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My Corner Tank - Venezia 190 - Jul 2007 to Jan 2012

Re: My Corner Tank - Venezia 190

hijac said:
hi,

aquamas seem to have a broken site, i cant get the order in and they have yet to reply to a single email, feels a little like they have gone bust.

so the search goes on....

found this for £15.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Aquarium-Co2-...emQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item25574383ef

Don't know anything about atomizers thou, seems very cheap for what i want....

hmm,

John

Hiya,

Just a quick update on the Atomizer, going to take it off. Even set very low it constantly filled the tank with microbubbles reducing the clarity of the water and generally looking poo. Going to shift back to a diffuser until Ed gets time for the DIY reactor.

New scape has been going now for a few months proper after a rushed start to be ready for Christmas day lunch background. It's not ready for photos just yet as i'm still working out my dosing and everything needs a good growth spurt to finally take shape (not helped by my CO2 needing refilled).

Best Regards,
John
 
Re: My Corner Tank - Venezia 190

do you know what, I took my atomiser off for the same reason. I just couldn't get it low enough, it seems like it needed a lot of pressure to get going then it would spew(?) out a lot of micro bubbles. All or nothing. I'm using a diffuser too but haven't got it up high enough yet. I did get good growth with it though.

look forward to your the pictures.

Chris
 
Re: My Corner Tank - Venezia 190

I love seeing the progression of this tank over the last few years. Funny I too remember the days before starting EI and having dreaded cyanobacteria and researching and finding about Erythromycin. The only relatively smaller algae issue I get now is GSA.
 
Re: My Corner Tank - Venezia 190

Hi,

Just wanted to show you my new scape. I'm going for that natural dirty water look. Hope you like it.

murky-fishtank.jpg


:D

More seriously, i'm scratching my head on this one. I think it is white cloudy water, indicating a bacteria bloom. It came on about a month ago after I added a CO2 reactor that had very tightly compacted netting/floss in the chamber to help break up the CO2 bubbles. It reduced the flow ALOT so i switched it out for some Bio balls. I've also added an extra nano pump in the tank to further improve flow to compensate for the slight reduction from the filter. Overall circulation is on paper over 2000L/h on a 170 odd litre tank.

I can get it better so I can see the back of the tank ish, with a 50% water change. But it starts clouding again the next day and by the end of a week will be like this.

:(

Ideas anyone?

Thanks in advance,
John
 
Re: My Corner Tank - Venezia 190

It looks more like green water :( Large water changes could help. Look at james algae guid there is aalot of tips there.
 
Re: My Corner Tank - Venezia 190

I agree, looks very like greenwater to me, gave up trying to clear it with water changes etc. and instead dropped in a UV filter, about £20 from eBay. Cleared it in a week and it's never been back since.
 
Re: My Corner Tank - Venezia 190

nry said:
I agree, looks very like greenwater to me, gave up trying to clear it with water changes etc. and instead dropped in a UV filter, about £20 from eBay. Cleared it in a week and it's never been back since.

I've ordered a £20 UV from ebay so we can see if that sorts it. :D
 
Re: My Corner Tank - Venezia 190

Hiya,

Been eons since I last updated this properly as I've been busy DIYing for almost a year now to finish this flat. Good thing is i'm almost done and can start paying more attention to my tanks again.

Although at this moment it is late and it is my girlfriend whom is demanding attention. So i will post this and type more tomorrow.

tank.jpg

Jan 11th 2010

Best Regards,
John
 
Re: My Corner Tank - Venezia 190 - Jul 2007 to Jan 2011

Tom said:
Not your everyday scape, really quite unique :) I like it :D I'd like to see more of that Hydrocotyle in places too

Cheers, it's not really a deliberate scape thou. :D

Since I was busy as hell renovating this house i quickly setup the tank during xmas eve preparations last year (2009, the tank was at the end of the dinner table). Since it was extremely cloudy the planting was entirely guesswork and my planning was somewhat rushed. It did look ace when the lights came on though, which was pleasantly surprising.

Then over time various issues had led to a slow change in plants and eventually removal of 2/3 of the hardscape due to constant BBA (ill come to that later).

When i moved house I decided to address some of the issues i had with the corner tank, which in turn created more in different ways.

I took out the internal outflow stalk and put in a lily with a larger 405 filter. I added the hydor external heater and a co2 reactor. Basically taking out as much of the kit from in the tank as possible.

