65Litre Lightly Planted Low/no-Tech Journal

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Blubble37

Ohai dere c:
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Decided i may as well make a journal for this, as of today, 16/4 (or 4/16), nothing ordered has arrives, expecting some on the 20th (4/20.. hah..) but meh.
 
Currently i have the fish, the plants, the coarse proportion of the gravel, the sandy proportion of the gravel, some space in my room, a gang socket and an 18" Interpet Tropical Daylight T8.. and that's it.
 
On order, Marina 65L aquarium, 740L/h Powerhead and a APS EF Filter Booster (1.2L model)
 
To get, Black/Blue background, 'Riverbed' gravel, thermometer (old one is no use anymore, no suction cup and impossible to clean, also chipped). Oh, and wood, wood is important.
 
It's gonna be a lightly planted tank at first, but i'll ee how things go and add plants slowly, i prefer to see some of the gravel at least in my tanks, I generally go for tall plants rather than 'ground' plants, but some low-down flora is always included. Pictures to come when tank arrives.
As for stock, 5 Guppies and either 6 Cardinal Tetras, 6 Harlequin Rasboras or 6-10 Dwarf Corydora, as they're so tiny (Hastatus). Might consider a small party of ottocinclus, 4 at most and leave that as Max. stock. Shrimp and snails will likely be either Red Cherry or Yamato shrimp and Assasin Snails, if any.
 
As far as the tank goes, I plan to have the powerhead pump down and out onto the floor, where the filter booster canister will sit and work as an external filter and route the water back in via a Spraybar of some sort, i'll have to find one as i dont currently have any spares unless i were to take half of the spraybar from my downstairs tank, which i'm not exactly too keen on doing to be honest as it's settled and i dont fancy disturbing the tank. The HOB that comes with the tank will probably be used as a settling chamber to reduce the load on the main filter and to clean the crud from the water, shouldnt be too hard to do, use some foam and floss as a "plate" and have the dirt&filth trapped below it, that way it can be removed and cleaned pretty easily. Wont be using an aerator or anything, use the waterfall on the HOB and the spraybar aswell as the plants for that.
 
Not too much i can actually say right now, but as this develops, i'll keep you posted
 
Rob
 
And if all fails with the makeshift external, there's always the EX600
 
Can't wait to see how this shapes up. 
 
Day 2.
 
Tank dispatched yesterday at about midnight by the look of my Emails, should be here in about 2-3 days..
Also, the powerhead should arrive today, which is a pain because I'm not going to be around for most of the day, meaning they'll probably send it back to the delivery office and make me wait a day or so before i can collect the darn thing
 
Otherwise, the state of play is just the same, trying to figure out how to seed the tank to get the filters started, going with the idea of nabbing a sponge out of my EX700 and cramming it in, I have replacement sponges and there's like.. 5 in the EX anyway, so it wont hurt a lot, especially considering that it is stufed with ceramic and bioballs to bursting point anyway.
 
The fish look happy enough this morning, swimming around, breathing, eating, y'know, the things living beings do, the plants are okay aswell, no snails thankfully, but i highly doubt that if there were any they'd last long against 20+ assasin snails anyway.
 
Decided that i'll be dosing the tank with ferts and currently pondering the great question of Carbon or not, if so, i probably wont go for injection, liquid form would do.
 
Might update when i get home if there are any further developments / the royal mail doesnt give the powerhead to the neighbours like i asked them to.. (again)
 
Rob
 
Day 3
 
First bit has arrived, the Powerhead is here ^-^ I've tested it out and it seems that it has two outlets, one on the front for the venturi and a main pipe.. a little concerning since dirty water could in theory completely bypass the external can, but i'm sure that a little sandpaper sillicone sealant/hot glue will take care of it nicely. Otherwise, it's a good unit, not too chunky, two downpipes and a decent flow, not sure about 740L/H but then again, taking the hose off caused water to splash well and truly everywhere, so i may stand corrected.
 
In terms of cleaning, it looks like a complete phaff to get in, push down two tabs at the same time, break a nail under the plate trying to get it off and do a backflip.
 
Fish still alive, Tank still not here, nor the canister
 
Will update maybe for pictures but also if anything new crops up
 
Rob
 
Day4
 
Still waiting for the blasted tank or any other bits.
 
Bah.
 
So, Today is Day 7
 
The booster canister arrived, but, they gave me the EF-2 instead of the EF-1 which means i now have to go and get 18mm hose. GREAT!. Also, this messes up my thoughts of a normal sized spraybar and i'll have to go with a 18mm spraybar too. Ergh.
 
Also, the tank still hasnt been delivered. Wonderful.
 
