71 gallon/270 litre Sand Scape for catfish :D

[stormhawk]

Something I was working on over the last weekend. 8 hours of removing all the stuff from the previous setup, including most of the GEX shrimp soil, this was the end result:



Tank Size: 120cm x 45cm x 50cm (SunSun 4 foot cabinet+hood tank)
Substrate: Sudo Bottom Sand + small amount of GEX shrimp soil

Filter System: Eheim 2026 (outflow over 4 x OHF trays)
Filter Media: Eheim Ehfilav in 2026, filter wool in OHF trays

Temperature: 29-30°C (Day) / 27-30°C (Night)

Lighting: 3 x 39W T8 lights (2 daylight, 1 pink light)
Light Duration: 6 hours (6pm - midnight)

Co2: None
Carbon: Seachem Excel
Fertilizer: Seachem Flourish
Fan/Chiller: None

Water Change Regime: 20% Weekly

Water Parameters:
TDS - 195 ppm (HM Digital AP-1 meter)
pH - 6.4
NO3 - slightly above 0 ppm
NO2 - 0 ppm
NH3/NH4 - 0 ppm
KH - 3 (Sera test kit)
GH - ? (Sera test kit)

Other tests done with Aquarium Pharmaceuticals test kits.

Flora:
Anubias nana
Microsorum pteropus
Lemna minor
Pistia stratiotes (dwarf?)

Fauna:
Corydoras hastatus
Corydoras sterbai
Corydoras loxozonus
Corydoras panda
Poecilia sphenops Gold Lyretail
Paraspaerichthys lineatus
Sawbwa resplendens
Rineloricaria sp. "Red Lizard"
Hyphessobrycon megalopterus
Mikrogeophagus altispinosa

Feeding Plan:
Hikari Carnivore Pellets
Live Daphnia/Moina (every 3 days)
Live Tubifex (every 3 days)

First off, ignore the tube you see in the middle, that is the uplift tube to my Satellite box with some adult killies. As you can see, I utilised my leftover driftwood, lava rocks and other fancy rocks along with 3-4 pieces of Borneowild Minerock from the old setup. The 2 plants in the picture are leftover from my old setup, decided to leave them there since Aquarama is coming this weekend so I can try and find some nice epiphytic plants for the tank. I don't intend to make this a planted tank since the emphasis is on the fish.

On the left hand side, near the filter intake, I got no idea what to place there, maybe another piece of branchy driftwood or just random rock placements.

I tried to find Sudo Reef Sand but since it was out of stock, me and my gf decided that Bottom Sand will do so I ended up buying 2 x 5 kg bags from C328. Apparently, I need another 2-3 kg of sand for the tank but it's okay. The depth of sand is sufficient to see digging behaviour from the Corydoras and the sand sifting method of the Bolivian Rams.

When I was doing the water testing, the GH kit was giving me some issues. 60 drops of reagent and no change so I have no idea what is the measurement. KH kit was light yellow right from drop no.1 then drop no.3 it became a bright yellow. What do you guys and girls think? Test kit problem, or water too soft??

[stormhawk]

As to how I placed the sand into the tank without the need for rinsing it, I followed a method I learnt via Youtube and shared in the Catfish section. The end result was no wastage of water unlike in the past when I would wash it over and over again in a tub with running water. This was by far, the easiest and least time-wasting method for adding sand to any tank. The picture above shows the leftover waste water once I emptied the sand into the tank. Very easy and fuss free.