280L (61 Imp Gallons) Dempsey Tank

[Verminator89]

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UPDATED: 26/09/2010 -Tank arrived 16/08/2010. Setup planned for 1st and 2nd week of October 2010
UPDATED: 10/10/2010 -Tank set-up today. Intial set-up pics added 11/10/2010
UPDATED: 20/10/2010 -Pictures of set-up added + fish in!

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Well i'm going to commit the sin of all sins right at the start of the thread, yes in know its the first thing you lot will read but this thread will go on and on (i hope). This will be the journal of my breeding jack dempseys for the coming years in their life. Whats the sin i hear you say, well...i havnt got the tank yet So that means no pictures unfortunately, however. The tank i have just ordered, as in 10 minutes ago, is 6 weeks from being set-up. I spoke to a very nice gentleman simply known as John. He's from a company known as ND Aquatics and funnily enough i heard about them on this forum. I did my research and then rang them up and they helped me out with the rest. The result of that conversation is my new 48"x22"x16" 280L (61 Imp Gallons) aquarium which cannot come a moment too soon.

Now the general plan for this tank is that my male Electric Blue Jack Dempsey and his female Jack Dempsey partner will move in and hopefully continue breeding as they have tried to on a number of occasions over the past 12 months. However, with them not being a in a suitable tank they're yet to succeed in raising the fry. Being an avid, and self confessed Dempsey fanatic i figured i'd take the plunge and set-up thier own tank. Ideas for decor are as follows;
Unipac 25kg bag of sand
3 large pieces of unknown wood (will try to get some pics)
Some slate formations.

That's the general idea, now i havnt finalised lighting plans yet. The tank itself is going to be x2 sides Opti-white (front/left) x2 standard glass (rear/right). Plants will be determined at a later date once i've decided if i'm going to run T8's or T5's over the tank. Planting isnt required but i just can't not do plants, it's a weakness of mine that when i go into a LFS i always come out with plants, not fish but plants. Some fish keeper i am, most of you come out with fish right? Now i have a question.

Would the introduction of plants encourage algae to grow if the plants are struggling due to lack of light/nutrients/CO2 ect ect?

Basically would buying silk plants give me a better chance at staving of algae than if i were to buy live ones. I don't know if plantless tanks have more chance against algae than planted ones. This theory i'm yet to be englightened by, can anyone shed some light.

Righto, i have to go now as i'm required to go and pick up a certain "other half", but i shall return to add to my journal sooner rather than later! Also i'll try and get some good worthy posting going, pics of the tank (but thats 6 weeks away)

 

[hamfist]

Basically would buying silk plants give me a better chance at staving of algae than if i were to buy live ones. I don't know if plantless tanks have more chance against algae than planted ones. This theory i'm yet to be englightened by, can anyone shed some light.

I haven't kept live plants for years but my understanding is that keeping live plants in a tank reduces the nutrients available for algae (as the plants and algae compete for the same nutrients). So live plants should reduce your algae slightly.

Your general plan sounds great, and you know already that I have already had a good experience with ND Aquatics.

 

[ChilliPepper]

The problem with T5 lights and live plants is that for some reason it encourages algae growth without dosing CO2. This is the trouble I have in my 50g. I think its to do with excess nutrients.

I also have a tank from ND Aquatics and very happy with it, except for the hood, which I've had to modify as it was too heavy

 

[Verminator89]

Well that seems to have clarrified two points for me then. The first being that i'm going to opt for some sturdy live plants that i can root in well into a hard to access corner so my Dempseys don't go pulling them out, although i've never had a case of my plants being trashed by them so far. Also after hearing your issues with T5 it confirms my algae bloom in my 2ft planted. I run x2 24W T5's over it and i have stopped dosing my basic CO2 supply and opted for EasyLife EasyCarbo - and since doing so there has been a bloom in algae. So T8's i think i may go for with this tank, it'll be cheaper too which is a big bonus

So you both have ND Aquatics tanks then, fab. Yes hamfist, i must say having pm'd you on this subject your input helped me decide massively, so thank-you. I decided against the hood, and seeing ChilliPepper's response to aswell it has only encouraged me that i made the correct choice. I can always DIY a hood as you have done hamfist, so that aught to be no problems.

