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Vase's 720 litre journal

Vase

Vase

Member
Joined
12 Feb 2008
Messages
108
Location
Northants
This glass box has been the bane of my life for the last seven years. Its made me practically give up fishkeeping, sell Discus and remove my hair by the roots. The amount of times I've wanted to take a hammer to it is unreal.
Thats all about to change...

Its going to take some time to sort as I need to spend top dollar, so I'll update as and when, and get equipment when I can afford to 🙁 Paypal donations accepted.

First step was removing the sand and preparing the tank for its move tomorrow. The cabinet's going in the bin followed very closely by that stupid background, which ironically caused 99% of the problems
If you have the chance to buy a 'Back to Nature' background take my advice. Don't. If you have the chance to buy an Effect Line aquarium take my advice (see previous advice)

I'll be decorating the room in the meantime (I cant wait! <_< )


Pics.....

tankempty2.jpg

tankempty1.jpg

tankempty3.jpg

In the meantime Arcadia decide to stick T5's in their luminaires. Yeah, nice one Arcadia!
 
Gotta say from the pics i love that background.

But if it was causing problems then the tanks environment has to come first.

Just out of interest what problems was it causing. dead spots, fish getting behind it?




Cheers
Mark
 
Dead spots, cold spots and I'm pretty sure it was affecting gh/kh etc but I cant prove it. There was nothing else in the tank to raise those, especially when I used RO. Too coincedental for my liking. There were always fish behind it.

Nice background but its got to go :?

Planting will be easier to as I wont have to plant around it. Most of the equipment is external so just filter inlets and spray bars to hide 😛
 
I agree that the background should go, but why the cabinet?

Redo using ECO complete or Aqua Soil and use EI or whatever dry fert dosing takes your fancy. Add some large canister filters with mechanical and bio media and inline CO2 reactors and you are good to go.

How many watts is your lighting by the way?

From the looks of the watermarks you seem to have neglected this tank somewhat. The effect line 720 is about £360 for the tank only, which is pretty damn good value for money if you ask me. The bracing I like since it's not particularly intrusive and thick, which means you are most likely able to use those glass lily pipes on it. How thick is the metal edges by the way? I saw one with Mark and TDI-Line when we went to WormWoods but forgot to measure the thickness. I'd gladly have the Effect line as my next tank if it weren't for the weight of glass.
 
I see 720 litres of unlimited potential.

I'd be very excited! 😀

All the best with it. I'm sure with help from fellow members you will have it looking great soon...
 
sks said:
I agree that the background should go, but why the cabinet?
Click to expand...

Water damage, my dog chewed the corner off when he was a pup and because the cupboards are so small you can only fit the smallest of externals in them. I cant have equipment outside the cupboards mainly because of space and my dog, and with another pup on the way it would be suicide!

sks said:
Redo using ECO complete or Aqua Soil and use EI or whatever dry fert dosing takes your fancy. Add some large canister filters with mechanical and bio media and inline CO2 reactors and you are good to go.
Click to expand...

Got that covered. I cant justify £250 on substrate so I'm either going Akadama or one of the black gravels or sand. Two 2080's and my 2128. External heating, Aquamass reactor and UV. Oh and EI.

sks said:
How many watts is your lighting by the way?
Click to expand...

Three 150w halides and two 58w T8's

sks said:
From the looks of the watermarks you seem to have neglected this tank somewhat.
Click to expand...

lol...the tank has been sitting there for over a year. The last thing I did to it was remove the fish and turn all the plugs off, then I walked away. It disheartened me to the extent that I shut down all my other tanks (except one) and practically gave up keeping fish. It could've imploded in front of me and I wouldn't have cared. Water marks and tank neglect were the last thing on my mind!

sks said:
How thick is the metal edges by the way?
Click to expand...

About an inch.
 
the good news is that you can definitely use the lilly pipes, the bad news is that it's going to take a long time for the hard water marks to dissolve under submersion of water, they really are hard to remove from glass.

Oh, and UV will BREAK down the EDTA chelator in the trace elements mix. I don't use UV myself and it's fine, are you scared of green water or white spot parasites?
 
Hi Vase

sks has a good point about hard water marks.

I've had good results with vinegar for removing hard water marks from dry, old tanks.

For really stubborn marks diluted sulphuric acid works a treat i.e. API pH Down. I used this on Jeremy Gay's 120cm.

