Zoom's 4ft system

Very nice @Zoom! Are those scratches on the glass? If so how did it happen?

 

Hi Zoom,
I am planning on buying a Jebo tank (either 1.5m / 1.8m).
Are you still happy with your Jebo tank?

Thanks.

 

@beesboer

Yes... still very happy. If you can afford it though, I'd recommend going glass. Acrylic just scratches too easy in my opinion.

 

I have various words of warning, as have gone down the Jebu 1.8 route, so don't rush out and buy until I've reported my tales of woe, just in a rush at the moment.

 

Hi Trevor,
Yes please, it's alot of money and I don't want to make the wrong choices. Any advice will be apreciated.

Thanks!

 

I'm sure one can buy some kind of clear wax that will hide the scratches. A tank should be treated like a Lamborghini

 

Nice to see another Garra taeniata!

 

Not sure how much the design and specs have changed in the last two years, but I bought my 1.8 Jebu last year and it may have been the previous year’s model.

Word of warning - the 1.5 stand cabinet is not reinforced with steel or was not a year or so back, which in my opinion is pretty important for this size and weight of tank. Jebu only seem to reinforce their cabinets/stands from 1.8m, hence the big climb in price.

The canopy looks great and sleek, but is not practical and is very difficult to work in without taking it all off, as you have no arm space to squeeze through, and especially in the middle section as the glass cross support struts are in the way.

Unless things have been improved lighting wise in the latest models, the lighting was hugely underpowered for a medium to high tech planted tank with only x6 20wt T8s over 760lts. I had to completely gutter my canopy and almost start from scratch when upgrading to T5s. I just kept the cooling fans.

Presumably due to the curved edge design, which looks great, the tank is constructed with a ‘floating†bottom glass, which is cut to fit inside the sides and not in the conventional way with the sides all resting on the base glass. The down side of this is it’s very easy for the tank to leak in the bottom corners and joins if the tank is not exactly plumb or siliconed properly. The tank comes with a waver thin rubber mat which I would suggest should be doubled in thickness.

Conclusion – If you are looking for a 1.5m, up to say 450lt, then rather spend the dosh and go for the Jewel equivalent, which look stunning and you don’t have to go for their built in filter system , just take it out. If you decide you want to go for the larger 1.8M size, which I have not seen available with Jewel, you should then consider getting the tank made from scratch with your own specs and with a more user friendly canopy and lighting arrangement.

Hope this helps!

 

Yup - and a beauty too.... Nice fishy @Zoom.... and well spotted @Razer2007...we'll make a "proper" aquarist of you yet....he,he.

 

Um... is that the flying fox or the car you referring to? I got both.

 

Buy the way guys, this tank is due for an entire rescape. Just getting some stuff together, and should post some new updates in about a month.

 

Surprise! Your Flying Fox is not the usual SAE,but a G.taeniata... Razer also has one... a Fish I love,but just cant seem to find. Never heard of a car going by that name though...

 

Lol I also thought it was a Flying fox till Azure pushed me in the right direction! http://razer2007modblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/false-siamensis_252.html

 

Sorry... car is suppose to be cae. Automatic spell checkers.

They were purchsed as sae from Dolphin (ex sponsor). When the fish grew bigger, Dolphin actually phones me to tell me there has been a grave mistake, and they are not true sae as he originally thought. He offered to buy them back from me, but I grew rather fond of them.

 

I like mine. It's very active and very hardy. Survived those days of "draining-cleaning-filling with new tap-water" in a single day, a few times

 

WHy did Dolphin leave? He was a nice oke. And the fish looks awesome (Cambodian log sucker)

 

Work and family commitments left him a little too busy. (In 8 weks time ill be experiencing the same type of family commitments.)

 

Don't leave us!! :cry:

That came out too soppy uke:

 

Major tank upgrade

Yes, I know a thread like this is useless without pictures... BUT you will all have to be patient and wait a little as I want the plants to grow out a little before I start posting pictures.


The upgrade of my tank to a complete high tech system finally came to life this weekend. The purchasing of products started over 6 months ago, and the stuff has been lying in the garage for months. As any of you who have had children will understand, having a pregnant wife for the past few months, and now having my son for the past 6 weeks has been taxing on the hobby... and finding time to do anything has been a challenge. But my wife gave me Friday, Saturday and Sunday to spend exclusively on the tank, and I can confirm that at 18h00 yesterday, I finally sat back and said... I'm finished.

