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setting up 400 litre tank.. advice please :)

dbean

Member
Joined
28 Feb 2013
Messages
37
hi all, new to the site.. cant tell you how glad i am to have found what seems to be a good uk based site.
anyways...
Im currently in the process of upgrading from an aquaone AR850 165litre tank which is stocked as follows:
1 x african bush fish
4 x Rainbow cichlids
5 x Polka Dot loaches
1 x Leopard Frog pleco

The only plants ive every had any luck with in my tanks are Anubias Barteri and Crystalwort (oh and the freebie duckweed) but ive only every used straight fine gravel with pets at home ferilizer and those plants are pretty bombproof.

Now..

Im upgrading my tank, ive just got a Juwel Rio 400 (400litres) which once its ready ill be adding my current stock plus a few additional Clown loaches and perhaps Gouramis or other mild tempered fish with a small shoal of denison barbs or similar sized shoalers.. (open to stocking suggestions there)

I want to go for a heavily planted tank with a few nice pieces of wood in there, ive only just moved the tank into the living room and its still empty but im keen to get it filled and cycling ASAP

I could do with some advice on substrate ive heard good things about john innes soil capped with sand or gravel but i heard it raises hardness and ph and also has alot of lime. We live in a very hard water area and my tank currently has a PH of 8 which id like to lower in the new tank if possible, ive also heard peat is good for lowering PH but causes blackwater which im not to keen on (unless it will settle eventually)

I like the idea of sand but have also heard about anerobic gas pockets if i lay it too deep which worries me,

Sorry to ramble but i really want to get everything right this time round, unfortunatley ive spent alot of time learning from mistakes and im hoping that plenty of research and a point in the right direction will help me avoid daft mistakes.

Unfortunatley money is an object and im gonna have to try and get substrate sorted at the best possible price along with more filtration and hopefully some lighting upgrades and a Co2 setup in the near future (again Co2 is something ive got NO IDEA!! about so any advice is appreciated)

i have looked online for advice in the various subjects mentioned but i find alot of american based websites and products that i cant find anywhere, im not willing to pay £25 for a kg of aquarium soil from the local fish shop and the missus would throw a fit if she caught me baking soil in the oven.

Anyways again im sorry for rambling on but if theres any need to know info on methods, products etc then im all ears and extremely greatful

thanks for takin the time to read

Dean

(edit)

also wanted to ask about sand and recommended filtration. ive been looking into getting about 5000lph turnover with 1x 2000litre filter and 1x 2000lph filter/uv sterilizer. I will be adding one filter at a time and but to start with ill be running the internal filter (1000lph) that is supplied with the tank and adding one filter every month untill all 3 are running, but wont heavy filtration disturb and suck up a sand/soil based substrate? Thanks
 
Hi dean, if your looking for a soil base that is capped but are worried about the john innes upping your already hard water then I'd suggest using this pond aqua soil as the base layer
Aquatic Plant Soil - 20 Litre Bag - Water Gardening Direct
Which contains no lime or anything. I've used this myself. You could mix in a little peat into it to help lower your ph if capped right it shouldn't tint the water. You could then cap with Tesco low dust light weight cat litter which is really cheap saving you a fair bit of money. You would only need the one bag of pond soil and 3 to 4 bags of the cat litter and it won't even come to more than 25 ish pound for your tank.
 
If you decide to go for cat litter just get plain molar clay, the tesco cat litter is nasty it's very dusty and it's perfumed it took me days to get the horrible smell out of my nose! :confused:
 
I dont mind spending a bit, i went into my lfs and it was 25 quid for 1kg of peat/soil and the guy advised id need 8 - 10 bags at least. So when i say money is an object i mean im not spending £200+ on a base layer. Thanks for the soil recommendation ill look at that but ill probably buy some 3mm gravel to go over the top, again with buying the filters in stages itll drag out cycling a bit but ill get the 1000lph one running to get it all going soon.

Ill check the substrate section, thanks ceg. I Need to have a good look round the site
 
thanks for the recommendations, I went with the aqua soil and ive capped with play sand... now the nightmare has begun, the tank i bought 2nd hand and it had about an inch of water which i have not been able to get out so when i added my soil it went a bit sludgy, but never the less it seemed to soak up ok, i then washed and rinsed my sand a couple of times untill the white foam stopped coming up and when the sand had settle the water looked clear. Ive now capped my soil with the sand but unfortunatley ive got a little soil on top of the sand... not much but its not coming up with a syphon and im not sure how best to remove it????

Also im battling cloudy water.. i dont think i rinsed the sand enough so at the minute im running a hose into the internal filter to avoid splashing about (filling the tank) and ive got a syphon running to buckets at the same time, the water is slowly clearing up but its the 2nd night of none stop water changes and its still cloudy, do you think it will settle if i leave it a few days or should i just keep on with the water changes.

Do you think ive made a bad choice with playsand, its gonna be hell removing it now with the soil in the tank aswell, i could just break the bank and buy a load more soil and another substrate to cap it, but its more hassle, i just wanted to clear it up and get my filters running and cycling.....

any advice is appreciated

thanks

Dean

(edit)
the 4 hour water changes are definatley paying off, just emptied and refilled the tank and my water is 70% clearer i can actually see the back of the tank now and the remaining sand seems to just settle back down if it gets a bit disturbed, im also thinking of leaving a little of the soil on the top of the sand, itll probably get mixed up in future anyway and it looks quite natural for now.
 
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