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Toy Room Project

RichardJW

RichardJW

Member
Joined
29 Oct 2013
Messages
101
Location
Shaw, Oldham
After many years on the dark side , I decided to strip down my Marine setup ( many thanks to Living Reef Oldham for taking all livestock off my hands for an honest credit ) . I intend to use what existing hardware I can :-

Tank is 30" x 20" x 20" (75cm x 50cm x 50cm) or 40 gal (180L)
Eheim Pro II ( 230gph or 1000L )
Arcadia luminaire 4xT5
Wave controller

As far a lighting is concerned I've picked up two T5 Dennerle Trocal Special Plant tubes from Zooplus and I've got a couple of Aqua One Bright Whites . I think this may be a bit heavy but I've the option of using two / three /four as suits .
Eheim is going in via a Lily pipe and I'm going to use the wave controller with a couple of small circulation pumps if I'm not happy with water movement .

dyzuna7a.jpg
The bog wood has been sitting in my cellar for about 10 years since I gave up on a Discus and this piece of art is actually 10 separate lumps .

6yny4uma.jpg

The substrate is 15L TMC Nutrasoil Brown ( bought with my credits ) and fine gravel for contrast front left .

asegu6en.jpg
Now for a it of tweaking ( and give that back glass a polish )

Tonight's job is to start Plant shopping - watch this space !!!

Long term fish wise I will be going for Apisto's , Cardinals , Bleeding hearts ( or similar ) , Cory's , Whiptails and oto's . As far as Cichlids and cats I intend to try and source something a bit different . But that's going to be a long way down the line .

Water wise , it comes out of the tap soft so I plan to work with that .






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Nice one Richard, the wood looks great. Go easy with those lights though!
 
James D said:
Nice one Richard, the wood looks great. Go easy with those lights though!
Click to expand...

Thanks James , it is the one area that needs a softly softly approach . Initially I'm going to go with 2 tubes and see how it goes !


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James D said:
Nice one Richard, the wood looks great. Go easy with those lights though!
Click to expand...
Totally by co-incidence the newsletter from Aquaessentials that came with my plants warns about excessive lighting . The figure banded about for T5 lighting seems to be 0.25w per litre which suggest around 45w which for me would be 2 tubes . I have the option of removing one so I can try one or two - def a case of softly softly .


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tim said:
Love that driftwood, will you be using anything to separate the substrate and gravel ? Your Corries are gonna love trashing the nice job you've done of separating the two substrates :)
Click to expand...

Probably go with Cory Habrosus and by the time the planting is settled in there should be some stabilisation from root zone .


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Plants arrived !

Echinodorus tennelus , tricolour , ocelot green , red wild grass
Cryptocoryne amicorum , wendtii green ,
Rotala rotundifolia
Sagittaria platyphylla
Christmas moss
Taxiphyllum barbieri
Anubias nana
Microsorium pteropus
Aponogeton capuroni
Eleocharis parvula

Seems like a lot - doesn't look it when planted !!



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RichardJW said:
Plants arrived !

Echinodorus tennelus , tricolour , ocelot green , red wild grass
Cryptocoryne amicorum , wendtii green ,
Rotala rotundifolia
Sagittaria platyphylla
Christmas moss
Taxiphyllum barbieri
Anubias nana
Microsorium pteropus
Aponogeton capuroni
Eleocharis parvula

Seems like a lot - doesn't look it when planted !!



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Click to expand...

I know the feeling. Ive got loads in mine but doesn't look it.
Will be good to see how you plant this up
 
Started monitoring Nitrates and Ammonia from Day1 - as a total fresh start , filter , water etc etc big question , when do I start to see initial Ammonia spike ??? TMC Nutrasoil literature even warns that part of its formulation is designed to kick start Nitrogen cycle !


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You might not see as much as you expect with all those plants, they will eat up ammonia :)

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aliclarke86 said:
You might not see as much as you expect with all those plants, they will eat up ammonia :)

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Certainly not seeing much above trace readings ATM - I'll keep monitoring for the time being



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Technical update :

Actually running on 1 tube at the moment - 2 seems over bright , haven't put cover glass on so that may change things .
Flow rate seems a bit fierce at ( potentially ) x 5 [ reminder to self to check ] . What range of flow rates do people go for ??




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Was a bit miffed last week as I got some serious Crypt melt and am now heartened to see that I now have some serious Crypt re growth ... It's still early days , just biding my time for the Nitrogen cycle to run its course . Ammonia never really peaked but Nitrites are now showing their colours . Once they fall back and Nitrates start to come to fore I will be able to start looking at getting some nice fishes in there .


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James D said:
Nice one Richard, the wood looks great. Go easy with those lights though!
Click to expand...
Good call on the lights - everything is looking happy on one tube - Like the Dennerle's , very warm colour - bit like the old GROLUX but not as Essex orange !


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First attempt at taking pictures with a decent camera - not as easy as I thought , will retry later with more light from above . Should be easy as I run 1 x 24w tube and I have the option to run 3 x tubes . for those who understand these were shot at f4, 1/125 , ISO6400 hence the grain ..
file:///Users/richardjwakefield/Pictures/2014_06_09/Apisto%20IMG_5127.jpg
file:///Users/richardjwakefield/Pictures/2014_06_09/Otto%20Zebra%20IMG_5128.jpg
 
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