-Picture Gallery-

1.5 year old 55 gallon, planted freshwater tank. It’s currently home to my 7 year old (since I’ve had her) Red Tiger Oscar, a Flower Horn Cichlid, a tiretrack eel & a small pleco. There’s an enormous Amazon Sword that is the centerpiece, an Anubias that is growing out of a piece of drift wood, Java Fern, Java Moss, Mondo Grass & a few other plant species. I somewhere in the neighborhood of 100+ watts of CF lights & moonlights that have thus far been plenty of light it seems. I only do a monthly water change (at best) on this tank as the plants do a terrific job of taking up nutrients from the substrate. The last two times I’ve attempted to clean the gravel I have found almost no detrius build up. There are 2 canister filters running on the system currently with 1 who’s role is to power an ultraviolet sterilizer that does a great job of helping me to manage algae growth. The plants are surely doing a good job of out competing the algae for nutrients as well. I love this tank because it’s always bursting with “green” and looks great in our living room…it’s also much lower maintenance then the other tanks as I don’t get into CO2 or any other advanced techniques for planted freshwater.