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Are you using the fluval ribbed hoses to test both the eheim and fluval filters??? If so my guess is you have a pin hole leak in one of the hoses which is pulling in air. Its a common problem with the ribbed hoses. Test with some new hose would be my first step.

I'ts been a while again. I was getting bored of the way the old lights looked so i made some new ones. The tank needs a tear down and re-plant really but I might be moving soon so it can wait.

Cant believe its been nearly a year since I last updated! Well as of 6 months ago this is what the tank looked like... And as of today this is what it looks like... Wanting to add a few more crypts if any body has some???? and another school of fish possibly some Odessa Barbs.

Great new project. I'd definitely strengthen up the stand, downward weight isn't so much of an issue as side ways collapse. You need to ensure the legs are straight and level and firmly fixed to the rails. Like said above a stretcher rail glued and screwed along the back a sides will help...

glute here,50% solution though. http://www.bonnymans.co.uk/products/product.php?categoryID=1421&productID=6243

Leaking at the rubber feet was a common problem on the 405 model, I thought they had sorted it out with the 406 model though. On my 405 I just put a load of silicone in the bottom of the canister then sat the whole canister in a lunch box filled with silicone. doesn't leak any more. Did you...

99% sure it is a Spathiphyllum, It had white flowers when I bought it. But like I say over time the white flowers die off and the new flowers that grow stay green.

Yeah I have a peace lilly in my aquarium with the roots submerged under the water and the leaves above the water. Its been in there for months now and doing great, the only thing is I'm getting new growth all the time but the flowers dont go white any more they stay green. any one know why...

I suspect nothing will come of this other than fish food. I have no idea what sex any of the angels are, I didnt even think they were old enough to start spawning :) Nearly all of the eggs are yellow apart from a few which are white. Guessing i'll just have to wait and see.

Had a bit of a surprise when I got in from work today. At first I thought I'd had an out break of snails or some other nasties that had sneaked in on the new plants but after watching the tank for a while its was clear it was something else. This is what i discovered on one of the new radicans...

So its been a good few weeks since an update, I tried some floating plants, think it was Phyllantus Fluitans but because im using lily pipes there is a lot of surface agitation which caused the plants to to move around a lot. Most of them have died off or been pulled apart by the fish. so the...

cheers guys. going shopping at the weekend for more bits...........

cheers for the detailed reply. I've got a fair bit of surface agitation from the lily pipes so not sure how well floating plants will do but i'm willing to give them a try.

cheers guys :thumbup: I'll have a look into the floating plants advet.

cheers Vin :) That''s a good idea didn't think of that. I'm not to clued up on floating plants what would you suggest? cheers.

Pulled the camera out tonight to take some photos of the fish. While the cool white LED's make the tank look really crisp and bring out the greens in the plants it totally washes out the colour of the fish, I might try a couple of warm white LED's to see how it changes things. Oh and...

You can do it like this video I've also seen it where the glass is siliconed inside the tank not on top but i can see why placing the glass on top is easier.

I believe the top plastics are also the bracing for the tank. I would be extremely careful taking them off and filling the tank afterwards, (do it out side) It might be a good idea to add a glass brace in the middle of the tank before you use it.

haha I think I need the posts there to stop it taking off! :)

I had a couple of 140mm computer fans laying about so thought i'd give them a go. 2 was probably a bit over kill, 1 would have been enough I think but oh well more cooling the better :) Space inside the unit was to tight to fit the fans inside so I had to raise them above the box slightly...

cheers for your comments :) i've been experimenting with fans :) i think its down to having so many high powered leds in such a small space, they are over heating I'll report back with how it goes

cheers for the replies chaps. I'm still undecided on which LED's to go for, I might just bite the bullet and get some quality ones but I'm not sure on the best place to buy them from is? All the GU10 led's on ebay seem to be fake Chinese rubbish.

cheers Nath :thumbup:

Cheers Tom :) floaty wood is definitely a pain in the backside! So Sunday began with a quick trip to the beach to borrow a couple of heavy stones, luckily the beach is only down the road. So with the newly acquired stones cable tided to the wood I re-planted and started to fill the tank again...

Well Its been an eventful weekend and an experience! Started 8am Saturday morning and didn't stop until 9pm and I still had more to do! It all started by draining the tank and removing the plants and fish into temporary accommodation. home for a little while. Next was to tackle the...

this is gonna be goooooood!

cheers guys :) Its been a long wait but hopefully it will be worth while. watch this space! :nailbiting:

Got my LED bulbs just in time for the big tear down this weekend. Went for 3x3w in the end. IF its too intense I can remove some bulbs or raise the lights if needs be. Went for cool white, you can see the difference to the warm white halogen bulbs. All fitted and ready for installation...

looking great Lee, amazing achievement!

