So proud of myself

[SarahBravo]

I wanted my new tank at work to be a really lush, green planted tank. I'm fertilising and adding CO2, but lighting was the problem, as the tank is a 15 UK gallon juwel Rekord 70 with a mere 15W of lighting.

So I lurked in the planted and DIY sections and read some of the brilliant advice and diaries in there, and can now honestly say that adding an additional light to a Juwel 70 is easy-peasy!

Firstly, I chucked out the Juwel tube and put in a new Arcadia freshwater bulb.

Juwel Tube

Arcadia Tube - much better colour!!

Then ingredients for adding an additional tube:
Juwel 18" reflector + clips, 15W T8 ballast set, 15W Interpet daylight plus tube, some arcadia plastic nuts and bolts and some black screw caps, some cable ties and some cable tie sticker-downers (I dunno what they're called!) and a dremel type thing or a small drill.

Firstly, check your screw caps are deep enough to take the nuts:

Then position the juwel reflector in the hood up against the front edge. This is the only place where you can fix it to leave enough room for feeding and a solid place for screwing it down. Drill straight through the hood and the reflector. Thread the bolt through the screw cap and bolt the reflector the to cover. Make sure its in the right place and do the other end. You now have a secure place to clip your bulb into, but still enogh space to feed. You had to take the whole hood off to clean or access the filter anyway.

Close the screw caps on the outside of the hood:

Hood doesn't look 'messed with' at all:

Then clip your bulb into the reflector and connect the ballast leads. Making sure the hood is dry, cable tie/sticky the wires down and trim the excess:

Put the hood on and switch the new light on!!

Original Juwel Lighting:

New tank view:

All I can say is - the plants better grow now or else! Added bonus is the more light you have the better fish pics you take too.

I've also bought some Mylar (shiny space age stuff as far as I can tell) and I'm going to line the hood with it so the whole hood turns into a giant reflector - should add a couple more Watts!

 

[danski]

wow that looks pretty good . nice post. what substrate is that? do you have anything under that?

 

[lee8040]

nice tank ive just got the exact same one today, good to see what others have been able to do with the tank

nice setup you have

 

[SarahBravo]

It's just play sand. Only thing in it is about 20 MTSs! Tank has been set up about a week and a half.

 

[lee8040]

do you get any bubbles/movement at the surface from your pump? mine doesnt move any water at the top but the pump is running is this correct?

 

[SarahBravo]

No, there's very little water movement, but the pump is running. I'm actually going to add a small airstone with a very gentle current just to dispel the surface film somewhat. I don't want it to interfere with the plants too much, so I might put it on a timer to come on in the evening for a few hours. As I understand it, if you have it on in the daytime an air pump will disperse the CO2 and your plants won't do so well.

 

[lee8040]

if just set mine up so unsure, looking at your pics my filter pipes are set the same way as yours, at the top i can see a slight movement of clockwise with the water, just wondered if this will be enough for the fish?

also was your water always that clear, mines new in today and its a bit cloudy and a few little bits flying about, will the filter clean this clearly

 

[SarahBravo]

Yep, my fish seem fine, none of them gasp or spend any time at the top so they are definitely getting enough oxygen. As for clear water..... I used cheapo play sand rather than sand from the LFS and it was so fine, washing it was like stirring smooth peanut butter with your fingers. My tank looked like it had been filled with milk for about 3 days! It will clear, all I'd recommend is that you check your filter sponges after a few days, my white filter wool was packed solid with sand, so as I was too lazy to rinse it I just replaced it!

 

[lee8040]

do you have a background pic on your tank?

 

[SarahBravo]

Yep, blue, gets to a deeper blue as it gets lower. It's not put on very well, I need to put it on with water and a squeegee thing so it's flush.

 

[daza]

Nice looking tank, and excellent job on the light upgrade. Those little black caps are a superb idea.