# Changed up my 125



## Gumby (Aug 13, 2004)

I recently placed a huge ass order with aquaticplantdepot.com so that I can turn my 125 into the show tank that I want it to be. In order to do this, I had to ditch a piece of drift wood and add about 35lbs more gravel (still thinkin about another 25).

While I did this I took all the Piranhas out of the tank and put them in a big rubber made. Man they hate the net. Fuckers bit right through it. One of them actually made it onto the floor. I finally got the tank hardcore gravel vaced and added the new gravel.

Anyway, I took pics, because I like to take pics. Think of this thread as a work in progress. Once the new plants arrive I will update the pics.

Keep in mind the tank is still a little cloudy from adding the new gravel.

Here's some PISSED OFF Pygos(magnetic algae scraper for size comparison): 
View attachment 51133


A shot of the entire tank:
View attachment 51134


The corner of the tank that currently has most of the plants:
View attachment 51135

View attachment 51136


Happy pygos with room to swim:
View attachment 51137


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## cmsCheerFish (Dec 17, 2004)

love the setup man. where did you get that stump driftwood?


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## Gumby (Aug 13, 2004)

Got it from work(at an LFS). It's supposedly "African root wood."


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## Husky_Jim (May 26, 2003)

Nice work man!I suggest you to add a black background which will help the plants and setup look more KILLA!!!!!


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## Soldat (Aug 28, 2004)

That looks real damn good. I love the wood.


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## MR HARLEY (Aug 12, 2003)

Im Jealous


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## Kohan Bros. (Aug 24, 2004)

looks like a good show tank already good luck with the new plants. what substrate do you have it looks awsome.


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## shoe997bed263 (Oct 15, 2004)

looks great. love the color on the reds you have there. i hate to ask this about every pic but i am thinking of what to do about wattage what is the watts per gallon in your tank?


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## Gumby (Aug 13, 2004)

Jim: I get the "that thang needs a background!" response everytime I post my tanks







I plan on making a background that is going to be elite. You'll see.

Kohan: the substrate is called "bits of walnut" It only comes in 5lb bags, which makes filling up a 125 a major pain in the ass. Luckly I've got a good friend who can order me cases and sell them to me at cost. It's the perfect gravel for planted tanks. The gravel bits are about the size of your standard BB for a BB gun (maybe smaller). I also mixed in a bag of flourite that I found covered in dust in the garage. If you want to buy the gravel: http://www.thatpetplace.com/Products/KW/F4...8/Itemdy00.aspx

Shoe: As far as my lighting goes:
4 x 55 watt 6700K Power Compacts
1 x 55 watt 10,000K Power Compact

There is a 36 inch Jebo fixture with dual 55 watt bulbs in each fixture on each side of the tank. I also have a spare 30 inch PC fixture that I am using the 10000k Bulb in.

One thing to keep in mind is that watts per gallon does not necessarily apply to power compact bulbs. The watts per gallon rule was created with regular flourscents (and VHO) and metal halides in mind. Power compacts are somewhat new to the aquaium industry. When you compare lumen output (intensity of lighting) to wattage with power compacts, you get a hell of a lot more lumens per watt than you do with regular flouros. Couple that with a nice reflector and you've got a much brighter bulb that consumes less electricity. On top of that, PCs don't get that hot.

Halides look awesome, and I'd love to have them, but man they are EXPENSIVE. Not to mention that they get so hot that sometimes you have to run a chiller on the tank that the halides are over.

If you're looking for lighting, I'd say go Power Compact all the way. Try checking out the Jebo products. They're inexpensive and so far have proven to be AWESOME products. If you're feelin crazy and have a lot of money, build yourself a canopy and buy some retrofit PC kits and fill that bia up with lights. (that's what I want to do in the future).

Sorry if I rambled, I've got the flu and the doc gave me some cough syrup that makes me kinda loopy


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## elTwitcho (Jun 22, 2004)

The tank looks great, the fish look incredible as well. I have to mention though, that you're running some serious risk of your ph climbing above 8.0 with that much lighting if you aren't injecting CO2.


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## shoe997bed263 (Oct 15, 2004)

i went to walmart and got 2 48'' fixtures for 7bucks. i plant to put 2 40 watt bulbs in it and i have a power compact single bulb fixture and put a 40 watt bulb in it all that for my 55g. i am abit stumped on my 300g and my 125 g as to how to go about lighting it with out spending tons of money.

as twitch said do you have co2?? would it be safe to say that the more plants you have in the tank the more that you need co2?

i have fertalizer and correct wattage do i really need a co2 system. is there a way to get around co2??


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## Gumby (Aug 13, 2004)

elTwitcho said:


> The tank looks great, the fish look incredible as well. I have to mention though, that you're running some serious risk of your ph climbing above 8.0 with that much lighting if you aren't injecting CO2.
> [snapback]914135[/snapback]​


WTF? How in the world does lighting correlate with pH? It doesn't.

pH= concentration of hydrogen ions. Light will not affect hydrogen content at all. Aside from the fact that there is absolutely nothing in the tank that would act as a buffer for the pH, the water comes out of the tap here at 6.5 and a hardness of 0. Also, I've got a lot of huge pieces of driftwood in the tank which release tanic acid. If anything I'm at risk of the pH dropping too LOW. There is no way in hell the pH will go UP without some sort of buffer.

