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Hexa means Six! - 60 Litre Hexagon Tank

Jason Blake

Member
Joined
1 Sep 2014
Messages
58
Hi,

Well I have read a few journals and have enjoyed doing so, so I thought I should perhaps write my own.

I have kept aquariums before but never to the level I am aspiring to achieve with this tank. I want to use this tank as a warm up to a much larger aquarium (pending a house move sometime in the future! Near or distant future is anyone's guess) and as a huge leaning experience. This tank was given to me for free hence the hexagonal tank.

I have spent weeks reading through tons of threads on this forum as well as various other internet resources. I think its now time to put what I have learnt into practice and find out what else I need to learn.

The setup is:

60 Litre Aquael Tank with hood.

Boyu DGN-460 External filter (Flow rate from 300 l/hr to 1610 l/hr) built in 100w heater and 4w UV (which will not be used.) I have also got a spare heater should the one in the filter fail. But as space is a premium in this tank I wanted to keep as much equipment as possible, out of the tank.

Pressurised CO2 system using the fire extinguisher method and an UP inline CO2 diffuser. Boy was that hard work getting that to form a good seal on the filter pipework! I have blisters that I am sure can be seen from space!

1 x PL 11w light with a Superfish Tropical light bulb. In the future I have at my disposal an Aquael LEDDY 6w Sunny light, should I need it.

Substrate will be 3cm J Arthur Bowes Aquatic Compost (this was left in the house when I moved in!) topped with 3cm Pettex Aquarium Black sand (donated by a friend). Greenhouse shading will be used as a substrate retainer.

I will be doing EI dosing as well. Macro 3 x week, Micro 3 x week 1 day of rest and then 50% water change. I am going to be using the Stock Solution method as I find that far more intuitive, its a personal preference.

That's the setup for now. I have tried to do this as economically as possible whilst not cutting any corners.

Flora:

Here is a diagram for my planting ideas:

wVSoGE.jpg

On the Manzanita Root I intend to grow Flame & Weeping Moss, Riccia Slender and Anubias Nana Bonsai Mini.

Fawna:

Yet to be decided! I thought I would wait and see how this works (if it does!) and then see how it looks and what would suit it.

So Far:

Well they are all my plans and what I intend to do. Now to put it into practice.

I have made a start, the living room looks like Pets At Home has moved in. Aquarium bits everywhere and I am sure they are multiplying! Maybe it's the water? Maybe it's gremlins!

I have put the Aquatic Soil in the tank and placed the retainer on top. I think I actually got more soil on the floor than I did in the tank and I found that a credit card makes an excellent muck spreader! "For everything else theres Mastercard!"

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I have got my pipework setup for my filter and thats as far as I can go today. I will need to wait until tomorrow for the rest of my bits to arrive, inculding the sand.

It is my hope to plant either Tuesday or Wednesday. Just depends when the HC Cuba turns up and how long it will take me to deconstruct it stem by stem! I like to think I am a gluton for punishment! But I think the results will be well worth it.

I know my plans will mean a very high maintainence aquarium but that is absolutely fine I have an awful lot of spare time available to spend on this aquarium. I tend to find pruning and such things to be theraputic. I think my biggest challenge is going to be ensuring the right amount and direction of flow mixed with the right level of CO2. I will of course be looking out for the "waving gently in the breeze plants" and if that happens, trust me I will be waving back at them! This is one of the main reasons I went for the variable flow filter, plus it was an absolute bargain.

Well that's all for now I will keep this updated. Comments are welcome especially constructive comments!
 
That a relative high tank so circulation could be troublesome. (Btw hex doesn't mean 6, hexa is the greek word for 6, just nitpicking), the light might be not enough though i know that rarely is the case. There is a reason you don't see this dimension in tanks often, lets see if you can make it work.
 
Hi Edvert,

Aye this is definitely going to be a challenge. I personally wouldn't pick a tank of any other shape other than rectangular or square, however as they say, one should not look a gift horse in the mouth. I say this as I had a corner aquarium before and that proved to be difficult in nearly all aspects and vowed never to have an odd shaped aquarium again.

I think though I would have to politely disagree with you about this being an above average tank in the depth department. It is only 19 inches deep and the average to me appears to be around 12 - 24 inches. I think the biggest challenge will be its shape as far as flow goes. I am taking Clive's advice and placing the spray bar a little ways away from the back but straight across facing forward.

Thanks for pointing out I had missed the "a" of Hexa, I have put that right now!
 
UPDATE:

Well there is not that much to report today, all I have done is rinsed and put in the sand to finish of my substrate.

I am concerned though as I found the sand rinsing to be really rather easy. I have been reading some absolute horror stories online about how people have taken forever and a day to rinse their sand and how much of a chore it was, with umpteen rinses and enough water wasted to fill an olympic swimming pool.

