Aquatic Archive: New 6x2x2

Today was a very good day.

Empty new aquarium

Eurobraced 12mm starphire 1830x640x640 = 700L
(drilled base)

Todo: plumb to rain water supply and drain (lazy water changes)
Swap halides for Kessil Tuna Suns

Edit: 1 year +2 days since the old tank split! 😒

Got it dirty today.

Started with a base of DIY Grubs "Power Sand". Just a 1-2cm layer of re-used gravel from old tank, still filthy and full of clay and a small amount of shell grit, mixed with some fresh red clay, about 15 osmocote "aquatic gardens" tabs broken up into smaller fragments and a 1-2 teaspons of Aquagreen's trace nutrient mix. This is topped with a thin 1cm layer of LFS "midnight" gravel, more red clay and sprinkle of blood'n'bone and then the whole lot is mixed with fingertips. The midnight gravel raises PH and KH and with some red clay mixed in has proven to be great for growing aponogetons. The final result is about 3cm of over-fertilised sand and red clay. Rocks are just local river rocks (Silurian mudstone). Not particularly charismatic, but convenient from the creek in my back yard.

red clay = red. Black = filter inlet and outlet (described later below)

"powders" = blood'n'bone over the grey/black LFS "midnight" gravel

On top of this nutrient rich base goes a commercial substrate for the first time in a Grubs tank. Subscape in Melbourne are selling this Kaito substrate that is essentially the same as Cal Black Earth - harder grains than ADA so claimed to last a few years without turning to mush and nutrient rich without the ammonia spike. I used 4 bags. I know pulling plants up later will mix sand/gravel into the substrate but I don't see this as a problem as it should all have plants covering it and its quite deep (~7cm on top of the base mix). I considered mixing my magic red clay into the substrate too but didn't. I can always push some clay balls in later if needed.

Why go commercial when I've DIY'd since... well.. forever? ... well that's why. I just wanted to give a commercial substrate a go and so why not jump in with both feet with my main display tank (forces me to make it work).

I put the gravel and red-clay mix under there because I know it works for some of the big rooted plants I like to grow and it will be interesting to see where the plant roots end up. I'm planning to keep water column ferts to a minimum (hence the high dosing of the base layer).

The round object is a filter intake. I wanted to remove all hoses from sight, so the tank is drilled through the base for 2 canister filters (4 holes). I siliconed some "midnight" gravel to the top of the strainer - it goes black when wet and will blend in a lot better with the black earth (you wont see it for the plants anyhow). The strainer has some 90mm PVC stormwater pipe around it that I've sprayed with black vinyl dye. I can easily fit a siphon hose into the circular gap to clean, or the strainer just lifts out. It is only sitting in there using the Hansen 20mm bulkhead nut as a locator to keep it centred. I have taps on each bulkhead under the tank so I can shut off the flow to isolate all the under-tank plumbing in case of leaks or for maintenance. These look a bit "Captain Obvious" now with nothing in the tank, but I'll be planting right up to the PVC gravel barrier and it should hide the inlets pretty damn well. The far inlet is also behind the wood. The little "periscope" you see in the bottom of the top picture is the filter return made from 19mm poly fittings. These are a bit of a work in progress until I see how the flow behaves.

yes I expect these circular "caves" will be favourite hiding place for shrimp... and I might come to curse the idea. If that happens I can just screw in some 10cm extensions, pull out the circular guard and fill the hole with fresh substrate.

The experienced campaigners among you will see the one substantive design risk. If a hose splits under the tank the tank can drain almost the entire volume (to the top of the nipple that is screwed into the bulkhead inside the strainer). This will leave only 30mm of water in the tank (probably enough to keep some shrimp and smaller fish alive if they are lucky enough to make it to the sand area). With a "normal" over the side canister filter inlet a leak can cause the tank to siphon down to the inlet strainer which is normally above the bottom of the tank. You get a wet floor but keep most of your livestock. So yes in my quest for less clutter I'm taking a risk - but in my defence I've never had a hose split, or major canister leak in 30 years of fish keeping (*touch wood*). I've installed isolating taps and a DIY leak alarm (smoke detector with contacts) in each cupboard

So this is where I'm at... I still have some playing to do with the rocks to incorporate some more natural looking elements to the sand area. Currently its only ~5-10mm of dirty used DIY tank sand - but its not dissimilar to the local creek sand.

I've temporarily taken the light poles off because I need to thread the Kessil power and sync cables up them. So this clean look will be cluttered a bit once the poles are re-installed. The Kessils are a smaller fitting compared to the old halides and hopefully look a bit better.

..for scale - the tank is 640 high ... so yes the wood is very "sticky outy"

Planting plan is slowly forming in my brain.. but will be relatively low maintenance.

Let there be light! ...again

These are the OLD light poles I made in 2007 (construction details).

