Originally I had plans on having a very detailed layout with various plants ranging from beginner plants to rare and unusual ones.
After many hours pouring over aqua essentials, aquarium gardens and tropica website I ended up with a spreadsheet detailing the difficulty, temp, co2, height and 'notes' on various plants. I eventually decided to go with a beginner friendly approach and ditch the wild ambitions. With a tank of this size, I didn't want to throw a lot of money away on plants which were beyond my skill level and end up disappointed. My previous experience of growing plants, if you can call it that, was very poor and if the plants even managed to grow 10mm... that would be a success vs my previous best.
The list contains low light (tank is 30" deep), easy difficulty (Im a beginner) and low to med Co2 requirement plants. I also want to keep a reasonable amount of the tank bottom open sand, as the plecos & corys will need some room.
My list is summarised and shared below with the notes I've collated.
Rotala Rundiflora --- low light / medium growth / good light = red leaves.
Cryptocoryne Becketti - low light, looks good in groups.
Eleocharis Montevidensis - lowish light, low co2, 50cm tall. (Thin grass. Good for creating depth).
Limnophilia Sessilflora - lowish light, low co2, can be tall & bushy
Lodelia Cardinalis - low light, med co2, mid range plant, big leaves, looks good around anubias.
Aponogenton Longiplumulosis - low light, low co2, 60cm tall. large leaves.
Taiwan Moss - low light, low co2, grows horizontally very well.
Anubias Nana - low light, low co2, avoid bright light.
Anubias Barteria - as above.
Anubias Nana Gold - above, and looks good against red / dark background. Don't plant roots. Glue Rhizome.
Microsorum Pteropos (Java Fern Normal & Narrow) low light, low co2, don't plant roots. Glue Rhizome
Echinororus Bleher (Amazon Sword) low / med light, med co2, 60cm tall. Background.
Echinororus Amazonicus (Amazon Sword) low light, low co2, smaller variety than the above.
Vallisneria Spiralis Red. low light, low co2, doesn't like strong flow.
I apologise if I've spelt any of the names wrong!
🙂
Some decisions had to be made with the placement of plants needing more co2, light, aesthetic reasons etc than other plants. The overall look, I'm very happy with.
Co2.
Co2 arts pro diffuser with an extra diffuser.
Link:
https://www.co2art.eu/collections/c...uarium-co2-system-with-in-tank-flux_-diffuser
I went for this as it looked a well built piece of kit and seemed straight forward to set up & use. Granted its a bit pricey, but hey... it is what it is.
Thus far, 3 weeks in I can't fault it. Very sturdy and feels 'solid' if you know what I mean.
I was going to put two diffusers into the sump right next to the pump so that all the equipment for the tank is kept out of sight. Once the tank etc arrived, it quickly became apparent this was not going to work as I'd overlooked an important factor.
The return pump takes water for the sump and sends it back towards the tank. Shortly after the pump there is a T piece which takes water from the return feed and flows it through a UV steraliser. The UV unit then returns the water going through it to the start of the sump.
By putting the diffusers next to the return pump this would mean a proportion of my Co2 (20%) would be going straight back to the start of the sump and likely lost in the tumbling water.
Thus the diffusers are currently positioned at either end of the tank, as far down as they can go on the side glass. Co2 then rises , where it meets the XF350 gyres, which then suck in the co2 and fire it back down and across the tank. This is the most efficient way I could think of getting maximum Co2 exposure to water.
A drop checker sits on the side of the glass giving me an easy way to check what level I'm achieving.
UV Steraliser.
Fed from a T piece off the return pump. Takes water flow up to 1900 litres / hour and then returns it to the start of the sump.
The UV steraliser is also used for water changes (see below)
Return Pump.
4000 to 12,000 litres / hour.
This allows me to adjust the water flow to suit me needs. If the poop is building up and maintenance isn't helping too much than I can increase / decrease the water flow and change the direction of the water returns through the four directional nozzles.
Each return feed (I have 2 weirs, one left and one right) from the sump come out the side of the weir comb. Each separate return feed then immediately hits a T piece which splits into two separate directional nozzles giving me complete control on where to aim the returning water. (Thanks again to aquarium plumbing for their assistance with this).Each return feed (I have 2 weirs, one left and one right) from the sump come out the side of the weir comb. Each separate return feed then immediately hits a T piece which splits into two separate directional nozzles giving me complete control on where to aim the returning water. (Thanks again to aquarium plumbing for their assistance with this).
Gyres.
The two gyres are positioned at opposite ends of the tank on the side glass, just down from the top of the water. On each gyre, one half is aimed straight out and slightly up which creates surface ripples. Nothing massive but enough to stop any films forming on the surface. The other half of the gyre is aimed down at a spot about 1/3 of the way across the tank.
This way I've got flow going across the front and down towards the middle.
Between the gyres, the return pump, the directional nozzles and the top & bottom scavenging weirs, I don't see any dead spots yet. Water flow seems to be good.
Water changes.
Oh boy... this is where I struggled to come up with a solution which wouldn't see me rocking back & forth at some point in my life. Do you know how many 14 litre builders buckets it would take me to do a water change on this thing? Short answer: Lots. So many 'lots' in fact that this needed to be solved in order to ensure my enjoyment wasn't going to die at the hands of a 3 hour tag team event between me , the kitchen sink and the tank.
The solution is simple, albeit it took me a while to get to it...
I bought a 350 litre water tank and shoved it into a cupboard we have under our stairs (about 12ft from the tank).
I then employed a plumber to take a copper pipe to the water tank, with an on/off level valve and put a ball valve into the tank. That way if i forgot to keep an eye on it when it's filling up I would still have a marriage at the end of it.
A cheap pump pump and a heater where then installed (dropped in) into the water tank.
The pump was then connected to an 8m length of pvc hose (about 16mm diam). With an output of 1200 litre / hour I figured this would be enough to empty the water tank at a rate which didnt cause too much disturbance to the tank for the fish and plants, but likewise didnt leave me waiting for hours and hours for it to fill up.
So that's the 'getting a lot of water to the tank' sorted. All I needed to do was figured out an easy (and non divorcing) way to get water out.
This is where the UV steraliser comes into play. By shutting off the taps on the return feed pipes , it forces all of the water coming out the return pump through the steraliser.
I simply shove a length of pond pipe onto the end of the 'return to sump' pipe coming off the steraliser and drag it out to the garden. The return pump can dump 12,000 litres of water an hour out this way and easily keep up with the pond pump in the water tank.
I do a 300 litre water change in about 25 minutes. Blinkin fantastic!
😀