Mr Ed's home aquariums - The Nine

[Mr. Ed's Aquatics]

I really like the idea of keeping a journal on the forum and figured I'd give it a shot. To start, my wife and I  have an understanding that I will keep setups in the house to a single digit number (so I picked 9) and a "setup" consists of a stand of some sort up to 6', aquarium/aquariums, equipment and livestock. I maybe push that a bit here and there but here we go.  I'm going to add the other ones as a reply to keep them separate. 

 

NUMBER ONE:  total gallons 205

Tanks: Aqueon 125 gallon long (top), Aqueon 40 gallon breeder X2 (bottom)

Lighting: 3X NICREW 20" Blue/White LEDs (top), 2X NICREW 30" RBG LEDs (bottom)

Equipment : Cascade 1200 canister filter, 2 XL Co-op sponge filters, 2 USB pumps, 2 Aqueon 300watt heaters, Aqueon powerhead (top), 2 L Co-op sponge filters, 2 USB pumps, Aqueon 200watt heater (bottom)

Substrate: Caribsea African cichlid mix (top), Caribsea Aragonite sand and bare (bottom)

Livestock: OB Peacock X5, Dragonblood Peacock X2, German Red Shoulder Peacock X3, Lemon Jake Peacock X2, Electric Blue Ahii X2, Deepwater Hap X2, Blue Dolphin Moorii x3. Also my sub dominate male Venustus, some misc Electric Yellows and some common goldfish in the holding tank.

This is my newest setup, and was possible due largely to a friend moving and giving me the 125 & stand and Petco's dollar per gallon sale. This bumped my old #1 setup down a couple notches after I had a tragic leak in my old 100gal shelly tank. 

The big tank on top is for Peacocks and Haps and finally has some fish in it from the various grow out tanks and quarantine. The breeders on the bottom were just being used for grow outs, but I have started converting them into display tanks since I made a new quarantine/grow out setup. The one with sand and decor is going to be for some Tanganyikans I have coming... Cips!

[Mr. Ed's Aquatics]

NUMBER TWO:  total gallons 130

Tanks: Aqueon 75 gallon long (top), TruVu 55 gallon  (bottom)

Lighting: NICREW 48" RBG LED (top), 2X NICREW 20" RBG LEDs (bottom)

Equipment : Cascade 1000 canister filter, XL Co-op sponge filter, USB pumps, Aqueon 300watt heater, Aqueon powerhead (top), XL Co-op sponge filters, USB pumps, Aqueon 300watt heater, Aqueon powerhead (bottom)

Substrate: Caribsea African cichlid mix (top), Caribsea Aragonite sand and gravel (bottom)

Livestock: Pseudotropheus Saulosi X12, Pseudotropheus Acei X7, Pseudotropheus Socolofi (albino)X5, Pseudotropheus Elongatis Likoma X2, Pseudotropheus Elongatis Ruarwe X2, Blueberry OB X2 (top), Neolamprologus Multifasciatus X20ish.

This is one of my older and more established setups. Top tank is almost all Pseudotropheus Mbuna. Recently removed the cichlid safe fake decor and started trying live plants in this one. Bottom tank is a typical shelly tank, a bit of a work tank as I sell a lot of multies. They used to be in a 100 but seams aren't forever, so this is the smaller colony I kept after the blow out.

[Mr. Ed's Aquatics]

NUMBER THREE:  total gallons 75

Tank: TruVu 75 gallon long Acrylic

Lighting: NICREW 48" Blue/White LED

Equipment : Cascade 1000 canister filter, XL Co-op sponge filter, USB pump, Aqueon 300watt heater, Aqueon powerhead

Substrate: Caribsea African cichlid mix and Caribsea Aragonite sand

Livestock: Labidochromis Caeruleus X12, Nimbochromis Venustus X6 (dominate male and 5 females),  Maylandia Lombardoi X3, Maylandia Estherae, Sulphurhead Peacock X2, Common pleco 

This is another of my older setups, I currently have some fish in this one that are temporary as they put on size much quicker than their tank mates. Probably the next one to get plants after the bigger visitors move on to their permanent homes. 

[Mr. Ed's Aquatics]

NUMBER FOUR:  total gallons 150

Tanks: TRUVU 100 gallon long (top), Aqueon 10 gallon X5 (bottom)

Lighting: 3X NICREW 20" Blue/White LEDs (top), 2X Aqueon Plant Plus LEDs (bottom)

Equipment : TBD (top), 2 Nano Co-op sponge filters, Fluval Q2 air pump, 2 Aqueon 50watt heater (bottom)

Substrate: TBD (top), Caribsea Aragonite sand and various gravel (bottom)

Livestock: TBD

So this setup used to be my nicest, biggest and favorite setup until I blew out the seam in my 100. I robbed all the equipment, scape and the 55 on the bottom to do other tanks. I have the Weldon glue to fix it and got it set in it's new home, but have to rebuild supplies in order to get it back up and running again. In the mean time I added 5 10 gallon tanks on the bottom to be my new holding and quarantine system. 

[Mr. Ed's Aquatics]

NUMBER FIVE:  total gallons 55

Tank: Aqueon 55 gallon long

Lighting: NICREW 48" RBG LED

Equipment : Cascade 1000 canister filter, XL Co-op sponge filters, USB pumps, Cl 300watt heater, Aqueon powerhead

Substrate: Fluval Stratum capped with natural gravel 

Livestock: going to be for Dean's Angels and Rams with some Rummynose tetras

This setup is new and just got planted this week. It used to be a grow out tank with my 100 before the leak. Trying to make this a show tank instead of a work tank. 

