# 36g Bow Front Build



## holly12 (Apr 21, 2011)

This is our newest tank. It's a 36g Bow front:  
We had just put the Eco-Complete in and mixed it with black gravel. We also put in the Manzanita wood root, Mopania and Malaysian drift wood and the Dragon stone, River stones and Lava rock.


This is the tank after we filled it with water and got the 2 filters and air stone running: 


This is the tank as of tonight:  
You can see the nylon stocking of seed gravel from the old 10g tank and the old filter sponge from the 10g. 

We also finally remembered to get a background for the tank and put it on... not so easy once the tank is up and running, lol.

It's hard to see in this pic, but the Aqueon Floramax light is actually quite dim and has a blue/purple tinge. We are going to get a Life Glo light for it. We have one for the 20g tank and like it. It's brighter (at least on the 20g it is,) and has a white tinge to it.

Our plan for this tank is to have: 3-4 Dwarf Gourami (1 male, the rest females), 8-10 Harlequin Rasboras, 6 Panda Cories and 3 Nerite Snails. We will probably have very much the same plants that are in the 20g - various Hygros, hornwort, hair grass, corkscrew vals, mayaca Fluvialitis, moss balls, java fern, swords - just in higher numbers because it is a larger tank.


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## majerah1 (Oct 29, 2010)

Wow,Holly,beautiful!That root like wood is awesome,where did you find that?

Hey come across the state lines,I have some amazon swords lol.

Good luck with this cycle.Fishless again?


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## Pigeonfish (Jun 23, 2011)

Wow! Looks really good


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## holly12 (Apr 21, 2011)

Thanks everyone!! 

Yes Bev, fishless again.... I am Ben's grasshopper, lol. I got the root wood at that big fish store.... you know... the blue sign with the happy shark on it... *cough cough....


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## majerah1 (Oct 29, 2010)

That right,you are Bens grasshopper!


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## holly12 (Apr 21, 2011)

Hahahaha, I hope everything turns out alright this time! I'm aiming for 2-3 weeks... maybe 4 tops.... we'll see....

Right now, I'm focusing on keeping the ammonia down in the 20g with everyone moved in. was feeding once a day, but am going to skip a few days because ammonia is between .10 -.20 - yesterday it was about .10 so I'm thinking the morning feeding and the frogs feeding bumped it up a bit. I had to put 1/2 an algae wafer in for the Otos because they haven't been fed in a while and they went absolutely NUTS over it, where as before they've ignored them... (but have to feed the frogs every other day or they will die... they are the only feeding exception.)


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## Meshuggahn (Jul 31, 2011)

I like it!


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## Sweetgreenleaf1369 (Jun 24, 2011)

That is sweet, nice set up can't wait to see the fish in it... \m/*cool-dude


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## holly12 (Apr 21, 2011)

Thanks everyone! 

(and an update on the 20g: ammonia back down to .10ppm _or less_, NitrItes 0ppm, and NitrAtes 30-35ppm.) So, I am happy for now - especially since last night the ammonia was at .40, no Nitrites but NitrAtes at 40-80ppm.

Still got fingers crossed that the 36g cycles faster than the 20g did! Ben will hang his head in shame if I fudge this one up!!! Hahahaha!

It's only day 3 and the ammonia drops daily and I've already got some NitrItes present.... so, it's off to a good, quick start!


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## holly12 (Apr 21, 2011)

Fishless cycle finished today! Got all the plants in and letting it run for a day or two, to let the Nitrazorb get rid of some of the Nitrates and to let the heater go down a bit (was at 84-86 for the cycle.)

This is the tank with the flash - can kind of see more detail.

Aquarium Gallery - 36g Bow Front plants in!

This is the tank without the flash - little blurry, sorry - getting a brighter light tomorrow. Don't like how dull this one is.

Aquarium Gallery - 36g Bow Front plants in!

For plants: Hygro Difformis (water wisteria), Hornwort, Elodea, Mayaca Fluvialitis, Amazon Swords, Melon Sword, Moss Balls, Java Ferns. One of the Amazon Swords had a baby on it, so that got cut and planted. The two large Java Ferns that I bought were basically no good, but each of them had about 10 babies on it, so I planted them all (even had to put one in the 20g because I ran out of room.) The plants along the sides and back will grow tall, so there will be more height to the tank - just new plants at the moment, lol.


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## susankat (Nov 15, 2008)

Get the java ferns out of the substrate and tie them to the wood. They shouldn't be planted. When cutting babies off the swords, make sure the babies have roots on them first.


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## holly12 (Apr 21, 2011)

Thanks.

All the babies have roots. I tied as many to rocks as I can. I can't tie any to the wood, as the plants are all planted in amongst the wood and it would up root the whole tank to take the wood out to do that.

I read (and was told at the store) that as long as they are not buried too deeply, that Java Fern can grow in gravel. Mike is going to the store to get a better light tomorrow... I'll have him pick up 10 or so silver dollar sized pieces of Lava Rock for tying them to if they start to die. (That size rock should be big enough right? The plants are tiny and I've never really seen Java Fern get huge...) I just don't want the rocks to take up all the gravel, as there isn't a lot there in the first place for the Cory's... lots of plants.


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## susankat (Nov 15, 2008)

Holly look at this java fern behind the sword. Its on a small 10 inch branch just laying on substrate.


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## holly12 (Apr 21, 2011)

Oh.... well... I was told that the Java Fern would be a good foreground plant..... the one I've got in my 20g tank I've had for almost a year and it's barely any larger... and it's on a maaaaybe palm sized rock and it seems ok.

