I HAD A DREAM (a beautiful aquascape and bar)

[WhiteCloud]

I dreamed of building a large aquascaped aquarium for years. I rendered a design for a 75 gallon aquarium and bar in February 2019 based on a photo I found as inspiration

I ended up going bigger and bought this 120 gallon in Dec 2019. (wish I had gone with a 180 for more depth but oh well) It was a salt water aquarium with overflows. I had to take out the overflows and cover the whole drilled for pipes in the bottom.

Got it all cleaned up and fortunately I live in manzanita country so my dog and I went hunting for wood and started soaking. I also found some rock in some creeks near me:

This was pretty fun, during the summer mosquitos found this and I went to my local fish store to find some fish that could handle my lack of heating.  He recommended white cloud mountain minnows.  This environment proved to be amazing for them with all the live food me 5 fish turned into 50 in short order.  My first home bread fish.... by accident.  Turned out to be one of my favorite fish. They are very active and like to ride the outflow of my FX 5.

In September 2020 my wife said it was time to get this thing out of the garage. My friend, a cabinet builder was supposed to help me but bailed do to being busy.  So it was either sell all the lights and equipment I had been amassing or learn how to build this.

Many hours an forums and I started my build October 2020:

Made a pan on the bottom. calked the cracks and then sprayed with truck bed liner to seal.  My final manzanita had been picked.  (my original scape was designed around having a turtle in there so I picked wood that could be used for basking on the top.  I quickly found out that the tank would not hold up to a turtle so he didn't get to live in this new home)

This heavy beast was going above my basement and I only had floor boards without much support so I added joists and more beams and posts under the house:

Time to move in the aquarium and start working on the exterior:

I had just had my Covid wedding in my parent back yard and my lovely friend did a drive by parade after the wedding and presented me with a $700 gift card to Home Depot.  I spent most of it on the poplar that I used for the outside.  It is stained in walnut. ( this combo is called the poor mans walnut):

Fill'r up! I used blasting sand. Works great.  My Sagittaria Subulata and vallisneria grow and propagate like crazy.

awaiting plants:

November 1st my plants arrive!

First plants are in!

January 2021 2-3 month mark:

October 2021, just under a year:

Besides routine maintenance It lived in this state until November 2022.  I had been wanting to finish the bar. My friend and I had made concrete counter tops in spring of 2022 and they had been sitting outside waiting.  My wife and I were having a Christmas party and she told me it was time to finish the bar for the party.

Counter tops installed.  Side not here about the pathos plants and my "tank philosophy".  I built this tank during the drought in California.  I wanted to not change water once a week or even once a month.  My water changes are especially painful because my PH from the tap is 9 or above and fishes didn't like that much so I have to mix R/0 and tap water to drop my PH.  Whatever buffer is in my water combats any chemical I put in the water to drop the PH and within a week its always back up to 9. So the RO was the only solution other than neutral regulator which made my phosphate go through the roof and encouraged algae. 

I have designed this aquarium to have many rooted planets ( the vallisneria and Sagittaria Subulata I mentioned early covers most of the ground where there is no hardscape)  This means I can let the mulm build a bit and and it hides in the chain sword and gets eatin' up by my plants. I only gravel vac 3 or so times a year. I have tons of plants and lots of moss which help clean the water, and I hear the moss eats up all the heavy metals too. For almost a year this method worked well.  I over filter my tank with an FX-5 and FX-4 which i have created my own outflows to dial in my tanks circulation to not be to powerful but make sure my C02 gets to everything.  All the plants did great at keeping up on the Nitrates, nitrites and ammonia.  The ammonia and nitrites were always at zero do to my large amount of surface area I put in the filters. ( I have little sponges, all of it is neutral pumas stone for the most part) and the plants kept the Nitrates around 20 ppm.

One day my Nitrates spike and I couldn't get them down. I vacuumed everything and did several water changes. But the nitrates would pop back up after a day. I tried putting in a denitrator (sp?) but it was cumbersome, added a bunch of new tubing and pumps and it was hard to get the flow right.  THAT'S WHEN I DISCOVERED PATHOS!  I planted about 8 stems and it grew like crazy what you see below are all about 12-20 ft long you will see in another picture what they look like inside the tank.  My nitrates dropped.  I took out the denitrator.  My tank is very well balanced.  I change the water about 3 times a year now. I clean the filters about every 1-2 months.  MAJOR HELP: I put a sponge filter on my intake tubes and clean that weekly.

Here's my Intake and sponge (and on of my hillstream loaches, hey little buddy!)

here's the inside of the hood.  The pathos starts on each corner of the tank, then crosses the tank and comes out the top on the other side: (yes I have 5 lights EXPENSIVE part of my tank,  all fluval planted lights, 1 36" in back 2 x 24" in front and two nanos one for each corner.  I had a lot of dark places and wanted everything well lit. with how tall everything was it was tough. the lights are dialed way back.  And THANKS CORY for the video you did on programing these back in the day. I have a nice sunrise and sunset with a siesta mid day. paired with a current USA Serene back light i can make some pretty cool lighting.

This is the finished product a peaceful place where I start my day with a cup of coffee at the bar and feed my fish and at the end of the day with a beer.  This corner of the house bring me peace, entertainment, learning, and joy.  All the green makes it a calm place to watch plants gently sway in the current. Watch all my cleaners munch on what the tank provides.  Watch my favorite white clouds ride the current.

