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Hmmm. I have had two doser timer failures, both where dosing pump failed to shut off. First failure it dumped 1l of macro mix into the tank, as pump remained on when it should have turned off. Tank ran for many days with nitrate at over 350ppm., before I notice macro ferts container was empty...

Nice. Be careful as silicone does not actually stick to most plastics. Quite a few peeps have come a cropper with their tanks, especially with sump baffles being the favourite, where over time the silicone come away from the plastic. Silicone is fine for bonding glass any possibly sealing...

Please read this on my experience of LED strips. Yours do look to be way away from the water, but even so condensation will be the killer. Wife approved a fish tank! 120L+70L sump+lots of DIY=my planted tank :) Obviously your mileage will be different, as they say.....

There are a couple of problems with LED strips, some of which I have personal experience. I tried adding LED strips to increase light from my 2 T5 fluorescent tubes. 1. They are not particularly bright, mainly because they have a very wide beam angle and spread a lot of light out sideways...

Yes it does limit the extent the floater can take over the surface. Obviously if doing weekly water changes, like one should be doing, it doesn't really get too dense as you pick some out each week. However in the real world, especially in the run up to Xmas and holidays, my tank is running much...

This is what I got to keep my floaters under control. Works well. Otherwise I end up with this....

Try adding some Seachem Clarity to clear the water. After major plant and cleaning escapades, where the water goes cloudy I dose Clarity and by next day water is crystal clear. I bought my bottle in late 2016 and is still going, which means it goes a long way or I don't major clean that often !!!

Any pictures of the emptiness ?

You have to be very careful using multiple timers and pumps. Why are aren't you pumping waste water straight out to drain ? Things to plan for are: A lot of pumps are not happy if run dry. Some require water to be cooled and function properly. You need to prevent pumps running dry. I used to...

A diagram would be nice ? Baffles and weirs in sumps are a must to compartmentalize the water, so basically it is not possible for the whole sump volume to end up in the tank or on the floor !!!. Continuous water change systems I have seen tend to be "passive", in that water is added and...

Not sure it is that simple to auto change water using a sump due to the large changes in water levels encountered between when running and when "failed". I have seen systems that used an extra section in their tank weir overflow to allow water to overflow into their drain. You have this drain...

I can see a couple of failure issues in your design. If sump pump fails/turns off/power cut, water drains from the pipework, raises in sump and drains to out of your overflow, thus you are losing "working water". One way check valves never ever ever ever ever work reliably. You get a...

If you have used Prime in the water, then that will certainly negate most of the test kit results as it interfere with the results. Depending on test kit method causes zero results or massive over read. I think Prime can cause zero ammonia readings and overreading on nitrate with liquid reagent...

Drain in sump, whilst good on paper has major "failure issues". If you have a power cut, water from tank, water from the down pipe and water from up tube, drain back into the sump and excess water drains out the overflow. All nice and safe. When power comes back, you have now lost a significant...

You will have couple of issues immediately straight off with this type of setup. 1. Most liquid solenoid valves are quite small bore, meant for letting reasonable pressure water ie mains @ above say 2 bar, through. Certainly not 16mm diameter, if using 16/22mm piping. 2. Large bore valves are...

Could always cheekily contact these guys and explain that you might be soon having a problem with your pants and see if they have any recommendations for an acrylic fix. :D http://www.aquariummasters.co.uk/

Looking at it again, how about "gluing" say a 20mm square bar piece of acrylic bar on the inside corner of the failing seam, a reinforcing bar. Quick look on an auction site 1 meter of 20x20mm bar will cost about £8. Not sure your brass inserts would work well unless you could guarantee the...

When I built an acrylic case for my "LED cube" (see pic below), I originally "glued" (actually solvent welded of course) the case using industry standard Tensol 12. However some joints were not brilliant and looked like your pictures of the failing joints, except mine was 4mm acrylic and...

