# College 5'x2'x2' 100g



## Tom (14 Dec 2007)

Here is my Nature Aquarium at the Aquatic Centre at Sparsholt. It was done on a very low budget, and as such the equipment is a bit mix and match. 

Foreground is silver sand, but the planted area is JBL and Aquasoil (on top), due to college budgets!! Thanks to George for the Aquasoil there! 

CO2 is by JBL Profi2. Ferts are KNO3 and KH2PO4 in powders, and TPN for trace.  

Here is the basic hardscape, changed slightly now:





And how it is now:




I think I need to have a play around with the left side, maybe getting some more aquasoil and putting it on the back left, turning it into a triangular composition as it's not getting enough light how it is now. 

What do you think? I'm having a few algae issues at the moment, and I might make another thread for that. I currently have Hair algae, BBA, and BGA   

Tom


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## PM (15 Dec 2007)

FIT!


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## George Farmer (16 Dec 2007)

Good start, Tom.


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## Ray (16 Dec 2007)

Very nice, how about a planting plan please?  I particularly like your little round leafed umbrellas but what are they?  This takes me back - I wish planted tanks had existed when I was in the aquarist club at school - we'd have had two tanks of similar size to play with...


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## Graeme Edwards (17 Dec 2007)

Yeah nice college tank Tom, very nicely done with the buget you have been given.
It will look great once it fills out.
If i was to give critique. The plant ( ?? ) to the right behind the extened peice of wood is distracting. Maybe remove or replant near the centre, and then create a more gentle slope down to the right. So in that second picture, were there is the gap, make that the area to create a gentle slope down to wear the distracting plant currently sits.

Rayi, the plant you refure to looks like Hydroctle Var.

Apologies for spelling!


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## beeky (18 Dec 2007)

Why use JBL with AS? I didn't notice at first, but I agree with the comment regarding the plant to the right.

What are the fish?

As it's on a budget could you let us know what the equipment is you've used?

All in all, looks nice!


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## Tom (18 Dec 2007)

I used aquasoil with JBL because we couldn't afford all Aquasoil. George gave me all the Aquasoil I've got. 

I've just got Bolivian Rams and Ottos at the moment (budget reasons!)

JBL gave us a load of equipment (substrates, CO2 units, ferts etc) so I have JBL Profi2 CO2, their substrates (under ADA as JBL has to be covered and gravel/sand wouldn't stay sloped), now using my PFK Tropica ferts as the JBL ran out and I didn't like it anyway. I'm using KNO3 and KH2PO4 powder ferts (I bought). Lighting is an AquaOne 2x 150w Halide (lecturer works for AquaOne    )
Plants supplied by me. Filters are an old Eheim and an AquaOne.

So you can see a lot of it is scrounged off of the companies or aquired in some way and is a bit mix and match.

Graeme do you meen the Sword?? If so then I can see where you're coming from. I'll experiment with it... I've got an HC path down the "centre", dividing the two parts. Do you think it would be more effective removing the path and replacing with stems/that sword??

Tom


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## beeky (18 Dec 2007)

JBL seem to be giving away loads at the moment. If JBL are reading this, can I have some stuff?  

edit: I thought there was a shoal of something in front of the wood, but I see now that it's the umbrella plant refered to!


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## TDI-line (19 Dec 2007)

Very nice.


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## Graeme Edwards (19 Dec 2007)

Tom,i think the sword should be removed completely, or shifted to the left with the other swards. Then have some other plants you can step down from the left bundle of swords to the position of the the removed sword, if that makes sense? I don't think stems would work, because you would still have this protrusion of plants stepped away from the rest of the composition. Maybe some stems off the right of the sword bundle and then some Pogostemon helferi  to grade the slope down to the right, P.H should go well with the H.C path way you described.

Graeme.


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## Tom (19 Dec 2007)

Thanks for the suggestion Graeme. I'm home for Christmas now, so if the tank survives 3 weeks of "technitions" looking after it (am doubtful) I'll have a play with it. 

Tom


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## Jeremy (9 Jan 2008)

I really like it Tom.

Is that halide lighting?

The moss on the wood looks really natural.

You can do some scapes for the magazine when you come on work experience.


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## Tom (9 Jan 2008)

> You can do some scapes for the magazine when you come on work experience.



That sounds great I'd love to  



> Is that halide lighting?



Yeah. It's an AquaOne 2x 150w. The penetration of the light is really bad IMO. Below about a foot it seems really low intensity and I've also noticed more algae in the lower half of the tank (BBA and BGA mostly)  :?  . 

I'm having a lot of trouble with this tank at the moment. Due to me not being here over the Xmas hols, the CO2 ran out and algae has run riot and I've had to hack a lot of plants back after being smothered by BGA and BBA and have totally replanted the foreground (Riccia mostly died off). I had been struggling to find a balance with the KNO3 and KH2PO4 anyway. I think maybe that as I was following the EI standard doses, with less than 3wpg and quite a lot of open space that might have meant I was overdosing. It's going to be a big job to recover it now though after 3 weeks of nothing so we'll see how it goes. 