Being a rough biotope of the Amazon River i'm thinking of some hardy swords dotted around, perhaps one or two. I may decide to add some Java ferns and/or Anubias onto the wood too, although this will detract from the biotope idea somewhat. As i said though, it's not going to be a strict biotope

 

[star4]

You could have a look at onion plants, they grow beautiful and most fish tend to leave them well alone, they do need deep substrate, but sand is ideal for them. Let me know if you want some Java fern, I usually have 4 or 5 plantlets stuck in the intake of my filters as my lot just love ripping it up Will definately be keeping track of the progress

 

[Verminator89]

Right, having sourced "most" of the materials i shall be using in this scape including rocks, wood, gravel, lights, filters i have almost got it all. The basics i need now are a couple more bits of redmoor wood, the tank itself and the plants...but the plants will be last ofcourse. So, where do i start.

Lighting
On Tuesday i waited patiently for my light unit to arrive, and it did - although i was tucked up nicely in bed at my girlfriends house when it arrived 7:30am Safe to say my mum wasnt best pleased, ah well. Well to say i'm chuffed with it is an understatement, having used the x2 24W (2ft) version on my current 2ft planted i figured it made sense to get another light unit from a company i like, know and trust. I'm confident it'll cover all the basic needs of the plants i plan to keep, which i shall talk more about in a bit. Notice Sophie and Simba my 2 10month old kittens, they were playing with each other through the centre of the box the lights came wrapped in They just wouldnt leave it alone, so i just took the picture lol.

Filtration
Having got the lights sorted out i figured i'd need some extra filtration for the bigger tank. I currently run a Fluval 305 on my 180L, and i know its calssed as over-filtration but i've never been convinced by it. The flow seems to get to weak to soon after being de-clogged. So i opted to get an extra filter. Seeing my tanks conditions over the last two years i decided to add extra filtration ontop of what i already have. Despite the bioload going to be lower in this larger tank i've learnt my Dempseys like to be messy. I think more food comes out their gills than it does down their gullit So i just went out today and bought a new Tetratec* EX1200

The current Fluval 305

The new Tetratec* EX1200

After spending what felt like an eternity talking (and annoying) a guy in a LFS about substrate, i settled on this - Unipac Aquarium Silica Sand. Why don't most LFS seem to understand the needs of us who like to create scapes, rather than just "have fish", y'know? The guy was infuriating and kept offering me this and that, i kept politely telling him "No, it has to fit in with a South American/Amazon Biotope. I've never seen a guy look so confused, its like "Ahhhhhh", don't you people go online!? Hopefully in a few years it'll have caught up with just keeping fish in a tank aye.

Substrate

I really feel like this will look great in the tank. After searching through what seemed like trillions online and in shops i settled on this. I'm hoping it won't be too dark in the aquarium. I think i made the right choice personally

Hardscape
By far the hardest part of this entire project so far has got to be trying to find the right rocks. Now with this being a South American/Amazon Biotope i was kind of stuck with this image of black slate stuck in my head, this however is not 100% correct in the least. Yet i found myself struggling to pick anything other than dark slate. After hours, then days of fruitless searching i was beginning to lose hope of finding the right rocks. I seriously must have been to atleast 10 different garden centres and LFS looking for the ideal rocks. Well eventually i settled for these slate pieces, not to bad when you concider they were 30 pieces for £21 - i'm really quite happy. It's not the perfect rock i feel for this scape, but its the closest i could find for what i want. I'll be hoping to use most, if not all, of these rocks to both help hold the wood in place and be the centre pieces to my scape. In combination with the wood i really feel like the final look of this scape could have the wow factor i'm looking for Heres to hoping my creativity isnt the limiting factor in this scape.

Now the redmoor wood i've found for this scape i love to bits. I've never personally tried redmoor, and i can't for the life of me think why. Its absolutely stunning wood. The scaping possibilities are endless. Now i've seen some pretty naff pieces so far and for a scape they are useless, however...i've found these 3 so far.

I've managed to join the left two pieces to form one big piece that i will place in the left corner most likely. Hanging vertically down into the tank imitating tree roots in the Amazon. I've just got to try and find a few more pieces of redmoor and i'll have enough to complete the scape.

