G'day folks

[dearis]

G'day folks,

first post here so thought I would say g'day. I hail from Ballarat 1 1/2hrs west of Melbourne.

I currently have a 130 liter planted discus tank and I am in the research phase of a 4x2x2 tank to be heavily planted as well (if you know a great place to buy a tank let me know) anyway catch you around oh here is my planning so far

Regards Darren

Aquarium.
Glass Aquarium 122x61x61h cm (432 liters/114 gallons)
Durso Stand pipe, corner inside overflow http://www.dursostandpipes.com/
Drilled tank for durso stand pipe, spare overflow for blockages and 2 returns hidden inside weir/overflow

Sump.
Glass Aquarium 90x30x45 (121 liters/32 gallons)
Pre-filter – course foam
Bioballs
Purigen ????
Pump
Heater – 1 or 2 x Eheim Jager Thermostat Heater 300W, possibly inline. http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/diy/36257-diy-external-heater-56k.html
Total volume (553 liters/146 gallons)
Lighting
Something like this, puts me around 2 wpg
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/T5-AQUARIUM-OVERHEAD-LIGHT-4x54W-Hi-Output-120cm-Long_W0QQitemZ310074149807QQihZ021QQcategoryZ20754 QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Ferts.
Diy CO2 – 2 x 2 liters. 1 sachel bakers yeast, 2 cups of sugar, warm water. Inline diffuser.
Dino dung, pee and spit

Hardscape.
Redgum roots
Rocks

Substrate.

Plants.

Microsorum pteropus narrow leaf
Microsorum pteropus

Nymphea lotus “red tiger lotus”
or
Nymphea lotus “green tiger lotus”
or
Nymphaea lotus “malay red”

Echinodorus “Devils eye”
Echinodorus “red flame”
Echinodorus martii
Echinodorus tenellus

Anubias Nana

Cryptocorne Becketii
Cryptocorne Wendtii “brown and green”
Cryptocorne Petchii
Cryptocorne Undulata

Blyxa japonica

Livestock

4-6 Wild type heckel discus
2 Bristlenose Cats
20-30 Rummynose Tetras
10 Small Corys (Corydoras julii) or Corydoras sterbai

[Merrilyn]

Hi Darren, welcome to the forum.

Sounds like you've spent a lot of time planning this new tank.

It should be spectacular when it's finished.

The only comment I have is about the purigen. It's great stuff, but I think it may take too much out of your water for a heavily planted tank.

I'll leave it up to some of the plant gurus to give you some advice on that.

Glad you joined us :P

[rwel4809]

Sounds good Darren...

I use purigen and it polishes the water nicely without sucking up all the fertz like some other water polishers...

I have the same brand of light, and while it works fine, you pay for what you get... the end cap cracked and broke off mine after 6 months...

I would also recommend that you get a better C02 set up.. DIY is quite hard to control and also a pain to keep changing... I got mine on ebay for around $300.00 all up. It works great and I haven't had to refill the bottle in over 8 months!

The other thing to get right is the substrate - you'll find plenty of posts on here about the different types people use and please feel free to ask questions.

Your plant list looks great.. don't forget that you'll need some fast growers like wisteria, ambulia, or rotala walchari to run in the tank - it makes it much easier to cycle and prevent an initial algae break out that way.. you can remove them later.. One of our members TW has an ingenius solution to this. She planted the fast growers in pots and put them at the front of the tank so that they can be easily removed later..

The last thing is that you may have to wait for plants like Echinodorus tenellus to establish before addiing the Cories - I believe they love to dig small plants up!

I have never used a sump, but there are plenty of super experienced people on here who can help you with that...

Really look forward to seeing how your project progresses...


Robert

[dearis]

Hi there and thanks,

that was an old list I posted I have decided to go with Pressure CO2 and thanks for the tip with the corries

I was going to use horn wort to stop algae blooms to start with

Regards Darren