360 Litre Aquaoak South American Aquarium - Ground Up Build Blog

[Evolution Stu]

Hi Folks,
I am a new member on here, I am certainly no expert but I have previous experience from long before I used forums so a lot of what I know is probably well outdated now. Thats why I am here, to learn more.

This is a tweaked topic from another forum I use that is sadly closing down, so the timeline will be fast as its actually up and running fine now, but I thought folks may enjoy reading about the journey... Ive also added UV, a Fluval 106 and an RO system as you will read later on.


So, after well over ten years away from the hobby my 7yr old daughter recently wanted her first aquarium (She lives with her mum 20 miles away) and I took her to Maidenhead Aquatics in Blackpool, bought her an 80L setup and fell in love with the hobby again myself.

The very next day I ordered the Aqua Oak 160WR. (330Litres) I have always wanted a piece of furniture like this but could never afford it.

Unfortunately, I was dismayed to learn there is a 4-6wk waiting list!

Oh well, I figure there was no point in wasting time, I might as well crack on and order some stuff and then start a fishless cycle. I planned to have South American Cichlids again along with some Plecos and dither fish so I am doing as much overkill as I can to ensure everything is well catered for. I have bought as follows.

Lighting:
Ive gone LED with adjustable brightness of all colours individually, on off timer with automated sunrise / sunset and moonlighting etc along with some daft features I wont use like synthesised cloud cover and lightening displays. Its the "Current USA Sattellite Plus - Pro"
http://current-usa.com/aquarium-led-lig ... e-led-pro/

Filtration:
2x Fluval 406's with added Fluval Biomax and Seachem Matrix
http://www.fluvalaquatics.com/ca/produc ... 0InIL44Olc


Heating:
Fluval E300
http://www.fluvalaquatics.com/ca/produc ... 0InQL44Olc

Since I already had these filters....


I decided to build them up...


And then get them running in here with some King Prawns!


Naturally, a couple of days of that and I was drained of trying to siphon water in and out of those for testing, not to mention the wifes regularly voiced concerns over the safety of the dining room chairs, so I figured what the hell, I will need a quarantine tank one day anyway, so off I went to the LFS... and came back with this bargain 50L unit!



A few hours later... Its all setup in our spare room looking like this.


Water flow is a little erm, overkill!


But things are happening...


So while I wait patiently, I might as well make the quarantine tank look homely in case I ever need to use it.


And then a breakthrough on Friday! I had totally forgotten my friend has a serious 6000 Gallon Koi setup with a LOT of large KOI, and he kindly offered to give me a whole bucket of mature media! What a bonus! The stuff looks like this... (A snap I took of what I had left over)


So I got this bucket of media and went about carefully dropping the temperature of my tank and raising the temperature of his media over a few hours before putting them into my Fluvals. I filled a whole cartridge on each filter with it.

ONE day later...



And that was it for a few days.... I was just waiting for that magic call from MA.

[Evolution Stu]

**Update**

So... I have decided I want some quality UV Sterilisation on this aquarium and after lots of research I have gone with the TMC Vecton V2 200 which is the biggest that will physically go inside the cabinet.

Because this isnt technically the right model for my system (UV's are based on flow rate) I cant put it on the Fluval 406 as the dwell time will be too low and will leave me with nothing more than a water clarifier.

So, since I want the ability to perform genuine Level 2 sterilisation I am going to hook it up to its own external Fluval 106 to ensure I never exceed its quoted max flow rate of 680LPH.

The Fluval 106 will be stocked with sponge and fine polishing media to keep the quartz clean and its fully adjustable for flow rate so I can get the dwell time perfect.

At full flow it should perform clarifying and level 1 sterilisation no bother at all based on a 25% flow rate drop through media and water head but when I get chance I will measure it all properly with the pipework all cut to size and installed at its final head height. Once done, I will adjust it to the highest flow for level two sterilisation and just leave it there.

