# 250G High Tech Tank



## Consigliere (26 Sep 2009)

There have been several mentions of a future, big tank in some of my posts.  My 70G tank was actually re-setup to be a proving/testing ground for learning to run a higher tech tank so this big tank would not start out as a huge disaster.  Well, the time has finally arrived to start this project.  I received a call today from the tank builder, Bow Valley Aquarium in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, that my tank has been built and will ship to me on Monday.  All I can say is finally!  The builder selection is a long story, and if you ever want my opinion please send me an email.

Although I haven't actually received the tank yet, I have a few things that I am going to post before the big arrival.  I've got a drawing of the tank back that I supplied to the builder.






The overall tank dimensions are 66" long x 26" wide x 36" tall.  The tank will be 3/4" Starphire glass on the front and sides with a rimless eurobracing design.  Clear silicone will be used for the joints and the background will be a navy blue laminated sheet.  As you can see the tank has been drilled with five 2 3/8" drilled holes for water flow.  The top two holes are for water return to the tank and the bottom three will be for overflows.  The plan is to plumb the tank for silence using a U style overflow and a DIY custom spray bar for the returns.

I have been finishing my basement for a while and this aquarium will eventually be the center piece.   I have put in some hardware already that I will post prior to the tanks arrival.  The process so far has been a few months, but I will compress this into 1 or 2 posts.  Hopefully, by then, the tank will have arrived and the real action will begin.  I'm going to build a custom stand for it.  I'm hoping to finish up with a fully automated tank with a foolproof, fail-safe design.  I'm sure there will be a few mishaps as things get worked out.  Just hopefully none while I am asleep.

Anyone with any experience moving large glass tanks like this?  I was thinking of calling a moving company to do it since I figure it will be over 500lbs.


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## ScottYalloP (26 Sep 2009)

Sounds promising


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## Consigliere (2 Oct 2009)

*Re: 250G High Tech Tank....DIY Exhaust System*

One of the things I am concious of with keeping tanks is the humidity they create.  I have never experienced a tank as large as a 250G so I can only imagine the humidity it will create.  I am trying to address this by exhausting the hood section of the tank out of the vicinity of the aquarium.  Here I will have some photos and explanation of how I created an exhaust system in my unfinished basement that will allow me to exhaust the hot, humid tank air to 1) my furnace cold air return during the winter (improves heating efficiency and will help humidify the house during the super dry Canadian winters) or 2) outside using my dryer vent during the summer.

This system was put in months ago, before I started finishing my basement.  To start, I had to put together the piece which will actually sit inside the hood and draw air.  I am using a 120V 4" drive exhaust fan that was given to me as the first piece of hardware that will move air.  I attached it to a 4" PVC elbow using some nails and construction adhesive.  Once the adhesive dried, I wrapped it in duct tape to make the seal air tight.









The next step was to mount the assembly to a floor joist and add an electrical junction to house the electrical connections for the exhaust fan and the flow boosting fan (to come).  I drilled a couple holes into the PVC elbow and screwed it to a floor joist and mounted a standard light junction to the joist so that the junction was flush to the PVC elbow.  This will give me access to the junction in the future since it will be below the ceiling drywall.






In all honesty, at this point I figured I just hook up some more PVC, and the drive exhaust fan would be able to overcome the head pressure and move the air from the one end of the system to the other.  Boy was I wrong.  I had no flow, so I had to figure out a good way to boost the pressure.  Walking through Princess Auto I noticed furnace duct boosting fans.  What do you know, they had a 120V 4" fan.  Perfect!  So I mounted the fan at the elbow and wired it up to a 120V electrical cord.  In hindsight, I should've placed the boosting fan at a different spot but it works pretty well where it is.  Attached to the boosting fan is length of 4" PVC that runs the length of the floor joist.





If you are wondering, yes that is 14-2 standard wire.  It has since been replaced with 14-2 flexible outdoor wire.  I used duct tape again to seal the PVC connections to the boosting fan.  The long run of PVC was secured to the floor joist at each end the same way the PVC elbow was secured.  The 4" PVC run took me to the tricky part of the project.  I had to get the air from my future rec room, across the whole basement to where my furnace and dryer duct are.  I had already boxed in my furnace duct work so I figured I could run a line next to the existing duct work without any problems.  I used a modified funnel to taper the connection from the 4" PVC to a 1.5" flex hose that would carry the air the rest of the run.  The braided flex hose creates a bit of an issue in terms of extra head pressure but I really didn't have much choice at this point.  Here's the funnel adapter and it attached to the PVC with duct tape.









I don't have any photos of the termination of the whole system but there is a T connection with valving on each of the branches that allows me to run the air to my cold air return on my furnace during the winter or to my dryer duct during the summer.  The whole system doesn't move a lot of air but enough that I think the humidity in the main room of the basement won't get out of control and it should help cool the lighting a little bit.  It may have just been an interesting project and not particularly useful, but I figured with this setup I might as well go for everything I can think of rather than get the tank going and wish I had this or that.


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## TDI-line (2 Oct 2009)

Nice work so far.


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## Tony Swinney (2 Oct 2009)

Looks like a great project - look forward to it developing   

Tony


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## Consigliere (23 Oct 2009)

After almost 7 months of waiting for this tank, it has finally arrived.  Not much to see yet since it is still in the crate but here it is.






