Build Avice Please!

[L~C~G]

I have actually got some material over from this build and the pond paint I have left has a fairly short shelf life so I was thinking of building a 30 gal to replace the holding tank I had these guys in.

Ill also go for a corner viewing panel but I will just use two pieces of glass for this one to keep the cost at zero ;-)

 

[Griller]

Im not totally sure what to do with the lid yet, I am a pretty tall guy and and I can only just reach the bottom of the tank as it is so a tall canopy may be a real pita, so ill probably keep it fairly shallow.

Have you considered a sloping front lid that is flush with the top of the tank at the front and slopes up towards the back?

I also had a massive 1500 Liter tank with hood lids that that extended to the front of the tank:

Lid Hinge Hood
-----------o------------------
|
| Front of hood is part of lid
|
---------------------------
Aquarium

It had twin lids with the supporting structure between. Worked well so I could get into that big bugger.

 

[L~C~G]

I decided it was time for a bit of an update on this tank.

It has been running with no leaks for some time now and I am loving every minute of it

I eventually built the canopy out of the left over ply wood and the second I fitted the lights to it, it warped so badly that it wont even close. It it 100% sealed so the heat must have done it.

Im busy building a new lid now out of some picture frame moulding and aluminium sheeting. It should look awesome. Ill post pics when im done.

In the mean time here are a few pics of the tank an the fish that call it home. I think i am pretty lucky that I have managed to get my plants to look like this with Malawi`s in the tank. I am normally a fan of only having rocks with Malawi`s but for me this tank is so vibrant!

I have also got my fire eel in there now and he is eating out of my hand. If you look closely at the bottom right corner of the first pic you will see him peeping out of his home!

 

[mike_sema]

man it looks great glade you stuck to it

 

[cobra29svt]

Awesome job!

 

[cor]

I just read through your build for the first time LCG. The trials and tribulations and to finally see the end result is AWESOME. The acrylic corner is the best part as there is NO SEAM!!!

Nice work!

 

[L~C~G]

Well.........................six months on and thankfully not a single leak.

I recently ran into a rather strange situation that I have never experienced in my 15 years of fish keeping.

About three weeks back a did a 30% water change and cleaned the acrylic panel, the filter and did a small vacuum on the gravel. Within an hour the water was so cloudy that I could hardly see the fish.

I kept a close eye on my fish to see if their behavior changed at all but they seemed fine. The next night I did another 30% water change and it seemed to clear up a little.

The next day it was cloudy again. Around this time I had a massive bloom of green beard algae on my plants and a large number of my plants started to shed leaves.

I have been scooping out the leaves as often as possible to help my filter keep up but I cannot get this water clear. I also added a separate internal filter with only activated carbon in case it was an ammonia spike. I have also cut back on feeding as well.

I decided to do a nitrate test on my tap water and to my surprise discovered the water from my tap contains 30mg / litre of nitrate!!!! This is a council water supply not a borehole. WTF!!!!

I went to my LFS to get a nitrate remover to try and bring things back into balance and at the same time bought some product for killing algae that is "apparently" safe for live plants. I figured the plants were lost anyway with the shedding and algae bloom so I decided to give it a try.

After I added the nitrate remover, with my next 30% water change I lost my first fish within one hour. I did another water change and things "seem" to have settled a bit but the water is still cloudy and last night the fish were looking a bit jumpy again.

My one yellow lab was showing some red patches under his scales but I have managed to clear that up with an amazing local totally natural treatment.

The tank is 450 litres and I currently have a sera 1300 l/h canister filter running with bio balls and various densities of foam. I have an internal filter of around 600 l/h with bio foam and a 500l/h internal filter with just activated carbon.

I have two by 3ft T5 tubes and one 3ft t8 tube that run on a timer for about 8 hours a day. My temp is sitting at 29.5 degrees Celsius despite my heater having been off for the last month. I think it is heat soak from the pumps.

Anyone every been through this before and have any idea that I could try?

 

[Conner]

Wow, that sucks. Did the water company add anything to the water recently because of storms? Or were there any storms that could have affected the water supply, causing higher levels of nutrients to be present? Usually the water company sends out a notice if anything changes significantly, but you never know.

I've had my tank turn completely cloudy after a water change, but it usually clears up within 2-3 hours, and its never had an adverse affect on the fish. Even testing ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, none of them are ever any different when its cloudy vs. when its not, and its never lead to an algae bloom.

Sorry to hear, and hopefully you get things figured out. That is an amazing tank...

 

[L~C~G]

This IS Africa though so I guess I should just be greatful that there is even any water comming out of the tap. They could put arsenic in the water here and you would be lucky if you were notified within six months.

Did another small water change last night with the nitrate remover. The fish are looking better today. The water is still very murky though.

 

[resma]

I decided it was time for a bit of an update on this tank.

It has been running with no leaks for some time now and I am loving every minute of it

I eventually built the canopy out of the left over ply wood and the second I fitted the lights to it, it warped so badly that it wont even close. It it 100% sealed so the heat must have done it.

Im busy building a new lid now out of some picture frame moulding and aluminium sheeting. It should look awesome. Ill post pics when im done.

In the mean time here are a few pics of the tank an the fish that call it home. I think i am pretty lucky that I have managed to get my plants to look like this with Malawi`s in the tank. I am normally a fan of only having rocks with Malawi`s but for me this tank is so vibrant!

I have also got my fire eel in there now and he is eating out of my hand. If you look closely at the bottom right corner of the first pic you will see him peeping out of his home!

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Hi there LCG, how are you?

Hope you can are still there reading these messages. If not, hope someone else can help me a bit.

I read all posts on your project. Super cool aquarium. Well-done

I'm considering using the "super laykold", similar to "durapond", both from A.B.E. (in south africa), to build a 3meters X 2m high X 60cm tall with a plywood bottom and lateral side panels. Front and back panels will be glass.
1- Which one would you recommend: "super laykold" or "durapond"?
2- Is your aquarium still standing? How long does durapond lasts for?
3- I had trouble using "super laykold" on top of bostick marine silicon sealant for a wooden super long natural planted aquarium filtration system (kind of like aquaponics). "super laykold" would simply not dry wen on top of bostick marine silicon sealant. Does "durapond" work well with 3M 560 sealant?

Many thanks