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8 foot 600 gallon low tech planted tank

152K views 380 replies 156 participants last post by  Siddhartha Saive 
#1 ·
hey guyz:)
my 8 foot tank was setup about 3 months ago.decided to turn it into a fully planted tank and planted it recently:D

Tank
8' L x 3' W x 3.5' H
19mm toughened glass
about 300 kgs of sand ( construction+ river sand)
95 kgs of rocks
18 kg driftwood
2 wavemakers- 5000 lit/hr each
Stand- 335 kg iron stand over which wood work was done
Lights- Aquazonic T5HO 4foot- 54W x 4 and 3foot- 40W x 4
no CO2. no fert dosing yet

Filtration- modified overflow type with sump.its not the traditional overflow with only surface skimming. i added a baffle around the overflow( the height of the inner and outer one at the surface is the same) so that most of the water(>80%) gets sucked in from the bottom of the tank and only about 20% overflows from the surface of the tank.i wasnt sure about this when i planned it at the start, but works wonderfully:D no more fish poo and left over food at the bottom. all of the waste gets pushed to the corner (wavemakers help too) and gets sucked into the filtration.i planned this coz my tank is 3.5 foot high and i wanted low maintenance

Sump
6' x 2' x 15"
4 chambers- 2 filled with filter media and one planted refugium(with 45W CFL) and one for the return pump 7500 lit/hr
filled with RO water.
had only anubias and ferns on the driftwood for a month. planted all the other plants in the substrate a week ago









My tank on the first day of filling water


Flora:
Anubias nana
Java fern- narrow leaf, needle leaf, windelow
Cryptocoryne wendtii green, spiralis green, spiralis red, blassii
Echinodorus amazonicus, ozelot, rubin
Lagenandra meeboldi green
Nymphaea ? red and green water lillies not sure bout the names
Java moss
Salvinia minima (floating)
thinking if i should add a background of Vallisneria gigantea all along the back?

Fauna:
300+ cardinal tetra
14 clown loaches
some rainbows, bengal danios ( may remove these 2)
about 30 of - spotted butterfly loaches, yoyo loaches, tiger loaches, zebra loaches, zipper loach
plecos and catfish- one each of L200 green phantom, bristle nose, spotted veiltail, 2 types whiptail catfish
one red tailed black shark
60 Garra rufa
yet to decide on more fish to be added


Opinions / Suggestions please:)
 
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#7 ·
Unbelievable! Great looking tank. I think it has a great feel and love the depth. I would limit the vals to just the back edges of the scape. Excellent progress and more pics please including the filter setup.
 
#8 ·
300 Cardinal Tetras OH MY! heheheh, looks awesome! I love freshwater tanks that put to shame reef tanks. I would personally eventually look at giving more depth by sloping the sand levels upward to the back maybe even adding a large bushy piece of manzanita, but by all means, the tank looks fantastic.
 
#10 ·
Thank you all for your kind words :D

I will post pics of the build soon. Took about 3 months to get to this point.
This tank is in the living room and people are more interested in the tank than the tv:D
The cardinals look amazing. All of them moving across the length of the tank and turning around the driftwood looks awesome:eek: Can't see them in my mobile cam pics

I had discus in the tank a few weeks ago. They did look great but I wanted to go for big schools of smaller fish.. lots of activity. So removed them after adding the cardinals. They did make the cardinals school amazingly tight though.

Thinking about what fish to add next.
Another big school?
About 30 or 40 P.denisonii?
Or upto 200 rummynose tetra or other small schooling fish
A few freshwater crayfish? Compatible?

I was looking for peaceful big fish like discus or angels but can't risk them eating my cardinals:(

I originally planned to keep geophagus b4 I turned to planted. Will Geophagus uproot the plants now? Any compatible species?
Yea no biotope restrictions :p

My tank pH is 7
 
#14 ·
Thinking about what fish to add next.
Another big school?
About 30 or 40 P.denisonii?
Or upto 200 rummynose tetra or other small schooling fish
A few freshwater crayfish? Compatible?

