Hi everybody...

[CryptKeeper]

... and thanks for all the help I have received already! After reading the forum for a couple of months I thought I'd join and say hi.

I'm one of those folks who have been keeping tropical aquariums for most of their life since teen age, with mixed success and enjoying the brief interludes between disasters. Reading this site (and the Barr Report) intensely for a short few weeks has taught me that my accumulated aquarium knowledge was mostly a mix of myths, half-truths and marketing.

We took down our last aquarium a couple of years ago, because (after 18 years) the silicone seams started failing and leaking, and it had turned into an eye sore anyway. My wife kept nagging to get a new tank ever since, so here we are again. My condition was that we do it right this time, so I'm trying to put the horse before the cart. Friends and family have been asking since day one "where's the fish" and "when are you going to put fish in", but I insist that we get a healthy planted tank going first, before even thinking about fish. In the past we would only think about fish and chuck in a few plants for decoration. What we got was ailing plants, a menagerie of algae and fish that were sometimes happy sometimes not.

We're on day 10 of a brand new Vision 180 tank (with upgraded pump and lights), planted as heavily as we could manage, EI fertilised, and babied with 50% daily water changes, lights down to 60% for 6 hours, and CO2 injected. I've got many questions, with many more to come, and I'll be posting them in the appropriate forums.

 

[Edvet]

My wife kept nagging to get a new tank ever since

She's a keeper

 

[ian_m]

Vision 180 tank (with upgraded pump and lights),

If you have fitted the 1000l/hr pump, I found issues in my Vision 180....
1. It eventually compressed the internal sponges stopping flow.
2. The reduced flow caused it to wear the rotor spindle very quickly and noisily.

Putting back the original 600l/hr pump head no such issues. Mine must be at least 6 years old, compared to the very short time my 1000l/hr pump head lasted.

What lights did you upgrade to ?

What other filter have you got to achieve x10 flow rate ?

Pictures please...

We await your awesomeness....🙄

 

[CryptKeeper]

Haha, you'll be waiting a long time for any awesomeness from me 😛 I'll post some pictures soon, in the Journal forum I suppose.

I've kept the 600l/h pump, but I'll see how the 1000l/h one goes. It seems to provide very good circulation, going by the CO2 bubbles and plant movement. I'll be watching those sponges. The actual water volume in the tank is 120l, so I'm doing about 8x 😉 On that note, how come they call this a 180l tank? Even without any hardscape or substrate in it, it holds 147l, to the water level mark.

I'm not using any other filters. I have a Koralia knock-off (Jebao) that I tried, but even at the lowest speed setting the flow is far too strong for the plants to hold on to the substrate.

I got the tank as complete kit at a substantial saving, because it was the previous model with T5 lighting (the current light fitting uses Multilux LED tubes). The saving allowed me to get a Helialux LED bar and controller, which I consider far superior to the Multilux or T5 tubes, if only for the programmable dimming.

Today I scrubbed the first diatoms off the rocks, I hope that's not related to too much light.

 

[ian_m]

Today I scrubbed the first diatoms off the rocks, I hope that's not related to too much light.

Too much light for too long...I got it when I first planted my tank, despite starting using T8 tubes with reflectors angled away, I got impatient put reflectors into normal position and bingo...diatom outbreak... Also go it again when I moved to T5 tubes...too much light for too long.

The x10 rule is for the manufacturers box stated value for filter and tank. So 180litre tank and 1000l/hr filter is too little.

I have 1400l/hr JBL e1501 external filter , 600l/hr internal filter and 3200l/hr power head. Got the powerhead as despite exceeding the x10 rule I still got areas of BBA and low CO2 (as shown by drop checker).

 

[ian_m]

This is my Vision 180 (couple of years ago).

 

[CryptKeeper]

Ok, thanks. So instead of 6 hours at 60% should I try 5 hours at 50%? I should probably also consider the shoulders on either side, one hour ramping up to 60% and on hour ramping down. In the evening I have it at 20% for another couple of hours.

I'm guessing the 5% blue night light isn't of any use to algae?

 

[CryptKeeper]

This is my Vision 180 (couple of years ago).

Does the spray bar plug straight into the filter?

 

[ian_m]

Ok, thanks. So instead of 6 hours at 60% should I try 5 hours at 50%?

You will have to try and see unfortunately. Cleary Juwel T8 with no reflectors was low light enough to prevent diatoms. Personally I would go for less than 50% for 4-5 hours for maybe first 6 weeks. Yes 6 weeks, see why I got impatient.

Or live with diatoms and get Otto's, which is what I did and they scoffed the lot in a day or two.

Does the spray bar plug straight into the filter?

This is the spray bar from the JBL e1501 filter. I experimented with a spray bar connected to the internal filter (made from a length of PVC tube, from B&Q) as I was reluctant to but an external filter (£150 !!!). But the Juwel filter pumps are clearly designed not to push water and the outflow was very poor, hardly any flow from my DIY spray bar and of course very poor filtering.

The JBLe1501 is the biggest filter I could find that would fit in the Juwel Vision 180 stand, without having to cut woodwork or remove the door. See picture below. I moved the shelf to above the filter, you can just see the original Juwel holes in the picture.