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Beginnings - Help needed!

M

murph

Member
Joined
21 Apr 2010
Messages
224
Location
Irvine
Hi all,

Just got my first ever tank, an Osaka 260l. I am new to the hobby so will be more or less learning as I go along with, hopefully, as few mistakes as possible!

I pretty much have it all to learn and the only piece of equipment I have is the tank with light bar but with no lights. A blank canvas so to speak.

Im aiming at a nice planted tank with rocks as the dominant hardscape, black substrate and a few carefully chosen fish.

First things first I will need considerable help selecting the rest of the equipment for the tank.

Filter wise i'm thinking the Eheim 2075 which will give a claimed turnover of about 1250lph, will this be enough? keeping in mind this will be on a fairly tight budget.

Heater wise i'm thinking 300w but other than that I have no ideas.

Lights, what wattage will I need for this tank? I'm intending to go down a DIY C02 route with a refillable canister but want to keep costs down without sacrificing too much on growth. I dont want to over plant this tank and have it too 'leafy'.

Substrate, I would like black and on a budget, how much and what type?

What else will i need to get started?


Any help/advice and direction will be greatly appreciated.


thanks



stevie
 
Re: Beginnings -

Filters:
you would need two of those filters and maby a power head if you follow the x10 rule (that is 2600 l/h that would be required for a 260L tank) maby use the tetra tec ex2400 and a powerhead or another smaller filter like the fluval 105 of the tetra tec ex600
Heater
a 300w should be ok i would reccomend an external heater http://www.warehouse-aquatics.co.uk/ind ... 3971&cid=1
Lights:
this is the driving force of your aquarium so the more light you have the more co2 and ferts you will need i would aim for about 1.5 watts per us galon (i have about 1.4 in my 160L)
co2:
have a look at my guide there are others on here too viewtopic.php?f=37&t=7776
Plants:
plant it heavy otherwise you will have algae issues, look at diffrent plants low growing ones are nice, like dwarf hair grass. this will form a compleat carpet. the carpet plant in my sig is HC (Hemianthus callitrichoides)
Substraight:
i use ADA aqua soil but i beleve the olliver knott stuff is good (is black too) you can just use a fine gravel but you will get slower growth. work out you volume using (aquarium length x aquarium width x substraight height (5cm should be good) /1000) all you numbers need to be in cm.
Livestock:
Dont over fill your aquarium and use 1 type of small fish and your cleanup crew (normaly otos and shrimp), you will get a bigger impact from your tank. (this is what i like anyway)
 
I'm think of using a eheim 2078 and a powerhead and the 300watt Hydor inline heater.


Lighting I was thinking 2x 54watt tubes??


Planting - I'm after a iwagumi style so lots of carpet so low growing plants are top priority and fewer stems

hardscape something like this
4563597106_5e48ebe492.jpg


with a 3rd and mayby 4th smaller stone.

Would Black sand be to dark do you reckon?
 
i have used a red aqua soil, with carpeting plants you may only see a very small amount of the substraight so it shouldnt make any differance to the look of the scape. i plan on not seeing any of it.

you will still be short by about 1000 l/h with just your filter so you will need to get a powerhead rated to over this to get to the x10 rule

the lighting would give you 1.6 ish w/g which is about medium light levels (i think) which should grow hc and hair grass no problems.

for the Iwagumi style take a look at this, http://www.aquajournal.net/na/iwagumi/introduction.html

nice looking rocks btw
 
Hey morph....wheres Mindy? :lol:

I think you will be OK with that filter. Make sure its running efficient with good bio media inside. Its not idea, but to save cash, you can manage. You can add a Maxi Jet 1000 powerhead for £30ish. Its not pretty, but it works.

Light should be kept to the lower end if your doing DIY Co2. Its a faff and will be to inconsistent for the more demanding plants like HC. Its a deep Tank, but x2 T5's that fit the top of your tank will be fine. 8 hours of light should be good too.

Marsilea and E parvula would work great together, bother very easy and un demanding. P Helferie would be great too and some choice stems.

Think about dosing easy carbo and brighty K too, its a winning combination in my book.

Good luck!
 
Thanks for the advice, it's all been taken on board.