[Mr. Ed's Aquatics]

NUMBER SIX:  total gallons 55

Tanks: TruVu 55 gallon hex

Lighting: Aqueon 20" Florescent 

Equipment : Marineland 200 HOB, XL Co-op sponge filter, USB pumps, CL 300watt heater

Substrate: Caribsea Naturals gravel 

Livestock: Endlers X many, Salt n pepper corys x3, Rubberlip pleco X2

This setup is mainly for my Endler colony, but have been considering adding some kind of shrimp and plants. 

[Mr. Ed's Aquatics]

NUMBER SEVEN:  total gallons 46

Tanks: Aqueon 46 gallon Bowfront

Lighting: NICREW 36" RBG 24/7 LED

Equipment : Marineland 330 HOB filter, L Co-op sponge filters,  Aquatop air pump, Aqueon 200watt heater

Substrate: Black and white gravel 

Livestock: Guppies X many, 6 Penguin tetras, 2 lemon tetras, Albino Corydora X10,  Bristlenose pleco (breeding pair)

This is my 1st attempt at a planted community tank. It's filled with mutt guppies and misc tetras. I even moved in my breeding colony of corys. Super active and interesting tank.

[Mr. Ed's Aquatics]

NUMBER EIGHT:  total gallons 39

Tanks: Aqueon 29 gallon  (top), Aqueon 10 gallon (bottom)

Lighting: NICREW 36" RGB 24/7 LED (top), NICREW 16" RBG LEDs (bottom)

Equipment : Marineland 200 HOB,  S Co-op sponge filter, Aquatop air pump, Aqueon 100watt heater (top), Undergravel filter, Aqueon 50watt heater (bottom)

Substrate: Caribsea Naturals mixed with black sand (top), Caribsea Aragonite sand (bottom)

Livestock: Platinum Dumbofin Mosaic guppy X many, Albino Bristlenose pleco breeding pair, Orange laser cory X3, Cherry shrimp X many (top), Jean Luc the Betta (bottom)

This is my attempt at the breeding for profit tank. Been pretty fun and I have made a little profit from it already. 

[Mr. Ed's Aquatics]

NUMBER NINE: 

Coming Soon

[Mr. Ed's Aquatics]

With the help from some great stuff from the Co-op number nine is complete and Jean-Luc has a new home. 

Just a little 20 but I like it so far and he seems to like it too. 

Edited September 7, 2020 by Mr. Ed's Aquatics

[shkote]

Everything looks so nice and organized! What will be going into #9? 

[Mr. Ed's Aquatics]

3 hours ago, Lynze said:

Everything looks so nice and organized! What will be going into #9? 

Besides my Betta I was just going to add some blue dream neos and a few blue mystery snails. Maybe a small schooling fish.

[Mr. Ed's Aquatics]

Starting the acrylic tank replacement project. Took out the bottom 55 acrylic tank from #2 and replaced it with a new 55 glass tank. I took the ledges and used them for the new tank and even moved my new Brichardi in from quarantine. Going to add either Seiryu stone or stacked slate before the Cips clear quarantine. 

[Mr. Ed's Aquatics]

Decided Seiryu stone was going to look the best and added it to the scape along with some black granite and even an Anubias. 

Connected some of the ledges and made a few caves and swim throughs. Coming along nicely, the Brichardi are out more now. 

Next week going to add some more Anubias and the Cips hopefully clear quarantine. 

[Ben Ellison]

Very impressive tanks 👍 I'm working on getting there but this hobby can be a bit spendy if u do it right haha

[Mr. Ed's Aquatics]

On 9/13/2020 at 12:16 AM, Ben Ellison said:

Very impressive tanks 👍 I'm working on getting there but this hobby can be a bit spendy if u do it right haha

Thanks, I know what you mean about the pricey side. I actually have started breeding for profit instead of occasionally getting either free fish stuff (store credit) or grateful friends (give away). So far I've found it pretty fun, but today I realized it's also work. This was my day today... 

Started the day by doing a 50% WC on the shelly tank. While the water was low, I had to catch about 25 of them and get them ready to sell. This took substantial longer than expected. 

Next, I did 50% WC's on the guppy tanks. While they were low, I collected 20 fancy males, 20 fancy females, 25 dumbofin mosaic males and 50 dumbofin mosaic females. Prepped them for a ride to the store and then trimmed the stem plants so I could bring some pogo octopus and combomba bunches also.

These are the after pictures of the tanks.

With my coolers getting full, I started doing the WC on the endlers. I didn't really have to wait to collect them, they're super easy to catch. Separated 30 mixed cobras and 30 mixed double tails. Bunched up some Elodea to bring as well

With all my coolers full, I head off to the LFS. Everything arrived doing well and I brought exactly what he ordered so that part of my day didn't take long. I Couldn't resist while I was there and bought some Otto cats. Got home, floated them in the tank I got them for.

Thought about relaxing and taking the win (was a nice check from the LFS) while I acclimated my new lil guys... and noticed I had all 3 Acei females holding. I knew all my holding tanks were occupied, so I added the Rummynose I was quarantining and the Corys I was growing out to the new Angelfish tank.

Moved the Snow White and Ice Blue mbuna fry out of the breeder boxes and into the newly empty holding tanks. Removed a bunch of rock work and started "trying" to catch the holding females. I ended up getting the 2 bigger ones and they both spit as soon as they hit the breeder boxes. Stripped both to double check and returned them to the tank.

I had tossed in some hornwort when I put their tank together and now thought the tank below needed more plants too so I grabbed several kinds of Anubias and went about adding them to the Brichardi tank.

Luckily, my wife came and asked me how long I had been doing stuff (from 6am , this was 6pm). Then she asked if I ate.... then I got in trouble for working 12 hours without eating. I think that's the end of my day with the fish, until tomorrow.