Cheers for the help Lee :thumbup: I'm off to do some more reading. Going to be ordering some bulbs this week so need to make sure I've decided which way I'm going with the new tank..

Can anyone give me some advice about setting up a low tech tank? My current tank is high tech, co2, Ei and glute and I'm thinking I'd like to have a change and try something different on the new tank. Only thing is i'm not sure on the essentials. I was planning to use a soil substrate which...

Cost wise its cost me about £3 to build the box, luckily I got the wood free from work I just had to buy the ally tube and the bolts. You should easily be able to pick up all the bits for under £15 The light fittings i got on special offer from B&Q for £8. and a few quid here and there for...

Got the light box finished today. The big tear down is fast approaching! Wires are hidden inside the ally tube. Should no one copy my electrical prowess, I'm a master of the bodge! From underneath and with the lights on and one from the top I've got to spill the...

2 and 4 where also my favorites. I know what you mean about 3 the open space looks wrong. Its hard to place things properly without the substrate in but I'm thinking something along these lines. This is the dismay of my current tank, Its been massively neglected over the past few weeks, I've...

Had a spare few minutes to have a play with the layout of the tank today. I'm after a centrally focused design with open space at the edges and plants coming up through the wood. The focal point will be these pieces of mopani wood. I'm going to have a good couple of inches of aqua soil capped...

Yeah no doubt the biggest factor in using thinner glass is to maintain the highest profit margins possible and like you say as long as the tanks arn't failing they will continue to do so. Also agree that if a DIY tank is made well it should last just as well as a mass produced tank, I used HA6...

Ah sorry my mistake, I thought you where intending on building it yourself I've got making things on the brain at the moment :) 10mm should be adequate, 12mm will give you complete peace of mind if you dont mind the aesthetics of the thicker glass.

I've just build a rimless tank 700x450x400mm and used 10mm glass, No way would I consider using any thing less for a diy tank, not because the glass is too thin but because the silicone joint is not strong enough For 1200mm tank I would personally use 12mm glass, thicker glass = bigger surface...

I let loose with the buffer tonight! muchness whizzy fun :) I cramped it in the vice to polish the curves. too much paste! And the results... It's all far from perfect I should have spent much more time cutting back between coats but it will do. Got to get my electricians cap on...

damn! I wish my first attempt looked like that. great work.

cheers dean, funnily enough building the tank with the injection method and cramps means its a one man job. more updates soon :)

thanks for the detailed reply lots of good info there. got to do a bit more research but hopefully i should get some good result. cheers

Cheers for all the support guys :) What bulbs and how many are you using in your GU10 fittings tmiravent? Got the top coat done tonight, got to wait a week for it to fully cure then I'll set about it with the machine polisher to get rid of the orange peel and give it a deep shine. Its...

I'm pretty sure you can adjust the flow on the 305 but even at its lowest setting it might still be too much for a 38l tank.

cheers Tim, hopefully it wont be too long away now, i'm itching to get it finished.

I've been busy the last few days so not had much time to spend on the set up but I did manage to get all the priming done. All ready for top for top coat now.

Managed to finish off the light box this evening. Cramped the legs in my vice to see how it all looked. Top of the box fitted, still got to cut them bolts down :) Also made some knobs which will lock the arms in place when fitted to the cabinet. And finally gave every thing a dust coat...

15w is the highest i can find gu10 led bulbs, which are apparently very bright. i was planning to use either 9w or 12w led bulbs as they seem the best compromise between price and brightness. im hoping 6 should be more than enough and if i need to reduce the light intensity i can raise the...

Cheers for the info Alastair, Do you have a link to the bulbs so I can take a look? I got a little more done on the light box tonight. Got the Ally cut and fitted into the curved arms. Wing nuts to hold it in place, need to cut the bolts down. Got the rest of the bracket done for the...

ooooh thanks for the offer Alastair, tiltable fittings could work out very well, even more control over the light. Mine are fixed, but I'll see how they get on first. Still got to decided what wattage LED to get?

