160 gallon tank (UK)

[colinlp]

Well it's been a long time coming, to long really but it's time to start this journal before it's too late. As I start this the tank is well on the way to being set up, filled with substrate and sand etc waiting for the plants to be delivered. All looking good but lets start at the beginning and see how we got this far:

It was back in January we decided at we needed a bigger thank to house our rapidly growing Discus so after some measuring and thought about where and how we could actually fit one into our smallish house we came up with a place that would hold a 68" long tank. It so happens that Aquariums Ltd make a tank just that size, so with no further ado I called them up and ordered a 68 x 30 x 24 tank on a cabinet and a 48 x 18 x 18 sump.

We decided that we would keep a large area clear of plants which would be easy to clean and restrict the planting to the back of the tank. We thought also at this time that maintenance of such a deep tank would be difficult (at this point we decided this would have to be a low tech tank but more of that later)so we decided we would also try and form a barrier between the two sections which would help keep food in the clear area and help prevent plants spreading into the clear area. After searching through countless planted tank pictures for inspiration the only things suitable either looked like dry stone walling or something from a municipal garden. By chance I saw a thread on another forum where somebody had made a rockscape out of lava rock and expanding polyurethane foam, bizzare but it worked. This in mind we came up with the idea of fabricating a sand bank running the length of the tank inter spaced with stones.

This next bit looks horrendous but hang on in there the finished thing looks not that bad! So we started with a piece of MDF the size of the tank and a stack of rocks we selected from the beach. After a couple of hours mucking about we settled on a layout that we hoped would fit the bill, with this in mind we ordered some redmoor root from aqua essentials. A couple of days later it arrived and we double checked our arrangement with the wood and it confirmed our choice. I pencilled in the plan of the sandbank onto the MDF then removed the rocks. The MDF was coated in a layer of wax as a releasing agent for the polyurethane foam. A layer of the afore mentioned foam was laid down along the marked outline and allowed to harden over night. It was trimmed down in the areas where the stones would fit to a height of 1.5 inches or so, this would then be covered by sand in the front. Each stone was covered in cling film to allow removal and placed in position. Finally more foam was squirted around and left to harden overnight. The excess was trimmed away with a sharp knife to look something like what I wanted and the stones removed before a final sanding to shape. To finish this to make it actually look like sand it was coated in white tinted epoxy resin and white gravel sprinkled on carefully, actually this took a couple of coats to look right. Sadly I see to have lost the photographs of this part of the construction sorry. Anyway the finished article looked, well a monstrosity but we had to remember that only a small part of it would actually be seen.

Trial layout with wood
http://i906.photobucket.com/albums/ac269/colinlp2000/FishTank/IMG_0234.jpg?t=1273523738

Final layout with wood
http://i906.photobucket.com/albums/ac269/colinlp2000/FishTank/IMG_0236.jpg?t=1273523834

First coat of polyurethane
http://i906.photobucket.com/albums/ac269/colinlp2000/FishTank/IMG_0243.jpg?t=1273523823

Stones fitted
http://i906.photobucket.com/albums/ac269/colinlp2000/FishTank/IMG_0244.jpg?t=1273523933

Last polyurethane shot
http://i906.photobucket.com/albums/ac269/colinlp2000/FishTank/IMG_0247.jpg?t=1273524035

[colinlp]

As mentioned briefly we decided that this would need to be low maintenance because of it's size and accessibility. After some research here and on another forum we learnt that low tech was what we could get the results we desired, besides if it didn't work out we could start adding CO2 in the future. We also wanted to create something well bio typical, I stop well short of using the word biotope because we both like crypts and some of the fish in the tank will be Asian. With that in mind we decided that Echinodorus would be ideal from suitability for a low CO2 and high temperature point of view as well as needing less trimming than stems. Finally we wanted to automate water changes, this we could do by trickling water into the sump and having an overflow for the waste.

