Wolfenrook
Member
I mentioned this in my 'intro' so figured I should post some info.
It's a 62 gallon tank with a big sump for filtration.
That pump is a 3000lph one, I think I finally joined the 10x club. The first chamber of that filter is filled with my old biomedia, the second I used to house my rather large number of marimo balls and a 300 watt Interpet heater.
Lighting is taken care of by 2 Arcadia EcoAqua 30 watt spotlights, 1 the white model the other the freshwater model, making for rather a lot of light, so I'll be installing my CO2 system once again. To this end the sump is covered and set up with no splashing in it. I am also in the process of modifying the return with a home made 'spray bar' made out of some 25mm UPVC pipe assembled to allow it to be mounted vertically. Once the weld on this has fully cured I will be drilling the length of this with fairly large holes, important that they are large as small holes will force the water out under too high pressure, turning the tank into a whirlpool, rather than keeping the current vary nice circulation I have with the plants swaying gently.
Regarding the CO2, this isn't set up yet as a) too much splashing from the return until I modify it and b) had to order a new diffuser that can cope with this size of tank. I'll be popping the diffuser under the 'spray bar' much like I used to in my old 180.
Substrate I've gone back to basics, as in putting more focus upon water column dosing than 'fancy substrates'. To this end I have a thin layer of OLD eco-complete (basically put in there as it was full of my old mahogany trumpet snails, which are hard to find these days, and the tank it was in was retired), a layer of flourite dark there purely to act as a nutrient buffer (it was cheaper than flourite. lol) and then a final topping of good old black silica gravel.
Hardscape is made up of Sumatra driftwood and my wife's bast statue.
Plants, most are from my old 180, including cryptocoryne affinis, anubias barteri and anubias barteri nana. To these I have added 2 narrow leaved Java ferns, 4 micro Java ferns and 5 pots of pogostemon helferi to form a carpet. I have some mini lava rocks that the ferns will be getting tied to and poked back in the same positions they are in now as I find this more convenient than having to disturb the wood to tie them to this.
Anyway, a couple of tank shots, first one was taking before I planted the pogostemon:-
I don't plan to use liquid carbon this time, as I've had problems with this in the past. Trace will be my usual ProFito and I will probably use the Nitro and Phospho from the same range again and probably potash to top up the potassium levels as I tend to always end up with a shortage of this. I know it's not popular, but I'm going to stick with buddy ratio methodology for dosing once again, this worked well for me before.
Ade
It's a 62 gallon tank with a big sump for filtration.
That pump is a 3000lph one, I think I finally joined the 10x club. The first chamber of that filter is filled with my old biomedia, the second I used to house my rather large number of marimo balls and a 300 watt Interpet heater.
Lighting is taken care of by 2 Arcadia EcoAqua 30 watt spotlights, 1 the white model the other the freshwater model, making for rather a lot of light, so I'll be installing my CO2 system once again. To this end the sump is covered and set up with no splashing in it. I am also in the process of modifying the return with a home made 'spray bar' made out of some 25mm UPVC pipe assembled to allow it to be mounted vertically. Once the weld on this has fully cured I will be drilling the length of this with fairly large holes, important that they are large as small holes will force the water out under too high pressure, turning the tank into a whirlpool, rather than keeping the current vary nice circulation I have with the plants swaying gently.
Regarding the CO2, this isn't set up yet as a) too much splashing from the return until I modify it and b) had to order a new diffuser that can cope with this size of tank. I'll be popping the diffuser under the 'spray bar' much like I used to in my old 180.
Substrate I've gone back to basics, as in putting more focus upon water column dosing than 'fancy substrates'. To this end I have a thin layer of OLD eco-complete (basically put in there as it was full of my old mahogany trumpet snails, which are hard to find these days, and the tank it was in was retired), a layer of flourite dark there purely to act as a nutrient buffer (it was cheaper than flourite. lol) and then a final topping of good old black silica gravel.
Hardscape is made up of Sumatra driftwood and my wife's bast statue.
Plants, most are from my old 180, including cryptocoryne affinis, anubias barteri and anubias barteri nana. To these I have added 2 narrow leaved Java ferns, 4 micro Java ferns and 5 pots of pogostemon helferi to form a carpet. I have some mini lava rocks that the ferns will be getting tied to and poked back in the same positions they are in now as I find this more convenient than having to disturb the wood to tie them to this.
Anyway, a couple of tank shots, first one was taking before I planted the pogostemon:-
I don't plan to use liquid carbon this time, as I've had problems with this in the past. Trace will be my usual ProFito and I will probably use the Nitro and Phospho from the same range again and probably potash to top up the potassium levels as I tend to always end up with a shortage of this. I know it's not popular, but I'm going to stick with buddy ratio methodology for dosing once again, this worked well for me before.
Ade