Supercoley's First Planted Tank Adventure

[SuperColey1]

Updated pics after water change as promised:

Left Side - Jimboo style

Central View

Right View - Coley Style

Looking forward to your replies.

Andy (desperate for advice. praise, criticism, or questions)

 

[SuperColey1]

Before I start on todays photos:

I got home from work on Friday, and the Interpet 55W starter and the interpet tube had arrive. Yippee.

Unfortunately the tube was smashed to smithereens, and I have e-mailed SurreyPetSupplies and attached some pics, so lets hope for the best there.

On with todays story.

I got tired of looking at the background and so just took it off (plain glass again at the back) WHAT a difference.

The whole tank looks lighter, and I can see the fish again at the back of the tank (although I can also see algae on the back glass. lol)

I think I'll probs leave it like this at least until I get the lights sorted out, and then we'll see what to do.

Took a few pics, and look how much the Ludwigia Repens has grown in the centre in 1 week. This is the fastest growing plant that has been in the tank so far!!!

Front Right Angle

Front Left Angle

Centre (bad pic)

I've also not bothered putting conditioner in the water change due to reading that the chemical 'binds' the metals that we use in our trace, therefore rendering our trace useless!!! What do you think on this matter?

Until next week
Andy

 

[n3ont3tra]

I'm not sure about he conditioner question. I have a question for you, though, it looks like your substrate is sand. Do you have another layer of something on the bottom?

 

[atmmachine816]

O haven't looked here for awhile but it's looking good. Your center plant is rather nice attention drawer. Good job on the progress.

 

[SuperColey1]

Before I start on todays photos:

I got home from work on Friday, and the Interpet 55W starter and the interpet tube had arrive. Yippee.

Unfortunately the tube was smashed to smithereens, and I have e-mailed SurreyPetSupplies and attached some pics, so lets hope for the best there.

On with todays story.

I got tired of looking at the background and so just took it off (plain glass again at the back) WHAT a difference.

The whole tank looks lighter, and I can see the fish again at the back of the tank (although I can also see algae on the back glass. lol)

I think I'll probs leave it like this at least until I get the lights sorted out, and then we'll see what to do.

Took a few pics, and look how much the Ludwigia Repens has grown in the centre in 1 week. This is the fastest growing plant that has been in the tank so far!!!

Front Right Angle

Front Left Angle

Centre (bad pic)

I've also not bothered putting conditioner in the water change due to reading that the chemical 'binds' the metals that we use in our trace, therefore rendering our trace useless!!! What do you think on this matter?

Until next week
Andy

 

[drzeus]

Dying for the latest update! Specially with regard to lights ... I have same size tank. Interesting to see what you've done. Plants are looking good!

 

[SuperColey1]

Hello All, I'm back and running.

So we moved house on 27th Feb and had to go through the rigmarol of transferring and transporting fish + emptying tank and replanting, pruning etc.

Good news is that all went well and the plants look great now. I also trimmed most of them and chopped the bottoms off the leggy ones.

The ony bad news is that one of the glolight Tetras didn't appreciate the move and didn't make it. We found it dead the day following the move, but all the other fish are loving their new improved tank.

Equipment wise, I now have both Nutrafin cannisters connected to the glass bubble counter which then connects to the glass check valve, before going into the glass Rhinox 2000 diffuser (which send loads of miniature bubbles up into the side of the filter)

The egg shaped drop checker is also in there and after staying blue for 2 days has finally turned a nice medium green, so now the CO2 is OK (fingers crossed)

Lastly to help with the cleaning (and a cheat against algae) I have approx 30 MTS roaming the tank doing a great job.

Oh and the other molly has had a shed load of fry so will be wanting to get rid of them now, before I have 70 extra adult fish in my 30G tank.

anyway on with the future events.

I am still waiting for the DayLightPlus PC bulb to come, but I do have the control unit and the electronic ballast for the other 18W tube to run independantly.

I have got about 500g of Potassium Sulphate from work and am now just working out how much (if any) to put into distilled water and to dose. We'll see how the plants go when the lights are upgraded.

There aren't any pics of the new cabinet as I took them at night and this camera doesn't take pics very well in the dark.

Pic from the front

Pic from the left

Pic of the slate 'mountain'

And finally (colour probs doesn't show) the drop checker in its 'blue' stage

Will post some proper pics of all the equipment at the weekend, but the next job here is to tidy up the old flat ready for the landlord to check it out (Ooops, bye bye deposit)

Andy

 

[Dave Spencer]

Nice job on the tank move. It looks as if it is an established tank again, already.

By the way, during all the aquarium moving, you haven`t forgotten the sofa, TV etc have you?

Dave.

 

[SuperColey1]

No matey, Last Tuesday the TV, HiFi et al was moved to the new house, the fish tank on Wednesday (Keep the wife happy first, wink, wink)

The Sofa got put out the front of the old flat Sunday Night for the council to collect Monday mornig (bought some nice new leather ones instead).

I just wish this frickin' tube would finally arrive.

 

[Themuleous]

Tank seems to have pulled through I'm hopefully moving house next month, its always fun trying to relocate 60g of water and 50 fish! Oh the wonders of this hobby.

Sam

 

[SuperColey1]

Tank seems to have pulled through I'm hopefully moving house next month, its always fun trying to relocate 60g of water and 50 fish! Oh the wonders of this hobby.
Sam

I originally thought 'I'll just take the fish and water out, leave the plants where they were (in the substrate) and then when I get to the new house fill it up slowly using the hosepipe 'mist' spray option.

Warning - You have got no chance of getting Zebra Danios or pitbull plecs out of a planted tank

Therefore the tank was totally emptied apart from the Crypt Wendtii at the front because that already melted last time I moved it.

