• You are viewing the forum as a Guest, please login (you can use your Facebook, Twitter, Google or Microsoft account to login) or register using this link: Log in or Sign Up

Juwel Trigon 350 build

Well started planting the tank last night and took a lot longer than I thought it would I was up till 2am!
20160810_220513.jpg


Will upload more pics of the fully planted tank soon, just tweaking my sump today

20160811_153830.jpg


I'm happy to say it is currently running at about 2000lph at the moment but can handle the sump at full speed which is 3000lph and my overflow can handle about twice that so I've has to close it quite a bit to stop too much water flowing into the sump and causing a flood.
 
Have had a slight setback this evening. my solvent weld feed pipe failed where it joins the non return valve. I've tried re-gluing it but it's not holding. I've put a load of sealant over the joint and hopefully that will hold until I get some replacement pipe parts.

Going to ring a couple of placed tomorrow to see if anyone can guarantee Saturday delivery. All I need is a 32mm valve end and a 32mm to 25mm reducer.
 
Ok have fixed the pipe now. Here's the bit that started leaking and my attempt to patch it up
20160813_160652.jpg


Here's the sump after I fixed it, all back in working order :)
20160813_160533.jpg
20160813_160511.jpg


Here's the fully planted tank, it a couple of days old and I'm guessing once everything settles down and the sump matures the water will get much clearer.
20160813_160210.jpg


My tank readings after 2 days are:-

NO3 : 10
NO2: 0
GH: 7
KH: 4.5
PH: 6
CO2: 35 (I've turned the CO2 down a bit now)

I think my CO2 drop checkers liquid may be out of date. It showing blue but with a reading of 35 shouldn't it be green?
 
Nice set up
I'd say that there's more than enough filter material needed for a freshwater tank of that size
There's less filter material in pond filter units for something 10 times the volume

I hope your going to put more than a few tetras and some shrimp in it


Regards
Dean
 
I'm not a pro at testing but i never tested my CO2 as in a number. Just always use premixed 4dkh from CO2art.
http://www.co2art.co.uk/collections...ucts/aquarium-co2-drop-checker-solution-100ml
I got this one over a year now and i believe it still indicates properly. I keep the colour very near yellow giving algae no chance of growing.

Is there a reason you didnt include testing NH3/NH4?
The soil will give off NH3 and its good to do big water changes the first week(s) depending on the value (between 50% and 90%). Probably you have a PH of 6 because of the NH3. When it is "gone" you wil probably get around 7.

Your NO3 level suprised me since you are starting up your filter. I thought it would be higher because your nitrifying bacteria colony has to build up from scratch. Or did u use a filter medium like seachem?
 
Timon Vogelaar said:
Is there a reason you didnt include testing NH3/NH4?
Click to expand...
I'm using the JBL Proscan it doesn't have NH3/4 but I will check with one of mother test kits.
Timon Vogelaar said:
Your NO3 level suprised me since you are starting up your filter
Click to expand...
I've added lots of bacterial balls which came with the filter media I bought. Plus added some filter material from my existing mature canister filter from my trigon 190 tank :)
 
Manisha said:
Although would it help you to separate the sand and substrate with some small rocks to avoid mixing
Click to expand...
I did have them better separated but I decided to do the hardscape before I tested the new sump :crazy: that was a mistake! as I was testing the weir capacity vs sump capacity the weir overflowed into the tank causing some of the soil to flow over the rocks down into the sand layer. I've got loads more sand so I'm going to top up the sand layer after I dig try to get as much of the overflowed soil out ;)
 
Thanks, It's taken me about 4 months to plan and build. I've kept fish for longer than I can remember, but this I the first tank I've actually planned out exactly what I was going to do and what plants I was going to use. I did have some much appreciated help from Dave at Aquarium Gardens, I gave him a list of my tank parameters and he put together a list of what plants would survive and suggestions based of scapes I like.

This is the first time I've built a sump and I've loved building it but it been a massive learning curve and I still need to make a couple of teaks if I don't want a flood if there's a power cut :rolleyes:, just now trying to decide if I should lower the tank level, cover some of the weir inlet or go for something over the top like have a flap that closes if the flow from the pump stops :D
 
dean said:
Which lighting did you go with
Click to expand...
On the main tank, I've got the standard 55cm trigon rear unit with 2 x 24 watt bulbs, the front light unit is an iQuatics 4 tube unit with 2 x 45 watt and 2 x 35 watt tubes so about 208 watts of T5 lighting all together which I'm hoping will allow me to grow most plants. For the refugium in the sump I managed to snipe an Azoo Flexi Mini LED light on an ebay auction for a quarter of the retail price :D
 
My thoughts on the CAL AQUA LABS Green Base and Black Earth Premium I used in my setup.