To rinse my sand I filled an old breeding tank of mine with about 4kg of the sand, filled it to the brim with water, and swooshed it about as much as I could. It seemed to settle really quickly, the water was clear with only a thin layer of floating debris, so I emptied the tank and did it all again only this time the water was clear, and no floating surface debris. I thought this was too easy and I must have been doing something wrong. This, though was the goal as described online, but for peace of mind I did it for a third time just to be sure. The exact same thing the, sand all settled within about 10 seconds, the water was clear as a bell no murkiness at all and no surface debris either. So I finshed there and placed the rinsed sand in the tank and did the second 4kg lot and the exact same thing happened!

I hope I have done that right and that I am not going to regret it when I come to filling the aquarium!

I am going to order my plants tonight so hopefully they will arrive sometime either Wednesday or Thursday. So the next update will be then! Below are some pics of todays work, not much to see though at the moment..

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Looks like you've done your research well Jason, makings of a great scape, you should find if you fill the aquarium slowly with airline or cover with bubble wrap or newspaper whilst filling the sand shouldn't cloud the water too much, I think you may need a deeper sand cap if you plan on moving plants around or uprooting them, the roots have a tendency to pull the greenhouse shading up with the plants once well rooted ime, good luck with the scape.
 
I didn't mean total depth as such, just any growing plants will shade the area under it. And the relation volume compared to surface is more difficult. I had such a tank as a first ("" bought for my son":cool: to get the first tank into the house) and it started with some Valls and some stem plants as far as i can remember. And some guppy's and a black mollie.
 
Hi Tim,

Thanks for the encouraging words.

I am not sure if this would change your recommendation or not, but the bottom of the tank is not actually at the top of the black band at the bottom of the tank and that below that mark there is already about 4cm of substrate. I went with the 3cm soil and then a 3cm cap. Do you think that is enough or should I put some more in as you recommended? Thanks again

Hi Redsteveo,

I am so glad you commented on my journal, I have been following your "full monty" with great interest. I used MS publisher to create my diagram. Took me a little while to work out to draw a Hexagon, I was using squares and triangles and allsorts trying to get a Hexagon, then a mate pointed out that Publisher will draw a hexagon for you with just one button, drag and drop!!!!

CO2 - Check valve! - just need to get the right amount mixed with the right flow.

Ferts - Check - They all arrived today. I bought a load of tuperware containers in order to store them, as the last time they arrived in grip seal bags. Today they arrived in neat little sealed pots. Tuperware containers going up for sale!

Light - Now that is something I am getting a little concerned with. I have ringing in my ear *thats way too much light" and "60 Litre Algae farm". So I have been a little cautious with the setup. Right now I plan to use 1 x Compact Flourescent 11w bulb until the plants are established and I achieve the right balance with ferts and CO2 and then increase the light (as well as the fert and CO2 as needed) to include a 6w Aquael Sunny LEDDY light. Any ideas if this will be enough?

Can't wait for your updated photos by the way!

Hi Edvert,

I have thought about what you are saying about tall plants overcasting others, inparticular the HC Cuba, but I do plan to keep the plants heavily pruned. I don't intend to let any reach the surface and then over reach. Once the Vallis has reached the surface it then be pruned at that level and not allowed to get any taller. I don't intend to let any other plant reach the surface. All the taller plants are at the back and sides and where the HC Cuba is going I intend to keep clear all the way above it. Does that sound like a good plan, would that work?

You mentioned in your first message to me that I may have gone too far the other way with the lighting and perhaps don't have enough. Does that include both lights I have available or is that just the PL / Compact Flourescent light? What would your recommendations be?

Thanks guys all the comments and advice.
 
UPDATE:

Well, it's been a little disappointing today, but its's my own fault!

I decided to have a rethink about the plants I want to keep and decided to completely rehash my plans. I am no longer looking to do a HC carpet, as there are some doubts about it. I think this maybe better for the bigger tank where the options will be far better.

So here is my new Plant Plan:

tqBXOd.jpg


Having finally made my mind up which plants I wanted I went to order them online. They were all in stock. I had one last look over my shopping cart just making sure I hadn't missed any and I had the right amounts of all, happy with all of it I clicked "proceed" to place my order and guess what? Within the two mnutes it took me to just check over things two of the plants I wanted had gone out of stock! I couldn't believe my luck!

I spoke to said plant company and I was told that these two plants should be coming in, in tomorrows delivery, if not I will have to wait until next Wednesday. fingers crossed for tomorrow!

To be continued...
 
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UPDATE:

Today has been much better!. The plants have now been ordered wahoooo!!!!! They are due to arrive tomorrow. The excitment is really building now, I can't wait.

