My DIY Setup

Hi All,

Ok so I started getting bits and pieces from all over. I'm going to use this thread as a forum repositry of what I am doing, where my bits and bobs are coming from, and a bit of a picture diary of putting it all together. Hopefully it will be enjoyable to others, and through feedback received faults / mistakes will be picked up as we go about.

First things first will be the layouts. I will have two main display tanks. The first one being 92x52x32 (150Ltr), thanks to @AquaAddict. This tank will house my troublesome Angels that started eating my guppies, my RedFin Shark, Krib, and some other semi large fish I still need to source, all in the 10cm to 15cm range. Due to the size of the fish and the size of the tank, obvously I can't put too much in here. The second display tank is 120x45x45 (250Ltr) obtained from a non-forumite member that is currently a community tank housing allot of smaller species (Tetras, Guppies, Platties, Pleco, etc).

Both these tanks will share a sump after allot of discussions, sleeping over it, etc. The sump is a 60x30x30 (55Ltr) tank. Whilst allot of forum members did point out that illness in one tank will spread to the other tank very quickly, almost all has also forgot to mention that the volume of water is significantly more, and therefore controlling the quality of the water is easier. My sump will also contain UV filters, which should kill off most bacteria very easily accross both tanks. The sump will contain my filter media, heaters, O2, CO2 (inline injection), and UV Filters (inline). I am also considering starting a shrimp farm in the first compartment of my sump to assist with cleaning and also form part of my fish's diet from time to time to control the shrimp population.

So where are we with this I hear you asking... Well the square tubing is being delivered today to start welding up my steel structure for my stands / cabinet. The tanks are positioned on top of each other with the sump at the bottom, and will be 1.5m wide, and 2.2m high. The frame will then get a wooden layer to make a display cabinet that goes from the ground straight up to the ceiling in a corner in my braai room. ETA for the completed welded frame is roughly a week, cost of the square tubing running at roughly R2,700. We can more than likely add another +-1K for the wood and trimming / sealing thereof.



At the top we will have the 150Ltr tank, with the 250Ltr in the middle. The bottom section will contain the sump, as well as my electrical controllers (more to follow). Sorry, my 3D drawing capabilities are non existing, so 2D images will just have to work for now :bigsmile:

The electrical controller will consist of the capability to add a UPS (don't have the money to purchase it right now), a UPS bypass, and a dedicated earth leakage to protect the UPS and myself from shorts, as well as to ensure that my house's electricity does not trip should something in the tank happen. Additionally it contains 6 individual digital timers (96 programs per timer) to control my schedule for lights and CO2 across the tanks, as well as temprature controllers to control the elements heating up the water. All equipment, tanks, and water are earthed to protect against electrical shock, and the earth leakage contains an automatic restart which attempts to restart the supply every 5 minutes. Should the power trip thus due to a earth leakage, it is restarted automatically when able and safe to do so (should I not be home for example). ETA for delivery is Tuesday, assembly time +- a day, and cost of equipment in the R6,000 range.

Other bits and bobs on order that should start arriving next week, includes R1,000 worth of plants (Glossostigma Elatinoides, Rotala Rotundifolia, Bacopa Caroliniana, Proserpinaca Palustris, Hygrophila Difformis, Anubias Barteri Var Nana, and Microsorium Pteropus or Java Ferm) from BetterWeather, and a few more bits and pieces from Jungle Aquatics including 2 x 3,000L/H pumps for my sump (one for each display tank) worth R1,500. I still need to sit with @Altum soon, hopefully, to sort out my ballasts and lighting for both display tanks, as well as the CO2 setup.

@Jack Stone was kind enough also to offer, and we will more than liking be drilling the first of the three tanks either this weekend or next weekend for the fitment of proper overflow pipes. The plumbing has been baught (PVC) and is relatively inexpensive (Don't even think it was R200).

As details emerge and work starts to happen, I will post pics here for all to see, and ask questions when things become unclear. This, is going to be one MASSIVE setup with a budget running in the range of R15K to R20K for the entire setup. Am I going overboard, yes, more than likely. I've made the decision however that I want something that is unique, spectacular, and a one of a kind installation.

More to follow...

 

Nice another nice project to follow, good luck.

