My Tank Journal

[Rupert]

Lighting suggestions for my new tank set up

Next week I am going to plant out my tank, and I have some lighting questions. I have some dosing questions as well but after reading the last 20 pages of the “Planted Tanks: Fertilisation and Algae” forum I need to consolidate my thoughts.

Tank Dimensions: 122cm (L) x 61cm (W) x 76cm (H)
Effective Water volume: 425 litres
Type of Lighting: MH & FL [Dymax Hi-Lux]
Lighting Intensity: 360 Watts [300 MH, 60 FL @ 6500k]
Type of CO2: Tank with requlator / solenoid, connected to Ph Controller,
Method of Injection: NA Reactor with three balls
Substrate Used: Lapis Sand [3 x 22 kg] not sure probably 3 inches deep that will be
Base Fert: Dennerle 24kg… I haven’t got the exact details to hand.
Liquid Fertilizers that will be used: LushGro Aqua & LushGro Micro [got one of those nutrition kits with a bit of everything in it]
Tank Temperature: 80F/26.6C using a chiller
Type of Filter: Eheim 2028 canister
Filter media used: Eheim EHFI MENCH

I am going to plant quite heavily with the following:

Bioload (Your Fish and Plants).
1. Dwarf Hair Grass [Eleocharis acicularis] - 40 pots
2. Blyxa Japonica - 20 pots
3. Rotala Wallichii - 10 pots
4. Aponogeton Longiplumulosus. -5 pots
5. Java Moss [3 tubs to cover some wood]


I have given myself a whole day to plant.

THE LIGHTING QUESTION.
I am not sure about the lighting duration, should I gradually raise the lighting duration over the first couple of weeks to allow the plants acclimatize? The intensity from the MH is a bit frightening

My preference is to have a split lighting period so that I can see the tank in the morning and in the evening when I get home. A Dennerle brochure mentioned that this makes life harder for algae as well, they also mentioned that lighting “shorter phases less than 4 hours are not noticed by plants”. The tank will also get diffuse light from various windows the closest is 3.5 meters away. The hours I propose are, and this is where I am uncertain:

No. of Hours your light is on:
FL 6:15 am- 10:45 {4.5 hrs} SIESTA 5:30 – 10:00{4.5} [Total Duration 9hrs]
MH 6.30 am – 10:30 {4.0 hrs} SIESTA 5:45– 9:45{4.0} [Total Duration 8 hrs]

Or should I just do something simple and leave the FL on from 6:30am to – 10:00pm and have the MH’s come on in the afternoon say from 4:45– 9:45 for 5 hours and build this time up to 8 hours over a few weeks. I am assuming that the 80 watts from the FL will not have any real impact during the day until accompanied by the MH’s

Thanks

[vinz]

Hmmm... I tried teh siesta method before, didn't see any difference when I stopped praticing it. I used the siesta method for the same reason as you... to see the tank before adn after work.

If you have both FLs and MH, then I would suggest you do have your FLs on max 12hrs (ok, 14 absolute max) with no siesta. Have your MH come on for about 8 hours in the middle of that period.

If the room with the tank does not get direct sunlight, you can keep the lights off until about 9 or 10am and not worry about the ambient light screwing too much with the plants bio-rhythm or causing algae.

I don't know about you, but I realised in the end, I never have time in the morning to really enjoy the tank before having to rush off to work, so I gave up having the lights on in the morning. I have more time after work to really enjoy the tank.

If you really want to see the tank so early, I suggest you turn on the lights manually... and turn them off when you leave.

If you insist on having such long light periods, there's a very good chance your tank will suffer from algae problems.

[vinz]

Oh yah, no need to acclimatise the plants to the lighting. If you plant densely from day one, you should not have too much problems. Remember to raise the fish-load SLOWLY. Take weeks for that.

[Rupert]

Thanks Vincent,

Good no need to acclimatize the plants… probably take longer for me to recover from the initial planting.

I too was having my doubts about the siesta and the thought of the intensity of the MH in the morning was a bit daunting for 20 minutes of motivation before leaving for work, so with no direct sunlight near the tank, I will turn on the FL’s about 12 noon for 10 hours and the MH for from 1.30 – 9.30 for 8 hours.

I will be putting some Yamoto shrimp [20] in the tank after the first 4 weeks, and then some guppies after that, then I off to sea view aquarium to get some Cardinals, about two weeks later some shrimp.

Rupert

[PeterGwee]

Drop the pH controller and spend on a good regulator instead. For the reactor, consider DIY one based off Ghazanfar Ghori's design which is cheap and good when run at max flow rate (I'll prefer a dedicated powerhead for it instead of the filter outlet which flow tends to slow down when it clogs..affects efficiency and response time.).

