Back Into The World Of Freshies With Plants Of Course!

[littleimp]

This will be an on-going thread but a quick one as I have documented this build already in photo's as it was orginally going to be another marine tank, but this ever growing expensive world has brought me down to earth and I'm going back to my roots(pun). And going back into planted tanks which are a lot cheaper to run & easier to maintain.

First off here's the tank if you bought it from a shop.

Dimensions: length 151cm, x depth 51cm x height 146cm. Useable volume: 450 litres.

A nice tank but at around £900 pretty expensive.

I bought this one on ebay for £200. I was looking for a rena because the tank build quality is amazing. Take a look next time your in a shop and you'll see why thay are so expensive. Black silicon with mitred glass edges, very nice.

But we don't want it like that...................

 

[littleimp]

As mentioned it was originally planned as a marine tank so a custom build stand was needed.

Here's some pics.

I wanted a nice clean look was needed so I painted it gloss white. I also sealed the bottom edges just in case of the odd spillage/flood.

 

[littleimp]

Here's the sump.
I had a tank laying around which was suitable. 48x15x12
I had a glass merchant cut some baffles and these were siliconed in.
Here's the sump on test.

I then had an afterthought. As an inlet I thought I'd make a small trickle tower. So back to the glass merchants.

Here it is installed with some pics of the sump installed.

The box on the left is the lighting control timer, the one on the right is a heating controller. This will run 2 x 300w heaters and a fan. There's also an auxillary 300w heater just in case of failure. This will have the temp set a couple of degress lower so will be inactive most of the time but just will come on just in case the temp drops too low.

Flow back into the tank is by 2 x 3000l/h pumps.

 

[littleimp]

Here's a drawing of the sump use I have planned.

Water enter the top of the tower, trickles through the bio-bsll tower down the to deeper bio-balls, through to the 2nd section of bio-balls.
The largest section is going to contain a moving bed of smaller media, probably kaldnes K1. This will be the main filtration and way more than required for the size of the tank, probably enough filtration for a small pond to be honest!! The next heater section will also contain a bag of carbon changed weekly and then through to the pumps back to the tank.

 

[littleimp]

Onto the lighting, this consists of 4 x 54w T5 aqua-medic planta tubes + 2 x 6400K power compacts. These are very bright as you can see and make the 54w tubes pale in comparison!!
Here's a pic of the frame build as well as the custom reflectors.

If you using a sump you need a way of getting water from the tank & back again.

 

[littleimp]

I'm going to go for an amazonian style theme. I'm quite tempted by one of those big backgrounds but this tank has 3 brace bars so getting one in would be a problem so I'm going to use spray decor and sprinkled sand and then let nature take it's course with algae growth on it. Along with some nice chunks of bogwood.

The lighting also has some moonlights to add to it. The different items also have seperate timers so I can have a gradual sunset sunrise period.

Forgot to add the power block photo attached to the side of the cabinet.

Here's a pic of the whole thing. It's got some marine stuff in ti at the moment but this is going during the week plus I still have some cabinet finishing to do.

 

[littleimp]

Have now added the bio-balls into the tower, 1st & 2nd sections. Hundreds of them, that area is almost 18" x 18". There's gonna be a theorectical 6000l/h flowing through these so they should be a bubbling mass when running. Have also bought the materials for the background build today along with my substrate & some nive pieces of wood.

 

[littleimp]

Done the background today, tank is currently sitting on it's side drying a bit but will take some more pics tonight once back upright.

1st lay tank on it's side. (turning your front room into a bomb site while you're at it! Luckily wife is at work )

Gather some media in some bowls. I'm lucky here as we have a really good aggregates firm nearby. They do playsand in about 10 different colours including pink! I went for the 2 x natural colours, brown & russet as these have not been treated with any colourants. I also used a small amount of coral sand. The brown sand in the 2nd pic is going to be used as my main substrate too.

Grab several cans of polyurethane expanding foam. If you want you can go to the fish shop and spend £10 on a can of spray dekor, or you can go to B&Q and use the polycell version for £6.99 or you can go to your local budget store (QD in my case) and buy some gorilla filler at £3.99/can. It's all the same stuff, just depends on how much you feel like getting ripped off!!
Spray in random patterns all over the back of the tank. This 5ft tank took 3 cans.

Sprinkle your sands all over the stuff. Be liberal, you want it pretty much everywhere. You need to do this straight after spraying the foam while it's still tacky.

........zzzzzzzzzzzzz.............

Go back after 1/2hr os so and you will notice they the foam has skinned over and ballooned. Now's the time you can start shaping it. If you squish it down with your hand and you'll notice that you can start forming rocks as it will stick to the back and rise in other areas, like squishing a ballon. Do this where you want to and you will form highs & lows. You also pick up loose sand and give it a good rub all over. This will graze and colour up the foam. Do this as much or as little as you like. You can also make crevises for planting if you like too, ideal to clip some java fern to it. You don't need to treat it in anyway afterwards. Polyurethane is fish safe once dry and this technique is also used in the marine world. Bacteria & corals actually colonise this stuff like real rock too in that environment.

Once I lift the tank excess sand will drop off. Give this a few weeks under water with some algae & plant growth over it and you'd think you'd paid hundreds for it when in reality it cost about £20.

Job jone.............

 

[littleimp]

Here's the wood I'm going to be using. I've had most of this for years but the long spindly one is a new addition. I also ordered all the co2 equipment today. Going the 2kg extinguiser route as these are so cheap now it's cheaper to buy a new one than it is to get re-filled or serviced. I've also ordered 10litres of fluidised K1 for the main sump chamber too. I'm going to add the substrate next weekend so should be on track for water then too.

 

[littleimp]

Been thinking about my lighting this afternoon.

How's this?

10am ---- 1 x pair of tubes on
11am ---- 1 x pair of tubes on, moonlights off
12noon -- main power lighting on
8pm ----- main power lighting off
9pm ----- 1 x pair of tubes off, moonlights on
10pm ---- 1 x pair of tubes off

This should give a gradual sunrise sunset effect

 

[littleimp]

Here's this afternoons efforts.

This is the fullers earth cat litter I used, this 10kg bag was just right for a cm or so of coverage on this 5footer. At only £3.75 a bag too.

Here's some full tank shots with the sand and wood added. I've still got some cabinetry to do as yet as you can see. In case your wondering the fire is a sealed convector type, the rest of it's just for show and it rarely get's used in heat mode, just the flame effect.

 

[Gill]

Loving this, Just a quick question - how long will the Foam take to cure and be Fish Safe

 

[bazz]

hi littleimp,
i'm extremely impressed with all of your handywork and look forward to seeing this reach fruition (love large aquariums)!
like you, my lights (1 twin and 2 single t5's and a arcpod) come on and go off in a 4 event sequence at 30 minute intervals and think it adds another dimension, watching it come to life. however, my photoperiod is a lot shorter than your proposed routine, any longer and the algae grows faster than the plants.
i do think though, that you may have trouble maintaining a sufficiently high, stable level of co2 using that filter system, but going easy with that lighting will help matters, and of course, you're obviously not averse to a spot of algae!
one question though if i may, are the 3 sockets on your light timer individually programmable, if so any chance of shedding some light on it. it would certainly free up some valuable space inside my cabinet!
cheers and thanx,
bazz!

 

[littleimp]

Yes the timers are individually programmable, same programs as a normal electronic timer.
Here's one.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/3680W-Aquarium-Pr ... 48396b15df


Added water a few scottish pebbles today. Sump seems to be runing nicely now after a bit of fine tuning with the pump controls.