Rewarding Myself To New Aquarium

[KirkyArcher]

Well I collected the 306 filter ahead of aquarium delivery

 

 
Cleaned and washed all the new contents, then have emptied the media and water out of my existing 206 filter into a 5 gallon bucket squeezed out all the foam pads, plan on doing 20% daily water changes in the 125 Roma over the next few days while I'm "seeding" the new media using the old (also added a double dose of the Nutrafin cycle and a few filter starter gel balls to the bucket that is air line fed to hopefully help things along + will try feed the bacteria with a bit of fish food and poop syphoned from the gravel) 
 

 

[kevin82]

I love the fluval roma range. i had the 125l then upgraded to the 240l before taking a break from the hobby. looking to get back into it but looking for the right bargain but i doubt ill get something li,e the bargain i sold mine for

What filter have you got in the 125l? Couldn't you replace some of the old media from the 125l and put straight in with your new media in the new filter. I'm guessing your not planning on fully stocking from the start?

 

[KirkyArcher]

Yippee! everything has arrived....now the hard work begins.

 

[Blondielovesfish]

Have fun setting it all up!
Make sure to post lots of pics!

 

[KirkyArcher]

Stand assembled, background applied, tank leveled, & test filled, standard T8 fittings retained but Power-Glo & Aqua-Glo tubes replaced with Life-Glo options also standard white reflectors replaced with Arcadia aftermarket polished aluminium units. 

 

 

[Ch4rlie]

Looks good 

 
Can I ask why you have changed the standard Power-Glo and Aqua-Glo T8's to Life-Glo with a aftermarket reflector?
 
Just that I have the Roma 90L and I fitted the standard T8 tubes P-Glo and Aqua-Glo that came with set up stuff.
 
What are the benefits and difference between these different T8 tubes and reflector? 

 
Very interested to learn about this and see if might worth changing mine over to the same setup as yours if the benefits are good. 

 
BTW way I was not particularly impressed with the Fluval U2 filter that came with my set up, so I swapped it over for an External Filter, but a Tetratec 1200!! 

 
Overkill for my size 90L tank I know but was a decent buy for 2nd hand with mature media (mini cycle only took 3 days, tank ready!), and new filter is fine for the meantime as turned outflow way down to about 60% less than normal full flow using spray bar across back of tank above waterline. Looks good IMO.
 
Plan to get the smaller external TetraTec EX 700, then put on 90L tank and plan to buy a bigger tank so the tetratec I have now will be fine for the larger tank when I get one sometime in hopefully not in the too distant future!
 
Keep posting updates and pics please as I like these kind of posts and I can learn from them and pinch ideas and tweak them to my own set up.
 
Hope you don't mind if I pinch your ideas for the light setup. 

 
Keep up the good work! Cant wait!! 

 

[KirkyArcher]

Hello Ch4flie, 1st off I'm in no way an expert in these matters, but from the little knowledge I have and the research undertaken, I do intent to challenge myself to growing a few "difficult" species of plants and included in that area are going to be some "red" plants these plants require very strong light to grow and colour to their best, upgrading to T5 lighting is the usual course to follow, but I thought/hope higher output (LUX) T8 lamps would suffice with the T8 Life-Glo tubes emitting 220 LUX opposed to the Power-Glo and Aqua-Glo tubes that emit just 105 and 120 LUX respectively. The reason for fitting the polished reflectors is that having owned the 125 Roma I realise that quite a bit of light is wasted as there is a lot of light allowed to be directed outwards rather than downward, the Arcadia reflectors are more curved and adjustable in this respect.
The U2 filter is a fine filter that's fit for purpose, it's just quite bulky and carbon/poly pads are expensive to maintain at recommended change intervals.
Pinch as many ideas as you see fit, I do it all the time on this site that's what it's for isn't it?  
Still learning a lot about this game myself and no doubt I'll stumble at some point but that's half the fun (learning to succeed)

 

[DrRob]

I suspect that the reflectors will make more difference than the change of tubes.
 
Lumens measure output visible to humans, which is quite a fair way from output usable by plants, which is why the yellower life glow tube registers higher. It'll mean that it's lower on the top end blues that we don't see so well.
 
Overall probably won't make all that much difference which tube, but the reflectors do make a big difference.

 

[KirkyArcher]

See, learn new stuff on a daily basis cheers DrRob

 was "hopefully" reliably informed that the spectrum range of the Life-Glo tube @ 6700K is ideal for strong plant growth, and that higher K ranges like the Power-Glo & the Aqua-Glo tubes @18000K may encourage stronger Algae growth.

 

[dgwebster]

My biology learnings will probably be failing me, but I have a memory of somewhere saying plants respond more to the blue spectrum than they do with the red.

And for red plants, often all people need to do to make sure it comes out and stays alive is make sure there is iron in the suppliments??

 

[Ch4rlie]

Good stuff to know and to research about. Interesting info really esp reflectors and the difference between T8 and T5 tube bulbs.
Seems T5's are the way to go for when get my next tank set up.
 
But I have no plans at the moment about growing difficult plants, my tank is very low tech when comes to plants really. No Co2, just root tabs/fert, thats it! 

 
Perhaps in future when have a bit more experience and learned from folk like yourself I will compile a sort of do and don't list for plants.
 
At the moment my plants are in the easy to care for category but am pleased how my cabomba and walkeri plants are doing, particularly the walkeri the leaves are turning red which i did not know they would do and to me, is a sign that most of the plants are thriving. 

 
Anubias plants are so easy to grow algae on and was unsightly, but when i did water change a wekek or so ago i gave the plant a right good clean in the old tank water and so much gunk came off and looks a million dollars now. And moved to a slightly different position in the tank so it looks good and takes full advantage of my standard lighting T8's.
 
Snails and shrimps are taking care of the algae and none so far for the last week or two! Yay! 

 
Thanks for the tips, will pass on any tips for you if I learn any! 

 

[KirkyArcher]

Well long hours at work resume so progress will be slowed considerably more than I'd like but I'm still waiting for my plants to arrive so would have been halted by them anyway , managed to find some motivation and laid 10 kg of JBL AquaBasis Plus and covered it roughly with approximately 18 kg of fine gravel/coarse sand that will be "scaped" when i feel more inspired

 

[Ny82]

Ooh I like the background is it 3D?

 

[KirkyArcher]

Nope not a 3D background it's just a Superfish background attached with some of that background glue, must admit it makes it "pop" being firmly and directly attached rather than just taped to the edges of the tank.

 

[Ny82]

Nope not a 3D background it's just a Superfish background attached with some of that background glue, must admit it makes it "pop" being firmly and directly attached rather than just taped to the edges of the tank.

 
It really does, it's deceptive, makes it look 3D I really like it.