About 4 weeks ago I found myself in a situation which allowed me to my 'tank of a lifetime'. I dont dobt there are people with bigger or better or both but to me.... this was the golden ticket. 🙂
Ive had plenty of aquariums before, the largest being 6 x 2 x 2. I was never successful with plants, pond weed yea.. ok.. i could manage that but proper plants. Nope. That was witchcraft and i had no clue how people grew them. This journal will be written as i experienced the highs and lows of educating myself through this project. There will likely be assumptions and perhaps incorrect information but i will try my best not to. Think of this jourmal as beimg from the viewpoint of someone who knows a bit about fish keeping but at this point, wouldnt know anything about growing aquatic plants.
I spent the first week browsing the net, finding good aquarium makers, asking questions and trying desperately to make sure I had a clear vision of what I wanted to achieve.
The last thing I wanted was to make a stupid mistake and end up with a tank full of mess.
After a weeks worth of research Id settled on 'Huge tank, with two weirs, a sump and with plecos'. I mean... how hard can it be? Right??....
Problem no1. Plecos poo a lot.
The first issue to arise was the amount of pleco poop that gets producee by these aquatic cart horses.
I quickly got the impression that the tank would covered with pleco poo sat at the bottom of the tank and the weirs would be unable to pick it up. Far from ideal from both a healthy water and an aesthetic point of view.
Top & bottom scavenging weirs (new to me) were incorporaged into the design. However i needed a way to control the % of water which goes through top or bottom. As I have access to a laser cutter, i requested the weirs have removeable combs so that i can manufacture my own combs. This way i could have a top comb with more flow restriction which will increase the water pressure on the bottom of the weir and force more water through the bottom.
We'll see how well this works in practice when its all set up but the logic is there.
Problem no2. I dont like big tanks where the top 70% is empty.
Each to their own, but i dont like big tanks where there is just pure open water for huge areas. I wanted something which would break up the space and give it a better look.
Thats when i stumbled onto aquascaping..... and who is this bloody George Farmer everyone keeps going on about?! 😉
...and thats when the plan of 'big tank with fish is easy' suddenly took on a life of its own.
From glass rectangle with fish and a nitrate cycle, i found myself studying ferts, macros, micros, liquid co2 except its not is it..., co2 injection, par, pur, lumens, root tabs, pearling, oxygen, EI dosing, auto dosers, sumps, flow rates through pipes of various diams, weir designs, low tech, high tech, par graphs over distance, and ahy does this George Farmer bloke keep bloody popping up everywhere in my searches!
I figured i would get some rock columns purchased and they would help and... i'll grow moss on them! It'll look awesome and everyone will love it.
About 3 weeks ago, the tank was ordered.
90 x 26 x 30 ( l x w x h )
About a few days later problem no.3 arose very quietly.
Why cant I find many people with deep tanks growing plants apart from George Farmer who turns up yet again on youtube with a 1200l tank and oh my.... mines not going to look anywhere near as great as that!!!! Thanks Mr Farmer.... grrrr...
This is when I stumbled across posts from someone called Hoppy. Very clever person and a lot of the info went right over my head but... i now knew a few things from his/her posts.
Lumens = how bright a light looks to us.
Par = the amount of light which plants can use for photosynthesis. There is also PUR but... yea.. i'll stick to par for now.
I also learned that par values get smaller the farther away from the light you are. So whilst par might be 240 right under the light, 30" down under water its going to be a lot less. So much less in fact that i needed to get some proper plant lights but thats ok because plant lights cant be that much money can they?
Quick google search and...
(Censored)!!!!! Seriously??!!!!! How much??!!!
...and why dont manufacturers hive par values ovee distance for their lights?!
This is when I found myself coming back to UKAPS forums again and again.
So what lights? ..and even more questions arose.
Why do i need fertilsers for the plants, theyre just going to eat the waste right?
Wont any old light do? Surely i could just put some tubes in the hood of the tank and itd be alright?
Why are there macro and micro ferts, why cant they be in one bottle?
Whats this liquid co2. Seems easy enough. Why bother with co2 injection.
Its taken me a number of weeks but for the sake of anyone reading this with the level of knowledge i had a few weeks back...
Dosing ferts will help ensure your plants have the nutrients they need.
Micros and macros do something when combined. Cant remember what but it messes them up, something to do with iron... so dose em on separate days.
Ferts dont last long in the water. You cant dump a lot of ferts into the water and expect it to be there in a usable state in 7 days.
Liquid co2 to be poured into an aquarium isnt liquid co2. Its liquid carbon.
Co2 injection is far superior to liquid carbon.
Some plants / mosses dont like liquid carbon.
Co2 only needs to be in the water when the plants are photo synthesising, whe lights are on.
Surface agitation = co2 easily being released from water.
Lights on = co2 on. Lights off = air pump on.
And thats my journey ovee the first two weeks. I'll type up more and hope to drop some photos in.
Ive purchased a co2 injection starter kit from co2 art. Went for the pro kit as the reg is expandable for 2 x diffusets.
Got a jebeo dp3 auto doser to save the hassle of dosing ferts every day.
Lights i settled on 4 x fluval 3.0 as they have biilt in controllers and , arranged in 2 x rows of 2, will give me enough par at 30" deep that i can grow low light requirement plants.
I usee aquarium classifieds and got two huge pieces of bogwood. One of which is a 5ft branch. That way i can bring some mosses to the light by planting them higher up in the water.
