New 250L Planted Tank Build!

[TaurineLittle]

Hey guys, I was just browsing the local classifieds for aquariums when i came across this pro 250L tank for sale and only $50, thought to myself 'darn! better get that before anyone else does!' Its a 91 x 55 x 50cm tank equaling 250L. Now this is the biggest tank I have ever had and hopefully further on down the track I'll be building my 1000L tank. But for now I'm focusing on getting this 250L off the ground.
 
The basic plan was a semi-high-tech planted tank, so what I'll be doing is a dirt substrate capped off with river gravel, some hair grass in the foreground, sagittaria in the middle or semi back ground with some Ammannia gracilis or possibly some Limnophila aromatica and maybe some ludwigia. (not entirely sure on the plants as of yet haha).
 
Lighting will be 2x 150W metal halides, 2x 39W fluoros and 2x LED night lights. Total WPG is roughly 5.7 and I know WPG isnt very accurate when talking about light intensity and coverage but surely that lighting is enough to grow almost anything.
 
As for Co2 I'll just be running a basic kit with a regulator and some canisters of Co2, nothing too advanced there as the plants will go mental with all the nutrients in the dirt substrate.
 
Once the tank has the substrate in, the plants in and the filter all hooked up I'll be cycling it for a while with massive water changes as some varieties of soil may leach ammonia, so I just want to be cautious about the water chemistry before adding fish. Speaking of fish, I might put in a school of 21 neons (love my neons

) should look good in a shaol with all the plants.
 
Here is a pic of the tank (for size comparison, I had a 42 inch plasma where the tank is sitting and it took up the whole desk)
 

 
Haha its a bit dirty in the pic, actually stopped cleaning it to make this post hah, I'll be adding more photos and talking about the issues i run into (hopefully none) while completing this build.
 
If you have any plant recommendations or advise on lighting I'm all ears!

 

[techen]

First thing I will say is get a stand because I very hardly doubt that's going to hold that fish tank for a fair period of time. Am sure you don't want it crashing down into your floor.
 
The lighting is too high as well, Your going to have very harsh problems with algae if you run those lights for more than 4-6 hours a day.
 
CO2 Will have to be high as well with those lights as the plants will be demanding.

 

[TaurineLittle]

Yeah, the tank is only there while i clean it up and plan it out. Ill be building a timber stand as well haha =/ forgot to say that... Will be posting photos on construction of that as well.
 
With the lighting, would it change how high the lights were off the tank? I'm thinking of making a bracket that comes off the back of the stand and over the tank and hanging the lights about 20-30cms above the tank.
Similar to this but painted black.
http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=670ZroIhqPE
If the lighting is still too harsh, what would you recommend?
 
The amount of Co2 would be decent but the tech behind it wont be too outrageous, like I don't think I will really need the PH controller or anything.

 

[techen]

I still think you'd be overkill even with it hanged above the tank.
 
I think you'd want to max your target around 80-100 watts of light would be the max I'd go. That's the high end of lighting as well.
 
With CO2, I only ment as in how much you'd be injecting. On high tech tanks you inject more CO2 as you use more light in the tank. I never ment stuff like PH controllers etc those aren't needed.

 

[TaurineLittle]

Ahh ok, I'll try to keep an eye out for some lighting, Is there anything that you recommend from personal experience? Like Metal halides over fluoros, vice vera?
I personally don't like Leds for main tank lighting, I don't know why I just think they are inferior haha (don't mean to offend anyone or cause any trouble here btw, just my thoughts).
 
Yeah with the Co2 I'll be starting out slow, watching water chemistry and try to balance it out at roughly 6.8 to 7.0. 
 
Btw does anyone have experience with Maifan stone? Its a filter media that I've found and a lot of people had said great things like that its mineral rich and it takes out unwanted things in the water, but the same people say that it may stunt plant growth, Just wandering if its actually useful enough to make much of a difference (I might try it out either way as I can get it relatively cheaply).

 

[techen]

Am more of a LED person, Much more powerful and last 20 years where is you'll be replacing the likes of T5 and T8s.
 
Led has taken off like fire and is now the main lighting for fish tank. My tropical tank had 80watts of LED which was 120watts in T5 terms. Pretty powerful, I did run CO2 as well.
 
The PH will drop to around 6.4 when you start using CO2, It drops it.
 
Never heard of a Maifan stone and for that wouldn't use it. Too many products/things will remove your plant ferts and you'll be fine without it so long as you do your weekly water changes.

 

[TaurineLittle]

Hmm I won't rule out LEDs all together, I'll have a look but I doubt I'll convert hah.
 
Yeah I know,Australian tap water is quite high in PH and chlorine so I have to treat it before adding it to the tank and the Co2 should balance the PH out at around 6.8.
 
Fair enough, yeah I know what you mean. So many companies trying to come up with new media and selling it as essential items for a tank. Probably safer not to put anything foreign into the tank. Just curious about Maifan stone though.

 

[TaurineLittle]

Ok so today I decided to get off my bum and get some stuff done, I cleaned the tank and got the paint off of one side (I'll repaint the back when the stand is done), built the top part of my new stand and tested the canister and pump for leaks.
 

 
Nice clean tank =D for $50 the quality of the tank is amazing, I still cant get over the price hah.
 

 
Just the top of the frame done so far, I'll be getting more timber next week to finish the rest of the stand. Don't worry I'll be finishing and dressing the frame properly

 

 
I found a leak, nothing to do with the canister (thing is built like a beast hah) but its between the seal and the intake of the pump. So I'm going to have to silicone the seal and wait another 3 days to test it again.

