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My venture into my new 760 ltr planted tank .

Re: My venture into my new 760 ltr aquariam.

Hi Simon, I am currently planning a large tank and I have gone for Akadama as a substrate.

Heres a thread which is well worth a read, you will find the calculation to give you the qauntity you need in the thread. The only downside is washing it. I used 9 bags and it took me 5-6 hours to wash it.

Akadama Thread

I look forward to following your progress.
 
Re: My venture into my new 760 ltr aquariam.

Mark Webb said:
Hi Simon, I am currently planning a large tank and I have gone for Akadama as a substrate.

Heres a thread which is well worth a read, you will find the calculation to give you the qauntity you need in the thread. The only downside is washing it. I used 9 bags and it took me 5-6 hours to wash it.

Akadama Thread

I look forward to following your progress.
Click to expand...

I have been reading that thread today Mark and it seams that this is a good way to go on my set up. I was thinking of getting 12 bags. This will probably give some spare but I am not sure how deep it will be at the rear yet as I have no design for my scape at the moment.
5 or 6 hours washing, that sounds like fun.
Where did you get yours from. Mail order seams to be around £11 per bag.
I think this is what we will get next and at least I can start washing it in smaller amounts.
Have you any pictures of your new set up.

Simon

Simon
 
Re: My venture into my new 760 ltr aquariam.

I collected my Akadama from the Bonsai Nursery in Kent which James mentioned in the thread. @ £9 per bag.

I have started a thread for my setup here
 
Re: My venture into my new 760 ltr aquariam.

Mark Webb said:
I collected my Akadama from the Bonsai Nursery in Kent which James mentioned in the thread. @ £9 per bag.

I have started a thread for my setup here
Click to expand...

Nice one Mark. I presume that tank is the same one as in your gallery set up as Marine.
I had a 30" tank many years ago and it was a nightmare for me as I am only 5ft 3.
I shall be watching with great interest.

Simon
 
Re: My venture into my new 760 ltr aquariam.

Looking forward to seeing this project develop. Should be a stunning tank!
 
Re: My venture into my new 760 ltr aquariam.

jonnyjr said:
Looking forward to seeing this project develop. Should be a stunning tank!
Click to expand...

Thanks, I hope so. The wife and I were sitting down talking about it this evening looking at the empty space where the tank will go. We decided that the first year or two so should just be committed into understanding what we need to do to keep the plants in good health. After that we will think about how best to display them. As we know nothing at all at the moment its going to be a steep learning curve. We are going to find plants that are fairly easy to grow and take it from there. I am interested in the technical side of making the system work. So with both of us working at it I am sure we could have a good set up in the future. Its a case of not trying to run before you can walk. Perhaps starting off with such a big system dose not indicate that but I believe in bigger volumes of water are more stable once you have them under control. I also want to produce a fairly hi tech water set up ultimately running by its self.
So at the moment we are trying to make a simple plant list with perhaps a maximum of 10 different plants .
Once we have developed the skills to maintain them then we can try others and perhaps harder ones. Also by then I will understand what I need to do to keep the water at its best.

Simon
 
Re: My venture into my new 760 ltr aquariam.

I have also been looking at lights

Dose this seem to be suitable.
Runs 4 80w T5 tubes
Is it a problem that it is only 1500mm long and my tank is 2100mm long

ARCADIA FRESHWATER OVER TANK LUMINAIRE OT2 1500MM AG74TF

arcadialuminair.jpg


Simon
 
Re: My venture into my new 760 ltr aquariam.

Personally if I were you I'd be looking at either a custom built (read as diy) Led's or haldie/t5 combo. It depends on your level of expertise and time but I think it would be the right way to go as from the journal I get the impression it's not going to be open top?
 
Re: My venture into my new 760 ltr aquariam.

The tank was going to be open top. I could build something but I did like the look of these super slim unites. If I need more lighting than this can offer then thats what I will have to do.
Do yo think this is powerfull enough with the 4 80w T5 lamps. From reading other posts I would have thought 320w in a tank this size would be enough.

Simon
 
Re: My venture into my new 760 ltr aquariam.

