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I picked up a UNS 45T secondhand and decided to set up a high tech, NA-inspired triangular layout. Aiming to keep this relatively low maintenance.

For the cabinet, I ordered a SUNDSO cabinet from IKEA. It's a stylish black indoor-outdoor cabinet made of galvanized steel but extremely flimsy, with all of the panels warping at the slightest touch. I built a simple lumber frame from 2x2s and 1/4" plywood to go inside. Although it's not tied into the cabinet, the frame measurements have so little tolerance that it is solid and reinforces the cabinet perfectly with no torquing or lateral movements. This cabinet is ideal because the shelving and bottom panels can be omitted from the installation without compromising the assembly of the walls, so I was able to insert the lumber frame inside and transfer all of the load directly onto the floor. The other major benefit of this cabinet was the adjustable feet, which made it easy to achieve perfect contact between the top of the lumber frame and the inside of the cabinet. Essentially, the cabinet acts as an aesthetic shell that fits over a much more structurally sound stand. The only other modification made was to drill holes in the side and back panels for plumbing and electrical wiring. The sharp holes were fitted with 3D printed grommets.

Equipment:

• Tank: UNS 45T
• Filtration: Oase Filtosmart Thermo 100, FZone stainless steel inlet/outlet pipes with surface skimmer
• Lighting: Chihiros WRGB II 10th Edition 45cm
• CO2: 5 lb cylinder, FZone budget regulator, FZone inline CO2 diffuser

Cabinet and equipment close-up

Layout
The goal is a triangular peninsula layout with lots of negative space. In the past I have done much more hardscape-heavy layouts with way too many plant species, so I'm trying a slightly more minimalist feel with mostly epiphytes and mosses.


Final layout. Spiderwood and some stone whose name I can't remember. The majority were very geometric and cuboid, so what you see are the most organic looking pieces I could find in the bin. Substrate is Fluval Stratum and UNS Controsoil which will be added after planting.

Plant list, if sourcing works out

• Java fern trident
• Ludwigia arcuata
• S. repens
• Hydrocotyle japan
• Buce lamandau mini purple + other mixed buce
• Anubias nana petite
• Riccardia chamedryfolia
• Christmas or weeping moss

Inspiration
Heavily inspired by this aquascape by Rachel Ellis for Horizon Aquatics.


Other inspiration comes from JJ Aquarium




The tank is currently filled and in a dark start with some seeded media while we wait for the light to arrive. Chihiros halts business during the entire month of Chinese New Year so it hasn't shipped yet.

Soo...my new tank has been going for about three weeks now. I do have a little bit of algae here and there, but nothing over the top (so far). Plants are doing well, nothing has melted yet, apart from some older leaves. As I have a cleaning crew in form of some snails (Ramshorn, Theodoxus and Bladdersnails) and a few shrimp in there I currently do like a 10% waterchange most days, to get rid of what the crew leaves behind plus removing a little bit of algae.

My tank does get some direct light at times (sunset), as it sits opposite a west facing window, and I noticed that when that happens the plants start to pearl like crazy. They do pearl before as well, but by no means as strongly.

The light is a Chihiros A II, and it is set to 70% currently, going for 7h and 1h ramp up/down time. So have a bit of room to turn it up. I think I am happy with the duration for now, but maybe twiddling with the intensity would be good. The question then is - do you wait for your tank to be (mostly) algae free before increasing light intensity, or do you simply go by "it's been two weeks, time to turn it up a notch"?

I was also thinking to maybe only increase the light intensity only for a few hours, around the time the plants pearl most strongly already.

What do the pros here say?

This tank is really hitting its stride. I drained it for almost a year as life got busy, but things are more routine now, and I started this up right after the new year.

- This is a 120cm x 60cm x 50cm rimless aquarium.

- The substrate is inert Black Diamond Blasting Sand (BDBS).

- I live in an area where our water is liquid rock, so I use Reverse Osmosis water reconstituted with APT Sky.

- I use the Estimative Index (EI) for my fertilizer routine using dry salts, with macros added on water change day, and a little extra mid week. Micros (CSMB) are added every other day.

- The tank gets weekly 90% water changes and carefully vacuum up and debris from the surface of the sand. At this time I do basic plant trimming and management. Large water changes keep a lot of the excess organics low, which helps to keep this tank balanced and free of algae. It takes about an hour a week.

‐ Every few months, every single stem gets removed, the BDBS substrate is stirred lightly, along with a 90% water change and then replanted with 2 or 3 stems of each plant I want to keep.

- I use a canister filter that is connected to a CO2 reactor that I inject pressurized CO2 into through a regulator. This helps the CO2 to dissolve in the water completely and be evenly distributed around the tank.

- Lighting is provided by 2 x Chihiros LED pendant lights. They have an app that is nice to use, and I have it set for 10,000K color rendition (gives a nice balanced white look to the light) at 75% power. I sometimes wish I thought through lighting options better. Im convinced modern LED lights from companies like this are way too much for almost all of us out there.