I'm having to use 2 39 watt t5s as the 34" tubes I need only seem to be thus strong. I'm worried this won't be enough light? Also the power glo tubes I bought are very 'bluey' will swapping one for a life-glo give a more pleasing whitebalance?
 
4592955140_9fae3e4e25.jpg

4592971094_607f4cb6e9.jpg


As I'm still waiting on bits and pieces getting delivered so I would have a go at arranging my rocks into some sort of 'scape!


I'm not putting them into the tank without substrate, They big rock weights 20+ I reckon!

forgive the wee stones propping them up but you get the general idea. This look alright? I'm not wanting it to look to cluttered but its a tall tank and I like the big stone.

I can't find clear 16mm tubing anywhere so I'll get another eheim spraybar and join it with pipe in the meantime to give good flow from the back wall.

All stones are the same just some are wet and others aren't. The stone has been a good wee find, you can work it well with a hammer as it tends to shear giving flat bottoms.

I did se some great slate bloack today in a garden centre and was very tempted to but them! Think I'll stick with these for the time being.

Let me know what you thing (you might need to use your imagination a wee bit)
 
murph said:
As I'm still waiting on bits and pieces getting delivered so I would have a go at arranging my rocks into some sort of 'scape!

I'm not putting them into the tank without substrate, They big rock weights 20+ I reckon!

This look alright? I'm not wanting it to look to cluttered but its a tall tank and I like the big stone.
Click to expand...

My favourite part of your layout is the unusual decision to have one of the large stones on its side, can imagine it matured in with algae and an army of shrimp grazing off it.

Have you looked into getting some egg crate like the reef lot use for chunky rocks if your worried about the weight?

Keep up the good work :)
 
Cheers Neil,


I like the gap (or negative space if i'm being fruity!) between the to big stones. I don't want the egg crates to rot or anything when the get wet??


I have 20kg of black substrate but I'm thinking of using playsand in the foreground for a bit of lightness??
 
Reefer egg crate is just plastic mesh stuff, not really egg boxes. ;)
 
cheers Kosh, Think i might get some of this for under the big stone if nothing else.
 
4607222470_54f01e5245.jpg



I've had issues with the ebay purchase of my black substrate, i.e its not here yet. I reckon there wasn't enough anyway so I've put down some play sand as a base layer and had a go at arranging the rocks. The black substrate when it gets here is 2-3mm so shouldn't mix that badly with the play sand.

Its making what I though was a big tank look alot smaller!


Any thoughs on placement etc? I'm not sure about the rock to the right back maybe being moved nearer the intake?
 
I'd move those to the right more to the right to create a valley type effect... But I am no champion aquascaper...
 
Just a wee update.

Used akadama as my substrate with a light sand foreground. Akadama is abot an inch and a half thick. Is that enough? It's a bit late now as it's filled. I've got a few plants in there with more on the way. Hairgrass and some fast growing stems to get the tank started, hopefully I'll be able to swap them out for something more in keeping with my original plan I a little while.

My bubble counter and up reactor isn't here yet so I've got the co2 running getto style up into the filter intake.

Is a 6hr photoperiod ok for starters? I'm running 2 39w T5s.

I'll update with pictures soon as a friends got a loan of my camera.
 
4627033539_826d435812.jpg


Excuse the Phone pic (the big camera is loaned out to a friend).


Well this is the first attempt at planting, not so easy in akadama with big muckle fingers!


I think most of the stem plants will get the chop for the final scape but at the advice of members of the forum I've got a fair bit of fast growing stuff to kick things into gear.

I had to add another 2kg of sand to the foreground (after filling) as I wasn't happy with it.

The general idea is to have some long hairgrass at the back with long stems behind the big stone. A mixed planting foreground with sections of different carpeting plants, inc dwarf hairgrass, pigmy chain sword P Helfirei, riccia and staurogyne sp, which I have planted to the far left but I think I've made a hash of it. I split the plant into several pieces planted and the hack the leggy parts of the plant almost to the substrate, I have no idea if this is the right thing to do so we'll see if it grows.

I will also be trying UG, much against Cegs advice (if I can't grow it with no livestock and the ability to up the co2 as I see fit I'll never be able to grow it). I'm not holiding out much hope for it but we'll see.


Let me know what you think.
 
i really like it :D .
wasn't sure about the rocks at first,but now its planted it looks great.
 
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