With most of the crate material removed.  Man what a stressful job messing around with crowbars and prybars with a giant glass box inches away.





Here's a shot of it the builder sent me prior to shipping.  It's looking pretty good.


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## ScottYalloP (23 Oct 2009)

sweet


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## Themuleous (24 Oct 2009)

Thats a hell of a DIY porject!!  Love it 

Sam


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## Mortis (24 Oct 2009)

Lol for a second I thought that the crate was your stand !!


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## Themuleous (25 Oct 2009)

Mortis said:
			
		

> Lol for a second I thought that the crate was your stand !!


 I must admit I thought that to start with!  

Tank looks great BTW 

Sam


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## Vito (25 Oct 2009)

one hell of a project, very exciting!


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## Consigliere (8 Oct 2010)

Finally the first update in nearly a year.  This project has been on hold until I finished the basement that the tank was going to be installed in.  I found out very quickly that having your first child will put a little damper on the projects you had going before.  Nearly 1 year after the tank arrived it has been uncrated and is almost ready to be put on the stand.  I'm thinking I will have to have professional movers do this job.  

I've got the structural part of my stand built.  It is 2x6 and 2x4 construction.  3/4" plywood on top.  My wife is paranoid it isn't strong enough for a 250G but I think it's plenty safe.

Here's the stand going together:

The top frame that the plywood will be screwed to:










and the whole thing clamped together ready to be screwed.





I also realized that if I tried to put the tank on the stand and then put the manzanita wood as a whole in it wouldn't fit and there is no way I was assembling it by hanging into the tank so I have started putting together my stump that will go in and I will install it in the tank before I put the tank on the stand.  I'm building it on the stand so I can get it sized correctly.  

Looking for some feedback on the arrangement.  I have lots more good branches that will beef up the right side a bit more so it isn't complete yet.

Straight on:





Closer:





From the left:





From the right:





And still to be put into the arrangement:





Here's what I think will be the final arrangement. I got every piece in, including a couple small pieces I had in an old tank.

Straight On:





From the left:





and the right:





What do you think?


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## Krishs Bettas (8 Oct 2010)

I love the wood and it looks great!


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## sanj (8 Oct 2010)

The wood composition looks great, just make sure you have the room to conduct your maintainance without being hindered too much otherwise it could end up being a real irritation.


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## Krishs Bettas (8 Oct 2010)

by the way where did you get that wood from? If you dont mind.


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## Consigliere (8 Oct 2010)

I got the wood from someone on another forum.  I think he is based in Arizona? I believe he sells packages of wood all the time.  I could look for his contact info if you need it.


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## chilled84 (8 Oct 2010)

Consigliere said:
			
		

> I got the wood from someone on another forum.  I think he is based in Arizona? I believe he sells packages of wood all the time.  I could look for his contact info if you need it.



Um lets think about that? Thought about it. Yes please.


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## Consigliere (8 Oct 2010)

Here's a link to my blog that has the screen name of the guy I got the wood from.

http://canaquaticgardens.wordpress.com/2009/08/03/shout-out-to-jake-for-amazing-manzanita-wood/

I found him on the Aquatic Plant Central forum or Planet Tank.net forum as one of the two names in that post.


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## xavi_pr (14 Oct 2010)

looking good, nice tank, what type of filtration are you going to use? co2? lights?

I got a 75gal planted, though I was into big stuff but... you went overboard


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## Consigliere (14 Oct 2010)

Im going to use a 70G tank for the filter.  It will be a DIY sump style.  There will be a pressurized CO2 system with a reactor and water column dosing for ferts.  I have 6 T5HO lights with Geismann day and flora bulbs.


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## George Farmer (14 Oct 2010)

Very, very cool.  I am really looking forward to seeing this progress.  

Thanks for sharing.


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## toadass (22 Oct 2010)

That is going to be a serious tank... good dedication mate, can't wait to see this one journal


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## LondonDragon (27 Oct 2010)

That is a lot of wood!! looking forward to seeing this in the tank and planted  
Nice DIY skills too!!


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## Consigliere (12 Oct 2011)

I'm looking at the dates on these posts and it seems like I get the itch to work on this project about this time every year.  What turned out to be the most difficult aspect of the entire project was completely overlooked by me when I designed this tank.  Moving it to my basement was an absolute nightmare. Professional movers turned down the job but in the end my two brother-in-laws, my dad and myself moved it from my garage to my basement.






Making the Plan





Not the most comfortable moment





Don't let go




Almost there



Almost two years from delivery it finally makes it into my house.





Front view





Better lighting


I can finally get started on all the setup.  The plumbing will be the first job.  The filter the second.  That will be the moment of truth on filling this thing with water and getting the pumps going.  I'll be posting the drainage plumbing design shortly.


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## Consigliere (12 Oct 2011)

It's time to finally move the design from paper to actual parts. The drain system is setup so that the water level in the tank is determined by the horizontal pipe at the top. The two capped ends will be used to vent any air by attaching some hosing. Ball valves provide full isolation for each drain. They also provide the capability for a quick 1/3 water change. The lowest drain in the tank will be used mainly for draining almost the whole tank if it's needed. Total output at maximum drainage will be two full 1.5" ABS pipes. The ball valves can potentially provide some more sophisticated flows but I don't think I will use it that way very often, if ever.




