# 20 Long High Tech Planted



## FishFlow

Something showed up to my door the other day.










Been really wanting to try a short tank high tech and try to make something more purposeful. (Instead of my jungle builds.  )

Currently, the plans.

Repurpose stand! Kinda short, not sure how crazy I am about that.










Painted back of tank (1st coat) Black cuz thats what I had. I am a fan of blue background.


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## FishFlow

Plans:
Sand substrate, Black. 
hanging t5ho 48" lights (cuz it's what I got.) two bulbs. 6000k 
edit: Put 48" lights over 36" tank, moved 36" light to 30" (20g) tank.
presurized co2

thinking about Staurogyne repens for ground, and using a 2nd plant or two for background. Wanna keep it simple.

Oh, small school of neons too.


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## dalfed

Looking forward to more pics


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## FishFlow




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## FishFlow

Will 500gph be enough circulation? (Too much I guess would be better question.)

Aqueon 500 Circulation Pump


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## FishFlow

Gonna hold off on circulation. 

Got water in tank. Started fishless cycle. Added ammonia, 1tsp got me ~ 4ppm ammonia.










Tomorrow, maybe route co2 lines. Maybe not.


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## FishFlow

Routed CO2. Ran into a tad of trouble. 










Ya, gonna need to order another check valve.


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## FishFlow

Day 4 of fishless cycle, no nitrite today, so continued dosing ammonia. added couple temp plants (clippings) to add color.


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## TroyVSC

Keep the pics and updates coming.


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## Chididdy123

Looking good! Can't wait for the finished product so all of us can make a 20 long thread haha. With that aquaclear, all you have to worry about is the water fall moving your sand.

I have a canister in my tank that is rated for 70 gallons and the outflow creates plenty of current, a little bit too much to where the fish (including neons) were getting stressed even with the flow at half output. so as for the circulation pump, I would get one way less than 500gph haha. I really have no clue on what size circulation pump you should get, but i hope you find one with the perfect current, neons and cardinals shoal in higher current.

Oh and my plants are doing perfect with little to no algae with a t5HO 24 inch, with only one 24w bulb at 9 hours, so maybe try using one bulb first?

Have you thought about going with a small cardinal tetra school? More colorful to me IMO  
What type of fertilization will you do?

Goodluck!

100th post yay!


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## FishFlow

Chididdy123 said:


> Looking good! Can't wait for the finished product so all of us can make a 20 long thread haha. With that aquaclear, all you have to worry about is the water fall moving your sand.
> 
> I have a canister in my tank that is rated for 70 gallons and the outflow creates plenty of current, a little bit too much to where the fish (including neons) were getting stressed even with the flow at half output. so as for the circulation pump, I would get one way less than 500gph haha. I really have no clue on what size circulation pump you should get, but i hope you find one with the perfect current, neons and cardinals shoal in higher current.
> 
> Oh and my plants are doing perfect with little to no algae with a t5HO 24 inch, with only one 24w bulb at 9 hours, so maybe try using one bulb first?
> 
> Have you thought about going with a small cardinal tetra school? More colorful to me IMO
> What type of fertilization will you do?
> 
> Goodluck!
> 
> 100th post yay!


Funny you mentioned the aquaclear. I woke up this am to a none running aquaclear. It’s been sucking sand, and I guess too much sand. When it cascaded into the tank, it move the sand A LOT, but with proper water height, the sand barely moved. I have a prefilter on the aquaclear, but it appears to be too porous.  Gonna get a better sponge or see if I can find something else. 

Circulation pump is on the back burner, unless I change up the filter to something with alot less flow. I do agree 500gph should be too much. (Hey, it was on sale! )

The diffuser is junk too. It's a used fluval 88g, bubbles are way too big. I'm in the process of seeing if I can service it. I also have a second 88g. I'll see how that is. Otherwise, another atomic will be acquired.

Lights. I believe, and ime, excess light can be mitigated by more co2 ! Unfortunately this light doesn’t allow only one bulb. If light becomes an issue, I will try to increase co2, and/or adjust height of light (raise it). It currently has a 12,000K and a pink (6500K) light in it. Oh, the 48” light went ontop of the 37, and the 37 light went ontop of the 20.


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## FishFlow

Day 5. NITRITES! The filter went out this morning and didn't think of it, but I left the filter basket empty all day. 

