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Just thought I'd share.

AverageWhiteBloke

AverageWhiteBloke

Member
Joined
27 Oct 2009
Messages
2,906
Location
Cumbria
Snowed in here and my sky is off so though I'd post some pics of my tank which I don't do enough. Not finished yet but. Certainly getting there.
8415389026_18a049533e.jpg
IMG_00000009 by AWB70, on Flickr
First set up about september.

8414292773_3078f963ef.jpg
IMG_00000027 by AWB70, on Flickr
Present day. Thank for looking ,any opinions welcomed.
8414293261_91b36239db.jpg
IMG_00000028 by AWB70, on Flickr
 
Thanks mate, odd thing is I can't even access the stuff saved to the hard drive! Very odd.
 
Thanks bud, I was going to journal it retrospectively as I've been keeping pictures and info saved. I still might, never done one before. Isn't it strange how looking at your own tank on ukaps makes it look better :) if that was someone else's tank I'd be thinking I wish I had a tank like that :D
Trying at the moment to get that hairgrass carpeting along the front, I've also added a amazon ocelot I think the name was to fill that gap on the back right which hasn't really took off yet. Water change and clip out tomorrow so I'll stick a couple of pics up when I've pruned some shape into it.
 
Very nice will be even better when the hairgrass fills out in the front and wanders a bit a round the other plants front left to male it natural,good job!Cheers mark
 
nice healthy looking tank mate
 
Hi,
great progression, all the plants look very clean and healthy.
Did you add an extra rock? looks better balanced now with the one further to the right.
Cheerio,
Ady.
 
But I like it :) Good job! Looks very natural compared to the 'over scaped' tanks that people do.
Click to expand...

Cheers, the natural look is probably down to me letting things grow where they want to grow give or take a few plants which were positioned to hide hardware. I've always been a fan of jungle scapes, although that's probably just a cop out for knowing nothing about scaping. Something I need to look more into. The tank wasn't actually scaped in any way or form. I moved it from my other house with fish and plants in a heated bucket so I didn't have time to ponded how it would eventually look. I just needed to get everything back in and running.

Very nice will be even better when the hairgrass fills out in the front and wanders a bit a round the other plants front left to male it natural,good job!Cheers mark
Click to expand...

I can only dream :D It's not the fastest growing of tanks. I've had a shot at carpeting a few times but nothing has ever took. This is about the furthest I've ever got. I've decided that when the entire substrate is covered with a lawn then and only then will I accept I may know what I'm doing :rolleyes: There are three types altogether, hair grass which is doing ok, ech tennelus also ok but doesn't seem to be spreading far and on the far front left some plant I'm unsure of. There was one surviving plant of this which wasn't doing so good so I just stuck it there out the road and it seems to have took well. I also have a pair of kribs in there which seem to like a bit of hair grass gardening. They're a nuisance in general, always bickering, nothing like their mam and dad which provided my lfs's with young krib for free for a good two year. I dare not put any RCS in from my colony fear they'll be lunch but the kribs were born in the tank and will die in the tank can't part with them. They're probably older than me in fish years. When they go I'm replacing with some endlers and my shrimp and staying away from cichlids. I tried pointing the koralia at the hair grass but it was disturbing the gravel and blowing up plants too much. I was also getting a bit of surface scum so put it higher in the tank to eliminate both problems as you can see in the second pic.

Looks great, what does the set up consist of?
Click to expand...
The specs are Aqua-one AR850 tank, was supposed to be 165ltr according to the literature but refilling it was only holding 137ltr including the canister.
Lighting is 3xT8's 2x30" 15000k 25watt and 1x10000k 23.5" 20W or roughly 2.4watts per gallon on for 7hours 5 to 12pm
Filter is aquaone 1250pro canister with a koralia for better movement. The original trickle filter that came bundled with the lid was useless when it came to dosing co2, it just gassed off too quick.
CO2 is by the way of Sera 1000 reactor and FE setup. I just don't like the misty bubbles in the tank you get with diffusers and atomisers. The main issue with the reactor is timing. I have co2 start 4 hours before lights on and off 4hours off before lights off. It seems to take a lot longer to get up to target but the co2 stays in the system a lot longer. I also add 4ml of diy liquid carbon.
Ferts is by EI dry powders.
Substrate is Tesco cat litter with some Osmocote underneath.
7110016605_ac03a0c503.jpg
IMG-20120423-00022 by AWB70, on Flickr
The new background plant was Echinodorous Cordifolious by the way not Ocelot has I mentioned earlier

great progression, all the plants look very clean and healthy.
Did you add an extra rock? looks better balanced now with the one further to the right.
Click to expand...
Thanks, yes the extra rock was added later. The area it is in was originally set aside for a carpeted area which never went as planned :rolleyes: My lack of foresight scaping wise had the other two stones just about hidden now. I was going to change the layout to make all the stone a bit more visual but I'm just glad I have a tank with plants as oppose algae at the minute and don't want to upset anything.
 
AverageWhiteBloke said:
The specs are Aqua-one AR850 tank, was supposed to be 165ltr according to the literature but refilling it was only holding 137ltr including the canister.
Lighting is 3xT8's 2x30" 15000k 25watt and 1x10000k 23.5" 20W or roughly 2.4watts per gallon on for 7hours 5 to 12pm
Filter is aquaone 1250pro canister with a koralia for better movement. The original trickle filter that came bundled with the lid was useless when it came to dosing co2, it just gassed off too quick.
CO2 is by the way of Sera 1000 reactor and FE setup. I just don't like the misty bubbles in the tank you get with diffusers and atomisers. The main issue with the reactor is timing. I have co2 start 4 hours before lights on and off 4hours off before lights off. It seems to take a lot longer to get up to target but the co2 stays in the system a lot longer. I also add 4ml of diy liquid carbon.
Ferts is by EI dry powders.
Click to expand...

I'm running an inline on the same tank Co2 on 4 hrs before lights on and off 3 before lights off so not much difference. The 165l v 137l is interesting though, thats quite a difference.
 
As always dave it comes down to best guess when dealing with the volume due to hardscape and plant biomass. I have some workings out on my work pc I think if I can find it. The problem is that when working out the volume manufacturers will use the outside dimensions of the tank and full height which tanks are very rarely filled to the brim. I noticed this when emptying it that there seemed to be a 5gall bucket missing. Filled up allowing 20ltr for two bags of cat litter and my canister holds 12ltr water when full of medium. Other than the plants, wood and the two stones it's about 137ltr. I didn't allow for the plants etc which won't knock it out that far out and leaves me some wiggle room when dosing.
 
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