New meeting location for the 2023/2024 Season will be at J.A. Dulude arena.  Meetings start at 7 pm.

250G High Tech Tank

Started by Consigliere, September 26, 2009, 12:40:14 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

Consigliere

There have been several mentions of a future, big tank in some of my posts.  My 70G tank was actually re-setup to be a proving/testing ground for learning to run a higher tech tank so this big tank would not start out as a huge disaster.  Well, the time has finally arrived to start this project.  I received a call today from the tank builder, Bow Valley Aquarium in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, that my tank has been built and will ship to me on Monday.  All I can say is finally!  The builder selection is a long story, and if you ever want my opinion please send me an email.

Although I haven't actually received the tank yet, I have a few things that I am going to post before the big arrival.  I've got a drawing of the tank back that I supplied to the builder.



The overall tank dimensions are 66" long x 26" wide x 36" tall.  The tank will be 3/4" Starphire glass on the front and sides with a rimless eurobracing design.  Clear silicone will be used for the joints and the background will be a navy blue laminated sheet.  As you can see the tank has been drilled with five 2 3/8" drilled holes for water flow.  The top two holes are for water return to the tank and the bottom three will be for overflows.  The plan is to plumb the tank for silence using a U style overflow and a DIY custom spray bar for the returns.

I have been finishing my basement for a while and this aquarium will eventually be the center piece.   I have put in some hardware already that I will post prior to the tanks arrival.  The process so far has been a few months, but I will compress this into 1 or 2 posts.  Hopefully, by then, the tank will have arrived and the real action will begin.  I'm going to build a custom stand for it.  I'm hoping to finish up with a fully automated tank with a foolproof, fail-safe design.  I'm sure there will be a few mishaps as things get worked out.  Just hopefully none while I am asleep.

Anyone with any experience moving large glass tanks like this?  I was thinking of calling a moving company to do it since I figure it will be over 500lbs.

Snider82

I'm very excited to see the progress of this build!!  take 1,000,000 photo's along the way!

OttawaFolkFestivum

Looking forward to seeing the progress. Sweet tank!
Cheers, Steve

Consigliere

There will be plenty of pics, don't worry about that!  I actually have a ton already of some of the stuff I have been working on for the tank.  I'm going to be posting a DIY exhaust system soon.

sdivell

Great!  When does the tank arrive?

I suggest movers with insurance.  Worst thing that could happen is you get some people to help you and you break it and nothing to cover you for your loss.

I volunteer to come watch you move it though  ;D

salvini55

Sounds sick... Exhaust sparks my interest! any chance of a DIY turbo as well  ;). I suggest 25+ lbs boost min. for sure!

Consigliere

One of the things I am concious of with keeping tanks is the humidity they create.  I have never experienced a tank as large as a 250G so I can only imagine the humidity it will create.  I am trying to address this by exhausting the hood section of the tank out of the vicinity of the aquarium.  Here I will have some photos and explanation of how I created an exhaust system in my unfinished basement that will allow me to exhaust the hot, humid tank air to 1) my furnace cold air return during the winter (improves heating efficiency and will help humidify the house during the super dry Canadian winters) or 2) outside using my dryer vent during the summer.

This system was put in months ago, before I started finishing my basement.  To start, I had to put together the piece which will actually sit inside the hood and draw air.  I am using a 120V 4" drive exhaust fan that was given to me as the first piece of hardware that will move air.  I attached it to a 4" PVC elbow using some nails and construction adhesive.  Once the adhesive dried, I wrapped it in duct tape to make the seal air tight.





The next step was to mount the assembly to a floor joist and add an electrical junction to house the electrical connections for the exhaust fan and the flow boosting fan (to come).  I drilled a couple holes into the PVC elbow and screwed it to a floor joist and mounted a standard light junction to the joist so that the junction was flush to the PVC elbow.  This will give me access to the junction in the future since it will be below the ceiling drywall.




In all honesty, at this point I figured I just hook up some more PVC, and the drive exhaust fan would be able to overcome the head pressure and move the air from the one end of the system to the other.  Boy was I wrong.  I had no flow, so I had to figure out a good way to boost the pressure.  Walking through Princess Auto I noticed furnace duct boosting fans.  What do you know, they had a 120V 4" fan.  Perfect!  So I mounted the fan at the elbow and wired it up to a 120V electrical cord.  In hindsight, I should've placed the boosting fan at a different spot but it works pretty well where it is.  Attached to the boosting fan is length of 4" PVC that runs the length of the floor joist.



If you are wondering, yes that is 14-2 standard wire.  It has since been replaced with 14-2 flexible outdoor wire.  I used duct tape again to seal the PVC connections to the boosting fan.  The long run of PVC was secured to the floor joist at each end the same way the PVC elbow was secured.  The 4" PVC run took me to the tricky part of the project.  I had to get the air from my future rec room, across the whole basement to where my furnace and dryer duct are.  I had already boxed in my furnace duct work so I figured I could run a line next to the existing duct work without any problems.  I used a modified funnel to taper the connection from the 4" PVC to a 1.5" flex hose that would carry the air the rest of the run.  The braided flex hose creates a bit of an issue in terms of extra head pressure but I really didn't have much choice at this point.  Here's the funnel adapter and it attached to the PVC with duct tape.





I don't have any photos of the termination of the whole system but there is a T connection with valving on each of the branches that allows me to run the air to my cold air return on my furnace during the winter or to my dryer duct during the summer.  The whole system doesn't move a lot of air but enough that I think the humidity in the main room of the basement won't get out of control and it should help cool the lighting a little bit.  It may have just been an interesting project and not particularly useful, but I figured with this setup I might as well go for everything I can think of rather than get the tank going and wish I had this or that.

Vincenzo.

good idea man. is the fan loud/noisy? will you need to insulate? pipes will sweat from wet air. or even inside the pipes. especially pvc and metal.

you might get some sweat right where the fan and pvc meet. and dont want to take any chances with sweat dripping back onto your fan, possibly wetting some wires. and possible short when the fan comes back on?

(since i recon you will not be running this fan 24/7)

idk if this makes sense. but i dont want anything to happen early on in the build. that might be a problem later on down the road.

Consigliere

There may be some condensation on the inside of the pipes, but sweating only happens when the temperature of a surface is lower than the surrounding temperature.  This lowers the dewpoint at the surface and causes condensation on the outside.  In this case, the pipe will always be warmer than the surrounding temperature so the outside sweating will not be an issue.

As for noise and vibration, there is definitely a bit of both.  It isn't too bad right now with the drywall installed now and once the hood is in place for the tank I imagine that will dampen the noise and vibrations a bit as well.  If it is too noisy then I will only run it at times when no one is home but hopefully it won't be too bad and I can run it whenever necessary.  I will likely run it minimally at night and probably run it intermittently while the lights are on.

Hopefully it works out, if not it cost about $40 so no big deal if I never end up using.  Just didn't want to get this all going and look back and wish I had an exhaust.

Vincenzo.

okay thats good. good you cleared it up. ad hope it work out well. yea i guess once it's more in closed there will be less noise to worry about. with a tank that big, im sure there will be some buzz and hum's.

JD

I tried using one of the booster buct fans to help move in in my old house. I bought one of the expensive two speed ones. I found it noisy and did not move much air at all. It lasted a month and a half in 24/7 service.

