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Calzone's new 120x60x45 optiwhite tank build

Antipofish - prefilter arrived and fitted. Only using one half currently, though may put the other half on the other inlet with some sort of covering for the hole at the bottom. That way prefilter both inlets with one part. Man it is huge though, hadn't really realised.

Re the gas bottle - just bear in mind it has a collar to protect the outlet - this is a good thing except that it could make fitting your regulator/solenoid combo challenging - in my case the solenoid is at an angle to the reg as this is the only way it would fit. Seems to work fine though.

Am currently running the system with an intank co2 diffuser - this thing is rubbish. no matter where i put it the bubbles just go straight up and pop on the surface. And a nightmare to fit and keep in one place. Roll on getting the AM1000 fixed, and NOT LEAKING EVERYWHERE.
 
i have similar issues with my co2 diffuser. I have it under my filter intake now but my bubble rate is astronomical :( tried an intank atomizer, great little bubbles but it stops working after a few hours. strange. am thinking about fitting a co2 reactor to my new external....
 
Right, finally, took a day off and got stuck into planting. I'm not the quickest, and there were a lot of them so took ages. Plants and planting scheme broadly in line with the diagram I produced way back on roughly page 7 of this journal.

First up - the plants in their packaging:
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The filter set up on a bucket to keep it alive while I plug away (can I just say I hate 16/22mm hose and taking these things down - its an ergonomic challenge at best):
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I didnt take any pics of the plants unwrapped or any of the chopping up etc. Suffice it to say there were buckets and rock wool everywhere. Plants all Tropica from TGM. Now I'm sure these are top end plants, and certainly they looked v healthy. First impression though the pots are small for the cash (though with effort they do split up and go a long way).

A quick shot of early HC planting (these looked about the right sized chunks from the tropica vids - but my word they are hard to keep in the soil even with AS Powder!!):
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And to cut to the chase, many hours later:
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Carpets of HC, E Parvula and (yet to plant glosso), stauro and p helferi plus crypts in the mid ground, java fern and weeping moss on the wood (plus a sneaky anubia), Echi. Reni and Apo. crispus red as highlights, then a bunch of nice looking stems in the back layer (hard to see here).

On the left:
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On the Right (with gap for glosso):
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Currently CO2 via a diffuser, while fixing external reactor. Lights 2x54w on for 6 hrs, with 1 hour gap in the middle. No fish in yet. Flow on the RHS very poor due to weak filter/overfilled/constricted hose. Needs addressing. Carpets on the left swaying in the current, on the rhs, not so much....

I may be asking for trouble at 6 hours until the co2/flow improved, so may look to cut that down to 4 hours. Any views on that?
 
The wood ont he right has slipped down a bit and needs repositioning further up to the right. In the shot below you shouldn't really be able to see much of the prefilter on the inlet - the wood should shift 2-3 inches to the right. Note that there are 3 caves under the wood in total, 2 terracota and one black plastic out of sight.

img7230u.jpg


The sand needs tarting up too, the aquasoil is a nightmare to stop drifting down and covering it due tot he steep slope - will sort this out when the plants take firmer root, and move that big stone at the front that I forgot to move after refilling.
 
that is a lot of plants :) cha ching££ very well done for having the patience.
 
Nick what a mammoth task, but it looks like you have done it justice. Congrats, this is going to look lovely when its finished. I know what you mean about planting in this aquasoil, and its why I changed ultimately. (Although I did have regular and not powder size). I am surprised what you said about pot size. Would have been good to see a pic of some of them before you split them, so we could see a comparison. I got tropica pots from P@H the other day and was totally amazed at how much you got out of them. I was getting about 10 good stems and twice as many plantlets with the Hygro that I bought, and the crypts probably had a good 8 to 10 plants in each pot. The Pogo split into a good 5 or 6 individuals... If you got significantly less than that, bearing in mind what you spent, I would consider talking to TGM about it. Or thats the amount you got but was expecting more ? Either way, you have broken the back of the job now, so well done. I bet you sat back and looked at your handywork with a big smile:) :thumbup:
 
I'm pretty sure I got the same as you, I'm not complaining. I had maybe 20-25 pots so I didnt spend ages breaking them up into plantlets. Eg crypts, I'm sure I could have got 8-10 from each pot, but I prefer to have them somewhat clumped together else the entire tank would be one big crypt. I have two in my old tank and they look great tightly packed imo. on the pogo helf, there were maybe 4-5 plantlets in each pot, I maybe got 3 or so from each, as a lot were still attached via runners so I left em.

I was gettign nine cm square clumps of HC from each pot. Challenging getting the rock wool off those without destroygin roots and leaving nothing to plants them with! with patience I could maybe have spread the hair grass more too. But I got less patient as the day wore on and my body started failing me!
 
Calzone said:
I'm pretty sure I got the same as you, I'm not complaining. I had maybe 20-25 pots so I didnt spend ages breaking them up into plantlets. Eg crypts, I'm sure I could have got 8-10 from each pot, but I prefer to have them somewhat clumped together else the entire tank would be one big crypt. I have two in my old tank and they look great tightly packed imo. on the pogo helf, there were maybe 4-5 plantlets in each pot, I maybe got 3 or so from each, as a lot were still attached via runners so I left em.

