# 120cm new scape



## flygja (12 Apr 2012)

My new project for this year   I'm designing it as a low-ish maintenance tank for a few pairs of discus and some other dither fish. So no stems for this one   

120 x 50 x 50cm 300L
DIY LED lighting with 10x Cree XML 10W
Eheim 2217 and Fluval 405

Plant list includes:
Cryptocoryne wendtii "green"
Cryptocoryne wendtii "brown"
Cryptocoryne nevillii
Cryptocoryne cordata
Aponogeton crispus
Barclaya longifolia "red"
Anubias barteri var coffeefolia
Anubias barteri var nana
Vallisneria nana
Cyperus helferi
Bolbitis heudelotii "mini"
Microsorum pteropus "mini"
Microsorum pteropus "narrow"
Lilaeopsis braziliensis
Fontinalis antipyretica (Willow moss)

No prizes for where the inspiration came from. Arches and middle open spaces are IN!


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## creg (12 Apr 2012)

looking good, bet this is gonna be amazing when complete


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## harper (16 Apr 2012)

Nice, I'll be interested to see how you go with this as I've just given up with plants in my discus tank, could never seem to keep it clean enough with a lot of plant mass as they can be quite messy fish


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## somethingfishy (16 Apr 2012)

honestly i dont watch the only way is essex, but whenever i see a tank look this good i just want to leave a well gel comment 

Will keep my envious eyes on this set up


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## MrLarner (16 Apr 2012)

I'm loving the scape so far, would love to be able to do something like that in mine.
just need to build up the motivation and get started.
Have you weighed the wood down with rocks? or has it been soaked previously?


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## Kristoph91 (16 Apr 2012)

Thats great wood!
Everything fits in perfectly in that hardscape, well done. 
Lovely 

Kris


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## Ady34 (17 Apr 2012)

+1 for the hardscape, looks excellent so far. 
Im intrigued too about the wood and how it is held in position. Does it simply stand in the substrate and hold, or is it a complicated construction of soil and rock to get everything to stay put?
Ady.


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## Iain Sutherland (17 Apr 2012)

looks very nice mate, would also like to see the diy led set up you have next time the camera is out.


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## faizal (17 Apr 2012)

Flygja,...your set ups are getting better & better.  Looking forward to following this one.


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## mvasingh (17 Apr 2012)

What type of wood did you use and where did you get it from? 
MIKE


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## mvasingh (17 Apr 2012)

Can you provide some more details on how you constructed your DIY LED lights?


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## pariahrob (17 Apr 2012)

Lovely placement of your hardscape and really excited about where you could go with it. I love watching peoples tanks evolve.

I'd also be interested in hearing about how you put your LEDs together.


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## HarryRobinson (17 Apr 2012)

Now that is going to look absolutely stunning! Well done on the placement of wood, really gives depth to the whole scape Im wondering why you have two filter outlets? A spraybar and a jet?


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## flygja (18 Apr 2012)

Thanks all for the comments, I'll try to answer all your questions in this post, if I miss any please let me know. The wood is normal Malaysian driftwood which I have collected over the years. I have been planning this tank for a LONG time so everytime I drop by at an LFS, I'd take a look at the driftwood collection to find some interesting pieces that aren't too expensive. There are gems here and there. Most of the wood is quite heavy and doesn't float. I do secure them as best as I can with rocks and subtrate.

About the DIY LEDs, its very similar to the 15x 3W Cree XR-E unit I made a while ago, seen here http://ukaps.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f= ... 30#p180248. This one's made up of 10x 10W Cree XM-L LEDs. I'll provide more details about them in another post.

Why two filter outlets? I have two filters running thats why!   Fluval 405 and Eheim 2217, both using their in-box installation kit.


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## flygja (18 Apr 2012)

The plants arrived today! All nicely bagged and packaged. I ordered these from Aquashop. Kinda nice to have almost all the plants at one time to plant   I know you guys in the UK usually so that but this is only my second time ordering plants online. The plants were all healthy, particularly the Cryptocoryne wendtii brown (left-most), cordata (middle) and neviilli (right-most) which were bursting with plantlets outside the actual pot.




Here it is being filled up slowly. Took almost an hour to fill up 300L without disturbing too much of the substrate.




And here it is fully filled. I forgot to rinse the filter media before putting them into the filter so when I switched it on, it instantly became sintered glass soup   




OK, I'm beat. It's 11.30pm here and I have to get up at 6 to go to work. Comments are most welcome.


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## flygja (18 Apr 2012)

harper said:
			
		

> Nice, I'll be interested to see how you go with this as I've just given up with plants in my discus tank, could never seem to keep it clean enough with a lot of plant mass as they can be quite messy fish



This is really uncharted territory for me. Ever since I started aquascaping, my ultimate goal was to create a discus show tank. And 4 years later, here's the realisation of that dream. Felipe Olivera can do it, and he did it with wild Heckels, so I hope I can too. I won't be going for wild ones though, just too expensive for the limited experience I have. 