Do you plan to run your furnace fan 24/7 when exhausting your humid tank air into the cold air return? Please consider the possibility of mold growth if the fan is not running on the furnace, especially if your duct work has not been cleaned out recently.

A trick I learned awhile ago dealing with fan noise, if it's an issue, is to use a basic light dimmer switch on AC fans to vary their speed. Different voltage power supplies on DC fans are a suitable way to slow them down.

Consigliere

I never considered the possiblity of mold growth when exhausting into the cold air return.  That is a great point.  I may have to exhaust it outside all the time.  That was my original intent but thought if would be worthwhile putting to the cold air return to improve furnace efficiency. 

Thanks for the tip on the dimmer.  That would be a good upgrade I'll have to look at.

veron

I always suggest a person consult with an HVAC tech before exhausting anything in a house. your changing the dynamics and pressure. it can cause more headaches or death if your not carefull.

redbelly

The concerns that Vernon is refering to here (I think) are with respect to venting to outside.

Don't quote me on these numbers but I believe you should not vent out of the house at over 700 cfm total. This include the fan over your stove. Even on the high output or large stove fans, some of them require a fresh air intake as they do in fact exceed 700 cfm on their own.

The risk is that by creating a negative pressure you can drawn the exhaust air inside from your furnace.

On older houses with windows that leak air anyways its not really going to be an issue, but on a newer place (such as my place) that seals tights as a drum it can be a concern.



Consigliere

Thanks for the information here.  The entire system doesn't move much air because of the long run of flex hose.  I would estimate maybe a total of 20-50SCFM.  The system will only run for a few hours a day as well so the total should not be an issue.

The more feedback I receive though, the more I think it isn't wortwhile utilizing the exhaust into the cold air return.

sdivell

I'm going to jump in here as I do have experience in home design and industrial mechanical designs.

No, its not worth venting into cold air return in the winter, here is why.

In the winter the basement is exactly where you want that warm, moist air.  It will then rise up through the house forcing cold air back down into the basement for heating by the furnace.  The only way to properly recover warm air is with a HRV unit in the house which takes the heat out of the exhaust air (but not the air itself) and heats up incoming fresh air.  If you do have an HRV installed in your home (and most new homes do), venting this tank exhaust into that would be worth your time and a good idea.

My advise is save this exhaust for summer months when you really want to pull that moist air out of the house.

Consigliere

Great info here.  Thanks again guys, really appreciate the feedback. 

Vincenzo.

what about running a de-humidifier? You can have it on a timer for maybe 2-5 hours a day while u are at work.

OttawaFolkFestivum

Good discussion here.

Would be interested in hearing about the tank supplier decision making process that you alluded to in your first post.
Cheers, Steve

Consigliere

Let's just say the tank supplier promised a delivery date, and then missed it by 5 months.  Not saying he was lying necessarily, but you would expect a 50% deposit at least buys you a firm delivery date.  I was told that originally by a few people but he came in at lowest cost by over $500, and was half the price of some other quotes.

I still haven't actually received the tank so I can't say anything about quality yet.

Consigliere

#20
After almost 7 months of waiting for this tank, it has finally arrived.  Not much to see yet since it is still in the crate but here it is.



With most of the crate material removed.  Man what a stressful job messing around with crowbars and prybars with a giant glass box inches away.



Here's a shot of it the builder sent me prior to shipping.  It's looking pretty good.

sdivell

Wow... the builder is clearly better at building tanks than building crates!  ;D

The tank looks great! can't wait to see your progress!

Consigliere


Snider82

thats alotta beer! ;)  nice tank!   

salvini55

Quote from: sdivell on October 23, 2009, 06:48:05 PM
Wow... the builder is clearly better at building tanks than building crates!  ;D

LOL - thats what i was thinking!

Consigliere

Finally the first update in nearly a year.  This project has been on hold until I finished the basement that the tank was going to be installed in.  I found out very quickly that having your first child will put a little damper on the projects you had going before.  Nearly 1 year after the tank arrived it has been uncrated and is almost ready to be put on the stand.  I'm thinking I will have to have professional movers do this job. 

I've got the structural part of my stand built.  It is 2x6 and 2x4 construction.  3/4" plywood on top.  My wife is paranoid it isn't strong enough for a 250G but I think it's plenty safe.

Here's the stand going together:

The top frame that the plywood will be screwed to:






and the whole thing clamped together ready to be screwed.



I also realized that if I tried to put the tank on the stand and then put the manzanita wood as a whole in it wouldn't fit and there is no way I was assembling it by hanging into the tank so I have started putting together my stump that will go in and I will install it in the tank before I put the tank on the stand.  I'm building it on the stand so I can get it sized correctly. 

Looking for some feedback on the arrangement.  I have lots more good branches that will beef up the right side a bit more so it isn't complete yet.

Straight on:



Closer:



From the left:



From the right:



And still to be put into the arrangement:


Toss

Sorry I missed out the beginning of this tank build. I thought this is going to be a SW tank until I saw the driftwood. So I guess this is going to be a high tech freshwater planted tank?
75 gal - Mosquito rasbora, Bushynose pleco, RCS
9 gal - CRS
40 gal - Longfin Albino Bushynose pleco, RCS

Stussi613

I like the way it looks right now, the right side being slightly less dense will leave some open space on that side which would look good.  Having wood all the way across without any "negative" space might be too busy.

If you want to sell any of the manzanita you don't end up using let me know :D
I haz reef tanks.

Consigliere

Here's what I think will be the final arrangement. I got every piece in, including a couple small pieces I had in an old tank.

Straight On:



From the left:



and the right:



What do you think?

Malyon18

I think it looks pretty sweet, good work
"Friends Don't Let Friends Go Plastic Reef"

Toss

This is just my personal opinion, I like the original wood arrangement. The final one is a bit over powering. If it is going to be a planted tank, not much room left for the plants.
75 gal - Mosquito rasbora, Bushynose pleco, RCS
9 gal - CRS
40 gal - Longfin Albino Bushynose pleco, RCS

magnosis

What has happened with this tank ?  It started as a fairly epic build ...

Consigliere

#32
I'm looking at the dates on these posts and it seems like I get the itch to work on this project about this time every year.  What turned out to be the most difficult aspect of the entire project was completely overlooked by me when I designed this tank.  Moving it to my basement was an absolute nightmare. Professional movers turned down the job but in the end my two brother-in-laws, my dad and myself moved it from my garage to my basement.



Making the Plan



Not the most comfortable moment



Don't let go


Almost there



Almost two years from delivery it finally makes it into my house.



Front view



Better lighting


I can finally get started on all the setup.  The plumbing will be the first job.  The filter the second.  That will be the moment of truth on filling this thing with water and getting the pumps going.  I'll be posting the drainage plumbing design shortly.

Cheebs

Wow, that is epic!! Great looking so far, don't keep us waiting til Oct 2012 to hear more! ;)

Yams

The patience you have! lol, long time since starting to now, looks good though.

Also, that crate your aquarium came in, is the worst crate I have ever ever ever seen. And I have seen alot of crates! lol, but excellent looking tank!

Excited for you!