Hmm. I do see the attraction. The issue with big tanks is that halide comes into it's own in this arena. I'd guess it's plenty, if you look on the finch family guide that will give you a very rough ball park estimate to work towards.
I really would be considering halide though, with big tanks it always strikes me as the logical step. That said, looking at Tom Barrs tanks he rarely uses it these days, his tanks will give you a much clearer idea on just how many and what lighting would be best as his tanks are firmly in tune with science rather than outmoded doctrin. His big tank I think is roughly similar in dimensions, search it up, it's been posted recently in it's rescaped guise and that will give you a clearer idea.
I seem to think it has 6 tubes though...
 
Re: My venture into my new 760 ltr aquariam.

As I am still awaiting the arrival of my tank I have been getting some other bits together. In my sump tank I wanted a pre filter stage that is easy to maintain. I used an Idea that I once used to polish water leaving my koi pond filters.
I bought some foam filter blocks. 100 mm square and about 200mm long with a hole bored in them. I have mounted 5 of these to an acrylic baffle using 38mm tank connectors. I have also bought 2 spares so its easy to rotate clean ones all the time. Water will flow through the foam and out of the tank connectors into the bio chambers.

DSCF0048Small.jpg


DSCF0053Small.jpg


DSCF0054Small.jpg

I am hopeful to be able to get 7000ltrs per hour through these easily. Once I have sorted my levels out I will drill a overflow hole in the baffle in case of a blockage .At least then I will still have circulation. I will alarm this feature so at least I will now its happening.

I have also got the 32mm return pipe work to make the spray bar from .
As this is black pipe and I am going to use a black background I hope it will all but vanish. I just need to work out the amount of holes and spacing.
I am also ordering the Akadama tomorrow. I reckon 126 ltrs of it will give me a bit left over. I could find nowhere local that sold it so ordering it on line. At least I can start washing it out.

Simon
 
Re: My venture into my new 760 ltr aquariam.

I would imagine they would work very well in that instance.
Substrate is now ordered so looks like the weekend will be spent washing it.
Also need to spend a few hours on the Koi pond. Looks like there wont be time for much else.
I also want to experiment with the spray bar and flow rates. I can use the Pond to do that at the same time.

Simon
 
Re: My venture into my new 760 ltr aquariam.

if it helps im using a 35 mm X 19885 mm spray bar on my tank same size as yours with a sequence 1000 at about half power and the waters moving nice how ever im having problems with algae so going to [post in the ferts section now
 
Re: My venture into my new 760 ltr aquariam.

I am going to try one of my Aquamax pumps. I have the 3500 / 5000/10000 or 16000 to experiment with. I hope the 10000 will be perfect. It should pump around 7000 ltrs at the head I will have. Just a mater of getting the spray bar correct.The one advantage of these pumps is there very low running costs. I will use 32mm black waste pipe to experiment with and once I am happy with it I will change to CPVCu which I can get in clear pipe. Also it lasts for ever
I also intended to incorporate one in the tank itself for water change purposes. I can then think about automating the system. Being the tank is 2ft wide I am sure I can hide this sort of equipment I have plenty of time to play with this stuff.

Simon
 
Re: My venture into my new 760 ltr aquariam.

i found when i had the suequence 1oooo running at max it pulled up all my plants and pushed my fish against the glass i thought geting 7000 lph out the spray bar would be good turned out to be over kill let me know how you get on. oh also the 1.5" waste pipe i had on the tank could not cope empted the sump in seconds had to add a 1.5" over flow box to help but i think you said you already had 2 .as for water changes im setting up a drip system there's a post about that here viewtopic.php?f=20&t=10128
 
Re: My venture into my new 760 ltr aquariam.

I have two 1 1/4" feeds from the bottom drilled tank. They might not be enough to supply my 700o ltrs. I will have to wait and see on that one. I can throttle the pump down or use perhaps a 5000 and add some circ pumps in the tank if needed.
Time will tell.
I will follow your drip system and see how you get on.

Simon
 
Re: My venture into my new 760 ltr aquariam.

viewtopic.php?f=20&t=9864
thats a link to the spray bar post although your diy is very different to mine yours is more professional i tend to make things out of coke bottles and bits of string
 
Re: My venture into my new 760 ltr aquariam.

another think i dont know how your overflow pipes are protected but i keept finding shrimp and the odd fish in my sump till i used a sponge at the in take
 
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