# Fallen Tree Branch 60cm (jungle mode)



## wsharp

holy **** that is sweet haha great job, keep up the great work man


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## Mike00726

That driftwood is sick


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## sarahspins

I love it so far - great job with all of those zip ties


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## skystrife

How have I never thought of this! Holding down the wood with egg crate/rocks would make my life so much easier when adapting new wood to a submerged state---wonderful idea.


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## 0live

Great job. Can't wait to see substrate and water.


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## PeterN1986

Wow VERY nice job with the layout. You have a lot of planting options with all those branches and crevices around the base. 

If you need moss, I'm trimming the taiwan moss from my Mini-M every now and then if you are interested.


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## manzpants92

amazing layout. innovative with the crate idea for stabilization


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## AnotherHobby

Thanks for the compliments! With regards to using the egg crates and zip-ties to holding down the wood... as I maintain my tank, I bump stuff when trimming, I replant stuff, and things settle, and I end up ruining what I started with. It seems like nothing ever stays where I put it. Two nights ago I was sitting on the deck drinking a Jameson just thinking about this, wondering how to help prevent it, and then it hit me. I'm sure other people have done this, but as soon as I got the idea I sat down and sketched out this whole scape on paper. I woke up the next day and got to work. 

I drilled strategic holes in most branches so I could really cinch them down tight and accurately. It's very solid. You really can't move any of the branches much at all.

Tonight I dumped in and graded out the 1 bag of aquasoil I do have. I'm not quite as short as I thought I'd be, but I need probably 50% more. I was really happy as I filled it up though, because it looks exactly like what I was going for. Tomorrow I'm going to check out some rocks to see if I want to add some in.


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## Vermino

looking good hobby. Love the way you hardscaped it.


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## AnotherHobby

PeterN1986 said:


> Wow VERY nice job with the layout. You have a lot of planting options with all those branches and crevices around the base.
> 
> If you need moss, I'm trimming the taiwan moss from my Mini-M every now and then if you are interested.


I'm excited about the planting options for sure. A lot is still up in the air. I have to toss the ideas around in my head for a while. If you look closely at the scape now, you can tell it's several branches, but I'm hoping that planting cleverly around the base will totally obscure that. I want it to look like just one piece when I'm done.

Also, you have some awesome moss in your tank — I've been following your journal. I might take you up on that offer.


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## Vermino

my eye doesn't notice that.. The branches show more focal point than the actual base of it. Where did you get your driftwood?


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## kingjombeejoe

Nice job. I didn't notice it was more than 1 piece until I read it. I wish I had better hardscaping skills. I'll be waiting for the updates on this one.


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## synaethetic

Using multiple pieces and making it look as one works perfectly. Very innovative approach.

Personally I think your soil level is sufficient. Less soil in the front = more depth of field and room for plants.


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## mjbn

Beautiful scape. I agree with synaethetic, the amount of Aquasoil you have in there looks great to me.


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## 0live

From the photo you posted, you can't really tell that that it's not one branch.

It might be more noticeable irl, but from the photo it looks seamless.


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## jjt

Good luck! Very nice wood layout. Ur glass also looks very nice im sure this tank will be stunning!!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using Tapatalk 2


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## AnotherHobby

Vermino said:


> my eye doesn't notice that.. The branches show more focal point than the actual base of it. Where did you get your driftwood?


Thanks for the feedback, and it looks like the others agree with you. It's funny how when you make something yourself you tend to focus on silly things that nobody else notices. I got the driftwood from Tom Barr. It was a box of sticks for $45 shipped, and I used about half of it.



synaethetic said:


> Personally I think your soil level is sufficient. Less soil in the front = more depth of field and room for plants.


It's sloped back right now on the right hand side, and there are a few places not seen on the camera where you can see zip ties and the white egg crate. Also, underneath the egg-crate is not filled in all the way, and the back left corner needs quite a bit more. A bunch of the egg crate is covered with a tiny bit of soil and would get exposed quite easily. I filled it using the soil I had so I could get a picture of what it should look like. I don't think I need 50% more soil, but maybe 25-30% more.


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## Fuzz

This tank is gonna look sweet! Great idea with the egg crate I've never thought to do that. I had a couple of larger driftwood pieces that I secured onto acrylic but this is a good way to do multiple pieces like you did. Looking forward to seeing it planted and filled!


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## AnotherHobby

I'd like some feedback on a foreground/carpet plant. The Ray 2 is capable of putting about 90 par at the substrate if I don't raise it, so I should be able to grow whatever I want with CO2. I'm thinking it'll fill the right 1/3 or so, and then the front 20% all the way along the front. See the area shaded in green in the pic below for coverage. I also included the pic from the previous page with dirt so you can visualize it and not have to go back.

Right now I'm leaning heavily toward UG, but I'd love some ideas. I'd also like to hear from anybody who's grown UG as to pluses and minuses of this plant. I am already growing HC in my work tank, so I'd rather not do the same plant in both, although I won't rule it out because I really do like it a lot. I'd prefer to not do DHG because I'm afraid it'll take over.

Any suggestions or feedback?


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## bitFUUL

Very clean looking!


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## frrok

Excellent start. I'm subscribed. I saw the egg crate trick somewhere else but I didn't think to try it for my scape. Next one for sure.


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## Vermino

Definitely go with UG if you can wait out the DSM on it. I hear things about it needs to be trimmed alot so the under carpet doesn't die and uproot itself. too bad you don't have your highest wood just above the water line. you could do an awesome above UG effect. Actually seeing the stems poking out of the water - making their carnivorous trap.


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## AnotherHobby

Vermino said:


> Definitely go with UG if you can wait out the DSM on it. I hear things about it needs to be trimmed alot so the under carpet doesn't die and uproot itself. too bad you don't have your highest wood just above the water line. you could do an awesome above UG effect. Actually seeing the stems poking out of the water - making their carnivorous trap.


That pic is awesome! That'd be so cool, and almost makes me want to modify my branches a little before I start planting. I am definitely going with UG. A 4x4 section is showing up tomorrow, and I'll be planting immediately and doing a shortened DSM. 

I was thinking about my last DSM, and I don't think I have the patience to do that here. However, one huge advantage of a DSM is getting good strong deep roots before you flood the tank. So I thought I'd try a short 2 week DSM period. With the HC DSM I did, the first 2 weeks was all roots, and then the plants took off. I'm not looking to grow it out with full coverage, as that should happen just fine under water with CO2. I just want it to root good and deep first, which I'm expecting should take about that long.

Also, I'm taking an idea from mot's Moss Canyon journal, and blending up some of my moss and then mixing it with yogurt to spread on the branches where I want it. Then during the DSM you keep the moss misted and damp. You end up with incredibly dense moss growth, and I think the look he attained was pretty fantastic and better looking than when you just tie the moss to a branch. His DSM period to let the moss attach was about 4 weeks, but I think the moss should attach in 2 weeks. I'm going to have a loose test piece in there with moss on it that I can dip in water at the 2 week mark to see if it's attached.

I'm hoping that my hybrid approach of just allowing the plants to attach and root through a short DSM and then flooding the tank works out. I don't feel like waiting 1-2 months before I get to enjoy this thing. I'm thinking that with plenty of CO2, light, and ferts, it should pan out well for me.


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## Vermino

Yeah I believe the blender method with moss is the best approach with doing DSM. painting it on will get better results than string or glue. I knew that picture would AWE you haha. I'm trying to figure out on my 12 gallon on how I can do that as well because it's a beautiful white flower that UG is.


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## iLOVEnanos

WOW! That is amazing! I can't wait to see the progression!


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## AnotherHobby

Big day! I got a beautiful and generous 4"x4" patch of UG from nilocg in the mail today. After adding a few rocks, and flooding the soil, I got to work planting "hair plugs" of UG. 










Here is all all planted. I'm hoping for a short 2-3 week DSM just to let it root:










I also ran a good portion of flame moss through a blender, mixed it with non-fat plain yogurt, and painted it on with a brush. I'm suspecting that I'll have to keep this misted frequently. In case it dies, I only used 1/2 of my flame moss. I'll have plenty to try again if this fails miserably. Here are a few close ups, and you can see in the image above everywhere that I spread it:


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## Fuzz

Looking good! The UG was well planted and should grow in nicely. Can't wait to see that fill out, I love how it looks as a carpet. And I like what you did with the moss, that's a really good idea I had never heard of that before. Are going to add any other plants during the dry start or wait until it's filled?


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## AnotherHobby

Fuzz said:


> Looking good! The UG was well planted and should grow in nicely. Can't wait to see that fill out, I love how it looks as a carpet. And I like what you did with the moss, that's a really good idea I had never heard of that before. Are going to add any other plants during the dry start or wait until it's filled?


Thanks! I'll be waiting until it fills before adding any more plants. Currently my 12 gallon Edge (in my sig) is holding all of them.


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## AnotherHobby

Because I know that I am impatient, I know that in 2 weeks I'll be totally wondering if the moss has attached. So to help with this I grabbed 2 spare pieces of wood and put the same moss/yogurt mix on them and set them in the tank. I will mist them and treat them the same as the rest. Thus, I have 2 tests that I can conduct to see if the moss it attached. If I dip the first one in 2 weeks and it holds, then I can shake it in the water and see how well attached it is. If it's solid, I'm good to go. If it seems sketchy, then I can wait another 1-2 weeks and test the other piece. I like that I can totally test it before hand without messing up my work.


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## Vermino

HAHA i see you positioned the highest branch up more.. *evil grin*


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## AnotherHobby

In a moment of panic and completely impulsiveness, I flooded the tank and planted it tonight. When I got home today the yogurt had developed a lot of white spiky mold. I even noticed a little on the substrate near the lower mossy areas. After tomorrow, I'll be away from my tank for 4 days, so I got super nervous that mold could take over the tank and kill all of my work. 

I grabbed one of my test pieces of wood and ran it under the faucet. To my surprise, the mold was hanging on. Long term? Who knows? I am comfortable leaving it for 4 days with CO2 and a filter, so I figured what the heck, lets go for it.

I slowly flooded the tank, and only a little bit of the moss has lifted. Most of it is stahing put so far. All of the UG stayed happily planted. This is not 100% of my plants, but it's most of them other than a bunch of rotola. It's possible that I'll come home and the rest of the moss will be floating around the tank, but I really hope not.

I apologize ahead of time for the darkness of the pics. I'm tired, so I just grabbed the camera and took the shots, not realizing I had it set to under expose by a bit for an earlier shot. The water is also a bit cloudy.

I'll post better pics later. I'm off to bed. 

Here is how I planted the tank:


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## KenRC51

Looking nice!! I would bump the co2 for the UG to prevent less melting.


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## Mantis992

Looks good. What filter are you running on your tank?


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## KenRC51

Mantis992 said:


> Looks good. What filter are you running on your tank?


By the looks of the output hose I'm pretty sure it's a Fluval. Probably a 306


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## Vermino

What the heck, weird that the yogurt did that. I hope the UG stays rooted for ya


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## AnotherHobby

Mantis992 said:


> Looks good. What filter are you running on your tank?


KenRC51 is right, it's a Fluval 306. The ugly Fluval hoses will be replaced with glass lily pipes and clear hose when those show up. I wasn't expecting to flood it yet and figured they'd be here for the "grand opening" ceremony. 

Well I woke up this morning and everything is still where I left it. We will see how it looks several days from now, but I'm cautiously optimistic. I have a neighbor stopping by to dose the tank with ferts for me. 



KenRC51 said:


> Looking nice!! I would bump the co2 for the UG to prevent less melting.


Thanks! There are no critters in the tank, so the CO2 is being blasted. I basically doubled the bubble count that I was running on my 12 gallon. I'll measure CO2 when I get home after work today.


I'm glad I had made a layout ahead of time for where I wanted all the plants. It helped me plant everything relatively quickly since I had a map. I'm also happy with how it looks for now. I can't wait for it to fill out. *Aside from some more anubias to help fill in by the base of the branch, I'd also like some other plants there. I haven't settled on what yet. Any suggestions?*

Here are two more pictures with clearer water and proper exposure:



















Also, here is a picture of the mold that was showing up all over the yogurt, and it was starting to spread to the substrate in the lower areas:


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## jkpedrita

I love this tank! Keep the pictures coming!


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## AnotherHobby

I set up the tripod today and took a really good full tank shot:










This is the full setup, stand and all (forgot to pull the ugly Fluval hoses though... can't wait for my lily pipes):










Here is all of the gear stuffed into a tiny space below: Fluval 306, 5 pound CO2 tank and regulator, cerges reactor, Hydor 200 heater (not connected yet), and all of my wiring/switches.


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## KenRC51

How many bps are you putting out with the reactor? I heard that with a reactor it can help with diffusing the co2 to the water better than diffuser leading to less co2 need.


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## AnotherHobby

KenRC51 said:


> How many bps are you putting out with the reactor? I heard that with a reactor it can help with diffusing the co2 to the water better than diffuser leading to less co2 need.


I'm way overshooting right now because I don't have time to dial it in. I'm going out of town for a few days and don't want to worry about it, and there are no fish to hurt. I'm not sure how BPS relates from one to the other, because diffusers are under much higher pressure. When I hooked up the reactor the BPS changed without adjusting the needle valve because of the pressure difference. Does one bubble of CO2 under 30psi have the same amount of CO2 as a bubble generated under very little PSI? I don't know.

