44 replies to this topic

[Juls]

After a few false starts on this i've finally gotten a setup i'm beginning to be happy with.


Tank: 4ft Long x 18" Wide x 24" High 330L (Glass from Vebas)
Cabinet & Hood: Glass One Australind (Company no longer operating)
Filtration: Eheim 2215 - Modified Intake, Glass Lily for output to come shortly.
Heater: Eheim Jager 300W
Lighting: Diy in hood Setup 2 x 54W T5HO Hagen Powerglo bulbs (adding 2 Hagen Lifeglow and another ballast soon)
Substrate: Seachem Flourite Black x 5 bags Flourite Dark x 2 Bags (mixed together)
CO2: Seachem Excel
Flora: Glosso, Xmas Moss.
Fauna: TBA.

Pic 1.
After the tank was gutted of it's cichlid setup.


Pic 2.
I was going to use seachem flourite black on it's own, but i didn't like the appearance so i mixed in 2 bags of flourite dark and was pleasantly surprised with the outcome.


Pic 3.
Many Hours later.


Pic 4.
More levels added


Pic 5.
Inside the tank pic (no water of course)


Pic 6.
Filled with Water, Corner wood in.


Pic 7.
Side on still no wood.


And here is the planted out pics.

will update some more stuff as i do it, and add fish in the coming days.

[joey]

WOW, stunning tank.
it has a really hard look to it, what fish you stocking in it?

[Fish Antics]

Very nice Tank!

[Cawdor]

Very nice, looks promising!

[(Anthony)]

Very nice,
Thats going to look awsome wen the plants are grown,
Did u put the smaller sized plants at the front then the taller ones at the back and on the levels?

Anthony,

[Graeme]

Very nicely planted tank

Will look good as it grows in

You may want to look at pressurised CO2 soon , excel and similar products are good, but not as good as the real thing.
What other ferts will you be using in this tank?

Graeme

[Juls]

WOW, stunning tank.
it has a really hard look to it, what fish you stocking in it?

Will put up some pics in the next few days. :-)

Very nice,
Thats going to look awsome wen the plants are grown,
Did u put the smaller sized plants at the front then the taller ones at the back and on the levels?

Anthony,

No it's all Glosso and moss,
it's likely that the lower glosso will actually grow taller than the glosso planted higher, (although glosso only reaches 3" max)
becuase the lower plants will grow upwards searching for light, and the higher ones will stay lower because they are closer to the light,
if it becomes a real problem, i will have to increase the light, i plan to bump it up to 216W shortly, but will go to 324W if neccessary.

Very nicely planted tank

Will look good as it grows in

You may want to look at pressurised CO2 soon , excel and similar products are good, but not as good as the real thing.
What other ferts will you be using in this tank?

Graeme

At the moment proper CO2 is out of budget, I won't do it unless i can get a pH controller ect as well.

I'm just using Flourish and Flourish excel at the moment,
the substrate is seachem flourite so hopefully it should provide most of the requirements.

regards
Juls

[lojik]

Very nice scape. will look amazing when the plants get bigger.

Where did you acquire the substrate, and how much did you pay?

[Juls]

Where did you acquire the substrate, and how much did you pay?

vebas aquariums in O'connor (Fremantle) cheapest in Perth and they
keep it all in stock

seachem flourite red, regular flourite and flourite dark are $49.50 per
bag and flourite black is $65 per bag plus less your pcs discount off those
prices.

For a flat scape you'd need 3 bags for a 4x14 4 bags for a 4x18 and 6 for a 4x24

if u want to do a tiered setup like myn you will need 40-60 percent more although
you could mix a cheaper gravel in.

Juls

[lojik]

Ah good. I'm intending to head to Vebas tomorrow so I will have a look.

thx

[ibm450]

looking good, please post any further updates of tank

[Juls]

Well it's been 10 days, and the moss has taken off, the glosso much to my amazment has put out runners which are growing at a rate of 1cm per day!!
looks like hundreds of new plants are coming up daily.

and thats with only 0.3W per litre at the full 24" deep in the tank, I believe the bulbs I'm using are whats making the difference in the deepest parts of the tank.
I honestly thought the glosso would not grow under such low lighting, but just isn't the case.

anyway here is some more updates, my camera is proving to be hopeless for taking photos of the fish, it's just too slow to focus on these small fast fish.

Hopefully once i get it totally setup and stocked someone in pcs with a nice digi slr that takes a billion photos a second can volunteer to come take some pics for me?? please??

[Juls]

More pics

[Juls]

More

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[dazzabozza]

Hopefully once i get it totally setup and stocked someone in pcs with a nice digi slr that takes a billion photos a second can volunteer to come take some pics for me?? please??

I'm only up the road from you Juls!

[Juls]

I'm only up the road from you Juls!

Sounds good,
Probably be another 4-6 weeks till the tank is done,

I still have at least another 50 fish to add yet!!

Small fish in big tanks rock cause you can have millions of them!

Juls

[Wet Dreams]

Looks good Juls, decent growth after only a few days.
Would look awesome with a massive school of harleqiun rasboras in there.
What else are you planning to stock it with?

[ibm450]

wow...thats cool...more pics lol

[Juls]

Looks good Juls, decent growth after only a few days.
Would look awesome with a massive school of harleqiun rasboras in there.
What else are you planning to stock it with?

Harlequins are very nice have thought about a group in my discus tank, but a bit big for what i'm trying to achieve in this tank.
Any fish above 1" need to not be "schooling" fish.

in fact i'm actually trying to make a "freshwater Reef" "style"

Although it's a fairly new type or style of planted aquarium so no rules really apply as yet as its fairly unknown idea.

but my idea is to create a layout that has neverending interest, so that means many many types of different fish, some in groups some solo,
hopefully over time i will add more shrimps. Although i have to either get them big enough not to be eaten or have enough that a few losses doesn't matter,
so with that in mind cherrys are going to make up the bulk. It would be nice to get some interesting small snails but then is there such a thing in WA?
Also that are not going to become a massive pest!

I'm sure there is pond snails in there already, they where in the tank with the xmas moss, and i've pull 3 from the tank so far..
it's highly unlikely that i'll be able to totally eliminate any that are there already.

I have more plants to add yet, as the "plants" side of the tank needs to be somewhat interesting as well,
but finding small interesting plants is a pain in perth, most plants are designed for the usual boring flat layouts, and grow huge compared to what i'm trying to achieve.

Juls

[anchar]

Looking nice!

Andrea