If I tie them to some Lava Rock (very porous rock), will there still be enough room for the Cory Cats? Not a lot of gravel space because of the wood and plants.... should I take a piece of wood out?


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## susankat (Nov 15, 2008)

yes there should still be enough room.


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## holly12 (Apr 21, 2011)

Thanks! Tied as many to existing rock that I have... and picked out the least buried piece of wood... thankfully, it had holes, so I weaved the roots in the holes and tied them down.

Here are the ones I tied to rock. Some of them lay almost across the rock... hard to get them to go straight up with the shape the rock is... hope the root and grow properly... I also put 2 and 3 babies together in some places, as they were very small. *Is that ok?*
Aquarium Gallery - Java Fern on Lava Rock

Here are the ferns (clumps of 2 or 3) on the wood:
Aquarium Gallery - Java Fern on Drift Wood

Aaaand here is the baby Sword. I'll have to move it eventually:
Aquarium Gallery - Baby Sword


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

You don't like doing this? lol


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## holly12 (Apr 21, 2011)

I don't like doing what? Posting the pics?

I do, but I keep forgetting how, and I couldn't find the "how to video" hahaha! Thanks for posting for me.

Readings on the tank today:

*Ammonia: .10ppm (maaaybe)
NitrIte: 0ppm
NitrAte: 20-30ppm
pH: 7.6 - 7.8
KH: 161.1ppm (degree of KH 9)
GH: 304.3ppm*

So, I'm going to dose a little bit of Amquel to help bring the NitrAtes down a touch more, then will test the ammonia tomorrow before adding fish. (6 Julii Cory's and 6 Harlequin Rasboras tomorrow.) The other 4 Harley's and 3 Dwarf Gourami's will follow in a few weeks, providing everything turns out alright.


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## Rob72 (Apr 2, 2011)

tank is looking really good i like how you have it setup


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## holly12 (Apr 21, 2011)

Thanks! Definitely looks better with the plants in it now! Kinda' worried that sword is going to get too big.... will be a pain to dig out later, hahaha.


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## Rob72 (Apr 2, 2011)

you aint seen a big sword until you see the ones that ben has, 24 inch leaves


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## holly12 (Apr 21, 2011)

Wow.... mine are like 6 inches........... that IS big! Hope this one doesn't grow that large!!!!


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## holly12 (Apr 21, 2011)

Took the 2 big swords back and got some more Hygro Difformis instead. (The Elodea is already growing really tall, and it's only been planted for about 4-5 days!)

We've got fish in the tank! Harlequin Rasboras, Julii Corys and Dwarf Fire Gouramis. So far, all params have been fantastic and we've only had a problem with 2 of the Rasboras (they are Petsmart fish... so we expected to have a few possibly have issues). One... went MIA over night.... just can't find him anywhere. The other one died en route back to the store. Turned the light on in the morning, and he was barely moving and his mouth was wide open.... like in a permanent silent scream... He wasn't swimming with the other fish, so we scooped him out (didn't try to escape - bad sign) and he died while my husband was taking him back to the store. Mike said his mouth looked a bit white to him, but I didn't notice anything amiss with it. The one we replaced him with is doing great so far. (I wonder where that one went though... just can't find him!) We still have a few more Rasboras to add and possibly 1 more Cory, but for now we are going to leave it and let the tank settle. If the params stay the way they are, we will add the final few fish in a week or two.

I'll try to post pics sometime this weekend - we are on dial up for a week. If they won't load, I'll up load them in a week when we have high speed again.


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

More Wisteria? That plant will grow you out of fish room. I personally think 1-2 stems is enough Wisteria for 4-5 tanks it produces so fast. I stopped growing it myself.


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## holly12 (Apr 21, 2011)

Well, I had about 4 stems in the back of the 20g and only 1 ended up surviving.... (the rest ended up getting up rooted by frogs and broken into pieces...) and the 1 stem hadn't seemed to grow any at all, so I got more. (There's a ton in the 36g too.) The Dwarf Hygro used to grow visibly day by day and I would just trim it back when it got to big and either toss the extra or re-plant it. It's growing slower in the 20g now.

Can I not trim back the Wisteria when it gets too tall? If I have to cut it back weekly that's not a problem.

So far, the only 2 plants that are growing inches visibly day by day are the Hornwort and Elodea (seriously... like an inch a day!!!)

Here it is so far: Aquarium Gallery - 36g Finished Plants and Fish Added!

There are: 5 Harlequin Rasboras (was 6 but one is MIA), 6 Julii Corys and 4 Dwarf Fire Gouramis (1 male and 3 females.) We will add 2 more Harley's tomorrow then wait a week or two before adding the final 2-4, as well as the finale 1 Julii Cory.


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

You can cut back the Wisteria as much as you need to.


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## majerah1 (Oct 29, 2010)

Looks nice!

As Ben said,you can trim the wisteria back as much as needed.That stuff likes to grow a ton,lol.

Nice lamps too.


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

Oh yeah, forgot....just wanted to compliment you on choosing a natural look with plants, wood, and rock.


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## holly12 (Apr 21, 2011)

Thanks Ben!

And thank too Bev - about the tank and the lamps, hahaha!


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## Rob72 (Apr 2, 2011)

the wisteria i have in the 54 gallon tank it grows like weeds, i trim it about ever 2 weeks Ben told me awhile back that stuff can grow in a toliet its hard to kill lol


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## Future Marine Biologist (Aug 24, 2011)

Looks great, I have never kept any of the fish your getting except the harlequins. They are great fish and I love mine. Probably one of the most peaceful fish you will ever find.


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## holly12 (Apr 21, 2011)

Thanks!

So far, we are loving the tanks and all the fish as well! It's lots of fun to watch!


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