Consigliere

The last few weeks I've been installing the drainage plumbing onto the bulkheads. A few design changes were necessary as I installed things to make sure there was room for the return plumbing. The isolation valves for the rightside upper drain bulkhead will be hard to get to so I think I'm going to drill a hole in the valve handles and put a threaded rod and nut through it so I can pull it open or closed from above. Here's a couple shots of the drainage plumbing installed.

">



The next step was to turn my old 70G tank into the filter. I'm doing a sump setup underneath the stand. The design is based on a bunch of nice saltwater sumps I've seen on the internet. I chose Lexan for the dividers. Glass would've been better but Lexan was easier to get and wasn't overly expensive. It took a little bit to figure out how best to cut it. There are a few chips out of some of the dividers that hopefully will be filled with silicone. You'll see I didn't spare any silicone when I installed the dividers. Before I installed each divider I sanded the surface that was going to be siliconed to the glass. Hopefully the extra surface area will make a strong enough bond to stand up to the flows in the sump. Here's the photos of the transformation of the 70G tank to the sump:
















The pump mounts have some rubber grommets siliconed in below the screw heads. There will be 2 more rubber gromets sandwiching each pump mount with stainless washers and nuts to keep everything together and vibrating without hitting the glass.

With everything installed here we are:




Overall the filter has 5 distinct features. A submerged return pump, a bubble trap before the return pump. 2 sections of bio filtration, sump pump with float switch connected to the house drain and a 15G or so refugium. The sump pump still needs to be installed but the plumbing is all in place.. The refugium will initially be used for keeping isolation from new fish while getting them exposed to tank conditions. After that I'll use it to grow some plants.

The next part of the project is the plumbing for the return system. I have some check valves on order that I need to get that finished. There will be 3 of them for redundancy since check valves aren't as reliable as an above water siphon break. I decided to give up on doing a siphon break and spend some extra money on heavy duty check valves. The return system will include a 3" PVC CO2 reactor with injection via pressurized CO2 and regulator.

Here's how everything looks together right now:


Cheebs

All I can say is... Wow! Lookin good :)

daworldisblack

WOW! Just another thread I HAVE to follow! Looks real good so far and I am in total awe!
Born-again Aquatic Hobbyist with interest in planted nano tanks and Killifish!

charlie

Quote from: Chubs on November 09, 2011, 11:11:31 PM
All I can say is... Wow! Lookin good :)
X2, can`t wait to see the final product,great job so far

redbelly

Cool build!

Are you sure that your return pump is designed to be run internally?

I have never seen a return pump that can be bolted down that can run internally. Usually its only external pumps.

Consigliere

The pump can run both submerged and outside.  I figured submerged would be better for noise reduction plus the space is a bit tight under the tank.

salvini55

The scape is fantastic! When I saw the pics of the tank going down the stairs and that hook in the wall bending, I would have been shaking in my boots right about then.  ::)

Consigliere

Yeah the move was a bit stressfull.  The first two attempts at lowering the tank down the stairs didn't work and we had to adjust the setup.  The hooks were only rated for 50lbs but those engineers.... always under-promising.  I was holding the tank as it lowered and was definitely not very comfortable.

Question for you guys since this is a pretty local forum for me (I'm in Kingston)....I need to choose a substrate soon.  Obviously with this size I'm going to need a lot and would prefer not to spend a lot.  Any ideas on good substrate?  I've used playsand etc before and it's ok but I'm thinking a darker colour will be better.  Saw Charlie's tank with the Fluval Stratum and it looks interesting but not sure if the grain size of that is too big.  Any suggestions or ideas?

charlie

Quote from: Consigliere on November 10, 2011, 02:38:28 PM

Question for you guys since this is a pretty local forum for me (I'm in Kingston)....I need to choose a substrate soon.  Obviously with this size I'm going to need a lot and would prefer not to spend a lot.  Any ideas on good substrate?  I've used playsand etc before and it's ok but I'm thinking a darker colour will be better.  Saw Charlie's tank with the Fluval Stratum and it looks interesting but not sure if the grain size of that is too big.  Any suggestions or ideas?
Dave what are your plans for the tank plant & aquascaping ?
If you try to use specialised planted substrate for that tank, you are pretty much looking at a good chunk of change despite of brand/type, you can cut it with part play sand & part plant substrate.

Consigliere

I'm thinking mostly slow growers at this point.  Lots of crypts for the foregrounds and backgrounds.  Might attempt a crypt parva carpet. Anubias and ferns for the driftwood.  Some blyxa japonica for sure.  Will have some stems in there for the startup but they will probably be culled quickly.  No interest in high maintenance trimming etc.  Might end up with some pogostemon species eventually since they are the best stems I've seen and aren't too bad for growing and can be sold easily.

The tank will generally be heavily planted in the background and corners, the foregrounds will still be dense planting but much smaller.

I'm not hung up on needing substrate with fert properties.  I can dose liquid no problem and slow growers won't need much in that way. 

I'd like something like play sand, maybe a bit larger grains, but don't really want the yellow/white colour.  Want something a bit darker.

pm

Club Piscine here in Ottawa has a black (well dark) pool filter sand.  I have not tried it, but I got a sample.  It looked more like very fine gravel, but I ended up not using it as the edges of the "sand" were sharper than normal pool filter sand, and it was magnetic (I feared for my filter and powerhead impellers, but I doubt it would be a problem with your plumbing setup).

I would call around the pool stores in your area to see if any have something like that available.

Please note, I never tested the properties of this sand.  I ended up using normal tan pool filter sand in my small tank.

Consigliere

Thanks for the heads up.  Will call around.  The magnetic part is a bit scary though.  Must have enough iron content to potentially be a problem for wildlife.

Consigliere

Just had a brainstorm. 

Instead of having a CO2 reactor in the plumbing, why not just install the CO2 tubing into the center of the PVC fitting on the intake of the pump?  Pump should chop up the gas quite a bit for quick diffusion into the water and simplifies the plumbing immensely.  Also saves me about $120 in plumbing parts.

Anyone tried this before?  Thoughts?

fischkopp

Quote from: Consigliere on November 10, 2011, 09:42:07 PM
Instead of having a CO2 reactor in the plumbing, why not just install the CO2 tubing into the center of the PVC fitting on the intake of the pump?  

I did something similar: I branch off some of the return water into the CO2 reactor, from where it flows back into the sump section with the pump. Works well on my system (180+75). I didn't want the return pump chopping the gas up though, rather rely on the reactor to mix it in well. And you won't need an excessive CO2 anyway if you stick to slow growers.

Ahh ja: I like to see how this project progresses. Keep the good work coming!  :)
be aware of the green side
my fish suck
L007 ♦ L014 ♦ L034 ♦ L046 ♦ L106 ♦ L128 ♦ L134 ♦ L136B ♦ L183 ♦ L191 ♦ L200 ♦ L340 ♦ LDA031

Consigliere

The branched off CO2 reactor is what I was planning but thought putting the CO2 bubbles directly into the return pump could eliminate a lot of plumbing and equipment but the general feedback seems to be this isn't a great idea.

fischkopp

It's just not the most efficient way; eventually you might end up loosing lots of CO2 that reaches the surface before it mixes into the water. And that can be significant on a bigger system. You may also find lots of bubbles distracting in your display. Or you may not, just my thoughts. :)
be aware of the green side
my fish suck
L007 ♦ L014 ♦ L034 ♦ L046 ♦ L106 ♦ L128 ♦ L134 ♦ L136B ♦ L183 ♦ L191 ♦ L200 ♦ L340 ♦ LDA031

charlie

Quote from: Consigliere on November 10, 2011, 05:31:44 PM

I'm not hung up on needing substrate with fert properties.  I can dose liquid no problem and slow growers won't need much in that way. 

