Vlog: Our new 600L Aquascape display tank.
We recently just finish setup our 600L aquascape display tank. Here's some information and the setup up process of it.
The tank is at 72"L x 30"W x 20"H water level is around 18inch. The tank used to be much higher but we cut down and the supportive bracing was removed. It is place at our store front and the outside facing part of the aquarium is actually part of the glass window of our store.
I did a pencil sketch of it and initial wanted multiple small woods stick together and form a large single worm / dragon look alike wood that rise from the bottom of the right part. We stick the wood on the aquarium base using silicon glue and hold the rest of the woods together with zip tight, epoxy and even screw as we see fit. It was fine for awhile until we remove the water. After the wood absorb water it became much more heavier and when we removed the water the whole structure falls. So in the end we have to remove much of the woods to make it lighter. We are lucky that we haven't add in soil yet when it falls. I also wanted to have more whitish sand at the bottom but was unable to get it and in the end I use this brownish color one. Ironically not long after we place the sand in, the white color sand that I wanted is available.
We let the water runs with a Fluval FX6 filter for more then a month with regular water changes before introducing the plants. This is to reduce the wood enzyme that form a whitish fungal like film on the wood as well as making the water brownish. We also have Seachem Purigen in the filter but soon find it not enough to remove the brownish tint produce by the wood and we added Seachem Matrix Carbon as well.
The plants that we have in the tank are as follow:
- Trident fern
- Flame moss
- Mini Pelia
- Rotala Macrandra
- Rotala Macrandra narrow leaf
- Rotala Macrandra Green
- Limnophila hippuroides
- Ludwigia arcuata
- Ludwigia grandulosa
- Pantanal red pinnate
- Ludwigia sp. Pink
- Hygrophilasp. portovelho
- Windelov fern
- Anubias nana petite
- Alternanthera reineckii mini
- Riccia fluitans
Doesn't have any problem with any of the plants accept for the rotala mancrandra narrow leaf that doesn't growing very well initially but have recovered lately.
I waited couple of weeks before adding fish. The otocinclus and silver algae eater are the one that goes in first. A week or so late, white cloud mountain and gold laser and venezuela brown cory was added while the congo and blue emperor tetra soon follow. Yamato shrimp are going in in this few days as well.
For the 2 weeks I was dosing only potassium, carbonate, gh, nitrogen and phosphorus. Nutrients brand use is Aquavitro. Nitrogen and phosphorus was dose at once a week while the potassium was keep at 20mg/L. After that potassium was raise to about 30mg/l while the nitrogen and phosphorus are dose twice a week along with iron and trace.
We are experiencing some thread algae problem now. It is most likely cause by nitrogen and phosphorus deficiency. We are now dosing them 4-5 times a week until we can maintain around 2mg/l nitrate with 0.5mg/l of phosphate. Once we reach that we will try reducing the dose to 3 times a week.
Lighting system use is Nemo Light custom 140w for aquascape. We currently sold out of this model but the 72w and 24w is available. Regulator use is the Intense Solenoid Expert but currently we are letting it runs 24 hours cause we keep having people messing with our timer. Speaking of which we also have people that keep messing around with our CO2 output too. Customer or competitor? We are not sure but thanks to the CO2 check we are able to correct it before any damage is done. Bubble counter, check valve and diffuser are of Intense as well.