Hmmmm... checking CO2 level... I just checked and my KH is 8 and my PH is 6.4, so I'm at about 94ppm CO2 according to the chart. 

I can probably dial it back a little. 

I went with the reactor because I was tired of all the bubbles, more gear in the tank, and having to clean the stupid ceramic things every so often.


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## KFryman

Beautiful tank! Once it grows in it will look amazing! Great pictures as well! 

So why did you put yogurt down for the moss? Was it just to keep the moss stuck there? I've never seen this done so I'm rather curious.


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## AnotherHobby

KFryman said:


> Beautiful tank! Once it grows in it will look amazing! Great pictures as well!
> 
> So why did you put yogurt down for the moss? Was it just to keep the moss stuck there? I've never seen this done so I'm rather curious.


Thanks!

As for the moss/yogurt thing, it's a method used to get moss to grow on stuff emmersed. Google moss graffiti, and you'll can see pics and read about the method. Basically blending moss and yogurt and then painting it on things. I'm guessing the yogurt supplies moisture and nutrients to the moss, but who knows. The member mot used this method for his amazing moss canyon tank, which is where I got the idea.

If it's still there when I get back on Sunday, I'll call it a success.


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## KenRC51

Where did you get the reactor from?


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## Vermino

yogurt for moss is to promote growth from what is read on the internet. Blender method I personally blended mine without any additives (just water) which didn't make a paste. But I accidentally left the rock out in the sun and killed my moss attempt.

I like that stand btw anotherhobby


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## AnotherHobby

KenRC51 said:


> Where did you get the reactor from?


I made it. It was super easy and super cheap. I ordered a clear OMNIFilter for in-store pickup from my local Menards for $14. Then I used a hose barbed 90° elbow with a 1/2" threaded end and a 3/4" - 1/2" reducer to make it fit into the filter threads. Less than $20 total, and probably took me 15-30 minutes. roud:


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## AnotherHobby

Vermino said:


> I like that stand btw anotherhobby


Thanks! I made it using this guy's concept. I'm currently making sides and a front for it using 1x2 cedar pieces. They will be stained to match, and then I'll be putting a black fabric backing on them. They will attach so they fit inside of the stand openings and will sit flush, and they will be magnetic like speaker grills so I can easily remove them when needed.

Here is an example of a side panel, no stain/poly yet, and obviously no black fabric backing.


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## AnotherHobby

Growth is looking excellent. The UG has turned bright green and is clearly growing and rooting. The downoi is going nuts, the rotola and ludwigia stems have all had to be trimmed already. Blyxia is really filling in quick. The only thing struggling is the s. repens. Not sure why?

I added some glassware (16mm Aquatic Magic on evilbay). They look fantastic compared to the ugly fluval pipes. They fit the 5/8 ID hose perfectly with a little warm water. I also hooked up my Hydor heater at the same time. This is now the only gear in the tank since everything else is external now. I'm so glad I got everything else out of the tank — I love how it looks!










Pretty little whirlpool to suck down the surface scum:










Solid hose attachments to prevent any accidents:


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## Onyx165

Gorgeous tank! I've been looking into a Mr. Aqua 720li as well. When did you order yours from Marine Depot? Looks like all they have is the standard glass 17G as of now...

How's the moss doing on that driftwood? I've always loved the look of a good moss carpet in my tropical terrariums, so I'm hoping to recreate the same success in a planted aquarium. 

Keep those pictures coming!


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## talontsiawd

Looks fantastic. I am wondering if it may be better to use something else besides Alternanthera reineckii. The only reason i say that is the leaves are big and it is detracting from the driftwood a bit and may be more problematic as it grows. The other thing is it can be quite ugly after trimming compared to a small leaved plant. Not being critical, just making a suggestion.

This tank is beautiful. I have been following this journal, just never got around to commenting. Looks so good.


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## borgie28

Can you send me a pm as to exactly what Lilly pipe you ordered I have a fluval 306 and its just hideous


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## AnotherHobby

Onyx165 said:


> Gorgeous tank! I've been looking into a Mr. Aqua 720li as well. When did you order yours from Marine Depot? Looks like all they have is the standard glass 17G as of now...
> 
> How's the moss doing on that driftwood? I've always loved the look of a good moss carpet in my tropical terrariums, so I'm hoping to recreate the same success in a planted aquarium.
> 
> Keep those pictures coming!


Thanks! Marine Depot doesn't have it on their site, but they will special order it for you if you call them. The price was $122.98 shipped.

The moss looks okay, and I think will do well with time. However, if I did it again I wouldn't use yogurt.



talontsiawd said:


> Looks fantastic. I am wondering if it may be better to use something else besides Alternanthera reineckii. The only reason i say that is the leaves are big and it is detracting from the driftwood a bit and may be more problematic as it grows. The other thing is it can be quite ugly after trimming compared to a small leaved plant. Not being critical, just making a suggestion.
> 
> This tank is beautiful. I have been following this journal, just never got around to commenting. Looks so good.


Thanks for the tips. I really want some color there, but I know what you mean. I'm going to roll with it for a while and see how it develops. I don't know of any lower growing red plants though. :icon_conf



borgie28 said:


> Can you send me a pm as to exactly what Lilly pipe you ordered I have a fluval 306 and its just hideous


PM sent, but just in case anybody else is curious, the lily pipes I ordered are ebay item 260554719380.


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## mot

When i did my dry start with the moss/yogurt i also experienced all sorts of funk the first 3 or 4 weeks. It was just nasty as it decomposed. I had yellow splotches, red ectoplasm and clear ooze until it was reduced to nothing. I did allow it to run its course prior to flooding though. Will be interesting to see how this goes. I wouldnt sweat it. White fungus is pretty common on driftwood anyway and normally clears within a couple weeks.


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## AnotherHobby

mot said:


> When i did my dry start with the moss/yogurt i also experienced all sorts of funk the first 3 or 4 weeks. It was just nasty as it decomposed. I had yellow splotches, red ectoplasm and clear ooze until it was reduced to nothing. I did allow it to run its course prior to flooding though. Will be interesting to see how this goes. I wouldnt sweat it. White fungus is pretty common on driftwood anyway and normally clears within a couple weeks.


Yeah, maybe I panicked and flooded to quickly, but the good news is that most of the moss is attached to the wood still.


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## mot

Excellent to hear. The tank is stunning already and will be simply awesome grown out. The eggcrate structure is a good idea and was wondering if all the wood was zip tied to it? Also if this was sufficient to keep it down or was it already waterlogged?


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## AnotherHobby

mot said:


> Excellent to hear. The tank is stunning already and will be simply awesome grown out. The eggcrate structure is a good idea and was wondering if all the wood was zip tied to it? Also if this was sufficient to keep it down or was it already waterlogged?


Thanks! All of the wood is zip-tied, and the egg crate is sufficient to hold it down for sure, especially with the substrate on it. I did water-log the wood first, but if it was dry it would still be fine. Also, since it's all one structure, the rocks on the right would hold it down anyway.


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## AnotherHobby

Over the next few days I'm working on a new idea. In my original sketchup of my stand, I wanted to hang the light and not set it on the tank. After putting in the lily pipes and watching the inflow/outflow almost disappear, I think metal or painted hanger pipes will be distracting. 

I came up with an idea that will be cheap to try out. I'm going to make my light hanger poles from extruded acrylic tubes. They are 5/8" ID and 7/8" OD and definitely seem rigid enough to hold the light (1/8" wall). I should be able to heat them up slowly and bend them around an 8" diameter round object to make a perfect bend. They definitely feel strong enough to support the very light Finnex light without bending/sagging.

I also plan on changing out the power cord on my Finnex to a 6' long clear lamp cord, and then routing it up through the acrylic tube. This should make it substantially less noticeable. This is the cord I'm referring to:










The acrylic tubes were just $8 each (6' section) from a local acrylic shop:










This is how I'm planning on bending them. The drawing isn't perfectly to scale because it's of a 29 gallon tank, but you get the idea.


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## jargonchipmunk

Gorgeous Hardscape - check
Kick arse stand - check
good plant layout - check
healthy plants - check
Future of the tank? - we'll see but I'll put a preemptive check if it's anything like the start. Great job so far!


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## stonevs

Wow! I admire this setup a lot! Everything is so precise and you made the driftwood look so natural! This is definitely one of my favorites.


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## AnotherHobby

Thanks! I snapped a quick pic before I left for work this morning. I didn't use my tripod, so it's could be a better pic, but you can see the UG is doing well, as is everything except the s. repens. You can see the s. repens melting half way between the small rock in the middle and the base of the branch.

You can also see the yogurt has a bit of a puffy appearance, but the moss looks okay inside, so I'm leaving it alone.


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## KenRC51

Very nice, I don't see any melting at all. Did you get any melting of the UG?


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## AnotherHobby

KenRC51 said:


> Very nice, I don't see any melting at all. Did you get any melting of the UG?


No melt at all. It only spent a few days emmersed though. Here are 2 shots from this morning. The UG is growing and looking good so far. It's thickened up some and the leaves have oriented themselves vertically since planting. You can also see the moss living inside of it's yogurt cocoon.


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## AnotherHobby

Not having grown UG before, I assume it's a good sign that when I got home today I noticed all sorts of tiny bladders all over my UG. I assume these are the carnivorous traps, and that it means my plants are happy?


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## KenRC51

Looks like the UG are happy. I probably had bad luck with mine. About 75% of my UG melted. I did planted mine different from your. I planted my UG in the whole carpet. I should of pull some apart and planted all over.


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## AnotherHobby

Today I made poles to hang my lights. I slowly headed, and then bent acrylic tubing to make the light hangers. I put 5/8" cotton rope inside of the tubing to keep it from kinking, which worked great. 

I replaced the factory black 4' Finnex power cord with an 8' clear power cord, and I replaced the screws that hold the end caps on the finnex with eye hole screws so I could attach chain. I routed the power and the chain all the way through the acrylic poles. I really like how it looks, and the poles hide from the scene really well.


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## Vermino

AnotherHobby said:


> Today I made poles to hang my lights. I slowly headed, and then bent acrylic tubing to make the light hangers. I put 5/8" cotton rope inside of the tubing to keep it from kinking, which worked great.
> 
> I replaced the factory black 4' Finnex power cord with an 8' clear power cord, and I replaced the screws that hold the end caps on the finnex with eye hole screws so I could attach chain. I routed the power and the chain all the way through the acrylic poles. I really like how it looks, and the poles hide from the scene really well.



I like the arylic hanger.. I was gonna do metal but you're always giving some good ideas!


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## Psiorian

AnotherHobby said:


> Today I made poles to hang my lights. I slowly headed, and then bent acrylic tubing to make the light hangers. I put 5/8" cotton rope inside of the tubing to keep it from kinking, which worked great.
> 
> I replaced the factory black 4' Finnex power cord with an 8' clear power cord, and I replaced the screws that hold the end caps on the finnex with eye hole screws so I could attach chain. I routed the power and the chain all the way through the acrylic poles. I really like how it looks, and the poles hide from the scene really well.


Very nice looking. Love the clear.


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## bitFUUL

Did you mount the finnex light because it was too strong on this tank?


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## Gecko

Very nice idea, very nice application... Congratulations, you will have great tank soon 

Btw, US is really expensive :O


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## AnotherHobby

bitFUUL said:


> Did you mount the finnex light because it was too strong on this tank?


Nope, but I did raise the light a couple of inches today. The main reason I hung is is that I think this looks nicer than having it sit right on the tank. Also, the pipes are mounted in such a way that I can swing them to one side or the other, which effectively slides the light back out of the way. It's much more convenient for trimming and doing tank work.


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## J1Time

Looks fantastic! Can we get a pic of the whole setup with the new acrylic bars?


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## AnotherHobby

Today I finished off the rest of the stand. All I had left was to make covers to conceal all of the equipment. Both sides and the front are quickly removable. They are only held in with magnets, just like some speaker grills. I didn't want doors with hinges, because as you'll see in the picture below, my chair would block the doors and make it inconvenient.

Here is the full stand, new light bars and all:










Here you can see the removable panels. They are just made with 1x2 cedar.










All 3 of them just pop right off. The right side will have the hoses running through it (it's not installed just yet).










This is it's normal environment, with my chair in front of it. I spend a lot of time in this chair, and really love that I can watch my tank nice and close all the time. The stand height was made specifically so that the tank is at eye level when I'm in my chair.


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## limz_777

nice set-up , is cleaning of the clear pipe easy ?

btw is the light set heavy ? if not can use fishing line to hang it up


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## Fuzz

Sweet stand, great idea with the grill covers that looks cool. I also like how you did the light fixture too, that's neat how you can see the chain inside the tube. And of course I love your tank, it looks great can't wait to see the plants fill in. Your chair seems to be facing the wrong way though! :hihi:


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## AnotherHobby

limz_777 said:


> nice set-up , is cleaning of the clear pipe easy ?
> 
> btw is the light set heavy ? if not can use fishing line to hang it up


Haven't had to clean the pipes yet, so time will tell. 

Fishing line would definitely work. I have some 10 lbs line that would work well. I like that idea. The chain looks cool too, but I think the fishing line would actually be stronger and the light would almost appear to float. I'm going to think about that... I might switch it out.


