Ok, I have been talking about the 55gal I'm getting ready to set up so I figured I could start a journal on it from the beginning.
Here are some pics of it right after we moved it from the garage to the front porch. It is very dirty because it's been sitting in a shed or garage for the last 7 months. :laugh:

I have put the driftwood in the center as a marker.

This is the left side.

The right side.

And the closest I can get to a full tank shot, my porch is to small, I can't get far enough away. This was taken before I moved the driftwood to the center.

I will post more pics after I clean it up.

This is the stand Hubby and I will be building.

Sandstone for the rock caves. I still need to clean and soak it .












I also got some "Walmart bulbs" started in a jar.

Been working on driftwood and rock today. This is what I have for driftwood. Sorry the pics aren't better but my camera is junk.







Here is one idea of how to set it up.
Remember to imagine 2 1/2 in of dirt and 1 1/2 inches of sand, I only used the UGF to protect the glass. There will also be plants all over.
Full tank shot.




Some closer shots.

So far my plant list consists of,
11 Hybrid Aponogeton bulbs (Wallmart bulbs)
2 Nymphaea Lilly Bulbs(red or green) also from Wally-world
2-3 Philodendrian slips

Here is what I ended up doing for my stand.

Raw materials.




1/2 way there.




The top shelf is 5 feet long and 17 inches wide and 32 inches off the floor. The legs are 4X4's 2 1/2 feet long. Under the actual footprint of the tank I have 2X6's on edge for support.

The bottom shelf is 23 inches wide with the 2 outside boards 4 ft long and the 2 inside boards 40 1/2 inches long. This shelf has 2X2.5 supports around the edge of the bottom. Hubby was concearned about it tipping so instead of the bottom shelf being narower than the top it's wider, more room for the sump and maybe another tank.





Before and after using the wire wheel.


Most valuable tool for this project. :laugh:


I plan on using the wire wheel on all visable surfaces and scorching the wood to bring out the grain, then I will give it a coat of either clear varnish or possibly a mohogany stain. I'll post more pics when it's finished.

I got the gang valve, 30 ft of tubing and the tubing to make my gravel vac and the sand all for about $12.00 .
I'm down to finishing with the wire wheel, scorch and stain before I am ready to set up the tank and put fish in it!!! jay :woo: :rockon: :joint:

I finished with the wheel and did the schorching.

Before and after.


Check out how the schorching brings out the grain of the wood.











A dozen more deck screws and 2 doz lag bolts in the legs, carpet the bottom and it's ready to go!

Nice job on the scorching that deffinetly takes the right touch. I like the rustic look.

:thanks: I love rustic wooden furnature and I hate paint, i feel it has no character.
Hubby said that because it's "green treated" wood we don't need to seal it so in the intrest of getting it done sooner I'm not going to.

it looks great, ( i had a fun time with a welder, and i made a stand for my 40 gallon, but yours looks 10x better!!! (and i don't have any susport for the bottom of the aquarium......that may turn out for the worst..... :laugh: )

well, keep up the great work! i can't wait till i see the finished product!

This is how I did my sand over dirt substrata.

For a 4 ft tank I used ¾ of a 40 pound bag of plain potting mix. I put some into a 3 gal bucket and added water until it was moist but had no “loose water” floating around. If you make your mud too wet there will be dirt particles floating in the water and the tank will get cloudy. I put a 2-3 inch layer of mud across the tank, doing any sculpting I may want, I sloped from the back to front and made a little rise in the middle.

Dirt that will be the bottom layer of my substrata.

Mud in place.





I used about 3/4 of the 40 pound bag of potting soil.

Full tank shot with dirt.


I then washed the sand, this is a pain in the butt! I put about 3-4 cups of sand into my 3 gal bucket and stir it around with water running through it until the water runs clear. Try to get as much water out of the sand as possible before you put it in the tank. I used a minimum of 2 inch layer all the way across thicker in some spots. Before you put the last batch of sand in you will have a puddle in the area that the sand goes and the water will be full of dirt particles, you will want to get this water out of the tank, I used an old towel to soak it up.
Then I arranged the ornaments how I wanted them and started adding water, making sure that the water was falling on a rock or something to keep it from stirring up the sand and dirt.
If all of your ornaments stay in place the water should be fairly clear, mine weren't and isn't, Damn driftwood!


Sand over dirt.
Towel here.


Sand is in!



Tomorrow when the light is better I'll get more pics.

10 gal stats

Nitrate 0
Nitrite 0
GH 75
KH 80
PH 7.2

I think it's cycled. :woo:

you're not showing any nitrates? what about ammonia?

