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  1. #11
    Wrigglers
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    I wish i could take the credit, but for me its just inspiration.
    I think the big difference to the image i have in my mind is that I will do small pieces of driftwood with Anubias grown on them around the base of the 'tree' instead of the stones.
    and probably a darker substrate material.

  2. #12
    Medium Discus ivo's Avatar
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    Sep 2006
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    594
    Quote Originally Posted by ILLUSN View Post
    Gorgeous photos!!!!

    I'm in the middle of 3 led projects right now
    A 600w marine build for an 8 footer
    A 360w build for my 5x2.5x2.5 Altum tank
    A 105w water cooled build for dads planted tank (just finished and re-setup)
    all would be along the same lines as a maxspec type unit but I have chosen manual dimming and old school timers. These units have much higher output/W (newer led types and tighter optics)
    shoot me a PM if you need a hand, I'll have write ups done soon just waiting for the plants in dads tank to finish settling into the EI routine.
    Hi ILLUSN, what colour combo and optics would you used to provide full spectrum to grow plants?

  3. #13
    Moderator
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    Jan 2007
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    Penrith NSW
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    Hi Ivo to be honest plants really don't mind my experiments with full spectrum vs 6500k actually showed that plain 6500k whites are fine so long as the intensity is high enough. 30-40 par at the substrate will grow anything. To make the fish look their best mixing red green/turquoise and blue works well but to balance the colour which can look a little unnatural mixing in warm and neutral whites does the trick. The build I'm using is 1 cool white (6500k) 1 warm white (3000k), 2 neutral whites (5000k) to 1 cluster of a single red turquoise and blue.
    I use 40 degree optics on the whites and 60 on the colours to better tune the mix.

  4. #14
    Wrigglers
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    Jan 2006
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    So a bit of an update.

    At this point in time I am pretty well set on the Cade HL600 Marine Cube.

    obviously I'll be running it in freshwater mode, not marine.
    The reason I am going to go with the marine set, however, is related to keeping the look neat and tidy.
    Running a sump allows me to turn over more water, with a far greater surface area on my media that if I put an equivalent sized cannister for a 220L setup.
    I am going to build a fly-screen style hood, something low profile, that will allow good light penetration, and prevent my feline friend from penetrating the tank. I need to find where to get gloss black extruded angle, hopefully a builder mate can help me with that.
    heater will go in the sump, and that will be about as high-tech as I plan on getting.
    For lighting I think i'm going to go with a Maxspect Razor LED fitting.
    I've looked extensively at the DIY options avaliable, and I think that I would end up spending more than if I just go and buy a 60cm/2' razor, plus they have onboard simmer setup etc.
    I used blue moonlights on my previous tank, so I'm hoping(i will go and check one out to confirm)that I can use the onboard blue to achieve the style that I am going for.

    I started collecting my hardscape materials over the last few days. picked up some great pieces of grey/slate coloured rock from a beach in the Royal National Park on a drive with the wife a few days ago.

    I am hoping to collect all my wood in the way, too.

    Regarding collecting wood, is there anything that I need to be aware of, things not to collect etc?

    Obviously this will all need to be soaked, dechlorinated etc, before it sees the inside of any tank, something that I plan on doing in a large tub in the garage, over the course of a few weeks so I don't experience tannins staining the water.

    As for substrate, I'm not sure on this yet but I'm thinking, now that I'm looking at a cube, over a more traditional shape, that I'll do the DW coming from the rear corner, maybe with the substrate pushed up a bit into the corner, probably either ADA Nile sand or Branco sand, with the DW reaching all the way to the top of the water, and plenty of room up front for a little family of probably blue turqs.


    Pretty exciting times!
    Last edited by ellwa; Sat Jan 04, 2014 at 10:59 AM.

  5. #15
    SnakeSkin Discus
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    Mar 2006
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    Melbourne
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    Is there an online retailer that sells ada substrate?
    Last edited by Nathan; Sun Mar 16, 2014 at 03:25 AM.

  6. #16
    SnakeSkin Discus
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    thats a stunning design (the ADA tank with driftwood and sand substrate), id like to go down that road but am a little concerned i may have to battle algae due to no plants to uptake nutrients etc.

    comments?
    Nathan

  7. #17
    Wrigglers
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    Quote Originally Posted by Nathan View Post
    thats a stunning design (the ADA tank with driftwood and sand substrate), id like to go down that road but am a little concerned i may have to battle algae due to no plants to uptake nutrients etc.

    comments?
    to your earlier question, subscape aquarium in melbourne stock ADA substrate, not sure if you get get it online through them, but i'm sure they'll help you out over the phone.
    failing that, aquariumproductswholesale.com sell it online.

    I plan on putting some plants in the sump to deal with uptake of nitrates. refugium style.

  8. #18
    Medium Discus
    Join Date
    Feb 2005
    Location
    Horsham
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    813
    Hey Nathan,
    if your chasing some ADA Substrate i will have some available in early april as Im pulling down my planted discus tank and going with sand as the base. I purchased all my ADA online and my tank is 6x2x2. Would sell it all to you for $100 and i would deliver to coburg for you as i would be coming down the week before easter. I originally used 6 bags in my tank and tank is only 1 year old so if your interested let me know and we can work something out.


    Cheers Axl

  9. #19
    This was the pic I was using as my inspiration. But I think I gonna go with mangrove root and some rocks. Also I am getting the Maxspect razor myself. Hopefully next week!
    Last edited by Mavzta; Tue Mar 18, 2014 at 08:47 PM.

  10. #20
    SnakeSkin Discus
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    Mar 2006
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    Melbourne
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    Any updates?
    Nathan

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