With the promised delivery date now rapidly looming and after some forum research we purchased substrate, gravel and sand. We were recommended both ecocomplete and John Innes no3, we set out to use just ecocomplete but ended up needing more so we shot off to the garden centre to get some JI 3 but ended up purchasing aquatic pond soil to use as a layer under the ecocomplete. We also bought a HMA filter to provide safe water for the water changes, no RO as we live in a soft water area so once the chlorine and heavy metals are removed it is perfect for Discus as is. For filtration for the sump we sourced bioballs, alphagrog and some coarse matted material whose name I forget. Finally we ordered some T8 and T5 lighting, 2 400W heaters, a pump and a plumbing kit for the tank.

Sadly all this sat in a spare room for 3 months while we waited for the tank to arrive as manufacture had been delayed. It was finally delivered on Saturday, some help from the lads at the boat yard saw it carried in and put in position safely, good lord does it look big! Something about that position, it's in our hallway near the front door, now we have lived with it for a few days it look good once we got used to the size but we really need to get rid of the old tank now at the other side of the hall.

http://i906.photobucket.com/albums/ac269/colinlp2000/FishTank/IMG_0287.jpg

http://i906.photobucket.com/albums/ac269/colinlp2000/FishTank/IMG_0288.jpg

[colinlp]

Fitting the sump into the cabinet was easy enough, the centre support of the cabinet just unscrewed and slid out, all that was required was some polystyrene to sit it on. Once in place the position of the required holes was marked and drilled, these were for the sump overflow for water changes, the water feed pipe I had already installed some weeks ago, the return from the sump to the tank and a hole to feed electrical wires through.

Once drilled the cabinet could be moved into it's final resting place, the overflow pipe was connected up to the sump and tested by filling it with water, thankfully all remained dry. Next the weir to sump pipework was fitted, what a pain in the ..... the weir is to deep and to narrow to get your hand to the bottom to get the nut onto the tank fitting, it took the best part of half an hour to get that sorted! I would love to know how other people have managed this!! The return from the sump to the tank was fitted but the final few sections have been left unglued until I can test it all with water in next week. Finally some sockets were wired and fitted into what will be the "dry" section of the cabinet, I intend to fit a separator inside to keep the electrics separate from the water and also allow some storage shelves to be fitted.

Rightly or wrongly I placed the two 400W heaters under the egg crate that supports the alphagrog so in theory all the water passing through the sump has to pass over at least one heater. These can be mover elsewhere if necessary in the future.

http://i906.photobucket.com/albums/ac269/colinlp2000/FishTank/IMG_0309.jpg?t=1273608615

http://i906.photobucket.com/albums/ac269/colinlp2000/FishTank/IMG_0310.jpg?t=1273608651

http://i906.photobucket.com/albums/ac269/colinlp2000/FishTank/IMG_0311.jpg?t=1273608692

[colinlp]

Right now I can get this up to speed at the stage I am now.

The inside of the tank was given a final clean from the top of a stepladder :lol: I tell you my ribs are killing me after that, if I need to do any maintenance at the bottom of this when it's full I WILL need a mask and snorkel as my head must go into the tank to reach the bottom back :oops:

Now it was time to place the polyurethane foam sandbank and fit the stones, sorry I forgot to take photos of this stage. To e honest at this stage I started to worry that it would be a disaster as it looked completely wrong but after some thought and talk we decided to fill the front with sand to see how it looked then. Thankfully when the sand covered the lower section the whole thing came together and looked how we hope it might. We used Argos play sand as a bottom layer to try and pad out the more expensive Carribsea (?) white sand of which we used 50Kg.

http://i906.photobucket.com/albums/ac269/colinlp2000/FishTank/IMG_0289.jpg?t=1273609629

http://i906.photobucket.com/albums/ac269/colinlp2000/FishTank/IMG_0290.jpg?t=1273609668

http://i906.photobucket.com/albums/ac269/colinlp2000/FishTank/IMG_0291.jpg?t=1273609712

http://i906.photobucket.com/albums/ac269/colinlp2000/FishTank/IMG_0292.jpg?t=1273609759

[colinlp]

We added the Pond soil to the planted sections and topped off with the Ecocomplete before covering the lot with fine white gravel . I'll put the wood in when we plant the tank as it is sinking nicely at the moment, I don't want to let it to start drying out.

