confirm or deny my tentative new A. crispus ID?