New Planted Project. I'll Make It Into A Journal...

[DevUK]

I've got the same tank you should have gone with a Eden501 rather than the HOB, I can't wait to see the results be sure to give us a review of the tropica substrate I'm planning on using it on my next tank.

I have an Eden clone (see my boyu external filter review) which is currently on a 7gal Aqua40 tank. I could shut down that tank (as its a hair algae fiasco) and use the filter but I just sorta fancied the HOB as I've never used one. Also, its a little noisey, and this tank is hopefully going on my desk in my bedroom. Hopefully the HOB will be quiet *fingers crossed*

I'm also using Eco-Complete instead of the tropica substrate. I decided on this cos its dark, and its good stuff so I'm told. I've wanted to try some for a while so seemed like a good excuse. It also cost the same as a bag of tropica and a bag of river sand together.

I've got some Mini aquascaping rocks in my new scape and they are great, the only disadvantage is that you can't see what you're buying, but fortunately AE gave me some nice ones (I'm sure they're all nice!). Looking forward to this tank. Keep us updated.

I emailed first and asked if I could sorta specify, they said to just put a comment/note on the order. I ordered 2kg of rock and asked for pieces smaller than 15cm tall. Fingers crossed

Ok, I need some more ideas the left side is looking very open. I realise I said "no grassy plants" but I'm thinking something grassy, and not much of it. Something to give the back a bit of height and wavey lines (sorta bunched "naturally"). Any ideas?

 

[garuf]

E tennelus would give you a natural bunched effect, amano uses it in his driftwood tanks to create a thicket/growing feel to the scape. some vallis could give you hight if you plant it amounts a glosso field?

 

[garuf]

http/www.plantedtank.net/forums/photo-al...tural-nano.html

 

[DevUK]

Interesting... Well, my plan is to use aluminium sheeting to create 2 legs. I'll simply drill and attach the light to this, and mount an 18" reflector I've already bought

 

[nry]

3.6wpg is not too high for that tank (based on 36watts over 10 US gallons) - I run the same on my 7 US gallon PFK cube (24watts) and although I have heavier planting I have ran reduced EI and very poor CO2 addition (keeps stopping production and takes days to get going) without any major algae hassles.

Flourish Excel should be a decent method for this tank, coupled with a minimal lighting period of 7-8 hours, even with minimal EI dosing it should do OK - reasonable planting levels will help too though

 

[Underwurlde]

Cool. But yeah, plants, lots of em then....

 

[DevUK]

Hell yeah

I'm definately going with the second option. My plan is to cram it full of H. Polysperma (as I have an abundant supply at the moment!) and nothing else (maybe some other fast growers). I'll hopefully leave it for a month or so, dosing light EI and Excel, also starting to cycle the tank. I might add some shrimp after a few weeks when the cycle has taken...

After a while, hopefully I should be able to start swapping out patches of the H polysperma and planting the plants I want

 

[nry]

Well there's a bag of rotala rotundifolia that should arrive tomorrow with the T5 light - I will be ripping loads out of my tanks this weekend in the first steps of re-doing my 15-gallon and stripping down my 5-gallon if you want/need any more.

 

[garuf]

DON'T go adding shrimps until the tank is at least 2 months old, They need a matured tank often resulting in death if not provided with it, I know.
also does your tank have struts running along it? mine has and as far as I can tell they're little more than a annoyance.

ps. I have the same light and you'll find it gives loads of light and in my case outstripped my diyco2 easily meaning pressurised is the way to go. I really like the second design I personally think you will need lots of height from the stones though, otherwise it will look dwarfed by the water column but that's just my 2 penneth.

 

[DevUK]

Right, no shrimp

OK. Light unit arrived, thanks again nry Going to spend today trying to make brackets to support it over the tank with the reflector and see how it goes. Also going to put it in place on my desk and see how it looks

I'll take pics as I go...

 

[mlawson]

Right, no shrimp

OK. Light unit arrived, thanks again nry Going to spend today trying to make brackets to support it over the tank with the reflector and see how it goes. Also going to put it in place on my desk and see how it looks

I'll take pics as I go...

Looking forward to the pics...

 

[DevUK]

Ok, that took less time than I thought Amazing what you can do with some good tunes on!

Ok, here is all the bits. Got the light starter and tube, Arcadia 18w reflector (18" long), the Juwel rio180 reflector I butchered, and a few tools:

First I mounted the reflector with some bolts from my tool kit. Seemed to go together nicely with a few washers for safety:

Next, I halved the strip of Juwel reflector. I'd gotten the strip by folding the largest section of juwel relector untill in snapped off with a relatively clean break. I measured the two halves out, point in the centre for mounting hole and then measured the ends for 2 folds. I measured in 2cm and 4cm so I knew roughly where to fold.

As you can see, its not exactly tidy looking, but it serves the purpose

I then had to drill the two mounting holes in the new "limunair" brackets Then I had to undo the mountings on the reflector again and attach the brackets, positioning everything so it hung well and the tube was in a good position:

All in all that took about an hour with a few pauses to figure stuff out Seems sturdy enough, but I might work in the brackets some more, making them cling the the tank sides a little better at some point.

 

[DevUK]

I think I need to turn this into a Journal soon, seeing as its going ahead full steam

 

[DevUK]

This is where I think its going though the window might be an issue...

 

[mlawson]

Cool. That DIY luminaire is good.

I think it would look great by your computer but I think you may have some algae problems.