My 75 gallon creation!

[Tihshho]

On 5/21/2022 at 12:27 PM, dan12boy said:

The tiger lotus bulb I ordered. I planted it so just hoping it sprouts 

 

Make sure the bulb isn't in the substrate or it will rot. Once the bulb shoots off roots, those need to be planted. 

[dan12boy]

On 5/23/2022 at 1:18 PM, Tihshho said:

Make sure the bulb isn't in the substrate or it will rot. Once the bulb shoots off roots, those need to be planted. 

Oh like no part of it should be in the substrate at all?

[Tihshho]

Not the bulb (round part.) Once it develops growth you can plant the roots. 

[dan12boy]

Okay so a little update since the last time I posted on here. I have began planting the 75, slowly but surely. So far have some pearlweed that I hope becomes a garden, some jungle val, anacharis, water wisteria and two plants whose names I never remembered. My jungle Val leaves are super tall and when I took out some runners today from my 20 high for my 75 I got to see just how long they truly were. This is the picture I took of one leaf from one of them but the leaves of the mother plant are much longer and just cover the top of my 20 high which I absolutely love. Here’s a picture of my 75 now with the plants: Still looks kinda empty, only got 4 guppies in there. Well there’s an extra fish in there now which came from my trip yesterday to the fish store. I went there planning to get about 6 Pygmy cories as I have two left, the third one died and I don’t know why but the other two are healthy so I doubt it’s something that spreads. Could have been old age too. They ended up having none so I instead got four more furcata rainbowfish, 1 otto to add to my 5, a hill stream loach and a regular kuhli loach to add to my 4 black kuhli loaches. I also got wood for my 75 gallon tank but I put it in and it’s just floating so I’m leaving it in there to get waterlogged since I don’t have stones to weight it down nor anywhere else big enough to keep it to waterlog it. The lfs ended up mistakenly giving me an extra fish which I believe to be some sort of tetra. I put it in my 20 high but the big boss furcata rainbow was bothering it so I put it in my 75 w the guppy moms. My tiger lotus is now so big in just like 2 weeks and has sooo many leaves. I absolutely love it and so do my fish. I wish I could bury it but I’ve found a way to hide the roots w/o burying it. Here’s a progression of the tiger lotus to what it is now: I completely forgot to take a picture of the whole plant as it is now but I will tomorrow. Here’s the wood I got. Apparently this type doesn’t release any tannings and I did a mini soak test in my 5 gallon bucket even though most of the wood didn’t fit in it and after a couple hours the water was still clear. The tiger lotus is most likely staying in my 20 high and I’m probably going to get another one specifically for the 75 gallon. I plan on getting another light for the 75 because the light that came with the set just isn’t nearly as bright as my nicrew ones. I just don’t know if I should get another nicrew one since I know it works or if I should try something new. Sadly I’m limited with funds so probably don’t have much of an option but to get the nicrew since it’s relatively cheap. I am still stuck on what other fish I want to add to the 75 once it’s complete, I would love a dwarf cichlid but I’m scared that even the most peaceful ones will pose a problem. Last thing is that I got a 250w heater instead of a 300w one because the 200w one I had in there did a pretty good job of heating the 75 so I believe the 250w will definitely hold up during winter time.  

[Ken Burke]

I love that driftwood!  I couldn’t find anything that large at a price I was willing to pay. Went with the spider wood and the piece on the right.

[dan12boy]

On 6/10/2022 at 9:32 AM, Ken Burke said:

I love that driftwood!  I couldn’t find anything that large at a price I was willing to pay. Went with the spider wood and the piece on the right.

I love your spiderwood!! Initially wanted that but I’ll just get that for my 20 high. My lfs sells the wood for relatively good prices. I bought that piece for $40 w/o tax n $42 with tax. They sell them in sizes, small, medium, large, XL and XXL with XXL being $50 making the largest woods they have there just $50!

[Ken Burke]

Lucky!  I wish that was possible 

[dan12boy]

On 6/10/2022 at 11:25 AM, Ken Burke said:

Lucky!  I wish that was possible 

I was surprised because I expected it to be $100+

[Ken Burke]

For a piece that size, yup

[dan12boy]

On 6/11/2022 at 12:51 PM, Ken Burke said:

For a piece that size, yup

How much was your spiderwood? 

[Ken Burke]

I can’t remember, I got it at a big box store, and I think it was around $30.

 

the piece of driftwood on the right side of my tank is about 4x10” and was almost as much as the one you got.  R u gonna glue any anubias or Java firm to yours?

[dan12boy]

On 6/11/2022 at 1:12 PM, Ken Burke said:

I can’t remember, I got it at a big box store, and I think it was around $30.

 

the piece of driftwood on the right side of my tank is about 4x10” and was almost as much as the one you got.  R u gonna glue any anubias or Java firm to yours?