THE STARS OF THE SHOW, I have sliver hatchet fish, harlequin rasboras, neon tetras, white cloud mountain minnows, rummy nose tetras,  panda corys, bristle nose plecos, hillstream loaches, and cherry shrimp.  I plan on reducing the amount of species over time.  I may want to reduce my mid level dwellers down to The mountain minnows and endler guppys.

spot the Bristle nose?:

 

Pandas:

Rummy nose:

White cloud:

Cherry Shrimp last was was born this week:

The internal for cabinet geeks. Note some of the greatest products of all time EASY GREEN and COOP test strips:

Homemade inline heater with enough power for 120 gallons. (this is v1)

V2 Installed, the first one was made for a different tank, the second one has a u chape to make it more compact.

The thermostats on the heaters (standard aquarium heaters mounted in these) don't measure the actual tank heat just the water passing by so I keep the heaters turned up and this inkbird wifi heater controller to turn them on and off.  it has a probe in the tank and the heaters are plugged into it.

CO2 reactor

The FX5 runs through to the heaters and then i made this custom outflow that i tuned to create even flow at all levels of the tank and to make sure the surface has ripples (check the anubias flowring)

The FX-4 goes through the C02 reactor and then I put a 36" spray bar at the bottom rear of the tank that water sprays up along the rear glass. between the main flow from the FX5 and the rear flow from the fx4 it seams like I have good circulation, even in the valls in back.

Plants: Vallasenria Gigantea rubra, Java Fern Trident and another species I forget the name, Anubias Nana and a few other species I don't know the name of. Sagittaria Subulata, Bolbitis Heudelotii

Buce: Kedagang MIni, Brownie Helena, rainbow frost, red cherry (I have heard from Cory not to buy these as a lot are wild caught, i wont be bying them again. I prefer anubias for the same uses anyway.

This is my second aquascape.  I have learned a lot.  This original scape was designed around having a turtle in it and one of these days I am going to take it apart an rescape it with a bigger emphasis on creating swimming space for the fishies and having a bit more manicured look (although it will still be jungle/nature style).

THANKS FOR READING and all of the information and knowledge here on the forum.

Edited December 20, 2022 by WhiteCloud
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[Patrick_G]

Wow, spectacular tank and a great first post! Welcome to the forum!

[JJenna]

What an inspiration for many people. Thanks for sharing your story. 

[Schuyler]

Wow! Just wow...

That is so impressive on so many different levels.

What type of wood is manzanita? It's that just a type of tree?

[WhiteCloud]

Thank you! Yeah it’s a family of trees, there are three species in my area. 
 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manzanita

makes good aquarium wood. You can order it online I found a bunch on Etsy.

[nabokovfan87]

You win @WhiteCloud!  That is epic workmanship and amazing results.  Man....  What a journey, what an epic build.

Congratulations on the tank and welcome.  @Pepere has to see this!

 

[ndfi78]

That is incredible!

[Patrick_G]

On 12/18/2022 at 8:46 PM, Schuyler said:

What type of wood is manzanita? It's that just a type of tree?

It all over the place in central OR. In western WA look for it's cousin, Madrona. 
 

On 12/18/2022 at 10:15 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

You win @WhiteCloud!  That is epic workmanship and amazing results.  Man....  What a journey, what an epic build.

Haha, are you saying that  @WhiteCloudpretty much just dropped the mike and we can all pack up and go home? 😁

[Schuyler]

On 12/19/2022 at 8:51 AM, Patrick_G said:

It all over the place in central OR. In western WA look for it's cousin, Madrona. 
 

Haha, are you saying that  @WhiteCloudpretty much just dropped the mike and we can all pack up and go home? 😁

I always just assumed it was just sold as that. Like how "spider wood" is normally azalea roots.

Now I want to go beach combing for a fallen madrona and collect some roots. Seems like there's always one along the beach somewhere.

[Biotope Biologist]

That bar is incredible! Looks like you stuck pretty close to the design from 3 years ago too! 
 

Is that a ACO easy green bottle on your top shelf bar? Never thought of adding it to my cocktails before, but hey if it’s good for plants…

[nabokovfan87]

On 12/19/2022 at 8:51 AM, Patrick_G said:

On 12/18/2022 at 8:46 PM, Schuyler said:

What type of wood is manzanita? It's that just a type of tree?

It all over the place in central OR. In western WA look for it's cousin, Madrona. 

Very common in california as well, it is essentially the "most common" fancy aquascaping would I've heard of.   It was the first one I've seen whenever I learned about aquascaping.  Specifically to the point where you look up "manzanita" you'll find stores for aquascaping supplies that use that word as part of their store name.

On 12/19/2022 at 8:51 AM, Patrick_G said:

Haha, are you saying that  @WhiteCloudpretty much just dropped the mike and we can all pack up and go home? 😁

I just know I need those skills in this house so we can not be under construction for 3 years!  EEEEEEESH.

I really appreciate the layout, step by step progression, and how well the results turned out.

[Patrick_G]

On 12/19/2022 at 9:07 AM, Schuyler said:

Now I want to go beach combing for a fallen madrona and collect some roots. Seems like there's always one along the beach somewhere.

Go to DNR land and you’ll be less likely to get hassled.  

[WhiteCloud]

On 12/19/2022 at 9:21 AM, Biotope Biologist said:

That bar is incredible! Looks like you stuck pretty close to the design from 3 years ago too! 
 

Is that a ACO easy green bottle on your top shelf bar? Never thought of adding it to my cocktails before, but hey if it’s good for plants…

Ha it is easy green. Good eye. Haven’t tried it in a cocktail yet. I’ll have to think of a recipe 

[WhiteCloud]

On 12/19/2022 at 6:41 AM, ndfi78 said:

That is incredible!

Thank you!

[Mmiller2001]

Very nice and well done. I look forward to following.

[Misa]

What an epic build!!! The tank is so beautiful with all the green and smaller fish; I could spend all day in a space like that. Thanks for sharing!