29g Setup - From the beginning - Lot's o' Pics-

[Holokai]

Hi All,

This will be my very 'real' attempt at a planted tank. I had a fairly successful run with a 5 Gallon at work, but now I've got my game face on

Here's the stand with the display tank and a sump. (Initially planning for a saltwater setup, changed my mind recently) The plumbing is not yet in place.

There are three overflows for redundancy (and for high flow, but I don't need high flow in this planted tank)

The sump currently has three compartments(ok, two, one of the dividers fell off), which were meant for various forms of filtration in my planned salt tank, but I will be opening the whole thing up to just provide some extra water volume and perhaps a grow out area.

As for lighting, I found a nice little 65w PC floodlight at Home Depot today. I'm kind of excited about these lights, they were only $48.95, and I bought two.

The Case is metal, and is pretty sturdy. The hinges and clasps feel pretty well made and it closes tightly, presumably watertight.




The light is a 6500k

The current plan is to run 3/4 inch conduit up the sides and over the top of the tank, and hang the lights from them using conduit straps (Simulated below!) The wires will be run through the conduit, down the sides, under the stand.

Anyhow, that's all I've got at the moment - Tomorrow I hope to build the lighting system and install the plumbing.

I plan to use the ADA Aqua Soil for the planted areas of the tank - the far back right corner will be densely planted with some gnarly wood root doing it's thing. The rest of it will be mostly unplanted, I want plenty of swimming room for the denizens of the tank.

I'm currently leaning towards Rams, although I saw Scarlet Badis for the first time ever today and am researching those. (Will Rams and Badis play nice? Big size difference) Plenty of time to do more research.

Anyhow, that's my story. More pics as I take them. Might draw up some 'scapes too.

Thanks
- Chris

[StaleyDaBear]

Cant wait to see more. Is the glass cover on your light . . . muddled some how? Kind of looks almost like a ceiling light cover. Might not be good for your PAR. But otherwise, like I said, cant wait to see more visual stimulation

[lauraleellbp]

Welcome to TPT!

You'll need to be sure to adapt your sump setup to minimize CO2 loss. Closed loop canisters would be easier, but since you've already got the sump I'm assuming that's what you want to use?

You sure you want to run that much light over this tank? Go for it if you like high maintenance tanks, but it sure wouldn't be my cup of tea...

[Holokai]

Originally Posted by StaleyDaBear

Cant wait to see more. Is the glass cover on your light . . . muddled some how? Kind of looks almost like a ceiling light cover. Might not be good for your PAR. But otherwise, like I said, cant wait to see more visual stimulation

Yes, it's like a textured glass. I currently plan to leave it on, but we'll see what happens.

More stimulation coming tonight! I managed to get the whole lighting system up and running lad night, quite please with it. I took quite a few pictures, but I'm at work and they're at home

[Holokai]

Originally Posted by lauraleellbp

Welcome to TPT!

You'll need to be sure to adapt your sump setup to minimize CO2 loss. Closed loop canisters would be easier, but since you've already got the sump I'm assuming that's what you want to use?

You sure you want to run that much light over this tank? Go for it if you like high maintenance tanks, but it sure wouldn't be my cup of tea...

Thanks!

Yeah, I'm pretty set on the sump for a few reasons -
1) it gets the heater, diffuser, anything else outta the display
2) it gives me room to 'propagate' plants, or grow them out before going into the main display. I'm mulling over the idea of growing some of the more expensive mosses to support the hobby.

I'm not sure what you mean by minimizing CO2, but if it has anything to do with preventing splashing and extra evap caused by the overflow, I'm interested in hearing ideas.

The lights ARE a bit much, I'll give you that. My layout for the tank though should allow me to only run one light on the right side of the tank for growing purposes. The left side I plan to leave just sand-ish with a nice slate centerpiece. So the dual 65w lights would only be on for displaying the tank, not on a regular, timed basis.

If I had to, I could convert the lights to dual 27 watts I believe, but then that would only be ~2 wpg, if that ratio even applies.

What other precautions would you take given the high lighting?

Thanks!
-Chris

[Holokai]

Ok, here's the promised update! Last night we got a lot of work done. Whenever I say we I'm referring to my friend Paul who just set up a little planted Nano himself. Maybe I'll post a pic of his tank some time soon.

Anyhow, we finished the lighting system last night. We started it last night too, so I Was pretty impressed.

The initial setup



This isn't the permanent solution to holding the conduit in place, but it works for now. we actually need to cut the height down about 5 inches, as you'll see in a few pictures. After I took this picture we drilled a screw into the wood, and the conduit sits on that.


Hey look, they do both fit. Good thing we remembered to measure before this point...


I was impressed at how easy the wires were to get through the conduit and out the holes we drilled.


