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If I had that much time, I would do almost exactly the same background setup... very impressive!
PhysicsDude's 7 Foot River Tank Journal UPDATE 1-4-2016 New Sump!
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1,402 Posts
I wouldn't be surprised if that tank you got is one I saw earlier this year, lol. I like browsing CL here and there for tanks. Anywho, great job on the background. It does show that you put some time and effort into it. Big projects can pay off if one sticks to it. I have been working on mine for more than 2 years and still not done, lol.
Only concerns I'd have for your project is the build of the stand. I am an advocate to overbuilding/designing an aquarium stand. I like to build my stands to the point that I would feel comfortable resting a ton or more on it. If the stand is rock solid without lateral support, then you know it will hold. I have seen some stands that looks like if an average person dives on it, it will collapse. Your design for the cabinet is quite cool though. It has that entertainment cent look. I'd love to see the finish product. A good design can compliment a room.
Only concerns I'd have for your project is the build of the stand. I am an advocate to overbuilding/designing an aquarium stand. I like to build my stands to the point that I would feel comfortable resting a ton or more on it. If the stand is rock solid without lateral support, then you know it will hold. I have seen some stands that looks like if an average person dives on it, it will collapse. Your design for the cabinet is quite cool though. It has that entertainment cent look. I'd love to see the finish product. A good design can compliment a room.
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596 Posts
Wow, pretty awesome background! Looking forward to seeing the progress here!
P.S. I just noticed our forum nicknames are quite similar, haha.
P.S. I just noticed our forum nicknames are quite similar, haha.
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797 Posts
Amazing workmanship! If I was a fish I would want to be in your tank. :hihi:
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815 Posts
Great work! Love the background and driftwood.
I'd vote for a bigger school of tiger barbs.
I'd vote for a bigger school of tiger barbs.
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466 Posts
Nicely done,especially on the background,cool...
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339 Posts
The tank was on craigslist for awhile, you probably did see it. It was in pretty rough shape, one side of the tank was scratched to hell, but was perfect for my setup!
I have absolutely no worries about the stand. The tank is only 17" tall, and acrylic, so it doesn't weigh as much as you would think. A standard 125G weighs around 220 lbs more than my tank, and most 125G stands I've seen only have 3 upright 2X4 or 4X4 "columns". Using heavy nails and woodglue are overkill strong enough for this application.
Thanks! I do think I agree about the tiger barbs. I had the hood open for a few hours the other day and one tiger barb did a "free willy" and fell to his death, and I put 2 more in for a school of 11. I think I might go to 14 or 15 though. I didn't want a huge school of them when designing the tank, because I wanted to Denison Barbs to be the "showpiece" fish, but I like the tiger barbs enough that I'll probably give them a bigger school.
Thanks! Science FTW :icon_smil Although I have a lot of education in Physics, a more apt username for me would probably be "EngineerDude".
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339 Posts
No good pictures yet, but tank is making good progress.
The lights (including moon lights) are up and working 100% and all my scheduling features for them are working great. Unforunately I'm having issues with my RTC, so I need to fix that, otherwise the clock gets off by about an hour a day, which is annoying.
I have my autofeeder system mostly working. I fried one of my feeders accidentally, but I was out of town for a week, and when I got back my fish weren't hungry, so the arduino is successfully controlling them on their schedule.
The auto top off system is working great.
I finished the "bookshelves" on the sides, and mounted them, but the only downside is that the stain on them didn't turn out as well as I thought. I stained both sides of the bookshelves in the same day with the same bucket of stain, but one of them I stained in the evening, when it was cooler out (about 50 degrees) and the other I stained during the day about noon (about 80 degrees). The one I did in the evening didn't really soak into the wood, it more put a flat coat of paint on the shelf, presumably because it was too cold. It doesn't look /bad/ but the fact that the bookshelves look different on both sides looks really bad. I tried sanding it without much luck, I'll just live with it for now, and rebuild the shelf when I move next.
I should have a lot of time to work on the tank setup thanksgiving weekend, so hopefully it will be mostly finished by then. I should have the final trim pieces installed, finish staining the stand, and have my filler pieces installed. I have the ultrasonic sensor, temp sensor, fans, and pressure sensor to hook up fully and then all my wiring should be done, and I can close up the bottom of the stand which is a rats nest of wires right now. The end is near which is giving me more motivation to get this done!
The lights (including moon lights) are up and working 100% and all my scheduling features for them are working great. Unforunately I'm having issues with my RTC, so I need to fix that, otherwise the clock gets off by about an hour a day, which is annoying.
I have my autofeeder system mostly working. I fried one of my feeders accidentally, but I was out of town for a week, and when I got back my fish weren't hungry, so the arduino is successfully controlling them on their schedule.
The auto top off system is working great.
I finished the "bookshelves" on the sides, and mounted them, but the only downside is that the stain on them didn't turn out as well as I thought. I stained both sides of the bookshelves in the same day with the same bucket of stain, but one of them I stained in the evening, when it was cooler out (about 50 degrees) and the other I stained during the day about noon (about 80 degrees). The one I did in the evening didn't really soak into the wood, it more put a flat coat of paint on the shelf, presumably because it was too cold. It doesn't look /bad/ but the fact that the bookshelves look different on both sides looks really bad. I tried sanding it without much luck, I'll just live with it for now, and rebuild the shelf when I move next.