So far I prefer ADA and Tropica's ferts to the powders for EI, but I don't know whether it's just me not getting the hang of EI. 

Tom


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## Garuf (14 Jan 2008)

Re: metal halide water penetration, Do you know what make the bulbs are? Cheaper bulbs will lack "punch". Also, If you look at similar sized tanks by the likes of ADA they are rarely if ever powered by just metal halides and are backed up by power compacts, maybe this could be part of the reason your getting algae, it's worth a try after all.


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## Tom (14 Jan 2008)

The bulbs are AquaOne I think. It came with blue marine T5's and my lecturer (craig baldwin) reckons they make no difference. It would definitely be worth a try though to see the difference. 

I noticed this morning that the BBA and hair algae appear to be receeding, but the BGA is going strong. I haven't dosed anything for a good week now, have done 4 water changes in that time and I have roughly 12.5ppm NO3 and 2ppm PO4. I'm assuming this is from the Aquasoil/Fish waste totally as it shouldn't be the JBL or water (R/O). 

Tom


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## Garuf (14 Jan 2008)

run a black out, start dosing, and get your hands on some flow pumps something like those lovely hydors.
It's worth noting too that the filtration should be epic for 100gallons, something along the lines of 2 of the biggest eheim's you can lay your hands on.


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## Tom (14 Jan 2008)

Could try that thanks, it can't hurt to try    I'm running 1 Fluval 405 and 1 AquaOne (CF1000?).  So you think this is because my flow rate isn't high enough?


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## Garuf (14 Jan 2008)

That would make sence to me, I've had bga 3 times, each time I addressed a diffrent problem, the final remidy? A new filter giving much higher flow. 
Look what other people are running for tanks half this size, then double or even tripple what they use.
I find low flow is a bigger BGA cause than anything else.
Especially as this tank is so deep and long extra movement can be nothing but an improvement.


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## George Farmer (29 Jan 2008)

How's this doing?

Your algae will be lack of plant biomass and circulation BTW.


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## Tom (29 Jan 2008)

It's doing better than it was thanks. I did a blackout for about 5 days    and it seems to have worked as the vast majority is gone, although not really suprisingly the Riccia died. 

I might be changing to T5 lighting soon, but I don't know when as for some reason college is having trouble getting 36w compact T5 bulbs in plant spectrums - they only have 10-11k    (we have 2x Aqua One units for 4x36w). Would T5s have a high enough intensity in a 2' deep tank?

George, I set up the filter outlets how you suggested last time you were down, but I'll probably have a play around with the Aqua One today and see if it makes a difference. I'd agree about the plant biomass bit though but there's not really a lot I can do about that one given the limitations here - College say they can't afford to buy any more plants (not that they bought any in the first place, theyre all mine    ) and also I'm out of Trace elements. They won't give me any more and I can't keep supplying them for a tank this size    they give me a funny look when I say I'd like anything other than Tetra   

We'll sort it. I'm sure it'll get there in the end.


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## james3200 (29 Jan 2008)

> Would T5s have a high enough intensity in a 2' deep tank?



With good reflectors like the d+d Ws they would, when i set my tank up that's the only lighting i used for the first 6 weeks, and you can see how the tenellus lawned


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## stevet (29 Jan 2008)

hmmm...i have a tank of similar volume to yours - its a Rena classic 120x50x70. I use one Eheim 2329 thermo wet/dry filter - rated pump output 1050 l/h. It seems to perform adequately for me on my 100gals. Not knowing your filter types very well it is difficult to say these would be the problem. I imagine if George ok'd them they would be up to the job at hand?

Low biomass combined with EI and relatively strong MH lighting at 300W? Looks like this may be more likely the culprit? That isnt a lot of planting for a tank of some 380 litres or so? Maybe aim for some stems or amazon frogbit to mop up excess nutrients?

Personally i aspire one day to move away from the T5's i have in compact and Luminaire form to the exact lighting system you have. I think the MH lighting gives a far more natural light scatter. T5 has a tendency at times to look too uniform IMO - like a solid block of light if you will. T5s definitely have enough 'punch' to get to the bottom of my 70cm high tank - i know this as my tennellus has taken on the thin reddish leaves common with its submerged and light happy form.


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## George Farmer (29 Jan 2008)

Tom said:
			
		

> College say they can't afford to buy any more plants (not that they bought any in the first place, theyre all mine    ) and also I'm out of Trace elements. They won't give me any more and I can't keep supplying them for a tank this size    they give me a funny look when I say I'd like anything other than Tetra
> 
> We'll sort it. I'm sure it'll get there in the end.



It may be worth contacting Tropica.  

Would Craig be up for writing an email explaining who Sparsholt are and your recent increased interest in planted aquaria?

Tropica also do free training for retail staff at their base in Denmark.  They may be interested in doing the same for you students, as most of you will likely work in the trade...  Grass roots, so to speak. 

BTW give Craig my regards.  I haven't forgotton about another lecture.  Just up to my eyeballs ATM.

Cheers.


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## Tom (29 Jan 2008)

I'll let Craig know tomorrow when I see him and find out if he's intersted in doing something like that. 

Tom


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