Drain plumbing

A weakness of this system is all the threaded parts. The ball valve fittings to 1.5" straight pipe is threaded and the connection to the drain bulkheads to the tanks is threaded. Any recommendations for good teflon tape for ABS piping? The taping job will probably determine if I have any leaks when it starts up.

Anyone see any fatal flaws in this setup?

It will drain from the two down going 1.5" pipes into a 70G sump filter. At the end of the drain lines will be a DIY "muffler" installed inside the sump to try and minimize the noise of the whole system.


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## foxfish (12 Oct 2011)

Excellent project   
I am interested in the pipe work & your plans to operate the overflow system.
The pipe you are using looks like waste water pipe & not pressure pipe?
I was also wondering how you intend to prevent back flow from the submerged return pipe (spray bar)?
Are you going to use overflow boxes?


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## sanj (12 Oct 2011)

Man I really feel for you. It can be a nightmare trying to lug huge tanks around. I dont even have any big friendly muscle bound friends.

Love that wood though.


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## Consigliere (17 Oct 2011)

The drainage system posted is ABS waste water pipe.  The supply system and CO2 reactor will be schedule 40 PVC.  

Good question on the supply, how to eliminate backflow.  I'm thinking that I will run a line of tubing from the supply piping over the top of the tank and have it flow into the tank.  The end of the tubing will be above the water line.  This way, if the pump stops the tubing will suck in air and should break the vacuum.  Hopefully that will work well enough.


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## foxfish (18 Oct 2011)

I guesse your idea to break the syphon should work although there might be quite a bit of water flow before this happens unless you use quite big pipe to get above the water line.
 You could carry the feed pipe to just above the water line & fit a non return air valve on top of the pipe instead of retuning the pipe over the top but, if you leave enough space in the sump for excess overflow water the syphon idea should break in time?
Can you explain how your overflow pipe will work, are you going to have overflow boxes?

You may want to consider a slightly different approach....bear in mind overflowing water will very efficiently disperse the c02 content from the actual water that is overflowing as it is exposed to the air.
On that basis you could recirculate some of the water from the return pump withing the sump so there is good gas exchange & active bacterial benifits but run  much less water over the overflows. Then you can use a closed circuit via a separate pump to feed the reactor & spray bar plus add the necessary flow within the display tank.
By doing this you will also avoid any potential noise from the overflow as there will just be a gentle flow ?


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## hirek1963 (18 Oct 2011)

extremal impressive mate


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## Consigliere (18 Oct 2011)

The overflow will work like this...I hope:

The valving on the drainage system can be setup so that drainage only occurs by pushing water out the drilled drain ports (3) in the tank and forces water to the top pipe that runs horizontal.  The water will then drain down the two down facing pipes into the sump.  The idea is that the top horizontal pipe will essentially control the water level.  The water level in the tank should remain constant this way and only the sump system will have fluctuating water level.  The sump is going to have a return pump and a sump pump which is plumbed to the house drain.  Whenever water level in the sump goes to a certain level, float switch will engage the sump pump and start putting water to drain.

The siphon break will require some experimentation to ensure that it works adequately.  May need to size up from tubing to 1/2" PEX or something like that.  It will take some extra thought and trials but we'll see how it goes.  The good thing is that the sump will have a pump to get rid of extra water in case there are a few gallons extra siphoned off before the siphon break.  I'm also thinking that I will include an additional 20G of sump capacity only for overflow capture and/or water conditioning.  Don't want to flood my basement!  

The sump design is still a work in progress and will depend partly on being able to fit everything underneath the display tank.  Right now I'm planning a 48"x12"x12" 70G taking for the main sump (divided into sections obviously) and a 20G additional sump for overflow capture and water conditioning.  Could also be used for an isolation tank if required.


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## Consigliere (10 Nov 2011)

The last few weeks I've been installing the drainage plumbing onto the bulkheads. A few design changes were necessary as I installed things to make sure there was room for the return plumbing. The isolation valves for the rightside upper drain bulkhead will be hard to get to so I think I'm going to drill a hole in the valve handles and put a threaded rod and nut through it so I can pull it open or closed from above. Here's a couple shots of the drainage plumbing installed.



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The next step was to turn my old 70G tank into the filter. I'm doing a sump setup underneath the stand. The design is based on a bunch of nice saltwater sumps I've seen on the internet. I chose Lexan for the dividers. Glass would've been better but Lexan was easier to get and wasn't overly expensive. It took a little bit to figure out how best to cut it. There are a few chips out of some of the dividers that hopefully will be filled with silicone. You'll see I didn't spare any silicone when I installed the dividers. Before I installed each divider I sanded the surface that was going to be siliconed to the glass. Hopefully the extra surface area will make a strong enough bond to stand up to the flows in the sump. Here's the photos of the transformation of the 70G tank to the sump:
































The pump mounts have some rubber grommets siliconed in below the screw heads. There will be 2 more rubber gromets sandwiching each pump mount with stainless washers and nuts to keep everything together and vibrating without hitting the glass.

