Star Ship Planted Tank [Captain's] Log

[Lindy]

There are loads of fish that like soft acidic water! I have 3 kinds of betta and 2 types of gourami that love ph 5.5 or lower. Micro rasbora bororas maculata is also found in soft acidic water and I am sure there are others.

 

[Luke1939]

Morning Chaps.

Ok before I get confused.com on the substrate (at least the lighting is sorted!) couple of pics of the center piece of the tank. The coffee cup is for scale !

The underneath is full of little caves, nooks and crannies. Perfect for shrimps and fish that like to hide away

I saw this on the LFS and knew had found the focal point of the tank!.

 

[Luke1939]

ok wood is now soaking . Figure its gonna take a month afore the bulk of the tannins has leached. Daily doses of boiling water etc.

I have decided to strip the tank now - plants can be salvaged and will pop into a 48l I have spare with some simple lighting. Seems pointless running a tank just to cycle the filter for another month. Once the tank is up and running again no biggie to start another fish less cycle and the ADA soil will help anyway . Means I have 1 month to research the substrate, plants etc etc. work on the hardscaping and not rush it.

Looks like I need to switch to ADA Amazonia. I don't want to be limited by the fish I want to have. appreciate the feed back ldcgroomer on stock though. I'm sure the LFS will swap for me

@alto thanks for the tips and help it's really appreciated ! - the biggest problem I have is the nitrate levels in my tap water which is why I switched to RO in the first place. Even with a 50/50 mix I get 20-30 ppm after and we drink the bloody stuff! It is bit of a faff of course but I bought a monster bucket of tropic marin anyway from Germany.

The tank has a small window behind it the opens into the garden so water changes are easy - siphon straight into flower beds. I have a water butt set up next to the window and a return pump. The R/O unit puts the water straight into the water butt, I re-mineralise and then pump into the tank though the window.

When I'm cycling the tank yeah totally agree to use a mix or just plain old tap water as will need to do many water changes and that will get costly.

very glad I came to this forum!

 

[Luke1939]

Tank broken down filter etc cleaned. Quite cathartic and now have a blank canvas.

Just need to clean the tank properly and then done. Very much looking forward to the next few weeks and taking my time to get it right from the start !

 

[Luke1939]

Morning all on this lovely spring day!

For raising the height of the substrate at the back, I was thinking of packing some of the JBL volcanic mineral base I got into filter socks and using like long sausages for creating contours. Would this work ?

Decided to add a other T5 unit. Will use the leds just to simulate sunrise/sunset and moonlight. they will go off when the T5 s power up. Will be 198w in total so should be nicely in the medium light PAR bracket for the surface of the wood.

Amount of tannins from the wood is amazing! Like dark tea every day so swapping the water completely each morning.

 

[ADA]

Great looking piece of wood, plenty of pockets you could fill with substrate and plant .

 

[Luke1939]

You know what, I did not think of flipping it and having the caves etc on top. As substrate would happily sit in the holes.

Not sure on substrate now . So many options .... Flora base looks good and also perhaps easier to work with for a novice like myself. Is ADA soil tricky to use for first timers?

 

[ADA]

Never used the stuff, always used florabase black, tried brown once but was too light.

 

[alto]

Is ADA soil tricky to use for first timers?

ADA powder as a top layer makes planting much easier, also if you watch those videos where the planting is done in (almost) dry ADA soil just damping the soil first with spray & then continuing to mist plants as you work - this works best if you have a plan for what goes where etc (look at those many Tropica layouts, most come with a diagram, some include planting videos & subsequent growth).

Tropica also offers a Growth Substrate which you can use beneath various sands/gravels or soils, they also have a soil which is similar in texture to ADA Amazonia (local shop has several display tanks now), again there is a powder that can be used for the top layer; unlike ADA there is no initial ammonia release so you can add an algae eating crew shortly after planting. It's still recommend to do daily water changes etc.

If you think it's likely you'll be moving plants/hardscape about (frequently), then soil is not a great first choice (it can be managed but you'll likely be cursing the mess & cloud), also mechanical shear will tend to break down the soil faster than otherwise

You can always do a soil region & a sand/gravel area.

 

[Luke1939]

Thanks Alto. Very useful feedback.

I'll have a sand section, mainly for the corys. I'm hoping to not have to do replanting/scraping on a large scale but of course I'll make many mistakes with layout!

I think I'm leaning towards the flora base black with jbl volcano as base layer. ADA is of course amazing but I think for my first attempt, I'd prefer a substrate that does not leech ammonia. The chemist in me likes to monitor the ammonia levels precisely and would be achieved by dosing myself.

Hell tomorrow of course will change mind again back to ADA... The gf is already becoming bored of talking tank .. She just wants it up and running!

I need more pics in this thread! Will start some contours this week which will help visualise things. Oh and source 3 solid acrylic columns for mounting to wood on.

 

[Luke1939]

Afternoon all!

Bit of a break in progress mainly doing a lot of thinking and think I have now got a solid plan ! I‘ll set up a new thread once I have all the parts I need ready to go. Have a tank title in mind as well. Think I have now got a solid plan...

Wood is still soaking reckon another couple of weeks should do it. In the meantime have a few questions if that’s cool .

Are stockings/tights water safe? Planning to use filled sausages of tights for creating banks at the back (filled with volcanic JBL mineral). A fine gauge to stop the substrate mixing in.

I have got the acrylic columns and will be drilling 3” holes shortly for the 6” rods ( I intend to fix in rods into each one, which will then be inserted into the wood ). Is there a waterproof non-toxic glue I can use to fix the stainless steel rods into the acrylic? Or just go with aquarium silicon to fix the rods in place ?

And definitely going with ADA Aqua Soil Amazonia, especially as it matches the tank itself.

Thanks!