There has been yet another last minute change of plans. In other words it was cheaper for me to add an extra plant than it was to pay for delivery!!! So now I am also adding some Staurogyne Repens. Here's the very final plant diagram!


The next update should be post planting YAY!!!!

NKIpYa.jpg


To Be Continued....
 
Hi Jason,

Plans change all the time, it keeps us all on our toes and makes us think outside the box...

The Monte Carlos is a good creeping carpeting plant and not as demanding as the Hemianthus...but I would say your choice of plants now that you have added the Staurogyne looks pretty good to me. Re your lighting I think it is always wise to be cautious to begin with and increase later. Too much too quick and its hard to recover the damage, and as you say you don't want a 60 litre algae farm...
 
Hi Steve,

All good plns change! I too am now happy with the plants I have selected and I think they will work well together.
 
UPDATE:

Well the plants are in! They all arrived this morning and I couldn't wait to get them planted. I have spent from 10am this morning to about 11:30 tonight working on it! Preparing the plants, getting them ready to plant and then setting up all the equipment. My heart broke though when my external filter appeared to go faulty. I honestly felt like I could cry.

The filter is supposed to have an adjustable flow from 300 l/ph to 1610 l/ph. However once I have adjusted the flow to what I think is the right amount of flow, every now and again the filter appears to reset itself and goes straight back up full flow rate, which just send the plants flying around the tank. I don't really know what I am going to do now. Its typical that I decide to do the tank so close to the weekend when it is going to be difficult to get to get a new filter if it is needed. So at the moment the tank is completely shut off. Nothing is running no lights, no CO2 and obvioulsy no filter. Is this the right thing to do? does anyone else have any suggestions of what I can do? I don't want to have put in all this work, just for it to go south at the last hurdle.

Anyway besides the problem with the filter at the moment I just wanted to ask if I did have the flow right when it was working. I had it set on its lowest setting which should have been 300 l/ph. I was seeing all plants moving, the vast majority were swaying gently in the breeze. However the Pogostemon Helferi at the front looked more like it was in a gale. I was also noticing that in certain areas the sand was moving around. Is this the right amount of flow or was that still to strong? At the moment I do not have that much media in the filter, as I wanted to preserve flow rate, thinking that the actual flow rate was going to be 50% less than I thought it was, which would appear to have been a wrong assumption in this case. All I have got is a Course and Fine filter sponge on the bottom basket. Just enough sintered glass to just about cover the bottom the middle basket and in the top basket I have got about 10-12 bio balls with sponge interiors. So if I needed to reduce the flow a little I guess I could put some more media in, if I can get the filter to work of course!

Here are some photos of the tank as it is now::

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Just to point out that for the sake of these photos I have got both lights fittings turned on. For the time being i will only be using one.

So now I am off to bed now and then tomorrow I have got to work out what I am going to do with this filter.

To be continued...
 
UPDATE:

Well I am now one week on and things seem to be going well despite some of the set backs. The set backs being that the original filter broke and I couldn't control the flow properly meaning the plants were being uprooted left, right and centre. The integral heater also failed meaning for the first 3-4 days the tank was unheated! I am so glad I did not spend a lot of money on this filter. But all of these issues have been sorted.

Here are some pics:

cxAkRd.jpg


The Heteranthera Zostifolia is going great guns. It said on the side of the 1.2.Grow pot that it would grow 30cm in 30 days and they weren't lying! I am really pleased with it.

NKfz8C.jpg


I also think the Alternanthera Cardinalis is doing well and has grown since it has been planted.

6CJSKd.jpg


44KBMI.jpg


The only plants that I am a little concerned with is the Pogostemon Helferi and Lindernia Rotundifolia. The Pogostemon just doesn't seem to have done anything and it appears to have gone through a bit of melt, nothing too drastic but there are definite signs of a melt. This though is the plant that was seriously disturbed everytime the faulty filter went into overdrive. So maybe that's got somthing to do with it. I know that CO2 is probably playing a part in it. I have been increasing the CO2 until I got the drop checker to turn yelllow which it did today. So I have now turned it back in hope that it will go back to green tomorrow and I will of course then stop altering the CO2.

mktJ3G.jpg


The Lindernia Rotundifolia like the pogostemon also appears to be having a bit of melt, again nothing major and there are just a few leaves that are showing the signs of a melt. Saying that though there is plenty of new growth and it has increased in height. Therefore I am hoping this isn't too much to worry about and is just part of the plant establishing itself. This plant again like the pogostemon was effected and uprooted a few times with the filter so that probably has had an effect on it.

Well thats all there is for now. Any suggestions regarding the Pogostemon and Lindernia will be gratefully recieved if anyone thinks I am missing anything.

I will put another update up in a weeks time!
 
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