I didn’t see that you had replied! I think I’m going to glue anubias to it because I haven’t had much luck with Java fern. I did at first but once I added more faster nutrient eating plants to my tank they stopped doing well. 

[dan12boy]

So here’s an update, the wood finally sank all the way and I added some more plants to fill it in. My 20 tall had a large amount of anacharis and jungle val growing. The jungle val leaves were so long that they curved the top of the tank if that makes sense, had to do a lot of trimming. I added more jungle val to the tank, anacharis and some dwarf sag just to fill in some space because the tank looks pretty empty still.  I moved 12 of the guppy fry to my 20 long since it only had plants and snails and this way I can grow them up quickly enough to give them away. I then moved my honey gourami, mr grumpy, from my 20 y’all to the 75 since the clown killis I just got we’re a little intimidated whenever he got close to them. He was already gonna go in there so I didn’t mind. I did some maintenance on my filter and added more sponge to fill it in and to provide more space for biological bacteria. Once I add more fish, either more clown killis or scarlet badis, to my 20 tall I’ll be moving my getrudae rainbows to the 75. Here’s a now pic of the 75: I’m still not sure on what more plants I want in there since so far all the plants I currently have are in there. I think I might still buy some more wood and definitely stones to go around the piece of wood. Might switch the wood piece because I feel like it’s a little too dark if that makes sense. Might just be my light since I do need to get a nicrew one because this one is barely bright and makes the tank look dark/dim.  I also want to add a spray bar so I can put the canister filter closer to 100% flow without the flow getting too much. Here’s Mr Grumpy being shy, he’s adjusted now. I don’t know why the photo is flipped though. 

[Ken Burke]

@dan12boy since we are training pictures

 

I’ll get a couple better shots tomorrow 

[dan12boy]

On 6/23/2022 at 11:16 PM, Ken Burke said:

@dan12boy since we are training pictures

 

I’ll get a couple better shots tomorrow 

I’m sorry I once again didn’t see notifications and have been quite busy. Is that discus?? And can I get some now shots of it 

[Minanora]

Your 75 is coming together nicely!

[Ken Burke]

@dan12boy yup it’s a discus.  I’m up to three.

Lemondrop 

 

Montana

Melonhead.

 

let me see your pictures 

[dan12boy]

On 7/4/2022 at 12:27 PM, Minanora said:

Your 75 is coming together nicely!

Thank you! Kinda stuck now when it comes to plants and hardscape but figuring it out as I go.

[dan12boy]

On 7/4/2022 at 10:16 PM, Ken Burke said:

@dan12boy yup it’s a discus.  I’m up to three.

Lemondrop 

 

Montana

Melonhead.

 

let me see your pictures 

Ahh I wish all my fish were so easy to differentiate, only mr grumpy is…hence why he has a name. No one else does because they’re all identical. I love the names you’ve given yours, all so cute. How many do you plan on altogether? Are they as hard to keep as I’ve heard?. I do have pictures of some random stuff but sadly not of anymore fish but I’ll get some and post tomorrow! the nerite snail I got today for my fry grow out tank. Always wanted one and since I’m having a little bit of an algae issue I figured why not, hopefully he doesn’t just ignore the algae and go after whatever excess food my be left from feeding the guppies. 
Two kuhlis just chilling, sadly the one of the left passed away because I forgot to plug in my heater when I took it out to make some adjustments because of the temperature.  A chilli shrimp trying to make a snack out of my hand while I was pulling some plants out.

[Ken Burke]

On 7/4/2022 at 9:52 PM, dan12boy said:

Ahh I wish all my fish were so easy to differentiate, only mr grumpy is…hence why he has a name. No one else does because they’re all identical. I love the names you’ve given yours, all so cute. How many do you plan on altogether? Are they as hard to keep as I’ve heard?. I do have pictures of some random stuff but sadly not of anymore fish but I’ll get some and post tomorrow! the nerite snail I got today for my fry grow out tank. Always wanted one and since I’m having a little bit of an algae issue I figured why not, hopefully he doesn’t just ignore the algae and go after whatever excess food my be left from feeding the guppies. 
Two kuhlis just chilling, sadly the one of the left passed away because I forgot to plug in my heater when I took it out to make some adjustments because of the temperature.  A chilli shrimp trying to make a snack out of my hand while I was pulling some plants out.

I want 3 more discus. So far, no problems.  But when you are dropping $50-$60 per fish is a little intimidating.  But I started with a lot of material from my old tank, and mover relatively slow when stocking.  I also monitor the water every few days.  The tank has been burning through nitrates faster than the tank can produce them, but the nitrates are picking up pace now that the stocking levels are getting higher.

 

love the pictures of the loaches peeking out the cave!