I should have a lot of time to work on the tank setup thanksgiving weekend, so hopefully it will be mostly finished by then. I should have the final trim pieces installed, finish staining the stand, and have my filler pieces installed. I have the ultrasonic sensor, temp sensor, fans, and pressure sensor to hook up fully and then all my wiring should be done, and I can close up the bottom of the stand which is a rats nest of wires right now. The end is near which is giving me more motivation to get this done!
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339 Posts
UPDATE:
I was only home for 18 hours (including sleeping) this week before I had to leave for work again.
I did buy 6 more tiger barbs, which I think brings the school to 16. They were camera shy when I was filming, but overall they've been very active and school very well. Their increased activity seems to have made the cardinals school tighter also. Not sure if I want more fish or just let these grow to full size. Tank looks a little empty now, but I'm thinking once the fish reach full size, they'll fill in the tank pretty well. I'm not a big fan of heavily stocked tanks, I think medium or lightly stocked looks more natural.
I managed to get some good shots (well, as good as an iPhone can take).
Came home to a pretty bad leak from a bad irrigation fitting... my fault to using an irrigation fitting. One of the top braces came loose.... going to buy some more acrylic and maybe do some Euro bracing or something... still figuring that out. For right now I'm rocking the good ol' C-Clamp bracing.
Current pic:
Whole tank:
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A shot of some of the fish:
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When I built the tank I added 3 of each 3W 405nm LEDs (hyper violet), 495nm (turquoise), and 685nm (deep red), both to try to "fill in" the gaps that conventional white LEDs have in their color spectrum, and the red and violet should help plant growth. When just this array is on, to the human eye it looks mostly turquoise, since the red and violet are on the edge of the human eye's range, but on camera you can see the reds a lot better, it makes the tank look like a disco club!
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It really brings out both the blue and red on the Cardinals. When the other white lights are on, its not very noticeable if these "accent lights" as I call them, are on.
The plants are doing pretty well, but not growing as fast as I expected. I think my mistake was using brand new substrate and not dosing enough fertilizers. I extended the lights to give almost 12 hours of good light per day, and put in twice the fertz I was earlier, with a 50% water change weekly, so hopefully they'll start growing in a little better. I'm still very satisfied with the tank. I never expected it to look like a lush forest, mostly looking for a more natural feel. My last tank was very similar, basically same lighting and substrate, similar plants, and low tech also, and it turned out very green after about a year, so I just need to be patient. I also had thicker mature substrate on the old tank, so I will definitely be adding another 1/2" or so of substrate on this tank. The good news is I have not had hardly any algae.
A pic of my old setup for reference:
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I was only home for 18 hours (including sleeping) this week before I had to leave for work again.
I did buy 6 more tiger barbs, which I think brings the school to 16. They were camera shy when I was filming, but overall they've been very active and school very well. Their increased activity seems to have made the cardinals school tighter also. Not sure if I want more fish or just let these grow to full size. Tank looks a little empty now, but I'm thinking once the fish reach full size, they'll fill in the tank pretty well. I'm not a big fan of heavily stocked tanks, I think medium or lightly stocked looks more natural.
I managed to get some good shots (well, as good as an iPhone can take).
Came home to a pretty bad leak from a bad irrigation fitting... my fault to using an irrigation fitting. One of the top braces came loose.... going to buy some more acrylic and maybe do some Euro bracing or something... still figuring that out. For right now I'm rocking the good ol' C-Clamp bracing.
Current pic:
Whole tank:
A shot of some of the fish:
When I built the tank I added 3 of each 3W 405nm LEDs (hyper violet), 495nm (turquoise), and 685nm (deep red), both to try to "fill in" the gaps that conventional white LEDs have in their color spectrum, and the red and violet should help plant growth. When just this array is on, to the human eye it looks mostly turquoise, since the red and violet are on the edge of the human eye's range, but on camera you can see the reds a lot better, it makes the tank look like a disco club!
It really brings out both the blue and red on the Cardinals. When the other white lights are on, its not very noticeable if these "accent lights" as I call them, are on.
The plants are doing pretty well, but not growing as fast as I expected. I think my mistake was using brand new substrate and not dosing enough fertilizers. I extended the lights to give almost 12 hours of good light per day, and put in twice the fertz I was earlier, with a 50% water change weekly, so hopefully they'll start growing in a little better. I'm still very satisfied with the tank. I never expected it to look like a lush forest, mostly looking for a more natural feel. My last tank was very similar, basically same lighting and substrate, similar plants, and low tech also, and it turned out very green after about a year, so I just need to be patient. I also had thicker mature substrate on the old tank, so I will definitely be adding another 1/2" or so of substrate on this tank. The good news is I have not had hardly any algae.