Regards
Peter Gwee

[Rupert]

Thanks Peter,

I have already got all the equipment, scrounged around and managed to get almost all of it second hand, except for the chiller. Even ended up with 2 good regulators JBL and Dennerle Profti 2000.

The Dennerle pH controller was another second-hand find that will let me go on holidays with a little bit of piece and mind that at least pH will be stable.

Regards Rupert

[vinz]

Your pH won't fluctuate much once you've set the CO2 injection rate correctly, and your tank is stable. If you go holidays, just make sure you have enough CO2 to last till you come back.

[Rupert]

I got my second tank last night as the first was replaced without a second thought by the maker as it had a scratch. Anyway here are some pictures.

I am writing up and almost finished what has become a rather lengthy document on everything I have done from thought - to day 1.

[Simon]

rupert, what stones are you using? granite?

[benny]

I would say that that is indeed a very attractive tank. Looks like you got your ADA style tank after all.

Is that a solid wood, plywood with laminate/veneer or chipboard cabinet?

Cheers,

[Rupert]

Simon, I was on a trip out with family & friends when I found some rocks and probably with embarrassment to those with me, managed to cart home 28.5kg of them. Had sore arms and legs for days.

Benny, The cabinet is veneer on plywood, with a semi matt finish so it looks aged. Took me a long to get everything to fit inside in a manner that was organized.

Now just have the hard work of planting it out when the plants arrive.

[BFG]

Hold on Rupert! It is advisable not to place your chiller in the cabinet as the exhaust air from the chiller would be reused again hence the chiller need to work extra harder to cool your tank water. Place the chiller beside your tank, somewhere where there's enough air circulation.

[Rupert]

Thanks BFG,

You are quite correct that if the chiller re-consumes the air that it has expelled then it would be quite ineffective. This was a problem that took quite some time and consideration to resolve. But effectively I have positioned the chiller it, so expelled air leaves the cabinet, and have an additional cross cabinet partition if required too ensure expelled air cannot come back to the front of the cabinet.

I will however closely measure effectiveness of this approach incase I have made design errors.

Rupert

[Rupert]

Here are some pictures 1 hour after the tank was planted out and water added. Water is cloudy [probably didn’t wash the media enough], equipment is working and back is aching.

[Simon]

see you spend alot of time and effort in planting HG , You can plant more plants initally to help absorb extra nutrients.

[Nevada]

Mr Rupert,

looks like your layout gonna be interesting, looks more like a zen setup to me because of the rocks.do keep us update with the progress if you don't mind. really love to see the tank once they've matured

Edwin

[Rupert]

Hello Nevada,

The Japanese 3 boulder gardening technique called "Sanzon-Iwagumi" http://www.silvertei.com/tourguide/c...5-garden-.html ] and bonsai had some contemplation. Eventually a very loose interpretation of the Iwagumi approach was taken, so the granite rocks were not buried into the substrate, this was an attempt to make them look impressive. The 4th smaller rock was needed for balance.

Another practical consideration was the desire to have a landscape that had no hidden areas if one move moved around the tank, so one was drawn into the setting. The traditional top down triangular perspective found in "Sanzon-Iwagumi" gardens wasn’t entirely followed.

Wood was a bit harder, initially I was looking for large perfect piece, but gave that up and went for several smaller pieces that had plate like limbs that worked together and was capable of getting up into the top third of the tank and could change the character of one end. If you look closely at the proposed front profile [the first pictures in this thread]; the wood forms a profile of a 5th mountain.

Now just need the tank to mature and see if the planning turns into reality.

[Nevada]

thanks for sharing about the "Sanzon-Iwagumi" technique, it's something new for me ...
gd luck for ur tank Mr Rupert

[Rupert]

Hello Nevada,

Have a look at this link as “Penjing” might interest you

http://www.fukubonsai.com/2a2.html

The Chinese culture is extremely rich and it is said that Penjing had many schools of thought and that Japanese Bonsai originated from or was influenced by Penjing in the process. http://www.phoenixbonsai.com/BigPict...seSchools.html
http://www.bonsainet.com.au/penjing/penjing.htm

I like Penjing, it has different mindset boundaries that can redefine what we call normal in a planted tank.

Rupert

[crandf]

This is based on what I've read elsewhere. HG, like moss, shows the best results when it's spread out sparsely and uniformly. Those HG clusters in your tanks looks very thick. I think the new shoots won't be able to spread easily and there's a risk that algae will develop in the middle of each.