(To be continued)
Ive had plenty of aquariums before, the largest being 6 x 2 x 2. I was never successful with plants, pond weed yea.. ok.. i could manage that but proper plants. Nope. That was witchcraft and i had no clue how people grew them. This journal will be written as i experienced the highs and lows of educating myself through this project. There will likely be assumptions and perhaps incorrect information but i will try my best not to. Think of this jourmal as beimg from the viewpoint of someone who knows a bit about fish keeping but at this point, wouldnt know anything about growing aquatic plants.
I spent the first week browsing the net, finding good aquarium makers, asking questions and trying desperately to make sure I had a clear vision of what I wanted to achieve.
The last thing I wanted was to make a stupid mistake and end up with a tank full of mess.
After a weeks worth of research Id settled on 'Huge tank, with two weirs, a sump and with plecos'. I mean... how hard can it be? Right??....
Problem no1. Plecos poo a lot.
The first issue to arise was the amount of pleco poop that gets producee by these aquatic cart horses.
I quickly got the impression that the tank would covered with pleco poo sat at the bottom of the tank and the weirs would be unable to pick it up. Far from ideal from both a healthy water and an aesthetic point of view.
Top & bottom scavenging weirs (new to me) were incorporaged into the design. However i needed a way to control the % of water which goes through top or bottom. As I have access to a laser cutter, i requested the weirs have removeable combs so that i can manufacture my own combs. This way i could have a top comb with more flow restriction which will increase the water pressure on the bottom of the weir and force more water through the bottom.
We'll see how well this works in practice when its all set up but the logic is there.
Problem no2. I dont like big tanks where the top 70% is empty.
Each to their own, but i dont like big tanks where there is just pure open water for huge areas. I wanted something which would break up the space and give it a better look.
Thats when i stumbled onto aquascaping..... and who is this bloody George Farmer everyone keeps going on about?! 😉
...and thats when the plan of 'big tank with fish is easy' suddenly took on a life of its own.
From glass rectangle with fish and a nitrate cycle, i found myself studying ferts, macros, micros, liquid co2 except its not is it..., co2 injection, par, pur, lumens, root tabs, pearling, oxygen, EI dosing, auto dosers, sumps, flow rates through pipes of various diams, weir designs, low tech, high tech, par graphs over distance, and ahy does this George Farmer bloke keep bloody popping up everywhere in my searches!
I figured i would get some rock columns purchased and they would help and... i'll grow moss on them! It'll look awesome and everyone will love it.
About 3 weeks ago, the tank was ordered.
90 x 26 x 30 ( l x w x h )
About a few days later problem no.3 arose very quietly.
Why cant I find many people with deep tanks growing plants apart from George Farmer who turns up yet again on youtube with a 1200l tank and oh my.... mines not going to look anywhere near as great as that!!!! Thanks Mr Farmer.... grrrr...
This is when I stumbled across posts from someone called Hoppy. Very clever person and a lot of the info went right over my head but... i now knew a few things from his/her posts.
Lumens = how bright a light looks to us.
Par = the amount of light which plants can use for photosynthesis. There is also PUR but... yea.. i'll stick to par for now.
I also learned that par values get smaller the farther away from the light you are. So whilst par might be 240 right under the light, 30" down under water its going to be a lot less. So much less in fact that i needed to get some proper plant lights but thats ok because plant lights cant be that much money can they?
Quick google search and...
(Censored)!!!!! Seriously??!!!!! How much??!!!
...and why dont manufacturers hive par values ovee distance for their lights?!
This is when I found myself coming back to UKAPS forums again and again.
So what lights? ..and even more questions arose.
Why do i need fertilsers for the plants, theyre just going to eat the waste right?
Wont any old light do? Surely i could just put some tubes in the hood of the tank and itd be alright?
Why are there macro and micro ferts, why cant they be in one bottle?
Whats this liquid co2. Seems easy enough. Why bother with co2 injection.
Its taken me a number of weeks but for the sake of anyone reading this with the level of knowledge i had a few weeks back...
Dosing ferts will help ensure your plants have the nutrients they need.
Micros and macros do something when combined. Cant remember what but it messes them up, something to do with iron... so dose em on separate days.
Ferts dont last long in the water. You cant dump a lot of ferts into the water and expect it to be there in a usable state in 7 days.
Liquid co2 to be poured into an aquarium isnt liquid co2. Its liquid carbon.
Co2 injection is far superior to liquid carbon.
Some plants / mosses dont like liquid carbon.
Co2 only needs to be in the water when the plants are photo synthesising, whe lights are on.
Surface agitation = co2 easily being released from water.
Lights on = co2 on. Lights off = air pump on.
And thats my journey ovee the first two weeks. I'll type up more and hope to drop some photos in.
Ive purchased a co2 injection starter kit from co2 art. Went for the pro kit as the reg is expandable for 2 x diffusets.
Got a jebeo dp3 auto doser to save the hassle of dosing ferts every day.
Lights i settled on 4 x fluval 3.0 as they have biilt in controllers and , arranged in 2 x rows of 2, will give me enough par at 30" deep that i can grow low light requirement plants.
I usee aquarium classifieds and got two huge pieces of bogwood. One of which is a 5ft branch. That way i can bring some mosses to the light by planting them higher up in the water.
(To be continued)