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The Next Episode - 800 litres

NC10

NC10

Member
Joined
20 Nov 2013
Messages
566
Location
Sheffield
60" x 30" x 28", Optiwhite front & sides, mitred corners, braceless (nearly), 15mm glass, sumped, 800+ litres. Woohoo, I'm pretty excited :lol:

More details to follow........obviously 😀


Updated specs: 6/4/15


Tank - Aquarium connections 60" x 30" x 28" - euro braced front & rear, 15mm, optiwhite front and sides. Mitred corners. Internal weir with 2 x 40mm overflows and 1 x 25mm return. 825 litres.

Lighting - Dimmable 100w 280 led factory fitting on custom/DIY stand. 5500k.

Heating - Eheim & JBL 300w heaters supplied via an STC-1000

Return pump - Jebao DC 9000

Filter/sump - 2 x connected sumps. First sump holds coarse, medium and fine foam, purigen, ceramic, matrix and k3 media. Second sump houses the heaters and return pump.

Co2 - 2kg Fire extinguisher with dual stage regulator, Up inline diffuser supplying DIY 20" reactor filled with K3, fed on its own timed return by a D-D H2ocean 2000 pump.

Substrate - 6 bags of Tesco cat litter and 3 bags of B&Q cactus compost mix for main planting area. Generic aquarium sand for front.

Hardscape - Bogwood and mini landscape rock.

Potions - Easylife Profito

Flora:

Java Fern/Java Fern Narrow
Echinodorus rose
Echinodorus bleheri
Echinodorus radicans
Echinodorus tricolour
Echinodorus xinguensi
Echinodurus cordifolius
Echinodorus Tenellus
Echinodurus Harbich
Echinodorus red devil
Echinodorus green flame
Echinodorus martii
Echinodorus uraguayensis
Echinodorus Quadricostatus
Echinodorus Grandiflorus Aureus

Fauna:

2 x Leopard Frog Plecs L134
4 x Zebra Angels
6 x Checkerboard Pigeon Blood Discus
2 x Altum Flora Discus
1 x Thunder Snakeskin Discus
2 x Amano Shrimp[/COLOR]
 
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What set up you going for? Would make a stunning Dutch, but then it would make a stunning anything 😉 really looking forward to seeing this one evolve...
 
Tank is now in my living room :thumbup:

.....or should I say the ingredients to the tank. It had to be chopped up to fit into the car after a slight miscalculation 🙄 :lol:

The tank was originally built by arguably one of the best tank builders in the UK, Vince from UK rimless/aquarium connections. If you haven't heard of him, it's basically where the rich reef guys go when they've nothing better to spend their money on :lol: :angelic:

Obviously it's second (3rd) hand for me to even consider dissecting it, but I got it for an absolute bargain really. For this tank new your looking at way over £1200. The owner was gutted to be having to sell, but it was just too wide for him. (doors opening, access etc)

It's braceless in the sense that there are no braces 😵 ....but because of the height, even with 15mm glass, it would cause some bowing, so has "braces" running along the front and back. You'll get the idea when you see some pics anyway.

I'm hoping to get a stand built tomorrow (Sunday) nothing special as I'll be cladding it anyway. Just something quick, tidy and strong. Looks like we're going with the gloss white look. I'm working away next week so hopefully I'll get it done ready for the tank to be re-built next weekend. Pressures on :nailbiting: At least I have an extra hour of head scratching time :lol:

It has a weir in the back left corner with twin 40mm overflows (so should be silent) and a 25mm return. If I had to grumble about any part of the tank then this would be it. I did want to run 2 pumps from the sump so would have been perfect with 2 returns, but beggars can't be choosers and I'm just being picky really. I can't afford any posh lights so I'll probably be building a pelmet/hood to hide the T5's anyway, so an extra return can easily just go over the top and not be seen.

I have a single 54w T5 running a random office bulb and a twin 39w T5 with Giesemann aquaflora and mid day bulbs, so hopefully this should be ok. Until it's up and running I probably won't know. Maybe I'll need more, maybe less?

Co2 will be via my inline 2kg FE setup I'm currently running. I mentioned I wanted two pumps from the sump, one would be connected to the diffuser and then through a reactor/water filter DIY job. Ferts will be EI (once my Profito has run out) This will be the first time so should be fun :hungry: Dosing pumps are probably going to be pretty high up on the list, especially working away a lot.

That's all I can think off up to now. I'll be pinching an idea from @Chris Jackson for the background. Thanks again for the idea. I like a black background personally, but then I see some scapes with a white or light background and think wow! With Chris's idea it looks black, but by adding a backlight I can change the the look whenever I want. Instead of using regular black vinyl, I'll be using window tint. Hopefully should turn out nice.

Bhu said:
What set up you going for? Would make a stunning Dutch, but then it would make a stunning anything 😉 really looking forward to seeing this one evolve...
Click to expand...

If you think Amano x sumida, that's the sort of look I'm going for. I've already bought the wood ready, which was actually more expensive than the tank :crazy: :lol: A terrible picture can be seen at the the end of my old "practice" journal 😀

I'm thinking that because of the size it can't really be too amazing if you know what I mean. I'm struggling to get a MC carpet going in my 4ft'er so I have no hope with this really. I'll probably give it a go though 🙄 Just think swords, java fern etc etc everything from my current tank will be in anyway.

