Toms 240l Planted Journal

[tom_os]

So today was the day i got my Fluval Roma 240l tank (55g) it is an ex display tank and cost me £310 witha free upgrade of filter and a fish voucher for £10.


Heres what i have so far:

tank: fluval roma 240

lights: 2 40w t8 lights

filter: fluval 405

heater: fluval 300w

substrate: Tropica plant substrate capped with argos play sand.

plants: not sure yet, narrow leafed java fern and anaubias are deffinate for now.

look: big piece of wood covered in plants and mosses and a big open swimming space with possible grassy plants and a carpeting plant

background: need help on that one

fishies: angle fish, then i dont know what else



heres the space where the tank will go in my room.

stand in place, so much bigger then i though and i am a bit scared it wont be strong enough

heres the tank on the floor. could only get the tank in the car and had to get the stand delivered, but they forgot the shelf so will phone up and get that tomorrow.

tank on stand

starting to fill the tank with a hose attached to the tap. took me over 40 mins to get it 3/4 full

tank full of water, well 3/4 full

the fluval filter, amazed me how big it was, im used toa fluval 2 plus!

the mess of wires on my floor, excluding all the wires for the 3 fish tanks, mum says my room is a fire waiting to happen! at leat i got enough water to put it out now!

i then realised that i hadnt put the plant substrate in, there was no way i was going to empty it again so as gently as i could i put it in the tank. as you can see it kicked up a load of dust so will now wait for it to settle before adding sand

this is the argos play sand, 15kg a bag. in argos i wasnt sure how much i needed so i ended up getting 2 bags but nearly got 3. so glad i didnt as i could barely carry 2 across torquay town. had to stop at every bench

thats all the pics for now


i want to have quite a high tech planted tank. the lighting is about 1.2 wpg i believe (2 40w t8's) if possible i dont want to inject co2, and with this lighting i wont. would i be able to grow demanding plants under these conditions? i will use tropica plant nutrition+ as fertilizers.

also what do people think about backgrounds?

thats it for now. will update as often as i can with new pics of the tank and will no doubt have lots of stocking questions.

 

[Truck]

dont use a back ground is what i say, look at some of george farmers tanks, they have a tube above the tank at the back to create a nice effect

 

[tom_os]

yeah have seen some of them. i like the idea of having like a light blue, kinda like the sky

 

[tom_os]

something like this for a background, stick them all together

http/cgi.ebay.co.uk/1-X-10-SHEETS-OF-A4-...%3A1|240%3A1318

 

[Truck]

its card, if it gets wet it will disintigrate

 

[tom_os]

its card, if it gets wet it will disintigrate

yeah but the plan is it wont get wet. i use black card on some of my other tanks. can you recommend somehting better?

 

[Truck]

a tank can look really good without a back ground

 

[tom_os]

yeah, i have a perfect blue wall behind it but there are 2 stripes running along it which ruin it i think

 

[Nick16]

you wally.!!! the best part of setting up a tank is adding the substrate and sorting it out! are you not planting up first before filling?

 

[shelaghfishface]

it will settle in no time, the stand will be fine, i didnt think they looked up to much either but no movement at all, so im confident

just a note, can you put something between the door and the tank... just incase it bangs the tank ( your washing pile should do it ) - i have teenage sons too
brilliant news on the filter upgrade, well done on that, look forward to watching this tank progress

shelagh xxx
i would go with a black background, with sand and lush green plants i think it would look ( not sure if boys wanna hear "stunning")- very "boys toyz"

 

[tom_os]

it will settle in no time, the stand will be fine, i didnt think they looked up to much either but no movement at all, so im confident

just a note, can you put something between the door and the tank... just incase it bangs the tank ( your washing pile should do it ) - i have teenage sons too
brilliant news on the filter upgrade, well done on that, look forward to watching this tank progress

shelagh xxx

yeah i have put something there now! thanks

and yeah i know it is the best part puting the sbubstrate in and setting it all up, but the plan is to do a fishless cycle now and when its done, empty the tank, plant it and refill in a day. sound ok?

 

[Truck]

it will settle in no time, the stand will be fine, i didnt think they looked up to much either but no movement at all, so im confident

just a note, can you put something between the door and the tank... just incase it bangs the tank ( your washing pile should do it ) - i have teenage sons too
brilliant news on the filter upgrade, well done on that, look forward to watching this tank progress

shelagh xxx

yeah i have put something there now! thanks

and yeah i know it is the best part puting the sbubstrate in and setting it all up, but the plan is to do a fishless cycle now and when its done, empty the tank, plant it and refill in a day. sound ok?

whats the point in emptying? you may aswell plant with water now

 

[tom_os]

i thought at the end of a fishless cycle you have to to a big water change to get rid of all the nitrate and excess stuff?

 

[Nick16]

yeah thats what i did. well the last bit anyway.

Here is me filling my 240L after planting.

 

[Truck]

i thought at the end of a fishless cycle you have to to a big water change to get rid of all the nitrate and excess stuff?

only in a marine tank. not necessary in a freshwater