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James 60p No3 AKA Orange n' Green

MrHidley

MrHidley

Member
Joined
13 Jan 2014
Messages
352
Location
Ipswich, United Kingdom
Tank - ADA 60P
Stand - Reinforced IKEA Besta
CO2 - DIY set-up with 2kg fire extinguisher. Inline diffuser.
Heater - Hydor Inline 300w
Filter - Tetra EX1200 Plus
Lights - 24" Current USA Satellite Plus Pro 30W LED
Substrate - 9 Litres Tropica Powder with a thin layer of Tropica plant growth substrate underneath
Hardscape - Lava Rock

Planting will be a simple and minimalist carpet of Eleocharis sp.mini

Fish will most likely be Harlequin Rasbora as I've wanted to keep a fairly large shoal of these for quite some time. Probably 15 to 20 fish.

Hardscape is built up using plastic drainage crate. I've been tinkering with the hardscape for about 2 weeks and I'm finally happy with it.


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Looks great! I'm interested in seeing how the reinforced cabinet...any pictures please?

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using Tapatalk
 
Once I've actually got round to reinforcing it I will. It's just going to be a vertical support in the middle and some metal joins screwed into the corners to stop it becoming a parallelogram.
 
I love the colours and texture. I'd bring the two groups a few cms closer together, though ...
 
Bolota said:
I love the colours and texture. I'd bring the two groups a few cms closer together, though ...
Click to expand...

Thanks, you might be right about the distance. There's a fair degree of finality at this point however as everything is hot glued into place under the substrate.

6irCtcc.jpg

Apologies for the appalling phone picture quality, I didn't take any with the proper camera, whoops!
 
MrHidley said:
Once I've actually got round to reinforcing it I will. It's just going to be a vertical support in the middle and some metal joins screwed into the corners to stop it becoming a parallelogram.
Click to expand...
A corner to corner brace is much stronger than metal brackets, there is a lot more "Leverage" to control any movement.

alternately add a decent back to the unit sat inside the outer panels.
 
An Update

Tank has been planted for about 6 weeks. Started with only two pots of 1-2 grow Eleocharis SP mini and after an initial melt it's now started to carpet really well. Fish and Shrimp added today. So far 10 Trigonostigma espei though i think a couple of them are actually Trigonostigma hegeli and 10 Amano shrimp. planning to have 20 or so espei eventually, but this is a good start.

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Quick update

Tank and inhabitants are doing well. I added some LED backlighting to add to the sunset feel i get from this tank. Carpet has almost filled out, but not quite yet, I forgot what a bloody slow grower eleocharis is! Suffering with some Dust algae at the moment, but I honestly don't think i'm doing much wrong other than maybe lowering the lights a little too much in an attempt to accelerate the carpet. Best course of action is probably to allow it to run its' course and burn itself out, anyone has any better advice i'd love to hear it.

XgPuWRGh.jpg
 
Update! Tank has been planted for around 3 months. The algae burnt out as expected, so that's a good thing. I purchased a new far more programmable LED from @Lindy which is bloody lovely. Carpet is pretty much filled out at this point. Excuse the dirty lily pipe please, I wasn't in the mood the clean them the past couple of maintenance sessions.

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On another note, my next project is underway and it'll be almost entirely DiY. I've decided to do this firstly because of the cost differance and secondly because I want to improve my general DiY skills. So here is the stand, which is the same one i used to use for my 60p, but I have sanded it down and given it a really nice respray, it looks 100 times better than before. Sitting on top is the acrylic i'm going to use to build my homemade ADA 60-F, which retail for around £120, the acrylic and cement for this cost me just £40 pre-cut. It should also look just as good as the real 60f due to the clarity of acrylic and the fact that it's using the exact same 5mm thickness. The only thing I probably won't make myself is the light because i've already got the Satelite Plus pro sitting around, which is perfectly capable for such a shallow tank.

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Last edited:
Tank is still running really well, i'm starting to get a bit bored however and might introduce some stems at the back, any recommendations?
 
Hi,

I think some stems of Juncus Repens would be awesome if you want to further support the grassy look.

If you're looking for some other leaf shapes, I have two other options:
1. Rotala Colorata would add a nice touch of pinky, red colors. But it can be a real pain, since it does not respond that well on trimming (at least my experience).
2. If you're not that much into stems, I could think of some Hydrocotyle cf. tripartita between and behind the rocks. This would add a nice contrast in shapes, while obtaining the awesome clean look your tank has. But be aware of the fast growth of this plant. It needs to be cut frequently otherwise it will simply take over the entire tank. I have been there.
 
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