I'd like something like play sand, maybe a bit larger grains, but don't really want the yellow/white colour.  Want something a bit darker.
Google" turface" in the planted tank, this might suit your needs & it`s cheap.

Consigliere

Been going pretty hard the last few nights on getting this tank going.  The check valves arrived Friday and I got to work on the return plumbing.  I had a last minute change of design and didn't go with a CO2 reactor out of PVC.  Instead I decided to use a 1300 L/h powerhead hooked up to a 36W UV tube.  The UV/powerhead setup will move water from the return pump chamber in the sump to the first chamber after the drainage chamber.  The CO2 will be bubbled into the inlet of the powerhead.  I modified the impeller based on a design I found by Tom Barr.  Should be similar to a needle wheel impeller, hopefully.


Here's a few photos of the finished plumbing setup.  Right now I'm two crimp rings short of being able to fire the tank up.  The water supply from the house system is piped in with pex and there is a termination end with an irrigation manifold for adding drippers.  The drippers aren't installed yet.  Here's the tap and drip supply:


There is also a tap at the top of the tank for directly filling there.

[i
The return plumbing, UV tube and sump pump plumbing is pictured here.  The sump pump is hooked up to the house drain with a float switch for hopefully automatic water changes.  Also pictured is the Milwaukee CO2 controller.



I also got the first of 3 T5HO light fixtures installed.  Each fixture has two 80W bulbs installed.  The bulbs are Giesmann 4x Midday and 2x Aquaflora.  Total of 480W might be a bit much so I think I will start with mounting them as far from the tank as possible.  Each light will be run independently on timers with I think only about an hour per day will all 3 fixtures on.  The majority of the time I think I will run only 2 fixtures.  I will try and run something similar to a daylight cycle where only 1 light will be on to start and end a day and two on for a few hours.  All 3 on to simulate high noon.


The lights are held on with PVC coated aircraft cable hanging from brass hooks.  I'm going to add some hooks to be able to lower light easily but for now high up is all I need.


Tomorrow I'll finish of the pex water supply and we'll hopefully be able to have our first test run.  Crossing my fingers there are no leaks.

Consigliere

So I started the tank up and there is good news and bad news. Good news is the tank and stand are good, filter works great. Pumps, sump pump all function as expected. But 3 leaks in the plumbing that need to be fixed.

Decided to go ahead and cut out the leaking plumbing and start new. Seems to be no method for 100% long term no leaks without installing new fittings.

I'll be simplifying a lot of the plumbing at the time too. Since the leaks were only drips I ran the tank for about 2 hours figuring out the different functionallty and to make sure everything was working well. Everything generally worked fine but I realized there is no need for some of the plumbing features. I'll take a bunch of that out and have a better setup in the end.

I've also decided on substrate. I'm going to be getting 14 bags of Netlea black for the substrate.

Stussi613

That sucks about the leaky plumbing, but at least you found out now instead of a year in like me!
I haz reef tanks.

Consigliere

Yes always a silver lining.  In the end its good.  It will make me simplify things a lot and after some research in how to fix leaky plumbing I've got some ideas on how to improve the system overall in case it has to be taken apart.  Not a big deal, just another night of working on it and breathing in solvent fumes.

Consigliere

Got the tank wet again last night.  No leaks!  Will post a full update with pics tonight. On another note looking for some help:


I've got to buy my heaters for this tank soon. Haven't found anything locally that is suitable.

I'm looking for some recommendations for a fully submersible 1000W setup. Anyone have any suggestions for brands?

I've seen the JBJ setups, they look pretty sweet but are pricey.

fischkopp

I am using 2x 350W Via Aqua titanium heaters on my 250gal system. I has proven to be more than sufficient to bring the temperature up to 30+ deg celsius.
be aware of the green side
my fish suck
L007 ♦ L014 ♦ L034 ♦ L046 ♦ L106 ♦ L128 ♦ L134 ♦ L136B ♦ L183 ♦ L191 ♦ L200 ♦ L340 ♦ LDA031

Consigliere

After the first dry run of the tank there were a few leaks in the plmbing that needed to be fixed. There were two that I won't admit to how they happened but let's just put them on me. The other two were because of a bad bulkhead installation. I had to remove the bulkhead, scrape the inside glass free of silicone, re-seat the gasket and re-install the bulkhead. I siliconed it in for good measure. Here's why I don't make a living building aquariums:



To get the bulkhead fixed and get at the other leaks the original plumbing had to have some pieces cut out and new fittings put in. Here's the right side of the tank before installing the new fittings.





and the new setup:



finally holding water with no leaks:



This photo shows the tap for filling the tank and all the lights installed:



and the nightlight shot:



I added the filter media today to get ready to cycle everything. There is a 3" layer of foam on the left and 56 pot scrubbies with some java rock on them to hold them down. I'll add some polishing fill when I get the tank filled again and sump running.



I also got my substrate today.14 bags of Netlea brown. It's a nice grain size, and looks pretty good in the cloudy water...so far.



Before I put the substrate in I had to touch up the manzanita arrangement. Got some rocks under it to tilt it in the right direction, moved a few branches around and also added some rocks where I want to add some depth to the layout.Here's the final layout of the tank before adding the substrate:









Obviously the giant ugly rock in the arrangement won't stay. It's there to make sure the wood doesn't float up on me and ruin the layout.

I've got the substrate in and am filling the tank up as I write this. Here's a shot from a few minutes ago.



Just have to get my heater ordered and my CO2 canister filled up now and the tank will be fully ready to go.  The substrate scaping is going to have to wait until the tank clears up.

Hookup


Consigliere

Here it is before the first attempted auto-water change procedure.  Still pretty cloudy and tea stained from the soaking wood.  Still have a bit of scaping on the gravel to do to create the profiles I want.  The water was too cold to do it before.  I've got all my old heaters in there going 100% to get it up to at 75.


Shawn84

Looking awesome so far. Can't wait for the plant. Do you know what your gone a plant so far?
A bunch a fishes.....
A bunch a tanks...........

Consigliere

Generally slow growers will be going in.  Lots of crypts, ferns.  Maybe one stem species for the back.