With everything installed here we are:








Overall the filter has 5 distinct features. A submerged return pump, a bubble trap before the return pump. 2 sections of bio filtration, sump pump with float switch connected to the house drain and a 15G or so refugium. The sump pump still needs to be installed but the plumbing is all in place.. The refugium will initially be used for keeping isolation from new fish while getting them exposed to tank conditions. After that I'll use it to grow some plants.

The next part of the project is the plumbing for the return system. I have some check valves on order that I need to get that finished. There will be 3 of them for redundancy since check valves aren't as reliable as an above water siphon break. I decided to give up on doing a siphon break and spend some extra money on heavy duty check valves. The return system will include a 3" PVC CO2 reactor with injection via pressurized CO2 and regulator.

Here's how everything looks together right now:


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## LondonDragon (10 Nov 2011)

Monster tank!! looking great, love the wood, the only thing I would not do is run the co2 bottle on its side, asking for trouble there.


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## Ian Holdich (10 Nov 2011)

well spotted LD. Love that wood!


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## Consigliere (10 Nov 2011)

Curious what the issue is with running the CO2 canister on its side.  This isn't the final position for it but I was planning on keeping it horizontal , or close to it.  What's the failure you would introduce?  CO2 dump?


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## Consigliere (11 Nov 2011)

Am now educated on why the CO2 canister can't go on its side.  Although I didn't design the stand to take the CO2 tank standing up, luckily it did.

Just had a brainstorm.  

Instead of having a CO2 reactor in the plumbing, why not just install the CO2 tubing into the center of the PVC fitting on the intake of the pump?  Pump should chop up the gas quite a bit for quick diffusion into the water and simplifies the plumbing immensely.  Also saves me about $120 in plumbing parts.

Anyone tried this before?  Thoughts?


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## foxfish (11 Nov 2011)

A pretty standard method for a sump design would be a surface overflow fed by a needle wheel pump, the gas is introduced straight into the pump inlet & the specially designed impeller chops up the bubble.


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## Consigliere (13 Nov 2011)

Been going pretty hard the last few nights on getting this tank going.  The check valves arrived Friday and I got to work on the return plumbing.  I had a last minute change of design and didn't go with a CO2 reactor out of PVC.  Instead I decided to use a 1300 L/h powerhead hooked up to a 36W UV tube.  The UV/powerhead setup will move water from the return pump chamber in the sump to the first chamber after the drainage chamber.  The CO2 will be bubbled into the inlet of the powerhead.  I modified the impeller based on a design I found by Tom Barr.  Should be similar to a needle wheel impeller, hopefully.



Here's a few photos of the finished plumbing setup.  Right now I'm two crimp rings short of being able to fire the tank up.  The water supply from the house system is piped in with pex and there is a termination end with an irrigation manifold for adding drippers.  The drippers aren't installed yet.  Here's the tap and drip supply:




There is also a tap at the top of the tank for directly filling there.

[img]https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-4dTH7KbN5Pw/Tr8-nPMoojI/AAAAAAAABWU/kQaZ72JSL98/s800/DSC_0018.JPG[/img]​
The return plumbing, UV tube and sump pump plumbing is pictured here.  The sump pump is hooked up to the house drain with a float switch for hopefully automatic water changes.  Also pictured is the Milwaukee CO2 controller.







I also got the first of 3 T5HO light fixtures installed.  Each fixture has two 80W bulbs installed.  The bulbs are Giesmann 4x Midday and 2x Aquaflora.  Total of 480W might be a bit much so I think I will start with mounting them as far from the tank as possible.  Each light will be run independently on timers with I think only about an hour per day will all 3 fixtures on.  The majority of the time I think I will run only 2 fixtures.  I will try and run something similar to a daylight cycle where only 1 light will be on to start and end a day and two on for a few hours.  All 3 on to simulate high noon.




The lights are held on with PVC coated aircraft cable hanging from brass hooks.  I'm going to add some hooks to be able to lower light easily but for now high up is all I need.




Tomorrow I'll finish of the pex water supply and we'll hopefully be able to have our first test run.  Crossing my fingers there are no leaks.


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## Consigliere (14 Nov 2011)

So I started the tank up and there is good news and bad news. Good news is the tank and stand are good, filter works great. Pumps, sump pump all function as expected. But 3 leaks in the plumbing that need to be fixed.

Decided to go ahead and cut out the leaking plumbing and start new. Seems to be no method for 100% long term no leaks without installing new fittings. 

I'll be simplifying a lot of the plumbing at the time too. Since the leaks were only drips I ran the tank for about 2 hours figuring out the different functionallty and to make sure everything was working well. Everything generally worked fine but I realized there is no need for some of the plumbing features. I'll take a bunch of that out and have a better setup in the end. 

I've also decided on substrate. I'm going to be getting 14 bags of Netlea black for the substrate.


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## foxfish (14 Nov 2011)

What is Netlea black? (sound like a cup of tea)
Are you planning to use a PH controller?
I must say your tank looks fantastic but you filtration set up is really confusing!


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## Consigliere (14 Nov 2011)

Netlea black is a substrate.  Apparently similar to ADA products.  I believe its imported from Asia.

