Rescaping the 72g and 150g tanks

The 150g tank is my oldest tank. It has gone through periods of looking pretty good and other times where it was not so good. It was time for a change and I had recently discovered a source of the sand blasting substrate Black Beauty which is really nice looking and dirt cheap. I have used it in some smaller tanks with success so decided it was time to try it in bigger tanks. Over the last weekend, I scooped out all the old substrate and replaced it with 200lbs of #3 (medium) Black Beauty for about $30.


The 72g tank has always been an afterthought. It was going to be wht the 240g became, but partway through the build I determined it was too small to do what I wanted. I was then going to make it a cichlid tank but it's kind of small for African ciclids and I never really got it to a point I liked for South American cichlids. So with inspiration from some Amano articles in recent issues of Tropical Fish Keeping magazine, I replaced the gravel with 100lbs of Black Beauty #4 (fine) for $15 and redid the hardscape.


For both of these tanks, I treated all the wood and rocks with hydrogen peroxide or bleach to kill off a growing infestation of black beard algae (bba). Hopefully with good fertilization and high CO2 I can keep it at bay. For my other tanks, I'm trying to get rid of it without wholesale change in the tank. The 60g I'm just using high CO2 and the 240g I treated with Flourish Excel and following with high CO2.

How it's Made

It's been a long time coming, but I've finally begun to document in detail the planning and work that went into the construction of these tanks. I started with the 240g tank since that's the most interesting and complicated. I will expand it in time to cover all the things that I learned and developed as part of this hobby.

Check it out: How it's Made.

What a difference fertilization can make

I've switched to using the Estimative Index form of fertilization for our larger tanks. So far it has made a tremendous difference in this tank as you can see by these plants. Granted, it's the tank with our Discus fry so it sees near-daily water changes as well. But the deep red in the plants is likely a sign of an increase in available iron for the plants.

8 weeks and counting

Discus fry update - 6 weeks old

All fry are in the 60g tank now. The parents defending the fry in the 240g tank were stressing out the other fish in the tank so we moved the fry over as well. We switched from decapsulated brine shrimp eggs to cichlid growth meal today. They're on an automatic feeder and they eat energetically at every feeding.

Bristlenose Pleco Fry - 3 weeks old

On the 2" diameter suction cup from a feeding clip:


On the glass


Just last night we noticed some additional fry from some new eggs! I don't know if more eggs were laid or if they are like some fish eggs that hatch at different times to increase their odds of survival in the wild (due to flooding/drought/predators/etc.)

Discus fry update - 1 month old

We moved most of the fry into our 60g tank after the unfortunate passing of our angel fish. It is a big tank for them to grow in. A few remained behind and when we moved the parents back into the 240g tank some of them went along for the ride. They seemed ok so we removed the few remaining ones into that tank as well. The parents continue to be very protective of the fry, chasing off other fish who come near. You can see the fry in the pictures below.

Bristlenose Pleco Eggs

Some surprisingly large Bristlenose Pleco eggs in our 12g Nano cube tank. The pleco "cave" is 3/4" PVC that was capped on one end, coated in silicone and rolled in gravel.