Ammonia is through the roof, with barely a measure of no2. Under .25ppm


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## Chididdy123

If you opt out for a new filter, you can get a fluval 306 like mine for around 80-90 dollars on ebay, they are brand new and they actually are coming from petcos in different states. I found this out because when i won the auction on one it came with a petco online order invoice. I wouldnt go with a 206 because they are known to have hardware problems and start to leak in the long run. If you do get a fluval canister, you could make a spray bar and get just about 100% diffusion. I have the fluval 88g diffuser also and it runs at about 2-3 bps. any higher i risk gassing my fish because i can see it breathing heavily. but i still need to verify my co2 levels with a drop checker that is coming in soon.


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## FishFlow

I'm looking for a new filter. I'll check out that 306, although am not a fan of fluval.

Day 6 Fishless Cycle
Ammonia: 8ppm or higher. :O I haven't added ammonia yesterday or today.
NO2: .25ppm (or tad more)
NO3: 10ppm ( actually surprised I have no3 today.)

Planning to just ride out the high ammonia for a day or two more, if still high, gonna do a water change.

Oh, got couple new couplings, Thanks Old Punk!


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## FishFlow

Day 9. Fishless cycle.

Ammonia 8ppm+ Haven't added any ammonia since day 5.
NO2 .25ppm
NO3 10ppm


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## FishFlow

Day 11 fishless cycle.
Ammonia 8ppm +
NO2 .25ppm
NO3 10ppm

Lol. 

Gonna do a wc, bring down amm if possible.

50%wc
Am 4ppm
NO2 zero.


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## FishFlow

Don't think I made 10 day cycle! Lol.

Day 17
Ammonia: 4ppm. (have not added any ammonia since day 4.)
NO2: .5ppm (Up .25!)
NO3: 20ppm


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## coralbandit

I think by having your ammonia so high in the beginning you stalled your cycle.The fishless cycle stickie even says this could happen with NO3 levels over 4-5.I would not add any ammonia till it is almost 0 and then just enough (less than 4) to hopefully watch it go back to 0 in 24 hrs.It looks like you're getting close though.Good luck!


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## jrman83

Not true. Continuously adding the ammonia will actually drive the nitrites down sooner. There is no need to test for ammonia in a fishless cycle beyond the first day to determine how much it takes to get to 4ppm and then again when the nitrites have zeroed. My last two tanks finished within 2days of each other doing it this way. We worry too much about the ammonia when once the processing of it starts it is gone in less than a day....same for nitrites. I think you should have kept dosing 1/2 amount you started with and every 3-4 days. I believe it would be over by now.

at this point it sounds like a water change will probably finish it out.

I may have some S. Repens when you're ready for it...if you need some.


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## FishFlow

I'm testing all three to show the progress. I did have in my mind that 4ppm was a target to try to stay near, instead of just letting ammonia sail thru the roof. But in doing so have deviated from the fishless cycle method listed here. (Which is an excellent point..) I'll start over and not deviate from the method listed here. 

Honestly, I just wanna see my tank cycle in 10 days so I can be a true believer!


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## FishFlow

jrman83 said:


> I may have some S. Repens when you're ready for it...if you need some.


Oh! Sweet. I can take them whenever you have some. The 37 is still up and keeping all sorts of plants growing like weeds. I plan on moving all/any s. repens/blyxia, I have to this tank when cycled. (Which isn't much, gonna need to grow them out, which is fine, one of the reasons I'm doing this )


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## jrman83

I have never tried to keep my ammonia within a certain range. I only measured the amount it took to hit 4ppm initially. Once I knew it took x teaspoons I dosed that amount everyday, no matter what, until I was reading nitrites - usually in about 4-5 days. It is possible that my ammonia was way off the charts at some points along the way...maybe as high a 10-12ppm. But like I said, it really doesn't matter. That is why I never really tested again until nitrites were zero.


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## FishFlow

Alrighty. 100% wc, and removed filter, two weeks of that, then drained the tank 100% and left empty for two weeks.

Filled tank with water 2 days ago, added new filter on a powerhead. (that's all I did.)

Today, tank measures out at:
AM: 0
No2: 5ppm
No3: 40ppm.

So much for attempting to start back at scratch! haha.


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## FishFlow

Whoops. Wrong thread. I do have updates for this thread.. But meant to bring back the 15shrimp dinosaur.


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## FishFlow




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## FishFlow

Pic update. Looks about the same.


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## majerah1

Very nice! Pssst I see algae on the left.


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## evander508

Looks really nice


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## FishFlow

If you look at the last two photos. You'll see the 2nd photo the sponge is sucked in, alot like what I do with my stomach when taking photos. The 1st pic the sponge is just letting it all hang out.. This is the issue I'm having with PH and the sponge.. THat's a 30, on it lowest setting.


That's not *algae*, that's me storing food for the Oto's I'll soon be getting. 

Although, there is a 6" flying fox in there somewhere, he's getting lazy in his old age!!


