Hi All,

I received my tank & Cabinet from Extreme last weekend so thought id post here and keep you guys informed of my journey as I go. :P

(Wayne makes the tanks but goes through Dalbarb for the cabinets/hoods. Both the tank and cabinet/hood have nice clean lines and are very well made)

Tank Spec’s:
Glass tank – 5.5ft L x 2ft H x 2.5ft W - 760litres, 201 Gallons

Cabinet - I’m a tallish person and prefer the look of tanks at head height so Bec asked Dalbarb to make the cabinet 1.15m high for me. I love it.

Hood – I had a personal battle when it came to ordering the hood. I want to run Metal Halides and needed a hood to hide the light & reduce light spillage into the room. This means a largish hood as I did a DIY MH job and don’t want it ‘uglying’ up the tank with no canopy. The thing is my personal preference is to have a small hood so the tank doesn’t look top heavy. Smaller hoods in my opinion make tanks look more streamlined. In the end, we went for 1.5ft high hood. Although the hood in other people’s opinion looks great (and it is), it still looks a little too top heavy for me. It’s the price I pay for now until I can save up and purchase some nice lights. Until then and when I have a full weekend to take my time, I may shave an inch or two off the hood.

Lighting – 3 x 150w OSRAM shop starter Flex core and plug kits. I went for these because of the electronic Ballasts and the ease of globe replacement. I will post pictures of how I made the fittings later as well. I may also be adding 1 or 2 x T5’s to the light fitting and put the overall WPG between 2.5 and 3. I haven’t added the T5’s yet so will post that bit later when I decide plants and confirm layout. There needs to be coverage for Discus if the WPG is high!

Substrate – Yet to get as I’m still deciding but am 85% sure im going with Eco Complete. This will only be in the planted areas. Everywhere else will be sand

Filtration – Yet to get but will be 2 x Eheim 2080’s plumbed into the bottom of the tank (bulkheads/tank outlets). The holes have already been drilled along with a hole for Lifeguards air control kit for the air.

Layout – Well, you will have to wait and see how it turns out. I have what I want in my head but im hopeless at verbalising it. Plus it may change. It involves the possibility of a DIY cave project placed at the golden ratio mark (which may have hairgrass capping the top of it or plants to give it a dark depth feel?), drift wood/roots. The plants are still being researched.

My original intent was to make an Amazonian biotype – minimal plants, river bottom, and black water look. Now im merging towards a semi planted tank that’s simple but effective with heavy Amazonian influences so it’s kind of best of both worlds. If done right will hopefully look great.

I will post pictures tomorrow of the tank and the light so far.