YAR180 (Yet Another Rio 180).

After thinking it through I decided to abandon my 4ft tank idea and go back to my Rio 180, as I prefer the proportions and it looks a little nicer. Glass is in similar condition to the 4ft tank I had (just sold it) so no difference.

Anyhow. This is still a work in progress. I think I've got the hard scape/substrate sorted and layed out.

So far, the definates are:

Tropica plant substrate
Unipac Zambezi sand on top
large chunk of wood for hardscape

Definate plants so far are:

Eleocharis Acicularis
Eleocharis Vivipara
Blyxia Japonica
Pogestomon Helferi
Ludwigia Arcuata
Micranthemum Micranthemoides
Hydrocotyle Leucocephala (should look nice popping up through the eleocharis)

Other hardware:
Tetratec EX1200
Pressurised CO2 via 5kg FE
Rhinox 5000 - Thinking directly under filter intake
Juwel T8 lightbar (60w) with additional light unit to make up to approx 90w.
Hydor ETH 300w external heater

Some pics:

Tropica substrate is very dusty. Hopefully I've used enough!


And this is the hardscape layout I've settled on:


Here is a photoshop showing what I want to achieve, though I will be adding some small stems into the scape. The P. helferi will probably go on the right/centre, and the stems will go on the left side nestled in with the wood:



Not decided on fauna as yet. I have some Pentazona barbs and harlequins (mixed) in another tank but I might re-home these and get something else for this setup. Most Plants are arriving tomorrow, a few arrived today so I'll be filling it up tonight and planting hopefully