So for now that's the really adventurous scape sorted and time to order the plants, this bit worries me! I wanted a restrained planting plan with just broad leaf plants filling the entire back but thinning down rapidly towards the front for swimming space for the Discus. We spent many hours browsing various websites looking for suitable plants, eventually coming up with the following list.

2 x Echinodorus 'Aquartica'
5 x Echinodorus bleheri
2 x Echinodorus cordifolius
2 x Phyllanthus fluitans
3 x Echinodorus Parviflorus
3 x Echinodorus Rosea
3 x Echinodorus Harbii
6 x Echinodorus Lattifolius
6 x Crypt Wenditti
4 x unknown Crypt we already own

Fingers crossed that should do the job but we can order more if need be (mask and snorkel on standby!)

Lighting will be 2 x 80W T5 and 4 x 22W T5, hopefully this will be ample for a low tech tank? These haven't arrived yet but should be here by the weekend. The only other thing of interest will be a temperature controller to try and add another level of security against thermostat failure, again this should be here by the weekend.

http://i906.photobucket.com/albums/ac269/colinlp2000/FishTank/IMG_0295.jpg?t=1273611040

http://i906.photobucket.com/albums/ac269/colinlp2000/FishTank/IMG_0296.jpg?t=1273611076

http://i906.photobucket.com/albums/ac269/colinlp2000/FishTank/IMG_0294.jpg?t=1273611148

http://i906.photobucket.com/albums/ac269/colinlp2000/FishTank/IMG_0298.jpg?t=1273611102

[Spardas]

Sweet setup, I can't wait for it to be filled with plants and livestock.

[JL15219]

Sweet setup, I can't wait for it to be filled with plants and livestock.

+1 I bet it is going to look awesome

[colinlp]

We filled the tank up to test the sump, I was really worried that the pump would push water back into the tank faster than the tank and sump could feed the pump (a Newjet 3000 ordered from the fish tank supplier). I shouldn't have worried though as it all seemed effortless and I think it would handle twice the flow it has with no problems. The noise however was horrendous, the sound of the water crashing down the weir and then the sound of the water entering the sump then the pump itself sounded like a 1976 Japanese moped. This needed sorting before we even thought about running it as my wife was all for beating me around the head with a large stick!

I made a Durso pipe for the weir

http://i906.photobucket.com/albums/ac269/colinlp2000/FishTank/IMG_0312.jpg?t=1275333038

This was still noisy but a heck of a lot quieter than the bare weir. Next after some research I extended the return pipe into the sump so that it was just under the surface at its lowest working level. This significantly reduced the noise. After the best part of half a day messing around with the Durso pipe it eventually silenced, I'm not totally sure what I did to achieve this as I was only retrying stuff I'd already been through; anyway it's fine now and my wife has put the stick down. The pump no mater what I tried would not shut up so a new one was ordered, an Eheim Compact+ 3000. When this arrived and fitted the noise was greatly reduced but there was still a loud hum when you stood at the side of the cabinet. Unfortunately this pointed directly at our bedroom door but it was a lot better than the old one. Eventually I stopped this by adjusting the position of the power wire of all things, it seems that was vibrating against the cabinet and the cabinet was amplifying the noise. Finally the noise levels were more than acceptable!

One of the things I wanted to fit more than anything else was some way of automating the water changes as mentioned before. The sump overflow had already been fitted and tested and a HMA filter for providing clean water for the tank purchased and fitted just above the sump. I had also pre fitted a cold water supply to the back of the cabinet. In order to turn the water on and off on a timer I purchased a washing machine solenoid from ebay for a few pence and fitted that to a in line tap. When the solenoid is connected to a plug fitted in a timer it opens and shuts reliably, it's a bit Heath Robinson but it works

http://i906.photobucket.com/albums/ac269/colinlp2000/FishTank/IMG_0313.jpg?t=1275334203

The water flow is regulated to about 1/2 a litre per minute through the HMA filter. This at the moment at least doesn't drop the tank temperature by more than 0.2C during the change, that will need monitoring when winter creeps up on us. The timer is now set for 10 hours during the night to make use of the cheaper electricity to heat the cooler water.