I was looking for peaceful big fish like discus or angels but can't risk them eating my cardinals:(

I originally planned to keep geophagus b4 I turned to planted. Will Geophagus uproot the plants now? Any compatible species?
Yea no biotope restrictions :p

My tank pH is 7
I definitely think you need a large centerpiece fish. Discus would be my first suggestion but you have ruled them out. You mentioned geophagus, which can get really big, have you looked into gymnophagus. They are just like the geophagus but smaller. there are several species of gymnophagus that I think would look great in there. or there is the eliotti cichlid. thorichthys ellioti is the real name I think. they might look great. I have festivum as a centerpiece but they would eat your plants so negative for the festivum. just some ideas.
 
#12 ·
Big boy system, very nice!
You'll get real good at using long tools for trimming, planting and cleaning in that deep monster. And your 14 clowns loaches "my all time favorite fish, I have a couple over 10 years old." will enjoy I bet most every day in that water column.
Enjoy and please keep us updated with lots of pictures.
mD
 
#22 ·
Its nice to see some Indians have big ones. :D

I would not go with a curtain of vallis personally, I think it will take away from the scape.

Denisonis are a great idea, but I like the idea of Rummys aswell... they kind of accent the denisoni barbs.

I used to keep a shoal of Rummys with Densionis in my rainbowfish tank... it is large, but your tank makes it a baby brother (8'x3'x2.33'). :)
 
#25 ·
^this

Pearls don't get huge, but they are a bit larger, around 4 inches. A group of 1 or 2 dozen in this tank would look beautiful. Also, the pearl gourami has a more dun and subtle, yet still beautiful coloration, shimmering with pastel blues and oranges over a tan/white body. Their more subtle coloration would nicely compliment the vibrant reds and blues of the cardinals. I personally have a tank(though a much smaller 55 gal) with this combination of fish and I think it makes a beautiful display. Gouramis also spend more of their time near the surface while cardinals tend to school around the mid-bottom range, which provides a nice balance in use of the water column.

Firemouth cichlids would be another good option, as would angelfish, which would take advantage of the height of your tank and I'm sure would thrive in this system.

Also, I'm super jealous of all the cats and loaches you've got. I wish I could have a tank large enough to keep a collection like that!
 
#24 ·
I can only imagine how big of a QT tank you have if you r thinking of adding 200 rummy nose or other school fish. I know with that many fish there is no way in h*ll I would add fish without a lengthy length QT period.
 
#27 ·
Hey guyz
Added 8 pearl gourami a few days ago.
And 4 red tail black sharks, 2 bosemani (have 12 rainbows in total now) and one 2" red freshwater crayfish



Tank could use a few more fish I guess:rolleyes: It still looks empty.

Will be adding many denisonii barbs in a day or too

Also...
My salvinia jungle :D

Covers 4x3 feet in the tank and 2x2 feet in the refugium. Will thin it down a lot so light can reach the other plants
 
#31 ·
I did spend considerable time on my tank to date but I always wanted to have low maintenance.
Same reason I'm opting for no CO2. No frequent pruning needed.
We had to climb into the tank to do most of the work initially and to scape etc.:) Most of that work is done and now I won't have much to do.

I'll never need to clean the bottom :D
No waste will settle at the bottom. All of it will get sucked into my filtration immediately or eventually when the fish dig up.

And I have enough loaches to get into and clear the caves and crevices ;)
They keep digging up the sand a bit too. Had a problem with them digging up some of my crypts in the first 3 days but nothing after that

My maintenance right now

Switching the lights :p
Feeding the fish twice a day
Refilling about 20-40 liters RO water every week. Lost in evaporation.
Cleaning sponges in my overflow once every 1-2 weeks.
About 50% water change once a month
Picking up floating leaves etc occasionally

Any work that needs me getting into the tank can be done during the monthly water change
 
#30 ·
What's the m/f ratio of the gouramis you've got? The males can sometimes get aggressive if their aren't enough girls to go around..but they might be fine in such a large tank, too.

Also, you could add more of the different types of gouramis to fill out the tank. Or a few discus if you have the water for them..
 
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