50 Gallon Resurrection
 

Greetings, fellow aquarists. I haven't posted anything for quite some time now, and especially not about my own tank. So I thought I'd make a return by starting a new thread about my old 50 gallon tank, which is just over a year old, as things stand. I'll edit the thread as I change things and remember things that should have been here in the first place.

The reason I decided to start a new thread is because the tank has undergone a few major changes recently, which include the removal of many plants (half of which died after a temperature increase last summer), the placing of additional pieces of wood, and of course, the introduction of a host of new plants. The plants in question are adapted to living in low-light conditions, and include various types of Anubias, Cryptocorynes and aquatic ferns.

The fish have, for the most part, remained as they were, although I have added a good number of harlequin rasboras and two unidentified plecos.

And so, without further ado, tank parameters:

Volume: 50 gallons
Lighting: 30 watts flourescent (Juwel Day-Lite. Approx. 6,500k)
Temperature: 26C (80F)
Water change: 50% weekly water change

http://i.imgur.com/7T6YO.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/r9pgb.png

http://i.imgur.com/MhO8Y.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/EGCDe.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/S1VbA.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/V11Vd.jpg

Also, feel free to ask questions and post recommendations on anything.

I think your tank looks great ! I wouldnt change a thing, and i also think the fish must be very happy especially with the angels already breeding . Congrats !

Beautiful tank!! Everything looks clean and both the fish and plants are bright and healthly.

Is very nice looking tank and fishes!:thumbsup:

Thanks for the compliments, guys. I really want to try and take a few decent pictures of the harlequin rasboras, but it seems as though they've got this innate sixth sense with which they sense when I'm about to take a picture and move away the moment I press the shutter button.

The plans for this tank are pretty simple. The main point is to achieve lush plant growth in all areas so as to give the aquascape a more mature and wild look.
I want to try experiment with growing more varieties of amazon swords, since they seem to adapt well enough to low-light conditions after a month or so.
The addition of more cryptocoryne "bushes" is almost guaranteed. I'll steer clear of the species that don't seem to do well and focus on the addition of more members of the same species for now (mainly cyptocoryne wendtii).

Awesome Tank
 

That is an awesome looking tank. I like how your fish laid eggs on your what seems to be Anubias. Where do you keep your pH level? If you don't mind me asking.

Hopefully someday I will get my tank like that. I just started a 55 Gallon 3 weeks ago so I hope everything goes well.

Unfortunately the water here in Southern California is extremely hard so I have to figure out a way to at the very least neutralize it.

Any suggestions would be truly appreciated.

The pH stays at around 6.8. I remember reading somewhere that decorative wood tends to change the water composition to a slightly more acidic one, which might explain why the water in the tank is slightly acidic while the tap water has a pH of 7.

There are other methods to get soft and acidic water, such as placing peat in the chambers of your filter, but I don't have any experience with that, so I'm afraid I can't help too much with the setting up of such a system.

Good luck with your tank. If there's one thing I'd recommend, it's keeping water parameters stable. It's much better to have stable parameters which aren't completely perfect than to have significant fluctuations. Keep up with scheduled water changes and do your research and you should have a beautiful and healthy tank in no time.

:nicefish: gorgeous. im blown away.

What Kind of substrate are you using, and where did you get it? I'm really diggin the natural look, with the black background and plants. Been lookin at yours for a while, and thats the type of route I think I wanna go now.

The substrate consists of quartz grains, which after some time accumulated a fair amount of debris and took on a yellow hue. The quartz was originally white with an equal amount of red/black mix added to it.

The background is actually some sort of underwater scene that is heavy in stones and wood. Not that it matters much now, anyway, since most of it is covered up my the driftwood. A black background would suit my needs just as well, so I'd definitely recommend one.

Good luck with your tank. Let us know how things work out.