BTW: CO2 for a 125 gallon tank would be ungodly expensive and complicated. I dose with Seachem's Flourish Excell, which provides plants with a source of organic carbon essentially the same as CO2 without the same risks of real CO2. Back in the day I crashed a tank using CO2. The pH went from 7.5 to <4.0 over night.

CO2 + Water = carbonic acid, drops pH. O2 + water= oxygenated water, not a high pH.

I like you a lot twitcho, but seriously, where the hell did you get that? The most common problem in plant tanks is the pH dropping too LOW.

Are you just pulling my leg?

If not, please, I need some resources from ya to back up these claims. In terms of water chemistry, it's just not possible.


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## elTwitcho (Jun 22, 2004)

I know it sounds strange but you should do a bit more reading before saying something is impossible or thinking it's ridiculous. Lighting has everything to do with ph, with high levels of light and low levels of CO2, a number of plants can, and do, take in bicarbonate (HCO3-) remove the CO2 and release hydroxide (OH-).

So there is much more going on with photosynthesis than "O2 + Water = oxygenated water not high ph". Read up on biogenic decalcification, it is a result of this increase in alkalinity that you see CaCO3 precipitate on the leaves of plants under these conditions. There is a pinned thread at the top of the page and for a more indepth explanation you can go here

http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/CO2/decalcification.html

As I understand it this would also be covered by any textbook on the topic of aquatic plants. I personally saw my ph rise to 7.8 after running my lights for one day without CO2, and the ph reading was taken several hours after the lights had already been off.

Further to that, the effect of tannins lowering ph is extremely overstated, you'll see a drop from 7.0 to 6.8 in extremely rare circumstances.

I like you too Gumby, but you need to chill out if you're not completely informed on the matter before calling it "impossible" or treating it as though it's unconscionable.


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## Gumby (Aug 13, 2004)

I know all about calcium build up on leaves and that business but I just don't have enough plants to warrant a true CO2 set up quite yet. I am also baffled as to where these plants would be getting the calcium and how the alkalinity could be raised when there are *no sources of calcium in the water* other than bones from feeders. When I say the hardness here is 0 I mean it, we've got some of the softest water in the country. The dissolved elements in the water is almost unmeasurable.

It just baffles me that the pH could be raised when all my tanks have ran from 5.5-7.0 because of plants. People having problems with pH raising too high in planted tanks (in Georgia at least) is unheard of. The only time I've tested a customer's water and the pH was way too high is because they had crushed coral, coral skeletons, shells, or decorations that act as a buffer.

I'm not going to discredit you becuase I honestly have never heard of decalcification. I'll do some reading and let ya know what I think. I have a feeling this might have to do something with harder water in planted tanks which enables them to release the hydroxide ions from the calcium.

Thanks for the link man. I love learning new things









No harsh feelings man, that just baffled me. Time to read up









Edited: I kant speel werds write.


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## Gumby (Aug 13, 2004)

Alright I read it. Albiet a confusing read, I get the gist of it.

As far as who's right and who's wrong; damned if I know. What I do know is that I know of no signifigant source of calcium in my water. How can decalcification occur without a decent amount of calcium?

I would love to add an expert CO2 injection system on the tank, but man... I need to win the lottery first. And as I said before, I do add Florish Excell so the plants ARE getting a source of carbon. While it's not CO2, they are getting a source of organic carbon, nonetheless.

To tell you the truth, I'm a little freaked out to try CO2 on the 125. I've got about 300+ dollars of fish in there. Aside from that, my pygos r0x mi s0x 0ff








The last time I did a DYI CO2 I ran it on a very heavily planted 20 gallon long tank with about 3wpg of flourscent light. The pH was 7.0 when I added the CO2 injection. The next day I woke up to a tank full of dead cardnial tetras and a dead $50 Red Tail Sternella Pleco. I tested the water that day and my PH was lower than the test kit read (4.0). All that carbonic acid dropped my pH 3 full points within about 18 hours. Tested the KH, and it was 4. KH was too low, so the pH crashed.

I tell what Twitcho: I'm going to pick up a pH test kit and see where the pH is at on the 125. I'll report back ASAP. My guess is I'm sitting somewhere in the 6.0-7.0 range.
I also sent my mother on a mission to get a 3 liter coke bottle (I've got the flu, all cracked out on meds). I'll run a DYI CO2 to see if I notice any difference before I order at 10-20lb canister(if money permits). This time though, I'm buffering the bejesus out of the KH. I want it siting up around 12-15.

Again, if I rambled in this post, that's what hydrocodone cough syrup does to you... make's you a little crazy.


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## elTwitcho (Jun 22, 2004)

Good luck with that. I'd personally add a bit of buffering to my tank regardless of other circumstances if the hardness was 0 but that's personal prefference. Let us know how it goes, I agree that pressurized CO2 can be expensive, but it would work out cheaper than flourish carbon pretty quickly IMO.


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## Gumby (Aug 13, 2004)

I hadn't tested my pH in a long while thinking everything was gravy. It appears that all the fallen leaves in the local water supply have dropped the pH of tap water pretty low.

Twitcho: After the pH test I found quite the opposite of what you thought might be happening. My pH was *5.5*. Holy hell! Piranhas are still doing great even with the pH that low.

After the bad results, I added some of Kent's pH stable which buffers KH up to 10-12 and PH around 6.5-7.0. Hopefuly everything will be going welll by tomorrow morning and I'm, gonna add a DYI CO2 just to see if I notice a difference.


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## killerbee (Aug 18, 2004)

awesome


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