I have a pH controller.  The filtration is a bit confusing, mainly because there is no good way to photograph the filter now that its installed.  Too tight.  Its a pretty basic sump design. From right to left on the sump you have the following sections:  a refugium, drainage from the tank, mechanical and bio filtration, bubble trap, return pump & sump pump & powerhead to run the UV/C02 reactor.  There is fresh water supply to the sump and tank as well.

The drainage plumbing is a bit complicated but I'm going to simplify it significantly when I fix the leaks.
 Works great except for some of the leaky plumbing that I hopefully have fixed tonight.


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## foxfish (14 Nov 2011)

OK well lets hope it all comes together   
I can guesse your are American & an X reef keeper?


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## Consigliere (14 Nov 2011)

Canadian and not a reef keeper.  Always a planted freshwater guy but never to this scale.


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## Gill (14 Nov 2011)

That Wood is Spectacular, How many Peices make it up.


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## Consigliere (14 Nov 2011)

Not sure how many pieces but basically each branch is its own piece and they are all zip-tied together.  Probably at least 30 pieces in there.


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## Consigliere (17 Nov 2011)

After the first dry run of the tank there were a few leaks in the plmbing that needed to be fixed. There were two that I won't admit to how they happened but let's just put them on me. The other two were because of a bad bulkhead installation. I had to remove the bulkhead, scrape the inside glass free of silicone, re-seat the gasket and re-install the bulkhead. I siliconed it in for good measure. Here's why I don't make a living building aquariums:






To get the bulkhead fixed and get at the other leaks the original plumbing had to have some pieces cut out and new fittings put in. Here's the right side of the tank before installing the new fittings.









and the new setup:





finally holding water with no leaks:





This photo shows the tap for filling the tank and all the lights installed:





and the nightlight shot:





I added the filter media today to get ready to cycle everything. There is a 3" layer of foam on the left and 56 pot scrubbies with some java rock on them to hold them down. I'll add some polishing fill when I get the tank filled again and sump running.





I also got my substrate today.14 bags of Netlea brown. It's a nice grain size, and looks pretty good in the cloudy water...so far.





Before I put the substrate in I had to touch up the manzanita arrangement. Got some rocks under it to tilt it in the right direction, moved a few branches around and also added some rocks where I want to add some depth to the layout.Here's the final layout of the tank before adding the substrate:

















Obviously the giant ugly rock in the arrangement won't stay. It's there to make sure the wood doesn't float up on me and ruin the layout.

I've got the substrate in and am filling the tank up as I write this. Here's a shot from a few minutes ago.





Just have to get my heater ordered and my CO2 canister filled up now and the tank will be fully ready to go.  The substrate scaping is going to have to wait until the tank clears up.


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## schraptor (17 Nov 2011)

Hi,

Nice tank you got there !
You know what is funny, on this image (without looking under the tank) it looks very similar to my 65L due to the glass thickness vs. length / height


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## Consigliere (18 Nov 2011)

Here it is before the first attempted auto-water change procedure.  Still pretty cloudy and tea stained from the soaking wood.  Still have a bit of scaping on the gravel to do to create the profiles I want.  The water was too cold to do it before.  I've got all my old heaters in there going 100% to get it up to at 75.


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## foxfish (18 Nov 2011)

Thanks for keeping us up to date - your project is very interesting & we will be here to help if need be


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## Consigliere (22 Nov 2011)

I got energetic on Sunday afternoon and decided that I would do my first round of planting, despite having a million other things to do. I couldn't resist. Before I could start planting though I had to build a mini scaffold for me to stand on to work in the tank. Using a chair just wasn't cutting it. Here's my makeshift scaffolding:





I cleaned out most of the crypts at the best LFS in town. There are a bunch of ones in here: anubias bartera, java fern (normal), crypt parva, crypt poderfolia, crypt wendtii (red and green), crypt retrospiralis, crypt balansae, crypt abilda and apongeton crispus. A few of the crypts aren't in the greatest shape but they were reasonably priced so I figured I would give them a shot. Before putting them in the tank I soaked them in a very, very mild peroxide and water solution to try and at least hurt some of the algae that may be on them. Here's the plants before going in the tank:





Planting a 3 feet deep tank while you are standing 3 feet in the air is not the most comfortable scenario. *Luckily I have 12" tweezers to help and very long arms. *This is the shot during my first break to give my back a rest:





I had to finish up the planting before I got everything in. I ran out of super glue for attaching the ferns and anubias so there are a few of them that still need to go in. Here's a bunch of shots of different areas:





The start of the parva lawn, about 1/4 of the way there after planting 10 pots worth:





Balansae and ponderfolia sections:





Apongeton crispus and more balansae





More balansae, retrospiralis and abilda. The retrospiralis and abilda are on light support a bit so you can't see them very well.





A section of wendtii green:





and after refilling the tank:













After this planting session and getting the tank refilled I was hurting. Sore back and tired but worth it. The green really pops against the wood and brown soil and dark background.  After a night of planting I would have to say that the Netlea substrate is very nice to work with. It is easy to plant in, doesn't make a big mess when disturbed. Areas that were underwater were an absolute breeze to plant in. All the planting that is shown was finished in about an hour and a half. Once you get the hang of using 12" tweezers they are an absolute necessity for planting in a tank this deep. Overall I'm very happy with the progress. Lots of plants left to go but a good start. I figure this will be about 1/4 to 1/3 of the total plant biomass that I'll plant in here. The general theme will be the same though. Slow growers, crpyts, anubias, ferns etc. Don't want a high maintenance tank. I feel like I may go with one select stem species behind the anubias barteri but I will have to wait until I can get some shipped in the spring time for that. The Canadian winters aren't to friendly to plant shipments.


