Faran Posted April 19, 2008 Report Share Posted April 19, 2008 I recently upgraded my old 460L living room display tank to a 540L Eheim MP setup. The new aquarium is only 20cm longer but MUCH nicer and definitely worth the days of toil swapping them over. Here's a couple of pics to share. Aquarium - Eheim MP 5ft with stand and hood, black vinyl applied to rear glass for background Lighting - Hopar 4ft T5HO light fitting with 6x 54W (over 300W!) Filtration - Fluval FX5 and Fluval 204 with surface skimmer Substrate - 30L Daltons Aquatic Mix under 50L of Daltons Propogating Sand CO2 - Pressurized CO2 system with ladder reactor Ferts - Seachem Flourish twice a week after 20% water changes Plants - 2x adult Tiger Lotus (one flowering), Red Lotus, Apongeton Crispus, Crypt. Undulatus, Needle Leaf Java Fern, Bronze Sword, Marble Sword, E. Tennelus (needle leaf), floating bunches of red rotala and more. Fish - 20 Cardinal Tetras, 10 adult discus (some already pairing off and spawning), 1x Gold Nugget Pleco (L018/L085), 1x Gold Cloud Pleco (L048), 5x Clown Pleco (L104), 5x Golden Blackeyed Ancistrus (L144), 2x Butterfly Pleco/Flounder Pleco (L168), 2x Royal Pleco (L190), 2x Flash Pleco (L204), 12x Golden Leopard Corydoras, 3x Adolfo Corydoras, 2x Siamese Algae Eaters, 1x Otto (pics of my catfish here) And this was my old aquarium - Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrienne Posted April 19, 2008 Report Share Posted April 19, 2008 what a great tank now for the questions - whats the plant floating at the top of the tank. how do you find the plecs/ottos get on with the discus. any problems? where did you get the lighting from? thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dixon1990 Posted April 19, 2008 Report Share Posted April 19, 2008 Nice Tank! Where did you get the vinyl, and daltons sand from? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faran Posted April 19, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 19, 2008 Thanks guys The plant that's floating is red rotala. It completely took over a slightly neglected propagation tank and I found these awesome floating mats which transferred easily into the new tank to give the discus some shade. It has submerged Riccia growing all through it and it's really an interesting specimen. I was planning on cutting it up and planting it as a curtain on the back wall but have decided to let it be... for now Black vinyl was obtained from a company called Computaleta which supplies vinyl to signwriters for car graphics and such. This was an offcut of 3M stuff and it's great to work with, very easy for a first timer (learned how on YouTube). Propagating sand and aquatic mix were purchased from Mitre 10 Mega. Not all locations carry it in stock but all Mitre 10 shops can order them in for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dixon1990 Posted April 19, 2008 Report Share Posted April 19, 2008 Thanks, il look at m10 mega this week. How much is it usually? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faran Posted April 19, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 19, 2008 Propagating sand is $12 for 20kgs from memory. Pays to call first. Cheers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dixon1990 Posted April 19, 2008 Report Share Posted April 19, 2008 Will call them soon then Cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
livingart Posted April 19, 2008 Report Share Posted April 19, 2008 nice tank, looks great Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheesejawa Posted April 19, 2008 Report Share Posted April 19, 2008 honestly I have to say the the aquascaping in the old tank is better. What happend the large plant with long thin stalks? but the overall setup in the new tank is much nicer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foxjxa Posted April 19, 2008 Report Share Posted April 19, 2008 Wow, what a gorgeous tank! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evilknieval69 Posted April 19, 2008 Report Share Posted April 19, 2008 Oh, thought you were gunna go much bigger man! 8 x 2 x 2 FTW! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faran Posted April 19, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 19, 2008 Cheese - the tiger lotus has been moved to the back of the aquarium behind the wood. Give the aquascaping some time, this will all grow in over the next few months. Remember this tank is only a week old Evil - would have loved to do the 6x3x2 tank I was planning but sadly the wood floor would need pilings and the only door under the house is right in the way. Fox, living - chur! