jazzlvr123

hello, so some of you may have read my earlier threads about metal halides and so fourth, well after a couple weeks of planning and building i have finished my diy 180 gallon tank which has now not even been up and running for a full day. I wanted to post this new setup the first day the tank was created so that i could make a journal in the next coming months of its progress, for this brand new planted amazon biotope which i plan to create.

The diy hood:
metal halide hood and stand, how i setup the hood was i purchased one 400w warehouse light and ballast for $20 (a heck of a good deal if you ask me) and two "48 t5 high output light strips for $15 each On eBay. Once the lights came in the male after a couple long days I was finally ready to build the hood. How i build the initial box of the hood was i screwed together a skeleton of 2x4's the parameter of my tank to serve as the frame, once the frame was constructed i just got some plywood measured and cut for free at my local home depot and screwed it onto the 2x4 frame i constructed once the initial box was done it was wired to think this giant two foot tall box is sit on the top of my aquarium. One the box one constructed i drilled four holes of
different sizes into it, one on the center top of the box for the metal halide system to rest, one in the back to allow wiring to exit the hood (heater, co2, ph meter and power head cables) and two on either side of the hood to transport air throughout the hood and cool the halide bulb, to ensure that i had a good air flow i bought two computer motherboard fans along with an adapter that powered them which i could plug into the 120v wall socket at my local frys electronics, I read that you can wire the fans directly onto the halide lights ballast but the guy and frys said that it would burn out the fans. When i got the fans home I installed them on each side of the hood along with a protective screen to guard the fans. I installed the fans so that one was drawing air into the hood and the other was pushing hot air out of the hood and out my window.

When the fans were done I drilled the two “48 T5 fluorescent light fixtures which I had purchased on either side of the halide bulb. Because the warehouse metal halide I purchased was a standard start ballast and not a probe start, my choice of lighting was very limited because most of the specialty grow lights I came across required a pulse (probe) start. After much research I decided to buy the 400W Ushio UHI Metal Halide 10K Aquarium Bulb CWA, this bulb was standard start and could be burnt vertically which is what I needed so this German made halide bulb seemed to be a good suit to my setup. i installed the metal halide directly in the center and installed one T5 light on either side of the MH.

Once I had the halide and fluorescent lighting setup the last thing I had to do was I install a door on the front of my aquarium so that I can easily access my aquarium whenever I feel need to. so all I did was cut the front piece of plywood in half and reattach it using two bendable hinges (which I purchased at home depot for under $1 which allow the front of the hood to be listed up. I have mylar reflective sheeting which is coming in the mail the next couple of days which i am going to line the entire inside of the hood with to reduce the amount of wasted light.

The diy filtration/Sump:
The good thing about Plexiglas tanks is that installing the bulkhead to drain into the sump was 100x easier than installing ones on glass tanks, i did not even need a diamond tipped drill all i used was a standard hole saw that was 1 3/4" (for a 1" threaded bulkhead fitting) I attached the back of the bulk head to a 1" PVC "T" fitting, leaving the top open and connecting the bottom of the t fitting with 1" PVC which lead to the sump so that air could enter form the top giving a better drainage rate.

i constructed a 20 gallon sump by using an old twenty gallon tank i had sitting around and a couple pieces of Plexiglas which i had bought and had measured cut for free at my local home depot as well, after a little silicone (from home depot) and a 15 gallon bag of bio bale which I purchased from capitol aquarium, in Sacramento, and a bioactive sponge from another tank and my sump was ready to filter water. I was able to get a powerful mag drive pump from my neighbor who used to use it on an old pond for free. I purchased some 5/8" plastic tubing for the mag drive pump to return water into the aquarium. I filled the tank with water and let it run for a couple hours to make sure there were no leaks or problems with my filtration design, everything seemed to be running with flying colors so I kept working.