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## Consigliere (22 Nov 2011)

Because I needed an excuse to have another beer before bed...here's the tank 24hr after planting.  There a bunch of new plants needing to be put in their permanent home but I am waiting to do that until the water needs changing for clarity again.  The wood is leaching less tanins now but will need a big change again in a day or two.





Ordered a bunch of plants from the LFS that they normally don't carry today as well.  20 more pots of parva on the way, some java narrow leaf, java windelov (red apparently but now that I'm reading up on it it will be green submersed), anubias nana petite and a new crypt I forget.  Should be here in 2 weeks.  Will work out nicely for another big water change and that should be the majority of the planting done.


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## Alastair (22 Nov 2011)

That's a mahooosive tank. I really like it, and yeah the greens contrast perfectly with the wood and the substrate. Keen to see this progress over time. 
Plant choice and placement seems spot on too.


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## Consigliere (30 Nov 2011)

Been working on and off on the tank of late.  One of the first things to take care of was getting the CO2 up and running.  After filling the CO2 tank I got everything hooked back up.  The CO2 bubbles run into the intake of the powerhead that puts water through the UV chamber.  The modded impeller is shown in another post.  It's working really well.  Can't even see the bubbles on the output so they are being dissolved 100% before being put back into the sump.  Unfortunately the long layoff wasn't kind to my solenoid.  It was full of dust and other junk and had to be totally taken apart and cleaned out.  After putting it back together it still isn't working properly.  It's passing CO2 with and without power.  I still got it up and running and everything connected up but will have to get a new one I think.  It's still clicking away when power goes off and on but will not stop the CO2 when there is no power to the solenoid.  Any suggestions on how to fix it?  I've had it apart a few times and can't figure out the problem.

With the CO2 in the next step was getting the sump sealed up.  I had a bunch of acrylic lying around from some other old projects that I could use to create a cover over the open areas.  With some cutting here and there I fit it around the plumbing.  I used Tuck Tape to seal the edges of the acrylic sheets and around all the stuff going in and out of the sump so that it is generally air tight.  Not 100% but pretty close.  I put a small piece into the pump section of the sump so that I can break that seal and get at the pumps without having to take apart major sections of the cover.  Is working well so far.  Drop checker is nice and green and the couple of otos in the tank aren't gasping.  Here's a photo of the sump all sealed up.





Another small thing that I had been planning was a self priming vacuum that I could connect to the filter system.  This way I could clean the tank without any buckets and then would only have to clean out the filter, just like you would normally have to do.  Here' s the apparatus I came up with.  It's just a standard vacuum with an old Fluval ball valve hooked up to it.  It's connected to a ABS cap that I can put on the drain system to self prime.  Unfortunately, in practice it's much harder to use than I thought and I ended up putting a couple gallons of water on the floor....twice.  I think I'm going to stick with the buckets for now, but it works as intended.  Notice the scaffold in the picture doubles as a nice work station.





Onto the second planting session now.  I got some new crpyts from the LFS; some more wendtii green to fill out some spots, some larger wendtii red I think, 3 more pots of parva (20 more are on the way) and the rest are left overs that I didn't get in on the first planting or have become unrooted and need to be replanted.  Here's the lineup going into the tank this time.





A few hours later and we're ready to refill the tank again.





and about another hour later, the tank totally filled.





All the anubias and java ferns are attached to the driftwood using Loctite Super Glue gel.  Works pretty well as long as the surfaces are not soaking wet.  Hold the plant in place for about 15-20s and it will hold no problem .  The open area on the front right will be filled with parva to finish out the "lawn".  The open area on the left side will be filled up with more crypts and the wood will have some needle leaf java ferns, windelov java ferns and anubias nana petite going in.  I think I have another species or two to come too but can't remember exactly which ones now.

I realized now the design flaw of not having access to hot water at the tank.  You can't do a total water change without putting major stress on the fish.  I lost a number of otos because of it on this round.  I'll never be able to do a full drain and water replacement without bucketing in some piping hot water to keep the temperature at least reasonable.  I finished this up at 3am and there was no way I was bucketing in the hot water so I lost a couple of the otos I had in there for algae control.

Here's the tank 3 days later.





Nothing really interesting to report since everything is slow growing in here.  Lots of crypts melting off obviously, but have seen some small growth.  Even have some plants pearling already which is a good sign.  No algae to be seen yet either which I'm really happy about.  The good CO2 is probably the key here.  Based on some forum advice and personal experience I am only running 2 of the 3 lights for about 5hrs a day.  When I've got all the plants in I'll introduce the 3rd light but it will only be on for about 1.5-2hrs a day for a good burst.  Otherwise I'll keep the light cycle around 5-6 hours total until the plants are fully established and algae, if any, is under control.

Here's some of the pearling after about 3 hours of lights on.









On Friday I'm supposed to have the last shipment of the plants in.  Will be getting them in over the weekend sometime and will have another update then.  After that it will be getting fish in there and then, hopefully, watching everything sprout.


