Trenton's ADA 60P Journal - Tank Planted

[trenton]

Haven’t posted for a couple of days. I have had a really busy week.

Been getting everything I need for my DIY conduit hanger/stand. I have pretty much everything that I need now.

The list right now of what I still need to get is:

• 1/2” hose
• 5/8” hose
• Hose adapter (1/2” x 5/8”) (Because I got the wrong size barbs on my heater)
• Cable clamps or ferrules for 1/16” cable on light hanger
• Filter media
• Carbon media
• Regulator parts/solenoid (Messaged btimmer 92 for the solenoid. Waiting for him to get back from vacation).
• The end of July to come!

Can’t really think of anything else at this point. I am trying to get the stand all together as fast as I can so that I can put it in place and then put my scape together. I think that I will have time to do that tomorrow evening and Saturday.

I had bought a Woods power bar with built in digital timers, but after reading a bunch of reviews on those digital timer power bars, I decided against it. Instead, I got a nifty swivel surge protector that has lots of room to put timers on it (http://www.360electrical.com/our_pro...vel_outlet.htm) and am going to get either digital or mechanical individual timers. This at least gives me the advantage of modifying in the future, and it is a lot better quality (and less sketchy) then the all-in-one digital timer power bar.

Currently planned list of power users:

• Lights – Timed (Probably about 2pm-11:30pm daily. May have it on in the morning for a bit before we got to work.)
• CO2 Solenoid – Timed (Probably 1pm-11pm)
• Filter – Constant
• Heater – Constant
• Lunar light – Timed (Possible future addition)
• Airstone – Timed (Possible future addition)

On another note, last week I ordered my new computer. Got the newly updated MacBook Pro 15", with a 1TB HD and glossy high res screen. I decided against the new retina version as it is not fixable/modifiable. Not a good combination for a computer! Got it in the mail yesterday, 1 week after i ordered it! It’s pretty slick and it’s a whole lot faster than my 6 yr old MBP! I will probably swap out the HD for a flash drive and upgrade the ram, but that won't be for a while yet.

Peace out,
-T

[trenton]

On another note, is anyone familiar with all the swagelok fittings? I got a swagelok needle, so now I need fitting based on that. I'm thinking of something along the lines of:



The only one that might be different is if I receive a stainless 10-32 fitting on the outlet of the Mouse when I buy that. Then that fitting may be a 10-32 x 1/8" male so I would have to get a 1/8" female x 1/8" OD swagelok tube fitting.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,
-T

[trenton]

No thoughts anyone on the fittings?

Got around to getting the rest of the stand together last night as well as the fittings for the light hanger. I had some old Ikea cable curtain hangers left from my last apartment and they worked great!

Here is the build:









Borrowed a conduit bender and got the conduit bent this morning. I may cut the height down a bit and trim it up a bit later. I also think I will get some grommets to hold the cable in place to keep it from moving.







Till next time,
-T

[Uptown193]

Hi nice setup. I dose with ADA's ECA for my red plants and it works great. I also do not think you need to dose if you do not have any plants yet. I did the same water change reg, with ADA's products and within 2 weeks I had perfect water parameters to add fish. I also use Pfertz products like yours and use one pump of each 5 days a week, 2 pumps after a water change. I now do water changes every 4 weeks and my water is crystal clear. The filter is the most important factor. Keep up the good work.

P.S. Try to center the tank under the light somehow and cut the end that is hanging over about 4-5". Sorry, I have a close eye to detail. :-)

[trenton]

Originally Posted by Uptown193

Hi nice setup. I dose with ADA's ECA for my red plants and it works great. I also do not think you need to dose if you do not have any plants yet. I did the same water change reg, with ADA's products and within 2 weeks I had perfect water parameters to add fish. I also use Pfertz products like yours and use one pump of each 5 days a week, 2 pumps after a water change. I now do water changes every 4 weeks and my water is crystal clear. The filter is the most important factor. Keep up the good work.

P.S. Try to center the tank under the light somehow and cut the end that is hanging over about 4-5". Sorry, I have a close eye to detail. :-)

I'm not dosing yet as my tank isn't up and running yet... I thought that was assumed.

So you dose 7 pumps each weekly of the Pfertz line. I may reschedule slightly from my 6 pumps weekly if I find I don't have to do water changes weekly like you (which would be nice!)

Haha, you do have a close eye! I had moved the light forward on the hanger to prevent the back one from slipping off the bend. I picked up some gaskets today to slip over the pipe to prevent this. And yes, I will be trimming the end of it as I said. It is 5" to long and I lined up the bender at the wrong end of the corner.

Thanks for the help,
-T

[trenton]

Got the hardscape in last night. See the end of this post and let me know what you think.

Penac P/Penac W/Tourmaline BC


Power Sand Special S




Bacter 100/Clear Super


Added the Aqua Soil around the edge and then filled in.




Added the rest of the 9L bag of Aqua Soil. I put some strings on the tank for guidance on the golden ratio. I didn't stick to them exactly though. (http://goldenratiocalculator.com/)


And now, the hardscape. What do you all think? Comments and tweaks welcome! Also note that it has to look good on three sides.












Till next time,
-T

[monkeyruler90]

Wow can't wait till everything is filled up!!!

[dunehole]

Looking really good. Liking the hardscape and your light hanger. Do you know how high your going to hang your lights? I find I have to keep cutting back my light period and raising my lights on my 60P with Catalina 2x24.

[trenton]

Originally Posted by monkeyruler90

Wow can't wait till everything is filled up!!!

Thanks, me too. Now that is scaped in, I can't wait till the end of July!

[trenton]

Originally Posted by dunehole

Looking really good. Liking the hardscape and your light hanger. Do you know how high your going to hang your lights? I find I have to keep cutting back my light period and raising my lights on my 60P with Catalina 2x24.

Thank you!

I'm not quite sure yet how high I am going to hang the light. Seeing as how it is by the couch, there is already light leaking from the side a lot so I don't want to raise it up to much. We are only home in the evening though so I can probably the cut the lighting period down to just when we are home, that way I don't have to raise the light too much.

[trenton]

"Planted" scape quickly made with photoshop. Too plain with just HC? I don't want to make it too complicated though...

[monkeyruler90]

Till the end of July? I don't think Id be able to wait that long! You have some patience!

[Jedi_Pizza]

Subscribing. I think this is a great setup so far

[crazydaz]

As I was scrolling down, I had to do a double take! LOL!! I saw that you got your hardscape in a few days ago, but I was shocked when I saw the tank "planted".....I thought to myself "Holy CRAP that's nice!" and saw that you Photoshopped that in.

If you get your HC to grow like that, I think that will be pretty nice looking! I don't think that you need to add anything else....keep it simple! Therein lies the beauty of Iwagumi, right?

[trenton]

Originally Posted by monkeyruler90

Till the end of July? I don't think Id be able to wait that long! You have some patience!

Patience is a virtue! Buuuuut in this case, I don't have another choice, so I don't know if it still counts as patience?

Originally Posted by Jedi_Pizza

Subscribing. I think this is a great setup so far

Thanks Jedi!