Unfortunatly the test I ended up with is Jungle Quick Dip 5, it was the only thing the store had and it doesn't show ammonia. :pft:

The sponge has been running for about a week, it started in a 1 gal hex tank with plant bulbs that were just sprouting and at that time I was feeding the tank 6-8 betta pellets every couple of days.
When I got the Kuhllis I also got a filter swish with some of the slime falling off in the water. I also got some "dirty" gravel that day from a friend to help seed the sponge and tank.

This is what it looked like before I added water.

looks good!

thing is you should be getting some kind of reading on nitrates if it's cycled.

Today it's showing above 0 but below 20 on nitrate, 0 is cream colored 20 is pink and it's a very light pink.
I hate these test strips, I don't need to test everything every day. I got 25 strips for $10.00 That's about 40 cents per strip. What a waste!
The next time I get into an area that has a real pet or LFS I'm buying a decent test kit, even if it means going to p*co or p*smart.

No credit cards eh? If you do I would suggest buying online if you could.

I don't do banks or credit cards, they get me into trouble :whistle: .

New numbers.
Nitrate more than 0 less than 20
Nitrate 1.0
GH 75
KH 80
PH 7.2

Nitrate 20
Nitrite 3.0


So what's up with this?

I re sealed the top 6-8 inches on 5-13-06, let it cure until today, filled it and ..............................NO LEAKS!! jay :woo: :joint: :smoke:

The rustic look is awsome. I much prefer the good old wooden stain over the crappy plastic, or pine chip stands and cuboards you see now. Nice work on the burnin' too. Looks awsome.

Looking good Dtroup. I like the burnt timebr style. Looks alot better than the new look aquariums IMO. Good work with th blow torch! ;)

Thanks Miagi, as soon as I can figure out how to get enough light for my camera to work I'll post some better pics of it full.

10 gal
nitrate 20
nitrite between 1.0 and 3.0

55 gal
nitrate 0
nitrite .5
gh 150
kh 80
ph 7.2

3 of the Kuhlis went into the 55 today! jay :woo:
I took pics because I was afraid that I'd never find them again. :laugh:





Here are some pics of them in the tank.


Checking out the neighborhood.



Hanging out on the driftwood.

10 gal
nitrate 20
nitrite 3.0
gh 75
kh 80
ph 7.2

55
nitrate 0
nitrite 0
gh 75
kh 80
ph 7.2

The seeded sponge has been running in the 55 for about 4 days now, shouldn't I be getting some nitrate and nitrite readings by now?

my 3ft took a couple of weeks to show anything.

55
Nitrate 20
Nitrite 3.0
GH 75
KH 80
PH 7.8

10
Nitrate 20
Nitrite .5
GH 75
KH 40
Ph 7.8

55
Nitrite .5
Nitrate 20


10
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 20

May 31st
I was showing my mom my 55gal and discovered that one of my kuhlis was dead, he was wedged up under a piece of driftwood and an air stone.
I didn't see any marks on him, he was just faded like they do when they die. The only fish in the tank were 4 kuhlis, the other 3 look fine.

Ph 7.2
KH 80
GH 75
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 20

YEEEHAWWWW!
My endlers have arived!!! jay.gif
With only 1 fatality, one of the males wedged himself into the pleat in the corner of the bag but other than that they are in very good condition!
The extras more than compensate for the 1 loss.
The dozen or so (they move too fast to get an accurate count) went into my 55gal tank!
They are little tiny guys and galls and very hard to get good pictures of but here are the best ones I got in an hours work. laugh.gif

Well I lost another kuhli :rip: this one was also under some driftwood. I pulled the remaining two out of the 55 along with all the Endlers that I put in there today and put everything in the 10 gal which hasn't had any deaths.I'm going to let the 55 run with just the CAE for a while and see what the test strips have to say.

55 gal
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 20
GH 75
KH 80
PH 7.2

10 gal
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 20
GH 75
KH 80
Ph 7.2

55 gal
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 20

10 gal after 40% wc
Nitrite 0
Nitrate less than 20 but above 0 ( I hate these stupid test strips!)


Third Kuhli dead today, found laying on top of gravel in 10 gal, I'm beginning to think that it was a bad batch or kuhlis just don't like me. :pft:

man that sux! i hope you get to the bottom of this problem for next time. :hug:

Got a real test kit today! jay

Red Sea Marine Lab 5 in 1 test kit. $22.00 at Pet Smart

10 gal
Ph 7.4
Ammonia .25 not to sure about this, directions for reading were confusing
NO3 10
NO2 .01

55gal
PH 7.4
Ammonia .25
NO3 2.5
NO2 0

I have fry!! So far I only see 2 sets of swimming eyes.

Ph 7.4
Nitrate 10
Ammonia 0
Alk low
Nitrite .05