Minicrazy's other FW Builds/Tank things

[minicrazy592]

The big news is that the glass 2.5g cracked. It turns out the leaking from the top wasn't coming from a lack of silicon, but small cracks in the front top corners. That gave me a slight panic on Sunday night when the tiny cracks turned into giant cracks that become separate pieces of glass upon lifting.

So I had to make a quick trip to Petsmart as it's closer. Their 2.5g were $15. I knew that Petco's 10g's were also $15. You can guess which one I chose.

Here's what I came home with:

After 2 hours of scrapping with a razor blade (I have many scars on my fingers after this BTW)

Threw the some spare rocks, Flourite, sand, and driftwood in it:

Day after

Front:

Side:

Back:

Tonight (Still a little foggy):

I think this is my best looking tank.


I'm still messing with the lights as you can see they are a little messed up, crooked, etc, in the pic. They are hung from the ceiling via tiny 4ft chains. They are the same 100 watt equivalent, 26 actual watt, 6500k CF with the generic polished lighting fixtures from Lowes. They worked pretty well on the plastic 2.5g so I got them for this tank too.

The afternoon before this fiasco happen I had bought some what I believe to be indigo. They were cheap and pretty so I thought they were worth a shot. I was planning on rescaping the 2.5g that broke with them. We shall see how they do.

With all of this rescaping and tank breaking the plant growing tank is really full.

 

[Eric]

Will the tank hold up without the rim? Never seen that done before.

 

[minicrazy592]

Yeah it will. 10g is the largest you can go like that though. I have a pdf DIY somewhere explaining it.

 

[Eric]

Well that's cool, the tank looks great by the way

 

[minicrazy592]

Thanks, I can't wait till it's grown in!

Found the PDF: http://www.natureaquariumclubofutah.com/How_to_Remove_the_Rim_off_a_Standard_Rimmed_Tank.pdf

 

[Eric]

To bad you can't do it with 40 breeders or other like sized tanks.

 

[minicrazy592]

Sounds like a few did it in this thread: removing tank trim - DIY Aquarium Projects - Aquatic Plant Central

 

[minicrazy592]

So I bought some fish for the new tank. 3 Runny noses, 3 Glow Lights, 2 Cardinals, and 1 Cherry shrimp. My LFS was loving me today. lol

However I was looking at one of the Cardinals and noticed something up with its eye. I don't want to say it's ich because it's only on the eye, but I'm not sure. It almost looks like cloudy eye, but it's swollen, white, only on the left eye. You can not see the eye underneath at all. I'm going to do some more research, give it some Melafix tomorrow and just watch to see what happens. It's still eating and swimming normally BTW.

 

[minicrazy592]

More Cherry shrimp, Dwarf Hair Grass, and Riccia should be in tomorrow.

 

[minicrazy592]

While roaming around Hobby Lobby today looking for vinyl film, I stubbled upon something I always wanted to try, Triops. $4 and a little water here, I;m waiting for them to hatch. I'm going to try to use them to get the stuff the shrimp miss, so we shall see.

 

[minicrazy592]

The Triops hatched this morning finally. They look like dust swimming around at this point.

Anyway, I found this good PDF on DIY CO2 systems that's worth a read. However since the forum's limit is 50kb send me a PM with your email and I'll send it your way.

 

[minicrazy592]

Here's some updated pics. Tanks are a little dirty. I've been battling with the tap water here lately. Something in it is making it cloudy and as a result all of my tanks have this hue to them. I was finally able to track it down to that after a week of doing water changes, testing, etc. I did water changes with half/half mixture of spring water and distilled water.

The tanks both have some thread algae which means there's quite a bit of surplus iron floating around in the tanks. There's also some diatoms which are slowly starting to disappear.

2.5g

First Planted

Now:

10g

First Planted:

Now:

I've had some people ask me about my recipe for CO2. This recipe is perfect for 2.5g-5g's and last for about 3-5 days.

.5L bottle (Vitamin Water bottle is perfect)
1/2 cup of sugar
1 teaspoon of Baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of baker's yeast

 

[Eric]

Growing in nicely

 

[PEMfish]

Looking good.
I would cover a rock in java moss and place it under the filter in the 2.5g as the filter in the upper left corner is visually 'heavy' which makes it look out of place floating there.

 

[minicrazy592]

Hmm good point.

 

[minicrazy592]

I've been told earlier today that the 10g is experiencing a bloom!!!!!!! Why does this happen when I'm out of town?! Parameters were where they should be when I left, so this makes me think my friend is over feeding and has my lights on a different schedule then normal.

I've also been told my guppies are fighting. They typically do this when they are stressed either from lack of food or bad water. I'm pretty sure it's because of the water.

 

[minicrazy592]

Hmm parameters are still normal. Tank has been in blackout mode since Monday, so no lights and trash bags all around to keep light out. I think I'm going to give the LFS a little visit and let them do extensive testing as I just have a basic kit.

 

[PEMfish]

Doubt the problem will show on the tests but definitely go for it as that should always be the first step.

 

[minicrazy592]

Lots of stuff tonight.

I think I'm going to get a UV sterilizer power head. The water is starting to get clearer each day, but I know this is going to come up again. There's nothing I can do to the water really to stop it from occurring again. I barely feed my fish as it is, there's never any waste just sitting around, I do my water changes like I'm supposed to, so I'm stumped. This is the only tank that is like this. Given this would only be masking the issue, but I guess it needs masking. I also found a partially sheded ghost shrimp and a keeled over Cherry tonight.

Blackout Mode:

My little Triop experiment is going great. Much to my relief they are staying small. They are doing exactly what I want them to do, clean! They eat all of the spare food and sift the sand around to stop algae from forming. They seem to be leaving the plants alone too! So I think I'm going to keep them as full time residents of my tanks.

In other news, I will have some plants available to whoever wants them from the plant growing tank in a few weeks, as well as Guppies and long fin Danios. All I ask is for shipping to be covered. I have a few things of "Indigo", Java moss, Wisteria, and some other plants I believe. I'm adding some CO2 to the plant tank tonight in hopes it will boost their growth and experience the same results that I had in the 10g. Finally I had more Guppies the other night. :bouncer:

 

[PEMfish]

Lots of stuff tonight.
My little Triop experiment is going great. Much to my relief they are staying small. They are doing exactly what I want them to do, clean! They eat all of the spare food and sift the sand around to stop algae from forming. They seem to be leaving the plants alone too! So I think I'm going to keep them as full time residents of my tanks.

Triop?