Vinz 6ft planted tank

[vinz]

Size:
- 180cmx60cmx60cm, 648litre
Lights:
- 9x36W PL, 12hrs/day, 1.9WPG
Substrate:
- Lapis gravel, soil
Fert:
- 10ppm NO3 via KNO3, alternate days
- 2ppm PO4 via KH2PO4,
- Easylife profito, 30ml per week
- Equilibrium, 2tbsp per week
Temp:
- 26.2 to 27.0 celcius by 0.5hp chiller
Filters:
- Ehiem 2080 ProIII, 1700l/Hr
- Ehiem 2250 modified with Ehiem 1260, 2400l/hr (driving chiller and CO2 reactor)
CO2:
- Cylinder + regulator/solenoid + external CO2 reactor

[vinz]

I'm hoping the gap in the back middle will get filled up by the Nuphars, but they seem slow or stunted... perhaps by the plastic trough that they are planted in.

Flora:
Gratiola,
Nuphar sp.,
Hygrophila corymbosa (most likely),
Crytocoryne balansae.
Crytocoryne becketii,
Crytocoryne walkeri,
Crytocoryne wendtii,
Marsilea quadrifolia,
Blyxa japonica,
Bolbitis heudolotii,
Pomogeton helferi

Fauna:
- 10 to 20 otos
- 29 rocket pencilfish (N. eques)
- 4 Cigar fish
- 3 Sparkling gouramis
- more to come...

[Nicky]

Vinz, pls keep us updated when plants settled in. Right now the plants are organised by blocks and lack the wild look, IMO.

How is the outlet of your 2 filters positioned? I saw a rainbar across the lower half of the tank. Is that the one with the CO2 and cool-water? Where is the other outlet? When I rescape my tank next month I will intro another filter + chiller into my setup and I want to know how others setup theirs.

Thanks.

[lorba]

looking good, vinz. Is that the same 6ft in the living room?

The balansae in front of the hygrophila seems like blocking them?

[Simon]

the empty space in the centre might be a good area to cover, doubt the nuphar is sufficient

[vinz]

Vinz, pls keep us updated when plants settled in. Right now the plants are organised by blocks and lack the wild look, IMO.

How is the outlet of your 2 filters positioned? I saw a rainbar across the lower half of the tank. Is that the one with the CO2 and cool-water? Where is the other outlet? When I rescape my tank next month I will intro another filter + chiller into my setup and I want to know how others setup theirs.

Thanks.

Yes, the bar across the bottom is the one with CO2 and chilled water. It's mainly for distributing the CO2. Really makes a difference. It used to be just a lily pipe at one end and I got BBA. Increasing CO2 didn't help. After I changed it to this configuration, BBA didn't come back.

The other outlet is a lily pipe on the top right corner.

I also cross the inlet's and outlets... i.e. the inlets and outlets of each filter are on opposite ends. This is to ensure the water go through both filters. In my case, it doesn't really make much difference now as the 2080 has two inlets and I put one at each end, and the 2250 outlet is a rainbar as long as the tank.

[vinz]

looking good, vinz. Is that the same 6ft in the living room?

The balansae in front of the hygrophila seems like blocking them?

Yes, the same one. The space that the hygrophila occupies used to be empty as a resting place for the arowana, and the balansae was originally meant to be a privacy curtain for that space. Since the balansae are already well established, I didn't want to uproot them and cause a mess.

the empty space in the centre might be a good area to cover, doubt the nuphar is sufficient

Depends on how big those Nuphars are going to get. There was suppose to be a long driftwood in front of them with Erect moss, but the moss mostly died and became a host for BBA and hair algae, so I got rid of it. Still thinking about what to do with that space.

[StanChung]

hi vinz,
you may try shading some black net over the lamp directly over] the nuphar to to get it to grow taller...mine grows quite tall with relatively low light.

[plumboy21]

nice tank... my erect moss also died. dunno why.