Updated pic of my 180

[Viv]

Wow, I didn't know you did freshwater also....That's really a beautiful tank. How long have you had it? What do you do to maintain it? What is you substrate? Do you run CO2? You said it was a lower maintenance than your SW...any and all info, I'm really hungry! Again, beautiful tank!!

[Stang69]

Very nice pearling on the plants!!!!!


Shows some skill and great knowledge

[Wiskey]

Originally Posted by ski1297

Looks good I like the plant life!

Thanks!

Whiskey

[Wiskey]

Originally Posted by Thefishmaniac

Great looking tank...

Thank you!

Whiskey

[Wiskey]

Originally Posted by lndlkdreef

Sweet tank! My mom runs an assortment of planted FW tanks, never know what all she has going. Looks like you have a very nice set-up going there!

Thanks, at one time I had quite the assortment of FW planted tanks too, then I decided I would much rather have one HUGE tank, then a bunch of small ones, so they all got combined into this.

Thanks,
Whiskey

[Wiskey]

Originally Posted by Viv

Wow, I didn't know you did freshwater also....That's really a beautiful tank. How long have you had it? What do you do to maintain it? What is you substrate? Do you run CO2? You said it was a lower maintenance than your SW...any and all info, I'm really hungry! Again, beautiful tank!!

I sent you a PM with the link to this tank's build thread, it will show you every screw and board that went into the stand, every peace of equipment that runs the tank it and why I use it. It is 22 pages long, and lots of pictures of every step!

Thanks, this particular tank has been setup for about 8 months now, but it was a compilation of a bunch of smaller planted tanks that had been setup for quite a bit longer.

The biggest maintenance headache is trimming plants, I through out a huge trashcan of plants every month, I added it up once, I throw out about $400 worth of plants every month. I used to give them away, and still do to anyone who comes over, but most people in my area already have tanks full of what I have.

I do about 40% weekly water changes on this tank, because I knew I would be doing that I built a drain into the bottom of this tank, here is what I do to change the water:

Put hose outside, open valve, watch TV-drink beer for 15 min, close valve.
Hook hose to sink, open valve, turn sink on, watch tv-drink beer for 15 more min.
close valve put hose under tank in stand.

That is a water change my friends! To anyone setting up a large planted tank I HIGHLY recommend a drain. That is really about all I do as far as maintenance goes.

The substrate is 1 inch of potting soil, under 1 inch of gravel measuring about 2-4 MM, this is by the book I told you about in your other thread, and is leaps and bounds better than eco complete, fluorite, etc,.. IME.

I do run CO2 but only because I already had the system, if I didn't have it, I wouldn't run it on this tank, but there is no point waisting a $250 CO2 system. I keep my CO2 far lower than most people do though, I run it at about 5-10 PPM CO2, where most run 30-40 PPM I don't think pushing it that far is really required.

HTH,
Whiskey

[Wiskey]

Originally Posted by Stang69

Very nice pearling on the plants!!!!!


Shows some skill and great knowledge

Thanks, I can look smart provided nobody asks me what the plants are , I hate names

Whiskey

[Wiskey]

More Pics!!

I seriously need to trim


A neat pic of the red plant in the earlier macro shot:


A flower I got, this was a surprise because I didn't know this plant could flower!


Enjoy,
Whiskey

[Thefishmaniac]

Would you like to borrow my hedge trimmers?

[Wiskey]

Originally Posted by Thefishmaniac

Would you like to borrow my hedge trimmers?

I don't think I can take those on a plane anymore

Thanks for the offer though,
Whiskey

[numan]

Nice tank

[Wiskey]

Thanks Numan,

Whiskey

[theplatypus]

Very nice Whiskey. Once my upgrade is finished I've been thinking about converting the nano over to a planted tank.

[Wiskey]

I have seen a couple of really cool planted nano tanks. The fish selection is a little limited, but if you use small hardscape materials, and small leaved plants it can make the tank look much bigger than it is.

Thanks,
Whiskey

[Wiskey]

I have bad news!

The electronic ballast that drives the center 2, 55W PC bulbs fried, so now 1/3 of my tank is unlit . I don't know what took out this ballast but I am not very happy about it, maybe it just blew? Taking this hood down is not a weekday task, but the bad ballast is bolted on the back of it and the tank is 3 inches from the wall. For the wiring to reach the bulb the new one will have to be screwed to the back of this hood too. This balast had been in use for about 2 years, that seems like it is not a very long life. The other problem is I have one more just like it on my nano-reef, I am worried that it might go too.

I am not sure exactly how much one of these ballasts will cost yet, but I am worried I might not want to know

Whiskey