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Tonys 'Triassic Hollow' 420L - Now FOR SALE !

Good morning Tony. Stunning tank and stunning Altums! You have done a great job!

Would you mind telling me how many grobeams you are using over this tank, how high above the tank they hang and the duration they ar on for?

I have two grobeams and one Aquabeam 1000ND (not sure if that is right, it's a marine tile from TMC), suspended approx. 14inches above the water. They are on for 5hrs a day. Tank is a 350l Juwel Trigon. Results are not half as good as yours.

Apologies if I somewhat hijacked your thread but I am really impressed with what you have done with this tank.

Regards,
Michael
 
Ady34 said:
a change is as good as a holiday!
Seeing more of that hard scape wont be a bad thing, it was very impressive and worth showing off a bit more.
Ady.
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Yep you're right Ady, its going to be done 🙂

SteveUK said:
Stunning Tony! Lovely 🙂
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Thanks a lot Steve, and great to see you back on the forum again 🙂


Antipofish said:
Tony Swinney said:
.... That said I keep the TDS down below 30ppm in the tank. Tony
Click to expand...

Tony, how do you achieve this ? Mine is about 500 :jawdrop (after a 50% water change)
Click to expand...

I use pure RO water, and auto-top-up with 70litres of it twice a day, so its more or less a continuous feed of fresh water, which expels the same amount through the overflow as it fills.

mzm said:
Good morning Tony. Stunning tank and stunning Altums! You have done a great job!

Would you mind telling me how many grobeams you are using over this tank, how high above the tank they hang and the duration they ar on for?

I have two grobeams and one Aquabeam 1000ND (not sure if that is right, it's a marine tile from TMC), suspended approx. 14inches above the water. They are on for 5hrs a day. Tank is a 350l Juwel Trigon. Results are not half as good as yours.

Apologies if I somewhat hijacked your thread but I am really impressed with what you have done with this tank.

Regards,
Michael
Click to expand...

Hi Michael, and thanks for the compliments 🙂 Do bear in mind that the plants in there are not particularly light demanding, but they are indeed doing well, particularly the Juncus Repens, and the Staurogyne ( though since trimming the Stauro is being a little slower to recover. I've got 5 pots of HC 'resting' in the tank at the minute and it's growing well !

I feel the LEDs just give you so much more control over everything - set them up at only 75% power and the growth will be slow and controllable, or crank it up to 100% to speed things up a bit. I also love the fact you can have them on at only 5% power so from first thing in the morning to last thing at night there is light on in the tank, enough to see whats going on in there, which you can't do with MH's or T5's as you can't minimise the output.

I've got 8 TMC Grobeam 1000 tiles above the tank, set in two banks of four and I've got one TMC controller for each bank. The lights are only about 6 inches above the water surface, primarily because the tank is set into the wall and thats all the height I have. They are all on a rig so they cab be slid out in front or behind the tank for maintenance.

The graph below shows the timing of the lights, and as you can see there is only a 4 hour period when all the lights are on full power ...

TriassicHollowLighting.png

Hope that helps

Tony
 
Tony Swinney said:
Antipofish said:
Tony Swinney said:
.... That said I keep the TDS down below 30ppm in the tank. Tony
Click to expand...

Tony, how do you achieve this ? Mine is about 500 :jawdrop (after a 50% water change)
Click to expand...

I use pure RO water, and auto-top-up with 70litres of it twice a day, so its more or less a continuous feed of fresh water, which expels the same amount through the overflow as it fills.
Click to expand...

OK, sounds interesting. At the risk of sounding stupid, where does the water feed in ? From the top or bottom, and I assume you have an overflow hole or something in the tank ? How do you ensure the water going in is not the same water that leaves the tank, is what I am getting at ? 70L a day, so thats a 17% water change daily ? That is manageable for me with 175L, I could do 30L a day I guess. Do you warm your water for this or at that percentage does it not matter ?

(Sorry to ask so many questions, but its all a bit new. Im keen to learn as quickly as possible, even at the risk of running before I can walk, LOL)
 
Antipofish said:
OK, sounds interesting. At the risk of sounding stupid, where does the water feed in ? From the top or bottom, and I assume you have an overflow hole or something in the tank ? How do you ensure the water going in is not the same water that leaves the tank, is what I am getting at ? 70L a day, so thats a 17% water change daily ? That is manageable for me with 175L, I could do 30L a day I guess. Do you warm your water for this or at that percentage does it not matter ?