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## Jack Gilvey

AnotherHobby said:


> Today I finished off the rest of the stand. All I had left was to make covers to conceal all of the equipment. Both sides and the front are quickly removable. They are only held in with magnets, just like some speaker grills. I didn't want doors with hinges, because as you'll see in the picture below, my chair would block the doors and make it inconvenient.
> 
> Here is the full stand, new light bars and all:


 Words pretty much fail me. The whole build is so awesome.


----------



## Chronados

Beautiful, I love the look of the stand and the platform setup with the eggcrate. Do you find you have any strength concerns using acrylic tubing? Or is it mostly a non issue as the Finnex fixtures are so light?


----------



## AnotherHobby

Thanks for the compliments! I'm still battling some issues with the mold that grew in the brief DSM stage, but I think I've got it under control. It took all of my s. repens and about a 3x4" patch of the UG, but nothing else. The rest of the UG is super healthy, so it'll be easy to steal some as soon as I know the mold is dead in the area where the UG died. I'm still hesitant to say I've beaten it though. I'm not sure if I'll replace the s. repens with the same thing, or try something else like c. parva. The s. repens is very close in green to the UG, so I think that c. parva might look better since it's darker.



Chronados said:


> Do you find you have any strength concerns using acrylic tubing? Or is it mostly a non issue as the Finnex fixtures are so light?


I think with much more weight than the Finnex light I have on there, it'd sag some. It was an experiment, and I got lucky.  If you wanted something heavier, you could probably compensate with some heavier or larger around acrylic tubing. Mine is 5/8 ID and 7/8 OD (thus 1/8" wall).


----------



## Lowe

I love your light and all :wink: but I'm not going to lie ...I love your wood work and stand even more.


----------



## AnotherHobby

Well, the death has subsided. I persevered, and I think I've won. 

I don't know what the very faint white cob web looking moldy stuff was, but it sucked the life from every plant that it touched. I'm fairly certain it stemmed from the mold is the beginning, since it was there from day one, but it was evil. I took out 100% of my s. repens. All gone. It took out a pretty good chunk of my UG. Every time I took out a clump of infected UG, I'd come back the next day and it'd be working on the next row. It just wouldn't give up.

I don't know what finally did it, but my final surge was to remove all UG within about 2 inches of the stuff and then dose every area that had been affected by it for about 4 days with very strong isolated daily treatments of H2O2, followed up with the Excel each time. After that I hit it with API erythromycin and API fungus cure (victoria green b and acriflavine). I let that run for 48 hours, and then I hit it with another strong spot treatment of H2O2 and Excel. Then did a 75% water change. I've watched it for 3 days now, and no death, and I don't see it anywhere. I claim victory!

All of the plants that the death has not touched are doing great. I have a little bit of diatoms since it's a new tank, but that's about it.

Where the s. repens died, I just propagated over some hydrocotyle tripartita japan since it grows like crazy. I only had it in one small spot on a stick in the back right corner, so if it looks good here, I'll run with it. For now I'm just going to try it out. In the first pic below you can see the whole middle area where the s. repens died off (where the hydro is growing in the middle now), and then back around and behind the 2 rocks on the right it took all the UG. It also obviously took the huge chunk of UG in the front. I apologize for the dim photo, I had the light pushed back out of the way:










Some good news is that the UG is growing thick and healthy where it didn't get infested, so I was able to propagate it (after the pics were taken) back out to fill in the front again. Here is how good the healthy UG looks just 3 weeks in:










Compare that to when I flooded it 3 weeks ago:


----------



## Psiorian

Man sounds like that white stuff was the plague.

This just makes me want to grow UG in my next tank that much more 

Do you think if you were to do the 'moss graffiti' again you would use yogurt? Or would you just use moss with some nutrient rich water? (like water from another tank). The yogurt is just 'food' for the moss right?

I want to try this moss thing but I'm afraid of the white blob.


----------



## lamiskool

Hehe next time you want to trim that UG I call dibs!!!


----------



## AnotherHobby

Psiorian said:


> Man sounds like that white stuff was the plague.
> 
> This just makes me want to grow UG in my next tank that much more
> 
> Do you think if you were to do the 'moss graffiti' again you would use yogurt? Or would you just use moss with some nutrient rich water? (like water from another tank). The yogurt is just 'food' for the moss right?
> 
> I want to try this moss thing but I'm afraid of the white blob.


I could be a combination of many things, but I wouldn't try yogurt on wood.

The BEST thing about UG is that it's not buyout! It's so easy to replant because it doesn't just float to the top like HC and many other plants. Every single plug I replanted under water stayed put on my first try. It was seriously a joy to transplant them.



lamiskool said:


> Hehe next time you want to trim that UG I call dibs!!!


Ha! It's easier to grow than I thought. Of course good lights, EI dosing, aquasoil, and CO2 helps.


----------



## AnotherHobby

*Lighting Effects*

The Ray 2 is a very white light. I'm seeing excellent growth with it, just look at the UG example from above. It's also very bright, which I don't always love at night when I'm sitting next to it. I like it for the growth, but I'm thinking it'd be fun add a bit more color to it. 

I'm in the middle of an arduino dosing pump project, and realized I have a controller, the power supply, and all the parts, and all I needed was a $13 waterproof RGB LED strip light to play around (price jumped $1 since I bought it).

Below are some examples of what I'm messing with. In conjunction with the Ray 2, they add very noticeable color to the tank for the regular photo period. With red running at 100% and green at 20% and blue at %2, the character of the tank changes and feels warmer. I don't feel like this does it justice, but here is an animated gif swapping between the Ray 2 alone (the cooler image) and the Ray 2 with my RGB light (the warmer image). It's subtle, but really noticeable in the reds and on the wood in person.










Here are 4 images of examples that I plan on programming as part of their daily schedule. The RGB is not bright enough to drive any growth on it's own, so I can run these outside of the Ray 2 without any worries. I can run the RGB lights from 6 am to midnight if I want.

Early Sunset:










Late Red Sunset:










Sun has set, civil twilight:










Moonlight:










I still have to figure out implementation and how to mount it to the Ray 2, plus write all of the code, plus wire up everything professionally, etc... so I have a bit of leg work yet. I can say that I am really happy this "proof of concept" so far.

At night with just these LED's it looks stunning. Very dimly lit, dark shadows, and mysteriously deep.

Seriously... $13, and I can schedule them and program them to do whatever I want. :bounce:


----------



## Psiorian

Man just when I am already amazed at this tank you take it up a notch. 
Those LED lights are awesome. 

What do you use as a controller and to program them?

Sent from my GT-N5110 using Tapatalk 2


----------



## borgie28

Seriously let me know when you get the new LEDs all running I'm go name buy a ray 2 for my 55 gallon and I would love to do this same thing! Maybe I'll have to shoot up to the cities and you could help out a fellow hobbyist wire me up with it!


----------



## SomeCanuck

Very beautiful work with that LED strip. It changes the mood and feel of the tank immensely with such a small (monetary) investment. Look forward to seeing details about the programming and what not.


----------



## AnotherHobby

Psiorian said:


> Man just when I am already amazed at this tank you take it up a notch.
> Those LED lights are awesome.
> 
> What do you use as a controller and to program them?


Thanks! I'm using an Adruino Uno as the controller. I'm already working on my dosing pump project, so I had it handy. I got it for $15 of dx.com (slooooow shipping though), along with a prototype shield for $5.50, a DS1307 clock module for $3.50, and a bunch of cheap diodes, resistors, transistors, and voltage regulators. Probably a total of $35-$40 invested in the controller setup.



borgie28 said:


> Seriously let me know when you get the new LEDs all running I'm go name buy a ray 2 for my 55 gallon and I would love to do this same thing! Maybe I'll have to shoot up to the cities and you could help out a fellow hobbyist wire me up with it!


I'll post in here when it's all done. The wiring is super easy. The code is obviously more complicated, but I'll share that when I'm done. It'll be pretty easy to copy what I'm doing, but if you struggle with it I can help you out.



SomeCanuck said:


> Very beautiful work with that LED strip. It changes the mood and feel of the tank immensely with such a small (monetary) investment. Look forward to seeing details about the programming and what not.


Thanks! The mood change is awesome. We keep our house generally lit very dimly (we don't have kids), and sometimes in the evening after sunset the Ray 2 is like having own personal sun in the room. 

I'll probably end up shifting the photo period earlier so I can run these dim lights after the sun goes down. I really think I can run these things on off peak hours with no concern for algae. They are not that bright at all. For reference, in the pictures above I had 4 of the strips running over the tank (so a total of 96" or 8' of LED strip).


----------



## AnotherHobby

*ONE MONTH*

Growth is really strong. Very little if any algae so far. Some brief diatoms came in and were gone quickly. And I did officially win the mold war as I had thought. 

To be honest, I couldn't be happier with the plant growth. Everything is so healthy right now. The UG literally looks like shag carpet in the areas I didn't have to replant. The center area of UG is thin due to the mold die off, but by looking at the rest of the UG, filling back in shouldn't take long. The only thing working against me with the center replanting of UG right now are my panda corys. They love to root around and keep popping it loose.

Here is how it looks as of tonight (the color is now warmer because I mounted my RGB LED strip lights).










Here are the new arduino controlled RGB LEDs mounted to my Ray 2. I created an aluminum structure to mount the lights to, and then I cut the lower portion of the legs off of the included plastic leg stands, and then mounted my aluminum structure to it. It looks really good. As you can see, I still need to clean up the wiring, but it's mostly done at this point. Best of all, I didn't have to modify my actually Ray 2 light — I can slide the RGBs right off since they are mounted to the old legs.










The RGB's are not bright, but they really warm up the light in the tank. I'm currently running 100% on red, 30% on green, and 0% on blue when I run them with the Ray 2. The top pic in this post is not "photoshopped" to look warmer. That's exactly how the color looks now. I'm super happy with it.

One more full tank shot looking up to see the water line:


----------



## talontsiawd

Looking great. Thinking about going the same route as you with the RBG Led's in my fixture, going to try to back light first but looks great how you did it.


----------



## CL

The tank looks great, the LED build is great too, but that stand is gorgeous.


----------



## stealthypotatoes

How did you treat the wood?


----------



## synaethetic

Dat LED, oh man.

Those plants are lovin it!


----------



## AnotherHobby

Thanks everyone!



stealthypotatoes said:


> How did you treat the wood?


It's all cedar (dimension lumber) that was cut, then lightly sanded, then stained with a dark cherry stain, and then 2-3 coats of wipe on clear satin poly. It was assembled after everything dried.


----------



## jargonchipmunk

so you'd build a similar controller and ship it to me for how much?


----------



## AnotherHobby

jargonchipmunk said:


> so you'd build a similar controller and ship it to me for how much?


Heh... :hihi:

This is just a hobby for me, and I have just enough free time to do what I do with it. If you want to build one, I'd be more than happy to share schematics, parts lists, code, or whatever. For just adding the color to warm up existing lights, doing custom blends, and whatever... you can do all that with the controller that comes with the lights dirt cheap (about $25 including the lights). You just wouldn't have the flexibility for scheduling, fading, and some of the other stuff that I plan on doing. If you want a more aquarium focused product, I'd get the Current LED+ strip.


----------



## samee

Very nice surrounding with plants and all. The wood stand is cool. It matches the rest BUT the tank, led and light stand does not match the wood. Its all glass and high tech on top of old wood. I feel that way. But I love your indoor plants and all, you have a mini glass house in that corner.


----------



## AnotherHobby

samee said:


> Very nice surrounding with plants and all. The wood stand is cool. It matches the rest BUT the tank, led and light stand does not match the wood. Its all glass and high tech on top of old wood. I feel that way. But I love your indoor plants and all, you have a mini glass house in that corner.


I don't completely disagree with you here, but I do think it works. Mixing modern and high tech with raw industrial is a design technique that can work well. Look at old warehouses that have been converted into modern condos. If anything, the acrylic poles may be the thing throwing off the balance for you, but I'm undecided. If they were black metal poles, it think the match you are looking for might be more complete, and I think it could connect the raw industrial stand to the high tech tank in a more tangible manner.

I've been going back and forth on the acrylic poles since I made them. They turned out great, but I've been trying to figure out if they are too much. I may end up having to swap them anyway, as the new LED add on fixture I made adds a bit of weight. I didn't get a chance to inspect last night, but they might be sagging a bit now.


----------



## stonevs

Wow, you did/are doing such an amazing job on this tank. I love it!


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## AnotherHobby

stealthypotatoes said:


> How did you treat the wood?


Sorry I missed this earlier. All I did was soak it in a 5 gallon bucket water for about a week or two, while swapping out fresh water each day. For the few first days the water was pretty stinky (swamp smell) and dirty, but eventually the water was clear and the swamp smell subsided. Boiling it probably would have been a good idea, but for some reason I didn't think of that until after the fact. That said, everything seems fine, so maybe boiling would have been overkill.


----------



## jargonchipmunk

AnotherHobby said:


> Heh... :hihi:
> 
> This is just a hobby for me, and I have just enough free time to do what I do with it. If you want to build one, I'd be more than happy to share schematics, parts lists, code, or whatever. For just adding the color to warm up existing lights, doing custom blends, and whatever... you can do all that with the controller that comes with the lights dirt cheap (about $25 including the lights). You just wouldn't have the flexibility for scheduling, fading, and some of the other stuff that I plan on doing. If you want a more aquarium focused product, I'd get the Current LED+ strip.


