Journal 36g Bowfront High Energy Tank

[Count Krunk]

Hello Everyone,

My wife has grown tired on the sad 20g on the floor, and I have as well. I was hoping to build the stand during the day, but it will have to be done at night in the garage.

Anyway, the stand will be super simple. 2x2 construction. Plywood top, and a plywood bottom. Pocket screwed and glued together. I should be able to start and finish the stand and the yungang reactor tonight. But you know how that goes, good intentions..

Pictures to come when I actually do the things.

For the Yugang reactor I was able to do the maths

360" for the tank. 20" needed for the reactor size for estimated 1.5 drop. 2" pvc x 10" and boom. 20" reactor size. The parts list I was able to get everything from Lowes except for the 3/4" MPT to 5/8" barb. They had it in brass but not PVC/plastic.

That makes the parts list for this reactor

• 2" pvc
• qty 2 2" pvc couplers
• qty 2 2" to 1.5" reducer
• qty 2 1.5" to threaded 3/4" reducer
• qty 2 3/4" MPT (male pipe thread) to 5/8" barb (hose size for the filter)
  • this part had to come from online, amazon in this case. I was able to get qty 2 PVC versions of these
• an RO/DI fitting from my RO/DI parts stash
  • this will be for the CO2 and for a little purge valve
    • these are called john guest fittings

I was trying to go straight from 2" to 5/8" but such an adapter doesn't seem to exist, or I couldn't find it anyway. If I had a 3D printer I could have spent several hours (maybe more, probably more) designing one. Some day, some day.

Luckily the 2" to 1.5" reducer is very thin and slips 100% inside the 2" coupling. So overall the reducing is done without too much length from the fittings. My question so far with this reactor is how much do I open up the CO2 valve?

Equipment

• The Hygger light bar, if anything I'll add a second but this is a pretty shallow tank.
• Oase 200 canister filter
• heater
  • eventually I'd like to get one that will fit inside the Oase.
• Inkbird heater controller
• 20# co2 container, I have it so might as well
• CO2 art regulator
  • have had this for awhile
• DIY Yugang reactor
• I have an old but unused jebao 4 head doser I'm going to use here.
  • Going to get the dosing containers from chihiro
  • the hope is to get dosing dialed in, we will see how it goes.
• BDBS substrate
• "spider" wood driftwood
• i also hope to whip up a @RickyV style blackworm breeder

Livestock
I've been noodling on this during the days and nights for some time now. I think this combo is pretty set, but if you have any ideas feel free to share. Occupants will be QT'd and will be added probably in two groups. The shrimp will be added first and given several months to establish themselves before it gets a little too Hunger Games for them.

• Fire Red Agassizi's Dwarf Cichlid
  • this is the "show piece" fish, very important there is a pair (ideally) of a "show piece" fish in this tank
  • male/female pair
  • the idea is for the shrimp to a) be established and b)have a lot of cover/shelter once these two are added. let me know your thoughts. the other idea I've had is for a dwarf gourami pair.
• panda cory
  • qty 6
• Black neon tetra
  • qty 9
• che che che che che CHERRY barb
  • qty 6
• neocaridina shrimps
  • qty whatever they stabilize at

Plants
This is very open to suggestions. I've never done a high tech style tank before so looking forward to some nice plants. I think I'm only set on monte carlo (or similar) for the foreground carpet.
This build will move slowly, I am sure. I just happen to have all the equipment. The livestock part will lag behind. Hope to get plants in in a month or so.
Ferts will be Burr Micros and the Macros

CaSO4.2H2O
MgSO4 (Epsom Salt)
PO4 (Phosphate)
K (Potassium)
NO3 (Nitrate)

I am doing research on still. Should be able to whip up some ferts is the idea.

Pictures to come!

Thanks

 

[techman81]

Will be interesting to see how the dwarf cichlids and cherry barbs cohabitate with neocaridina.

 

[Count Krunk]

Will be interesting to see how the dwarf cichlids and cherry barbs cohabitate with neocaridina.

Yeah a little hunger games lol. One reason i may switch from the cichlids.

 

[Count Krunk]

Had to pull up some bushes.

It's a hardwood species. Going to use some of the roots in this build.

 

[Count Krunk]

This is the ludwigia (suspected), not sure exactly, stem from the 10g. When i clip that and scoop duckweed from that tank i add it to the goldfish pond.

The goldies eat the duckweed. That stem transitioned to emersed growth. Thought that was cool.

 

[Count Krunk]

20g long is dead. It will be resurrected as a display refugium (reef tank system) someday.

In its place a 36g bowfront rises! I got it for just $10 and it really opens up the stocking aka an angel fish pair will do just fine.

Going to keep the 36g dry until i have all the gear ready to roll.

 

[Count Krunk]

The 36g is ~21" tall. I don't think my hygger lights are going to cut it.

Do y'all think simply doubling them up work? Or would you recommend a stronger light that can reach the bottom better?

 

[Count Krunk]

Bump on that above. Was thinking two of the lominie pendant lights.

Anyway, this is the little 10g i keep running for my wife's shrimps.

About 2 months ago i removed a ton of plant overgrowth and got it back on track. Cleaned the oase canister for the first time since i set it up. It needed it haha.

I just scraped down some hard algae on the glass and scooped out some duckweed prior to these pics. So the fish and shrimp are largely hiding.

Got some BBA that developed during the overgrowth phase. I'll do a search on that. It's not much but would like to get rid of it.

FTS

Left side


Right side

Cut these stems way back, they went from bare stems to this


The bba


Some animals

 

[Count Krunk]

This is the light

https://a.co/d/0eLnPm9L

 

[bradquade]

The A20 in the link above doesn't seem like an ideal solution for a high tech 36G bowfront given the price to intensity ratio. If you're looking for an inexpensive light, there are other options. They won't be the brightest, have the best spectrum, or the greatest features, but they'll put out enough PAR to grow plants pretty well. The 40B high tech tank shown below was grown with black diamond blasting sand and a single Beamswork DA FSPEC (they're available on Ebay) and you can see the plants are overall pretty healthy even if the spectrum isn't the best looking. Based on the PAR data available online, you'd be able to get 50 PAR at substrate in your tank with this light and that is more than enough to run a nice planted tank. Doubling up with your current Hygger would give even higher PAR and you might end up with a more pleasant light spectrum.


This is the same tank with two Beamswork light strips (one DA FSPEC and one other that I can't recall). Everything grew well and the mixed spectrum looked better than the DA FSPEC alone (or maybe it was just more uniform lighting from having two lights across the width of the tank).


Just to illustrate the spectrum issue, the day that I took the first picture I temporarily switched to a 32" SB Reef light. The colors are much better looking just from a change in light spectrum. It's very clear the DA FSPEC did a decent enough job at growing the plants though and it's a good enough light if you can tolerate a suboptimal spectrum.

 

[Count Krunk]

Thank you @bradquade !

I think I'll try doubling up the hygger and see how that goes.