Consigliere

I got energetic on Sunday afternoon and decided that I would do my first round of planting, despite having a million other things to do. I couldn't resist. Before I could start planting though I had to build a mini scaffold for me to stand on to work in the tank. Using a chair just wasn't cutting it. Here's my makeshift scaffolding:



I cleaned out most of the crypts at the best LFS in town. There are a bunch of ones in here: anubias bartera, java fern (normal), crypt parva, crypt poderfolia, crypt wendtii (red and green), crypt retrospiralis, crypt balansae, crypt abilda and apongeton crispus. A few of the crypts aren't in the greatest shape but they were reasonably priced so I figured I would give them a shot. Before putting them in the tank I soaked them in a very, very mild peroxide and water solution to try and at least hurt some of the algae that may be on them. Here's the plants before going in the tank:



Planting a 3 feet deep tank while you are standing 3 feet in the air is not the most comfortable scenario. *Luckily I have 12" tweezers to help and very long arms. *This is the shot during my first break to give my back a rest:



I had to finish up the planting before I got everything in. I ran out of super glue for attaching the ferns and anubias so there are a few of them that still need to go in. Here's a bunch of shots of different areas:



The start of the parva lawn, about 1/4 of the way there after planting 10 pots worth:



Balansae and ponderfolia sections:



Apongeton crispus and more balansae



More balansae, retrospiralis and abilda. The retrospiralis and abilda are on light support a bit so you can't see them very well.



A section of wendtii green:



and after refilling the tank:







After this planting session and getting the tank refilled I was hurting. Sore back and tired but worth it. The green really pops against the wood and brown soil and dark background.  After a night of planting I would have to say that the Netlea substrate is very nice to work with. It is easy to plant in, doesn't make a big mess when disturbed. Areas that were underwater were an absolute breeze to plant in. All the planting that is shown was finished in about an hour and a half. Once you get the hang of using 12" tweezers they are an absolute necessity for planting in a tank this deep. Overall I'm very happy with the progress. Lots of plants left to go but a good start. I figure this will be about 1/4 to 1/3 of the total plant biomass that I'll plant in here. The general theme will be the same though. Slow growers, crpyts, anubias, ferns etc. Don't want a high maintenance tank. I feel like I may go with one select stem species behind the anubias barteri but I will have to wait until I can get some shipped in the spring time for that. The Canadian winters aren't to friendly to plant shipments.

daworldisblack

#64
Quote from: Consigliere on November 21, 2011, 10:02:14 PM
Planting a 3 feet deep tank while you are standing 3 feet in the air is not the most comfortable scenario. *Luckily I have 12" tweezers to help and very long arms. *This is the shot during my first break to give my back a rest:

Lol i was out over the weekend and was at the local dollar store when I stumbled upon one of this:



First thought? I thought of this thread! Hahaha.. Thought this would be helpful in your planting adventure believe it or not. This shows where my heads at.. haha.. funny thoughts.. but obviously you've got the proper tools for the job but I thought I'd mention this haha.

Looks good now though! The apotogen is a nice addition and I love how most of your plants will be crypts! I can see this growing nicely into a nice set-up!
Born-again Aquatic Hobbyist with interest in planted nano tanks and Killifish!

Consigliere

Because I needed an excuse to have another beer before bed...here's the tank 24hr after planting.  There a bunch of new plants needing to be put in their permanent home but I am waiting to do that until the water needs changing for clarity again.  The wood is leaching less tanins now but will need a big change again in a day or two.



Ordered a bunch of plants from the LFS that they normally don't carry today as well.  20 more pots of parva on the way, some java narrow leaf, java windelov (red apparently but now that I'm reading up on it it will be green submersed), anubias nana petite and a new crypt I forget.  Should be here in 2 weeks.  Will work out nicely for another big water change and that should be the majority of the planting done.

Consigliere

Thanks.  Those tools would've been handy had I not planned for this early.  I got my stuff from ebay for a really good price.  I have 12" curved scissors, straight scissors, bent tweezers, straight tweezers and 18" scaping tools.  I don't think they're top quality but they work and haven't rusted on me yet. 

I'm going to be on the lookout for some rarer crypts now.  The LFS in Kingston has a pretty decent selection to order from but they are so hard to distinguish when you are looking at 1"x1" photos.  Any recommendations on some good species? 

Consigliere

Can't wait to get those brutally ugly rocks out of there too.  How long does manzanita wood usually take to get fully water logged?

daworldisblack

Born-again Aquatic Hobbyist with interest in planted nano tanks and Killifish!

charlie

Coming along nicely Dave, i`ll be taking it all in, great job.

Cheebs

2 years later it's finally full of water, and it looks really good so faR!

Peekay

I can't get over how spectacularly ambitious this whole build is!  You could almost put on your swim suit and jump in there to work on the planting!   :)

Quote from: Consigliere on November 22, 2011, 12:30:07 AM
Can't wait to get those brutally ugly rocks out of there too.  How long does manzanita wood usually take to get fully water logged?

I have no idea, but right now it makes the wood look like an angry octopus lurking in the tank! 

charlie

Some folks report it takes about 4-6 weeks.

Fishnut

Nice job on the tank!  I'll be honest, I skimmed the messages until I saw pics, then I read :)  Amazing job on the whole system!!

Did you ever solve the humidity issue?  I have a 180 in my basement that is covered with tight fitting plastic and the 30 gallon sump is covered as well.  It's not even a heated tank!  We have a very efficient furnace which we thought would be able to take care of the humidity issue but it gradually got worse and worse.  My house got to the point where we couldn't see out of the windows any more and the air was very thick.  So we bought a dehumidifier and put it next to the tank and drains automatically into the floor drain.

What a difference!!

There will be a new DVD in the club's library, which will be unveiled at the meeting on Monday night.  You might have to race some other members to take it out first but it's going to be right up your ally!
;)

Consigliere

Thanks for the comments.  Unfortunately I am in Kingston and can't attend the meetings.

So far the humidity hasn't been an issue but its still early.  I'm thinking we will get a dehumidifier for our basement anyways, winter time our house is always humid because its fairly new and they are sealed up so well now. 

Consigliere

Been working on and off on the tank of late. One of the first things to take care of was getting the CO2 up and running. After filling the CO2 tank I got everything hooked back up. The CO2 bubbles run into the intake of the powerhead that puts water through the UV chamber. The modded impeller is shown in another post. It's working really well. Can't even see the bubbles on the output so they are being dissolved 100% before being put back into the sump. Unfortunately the long layoff wasn't kind to my solenoid. It was full of dust and other junk and had to be totally taken apart and cleaned out. After putting it back together it still isn't working properly. It's passing CO2 with and without power. I still got it up and running and everything connected up but will have to get a new one I think. It's still clicking away when power goes off and on but will not stop the CO2 when there is no power to the solenoid. Any suggestions on how to fix it? I've had it apart a few times and can't figure out the problem.

With the CO2 in the next step was getting the sump sealed up. I had a bunch of acrylic lying around from some other old projects that I could use to create a cover over the open areas. With some cutting here and there I fit it around the plumbing. I used Tuck Tape to seal the edges of the acrylic sheets and around all the stuff going in and out of the sump so that it is generally air tight. Not 100% but pretty close. I put a small piece into the pump section of the sump so that I can break that seal and get at the pumps without having to take apart major sections of the cover. Is working well so far. Drop checker is nice and green and the couple of otos in the tank aren't gasping. Here's a photo of the sump all sealed up.



Another small thing that I had been planning was a self priming vacuum that I could connect to the filter system. This way I could clean the tank without any buckets and then would only have to clean out the filter, just like you would normally have to do. Here' s the apparatus I came up with. It's just a standard vacuum with an old Fluval ball valve hooked up to it. It's connected to a ABS cap that I can put on the drain system to self prime. Unfortunately, in practice it's much harder to use than I thought and I ended up putting a couple gallons of water on the floor....twice. I think I'm going to stick with the buckets for now, but it works as intended. Notice the scaffold in the picture doubles as a nice work station.