Yeah I already have those strips on my to do list to go alongside my RayII. I'll probably just use them for moonlights on a timer and then play around with the sunset, etc type colors for pictures or mood lighting when company comes over.  Now to find some company to bring over.


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## AnotherHobby

jargonchipmunk said:


> Yeah I already have those strips on my to do list to go alongside my RayII. I'll probably just use them for moonlights on a timer and then play around with the sunset, etc type colors for pictures or mood lighting when company comes over.  Now to find some company to bring over.


If you go to the effort of mounting them and wiring them all up and using a controller, do yourself a favor and run them full red with a little green and no blue along side your Ray 2 during the day. The subtle warm tone that gets added really brings out the colors in the tank. That was the main reason I added them, and it was completely worth it.


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## tizzite

I started very similarly to you- fluval edge on impulse, then research + DIY like crazy ahaha.

This tank is really awesome, and your hardware design is so original. I like the classic look of the tank stand and the clean lines for the light and light bar. Definitely subscribing!


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## jjt

Nice work! We had our tanks at dsm around the same time but ur tank is soooo lush now!!! Mine still looks like dsm but with water haha

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using Tapatalk 2


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## VJM

That stand is jawdropping. Looks like a Japanese tea chest. Major kudos.


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## AnotherHobby

Thanks! 

Last night I ran the new LEDs after the Ray 2 turned off. I ran them very warm red, like a sunset. The Panda Corys suddenly got super playful. It was fun to watch. They probably did this for half an hour.


----------



## Chronados

AnotherHobby said:


> Thanks!
> 
> Last night I ran the new LEDs after the Ray 2 turned off. I ran them very warm red, like a sunset. The Panda Corys suddenly got super playful. It was fun to watch. They probably did this for half an hour.
> 
> Panda Corys Playing - YouTube


I just tried this on my 7.5g with pygmy cories since I have a Fugeray-R and they did the same thing! Definitely good to know since they've been hiding a lot more recently


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## lamiskool

Thats awesome!!! This got me to buy a current led+ just so I can play around with the lighting lol Hope it looks as nice as yours.


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## AnotherHobby

The strip light is very dim and pleasing on it's own at night. I really love it! The first pic is what it looks like right now with just the LED strip light on, and the second pic is with the Ray 2 on. Both taken with the exact same exposure. I exposed correctly for the strip light in manual mode, and then turned on the Ray 2.


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## Jack Gilvey

Looking killer. The whole setup, room and all, exudes taste.


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## lamiskool

Jack Gilvey said:


> Looking killer. The whole setup, room and all, exudes taste.


Yep it looks so cozy and relaxing...I would love to sit on that couch and read a book....


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## iano7000

Nice tank and setup! Love the stand.


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## AnotherHobby

*Update: *

The UG is still filling out in the front middle area where the death took over, but it's doing pretty well considering how much the Cory's love uprooting it and digging around in it. 

The hydrocotyle japan filled in marvelously where all the s. repens died, and I think I actually prefer it and the way it flows from the middle of the tank out to the far right side. It really makes a beautiful line for the eye to follow.

I finished up my dosing pump and led controller using the arduino. I absolutely love the additional LED strips. On the weekend, when I'm sipping my coffee next to my tank in the morning, it's bugged me that the lights weren't on and I couldn't see it. These low light RGB strips allow me to run lights from 6am to 1am, because they are way to dim to affect plant growth or algae. 

I have a sunrise color that I run from 6am until noon. At noon the Ray 2 comes on, and I switch the LED strips to 100% red only, which adds warmth to the Ray 2's otherwise somewhat flat color. At 10pm the Ray 2 shuts off, and I switch the strip lights into a warm sunset color until 11:30pm. At 11:30pm I drop them to moonlight until 1am. 

All of the pictures below were taken this morning using the sunrise lighting. These are unedited pictures, taken straight from camera RAW as taken and converted to jpg. I know they look like I pushed color, but I didn't. I did shoot them so they are a little brighter than they appear in real life though. They are a little dimmer than they appear in these pictures.


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## scotie aquatic

What a gr8 mix of plants! I think I would like it even more if some of the red in the back was broken up a bit. Still looks very good!


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## AnotherHobby

Woah! I just spotted my Panda Cory's breeding:


----------



## Greenz

Beautiful job on this tank. Im about to start my first one and am now torn between UG and HC as my primary ground cover


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## Landmines

Greenz said:


> Beautiful job on this tank. Im about to start my first one and am now torn between UG and HC as my primary ground cover


 
UG all the way, so much easier to plant as it doenst just float up like HC does, and in my opinion it looks much better!


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## PeterN1986

The reds are beautiful in this tank - it's like an insane kind of red, like if Tarrantino were to put his crazy bloody twist on cherry blossoms or something crazy like that.


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## Blue Devereaux

You are such a creative person as evinced by your beautiful tank, stand, and lighting. I'm about to set up a 29g, and I will look to your tank for inspiration. Are you worried that your assassin snail will kill your nerite? Thank you again for sharing your talents. Cheers!


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## AnotherHobby

Landmines said:


> UG all the way, so much easier to plant as it doenst just float up like HC does, and in my opinion it looks much better!


I agree with this.



PeterN1986 said:


> The reds are beautiful in this tank - it's like an insane kind of red, like if Tarrantino were to put his crazy bloody twist on cherry blossoms or something crazy like that.


Thanks!



Blue Devereaux said:


> You are such a creative person as evinced by your beautiful tank, stand, and lighting. I'm about to set up a 29g, and I will look to your tank for inspiration. Are you worried that your assassin snail will kill your nerite? Thank you again for sharing your talents. Cheers!


Thank you! I've kept assassins with nerites for about a year and a half, and I've never had an incident. I think the nerites are too big.


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## AnotherHobby

*UPDATE & LOTS OF PICS:*

I was out of town for 7 days of backpacking, photography, and fly fishing in the Big Horn Mountains in Wyoming, so I hadn't seen my tank for a week. Funny though, when you are waking up to scenes like this to take pictures and fly fish, you don't miss your aquarium:










Anyway, I did a huge trim before I left, and to coming back and see what happens after 7 days was really cool. The UG growth is insane. The shots below are after a decent trim of the UG. It's seriously like shag carpet, and is incredibly dense. When you push on it with your hand it feels so cool. The hydrocotyle growth is also very fast. I had to hack out a massive amount, but it's very easy to trim, so no complaints there. The stems are growing fast as always. The blyxa in front is finally starting to fill in nicely too.

The only bad thing that happened when I was gone is that my wife, with good intentions, decided to "treat" the tank with H2O2 when she thought there was algae growing (which there wasn't). She had seen me do it, so figured it was safe. What she did was kept putting in about 1/2 cup of H2O2, several times over the week, and never did an immediate water change. I'm pretty sure 100% of my RCS are dead, and I lost 3 panda cories. The last one is very depressed, and is just sleeping on a log most of the time. I'm running out to get him some friends shortly. 

I did 2 back to back 75% water changes yesterday to clean it out. Sigh...

All of the pictures below were taken with the Ray 2 + the 5050 SMD LEDs running 100% red. If you are curious, I shoot a Nikon D7000 with a Nikon 18-200 VR. I hope you enjoy all of the pictures here, I went a little nuts today.


----------



## SomeCanuck

I was going to ask why you had assassins in your tank, until the very last image where I spotted the mini ramshorns on the wood. Dang those little buggers! The bane of 2 of my 3 tanks haha


----------



## AnotherHobby

Yeah, I have lots of snails in there. I don't mind them though, and the assassins look cool cruising the tank. 

I picked up 6 new panda corys and two dozen PFR shrimp this afternoon to replace what died from my wife's H2O2 "treatment."


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## norbot

Gorgeous! I've really enjoyed watching your tank fill in, thanks for all the great pictures. 
I must have your light, I love the sunrise/sunset/nighttime effects


----------



## Fuze

Thanks for the awesome journal, I love the hydrocotyle in this tank, it just adds a change of texture and great flow.

I think it's time to trim that Alt. reineckii so we can see that nice wood again.


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## AnotherHobby

Thanks! It's funny — the hydrocotyle was supposed to be the s. repens that died, but now I really prefer the hydrocotyle. And yeah, i need to trim the alt. reineckii for sure.


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## lamiskool

man everything looks so lush and healthy!


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## JEFF9922

Your tank is so awsome I hope my ug fills in like urs


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## AnotherHobby

Thanks! 

Sometimes UG just sets the coolest carnivorous traps. I am loving this plant!


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## zodduska

Wow, you commented on the photography in my journal but yours blows mine out of the water! Amazing shots, planning.. layout and lush growth, really fantastic!


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## hisxlency

Did I miss your plant list? I am loving your selection!


----------



## samee

AnotherHobby said:


> Thanks!
> 
> Sometimes UG just sets the coolest carnivorous traps. I am loving this plant!


You have both UGs. One I love, one I HATE! That thing hitch hiked into my tank and spread like weed.

The tank though looks amazing. Very clean, clear and overall really good.


----------



## BHolmes

Amazing journal, diy, and tank! I saw this a month back and now it looks like its been growing for a year! Very well done


----------



## andrewjohn007

*Too Fast!!!*

I just went back and read your journal and realized that you not only accomplished a stellar tank, but in a ridiculously short period of time.




If you didn't come across as such a nice guy, I'd strongly suspect a deal with the devil...




I hope you don't mind, but I would like to pick your brain a little...




Are you dosing ferts? If so, what method are your implementing?




Are you using tap, RO or a blend for your water?




Is that AquaSoil the normal or the powdered?




Thank you for documenting such a rapid success story with killer photography!


----------



## AnotherHobby

Thanks for the nice comments everybody. 



andrewjohn007 said:


> I just went back and read your journal and realized that you not only accomplished a stellar tank, but in a ridiculously short period of time.
> 
> If you didn't come across as such a nice guy, I'd strongly suspect a deal with the devil...


Ha! Yeah, it's going gangbusters and it's fun. I just really hope I can keep it healthy and balanced over the long haul. That's the real test.



> Are you dosing ferts? If so, what method are your implementing?


I'm dosing EI, with some added iron.



> Are you using tap, RO or a blend for your water?


Tap & prime.



> Is that AquaSoil the normal or the powdered?


It's the regular.


----------



## AnotherHobby

hisxlency said:


> Did I miss your plant list? I am loving your selection!


Here is my plant layout:


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## AnotherHobby

samee said:


> You have both UGs. One I love, one I HATE! That thing hitch hiked into my tank and spread like weed.


I'm fairly certain that's not utricularia gibba, it's regular UG. That pic is basically a runner that didn't root into the substrate.


----------



## talontsiawd

AnotherHobby said:


> I'm fairly certain that's not utricularia gibba, it's regular UG. That pic is basically a runner that didn't root into the substrate.


I would probably pull it out if I were you (unless you like Utricularia gibba for some reason). It looks to me like it is and even if it isn't, I wouldn't take the chance. I had Utricularia gibba ruin one of my tanks and if you let it get started, even just a bit, you will never see the end of it. Just too prolific to get rid of. Not to be overbearing but I would hate to see this covered in Utricularia gibba if that isn't your intention and, again, I would encourage you to play it safe, even if you are correct.


----------



## AnotherHobby

It'll come out when I trim today, but I'm still sure it's not utricularia gibba. Look at the pic on this page. It's identical to my pic, and I can't find any pics of utricularia gibba that look like that — if you look closely at the plant structure.


----------



## samee

I took a look at ur pic again and it does not seem like the weed. Its little pockets on the stem structure and there is UG leaves growing from it. So it looks like a part of ug. Lets see how it looks like after a while.


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## LICfish

Your tank is absolutely amazing! I especially like how you use the LED strip light.


----------



## hisxlency

Thanks for the plant list. Let me know when you trim your reineckii


----------



## ua hua

Beautiful tank, everything looks really healthy.

Well done:thumbsup:


----------



## AnotherHobby

Trim day! I do this pretty much every Sunday. Call me weird, but I really enjoy doing this. I'm not sure how other people go about it, but here's what I do. 

Pre-trim:










First thing I do is pull all of the ludwigia and rotola stems. With several of them, if you just lift the top as high as it will go, they are at least 6" taller than the tank. Here is all of the rotola floating, and the ludwigia is all in a cake pan.










I removed at least a golf ball sized bundle of Hydrocotyle Tripartita Japan. I trimmed enough UG to DSM and entire cake pan. I put less than 50% of the rotola and ludwigia plant mass back in the tank (and it'll be back at the surface before the end of the week). I trimmed down my downoi and removed 3 of them completely. I also trimmed out 5 stems of alternanthera reineckii mini. Here it is replanted and trimmed.










The only plants I haven't trimmed since I started this tank are the 2 varieties of anubias, the bacopa, and the blyxia, although I have propagated the bacopa some. I really like how after the trim, my UG looks _almost_ completely filled in the center where I had a bunch die in the beginning.

Here's a different view of the tank, all trimmed up.


----------



## AnotherHobby

I've had several requests for info on how I attached my 5050 SMD LED strips to the Finnex Ray 2. I'll show you want I did, but there are many many ways you could do it, and some of them are sure to be better than what I came up with.