You haven't approached the maintaince bit yet, the fact with a high tech tank you will need to spend at least a couple of hours a week tank fiddling, getting volumes of water out the tank to dump somewhere as well as adding large amounts of fresh water !!!. I still get raised eyebrows each...

You need to add both ascorbic acid to lower pH as well as a preservative like potassium sorbate. The sorbate only acts as a preservative at low pH

Read Zeus's journal in featured tanks bit on forum on how to do big high tech planted well. Just copy what he has done and multiply by three.:cool:

Lovely. Any more details on filtration, lights, fertiliser dosing, cupboard/unit it is standing on, maintenance regime etc, please. All of this is as equally important as fish/plants in getting a great looking tank in my eyes.

In similar lines to Zozo, copper coloured flex. https://www.urbancottageindustries.com/light-fixtures/lighting-and-power-cable/twisted-fabric-lighting-cable-3-core?gclid=CjwKCAiA_P3jBRAqEiwAZyWWaMxTGu7C11baVrFOUNHOyAVjIYOa532NdtFRtjbRXubtxIjggqDnahoCiV0QAvD_BwE#225=64...

Of course if your wiring is low voltage ie other side of an isolating transformer then the requirement to earth electrics is not so necessary. Anything where mains is near metal, or cable failure ig chafing etc will allow conductors to contact human touchable metal needs to be earthed. So...

REMEMBER TO EARTH ANY METAL WORK NEAR ELECTRICAL LEADS..... Water, metal and 240 Volts what possibly go wrong !!!! I assume your house electrics are "modern'ish" and sockets are on an RCD. If not an RCD socket is a wise investment.

Are you going to lacquer the bare copper to stop it tarnishing and/or getting green if splashed with water ?

If you suspect ammonia add something like Prime which will remove ammonia. I have used it for an emergency tank where no cycled water or filter media was available. Just dose daily. Unfortunately Prime (and other dechlorinators) can interfere with ammonia test kits (and most test kits) and give...

Not really. The ammonia gets converted to bio available nitrogen compounds and filter still matures. I had to do it when I bought a 2nd hand tank with fish. There was no mature media available as everything had been cleaned ready for transport, including all the old filter media thrown away...

You can always dose Prime or AmQuel (not Amquel+ as this removes nitrates) to remove ammonia. I and many others have used this technique for emergency fish tank operation when not possible to cycle a tank.

Not convinced it will UVC resistant. Most UV equipment is contained in glass or stainless or specialist plastic. The Vectron UV unit uses a UV tube in quartz glass housing all contained in a special plastic tube. It states that the plastic fittings should be inspected regularly and replaced once...

Diy UV has been done before, but there are many gotchas. The main ones are: - There are two levels of UV exposure useful in aquatic settings, clarification and sterilisation. Sterilisation uses mush more intense and longer timed exposure. - There is a water "dwell time" for UV to be effective...

What does your PLC code do ? All singing, all dancing, internet accessible ? Or just equivalent to 12 timers?

Yes wire in a ring main is "better" as Zeus points out, only need another neutral wire from and socket to neutral bus bar in your case. I fused separately the feed to my PLC and filters with everything else on another fuse. The thinking here is if light or pump fails catastrophicaly and blows...

Try using something like Seachem Clarity to get the water crystal clear. Works fantastically especially if one has clouded the water during excessive plant fiddling.

Check the earth continuity of these death adapters, that are in fact illegal (to sell) in UK as there is no shuttering on the live & neutral. There are many of these adapters/timers, cheapies from China, doing the rounds that don't have the earth pin connected and are best placed in the waste...

Your pictures haven't come through :(

Dechlorinator. Some people are reporting they are seeing chloramine in their water in the hot weather. I doubt silicone, years ago (maybe 30 odd) people used to use sanitary silicone to seal their tanks before special aquarium silicone came along and they seemed to keep fish alive.

Not cycled :eek: No dechlorinator :eek:. Silicone with mould inhibitor :eek: A tank like this will be at least 8 weeks to guarantee, no testing required, it is fully cycled. Plants and dirty will help, but patience is the best method.