A pic of my old setup for reference:
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33 Posts
This project is awesome! Similar to what I am trying to build right now (not the water change project you commented on), your way ahead of me however I probably have months before I am anywhere near finished. I may pick your brain after I am able to read through the whole thread.
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339 Posts
Small update. I added 2 bags of aquasoil to cover the substrate. I should have spent more money on better subsrate while setting up the tank, or I should have transfered all my old substrate. Oh well. Live and learn.
Capping the substrate and putting brand new filter elements really helped clear the water up. It also looks like all the tannins from the driftwood have leached out also, so the water is really really clear.
I spent some more money on getting Flourish fertilizers, and started dosing them every week, and it has really made my plants grow, along with the added substrate. I should have been doing this all along, but I'm still learning how to grow plants well. Its still going to be several months before the plants really spread out and grow in.
Unfortunately I lost all my cardinal tetras to an Ich outbreak while I was out of town. I replaced them with a school of Turqoise Rainbowfish, which was really for the better. The Cardinals didn't like the strong water currents, and the rainbowfish LOVE strong currents, and are just more active overall. I like the look of the tank better with the rainbowfish.
The tiger barbs have grown a lot, and the tank finally is starting to look fully stocked.
I made a lot of progress on the Arduino controller. It now monitors and stores temperature data, so I can see how well the heater is regulating the temperature. I added features which calculate the real moon phase and sunrise/sunset times for the lights, along with some other misc. fixes and updates that I had been lazy about.
Still need to finish some of the wood working... Haven't done a whole lot since its been cold and wet. I have to cut my wood outside, since my garage has a disassembled car engine in it. January is pretty slow for work, so hopefully I'll be able to get a lot of work done in the next few weeks.
Updated picture:
Capping the substrate and putting brand new filter elements really helped clear the water up. It also looks like all the tannins from the driftwood have leached out also, so the water is really really clear.
I spent some more money on getting Flourish fertilizers, and started dosing them every week, and it has really made my plants grow, along with the added substrate. I should have been doing this all along, but I'm still learning how to grow plants well. Its still going to be several months before the plants really spread out and grow in.
Unfortunately I lost all my cardinal tetras to an Ich outbreak while I was out of town. I replaced them with a school of Turqoise Rainbowfish, which was really for the better. The Cardinals didn't like the strong water currents, and the rainbowfish LOVE strong currents, and are just more active overall. I like the look of the tank better with the rainbowfish.
The tiger barbs have grown a lot, and the tank finally is starting to look fully stocked.
I made a lot of progress on the Arduino controller. It now monitors and stores temperature data, so I can see how well the heater is regulating the temperature. I added features which calculate the real moon phase and sunrise/sunset times for the lights, along with some other misc. fixes and updates that I had been lazy about.
Still need to finish some of the wood working... Haven't done a whole lot since its been cold and wet. I have to cut my wood outside, since my garage has a disassembled car engine in it. January is pretty slow for work, so hopefully I'll be able to get a lot of work done in the next few weeks.
Updated picture:
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339 Posts
Update:
I am basically finished! There's still a few things I want to do to it, a few pieces of trim that I'd like to put on, and some more arduino stuff I want to add... but all the big stuff is complete. Very satisfied to have this tank finally be presentable. It makes a very nice centerpiece for my dining room.
The stain didn't really turn out how I expected, but I don't think I applied it correctly. Oh well, it still looks nice.
The arduino is working well. Currently it controls the lights, feeders, and filters. Auto top off is working. Right now I can leave this tank alone for over a month and it will be just fine, which was my original goal.
Here's a cool side by side picture I did with my original sketchup. I made the sketchup drawing on May 20th, 2014. I finished the tank March 1st, 2015. It took a long time and a lot of hard work, but its neat to see my original design jump to life. Only thing I really changed was how the bookshelf connects to the hood at the top. I kept the bookshelf as a separate piece to make the setup more modular.
![]()
I am basically finished! There's still a few things I want to do to it, a few pieces of trim that I'd like to put on, and some more arduino stuff I want to add... but all the big stuff is complete. Very satisfied to have this tank finally be presentable. It makes a very nice centerpiece for my dining room.
The stain didn't really turn out how I expected, but I don't think I applied it correctly. Oh well, it still looks nice.
The arduino is working well. Currently it controls the lights, feeders, and filters. Auto top off is working. Right now I can leave this tank alone for over a month and it will be just fine, which was my original goal.
Here's a cool side by side picture I did with my original sketchup. I made the sketchup drawing on May 20th, 2014. I finished the tank March 1st, 2015. It took a long time and a lot of hard work, but its neat to see my original design jump to life. Only thing I really changed was how the bookshelf connects to the hood at the top. I kept the bookshelf as a separate piece to make the setup more modular.
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3,011 Posts
The stand makes the tank look small to me, but I know it isn't! I think it turned out nice. Definitely cool with all the automation that you have put in place.
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339 Posts
Yeah I know what you mean, the pictures are almost underwhelming to what it looks like in person. From left to right the entire setup is 12 feet wide. It takes up the entire wall of one side of my dining room.
Here's a picture from the side, makes the tank look much bigger. The tank/stand also protrudes about 6" past the bookshelves.
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