The Substrate:
I searched all around the net for the best inexpensive plant fertilizer substrate. I wanted to find an alternative to seachems’ flourite that i could buy for a fraction of the price because i wasn't about to purchase 18 22$ bags of flourite The amount seachem recommends for a 180 gallon) for my tank. Thanks to aquatic plant central i found that many of the people use a product called soilmaster select available at our local lesco store. So I called lesco yesterday and went and picked up three 50 lb bags (150 lbs total) of soilmaster select, for a total of 34$ (the monetary equivalent to about 20 lbs of fluorite). I went home and poured this fired clay substrate it into my tank which had been filtering water i had put in for about 6 hours to ensure everything was going okay. I poured the soilmater select in as violently as possible to get all of the lose debris stirred up in the water. I then completely drained the tank and started to add fresh water plants, and wood which I tired riccia onto with fishing string.

i was fortunate because i had a whole lot of riccia from other tanks to deal with so i was able to get a good ammount of coverage on the drift wood which i placed along the back side of the aquarium.


When the tank was full the water was crystal clear with hardly any brushed up debris from the new substrate.

Compressed co2 and Diy fertilization:
I bought a used 5 lb co2 tank for $22 (dirt cheap for a co2 tank) from a fire supply store locally here in Sacramento but on the contrary I bought a brand new Milwaukee regulator to avoid any hassle with the bubble count, the regulator was the most expensive thing i had to buy out of this whole project, but it was worth it. I built a co2 reactor but just taking a piece of PVC, filling it with bio-balls and attaching a power head to one side and BAM I built a diffuser that cost me less than $10

I have crated a micro and macro solution which I think suits my tank well using all chemicals from www.aquariumfertilizer.com The guy was really helpful The solution i use is as follows:

Macro Solution

In 1 liter bottle:
59 grams K2SO4 (Potassium Sulfate)
65 grams KNO3 (Potassium Nitrate)
6 grams KH2PO4 (Mono Potassium Phosphate)
41 grams MgSO4 (Magnesium Sulfate)
Fill with distilled water and shake well. Let sit overnight.

Micro Solution

In 1 liter bottle:
80 grams of CSM+B or equivalent trace element mix
Fill with distilled water and shake well. Let sit overnight.


I dose 18 ml of each solution prior to lights turning on. To get an accurate mixture of chemical solutions I purchased a jewelry scale off eBay for a measly $5. I am no dosing pro and if there has any constructive criticism to what I am currently dosing I would love to hear it.



The Plants:
Marble queen, red flame sword, red rubin sword, rose sword, red melon sword, crypt wendetti red, Anubias bateri, anubias nana 'petite', anubias hastafolia, riccia, crytocone cordata rosavervig, barclaya longfolia red, telanthra rosefelena. (sorry if I misspelled some of these plant names)

The Fish: I have added 15 different discus, one motoro stingray, one pleco, and a couple loaches and tetras which I took from different tanks around the house. They have been in the tank for about 12 hours now and are doing great.

Now that the tank is up and running I have so many ideas running though my mind of exactly how I am going to scape this tank, the whole process of setting the tank up has been a big project but look at it with its brand new flirtation and really high output lighting which make the plants and discus incredibly vibrant I feel that enjoying this tank is the reward I have worked for and will keep working for and improving.


Questions: my substrate now is about 3 ½” thick and looking at it from far away looks way too thick so I was going to take at least 30 lbs out this evening during the water change. so how thick is too thick?

lately I have been getting way more into aquascapes and plants and I would like to create a carpet of HC in the foreground of my tank I have a bunch coming in overseas in the couple of days so I plan to get rid of the stingray and about 5 of the discus so I can more easily maintain the water quality and so the ray doesn’t destroy the HC carpet I plan to create. Is there any tip’s anyone out there can give me to creating an HC carpet, the only thing I really know about HC is that you have to use tweezers to plant it because it is so small. Also, if anyone has any good ideas on how i should scape this tank i would love to hear them, for that is the whole reason i am creating a journal of my new tank, so that i can get help from those who have more experience. oh and sorry i have a crappy camera im going to try and borrow a friends digital camera si that i can post better pics in the coming months thanks for looking and don't be afraid to speak up and tell me why my setup completely sucks (smile)

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