I used a 1.5" wide flat stock 1/8" aluminum and a c-channel of aluminum stock of the same thickness. I used 4 machine screws with lock nuts to on each side bolt the c-channel and flat stock together. You can see the last bolts on each side in the picture below. The c-channel helps block the light and prevents sag. The 4 strips (2 on each side) just stick to the 1.5" wide aluminum flat stock. To mount that to the Finnex, I cut the bottom part of the legs off, and then used 2 very small machine screws and nuts to connect the flat stock to the cut down Finnex legs. 

I don't know how well it'll last long term. The middle is sagging a not noticeable 1/16" or so, but it's been that way from day 1. Light will squeeze out between the channel and the Ray 2, so I stuffed some black airline in there, and that blocked all of the light. I wired the lights to my controller with 4 conductor stranded phone line, which you can also see.

Also, to pull this off, you'll need a way to control the lights. I used an arduino, but I'm not going to document that all out, as that would be a lot more work than I care to do. You also need to be really good at soldering, because these strip lights are a crazy pain in the rear to solder after you cut them into 2' lengths.

You should be able to see everything you need to in this picture:


----------



## BriDroid

Thanks for posting that info! That tank is amazing! If you ever want to get rid of some of your trimmed UG, let me know.


----------



## hisxlency

amazing Dan, look forward to the plants and more updates. I will be shamefully using your layout as a base line for my re-do coming this week


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## Psiorian

Thanks for the great info on how you go about this.


----------



## DaveFish

Just amazing. I guess you UG looks similar to mine. Not similar to Oliver Knott's. Maybe we have different strains than Europe. I really love the scape and great DIY hanging kit. I ended up making one from my Ray 2s as well. What camera are you using a Nikon 600 or Mark II? It looks unreal. I have a pretty good camera but can never get pics quite this clear. Could it be the lens? I am using just a kit lens nothing fancy.


----------



## AnotherHobby

DaveFish said:


> Just amazing. I guess you UG looks similar to mine. Not similar to Oliver Knott's. Maybe we have different strains than Europe. I really love the scape and great DIY hanging kit. I ended up making one from my Ray 2s as well. What camera are you using a Nikon 600 or Mark II? It looks unreal. I have a pretty good camera but can never get pics quite this clear. Could it be the lens? I am using just a kit lens nothing fancy.


Thanks! 

With regards to the UG, if it's the pic of Oliver Knott's tank I'm thinking of, his is allowed to grow much longer/taller. My tank is pretty small at just 17 gallons, and if it grows too tall it'll cover a lot of detail I want to keep visible, so I'm keeping it trimmed pretty short. In some areas where it was getting longer before I trimmed it, the leaves were starting to widen out more. I just don't think I can have that look and have it only be a max of 2" tall. I hope it stays healthy with me trimming it this short — I have no idea if it will, and no experience with the plant. This is my first attempt. So far, I love it. 

As for the camera, it's a Nikon D7000 with the Nikon 18-200mm VR lens. I do all of my shots on a manfrotto tripod with a wired remote shutter release, and I shoot only in RAW. I also turn off my filter for a few minutes first so that everything stops moving. I think using the tripod and stopping the filter make the biggest clarity difference.


----------



## DaveFish

AnotherHobby said:


> Thanks!
> 
> With regards to the UG, if it's the pic of Oliver Knott's tank I'm thinking of, his is allowed to grow much longer/taller. My tank is pretty small at just 17 gallons, and if it grows too tall it'll cover a lot of detail I want to keep visible, so I'm keeping it trimmed pretty short. In some areas where it was getting longer before I trimmed it, the leaves were starting to widen out more. I just don't think I can have that look and have it only be a max of 2" tall. I hope it stays healthy with me trimming it this short — I have no idea if it will, and no experience with the plant. This is my first attempt. So far, I love it.
> 
> As for the camera, it's a Nikon D7000 with the Nikon 18-200mm VR lens. I do all of my shots on a manfrotto tripod with a wired remote shutter release, and I shoot only in RAW. I also turn off my filter for a few minutes first so that everything stops moving. I think using the tripod and stopping the filter make the biggest clarity difference.


 Haha, that camera has the same sensor as my D5100 but I guess it is way better. I just need to practice I guess. I always shoot in RAW and have a tripod. Are you doing any post editing? Your lens is probably way better than mine. I know the 7000 D5100 and the Pentax K-01 have the best sensor for this class of camera. Who knows I will keep messing with it.


----------



## AnotherHobby

DaveFish said:


> Haha, that camera has the same sensor as my D5100 but I guess it is way better. I just need to practice I guess. I always shoot in RAW and have a tripod. Are you doing any post editing? Your lens is probably way better than mine. I know the 7000 D5100 and the Pentax K-01 have the best sensor for this class of camera. Who knows I will keep messing with it.


I'm not generally doing much of any editing. I pull in in through RAW in Photoshop CS6, and then make any white balance or other necessary adjustments there, along with lens correction. I don't do crap to push reds or anything since my lighting already makes my red plans pop pretty good. I also don't apply any sharpening or filters. I pretty much leave it how it was shot.

And yes, the lens is very good. My cousin shoots a D7000 also, except he has a Tamaron 18-270mm lens. When we were in WY we did some test shots, and my lens is noticeably sharper than his. He was actually disappointed when he saw the difference. The Nikon 18-200mm VR is not a "pro" level lens, but it is very good glass.

Also, do you turn off your filter and let the tank settle? I have found it makes a big difference, especially since I try to do all of my tank shots at ISO 100. Another factor may be that my tank is low iron glass, which is noticeably more clear than regular aquarium glass.


----------



## natiedean24

AnotherHobby, I'm in heavy research mode planning my first planted aquarium. Thanks so much for this very detailed journal and for sharing so many setup secrets and tips that are often left out. One of the most informative threads I've found. 

I love everything about this setup, from the DIY stand to the choice in tank size. 

Also thanks for that planting diagram - helps a newb like me. I may with very little shame be tempted to just copy this setup. Are there some plants in your tank that are too difficult for a beginner? I'm not sure about HC - is there another carpet plant you would suggest to substitute that is easier?


----------



## AnotherHobby

natiedean24 said:


> Also thanks for that planting diagram - helps a newb like me. I may with very little shame be tempted to just copy this setup. Are there some plants in your tank that are too difficult for a beginner? I'm not sure about HC - is there another carpet plant you would suggest to substitute that is easier?


It doesn't bother me if you copy, but I encourage you to really try and find inspiration instead and make it your own. It'll be more rewarding that way. I found inspiration from many tanks on here. I had seen egg crate used to support aquascaping materials, I loved tanks on here with branches coming through plants, I had heard Tom Barr say you can use several branches to give the appearance of one, I had seen people use zip ties, and the list goes on. I just grabbed ideas I liked and put them all together and created something of my own.

Too difficult for a beginner? LOL! I got my first aquarium about a year and a half a go, and didn't get into plants much until last year in November. THIS is the tank I had in this spot a year ago. I didn't try hard to make a good looking scape (other than my little 3 gallon office tank) until this one. It is my first _real_ attempt at making something like this, so you are looking at the work of a beginner. Don't let it intimidate you.

As far as the UG carpet plant, well I'm not finding it to be difficult, but I know some people do. I'm also only just over 2 months in, so it may become more difficult with time. I have no idea, as this whole thing is a huge learning experience.


----------



## jkpedrita

AnotherHobby said:


> Too difficult for a beginner? LOL! I got my first aquarium about a year and a half a go, and didn't get into plants much until last year in November...It is my first _real_ attempt at making something like this, so you are looking at the work of a beginner. Don't let it intimidate you.


So there is hope! By the look of your tank I thought you'd been in the hobby forever. 

So newbie questions. When you rip up the rotala, and ludwigia do you replant the tops or bottoms? I'm guessing the tops but then would't it take a minute for the stems to grow roots?


----------



## AnotherHobby

jkpedrita said:


> When you rip up the rotala, and ludwigia do you replant the tops or bottoms? I'm guessing the tops but then would't it take a minute for the stems to grow roots?


I plant the tops — they look better, are healthier (and more colorful), and they pull most of their nutrients from the water column anyway, so the roots aren't a big deal. 

If you look at page 10, I go over how I trim everything.


----------



## zodduska

Do you strip the lower leaves when replanting?


----------



## AnotherHobby

zodduska said:


> Do you strip the lower leaves when replanting?


Not sure if its standard practice, but I leave them on because it helps hold them in the substrate.


----------



## natiedean24

Very encouraging response. Can't believe this is one of your first tanks. 

I hear what your saying about making it my own - I'll try. Artistic stuff is difficult for me but my wife has a good eye so together we will make a good aquascaping team.


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## AnotherHobby

I tried a frosted background last night, and while it looked better than the wall behind it, I didn't love it. So I got my tank all cleaned up for some photos this morning and I tried out a black background, and I'm really happy with it.

Now I need to fashion a permanent black background. I didn't think I'd like it as much as I do.




























I removed the temporary background on this last shot.


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## parrottbay

Just wanted to say I am subscribed and I love the tank and everything you have done with it!


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## AnotherHobby

Today I received a Hoppy PAR meter in the mail! Sweet! I get to nerd out. 

I didn't have a specific thing that I ordered it for, but I sold some plants and figured I'd reinvest in the hobby. Also, I'm thinking of building my own LED light, and if I do that I need a PAR meter to know where I'm at. For right now, I was also interested to see how my tank measures out and how the 5050 SMD RGB LEDs may or may not effect growth.

I won't bother posting measurements of my whole tank all mapped out at this time, because I'm tired. However, if anybody wants it, I can certainly do that later. I probably will anyway, because that's how I am.

Here are my preliminary measurements. I'm basically hitting 70 PAR at the top of the UG along the front 1/3 of the tank, which is 13.5" below the clear cover on the Ray 2. I can't measure any lower in the tank than that. In the middle of the tank, right on top of the hydrocoytle, it is anywhere from 75 to 90 PAR (depending on if you are under the branch). The blyxia is around 70 at the leaf tops, sitting under the rotola/ludwigia. The middle of the rotola/ludwigia is about 100 PAR and at the top of them, an inch under the water is 230 PAR. 

This is probably part of why the rotola/ludwigia grow slow for several days after trimming, and then explode over the next couple of days. As they get closer to the light, their growth accelerates.

Now, with regards to the SMD RGB LEDs, the results were expected, and good. When I run them during the photoperiod, it's at 100% red and 0% green and blue. This adds 6 PAR 1" under the light, and above the water. By 1" under the water it's at 0 PAR. No PAR is measured at all anywhere in the tank where a plant grows. This is honestly what I was expecting. I built them to add color and warmth to the tank. It does this very well, and I'm quite happy with the effect. I wasn't expecting them to be adding to my growth, because they are really not very bright at all.

In my "sunset" evening mode, which runs from 10pm until 11pm, they measure 1 PAR most anywhere underwater, down to about the 1/2 way mark (6-7" deep), and then they go to zero pretty much everywhere. My morning mode reads the exact same. My moonlight reads zero, everywhere. This is great! Now I know with confidence that I'm not driving any plant growth by using them outside of the photoperiod. I can run them all morning, and evening, and then turn them off when I sleep so that the fish can sleep too. When I'm awake, the tank is lit and viewable, and I love that.


----------



## Fuze

Looking awesome. 

I have a 1M LED strip over my 55, also 5050, and use it for the exact same reason.

Good to know it isn't giving off any real usable light. Did you calculate PAR on the brightest setting possible?


Thanks, keep it up!


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## AnotherHobby

Fuze said:


> Looking awesome.
> 
> I have a 1M LED strip over my 55, also 5050, and use it for the exact same reason.
> 
> Good to know it isn't giving off any real usable light. Did you calculate PAR on the brightest setting possible?
> 
> 
> Thanks, keep it up!


The brightest possible is full power to all 3 colors, which doesn't look good, so I didn't measure. I'm driving with PWM through an arduino, so the scale of the numbers in my code is logarithmic and run from 0 to 255. There is way more variability between 0 and 50 than 100 and 255. To the human eye, 100 doesn't look much different than 255, but the difference between 0 and 10 is very noticeable. With that this is what I'm currently running...

Sunset: Red = 255, Green = 35, Blue = 8
Sunrise: Red = 255, Green = 60, Blue = 15
Moon: Red = 5, Green = 1, Blue = 1


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## Beardie

When are we gonna get to see a detailed DIY for that light set up with controller and programming information? I'd really love to know more about how to do something like that.


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## AnotherHobby

I could do that. It's integrated with my dosing pumps, so it's a bit more than just lights, but when I have some time I'll dig in.


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## Mides

Loved looking at the progression of this tank since I saw the thread with the background poll. It has come far and is looking incredibly lush.


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## AnotherHobby

*My Auto Doser: Laziness is next to Godliness*

Here are a few pictures of my not-cleaned-up-yet auto doser. The first pic shows the Radio Shack project box that holds the Arduino controller, all of the wiring, and the dosing pumps. The phone jack in the photo is coming from the Arduino, and it carries the voltage to the RGB LED's to control the lights. Even though I've been running the lights with it for quite some time now, I just finally got around to hooking up the hoses tonight, so it's not all neat and tidy yet.










