Mr T
Member
Ok, here goes!
Quick note to George Farmer before I begin. Hi dude Tesco here, how’s things? This is all your fault and I hold you responsible for all this expense!
Well after spending a few weeks with the infamous Mr Farmer out in Afghanistan (I used to be in the RAF myself until a few months ago) about a year and a half ago I got somewhat interested in the whole planted tank thing. I have kept fish for almost a decade but have never really had what you would call a planted tank. This has all changed recently however. I decided to dismantle my smallest 40l cube and re-establish it as something all together more spectacular. To that end I purchased an Osaka 260 complete with cabinet. I managed to get this at quite a deal as they are no longer manufactured and I was happy to accept the shop display model. (Also meant that I didn't have to build the stand either!)
Nice new tank..
Hardscaping. Well think I might be in for some criticism here but I'm happy with the end result (now it’s all planted) so I'll live with whatever people have to say! The largest piece of wood I found at a local store and purchased especially for this tank. The other pieces and the pebbles I've had in various tanks and some stage or another. I decided I wanted a nice dark substrate, and something that would give the plants a fighting chance. I settled on Caribsea Eco Complete. To give a nice background contrast I went with an all black background.
For filtration I'm using the supplied Fluval 305. In the lower basket I have the Bio Max that was supplied with the filter. In the next (middle) layer there is a little more Bio Max together with some Bio Balls from the old 40l setup. I figured it would be worthwhile to pre seed the filter and hopefully reduce the cycling time. Also in this layer is a 100ml pouch of Seachem Purigen. I knew that the new large log would leach tannins like no tomorrow and have had great results using this product in the past. For the top biological layer I used an old favourite of mine, Eheim Substrat Pro. I've been using this for years and personally I can't fault it. Yes it’s expensive but it seems to last a very long time and I've never had any filter related problems using this. My other tank has a large messy plec and a couple of knife fish as its inhabitants and this stuff (along with Eheim Efimech) manages to keep the water very clean. Some of this also came from the old 40l setup.
Initial planting. Some of the plants came from the little 40l job but the rest are all new. No real scheme to be honest. I just purchased what I liked the look of and was generally considered relatively easy to grow. (Let’s not run before we can walk hey?)
Now due to my new career (I work offshore on seismic survey vessels) I can be away for up to 4 weeks at a time. So some automation was necessary.
What! I hear you cry. What about water changes etc? Well In nearly a decade of fish keeping (remember I was in the RAF and on my longest trip I was away for just over 2 months) I've always over filtered and done as many water changes as practical / safe when around. During this time my water parameters have always remained in a safe condition and never came home to fish losses / mass deaths / huge algae outbreaks. Even after a 9 week stint in the desert, my plec tank although a little turbid was chemically sound. (I know many members of this forum poo poo test kits but I've found them to be a handy guide, that’s not to say that they should be fully trusted however!)
Well, in light of work schedules I purchased another Fluval 305 and installed it with exactly the same media at the opposite end of the tank. I figured that this would help with circulation also. With a planted tank comes the necessity of ferts and carbon. Due to being away (and having some of the equipment already) I decided to go with a liquid carbon source and an off the shelf all in one fertilizer. (I'll be posting something on this and some questions I have in the Ferts section shortly) This is dosed automatically, daily via peristaltic pumps. These run at 2ml a minute and are consistently very accurate. I got them from the link below.
http://www.williamson-shop.co.uk/aquadoser-cased-230vac-pumps-5551-p.asp
Here's an image of the "tech" bits in the cupboard
The tanks now been up and running for about 2 1/2 months (I've been away twice during this time) and things seem to be progressing nicely. Along with the plants the tank mates include a couple of Ancistrus, 10 Oto's, 10 Cardinals, 12 Amano Shrimp, 4 Peacock Gobies (liked the look of them and after some reading decided that they would be ok) and a whole bunch of Endlers. I've been breeding these last little guys for many years, although I always buy a couple whenever I see some good ones for sale just to mix the genes a bit. There a great little fish, always active and they have some lovely colouring. Recently (it's in the pictures below, just well hidden!) I've added a Koralia Nano pump. I was a little concerned about the flow around the back of the tank and figured this would be the easiest solution. Gentle but just powerfull enough. My only gripe with these is would it kill Hydor to give these pumps some extra cable?! The pump is behind the big log and to hide cable I ran it along the bottom of the tank and up one corner, trouble is this only left about 10 inches of cable to the plug! One quick made up extension to the rescue!
Right side
Left side
Any comments (however scornful! 😉 ) gratefully received 😀
I am still a little concerned about flow so may yet install another (hidden!) Koralia Nano on the other side of the centre log.
