So i have been a bit quiet over here, due to the fact that i was very busy at work and i have worked on my secret project. I've managed to finish my new tank a little over 7 months ago.

Specs are:
- 180x70x70 plywood tank with glass front
- No stabilizers (e.g. i have full movement over the tank)
- Pump connections all through the bottom of the tank
- 2x Eheim 2078 filtration
- Up Aqua Atomizer for CO2
- Profilux 3 controlled
- Profilux 3 dosing computer
- 5x 80w maxium light, dimmable by the Profilux 3 (DALI protocol)
- LEDs for the Profilux 3 (thunderstorms)
- Auto top off
- Auto water change with RO water (5% every night)

Here are the pics of the build.



Design:
The blue parts on the canopy are ventilation shafts. As you can see inside the canopy i have placed my ballasts and made such a channeling that the outside/room air flows from the center back over the ballasts inside my hood (warm air) and at the sides the moist air is going out.















Construction:
I was constructing this tank for over 2 years. It was a hobby project so a lot of time and money went into it. It all starts with supplies















Reinforcements:
First, i painted the plywood with an epoxy resin to make it water proof. Next i wanted absolutely NO stabilizers in the tank. Therefore i had to reinforce the front since the top bar has to little 'wood' to support the front window. So i ordered a steel beam and got crazy with the drill.















Background, attempt 1:
Next up was the background. First i applied several layers of fiber glass matt to enforce the casing. In total there are about 3 layers of fiberglass. I wanted to incorporate wood into my background, although i am aware of the risks (rotting and the fact that it becomes a part of the layout)





















Background, attempt 2:
I was not happy with the above background. The friend which helped me had some good insights, but i wanted to have a planted tank. To much background equals less space for plants. So i decided to redo it. This is the result. If you look closely, you can see the return pipes (in both sides at the front of the glass) and my emergency overflow, the green cascet). Pump intakes are behind in the tank.















Background, finalizing:
Next up is to finish the background. First step involves adding concrete to the background. Why concrete? Since this makes it possible to smooth out holes and make a more rock-like structure. After the (Portland) cement i started adding "Elastopur" basically this is rubber like, 2-component glue-ish stuff which hardens in about 45 minutes, so you have to work fast. The color is yellow-ish but you can add pigment to make it more your own taste. I added brown and immediately after putting on the elastopur i added sand to make it even more naturally. It then looks like this....



























Next up, canopy:
So i've used some lamp holders from ebay and arraged my lights according to the design which is at the top of this post. Not a lot of pictures, but here goes.





















Moving the tank:
After one month of test running in the garage where i built the tank (my wife is not that happy with 750 liters of water in the living room), i decided to move the tank indoors. I already had the holes for AWC so that helped a lot. In the pictures you also see my trafo, giving 12v. It is behind my tank so that means i can't access it anymore but as long as it works i am happy. It powers my Profilux and connected appliances so i don't have to use that much power adapters. The first picture shows the reinforcements i made at the back of the tank to make sure it doesn't bend.





















Plumbing the AWC:
Not much plumbing to do, i had everything pretty much figured out and since i had to fill the tank with water anyway, most of the parts where already in place. However, i still had to do my AWC system which is illustrated in the next pictures.

The 'beast' consists of the following parts:
- The left pipe is the pipe which is directly connected to the tank. This means i can use the valve to quickly drain my tank or to get some water to water my plants
- The second pipe from the left is attached to a water solenoid. Currently i am using a different solenoid since the one in the picture required back pressure before it opened. Picture is to follow.
- Third pipe from the left (the long straight one) is directly connected to my emergency overflow and goes to my sewer. Basically the drain pipe.
- Forth pipe from the left (e.g. the right one) is connected to the blue waste water line of my R/O unit.

The last picture shows the different solenoids i have used. The left one is now in place and works like a charm, draining 5% (40 liters) in about 2 minutes. I could have increased this, but that meant i had to use a bigger pipe (20mm) instead of 16mm which is now in place.











Finalizing the build:













Adding the LEDs to the canopy:



























Next post will be about the stainless steel tubes which i have used to connect the dosing unit, and the first pics of the second scape (sorry, no pics of the first one)

Hi All,

I introduce one way of my friend how to attach minifissiden to rock or carpet, my English not good enough to explain detail so please see pictures

First step
Set up your hard scape whatever you want


Wash the fiss


Use grinder to grind the fiss


Spay the water to moist the fiss, rocks and carpet


Rub the fiss that grinded to the rock


Remain fiss put on gravel


Cover tank with anything to keep the fiss/rock ... moist


After 5-7days you can fill the water


After three weeks


Ref other tank did same way




Visit here to see more pictures of this tank

Hi everyone. It's been some time since i've posted here...maybe over a year or so.

Here's a few pics from my latest 120cm x 55 x 55.

It's been running for 5 weeks now.

Here's a short clip from 3 weeks ago.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7ckOBFB9g0

And a few images







Thanks for looking

Just wanted to share some of my recent progress in the way of flowers with everybody:

Limnophila sp. 'Vietnam'
Buds:


Bloom:


Side View:


Staurogyne sp. 'Bihar'
The whole plant:


Flower:


and Fruit!

(tried to use the backlighting to candle the pod, so we can see a bit of what's inside...)

Will post more as things continue to bloom.

Hi all,

Just share some pics collection Barclaya red and green leaf in Viet Nam.










In my tank






By the way introduce one new crypt

Hello everyone. This is my first post but i have been lurking for a few years now.

My name is Brandon and I am from Lancaster County Pennsylvania.

I have been keeping Apostogrammas for a few yard now but have always wanted to create my own aquascape but never wanted to do anything too big. I was more the nano type of guy just for the small pure aesthetics.

I had bought a Fluval Chi that I was keeping a goldfish in. She has since out grown the 5gal version of this tank so I released her to my mothers outdoor pond where she is doing great!

Anyway this tank started off low tech so I could test the waters in a purely planted tank and getting everything just right with the tank. Slowly i added brighter lights. Co2 and a fert dose regimen.

I'll give specs in the next post.

The tank before the rescape:











I got some time to wade through a local trout stream that saw record flood levels over the summer and was able to find some great wood that was uprooted and washed into piles along the banks.

With the wood I created this hardscape:






And this is the initial rescape that I completed today. Let me know your thoughts.

Hi everybody,

I would like to present my last tank.

Ranking IAPLC 2011: 206
Title: akusugi's king and his throne of rock
Dimensions: 100x70x55

The pictures step by step, this tank had several versions:

Tank from Bangkok Thailand.
Just the picture before trimming.
I just love to add more plant as much as I can.

I've been wanting to do this for a while and the current $1/gallon sale at Petco gave me the inspiration. Picked up the tank the first day of the sale. De-rimmed it about a week later and then yesterday got to building the stand for everything. Still need to do some adjustments of the door on the stand, sand + finish the stand, and drill the holes for the filter tubes and C02 lines. Still undecided on a light fixture. I'll definitely be getting an Odyssea fixture but I can't decide on the 24" 48w or 24" 96w fixture. Going for high light high tech so I'll probably end up with the 96w. I haven't really seen anybody copy the style ADA stand where the hoses run through the top of the tank. Thought I'd give it a shot. I also recessed the tank about 1.5" in the stand since the silicone on the base of these cheap tanks is really hard to clean up. I still have to finish the silicone removal on the top of the tank.

Overall view:


View of where the tubes will come up:


Drilled the filter lines and Co2 line...

Ludwigia pilosa emerged




Hopefully I can get some flowers out of this plant.