Purigen and/or Clarity will greatly help. https://www.seachem.com/purigen.php https://www.seachem.com/clarity.php I have a bag of Purigen in one of my filters and if I do major plant fiddling that clouds the water I use Clarity to clear the water. Both work wonderfully well, albeit not cheap.

Nitrate (and other tests) are easily interfered with by other substances in the tank. Dechlorinator is one of them that can lead to false readings high for nitrate and low for ammonia, possibly. Chlorine in tap water can lead to test kits reading zero. So much so you should pretty well ignore...

This is an excellent place to start. One kit mix, add to tank, job done. http://www.aquariumplantfood.co.uk/fertilisers/dry-chemicals/starter-kits/ei-starter-kit.html If you can't be a*sed to dose daily then I built this. You can obviously buy commercial dosers, but they are not so much fun and...

Generally also, a lot of people place a full bore valve on outlet of pump, in the sump, so you can isolate the pump for maintenance/cleaning. Also as your pumps and flow are so large, I would be tempted to plumb the whole lot in fixed ridge plastic, nicely attached to you tank stand via sound...

Basically, to prevent any pump overdriving another pump issue, you could/should plumb up as below. 1. Two independent circuits, quite commonly done to keep CO2 injection away from filters etc. Also easier straight through plumbing, easier to maintain, easier to implement, no T joints, no flow...

I work in industrial design and generally you don't put pumps in series, especially if different capacities and sizes and types. Your 10,000 L pump will end up overpowering and forcing water past the 6,500 L pump, possibly damaging it. You can put pumps in series but needs to be thought out and...

You shouldn't really run pumps in series, you will possibly damage one or both the pumps. Might be ok'ish if pump has a bypass, like your idea, but then has a deadly failure mode. If first pump fails/turned off then looks like 2nd pump will draw water backwards through the bypass.

Some form of algae, due to too much light for your CO2 levels and fertiliser levels. Reduce lighting intensity. Remove by brushing or spot dosing with light carbon from a dropper/syringe and reduce light levels until tank has settled in. Might be diatoms (a brown dust), symptomatic of a new...

Get the EI starter kit from aquariumplantfood.co.uk, mix up dry salts in bottles and dose as per the instructions. 40ml alternate days for your tank if high tech.This is dosing in excess so plants will have all the nutrients they require, thus plant issues cant be related to lack of nutrient...

Use the LED controller. https://www.juwel-aquarium.de/en/Products/Lighting/LED/HeliaLux-LED/HeliaLux-Day-Night-Control/ Mind you not as bright as T5 tube of same length. 895mm MultiLux -> 2645 lumen and 895mm T5 tube 2800lumen. At least Juwel replacement LED's are near the T5 equivalents in...

It can take up to 8-12 weeks (or more) for a tank/filter to cycle so water is safe for animals, due to presence of toxic ammonia and nitrite. Can be speeded up with either some dirty water/filter material from a mature tank (as you have done) or lots of plants. You may get away by either...

Tried using the led strips in my tank, in the end failure.. - not very bright compared to the T5 tubes, despite sticking 3 rows in each hood. - You will not be able to stick and keep the strips stuck to the hood. The supplied 3M adhesive failed pretty quickly, contact adhesive also failed...

I gave up with caves and rock arches as they collect detritus and were not easy to clean at water change time. Better with an arch as you can lift it off to clean underneath. Like the idea of the scape, just ensure you can clean it easily.

Mg is in the Macro solution.

Could be Mg deficiency. You are dosing proper EI ? Including Magnesium Sulphate ?

You cant dose micros after macros as the iron in the micro will react with the phosphate in the macro. Maybe dose 3-4 days afterwards.

Definite CO2 distribution issue then. Excel does help plants, not a 100% substitute for CO2 as far "weaker". Also does melt some plants even in small doses. Does however kill BBA and some BGA. Either spot dose from a squirter/syringe onto BBA or dip affected plants in a diluted solution. If...

