400 gallon.

[Edvet]

There were plans of moving and making a new tank, but these are on hold, so i am in the proces of redoing the old tank. Thought i would document the progress.
Many moons ago it housed discus:




I changed it to a planted tank, which ran beautifull (high lighting, high co2, high ferts)


it even looked great from above


but one day "crashed", it got algea everywhere, plants went ugly etc etc.

I lost interest and let it dwindle a while.
The i got busy on a building project and let the tank go slow. Took everything out and only had Echinodorus horemanni in it.

Now i am going to start it up again, increasing the lighting over it again, replacing old mercurylamps with the new TMC 1500 tiles. Nor there are two 80w T5, two 150 w HQI, and for now one TMC tile,a second one is underway, and i am replacing the HQI bulbs for new ones.




So for now it doesn't realy look exciting, just trying to find out which plants will work and wich ones wont, gradually increasing lighting and started adding N, P and trace elements.



All are South american plants (as far as i know). Going for a nice terra firma creek biotope, just havent decided where and which, kind of a biotope fan here.

Edited photolinks

 

[foxfish]

That is a big tank, what are the dimensions and how are you dissolving the co2, what size gas cylinder are you using and how about the flow rates and filtration?
I realise you have a deep tank and I can't work out how many watts you will be using but it sound like a lot of light!

 

[Gill]

Lovely, I miss my big tank.

 

[Edvet]

Dimensions in cm 200 cm wide , left side is 80cm, right side is 120 cm, waterdepth is 75 cm. There is a big biological filter inplace under the tank (app 350 liter) as it was designed with discus in mind, so i needed good biological breakdown.
Seeing i have litle fishmass and a lot of plants the filter is on a very low volume now.



This pic shows the "innerworks" a bit

The compartments of the filter only have some siporax in them, app 10 liters in all, and some foam. On the right side the overflow drops through two 10x10 cm plastic pipe filled with bioballs.
I can push 2000 lit/hour through the system, but that takes out a lot of the CO2 i put in so i am not doing that.

Presurized Co2 is used and dissipated through a Dennerle CO2 Cyclo Turbo, but i just ordered 2 glass diffusors in Asia, i hope they arive in one piece

You can see one like it on the left side of the next picture



Fertilizing the tank: i use KNO3 and KH2Po4, and trace elements. When i originally set up the tank i caoted the bottem with a lateriteclay mixture and haven touched it since. It still provides elements as far as i can see. I added a heatingcable in the gravel to get some circulation in it. I never changed the bottom gravel in the all the years the tank has been there. It,s a riversand mixture wit fine to 3/4 mm sand, app 4-5 cm thick.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

it even looked great from above

Certainly did. What is the emersed plant with the dichotomous branching? It looks extraordinary, and I'm totally at a loss to even think of what type of plant it is.

cheers Darrel

 

[Edvet]

It's the same as the slightly bigger leaf just left behind it: Ceratopteris pteroides. It's a floating plant that can make these leaves in certain circumstances. High light and high temp.
I realy like it, except it takes a lot of nutrition out of the water and then grows very fast. It's an ideal floater over low/non-planted, high fish density aquaria, because of it's hunger for nitrites.

 

[Edvet]

just to give a size indication (old picture fro a few years ago)

 

[jy_oc_hx]

Bigger definitely is better!! I love this.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
Lovely tank, I keep looking at big tanks, but I don't want to end up homeless.

Ceratopteris pteroides. It's a floating plant that can make these leaves in certain circumstances. High light and high temp.

Brilliant, I thought it was probably a fern but I would never have guessed. Ceratopteris thalictroides regularly grows emersed out of my tanks, but that is like a "Triffid".

cheers Darrel

 

[flygja]

That is freaking awesome!

 

[Edvet]

Update on the plants (i wil do a full frontal tonight) after one week
None are dead, some are strugling, some have taken of well.
Very well are doing:


Mayacca fluvatuilis


Hygrophila guianensis


and Persicaria sp 'Sao Paulo".

Reasonably good are doing:


Eichornia diversifolia


Hedyotis salzmanni


Myriophilum mattogrossense


Eichornia azurea and


Tonina fluvatilis

Little growth is yet to be seen on:


Staurogyne "Porto Velho" and


Tonina sp "Manaus" or Syngonanthus cf. inundatus as it is called nowadays.

Overall i am not dissapointed, there are some algae around, butt nothing unsightly for now. In a tank this size (waterheight is 30! inches)it will always be hard to get all plants growing optimal.
If i can get 4/6 species growing very well that will be enough to get a junglescape i have in my mind.

 

[Edvet]

Wel, there is growth.

17-8:
25-8:

 

[Edvet]

03-9:

Trimmed Cabomba and Myriophillum. Added Alternanthera reineckii. Eichornia's, both diversifolia and azurea, are growing like there is no tomorow. I've reinstalled my big DIY CO2 diffusor ( a pvc pipe 10cmx50cm, filled with bioballs, CO2 enters bottomside, water enters topside), pH varies just below 6 (5.8-5.9) before lights on till 6.4-6.5 at lights out, thats after 8 hours. It stays on 24/7.
I have installed a second circulation pump (hydor koralia) so one puts out app 6000 lit/hr, the other one 12000 lit/hr. They are alternating every minute, one from right front side aimed to the middle of the backside, one from left backside aimed to middle frontside, so they are keeping up the same direction of flow, more or less. Algae are geting fewer, plant growth is varying from good to little.

 

[Edvet]

Handheld Samsung S4 video, not great but it's a first

 

[matt]

Holy big tank Batman!!!

 

[Edvet]

Gathering courage to do a big "rescape" tomorow. Take out probably all plants en put them in more permanent places. It means me lying on the edge, belly in the water and diving goggles on.
Taking out and replacing them every few weeks isn't realy an option. i have to figure out which plants need highest maintenance and locating them where i can reach them more easily. Gonna try to get some Eichornia's to the surface eventually and let them get emersed leaves. I've gathered a ton of biotope pictures to try to get ideas. Probably going for a Rio Guapore themed tank. I just need to figure out how to get a slope going in this size tank. Probably will get some bogwood to make terrace-like structure..

 

[AshRolls]

Good luck Edvet, please take photos of you with the diving goggles on! 🙂

 

[Edvet]

For those who can see

 

[Edvet]

before:
after:

 

[Edvet]

replanted version, handheld from Samsung S4: (nevermind the sound Missus is cooking)