Greetings. As I promised in my introduction post here is journal.
A bit of back-story.
125-gallon rimless tank, made from opti-white low-iron glass(all but the back side) - in our region(Russia) we still do not have all ADA production - especially bulky things like tanks and stands. So I was forced to order aquarium from local aquarium-workshop. Gladly guys there know their work well. Dimensions are: 130X60X60cm - Im not very good with Imperial metric system - so will stick to metrical one in some cases.
ADA-style stand - also ordered from local factory. Well, not absolute similarity to ADA-ones, but somewhere close.
Lightsystem - its SunSun HLD-1250C - it have 2X150W MHQ bulbs and 2X54 t5 bulbs. Original(marine ones) bulbs were replaced by Sfiligoi 6500K daylight MHQ (now after 2 years of use they are dead - I`ve replaced them with BLV 8800K bulbs - Sfiligoi ones were too yellowish I must say, those new ones are pretty close to ADA ones I guess) and dennerle Amazon Day t5 bulbs - 6000K. Hope to get bright clear daylight in the result.
Filter system. Amano advices to have filter capable to circulate 5-10 volumes of tank per hour and with filter canister volume of 8-10% of actual tank volume - so I decided to stick with Eheim 2260 - looks like R2D2 from StarWars, quite bulky, but extremly strong, reliable and cheap for it capabilities. His pump have 2400l/hour power and canister volume is 18 liters. With the cost about 230 USD - its pretty nice.
CO2 - its balloon pressured system from Dennerle with 6-liter fire-extinguisher balloon(replacing small 0.5 Dennerle one). Reactor is Dennerle ceramic diffuser - very similar to ADA ones. Clear and beautiful.
Finally, substrate system. I was choosing between ADA and Dennerle. Two years ago I sticked to Dennerle - its considered to be more friendly to beginner. Today I would go for ADA, but since I already have a lot of gravel - I`m going to continue to use it. Well, it`s not bad at all. Early Oliver Knott`s works were based on that system (now he uses his own soil).
Dennerle using 1-3 mm quartz gravel instead of aqua-soil and deponit mix instead of PowerSand. Also Dennerle advices to put heating cable for right circulation in the aquarium bed.
Here is the link to old APC thread with former setup and scape: http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/foru ... urnal.html
So, after few nights of removing gravel -(since it get mixed with deponit - it was nasty) everything were ready for the stonework. So far I have this result:
-Front view
-45 angle view
Planting plan is pretty simple: HC carpet and perhaps eleocharis parvula at the back. Fish: company (if not entire battalion) of some tiny schooling guys plus cleaning crew of shrimps and ottos/SAE. Btw, any suggestions about main fish? Cardinal Tetra is a classic, but perhaps I should try something else?
Don`t be confused with white particles in the substrate - since I use old one - it get mixed with deponit. I gonna add more fresh quartz to cover it and to cover stones a bit more as well.
So - what do you think? Waiting for your critics and suggestions. Don`t be shy.
A bit of back-story.
125-gallon rimless tank, made from opti-white low-iron glass(all but the back side) - in our region(Russia) we still do not have all ADA production - especially bulky things like tanks and stands. So I was forced to order aquarium from local aquarium-workshop. Gladly guys there know their work well. Dimensions are: 130X60X60cm - Im not very good with Imperial metric system - so will stick to metrical one in some cases.
ADA-style stand - also ordered from local factory. Well, not absolute similarity to ADA-ones, but somewhere close.
Lightsystem - its SunSun HLD-1250C - it have 2X150W MHQ bulbs and 2X54 t5 bulbs. Original(marine ones) bulbs were replaced by Sfiligoi 6500K daylight MHQ (now after 2 years of use they are dead - I`ve replaced them with BLV 8800K bulbs - Sfiligoi ones were too yellowish I must say, those new ones are pretty close to ADA ones I guess) and dennerle Amazon Day t5 bulbs - 6000K. Hope to get bright clear daylight in the result.
Filter system. Amano advices to have filter capable to circulate 5-10 volumes of tank per hour and with filter canister volume of 8-10% of actual tank volume - so I decided to stick with Eheim 2260 - looks like R2D2 from StarWars, quite bulky, but extremly strong, reliable and cheap for it capabilities. His pump have 2400l/hour power and canister volume is 18 liters. With the cost about 230 USD - its pretty nice.
CO2 - its balloon pressured system from Dennerle with 6-liter fire-extinguisher balloon(replacing small 0.5 Dennerle one). Reactor is Dennerle ceramic diffuser - very similar to ADA ones. Clear and beautiful.
Finally, substrate system. I was choosing between ADA and Dennerle. Two years ago I sticked to Dennerle - its considered to be more friendly to beginner. Today I would go for ADA, but since I already have a lot of gravel - I`m going to continue to use it. Well, it`s not bad at all. Early Oliver Knott`s works were based on that system (now he uses his own soil).
Dennerle using 1-3 mm quartz gravel instead of aqua-soil and deponit mix instead of PowerSand. Also Dennerle advices to put heating cable for right circulation in the aquarium bed.
Here is the link to old APC thread with former setup and scape: http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/foru ... urnal.html
So, after few nights of removing gravel -(since it get mixed with deponit - it was nasty) everything were ready for the stonework. So far I have this result:
-Front view
-45 angle view
Planting plan is pretty simple: HC carpet and perhaps eleocharis parvula at the back. Fish: company (if not entire battalion) of some tiny schooling guys plus cleaning crew of shrimps and ottos/SAE. Btw, any suggestions about main fish? Cardinal Tetra is a classic, but perhaps I should try something else?
Don`t be confused with white particles in the substrate - since I use old one - it get mixed with deponit. I gonna add more fresh quartz to cover it and to cover stones a bit more as well.
So - what do you think? Waiting for your critics and suggestions. Don`t be shy.