New 250 Gallon Set Up From The Begining

[ozzyboo]

After 8 months of sitting looking at an empty glass box I am finally able to start setting it up, It has been driving me insane not being able to get it sorted but after 2 operations on my back and various nerve blocks I am able to start the set up YAY
Some of you may have seen the tank from the picture’s I posted when it arrived all those months ago, but in case you missed it.


The tank is 7.5 ft long, 2 ft deep and 27” tall. It is made from 12mm glass with an opti glass front panel. The external volume is 210 imp gallons (250 US Gal, 955 litres). The actual volume is 184 imp gallons (221 US Gal, 838 litres).
The idea for the tank is firstly to home my current stock, but like my current tank I would like it to he reasonably well planted. It will have a fair amount of wood in it including one huge bit that I have got hold of. I am probably going to use a dark substrate maybe something like Tahiti Moonsand but I am not certain on this yet as I have some concerns about loaches and other bottom dwellers as I have heard that is may be a bit to rough for loaches and corries, anybody have any experience of the above substrate with loaches and corries?
Filtration will be handled by a large eheim canister and a 50 gallon sump, once built, I have all the glass ready to cut to build it ,so that will be a project further along in the set up.
Lighting will be a combination of LED and 54watt T5 fluorescent tubes, set up with the LED’s to come on first then the T5.There will also be LED moonlights.
Further along the line is an auto water changer system via a drip system, which will fill via a HMA filter connected to the water main and then drain to an external drain via and overflow built into the sump.
I hope this will be an interesting set up for people to follow , I shall try and make it as detailed as I can with plenty of picture of my progress. I am sure there will be some up and downs along the way, hopefully more ups than downs.
The next instalment will be fitting the vinyl background.

 

[robroy]

look forward to seeing this build. ND aquatics?
Had Tahiti moonsand in past-its very lightweight but also quite sharp-don't think it'd be suitable for Corys/loaches. Have a look at some of the unipac sand-I use these and they're very good (if I recall mine is Limpogo).

Speedy recovery by the way mate

 

[Hot Slime]

Oh nice. Looking forward to what's in store.

 

[ozzyboo]

look forward to seeing this build. ND aquatics?
Had Tahiti moonsand in past-its very lightweight but also quite sharp-don't think it'd be suitable for Corys/loaches. Have a look at some of the unipac sand-I use these and they're very good (if I recall mine is Limpogo).

Speedy recovery by the way mate

No it was built by AC Aquatics,In the end it was a choice between ND and AC and the later just won out.
This is one of the problems as some people say it is sharp and not suitable and some say no pronblem,I wonder if the type of grain changes every now and again
I have had a close look at some of the unipac sand's and they do two black type sands,granite and limpopo granite it the darker of the two but almost impossible to find and limpopo is more a grey colour.I have limpopo in my current set up and it seems to was out even more after a while.Main reason for wanting black is it seems to make to loaches colour up far better.But will maybe have to go back to the drawing board,or use a lighter colour than I want.
Thanks for wishing me a speedy recovery.

Oh nice. Looking forward to what's in store.

Thanks,yeah it will be great when it is finally done.

 

[ozzyboo]

After getting the tank in position when it originally arrived ,the idea was to use a textured type of background but could not find one that was the right size so decided to fit a vinyl background. So with a lot of effort we pulled it out so we could fit the back ground.
So I went off to see a local sign fitter and get some proper vinyl, they also have a huge array of colours to chose from., that will last and will stay attached managed to get a bit 2.4 m long by 70cm and got a vinyl squeegee which is really important if you intend to try and do this, most tank builders want around the £50-£60 mark to fit a vinyl background.
If anybody want to give it a go I have included a picture of tools required and how to apply the vinyl.