 

Nice idea. I like the idea of the 2 tanks sharing a sump. Post a lot of pictures

 

So additionally this weekend I have managed to source 6 x 1850mm x 600mm chipboard shelves which will form the floor and ceiling in the stand, on which the tanks will stand and the lights will be attached. Additionally also sourced 4 x 54W Ballasts for the bottom tank, and 2 x 54W Ballasts for the top tank. Lastly, also obtained 6m of LED strip lights with a dimmer which will be used for 'moon' light at night, not sure about this yet, but we'll see how it goes. Naturally, my LPS had absolutely nothing that I required and most of my items was sourced from speciality electronic stores. All the ballasts and LEDs came to about R1.5K, and another R800 odd for the chipboard boards.

So now I pretty much have everything required, just need to still sort out the CO2, physical light bulbs (or tubes), and the bits of glass required to be siliconed into my sump to build the sump out of the small tank.

Very *eagerly* awaiting the couriers to start ariving this afternoon / tomorrow morning with the deliveries. Pictures will be posted as I start assembling / working. I pretty much can't continue to do anything untill my father in law is done with the welding of the frames, which should hopefully be this weekend - touch wood.

 

So I just received my plants from BetterWeather.

I can't say that I am too impressed. With the exception of my two Java Ferns, all the other plants where simply cut-off stems. No roots, no containers, everything just thrown into bags.

Also received *much* more than I ordered (which is generally not a bad thing), but now I have WAY to much plants for my tanks. I am also suspecios of what I received, and don't believe I received what I ordered, but they still look nice though so not too stressed about that. 99% of them are also without any roots what so ever. Hopefully they will survive, but personally, I won't purchase from BetterWeather again given what has been delivered to me.

Here are images of all the different types of plants I received, the list of what has been ordered is at previous posts in this thread.


Everything is pretty much just planted for the sake of being planted at this stage. Both my tanks will be re-scaped when we break down everything to drill and install on the currently being built stand.

 

Hi before we bash the shop, many plants will grow from stem and will root after planting. If some one on here can ID them it will help.

 

Personally I prefer cutting stem plants before planting.

 

Not attempting to bash the shop - at all. It's just not what I expected.

On the site the plants are shown nicely in plastic containers, even with a nice page on his site on how to remove / plant it and all, getting a bag full of stems was the last thing I expected. It's more than likely just my lack of understanding. As @dash said too - I'm sure most of these plants will grow from stems. I did order 7 species, and I have 7 different plants. They just look very much different and hence need to go through the ID process now. The QTYies provided is a massive surprise to be honest and just added to the shock.

Did have a braai and some dinner now - so I'm more calmed down and over the shock now. Passing some on to @Altum tomorrow and for the rest of them, I just hope that they will survive untill I am ready with the second tank, as I can plant allot in there as well...

 

" Die Stem"

Hi @cwknipe
Looking forward to meeting ,finding and supplying solutions to your planted scenario later today!:blink1:

Just helping you conciliate the notion of ordering stem plants based on image and receiving what seems vastly different.

Hmmm, looking at the site, the format of plant, price, unit , I couldn't work out if it would be POD-grown or not.
However, After meeting and asking the grower at aquarium expo 2013 , I know that pod plants are limited to local GP retail and lfs distribution at this stage.

To add to your knowledge-base:
YES, they are "cuttings" or "clippings" of stem plants .
That is how Stem plants grown OUT of water (emerse), grow fast, strong, healthy and more likely to be algae free for your aquarium are "harvested" for sale or planting.
UNLIKE your Java ferns ,they develop roots later, and are in no means compromised .

Their growth form can thus be (slightly or vastly) different to their aquatic or submerse (immersed) growth
Due to the emerse format, they adapt to new tank conditions better WHILE at the same time travel very well.

If it hasn't been made clear to you, let me say, that the SAME species, will look more familiar when grown under water...which due to novelty, inexperience with plants this way, can lead to confusion or resentment. That being said, you got the better overall deal

SO, taking that into account I can vouch for Richard knowing enough about plants to correctly ID and supply them
You can just as well DRIFT them, without ANY harm until you ARE ready to plant them.
It will also encourage some root formation in multiple locations! Which allows you to further trim your stems into MORE potential plants:cheesy:
Noting that you would in any case strip foliage off the lower edge you decide to plant.

So don't plant the stems, just for the sake of making them LOOK like aquarium plants ..they do not require it...yet.
At this stage they're extremely lenient in terms of ANY requirements for light, CO2, fertiliser etc

In fact drifting them, allows access to atmospheric CO2, and easier availability to light for starters .

