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L'aqaurium 720 (1500)

Joined
27 Aug 2021
Messages
91
Location
Ayrshire
Hello all.
This is my first attempt at creating a journal on here. I've been lurking around the forum for a while now and took the plunge into bankrupting myself and becoming an addict of the hobby. I'll no doubt make many errors along the way but it's all a learning curve. I've had small shrimp based planted tanks over the last two years and wanted to do BIG on one.

I suppose the advantage of a big set up too is any nutrient issues or water issues are much more manageable in the sense of plenty of room to rectify with out sudden issues.

The title pretty much gives away the set up itself. Having taken a liking to the few sumped set ups I've seen floating around. I really wanted to give this a go myself.
I bought this set up last year, but when covid hit. I head to dedicate most of my time to making hand gels and what not for the NHS and police services so it got put on the back burner.

Set up so far.

Aqurium systems L'aqaurium 720 150x55x52 LHW plus sump and glass cabinet.

Main tanks is 500l ish
Sump 200l
Return pump is there DC5000 pump so 10 times turn over.
I like the fact it's programmable. So feeding time, night time flow rate etc can me much calmer.
I've opted to give both Alfagrog and Seachem matrix a go as the main filter medium, along with the 3 x filter socks, and filter wool in between.

Heater - still to decide which ones to go for. Maybe two eheim or similar.

Lighting:
- aquarium systems series 6 led unit. This has a phenomenal amount of customisation on which I'm going to spend this weekend playing around with and confusing myself. This unit is one sexy bit of kit. Maybe a tad technical but a worthy investment.

Hardscape:
I've ordered 5 bags of ada amazonia 2 soil, along with some stunning manzanite wood pieces and Landscape stone from aquarium gardens which should arrive mid week next week latest, so I'll be giving the hard scape a shot.
Im using crushed lava rock as an initial layer towards the back of the aquarium. My idea behind it is it'll help with higher areas, and also good for both extra bacteria colonisation, and rooting media for bigger plants.

Co2:
As I have copious amounts of chemicals at my disposal, I'll be using a combination of my own liquid co2, and a large co2 set up by means of a large pub gas bottle that I'll hide away,
Co2 regulator I'm looking to get one from aquarium Gardens.
Running it 24/7 I think given sumps off gas alot of co2, and I'll have a go at making some kind of mechanism for completely dissolving the co2 bubbles.

Fertilisers:
Dry fert dosing straight into the sump. I have heaps of dry salts from what we use in some of the chemicals at my place so this should help keep my costs Down.

Fauna:
Bee shrimp.... Mainly shrimp, a few hundred eventually I think in this. Whikst I do love set ups with one species of fish, I plan to have a large family of shrimp in this that will keep on growing through the life of the set up and don't want them eaten up. I've seen some beautfil shrimp only scapes on here and they really come out of there shells (pardon the pun) when on there own.
Im gojng to give the seeded bacteria method ago with some of the aquarium systems stuff that was kindly indluded by swell UK when I bought this last year.
Foliage: haven't quite got this stage yet.

Thanks all for looking for now. I'll update with some photos as it progresses.
 

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That tank and light unit look amazing, I'll be keeping my eye on this!
Thanks Bazz, I'm about to get the light unit out of its box (it's home for the past year) just now, have a quick play around with its settings so I'm clued up on having it set correct when I begin planting next week.

I've also just unboxed the mammoth pump. Huge 😳
 
So just a couple of photos of the lighting unit (behemoth), sump and pump. I will try to use this Huawei phone to good use and get some semi decent photos later this weekend or during the week.

Im also going to scour the forum and make a desision on plants
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Sent from my ELS-N39 using Tapatalk
 
Better photos. The tapatalk was very poor. I think this lighting unit was a worthy investment after all. I hunted high and low for something different but fully customisable and this is it.

Any recommendations on a frame for hanging the light unit as it comes with cables to hang.
 

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So today I've spent some time playing around with hardscape, and I think this is about as good as I'm going to get. Rock work isn't my best point I don't think.

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Kudos to aquarium Gardens for the rapid delivery of materials.

I've placed in dividers in the substrate but it still seems to not do very much.

Thoughts on the sand area, too much or enough?

Im also spending this weekend building a reactor for the pump. Its digital so adjustable flow but for the long run, it will eventually be up to 5000 lhr once plants have filled in heavily, so building a substantial reactor is paramount I think.
 
I like it this far and certainly dont think there is too much sand, feels balanced to me. :)
@Wolf6 thanks ever so much. I've read up a fair amount on people's journals to get a little inspiration to layout. The rock work could probably do with tweaking, but it'll all be covered by the time the scape gets planted.
 
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Last night was final tweak of the wood as I didn't feel it was spaced out well enough leaving some big areas from front view.

Would be great if there is any criticism on my layout before I get ordering plants from aquarium Gardens.
Can't help but think maybe the lower left branch isn't flowing aswell as the rest of it.

I might pop it in the critique section
 
Lovely equipment and layout.
I agree with you that the leftmost lower branch needs tweaking. I’d be inclined to lay it more horizontally rather than upward facing. Perhaps try rotating it so the curve is the opposite way.
Great start to your journal, will look forward to following along the journey.
Cheerio,
 
View attachment 175713

Last night was final tweak of the wood as I didn't feel it was spaced out well enough leaving some big areas from front view.

Would be great if there is any criticism on my layout before I get ordering plants from aquarium Gardens.
Can't help but think maybe the lower left branch isn't flowing aswell as the rest of it.

I might pop it in the critique section
Such a dynamic looking setup, makes it very unique. Following this with interest.
 
Really like your hardscape, if you ever went down the route of angelfish they would look awesome in there!
 
Really like your hardscape, if you ever went down the route of angelfish they would look awesome in there!
Hiya, I did actually think of having altums in a scape but I want to have some very good pulse flow in the tank which I don't think they'd be comfortable in. This tank has perfect dimensions aswell for such a set up.
Now I've got the sump super quiet, I may look at another one later next year for exactly that 😊
 
Lovely equipment and layout.
I agree with you that the leftmost lower branch needs tweaking. I’d be inclined to lay it more horizontally rather than upward facing. Perhaps try rotating it so the curve is the opposite way.
Great start to your journal, will look forward to following along the journey.
Cheerio,
Thanks ever so much Ady34, I sadly don't have anything remotely near the hardscape skills you do. You are the uk master of hardscape IMHO.
I have taken your advice and rotated the wood slightly and it does indeed make it look much more linear and flows better.


I've filled the tank this weekend and am going to try the dark start method a go whilst I get some last bits of equipment.
Thanks ever so much
 
Thanks ever so much Ady34, I sadly don't have anything remotely near the hardscape skills you do. You are the uk master of hardscape IMHO.
I have taken your advice and rotated the wood slightly and it does indeed make it look much more linear and flows better.


I've filled the tank this weekend and am going to try the dark start method a go whilst I get some last bits of equipment.
Thanks ever so much
Thank you so much for the kind words although I think you are doing yourself an injustice as your hardscape is very good. We can all receive advice that helps tweak a layout :)
Look forward to seeing your progress.
Cheerio,
Ady.
 
Thank you so much for the kind words although I think you are doing yourself an injustice as your hardscape is very good. We can all receive advice that helps tweak a layout :)
Look forward to seeing your progress.
Cheerio,
Ady.
Hiya Ady34, that's very very kind of you to say, I think the wood layout makes it look half decent, my rock work on the other hand, I struggled to get any kind of linear or blended pattern in the rock features themselves. I looked at one of your journals and the rock scape was amazing. Extremely natural and even not planted would be an amazing display.
 
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