Here you can see the modifications we made to the lights - the four holes to attach the light to the conduit, the larger hole between the bolt holes (right) for the wiring, and the big hole on the bottom right for the on/off switch.
turns out that location didn't work for the switch, as the reflector goes there :-x So we moved it towards the top some and covered the hole with electrical tape


Easy Access for Wiring


Ta-Da!


TA-DA!


Finished product. As you can see, it's a little bit high, but I need to get some pipe cutters to cut the conduit now, as the wiring is now running through there.


This is the slick part - I can take the conduit out really easy for quick access to the entire tank. I just pull up, then lean it back.

Whew. Productive evening if I do say so myself.

G'night all!
- Chris

[Da Plant Man]

Looks good! I will have to try those light out if you have success

Good luck,
Caton

[little_betta]

wow! That looks like a lot of fun!

[VadimShevchuk]

i think you should run both lights if your gonna have pressurized co2. Lights are pretty high above and idk if the reflectors are decent but you should be perfect for lighting if you run co2. Cool journal!

[RipariumGuy]

That is a slick lighting system! Makes me want to start a riparium with that type of lighting.

[Holokai]

Originally Posted by Caton

Looks good! I will have to try those light out if you have success

Good luck,
Caton

Thanks! I hope they work out well. I'm a little concerned that I couldn't find replacement bulbs for the fixtures at Home Depot. Cross your fingers!

Originally Posted by little_betta

wow! That looks like a lot of fun!

sure was!

Originally Posted by VadimShevchuk

i think you should run both lights if your gonna have pressurized co2. Lights are pretty high above and idk if the reflectors are decent but you should be perfect for lighting if you run co2. Cool journal!

Thanks! I'm definitely planning to run a pressurized CO2 system. I'm currently looking at the Milwaukee CO2 regulator/solenoid combo at big Al's online. I was going to build a reactor as well, but for now have decided to go with a diffuser. I'll link up the stuff I ordered last night a little later.

Originally Posted by JakeJ

That is a slick lighting system! Makes me want to start a riparium with that type of lighting.

Thanks Jake, it was actually not TOO bad to build, but my buddy is an experienced carpenter so I'm sure that helped somewhat. At least it wasn't a bank breaker, the whole thing was around $120.

Thanks!
- Chris

[VadimShevchuk]

I would not get a milwauke regulator. Yikesjason can get you a nice one for about 130 shipped. I think you would rather spend 30 bucks more for a quality product right? I also have a 29 gallon and im setting up a co2 system and im tempted to go with a cheap azoo regulator but i think i rather spend 30-50 bucks more and get a regulator that i wont throw away in 6 months.

[Holokai]

Vadim, does that price include a solenoid? The mke one includes it for $130. I don't like hearing that it's no good though. I assume yikesjason is a username here on the forum? I'll drop a line and see what he's got.

Thanks for the heads up.

[Holokai]

Not too much progress this week, unless reading hours and hours of forum posts count, but the day is young. Yesterday I worked on some layouts and think I've settled on one I like.

Living in Hawaii, we have unique ways of planning out fish tanks.

We start with a blank canvas


Then find natural resources to assist in the visualizations.
(My initial layout idea - heavily planted rear-right corner, with some manzinita poking out across the tank, HC running over to a nice piece of slate(which is the circle))


We have a nice area to test out our ideas as well.


We also have unique and easy ways to start over if we don't like our aquasqape ideas.


The final layout - I'm pretty happy with it. Basically, the two hills should look like they were a single hill, until they were cut in half by either a stream, glacier, or me. Take your pick. The angle of the cut will be at 45 degrees to the front glass, hoping to add some depth to the tank.

Plants will be mostly HC covering the hills. the flat area in front and between the hills (which should actually be sloped slightly) will be a nice light sand, not planning to grow anything there. The back right corner might have a few smaller manzinita pieces poking out and some taller plants(Saw some Rotalis Pearl(sp?) I thought was pretty nice...).

The big problem I see is that I want the slopes of the hills to be fairly steep - something that I don't think the Aqua Soil Amazonia powder I plan to use will do very well. I'm looking for ideas for holding the slopes at a nice angle until the HC takes hold and holds the shape for me. I've been playing with the idea of some sort of net around the hills.

I'd like to have some sharply angled pieces of slate just barely poking out of the hills too.

My buddy thought the aquascape would look too pristine, almost unnatural. So he added some hardscape to increase the believability

M. Litus in it's late life form might add some realism and some depth to the tank. Does anyone know how easy these are too keep? Water params, lighting, etc?

[Holokai]

One thing I plan to do regardless of the aquascape, but that might assist in my steep hills is to grow the HC emersed. I read this really awesome thread about it, and think it's a great idea.