Rio 180 Journal

[iain.betson]

Well I thought i would share with you people how i set up my tank, and how I would overcome any problems that occured (and they did, and they will).
Here we have the tank and all the trimmings i bought for £100 i.e the tank the filter (and media, matured too) the heater, timer and light unit.

I also go this black gravel, sand and laterite mix for the substrate. Plus the bonus of some java moss

I then started to build up the first of the three levels i had wanted, Hence the pebbles.

Third level built with mopani wood projecting at an angle and also an LED spot light (blue) is sunken into it and angled from bottom left to top right. I have also put in another layer of silica sand (nice and smooth for loaches and not too fine)

Next I begin to fill my tank using the old bowl and plate method so as not to disturb my ground work on the aquascape.

As you can see i have taped up the cut outs in the back of the tank (was once marine) to stop light from spilling out into the living room, also i have added another piece of wood.

Added some vallis and some amazon sword and tied the java moss to a rock.

This is the blue LED spotlight

So next it was time to plant out the tank, here are a list of plants

Crypt Nevillii x5
Ech Tennellus x5
Pygmy Chain Sword x5
Crypt Wendtii x5
Green Ludwigia x5
Amazon Sword x5
Red Amazon Sword x2
Indian Fern x2
Vallis Corkscrew Lrg x5
Aponogeton Crispus x2
Hygrophillia Polysperma x5
Vallis Torta x5
Nymphaea Stellata x1

here are a few more pics of my tank. There will be more to follow, stay tuned

Feel free to ask any questions

Here are some of my inhabitants

 

[geo7x]

I love tank journals, and its looking nice to me so far. What fish are going in it?

 

[saboy]

£100 ? Thats a bargain, where from ? Ebay at all ?


Looking forward to more pics !!

 

[iain.betson]

£100 ? Thats a bargain, where from ? Ebay at all ?


Looking forward to more pics !!

No it was from a friend, but ebay and free adds are always good places to look for bargains

 

[iain.betson]

I love tank journals, and its looking nice to me so far. What fish are going in it?

Well the tank has been up and runnig for about 2 months, so the stocking for this one is

1 khuli loach (did have five or six but something wiped them out )
1 blind cave tetra (again did have more they died, not in this tank though)
1 tiger barb (other one died, had some probs with old tank!!)
2 green tiger barb
2 boesemani rainbows
2 pepperd coryandas (more too come)
1 red wagtail platy
2 sunset platy
3 polka dot loach
5 amano shrimp
and thirty platy babies that have now been moved to a fry tank

Damn that looks like quite a lot when you write it down

 

[Austin_09]

Wow that looks really awsome! Great job!

 

[helsekia]

oooo! nice,Im loving that tank

 

[guppy_man]

looks very nice, are you going to use CO2, or have you got plant ferts or high lighting?

add more pics, i lurrv the pics

 

[iain.betson]

looks very nice, are you going to use CO2, or have you got plant ferts or high lighting?

add more pics, i lurrv the pics

I only have 60w of lighting Its on the list to to put some reflectors on their untill I can sort out some extra lightning. The original light unit had blown. So from begging stealing (well not stealing i bought some bits) and borrowing I managed to fashion a lighting strip by cliping the tubes onto the original light fitting and puting the light units in the cupboard, all the wiring has been run through the original Juwel light unit.

As for CO2 not as yet but again it is on the list and only today I was thinking through some designs (its gonna have to be DIY as ya canne spend more on the CO2 than ya did on ya tank!). I will have to do some trial runs on the diffuser (if it doesn't work I may well have to buy one) I have a few ideas after messing around with a few materials and of course doing some research.

Yes I do use fertiliser just an out of the bottle liquid type although I'm going to look into tabs for the amazon swords.

Thanks for all the knid comments sofar........

 

[iain.betson]

New pics added

 

[geo7x]

i like those new pics awww look that corie is up at the glass saying hi

 

[iain.betson]

i like those new pics awww look that corie is up at the glass saying hi

Yeah they're friendly little chaps

 

[iain.betson]

Well there is not a vast amount of difference in my tank since the last pics, the plants are growing slowly and an algae problem I had is under controll and almost gone, due to siesta lighting and amano shrimp.
I have not gotten round to putting reflectors on my lights yet but the CO2 system is a few steps closer.

Well here is my tank now with some of the guys out for the photo opertunity 8)

In this one you can see the growth of some of the plants, especially the Red Tiger Lotus Lilly it now has 6 Lilly pads on it, I think it needs a bit of pruning as it will soon block out all the light.

Here is one of my five Amano shrimp, they are finally coming out and trotting around the tank now after about a month of settling in. Not to mention the week they spent living in the filter box

 

[Nick Sw]

Nice Tanks I like it good job.

 

[iain.betson]

Nice Tanks I like it good job.

Thanks, I take it you can see the latest pics I have posted? For some reason they are not showing up on my p.c