Maidenhead Aquatics 425 litre tank

[TarkMalbot]

I wanted a bigger tank than my AR-850 so bought a 60x24x18 tank and cabinet from Maidenhead Aquatics. I will let the photos do the talking:

I will explain more later. 🙂

 

[Martin cape]

That's the dream!! I'm not allowed a bigger tank 🙁

 

[Iain Sutherland]

Nice, you should pull the microsorum windelov and bolbitus out of the gravel, the rhizome with rot and die. You should tie or glue it to some wood.

 

[mi casa]

Very nice dude. A nice home for your sharks 🙂

 

[BIN578]

That bit of bogwood on the right is awesome ! Really fits well in the tank. Looking forward to see this fill out. Its gonna take some planting !!

 

[TarkMalbot]

I am working away offshore at the moment but will try and attach those plants to the bogwood so it looks good.

I read that the fern in there isn't an aquatic plant so might be getting the Mrs to take it back along with hers.

 

[Iain Sutherland]

Looking again charley your right if you mean the one in the middle...hard to see on my phone.

 

[KeyboardWarrior]

I'd love at tank of that size one day!! But for now I guess dreaming is as close as I'm going to get!

 

[TarkMalbot]

A little more information on the tank.
I am running 2 x Aquamanta EFX 200 external filters one at either end of the tank.




As you can see there is an air pump in there too due to a whitespot outbreak but thats another story...

I made a DIY Blue LED system using some Strips I stole of someones Saxo (Ok I got them from eBay really)

 

[TarkMalbot]

 

[TarkMalbot]

Nice, you should pull the microsorum windelov and bolbitus out of the gravel, the rhizome with rot and die. You should tie or glue it to some wood.

I wasn't sure what I was doing but I tied it to the wood. Is this right?:

 

[Iain Sutherland]

yeah, looks like it should be fine, its pretty hardy and its worth giving it a good shake before waterchange.
Ive got a large motherplant of windelov i need to move on next week if you want a mature look at a bargain price...?

 

[TarkMalbot]

Does it root itself to the wood eventually? Looks kinda strange how it is now.

Do you have a photo of your mother plant?

I took that fern out and the underside of its leaves had little roots shooting off it. I didn't have anywhere where I could tie it on so the stems weren't in the gravel without it looking daft so I took it out all together.

 

[Iain Sutherland]

all microsorum produce 'clones' of them selves on the leaf tips, once they are big enough and have roots they detatch themselves or you can remove them. I normally pull all plantlets off and push them back into the motherplant making the plant more dense... but thats just me.
Ill get a picture up when i can of the windelov.

 

[mafoo]

Be warned with those LEDs strips.

I put one in my fluval edge, it went brown and sticky after about 3 months and half the LEDs blew out or went dim.

 

[TarkMalbot]

I will keep my eye on them. Thy are in the lid and not inside the tank but even so thanks for the warning.

 

[TarkMalbot]

I have had a big change in the tank recently. I took my 6 Bala Shark back to the LFS and exchanged them. I think even a 5ft tank will be too small for them in the long run and they were uprooting the plants and very photosensitive.

I have now gone for a variety of Rainbowfish, Barbs, and Tetra and changed the background round from black to blue. Seems to give the illusion that the water is clearer.



I am dosing with TNC Lite and Flourish Excel but would appreciate some advice on low tech plant growing.

My lights have 216W via 4 x 46" T5 tubes and is 109 US Gallon giving me just about 2 watt per gallon.

 

[ceg4048]

This is not a low tech tank. When you enrich CO2 by any method the tank is high tech. Using Excel only on this tank with 200 watts of T5 is asking for major problems.

Cheers,

 

[TarkMalbot]

I don't have Co2 injection on this tank and have only dosed Excel once as a carbon substitute when i did a water change. This is why I would like advice as to what to do until I can afford another Co2 setup.

 

[ceg4048]

Well, your advised to NOT use 200 watts of T5 lighting, otherwise there is a reasonable probability of annihilating the plants. Use half of that, or even less, until you have installed a gas injection system.

Cheers,