Starting fresh.

[TamLL]

Delivery day!!View attachment 126766View attachment 126767
After turning it on in the kitchen i made the mistake of looking at it turns out it's pretty bright. My Initial thoughts on it?
It's very well put together the led units look of a high quality. This has an app for the controller which connects to a smart phone. Which in my opinion over complicates things but I'm a bit of a technophobe when it comes to smart things like I still have genuinely no clue how I can tell a Google speaker to turn my TV off.

At first glance the app looks quite complicated so maybe at some point I may use it to its advantage.

So I rely on timers thankfully it works with my timers. So currently three led bars running on timers all switching on and off at different intervals.

1. NICREW RGB Plus 24/7 39" 26w
Times:1700 - 2200
2. Fluval plant 3.0 36" 46w
Times:1730 - 2230
3.NICREW RGB Plus 24/7 39" 26w
Times:1800 -2300

When the co2 is up and running it's times are 1600-2100

I'll leave the lights with these times watch the plants see how they progress and if there's issues with algae. For fertilizer I'm going to try API leaf zone as I haven't used it before so I'll give it a try. View attachment 126776
Quick picture of all 3 on please ignore the scum lines around the glass will be taken care of when I do a water change. Pictures don't really show its best but the alternanthera colours look brilliant!

A wee bonus picture of my old tank a few months before the "accident"View attachment 126777

beautiful old tank... did you lose all those fish? ? love the colors of your plants in the new one!

 

[Fish4dawin]

View attachment 126777

I would love to have a tank like that!!! You've got angels, rummynoses, bosemani all of the fish I really want to have in a big 60 gallon + tank. Did you have corys in the tank as well? I can't see any.

 

[magical trevor]

very kewl project!! can't wait to see it finished! painting the back of the tank is a thing? I've never heard of that... but it's a great idea. what kind of paint did you use? i have a couple nano tanks... but am super jelly over all these large lovely tanks!!

https/www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Multilak-Water-Based-Multi-Surface-Paint-PVC-Glass-Iron-Wood-ect-/313117687354?_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49292 this is the stuff I used seems to be alright. And it will just peel off if I decide change it.

It's a long story lol in theory I lost ownership of them as I had no choice. As mentioned in my first post I was given the run around by the tank builder ND Aquatics. When I decided to get a tank made it had to be a certain size to fit the stand hence the custom build.

So I was initially quoted 6-8 weeks for build and delivery. Due to me being friendly with a LFS they took my stock in to care for them during covid lockdown as the shop wasn't open and they had space. So I had told them I'd have them gone in 10 weeks, but due to builder not sending it then breaking it then it being delayed for an unexplained reason it finally arrived nearly 13weeks since ordering the LFS needed the space for stock due to re opening my fish some were taken by friends some were sold as their stock sadly as I had nowhere to put them. I was given store credit for the shop which was kind of them, but yeah so it was a crap situation.

Then to top it all off the tank arrived with a chip in the bracing.

 

[Wills]

That’s a lot of light you are putting in even with Co2 and ferts are you not worried it will cause a load of algae?

 

[magical trevor]

I would love to have a tank like that!!! You've got angels, rummynoses, bosemani all of the fish I really want to have in a big 60 gallon + tank. Did you have corys in the tank as well? I can't see any.

Not in that tank I had some zebra loach and otto's.

 

[magical trevor]

That’s a lot of light you are putting in even with Co2 and ferts are you not worried it will cause a load of algae?

Yeah wills it seems that way but I'm not absolutely 100% on this but if I 3 lights combined will give me 98watts if I divide that by the litres in the tank which is 325l it works out at .3 watts per litre?

 

[Wills]

Very true I totally forgot how big that tank is! Really deceptive in the pics. I’m about .5 watt per litre in mine

 

[magical trevor]

Very true I totally forgot how big that tank is! Really deceptive in the pics. I’m about .5 watt per litre in mine

It's very difficult to get a high light output on the tank because of the oak lid. In an ideal world is have another 3 fluval lights which would give me .5 per litre but £600 on lights isn't cost effective in my opinion as it'll only increase the output by .2. that's not even mentioning the heat output from 4 led lightbars!

