Questions on necessities

[Sb1415]

I thought these may fit better here rather than my journal …. Looking for some help organizing things for an upcoming build,

Inspiration - Dennis Wongs Dutch like tanks

Aquarium - going to get the water box 25 mini later this week. Decided that a smaller one with full light coverage would be better.

Plant list so far - going to convert my existing 29 gallon to a farm tank

1. Rotala blood red Sg variant
2. Ludwigea super red
3. Ludwigea arcuata
4. Pogostemon erector/decannensis
5. Rotala orange juice I think - might skip
6. Ludwigea repens - do not like it and might skip it
7. H.Pinnatifida uk variant
8. Montecarlo carpet

Fish - tetras or rasboras, Corys, otos, neocardina

Still thinking about mid ground plants

Target kh - 0-4

1. Substrate - going to do Apt feast. Was planning to do about an inch in the front and 3 inches in the back. It does not come with a base layer like Amazonia do you guys think it is best to use some lava rock at the bottom ?

2. Using oase 350. Should I use 13 or 17 mm? I think the 13 would suit it better. I need to buy a metal one with skimmer. Any recs ?

3. I hate the tubing that comes with oase, recs for alternate tubing? Do you guys use quick connects to help clean the lily pipes ? If so where do you place the quick connects ?

4. I plan to use in line diffuser but with all the news …. is the Yugang reactor beginner friendly ? The acrylic one seems to fit my budget but would I have to clean it like lily pipes ?

5. What mid ground plants would you consider?

Thanks in advance !

 

[Jeff Miotke]

Ill give it a shot.
1. Substate - no pumice or lava rock is needed. I actually find it gets in the way and is a pita when you break down.
2 and 3. OASE Biomaster 350 uses 17mm tubing stick to that. The tubing is actually nice quality and having it darker color hides the biofilm buildup nicely. However if you need to make tight bends or want clear tubing, check the vincon tubing sold at sevenports.com. I use the stainless steel skimmer from sevenports as well. However I dont use the jet pipe it comes with it nor the acrylic holders. I find ss pipes usually have longer outside tank lengths. So your smaller tank may cause an issue. I then pair this with the VIV glass lily which is a quality piece for value price. I usually don’t use quick disconnects as the OASE has a shutoff allowing you to pull both pipes off easily. But certainly there are situations where they make maintenance easier. OASE has some nice ones as well if you want to stick to the same brand.
4. I just did the Yugang reactor . I made a video on my YouTube channel @jmaquascaping. I used inline for 15 years. I hate that it took me this long to implement a reactor and this specific reactor is the dream. You can also see my Oase filters, tubing, quick disconnects and lily pipes in my videos.
5. By mid ground Im assuming you mean something that grows somewhere between 6 and 10 inches? As you can put any plant anywhere depending on your layout vision. Here are some common ones I use: Blyxa, some eleocharis, ranunculus, lots of crypts, helanthiums, juncus, microsorum to name a few. Also lots of stems like pearl weed, rotala, hottonia, bacopa and ludwidgia take well to trimming and can be kept in that size range easily.

Hope that helps.

 

[Sb1415]

Ill give it a shot.
1. Substate - no pumice or lava rock is needed. I actually find it gets in the way and is a pita when you break down.
2 and 3. OASE Biomaster 350 uses 17mm tubing stick to that. The tubing is actually nice quality and having it darker color hides the biofilm buildup nicely. However if you need to make tight bends or want clear tubing, check the vincon tubing sold at sevenports.com. I use the stainless steel skimmer from sevenports as well. However I dont use the jet pipe it comes with it nor the acrylic holders. I find ss pipes usually have longer outside tank lengths. So your smaller tank may cause an issue. I then pair this with the VIV glass lily which is a quality piece for value price. I usually don’t use quick disconnects as the OASE has a shutoff allowing you to pull both pipes off easily. But certainly there are situations where they make maintenance easier. OASE has some nice ones as well if you want to stick to the same brand.
4. I just did the Yugang reactor. I made a video on my YouTube channel @jmaquascaping. I used inline for 15 years. I hate that it took me this long to implement a reactor and this specific reactor is the dream. You can also see my Oase filters, tubing, quick disconnects and lily pipes in my videos.
5. By mid ground Im assuming you mean something that grows somewhere between 6 and 10 inches? As you can put any plant anywhere depending on your layout vision. Here are some common ones I use: Blyxa, some eleocharis, ranunculus, lots of crypts, helanthiums, juncus, microsorum to name a few. Also lots of stems like pearl weed, rotala, hottonia, bacopa and ludwidgia take well to trimming and can be kept in that size range easily.

Hope that helps.

Thank you! Very helpful.
In all your builds with tanks of 60 cm do you then use just 17 mm lily pipes ?
Your videos are awesome much appreciated.

 

[Jeff Miotke]

Yes all are 17mm. Im just setting another up right now for a new video.

 

[Jeff Miotke]

Your videos are awesome much appreciated

Thanks!

 

[JohnPilon]

For a foreground/midground blender, you could consider Microcarpaea Minima Merrill. Easy to shape, and thin/small leaf shape that can help blend alot!

 

[Koan]

a metal one with skimmer

Note : There is one assumption nobody warned me about regarding the built-in skimmers on intakes.

To use one you need to be very good at maintenance and cleaning, AND make sure that there are no plants anywhere near it

If the bottom intake section of that intake pipe gets clogged with debris, bits of dead plants, algae gunk: the floating skimmer bit will get sucked down underwater and with it will go your fish and shrimp

recs for alternate tubing

I love this stuff!

 

[Sb1415]

For a foreground/midground blender, you could consider Microcarpaea Minima Merrill. Easy to shape, and thin/small leaf shape that can help blend alot!

Thank you!

 

[techman81]

Note : There is one assumption nobody warned me about regarding the built-in skimmers on intakes.

To use one you need to be very good at maintenance and cleaning, AND make sure that there are no plants anywhere near it

If the bottom intake section of that intake pipe gets clogged with debris, bits of dead plants, algae gunk: the floating skimmer bit will get sucked down underwater and with it will go your fish and shrimp

This is why I like the Aquario Neo with the skimmer on the output. It takes some fine tuning to get right, but once you do, it works really well.

 

[Sb1415]

Thanks guys. After reading some more, ended up getting an oase crystal skimmer and will plan to add steel lily pipes without a skimmer. Cleaning the glass ones every couple of weeks is definitely a hassle that I would not like to do.

Looks like a 16 mm steel one would be fine for the water box mini 25. Probably useful to have one with removable ends and adjustable ones to change flow. Seems like the options are Landen, Fzone, Linlan, mioyoow on Amazon, aqua worx from buce and out of stock at ARC.

Leaning towards the Fzone one since it has the nice metal brackets and a brand I recognize.

Anyone used any of these ?