I also used some JBL Proscape Volcano Mineral as the very bottom layer, then covered it with the Green Base. 3 litres of Green base is nearly the same price of 9 litres of the JBL, but there are added bacteria etc in the green base. The Black Earth itself is very well priced compared to ADA Amazonia and Tropica Soil. I got the Black Earth from Aquasabi I bought 4 bags and the price was £28.90 per bag the soil ranges in size from smaller than 1mm to 4mm I like the appearance of the soil and it's easy to plant in and to scape with, for the built up areas I used some 2mm black correx to stop the soil sliding too much.

I used a plant sprayer to soak the soil then cover the planted scape with kitchen towel and soaked that with the sprayer too before I started to fill the tank with water. I was initially worried that the soil might float as it hadn't been pre soaked but I was pleasantly surprised that only a very tiny amount floated and when I tapped the floating soil it sank straight away.

So far my plants seem to be doing well, although it is very early days but I have noticed some good growth on the Limnophia Aromatica already

Now according to Cal Aqua Labs, Black Earth Premium doesn't leak high levels of ammonia into the tank, I'm not sure how true this is as I've got Ammonia readings of 4 on my API Ammonia test kit. Anyway the tank is cycling nicely and I'll keep you all updated as to how the plants do in this base / soil combo.
 
Been doing 40% water changes every 2 days and now my Ammonia levels are down to 1. Most of my plants are growing well, the exception being the eleocharis both dwarf and normal varieties, some of the parts I separated out are going well and some are turning yellow. I've also go the white fluffy fungus growing on the bogwood which I've had before on wood when starting a new tank up and this usually goes ones the filter has established itself, but I'm also getting some brown fluffy bits too which I've not had before. I think this may be algae and may be down to me having all the lights on giving 208 watts for 8 hours a day, so I'm switching 2 of the light units off leaving just the 48 watt unit on for the next few days. I'm hoping this will help solve this issue I'm also turning my CO2 up.

This is all going to be a bit of trial an error. If anyone has had this brown fluffy stuff and knows a way to get rid of it please let me know. Also any tips on the eleocharis would be appriciated.
 
DavidW said:
Been doing 40% water changes every 2 days and now my Ammonia levels are down to 1. Most of my plants are growing well, the exception being the eleocharis both dwarf and normal varieties, some of the parts I separated out are going well and some are turning yellow. I've also go the white fluffy fungus growing on the bogwood which I've had before on wood when starting a new tank up and this usually goes ones the filter has established itself, but I'm also getting some brown fluffy bits too which I've not had before. I think this may be algae and may be down to me having all the lights on giving 208 watts for 8 hours a day, so I'm switching 2 of the light units off leaving just the 48 watt unit on for the next few days. I'm hoping this will help solve this issue I'm also turning my CO2 up.

This is all going to be a bit of trial an error. If anyone has had this brown fluffy stuff and knows a way to get rid of it please let me know. Also any tips on the eleocharis would be appriciated.
Click to expand...

On the brown fluffyness;
It's hard to tell if its brown algae without seeing a picture from your side. Brown algae is common in startup tanks. Good that you refreshed your water that is very important to get your water values in order. My advise is to clean the algae and fungus and to keep doing water changes till amonia, nitrates, nitrites, ph, kh, gh and phosphates are in order. Your bacteria colony and plants need to take over for perfect balance and you help it by doing changes and adding bacteria.

I have Eleocharis sp. Mini. I don't know if you guys call that one dwarf. Maybe its Parvula you have wich is slightly bigger. Anyways; Did you trim it before planting? Submersed growth must change to merged growth and my experience with Eleocharis is that in the beginning the submerged will die off, even when you trimmed it. I also have Eleocharis planted near the glass and it is really cool to see that it is going too root properly first.

So in my honest opinion;
- Raise co2
- Keep giving ferts (in my opinion, when starting up, no nitrates and phosphates but maybe that one is frowned upon)
- Dont lower your light but do not give more then eight hours.
- Keep doing 50 til 90% water changes til values are okay
- When the dwarf eleocharis reaches 2-4 cm it is ok to trim it to let it carpet. Keeps it young and fresh
- Remove the algae ect

I think that it might be useful to see my journal and see my eleocharis growth and how my water values are.
Good luck!
 
Last edited:
H
Timon Vogelaar said:
So in my honest opinion;
- Raise co2
- Keep giving ferts (in my opinion, when starting up, no nitrates and phosphates but maybe that one is frowned upon)
- Dont lower your light but do not give more then eight hours.
- Keep doing 50 til 90% water changes til values are okay
- When the dwarf eleocharis reaches 2-4 cm it is ok to trim it to let it carpet. Keeps it young and fresh
- Remove the algae ect
Click to expand...
Hi thanks for the info. I've increased my CO2 I'll switch all light back on when I get home. I'm adding TMC complete ferts every time I do a water change. I'll be switching to macro / micro ferts one I've run out of the tmc and am considering getting a Jacoed dosing pup. I also took the wood out of the tank last night and scrapped the brown stuff off it.

I didn't trim he dwarf hair grass before planting, they were from tissue cultures and only about 1-2cm when I planted.

My ammonia level has been halving every 2 days, and I've been adding bacteria with every water change. My K1 has started tumbling so so I recon the bacteria has started to colonise :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top