Melbourne

Hi,

I recently got back into planted tanks after spending a few years in SW reefs. I'm still relatively new to planted tanks and have enjoyed reading various members tank journals. I decided that I would go with pressurized CO2 this time and also with smaller tanks. I selected two tanks from ADA, a 30-C because I've always liked cubes and a 60-P for a more traditional layout.

I ordered the 30-C cube from Aquaforest in SF, CA and it arrived well packed and with a free copy of the ADA 2006 layout. Will definitely order from the Lo brothers again.

The rest of my order came from ADG, and the Senske's were very pleasant to deal with. My 60-P came boxed separately from the rest of my order and was well packed. I also ordered a large bag of Aquasoil and two grey line kits for my glass CO2 diffusors. In my opinion both outfits are great to deal with. The ADA tanks have very clean lines and good silicon jobs, glass is a bit thinner than what I expected but that shouldn't be an issue.

I bought a set of glass intake/output tubes from Cal Aqua labs and they look great and a set of glass diffusors from Aquatic Magic which have not arrived yet. For filtration I will be using Eheim 2224's with Hydor inline heaters. And both tanks will be lit by a pair of 70 watt metal halide PFO pendants running 10k bulbs off electronic ballasts.

I plan on running both tanks off the same CO2 system so I ordered a small manifold from Rex Grigg and when that arrives I'll hook up the CO2 system to run off the light timer via a solenoid.

I'm still in the process of building my own stands for each ADA tank. I've finished the small 30-C stand. I followed the general directions from other folks that have done ADA like stands, I used 3/4" MDF and two coats of primer and sprayed a flat black for the finish coat.

Still deciding on plants and such, I may go with Eco complete for the small cube since that is what I used on my last planted tank. I may use the Aquasoil on the 60-P only unless I hear that Aquasoil is so much better than Eco. I do plan on some HC or similar foreground plant in both tanks.

Some pics

Tanks unpacked


Tanks moved to basement fishroom along with other equipment


Door open on stand (it comes completely off since its such a small stand - the Eheim barely fits in there.


The tanks behind the ADA are my nano reef setups, two 2.5G tanks plumbed to a common 10G sump and a 1 gallon cylinder reef and a large in-wall reef.

Melbourne

Update on progress.

Added larger base to stand to improve stability. Made DIY foam base for tank (aquamat). The Eheim piping will eventually be replaced with clear plastic returns that I plan on making as well. The Eheim 2224 and Hydor and metal halide ballast are mounted inside the cabinet as well as a power strip in the upper section.

Updated setup with door closed.


Door open


Still need to hook up the CO2 system and decide on an aquascape.

dennis

Very nice in all respects. Nice house too! (I hate you )

b4igo

Hi Melbourne,

Your setups looks fantastic. I am curious though how you run two tanks off a single filter? How do you balance the output, etc, to stop one tank being pumped full of the water from the other tank? (eg hose blockage to one tank, etc)

Also, have you used the Eheim 2224 on such a small tank before? I have a 12inch cube and a 9inch cube, and wanted to put a canister filter on it (to get the filters and heaters out of the tank) but was told the flow would be way too strong. I'm interested to hear your experience. I assume you use an inline tap to reduce the flow to what is required, but does that have any negative impact on the filter/pump itself?

regards,
Mike

Melbourne

Dennis, thanks. Any suggestions on the aquascape for a cube? My initial plan is for a standard sloping grade of aquasoil with a large patch of HC with 1 or 2 rocks and a small piece of branch wood. Fill in the areas around the rocks with B.Japonica and the background with Rotala and other stems.

b4igo - the reef tanks that share a sump each has its own return pump. There are two float sensors one that shuts off the return pumps if the water level in the sump drops too low and another tops off at a much slower rate via an aqualifter pump. Both tanks are drilled with 1 inch bulkheads but I'm only pumping through about 1/2 what they are rated for with each return pump dialed back a bit.

On the 2224 on a small tank - this is the first time trying such a large canister on a small tank. I put in the aquasoil tonight and I'm running the canister at max flow rate and there is a good amount of flow in the tank but not terrible. The problem with the Eheims is that you can't dial them back too much otherwise they tend to leak. The Eheims reduce flow either via the ball valves at the quick connects or on the 2224's they have a lever on the canister that allows you to adjust the flow for intake/outtake.

dennis

Re: Aquascaping a cube. Check out Tony Gomez and Luiz Navarro cube tanks. You can find some pics through past AGA contests and some here at APC. I believe you can find some about each by their interviews in the Library section.

b4igo

Ahh of course...sump... I was stuck in "canister" mode. As long as the outlet from the tank to the sump can flow more water than the pump is flowing back then there is no problem!

Keen to hear how you finish up with the cube, so I'll follow this thread with interest!

regards,
Mike

Steven_Chong

With regards to the aquascape (since this is the only thing I talk about anyway lol)-- it's hard to say much. I think it's got to start with you-- namely, what are you trying to make? Even if you had the vaguest idea like, "I want to make a forest with crypts"-- I bet a lot more ideas could be put forth. Dennis and the other members probably feel the same thing as me in that we don't want to impose our own ideas on you for a beautiful blank tank. If you gave us a basic "genre" though, people might be able to offer up ideas as suggestions.

Melbourne

b4igo - yes sumps are great. But I'm not confident enough with my glass drilling skills to try it on my ADA tanks

steven/dennis - thanks, I did go through all the contest entries back to about 2002. Many excellent ideas in there. I'm trying to go for a very dense backdrop with heavy growth and it opens up into a meadow. The path for the eye to follow is roughly up the center between the rocks into the "forest". I'm trying to create a sense of depth in a small cube. I'll post up what I've done so far with the 2 rocks and the soil gradient so you can see. My wood won't be here until next Tuesday but I'm going to plant the HC tonight.

The two rocks take up a lot of real estate in this tank but I like the texture and look to them.

Steven_Chong

From my experience working with a cube, You do get nice depth, but developing a background that balances a large foreground can be difficult. Looking at your hardscape, I'm guessing to get the nice thick background (if we're going stems here), you'll need either a higher slope, or give less space to the foreground. My guess is you could do with less space given to the foreground here.