Corner Tank

[anon02]

Negotiations are still at a delicate stage, but it is possible that if I hold my hands up to a new plasma tv, I can have a corner tank, so I`ve spent most of the afternoon thinking about it

I`m not sure of my budget yet, but I have decided that I would like to have the subdued blue lighting as well as the standard so that I could have the tank illuminated without risking algae. Is it possible that I could purchase the tank so equipped or would it be a diy job ?

Tia
Vince

 

[ian]

hey Vince, i have a Juwel trigon 190l (click the link in my sig to have a look). I also have blue night lighting, which i purchased off ebay for £10, which uses suction cups, so theres not much to DIY. The lighting with the Trigon comes with a nature and daylight bulb (T5). I have recently swapped my nature Juwel tube for a nature JBL tube and it gives much more of a natural light. There's loads of blue LED aquarium lighting on ebay.

 

[anon02]

hey Vince, i have a Juwel trigon 190l (click the link in my sig to have a look). I also have blue night lighting, which i purchased off ebay for £10, which uses suction cups, so theres not much to DIY. The lighting with the Trigon comes with a nature and daylight bulb (T5). I have recently swapped my nature Juwel tube for a nature JBL tube and it gives much more of a natural light. There's loads of blue LED aquarium lighting on ebay.

The Trigon is one of the tanks I`ve been looking at and I like the look of the Aqua One UFO with the overhead intank filtering, looks very tidy

In the short term I`ve decided to go with silk artificial plants, and I`m hoping that the blue lighting will help keep the algae down (?) and the silks offer instant aesthetic impact

Are the ebay lights just plug and go, I`m really not very good with anything electrical, I would probably turn my tank into a barbecue lol

Btw your tank looks the dogs, I may have to borrow the central scaping idea

 

[ian]

thanks mate, i'm no electrician! The LED idea is more of night light idea anyways. When it comes to lighting, whether it be blue, yellow or pink, algae doesn't really care what colour it is. It'll still grow if ammonia is present with the light. If you're not going down the planted route, then make sure you have a fully cycled filter in order to keep ammonia levels to a minimum. Actually you know all that, i remember commenting on your 'kickstarting the biofilter' thread.

 

[anon02]

thanks mate, i'm no electrician! The LED idea is more of night light idea anyways. When it comes to lighting, whether it be blue, yellow or pink, algae doesn't really care what colour it is. It'll still grow if ammonia is present with the light. If you're not going down the planted route, then make sure you have a fully cycled filter in order to keep ammonia levels to a minimum. Actually you know all that, i remember commenting on your 'kickstarting the biofilter' thread.

So it`s back to the drawing board an the algae control idea. Is there a rule of thumb guide as to how much of the tank floor area you can plant up before supplimentary feeding is necessary, or is there a way of reducing the intensity of the light to enable me to have say 9 hours lighting without encouraging algae ?

I`ve only had a cursory glance, but I`ve decided that I dont want to be messing with CO2 or fertilizers. I`m not biased against natural plants, it`s just with me being a novice I think that keeping the water right and the fish healthy will give me enough to think about till I feel a bit more proficient

 

[OldMan47]

The planting area is seldom a limiting factor. I have a fully planted tank, no substrate visible from above, that has moderately to low light and low light plants. It is set up along the lines Diana Walstead suggested in her book, with a soil type substrate covered with some gravel. The plants are thriving with no ferts and no CO2 added. Plants do not grow as quickly in this kind of arrangement but to me that just means less weeding and trimming. The fish do not know the difference and algae is almost unheard of in that tank.