I came into some Hygrophila polysperma "white" by Tropica recently. Grew it out and it seems to be able to be shaped into good midground bushes so I decided to create a layout to showcase it. Contemplated whether to use it as the only white plant in the tank, but decided to use some Anubias white petite as well so that the white polysperma doesn't stand out awkwardly.

Hello everyone,

Excuse my multiple posts - I'm new here and trying to determine the best way to ask all of my questions!

As I have stated in a few other posts, I am starting a high-tech, 235g planted tank. Tank dimensions are 72" L x 30" W x 25" H.

I'm still working out many of the details, but for now I plan to make this a South American themed tank centered around a few Electric Blue Acara. And yes, I know they'll dig I don't plan to have a ton of red plants, if any, in the tank, but I do want a light that has potential in that I can use it in any situation should I choose to redo/rescape the tank a few years down the road.

My requirements:

1. Must be able to be mounted via hanging kit/pendant mount
2. Dimmable
3. Usable App for initial setup with customizable channels - I typically loathe preset specs.
4. Reliable
5. Budget - nothing set in stone - but I would assume somewhere around $1,000.00 USD would be sufficient.

I'm an old school T5HO fan, but I thought I would change it up a bit for this tank and see what I am missing out on.

My current top choice is the Week Aqua (version 3) P900 Pro x 2.

I welcome any input on these specific lights (is 2 enough?) as well as any other lights that would be comparable and fit the criteria noted above.

I have rarely kept journals for my tanks, mostly because I tend to not think about it until it’s too late. I have missed the jump on this one too, but as it has only been running for 2-3 months now I think it’s newish enough to start a journal.
Tank:
80cm x 45cm x 40cm (32” x 18” x 16”)
About 130L of water, or 34 US gallons.

I upgraded from a 60L tank that had been running for about 7 years, fairly steadily. I have always enjoyed smaller tanks and so kept this upgrade fairly modest.

Here is a picture of the tank as it is today:





As you can see, I suffer from collectoritis, and have definitely prioritised lots of plant species over ‘scaping’. One of the joys for me in this hobby is growing lots of different plants, so I tend to end up with jungles with many different stems.

The tank is just beginning to stabilise now, with the fresh soil finally not messing around with the water parameters so violently.
I use remineralised RO water cut slightly with tap water at the moment, as I find that ‘matures’ the soil faster in the beginning of a tank.
Below is the running sheet for this tank, which gives a good idea of the water parameters.

Hello everyone,

I am setting up a 235g planted tank, and while I have CO2 on my other tanks and do have extra room on the regulator(s) available to run a line to this new tank, the distance is about 25 feet and I am considering just getting a standalone system (also considering the size I'm assuming I'll use a considerable amount of C02). It's been a very long time since I have had to purchase a regulator (mine are all custom/DIY welding regulators made by a member on another forum), so I am looking for suggestions on what brand/model of pre-made/prefab units are the gold standard now?

For a bit more clarity, the solenoid will be controlled via Apex controller and a pH probe, and the CO2 will be injected via a stainless steel yugang reactor and I will be using a 10g CO2 tank.

I appreciate any input!

Hi all! Excited to post my first thread. Hopefully this hasn't been answered elsewhere....

I have an Aquatic Life RO Buddie (50 GPD) that has served me well for my ADA 60P. I generally generate 5 gallons a week for a 40%-ish water change, and the TDS stays pretty steady at 0 for about 1-2 months. However, I do seem to be burning through my DI resin pretty quickly. I don't think it's much of a mystery why: the water feeding into the membrane comes from a water softener that uses sodium pellets. I was ready to suck it up and buy another cartridge when I came across someone who was buying bulk resin and refilling their DI resin cartridge for a fraction of the cost.

Here is my cartridge: https://www.amazon.com/Aquatic-Life-Color-Changing-Cartridge/dp/B00DSP57BQ?ie=UTF8
And here is the proposed resin: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000X92KOC?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Is there something I'm missing here? I'm a newbie when it comes to RO/DI systems, and the only thing that came to mind is that refilling might cause issues maintaining pressure through the column. Would appreciate hearing from anyone who has done this, tried this, or knows this already to be a bad idea. Thanks in advance!

Hi to all, here is the journal of my single tank that I set up 2 years ago or so. Last February I changed the substrate but I neglected the tank for a month. Fortunately the new substrate and medium-low light prevented the disaster, but I got a lot of BBA on slow growers like Eriocaulon, Anubias and Cryptocoryne.
This is a second hand tank, it was cheap and had a stand included, but it is what it is.