(Sorry to ask so many questions, but its all a bit new. Im keen to learn as quickly as possible, even at the risk of running before I can walk, LOL)
Click to expand...

The overflow is in the back top right of the tank, and the RO is pumped in to the front bottom left, i.e. as far away from the overflow as possible. It takes 5 mins for the 70L to pump in, so undoubtedly as the water mixes in the tank, a percentage of the fresh water goes down the drain, but the system works well for me. It pumps 70L twice a day, so its nearer a 35% change daily 😉

Tony
 
Tony Swinney said:
Antipofish said:
OK, sounds interesting. At the risk of sounding stupid, where does the water feed in ? From the top or bottom, and I assume you have an overflow hole or something in the tank ? How do you ensure the water going in is not the same water that leaves the tank, is what I am getting at ? 70L a day, so thats a 17% water change daily ? That is manageable for me with 175L, I could do 30L a day I guess. Do you warm your water for this or at that percentage does it not matter ?

(Sorry to ask so many questions, but its all a bit new. Im keen to learn as quickly as possible, even at the risk of running before I can walk, LOL)
Click to expand...

The overflow is in the back top right of the tank, and the RO is pumped in to the front bottom left, i.e. as far away from the overflow as possible. It takes 5 mins for the 70L to pump in, so undoubtedly as the water mixes in the tank, a percentage of the fresh water goes down the drain, but the system works well for me. It pumps 70L twice a day, so its nearer a 35% change daily 😉

Tony
Click to expand...

Thanks for the quick reply Tony 🙂 On a smaller setup could I get away with 20% a day on that basis ? I like the idea. Have to get my head around the technicals, but I am sure its doable. You didnt mention if you heat your water before it goes in. As its pure RO going in do you need to buffer it, and what about dechlorinator or is that not necessary for RO water?

Cheers
 
Hi Tony. Wow thanks for your detailed reply and the graph! I really appreciate it. One last thing if you dont mind, what temperature do you keep the tank at? Since I believe the Altums do like it a bit on the warm side right?
 
Hi Tony. You been in the background for a while. Any changes to this tank or new ones for us to marvel over ? 🙂
 
Tony Swinney said:
TriassicHollowLighting.png

Hope that helps

Tony
Click to expand...

Hi tony, i would love to know how your co2 relates to this, do you have full co2 capacity when the first lights come on or does it build in line with the lighting?
tried something similar with a longer period with low lighting 'sun up/sun down' but it didnt really work out 🙁
i believed the co2 was causing stress by the end of the longer period... tried fine tuning but the fiddling caused the inevitable BBA.

the tank looks amazing and those altums are stunning.
 
A rare update !!!
The tank is still running - its been over 3 years since i did the hardscape, but the planting keeps evolving for one reason or another. I've been trying to get some reds going in there for the past few months, and they are starting to come through now. The Barclaya in the centre has gone nuts recently, with 45cm leaves coming off it, whilst the ludwigia sp. red is a recent introduction thats doing well too. It was trimmed just before these pics, but was up to the surface where it goes a full bodied wine red hue.

I'll try not to leave it so long before another update :crazy:

Antipofish said:
Tony, how do you achieve this ? Mine is about 500 :woot: (after a 50% water change)
Click to expand...
Theres an auto change system on it which pumps 80L of fresh RO in every morning 😉

Tony

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I also meant to say, that the 8 x GroBeam 1000's have been swapped to the new GroBeam 1500 Ultimas. This was courtesy of TMC, as I discovered there were failed LED's on each of the original units, so TMC replaced them all with the new versions under warranty - great service !
The plants are liking the new lights, and I think that has helped the redness developed, as well as generally healthier plants.

Tony
 
Immense Tony!
Great when an update springs from nowhere to remind us of a stunning tank.
I particularly love the photo of the chocolate gourami in the mini fern.
Maybe don't leave it so long next time 😉
Cheerio,
Ady
 
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