From Reef to Nature Aquarium a journey

[Luketendo]

Anyone looking for a cheap alternative, I am using half a LIFX Z strip on the back of my tank. The I have it sitting on a strip of polystyrene which contours the back of my substrate. Works pretty well and the light spill of my Aquasky RGB creates a gradient with the light. Tank is against a wall which is painted off white.

With LIFX Z you can set a lot of colours, but I have it set on a daily cycle between "ultra warm 2500K" at sunrise/sunset which has an orange tint and something like "noon daylight 5500k" in the middle of the day which gives a slight purple.

This seems to work well on a 60p tank but if you have a large tank or strong main lighting maybe not so much.

 

[Ed Wiser]

I tried this LIFX Z and the Current lightbar An built mine own panel. Before I bought the lightground. It just didn’t put out the even coverage that the lightground and ADA panels. You can see the led points of light. I am very picky about this kind of stuff.

The lightground was a all white panel no led points of light in the panel.

 

[CooKieS]

China cheap alternative coming soon guys.

 

[Ed Wiser]

Don’t waste my money on china junk.

 

[Luketendo]

I tried this LIFX Z and the Current lightbar An built mine own panel. Before I bought the lightground. It just didn’t put out the even coverage that the lightground and ADA panels. You can see the led points of light. I am very picky about this kind of stuff.

The lightground was a all white panel no led points of light in the panel.

Yeah totally different approach but it is actually working for me, not seeing any LED points with mine it blends nicely.

 

[Ed Wiser]

Of coarse I am dealing with a 4 foot tank. So it’s not a simple task.

 

[Luketendo]

Of coarse I am dealing with a 4 foot tank. So it’s not a simple task.

Yeah, not going to blend nicely if tank height is 45cm or more. Mine's 36 cm tall and probably wouldn't work above that.

 

[Ed Wiser]

120 x 50 is a 120p ADA. I tried the other ways to do the background. It didn’t pass the wife test. THE most IMPORTANT person in this is the wife.
If my wife doesn’t like the aquarium then you will hear about it it every second of every day. My wife doesn’t mine me making a beautiful aquarium money is well spent. If I do some cost cutting purchase and it fails to pass the wife test. I get in trouble.

 

[Ed Wiser]

Well after a lot of searching for plants. It’s quite hard here in the US to find plants. Everything is mail Order here. As the vast majority of LFS do not stock plants.
I finally finished planting.

ELOS Co2 reactor.

This weekend I did a 100 % water change with RO/DI water. Then balanced the water chemistry.

 

[Deano3]

Love the wood and layout cant wait to see how it turns out, very nature scape andnatural looking , hope you keep us updated and always sounds like people arnt as lucky as us here in uk etc with plants in local fish stores but glad your sorted

Sent from my SM-G970F using Tapatalk

 

[Ed Wiser]

Thanks it’s been a Journey for sure.
Just Ordered my custom screen lid so I can some Rainbow fish in the aquarium.

 

[Ed Wiser]

During the water change yesterday. I cleaned all the glass work. It was easy cleaning the ELOS Co2 reactor. I have all the ADA spring brushes and one of those double end spring brushes. Which I am not fond of as the double ended brush bristles are not cut to fit standard aquarium tubing so it gets stuck when you try to pull it back out of a tube or line.
Love the ELOS Co2 reactor lets me really dial in just the amount of Co2. So I don’t over use too much in this larger tank. Mix’s the Co2 and water well in the reactor. An was no big problem cleaning. Do need to get a bag of pipe cleaners for the small water line at the top of the reactor.

 

[Ed Wiser]

Our Maine Coon cat Ada loves the aquarium.

 

[Tim Harrison]

Love those cats, they are huge

 

[Ed Wiser]

She is a sweet heart.

 

[Ed Wiser]

Knew my phosphate level was getting as I was getting hair algae. So as it was time to clean the Lilly pipes and lines I cleaned out the inside of the ADA 1200 es. Wanted to add video of the flow out of this filter. As most have never seen one in action. Tons of flow out of the filter all over the tank.

 

[Hufsa]

Knew my phosphate level was getting as I was getting hair algae.

Is there a missing word here?
Ive been struggling a lot with hair algae, what levels have you observed triggers hair algae for you? And at what levels do they go away?
Maybe I could solve my problem

 

[Inked_aqua]

nice build

 

[Ed Wiser]

Is there a missing word here?
Ive been struggling a lot with hair algae, what levels have you observed triggers hair algae for you? And at what levels do they go away?
Maybe I could solve my problem

I keep phosphate as low as I can get it .01 mg
I use Ro/Di water. Lightly feed and use phosphate removing compounds.

It is something that I am always keeping an eye on and if you keep it under control your aquarium will love you for it.

 

[Hufsa]

I keep phosphate as low as I can get it .01 mg
I use Ro/Di water. Lightly feed and use phosphate removing compounds.

It is something that I am always keeping an eye on and if you keep it under control your aquarium will love you for it.

Oh that is interesting indeed. I just changed some stuff in my tank so will give that a few weeks to settle out, but after that I might absolutely try running some lower phosphates. My tap should be pretty stripped, so if I dont dose there should only be the amount from fish food etc.