# My 75 Gallon Journal



## notoriouslyKEN

Another EDIT: Here is an even older pic of the tank when it had fake plants in it.





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EDIT: I found an old picture of my tank when I first set it up as a rock scape. I just wanted to add it so I can share the full evolution of the tank.





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I think it's time to rescape my tank. It's looked like this for about a year now. Low light setup. Pool Filter sand as substrate. I add root tabs, but no other fertilization. Currently looks like this:





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The current plants are as follows:
Italian Leopard Val - Mostly in the back but I think some have moved forward.
Anubias Barteri Var. Coffeefolia - On the two pieces of driftwood and a rock in the middle.
Crypt. Wendtii Bronze & Red - Mostly on the right foreground.
Crypt. Walkeri - Mostly on the left side, both foreground & background.
Crypt. Crispatula - On the right, behind the driftwood, but it's only 3 inches tall and doesn't seem to grow at all.
Dwarf Sag. - In the middle and everywhere else

I want this tank to be heavily planted. Plants seem to survive more than grow in my tank, so I ordered an Amazon Sword (Bleheri) mother plant and an Anubias Hastifolia mother plant (both should be huge, I am excited) from Sweet Aquatics. I also ordered some more Walkeri and if they have any Red Tiger Lotus by the time my order is ready I will get a couple of those too. I think the Sword will go in the back left corner, but that will make me move the powerhead. I have another piece of driftwood I would like to add in to the mix. Any suggestions for layout of plants or hardscape?

I am worried about the substrate though (both quantity and nutrient-wise). I am contemplating uprooting everything when I get my plants in and adding some peat moss to the sand before replanting everything. I ordered some more root tabs and also some iron tabs for the Sword. Is the peat moss a good or bad idea? Anything else I should add to help the substrate instead?


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## I Can Mate

if your going to add peat moss you might aswell add topsoil instead. the topsoil carries far more nutrients then peat will.


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## notoriouslyKEN

I am going to turn this thread into my tank journal. I can't find my original thread when I first started the tank. It might have disappeared with one of the board upgrades. The current tank has a broken center brace. I jacked it up when I was setting the tank up 2 years ago. This is the tank and stand (cell phone pic) now:









I recently ordered a black trim 75g from my LFS. It should be here Tuesday. I also got this stand:










I got some Miracle Gro Organic Top Soil and plan on following the Walstad Method for my substrate.

I also got a piece of manzanite driftwood. Not sure how I am going to lay it out yet, but it looks like this:















The worst part is waiting for the plants to get here. I don't want to swap tanks until I get the new plants. When I ordered them, it said b/c they were "mother plants", it might take 3 weeks to get them from the distributor. It's been just over 2 weeks now, so hopefully any day.

Oh yea, I think I am going to build my own canopy for this as well. Not much of a carpenter, but it doesn't look too hard. I will update this thread when I get my new stuff in.


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## notoriouslyKEN

I had a lot of trouble with the company I bought my plants from. Apparently, they got hit by a big storm and lost a lot of their stock. They are back up and running and my order shipped today, however without the Anubias Hastifolia. They said that wouldn't be in stock again until late May







I added another spare light I had laying around and my plants have been growing better, so no big deal. I think I can get by without it.

Everything should arrive Thursday and I will take some pictures as I go.


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## JoeDizzleMPLS

I have heard a lot of negative stuff about Sweet Aquatics lately -- I know they moved or are moving, it must not have been planned out very well.


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## notoriouslyKEN

Well, that was an experience. I certainly don't want to do this again anytime soon. It took just north of 5 hours to do everything. Apparently, I threw away my fish net after the piranha tore it up the last time I moved. Of course, I didn't find this out until after my tank was damn near empty and I went to remove the fish. The closest thing I had was a sifter from my kitchen, so I used that. The first couple times I tried to snag him, he would jump out when I lifted it above water and I would have to start over. The last time he waited until he was out of the tank to jump so he was flopping around the carpet. It was only for a few seconds, but it felt like an eternity. I thought for sure I was going to lose a toe. I set up the new 75g with Miracle Gro Organic Potting Mix as the substrate. I added some generic fertilizer and iron tabs that I got from AquariumPlants.com.





​I topped it with a some of the Pool Filter Sand that I had in the previous tank. Here are all the plants that I pulled from the other tank plus the Amazon sword I had purchased and a few more crypts I purchased as well, but I didn't really need them. From left to right I have: Amazon Sword, Crypt Walkerii, Anubias Barteri Coffeefolia & Nana, Vallisneria spiralis 'leopard', Crypt Wendtii Bronze & Red, Dwarf Sagitarria, and a few Crypt Balansae. The Balansae didn't grow in my tank before, but it didn't die either, so it will be interesting to see if I can get growth with the new substrate. You can see the snout of my dog, Layla, checking out the new Amazon sword in this picture.





​If I had to pick, I would say that the planting the sag and vals and tying off of the anubias to the driftwood was by far the worst part. It took forever. Filling it up was painstakingly slow b/c I didn't want to disturb the substrate. Of course my new driftwood didn't sink, so the big rock that is sitting on top of it, just to the right will be gone once it stays down by itself. In this picture it's still very cloudy, but it was late and I wasn't staying up to get a clear picture. I will post one today after work. I'm pretty sure my Rhom is pissed off in this photo, but he looked a lot happier this morning.





​By the way, all these pictures were taken with my cell phone b/c I couldn't find my camera battery. I think they turned out pretty well. Hopefully I can find the battery today and get a little better shots.


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## JoeDizzleMPLS

Lookin good man, can't wait to see it after it clears up a bit.


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## notoriouslyKEN

Here's what it looked like after the tank cleared up. Looks like I am going to have to move the powerhead b/c the vals are getting caught in it. Still using my cellphone for pics....desperately need to find my camera battery.





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## JoeDizzleMPLS

What kind of camera do you have? I'd like to see some more pics of that rhom -- I'm really liking the shape


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## notoriouslyKEN

Unfortunately, all of the crypts are showing signs of melting. I was hoping they would transition better as they were really starting to take off in the old tank. Also, battling a little bit of hair algae, which was to be expected b/c I knew the soil substrate would leak extra nutrients in the water. And finally, the rhom is healing up from bouncing around on the floor already, which is a very good thing.



JoeDizzleMPLS said:


> What kind of camera do you have? I'd like to see some more pics of that rhom -- I'm really liking the shape


It's an older Canon Powershot. G6, maybe? I'll try and take some shots of the Rhom when I get home.


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## Piranha_man

JoeDizzleMPLS said:


> What kind of camera do you have? I'd like to see some more pics of that rhom -- I'm really liking the shape


I was thinking the same thing... he's got a really nice "high back."

Great looking set-up all the way around!


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## jp80911

the tank looks really nice, love to see more clear pix of it and the rhom. I still remember when you first got it, like 2 years ago? does it still have the red on its anal fin?


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## notoriouslyKEN

Sorry for the delayed update. Here are a couple of updated pictures of the fish. I actually took the pics a couple of days after the transition, so you can see he was a little beat up at the time. He has since healed and is almost 100% again. Plants have all gone to sh*t, but I think (hope) they are making a strong comeback.




















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jp80911 said:


> the tank looks really nice, love to see more clear pix of it and the rhom. I still remember when you first got it, like 2 years ago? does it still have the red on its anal fin?


The red has definitely faded. He has a little orange/red by the gill, but altogether has gotten darker from when I originally got him. It's been almost exactly two years now, so good memory. I am impressed. I really like this guy, not quite as crazy as my elong or my first brandtii but a good fish all around.


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