Onto the second planting session now. I got some new crpyts from the LFS; some more wendtii green to fill out some spots, some larger wendtii red I think, 3 more pots of parva (20 more are on the way) and the rest are left overs that I didn't get in on the first planting or have become unrooted and need to be replanted. Here's the lineup going into the tank this time.



A few hours later and we're ready to refill the tank again.



and about another hour later, the tank totally filled.



All the anubias and java ferns are attached to the driftwood using Loctite Super Glue gel. Works pretty well as long as the surfaces are not soaking wet. Hold the plant in place for about 15-20s and it will hold no problem . The open area on the front right will be filled with parva to finish out the "lawn". The open area on the left side will be filled up with more crypts and the wood will have some needle leaf java ferns, windelov java ferns and anubias nana petite going in. I think I have another species or two to come too but can't remember exactly which ones now.

I realized now the design flaw of not having access to hot water at the tank. You can't do a total water change without putting major stress on the fish. I lost a number of otos because of it on this round. I'll never be able to do a full drain and water replacement without bucketing in some piping hot water to keep the temperature at least reasonable. I finished this up at 3am and there was no way I was bucketing in the hot water so I lost a couple of the otos I had in there for algae control.

Here's the tank 3 days later.



Nothing really interesting to report since everything is slow growing in here. Lots of crypts melting off obviously, but have seen some small growth. Even have some plants pearling already which is a good sign. No algae to be seen yet either which I'm really happy about. The good CO2 is probably the key here. Based on some forum advice and personal experience I am only running 2 of the 3 lights for about 5hrs a day. When I've got all the plants in I'll introduce the 3rd light but it will only be on for about 1.5-2hrs a day for a good burst. Otherwise I'll keep the light cycle around 5-6 hours total until the plants are fully established and algae, if any, is under control.

Here's some of the pearling after about 3 hours of lights on.





On Friday I'm supposed to have the last shipment of the plants in. Will be getting them in over the weekend sometime and will have another update then. After that it will be getting fish in there and then, hopefully, watching everything sprout.

daworldisblack

Looking awesome! Cant wait to see it after the final plant shipment has been 'installed' and to see it a few weeks/months down the road. Sweet set-up so far!
Born-again Aquatic Hobbyist with interest in planted nano tanks and Killifish!

exv152

#77
Quote from: Consigliere on November 21, 2011, 10:02:14 PM
...After a night of planting I would have to say that the Netlea substrate is very nice to work with. It is easy to plant in, doesn't make a big mess when disturbed. Areas that were underwater were an absolute breeze to plant in...

Gotta ask where or how did you get a hold of the netlea? I've been looking at getting either ADA aquasoil or this. Just bought a rimless starfire tank, ADA style, and love the look of the netlea granules.
Eric...
125g, 32g, 7g

Consigliere

Got it from aqua inspirations in Scarborough.  I have 3 bags (27L) left over if you're interested.

exv152

Thanks Dave, I was just curious because I'm beginning to setup the ada style tank but not quite there yet.  I think I'll try to get my hands on some aquasoil as my first choice, and if not, I'll let you know. How much are you asking for each bag?
Eric...
125g, 32g, 7g

Consigliere

Just what I paid for them is all.  $35 + shipping.

charlie

Quote from: Consigliere on December 05, 2011, 04:23:27 PM
Just what I paid for them is all.  $35 + shipping.
I might be interested in trying some, but i`m not quite sure about the spec of the netlea brown, some say it drives your GH down , have you experienced this since starting it?

Consigliere

Not sure.  Haven't tested any water parameters.

Consigliere

2 weekends ago I picked up all the plants I had ordered from the LFS, except for the anubias nana var petite. The plants direct from the distributor where in much better shape than the ones that had been hanging around the store for a while. Especially the parva. I got 15 pots of it and it was mostly full grown. I also got 6 pots of needle leaf fern, 5 pots of Windelov fern, a couple more pots of crypt ponderfolia, a couple more pots of crypt wendtii 'Red', 6 pots of crpyt cordata and half a dozen more anubias barteri. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera after this planting so no photos exist of the tank in the best shape it's looked since starting. After a week and a half the moajority of the crypts execpt the balansae, ponderfolia and parva have almost completely melted. Starting to see some growth from them now a week and a half after being transplanted. Here's a couple tank shots of what things look like now.



The floaters are some lobelia cardinalas that I bought but decided not to plant.  Was a whim buy and after looking it up I shouldn't have gotten it.  I don't think its the small form.  I'm going to just let it float for a while to see if it survives but I don't think I want it in the tank based on what I've read about it.

Here's the view I have from my desk.



A photo of the right foreground which will eventually be a parva lawn.  The 2nd round of parva are almost fully grown.  Compared to the parva I planted on the left side these ones look fully grown.



It will be interesting to see which side fills in more quickly.  The left side is planted more densely but the plants are very small where the right side is fully grown but not planted as thick.

This is all that was left of a 12-14 large crypt wendtii 'red' (as well as some diatom algae from starting up) and all that's left of about the same number of crypt cordata





With the tank fully planted and some of the plants having about a month in the tank I figured it was pretty safe to start introducing fish.  I previously had bought 6 otos to keep the startup algae at bay and they all died.  It's likely that the tank wasn't entirely cycled and some other stress reactions all worked against them.  I jumped the gun a bit on getting them, maybe I was too paranoid about a bit algae infested startup.

The last time I started up a bigger planted tank I didn't introduce any of the "show" fish until after the cleaning crew had been in for a few weeks.  I plan on doing the same thing this time.  I'll build up the cleaning staff over the next couple weeks and then will get the rest of the fish in.

So far, I'm pretty happy with what I've found in stock at the fish stores around town.  Introduced into the tank this weekend were:

6 otos, 1 albino bristlenose pleco, 2 clown plecos, 2 rubbernose plecos, 9 panda corys and 120 ghost shrimp.  Here's a few shots of some of the new tenants:

Albino bristlenose pleco



Rubbernose pleco



Another rubbernose




Clown pleco



Ghost shrimp



Panda corys



After the first day I haven't seen the clown plecos around.  It also looks like one of the rubbernose plecos has some ich.  Hopefully it's alright and doesn't spread to the other fish.  Also, about a dozen of the ghost shrimp have bitten the dust.  Fairly expected considering I bought 10 dozen.  After the first day I haven't seen any more carcasses lying in the gravel so I think the rest have acclimated well. It's pretty cool to say about 100 ghost shrimp cruising around and doing their thing.  Makes the tank seem very active with almost no fish in it at all.  They are constantly eating something and it's noticeable that they are cleaning things up after only a couple days.

As far as the tank setup goes I'm pretty much finished.  I have a couple small odds and ends to complete and then build the cabinet to finish it off.  That will be the last major job and then the only work left will be maintenance.  Not all the way there yet but it's feeling much closer than it did 2 months ago.  There will be one more planting left for the tank, I just need to find the right species.  I need to get some anubias nana var petite it pretty large quantity to fill in the two sections of the driftwood (mostly on the left side) and I'd like a mid sized anubias strain for the left side as well.  I'm going to try and order some of them through another LFS and see how it goes.  Right now it's just wait for the crypts to come back and the ferns and anubias to starting spreading out.

