Craynerds Planted Tank Mk.2

[craynerd]

Hi Simon,

Delivery was my fault after all my moaning. Since i work during the day i often give them parents or g/parents address. I gave them g/parents address by mistake and they had gone on holiday. It came in about 2-3 days really!! lol

Regarding the Jewel, it is being sold tomorrow, fully setup but without the fish. As we discussed when you came up, since i already own a filter and a new light unit i sold the Jewel and it only costs me about £20 more to get one of them German AE hi-clarity rimless and braceless tanks. It was 60x30x36 cm and £120 inc. postage which i thought was good. When you jump up in size after that the price really shoots up!!
I have also adopted your trick, sell stuff on my paypal account and then pay AE with it, and that way you never actually spend cash lol Its great!

Sold my PlayStation 2 for £95 which payed for my Lily Pipe P2 and then i am all sorted.

i sold the Eheim Classic 2211 thanks to bloo who pointed out that it may be a little low on power, and upgraded to the 2213.


Simon, i can`t belive how trendy i am becoming with the ADA gear lol, i am seriously considering painting that unit silver like you suggested. I am also moving the tank in the spare room out of the living room meaning i can tinker without annoying the mrs, and also mean i can susspend the light fixture from the ceiling

ohhhhhh...i can`t wait to start this!

Chris

 

[Puffer punk]

you name should be ADA FREAK!



need to get pics up soon im getting restless

 

[Themuleous]

I am also moving the tank in the spare room out of the living room meaning i can tinker without annoying the mrs, and also mean i can susspend the light fixture from the ceiling

I hope she likes watching telly on her own, she'll not see much of you if you do that!

 

[simonbrown403]

I am also moving the tank in the spare room out of the living room meaning i can tinker without annoying the mrs, and also mean i can susspend the light fixture from the ceiling

I hope she likes watching telly on her own, she'll not see much of you if you do that!

He's right i can feel a barny coming on lol

You will need to get hold of some longer lengths of cable to suspend it with.

Simon.

 

[craynerd]

Ahh yea, i thought the ones supplied didnt look long enough.

BTW, i am seriously considering painting the unit LMAO Now i am moving it into the office/back room i think it would look quite cool !!

I am really concerned now about the water situation. Can anyone link me to a calculator that relates the volume of tank, to KH and how much bicarb should be added? i know there is one about but can`t find it.


Simon, how many degrees did the AS knock your pH and KH by then?

Chris

 

[simonbrown403]

Off the chart Chris, It took 1 1/2 to 2 mounded tsp to bring it up to 6.4.

Try this site for a bicarb calculator, it should help although I've never used it i prefer to add some and wait and test in half an hour or so and the same until i get the PH/KH i want.

Simon.

 

[craynerd]

Thanks simon

Using that calculator i propose:

Current KH = 20 ppm or 1.125 DH

Wanted Kh = 100 ppm or 5.6 DH

Therefore change required = 80ppm

1.7 Teaspoons of backing soda required

Therefore a pH increase of 1.6 .

This sounds fairly good, since my tap water is 6.7 out the tap, which means it will be 8.1 with the new KH, but then of course the two reasons why i am increasing the KH in the first place is because the ADA aquasoil will cause a decrease in pH and also the addition of CO2 will also reduce pH, and i would expect both these factors to reduce the pH by lower than 1.6 and thus back to my original tap water pH or a little lower.

PLEASE i ask for advice and opinions becuase that is me just trying to use common sense, no real hard science behind it. Its very hard because i don`t know exactly what the AS will reduce the pH by!! I can`t see it being more than 1 degree with a KH of 100ppm???

advice welcome....infact advice WANTED!!!

Chris

 

[Gnatfish]

As far as the fish are concerned they don't like changes above 0.3 - 0.5 at a time...

 

[craynerd]

Fish will not be in the tank for a good while however i will have lots of shrimp.

After the initial water fill, with no fish in, i am obviously only changing half the water so therefore half the pH change of just < 1 degree ish. Unfortunately they will have to cope i`m afraid! Then of course this will quickly be adjusted as the two equalibrate (i.e new tank water and old)

EDIt

I don`t have time to do the maths right now, i can figure out tho if it would be less than half a change in pH or the full dergee each water change. Also the current KH of the water would change it.
I mean unfortunately like i said, the fish will have to cope with anything less than 1 degree but if it is going to be too extreme i guess i will have to do it in two lots some how....

lol ...maybe i should just sack the fish off and not have any!!

Chris

 

[craynerd]

Few updates:

I have EVERYTHING except the tank. Apparently it is being posted from Germany hopefully early next week so should recieve it by Friday. Therefore i should be "ready" to go by next week but no doubt it will take me a week to settle on a hard scape before/during when i order plants.

Just wanted to post this. I did it a few days back.

I will state right now that i suck at drawing but its the best i could do to get the ideas in my head down on paper.

I know you chaps are very much into your "Nature" aquariums but i am not aiming for that. Of course i want it to look "nature" and elegant to a fashion, but i also want it to look creative and interesting. lol, with that i mind i i have taken much inspiration from CAU.

The diagram represents no real specification on exact placement just really a rough guide to the hardscape but with the plant positions and list.

They are:

Rotala rotundifolia
Rotala nanjenshan
Didiplis Diandra
Ludwigia Arcuata
Elecoharis ..
Anubias
Java Moss

I was considering glosso for the foreground but i think i will try hair grass.

