90 gallon re-setup

[TokayKeeper]

My fianceé and I recently had to move due to the property owners of the house we were renting wanting to move back. Aside the usual moving annoyances, I also had to tear down my loved 90 gallon tank.

The tank has about 2 inches of large grain aquarium gravel (3 bags worth at 25 lbs/bag) for a drainage layer, plus various smaller gravel sizes for packing behind large limestone rocks (to keep crickets from hiding behind them) I collected years ago while still living in Alamogordo, NM. Added to that are 2 large pieces of mopani wood, a nice piece of huge grape vine, and an awesome 3/4 closed cork bark tube.

I finally got the time to set the tank back up. Here's the start of it, getting general placement ideas.

Afterwards, I then filled the tank with a personal soil blend (an organic potting mix, uni-grow orchid soil, uni-grow orchid bark, peat moss, coco coir, and paving sand [paving sand is VERY fine grain & retains moisture quite well]).

Here's the tank planted:

The plants include:

Chamaedorea elegans - Neatha Bella Palm
Chlorophytum amaniense - Fire Flash
Peperomia argyreia - Watermelon Peperomia
Pellaea rotundifolia - Button Fern
Ficus pumila - Creeping Fig

And the little %$^! that lives in the tank, the son of my screen name namesake:

I plan to add string of hearts or some selaginella to create ground cover to fill the center foreground of the tank. The string of hearts might be tough as they require more dry conditions than the other plants.

 

[fl_orchidslave]

Wow, very nice. I've grown string of hearts for many years, alongside my orchids, and find they crave water, but not soggy conditions. If you put a layer of small sized orchid bark under a patch of soil for it to keep a bit of air around the roots, it should do fine.

 

[Bones93]

Beautiful tank and Tokay!

 

[acpart]

Very nice. Just out of curiousity, any reason for using aquarium gravel instead of hydroton which seems as if it would be a lot lighter and easier to move?

Aliza

 

[TokayKeeper]

Very nice. Just out of curiousity, any reason for using aquarium gravel instead of hydroton which seems as if it would be a lot lighter and easier to move?

Aliza

When I used hydroton, the actual brand, it leached red into the water. I used it in a display habitat for canyon and mountain treefrogs when I worked at the Las Cruces Museum of Natural History. I sadly bought a 50 lbs bag of the stuff too with anticipation of using it one other amphibian habitats, much like the dart frog community has. However, after rinsing it repeatedly (which I did from the start), letting it soak for 24, 48, and 72 hours with regular dumping of water to leach the red clay color further I still had the same problem, red water. It temporarily stained the treefrog habitat, including my mosses and maiden hair ferns I'd field collected to keep with the native theme. I wasn't pleased nor impressed to say the least, so I went with what I knew worked.

The tank would have been heavy to move regardless though. That huge limestone flat to the right on the back wall is around 40-50 lbs at the least. It's a struggle to carefully and delicately lift it into the tank for placement.

 

[acpart]

Thanks, good to know. My hydroton only comes into contact with coco fiber so it's not an issue.

Aliza

 

[touch 13]

Very very lovely.