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James3200s 6.5x2x2' planted tank - UPDATE - 26/06/09

james3200

Member
Joined
13 Aug 2007
Messages
296
Location
CROYDON
Hi all,

Thought i would share my new tank, which has just turned a week old today :)

Setup -

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Back of the tank ( in the office / warehouse ) where you can see at the top right of the picture the waste from the overflow in the tank which attaches to the warehouse waste pipe and in the middle the copper pipe to the RO/HMA filters in the stand.

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Day 1 -

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Taken today ( with just t5s running) -

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Here is some info on it

800lt ish, 6.5'x2x2'
ADA PS + AS + bright sand
ADA ferts to start, currently just Brighty K
Pressurised co2
Eheim 2260, UV, inline heaters & aquamedic 1000 reactor + il be adding a fluval 4 with lots of purigen in there today for a month or so
4x 54w Dimmable HOT5 6500k osram lamps & 3 x 150w 8k HQIs, currently running a 7hr photoperiod, HQIs for 2.5hrs
Automatic water changing system, 100lt / day getting changed at the moment. This is done by the stand housing an RO & HMA filter which gets controlled by solenoids to change the required amount of water, and the excess drains off at the other end of the tank.
Aquatronica computer to control all the above really + automatic dosing via a dosing pump

Plants have a long way to go, but already growing rapidly, they are -

E. Tenellus
E. Uruguayensis
C. Balansea
Phillipine Java Fern
Dwarf Sag

Decor -

Driftwood which i got from the states
Pagoda Stone from aquaessentials

Its going to be a discus tank + lots of cardinals, in a few months when its ready for them, wilds of some sort

I am happy with the overall look, i think it needs tweaking here and there, which i will do once the tenellus have grown up and around the stones which is the look i am going for, and the java fern should look better once rooted properly.. And that eheim intake pipe is only temporary

Hope you enjoy the journal, i will :)

James
 
nice tank. That's a lot of phillipine java fern. Did you get them from aquaticmagic? How come you decided to get the driftwood from the states? Wouldn't it be cheaper to get it locally? Where did you put the crypt balansae? Can seemed to find it anywhere in the tank.
 
Thanks,

Yea, i got it from aquatic magic, its 20 portions worth. I got the wood in the states as i like the look of it and could not really find anything locally, i paid £80 delivered for both bits, which is not bad when you compare it to ADA wood or similar, and with that it is pot luck.. Got the balansea from http://www.aquaspotworld.com along with the dwarf sag and echinodorus, delivered in 2 days :wideyed:

James
 
20 portion worth of java fern???!!! They were quite generous with me the last time. I bought 2 portion from them and there were nearly 100 leaves of java fern in it. I couldn't even count the rhizomes because some had broken off during the delivery and some rhizome only had 1 leave attached to it. But nevertheless, it's still quite a lot of plants for my 50gallon tank even after I discarded the ugly looking bits. I'm surprised that you bought from aquaspot. They are notorious for small amount of plants and expensive delivery. I used to buy from them but then I stop once aquaticmagic started going.
 
Spectacular setup. If I could just add you may wish to have the inline CO2 reactor on the outflow side of the filter rather than the inflow to prevent it from clogging up.

James
 
Thanks Sam,

I have sacrificed 3 other tanks for this tank, sold alot of equipment and have been buying the bits and pieces for the tank since June.. The auto wc system is the best thing i have done on a tank, changing 100lt per day takes 4.5 hrs and hopefully should minimise early algae issues. Have only lifted a bucket once to clean up the sand :D

Not had a problem with aquaspot, have ordered regualry from him and the quality and quantity was very good.

Thanks for the comments James, The picture does not show the filter setup well really, the heaters and co2 reactor are on the outflow :) Actually looks a little different in there now, as that was when i had just glued all the pvc pipes together and took a quick snap, il get another picture soon showing all the electronics too

James
 
Nice tank, I look forward to seeing it grow and gain fish (its nice to live vicariously in journal threads!). Does putting it in the office make it tax deductable :D

Please show more pics and details of the automatic water changer, I'd love to understand exactly how you did that. Could make a good "How to" in the cookbook section.
 
Does putting it in the office make it tax deductable

Oh yes :D

Il get some pictures of it soon. It is fairly simple to be honest. I have the tank drilled at the top left of the tank above the echinodorus. The bottom of the hole sits at the water level, when fresh water from the ro and hma filters is added at the other end of the tank, the excess drains off through the hole. I have set this up automically by using some RO solenoids that i got from ro-man for £9.99 each, then i worked out the flow rate and how much of RO and HMA i need. It is then set on a timer to turn them on and off accordingly.