EDIT: Not sending the canister back as i've got the 2.3 for the price of the 1.2, shouldnt grumble really but it is a pain
 
Looking forward to seeing this. Shame it's taking so long for everything to arrive! Sorry they sent ya the wrong thing :c
 
Ninjouzata said:
Looking forward to seeing this. Shame it's taking so long for everything to arrive! Sorry they sent ya the wrong thing :c
 
It's a pain, but i'm sure it'll look okay eventually. The tank could arrive tomorrow but nobody will be here in the day and i've got no answer on the phone
 
TODAY IS THE DAY
 
I know i've been silent, not much has happened, the tank turned up and i ordered a TT-EX600 instead of rolling my own.. Tank is sitting on my desk now, gravel and wood in, gotta trim the spraybar for the filter as it's just a little too long to be useful. Lighting works perfectly and currently i have ferts soaking into the substrate to try and limit the time it takes for the plants to get going again.
 
Will post when further progress.
 
Oohhh.... I'm so excited!! I don't know why but this thread got me excited as well!! Sorry they sent you the wrong thing, but at least the tank arrived, eh?

and you say its a marina 65? I have a marina 60.... Could it be that? Or is there a 65 litre i didn't know about lol. And by the way, what going in there?
Anything else going in?
 
yeah, it's a 60, i have a 95 and i know of a 35 so i assumed the 60 range would be 65 xD
 
I've got it plumbed in and running, no wood as it hadnt soaked properly, will have to be added some other time. Planting is extremely minimal currently, but once the plants get established they'll provide a thick layer of cover (vallis)
 
Currently it's housing 5 Male Guppies, i've observed them for a long time and i havent seen any fighting, none have nipped fins or are injured.. they're kinda just swimming around together trying to work out where the magical white netty thing took them.
 
Planning on 4-6 Ottocinclus and 6 Dwarf Corydoras, nothing more. If not corys then it'll be some other small fish, preferably mid-level.
 
Smashed my thermometer by accident (smart one aren't i) so no heater until i can get to the shop, as guppies they shouldnt mind - room doesnt go above 22C or below 18, heater would only run at night anyway but as it has no scale and it's straight out of the box, i have no clue what the settings are.
 
Avoided the pain of cycling, nabbed a media tray from my EX-700 downstairs. Fantabulous.
 
Pictures will come when the wood is in, it's quite barren right now.
 
Also running on half a spraybar until i can cut the other section down to size (i'm using the supplied HOB with the pads until they expire, then turning it into a settling chamber, the pump is inside the tank however and the spraybar wont fit with both bits attached)
 
Current flow rate of the filter from a next to no silt condition is between 500-550 L/h, expecting this to drop off to about 350
 
As I have the same tank, I have the same equipment. And that heater was a nuisance getting it set up. It took like 5 days just to get it to the right temperature. And as you have the same tank.... I recommend checking out the back of the tank. You know on the lid, at the back where you put the filter in, yeah, well my fish loved to have a leap of faith out of there lol. So watch out for that. That tank is a silly design if you want to have an internal filter only, because it leaves a gaping hole for fish to leap right out of. And i'm not sure about that bulb, like.. whether it's bright enough to keep your live plants. It's is an 18w, correct? Mine are hardly growing at the moment, but that's my anubias which I know is a slow grower. I would try looking for a higher wattage bulb which would help enhance plant growth I guess. Or maybe as it is minimal planting, possibly that would be ok. But i'm no expert and i'm sure someone else will step in if I say anything incorrect. I find that the best thing for wood is to freeze it. I tried it and somehow it worked. Not sure how big your piece is, but mine was perfect size to fit in my freezer. So I popped it in there, every day I would take it out, and rinse and scrub with boiling water and just over a week later it was nice and clear. But to be on the safe side I guess you should go with one of the more 'normal' techniques lol.
tongue2.gif

 
If you want a mid-level schooling fish, I have a few ideas from all of the research I did before I stocked my tank. Possibly a celestial pearl danio? Small, colourful etc. Or maybe a flame rasbora (I think) Or some micro fish like that. That way you can have loads of diddly fish lol. And if you want 4-6 oto's, I would get like 10. Purely because they are so weak when first being acclimated from what I've heard. But once their settled in they are pretty hardy compared to most. I would go with the oto's a small schooling fish and a dwarf gourami? Or is there not enough space. Not entirely sure to be honest.
 
And by the way, how on the earth did you manage to break your thermometer?
confused.gif

And also, I have a feeling that the thermometer is automatically set to 76 farenheit. But don't quote me on that.
 
Looking forward to the pics!!!
 

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