Richard's 200L (Planted)

Well I figured it was about time I started a journal for my new setup.

A bit of background
I currently have a 36”x15”x15” upstairs in my office and water changes were becoming a pain. However much I enjoyed carrying 25L water containers upstairs I figured I should really move it downstairs into the living room. If not to make it easier to maintain then make it less distracting while I’m actually trying to do some work in the office.
I figured at the same time I might as well make a new cabinet while I’m at it. I decided to make the new cabinet 48” long so I would have a bit of extra space at the end of the tank to put things (like tools, bottle etc) while doing maintenance. I had all the intention in the world not to buy a new tank and just move my current one, but hey, that soon went out of the window 😉 showing a complete lack of willpower I ended up ordering a bigger tank at 48”x16”x16” not much bigger but it does fill the top of the cabinet.

I already have a thread about the cabinet which can be found here

Some specs
Tank: Rimless, Brace-less Optiwhite
Volume: 200L
Dimensions: 48” x 16” x 16” (1220mm x 406mm x 406mm)
Substrate: Caribsea Eco-Complete and Unipac Limpopo Black Sand
Light: Arcadia Twin T5 54W (thread about the light box can be found here)
Bulbs: 1 x Osram 840 and 1 x Osram Skywhite 880
Filter: Aquamanta EFX 300
Heating: Hydor ETH 200W
CO2: FE 2kg, Up CO2 regulator, Up Inline CO2 Atomiser
External Pump: Eheim Compact+ 2000 (powering a long spray bar with the heater and CO2 diffuser inline)

For the filter the Aquamanta is good I get some pretty decent flow on my old tank and it’s already lasted longer than the Fluval 206 I had previously 😛 but I’m toying with the idea of upgrading to a Fluval G6. Though it does depend on how strong my will power is against spending £340. Wait, it’s obvious I have no willpower (after getting a bigger tank). Oh crap! I’ve just talked myself into it. I guess I’ll be upgrading

Hardscape
I’ll be using this nice piece of vine root.


In this sort of position so the top breaks the water surface.


With a load of Scottish Pebbles/Cobbles and gravel mixed in. Will probably get some sized between the Pebbles and gravel for scale as well.


Flora
I’ve not decided yet, I’m not very good at deciding what will work best and where yet so any advice would be greatly welcomed.

Well my tank arrived yesterday 😀 so excited lol Jez from http://www.poseidons-palace.co.uk did a great job on it.

So I gave it a good old clean to get rid of all the finger prints etc. and applied the frosted background I purchased from TGM. It was very easy to apply and remove. Not sure that is a good thing really at this stage. It wouldn’t be very easy to re-apply once the tank is full.


I also filled it to test for leaks and to try out my DIY spray bar.




I wasn’t getting as much flow as I’d like from the spray bar so I may try smaller holes.

I still need to buy a few items but I reckon I will be filling/planting in a couple of weeks may take a couple of days off work 😉

Any comments/question are welcome.

Richard

Richard's 200L

Yeah it's 1 piece of acrylic at the moment but I am planning on cutting it into 3. Just waiting for some larger diameter tube to arrive in the post to hold the parts together. I like the fact that once it's submerged you can hardly see it.

I just need to figure out the best position for the filter outlet and whether to use another spray bar or Lilly pipe.

Re: Richard's 200L

Well chaps/chapesses,

Time for the first real update. I received some more equipment the other day, I got all my dry salts for my EI All in one dosing. I much prefer the Tubs for storage rather than the foil bags.



I also received a couple of 17mm glass intakes, Up inline diffuser and bubble counter.




So yesterday I jumped on the train for a short journey to PlantedTanks in Selby to get a nice selection of plants. I need to order some more glosso for the carpet 3 pots didn't go very far and I've also got some floaters coming next week (thanks to hoggie for them).






Just after filling (Saturday).


This morning (Sunday)


Any questions/comments welcome

Richard

Thanks guys,

I'll be moving my rag tag bunch of miss fits down from my old tank which includes a couple of pearl gourami, long-finned danios, peppered corys, and neon tetras.

I actually went and had a look around the LFS today and they had some lovely Celestial Pearl Danios,



quite striking looking little things. So I'm thinking a nice decent size shoal of these might look nice. Might add a few more corys as well.

The hydor will be coming out in the morning once I have my large external filter installed.

Hmmm, the more I look at it, I'm not happy with the semi transparent antistatic background. It's applied by spraying the surface with water then smoothing out the film on the wet surface. It looked great when first applied but as it has dried out over time it has gone blotchy (see left side of last photo). It will be pretty much impossible to reapply it now the tank is full. I feel I've wasted my money on it 🙁

I think I need to replace it. What kind of material do you guys use, and how do you attach it?

Thanks Joecoral, much appreciated 🙂