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## Consigliere (20 Dec 2011)

2 weekends ago I picked up all the plants I had ordered from the LFS, except for the anubias nana var petite. The plants direct from the distributor where in much better shape than the ones that had been hanging around the store for a while. Especially the parva. I got 15 pots of it and it was mostly full grown. I also got 6 pots of needle leaf fern, 5 pots of Windelov fern, a couple more pots of crypt ponderfolia, a couple more pots of crypt wendtii 'Red', 6 pots of crpyt cordata and half a dozen more anubias barteri. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera after this planting so no photos exist of the tank in the best shape it's looked since starting. After a week and a half the moajority of the crypts execpt the balansae, ponderfolia and parva have almost completely melted. Starting to see some growth from them now a week and a half after being transplanted. Here's a couple tank shots of what things look like now.





The floaters are some lobelia cardinalas that I bought but decided not to plant. It was a whim buy and after looking it up I shouldn't have gotten it. I don't think its the small form. I'm going to just let it float for a while to see if it survives but I don't think I want it in the tank based on what I've read about it.

Here's the view I have from my desk.





A photo of the right foreground which will eventually be a parva lawn. The 2nd round of parva are almost fully grown. Compared to the parva I planted on the left side these ones look fully grown.





It will be interesting to see which side fills in more quickly. The left side is planted more densely but the plants are very small where the right side is fully grown but not planted as thick.

This is all that was left of a 12-14 large crypt wendtii 'red' (as well as some diatom algae from starting up) and all that's left of about the same number of crypt cordata









With the tank fully planted and some of the plants having about a month in the tank I figured it was pretty safe to start introducing fish. I previously had bought 6 otos to keep the startup algae at bay and they all died. It's likely that the tank wasn't entirely cycled and some other stress reactions all worked against them. I jumped the gun a bit on getting them, maybe I was too paranoid about a bit algae infested startup.

The last time I started up a bigger planted tank I didn't introduce any of the "show" fish until after the cleaning crew had been in for a few weeks. I plan on doing the same thing this time. I'll build up the cleaning staff over the next couple weeks and then will get the rest of the fish in.

So far, I'm pretty happy with what I've found in stock at the fish stores around town. Introduced into the tank this weekend were:

6 otos, 1 albino bristlenose pleco, 2 clown plecos, 2 rubbernose plecos, 9 panda corys and 120 ghost shrimp. Here's a few shots of some of the new tenants:

Albino bristlenose pleco





Rubbernose pleco





Another rubbernose






Clown pleco





Ghost shrimp





Panda corys





After the first day I haven't seen the clown plecos around. It also looks like one of the rubbernose plecos has some ich. Hopefully it's alright and doesn't spread to the other fish. Also, about a dozen of the ghost shrimp have bitten the dust. Fairly expected considering I bought 10 dozen. After the first day I haven't seen any more carcasses lying in the gravel so I think the rest have acclimated well. It's pretty cool to say about 100 ghost shrimp cruising around and doing their thing. Makes the tank seem very active with almost no fish in it at all. They are constantly eating something and it's noticeable that they are cleaning things up after only a couple days.

As far as the tank setup goes I'm pretty much finished. I have a couple small odds and ends to complete and then build the cabinet to finish it off. That will be the last major job and then the only work left will be maintenance. Not all the way there yet but it's feeling much closer than it did 2 months ago. There will be one more planting left for the tank, I just need to find the right species. I need to get some anubias nana var petite it pretty large quantity to fill in the two sections of the driftwood (mostly on the left side) and I'd like a mid sized anubias strain for the left side as well. I'm going to try and order some of them through another LFS and see how it goes. Right now it's just wait for the crypts to come back and the ferns and anubias to starting spreading out.


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## darren636 (20 Dec 2011)

nice  plantind  and  design....  i  have  to  ask  though,  why  such  a  callous  disregard  for  the  otos ?


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## Consigliere (2 Jan 2012)

Been playing with my camera. Finally spending the time to learn how to use it beyond point and shoot. This shot seems a bit underexposed still so probably will need to adjust some settings but it's definitely an improvement from before. Quick update on the tank, the wendtii 'bronze' is starting to grow back after completely melting. The cordata is basically still all melted. 2 plants have started to just shoot out of the ground but just barely. The balansae, ponderfolia and apongenton in the back has been growing well the last couple weeks. It's fully recovered. The anubias and parva have signs of growth but very slow as you would expect.


I've lost 3 panda corys and 2 otos. I've seen all the plecos except one clown pleco but no body so I think both clowns are still alive. About another dozen ghost shrimp have bit the dust so I figure there is about 75-85 left.

I've adjusted the drainage setup to eliminate some noise. I'll have a post on the new setup sometime soon. I'm also looking at a new return pump. The Quiet One 9000 I have is not so quiet. I'm looking at the Reeflo Snapper Gold to replace it but am still considering options. Any suggestions for quiet return pumps around 2000GPH?


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## sanj (2 Jan 2012)

It looks nice, but be aware you could end up with that wood feature evolving into a massive java fern bush.   I am interested in how you put your sump together and seal it. I did not use a sump in the end on my tank, just externals.


