Hello! This is my Florida native tank.
We recently moved and my old 180 sprung a leak, so I tore the tank and cabinet apart and made this. Dimensions are 72 X 32 X 22 making it approximately 220 gallons. The tank has a plywood base sealed with pond armor. The long sides are 1/2 inch and the short sides are 3/8 inch assembled with Momentive RTV103. there is a 1/2 x 4 inch euro brace along the front and rear. The bottom is drilled for a beananimal style overflow in the right rear corner. Filtration consists of two storage totes. The first has a 200 micron filter sock and 4 L of matrix submerged in a laundry bag. The second has a DIY trickle tower with bioballs at the top and pot scrubbers underneath. Water returns to the tank via a Little Giant 3-MDQX-SC pushing through a Tetra BP4000 pond filter. The BP4000 has the option of adding UV later on. Lighting is what I had on the old tank and is assembled with components from Steve's LEDs. There are three light bars with a total of 84 Luxon 3 watt LEDs. There are 28 neutral whites, 28 warm whites, 14 cool whites, and 14 royal blues. I can independently adjust the intensity of each driver to balance the color of the lighting. The LEDs are also controled by an Arduino Duemilanove to simulate sunrise and sunset.
The rocks and wood have been collected over the past six years. Substrate is play sand, dirt, and clay from the old setup now mixed up and capped with screen sand from a local nursery. The substrate is about 6 inches deep around the back and sides where most of the plants are. The open area in the front is only about 2 inches deep. The leaf litter is palmetto fronds collected from the water and leaves from the pitch apple tree in my back yard.
Plants are:
Cabomba caroliniana
Ludwigia repens
Nuphar advena (cow lily or spatterdock)
Vallisneria americana (tape grass or eel grass)
Sagittaria kurziana (strap-leaf sagittaria)
Potamogeton illinoensis (Illinois pond weed)
Echinodorus cordifolius (creeping burhead)
Nymphoides aquatica (banana lily)
Ceratophyllum demersum (coontail)
Livestock are:
one 8 inch black crappie (Pomoxis nigromaculatus) I've had this guy for a couple of years now.
five 8-10 inch Florida gar (Lepisosteus platyrhincus) Some of these will eventually go to a friend who is also building a large tank.
three juvenile warmouths (Lepomis gulosus)
three juvenile spotted sunfish (Lepomis punctatus)
two juvenile bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus)
two juvenile red ear sunfish (Lepomis microlophus) I need to get a culture of amphipods going for these guys. So far, they only eat ghost shrimp and live artemia.
one tadpole madtom (Noturus gyrinus)
five or six bristled river shrimp (Macrobrachium olfersii)
and one greater siren (Siren lacertina)
I also have lots of gambusia and mollies, but they keep disappearing for some reason.
I had family in town for the holidays and neglected the tank. There is some BGA starting up and most of the Cabomba wilted away. The Cabomba and Ludwigia in the pics was planted just this week. Future plans are a drip water change system and automatic dosing for fertilizers.
Sorry for the crappy phone camera pics. If there is interest I may be able to get my wife to pull out the good camera and tripod for some night time shots.
We recently moved and my old 180 sprung a leak, so I tore the tank and cabinet apart and made this. Dimensions are 72 X 32 X 22 making it approximately 220 gallons. The tank has a plywood base sealed with pond armor. The long sides are 1/2 inch and the short sides are 3/8 inch assembled with Momentive RTV103. there is a 1/2 x 4 inch euro brace along the front and rear. The bottom is drilled for a beananimal style overflow in the right rear corner. Filtration consists of two storage totes. The first has a 200 micron filter sock and 4 L of matrix submerged in a laundry bag. The second has a DIY trickle tower with bioballs at the top and pot scrubbers underneath. Water returns to the tank via a Little Giant 3-MDQX-SC pushing through a Tetra BP4000 pond filter. The BP4000 has the option of adding UV later on. Lighting is what I had on the old tank and is assembled with components from Steve's LEDs. There are three light bars with a total of 84 Luxon 3 watt LEDs. There are 28 neutral whites, 28 warm whites, 14 cool whites, and 14 royal blues. I can independently adjust the intensity of each driver to balance the color of the lighting. The LEDs are also controled by an Arduino Duemilanove to simulate sunrise and sunset.
The rocks and wood have been collected over the past six years. Substrate is play sand, dirt, and clay from the old setup now mixed up and capped with screen sand from a local nursery. The substrate is about 6 inches deep around the back and sides where most of the plants are. The open area in the front is only about 2 inches deep. The leaf litter is palmetto fronds collected from the water and leaves from the pitch apple tree in my back yard.
Plants are:
Cabomba caroliniana
Ludwigia repens
Nuphar advena (cow lily or spatterdock)
Vallisneria americana (tape grass or eel grass)
Sagittaria kurziana (strap-leaf sagittaria)
Potamogeton illinoensis (Illinois pond weed)
Echinodorus cordifolius (creeping burhead)
Nymphoides aquatica (banana lily)
Ceratophyllum demersum (coontail)
Livestock are:
one 8 inch black crappie (Pomoxis nigromaculatus) I've had this guy for a couple of years now.
five 8-10 inch Florida gar (Lepisosteus platyrhincus) Some of these will eventually go to a friend who is also building a large tank.
three juvenile warmouths (Lepomis gulosus)
three juvenile spotted sunfish (Lepomis punctatus)
two juvenile bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus)
two juvenile red ear sunfish (Lepomis microlophus) I need to get a culture of amphipods going for these guys. So far, they only eat ghost shrimp and live artemia.
one tadpole madtom (Noturus gyrinus)
five or six bristled river shrimp (Macrobrachium olfersii)
and one greater siren (Siren lacertina)
I also have lots of gambusia and mollies, but they keep disappearing for some reason.
I had family in town for the holidays and neglected the tank. There is some BGA starting up and most of the Cabomba wilted away. The Cabomba and Ludwigia in the pics was planted just this week. Future plans are a drip water change system and automatic dosing for fertilizers.
Sorry for the crappy phone camera pics. If there is interest I may be able to get my wife to pull out the good camera and tripod for some night time shots.