For my fert mix storage I'm using short canning jars. They hold enough to run for quite a while, and are impossible to knock over. The lid is easy to drill a hole for the pinch fit silicon tubing, and a second hole is the breather so that the pump can suck out the water without creating a vacuum. This jar is CSM +B, mixed so that 5 mL is one days dose of EI. There is also extra iron chelate in there, which is why it's so rust colored. The other jar is a standard mix of EI macros, less about 50% of the KNO3 since my nitrates tend to run a bit high anyway.










Right now I'm just running the tubes up my lily pipe. I need to come up with something cleaner, but for now this is getting the job done.


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## AnotherHobby

Mides said:


> Loved looking at the progression of this tank since I saw the thread with the background poll. It has come far and is looking incredibly lush.


Thanks! I'm having a ton of fun with it, and it's turned out as good as I was hoping, but far better than I was expecting... if that makes any sense.


----------



## AnotherHobby

Also, here is a video from when I was developing the pumps. This is when I got the code fine tuned to that it doses precisely 5mL of fluid as needed.


----------



## ThatGuyWithTheFish

Very good Dutch/Nature hybrid.


----------



## Beardie

AnotherHobby said:


> I could do that. It's integrated with my dosing pumps, so it's a bit more than just lights, but when I have some time I'll dig in.


Even better. That's another project I'm looking into in the future. How to do all the wiring and controller programming is completely lost on me, even though I'm pretty good with computers and writing code I wouldn't know where to start or what to buy. AKA the more detail the better.


----------



## parrottbay

SO, you have to build an auto doser from the ground up?


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## AnotherHobby

parrottbay said:


> SO, you have to build an auto doser from the ground up?


You don't have to build them — you can buy auto-dosers. There are several out there. Here is one inexpensive (but still expensive) example. On a per-pump cost, this cost me about 50% the cost of the cheapest I've seen, and is far more flexible since I have 100% control over the pump's speed and timing.

It's not entirely my own design. I followed this thread: Arduino auto dosser


----------



## AnotherHobby

*Preface*
Okay, big post on the arduino uno project. This device controls my RGB LED lighting and my 2 auto-dosing pumps for ferts. First things first, this project will require to you to research, understand the circuits and the components, customize the code, do relatively fine soldering, and spend some money and a lot of time putting it together. This is not a full DIY, and there are probably some gaps in the information. This is not for the faint of heart, but it's really fun. 

*Credits*
This project is modeled after this thread: Arduino auto dosser
That thread links to this, which has more info: ARDUINO CONTROLLED DOSING PUMPS

I would not have done this on my own, so I really need to stress the amount of credit that shift deserves for that thread.

*Parts/Components*
I got the pumps off ebay for about $15 each. There are several of them on there, all of the same model. The pics are normally the same. For example, here are two ebay item numbers that are all the same pump that I have (can't post ebay links): 321211401670 & 321211797470

Here is the entire list of parts I ordered, and where I bought them from:


Two Dosing Pumps from ebay: $15 each
Arduino Uno (knockoff) — $12.99
Real Time Clock Module — $3.50
Prototype Shield — $5.50
Header Pins — $2.70
Diodes — $2.50 (you need 1 per dosing pump and 1 per color of R, G, and B, so this has more than you need)
5X IRFZ44N IRFZ44 Transistor MOSFET N-Channel (ebay item 130698768916) — $4.99 (you need 1 per dosing pump and 1 per color of R, G, and B)
5x 1K Ohm 1/4 Watt Resistors (ebay item 230837401242) — $1.19 (you need 1 per dosing pump, so this has more than you need)
L7805CV 5V Voltage Regulator 1.5A 4pack (ebay item 181019440315) — $2.99 (you only need 1 of these)
RGB LED Lights — $19 shipped
The stuff from DX.com took FOREVER to ship (china), so I highly recommend paying a little more and get them from a US source. I think the only thing you probably can't find in the US for cheap is the pumps.

I also got a Radio Shack project box to put it in, and I bought a bigger wiring breadboard with a bunch of jumper wires for testing it all out. I didn't buy a power supply because I had a high quality 12v 3A model from an Iomega external HD that I had on hand. You will also need wire (22 gauge?) to actually wire the whole thing up. I had a bunch on hand, so I didn't buy any.

*Wiring Diagram*

I do not have a complete wiring diagram, and I'm not going to make one (too much effort). What I do have is the wiring diagram for the dosing pumps that was on one of the sites above. The only difference between this and mine is the addition of the LED RGB lights. They wire up identical to the pumps, except they don't have the resistors on them. This wiring diagram took me a a little work to understand (partially because some of the text is not aligned correctly by the transistors). It came from the ARDUINO CONTROLLED DOSING PUMPS post that I also linked/credited above. I had to look up transistors and voltage regulators to understand what it all meant. I'm not going to explain all that here. This is something you'll probably have to study and research to wrap your head around.










*Project Photos*

I apologize for the relatively shallow depth of field on some of these pics. It's not super bright behind my aquarium and I used a relatively large aperture. If you do decide to tackle this project, I can provide 4000+ pixel versions of these images upon PM request.

One difference between my project and the ones linked above is that my arduino also controls my RGB LED lights, so there is a bit of extra parts and wires.

Here is the inside of the project box. Here you have the 2 pumps and a power switch. The power switch does not turn the controller on and off, it only turns the pumps on and off. This is because when you upload code it resets the arduino and runs the pumps. I use the switch to cut power to them so it does't pump ferts when I do code changes.










Here is the top of the project board. It's sitting on top of the actual arduino, and that's mounted to the lid. In this pic you can see all 5 transistors, the voltage regulator, and the clock module (the small board with the battery). The R, Y, G, B phone wire is what runs to the RGB LEDs. You can also see a power jack I fashioned that I can disconnect.










This is a pic of the top of the project board from the other side.










This is the picture I never had to work with and had to figure out. It's the back of the project board where all of the connections are made. The two pieces of tape are on there to prevent contact from the two resistors that had to cross over. There are better ways to do this, and this is not great work. It's my first circuit board ever, and now that I've done it, I could have routed things better. That said, it's not bad.










Now for the code. MASSIVE credit goes to shift's post above. MOST of this code is his. I added some in to handle days of the week and to handle my RGB lights, but that's about it. I can not and will not claim this as my own, and I don't even know how all of it works. This is also subject to change in the future, and only represents how it functions today.



Code:


// This code sets up the DS1307 Real Time clock on the Arduino board to controll dosing pumps and RGB lights
// The RTC keeps track of time, the code checks it and turns on the pumps and lights at a specified time
// to dose/light your aquarium
 
#include "Wire.h"
#define DS1307_I2C_ADDRESS 0x68

// Convert normal decimal numbers to binary coded decimal
byte decToBcd(byte val)
{
return ( (val/10*16) + (val%10) );
}
 
// Convert binary coded decimal to normal decimal numbers
byte bcdToDec(byte val)
{
return ( (val/16*10) + (val%16) );
}
 
 
// 1) Sets the date and time on the ds1307
// 2) Starts the clock
// 3) Sets hour mode to 24 hour clock
// Assumes you're passing in valid numbers
void setDateDs1307(byte second,        // 0-59
byte minute,        // 0-59
byte hour,          // 1-23
byte dayOfWeek,     // 1-7
byte dayOfMonth,    // 1-28/29/30/31
byte month,         // 1-12
byte year)          // 0-99
{
Wire.beginTransmission(DS1307_I2C_ADDRESS);
Wire.write(0);
Wire.write(decToBcd(second));    // 0 to bit 7 starts the clock
Wire.write(decToBcd(minute));
Wire.write(decToBcd(hour));      // If you want 12 hour am/pm you need to set
// bit 6 (also need to change readDateDs1307)
Wire.write(decToBcd(dayOfWeek));
Wire.write(decToBcd(dayOfMonth));
Wire.write(decToBcd(month));
Wire.write(decToBcd(year));
Wire.endTransmission();
}
 
// Gets the date and time from the ds1307
void getDateDs1307(byte *second,
byte *minute,
byte *hour,
byte *dayOfWeek,
byte *dayOfMonth,
byte *month,
byte *year)
{
// Reset the register pointer
Wire.beginTransmission(DS1307_I2C_ADDRESS);
Wire.write(0);
Wire.endTransmission();
 
Wire.requestFrom(DS1307_I2C_ADDRESS, 7);
 
// A few of these need masks because certain bits are control bits
*second     = bcdToDec(Wire.read() & 0x7f);
*minute     = bcdToDec(Wire.read());
*hour       = bcdToDec(Wire.read() & 0x3f);  // Need to change this if 12 hour am/pm
*dayOfWeek  = bcdToDec(Wire.read());
*dayOfMonth = bcdToDec(Wire.read());
*month      = bcdToDec(Wire.read());
*year       = bcdToDec(Wire.read());
}
 
//define pins
int motorPin1 = 10;
int motorPin2 = 9;
//int motorPin3 = 11;

//define RGB LED pins
int rPin = 3;
int gPin = 5;
int bPin = 6;
 
void setup()  // run once, when the sketch starts
{
byte second, minute, hour, dayOfWeek, dayOfMonth, month, year;
pinMode(motorPin1, OUTPUT);
pinMode(motorPin2, OUTPUT);
//pinMode(motorPin3, OUTPUT);
pinMode(rPin, OUTPUT);
pinMode(gPin, OUTPUT);
pinMode(bPin, OUTPUT);
 
Wire.begin();
Serial.begin(9600);
 
// Change these values to what you want to set your clock to.
// You only need to run this the first time you setup your RTC.
// Set the correct value below and un comment it to run it.
 
 // need to set clock 10 seconds ahead
/*
hour = 22;
minute = 00;
second = 40;

dayOfWeek = 3;

month = 9;
dayOfMonth = 17;
year = 13;
setDateDs1307(second, minute, hour, dayOfWeek, dayOfMonth, month, year);
*/

// sets a default color for the lights after you reset the controller
analogWrite(rPin, 255);
analogWrite(gPin, 35);
analogWrite(bPin, 8);

}
void loop() // run over and over again
{  
  
byte second, minute, hour, dayOfWeek, dayOfMonth, month, year;
 
// this prints the output to the serial window (tools > serial monitor in arduino) and is great for testing
getDateDs1307(&second, &minute, &hour, &dayOfWeek, &dayOfMonth, &month, &year);
Serial.print(hour, DEC);
Serial.print(":");
Serial.print(minute, DEC);
Serial.print(":");
Serial.print(second, DEC);
Serial.print("\t");
Serial.print(dayOfWeek);
Serial.println(" ");

// Set the day of the week and time you want the motors to kick in

if((dayOfWeek == 2)||(dayOfWeek == 4)||(dayOfWeek==6)){

  if((hour == 22)&&(minute == 0)&&(second==0)){
  
  Serial.print(" TRUE");
  Serial.println(" ");
  Serial.println(" MP1");
  analogWrite(motorPin1, 255);
  delay(3950); // set how long you want the motor to run... 1000 = aprox 1ml, test your own pump
  analogWrite(motorPin1, 0);
  }
}

if((dayOfWeek == 3)||(dayOfWeek == 5)||(dayOfWeek==7)){

  if((hour == 22)&&(minute == 0)&&(second==0)){
  
  Serial.print(" TRUE");
  Serial.println(" ");
  Serial.println(" MP2");
  analogWrite(motorPin2, 255);
  delay(3950); // set how long you want the motor to run... 1000 = aprox 1ml, test your own pump
  analogWrite(motorPin2, 0);
  }
}

// this is the lighting schedule

if((hour == 6)&&(minute == 00)&&(second==00)){
// set to "morning" 
analogWrite(rPin, 255);
analogWrite(gPin, 60);
analogWrite(bPin, 15);
}

if((hour == 12)&&(minute == 05)&&(second==00)){
// set to "daytime" 
analogWrite(rPin, 255);
analogWrite(gPin, 0);
analogWrite(bPin, 0);
}

if((hour == 21)&&(minute == 50)&&(second==00)){
// set to "evening" 
analogWrite(rPin, 255);
analogWrite(gPin, 35);
analogWrite(bPin, 8);
}

if((hour == 23)&&(minute == 00)&&(second==00)){
// set to "moonlight" 
analogWrite(rPin, 5);
analogWrite(gPin, 1);
analogWrite(bPin, 1);
}

if((hour == 0)&&(minute == 00)&&(second==00)){
// set to "off" 
analogWrite(rPin, 0);
analogWrite(gPin, 0);
analogWrite(bPin, 0);
}


// we dont really need this since we set the pin to low above but just incase <img src="http://fishtankprojects.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif" alt=":)" class="wp-smiley"> 
else{Serial.println(" false");
analogWrite(motorPin1, 0);
analogWrite(motorPin2, 0);
//analogWrite(motorPin3, 0);
}
 
delay(1000);
 
}


----------



## zodduska

Thanks for the detailed write up, might take a crack at the dosing pump part in the near future.


----------



## AnotherHobby

I don't think I've ever posted my final results for my "evening" and "moonlight" lighting. The first one is the evening one and the second one is obviously the moonlight one.

The evening one is on for an hour (from 10pm to 11pm). It switches to this from full red on when the Ray 2 shuts down (it runs 100% red when the Ray 2 is running). The moonlight setting, which also runs for an hour (from 11pm to 12am), is really dim, but if you look into the tank closely you can see what's going on. It's really cool.

