Planted tank for tetras (slow burn)

[Retired Viking]

Very nice setup so far.I love to build thing, mostly models but never tried something like this. Good luck

 

[eatyourpeas]

They were leather Midori notebook copies I got from etsy. I hardly use them, mainly for storing bits and pieces like stamps and contact details of various people and sites.

I don't like Leuchtturm that much. Quality is good but I prefer Tomoe River paper. I have some Mnemosyne too. And a tonne of Rhodia, only because I got it really cheap. Looking to fill these journals and papers completely.

Some people do find the Elemento tanky, with its cap on I think it looks stunning, very unique design. I was with Waterman once, and had some Parker Duofolds. I think the Waterman Edson is a fabulous looking pen. I had a few but could not live with them, so I sold them all and that was that . . .

Rhodia Premium is one of my favourites. I am not a journal person, but love to have something to keep my random thoughts and preliminary sketches before a project. The Traveler's Journal has the Tomoe River paper in their Lightweight refill, and yes, it is great for keeping little gathered bits. I get TR in loose sheets then bind my own. I have an issue with a lot of bindings and prefer spiral notebooks for that reason.

Was never a Waterman lover, even though my first pen (which I still have) is by them. Got an Edson for a friend and it fit him quite nicely, as he is into retro and old polaroid photography. I tend to like wood. My tanky one which I do write with is an Omas Shakespeare, and since I have small hands can use it without posting.

I still prefer dip pens. I can't find a nib that gives me the graceful lines that a Principality does (flex is a must for me). I was able to get some wonderful French and German nibs, but bemoan the lack of good, (or any, for that matter) pen stores. If you like greens, see if you can find the Kyo No Oto Urahairo. Not a fast drier but stunning.

I shall let you get back to your wonderful project.

 

[Advanced Aquarist]

trickle tower in cabinet, just to see how it fits.

and the sump too, with connectors on as well, no water flow just yet.

The reason for the two separate design was because my cabinet had a partition.

Now it actually took a month each for the tower and sump to "dry out". Most people only allow a week or so before filling with water, but giving it more time allows for the bonds on the acrylic to strengthen.

as can be seen here I used 25mm PVC piping to connect to the tower outflow. Unfortunate during the tests this was not enough, it just created too much water level in the tower submersing the Flex Rings, so I have to make another hole for a 40mm baulkhead and blank out the 32mm hole in the centre. I then had to widen the 32mm hole on the sump to allow for the 40mm baulkhead.

You can see the thicker pipe used in the course of the leak test that I had to perform.

When making any sump filtration system you should always perform leak tests just to see what faults might develop. As it happened later on the silicone blue tube connecting the two 40mm pipes had a slight leak, but this leak was really slight, about a drip a minute or so. From experience I knew this would seal itself up over a few days and it did.

 

[eatyourpeas]

Almost too beautiful to hide in a cabinet.

 

[Advanced Aquarist]

I aim to please.

 

[Advanced Aquarist]

Almost too beautiful to hide in a cabinet.

I think my design is rather unique, but is it of something I would be proud to sell? Not really.

No, seriously, it was made pretty crudely given what I had at the time. The joins are not perfect and I had to pour tensor 70 to fillet the corners as you can make out, this was a precautionary measure, probably wasn't needed but I wanted to make sure. If I were to do it properly I would need a router table, clamps, large level surface and a lot of space - and even then it would only take a minor mishap to get it wrong. I even asked my acrylic company how much he would charge to make a medium size aquarium for me, and he quoted double the material cost, his reason was that it had to be that way in case he got it wrong on the first try.

I actually asked Royal Exclusiv to make a custom sump for me and they said no, probably because they only wanted to do large ones and it was a lot of trouble.

Mind you if you were to ask a proper acrylic fabricator to make something like this, given that it's 12 mm acrylic the cost would likely be very high. The cheaper manufacturers would certainly have some bubbles in their seams, or the tolerances wouldn't be as good. There is a massive variation in build quality which is why I only rate a handful of companies, Royal Exclusiv being at the top since Klaus Jansen is also a pioneer in what he does. They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and there is one Chinese company (Sea Torch) and American (Advanced Acrylics) that have copied his sumps and his style. Most people who buy from them probably don't even know that.

