My new 180 gallons aquascape
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Looks awesome! Where did you get the wood pieces from? Gonna be scaping a 40B pretty soon. Always looking for good aqua scaping materials.
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The only thing I would say is that the left piece looks to be aligned with the right structure, personally I'd move it forward a bit.
No need to repaint, it's old coraline (salt water tank) that will disolve quickly. I will probably put a black background to hide a bit the black overflow bit not sure yet
Blue is coming from iphone white balance. No worry, the led are more white but not yellowish as warm white bulb
Good deal
I had a feeling it was a previous saltwater tank (also why I was thinking the lights might be higher spectrum blue), so I suspected those were mineral deposits, or just paint chips.
You can use something acidic, like vinegar or a stronger acid (bar keepers friend works great and is safer than stronger acids) to dissolve the calcium deposits quicker.
A clear (back wall of room) or lighter color background might give the tank a more natural feel, but those black overflows may throw that off. Get it looking how you want it first though and then you can decide on the background after it's all said and done.
Plans for fauna?
Going high tech? Not sure how much co2 the overflows would off gas.
Cheers
I had a feeling it was a previous saltwater tank (also why I was thinking the lights might be higher spectrum blue), so I suspected those were mineral deposits, or just paint chips.
You can use something acidic, like vinegar or a stronger acid (bar keepers friend works great and is safer than stronger acids) to dissolve the calcium deposits quicker.
A clear (back wall of room) or lighter color background might give the tank a more natural feel, but those black overflows may throw that off. Get it looking how you want it first though and then you can decide on the background after it's all said and done.
Plans for fauna?
Going high tech? Not sure how much co2 the overflows would off gas.
Cheers
Yes, it will be high-tech CO2. I dont woory too much with the remaining calcium, I took off much of it, took me hours to do it!
Regarding my lamps, the blue leds are turned off but the spectrum is bit blue because most of the led are 12000k kelvin. I will make a try because I dont want to spend another 1000$ to convert my Orphek lamps unless I must do it. (I told my wife that I can re-use my equipment from my reef tank for my new planted tank)
Hahahaha, Got to persuade some how 
I will let the light experts comment on the plant growing potential of those lights. But with my minimal knowledge on those lighting, those throw out plenty of blue light (most used by plants, but they do like some green and red spectrum), so you should be able to grow most things, but the plant colors may not be at their highest potential, and the blue hue projected from the lights themselves may skew viewers perception of the colors.
Got the dimensions of the tank? (height mainly)
Acidic liquids would have made the mineral clean up much easier haha, next time.
As for lava rocks, smaller pieces would provide more surface area per volume. Lava rocks has tons of external craters, but those pores don't tunnel through the internal structure, so water contact is only limited to the external areas of the rock. You could crush up the large chunks of lava rock, but easier to just buy them already small sized. The large lava rocks are just wasting space (unusable center core, no water passes through)
Nylon pot scrubbers, like the packs you can find at the dollar store, are another good cheap option. They provide more surface area. Clog less and easier to clean I believe?
But if you aren't stocking much fish/bioload, and you are already going to have a ton of plants, there's not too much need for a lot of biological filter media. Still surface area wise, I would go with pot scrubbers over crushed up lava rocks.
Got any pics of your old saltwater tanks? Wouldn't mind seeing some.
I will let the light experts comment on the plant growing potential of those lights. But with my minimal knowledge on those lighting, those throw out plenty of blue light (most used by plants, but they do like some green and red spectrum), so you should be able to grow most things, but the plant colors may not be at their highest potential, and the blue hue projected from the lights themselves may skew viewers perception of the colors.
Got the dimensions of the tank? (height mainly)
Acidic liquids would have made the mineral clean up much easier haha, next time.
As for lava rocks, smaller pieces would provide more surface area per volume. Lava rocks has tons of external craters, but those pores don't tunnel through the internal structure, so water contact is only limited to the external areas of the rock. You could crush up the large chunks of lava rock, but easier to just buy them already small sized. The large lava rocks are just wasting space (unusable center core, no water passes through)
Nylon pot scrubbers, like the packs you can find at the dollar store, are another good cheap option. They provide more surface area. Clog less and easier to clean I believe?
But if you aren't stocking much fish/bioload, and you are already going to have a ton of plants, there's not too much need for a lot of biological filter media. Still surface area wise, I would go with pot scrubbers over crushed up lava rocks.
Got any pics of your old saltwater tanks? Wouldn't mind seeing some.
Joined
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517 Posts
Very nice setup.
Maybe a black background to enhance flora and future fauna.
Maybe a black background to enhance flora and future fauna.
Hahahaha, Got to persuade some how
I will let the light experts comment on the plant growing potential of those lights. But with my minimal knowledge on those lighting, those throw out plenty of blue light (most used by plants, but they do like some green and red spectrum), so you should be able to grow most things, but the plant colors may not be at their highest potential, and the blue hue projected from the lights themselves may skew viewers perception of the colors.
Got the dimensions of the tank? (height mainly)
Acidic liquids would have made the mineral clean up much easier haha, next time.
As for lava rocks, smaller pieces would provide more surface area per volume. Lava rocks has tons of external craters, but those pores don't tunnel through the internal structure, so water contact is only limited to the external areas of the rock. You could crush up the large chunks of lava rock, but easier to just buy them already small sized. The large lava rocks are just wasting space (unusable center core, no water passes through)
Nylon pot scrubbers, like the packs you can find at the dollar store, are another good cheap option. They provide more surface area. Clog less and easier to clean I believe?
But if you aren't stocking much fish/bioload, and you are already going to have a ton of plants, there's not too much need for a lot of biological filter media. Still surface area wise, I would go with pot scrubbers over crushed up lava rocks.
Got any pics of your old saltwater tanks? Wouldn't mind seeing some.
My tank is 72in x 24in x 24in height.
Thanks for the advice with the lava rock. I was also considering bioball such
http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/aqueon-proflex-biomedia-accessory-pack.html
Or
http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/marinepure-ceramic-biomedia-1-1-2-spheres.html
Find a video on youtube before the last crash of my tank:
http://youtu.be/jTpIf_BfPlE
http://youtu.be/jTpIf_BfPlE
But I was tired to spend so much money on corals!!!
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520 Posts
Best bio media on the market from another planted tank owner coming from saltwater tanks is this. https://greatwaveeng.com/shop/media/biohome-ultimate-media/#reviews
I have replaced all the bio balls in my eheim canisters with it and it works amazing, need to order more for my new 2217 for my eheim 460l in signature soon as well.
I have replaced all the bio balls in my eheim canisters with it and it works amazing, need to order more for my new 2217 for my eheim 460l in signature soon as well.
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