Blue Aquarium » aquasoil

4FT planted tank by Jervis

Blueaquarium — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 10:08:34 +0000

Jervis setup 4 foot planted tank. Let me present you about his project….

Once the foundation is laid, I dump in 40kg Dennerle Crystal Quartz Gravel as the main substrate. Underneath the black gravel, I laid a thin layer (9L) of ADA Malayan Aquasoil to help lower pH in the long term. It’s a 4′ x 2′ x 2′ standard glass tank using 12mm Grade 1 float glass with black silicone (for marine). White laminate cabinet with hood… the tank is 2 years old, used to be a full fledge marine reef tank primarily keeping SPS. As for the substrate, decided to go with Dennerle for this project. The lighting. Decided to go with an ATI Sunpower T5 fixture. Manage to buy the fixture without the marine-bluish light tubes. And fitted it with 4 Osram tubes.

Here’s a simplified diagram of my tank setup. finally decided to remove the Dennerle C.O.400 filter from the main tank and added a Jaqno CO2 reactor into my sump instead. The main tank is now totally free from equipments. Did a pH probe calibration using pH10 and pH7 solutions. Off by pH 0.08 since my last calibration.

Here’s my final flora plan…

Here’s a full tank shot (at an angle)… tank is 3 weeks old

Here’s the sump tank. My cooling fan controlled by Aquatronica. Hopefully will be able to maintain my tank water not exceeding 28ºC.

Source : Aquatic Quotient

Un bout de nature by olileon

admin — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 08:36:01 +0000

Olileon planted tank. tank size : 160cm*60cm*60cm (576 liters). This tank name : “un bout de nature”.
I use Powersand, Clear super, Bacter 100, Tourmaline BC and Aquasoil Amazonia. Lightining : 3*150W HQI (5200K). For fertilization : Tropica Aquacare Alimentation+, Easylife Easycarbo and CO2.

The hardscape at the beginning :

Olileon separate the ADA Soil from Sand

For lighting, Olileon use 3*150W HQI (5200K)

After two months :

For plants : echinodorus tenellus, eleocharis parvula, rotala rotundifolia sp green, rotala indica, bacopa caroliniana, eustralis stellata, ludwigia arcuata, bolbitis heudelotii, hygrophilia polysperma, cryptocoryne parva and wendtii.

And with Oliieon son

Source : Aquatic Plant Central

W120D45H45 Iwagumi Layout by Aen

admin — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 06:29:16 +0000

I have been away for about 3 years from the aquarium hobby, due to military service and work. Now I’m back and have started on a new tank. The name of the design is “Kokou”, meaning austere, worn and weathered. It is a Iwagumi (Rock Arrangement) layout with Seiryu Rocks and Eleocharis Acicularis.

Water Parameters at DAY 2

Tank Dimensions: W120xD45xH45 cm
Lighting: 4×54W T5 (7000K)
Illumination Time: 10 hours a day
Filtration: Atman CF-1000 external filter, ceramic rings, activated carbon, filter wool and small amount of coral chips
Substrate: ADA Aquasoil Amazonia + Powersand Special (contains Bacter 100 + Clear Super)
Fertilizers: Potassium Sulphate + trace elements mix every 2 days.
CO2: Pressurized system with external reactor, 4 bubbles per second.
O2: 10 hours every night with air pump.
Temperature: 26 deg.C
pH: 6.3
kH: 2

Project Log

ADA Powersand Special (containing Bacter 100 and Clear Super) on the bottommost layer.

ADA Lily Pipe knock-off from AquaticMagic, recommend by tcampbell of AquaticQuotient.com.

IIITools, including a long tweezer, bent long scissors and a sand flattener, also from AquaticMagic.

Atmn CF-1000 Canister Filter (with hose-adapters to fit the Lily Pipes) and 5L CO2 setup.

ISTA Max Mix CO2 Reactor with glass bubble-counter and MUJI push-rack on castors with my equipment.