So here's what this tank has undergone:

LIGHT & HOOD UPGRADE:
I stripped out the 3 x T8 lights and ballasts.
I stripped out the 2 undercounter T5's that were stuck under the hood.
I primed the inside of the hood, and painted it gloss white. I did some extensive research on a white background versus using reflectors, and based on a few articles I read (That were also backed up with scientific evidence through the use of a PAR meter reader) I discovered that it's more efficient to paint the hood gloss white than using a reflector.
I cut out two 60mm holes into the hood and attached two 82mm PC fans. One blowing in, and one blowing out. Thus keeping the new lighting cool.
Fitted 3 x 39W dual ballasts. (The wiring of this took me forever, but if you have the correct wiring, it's actually not too bad)
I currently 6 x 39W Sylvania 6,500 tubes. I do want to mix this up with some other tubes. (When cash is available again)

I have 2 lights turning on (with CO2) at 10h00
I have another 2 lights turning on at 11h30
I then have the final 2 lights turning on at 13h00 with the fans

The lights and fans turn off at 18h00
The second set of lights turn off at 19h00
and finally the CO2 and final lights turn off t 20h00.

A big thanks to the following members:
@Dolphin for the ballasts, tubes, and end caps
@Sean J and @Henk Hugo for helping me make the right choice with the lighting.

FILTRATION & HEATING
I have 2 external canisters hooked onto this tank. The biggest problem I found with them is that you have so many inlets and outlets cluttering up the tank. My upgrade took this into consideration!

I have a single black pipe (20mm) as the outlet. Under the tank, this pipe splits into 2 (15mm) pipes. One for each canister. From the cannisters, I have 2 (15mm) pipes joined into my "heating contraption" (as detailed soon), and from there a single black (20mm) pipe returns the water into a (black) spraybar on the right hand side of the tank.

So, what's a "heating contraption?" It's a DIY inline heater that I built. (Note, I didn't design it, I modified an existing design slightly, and made it myself). Basically a hole bunch of 50mm pipe fittings stuck together. There is space for the 2 canniser outlets to come in, and space for the heater. Water enters the "contraption", passes over the heater, and is pumped up into the tank.

A big thanks to:
@morris for taking the time to send me pics and advice on your inline heater. I've slightly modified your design, but it's working great! I have a stable temp, and no air-pockets giving me problems.

CO2
I've already got pressurized CO2, but what's an upgrade if you can't upgrade the CO2 as well?? I spent some time chatting with Sean about CO2 as well, and even though I have been using it for a long time, I realized that you are never too old to learn something new. I discovered that my injection rate was far too high, and completely ineffective. So the upgrade on this was necessary too!

I replaced my existing regulator (My old one will now be moved to the nano tank).

I have put a PROPER CO2 bubble counter onto the system. (ADA glass bubble counter by the way!!!)

And in keeping with the theme of removing as much equipment out of the tank as possible, my "heating contraption" has got the CO2 being injected into there as well! Thus CO2 is entering the 50mm heating unit through a diffusor and being further broken down by the churning of the water from the cannisters.

And just because I can... I bought a proper drop checker to put in the tank to monitor CO2 levels.

A special thanks to:
@Sean J for helping me with the correct advice on CO2 injection, as well as getting me the right products and equipment.
@morris, again, for the advice on injecting the CO2 through the heating unit.


OTHER UPGRADES
So what more could I upgrade...?

Well, based on looking at some other members amazing tanks, I concluded that a black background was the way to go. So... navy blue background removed, and a new black one installed.

And what good is an upgraded tank without the correct substrate? Well, this is where I started 6 months ago. I spent some time chatting with Henk regarding the Microbelift Biologically Alive Substrate, and the 3 bags I got was the first step. The ML-BAS actually RECOMMEND you to mix their product with another nutritionally rich substrate for the Macro nutrients, and this is where Sean stepped in and imported all that amazing AquaSoil. So substrate has been upgraded to ML-BAS and AquaSoil.

And finally, one of the most important aspects of any high-tech system is the column fertilizers! When I started out keeping fish a few years ago, I used Dirk Bellstedt's secret drupples. (DSD). As I moved more high tech, I moved over to EI dosing "ala Dischem" method. I have NOT been hugely impressed with this dosing, and I am pleased to announce that I am going BACK to Dirk's DSD and will now be using his high-tech method of dosing.

A big thank you to:
@Henk Hugo for the information on the ML-BAS, as well as the root dip. let's see how well these plants take
@Sean J for the ADA AS! This stiff rocks
@Dirk Bellstedt For the fertz. (They still at the Post office, will try collect them today!)

Pics will be posted as soon as I am convinced that the plants are surviving, and that I have no major leaks or problems with any of my DIY plumbing!

 

This sounds amazing!!