So I got some work done on the light box tonight. I threw it together quickly after work so its not the prettiest thing at the moment but hopefully once its all finished it should look pretty swanky :) I was initially thinking of using some LED flood lights but after seeking more advice from...

cheers guys. I started work on the lighting unit on Friday so hopefully have some pics up next week.

Hey all. I've been fighting the itch to set up a new tank for a long time and now the times come to scratch that itch! So whats the plan? Simple.... New DIY tank New DIY tank stand And new DIY lighting Its easy to say, lets see how easy it is to do. First off Lets order some Glass. The...

cheers for the advice guys.

cheers for all the tips guys. Think I'll soak the soil as well as the florabase for a few weeks before I set up the new tank. What do you recommend to use as a substrate divider to stop the two mixing?

cheers for the replies chaps, slight issue... im changing over to a new tank so i have to break the current tank down, set up the new one, replant and stock all in a day. i have nowhere to hold the plants and fish for any large length of time so its all got to be done swiftly.

hey all, ive just got hold of some of this soil to use under a layer of black Colombo florabase to bulk it out. http://www.diy.com/nav/garden/garden-care-watering/compost-sand-bark/specialist_compost/Verve-Aquatic-Compost-20L-10288072?skuId=10718778 just wondering what the best way to...

a successful trip to b&q today, got 6 gu10 light fittings for £8 and a bag of aquatic soil. just got to figure out how to wire them up :)

excellent, cheers for the info foxfish i'll check them out.

ok cool. What sort of fittings would I need? Could I use something like this and retro fit it into a lamp shade hanging over the tank? I'd need it to wire into a plug so I can use the lights on a socket timer...

cheers for that. Just had a quick look and 8w is the highest I could find for these bulbs? I'll have to figure out what wattage I'd need and how many to cover the tank. Think a trip to B&Q might be in order.

Not heard of the GU10 spot lights, what are they?

cheers. it was these threads that initially got me interested in the led floodlights. Ideally I'd like to hang the lights fairly high above the aquarium so I'm guessing 30w would give better penetration? I'm just a bit worried they will be a bit large. You use the 30 w versions? could you give...

Hey all, I'm currently in the process of building a 130L rimless aquarium, as such i'll need some new lights and I've been looking at the LED flood lights. Trouble is I'm not sure on what wattage I'd need or how many Tank dimensions are 700x450x400mm (L,D,H) I was thinking that two 30w lights...

so it seems taking a tank apart can be done fairly quickly, removing all the silicone not so much! Has taken most of the day to clean all the silicone residue from the glass, in the end after a google search I resorted to isopropyl alcohol and 0000 wire wool and plenty of elbow grease. Got it...

ah i see what your saying now, its worth a go.

I've heard that silicone can take a few weeks to fully cure, strangely it doesn't mention curing times on the tube. Thats an excellent idea on sticking two bits of glass together at the same time, unfortunately I dont have any spare glass to use :(

So it was easier to pull the tank apart than I was expecting. Still have to get all the silicone residue off and clean the glass but that can wait for tomorrow. I used a stanley blade in a scraper handle to remove the water seal on the inside of the tank. I just pushed it in from both sides and...

cheers for the replies chaps, think im going to tear it down and redo the whole tank. Better safe than sorry and nows the best time to do it while its all clean and tidy.

Cheers for the reply Kirk. I did initially think about getting a syringe and injecting silicone through a needle into the bubble but I think silicone is too thick to be pushed through a needle? I'm not too fussed on how it looks, I can put that side to the wall so it will never be seen, I was...

Hey all, I'm in the process of building a rimless tank using silicone injection method. see this thread for details. http://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/diy-rimless-tanks-whos-built-one.32279/ (thought more people would see this thread in this sub forum) Every thing was going well until I saw...

looking good. what substrate are you using?

It does seem pretty straight forward and less risk involved than the standard way of tank building. Only tools I'd need are the clamps which I already have. The glass is already cut to size and beveled and seems to be within +/- 1mm on dimensions. I was planning to rough up the edges to be...

Right I've got the glass and the silicone all ready to go. I was watching some tutorials on aquarium building the normal way where you lay a bead of silicone down along the edges and assemble the entire aquarium before the silicone starts to skin over. Seems this is the most standard way of...

