54l planted low tech tank

Greetings all.
Recent lurker,complete noob.
ploughed through the first 10 pages of beginner discussion and bought a 54l tank.
Mtl syndrome pre ownership has me getting a smaller 35l at some point too(shrimp tank I think)

I have jumped into the deep end with a low tech tank with casting substrate and gravel cap purchased from an lfs.
Filtering is handled by an aquaclear 50 and a 100w heater lurks beneath to keep Temps in check.
Hardscape is a mix of spiderwood and rocks purchased from lfs.
Planting is minimal for now with egeria densa and cobra grass used to keep nitrates in check while the tank cycles.
Diy led lighting for now which will most likely change as it figure the besy config.
No set cycle as yet. Thinking 6 hours to keep algae down for now.
No fish as yet and am still very much undecided.
In love with pea puffers and as mentioned a few shrimp will make thier way home soon.
Will grab a test kit and check parameters in a week or so.
For now... Here she is....in all her murky glory.

 

Nice setup, good layout of those rocks and wood. Well done!! Just to check is that elodea / egeria densa? That will look pretty cool once grown out and a couple of more stems. Very easy plant to grow. Good luck with your tank!!

 

Much appreciated,will grab a bottle when i'm at the lfs next, which wont be long looking at recent history. i do have some filter media from a friends well established tank that i will be adding tomorrow once i have collected it.

Thank you, damn spiderwood made my life a little difficult floating but think i have i properly secured at last. did give me chance to spread out the cobra grass a little more. looks like egeria densa yes. mainly chosen because its hardly and will suck of some N from the substrate.
would like to add some mosses, but ran out of time today and grabbed the essentials

 

Some amazon swords, crypts and vallisneria would look great as well. I wish I can get my hands on some spider wood. I love it.

 

The murk is real. Day 3 pics. Slowed filter down a little and did second dose of stability. Seeing bubbles aggregating around plant surfaces and branches breaking surface.
Added few plants to the rear of the scape.(Hygrophilia)
Lfs's javav fern was grown onto the substrate so I did a quick point and pick o a plant pre closing time.
Think my cap may be a little thin. Contemplating adding another Kg or two of gravel.
Water change up tomorrow night I think and then will begin testing pre livestock choice


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Hmm, I like where you going with this !!
What filter are you using ? Seems like its a HOB ? have you got some filter floss in these ? Helps to clean up fine particals in the water.

 

Much appreciated. Getting closer to livestock by the day. Will give filter floss a try. Running an aquaclear 50 hob.
Have been meaning to get but somehow always forget something at the lfs. Well at least I get to see them all. Today prime and a diy light solution are on the cards.
Backup tote for water changes too... Exciting stuff... Keep fish.. Buy buckets and rocks

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That's quite a good filter and it seems like there's a lot of space for extra media. Are you using activated charcoal ? This help's a lot with clearing up of dirty water. It even clears up stained water from drift wood to some extent.

Just as a side note, if you have a planted aquarium it's not wise to use charcoal when you dosing ferts as it removes the nutrients from the water. If you not dosing ferts at the moment you can run your filter with charcaol for a day or two till the water clears up.

 

Hmmm... These may just work.
20w 6500k
Picked up 2. Now to work on the tank stand offs

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Yup, decided to bite the bullet and get a decent if somewhat overpowered workhorse of a filter on @reafers advice.
No charcoal added as yet. There is a activated carbon bag in the aquaclear. Pretty sure the filter floss will sort it out.
Giving it another day and will do a partial change. Re dose with stability and see where we stand.

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@necris I used the same one's in my fish room and I am very happy with the reults. I just added a few blue led strips to add some contrast.

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good to know thank you, have the 1.2m ones, combined 2 into 1 for garage lighting. hoping 1 or 2 of these will sufficiently light my tank. think i may have some leds, but i think they are 3w 660nm reds.
i can see myself building a light at this rate, have a bit of led experience..


oooh, i have rgb strip a plenty, i will raise your blue and go full on rgb, disco feesh,lol

 

Quick mod using the included hangers. Bit of a bend. Hole in the end caps... Bam... We have a light clip. Will reinforce with some epoxy later but prototype passed thusfar

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The bug has bitten hard . The best you can hope for now is controlling MTS .... unfortunately its incurable . After 8 years of only one tank i have relapsed hard so we all in the same boat

 

@necris Nice idea with the clips very clever!! Yup with a little bit of effort and a small amount of know how, you can build some pretty decent aquarium lighting for next to nothing. These particular ones I found to be very bright and the perfect colour temp, probably not exactly 6500k, but very close. I don't have a light meter to test so cannot say for certain. By adding the blue at the right intensity, it gives a nice mix and contrast.

What is also nice is their is even a way to add in a dimming function.

 

Hahahahaha, yeah that it has. it looks like my 35l tank from a buddy will be a no show. i think my tank has convinced him to try again.
lol,its your mts that got me to finally get off youtube and get a cube of water to care for

how would you go about dimming?
have played around component wise so not entirely useless electronically

 

Not too bad for the prototype unit. Will spend a bit more time sanding and spraying the second and see if I can't refine the mounts somewhat... But it works... Damn well if I say so. myself
Clarity looking better and a thin film of what appears algae colonizing the spiderwood. Assuming this is the seachem stability.



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That's normal on new wood , it's a biofilm. If you had livestock they would be munching down on it . It will go away over time

 

Ok so you would need a constant current controller, that allows you to adjust the input voltage on the dc side and output the variable voltage on the output side, but maintain a constant current. As you know a proper led is driven by the constant current and the voltage can vary to change the intensity of the light

Ready made circuits can be found online for very cheap to do this. Its actually not worth trying to build one from scratch since they are so cheap. I got one off Bangood that works quite well.

BTW nice job on the light it looks like an expensive R3k aquarium light and proves my point exactly about the price of them in SA.

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