 

[eatyourpeas]

I only noticed it in the horizontal, and it probably glares at you because you are closer and know it is there.

Not at the same scale, but my husband cuts the acrylic on the CNC router and it is still a time consuming task. Lots of planning and preparing the files. Adhesives are hard and messy to work with.

I still think it is beautiful. Not everything we do in life should have a price tag and the journey is more satisfying.

 

[Advanced Aquarist]

Not everything we do in life should have a price tag and the journey is more satisfying.

It's not just a financial aspect. It's also the time it takes to design, the maintenance implications, and the principles behind the design.

I could of done it in a simple way: have an open tank for a sump and use it as a dumping ground for my heater, probes, pumps, reactors etc . . And most reef keepers do this because they like to experiment and their ideas and the things they like to test are always changing.

The design of my sump reflects the fact that I know what I want to accomplish from the outset. I don't expect it to change. Because of the acrylic used this should last decades.

But even so, I've made some mistakes with it, but they're not significant and I can live with them.

 

[Advanced Aquarist]

So let's talk about the syphon box used.

As you can see I had green water on startup, I also had BGA which was a pain. Here is the syphon box with my acrylic bracket holder that I designed in one of the drawings shown earlier.

It's one of those one piece syphon boxes. This one's made by Reef Octopus and I managed to get it for a good price.

I could of made my own given my knowledge of syphon boxes but I didn't think I could do as good as job here as Reef Octopus did. There are major design faults with this syphon box but I can mitigate with them.

This is the syphon box from the side. Here you can see the bubbles in the bracket holder I made. The acrylic company was off by 0.1mm and this was a result - I'm really at their mercy when it comes to this. Again, not really an issue structurally.

You can see the airline which is used to suck air from the "U" tube. The major design fault here is that the left section, where the two bulkheads will be installed, was not deep enough. They should of made the whole syphon box deeper for reasons which we'll go into later. As it was I was able to fix this. Other users could not - or rather did not bother probably because they didn't know any better.

This is the syphon box on it's preliminary run. Note the green netting on the overflow grate, this is used to prevent small fish from getting it. Some plants also collected in the bracket.

Note the water level on the bulkhead side. I needed this level to be sufficiently high so that a vortex won't be created, if the water level is too close to the bulkhead then it will suck in air with it, causing a lot of noise: "gurgling".

You can also see some bubbles in the "U" tube. What is annoying here is, if you don't know what you are doing, air eventually collected over time at the top of the "U" tube. This is due to "inadequate" flow through in the sense that the water level on the left hand side is too low causing not only gurgling, but also the overflowing water on the grate on the right hand side drops too much taking some air with this, with some of this air collecting in the "U" tube as the water makes it way to the left hand side. The trick is to balance this in the right way with the correct flow and the right resistance in the feed pipe that the bulkheads are attached to. Not many people want to mess around with this - nor really understand it to be honest. They go the easy route and put in an airlifted pump instead as in these videos:

Watch the video at 4:10 mark to see the qualifier Tom uses.

This video is of his friend Gerry and he also uses an aqualifter for all his syphon boxes:

The funny thing is, if they knew what they were doing they wouldn't be using aqualifters at all!!

 

[eatyourpeas]

The first video was very difficult to watch. Do not dance and make a video at the same time!

I see what you mean. The second video did not end up with a very elegant solution. Also, anyone who refers to a pipe elbow (90º) as a 45º pipe, well, I am just being mean. The aqualifter is such an eyesore!

I was attracted to the Eshopps due to its simplicity, but I admit this is very early in the game for me to really know what I am doing. I like the way yours is coming along.

You are a wealth of information and I am grateful that you are willing to share your process!

 

[Advanced Aquarist]

So before a discussion about the water flow in syphon boxes and barriers I'll post the photo of the aquarium at the initial planting stage.