I think triming and pruning will be the key to its success.

 

[Qays]

Cool drawing!

Hurry up and start it!!! I cant wait to see pics.

 

[craynerd]

lol, thanks for the comment Qays, its nice to see people take an interest in what other people are planning.

Plan Of Action from here:

This week : WAIT for the bloody tank to arrive lol
Week 2 : Hopefully have tank, plan hardscape and get the wood in a position i like. (pictures will be posted of course!)
Week 3 : Dismantle it and order plants
Week 4 : HURRAY finish work (6 weeks ) Plants arrive and begin!

So...3 weeks and i`ll start it!

Chris

Also on a different site, a few people have commented on the poor transition between foreground and background i.e no midground! So i am planning on adding crypts probably wendtii at the base of the wood with rocks in the substrate.

Chris

 

[craynerd]

Just a bit of an update:

I have received my new AE Hi-clarity tank 60x30x36cm, lily pipe, sorted out the lighting and I’m just about to order plants.

I also have made a huge change in my setup. When i posted the tank review a week or so ago, I think Nick brought up the debate about what stand I was using. My plan was to use my jewel stand. I had a big talk with Neil about it on msn and he talked me into getting something a bit more inline with my ADA image. HOWEVER, i have absolutely MAXED out on my budget so I thought the Jewel was the only way forward...until i started chatting to Simon.

For those of you who do not know, Simon (i.e our own AE, TFF Simon) is a cabinet maker and had plans to make a How-To: build your own ADA cabinet.

Well i offered to supply the materials and Simon VERY kindly offered to help me put it together ( / put it together for me ) at his home last Saturday. Moreover, it all went to plan and i took it home less than 4 hours later! I obviously just had the finishing to do, i.e fill, sand and paint.

I hadn’t posted until now since I was worried I was going to cock it up, but from the shape of it so far, it will be complete within the next few days! I just need give it a few more coats of paint and then make the light frame. I will not post any pictures until it is complete and obviously, you will have to wait for Simon to write up his How-To until you get to see the progress pictures. It is so simple, yet perfectly strong and looks amazing! Anyway, in a few days you’ll get to judge that for yourself.


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Update 2

I applied the final coat last night but before i did i sat my tank on it to try it out! I can't believe how good it looked, it was perfect. I understand now why the ADA style cabinets are used, the grey compliments the tank so well.
I am about to try and make the light frame tonight. I think this could prove a little difficult. I have no worries that i can make the actual frame, it’s just making sure the corners and joints look tidy!

I have a question. If i was to use 3 x 24W T5 tubes, how high above the tank would you want them to be suspended ?

I also ordered all my plants today. Hopefully they should be here for Friday and then i will place them in my holding tank for a few days until i am ready to begin on Monday.

I ordered:

From a cheaper source:

12 x ELEOCHARIS PARVULUS
25 stems of LUDWIGIA ARCUATA
5 x (3cm clumps) VESICULARIS DUBYANA (TRUE JAVA MOSS)

From a more expensive source:
Tropica plants

3 x Rotala sp. … Nanjenshan
2 x Didiplis diandra
3 x Hemianthus micranthemoides
2 x Cryptocoryne wendtii

I have been growing in my holding tank :

Lots of (there will be spare most probably) Rotala Rotundifolia
Anubias
--------------------------------------------

As you can see i have made a slight adjustment to my original plan. I was advised that didiplis diandra did not grow well in large groups however works well growing in small clumps and cut short as a foreground plant. This was my original idea. However i am now going to included Hemianthus micranthemoides mixed with the didiplis to fill in the gaps and bring a more random feel about the foreground. I will no doubt have the wendtii as advised by Nick and Neil in front of all that lot or just to the side to ease you into the midground with anubias doing the same job.

Any thoughts on my idea of the solid hairgrass foreground? I definitely want hairgrass over glosso (and HC since in can`t afford HC) but i am now unsure if a solid foreground will be too much. That said i don’t want to over complicate things. The stem plants will take a lot of pruning and care and it is my first TRUE high tech ADA style tank, so i don`t want too much to deal with. Also the idea, as you can see from my picture, is to concentrate on the centre piece so the hairgrass will go right to the back at the edges to give depth. Solid hairgrass foreground: thoughts welcome??

Also regarding java moss, what’s the best way to distribute this and tie it to my wood?

I know this is a big read but i appreciate those who take the time to read it and give me advice. You can clearly see i always use it and take it on board!!

Chris

 

[craynerd]

Here are some pictures of the cabinet and the prototype light stand. I say that because it needs adjusting and slightly altering, but you can get the feel for how it will look.

The problem i have is that it is bending the tube as you can see slightly in the picture. I am going to strengthen it with rods inside i think.

The horizontal bar is also slightly bending upwards, this will be easily resolved but only noticed it afterwards when looking at the pictures.

Of course i will take final pictures when i have finished.

the pictures are not amazing, but i hope you like.

A massive thank you to Simon for all your help, skill and DIY.
Thanks to Neil for your advice.

Chris

 

[Jen]

That tank/stand looks awesome Chris. Something right out of the Jetsons! Are you at all worried about lighting the room with it? I really wanted to remove my hood at one point, but the intensitiy of the light bulb was in my eye no matter where I was in the room, so the hood stayed on.

I love the design of the scape you have come up with. It will look like a lush meadow with a big ol' tree in the middle. I can't wait to see the final product (not to mention the steps getting there!)