 

[mcordelia]

I have not looked into this at all, but I'm curious what the difference is between getting "aquarium purpose" lights vs plant grow lights. Both are nowadays LED, and spectrums appear to be the same too, but I just got myself a 150w light for $150, and literally I have to wear sunglasses to harvest lettuce with that thing on full brightness. It's also waterproof, so I don't see differences there.

However, as I said, I have done zero comparison so please tell me why this wouldn't work (they have other lights at a better $/watt ratio I believe), or what I am not considering, or if the price point is the exact same at the end of the day and there is no win. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07PLY1WKK/?tag=ff0d01-20

 

[magical trevor]

I have not looked into this at all, but I'm curious what the difference is between getting "aquarium purpose" lights vs plant grow lights. Both are nowadays LED, and spectrums appear to be the same too, but I just got myself a 150w light for $150, and literally I have to wear sunglasses to harvest lettuce with that thing on full brightness. It's also waterproof, so I don't see differences there.

However, as I said, I have done zero comparison so please tell me why this wouldn't work (they have other lights at a better $/watt ratio I believe), or what I am not considering, or if the price point is the exact same at the end of the day and there is no win. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07PLY1WKK/?tag=ff0d01-20

I don't see why you couldn't use one of these but it would probably make the neighborhood think your cultivating cannabis lol

Unless someone has any insight as to why it wouldn't work? But to be honest it's not the most attractive light to have above an aquarium plus the heat output would be incredible.

 

[magical trevor]

Well I promised myself I would get the tank Scaped today before going to night shift. Sadly Mrs Trevor had other ideas on what to do. So very little done on the tank sadly.

I did how ever get one of the bits of wood out the bucket to attach my 2 bucephalandra theia on it... And got the scum lines off the glass.

So not much in the way of an update... Hoping to progress some more Monday.

hoping this will grow nicely along the branches and I'll keep adding until the majority of this is covered. For the high reaching branches I have java fern trident to attach to it but I'll need to get some super glue far to hard to tie java ferns rhizome I think anyway. That's all for today.

 

[Wills]

I don't see why you couldn't use one of these but it would probably make the neighborhood think your cultivating cannabis lol

Unless someone has any insight as to why it wouldn't work? But to be honest it's not the most attractive light to have above an aquarium plus the heat output would be incredible.

Theres a guy on youtube called MD fishtanks, dont agree with everything he does but he uses some LED floodlights from Amazon that are not expensive and has great results. If I had a hooded tank I'd be tempted to use them.

Always the way with when you plan to scape a tank. I've got an empty tank that I just never have time to set up! To be fair I dont have everything for it yet though. Really like the Buce though new plant to me since I started up again some really interesting species around now.

Wills

 

[magical trevor]

Theres a guy on youtube called MD fishtanks, dont agree with everything he does but he uses some LED floodlights from Amazon that are not expensive and has great results. If I had a hooded tank I'd be tempted to use them.

Always the way with when you plan to scape a tank. I've got an empty tank that I just never have time to set up! To be fair I dont have everything for it yet though. Really like the Buce though new plant to me since I started up again some really interesting species around now.

Wills

I had a massive success with my last tank growing giant anubias (which the angels always seem to lay eggs on) as you can see from the picture of the old tank it got to the stage it was over taking everything. So that's why I fancied a change with the buce, it's a cute little plant with lovely looking leaves and it's very pretty when it flowers.

Fingers crossed when it all grows in I'll maybe consider entering TOTM. Currently because the lights are on for the plants my wee one keeps looking in the tank and saying "where's fish?" Can't help but laugh.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

I meant to compliment you on that gigantic anubias! Really pretty. I've never been able to get them to grow that big.

 

[magical trevor]

I meant to compliment you on that gigantic anubias! Really pretty. I've never been able to get them to grow that big.

Yeah it was anubias barteri caladiifolia. It was the fastest growing anubias I've ever seen! It's looked lovely when flowering.