Hey ya'll. I started a new planted tank, it has been set up for 2 weeks now going strong! I am finally ready to post up my first lot of photos. First, some setup photos!
Warning picture heavy!
Oh and I forgot to take a picture of the tank before I started all of this. Whoops. Basically it was a rimless glass tank and it came with a plastic bottom 'cap' and a lid which housed a fluorescent tube. The bottom and the top looked ugly as hell so I am not going to use them.
These photos are from 2 weeks ago which is when I set it up. Here is my plumbing for this tank, it is very basic and I set it all up myself using some cheap piping from Bunnings Warehouse (Australian DIY/Garden/Hardware store). The powerhead pumps water into the right compartment which overfills into the main tank compartment. Lastly, the main tank compartment overfills into the filter compartment and the cycle continues!
I added 2 new triangle compartments to this tank to hide the powerhead and the outlet. The compartments are created using acrylic. They extend from the front corner all the way to the back. Here is some pics of me cutting the acrylic and siliconing it into place. Its easier for me to show you what I mean by 'triangle compartment' than to type it out! :red_mouth
Rinsed it out and tried on the filter/lighting system!
The left compartment will also hold the filter media! I bought a cheap plastic 'Put It Together yourself peg holder' and cut it up to create a 'base' for the filter media to sit on.
The green sponge pieces I jammed around the powerhead in picture 1 act as shock absorbers. The powerhead was causing a lot of vibrations. It is not noticeable anymore!
First test fill! No leaking in filter compartment! Awesome. But we have a lot of leaks in the filter outlet compartment. This isn't really a big issue though! It doesn't really matter how the water escapes back into the main tank compartment when it exits the filter outlet.
Here you can see the filter in action! Unfortunately something wasn't quite even so the water that overflows into the filter compartment only overflows in one corner. This sucks because only the corner of the filter is being utilized... So I used my brain and macgyver'ed myself a solution I used some of the left over plastic to block of the water on one corner and 'even it out' so it overflows properly.
The finished product in all its glory! I later added a large black piece of acrylic to cover the entire back (because it looks a little funny with a transparent backing!). I forgot to take a picture.
Put in the substrate the next day! Here in Australia we have water restrictions so I can never wash substrate enough to remove the excess dirt. It always comes out dirty as hell. I'd be wasting too much water to 'put a hose in a bucket and let it run till the water runs clean'.
I will make a follow up post in a few minutes with what it looks like right now! I am just going to take some pictures.
Warning picture heavy!
Oh and I forgot to take a picture of the tank before I started all of this. Whoops. Basically it was a rimless glass tank and it came with a plastic bottom 'cap' and a lid which housed a fluorescent tube. The bottom and the top looked ugly as hell so I am not going to use them.
These photos are from 2 weeks ago which is when I set it up. Here is my plumbing for this tank, it is very basic and I set it all up myself using some cheap piping from Bunnings Warehouse (Australian DIY/Garden/Hardware store). The powerhead pumps water into the right compartment which overfills into the main tank compartment. Lastly, the main tank compartment overfills into the filter compartment and the cycle continues!
I added 2 new triangle compartments to this tank to hide the powerhead and the outlet. The compartments are created using acrylic. They extend from the front corner all the way to the back. Here is some pics of me cutting the acrylic and siliconing it into place. Its easier for me to show you what I mean by 'triangle compartment' than to type it out! :red_mouth
Rinsed it out and tried on the filter/lighting system!
The left compartment will also hold the filter media! I bought a cheap plastic 'Put It Together yourself peg holder' and cut it up to create a 'base' for the filter media to sit on.
The green sponge pieces I jammed around the powerhead in picture 1 act as shock absorbers. The powerhead was causing a lot of vibrations. It is not noticeable anymore!
First test fill! No leaking in filter compartment! Awesome. But we have a lot of leaks in the filter outlet compartment. This isn't really a big issue though! It doesn't really matter how the water escapes back into the main tank compartment when it exits the filter outlet.
Here you can see the filter in action! Unfortunately something wasn't quite even so the water that overflows into the filter compartment only overflows in one corner. This sucks because only the corner of the filter is being utilized... So I used my brain and macgyver'ed myself a solution I used some of the left over plastic to block of the water on one corner and 'even it out' so it overflows properly.
The finished product in all its glory! I later added a large black piece of acrylic to cover the entire back (because it looks a little funny with a transparent backing!). I forgot to take a picture.
Put in the substrate the next day! Here in Australia we have water restrictions so I can never wash substrate enough to remove the excess dirt. It always comes out dirty as hell. I'd be wasting too much water to 'put a hose in a bucket and let it run till the water runs clean'.
I will make a follow up post in a few minutes with what it looks like right now! I am just going to take some pictures.