Just a tip. The mist spray works a treat. Bought one of those hoselock trigger guns from Poundland, I use the Jet option for washing the car, the shower option for the garden and now the mist spray to fill the tank. 2 bulldog clips on the glass and an elastic band to stop the gun from spraying at your ceiling, and then leave for 1 hour to slowly fill up. No buckets, no jugs, no plates or bowls, and no substrate disturbance.

Oh and if you move where the bulldog clips are every 5 mins, it will clean the inside of the glass as well

 

[Themuleous]

Bargain, cheers for the tip

Sam

 

[SuperColey1]

Hello to whoever is reading.

As promised here is the monster post of my lighting upgrade. I have seperated it into sections (don't know why just seemed to make sense)

A: NEW KIT

Interpet Daylight Plus 55W Bulb
18W Electronic Ballast
3 x 24 hour segment timers
1 x Interpet Single 55W PC control unit
3 spare plugs
Bags of Pot Nitrate (KNO3), Mon Potassium Phosphate (KH2PO4), Pot Sulphate (K2SO4)

B: INSIDE OF HOOD
This is the inside of the hood before work started

The inside was quite easy really
I took out the rear 18W tube and then unclipped one of the end caps so that it would push through into the ballast recess.
Drilled a hole and fixed the existing reflector to the hood with plastic nut and bolts.
Screwed the tube clips through the gaps in the reflectors and into the hood.
Positioned the new 55W tube into place.

This is the inside of the hood after completion.

C: OUTSIDE OF HOOD (BALLAST RECESS)
This is the ballast recess before work started

A little trickier than the inside.
I unscrewed the cage holding the old ballast in place.
Cut the wires that were connecting the ballast to the end caps and starters and discarded the old ballast
Cut the wires that lead into the front lamps end caps.
Cut the 'cage' that the new electronic 18W ballast was seated on (It wouldn't fit in the recess due to some mouldings in the plastic)
Screwed the 'butchered cage' into the recess.
joined the entry to the ballast to the live and neutral mains power lead.
Cut the (non water tight) end caps from the new ballast.
Joined the cut wires from the new ballasts end caps to the existing (water tight) end caps wires.
Turned the power on and hey presto 1 single 18W light.

This is the work in progress during fitting the new ballast unit with wires cut etc. I didn't bother removing the starters for the old ballast because they weren't doing any harm and I wouldn't gain any space by removing them.

We are now at a stage where we can see the finished article.

This is the tank during the day on the REAL pine unit I bought brand new off ebay - £45 inc delivery!! Deal of the century

D: BEFORE AND AFTER
Forgive me if you don't see too much difference, but I have a really cheap Vivitar Camera and also there is a bucket load of Riccia floating on the top until the plants get used to their new solar extremes, and nutrients. Also the pinky light at the front makes the sand look p[ink, so I think I might put the Arcadia Freshwater that was at the bank in the front at the next water change to brighten things up a little

This is the tank from the front with the old lights (2 x 18W but powered by a 30W ballast - cheapskate Hagen Original Hood)

This is the tank from the front with the new lights (1 x 18W powered by 18W ballast and 1 x 55W PC

This is the tank from the left with the original lights

This is the tank from the left with the upgraded lights

So in all I have upgraded from 36W (which was actually 30W because the ballast was underpowering the tubes) to 73W.
This being on a 29G capacity tank with probably 26G in it when you allow for the water being an inch from the top so I have moved from 1.15WPG to 2.80WPG.

I am now doing EI as I don't need to pay for my macros as I get them from work who refused to charge me the cost price of 58p total for the 3 x 500g bags I got. Trace is supplied by Tropica Plant Nutrition.

Sorry I haven't included shots of the glass diffusor, bubble counter and non return valve, but I got impatient and put them in a week ago and they are in dark places (The diffusor is underneath the internal filter)

My 2 Nutrafin kits are each sheathed in a hiking sock keeping them nice and warm and are attached to a 2 way gang valve that means I can turn 1 off when I want to refill and thus don't lose the pressure by disconnecting.

As a final set of pictures and this looks quite impressive. This is my tanks nerve centre. The surge protected 6 way socket. each socket can be individually turned on and off which is why I chose this particular one - £10 from Boyes (and it has a fax, telephone and modem port for the fish to use. lol)

Plugs from Top are:
1 - Fish r Fun 9W UV Steriliser
2 - 18W Front light on timer (00.00 - 12.00)
3 - Fluval 150W Heater
4 - Cold Cathode Moonlight on timer (23.45 - 12:15)
5 - Fluval3Plus Internal Filter
6 - 55W PC on timer (14.00 - 22.00)
(You can see the bubble counter next to plug 5 and the non return valve with the red valve in it next to plug 2)

The techy (or not quite so techy) bit

Here we have:
Almost redundant test kit.
2 Nutrafin kits in grey socks with black and white chequered pattern (this season's colours. lol)
Tropica Plant Nutrition at front.
Homemade : reference KH4 solution, K2SO4, KNO3, KH2PO4 and Nutrafin Aqua Plus.

There we have it. many reports of Algae blooms and such like to follow I'm sure but wish me luck and thanks for spending the time to read this epic post.

Andy

 

[Themuleous]

I love the crazy wiring you get when you start upgrading lighting and things, it's cool. New lighting looks good Matey, plants should love it.

Sam

 

[SuperColey1]

I should add that I didn't wait until water change and after the 2 main lights were both out last night I put the Freshwater lamp in. Looks a lot better already, and really looks wuite cool for the 2 hours before and after full lighting period, quite spooky really.

Will take a pic of each lighting period although as you all now my camera could make the sun look dark, so might not be able to get the moonlight to show up.

Andy