Ive got it all installed on the 50L quarantine tank now so for smiles, do you think this qualifies as the worlds most over filtered 50 litre tank?



I also got most of the tank internals together and spent a lot of time cleaning. I wasnt happy with the sand colours I could buy so i tested some in my quarantine tank and then opted for a mixture of two different sands which I "hope" will look just how I want.





And then my daughter and I got in some aquascaping practice!

[Evolution Stu]

Second week... What have I done?

Well, ive bought a second Fluval heater for safety and some electrical sockets and such like to outfit the cabinets with, but I remembered that I am still short of any rocks or slate.

With that in mind I decided I would pop to our local quarry (4hrs round trip... lol) and obtain some last night.

Here is my wife looking around carefully for the elusive slate...


After some scrubbing in buckets I now had enough to do whatever I wanted with.



Which is proving harder than expected.



Aquascaping is a real skill, and one I don't posses. I will keep practicing!

[Evolution Stu]

Finally, a decent update! The tank has arrived.

I enlisted the help of my wife, daughter and a friend and soon had it up on its stand and the black background applied. I was going to leave it at that but just couldnt so I added some substrate, filled it with 200litres and gave it a good scrub down then drained and refilled it again.

I got the 2x Fluval E300's in there and some mains wiring. Ive added a switchable 6 socket rail to each cabinet so i have plenty of local power.



And then I got carried away about 1am and got to installing the first filter of 3, a Fluval 106 who's sole job is to run the UV Steriliser which I also fitted and plumbed in.



Then of course I just had to get the Current Satellite LED Pro Plus installed. Love this light. If it proves reliable, I just cant imagine anything better! I cant wait to play with this and program in some custom colour schemes.





Its VERY thin, with no heatsinks or fans. (My only worry)



And lit up in one of its standard modes, it looks lovely.



These guys havent long to wait now until they move into their new home.



So far so good... Just got to polish off a couple of race cars on the dyno so I can get home and do something more interesting! Adding the Internals.

I must admit, i was a little unsure how to go about moving the filters and fish across at the same time as my BB is spread across all three filters, one of which is now in this tank leaving the other two to support the bioload in the little 50 litre. I guess in an ideal world I just move both 406's across along with the fish in a short a time frame as possible. But I would like some testing time with it all running before I add livestock to it. Hmm...

[Evolution Stu]

So, after work the next day we got to work installing all the tank internals and doing our first aquascaping job. I got frustrated with it and gave up... so the wife took over and I must say she has done an excellent job.

I really like what she has done with it.



Im also very happy with the substrate colour we mixed up... its just the tone I wanted. I am sure we will change the layout a lot as time goes on and we will be going back to the lakes to collect more rockwork now that we have an idea what we need as Mandys not happy with the rock side of things.





The little Fluval 106 has its work cut out clearing that water now, and the heaters are reporting low flow at the moment... but In the next 48hrs I will take the 2x Fluval 406s off the quarantine tank and install them too, along with the fish. Cant wait.

[Evolution Stu]

Everythings now in and running fine - but as I expected, the hum from the three fluval external filters is driving me nuts.

In my workshop I use an anti vibration mat from Draper that sits under such things as grinders and pillar drills to damn oscillations from motors. I figured it would work well in this situation so I cut some to size and put it under the filter. 100% Improvement.



But the pipes now hum where they contact the cabinet. Some pipe insulation easily sorted that. It looks rubbish, but works well.



I was also a little concerned about the tension on the weak looking UV hose tails, so to take the strain off ive fitted a few hose supports here and there.



I replicated all those fixes in the other cupboard too.



The water has cleared up well and the dining room is finished off nicely.



Most importantly, the boys are all happy.



My next problem was my water hardness... its not ideal at all.
So... I have been learning all about water hardness and figuring out how best to deal with the TDS of 200+ from the tap and 300+ in the tank.

Im pretty settled on South American Cichlids and Pleco's etc so need to soften this water a little for the boys... It's the right thing to do.