While the halides have been awesome, I've never been happy with the smaller round sunrise/sunset lights made from under-cabinet lights. I replaced the 20W G4 halogen globes with various LEDs from ebay and changed from warm to cool white but in the end they have always been too dim to the point of not noticing they were even on. Pathetic! ... but fixing was a non-trivial task, so I lived with it.

This new build has given me the opportunity to over-think the problem and I came up with a cheap solution replacing the lights with an MR16 downlight socket allowing me to re-use the existing wiring and 12v transformer. The MR16 bases are $5 for a pack of 5 from the hardware, and the beauty of these is I can now buy a range of LED downlight bulbs in different wattages and cool and warm tints. The base grips the pins on the bulbs very tightly (they won't fall out) and are held in position just by the tension on the cable. I've opted for 5.5W Osram LED Warm White 36 degree spread ($10 ea). These are equivalent to a 35W halogen downlight and gave me the option to go up in power (7W) or down in power (3W) if needed. I resisted the urge to install a dimmer. These are not to grow any plants, they are just to give the tank some spunk either side of "lights on".

I swapped the 150W metal halide shopligters to Kessil Tuna Sun A360WE's thanks to a last minute splurge on an AoA (site sponsor) sale.

I couldn't get the Kessil power cable plugs around the sharp bend in the tubes - so I had to cut a small window in the back of the pole (cant be seen). I threaded sync cables (non-genuine ebay stereo AV leads) along with the power leads and sunset light leads. The sync cables allow the controls on one light, or the Kessil spectral controller, to simultaneously adjust the brightness and colour temperature of all three lights.

Window to help with cable threading. You can see the white MR16 base out of focus on the pole on the ground.

Neat and tidy.

Nice warm sunrise/sunset.

Kessil only

My ONLY complaint is the noise the fans in the Kessils make. Maybe I can only hear it because I don't have the filters running yet. For the money I think the fans should be thermally controlled but they are not. Much queiter than the Ledzeal lights and similar in level to a fridge compressor running. Not obnoxious...but there.

This is all taking longer than I'd want due to work commitments (familiar story). Plants from various people floating in other tanks now so need to get a scoot on.

[QUOTE=shakti;542037]Looks good.

Will you grow any epiphytes on the wood thats sticking out? Like orchids, pitcher plants, ferns or tillansia?[/QUOTE]

I'd love to. Its a dark corner and the lighting is probably hanging a bit low but hoping there is enough light reflecting back upwards? Not my area of expertise at all... will look at once the fish are in and I have a breather!

Very happy with the starfire glass and the look of the tank itself. No cross braces on the top is win win win. I'm often leaning in for a look

Very happy with the filter setup through the base. The outflows that push water up from the bottom at ~45 degrees angle with sufficient force to ripple the surface (shimmer) and create a good circular gyre in the tank.

Very happy with the low maintenance (nothing but weekly water changes so far - garden hose in/out and done. (still haven't connected the pipes under the house). No pruning, no algae woes. Suits my busy workload at the moment.

Still only about 2/3 planted and very simple (not really 'scaped'), and there is a big chunk of bolbitus pushed up against the wood that is just sitting there for cover for shrimp until some of the java grows a bit more.

Playing it slow and planting a few more things over time as there are a couple of unexpected early observations.

1) the congo Tetras have been grazing heavier than I'd like (too many of them).
There are two small Ottelia ulvifolia on the far RHS struggling to get up above the blyxa before the congo's eat the tips off. Hydrocotyl grows back over a couple of weeks then gets defoliated. I was planning to have Aponogeton capuroni, Barclayas and Mad Lace in there but holding off a bit. Maybe 24 congo tetras is too many I'll probably reduce the congo numbers a little....but not yet.

2) the Kaito aquasoil is still taking a little understanding. No nutrient problems but seems to shock some plants when fresh. Stauro repens and sp. purple and AR mini growing great, Aponogeton crispus "red" powering along, but I've lost a lot of crypts and Pogostomen helferi (insta-melt to oblivion) and those that are growing back are taking a long time - quite a bit of that bare soil in the pics is/was a crypt carpet of C. x willisi with green gecko overhanging all the rocks at the front. I've planted a few C. wendtii "red" and C. becketti 'Petchii' that have just dissolved and not come back. Pogostomen helferi melted to nothing early on - testing with a couple more that are now gaining ground so I'm waiting another month or so for the soil to mature more before replanting. A few crypt leaves coming back up... but much much slower than plants I repotted on the same day into gravel in other tanks.

A little green coating on the rocks/gravel only this week because I may have been heavy on the first fert doses... but otherwise tank is clean. barely need to wipe the glass at all. Wood still clean which is almost onheard of in my house - normally the wood just keeps getting BBA... but not this time yet so happy with progress.

I'm not enamoured with the "scape" (its a bit fake looking with the aquasoil/gravel split... nothing some more plants and rocks cant fix)...but for now... it'll do as I'm enjoying the the fish.

I've got a tank full of Corydoras sterbai in the shed I want to add but its already very fishy so again holding off until I decide if I'm going to reduce the congo numbers (currently 24).

Onward and upward.