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1000 litre Low Maintenance

Mark Webb

Member
Joined
27 Nov 2008
Messages
365
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This tank was originally setup as a Marine System. Due to various factors the setup was unsuccessful and the Effort/Reward/Cost ratio prompted me to close it down.

I am now preparing it for a Tropical Planted setup. Low maintenance is essential due to the depth of 75cm. I have recently cracked a rib hanging over the top of it to reach the bottom, so would like to avoid that again if I can. It is a big tank so I am aiming for impact with planting and fish. I intend to introduce Discus, so with that in mind I dont want the tank too cluttered with rocks and wood.

Plant Selection

Echinodorus Uraguayensis
E. Aquarta
Cryptacoryne Balanasae
C. Wendtii Green
C. Undulata Broad Leaves
C. Becketti Petchii
C. Wendtii Brown
Aruba Coffeefolia
Bolbitus
Staurogyne.
Fontinalis antipyretica – Willow Moss


The above are all slow growing for low maintenance. Until the above plants establish I will plant Limnophila and or floating plants short term, in the hope that they use up nutrients in the fight against algae. When the other plants are established these will be removed.

Tank 180cm x 75cm x 75cm

Lighting 4 x 39W T5 – Initially but may add an additional 2 x 39w.

Substrate Akadama. The tank required 10 bags of substrate so I have decided to go for Akadama due to the high cost of other substrates. Thanks for all of your research on that JamesC :thumbup: However, I cant say that I enjoyed washing 10 bags of it which took me best part of 6 hours.

Filtration 2 x Eheim 2075 with Siporax Media

Circulation : Tunze

Heating 2 x Hydor 300W

CO² - FE System with Aqua Medic 1000 Reactor Filled with Siporax

Water – HMA Filtered.

Any thoughts and suggestions would be welcome.
 
Too little light... Your sword plant will suffer. Your tank has around 0.5wpg and that would probably be alright with the rest of the plants. Not sure about growing staurogyne in such low light.

It really depends on what you mean by low maintenance. If you want to keep water change and plant pruning to a minimum then you've gone for the slow growing species which is fine. But discus planted tank is definitely not low maintenance. The water changes will still have to be at least once a week to ensure the health of the discus. The substrate surface vacuuming will also be neccesary if it's not densely planted.

Last but not least, what will your fertilisation regime be?
 
good plant choice :thumbup: although you may struggle to find willow moss around here

i would add more light myself but thats up to you. 0.5wpg on a tank so deep maybe hard to grow some plants with.

discus are messy fish so they might be hard to look after if you dont want to do much maintanance. i would quite like a huge shoal of tetras if it were mine. harlequins also look amazing in big numbers.

ill look foward to seeing it progress :D
 
Looks very promising Mark. :thumbup:

Maybe it might be worth adding another Eheim, to the original too. I had 2 x Pro 3 on my old 720 Litre setup, trying to give good turnover. And maybe another CO2 reactor for good CO2 distribution. Have you thought about an Aquamass ones (with 16/22mm hose tails).

Btw, if you need any Oliver Knott's substrate then i'm selling some in the Sale section. :D
 
daniel19831123 said:
Too little light... Your sword plant will suffer. Your tank has around 0.5wpg and that would probably be alright with the rest of the plants. Not sure about growing staurogyne in such low light.

It really depends on what you mean by low maintenance. If you want to keep water change and plant pruning to a minimum then you've gone for the slow growing species which is fine. But discus planted tank is definitely not low maintenance. The water changes will still have to be at least once a week to ensure the health of the discus. The substrate surface vacuuming will also be neccesary if it's not densely planted.

Last but not least, what will your fertilisation regime be?


I will probably opt for 6 x 39W T5's which will give me 1 wpg as a good starting point. Happy to undertake weekly water changes and a Discus tank of this size will be fine with 10-15% changed, which will be easy. I intend to plant a good number of plants and as long as I dont overstock with Discus the siphoning shouldn't be necessary.

samc said:
good plant choice :thumbup: although you may struggle to find willow moss around here

i would add more light myself but thats up to you. 0.5wpg on a tank so deep maybe hard to grow some plants with.

discus are messy fish so they might be hard to look after if you dont want to do much maintanance. i would quite like a huge shoal of tetras if it were mine. harlequins also look amazing in big numbers.

ill look foward to seeing it progress :D

Intending to add a good shoal of at least 50 Tetras, undecided at present between Rummynose or Cardinals

TDI-line said:
Looks very promising Mark. :thumbup:

Maybe it might be worth adding another Eheim, to the original too. I had 2 x Pro 3 on my old 720 Litre setup, trying to give good turnover. And maybe another CO2 reactor for good CO2 distribution. Have you thought about an Aquamass ones (with 16/22mm hose tails).