And so it begins... What could possibly go wrong?



Groan... Except Rubbish water pressure to go with my rubbish water. Story of my life that... I spend all day every day looking for more boost as part of my job, and now I try and plumb in a simple system at home and need to add more boost to that too!!



Booster pump now ordered. Rah!!

[Evolution Stu]

So... I got the RO unit hooked in and have done some testing.

While I was at it, I plumbed in a dual TDS meter to monitor TDS in and out and added a couple of taps to halt flow should I want to.



My TDS into the RO unit:



My TDS out of the RO unit:



Ive installed a water butt to collect the RO and am on with planning a pumping system to end my days of carry buckets, but thats another topic.



So.. On with a long night of testing...



I tested the tap again.

PH - 7.4
KH - 107 (6d)
GH - 179 (10d)
TDS - 209

And tested my RO.

PH - 6.4
KH - 0
GH - 0
TDS - 8

My first test is 50/50 as thats the simplest option and doesnt as far as I can deduce, need me to mess about remineralising it. That mix gives me.

PH - 7.2
KH - 53.7 (3d)
GH - 125.3 (7d) (Surprised this ddnt half?)
TDS - 102

I am reading that a KH value under 4d will give me unstable PH. Not sure what to do about that. Will have to try a different mix first of all, but how close to 4 can you hover safely? I dont know.

Im tempted to run 100% RO and remineralise it to exactly what I want. First of all I guess I need to settle on a figure that I want. At the moment, with an unstocked tank thats proving pretty tricky, especially with all the conflcting advice out there!

Ah well... im committed now, got to look after my boys.

[Evolution Stu]

So... I got the booster pump and fitted it, temporarily for now as I just need some RO!




And now we have pressure. Too much pressure I think. A tad over 110PSI. I will call them tomorrow, but for now ive restricted the outlet a little to drop it to nearer 100psi.



So... its water change day and I have decided on 50% RO and 50% Tapwater. I mixed some up in the big green water butt and added a little temp gauge to get the temperature right. I will hook this in permanently at some point.



My 50/50 mix has brought me down from 223ppm to 117ppm. So far so good...



Now... todays water change will be a little different. All the time I have been building this aquarium ive had it in my head I am NOT spoending another ten years carrying buckets of water. So I have made a plan, and today will finally see if it works.

Maidenhead Aquatics sell these little water change pumps. I was going to use a pond pump until google revealed this, so I took a punt on it for £30.



I added some hoze with hozelock connectors on it. And dangled it in the tank. Its connected to my garden hose which runs right through the dining room window and out to the garden drain.




In the middle I have added a hosepipe flow meter. This cool little device will show me live litres per minute.



Along with a live counter showing what volume of water has flowed through it.



As you can see, at almost 5 litres per minute, it should shift my required 50 litres in ten minutes. So I sat and had a brew and watched it empty feeling very pleased with myself I must say.



Once it was done, i disconnected it and then added a spray head to the hose and put it back in the tank. The hose was then run right round the rear of the house and into the garage and the pump put in the water butt. Once powered up... hey presto... its pumping the RO mix straight back into the tank.

Its a bit slower at 3.8litres a minute... due to the length its pumping I guess.



However... I reckon thats not a bad thing anyway, better to pour it back in slowly... this was proved by the fact the fish carried on as normal, totally unaware a water change was even taking place!

So... all in all, a great day. Im well pleased this water change idea works, its going to make the 100 - 150 litre a week watere change a joy instead of a chore.

And I reckon the boys will never even notice!





Time for another brew... and maybe some brine shrimp for the lads!

[Evolution Stu]

So I went to the LFS today and came home with two rather nice plecos.

1x Queen Arabesque Pleco (L260)
1x Green Phantom Pleco (L200)

They havent been in the tank long, took me 2.5 hours to drip acclimatise them to my water.

Essentially I put them in a large plastic container and then syringe in 20ml of water every 15 mins until the TDS matches that of my tank.