The xmas 2009 planting was alot of different swords and crypts and other plants i'd never tried. For hardscape there used to be three "stumps" around the tank, in the photo above there is only one left.

A year ago a made a classic mistake with the substrate in my xmas eve rush, i was aiming to have oliver knott soil in three plant heavy areas around the stump bases. then to save money use sand and gravel for the paths that were going between them. but the ratios of each were completely wrong. over time the gravel sunk to the bottom, in other areas the oliver knott was too close to the surface and constantly floating around or in other areas not enough to give good root based ferts to the crypts and swords. just rushed bad planning then being too busy to fix it.

The changes to the hardware initially rocked and I was very happy, things grew well. But after a while i was having persistent BBA on the wood. I upped the CO2 made sure the ferts were good. Nothing helped. Then looking at the flow noticed how badly the extra kit on the outflow of the 405 was reducing the turnover, added an extra koralia and after a green water outbreak added a little internal UV filter for more flow.

Over time the plants were growing well but i was taking out the swords as each one got INSANELY bigger then any of the suppliers descriptions. The Echinodorus x "Rainers Kitty" was AMAZING but had me taking 14 inch leaves back to the shop to show to the suppler that this was NOT a fore to midground plant. God bless EI for showing LFS owners what plants should look like when properly grown. 8)

The BBA issue still wasn't clearing up even with constant cleaning and liquid CO2 additional and without that extra 30 minutes a day spare i decided to take out the two smaller front stumps and concentrate on the back one.

A little revelation came to me the other day about why I am getting this bad BBA these specific bits of drift wood, as it is also bad on another large piece of the same batch i lent to a friend for his tank.

These bits of wood are pieces i bought with my first set-ups and for a couple of years were left uncovered in the shed after coming out of my first corner scape. In my rush to set-up that Xmas eve I did not scrub the wood to remove any of the slight surface rot that had occurred in all those years in the shed. During maintenance in the last few months there is a soft layer on these pieces what comes off with your nail. Once removed the area's beneath (not rotten) were much less likely to get BBA, especially since i sorted the flow issues.

Oh the benefit of hindsight!!!! ALWAYS SCRUB YOUR WOOD. 8)

Overall, things are looking quite pleasant in the tank. A planned scape no, a nice thing to come out of a near disaster, yes. The photos never really do corner tanks justice. They are viewed from 90 degrees worth of angles so the straight on shot is never the whole story. Probably why they are so damn hard to scape.

I am however in the processing of winding this tank down permanently. My aim is to transfer all the fish and many of the plants to my first "proper" shaped tank!!! I have a Rio 180 that i have been gathering bits for waiting to go. I am so looking forward to working with something that you all consider the norm!!!!

Although i have enjoyed my "journey" (to coin an xfactorism) in corner tanks, it has taught me a massive amount, i will be glad to see the back of it for the following reasons.

  • 1. The majority of planted tank rules/guides/advice is based on normal shaped tanks
    Be it calculating how much light you have, how deep your substrate is, how many fish you should stock, nothing for corner tanks for novices is a documented as it is for normal shaped tanks. Making it more difficult to learn.

    2. The variety of scapes you can do is very limited.
    Because of the dimensions you have a very odd/small floor space to work with. Limits to how and where you can put hardscape.

    3. Flow is a nightmare.
    Well it was for me, especially when you start adding in tall hardscape. Spraybars would have helped, but that curved front makes it all more difficult/complicated to eliminate deadspots.

    4. Harder to clean and maintain.
    I don't know if it is just the height of the tank i have but the extra width and corner aspect meant that reaching parts of the tank involved standing on a chair and leaning right in. Especially the back and corners. Looking at the Rio 180 which is the same amount of water, can can happily reach all parts for planting and cleaning, even when it is mounted on a much higher base.

    5. The fish don't like it.
    Probably the most important of them all. I am convinced my fish don't like the front curved pane of glass. In all the years i've had this tank other then the mosquito rasbora (who are just nuts brave) no fish want to be near the centre front of the glass. They are all exceedingly skittish when I compare them to friends fish or fish in shops. Any movement in the room or slightest vibration everyone hides. Most turn nocturnal over time and spend most of their time around the back corner hidden. Think about it, the fish at the front, facing out, has a massively distorted view and probably cannot see anything clearly 90 degrees each side of it through the glass. Thereby is in constant threat warning mode, why chill out there, when the back of the tank is much calmer and has less crazy flow.

