64 Litre "Hidden Paths" Tank

[Urban Aquaria]

Very swee le. Ask u to help me setup, u not free !! TO u is simple and fast la.. for noob like me.. need to take up to hours !!

Thats why i have to do this quick setup... i also no time to do a prolonged scaping process.

[Goalkeeper]

Very nice setup. Thanks for showing the step by step process....this quick setup adds an extra poison to those who are thinking if setting up another tank like myself!

[sianzation]

clean neat fast and nice setup. main thing is it is low maintances. make me feel like setting up 1 on my office table


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[backspace]

very nice and neat setup.
great photo as well.

[georgelam]

Wow. I really like the contrast between the white sand and green leaves nana. Especially when the LEDs are on. Very calming. This might be something I'll go for in future. But only soil substrate can grow carpets. And fish poop might be obvious on white sand. How would you counter this?
Many thanks.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Urban Aquaria]

Wow. I really like the contrast between the white sand and green leaves nana. Especially when the LEDs are on. Very calming. This might be something I'll go for in future. But only soil substrate can grow carpets. And fish poop might be obvious on white sand. How would you counter this?
Many thanks.

Yeah, sand substrate could also be used to grow carpet plants, just that you have to add fertilizer base layer or root tabs/sticks or dose additional water column fertilizers to supplement the nutrient needs of those plants... it will definitely need abit more additional work than compared to using ADA Amazonia aquasoil.

Most people try to keep their sand substrate clear of plants though, as they are usually meant as sand banks for contrast or as paths in aquascapes.

Fish waste is definitely more noticeable on light colored sand... i've found the the best layout for such sand-based setups is one whereby there are as few obstructions as possible on the substrate itself (ie. like those amazon biotope tanks with only branchy wood dangling from the top) and matched with a high flow canister filter with wide outflow mouth, that will create a lots of circulation and push all the waste material towards the intake. The heavier waste material will usually just accumulate at a central spot, which makes it very easy to vacuum up during regular tank maintenance.

In my particular scape, there are alot of flow obstructions along the substrate in the form of mount layout and the volcanic rock piles, its part of my chosen design so i just have to work around it... i basically just use a 9/12 plastic tube and hose to stir and siphon up any visible waste material during water change (most of it will accumulate at specific spots). Any bits which i can't see, means it too troublesome to siphon them up anyways, as long as the front and side sand areas look clean, its good enough for me.

I also tend to keep my tank bio-load as light as possible, with livestock that don't produce much waste (along with minimal feeding schedule), so that helps alot too. I've also noticed that having a large shrimp population seems to reduce the amount of visible waste material appearing, as the shrimps process and break apart the larger waste into smaller and lighter bits which are more easily carried by the flow and drawn in by the canister filter.

[alexhaw]

Simple and nice

[Urban Aquaria]

Its been around 16 weeks since this tank was started... so i guess its due for a much needed update.



So far its been running well with very little maintenance required, as per my original plan.

Over time, i've gradually stopped dosing fertilizers and excel as i found that the plants already get sufficient nutrients from the tank's ecosystem and their carbon requirements aren't very high anyways. The fact that all of the plants are rhizome based also helps as they can store lots of resources for future usage, so the plants have their own inbuilt buffers against fluctuating nutrient levels.

Platinum rummy nose tetras were added just after the tank was setup, they form the main group of fishes for the tank now. Their exceptional schooling ability really ties everything together perfectly.



Despite their slower growth rates, the plants sprouted out quite a good amount of new leaves... the various anubias and bucephalandra clumps have developed into denser bunches and slowly filled out the aquascape.

I was initially planning to swap out plants, but after seeing everything settle in nicely, i figured its probably better if i just leave it be and simply let the plants grow out.

[Urban Aquaria]

Video update...



Switch to HD quality in the player settings for much clearer viewing.

[Phillipians]

Nicely grown in. I will use this as the inspiration for my nano cube office tank.
Need more buceps and also nanas now... now where can i find them cheaply...

[skytan]

Wow...the rummy nose are amazing schoolers.

[KevenBrendanLee]

AMAZING!
teach me sensei

[jiejian]

Stunning.
Urban bro really have an unique perspective to scaping.

[Dscheng]

UA, your current flow very strong. Your canister is Ecco pro 300? My 200 connect to chiller , co2 reactor the flow drop a lot le.

[Urban Aquaria]

UA, your current flow very strong. Your canister is Ecco pro 300? My 200 connect to chiller , co2 reactor the flow drop a lot le.

Yeah, i'm using the Ecco Pro 300 in this tank setup... its connected to just an ISTA Co2 reactor, so although the flow rate does drop slightly, its still high enough to maintain sufficient flow.

I guess in your case, the Ecco Pro 200 flow rate got reduced quite alot more by going through both chiller and reactor units, so the resulting flow rate becomes much lower. You'd probably have to upgrade to a higher flow rate filter to compensate for the extra resistance.

[MCE]

I wonder whether adding another pump (external) along the pipe line would increase the flow rate? This is the pump that came with canister I use (with chiller). http://youtu.be/ufWKvm5o4Ps


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Dscheng]

Dont think eheim has this kind of external pump?

[Urban Aquaria]

I wonder whether adding another pump (external) along the pipe line would increase the flow rate? This is the pump that came with canister I use (with chiller). http://youtu.be/ufWKvm5o4Ps

That can be done... just get any external pump that has a higher flow rate and connect it inline on the outflow hose, then the canister filter can just be operated using the external pump.

[Dscheng]

any picture for this sample setup?

[Urban Aquaria]

any picture for this sample setup?

Its basically just connecting an external water pump to the outflow tube of the canister filter and using it to power the filter instead.

This diagram for the Aquael system shows how it could be setup to work (look at the 2nd configuration whereby the external pump is installed on the outflow hose):



Photo from Google Images.

You can buy external water pumps from most LFS... here is an example of a 1,000 l/ph external water pump from East Ocean:



Photo source and product link: http://www.eastoceansg.com/hailea-hx...mp-p-1554.html

The listed power consumption for this particular model at 35W is high though.... i guess you could shop around to find other external pump designs too.

Anyways, just connect it inline on your outflow hose and use it to run the canister filter. Just make sure to remove the Eheim canister filter's own impeller to reduce resistance (since its not being used).