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faran Posted April 19, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 19, 2008 adodge, sorry mate only answered one of your questions. I've only had the occasional plec latch onto discus but I've had to remove 5 out of 6 of the Ottos that were in this tank for harassing them. The light was imported by me from overseas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A-town... Posted April 19, 2008 Report Share Posted April 19, 2008 yea bloomin ottos aways latch on to my discus to have had to take them out! do you kno if your butterfly plecs are a male and female.awesome looking tank 8) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Great White Hand Posted April 19, 2008 Report Share Posted April 19, 2008 Hi Blue Great tank as always, was this the one on TM? I've had the same problem with a few of my otto's so the're now tending the plants at John's (Organism). Is the level of aggression OK, with your discus pairing? In my AR980 my four discus are two pairs as well as a pair of blue rams, all seem to be frequently spawning and I'm over the agro. Regards, TGWH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faran Posted April 19, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 19, 2008 TGWH - Nope, I got mine from a friend but was a similar price to the one on TradeMe. Probably would have bought the other one but already purchased this before the price drop which got it sold. Lovely tank and the 12mm glass with black silicone is a nice touch. Discus pairing and establishing the pecking order is always annoying but necessary so the best thing to do is get them their own tank when they pair off... I have a garage full of them now A-town - yup pretty sure they're a male and female from odontal growth and size and colouration. Either that or one is that other butterfly plec species which would make sense as it's about 3/4 the size of the other. The L204 Flash Plecs are also a pair, I had some fry but nothing survived in the massive display tank with monster filters. Again, lots of pics of my plecs a while back - click here Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caper Posted April 19, 2008 Report Share Posted April 19, 2008 Very nice In the last pic, right in front of the pleco who is, ah, facing to the right...what is in front of him? A little hard to see but something on the bottom that looks striped?? Caper Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faran Posted April 19, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 19, 2008 Thanks Caper The pleco you are referring to is the other Butterfly/Flounder Pleco (L168). You can see the larger better coloured butterfly pleco in the same picture but the smaller one tends to use its camouflage more often. Right now it's trying to look like sand and doing a fairly good job of it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dixon1990 Posted April 20, 2008 Report Share Posted April 20, 2008 You should keep the tank SA and get rid of the SAE 8) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faran Posted April 20, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 20, 2008 You should keep the tank SA and get rid of the SAE 8) SAEs are for BBA and there's no point keeping all the fish SA if the plants are from all over the world... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dixon1990 Posted April 20, 2008 Report Share Posted April 20, 2008 SAEs are for BBA Flourish excel does that too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke* Posted April 20, 2008 Report Share Posted April 20, 2008 Wow...awesome... a lot of time and effort and $$$ in there!!! Love the discus/flash pleco/cardinal tetra mix Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simian Posted April 20, 2008 Report Share Posted April 20, 2008 Very Nice. IMHO a closed in light hood finishes a tank off much better than a glass top. I love your fancy plecs...one day Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faran Posted April 20, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 20, 2008 Luke - Thanks bro Did the calculations on $$ the other day and it's nice to know I have a fairly nice car parked in my dining room Simian - Appreciate it. Sorry to say that this is still an open topped aquarium but simply has a plastic frame fascia at the top. It's a bit hard to explain so I'll just post a pic. You can see the additional bracing in this pic which I added to securely hold the 4ft light fitting stands. Inthe background you can still see a white tiger lotus flower which still bloomed throughout the shift. And while I'm at it I'll take a pic of the guts that run this baby - The Fluval 204 is filled with Phosphate remover and has a surface skimmer on the inlet and a CO2 reactor on the outlet. The FX5 is the primary biological and mechanical filtration and the CO2 system is a 3.5kg bottle (will be replaced by a 5kg bottle when it runs out) with an all-in-one (regulator, solenoid, needle valve, bubble counter and check valve) setup. One of the nicest features of this aquarium is the slide-out shelf that the filters sit on which makes maintenance a breeze! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anna_&_Chris Posted April 20, 2008 Report Share Posted April 20, 2008 WOOOW!!! and i mean WOW! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.