Cheers all,
Chris Sainsbury
(Hence I was known during my RAF days, and still am by many, as Tesco)
Quick note to George Farmer before I begin. Hi dude Tesco here, how’s things? This is all your fault and I hold you responsible for all this expense!
Well after spending a few weeks with the infamous Mr Farmer out in Afghanistan (I used to be in the RAF myself until a few months ago) about a year and a half ago I got somewhat interested in the whole planted tank thing. I have kept fish for almost a decade but have never really had what you would call a planted tank. This has all changed recently however. I decided to dismantle my smallest 40l cube and re-establish it as something all together more spectacular. To that end I purchased an Osaka 260 complete with cabinet. I managed to get this at quite a deal as they are no longer manufactured and I was happy to accept the shop display model. (Also meant that I didn't have to build the stand either!)
Nice new tank..
Hardscaping. Well think I might be in for some criticism here but I'm happy with the end result (now it’s all planted) so I'll live with whatever people have to say! The largest piece of wood I found at a local store and purchased especially for this tank. The other pieces and the pebbles I've had in various tanks and some stage or another. I decided I wanted a nice dark substrate, and something that would give the plants a fighting chance. I settled on Caribsea Eco Complete. To give a nice background contrast I went with an all black background.
For filtration I'm using the supplied Fluval 305. In the lower basket I have the Bio Max that was supplied with the filter. In the next (middle) layer there is a little more Bio Max together with some Bio Balls from the old 40l setup. I figured it would be worthwhile to pre seed the filter and hopefully reduce the cycling time. Also in this layer is a 100ml pouch of Seachem Purigen. I knew that the new large log would leach tannins like no tomorrow and have had great results using this product in the past. For the top biological layer I used an old favourite of mine, Eheim Substrat Pro. I've been using this for years and personally I can't fault it. Yes it’s expensive but it seems to last a very long time and I've never had any filter related problems using this. My other tank has a large messy plec and a couple of knife fish as its inhabitants and this stuff (along with Eheim Efimech) manages to keep the water very clean. Some of this also came from the old 40l setup.
Initial planting. Some of the plants came from the little 40l job but the rest are all new. No real scheme to be honest. I just purchased what I liked the look of and was generally considered relatively easy to grow. (Let’s not run before we can walk hey?)
Now due to my new career (I work offshore on seismic survey vessels) I can be away for up to 4 weeks at a time. So some automation was necessary.
What! I hear you cry. What about water changes etc? Well In nearly a decade of fish keeping (remember I was in the RAF and on my longest trip I was away for just over 2 months) I've always over filtered and done as many water changes as practical / safe when around. During this time my water parameters have always remained in a safe condition and never came home to fish losses / mass deaths / huge algae outbreaks. Even after a 9 week stint in the desert, my plec tank although a little turbid was chemically sound. (I know many members of this forum poo poo test kits but I've found them to be a handy guide, that’s not to say that they should be fully trusted however!)
Well, in light of work schedules I purchased another Fluval 305 and installed it with exactly the same media at the opposite end of the tank. I figured that this would help with circulation also. With a planted tank comes the necessity of ferts and carbon. Due to being away (and having some of the equipment already) I decided to go with a liquid carbon source and an off the shelf all in one fertilizer. (I'll be posting something on this and some questions I have in the Ferts section shortly) This is dosed automatically, daily via peristaltic pumps. These run at 2ml a minute and are consistently very accurate. I got them from the link below.
http://www.williamson-shop.co.uk/aquadoser-cased-230vac-pumps-5551-p.asp
Here's an image of the "tech" bits in the cupboard
The tanks now been up and running for about 2 1/2 months (I've been away twice during this time) and things seem to be progressing nicely. Along with the plants the tank mates include a couple of Ancistrus, 10 Oto's, 10 Cardinals, 12 Amano Shrimp, 4 Peacock Gobies (liked the look of them and after some reading decided that they would be ok) and a whole bunch of Endlers. I've been breeding these last little guys for many years, although I always buy a couple whenever I see some good ones for sale just to mix the genes a bit. There a great little fish, always active and they have some lovely colouring. Recently (it's in the pictures below, just well hidden!) I've added a Koralia Nano pump. I was a little concerned about the flow around the back of the tank and figured this would be the easiest solution. Gentle but just powerfull enough. My only gripe with these is would it kill Hydor to give these pumps some extra cable?! The pump is behind the big log and to hide cable I ran it along the bottom of the tank and up one corner, trouble is this only left about 10 inches of cable to the plug! One quick made up extension to the rescue!
Right side
Left side
Any comments (however scornful! 😉 ) gratefully received 😀
I am still a little concerned about flow so may yet install another (hidden!) Koralia Nano on the other side of the centre log.
Cheers all,
Chris Sainsbury
(Hence I was known during my RAF days, and still am by many, as Tesco)