Why "Eternal Newbie"? Because I have been in the hobby for ten years, but I have never reached what I wanted the most: a steadily healthy planted tank with a nice scape. At the beginning my failures were due to bad suggestions, but then because of me: mainly due to my impatience for results and always looking for perfection. Basically, I had short spells of healthy growth interrupted by long periods of chaos in the tank. Because I changed too many things too fast, I never had the chance to understand what was actually effective.

17th April


Tank size: 120x40x52h cm, 47x15,7x20,5h inches

26th April


Citizens:
22x Black neons (Hyphessobrycon herbertaxelrodi)
7x Otocinclus (I'd like to bring them to 12-15)
1x female Pearl Gourami (Trichoporus leeri)
2x Amano shrimps
I feed the black neons and the pearl gourami well, small doses 2-3 times a day.

5th May

Plants:

• Heteranthera zosterifolia
• Lysimachia parvifolia
• Ludwigia palustris 'Green' (added two weeks ago, arrived in bad conditions)
• Staurogyne repens (added two weeks ago, emersed form adapting)
• Ludwigia sp. "Mini Super Red"
• Eriocaulon sp. "Vietnam" (BBA on old leaves, bad conditions)
• Pogostemon deccanensis (it has never grown well but I don't surrender)
• Lysimachia nummularia
• Lysimachia nummularia "Aurea"
• Hygrophila polysperma "Rosanervig"
• Bacopa salzmannii "Purple" (added two weeks ago, emersed form)
• Bacopa monnieri "Compact"
• Bacopa monnieri "Compact White (added two week ago, in vitro, getting GDA or diatoms)
• Cryptocoryne wendtii "Flamingo" (never grown well, last chance.)
• Nymphoides sp. "Taiwan" (added two weeks ago, in vitro)
• Anubias barteri var. nana "Pinto"
• A big Anubias congensis (probably wrong name by the producer), it was given to me for free but I don't think I have the space for it.
• Floaters: Limnobium laevigatum, Spirodela polyrhiza, Hydrocotyle leucocephala
• Hanging pots (still working on them): Gymnocoronis spilanthoides, an unknown plant I took from a lake round here

7th May


Substrate: Tropica Aquarium soil, 3 months old. I added a lot of MasterLine root caps under it to boost it. Then three weeks ago I tried to add them again, but it's a PITA, so I think I will use only liquid fertilizers.
Light
Week Aqua P1200 Pro V3, 11" above water surface
47% R/ 50% G/ 47% B/ 15% UV
8h + 0,5 h ramp up and 0,5 h ramp down
Filter: Tetra ex 1500 plus
CO2: solenoid valve with timer. The filter uses hoses with strange ID/OD, 22/27 mm or so. I am simply injecting CO2 in the filter because I couldn't find a solution for these hoses... Now I have found a CO2 reactor and a hose that hopefully fit both without restricting the flow too much. Let's see in a couple of weeks.
Mantainance: weekly 75% WC. tap water only until two weeks ago (KH lowered to roughly 2 with a solution of HCl+H2SO4), then 5/8 Tap (with KH still lowered to 2) + 3/8 RO.
My tap water contains (ppm): Ca 50, Mg 18, HCO3- 200, Cl- <2, SO4(2-) 24, K<0,5, Na 1, NO3- 4.
By mixing 5/8 tap with 3/8 RO I should get roughly 32 ppm Ca, 11 pm Mg, KH 1.
I am trying to clean the substrate at every water change, since the black neons poop a lots.

Fertilization with KNO3, K2SO4 (dry dosed), KH2PO4 (dry dosed), MasterLine I, Iron gluconate (dry dosed), MasterLine Carbo

NO3-: 24 ppm (I used to dose 15 ppm until 3 weeks ago); 18 ppm after WC then 6 ppm.
K: 28 ppm, a bit more considering what I say about P.
PO4(3-): I have bought a JBL test and I tested them last week: when I dose 4 ppm I get less than 1 ppm after 48h. The soil is still absorbing a lot of PO4(3-), so I am goin to dose 4 ppm after WC, then 2 ppm everyday.
Fe/Micro: 7,5 ml of MasterLine 1 daily (0,07 ppm Fe) + 0,03 ppm iron gluconate daily (dry dosed)
MasterLine Carbo 7,5 ml daily and after WC. I think to stop it once I run out of it, but it will take me 4-5 months.

11th May (today)

Algae:

• GSA on glass and old leaves of Lysimachia parvifolia
• diatoms (I think) on floaters' roots and Bacopa monnieri 'White'
• BBA on old leaves of slow growers and recently on glass

Objectives/To do list:

• be patient
• be positive and do not focus only on what is not doing well
• clean the rear and side glass
• install the CO2 reactor (need to wait)
• install the Oase skimmer and tidy up the hanging pots and floating plants
• keep the journal updated!

Apparently we are supposed to discuss nutrients? NUTRIENT TUNNEL VISION....
I think the audience gets to ask questions, though you can do the same here any day ha.