Consigliere





Been playing with my camera. Finally spending the time to learn how to use it beyond point and shoot. This shot seems a bit underexposed still so probably will need to adjust some settings but it's definitely an improvement from before. Quick update on the tank, the wendtii 'bronze' is starting to grow back after completely melting. The cordata is basically still all melted. 2 plants have started to just shoot out of the ground but just barely. The balansae, ponderfolia and apongenton in the back has been growing well the last couple weeks. It's fully recovered. The anubias and parva have signs of growth but very slow as you would expect.


I've lost 3 panda corys and 2 otos. I've seen all the plecos except one clown pleco but no body so I think both clowns are still alive. About another dozen ghost shrimp have bit the dust so I figure there is about 75-85 left.

I've adjusted the drainage setup to eliminate some noise. I'll have a post on the new setup sometime soon. I'm also looking at a new return pump. The Quiet One 9000 I have is not so quiet. I'm looking at the Reeflo Snapper Gold to replace it but am still considering options. Any suggestions for quiet return pumps around 2000GPH?

fischkopp

That's coming along nicely!

Quote from: Consigliere on January 01, 2012, 11:04:39 PM
Any suggestions for quiet return pumps around 2000GPH?

One question: why do you need such a high return rate? I run a 180 with an Eheim 1262 that moves 900gal/h and I find that more than enough in a planted tank. I have it running for a year now 24/7 and can highly recommend that pump, it is virtually silent. No noise whatsoever.
be aware of the green side
my fish suck
L007 ♦ L014 ♦ L034 ♦ L046 ♦ L106 ♦ L128 ♦ L134 ♦ L136B ♦ L183 ♦ L191 ♦ L200 ♦ L340 ♦ LDA031

Consigliere

I have 2 check valves and 2 elbows in the return line and the return line is split into 2x 1.5" outlets into the tank from the single return pump.  With about 5 ft of sched 40 PVC on the return line and the return into the tank sitting 12" or so below the water line I figure that is about 6-10ft of head pressure.  Going by the pump curves that will knock the flow down into the 1000-1400 GPH range. 4-6x turnover rate per hour I'm happy with.   Should keep things moving around so not too much vacuuming of the tank is required.  If I feel the flow is too much I can always valve it back.  Better to have too much available than not enough and I need this tank to be low maintenance...so higher flow will help in that department.

I looked up the 1262...its rated for 900GPH as you suggested but at 5ft head pressure (pretty typical pressure for 100+G tank)  the rating is for ~400GPH. So you're at about ~2.25x turnover per hour.  Totally fine setup obviously.

I just am choosing to size mine towards the higher side and spend a few hundred extra to do it. 


touchofsky

I have a clown in my 38 gallon tank, and I never see him.  I have to move the little rock pile around, if I want to flush him out.

Your tank looks very good, and is filling in nicely.  Also, you picture is very nice.  I have to do some experiments with my camera, since all my photos are washed out.

Consigliere

Quote from: touchofsky on January 02, 2012, 10:03:23 AM
I have a clown in my 38 gallon tank, and I never see him.  I have to move the little rock pile around, if I want to flush him out.

Your tank looks very good, and is filling in nicely.  Also, you picture is very nice.  I have to do some experiments with my camera, since all my photos are washed out.

Thanks.  The biggest tip I got was to play with the white balance presets.  My lighting is T5HO so I picked one of the florescent sunlight white balance and it brought the colours out much more accurately.

touchofsky

Thanks for that.  I will do some experimenting.

Consigliere

#90
I finally got around to fixing my solenoid so I could put my pH controller online and control the CO2 a bit. Not really required to maintain the tank but saves some money on CO2 in my opinion. AFter taking the solenoid apart a couple times because it was passing, I finally figured out the actual problem. The outlfow orifice that the plunger seals against was corroded and irregular. I think the rubber on the plunger was a bit hard as well. So, I figured the CO2 must be passing through a small crack between the plunger and the orifice. I figured I could fix it myself using some silicone. The concept was to build a gasket surface onto the outflow orifice using tiny beads of silicone applied with a toothpick. Then I would form it into a continuous bead using the end of another clean toothpick. Here's the solenoid body after my DIY gasket:



Put my regulator and solenoid back together after the silicone cured and it worked like a charm. *My CO2 is back in action controlling from a pH *of 7.2 (measurement after two days of no CO2 injection) to 6.7.

I've also changed around the drainage setup to quiet things down and provide full return pump output. *Previously, I had only been draining without a siphon. *My intention was to startup without a siphon drain until I got comfortable a siphon setup. *Wanted to make sure 100% that during a power failure I wouldn't dump the tank on the floor. *I also realized a setup without siphon was going to be far too loud and I couldn't maximize the flow from the return pump. *The problem was that I needed to provide a setup to break the siphon in the event of a power failure. *After seeing the Beananimal (sp?) design I decided that capping my ABS drain setup at the high points (http://canaquaticgardens.wordpress.com/2011/10/12/drain-system-plumbing-dry-fit/) and installing tubing into the tops of the cap I could setup a drain under siphon and the other drain as overflow with the capability to emergency siphon should the tank level get too high. *Here's a couple shots of the new drainage, first the siphon drain:



and the overflow/emergency siphon:



The guards are DIY made out of plant pots I got when I bought some of the plants for the tank. *I tested what I figured were the full range of failure conditions and the tank/sump *never flooded. *I hoped I was in good shape and this is how the tank is setup today.

A couple notes on the plant care. *I've been dosing every other day 3/4 of EI amounts of Plantex CSM+B, K and P. *On the other days I've been changing 5% of the water, so roughly 15% per week. *Prior to starting dosing I took one of the lights of for 6hrs, significantly reducing the total light to the tank. *Now, about a week after dosing GSA growth is very low to none, diatom algae is very low and still receeding but hair algae has started in a couple spots. *So I figured I have a nutrient imbalance, and potentially a surplus from low lighting. *So, I turned the light on that I had turned off a week ago and will continue the EI dosing. *My current lighting setup is 0.7WPG for ~1.5hrs, 2WPG ~ 2hrs and *1.25WPG for *4.5hrs. Fairly low light, especially considering 3ft deep tank so I figured adding the light back in was the right thing to do.

Another note, since the dosing was started all plants have improved growth except the parva. *I think they have been limited by the lower lighting so adding the light should help with them the most. *I expect the rest of the plants will have a nice spurt as well.

Interestingly, after changing the drainage setup, I had a massive power failure at the host today. * Out for 10hrs followed by 1 hour on and then 2 hrs off again. *The setup held up perfectly. *The only deficiency is that after a power blip, the sump pump will pump out about 15G of water and the return chamber in the sump will go to low level. *The return pump will be pushing a bunch of air until you put more water back into the tank. *Considering that a power blip is likely to be followed by power failures, I'm OK with this being the worst thing that can happen. *I would much rather buy a new pump than a new hardwood floor. *During the downtime, the tank dropped about 6 degrees which is probably going to stress the fish a bit.