SO anyone considering a corner tank as their first big tank, like I did, i advise you not too. 5 years of learning later, i now think i know ALOT about planted tanks. But I think i would have had an easier time of it with a rectangular one. :D

Good bye Venezia 190 :wave:

Hello Rio 180.

Thank you all for reading,
I'll be back shortly in another journal.

Best Regards,
John

tank2.jpg

7th Jan 2011


DSCF2858.jpg

My favourite period of this tank.
 
Re: My Corner Tank - Venezia 190 - Jul 2007 to Jan 2011

Hiya,

Still not managed to rip this tank down yet but the Rio is almost ready....

Took a few more photos and tried a white background for the first time.. I actually prefer it! Looks lovely in real life. What do you guys think?

DSCF4061.jpg

19th March 2011 - Black Background

DSCF4063.jpg

19th March 2011 - White Background

DSCF4069.jpg

19th March 2011 - Side View

DSCF4070.jpg

19th March 2011 - Side View

DSCF4072.jpg

19th March 2011 - Detail

Best Regards,
John
 
Re: My Corner Tank - Venezia 190 - Jul 2007 to Mar 2011

Lovely tank, but I like it more without the white background, maybe blue or black will look better IMO!

If the crypts on the left were to be parallel to the front glass in line with the blyxa, would be better, I think! Love the hydrocotile and the carpet!

Regards
 
Re: My Corner Tank - Venezia 190 - Jul 2007 to Mar 2011

I'm all for the white. A stronger shade of white or rear of tank illumination would help.

It's an incredible tank mate. A great layout.
 
Re: My Corner Tank - Venezia 190 - Jul 2007 to Mar 2011

looks excellent!

There's not many corner tank keepers on here, i think you should keep the corner tank!lol
 
Re: My Corner Tank - Venezia 190 - Jul 2007 to Mar 2011

Hi everyone,

Antoni Dimitrov said:
Lovely tank, but I like it more without the white background, maybe blue or black will look better IMO!

If the crypts on the left were to be parallel to the front glass in line with the blyxa, would be better, I think! Love the hydrocotile and the carpet!

Regards

I think i am so bias to the white as it is very new to me after all these years with black backdrops the tank looks entirely different with white. Light bounces around such different ways. They do say thou, jungle tanks (which this leans towards) should be black backdrops, simple layouts - white....

Re: layout - :D As I mention in the previous big rant, there is not much thought to layout in this, it is and evolved mess from a year of neglect. The planning went out the window as I started to remove 2/3 of the hardscape. There was a medium size stump in that area you mention a few months ago...

Once the carpet surrounded the base of the hydrocotyle it grew much better, before it was struggling to stay healthy. I'm amazed by how well the HC grows with the innert sand substrate at the front of the tank. Thumbs up for EI dosing. 8)

Mark Evans said:
I'm all for the white. A stronger shade of white or rear of tank illumination would help.

It's an incredible tank mate. A great layout.

Cheers, although i'm still holding my hands up and saying the layout is accidental. 8)

Your right about the stronger shade of white, i grabbed some really low grade whiteboard paper that was kicking about. It could be much whiter. I have spare lights kicking about for rear of tank illumination so will give that a shot when I have a moment. I'm very interested about how different the photos come out with the white.

My camera skills and equipment are still lacking, hopefully will have an DSLR in a couple of months. Currently still using the old fujifilm s5600 with tripod. But i've forgotten what settings i used for tank shots a year and a bit ago that I really liked. It's very adjustable for a base level bridge camera, the quality just falls off in lower light. Which i have to try and get back in photoshop.

Links for good camera setup tips for tank shots greatly accepted.

ianho said:
looks excellent!

There's not many corner tank keepers on here, i think you should keep the corner tank!lol

Thanks!

RE: Corner tanks - yup, for good reasons, as i mentioned on the last page, I wish i'd never bought it. I'm on a mission to get rid of it. I'll run both for a couple of months then it gets the axe.

