Hello from Derby!

[Kogre]

Hi all.

I've got a small aquarium that I recently acquired from my wife and the kids and through small things such as looking up how to cycle a tank I've ended up with some great ideas for aquascapibg and am also now hunting around for a huge aquarium.

One thing I dislike is water changes. I appreciate the need to do it but the time it takes manually doing water changes is a killer (and will become worse with a bigger tank) so I wondered two things: a) why don't tanks come with a drain hole about 50% of the way down b) why don't people use the outlet on external filters to drain their tanks? (I bet people will claim they do now 😛 )

I'm looking forward to joining the community and hope you guys can help when I setup a 600 litre planted tank. 🙂

 

[NanoJames]

Welcome to UKAPS, Kogre! That's a big tank, 600 litres!

 

[Gary Nelson]

Welcome to the forum... 🙂

 

[NattyAntlers]

Welcome Kogre

b) why don't people use the outlet on external filters to drain their tanks? (I bet people will claim they do now 😛 )
🙂

I will claim I do so thats a tenner you owe me 🙂
Actually I do with the Eheim filter as that has the double taps (an added expense to make the filter easy to clean) but cant on the JBL Crystal profi as the taps lock closed when you remove that section.

 

[LondonDragon]

Welcome to UKAPS 🙂

I'm looking forward to joining the community and hope you guys can help when I setup a 600 litre planted tank.

Sounds promising, don't go too high tech and you will be fine with a tank this size 😉

 

[Kogre]

Thanks for the warm welcome, all.

I will claim I do so thats a tenner you owe me 🙂

Doh! Do you accept IOUs?

Sounds promising, don't go too high tech and you will be fine with a tank this size 😉

Thanks for the advice, LondonDragon. What risks could I run into if I go high tech?

 

[LondonDragon]

Thanks for the advice, LondonDragon. What risks could I run into if I go high tech?

CO2 injection is always an issue with larger tanks, not impossible but more difficult and expensive in the long run, also if you go high tech then water changes become a issue if you are dosing EI, might not be for you 😉

 

[Kogre]

CO2 injection is always an issue with larger tanks

I was thinking of going with inline diffusion across (eventually) two Fluval FX6 cans.

water changes become a issue if you are dosing EI

I see what you mean, LD, with water changes being 50% that will be a huge job. I'm not looking to fertilize through the water column much though, or use EI, at least not from the outset. Most of what I plan on doing involves using a good substrate as a foundation with fert tabs across two layers. That said, I'm new to this and haven't practised any of this yet so it's all hypothetical for now.

Many thanks for the input so far though!

 

[LondonDragon]

Sounds like a plan, as long you understand the limitation on which plants you can keep in the tank 😉

 

[Kogre]

Those which primarily get their nutrients through their root system?

I've only done a little reading in the last three weeks, I really don't know enough and would appreciate any input and help you guys can give or have to offer.