My morning pic is like the evening one, only not quite as warm, and I don't have a pic of that at the moment.

I really worked to get the exposure and white balance dialed in to show how they really look to the naked eye. It's pretty darn close. As mentioned earlier in the thread, both of these register 0 PAR on my meter.


----------



## shift

Your tank is looking stunning


----------



## Chronados

I used the same Radioshack enclosure as you 

Looking good!


----------



## CryptKeeper54

Talk about a high tech tank. Greatest post I've seen on auto dosing. This kinda stuff is usually reserved for the "reefers."

But I'm kinda surprised that you didn't go with a sump. Anyways, great reading your thread. I hope to do a UG foreground one day.


----------



## Beardie

Blown away man. I've gotten so many cool ideas from this thread, can't wait to put them all to action. Thanks for the details.


----------



## AnotherHobby

shift said:


> Your tank is looking stunning


Thanks! Also, I'm glad you dropped in here. I can't thank you enough for posting about your auto-doser and sharing your work in the first place. I never would have tried it otherwise, which also means I never would have done the whole RGB LED project since that uses the arduino as well. I derive a great amount of joy from both. Major kudos to you sir.



Chronados said:


> I used the same Radioshack enclosure as you


They are so handy, and cheap to boot! Can't go wrong.



CryptKeeper54 said:


> Talk about a high tech tank. Greatest post I've seen on auto dosing. This kinda stuff is usually reserved for the "reefers."
> 
> But I'm kinda surprised that you didn't go with a sump. Anyways, great reading your thread. I hope to do a UG foreground one day.


Thanks! I'm a geek, so it'd be really hard for me to go low tech. I don't have room for a sump, and it's only a 17 gallon tank. If I can keep this thing healthy for a long time, and continue to enjoy it all, I'll build something bigger. I tend to get into hobbies for a couple of years, totally obsess, and then move on. Some things I do stick with, but many others I don't. I've learned to try and figure out if it's a long term thing before I go nuts with it. So for now, the 17 gallon is perfect for me. 

I must admit though, I have a PERFECT wall in my basement family room that's 8' long and begging for a huge tank. :wink:



Beardie said:


> Blown away man. I've gotten so many cool ideas from this thread, can't wait to put them all to action. Thanks for the details.


Thanks! Part of my geekiness with my hobbies is documenting what I do by taking pictures of everything, and then sharing it. I enjoy just doing my hobbies, but the feedback, ideas, and community aspect of it all are very also fulfilling to me.


----------



## talontsiawd

I am too tired to follow your autodoer but that is pretty cool. I have been thinking of getting into this stuff for awhile, my brother is a product designer/developer/mechanical engineer and he told me about this stuff a very long time ago as a way to get more into electronics and programing. I have heard a few others say it, I can understand the hardware but the software is way over my head.

You will enjoy the autodoser, trust me. Mine is way simpler (fountain pump) but it just makes life so much easier. I honestly can't live without mine anymore, 

Tank is looking better and better.


----------



## HunterX

Your tank is amazing! Looks really great. I can't wait to get home from Kuwait and try your dosing pumps on my tanks. Thanks for the great posts!


----------



## AnotherHobby

Thanks!

I added some new inhabitants. One of my favorite little fishes.


----------



## AnotherHobby

talontsiawd said:


> I have been thinking of getting into this stuff for awhile, my brother is a product designer/developer/mechanical engineer and he told me about this stuff a very long time ago as a way to get more into electronics and programing. I have heard a few others say it, I can understand the hardware but the software is way over my head.


The software isn't that bad since it's mostly already done for you (here and shift's code). I didn't have to modify much at all from the code shift provided (not counting the lighting). With regards to the auto dosing aspect, I just added a few lines to allow dosing on specific (alternating) days, made sure the PWM pins were right, and set how long I wanted the pumps to run. It was the easiest aspect of the project.

Make sure the pins are right here, early in the sketch (physical pin numbers match code pin numbers):



Code:


//define pins
int motorPin1 = 10;
int motorPin2 = 9;

For running the pumps, there are 2 nearly identical blocks of code, one for each pump. The only difference is the days of the week and the motor pin. As you can see, this one is motorPin1, referenced above as physical pin 10. I added the first line of this section to handle days of the week. Then I set the hour, minute, and second in the following line. Then I set the delay, which for my pumps 3950 ms equals 5mL. I just tested this until I narrowed it down.



Code:


if((dayOfWeek == 2)||(dayOfWeek == 4)||(dayOfWeek==6)){

  if((hour == 22)&&(minute == 0)&&(second==0)){
  
  Serial.print(" TRUE");
  Serial.println(" ");
  Serial.println(" MP1");
  analogWrite(motorPin1, 255);
  delay(3950); // set how long you want the motor to run...
  analogWrite(motorPin1, 0);
  }
}

Outside of assigning the correct pins, setting the days and time, and then setting the pump duration, you don't have to write any code. It's all done. You'd want to remove the RGB lighting code I did, but that's just a matter of deleting those lines. If you aren't sure which those are, just ask. 

You don't need to worry about any of the other code unless you really want to learn how it works. If you simply want it to work, just this: (1) copy the code I posted, (2) paste that code into a new sketch in the arduino program on your computer, (3) edit it for your desired days/times/delay, (4) delete the lighting code, and then (5) plug in the USB cable and click upload. It's seriously not bad. 

Hope that helps alleviate the intimidation aspect of the code part.


----------



## Whiskey

Stunning tank! that lighting is really slick as well.

I thought of something else I can do with that code, If I take my Fuge Ray apart and hook it up to to my Arduino I can do a real sunrise/sunset, and precisely control the PAR at the substrate level to keep it a low light tank  That way it will have something to do while it's not dosing anything. 

I was also looking up other projects and found a temperature controller for a crock pot. I'm working on understanding that so I can incorporate a dual stage temp controller as well. If it works I'll do a writeup like yours for others.

Thanks again for that fantastic write up!
Whiskey


----------



## AnotherHobby

I had a little fun and trimmed my tank slightly different last night to accentuate the the lower left foreground plants — the anubias nana leading into anubias barteri, and the downoi. I originally made a line that started in the front lower left with the anubias nana, then flowing up over the downoi to the base of the branch into the larger anubias barteri, and then down across the middle with the hydrocotyle and back into the right corner. 

Normally I can't see the whole line very well, which is why I trimmed it back so much. It's interesting how much the trim can change the feel of the tank when I look into it.

Photography notes: I shot from a different angle to show that lower left area off a little better and to show more depth. I'm also still messing with my background (hence the distracting bar of light in the background), and there is a bit of surface debris I should have cleaned up, but oh well.


----------



## ua hua

Very nice picture as usual. It does make a huge difference the way you trimmed the foreground. The tank is filling in really nice and everything looks healthy. Did you decide if you were going to get rid of some of the neons for some CPD's?


----------



## Mobeans21

I've just read all of your posts from the previous tank up till now and I'm enjoying following your progress. I've only been dabbling in the planted tank hobby since April if this year and I'm already about to rearrange my half cylinder to hopefully something more creative looking. Reading your story has me really excited about it so thanks for sharing. Your tank is beautiful .


----------



## FlyingHellFish

Good lord that looks so good! Are you using RO water?


----------



## AnotherHobby

ua hua said:


> Very nice picture as usual. It does make a huge difference the way you trimmed the foreground. The tank is filling in really nice and everything looks healthy. Did you decide if you were going to get rid of some of the neons for some CPD's?



Thanks! Yes, the CPDs are in there. I posted a pic of one yesterday, but I didn't elaborate. There are 9 total CPDs in there. You can actually see 8 of them in the pic I posted last night if you are good at Where's Waldo. 

I lost a neon recently, so there are currently 13 neons, 9 CPDs (new), and 6 panda corys. I have a local TPT member swinging by today to take my recent trimmings, and I'm giving him 4 of my neons for free. I had no ammonia spike from the 9 new CDPs, so the filter is fine, but it's is just a _little_ too busy in there.

After tonights neon donation, the full stocking list will be:


9 Neons
9 CPDs
6 Panda Corys
10 Amano Shrimp
24+ PFR Shrimp
2 Onion Snails
3 Assassin Snails
Many, many, tiny ramshorn snails (although their numbers are decreasing)

I think the fish stocking will be just about right. Also, I like how they all separate a little. The cory's hang out on the bottom, and also back in the plants. The neons are almost always out front, and low. They don't swim above the branch much. The CPDs sometimes swim with the neons, but also frequently swim above the neons, which is great because it's added more life to the middle/upper tank.



Mobeans21 said:


> I've just read all of your posts from the previous tank up till now and I'm enjoying following your progress. I've only been dabbling in the planted tank hobby since April if this year and I'm already about to rearrange my half cylinder to hopefully something more creative looking. Reading your story has me really excited about it so thanks for sharing. Your tank is beautiful .


Thanks! I can't believe how much I've learned in the last year. Have fun rearranging, and plan ahead. I've mentioned it in here before, but spending a lot of time in the initial planning and hardscape stage really paid off.



FlyingHellFish said:


> Good lord that looks so good! Are you using RO water?


Thanks! I am not, and it drives me nuts. My water is super hard. It's around 18 kH right out of the tap, and goes straight into my tank with some prime. The aquasoil buffers that down to 6 by the end of the week, so when I do an actual water change it goes up to about 11. I'd really like to get an RO setup because I know I'm burning through the aquasoil's buffering ability.


----------



## mihnata

WOW! I absolutely LOVE your tank! It inspires me and I can't wait to start my own project!


----------



## AnotherHobby

It's amazing what Photoshop can do for your tank shots. Generally, I do very little of it with the pictures I post in this thread, because I like to share as close to possible how it really looks. 

That said, here it is the exact same photo as above, except with all of the trim debris and bubbles removed. Also, some of the reflections are taken out, and there is some smoothing and dimming of the light reflection on the wall. There was a bit of general clean up as well. I wonder how many of the pictures for online aquascaping contests, like the ones ADA has, have tanks retouched to this level. 

It certainly looks better and more professional, but is it real? I'd love to hear opinions on this.


----------



## zodduska

Tank looks fantastic. How are you liking the CPDs? Are they very shy / skittish? My girlfriend and I are actually going to be buying a few tonight for her 5 gallon fluval Chi, I've been on a terrible streak of murdering all of her fish with water changes in the past month.. I'm not sure if something nasty is in her tap but she'll be really bummed if these guys don't make it.



AnotherHobby said:


> Thanks! Yes, the CPDs are in there. I posted a pic of one yesterday, but I didn't elaborate. There are 9 total CPDs in there. You can actually see 8 of them in the pic I posted last night if you are good at Where's Waldo.
> 
> I lost a neon recently, so there are currently 13 neons, 9 CPDs (new), and 6 panda corys. I have a local TPT member swinging by today to take my recent trimmings, and I'm giving him 4 of my neons for free. I had no ammonia spike from the 9 new CDPs, so the filter is fine, but it's is just a _little_ too busy in there.
> 
> After tonights neon donation, the full stocking list will be:
> 
> 
> 9 Neons
> 9 CPDs
> 6 Panda Corys
> 10 Amano Shrimp
> 24+ PFR Shrimp
> 2 Onion Snails
> 3 Assassin Snails
> Many, many, tiny ramshorn snails (although their numbers are decreasing)
> 
> I think the fish stocking will be just about right. Also, I like how they all separate a little. The cory's hang out on the bottom, and also back in the plants. The neons are almost always out front, and low. They don't swim above the branch much. The CPDs sometimes swim with the neons, but also frequently swim above the neons, which is great because it's added more life to the middle/upper tank.
> 
> 
> 
> Thanks! I can't believe how much I've learned in the last year. Have fun rearranging, and plan ahead. I've mentioned it in here before, but spending a lot of time in the initial planning and hardscape stage really paid off.
> 
> 
> 
> Thanks! I am not, and it drives me nuts. My water is super hard. It's around 18 kH right out of the tap, and goes straight into my tank with some prime. The aquasoil buffers that down to 6 by the end of the week, so when I do an actual water change it goes up to about 11. I'd really like to get an RO setup because I know I'm burning through the aquasoil's buffering ability.


----------



## AnotherHobby

zodduska said:


> Tank looks fantastic. How are you liking the CPDs? Are they very shy / skittish? My girlfriend and I are actually going to be buying a few tonight for her 5 gallon fluval Chi, I've been on a terrible streak of murdering all of her fish with water changes in the past month.. I'm not sure if something nasty is in her tap but she'll be really bummed if these guys don't make it.


Thanks! I love the CDPs. They were only really skittish the first couple of days. They are slightly more so than the neons right now (or maybe it seems that way because they swim faster), but they've only been in for a week. We'll see as time goes on. They also have no problems feeding along side of the neons. They get along great and don't seem to mind each other one bit.


----------



## geesantoz

i hope you don't mind ... i just made your last tank shot as my wallpaper.
:hihi:
so beautifully well done ... roud:


----------



## Tadpole

I have been subscribed to this build for a while and I finally felt compelled to say that I love the way it has turned out. This is an amazing tank and you did a great job. Thank you for sharing so those of us aspiring have some direction.


----------



## AnotherHobby

Thanks for the comments! I haven't updated because not much has changed. I'm fighting off some algae now that I got from a local hobbyist. 