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## SueD

For the sponge on the intake try one of these in the links below. They are less dense and will not suck in into that hourglass shape. I had that same problem with the Fluval prefilters when I used them on the AC50 filters.

http://www.amazon.com/Instant-Ocean...=1442596768&sr=1-3&keywords=prefilter+sponges

Or these - *NOTE, this sponge is really black, not blue* as in the picture:

http://www.amazon.com/Zoo-Med-Block...e_p_img_4?ie=UTF8&refRID=1TYPHBSAZKBY9ZFDPHZ7


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## FishFlow

Thanks Sue. I never considered that. found a more porous sponge at the lfs. so far so good!

And Picture update. The RCS are amazing red. And the Assassins are doing well too.



OH, and I moved the starflare sunburst, whatever it is plant to this tank.


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## Summer

Beautiful!


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## FishFlow

Small update.

Most of the RCS are now moved to the RCS tank. Added two *panda molly*'s to the tank last weekend (10/10/15). front half is gold, back half is black. 

Tank is getting ~ 3bps of pressurized co2, has two canned lights above tank, 6500k. One ph30 ontop of a sponge.


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## FishFlow

Picture update.


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## Summer

perdy!!


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## majerah1

Lurvly wood!


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## FishFlow

Added 5 band corys. 50% wc


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## Summer

pretty!


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## FishFlow

PH Reading!!


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## FishFlow

8.2 this AM.


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## big b

What's that brown stuff in the glass cup thing? I think it is something for co2.


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## Summer

A drop checker, checks the pH to make sure it doesnt dip too low as Co2 drops the pH in tanks.


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## FishFlow

Pre WC

NO3 40
PO4 2
PH 7.4 or lower.

After WC. almost 80%

NO3 10-20
PO4 .5 - 1
PH 7.4 - 7.6


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## FishFlow




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## woody019

Truaqua has very good filter for a good price if you wanna give them a look I've had a couple of their filter when I had freshwater tanks. Also if you want a powerhead I highly suggest 1 jebao wp10 DC wave maker. They are cheap, quite and reliable I have 2 of them on my 40 for over a year and only been cleaned once. You'll need no where close to the amount of flow 2 put off full blast you'll only need one. Nice thing about them is they are DC pump which means they are adjustable for a wide range of flow rates so you would be able to play with it until you got the flow you wanted. On top of that they have a wide variety of modes you can put them in eg. constant, standing wave,sine curve, random and surge mode I might be missing one haha The mount makes them super was to adjust the direction of flow and are a small footprint in the tank, just don't listen to what the output of them are only the lowest setting you'll barely have a leaf sway, full blast on the other hand you might have a mess in your tank lol you can get them anywhere from $35-$40.


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## woody019

If you want to get real high tech and drop some cash, hook your CO2 up to an electronic solenoid and have it controlled by a pH controller. Then get yourself a 2 head jebao automatic doser and hook up your fertalizers to it so your tank is getting consistent food. Lastly is if you are feeling like a real big spender invest yourself into a kessil a160we tuna sun or previous model a150w amazon sun LED light, like I was telling another member on here earlier. Now that would be a good investment if your ever deciding to upgrade in the future one a160we will handle just about any tank under 4ft (before you have to buy multiple units), 60,000+ hour lifespan before they MIGHT have the possibility of changing spectrum, on top of their controllability. You can control intensity and spectrum on the unit if you got the kessil controller you could set a sunrise, sunset, varying intensities and spectrum throughout the day and moonlight. Just throwing it out there to give you some ideas!


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## FishFlow

Homework!!! Love it.  Thanks woody. I do enjoy looking over new (to me) products.


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## woody019

FishFlow said:


> Homework!!! Love it.  Thanks woody. I do enjoy looking over new (to me) products.


Your welcome, No problem!!


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## FishFlow

Spotted "floating eyeballs" this morning..


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## FishFlow

Pre WC, pre-photoperiod

PH 7.4-7.6
Po4 1-2
No3 40-80


After wc ~ 50%
PO4 1
No3 0


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## big b

Cute baby mollies.


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## FishFlow

Pre wc

Po4 1
No3 40-80


After: 50% wc

Po4 1
No3 40-80

Lol. that didn't work well did it..


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## FishFlow

Got Duckweed???? :O


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## FishFlow

after ~ 50% wc


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## Chillwill007

This is pretty sweet


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## FishFlow

Pre WC

NO3 10-20
PO4 2


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## big b

It looks good with the duck weed, it reminds me of a peaceful jungle.


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## FishFlow

Pre WC 

PH4 1-2
NO3 40-80


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## FishFlow

Pic before wc


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## FishFlow

After. Lotsa bubbles.


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