You can see from the above picture the tools you will need, most will be lying around the house, the only thing most people wont have is the white vinyl squeegee (which is really important). You will also need some paper towels and you may need a pin to burst any bubbles that you can not get out with the squeegee.
Firstly the glass must be spotless,The best procedure is to clean with a commercial detergent followed by a light clean with a suitable solvent such as methylated spirit (always check the solvent won't harm the surface before applying in any great quantity).
Then once the cleaning is done remove the vinyl backing, I found it best to lay the vinyl on top of the tank perfectly flat whilst removing the backing paper,
and give a light spray all over with the sprayer bottle, the can be just water or water with just a couple of drops of washing liquid.
Then give a light spray to the back of the tank, it should really just be a mist that is sprayed on, this will allow the vinyl to slide without creasing.
When placing the vinyl on the tank it may be advisable to have a couple of people to help if it is a large bit as it makes to job easier. You could use the hinge method if on a smaller tank and no one is about to help, attach the vinyl to the top of the tank with a couple of masking tape hinges to hold it in position until you have squeegeed it.
I started from the bottom of the tank and ensured the vinyl was level across the bottom of the tank and slowly worked the squeegee upwards and outwards in a diagonal
fashion. The squeegee will push the water out and allow the adhesive on the back of the vinyl to adhere to the glass.
Be ready with a paper towel as you get to the edge to mop up excess water .
If you move from the centre out of from one end to the other you should not get any bubbles, if you do don’t panic try and work them out toward the edge with the squeegee. If the that does not work get the pin and just pop the bubble and push the air and water out and it will lay perfectly flat and be unnoticeable.
Once all stuck down trip round the edges with a razor blade or sharp knife.
Job Done
Here is a picture of the finished bakground,sorry for the poor quality.

 

[Piicklez]

Nice man! I've been wanting to do this as I have the stuf from aquarium shops that just sits on the glass, it always comes away. I wetted the back of the tank when i put it on and got out all of the air bubbles, but now there is loads of lines and dots where its come away!

 

[ozzyboo]

Nice man! I've been wanting to do this as I have the stuf from aquarium shops that just sits on the glass, it always comes away. I wetted the back of the tank when i put it on and got out all of the air bubbles, but now there is loads of lines and dots where its come away!

It is far better than the type of backgrounds available at the LFS,because this is external sign vinyl it has a mild adhesive on it it will stay in place once you have squeegeed the water out but will not be a problem to remove should you want to and will not leave a residue.Just make sure you get a proper vinyl squeegee as it will be far better.

 

[ozzyboo]

The rest of my plumbing has not turned up so this weekend is a washout on the plumbing front.So I thought I would post the idea's for the sump and see what people thought.
Here is the basic design of the sump, this is not final and if anyone has any suggestions or ideas please feel free to post. The middle section is not finished as I have some idea’s that I may incorporate in the finished sump.



As you can see I am going to be using filter socks for the mechanical filtration. I am considering using 2 filter socks one inside the other a 200 micron inside a 100 micron or 100 micron inside a 50 micron a sort of two stage mechanical filter. So the water will first flow though the bigger sock then through the smaller, I am hoping it will be more effective than but not clog as quickly as a single sock would.
The next two chambers will be for bio media, the eggcrate and the filter floss above the first chamber are just in case the filter sock ever clogs up and overflows it will stop the bio media getting all gunked up.
The big bit in the middle I am unsure on, I may just leave it like it is and use it to house heaters and a separate pump to run the CO2 reactor if I decide on Co2. I may put an area in to house chemical media if required so that may need to be added .
I did consider a refugium with a DSB or an algae scrubber but neither are going to be much help as I want some nitrate or the plants will just end up suffering.
The pump section will house an Ocean Runner 3500 which with the head it should do around 2600-2700 LPH, the sump will be feed by 2x1” pipes herbie style so one will be running under full syphon and one as an emergency line. The plan is put around 3 times the tank volume through the sump per hour and provide the rest of the flow with pumps around the tank.
I don’t have any plans for reactors other than some sort of CO2 reactor if required, as this is going to be fairly heavily planted I am not sure how much use a nitrate or phosphate reactor would be, but there is scope for adding things at a later date if required.
There will also be a auto water change system built in to the sump.
The system will require a hole for a bulkhead to be drilled in the sump, this will be in the pump section and this will connect to the main drainage.
Water will drip into the tank at a rate of 2 GPH for 12 hours a day, this will give me 168 gallons per week that has been changed, although that figure may change depending on water conditions. The fresh water will be coming from the mains through 12volt solenoid valve, which will be on a timer, then through a HMA filter, which will remove all the chloramines and heavy metal, and then dripped into the sump to mix with tank water. As the water level rises any excess will flow over the bulkhead in the sump and down the drain.