I've had the aquarium bug for almost a year now. Started out with a little Blue Planet 50L, and the bug hit me hard immediately. Soon I searched gumtree for a secondhand 4fter and my first attempt at a planeted aquarium.
Definitely made some mistakes, such as not having the right substrate and such.
Now, getting ready for a proper display tank. I have an Eheim Opal 120 on order.
I have had an Eheim 2215 running on my current tank for a while, and just recently put in an extra 2215 in preparation for the new tank.
I am going to use the current tank as a holding tank while the new tank is cycling (which I hope is rather quick since I am preparing the new 2215).
Will be moving the inline heater and fish over once the new tank has cycled.
This is roughly the layout I have decided for the new tank.
I already have the rocks for the cliff end (right side) and the gold vine for the hill side (left side, also, the real life piece that I already have is much larger than what's modeled above).
The rocks for the cliff side will be set up so that there are caves for the fishies and will be using black thin PVC garden edging as retaining wall inside the caves to prevent aqua soil from spilling in. I am also planning to use the PVC edging as retaining walls buried inside the hill sides to stop land slides.
The area to the right of the cliffs will be just plain sand with no plants.
I will probably only re-use some of the plants from the current tank.
I'm still undecided on what ground cover to use on the hill areas.
I currently have 6 9L bags of ADA Amazonia, I'm thinking that should be more than enough. I might build up the sub-structure of the hill areas with bagged pebbles.
The tank will only be viewable from right end and front, with the back and left end against walls. The back and left sides will be frosted. This is because I will be backlighting the tank from behind.
I've put together the final lightbox. Here is the lighting panel I've wired up so far...
[video=youtube;60FDpq-oydI]http
/www.youtube.com/watch?v=60FDpq-oydI[/video]
The flash of colours is just a temporary sequence so I can see that it's all connected fine.
Definitely made some mistakes, such as not having the right substrate and such.
Now, getting ready for a proper display tank. I have an Eheim Opal 120 on order.
I have had an Eheim 2215 running on my current tank for a while, and just recently put in an extra 2215 in preparation for the new tank.
I am going to use the current tank as a holding tank while the new tank is cycling (which I hope is rather quick since I am preparing the new 2215).
Will be moving the inline heater and fish over once the new tank has cycled.
This is roughly the layout I have decided for the new tank.
I already have the rocks for the cliff end (right side) and the gold vine for the hill side (left side, also, the real life piece that I already have is much larger than what's modeled above).
The rocks for the cliff side will be set up so that there are caves for the fishies and will be using black thin PVC garden edging as retaining wall inside the caves to prevent aqua soil from spilling in. I am also planning to use the PVC edging as retaining walls buried inside the hill sides to stop land slides.
The area to the right of the cliffs will be just plain sand with no plants.
I will probably only re-use some of the plants from the current tank.
I'm still undecided on what ground cover to use on the hill areas.
I currently have 6 9L bags of ADA Amazonia, I'm thinking that should be more than enough. I might build up the sub-structure of the hill areas with bagged pebbles.
The tank will only be viewable from right end and front, with the back and left end against walls. The back and left sides will be frosted. This is because I will be backlighting the tank from behind.
I've put together the final lightbox. Here is the lighting panel I've wired up so far...
[video=youtube;60FDpq-oydI]http
/www.youtube.com/watch?v=60FDpq-oydI[/video]The flash of colours is just a temporary sequence so I can see that it's all connected fine.