Obviously wear the appropriate personal proctective equipment.
 
TDI-line said:
What cabinet are you going to go for Vase, i notice my Effect-line cabinet is higher and i have 4 cuboards there, plenty for my 2 eheims, uv, co2, and potential aqua-mass co2 unit, (did you order one from Germany btw?),

What kind of glue has been used on your background? And was your background the WoodRock system?

http://www.backtonature.se/english/sortiment.html
Click to expand...

Hey mate,

Nah, they only had black cabinets in the country and only a couple of those. Then I remembed the size thing so I can get one made for the same price and have it how I want it. Well, how the wife tells me I want it 😛

They dont seem to have the background that I have on their site. I love the background but I'm convinced its caused me a lot of problems so for piece of mind its going. I should be able to remove it without damage so I'll probably stick it in the shed.

sks said:
the good news is that you can definitely use the lilly pipes, the bad news is that it's going to take a long time for the hard water marks to dissolve under submersion of water, they really are hard to remove from glass.
Click to expand...

Cool. Not to bothered about the marks at the moment as I have all the time in the world. I do have some tetra wipes which are pretty good for water marks but I'll see how it goes.

sks said:
Oh, and UV will BREAK down the EDTA chelator in the trace elements mix. I don't use UV myself and it's fine, are you scared of green water or white spot parasites?
Click to expand...

You might want to run that first bit by me again 😳 I got it in the first place just to zap parasites etc and as peace of mind really. I was going to include it this time round just because I have it, but not using it is no problem. One less thing to worry about!
 
FWIW - I use vinegar in a plant spray bottle. Also... If you hold kitchen paper on the glass and then spray it the paper helps to keep more of the vinegar in contact with the area being treated rather than running straight down the surface.

What you doing about a replacement cabinet? (Or have you mentioned that already?)
 
Cheers, I'll give that a go. I'm going to start trying to remove the background tomorrow and then I'll give the tank a really good clean. I'll get the wife to help while I watch :lol:

I'm having a cabinet made by Aquariums Ltd. Once I've got what I want sorted (and 50% deposit) I'll give them a call and get it sorted. Takes about a month apparently.

I've got to decorate the room in the mean time and a lot needs doing :?
 
Vase said:
sks said:
Oh, and UV will BREAK down the EDTA chelator in the trace elements mix. I don't use UV myself and it's fine, are you scared of green water or white spot parasites?
Click to expand...

You might want to run that first bit by me again 😳 I got it in the first place just to zap parasites etc and as peace of mind really. I was going to include it this time round just because I have it, but not using it is no problem. One less thing to worry about!
Click to expand...

The AE trace elements mix is complexed using EDTA as a chelator to make it plant accessible. If this chelator breaks down it releases what it is holding (which are the trace elements) into solution which is NOT what you want.

UV's can also break down ozone and malachite green (a popular white spot medication).

If you have parasitic organisms that are harmful to fish a UV unit will NOT fix the problem, it will just eliminate a portion of the free swimming organisms, it cannot kill the ones causing the grief on your fish, nor the ones hiding in the gravel/rocks etc . . .
 
Tourney said:
Are you looking forward to setting it up again? I love setting up new tanks 😀
Click to expand...

Yes and no. Yes because of obvious reasons. I cant wait to get Discus in there and having no money has its advantages in some respects as it means I'll have to take my time giving me the chance to plan things out properly. And I wont spiral further into debt to set it up.

And no, because if I'm honest I'm scared something is going to go badly wrong and I dont want to have the same problems I did the other times I've set it up. I know far more now than I did then but even so, I'm aprehensive.

:?
 
you basically got everything you need just add substrate, plants and CO2. 3 150 watts metal halides are more than adequate.

For your tank, unless you want a deep substrate, you can probably get away with 6 or 7 bags of ECO complete, which would figure in about £140 worth.

DIY dry Ferts would probably be about £15 for 3 months supply, and CO2 bottles you can get cheaply if you know where to look.

Since you don't have any fish obligations you could use Aqua Soil and plant some HC or tennelus to grow in following Tom Barr's method to create a lawn before filling the tank, saving you a fair bit on the plants already.
 
I need 2x 2080's for starters and that doesnt include media. New cabinet, external heaters, the list goes on. All I have at the moment is one filter, lighting and the tank! :lol:
 
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