Sam's 20 Long Rimless Tranquility

[samamorgan]

I figured that I might as well start one of these journals, as much as I do to my main tank on a constant basis. I completely redid my tank from the substrate up on 2/3/2012, transplanting everything from my old setup. A well cleaned garbage can served as a temporary fish and plant home. I redid this thing for a couple reasons. Firstly, the gigantic rock i had in there was taking up too much room, i never saw any of my amanos because they always hung out behind it, and the damned thing was just a big algae magnet. Plus, the nice front to back slope I originally had went away after multiple replantings (I can never seem to stay satisfied). So here's the old setup:


And the new setup Changed 2/13/2012:


Got tired of the tannis from the mopani wood, two days after water changes i had tea water. Went down to the rocky creek a block from my place and found some nice rocks, here's the latest iteration:

[WillPlanted]

i really like the new setup, its going to look great once everything fills in.

[samamorgan]

Updated

[hedge_fund]

Hey, can you tell me about your lights?
-did you have to build them yourself?
-are they considered high light?
-how much did it run you?
-what is the PAR?

I have a 20 gallon high shrimp tank with some mosses that are thriving. Looking to upgrade to LED and the one that caught my eye is the AquaIllumination NANO...the only confusion is how the heck would I mount it above my tank.

[2in10]

Very nice change

[samamorgan]

Originally Posted by hedge_fund

Hey, can you tell me about your lights?
-did you have to build them yourself?
-are they considered high light?
-how much did it run you?
-what is the PAR?

I have a 20 gallon high shrimp tank with some mosses that are thriving. Looking to upgrade to LED and the one that caught my eye is the AquaIllumination NANO...the only confusion is how the heck would I mount it above my tank.

The lights are Ecoxotic Panorama Freshwater modules. The modules themselves are made to mount to a flat surface, like inside a hood. I used a 30"x6" piece of glass, drilled mounting holes, and mounted the modules to the glass. The two end bolts that they are mounted to are threaded eye bolts, and i hang the whole shebang from a wall mounted bracket.

They are right on the border between medium and high, at 60-70 PAR at the substrate. I wouldn't go any higher with the light personally, one imbalance in Co2 or ferts starts a major algae outbreak very quickly (found that out the hard way).

The entire setup broke down about like this:

2x Panoramas: $180
6"X30" piece of glass cut and finished at a glass shop: $6
Misc bolts, washers, nuts, hanging hardware: $10-15
Glass drilling bit: $5
Couple hours of piddling around with it

Total: ~$200 + couple hours of time.

Originally Posted by 2in10

Very nice change

Thanks! I will get new pictures up as soon as i get my regulator back (my dual stage crapped out!!) and the addition of Co2 kills off the algae farm this thing has turned into with the absence of Co2. I easily have three times the stems i had in there before, things just shot up like crazy. The HC has almost completely covered all remaining substrate.

[talontsiawd]

Looks great and removing the wood was a good call.

Did you de-rim a 20L or buy one? Reason I ask is I have been looking for a standard rimless 20 long forever but can't find one.

[samamorgan]

Originally Posted by talontsiawd

Looks great and removing the wood was a good call.

Did you de-rim a 20L or buy one? Reason I ask is I have been looking for a standard rimless 20 long forever but can't find one.

I bought this one locally. It's made by Aqua Pro and my LFS stocks them. The guy there told me that Aqua Pro only sends out these and a couple other dimensions of rimless tanks to distributors, and the ones they have listed online are a small part of the full lineup of sizes they offer. I believe the guy that started Aqua Pro had a store here in Seattle for a while (or so i heard) so the stuff is available in a few stores locally.

The glass is 3/8" or 10mm and the seam quality is very good, normal iron glass. Cost me $110+tax for the tank.

I have another 12"x12"x12" cube from the same store made by AquaPro that uses 1/4 or 6mm glass which i'm also very happy with. same great seem quality and it's starfire as well. That one sas $60+tax

[talontsiawd]

Originally Posted by samamorgan

I bought this one locally. It's made by Aqua Pro and my LFS stocks them. The guy there told me that Aqua Pro only sends out these and a couple other dimensions of rimless tanks to distributors, and the ones they have listed online are a small part of the full lineup of sizes they offer. I believe the guy that started Aqua Pro had a store here in Seattle for a while (or so i heard) so the stuff is available in a few stores locally.

The glass is 3/8" or 10mm and the seam quality is very good, normal iron glass. Cost me $110+tax for the tank.

I have another 12"x12"x12" cube from the same store made by AquaPro that uses 1/4 or 6mm glass which i'm also very happy with. same great seem quality and it's starfire as well. That one sas $60+tax

Right now I have quite a collection of 30 in lighting so this is great to know. Thank you for the insight.

[hedge_fund]

Originally Posted by samamorgan

The lights are Ecoxotic Panorama Freshwater modules. The modules themselves are made to mount to a flat surface, like inside a hood. I used a 30"x6" piece of glass, drilled mounting holes, and mounted the modules to the glass. The two end bolts that they are mounted to are threaded eye bolts, and i hang the whole shebang from a wall mounted bracket.

They are right on the border between medium and high, at 60-70 PAR at the substrate. I wouldn't go any higher with the light personally, one imbalance in Co2 or ferts starts a major algae outbreak very quickly (found that out the hard way).

The entire setup broke down about like this:

2x Panoramas: $180
6"X30" piece of glass cut and finished at a glass shop: $6
Misc bolts, washers, nuts, hanging hardware: $10-15
Glass drilling bit: $5
Couple hours of piddling around with it

Total: ~$200 + couple hours of time.


Thanks! I will get new pictures up as soon as i get my regulator back (my dual stage crapped out!!) and the addition of Co2 kills off the algae farm this thing has turned into with the absence of Co2. I easily have three times the stems i had in there before, things just shot up like crazy. The HC has almost completely covered all remaining substrate.

Thanks for answering this.
Very nice looking tank btw.

[el_heb]

Sam

Really nice tank you've got there

How many modules would you recommend for a 48x16x20 tank? I was thinking of going with 3 modules of Panorama Pros or 2 Kessil spotlights, but i'm unsure of the lightspread and intensity

Thanks!

[samamorgan]

Originally Posted by el_heb

Sam

Really nice tank you've got there

How many modules would you recommend for a 48x16x20 tank? I was thinking of going with 3 modules of Panorama Pros or 2 Kessil spotlights, but i'm unsure of the lightspread and intensity

Thanks!

I think 3 mounted with a 2-3 inch gap between would be fine. Have to raise it 7-10 inches above the water to get proper spread, though.

[monkeyruler90]

looking good

[UtricSeb]

Hello,

I am just starting to mount a new 55" x 20" x 20" planted tank and am trying to decide which lights to use. I am highly interested in leds because that will be cheaper to run in the long term.

I wonder how tall is your tank? I want to figure out how much Ecoxotic Panorama LED modules would I need but can´t figure it out from the information available here. I want to achieve medium light levels (PAR between 50-70 on the soil).

Thanks for any help.

Sebastian

[Amandas tank]

I would say your tank has become beautiful I really like how you placed the rocks. It's amazing how some of us rescape our tanks. They always look alright in the beginning than a couple changes later they are incredible! Great work