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Hi Everyone, I'm David

David Edwards

David Edwards

Member
Joined
7 Mar 2018
Messages
52
Location
Market Drayon, Shropshire
Good evening all,

I'm David from sunny Shropshire in the UK.

I'm returning to the hobby after almost 10 years away. Never really intended to leave the hobby but when we downsized house the 2 metre tank had nowhere to go! its still sitting gathering dust In the garage and I live in hope of being able to resurrect that tank someday.

I have now acquired a Juwel Lido 200 and intend this to be a planted tank with C)2 injection. I've been a lurker on the site reading information and have just registered. There is a mountain of information to sift through and understand and the site has extremely helpful in assisting me in planning out the set up but there are still some things that I am trying to work out.

I am concerned that the T8 lighting standard on the Juwel may not be sufficient ( the Juwel is quite a deep tank) although my reading suggests that too much light can be more of a problem than too little.

I'm also concerned about flow which again from my reading appears to be one of the reasons problems occur in planted tanks. The juwel has the internal filer with a 600 lph flow rate which is not enough. I have a external rena XP2 (with XP3 impellor) that I can use to supplement. I am thinking of putting the spray bar on the XP2 and placing this in the back facing forward and then fashioning a spray bar for the internal to also go on the back wall and face forwards to the front glass. This may not be enough and so an alternative is take out the internal and buy a larger eternal with a 2000 lph rate and attach a spray bar.

I'm leaning toward an inline diffuser.

I was going to use a soil substrate (be it tropica, jbl pro scape, Amazonia or seachem fluorite) but my reading also leads me to conclude that these are not of much benefit and only really provide a safety net in the event of inadequate or irregular fertilisation. I'm therefore thinking of getting something else (cannot decide what at the moment).

I currently have purchased pre mixed banded fertiliser but after reading the article on EI fertilisation i'm thinking of acquiring the salts and mixing them myself (in that thread I noticed that Aqua Essentials ere down as a supplier but I cannot find any salts on their website).

Anyway thanks for reading this if you've taken the time.

Best

David
 
Welcome@Ukaps!
David Edwards said:
T8 lighting standard on the Juwel may not be sufficient
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T8's have produced beautiful aquariums in the past, you'll need to change bulbs yearly , better even staggered, to keep the light output constant.
T5's produce more light ( and have created problems when people changed their t8's for t5's without adjusting), don't need to be changed until they fail, but put out more light and so you will have to adapt, less hours, less bulbs or higher above the tank until you have flawless CO2 levels
LED are "sexy" ofcourse, and all guys go for sexy:), sadly there are many quality levels out there, and fewer hard (read PAR) data available, and prices don't dictate quality all the time. There are more and more solid user reviews you can build on, but for now i personally would go with T5's to get starting, Each year the LED market gets a bit more clear and develops, but in my mind it still needs a few years to get "adult"and weed out the high priced low quality units.
 
Hi Edvet,

Thanks for your reply. It looked into LED but as you say the tech is relatively new and untested in planted aquaria although I admit that the controllable aspect is quite seductive.

I’ll go with T5 and perhaps get reflectors unless not necessary? The good news being I’ve just checked the tank again and they are T5’s not T8’s.
 
David Edwards said:
and then fashioning a spray bar for the internal to also go on the back wall
Click to expand...
Been there...doesn't work. The Juwel pump heads are not happy pumping into a spray bay (or any other outlet blocking pipes), the flow was noticeably down, judging by how little dirt collected in the filter compared to normal. So now I just have the standard outlet as well as a full width spray bar from a JBLe1501.

 
Hello David and welcome.

Two T5 bulbs will be plenty to grow pretty much any plant.

I've had Juwel tanks in the past and always ended up removing the internal filter and replacing it with a 10x external. I think that's definitely the way to go if you're planning high-energy.

I'd recommend the inline atomizer. they are super efficient and it's one less piece of kit in the tank.

A good nutritious substrate is worth it's weight in gold, sure plants can be grown in marbles with water column fertz dosing, but plants absorb nutrients through both roots and leaves so it makes good horticultural sense to feed both sites. And yes soil will give you a buffer against the occasional missed fertz dose, but it will also give you a lot more wriggle room when it comes to making mistakes; this is always a good idea when you're just starting out, and especially if you're going down the dry salts avenue. ADA AS, or Tropica Aquarium Soil would be my first choice, they are similar products with high CEC and so will hold nutrients well.

As for fertz, try the Nutrient Company https://www.thenutrientcompany.com/...uarium-fertiliser-salts-for-estimative-index/
 
Hi Ian and Tim,

Thanks for your replies. It is my intention to go high energy.

It appears I’m ok with the lights and that a larger external filter to increase flow is required. I’ve just got to decide whether to remove the internal filter.

Ian I presume that you angled with additional nozzles the juwel internal outflow to push the water in the same direction as the spray bar i.e from back glass to from glass. I was concerned that the more powerful flow from the internal would disrupt the flow direction from the spray bar and also leave a dead spot in front of the internal filter.

I’ll reconsider the substrate - any experience with the job pro scape soils and the volcano substrate?

Thanks again for your thoughts.
 
David Edwards said:
Ian I presume that you angled with additional nozzles the juwel internal outflow to push the water in the same direction as the spray bar i.e from back glass to from glass. I was concerned that the more powerful flow from the internal would disrupt the flow direction from the spray bar and also leave a dead spot in front of the internal filter.
Click to expand...
Yes. I bought some more JBL spray bar to extend the supplied spray bar all the way across the back of the tank, as shown in the video.

I also have a 3200l/hr power head, currently on the left of the tank (on right in video) pushing water across & down the front of the tank into the "dead area" in front of the external filter. According to my drop checker CO2 levels in lower reaches of tank are fine.
 
Hi Ian thanks for your reply. So it appears you have lots of flow with the internal, the JBL and the powerhead. Seems that I may need an additional pump/powerhead in any event even with a larger external. Out on interest which Juwel do you have.
 
David Edwards said:
Out on interest which Juwel do you have.
Click to expand...
Vision 180.

The JBLe1501 was chosen as it is the biggest filter you can easily get in (and out) of the Juwel cabinet without having to undertake any woodworking or removing the doors.

Also consider filter running costs. Some cheaper filters are not very efficient and will cost more in the long run than a more expensive filter.

eg JBLe1501 is 1400l/hr for 23Watts so with electricity @ 17p per KWhr it costs 23/1000 * 0.17 * 24 * 365 = £34.25 a year to run.

An APF1400E is 1400l/hr for 35Watts. So 35/1000 * 0.17 * 24 * 365 = £52.12 a year to run, about £18 a year more expensive.
 
Welcome David, sponser The Nutrient Company as Tim says for dry salts, I have found they are very good at answering any queries your may have regarding dosage,water parameters, etc
 
David Edwards said:
Hi Tomsk,

Where do you go locally for your aquascaping needs?
Click to expand...

To be honest I only go to Maidenhead aquatics for food, everything I have came with the tank, I’m unsure of any other places to go as I don’t know of anywhere else within my vicinity, what about yourself, where’s abouts in Shropshire are you?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Hi David, welcome to UKaps I had fun building my own LED lighting setup, just building the mk2 controller. Wanted to try and keep running costs down.
 
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