[Minanora]

On 7/4/2022 at 7:52 PM, dan12boy said:

Ahh I wish all my fish were so easy to differentiate, only mr grumpy is…hence why he has a name. No one else does because they’re all identical. I love the names you’ve given yours, all so cute. How many do you plan on altogether? Are they as hard to keep as I’ve heard?. I do have pictures of some random stuff but sadly not of anymore fish but I’ll get some and post tomorrow! the nerite snail I got today for my fry grow out tank. Always wanted one and since I’m having a little bit of an algae issue I figured why not, hopefully he doesn’t just ignore the algae and go after whatever excess food my be left from feeding the guppies. 
Two kuhlis just chilling, sadly the one of the left passed away because I forgot to plug in my heater when I took it out to make some adjustments because of the temperature.  A chilli shrimp trying to make a snack out of my hand while I was pulling some plants out.

I'm sorry about your loss. I forgot to turn the heater back on in my 75 after a water change. Fish were not happy. I got a 4 pack of Kasa wifi timers when they went on a "slickdeal" on slickdeals. I have notifications set up for some stuff like that because I always need more of em!

 

Anyway, wifi timers are a huge help because you can turn off heaters and pumps remotely, and have a timer set to turn things "on" even if they are already on. It just makes sure the plug is on which is stupid genius. 😄 

[dan12boy]

On 7/4/2022 at 11:10 PM, Ken Burke said:

I want 3 more discus. So far, no problems.  But when you are dropping $50-$60 per fish is a little intimidating.  But I started with a lot of material from my old tank, and mover relatively slow when stocking.  I also monitor the water every few days.  The tank has been burning through nitrates faster than the tank can produce them, but the nitrates are picking up pace now that the stocking levels are getting higher.

 

love the pictures of the loaches peeking out the cave!

Yes very intimidating! But with enough experience and by being patient, which is incredibly difficult for us fishkeepers, then you're less likely to run into problems. And with the nitrates could you add more plants to help suck most of it up as you add more and more? And what other fish are living with the discus? Do you plan on breeding them?

 

On 7/4/2022 at 11:12 PM, Minanora said:

I'm sorry about your loss. I forgot to turn the heater back on in my 75 after a water change. Fish were not happy. I got a 4 pack of Kasa wifi timers when they went on a "slickdeal" on slickdeals. I have notifications set up for some stuff like that because I always need more of em!

 

Anyway, wifi timers are a huge help because you can turn off heaters and pumps remotely, and have a timer set to turn things "on" even if they are already on. It just makes sure the plug is on which is stupid genius. 😄 

Thank you! It was sad because I made a brother sister relationship out of the two different kinds of them. Didn't realize they were technically different species till I read about it online, thought it was the same but with different colorings. I might try the regular kuhlis again but not anytime soon, maybe once my shy guys tank progresses some more.  I only have wifi timers for my lights but thinking about it that way I think I need to get more for pretty much everything, especially for my heaters and the canister filter because I once have forgotten to plug it back...silly me!

[Minanora]

On 7/4/2022 at 8:20 PM, dan12boy said:

Yes very intimidating! But with enough experience and by being patient, which is incredibly difficult for us fishkeepers, then you're less likely to run into problems. And with the nitrates could you add more plants to help suck most of it up as you add more and more? And what other fish are living with the discus? Do you plan on breeding them?

 

Thank you! It was sad because I made a brother sister relationship out of the two different kinds of them. Didn't realize they were technically different species till I read about it online, thought it was the same but with different colorings. I might try the regular kuhlis again but not anytime soon, maybe once my shy guys tank progresses some more.  I only have wifi timers for my lights but thinking about it that way I think I need to get more for pretty much everything, especially for my heaters and the canister filter because I once have forgotten to plug it back...silly me!

Kuhli loaches are my all time favorite. I feel you.

I use the timers on most things fish related. I don't use them in many other places because they draw power. Not a lot, but some. So I've been thinking about candidates for smart plugs where their phantom usage is greater than a wifi plug.

[dan12boy]

On 7/4/2022 at 11:29 PM, Minanora said:

Kuhli loaches are my all time favorite. I feel you.

I use the timers on most things fish related. I don't use them in many other places because they draw power. Not a lot, but some. So I've been thinking about candidates for smart plugs where their phantom usage is greater than a wifi plug.

Wait wifi plugs draw power?? Is it negligible or a somewhat significant amount? I have a wifi plug and for my 75g tank light I'm just using a timer that I had first gotten when I started my tanks.

[Ken Burke]

On 7/4/2022 at 10:38 PM, dan12boy said:

Wait wifi plugs draw power?? Is it negligible or a somewhat significant amount? I have a wifi plug and for my 75g tank light I'm just using a timer that I had first gotten when I started my tanks.

So does you tv, stereo, garage door openers, and a whole host of other products that we never give a second though