I found that while the co2 reactor worked extremely well in dissolving all of the co2 into the water, the filter trapped the co2 for a long time. This meant that I had to turn the co2 on a long time before the lights came on, I think it was about 5-6 hours before lights on, of course this meant...

cheers for the link Ian, they are a bit out of my way though unfortunately, Delivery is quoted at £70! I want to have a go at building my own, its somethings I've always wanted to try. One other thing I have a question about is the construction of the tank with regard to the bottom pane. Most...

cheers for the replies chaps. Seems the dimensions are good for a braceless tank so i might go for it. I'll get a quote for opti glass but if its a lot more I'm not to fussed. The tank is only seen from 2 sides so could I just use opti glass for the front panel and then normal float glass...

I'm toying with the idea of building my own rimless tank and was after some advice. I've watched and read a lot of guides on how to build the tank so I'm pretty happy with that side of things, Its the glass thickness and dimension before needing bracing that I'm concerned about. I'm not after...

cheers for the replies chaps. Not sure if they are mites, from what I've seen mites have more rounded bodies? they are so small its hard to get a good picture, the one above was taken with a 100mm macro lens. I'm going to give the hood of the tank a good clean as I think they are feeding on...

lol, so yahoo keeps telling me...........(bangs head):what:

Hey all. I was doing a water change tonight When I noticed a lot of sand like dots all over the aquarium glass, At first I thought it to be nothing more than grit/sand that had somehow managed to get high up on the aquarium glass. However after closer inspection I could see the things moving...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Fluval-Plant-Pressurised-CO2-Ceramic-Diffuser-88g-/300608731044?pt=UK_Pet_Supplies_Fish&hash=item45fdad37a4

Another vote for the fluval black disk diffuser here. Its theBest diffuser i've used.

cheers for the replies chaps. I have a small amount of green spot algae on some of my swords so I might try a light dose of this to see if it keeps it at bay.

Hey all Just been browsing youtube and came across a couple of videos that show using hydrogen peroxide can control algae outbreaks. I've not heard of this before so was curious to see if any one is using it in their tanks and what the outcome is? Is it harmful to the fish/plants in any...

cheers for the reply Alastair. Done a bit more research and found the same answer, pvc cement won't work on acrylic. Seems some people make there own acrylic cement using pure Methyl Ethyl Ketone and some acrylic shavings. Might give this a try as I only need a small amount.

Hey all, sorry to thread hi-jack but im going to be making a nano acrylic tank and possibly mitering the corners. Does any one know if PVC cement is the same as acrylic cement? It's a fraction of the cost and if it works on acrylic i'll save some money and go for that.

funny, I was going to make a similar thread. It makes sense that in warmer temperatures plant metabolism is faster thus the need for more nutrients and carbon but is there a point the temperature is too high and negatively effects the plants? I normally run my tank around the 26-28 mark but...

"lights on for 15 hours a day" Wowzers! Get your self a socket timer quick and reduce the lighting period to 5-6 hours max.

Does any body dose glute neat straight into the tank? I'm getting fed up of making a solution every week, and I've also read that over time glute becomes less effective when mixed with water? So my glute solution might be stronger on the first day and gradually gets weaker as the days go by...

cheers for that, i'll check them out.

haha ok, prepare for tank break down :) which crypts are fairly large, I don't want any thing too small.

cheers for the help so far guys. Are crypts generally regarded as the easiest species to keep?

Hey all, I've had my tank running for just over a year now and have just recently stopped injecting co2 and had a bit of a clean up. I'm now just Dosing EI salts and glute every day and running one 30w t8 light tube for 6 hours a day. This is what the tank looks like now. I'm after...

I've notice fish gasping when I dose a large amount of glute, I'll have to watch out for this. learn something new every day. cheers guys.

I've notice fish gasping when I dose a large amount of glute, I'll have to watch out for this. learn something new every day. cheers guys.

Found similar things with my tank. Glut killed off a lot of my plants, cant remember what they all where but will find out for you. Seems some plants just cant tolerate the stuff. However the remaining plants are doing fantastically well with glut so have continued using it. Would be handy...

Just on a side note, I had to reduce the amount of media in my filter to maintain good flow. I'm only using 2 or the 4 sponge filters and only a small hand full of bio rings in each tray. Definitely don't use any filter floss etc as this will really reduce flow.

might be worth trying the diffusers again in a bowl with the new co2 tubing, then your'll know if it was the air line that was causing a restriction? I found mine to make a good seal using co2 tubing, i just added the silicone for extra peace of mind.

Looks interesting foxfish, keep us posted on how you're getting on. Pink I'd say its either a restriction or a leak? I cant remember what size hole I drilled for the co2 tubing, probably 5.5mm, I do remember it was a right pain to get through! Start small and make it half a mm bigger each...