My 3ft planted tank project

I have finally decided to set up a proper planted tank.
Due to space constraints the largest tank I have space for is a 3ft.
Here are the details. Any comments or suggestions are welcome. I am still a noob, so would appreciate all the help I can get.

Tank: 90cm(L) X 32.5cm(W) X 38cm(H), so 111L. Actual water volume will be about 108L
Canopy: This will be my own design and will have some interesting changes. Details to follow.
Filtration: I will be constructing a HMF (Hamburg Mattenfilter). Details to follow.
Substrate: I will be following Prof Dirk's recommendation and using palm peat fibre soaked in Chemicult, with iron nails added. I will also add some Microbe-Lift CAPM (Concentrated Aquatic Planting Media). This will be capped with either river sand or something else. I have not decided on this yet.
Lighting: T5 - Still have to find out more about this.
Heater: 150W
Plants: I will need forum members help with deciding what to 'learn with'.
Fish: I want to keep my Bronze Corys (I really enjoy watching them, and they are almost constantly spawning). I would also like to get some Kuhli Loaches and some other bright coloured fish. Here again I will need some help from others as to which species should be fine together.

This will be a work in progress as this project involves moving some tanks, and also my budget (My 17 month old son had major surgery in December and the anaesthetist was not shy to charge).

Stay tuned ....

 

I need some advice.
I have been looking at tanks that have had their back panels painted. So far, I quite like the look of black. It seems to show off the plants quite nicely. I also have a side panel that I won't be able to look through due to the location of the tank. Should I paint this black as well, or rather create a moss wall or something like that?
What is the general consensus with regards to the type/colour of the substrate? I was planning on using river sand (I like the brown/reddish tint to it), but when I was at a LFS on Sunday, I saw a nice reasonably fine sand/gravel supplied by Daro. It has three colours to it: black, grey and white. It really looks stunning.
Any ideas?
TIA

 

IMHO I think a blue back ground is better because when you paint it black the tank looks much smaller. I have a 2m tank with a black background and a 2m tank with a blue background and The blue looks twice the size compared to the black and both are 60cm wide.
as for substrate black and white looks awesome to me but it is not always natural looking.
and as for the side you cant look in to I would try to grow a moss wall it would look SUPER AWESOME......
Good Luck

 

Hi Darryn

Before you go and paint the back of your tank black, try a piece of black abs plastic (0.9mm thick) that you can tape onto the outside back of your tank. That way, if you don't like black you can just remove the abs plastic. Believe me, it is one b#$&ch of a job to remove the paint off the back of a tank.

I will be collecting a sheet of black abs plastic tomorrow for my 1.2m planted tank. A sheet is about R60.00 and I think it is 1.5m x 800mm.
:idea:

 

Time for an update ....

Thanks to Steve CT's recommendation, I will not paint the back of the tank. I am going to try a piece of black ABS plastic and see how it looks. That way, if I want to change it, it is not such a big deal.

My Filtration
With this tank I am going to try something a little different to what everyone is used to. In an old post (http://www.tropicalaquarium.co.za/showthread.php?t=1536), guido.coza brought up an interesting idea of a filter called a Hamburg Mattenfilter.
I did some research and came across this page (http://www.janrigter.nl/mattenfilter/).
After reading through that page, doing A LOT off googling, and many emails between myself and the translater (Jan Rigter), I decided that the idea has a lot of merit, and that I would like to try it in a tank.
I will be constructing a corner filter, and it will look something like this

I managed to find the distributor of Poret foam here in SA, but the minimum quantity that they will supply is WAY more than I will ever need.
Luckily Prof Dirk Bellstedt has some foam that seems to have exactly the same specs as the Poret, so I am going to try that and see how it goes.
Based on the corner shape of my (proposed) filter, I used a calculator I found on http://www.handymath.com/cgi-bin/arc18.cgi?submit=Entry to help me calculate the radius needed to provide the surface area I wanted.
I will be using a 230 LPH pump for the water circulation (A little higher than what is recommend, and still within spec) and I have got some 40mmX25mm trunking to hold the foam in place.
I will be getting the foam from Prof Dirk, next week, and I will post some pics as I progress.

 

Cool idea, keep us posted!

 

I'm impressed... Watching closely for updates, pictures, and details.

Darryn, if you don't mind me asking- what made you decide to go with that form of filtration? What benefits does that system have that make you go that route? Will that sponge provide sufficient bacterial filtration? To me it looks like it's a very fancy sponge filter?

 

Zoom: I was looking at different types of filtration for this tank, and not really having the money for a canister type filter, I was looking as to what would give me the best bang for my buck.
This type of filtration is widely used in Europe, and I have heard a lot of good things about it.
The actual strength of this type of filter, is the biological filtration. As a result the area of the filter medium and the relatively slow flow rate, this apparently creates a great biological filter.
I am very keen to see how well this works, as if you take into account how cheap the components are, and how good this type of filter is supposed to work, it is a win, win situation.

 

great idea,darryn,im looking to add in more filtration to my tank,wil research this,also if you do go the black background route,i would suggest that you tint it...

 

JesseG: Tint it?

 

I think he means not just straight black, maybe a slightly bluey-black, as the blackblack might be a bit stark. I would agree, actually.

 

Keep us updated on how the filtration goes Darryn. Will be very interested in seeing the outcome. Sound's promising.

 

I EVENTUALLY managed to get the rest of the goodies needed for the tank. Just have to pick up the pump later from the LFS.
All occupants of old tank are now in another temporary holding tank, and old tank is being emptied and cleaned.

 

Update:
Old tank has been emptied and cleaned. I decided that I did not want white trunking as in the pics I posted in a previous post. To me, I think it would look too 'unnatural' in a planted tank. I wanted to use another colour, but the trunking is only available in white. After much asking around about using a 'fish safe paint', I was advised by a member of another forum to use Krylon Fusion, as when dry, it is non toxic. Getting hold of the paint was another story, but to cut a VERY long story short, I managed to track down the rep, Karen, for Krylon in Cape Town. She was able to assist me in sourcing a can of matt black, which I wanted.
So the trunking has been cut to size, sprayed and tonight I started gluing the trunking in with marine silicone. Never really worked with silicone before, so a bit of a learning curve for me. I will post some pics tomorrow night of how it looks.
Here is a thread on another forum that shows the steps in the construction process: http://www.crustaforum.com/board/showthread.php?t=202

 

This is going to be an interesting thread to watch - can't wait to see the results! Kudos to you Darryn for doing the filtration the way you were talking about, from what I've read it should work great!

 

sorry, for not replying so long darryn, yes i mean tint the back panel, it would be easier to take off than painting it...you get a super black tint, it really is black you cant see anything...just my thought...

 

@Veegal: Thanks. I really hope it works out. According to what I have read, it should be a good solution.
@JesseG: Thanks for the input. Do you mean adding a 'film' to the glass to tint it?

 

Look forward to them pics Darryn! How far did you get last night?

 

yes, i do believe the roll of tint sells at R60 here in Durban, not sure about Cape Town though, you could get someone else to do it, if you don't want to take any chances, its like tinting car windows, the same method and principle would apply...

 

This looks really interesting. I'm tagging along on this one.

A person can use that type of filter on a breeding tank also??