Temperature control caused a bit of a problem surprisingly. I bought an ATC 300 external controller from TGM in Wrexham, on fitting with the sender in the tank it seemed to work perfectly. Just after fitting that I started fitting the T5 lighting, when one set had been fitted we decided to go out for a curry rather than cook as it had been a long day. Now for whatever reason I left the lights on when we went out. When we came back we noticed the temperature had dropped a startling 15C. It turned out that when the lighting was switched on the temperature controlled reading dropped by 15C hence switching on the heaters and overheating the water. I called TGM and they had no idea and called both ATC and Arcadia and eventually offered to exchange or refund or whatever else was needed to sort something out. Again it turns out that EMI from the T5 tubes was causing the problem and moving the Temperature sender to the sump cured the problem; strange eh?

Finally the tank was drained and planted, refilled then after a week some livestock added along with a healthy dose of gunk from our existing filters into the sump. 2 weeks down the line this is how it looks

http://i906.photobucket.com/albums/ac269/colinlp2000/FishTank/IMG_0332.jpg?t=1275335455

http://i906.photobucket.com/albums/ac269/colinlp2000/FishTank/IMG_0327.jpg?t=1275335502

http://i906.photobucket.com/albums/ac269/colinlp2000/FishTank/IMG_0328.jpg?t=1275335539

All this is now in quarantine awaiting the day I can move in the Discus

[wreck]

that turned out awesome!!! nice work

[colinlp]

Thanks man! I'm very pleased with it so far but looking forward to the plants filling out the back of the tank but I reckon that will take quite a while with no CO2

[rickztahone]

thanks for the write up! that is one great looking tank. i really love the way it came out. i couldn't picture it as i was following the posts but it all came together nicely.

[colinlp]

I tell you that sand bank nearly didn't go in, it looked awful before the sand covered it up

[blkg35]

Amazing job, it looks really clean.
I didn't think it would have turned out that nice....:)

[AzFishKid]

Your tank looks great!

However, i do believe the two bushy-looking plants on the left are non-aquatic. They look like they're Mondo Grass (Ophiopogon japonicus).

[colinlp]

Thanks

The plant is actually Echinodorus latifolius (https://aquarium-gardening.com/details.php?prodId=141), those were pulled from my old tank and the bigger one is quite old now, I think I got them in 2006. It seems to be quite hard to find now in the UK at least. It propagates its self by sending out chains of runners and can form a bit of a carpet given the chance. I like it in isolation it forms itself into a rosette shape and looks wonderful.

[FarmerD]

Bravo Mate!
Was not sure if your rock creation was going to work out as you said..... In the end, Looks great and going to be so much easier to keep clean. Cant wait to see some Discus in there ... Wish I had the kind of patience you seem to have to ensure it all works perfect. Looking forward to seeing the finished product!

Cheers

[colinlp]

Going to be a while longer before the discus get in there by the look of it. Had a disaster last week, the pipe on that solenoid burst and dumped a large amount of raw tap water into the tank. Lost a lot of fish due to that and then we got a suspected columnaris outbreak which hopefully has now been treated if that's what it was. At the moment all looks well but we have to wait for the thing to cycle again and be 100% stable for a while before we consider moving them. Fingers crossed then.

[colinlp]

Things seem to have settled down nicely, no sign of anything wrong at all since thank goodness. So last week I bit the bullet and put the discus in and so far they have really improved in every way, better colour and looking happier in general.

The down side is that we are still suffering with diatoms, we have 4 SAEs left but they don't seem interested in them. In the past we've had Otos which have dealt with the brown mess quickly but I'm a bit worried about having then with discus as I've heard they can get a liking for discus slime. Probably by the time I QT some Otos the diatoms will have disappeared anyway, what do you think? Will get some photo's up as soon as the brown mess dies away