Almost a month has passed since I joined the forum with my original post - Sand and LEDs Experimental Tank. I'd like to continue documenting the journey, and the journal section seemed like the best place. First off, a big thanks to Waxy and Androo who I met via the classifieds and who have my thanks and recommendation. Top blokes to deal with. Also thanks to Darren Bennetts in Langford, who is the man to see for plants (http://aquaticplantsdirect.webs.com/).
Here's a status update of my tank over the last month (changes in blue) -
Size - 120cm x 60cm x 60cm
Filter - Aquatopia Internal 600 + 2 x Eheim 2213 canister filters
Heating - 300w Jager (removed the additional 100w Heto). Temperature set to 25 degrees.
Lighting - Still a work in progress, added some more LEDs. Detail below.
Substrate - gravel recovered from 2 foot tank + 40kg Play Sand
Plants - Lots. Detail below.
Decoration - 3 x medium sized pieces of driftwood + 1 x med, 1 x lrg and 2 x sml cave peices of driftwood
Inhabitants - 4 x small bristlenose catfish, 4 x small Pakistani (Yoyo) Loaches, 1 (+3=4) x small Upside Down Catfish (Synodontis nigriventris), 8 x small Neon Tetra, 10 x fully grown Serpae Tetra, +4 x small silver sharks, +6 x juvenile L397s.
Test Results (API Master Test Kit)
PH - 7.4 (I'd like to reduce this a bit) 7.2 (added 2 more Indian Almond Leaves)
Ammonia - 0 ppm
Nitrite - 0 ppm
Nitrate - between 0 and 5 ppm
KH - 7 dH (still new to this, but seems to be ok)
GH - 8 dH (still new to this, but seems to be ok)
Future Inhabitants
+3 Upside Down Catfish (some friends for the reclusive one man wolf pack) now a four cat wolfpack.
+16 Neon tetra +20 Hengel's Rasboras (changed my mind)
+6 x Khuli Loaches (almost grabbed some jumbos from Aquotix but wanted to read up on them more first)
+10 x Panda Coryadoras
Lighting
Custom LED job - still tinkering with it. 1W super brights, mostly Cree. Up to around 6600 Lux, around 30% of my calculated target. Colour ratios is 5 x red, 1 x far red, 1 x green, 1 x Ultraviolet, 5 x Royal Blue, 4 x blue, 3 x cool white, 2 x warm white. (22 Total). Will add more as time goes on, next round will probably be another 8 white to balance out the redness. Still need to build a hood to house them in, and reconfigure the placement to get an even colour tone, and leave some darkness for the catfish. Added 2 x 24 hour timers to help maintain consistent photoperiod, and simulate dusk / dawn with red only for 45 mins in morning and night.
Honestly, Darren gave us so many cuttings I've got no idea what half of them are called. In the end it was hard to find a spare patch to plant in Though before heading to Langford I did get some -
-Java Fern, which most got holes in the leaves (pH too high or bristlenose eating it?)
-Lilaeopsis brasiliensis (Brasilian micro sword) for the foreground which is sending out runners already but is a bit stringy in my low light conditions.
-Aponogeton crispus (Wavy edged swordplant) for the background to help obscure the internal filter.
-Echinodorus Grisebachii (Amazon sword) for the mid ground
-Echinodorus Crimson Sail (Melon sword) for the mid ground
I'll try to identify the rest before the next journal entry.
Photos
Perspective shot before going nuts with plants. Stoked with the new wood on the right.
Side view of new wood under red and blue LED strings.
Panorama. Colour balance still needs a bit of work...
Close up of new wood after stocking up on plants.
A rare sighting of my right-way-up catfish.
I'm stalking my L397s like paparazzi, but so far the few snapshots I've managed are so hazy you could mistake it for bigfoot (I'll keep trying, I'm sure they exist). Thanks for reading