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Larry The Lido

Joined
1 Jul 2011
Messages
117
Hello,

Some background about me and the tank :crazy:

I decided a couple of weeks ago to get back into the aquarium game after a break of 6 or 7 years. Last time I couldn't afford the kit I wanted to get the results I wanted but this time I was going to make sure this wasnt going to be the limiting factor :D

So I bought a 120L lido off ebay. Drove to Lincoln last weekend to pick it up. It came with mostly the kind of livestock I wanted, the tank is the perfect size for what I wanted to do and after considering buying new decided to hit this tank up with a bid. In hindsight I think I convinced myself I was getting a *bargain* without really thinking about what I might need to do.....

Long story short Larry the Lido has had to have a new heater due to the one that came with it sticking on or ignoring temperature settings, new lighting as the T8's that it came with it just wont cut it (upgraded it to Juwel T5 (HO???) with reflectors). These two things combined have pushed the tank over it's new value :arghh:

Anyways, keep calm and party on is my motto so off I went on a merry adventure of bank torture and general glee ;)

Here an image of the tank after the journey...

DSCI0006.JPG


The fish look happy though... not. (Sorry fish, I promise your lives will become much nicer!)

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After the dust settled the tank looked like this:

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Looks ok for a normal persons tank, I know people who would be very happy with this but hey I'm not normal I want an amano AquaScaping Champion tank or something hehe!

So now we get the refit :D

Heres what I ordered for delivery today and it all turned up with only *ONE* minor problem which I think is an awesome testament to how solid kit is these days and how good the retailers are.

TMC GroBeam 500 LED Lighting Strip screwed through the top of the tank.

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Love this light. It's pretty bright to the eye but not too bright when traversing water.

Larry the Lido also got a T5 refit with a set of Juwel 24W T5's along with reflectors, Nature and Daylight set. On the bottom a couple of bags of eco-complete along with the orginal gravel giving a nice dept and a D&D (Aquarium Solutions?) CO2.

Now the when putting the CO2 set together I've got a bit of a problem (as mentioned above). It seems the regulator has two thread sizes but the bottle and the pressure gague share the same size threading. This was bought new from AquaEssential so I'm pretty sure these guys will sort me out with this either by advising me politely I'm doing something dumb or rectify any issues.

I also bought some Tropica Nutrition+ and Flourish Excel so I think I'm ok without CO2 in the mean time. Is that right everyone?

In the meantime here is the tank with new substrate and lighting before putting the fish and shrimps back in.

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Thanks for looking at my tank and as a newbie look forward to learning loads from you guys :thumbup:

Hope you enjoyed my first proper post,

Si
 
Welcome m8, good of you to put some pics up. You will learn plenty in here.

I also bought some Tropica Nutrition+ and Flourish Excel so I think I'm ok without CO2 in the mean time. Is that right everyone?

CO2 is generally said to be better for growth, a lot of people have perfectly good displays just using liquid carbon so you will be ok. As the plants grow you may need to up that dose a little from what it recommends. There's plenty of info in the co2 section of the board on knocking up a cheap co2 system if it takes your fancy.
 
Excellent thanks for the advice AverageWhiteBlock. I dont think it will be long until I get the D&D kit up and running. Shame it isn't today but hey one little problem out of all the changes made in one day is great!

Some of the tanks on this site look fantastic and are an inspiration.

Cheers,

Si
 
Hi Si

Looks like you're off to a flying start.... :)

Perhaps you could consider sloping the gravel up towards the back..This will help create some depth

You will need to carefully consider your lighting period (before and after CO2 is back and installed) just roughly speaking, probably dont want to run em over 6 hours a day

Im sure there will be a thounsand other issues along way....so just keep posting whenever you've got a question. Someone will always offer any necessary advise

Are you considering upgrading the filtration to something external with larger turnover and room for filter media etc?

Well done on starting your journal and enjoy :thumbup:
 
Hi Jason,

Thanks for the comments.

At the moment with regards to the actual err 'scape' :p I love the idea of sloping the gravel towards the back, I do want to see how things grow first though before moving the gravel around. The plan is to see if I can grow plants and then in the future make things much more pleasing on the eye :)

I took you up on your suggestion of making the photo period shorter, infact I went and got a controller for the GroBeam so now the LEDs come on at 2pm and ramp up for an hour, then the T5s come on for 6 hours until 9pm and then another hour with the LEDs ramping down. I've noticed some algae growth so am going to shorten this again next week depending on how things go. I was originally going to go for a straight 8 hours of on/off and scare the crap out of the fish so thanks for your help here !