Plants
So the plant list for this tank is following one basic principal; South American/Amazon - surprising huh? So far the list is as follows;

Definates
Echinodorus Uruguayensis x1
Echinodorus Bleheri x3-5
Limnobium laevigatum

Possibilities
Echinodorus quadricostatus (don't really want to dose ferts AND don't want to overcrowd with plants)
Cabomba caroliniana (might add as its fast growing and takes up excess nutrients but so does Limnobium?)

I'll be dosing root tabs to this tank and there won't be any CO2 or dosed ferts. Anyone got any suggestions as to what else can be used plant-wise?

So thats all for now. I shall update continuously as more progresses, but the biggest part of setting up the tank is still 5 weeks away

 

[ChilliPepper]

Cool, sounds like it's moving along

I have the same light unit as you as must say I've bee 100% impressed. Just does it's job, no fuss. Not like the Arcadia controller I had which was pants.

I used the Unipac silver sand in my other tank originally, and found it nice stuff. I made the mistake of going for black sand, well it wouldn't have been a mistake if it were actually black like its labelled as, but it's more grey. Anyway, I digress. It's good stuff.

You're getting an NQ aquatics tank aren't you? What hood option have you gone with?

 

[Verminator89]

ND Aquatics you mean

I opted for no hood to put it simply. I'm going to DIY a top like hamfist did in his conversion thread. Thats the plan, hopefully. I thought they looked far to bulky, and common opinion is just that, so i shall do without a hood and jsut have the condensation sliders ontop covered by a thin painted strip with my light unit clipped over the top of this.

The sand itself looks good in the bag, hopefully submerged it'll look jsut as good, obviously i'm expecting a slight colour change, but mixed with the rocks + wood it should be good

 

[ChilliPepper]

ND Aquatics you mean

I opted for no hood to put it simply. I'm going to DIY a top like hamfist did in his conversion thread. Thats the plan, hopefully. I thought they looked far to bulky, and common opinion is just that, so i shall do without a hood and jsut have the condensation sliders ontop covered by a thin painted strip with my light unit clipped over the top of this.

The sand itself looks good in the bag, hopefully submerged it'll look jsut as good, obviously i'm expecting a slight colour change, but mixed with the rocks + wood it should be good

Yeah ND, was typing quickly.

I think they look much better with the wood trim, really smart, especially works well with my cube. But the lid is a pain in the #16##### so had to go.

Will be interesting to see what you do with yours!

 

[star4]

Its all sounding good!

 

[hamfist]

Nice project.

You also seem to have plenty of rock and wood to play with. I really love the Redmoor root. If it is anything like some of mine though, it might need weeks of soaking before it sinks. Have you tested yours for sinking/floating yet ?
Might be worth getting them started soaking if you have any stubborn floaters (pardon the expression).

 

[Verminator89]

Ahhh nothing like a good chuckle first thing in the morning - stubborn floaters (ROFL)

I havnt tested it yet no, but i have a plan for the "stubborn floaters". I'm confident i have enough rocks to use a few as an anchor to hold the wood down. Failing that i'll just go buy a few more slightly bigger, weightier rocks to hold them down...

I tested a few loose twigs of redmoor which took a few hours to sink - so i'm bargaining on maybe a week or so of floaters before they sink. Thats the theory anyway. I'd still like to find one or two more pieces of Redmoor and have asked my LFS to get some more in and they obliged - so Tuesday i'll be popping over again to get some more

I'm just glad its starting to move forward now

 

[Abyss]

Need to find a good supplier of redmoor wood, anywhere you'd recommend?

It all looks stunning.

 

[BadBadger]

I havnt tested it yet no, but i have a plan for the "stubborn floaters". I'm confident i have enough rocks to use a few as an anchor to hold the wood down. Failing that i'll just go buy a few more slightly bigger, weightier rocks to hold them down...

You got them down yet mate?
If not.... Fishing line and ledger bombers works a treat

Looking forward to seeing some pics

Cute cat btw

 

[Verminator89]

Havnt tried getting them down yet, will do soon though. As you can see i have enough slate to pin them down Right, i foolishy (not foolishly?) bought some more Redmoor. What can i say i love the stuff, atleast now i definately have enough to play around with in the final hardscape. Right so all this is just the new stuff, LOL?

And then just to leave with you some pics of my Dempseys that i took this morning. I'll post a few of my female aswell, she's beautifull but i focus so much on my male i neglect her a little when its photo time.

Thats her, now for the loving pair

And my little flaring secret, i nicked my mums mirror. Spot it?