LondonDragon said:
Not easy to scape a corner tank and this one looks excellent :) congrats and keep it going ;)

Cheers mate. I'm happy that I can grow plants well. Which is what this forum is really about :).... We obsess a lot about layouts and scapes but really, a well grown out, healthy set of plants does the work for you most of the time. ;)

Best Regards,
John
 
Re: My Corner Tank - Venezia 190 - Jul 2007 to Mar 2011

I have to say that your different scapes are some of the finest I've seen and are truly an inspiration to any fish keeper keeping a planted aquarium :clap: I too have a corner unit aquarium albeit not quite as fantastic as yours :oops: but i was wondering what Co2 equipment you have and what kind of dosage are you using ie. bps? I've recently purchased a JBL Proflora 602 but am unsure as to how much i should be putting in, different forums give you different specs and now I've been told that the CO2 tester that comes with it can quite often give you a false reading of not having enough in there!!!! Obviously judging by the tank you are doing something right and was wondering if you can help in this matter, many thanks and keep up the good work :thumbup:
 
Re: My Corner Tank - Venezia 190 - Jul 2007 to Mar 2011

TopCat75 said:
I have to say that your different scapes are some of the finest I've seen and are truly an inspiration to any fish keeper keeping a planted aquarium :clap: I too have a corner unit aquarium albeit not quite as fantastic as yours :oops: but i was wondering what Co2 equipment you have and what kind of dosage are you using ie. bps? I've recently purchased a JBL Proflora 602 but am unsure as to how much i should be putting in, different forums give you different specs and now I've been told that the CO2 tester that comes with it can quite often give you a false reading of not having enough in there!!!! Obviously judging by the tank you are doing something right and was wondering if you can help in this matter, many thanks and keep up the good work :thumbup:

what a lovely compliment. thank you.

Re: CO2.

I've tried most things over time in this tank CO2 related. I think i went

Ladder
Diffuser
Atomiser
Reactor

On the delivery end. Overall setup is a £50 reducer/valve i got from some online retailer on a FE and a german made CO2 reactor that is similar to the aqua media ones but with bigger hose fixtures to take the 16/22 mm tubing on the 405 filter i have. This reactor was a bitch to find as Aquamas had gone out of business as far as I could tell and I had to do a lot of searching while actively translating the websites from German.

I have a very similar JBL kit to yours although i'm currently not using the reducer/valve as it is elsewhere. I would presume you can use fire extinguishers instead of the JBL cannisters as they are MUCH cheaper to refill if you don't have a local JBL refill enabled local fish shop. You can find very good instructions on using fire extinguishers else where on these forums. The JBL fine adjustment valve was way better then the one on my current reducer.

As for the amount you should put in it entirely depends on your tank setup. Size, absorption, plant mass, water movement, fish stocking levels, light, diffusion method etc... Many variables which are different on every tank. Me giving you the bps value on my tank might be way too much or way too little for your setup.

Don't dispair about CO2 though. It is undoubtedly one of the hardest things to get right in a fish tank, and one of the most dangerous for the occupants to get wrong.

Check the tutorial and CO2 sections on this forum for the correct information on the subject. I trust the many experts here to give you the best, and most up to date information and explanations of what you should aim for.

A must is to invest in a good drop checker and some KH4 solution. Then my personal opinion would be ditch that CO2 ladder you have with the JBL kit as they don't work well enough for a heavily planted tank and get a nice glass diffuser bubble counter combo. Then start low, slowly over days building up the amount of bubbles until you have a nice steady lime green.

Currently I run my CO2 from and hour before lights on to an hour before lights out. This saves on CO2 and your plants don't need it during the night, they actually give it off. But you can also run it at a lower rate 24 hours a day. People do both with great success. I only switched to running it when the lights are on in the last year....

The most important thing about adding CO2 is WATCH YOUR FISH. If they are all gasping for air at the surface act immediately to reduce the CO2 in the water. A emergency water change has saved my tank on a number of occasions when I have been a little too "trigger" happy on the CO2. Any change you make to the CO2, leave it a long while before judging if you have done enough, adjusting up a little too little is better then a little too much.

Hope that helps a little, there are many people here who can explain things better then me. I spent 2 years reading before I even got my first planted tank. I know how daunting all the different sources and "experts" information can be. You have, however, found something I never had in those early years.....

UKAPS 8)

Best Regards,
John
 
Re: My Corner Tank - Venezia 190 - Jul 2007 to Mar 2011

Thank you John for your advice, alas i fear my biggest problem in the planted aquarium world is patience as i expect an underwater paradise almost immediately and yet i know this is not possible!! I shall endeavor to take my time and be patient nonetheless lol Thanks again for the advice, keep up the good work :thumbup:
 
Re: My Corner Tank - Venezia 190 - Jul 2007 to Mar 2011

Just finished reading this from start to finish. Amazing tank mate. Hats off to you for doing so well with a corner tank. I loved the august 08 pic too with just plants. Tons of colour. Might pinch a few ideas from it for when mine gets stripped down and rescaped :0)
 
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