About four weeks in on 6th October last year:

my rummy noses and cardinals finally were moved from the 6 foot to this tank:

Obtained five glass catfish too, along with 7 corydoras "rio nanay", these were very small and there was plenty of hiding places so the rummy noses won't be fin nipping them.

Planted some Hydrocotyle Tripartita on the side wall:

also obtained some Nesaea pedicellata which is actually a delicate plant to care for, my mistake is that I kept these at the back when they should be in the mid ground:

I also superglued somes moses and java fern to the manzanita wood.

I actually don't recommend doing this, it's best to use ADA moss cotton since it's much less damaging.

The water is very yellow since I only have a monthly water change to start off with, and the wood was releasing a lot of tannins and organics. Note that there is hardly any algae at all, certainly not any BBA or BGA etc. . . Those who say that organics released from wood causes BBA are wrong. It was like this for months and no BBA at all during this time. I did managed to induce green brush algae in the leaves, wood and rock later on by trace elements overdose to see if I could do it.

Note the blyxa on the left hand side of the tank. It was just starting, looks inconspicuous with the H. Tennelus around making the lawn, but it just needed some time to take off - and it really took off!

 

[eatyourpeas]

The fish are stunning! I have never seen the glass catfish before, how beautiful. Can see a couple of the little Corydoras in the corner, is it for them that you added the little beach? The plants are growing in nicely since you last showed the tank. I like how the wood has emerged from the bottom as well. Did you get the blyxa as tissue culture?

I am not fond of superglue, especially on wood. I just work the roots into crevices and let them take hold. This requires a bit more babysitting but I do not mind.

Currently I am trying to grow a little bit of algae since my tanks have been depleted by the clean-up crew. I am going away for ten days and want to make sure there is enough food for the critters.

On a more "build related" note, it seems impossible to source Tensol 70 here, the only option I have found is Weld-On 4 and was wondering if you have had any experience with it.

Looking good!

 

[Advanced Aquarist]

Yes, the little "beach" in the corner was for them, I had to make the cave to give them some privacy.

All plants are tissue culture, I couldn't afford the risk of snails since I'm running a rotating spray bar for the trickle filter. If there were snails the eggs would find a way, hence snails would be in my trickle tower and also block holes of the rotating spray bar, which means I'll have to dismantle and clean it out every month, and that's not something I want to do. So all the plants are tissue culture.

My only clean up crew are the 12 ottos, the pencil fishes I added later did actually graze on some green filament algae too. I wanted to add SAEs and Amano shrimp but didn't since I don't have much of an algae issue so there would be nothing for them to do.

Tensol 70 is two part gap filling glue, in the US it's sold as Weld-On 40. Acrifix 190 is the same as Tensol 70, and that's sold in Europe. Weld-On 4 and Weld-On 3 are water thin solvents that differ in how thin they are, they are not gap filling.

 

[eatyourpeas]

Tensol 70 is two part gap filling glue, in the US it's sold as Weld-On 40. Acrifix 190 is the same as Tensol 70, and that's sold in Europe. Weld-On 4 and Weld-On 3 are water thin solvents that differ in how thin they are, they are no gap filling.

Wonderful, that is good to know. Thank you!

Interestingly enough, I buy my plants as tissue culture, but mostly after I had a nasty experience with pesticides. I actually like snails, they are a great food source for the pea puffers.

Also, I assume you are up and running since I see no signs of the Eheim, just the glass lily pipes. Is that the case?

 

[Advanced Aquarist]

Eheim 2217 was temporary. It just had some sponges with filter floss in it.

BTW gluing acrylic is difficult and needs a LOT of practice. Most will be using Weld-On 3 or 4, capillary gluing technique, which is what I did. I used the Tensol 70 to fill the corners to strengthen the welds, insurance policy if you like.

I can make the tower and sump using Tensol 70 alone but it would be a whole lot messier and require extensive masking on the gluing pieces, only advantage of it being gap filling is that it is more tolerant of imperfect dimensions since it can be use to fill gaps, capillary gluing require much more precise dimensioning of pieces.