 

 

[TaurineLittle]

=D a lot has happened over the past couple weeks! I got the rest of the timber needed to finish the stand, depending on the weather I will hopefully be finishing it tomorrow, I also got some goldvine driftwood which is soaking in a tub outside atm, 
 

In the water this wood turned an awesome darker colour, can;t wait to get it in the tank and planted up! =D
 

Alrighty I got the leak fixed and struck an amazing deal for 150mm PVC DWV pipe so I might use that instead of the 100mm for the filter (over double the capacity of the 100mm pipe at the same height)... You can see the size difference between the pipes.
 

Also I picked up a 10" x 2.5" carbon block filter to help take out any chlorine from the tap water during water changes.

 

[TaurineLittle]

An update on the lighting, I have found a setup that has 1x 150w metal halide and 2x 39w fluoros. If I was to get this I would run the metal halide for about 6-8 hours and the fluoros for about 4-6 hours having the halide turn on first and off last so that. Aslo this light would be suspended about 20cm above the tank which should equalize the light to tank capacity (fingers crossed). If I run into any issues with the lighting, I can always keep the fluoros off for a while and find the balance.

 

[TaurineLittle]

Alright guys, its been a while since my last update, so this one will be MASSIVE.
Been crazy busy with ordering a heck of a lot of stuff. So as far as the update goes I've bought all my plants, lighting, filter media, filter hoses, filter intake and outtake pipes, temperature controller, 300W inline heater, organic potting mix for the first layer of substrate, 2 9kg bags of eco-complete live planted substrate, co2 drop checker, upaqua inline co2 atomizer, co2 regulator and co2 cylinder. As for DIY and construction goes, the tank stand is complete and the light hanging rack is complete as well.
 
I have actually set the tank up at my gf's place because mum has no room for my rather large build haha XD.
 
Now the plants that I bought are as follow:
- 40 stems of Rotala Nanjenshan.
- 6 pots of Eleocharis Belem.
- 100 stems of Mayaca fluviatilis.
- 12 stems of Limnophila Aromatica 'red'.
- 40 stems of Rotala Wallichii.
 

My awesome surgical steel filter pipes!
 

Temperature controller off eBay
 

300W inline heater

 

Eco-complete, this is HEAVY stuff lady at the post office nearly broke her back putting it over the counter haha

 

The frames progression

 

Because of the size of the tank and stand, I decide to use bolts and nuts to fix the legs to the top and base so that the whole stand can be taken apart relatively easily for transportation. Don't worry this stand is able to hold a lot more than a 250L tank and everything that goes in it.
 

I only needed one co2 outlet, but this was only $10 more so I figured why not...
 

Thats it so far, you can see the light rack and the light that I got for it there. I added a door to the cabinet and a few rails between the legs on the inside to I can mount things on like the electrical power boards and the inline heater.
 
Over the next week or two, the tank will be cycling and I'll be preparing to plant the plants and get some shrimp in there soon. To boost the cycling process I'll take some bio-media from my current sump filter on my 55L tank and put it in the DIY canister. Hopefully add some fish next week (once the tank is clear and fully cycled ofcourse haha XD).



 

 

[NickBFC]

Nice work

 

[bullit]

Nice. Do you have a link for the light holder?

 

[TaurineLittle]

Thanks guys!
Yeah, I got the idea off this video (http/youtu.be/670ZroIhqPE) but the way he fixed the aluminium square poles to the stand seemed a bit too weak for me, seen as though my light weighs roughly 10kgs lol. So what I did was drill a 8mm hole straight through the poles and through two brackets that I attatched to the inside of the legs and put a couple high tensile bolts though with a couple large washers. That thing is never going to fall off! haha
 
Another update. About a day after I ordered the plants they arrived, I didn't pay for express postage but I'm assuming the nice lady on eBay gave it to me for free cause I spent about $75 on plants lol. But yeah spent the past few days with my hands in the water planting plants and checking my water chemistry. 
 

 
This photo was taken a few days ago, since then all the grass has been planted (took me SOO LONG to separate, cut and plant!) and the tank has cleared up a bit more. Haha I've been through 2 small sheets of filter floss to clear the water up, they were black when they came out and thats after washing them lol.
 
I would have shrimp and my fish in there but sadly the potting mix I used is still leeching ammonia into the tank. The filter is working VERY well so far, and its going through its cycling but the ammonia and nitrites are consistently at about 1ppm, I'm assuming thats because the potting mix is continuously leeching them and not because the lack of filtration, but we will find out soon enough.
 
I am so happy with my light and Co2 setup, today I saw all my Rotala Wallichii and Rotala Nanjenshan pearling after the light and Co2 being on for 20-30 minutes. BTW if anyone wants to get an inline Co2 diffuser/atomizer get the Up-Aqua one, its coming out of the outlet pipe as a superfine mist! BEST atomizer I've had and I've been through about 4 of them.

 

[TaurineLittle]

Pretty excited! The potting mix is starting to slow down in leeching ammonia, so shrimp should hopefully be in the tank in about a week or so and the fish will be shortly after that

 
Here are the promised pictures of the grass planted, lighting and the inside of the stand.
 

This is the mess inside haha, I'll be putting a bit of shelving in there to tidy it up a bit

A few full tank shots.
 

Halide and Fluoros are on in this one.
 

This is just with the fluoro on.


 
All my plants are happy and pearling, here are a couple vids of them (sorry about the quality).
Rotalla Wallichii & Mayacan Fluviatilis:
http/www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10201590621073151&l=799480044024292420
 
Rotala Nanjenshan & Limnophila Aromatica:
http/www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10201590561911672&l=7563860769965066487



 
Let me know what you guys think