James
 
Great set up, James. Well done. I can see this making nice future PFK feature...

The cabinet looks lovely. Better without the handles. ;)

Do you anticipate needing a cooler with the halides etc. under cover? How far about the water are they?

What photoperiod technique are you running?

How did you get your wood over from the US?

I like the 'scape so far. The sag will need thinning quite regularly, it spreads like mad once established.

Heckels would be awesome in there.
 
I'm fine with the discus tank idea but I'm quite doubtful about the cardinal bit. I know it would look brilliant with cardinal in it.... but you sure it won't be snack by the discus? And for the tank that size, how many cardinals were you thinking of getting? I say import them directly from brazil since you will need thousands of them to look impressive lol
 
Many thanks George

I hope i dont need a cooler.. mainly lack of space, would be a nightmare.. The office though has aircon, so hopefully that will be enough, and i will probably run the fans constantly. The halides are just over 30cm above the surface, which i hope should be a good level. I am really supprised with the T5s though, the light they give off is really good, the w reflectors are very impressive.

At the moment, the photoperiod is 10.30 - 12 T5s, 12-2.30pm 2 of the halides, the one above the sand is only on for an hour, then T5s back on from 2.30 - 5. I have the dimmable ballasts and the dimming modules, but have not got round to setting it up yet. They would come on at around 10% power and build up to 100% in an hour or so, and then dim back down over the last hour.

Getting the wood was no problem, came over without any hassel, same as the plants, i was worried by that though..!

I was going to go for hairgrass, but chose sag as its going to be easier to thin out due to the size, i may get some plastic border in the substrate too in the next few days.

At the moment this is my only planted tank, so i dont care how much time it takes me ;) Heckles are an option, Chris at plymouth discus has got some nice wilds coming in very soon, and should fit my timescale once he has quarentined them for a month or so.

I have about 20 cardinals in my 200lt discus tank, and they get on fine, neons would be another story though.. That would go up to 50 to see what that looks like and if it looks like more would work then il add some extra

James
 
Alright Chris ;) Thanks

Yep in the last pictures it was just starting to transform, i would say that now its 80-90% changed to submersed and just a few of the old leaves are left. I was worried it was going to be a different tenellus strain, but its the one i was after and has got a nice red hue to most tips, its spreading nice and should be pretty dense in a couple of weeks :)

Sure no worries about coming to see it, i should get the discus in the first week of January i think, getting some nice heckles, probably some larger ones similar to these guys

http://www.plymouthdiscus.co.uk/product ... 5330573967
 
Nice intillation James, be nice to know more about the technical set up of it all, how you decided on the plumbing and the auto functions you have.

One question though, how on earth did you persuade your boss to let you set up such a huge tank up in the office,and pay for the running cost of it? Your going to say, you are the boss arnt you?? lol Of what business too?

Graeme.
 
Thanks Graeme,

As the tank is in the office, i wanted as little maintenance as poss really, and cant carry buckets up and down the stairs, so got some advice from a discus breeder on setting the basics up. The original plan was to have a reservoir in the stand which pumped 150lt of water into the tank, but that idea was scrapped luckily as i would have not been able to fit in the hardware.. Then we got the idea of basically setting up a trickle system, by drilling the tank and getting water from the RO to fill it up at one end of the tank and any excess just drains off. I then added a HMA also so i can get the right TDS etc also.

Plumbing was easy, i got it all from these guys, just glue it together and get the pieces you want in there. At some point i will probably modify it a little, i will also upgrade the pump in the eheim 2260 from a 1262 (which i added, standard is 1260 which has a flow rate of 1000lt less/hr) to the 1264 when it comes out in the UK which has a turnover of 4500lt/hr, the 1262 is 3400lt/hr. Luckily it is a straight swap, 5 minute job. The RO & HMA are connected to two taps in the stand so i can control them individually, then they have a solenoid each and one just before it goes up to the tank as a safety precaution to stop and start the WC. All the electronics and ballasts are in IP rated boxes to protect them from moisture too. Il get some photos of inside the stand up tomorrow too

Well im not the boss, but its a family business, so that helps :) We are electrical engineers, supply electrical distribution equipment for rural electrification in Africa and Middle East mostly
 
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