My 180 com tank was looking a bit tired. My old canopy held my old flourescent lights, which weren't ideal and I wanted a cleaner, neater look to the scape. So I got up extremely early yesterday and cracked on with it. It took about 3 hours and everything went like clockwork. I'm certainly no pro but i'm really happy with it now, and the new leds are so much better than my old lights. I only took the pictures today because the water took 24hrs or so to clear up.
It was originally bare bottom, this meant I had to have my plants in pots. My val was growing that well it became pot bound and then started to suffer as a result. So I decided to do part substrate and part bare bottom, best of both worlds. I achieved this by building a low crescent shaped wall from back corner to back corner. Inside the crescent is my 2" substrate made up of pea gravel, seachem flourite, fluval stratum and osmocote. Outside the crescent is bare.
The first picture shows the whole tank and how bright and fresh the lights look. The second picture shows the wall better. Eventually i'm hoping that the val will colonise the whole gravel area. I love the look as it sways gently in the current.
It was originally bare bottom, this meant I had to have my plants in pots. My val was growing that well it became pot bound and then started to suffer as a result. So I decided to do part substrate and part bare bottom, best of both worlds. I achieved this by building a low crescent shaped wall from back corner to back corner. Inside the crescent is my 2" substrate made up of pea gravel, seachem flourite, fluval stratum and osmocote. Outside the crescent is bare.
The first picture shows the whole tank and how bright and fresh the lights look. The second picture shows the wall better. Eventually i'm hoping that the val will colonise the whole gravel area. I love the look as it sways gently in the current.