Btw, if you need any Oliver Knott's substrate then i'm selling some in the Sale section. :D

I think I will have sufficient filtration with two Eheims rated for a total of 1200 litres. Circulation is 2500 litres combined from the Eheims and for additional circulation I will add a Tunze Turbelle Stream 6200 with variable output of between 5000 - 20000 litres per hour. These pumps are superb at moving high volumes of water with a low velocity. In total this will give me a potential turnover of 22 times per hour. Dont think I will need all of this, or the fish will be hanging onto the plants :)
 
Just my two penneth but I imagine that a bigger tank will probably thrive on 0.5wpg, it's an out dates and arbitary figure anyway.
this calculator suggests http://www.fitchfamily.com/lighting.html
suggests 294watts which will be generous and of hand I think to be around 0.8wpg.
 
TDI-line said:
Looks very promising Mark. :thumbup:

Maybe it might be worth adding another Eheim, to the original too. I had 2 x Pro 3 on my old 720 Litre setup, trying to give good turnover. And maybe another CO2 reactor for good CO2 distribution. Have you thought about an Aquamass ones (with 16/22mm hose tails).

Btw, if you need any Oliver Knott's substrate then i'm selling some in the Sale section. :D

Do you not have a tank anymore TDI?

I use 2x Aquamas for my 86o litre tank. Also have 4x external filters, but the powerheads Mark is suggesting would be great too. Personally from and aesthetic point of view Vortechs are the best looking and least intrusive but, it makes sense to use what you have got to hand.
 
Hi Mark,

how is the tank coming along. I currently have a system running that is a bit smaller than yours at 860 odd litres 8x2x2. It has been running over 18months and is mostly planted with a variety of crypts,java fern and some stems. Anyway I saw your smaller tank in pfk and looks like you have many species simialt to mine. Crypts definately are lower maintainance the worst thing is green spot algae(?) on thier leaves, but otherwise i have found it the easiest tank to look after, more so than when I had aquariums half the size and smaller.

I still do 40-50% water changes per week(or so) with a python. However i have rainbows (little buggers for eating delicate plants) and denisoni barbs so i guess my fish load is quite high. Im still a 'I like my fish and plants man'.
 
Hi sanj, I am still getting all the bits together for this tank. Collected the T5 lights last week but they sent me reflectors for T8's so hope to collect replacements this week. I then have to setup the filters and purchase a large water tank to bring water upto temp before filling after I have planted.
 
samc said:
although you may struggle to find willow moss around here
I can spare some of this if interested ;) PM me

Tank looks promising! One to watch :)
 
LondonDragon said:
samc said:
although you may struggle to find willow moss around here
I can spare some of this if interested ;) PM me

Tank looks promising! One to watch :)

Thanks for the offer, I will keep that in mind. :thumbup:
 
Making slow progress on this. My original plan was to install a 500 litre tank in the garage to store filtered water for water changes. Having considered the space it would take up and the difficulties in heating that volume of water in the garage during the depths of Winter, I have decided to go for a Drip feed system with an overflow. Next job is to cut a hole in the tank for the overflow.

I am in a dilemma over the sump. I have a 130 litre sump in place, but having read early on in my planning that the movement of water overflowing into the weir and dropping into the sump would deplete the CO² I decided to remove the weir and plug the hole, using a square of glass secured with aquarium sealant.

Having since learned that the CO² depletion could be overcome using a sump, I am thinking that I maybe should have retained the sump.

Would appreciate some feedback from anyone using a sump and whether it would be beneficial enough to warrant the job of reinstalling a weir.
 
I am setting my one up with a sump. I don't see it difficult in reducing the loss of Co2 in it. I am setting my one up with no splashing water and cover glasses over each section. I think its worth the effort just to get everything in the sump and out of the tank.

Simon
 
im using a sump i just taped it up last night and put a drop checker above the water its gone green/yellow im not sure how well theses work out of water. but as understand it if you seal the sump only so much co2 will gas off till the air in sump is to rich and that's problem solved seems to be working the d/c in the tank is very light green ill let you know how im getting on on a couple of days
 
Sumps are great for added water volume and perhaps makes maintenance less intrusive in regard to water changing, dosing, but i think its smaller difference in regard to equipment inthe aquarium. With inline heaters or even in built into externals, they are out the way, internal filters and heaters being my personal big annoyance.
Sumps usually still have to use weirs and in planted tanks flow is very important so there has to be some pipe work and or powerheads in the main tank. I like what AB did with his spray bar.

I have a reef with sump which every now and then consider converting it to planted. They are interesting but slow going and much more expensive. The only downside with sumps to my mind is the co2 situation, which I guess can be solved, the other being the greater noise.

Where are you upto on your tank Mark? Looking forward to seeing things develop. Maybe the rest of life is getting in the way taking all your time. :)
 
I am back on this now. Finally drilled the tank to allow water change by overflow. I have the tank filled and filters running and now planning to order plants. I want to keep plants to a minimum initially, to keep the cost down, although I guess this may present algae issues if I am not careful?

I am not very pleased with the hard scaping but unable to find any nice trunks which was my aim. Not easy to find big stuff for scaping.

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