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## Callum (2 Jan 2012)

Afraid I can't recommend a good pump but I have to say that this is an amazing build. I hope you don't lose any more livestock as you put so much effort in to this!


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## Consigliere (2 Jan 2012)

sanj said:
			
		

> It looks nice, but be aware you could end up with that wood feature evolving into a massive java fern bush.   I am interested in how you put your sump together and seal it. I did not use a sump in the end on my tank, just externals.



The java fern could get pretty hairy but the frontal areas of the wood don't have attached plants so I'm hoping that will help keep the wood featured as the plants grow in.  But who knows.

The whole sump build, setup and sealing is detailed in a previous post or on my blog.  Basically its a 70G tank with lexan dividers and acrylic sheeting on top.  The sheeting is Tuck taped to the tank rim to get it sealed.  I doubt it's 100% sealed but certainly better off than open.


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## Consigliere (2 Jan 2012)

Callum said:
			
		

> Afraid I can't recommend a good pump but I have to say that this is an amazing build. I hope you don't lose any more livestock as you put so much effort in to this!



I'm sure there will be some losses here and there.  Otos aren't particularly hardy in my experience.  Thanks for the concern though!


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## Anja (3 Jan 2012)

Wooooow..amazing tank   
a really stunning project !!!

I like that!


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## Consigliere (13 Jan 2012)

I finally got around to fixing my solenoid so I could put my pH controller online and control the CO2 a bit. Not really required to maintain the tank but saves some money on CO2 in my opinion. AFter taking the solenoid apart a couple times because it was passing, I finally figured out the actual problem. The outlfow orifice that the plunger seals against was corroded and irregular. I think the rubber on the plunger was a bit hard as well. So, I figured the CO2 must be passing through a small crack between the plunger and the orifice. I figured I could fix it myself using some silicone. The concept was to build a gasket surface onto the outflow orifice using tiny beads of silicone applied with a toothpick. Then I would form it into a continuous bead using the end of another clean toothpick. Here's the solenoid body after my DIY gasket:






Put my regulator and solenoid back together after the silicone cured and it worked like a charm. My CO2 is back in action controlling from a pH of 7.2 (measurement after two days of no CO2 injection) to 6.7.

I've also changed around the drainage setup to quiet things down and provide full return pump output. Previously, I had only been draining without a siphon. My intention was to startup without a siphon drain until I got comfortable with how to set it up. Wanted to make sure 100% that during a power failure I wouldn't dump the tank on the floor. I also realized a setup without siphon was going to be far too loud and I couldn't maximize the flow from the return pump. The problem was that I needed to provide a setup to break the siphon in the event of a power failure. After seeing the Beananimal (sp?) design I decided that capping my ABS drain setup at the high points (http://canaquaticgardens.wordpress.com/2011/10/12/drain-system-plumbing-dry-fit/) and installing tubing into the tops of the cap I could setup a drain under siphon and the other drain as overflow with the capability to emergency siphon should the tank level get too high. Here's a couple shots of the new drainage, first the siphon drain:





and the overflow/emergency siphon:





The guards are DIY made out of plant pots I got when I bought some of the plants for the tank. I tested what I figured were the full range of failure conditions and the tank/sump never flooded. I hoped I was in good shape and this is how the tank is setup today.

A couple notes on the plant care. I've been dosing every other day 3/4 of EI amounts of Plantex CSM+B, K and P. On the other days I've been changing 5% of the water, so roughly 15% per week. Prior to starting dosing I took one of the lights of for 6hrs, significantly reducing the total light to the tank. Now, about a week after dosing GSA growth is very low to none, diatom algae is very low and still receeding but hair algae has started in a couple spots. *So I figured I have a nutrient imbalance, and potentially a surplus from low lighting. So, I turned the light on that I had turned off a week ago and will continue the EI dosing. My current lighting setup is 0.7WPG for ~1.5hrs, 2WPG ~ 2hrs and 1.25WPG for 4.5hrs. Fairly low light, especially considering 3ft deep tank so I figured adding the light back in was the right thing to do.

Another note, since the dosing was started all plants have improved growth except the parva. I think they have been limited by the lower lighting so adding the light should help with them the most. I expect the rest of the plants will have a nice spurt as well.

Interestingly, after changing the drainage setup, I had a massive power failure at the host today. Out for 10hrs followed by 1 hour on and then 2 hrs off again. The setup held up perfectly. The only deficiency is that after a power blip, the sump pump will pump out about 15G of water and the return chamber in the sump will go to low level. The return pump will be pushing a bunch of air until you put more water back into the tank. Considering that a power blip is likely to be followed by power failures, I'm OK with this being the worst thing that can happen. I would much rather buy a new pump than a new hardwood floor. During the downtime, the tank dropped about 6 degrees which is probably going to stress the fish a bit.

Since the last update I've added some new fish. They aren't visible in this shot but I've added 6 albino corys, 3 bristlenose pleco, 2 clown pleco and 30 cardinal tetras. I've lost my albino bushynose pleco and an oto since the last time I updated this. The cardinal tetras have gone in the have been hiding in the back in the plants. They are eating but not much. The seem to be getting a bit braver and venturing to the front for food today though. *Here's the tank today:


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## sanj (14 Jan 2012)

Coming on nicely, but you do seem to be losing a lot of livestock.


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