I had originally planned for a full Lilaeopsis braziliensis carpet but decided to go with white sand and a horde of cories for clean-up instead. Figured that'd be cleaner. And... easier to convert to a full carpet later rather than the other way around


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## HarryRobinson (18 Apr 2012)

That last shot looks absolutely sweeeeet! With the "Sintered Glass soup" it still looks brilliant. Discus in this tank will complete the picture 110%. Well done matey


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## flygja (23 Apr 2012)

Thanks Harry!

For those who asked about my DIY LEDs, I didn't take any pictures using my usual camera, just with my phone, so please excuse the blurry pictures below. I don't have many either, will answer all questions as best as I can.

LEDs: http://dx.com/xmlawt-1000-lumen-led-emi ... 3-5v-51989
LED drivers: http://dx.com/3-0a-100w-power-constant- ... 306?item=1

The DIY lumimaire consists of 2 lengths of aluminium profile mounted on atop the other. This one's called rectangular open-backed here. It makes a sort of C-shape if its lying on its side. They are joined together using screws and bolts.




The reason why I need 2 joined together is so that I can run cooling fans on the top and mount the LEDs on the bottom piece. Here it is with the fan holes cut and fans mounted. They are regular 12V DC fans and will be powered by a separate 9V DC adapter. I run them at 9V to keep the noise level down.




Two of these are then joined together with some extra aluminium profiles to form 2 rows of LEDs.




Here's the test run after I wired all the LEDs. I could have drilled holes in the bottom piece to hide the wiring, but it was too fiddly for me  




The LEDs are wired in series (+ve of one is connected to negative of next one) as the LED driver supports up to 36V. Each LED is ~3.3-3.4V so 10 of them in series makes up 33-34V - just nice. The luminaire gets warm to the touch, but not hot to hurt. I would prefer to run it a little cooler but haven't figured out how.

The LED driver itself has a heatsink underneath but it does run really hot, so I put it in a plastic box with ventilation holes and a small fan mounted on the top.


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## faizal (23 Apr 2012)

Good lord buddy,...you're like our malaysian version of Handy Manny,...  I would have never been able to come up with such a DIY system. Nice one flygja.


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## flygja (23 Apr 2012)

Thanks Faizal. I think its still a hack-n-slash job and doesn't look elegant enough at the moment. Haven't found anyone who knows how to work aluminium (cheaply) to make me a luminaire.

The water has cleared up after a waterchange during the weekend. Added Echninodorus cordifolius to the back left corner.




A closer view of the right side.




And of the left.




Here's the piece of folded yoga mat used to hold the aquasoil back. Once the plants grow in more, it should just disappear. I learnt it from one of Amano's videos, the one where he scaped the 180cm x 180cm cube.


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## mvasingh (23 Apr 2012)

Do you have a link to the Amano yoga mat video?
Mike


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## flygja (24 Apr 2012)

Check out around 2:36.



You can see one of the guys trying to squeeze in a brown mat. I don't know if its a yoga mat to be honest. I just had some scrap pieces of yoga mat lying around. It's actually pretty good because it's flexible and sorta "pushes" against the corners for a better fit compared to piling on smaller rocks or using a piece of plastic card.


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## flygja (3 Sep 2012)

Haven't updated in a while so here comes a picture post. I've been busy at work and gaming when I'm not! Growth has been really slow, even the ferns took ages to actually start producing new leaves. There's a bunch of BBA everywhere and the rocks are covered in blackish/greenish algae. White sand has turned greenish brown, which I think is okay since it look more natural.

Full tank shot





Planting has changed somewhat since I started. I've added more ferns on the arch section as I find my discus always trying to hide from direct sunlight. Trimmed the Vallisneria nana and they never really grew back. Also added Hygrophilla stricta on the left and right rear.

Couple of shots of my Congo Tetras. One of my dream fish.








And of my discus munching on frozen bloodworms. One of my dream fish too. 








Finally a cory, not sure which one he is to be honest. Sterbai?


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## nbaker (3 Sep 2012)

Beautiful tank you have there, well done  8) 

The Cory is a Julii.

Nige.


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## tim (3 Sep 2012)

lovely tank mate congos one of my dream fish too and a big tank to house them in   i would say the cory is trilineatus (three lined cory) lots of shops sell these labelled julii which are rare to find


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## Ady34 (3 Sep 2012)

Some really nice shots of some really nice fish


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## flygja (4 Sep 2012)

Thanks all for the comments. I still want to improve my photography but not quite sure how without spending more on lighting. 

Looks like Tim takes the cake this time, its a Corydoras trilineatus. Julii has finer super explosion-like spots while trilineatus more snakeskin (using discus terminology there). 

Although I love discus but I don't think I'll be keeping more of them in the future. Hate it when they start competing with each other. I also leave very early in the morning for work so I can only feed once a day, which probably explains why they compete with each other so much. I have also found out that scapes need to be tailored for discus with lots of hidey places and shade.