Crossocheilus said:
Sounds very interesting AND big!
Any pics yet?
Click to expand...

Its in pieces at the moment but I'll get some up tomorrow of stacked glass 😀 (hopefully including a stand! :meh:) I do have these pictures from its previous life:

imagejpg1_zps4ac8749f.jpg

imagejpg2_zpsb665c307.jpg

imagejpg3_zpsbf070e2f.jpg


Thanks a lot for the all the comments and likes, hopefully I can live up to at least one of your expectations 😀
 
I've spent most of the day scraping the old silicone off, I've had enough now. That means no stand has been built so that's now on hold until next weekend.

I never really thought that optiwhite was worth the extra dollars, but seeing this today made me realise that it really starts coming into play as the glass gets thicker. Optiwhite side panel vs non optiwhite bits (all 15mm):

Edit: The braces in the pic are actually 12mm so proves my point further 😀

imagejpg1_zps5ac6cbf6.jpg
 
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Nice tank 🙂
Personally I don't use underwater return holes but prefer to take returns over the top so as to avoid syphoning back water with a simple anti syphon method.
Non return valves are very flow restrictive!
If you don't want to return over the top then you could still use two pumps, one main return & one recirculating back into the sump.
 
Cheers foxfish.

I don't mind going over the top really, because at this stage I can't afford any fancy lighting anyway, so I'll need at least a pelmet to hide the T5's.

The twin pump thing was more a case of me just having a back up, running two smaller pumps directly from the sump instead of just one bigger pump. If I ever got the chance to have a tank built from scratch I'd definitely go this route.

TBH it doesn't matter now anyway. I wanted to use the 2 pumps I have now, but they only run at 500lph because of head on my current tank. This tanks going to be slightly higher so I'm probably going to lose even more lph. Running the two I'd be looking at 1000lph absolute max with no restrictions. I do like a slow flow through my sumps, but near enough 1x is a bit too slow! I'm going to have to bring another pump in which is an extra expense I didn't want or plan for, but it has to be done.

I'll then use one of the pumps I already have to inject the Co2 via my inline then through a DIY water filter reactor and straight into the tank. With the extra restriction of the reactor and slightly higher tank, I'll probs be looking at 400lph.

Additional flow will have to be via Hydors at this point. Until I get the wood in and figure out the planting I won't know if I can hide the other pump well enough.
 
Quick phone pic update.

I rebuilt most of the tank last weekend and was hoping to get the rest done this weekend. I wasn't happy with the front and left hand panel join so I've taken them off and will re do them today and also add the weir and braces.

I had to chop a section out of the stand as well and rebuild it. I'd forgotten the down pipes were internal and not external like on my current setup :banghead: :hungry:

I ordered the new pump for the tank and went for a Jebao DC 9000. I'll probably just need a small hydor for additional flow now.

http://www.h2oaquatics.co.uk/water-flow/jebao-dc-9000

A quick pic of the tank build and while the front is off I thought I'd have a little play with my wood 😀

imagejpg4_zps6c1aabff.jpg

imagejpg1_zpsd08e8c0c.jpg

imagejpg2_zps0780759c.jpg
 
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That wood is extraordinary! It will look amazing covered in ferns, buces, mosses etc. What are your plans for planting and stocking?
 
Ooh, lovely


From Alex - Internet names may vary. Comment not fit for human consumption. Contains small parts.
 
Cheers @Crossocheilus & @Wallis97

I have 6 pigeon blood discus, 4 angels and 2 leopard frog plecs in my current tank who will be moving into this. I have a couple of amanos somewhere too but hardly ever see them. I'm going to add another 2 leopard frogs, maybe 4 more discus and a few more angels. I saw some dantum angels a while back at my LFS which I liked the look of, would love some "real" altums but a bit too pricey. I want some blue diamond discus and my other half wants some Snow White discus, so probably 2 off each will go in. I was also thinking of adding a shoal of corys, black venezuelan I think they're called. Again though, a bit expensive when you have to start buying a shoal, I'll have to see.

I suppose the planting will be pretty simple, all based around various echinodurus. All my plants from the current tank will be going in and I keep buying the odd plant just to get them ready for this. I still need more though, the size difference is ridiculous really, what I already have won't even touch it.

I also have some java fern and moss which will be going in, but again, could do with loads more. I have an MC carpet in the current tank as well so may as well put this in and see how it goes.

List of current plants:

Monte Carlo
Java Fern/Java Fern Narrow
Java Moss
Echinodorus rose
Echinodorus bleheri
Echinodorus radicans
Echinodorus tricolour
Echinodorus xinguensi
Echinodurus cordifolius
Echinodorus Tenellus
Echinodurus Ozelot
Echinodurus Harbich

Just ordered: Echinodorus red devil, green flame, martii & uraguayensis.
 
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Great looking wood! Can't wait how this turns out. Definitely subscribing 🙂
 
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