Plunket
Member
- Joined
- 24 Nov 2009
- Messages
- 81
Hello everyone
I’ve been lurking about the fringes on UKAPS for some time, really enjoying all the fantastic displays and great wealth of information that the forum provides, but not really getting involved. Well, time to change – here goes!
At the outset, just want to thank everyone for the great information and inspiration within these pages, but especially Alastair for the motivation, and George for all his advice and help, and for taking time out to come and photograph my set-up
I suspect this means that the best photos of my new tank will be of it unfilled!
For some time I’ve been scheming to get a new tank at home and “The Chancellor” finally agreed, on one condition – that the cabinet was made of solid wood! If only I’d known that’s all it would take….
So here she is, 1095 x 450 x 450 mm, opti-white, on her solid oak cabinet:
Have to say, we thought the wine rack was a good idea, but as you can see, nothing lasts long enough to go in there! Suggestions for alternative uses welcome
My mission with this build, apart from hopefully producing a competent ‘scape, is to come up with a functional design that provides filtration, CO2 delivery, heating and additional circulation through the base of the tank so that there is no equipment in the tank or cabling, pipes, etc. over the rim.
Not a simple brief, but after six months of planning, trial and error, drilling, cutting, gluing, joining, pulling apart, re-building and testing, I’m hoping I now have a workable design.
Not sure how much detail to include, but basically the intake and return go through a single hole (55mm) in the base of the tank. The intake gets split in two, with one part going directly to the filter (which runs 24/7) and the other to a circulation pump which will be on the same timer as the CO2 solenoid switch. This timer will, in turn, mimic the photoperiod settings on the lighting controller, meaning the additional circulation and CO2 injection will be provided during the day only, when the lights are on. When I wet tested this, the fully loaded filter on its own delivered 750 LPH (around 5 x tank water volume), while the filter and circulation pump together delivered 1500 LPH (around 10 x tank water volume). There is a flow control top on the pump so I can crank this down if required.
The return from the filter passes through an inline Hydor heater before merging with the flow from the circulation pump and inline diffuser, then back to the tank via the centre of the intake hole, to a 22mm acrylic lily pipe/spray bar. I haven’t completed the fabrication of this as I need to see how the flow is distributed around the tank, but this can be optimised once the tank is filled.
Inside the tank, there is a removable intake housing with a pre-filter sponge and the return passes through the middle of this. Kind of complicated and difficult to explain, but seems to work.
Ultimately, this will all be screened by plant growth, but still be accessible for removal and cleaning. If anyone is interested in the specific design, let me know so I can provide additional pics to illustrate.
After a couple of weeks of faffing about I finally decided on the layout:
One of the things that has bothered me in the past is all the tying and netting and otherwise fiddling to get mosses and carpeting plants established, so I decided to try the DSM. Again, huge thanks to the people I’ve been pestering over this.......
(“You mean I spend good money on healthy plants, put them through a kitchen blender, add some yoghurt then paint them onto the rocks and wood!!?? Seriously??!!”)
I’m about 10 days into the process now, and so far, touch wood, it seems to be going well.
Plants I’ve put in so far:
Glosso, HC ‘cuba’, Eleocharis sp. ‘mini’, Elatine hydropiper, Fissidens fontanus, Riccardia chamedryfoli and Plagiomnium affine. I’ve also attached a couple of small pieces of Microsorium ‘mini’ to the tree – just hoping it survives the dry start if I keep it moist – and some of the surplus Cryptocoryne lucens from my livestock tank.
This is where I am as at today (thanks once again to George for the pics!):
So there it is - my first journal entry...thanks for reading, hopefully much more to follow
I’ve been lurking about the fringes on UKAPS for some time, really enjoying all the fantastic displays and great wealth of information that the forum provides, but not really getting involved. Well, time to change – here goes!
At the outset, just want to thank everyone for the great information and inspiration within these pages, but especially Alastair for the motivation, and George for all his advice and help, and for taking time out to come and photograph my set-up
I suspect this means that the best photos of my new tank will be of it unfilled!For some time I’ve been scheming to get a new tank at home and “The Chancellor” finally agreed, on one condition – that the cabinet was made of solid wood! If only I’d known that’s all it would take….
So here she is, 1095 x 450 x 450 mm, opti-white, on her solid oak cabinet:
Have to say, we thought the wine rack was a good idea, but as you can see, nothing lasts long enough to go in there! Suggestions for alternative uses welcome
My mission with this build, apart from hopefully producing a competent ‘scape, is to come up with a functional design that provides filtration, CO2 delivery, heating and additional circulation through the base of the tank so that there is no equipment in the tank or cabling, pipes, etc. over the rim.
Not a simple brief, but after six months of planning, trial and error, drilling, cutting, gluing, joining, pulling apart, re-building and testing, I’m hoping I now have a workable design.
Not sure how much detail to include, but basically the intake and return go through a single hole (55mm) in the base of the tank. The intake gets split in two, with one part going directly to the filter (which runs 24/7) and the other to a circulation pump which will be on the same timer as the CO2 solenoid switch. This timer will, in turn, mimic the photoperiod settings on the lighting controller, meaning the additional circulation and CO2 injection will be provided during the day only, when the lights are on. When I wet tested this, the fully loaded filter on its own delivered 750 LPH (around 5 x tank water volume), while the filter and circulation pump together delivered 1500 LPH (around 10 x tank water volume). There is a flow control top on the pump so I can crank this down if required.
The return from the filter passes through an inline Hydor heater before merging with the flow from the circulation pump and inline diffuser, then back to the tank via the centre of the intake hole, to a 22mm acrylic lily pipe/spray bar. I haven’t completed the fabrication of this as I need to see how the flow is distributed around the tank, but this can be optimised once the tank is filled.
Inside the tank, there is a removable intake housing with a pre-filter sponge and the return passes through the middle of this. Kind of complicated and difficult to explain, but seems to work.
Ultimately, this will all be screened by plant growth, but still be accessible for removal and cleaning. If anyone is interested in the specific design, let me know so I can provide additional pics to illustrate.
After a couple of weeks of faffing about I finally decided on the layout:
One of the things that has bothered me in the past is all the tying and netting and otherwise fiddling to get mosses and carpeting plants established, so I decided to try the DSM. Again, huge thanks to the people I’ve been pestering over this.......
(“You mean I spend good money on healthy plants, put them through a kitchen blender, add some yoghurt then paint them onto the rocks and wood!!?? Seriously??!!”)
I’m about 10 days into the process now, and so far, touch wood, it seems to be going well.
Plants I’ve put in so far:
Glosso, HC ‘cuba’, Eleocharis sp. ‘mini’, Elatine hydropiper, Fissidens fontanus, Riccardia chamedryfoli and Plagiomnium affine. I’ve also attached a couple of small pieces of Microsorium ‘mini’ to the tree – just hoping it survives the dry start if I keep it moist – and some of the surplus Cryptocoryne lucens from my livestock tank.
This is where I am as at today (thanks once again to George for the pics!):
So there it is - my first journal entry...thanks for reading, hopefully much more to follow
One hole isn't necessarily going to have a smaller footprint, but in this case it would: if I'd had two holes, they would have had to be at least 30mm to accommodate the tank connectors, etc. and because it's glass, there has to be good separation, probably another 30mm at least, so one 55mm hole made more sense. Also, having a single transit is just less disruptive to the inside of the tank.
