My 300 Gallon Freshwater Planted Tank Build

BMott

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I don’t know if i will get bashed for a freshwater tank post, but I have been into freshwater for a long time and recent new to salt tanks. I got to know this website from a friend and have enjoyed learning about salt water and reef tanks so much, I recently took the plunge with a 32gallon biocube. So far so good, and can see that I have a large tank in my future.

I have shared some of my stories on my Facebook groups, but I thought there might be some freshwater people here that would love some of this journey. Just a little background, I am a civil engineer and been practicing engineering for over 25 years. I have a masters in water and wastewater treatment. So, I enjoy the water chemistry side of everything. Also, I love animals so the fish tank hobby fits me well. we have three dogs, a cat, 3,000 gallon koi pond, and a couple of tanks.

I am writing this story to share some the good decisions and bad... and what I had to do to fix them. It is ok to make mistakes as long as you learn from them. I hope this post helps someone out there.

A while back, we got rid of all of our tanks. We went into a local pet store and we saw a little nano shrimp tank and the wife says, I want a little tank for the counter in the kitchen. So, a year later and 1,000 dollars later, we have a cool shrimp tank. So, two things about me, I overthink everything, and I can’t do anything half way. If one is good, four is better.

I started looking for a larger tank and started doing my research on a planted tank. My great Idea was to do a planted community tank. I havent had a community tank in a while. So... let’s get a tank.

what size??? IDK, maybe 120, maybe bigger... so, at this time, there is a shortage in glass, and there are no large tanks to be found. I live in southeast Alabama and I drove three hours and guess what, no big tanks. so I came across this website called glasscages.com. Reading the reviews, it was scary. There were good and bad reviews. But the prices looked good. Curiosity got the best of me and I called them. I met the guy at GC named Joe. Joe is a mechanical engineer and we hit it off. You know, what could be more exciting than two geek engineers talking about aquariums. Joe tells me that he recently went in to be one of the leaders at GC and told me about all his great ideas. He really sparked my interest, and i figured, why not try to help a business that is trying to make themselves better. Joe is a great salesman, and after some discussion, I had a 300 gallon glass tank ordered (with stand and canopy).

Joe told me about their new and improved quality control program and asked me to give my honest opinions. I drove to Tennessee one weekend to pick the tank up. These guys are awesome!!! They gave me a tour of the facility and I got to pick up the new tank. they had several tanks way bigger than the 300, but I am excited! I will stop the story here for today, but give me some feedback if this interests you and you want to hear more.

Pic of me and the tank when I got home.

cheers!

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Opus

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I have a 75g planted take with 2 waterfalls. Hope to see some more pics.

He hasn't been on in almost a month. Hopefully he is just busy with the tank and hasn't gotten out of saltwater. I would also like to see how the new tank is progessing.
 

HockeyRooster

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The penalty for posting about a freshwater tank is 1 C5Z06. You’ll need to ship it to me in Canada.
haha-good luck with the tank.
 

Mastering the art of locking and unlocking water pathways: What type of valves do you have on your aquarium plumbing?

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