1st layer of ADA Aquasoil Amazonia.

All 4 9L bags of ADA Aquasoil Amazonia are in and creating a slope.

Planning the layout.

Iwagumi (Rock Arrangement) Planning.

From paper to tank. Shortage of rocks to really fill the tank. Left some gaps for later addition of rocks.

Spent 2 hours untangling, separating and planting the Hairgrass in about 4cm intervals.

Flo Lily Pipes in action.

Fan to cool the tank water to 26 deg.C.

UPDATES: 02 Aug, 07

The hair/staghorn algae has died down. I added Yamato Shrimps too early, 10 of the 30 perished probably from CO2 and Ammonia overdose. The remaining ones are doing well and cleaning the tank well.

Otocinclus all survived, even though I added them within 1 week of cycling. I guess Activated carbon didn’t absorb enough Ammonia and it was still too much for the other shrimps.

No signs of algae except for Green Dust growing on the white parts of my rocks. Looks good so I don’t plan to remove them. Had the same kind of green algae in the past. CO2 is kept high.

I’m testing the water every other day closely monitoring NO3 and PO4 levels. The Redfield Ratio is kept around 10. pH has stabilized a little at average 6.4 in the day. kH at 2 (some coral chips in the filter) or 4 baking soda.

Hairgrass putting out runners and new leaves. Immersed leaves almost half melted. Didn’t cut away as I want the some PO4 from the decaying matter.

Today is 2nd water change, water becoming clearer. White water reduced.

A very low plant mass tank but somehow I don’t see any signs of algae. Let’s hope it continues to be algae free after I add fishes.

UPDATES: 03 Aug, 07

Tested for Nitrates today. Dosed to 10ppm the previous morning and this morning it dropped to 0. Could it be my plant growth is accelerating and it’s taking in more?

It has been about 10+ days of cycling. I saw some Celestial Pearl Danios in my LFS and I couldn’t resist the temptation and bought all of them (about 46, 1 for $1). 1 was out of water for a few minutes during catching, didn’t noticed it jumped out. It didn’t survived and died after a few hours in the tank.

I will take some photos when the Galaxies have settled and showing their colors.

Source : Aquatic Plant Central

120P Journal by Wonderboy

admin — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 04:23:46 +0000

I’ll be keeping a journal of all progress on this tank setup for all to learn from and critique.

Aquarium: ADA 120P tank
Stand: Leemar custom-built stand

This is exactly the same stand as the ones at Aquatouch…

Equipment:

Filter: Fluval 405 (had one laying around)
Heater: In-line Hydor 300w
UV: 36w Jebo uv-sterilizer
CO2: 5lb cylinder with milwakee regulator/solenoid

Lighting: Tek T5 HO 4x 54w fixture

CO2 equip.: rip-off co2 glassware, cabochon ruby check valve

Glass filter stuff: Cal Aqua lily pipes, glass softenizer

Substrate: ADA aquasoil, powersand, tourmaline bc, clear super, bacter 100

Decor: rocks.

And the fun part:
I had a friend of mine blow glass elbows so I could do this for my lily pipes’ return and intake:

OKAY! I got all my plants, so without any further waiting:

Step 1: Tourmaline BC

2: Powersand, clear super and bacter 100

3: Aquasoil

4: Hardscape

5: Foreground planting

6: Background planting/final outcome!

And here’s how the CO2 glassware turned out:

This is how the glass elbows for my filter intake and outtake looks when finished:

Plants used:
micranthemum micranthemoides, hc, blyxa japonica, eriocaulon cinereum, and didiplis diandra.

Source : Aquatic Plant Central

Blue Aquarium » aquasoil

4FT planted tank by Jervis

Un bout de nature by olileon

W120*D45*H45 Iwagumi Layout by Aen

120P Journal by Wonderboy

W120D45H45 Iwagumi Layout by Aen