I would try 4 hours light at the start possibly (say 3-4 weeks) reducing light intensity if your can. 1.8W per gallon (US) is certain high light region to unless you are careful algae is getting ready to take over your tank...oh it is !!!! No need to do monster water changes if you don't have...

Here are some cabinet bracing ideas other people have implemented on their cabinets in order to prevent sideways movement. Below could also be done by just affixing the uprights (green) to the rear of the cabinet. Make out of 18mm or 12mm thick MDF (cut to size at B&Q), primed with MDF primer...

Any updates on this fantastic beast of a tank (and stand !!).

I bought a cheap wavemaker for my tank. In less than a year it started misbehaving, by spinning backwards when powered on !!!. Seller replaced it, but again in less than a year just stopped working, the motor going open circuit. So did what I should have done in the first place, bought a...

You could always use one of these.... http://www.maxspect.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=227&Itemid=750&lang=en These are the doggies danglers of wavemakers but have an unfortunately wallet thinningly price. With these you will be able to alter the flow during the day so you...

The word Ikea and tank, bring fear to ones heart..... I do hope you are going to amply reinforce the book stand to take the tanks weight. This tank with water and substrate could easily top over 100kg. You will need major diagonal bracing to stop the book shelves collapsing.

Unfortunately you two new invaders are mutually incompatible. You are stuck with both. In mathematical terms you expected.... But you haven't noticed that the 1st term on the right hand side (after the = sign) is in fact infinite, and will be for about 18 years. Actually more than 18 years it...

Plant stem plants through a circle of firm filter floss buried in the substrate stops loaches and other substrate diggers uprooting plants.

Running an airstone after lights are off will quickly dispose of the surface film.

We have 14 of these so call dangerous pressurised canisters hanging on the walls at work and nobody has died. They are call fire extinguishers. :)

https://www.dursostandpipes.com/ http://www.beananimal.com/projects/silent-and-fail-safe-aquarium-overflow-system.aspx The beananimal overflow has been around for years as a mate of mine kept marines in the 90's used a triple pipe overflow like this to keep the noise down.

You will need more bracing, especially at the sides as there is nothing to stop the stand collapsing forward. An idea below, ok for the back of a stand in my drawing, but you get the idea.

Been there (mine were £10), done it, got tee shirt, both in the bin now... Problems were, very very noisy, after less than a year one started spinning backwards, but was replaced by vendor as less than a year old. The other one I had just stopped one day, motor open circuit. Anyway bit the...

Could we have some more tank details please, always interested to know how people have achieved such wonderfulness. Lights, filters, dosing etc

Nice, it doesn't show at all, which is why I commented.

What mat have you got between the cabinet and tank ?

Assuming your tank is about 300l then you need more flow. The e1501 is only 1400l/hr (reducing even more if you are using a skimmer) which is only half way there to the EI recommend flow rate of x10 tank volume. However you could just wait and see, if flow is not enough ie drop checker does not...

Pah, that is not automatic, that is "gramophone Grandad" manual in my eyes. :D (search YouTube for gramophone grandad reference). This is automatic...:cool: https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/how-to-use-a-plc-to-control-your-fish-tank.42993/ Oh, welcome as well....:)

The browning is start of BBA and/or diatoms. Basically lower light intensity levels or add shrimps and or Ottos that may eat it. If diatoms, frequent water changes, plant wiping/cleaning and will eventually go away.

7000'th post as well.

Doesn't matter really what way up the CO2 cylinder is, you are using so little gas that there is b*gger all chance of liquid CO2 making it into the regulator. If you really want to "waste a worry", all of you guys using fire extinguishers you should really be using them upside down, so you only...

Could you try your pictures from post #22 again please, as not all of them came through.

Be very careful placing sleepers or other preserved wood near your tank as the preservatives used, maybe creosote based, are extremely toxic to aquatic life.

Like this as done by Juwel and Eheim.

