Jim's 60 Gallon High-tech Planted Journal

Looking good m8, i know what you mean with the suction cups, pain in the a%*$. Ive just had a rena cable and the stingy gits supply 4 suction cups lol.

Well i got another 12 suction caps (yes 12, ok i did only use 9) and have fitted the heater cable in position and layed the DEPONIT-MIX on top which has covered about 2.5/3cm of the cable. You can see this from the pic below (sorry about the reflection of the big yellow boxes)

I wont put the FB1 subsrate start on until i put the water in. I was thinking of putting it on then adding the gravel but as i have to wash the gravel the water will activate the FB1 and as i dont want any probs i shall wait

My overflow box is in progress and should be finished soon, i have an engineer slotting out the top of it to make a comb effect (i think thats what it is called) so the fish dont fly down the rappids or to you and me the stand pipe (hope that is going to work as well)

I shall take some more pics as it comes to a close on the set-up

Looking good mate.

My black quartz didn't require rinsing at all to my surprise - saved me a few hours.

I would of thought your diffuser would sit in your sump as you don't have issues with excess agitation? If not then do you think the heater cable would look better tucked behind the diffuser. Just a thought.

Thanks for the comments

The heater cable is too short to go next to the diffuser and if i moved the diffuser to the heater cable then the CO2 may go stright down into the sump so that is why the diffuser is next to the flow pipe.

I will have to try and hide the heater cable some how and i have put the diffuser in the tank to stop and loss of CO2 though if i cant hide it then i may put it in the sump, its all a bit tricky

Got a message from Shuhu about my diffuser so here are a few pics of it, basically it is a ladder that starts from the bottom and works its way to the top and the waste gasses are collected into the top where they are dispersed to the surface

And another one

Last one, Shuhu hope this helps, any info let me know

just a quick note on the diffuser subject , if people find it hard to get hold of the nutrafin one, jbl do a modular one
http/www.aquaessentials.co.uk/index.php?...products_id=261

works well and easy to clean and expandable rated for tanks to 350 ltrs

I think that's the diffuser that comes with the kit I'm getting.

Yeah it is but i think yours may be a bit smaller or i may be wrong, you can get some different diffusers form the dennerle range that use power heads etc but i expect you have checked them out already

Mine's the standard "flipper", there's mini and maxi too. The mini is suitable for 160 litre, standard 300 litre and maxi 600 litre. Bit of an overkill on my 125 litre but nevermind - can't be too efficient when it comes to CO2 diffusion. I was considering the "PROFI LINE CO2 DIFFUSER 'MICRO PERLER SPECIAL' (for aquaria up to 400 litres)". This attaches in-line with the external filter so the diffuser is out of sight. Something for a future upgrade perhaps!

I have just attempted to make my overflow box which i knocked up a the workshop this morning and is now been stuck with silicon and is drying for 48 hours (think i might fit it tomorrow) just hope it works

Looks good mate.

Could you explain exactly how it works? It's something I've always wondered about. Perhaps you could draw a basic diagram to show the whole system i.e. sump, plumbing, overflow etc. It would be very helpful.

I will attempt to, dont know if i really can, i do have AutoCAD on my computer but it make take a while but as i say i will have ago

Also gf225 or anyone else for that matter, how long should you have your fast growing plants in to get an 'established' tank b4 you can change your aquascaping for different plants?

Well thats a hard one to answer really, my fast growers are still in my tank after about 7 weeks, but i had some slow growers in there as well from the beginning, particularily my foreground planting which is taking forever to fill in, but i would guess that about 60% were fast growers 20% medium growers and the rest slow growers, and i planted heavily from the start, the pics that i put up in the picture section, if you look at the first picture, it shows my tank on day one, but after taking that shot i added even more plants.

In the beginning i just made out a basic design, back, midground and foreground, and gave each of the plants enough space to what i guessed they would grow to within 3-4 weeks, and i covered pretty much all of the substrate this way.

I think its no harm to not get really good plants for a good while anyway, because you will have problems, thats a certainty, you will make a good few mistakes in the beginning as you juggle with your co2 ferts etc, and it does take a while to really get into the swing of things, im useing the EI method so that was a big learning curve in itself, but i would say at this stage im getting quite comfortable with the logistics of manageing the tank, but in the beginning its tricky until you have a few weeks under your belt.

You will most certainly get a diatom bloom within the first 2-3 weeks and this will leave your beautiful tank a mess and your plants as well, ottos are very good for this so i would get some into the tank early on, after i got the diatom bloom which lasted about 2 weeks (and believe me the tank was a mess) i got some green hair algae which lasted for about another week, but this soon disappeared and hasnt been back since, but it will definatly take you a good few weeks to get into the swing of things, for the first few weeks its a bit hit and miss until you get a bit more experience.

As regards the fast growers they recommend that you leave them in for about 8 weeks in a new tank, and in my experience so far this would seem like exactly the amount of time that you would probably need to get the tank established, i wouldnt go crazy on pruneing in the first 4-5 weeks, just do the minimal to make it look ok, and id say at about 7-8 weeks you could start making bigger changes, but id still be slow to make dramatic changes at this stage because you will throw the balance of the tank off again, and it takes a bit of time to understand the new balance as it were.

Well that was a long winded answer, but thats pretty much how it has been for me up to now.

EDIT: One thing i forgot to say is do loads of tests in the beginning, im sure i dont need to tell you this, i would say i was testing nearly everyday for the first 4-5 weeks until i figured i had got a handle on things (but im useing diy co2 so at a disadvantage to yourself, so i had to keep testing for this) but i dont test as much now, maybe only a few times a week usually just to check the co2 and the odd nitrate and phosphate test.