Best of luck !:top:

 

Thnx @Altum - cleared up allot of confusement on my part, and yes as you rightfully said I most certainly got the better part of the deal. I did do some more googling last night too and it does look like this is the norm, so I definately jumped way to high way too quickly. In fact, I think I'm going to send Richard an email a bit later to thank him for the massive qtyies provided.

They are in my tank with some fetz at least and I was seeing good growth with my few other plants using the fetz that I am. So let's give it a week or two and see where we are at. Good to know that they won't die or rot when floating too, because 1) it's rather difficult to keep those stems in the gravel, they keep pulling out and floating, and 2) I just do not have the space for everything untill my 2nd tank is up, so they are all just floating in what is going to become my sump, together with my naughty angels at this point in time.

Anyways - let's move on... *watches the clock* Electronics hopefully arriving within the next two hours or so -bounce- And welding has officially commenced on the steel frames. I'm hopeful, but the frames should be finished by the weekend after which it's just a few coats of paint required.

 

So the electrical board has been delivered and I just finished building. All external devices still needs to have their wires pulled into the board and be connected to the corresponding breakers / timers / etc.


From top left to bottom right:
- UPS INPUT Isolator - Cuts electricity to the UPS when I install one later on
- UPS OUTPUT Isolator - Cuts electrivity from the UPS when I install one later on
- UPS BYPASS Isolator - Bypasses the UPS completely
- EARTH LEAKAGE - Protects against electrical faults, shorts, etc and ensures that my house's electricity does not trip in the event of any issues
- BREAKER - Heater Elements
- 12VDC Power Supply - To feed my blue LEDs for a 'night light' effect
- Digital Timer - Controlls my main ballasts for my lighting (2 with an additional 2 tubes running on different time schedules)
- Digital Timer - Controlls my night lights (LEDs) and CO2 Valves
- Digital Timer - Spare, not currently used
- Temp Regulator - Regulates the temprature on the water. Have some issues here as the device looses its programming settings when it looses power, I may just opt to return this to the supplier
- Various other Breakers - Lights, CO2 Pumps, O2 Pumps, H2O Pumps

Some closeups:

 

And here she is, all closed up (what it will look like after it's mounted properly):

 

Wow man go BIG or GO home!!!!

 

So,

My digital temprature controller's probe is now in my fish tank. It works, but I am seriously doubting the accuracy



The sensor is set to maintain water temprature at 28 Degrees. There's no element or anything connected yet so it's not doing anything, but I can hear the relays going on/off as the temprature changes. So the controller is fine.

29.1 is the current temprature that it reads (the new digital sensor). It's high :sad2: However, my stick on thermometer (on the outside of the tank) is also showing the 29/30 blocks coloured, yet my termometor inside the tank (sucktion cup) reads 26.... The heater in the tank is set to 28. I have another digital meter which I'll test the temps with momentarily.

Given the heater is set to 28, the stick on as well as digital termometers reads consistently in the 28 to 30 range, do I presume my sucktion cup thermometer in the tank has gone awol and it's time for a replacement? I presume that a 1 or 2 degree variance in tempreture isn't something to be too concerned about?

Sorry for what may seem like stupid questions, but as this is being done with things that has never been used before - I am going to be a bit predantic to make sure that everything is working correctly...

EDIT: Seems to be accurate, extremely accurate, after another test.

 

So the frame is finally here... Just need a coat of paint today and then we can start assembling everything...

 

My word this is Huge! So this is the idea you were talking to me about hey? Well done @cknipe !

 

Yep - same thing. Need to go buy bolts now, but stuck waiting for a ^&*#$^ courier, again.

Here's a pic of the stand upright. Boards will be on the ground, as well as form a ceiling. So where there are two boards on top of each other, it will be fastend as a base / ceiling, almost sandwitching the steel frame between the wood...



1.5 meters wide, 600 deep, and will stand from the floor right up to the ceiling when installed, this Saturday :nuts:

 

Man this is going to be awesome! Nice work buddy, that Rock Background will look epic for sure

 

So basic frame is now complete with the boards where the tanks will rest on. The wooden sides that will turn the frame into a closet won't be done now (and not by me either). Once I have a few bucks agian, I will get an professional cabinet maker to turn it into something pretty - I can't work with wood to save my life.

The electrics are starting to slowly go in. Blue LED rope light being tested, to simulate a "moon light" effect on the tanks. Waiting for it to go dark now outside to have a look, but I think it's going to look really really awesome. Tomorrow the ballasts and tank lighting will go on as well if all goes well. And I suppose I need to move this monster indoors at some stage as well *fun*

 

Epicness!!