Step 1: Location

It's been a while since I put anything up, and that was mostly do to the first step in the process of putting together my 120: location.

I've been loosely planning this thing out for a good long while; over a year at least. It started as a loose notion that I wanted a bigger tank (but who doesn't?). My major limiting factor was where we lived. Our old apartment was a two bedroom on the second floor of a Victorian house built around the end of the 19th century. Space was a factor, but so was the structural integrity of the floor. Last November my wife and I decided that it was time to relocate back closer to our families. We were both originally from the South, and had moved out to San Francisco for jobs. I foolishly believed we would be moving "in no time", so I began collecting ideas for a bigger tank. A little thing called "the global economic meltdown" got in the way a little bit. Fast forward to June. My wife got an offer to relocate within her company home to Atlanta, and we jumped at it. As part of the relocation, we decided to bite the bullet and finally purchase a house. We moved in two weeks ago.

Our new house is a 4 bedroom, 2 bath, Craftsman built in 1920. It's been remodeled and expanded twice, so that now it's comfy at 2400 sq ft.The most recent renovation included pouring a concrete basement. Bit of constuction history: most homes built before WWII did not have concrete foundations, but typically footings. Knowing that, it was a large selling point to have a basement, which included approximately 800 sq ft of finished living space with tile floors: perfect for a 120g tank.



Now the serious planning can begin.

A little background

I thought a good way to start off would be to give a little background. I've been keeping freshwater tanks for near 22 years. Always off and on I had one or two plants, usually java fern or something else that "looked neat" (read as: non aquatic) from the local fish store. As you would assume, these plants always came to an untimely demise shortly after being introduced to my tank. About 2.5 years ago I picked up some Ludwigia repens from Wet Pets in Pleasanton,CA. After a brief discussion about my sordid history with live plants, the guy there handed me a small bottle of Flourish and said "this stuff works great, toss in a capful every other week or so." And so it began.

After a few months of the L. repens living, but not really growing, I decided to investigate what else could help me have live plants in my tank. At this point, I define my interest as having "a tank with plants" rather than a "planted tank." I stumbled upon Aquaria Central, and from that, Planted Tank and APC. Quickly I built a DIY light fixture to bump my light from 18 watts over a 30g, to 120 watts over that same tank. I got into DIY CO2. Slowly my tank started to turn into a planted tank.

Not to long after this my exploration into planted tanks really started to steamroll into an obsession. A fried that was moving across the country passed on his 46g bowfront to me. After that, the 30g was upgraded to a 45g. These two tanks would become the focus of my attention for the next 2 years.

In posts to come, I will provide a little more detail about these two tanks.

Introduction

Welcome to my mind. This blog is going to be a collection of my thoughts regarding my impending construction of 120 gallon planted tank. This tank will represent the culmination of the past 2 years of my planted tank experiences.

I've been mulling over a tank of this size since last November, and in the next few months it should come to fruition. This blog will be a way for me to keep track of all my ideas along the way, record the experience, and hopefully share any information I gather along the way.

Enjoy!