Vertical "sheet" of sleeper might be better as it will take some weight of the top. Again like is done on most commercial tank stands.

Could also use a thick sheet of wood in centre 1/2 - 1/3 of rear of the stand. This is what most commercial stands do so as to allow rear pipe and cable access. Equally as good at preventing sideways collapsing.

Bracing like this at the rear, instead of the rear panel, will stop it collapsing sideways.

Will more than likely take ten times that weight pushing straight down. But pushing it to left or right will most likely just fold, as there is no diagonal bracing and/or back panel.

Errrrr...You will need some diagonal bracing bars on the stand as you have removed the strength of the back panel. Why do you think back panels are fitted ? The stand has no "twisting" strength any more and will be prone to collapsing (left and right) once you get your 250Kg of water and 50Kg of...

Once again George sets the standard in low maintenance tanks.

Which of course is a complete load of completely obvious nonsense. Even if you supply CO2 at a constant rate the CO2 level will fluctuate (and corresponding pH) considerably. During light hours the plants will consume CO2 and CO2 level fall (and pH rise) and during the night with CO2 being...

This is probably acceptable with 12mm glass, the Red Sea tanks in my local shop (including the monster 120cm one) are all fully supported underneath. Not sure I would trust standard 8mm glass.

Why doesn't your tank may cover all the bottom of the tank ? (could just be the way it is photographed ??). You must 100% cover the base of your tank or else you are tempting cracked glass and a mighty disaster (luckily your cabinet is very water proof :eek:). I might be miss seeing something...

You will need more flow, especially in a corner tank. Either another filter (doesn't need to be a heated one) or addition of suitably placed power heads. I use Koralia after having been through quite a few Chinese cheapies. For planted tanks you will need at least 1900l/hr in your case, the x10...

There are two ways to solve the flow issue on corner tanks. 1. Make a curved spray bar going around the front of the tank. I have seen this done by small lengths of spray bar linked together by short pieces of PVC tubing. You could try heat bending a length of acrylic tubing to make a curved...

Liquid carbon can be toxic to fish and especially shrimps, which is why you must take the plants out to dip. Try at say 50% strength liquid carbon solution first for say 1 minute then place back in the tank. This has worked well a couple of times on some of my plants when I suffer BBA due to...

In my experience algae like this is caused by ammonia due to improperly cycled tank and/or filters (though possibly could be due to exceptionally high light levels on for too long a time). I have seen algae like this where people have add ammonia (on purpose) and obtained the most fantastical...

Splitting flow doesn't work like this. Most of the water will take the path of least resistance, probably return line with shortest pipe, with little if any flow in the other arms. Yes you can fiddle with valves to equalise the flow, but this will be unstable, a change in temperature, fish poo...

Yes must be vertical, there have been numerous reports of Hydor heater failures (usually overheating!!) when people have decided to ignore this and place them horizontal. If vertical and your pump fails or seriously looses flow, then there will still be slight flow due to convection if placed...

Will be much higher in UK as air is dryer, not 100% humidity. In Singapore the air was at 100% humidity therefore water would not evaporate off.

Yes remove the lock nuts completely on the filter tubing. Search Ebay for 22mm stainless jubilee clip. 18-25mm looks OK. You just need to determine the exact size, though it looks like your filter piping is 16/22mm tube. Should be fine, the instructions (from Solufeed) warn of direct sunlight...

Couple of things...being anal and all that... - Nice under tank layout. - A small LED strip at the top of the cupboard that comes on when the door is opened would enable you to better display the under tank "anality" in all its glory. :D - It is "solenoid". - Put stainless jubilee clips on the...

No silicone will adhere to plastic 100% which is why you solvent weld acrylic or mechanically hold it against seals. However for sump dividers, applying generous amounts and where failure wont result in a flood it will be fine.

you mean gluteraldhyde. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glutaraldehyde Excel isn't exactly gluteraldehyde but a similar compound.

Seachem Flourish Excel is what you mean. http://www.seachem.com/flourish-excel.php