The Southern-fried side-by-side 55s [turned 75s] Project

[Minanora]

Looking great! Excited for the next chapter! 💚

[Odd Duck]

Looking awesome!  Isn’t it the best feeling to have things finally come together when you’ve planned, plotted, adjusted, researched, read for hours, grown out plants, then rethought out the whole thing over and over again?  Having it meet up with your mind’s eye and actually match is just incredible!

I can’t wait to see plants grow in and fishies finally in your tank.

Then you get to do the other side!  😀 

[Patrick_G]

It’s coming along nicely! I can’t wait to see it with some plants in it. 
 

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

Enjoyed playing catch-up as I missed a bunch with our move. Now bus trips to work allowEd me to catch-up and how lively and fun this project has turned out?!!! Congratulations it’s already a triumph can’t wait air for more! It alsowetted my appetite for angels from @Ken Burke! 

[Ken Burke]

On 8/30/2022 at 7:48 PM, Beardedbillygoat1975 said:

Enjoyed playing catch-up as I missed a bunch with our move. Now bus trips to work allowEd me to catch-up and how lively and fun this project has turned out?!!! Congratulations it’s already a triumph can’t wait air for more! It alsowetted my appetite for angels from @Ken Burke! 

I can’t wait.  The bodies on the largest of them have bodies around the size of a dime, but are slightly translucent still.  I would hate to rush things and ship them before they are ready.  

[Jawjagrrl]

On 8/30/2022 at 9:31 PM, Ken Burke said:

I can’t wait.  The bodies on the largest of them have bodies around the size of a dime, but are slightly translucent still.  I would hate to rush things and ship them before they are ready.  

My angels were shipped at just about that size - dime or just under. The largest are pushing silver dollar now. 🙂

[Jawjagrrl]

CHAPTER 10: Touched by an Angel(fish)

Given the amount of aquatic supervisors in our den, there was no procrastinating on the new home for half of them. They really seem to enjoy the sunset/moonlight transitions in their QT space "next door". The pogostemon clippings from the Fun Angel 55 really work well to make them comfortable in a big empty space.

Dedicated feline fish watcher Daniel agrees.

That Caturday was planting day! I added root tabs in the areas that would receive root plants, mainly nutrient-hog swords. Then added just enough water to make planting in the loose sand a bit easier.

Gathered up the plants to be used, which do bend the rules on a South American setup, but then I'm adding Congo tetras, so I guess a few anubias aren't a big deal:

• anubias coffefolia
• anubias golden
• radican marble queen sword
• amazon swords
• red melon swords
• telanthera rosefolia (borrowed from the 55)
• jungle valisneria (stolen from Patient Spouses' Endor tank - some of it was almost 4' long!)
• red root floaters

Voila! Heater and powerhead added, which will eventually get a prefilter sponge. The double sponge filter doesn't seem to move water adequately at the surface without it, plus it will blow the val around in the flow. Imagine my cringe when MD Fish Tanks did the same in his 8' African River build a couple of weeks after I planted this 🙃 I'm sure it's been done many times before, just not in our den 😄

...and then there was water! You can't see most of the swords from this angle, but I know that will change quickly. Some of the botanicals floated, but they'll settle in eventually. All the glue and epoxy held...so far.

Now the wait for the water to clear up, which was mainly from the sand, which I didn't rinse this time.

Parameters looking good. Sponges had been seasoning for a few weeks in the temp angel setup, never registered ammonia or nitrites.

Spoke too soon on the glue-ups holding 😞 The right half of the claw came loose - it was from the back side of the stump and also had foam filler added because it was partly hollow. So we opted to live with a big rock weight for awhile.

A couple more days and it was time to add the first fish - the angels! The congos are larger and gentle but rowdy, so I wanted the angels to have a first shot to get comfortable. They were mostly nickel size at this point. Four of the five Philipine Blue Super Veils and the German Blue Blushing were eager to explore the new space they had been watching from the other side. A 5th superveil was not thriving, and I decided to put him a 5gal by itself for some TLC.

Hello There!

Meanwhile the "fun angels" - Bulgarian Green Seal Points - were ready to move into their new home in the 55. They have been really robust and were already quarter size. Only took two days to catch the congo tetras out of a very heavily scaped and planted tank - hope I never need to move them again!

Acclimating to a slightly cooler (76f) tank. They will share this setup with roseline sharks, SAEs (also a nightmare to catch) dwarf chain loaches and a calico bristlenose pleco.

Fish relocations completed! Which means the left half was ready to scape....