I was gettign nine cm square clumps of HC from each pot. Challenging getting the rock wool off those without destroygin roots and leaving nothing to plants them with! with patience I could maybe have spread the hair grass more too. But I got less patient as the day wore on and my body started failing me!
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Fair enough. Knowing how busy you are, I would have otherwise suggested having them delivered over two different days but you wanted to get the most of it done in one hit. And yes, detaching plants from rockwool is nowhere near as easy as it looks on the videos. I found taking the large portions off from the outside first made it easier, then I cut the bottom third off as I would have cut that amount of original root off anyway to encourage new growth. then a few pulls apart and I used the end of a set of nail scissors to 'scrape' the rockwool off whilst holding the root section in water, which made it easier. It certainly took a lot of time.

My thinking on separating plantlets seems to be the opposite. I wanted to do that so that each one could grow, and I could then thin out as necessary to achieve the look I prefer as the scape evolves. My preference would probably be the same as you... instant effect, but my budget held that decision at bay :wideyed:

Either way, I really like the look you are getting. You said yourself there is a little work to do with managing the substrate. I know from first hand experience with my original substrate what that entails, and I was too lazy to want to do that, hence changing before I got going. But when your plants grow in more that will be easier and they should do part of the job of keeping it separate. The end result will be great though :) Keep those pictures coming.
 
Certainly hope so, its not cheap this hobby. Don't even want to think about how much I could blow on fish if the mood grabs!

I'm going to leave the soil until the plants have grown some more robust roots. Otherwise its just an exercise in frustration with that slope.

Plus am absolutely convinced will need to move stuff around as it thickens and I realise where the dead spots are, shadows etc etc. For example, the anubia is in full sunlight where it is, and might well act as too much of a central focal point. Already thinking of moving it closer to the main wood cluster on the left where it will be shaded somewhat by the ferns (if they dont all die that is).
 
curefan said:
Any ideas on how to keep the Aquasoil from spilling out onto your sand?
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1. Don't slope it quite as much as I did, especially in the first inch of aquasoil
2. Use substrate supports or dividers - kind of like any sort of bendable plastic, to just below the surface
3. smash up some larger rocks or get larger graded gravels and sprinkly these on the interface to act as a barrier
4. grow the plants out a bit so the plants stabilise the substrate and limit the movement
 
Day 2, 25% water change. Aggressive fight with various crypts about whether they were going to stay in the soil. I won. Cleaned up lots of plant bits.

My word crypts melt fast! Most of them are halfway gone already! It's true that co2 distribution is poor due to the missing external reactor. Now feeding the bubbles into the filter inlet and pushing hard to source am1000 parts. Not easy as they wait for a big order from Germany. Tedious. Think will reduce lights to 4 hours to avoid stressing plants in meantime. That said, myriophyllum matogrossense has, I swear, grown 4 inches in 2 days.
 
Calzone said:
Day 2, 25% water change. Aggressive fight with various crypts about whether they were going to stay in the soil. I won. Cleaned up lots of plant bits.

My word crypts melt fast! Most of them are halfway gone already! It's true that co2 distribution is poor due to the missing external reactor. Now feeding the bubbles into the filter inlet and pushing hard to source am1000 parts. Not easy as they wait for a big order from Germany. Tedious. Think will reduce lights to 4 hours to avoid stressing plants in meantime. That said, myriophyllum matogrossense has, I swear, grown 4 inches in 2 days.
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Nick have you thought about approaching one of the european retailers to try and source the parts you need or contacting them direct ? I wanted a couple of bits from Sera and emailed them direct. The wonderful company that they are, I had what I requested free of charge, 5 days later !!!
 
Calzone said:
Aquamedic uk certainly won't talk to you unless you are a retailer for some reason. Worth a try though.
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OK, but what I meant was find someone who retails the item in europe, and get them to order the part you need and send it to you. they wont have to wait for large orders before getting stuff over like the uk retailers do. Same problem getting Sera stuff from my LFS, he only gets it when he is ready to order enough to make the shipping worthwhile because its expensive to bring it over, whereas they wont have that issue on the continent so might be able to order your part immediately. The other thing you could as them OR your local UK retailer to do is make it a special order and have it drop shipped direct, and pay the shipping. It only costs £12 to ship an Eheim filter over to the UK so a replacement part for your AM1000 should not be anywhere near that much ?
 
need to know how your reactor does.... gotta get it sorted man ! :twisted: i take it you purchased it second hand?
 
[quote="Calzone" Plants all Tropica from TGM. Now I'm sure these are top end plants, and certainly they looked v healthy. First impression though the pots are small for the cash (though with effort they do split up and go a long way).
[/quote]

Firstly i love TGM, the range and quality of products is always second to none but....
I have to agree, while the plants are always healthy with nice roots structures etc but there not always worth the extra money. With my last set up i used plants both from AE and TGM, the aquafleur AE ones were twice the size and nearly half the price. Think the benefit of AE is they hold lots of plants that tend to mature some what before sale.

Tanks looking nice Calzone, will be good to see it mature.
 
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