My 90 gallon tank journal!

[Hailey]

So I gave up with the broken 75 gallon tank, and were getting a brand new 90 gallon on Friday! $400 though...

We have the 100 lbs of 3M Colourquartz crystals, black to go in. I think I will start re-washing it now.

I ordered some plants from aquaticmagic on ebay and a couple from another guy
-Java Moss-$5.30 (other seller)
Narrow leaf crypt- $6.76 (other seller)
Another Semi Narow leaf crypt- $5.56, a bunch, 10-12 leaves.
Crypt wentii green-$5.07, 3 stalks
Anubias barteri nana- $3.52
Anubias-Broad leaf- $5.07
Crypt lucens- $5.44
Crypt balansae- $3.78, for 3
Co2 Tabs- $6.83- box of 12 I think, and I have no idea if i should have gotten them...
Root Monster Root tabs- $10.20, 12, they look good.

Cant wait till they get here.
What are your recommendations for these plants? How many WpG should I go for? I was thinking at least 1.5-2 WpG would be ok.
What other plants should I try to get?


For filtration we have a AC100, and a AC30 that will go on. Will that be enough? The tank is 48"x18.5"x? I'm not sure how tall it is.


As for lighting were not sure yet. We might do T5's.


Background will eventually be black, not painted on this time. We'll just buy one.


And we still need to get a heater. What size do we need for this? 200?

And thats it for now, Thanks!

[rich311k]

1-2 watts a gallon would be enough. Closer to two would be better as that is a deep tank. I would get two 200 watt heaters. That filtration should be adequate you may want to get another AC100. A big sword for a centerpeice would be nice in there.

[MCHRKiller]

I second what Rich has said on adding another AC110. I would definatly consider a 4*54watt HOT5 fixture for this tank just based on the height of it. You can minimize your algae growth in this low tech sort of setup by not running all 4 bulbs constantly. Run 2 bulbs for 2 hrs then have all 4 of them on for 4 hours and then run 2 bulbs for the last 2 hrs of the day. Fishneedit.com has some good HOT5 fixtures, unfortunatly their 4 bulb fixture has been out of stock for months and no clue when its coming back, you could purchase 2 of the 2*54watt fixtures and still be way under price for other systems...and your tank is definatly wide enough to handle the 2 fixtures.

[Hailey]

I second what Rich has said on adding another AC110. I would definatly consider a 4*54watt HOT5 fixture for this tank just based on the height of it. You can minimize your algae growth in this low tech sort of setup by not running all 4 bulbs constantly. Run 2 bulbs for 2 hrs then have all 4 of them on for 4 hours and then run 2 bulbs for the last 2 hrs of the day. Fishneedit.com has some good HOT5 fixtures, unfortunatly their 4 bulb fixture has been out of stock for months and no clue when its coming back, you could purchase 2 of the 2*54watt fixtures and still be way under price for other systems...and your tank is definatly wide enough to handle the 2 fixtures.

Ha, I actually send them an email last night, asking if the had the 4 bulb fixture in yet, and if not, how long it would take to ship 2 of the 2 bulb fixtures up here. I think they look really nice, and a good price too. Im still waiting on the reply from them, but if it doesnt take too long, I might order from them, but I still have to tell my boyfriend about that too.

Now I have to do two heaters? Im not going to have enough plug ins! lol Could I get away with one 300w? Heaters are pricey around here!


And I do have a amazon sword plant in my 33 gal. Its not doing the best in there, so I think it'll be going in the new tank. Along with a couple other that need better lighting.

[Northernguy]

That sounds like a nice tank!
I hope you get it all together soon!

[Hailey]

Thanks!

So were going to go pick it up tomorrow!

And I was wondering what heater I need. Would it be ok to just pick up a 300w one for now?

I'm also going to try to fiqure out how to rewash the 3M colourquartz again. It was still a bit oily in the other tank.

Also while we wait to get the T5 light set up, I think were going to get a double, 36" light fixture from home depot, just for now, but then we can use it on my 33 gal after, which badly needs a new light!

We dont have anything for the top though...so I dont know what we'll do about that.

[domjd05]

Thanks!

So were going to go pick it up tomorrow!

And I was wondering what heater I need. Would it be ok to just pick up a 300w one for now?

I'm also going to try to fiqure out how to rewash the 3M colourquartz again. It was still a bit oily in the other tank.

Also while we wait to get the T5 light set up, I think were going to get a double, 36" light fixture from home depot, just for now, but then we can use it on my 33 gal after, which badly needs a new light!

We dont have anything for the top though...so I dont know what we'll do about that.

I'm in the middle of building a canopy for my 125 right now, they are pretty easy to build and look awesome! I found it was much cheaper to have some glass cut and buy some hinges and make a DIY glass hood, almost $50 cheaper than buying the cheapest one I could find online.

[Hailey]

Help! How do we quickly wash our sand? Its the Black, 3M colorquartz crystals and is very oily. I have a little bit in a bucket, and am filling it up, mixing, and dumping, but going no where, and its only a tiny ammount of sand!

Could we do the pillowcase idea?

[Garrett]

Someone had a youtube video posted awhile ago, the way I washed my sand was putting about half a bag (I bought a 50lb. bag of play sand) in a 5 gal. bucket and hosed at it, dumping the water and keeping everything agitated. You do lose some sand in this process, but it gets all the fines and dust out. Normally about half an hour process.

[Hailey]

Well 5 hours later and almost half of the sand is done. We rigged up putting fabric (cut in half pillowcase) down in our collander (it goes accross the sink, mesh like), and rinsing the sand like that. Works pretty well, its still going to be a little bit oily though I think. Getting lazy towards the end, lol. Man my back hurts. But it'll look good when I'm done!