Since the last update I've added some new fish. *They aren't visible in this shot but I've added 6 albino corys, 3 bristlenose pleco, 2 clown pleco and 30 cardinal tetras. *I've lost my albino bushynose pleco and an oto since the last time I updated this. *The cardinal tetras have gone in the have been hiding in the back in the plants. *They are eating but not much. *The seem to be getting a bit braver and venturing to the front for food today though. *Here's the tank today:


touchofsky

I love your tank and that big piece of wood is fabulous. 

Consigliere

Quote from: touchofsky on January 13, 2012, 09:54:15 AM
I love your tank and that big piece of wood is fabulous. 

Thanks very much.

Lurch1


Consigliere

#94
No longer have the time to complete it or energy and effort to keep it going.  The commitment of this size was too much for me.  


werehatwere

So just out of curiosity, has it all ready been all taken down? What are you planning on doing with the equip/tank?

I have a 200g that I'm considering dismantling. Just trying to get some insight on how I should carry out this huge task and what to do with it all.

Consigliere

It has been a while.  Kids, work and other priorities have kept this project on hold.  As shown on the last few posts, I almost took this tank down...but didn't.

I had major issues with the sump filtration that were so frustrating I almost gave up on the whole thing. There first was the pump - a Quiet One 9000 that was not quiet at all.  It could be heard through the whole house and was a complete disaster. Unfortunately there were other issues as well with the drain design.  There were issues with power failures that resulted in 2 floods that were at least 50-60G on a wood floor. This was the point where I was ready to take the tank down.

After some time I decided to keep the tank going and put all the heating and filters into the tank.  Added some fluval u4 filters and power heads to the tank and got things under control.  The water change system still worked really well so this helped make up for the fact that the tank was under filtered. The only meaningful upgrade in this time was building the cabinetry for the tank.

Fast forward 4 years to today.  The tank has been stable for some time, but not flourishing by any means.  Plants have done pretty well, fish have been healthy but the tank has been mediocre at best.  It was time to finally fix this thing at hopefully realize the potential it has.

So I decided to go with a canister filter - ended up getting a fluval FX6 from homesalive.ca for $320 shipped and then added a FX gravel cleaner system for another $10.  Great deal.  To be able to get this sorted out I was going to have to take out the old 70G tank.  The demo was actually pretty easy and that freed up lots of room under the stand. At the same time I demoed the old pump and some of the plumbing that wasn't needed anymore.  I put back in a rubbermaid container and reinstalled the sump pump to maintain the auto water change.  After that I got the FX6 going and seeded it with the biomax from the U4 systems. Also redid the water supply and added a carbon filter to it to get rid of the chlorine and added a solenoid to it so i could put the changes on a timer.  Also built a DIY C02 reactor on the outlet of the FX6 for pressurized co2.  In process of repairing my regulator/solenoid setup for that.  Also cleaned up and re-organized all the electrical etc.  Has been about a month of steady work on the setup and have everything about done now. Also added a night light system.

Over the last week I have been updating the scape of the tank.  Removing some of the wood, pulling out some of the plants to clean things up and replanting some things here and there. 

After a week with the FX6 the tank is looking good.  Water is nice and clear and and parameters are looking good.  I used some seachem purigen in the filter to make sure things would do well chemically through the transition.  Couldn't be happier with this filter and kicking myself for not doing this originally.

My last steps are to get the pressurized co2 going again, hope to put a dosing system together and get the glass cleaned up with a new scraper/scrubber (Flipper just ordered from amazon). Also need to fight a |BBA battle to clean up some of the issues created there over the last few years.  Also Maybe a few more larger plants to start to fill out the background as well.  Probably some swords and/or balansae. 

Unfortunately don't have time to upload any new pics but i will get those up shortly. 

After a month or two of getting things stable and plants all going well again, going to start adding some livestock again. | have a few angels, a roseline barb, an otto and a few plecos in there and thats it.  will be time to really stock it with a large school of tetras, some corys, cleaners, shrimp and maybe eventually some discus which was the ultimate vision to start with. 

Will try and keep things up to date here over the next little while...been fun to have the time and energy to get back into this project;

daworldisblack

Oh man welcome back! Excited to see a reboot of this!
Born-again Aquatic Hobbyist with interest in planted nano tanks and Killifish!

Consigliere

So some photos....here's the tank about a month ago before I started any more work and changes: (Apologies on the photos - I can't seem to embed them with google photos, only link to them)

https://goo.gl/photos/e4bU5PEsXpvRRJD1A

The tank was actually in pretty good shape but basically I was changing water often enough to keep it stable.  Probably changing about 50-60 gallons per week.  There were still lots of issues with stability but fish seemed to be doing pretty well and plants were growing OK.

This is the old sump that needed to be demoed to make room for the new setup:

https://goo.gl/photos/1UsLUckfmQeWLiHt8

Cut the tank apart at the seams and broke only the bottom (tempered).  Maybe someday will build it again with a plywood/fiberglass bottom but sounds like a lot of work right now.  Was a bit sad to do this...have had that tank for over 20 years.

Here's the setup all cleaned out, on the left is the plumbing for the sump pump to pump out water for auto water changing and on the right is the fresh water supply to the tank for providing new clean water.  You'll see a solenoid on that for timer capability.

https://goo.gl/photos/SJgrCpSFVaWwQBYv8


A bunch of upgrades went in - Fluval FX6 filter with stock components and 250ml of Seachem Purigen, installed a carbon filter on the freshwater supply to get rid of the chlorine, replaced my old 20lb CO2 with 5lb and repaired the regulator/solenoid on it, added a DIY CO2 reactor, have a rubbermaid and sump pump for the water changing and in general cleaned everything up.  New setup:

https://goo.gl/photos/VmacxfYWRxDvBP77A
https://goo.gl/photos/ScFevgkA6mU99V3z9

The CO2 and water change are on daily timers. The lights are only on for 5 hrs a day right now with only 1 of 3 lights.  Algae has always been a battle, BBA and green algae on the glass.  CO2 and ferts have never been steady so I am hoping to get the lighting on for longer with the CO2 and ferts more stable so the plants can outcompete the algae.

Last, here's the tank today after removing some wood, trimming lots of algae/dead leaves, removing a ton of the crypts, adding a few swords to the back and cleaning everything up and also a night shot with the blue LED night lights on.

https://goo.gl/photos/UDSqGAN4arzBgPAa6
https://goo.gl/photos/pNn6eAoVsKKf5Gfe9

The water clarity hasn't been as great recently and you'll see the green algae on the glass.  I have a large size flipper scraper/scrubber on order to get that addressed and again, CO2 and ferts hoping will resolve that.  On the water clarity, the purigen did a great job right away but recently seen a slide back a bit.  May need to clean the filter after doing a lot of work in the tank and stirring up lots of bottom junk.  Water parameters are all good - 7.2pH, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 0 nitrate, 80oF

Items still to do before this thing is ready to take more fish and move over to maintain mode:
1) Big vac clean of the bottom - waiting a few weeks for everything that has been moved or new to take root
2) Get the snails - hundreds, maybe thousands, of trumpet snails in here and a few dozen assassin snails.  That bio load needs to be taken way down with a snail trap
3) Get the fert dosing schedule going and maintain - hoping to introduce an auto dosing pump for this in the future

Still a ways to go but the major work has been completed.