As soon as they were set free, as Plecos do... They dissapeared. Ive seen the Queen out in the open, but the green phantom has taken up residence upside down in some bogwood away from the cameras.

Managed a pretty average pic of the Queen Arabesque Pleco (L260) while she was there for 1.6 seconds.



But no joy with the Green Phantom - Hes behind this bogwood (Look between the two pieces). I dont think he will be coming to a photoshoot anytime soon.



Business as usual for the rest of them...

Hanging out with the tetras...


And acting tough...
"Oh no... here come that pair of red headed idiots for my dinner money again. "

[Evolution Stu]

Gotcha!!
The white balance is all screwed up so these colours are all a bit wrong, plus the camera was set to ISO 6400 as I had to dim the tank a lot to make the Plec's a little more active. All the same.. what a Pleco!!



I also grabbed a couple of the queen.





Just need to figure out how best ensure they get fed well enough with these greedy Geo's about. Any and all advice on that topic welcome.

Ive also been playing with my RO mixing station over the last few nights and now have a depth measure in there, a heater and a circulation pump.

So now I can accurately mix directly in there the day before WC day, pop the pump and heater on and next day I am good to pump across to the tank after a quick dose of prime.


Not the best pic... But it is what it is:




In terms of water, doing a smallish change every couple of days with 50/50 has brought me down to nearer target.





And fathers day saw me with £50 from my daughter to spend on whatever fish I liked... so I brought home some new guys... The Cats!



They are Corydoras Loxozonus, about 40mm long at the moment and I love them... They are so much more interesting than I expected.

I love how they occasionally group up like this and move around in unison. After some initial inspection, the Cichlids couldnt care less about them either, they even eat tablets together with the Cichlids being very careful to stay away from their sharp spines. Amusing to watch.

My LFS has some rather nice Corys im still considering too. very expensive compared to these guys. Will give it a few days as I want to monitor for an ammonia spike first.

The tapajos are doing well, and looking brighter every day...



And the Altifrons are looking happy too.



Happy times in the tank right now, which is nice to come home to right now as work is a real pain of late.

[bekateen]

Very nice. I know this is a catfish forum, but what are your cichlids? Geophagus? What species?

Thanks, Eric

[Evolution Stu]

Very nice. I know this is a catfish forum, but what are your cichlids? Geophagus? What species?

Thanks, Eric

Thanks,
They are:

2x Geophagus Tapajos Redheads
2x Geophagus Altifrons

Currently living in harmony with a school of 11x Rummy Nose Tetras whom I actually bought as dither fish to bring the geo's out of hiding. Worked a treat, they were out in 30mins and never hid again.

[bekateen]

Thanks. Geos were some of my first cichlids back in the early 1970s. Lovely fish.

[Martin S]

Interesting thread! Great to see the detail and care you've taken with this.
Was looking at the lights, but they don't appear to be available in the UK - may I ask where yours came from?
Thanks
Martin

[Evolution Stu]

Interesting thread! Great to see the detail and care you've taken with this.
Was looking at the lights, but they don't appear to be available in the UK - may I ask where yours came from?
Thanks
Martin

Very Kind, thank you.
I eventually got some on ebay and let ebay deal with the import etc. Will find you a link.

[Evolution Stu]

Here you go:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CURRENT-USA-S ... 1376292256

[Martin S]

Here you go:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CURRENT-USA-S ... 1376292256

Thanks, appreciated.

[Evolution Stu]

Hi folks,

In terms of water quality we are now here:



Im sure the 0.25 Ammonia is a "false positive" from Seachem Prime as its always there.

As all is running well it was time to add some more fish.

I bought:

5x Small Bolivian Rams

5x Manacapuru Red Back Angel Fish

I am pleased to say they all get on great (so far) the Angels dont put up with any rubbish from the Geo's and the much larger Geo's seem to have taken to the little rams and are happy to share their caves with them. Pretty surprised, and very pleased.

Some pics: