jmontee

I totally agree with Tex. I know your excited but if your unhappy with the stand height do you think you'll be ok with breaking down the tank once it is cycled and doing well just to cut down the stand. For your sake I hope you'll rethink the setting up until the stand is OK.

On another note, how many people does it take to move that thing. It's freakin huge, and totally awesome!!

C.Anderson

LOL yeah...I'll probably just remove the existing veneer and install a new, attractively grained plywood skin on it. Then I can restain it to fit the house (silver/grey). I'm working on some kind of canopy for the thing now. There are three medium sized openings on the top that have acrylic covors that drop in...and they sort of play havoc with finding places to evenly support six 48" light strips while still maintaining access =/. I can tell you this...it's going to be an interesting time decorating it...particularly with the plants. Composing a nice design on a scene with 'depth' and a dedicated front/back isn't that bad. Composing one on a double tank that's 10' wide is really not going to be fun lol. Already the currents needed to cycle all the water for such a large tank mess with the few plants I have. Makes me think I should have rigged up an under gravel spraybar system =/.

Here's a current picture with only two of the six light strips:


Anyhow, I took a few 'during' pictures while setting the thing up that shows how I laid in the substrate etc (boy did that suck...Soilmaster Select Charcoal and 3m Colorquartz Black do NOT go well together appearance wise =/). I'll try to get them up sometime tomorrow.

Oh, also...Happy Mother's Day to those it applies to!

Cris

BryceM

Oh man, a tank like that would have been perfect for three 250W metal halide pendants. You could have left it open-topped. Oh well. Have fun with the scape. I'd recommend a careful search for some very bold hardscape elements - boulders, logs, old chevrolets, etc. They can't be used anywhere else and they really look impressive in a tank of that size.

C.Anderson

Can't leave it open topped =/. Already today I had my ropefish dive bomb me, literally....from out of the small slots across the back. 15 minutes and emergency plexiglass surgery later...all the holes in the thing are finally covered up. The thing hit me in the head!!

Anyhow though...I'm still researching lighting options. The ones I have now are T8's...so I'm better off than I was at least. I already have the Mopani center piece, and the two others will be here Monday. Once I have those, I'll probably go ahead and start looking into specific plants.

Here's some pictures of the wood:


Existing center piece. It's less orange with the new improved lighting!


Pieces that should be here Monday. Hopefully the color is similar.


Anyways, I'll pick up tag end and odd pieces as I go too. Hopefully it turns out for the better rather than for the worse lol.

Cris

C.Anderson

I think it'll be fine. The height's a minor annoyance now is all. We'll probably move before I ever tear it down in order to 'fix' it =).

On moving it...

2 guys to get it in the truck.
2 guys to get it out of the truck.
1 guy (and a LOT of cussing) to get it in the house.
and last but not least...
1 guy (and MORE cussing) to get it in place, set up the stand, and lift the tank onto the stand (yeah, that sucked).

Yep...I think waiting till I move to build a new stand is the ticket lol.

Cris

jmontee

WOW, you must work out, LOL!!!!

hoppycalif

The plant to the right of the wood doesn't appear to be an aquatic plant. You might want to verify what it is, before leaving it in there long enough to die and contaminate the water.

C.Anderson

Thanks Hoppy...those were in the old tank. Now all I have in there are two onions and the ones that look like planted hornwort lol. I did however buy some new ones today...one is baby's tears, and the other is a different version that grows a bit slower with much smaller petals. I'm getting my feet wet with a planted 12gal deal first, and they're going in it...along with a java fern. It'll have Endlers, a Royal Pleco, cherry shrimp and a couple small snails =). Hopefully it works out well lol. I found a very cool local fish store in Paradise Valley, and although they focus on saltwater, they're the only local store I know that has a WHOLE section dedicated to planted tanks and ADA stuff. Pretty nice actually.

Guess I'm hooked lol.

Cris

rehdjac

Along these lines, does anyone know what kind of effect Mopani will have on water chemistry besides coloring it? (I actually kind of like the tea color anyway.) Obviously in a tank like this it wouldn't be much of a problem, but for those of use without the need nor the funds for an Olympic lap pool, will Mopani meddle with Ph, Gh, or Kh?

jmontee

Rehd,

The tannins released will defenitely bring down the pH of the water. It shouldn't really do much for the GH but will mimic the soft water of certain areas, South America etc. This also depends on the starting water conditions. Are you using tap water, RO water or some other source. You will have to figuer out what the parameters of your water source are before you can determine what the wood will do. If you are starting out with basic, high kH water then the effects would be less drastic I imagine. This is probably oversimplified but you get the idea I hope.