Without CO2 I can tell the plants are not at the optimum they could be although it is interesting watching them open up as the day progresses and then slowly close as the lights go off. In the morning the crypt I have is positively stood upright and then opens his arms out wide once the light is going full tilt, happy days :) Cant wait to have Co2 though as I think the plants will really take off...

The fish seem quite happy but definetely drop a little lower in the tank when the full light is on so I'm going to look at getting more broad leaf plants, think some Amazons for the background they can hide/swim around under.

Filtration has been something I've been pondering. After reading everyones views on here I can't decide whether to get a hydor pump (Saw one this weekend and it looked perfect but at 60 quid I wasn't that into it, although they are much cheaper online) or get an external Eheim Pro3 2075 but I think the flow rate from that might really overpower the fish; I used to the ten times tank volume here to get that model, I'm guessing that right? I might try the hydor 900 l/h as there only 20 quid to see how I go before upgrading to an external canister filter. I'm rather put off by external filters as I had a fluval 402 in my other life and it was nothing short of a leaking, constant attention needing git and I don't really want that again.

Anyway, things are going ok, The shrimp I had seem happy, I bought some Cherry shrimp last week online but they were seriously small and I suspect all but one of them may have met his doom in the filter intake. I'm hoping a couple more of them are simply hiding where I can't see them.

I'll post some more pics next week and hopefully by then I'll have a working Co2 system.

Cheers,

Si
 
MooseOnDaLoose said:
I love the idea of sloping the gravel towards the back, I do want to see how things grow first though before moving the gravel around. The plan is to see if I can grow plants and then in the future make things much more pleasing on the eye

This is a commendable approach, Si, many on the forum would agree that its a good step to first concentrate on growing and mainting your plants properly


MooseOnDaLoose said:
The fish seem quite happy but definetely drop a little lower in the tank when the full light is on so I'm going to look at getting more broad leaf plants, think some Amazons for the background they can hide/swim around under.

Theres always the option of floating suface plants. I know these are a big part of low tech tanks, not so sure on how they fit into to the high tech environment though

MooseOnDaLoose said:
Filtration has been something I've been pondering. After reading everyones views on here I can't decide whether to get a hydor pump (Saw one this weekend and it looked perfect but at 60 quid I wasn't that into it, although they are much cheaper online) or get an external Eheim Pro3 2075 but I think the flow rate from that might really overpower the fish; I used to the ten times tank volume here to get that model, I'm guessing that right? I might try the hydor 900 l/h as there only 20 quid to see how I go before upgrading to an external canister filter. I'm rather put off by external filters as I had a fluval 402 in my other life and it was nothing short of a leaking, constant attention needing git and I don't really want that again.

I would recommend the Eheim Pro 3 2075 if you do go down the external filter route. The flow would not be exessive once the tank is fully planted up. This is especially true if you were to add an external heater or inline CO2 diffusor etc

MooseOnDaLoose said:
I bought some Cherry shrimp last week online but they were seriously small and I suspect all but one of them may have met his doom in the filter intake. I'm hoping a couple more of them are simply hiding where I can't see them.

Im pretty sure they'll be in there hiding somewhere. I must have in excess of 30- 40 and usually only spot around 10 at any one time

MooseOnDaLoose said:
I'll post some more pics next week and hopefully by then I'll have a working Co2 system.

Look forward to the pics
 
Hello,

I have CO2 8)

So the tank has been running with CO2 fed into the bottom of the filter for about a week now and everything is growing like mad :)

Here are some pics taken tonight:

Tank from the front
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Right side of the tank
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Crypt growing new leaves daily
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One of the leapord corys takes a breather on the ln grass
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I'm dosing Co2 until the drop checker is a light green/yellow and the fish seem ok at that point, adding Tropica Nutrition+ daily at 3ml and doing 30% water changes a week. The plants have been in the tank for about two weeks in the current position and are already dropping roots, growing new shoots and are about finished shedding the older leaves.

Happy Days

Si
 
Has anyone got any advice on stocking levels for a tank this size? Tonight I've given away eight of the fish, mainly because they were not to my taste so that leaves me with:

4xtetras (not sure what these are, there like lemon tetras but have a slightly different colouration) really like these guys and there small, thinking of getting another 6 if i can to make up a shoal of ten.

2xLeopard corys, really want more of these, thinking another 4 to make a shoal of six.

1xBlack widow tetra, basically couldnt catch him in time to go with his friends and 1xred eye for the same reason.

I also have two ottos, two large ghost shrimp and from what I can tell 1 cherry shrimp.

So I was thinking of this as a total:

6 Cherry Shrimp,
2 Ghost Shrimp
6 Leopard Corys
10 Lemon (ish) tetras
2 Ottos

Written down that sounds alot for a lido 120l to handle, could anyone advise if this would be too much?

Thanks,

Si
 
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