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## flygja (17 Sep 2012)

Been playing around with my camera again, this time with off-camera flash. 









Swimming through a storm of CO2 bubbles!


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## flygja (17 Sep 2012)

These are from my other 60cm unnamed tank. Enjoy!


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## nry (17 Sep 2012)

That would be a leopard/trilineatus cory, not a Julii...

http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/co ... rilineatus


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## Gary Nelson (17 Sep 2012)

Some great photos there! The tank is awesome too


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## flygja (18 Sep 2012)

Thanks Gary.

Thanks nry, Tim already cleared it up for me. I went back to the LFS and saw that it was still labelled as julii. Looked the same as mine (and at the same price too).


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## flygja (22 Sep 2012)

Water change time, using my patented LFS fish bag full-o-holes filling system   




Close-up shots of an Aponogeton flowering. Second one in this tank.


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## tim (22 Sep 2012)

some lovely photos there mate threadfin rainbows another of my favorite fish that waterchange system could make you a fortune mate


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## flygja (14 Jan 2013)

I've been away from forums a while but the tank has kept chugging. Latest FTS. CO2 was still on so its a bit blurry.


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## Lindy (14 Jan 2013)

Wow  The ferns have covered the wood beautifully and it gives the feeling of 3 distinct layers to the tank. Well worth the wait I think.


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## jack-rythm (14 Jan 2013)

flygja said:


> Here's the piece of folded yoga mat used to hold the aquasoil back. Once the plants grow in more, it should just disappear. I learnt it from one of Amano's videos, the one where he scaped the 180cm x 180cm cube.


Please say you know where to find that video!! thats sounds massive! lol


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## flygja (14 Jan 2013)

Thanks for the comments Lindy. The mini Java Fern is growing nicely but I can't get the narrow ones to grow in a "bloom" if you know what I mean. They seem to be a bit straggly to me.

Jack-rythm, the video is one of the posts in this thread: 120cm new scape | Page 2 | UK Aquatic Plant Society. Good luck!

Had a bit of a scare, I noticed that my one lonely discus was missing in the photo and during feeding time so I went to look for it. Couldn't find it after 15 mins of searching! Thought it had jumped out and the cat had a fresh fish supper. Panic ensued at this moment. Even recruited the wife to help me look. Finally found it in deep hiding. Phew!!


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## jack-rythm (14 Jan 2013)

flygja said:


> Haven't updated in a while so here comes a picture post. I've been busy at work and gaming when I'm not! Growth has been really slow, even the ferns took ages to actually start producing new leaves. There's a bunch of BBA everywhere and the rocks are covered in blackish/greenish algae. White sand has turned greenish brown, which I think is okay since it look more natural.
> 
> Full tank shot
> 
> ...


your fish are beautiful  what sort of cory is that?


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## jack-rythm (14 Jan 2013)

just seen... your not too sure  ok no sweat


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## LondonDragon (14 Jan 2013)

Great update, tank is looking very nice indeed


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## flygja (15 Jan 2013)

Jack, they're Corydoras trilineatus. I also have Panda cories in the tank, which are currently my favourite cories.

Thanks for the comments Paulo!


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## jack-rythm (15 Jan 2013)

flygja said:


> Jack, they're Corydoras trilineatus. I also have Panda cories in the tank, which are currently my favourite cories.


 They are amzing! too big for my nanos though, you need a nice big bunch of those I think.. there stunning. great find


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## flygja (20 Mar 2013)

Gosh... almost a year since I set this up. Apologies for the lack of updates, just lazy to get the camera out and all. Here's my first experiment with video. Recorded this on my HTC Incredible S phone with its rather crappy 8mp camera. Apologies if the music is too loud, its something I got from freemusicarchives.


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## faizal (20 Mar 2013)

My oh my,... This tank has evolved so nicely since the last time i saw it. Nice one flygja  . Are you using the UP aqua inline atomizer for your co2? I only ask because i cant help but to notice the very  fine co2 bubbles .


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## flygja (1 Apr 2013)

Thanks for the compliments Faizal. Yes I'm using the UP Aqua inline diffuser, the Y-shaped one. I also have the other type, a fat cylinder with a diffuser in it which isn't as good if canister filter flow is low (used on an Eheim 2215). 

I have also discovered a tiny Cory trilineatus! It's about a 3rd of the size of an adult cory! Can't get pics because he, quite smartly, hides when the lights are on and only comes out when the lights are off. So far I've only seen one at a time so I don't know how many there are in total.


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## tim (1 Apr 2013)

Tanks looking really healthy flyga, congrats on the corrie babies such great little fish.


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## flygja (7 Apr 2013)

Looks like the little one is braver now, coming out during feeding time. Here are a few photos I captured, showing the difference in size between it and the adult ones.










This one also shows a Yamato shrimp for size comparison




And finally a nice photo of my discus.


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## flygja (11 Aug 2013)

This scape has now been retired and replaced with a new one!


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