I got a few dozen PFRs from him, and he threw a clump of hair algae in the bag for them to hold on to. I tried to get the shrimp from the bag to the tank without transferring the algae as well, but in the end some got in and I couldn't get it scooped out before it blew around the tank.

Now I'm at a bit of a loss as to how to kill it off. I know the H2O2 treatment works, because I've used it with good success in the past. However, now I have 30+ shrimp (with some berried PFRs) that I don't think I want to risk.

Other than that, the tank looks the same and I haven't made any changes.


----------



## CPDzeke

What if it's spiro? That's nearly impossible to kill without invert-killin chemicals.


----------



## AnotherHobby

I'll post pics of it when I get home. It's in my UG and it's growing as green hairs coming off my glass. 

If I have to do an invert killing treatment, I can uproot all of my stems (rotola, ludwigia, bocopa, downoi) and should be able to remove the shrimp. It's just a lot of work, but not that much more than trimming. I just can't pull the UG or the hydrocotyle. They can't hide in the UG, but they can in the hydrocotyle, so it'd be a bit of hide-and-go-seek.


----------



## AnotherHobby

*A New Start: How Everything That Could Have Gone Wrong Did*

As I had mentioned back in October, I had some algae invading my tank that came in with some shrimp. I got super busy with life, and neglected my tank for about 2 weeks as the algae kept growing. It wasn't terrible, but it was on most plants. My tank was desperately in need of a trim. I was ready to dig in an clean it up, and then... it happened.

So a few people mentioned that as UG gets thick it starts growing over itself. Since it doesn't really have true traditional roots that have to go in soil, it just roots into itself. I had seen this happening to mine as well as it got thick. I was hoping that trimming it relatively short would help prevent what people said might happen — that the bottom "roots" would start to let go, and it would just float up as a giant mat. Well guess what, trimming short doesn't stop that.

I came home one day and the entire right side of the UG had blow out and was no longer rooted in soil. The left side wasn't looking much better. Furthermore, the UG had algae in it, so it's not like anybody would want to buy it. In a moment of complete disappointment, I pulled the whole mat up and threw it in a bowl of water, but then eventually just threw it in the garbage. I know I could have salvaged it and replanted as plugs again, but I couldn't see the eventual outcome being any different. Cool plant, but I'm done with it for now.

Next up was a trim job. Normally I pull out all the stem plants to trim them. If the downoi needs trimming, I pull those too. Everything needed a trim, so I pulled everything but the hydrocotyle. Since they all had algae on them, I decided it would be a good idea to put them in a cake pan with water and H2O2 while I trimmed them all up. I proceeded to trim everything, but looking at the completely naked area where the UG used to be was bumming me out. The hydrocotyle really needed a trim badly, and I decided to pull it out as well and just change up the entire plant layout. The only thing left in there were my anubias varieties:










I really needed a change. Instead of putting everything in groups like it has been (kind of Dutch like), I decided to mix them up more like nature does. When I was done, I was actually pretty happy with how it looked. It needed to grow out and fill in, but I liked it a lot. When I got home from work the next day, something didn't look right. My plant leaves were looking thin. Then it got worse... over the next couple of days, nearly every single plant melted away. Basically, my H2O2 mix was way too strong, and it killed my plants. The anubias is alive because it was never dipped. I might have 1 or 2 stems of ludwigia red. I might have a tiny bit of bocopa that lives. Maybe 1 or 2 little blyxa stems, and possibly some alternanthera reineckii mini. That's it. It looks like somebody dropped a small nuclear bomb in my tank. 

So, new beginings. I'm going to see what lives and nurse them back to life and start thinking of what new plants I want and how I want it to look. I'm not changing the branch or anything else. I really like that part of my tank. Also, when I bought the alternanthera reineckii mini from Tom Barr I got a tiny hitchhiker. It was one tiny little plug of dwarf hairgrass belem. Here it is from back in June:










For fun, I put it in a little bit of aquasoil and started trying to grow it out emmersed. It spread a little bit, but then I didn't want to deal with it anymore, so I dropped that into my little low tech office nano and kind of forgot about it. It's low light, and almost zero ferts and no excel. I didn't expect it to do much or even live. Yesterday I pulled them out and managed to propagate them into this:










I planted them along the front where the UG was. I'm hoping in this high tech tank that they fill out a bit faster. From here, we'll see where it goes. There won't be any pics for quite some time as it looks pretty darn depressing right now. Hopefully I can nurse a few plants back that I want to keep, and then in the meantime I'm trying to figure out what I'd like to put in it.


----------



## bennyjam

Wow. That's quite the tragic tale! Bummer cuz that was such a good looking tank. Good luck bringing it back up to snuff. I'm sure you'll have it looking awesome again in no time.


----------



## talontsiawd

That is not fun. Glad you are trying out belem. I really love that plant and I think it will compliment your scape well.


----------



## Jalopy

You should put the ug out next time for RAOK! Sorry about the tank. It was pretty cool.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk


----------



## Psiorian

Sorry to hear about the tank. Hope it comes around for you.


----------



## keats

That was an awesome scape. Seeing the first, I'm sure the next will be just as good, if not, better. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2


----------



## Bserve

I am crying D;


----------



## zodduska

It sucks to see a beautiful tank like yours come apart but I'm sure your fresh start will be even more rewarding to watch as it fills in.


----------



## LICfish

I'm so sad to hear about your tank. It was one of my favorites. I'm sure you'll do an amazing job with your new lay out too.

I'm also copying your LED strip light idea. The Ray 2 is too white.


----------



## Beardie

If you need any plants let us know. I'm sure there are plenty of us here that would love to help you get back on your feet.


----------



## AnotherHobby

Thanks for all the kind words. It is a bummer, but it's also a learning experience. My number one hobby is learning, even if it sucks sometimes. My number two hobby is not giving up, so trust me, I'll nurse this thing back to life again!

Thanks for he offer Beardie! As for plants, my DHG belem is insanely sparse. It's not easy to find and I'm willing to pay for it — as long as it's belem. I also want to do s. repens again. I really liked it last time, but I lost it to mold from my DSM. Beyond those two, I'm still trying to figure it out.

And Jalopy, I might have been able RAOK the UG, but I soaked it in the same H2O2 solution as the other plants, so I figured it was a goner. I let it sit in a bowl for 2 days before I decided to toss it, which was after the melting started and I realized what happened. I just assumed it was toast. Maybe it would have lived, but I didn't want somebody to pay for shipping for a dead plant.


----------



## mihnata

Awww, I so loved your tank! It was my #1 inspiration! 
I'm sure the new one will be 100 times better!


----------



## Bserve

Apparently the pros really liked it. 

http://showcase.aquatic-gardeners.org/2013/show480.html

*Sigh*


----------



## AnotherHobby

Bserve said:


> Apparently the pros really liked it.
> 
> http://showcase.aquatic-gardeners.org/2013/show480.html
> 
> *Sigh*


Ha! I hadn't seen that yet. Thanks! Yeah. I submitted it out of curiosity. 

I liked it a lot too. 

And they are 100% spot on. Lots of maintenance to keep the plants where they were. About an hour per week of trimming and cleanup. As such, I'm putting more thought into maintenance with my next round of plants.


----------



## parrottbay

Congrats!


----------



## Whiskey

Bserve said:


> Apparently the pros really liked it.
> 
> http://showcase.aquatic-gardeners.org/2013/show480.html
> 
> *Sigh*


Congrats!!! That is quite an accomplishment!!! :thumbsup:

Sorry to hear about the tank, but I'm sure you'll bring it back around in no time. 

Thanks again for all your help with the Arduino project, it was not for nothing. I've built 3 of them, one controls Heater/Fan/lights/dosing for my work tank, another does heater/fan/lights/dosing for my 10G shrimp tank, and one just doses. It is a fantastic tool! And I have it outputting temp, status, and how much the fan/heater runs to a screen. I'm also able to fine tune the amount of light my plants get!

Whiskey


----------



## Bserve

Whiskey said:


> Congrats!!! That is quite an accomplishment!!! :thumbsup:
> 
> Sorry to hear about the tank, but I'm sure you'll bring it back around in no time.
> 
> Thanks again for all your help with the Arduino project, it was not for nothing. I've built 3 of them, one controls Heater/Fan/lights/dosing for my work tank, another does heater/fan/lights/dosing for my 10G shrimp tank, and one just doses. It is a fantastic tool! And I have it outputting temp, status, and how much the fan/heater runs to a screen. I'm also able to fine tune the amount of light my plants get!
> 
> Whiskey


?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## AnotherHobby

Whiskey said:


> Congrats!!! That is quite an accomplishment!!! :thumbsup:
> 
> Sorry to hear about the tank, but I'm sure you'll bring it back around in no time.
> 
> Thanks again for all your help with the Arduino project, it was not for nothing. I've built 3 of them, one controls Heater/Fan/lights/dosing for my work tank, another does heater/fan/lights/dosing for my 10G shrimp tank, and one just doses. It is a fantastic tool! And I have it outputting temp, status, and how much the fan/heater runs to a screen. I'm also able to fine tune the amount of light my plants get!
> 
> Whiskey


I don't know if it's _quite an accomplishment_. I just got a positive comment from a judge and didn't place. The positive comment made me feel great though. 

The Arduino is super fun. I need to figure out my pumps better though. They can't hold back the pressure between doses, so they aren't dosing the full amount. I've gone back to manual dosing until I can come up with a decent plan on that.


----------



## Paul.Gitter

Just finished reading through all the posts. Great work. All the best overcoming your setback. 

I'm just starting out, but for me it's the same: I want to learn about it and we learn best from failure.


----------



## Whiskey

AnotherHobby said:


> I don't know if it's _quite an accomplishment_. I just got a positive comment from a judge and didn't place. The positive comment made me feel great though.
> 
> The Arduino is super fun. I need to figure out my pumps better though. They can't hold back the pressure between doses, so they aren't dosing the full amount. I've gone back to manual dosing until I can come up with a decent plan on that.


Back when I did salt I had a autodoser for Ca/ALK and it had check valves on the end of both the dosing tubes. I'm running my autodoser the same way, this prevents the fluid from going back down the tube. The important part is getting the right check valve, some work better than others. I've found the ones with the rubber "Lip" looking design to be quite effective.

Whiskey


----------



## AnotherHobby

Whiskey said:


> Back when I did salt I had a autodoser for Ca/ALK and it had check valves on the end of both the dosing tubes. I'm running my autodoser the same way, this prevents the fluid from going back down the tube. The important part is getting the right check valve, some work better than others. I've found the ones with the rubber "Lip" looking design to be quite effective.
> 
> Whiskey


Do you have a link to the ones you are using?


----------



## Tyrone

Very inspirational! I learned a lot of new tricks from this. As far as the stand build, did you use 4x4 for the legs or was it the same from guy you borrowed the concept from? and what type of paint did you use to paint the brackets and screws? I would love to see a build thread of your stand. That would be awesome!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Tyrone

Also what did you use to bend and heat the acrylic pipes?


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## Ponta

*!!!!*

EPIC TANK MATE ! Totally my favorit style in aquascaping !


----------



## AnotherHobby

Tyrone said:


> Very inspirational! I learned a lot of new tricks from this. As far as the stand build, did you use 4x4 for the legs or was it the same from guy you borrowed the concept from? and what type of paint did you use to paint the brackets and screws? I would love to see a build thread of your stand. That would be awesome!


I didn't document my stand enough to make a build thread. I did use 4x4 legs, and the paint was just black Rust-Oleum spray paint.



Tyrone said:


> Also what did you use to bend and heat the acrylic pipes?


I heated it with a heat gun with a 5/8" cotton rope inside to keep the acrylic from flattening out as it bends.










I cut out a wooden frame to bend it around, along with a little aluminum strap to hold the end in place. It worked out great.












Ponta said:


> EPIC TANK MATE ! Totally my favorit style in aquascaping !


Thanks!


----------



## Whiskey

AnotherHobby said:


> Do you have a link to the ones you are using?


I didn't buy them online, and don't remember the brand but I think this is the same design, see how there is a rubber pyramid rather than a metal spring and plastic bit? That is what you are looking for, the metal parts all rust out when used with fluid rather than air.
Amazon.com: MR. Aqua Plastic Check Valve: Pet Supplies

I think these are much cheaper and the same thing, but it is harder to tell by the picture:
Amazon.com: Jardin Plastic Air Pump 2-Piece Check Valves for Fish Tank, Pink/Clear: Pet Supplies

Whiskey


----------



## Tyrone

Ingenuity at its finest. Thank you


----------



## tropicalryan

Great DIY skills, sorry to hear about the UG


----------



## plantbrain

AnotherHobby said:


> Thanks for all the kind words. It is a bummer, but it's also a learning experience. My number one hobby is learning, even if it sucks sometimes. My number two hobby is not giving up, so trust me, I'll nurse this thing back to life again!
> 
> Thanks for he offer Beardie! As for plants, my DHG belem is insanely sparse. It's not easy to find and I'm willing to pay for it — as long as it's belem. I also want to do s. repens again. I really liked it last time, but I lost it to mold from my DSM. Beyond those two, I'm still trying to figure it out.
> 
> And Jalopy, I might have been able RAOK the UG, but I soaked it in the same H2O2 solution as the other plants, so I figured it was a goner. I let it sit in a bowl for 2 days before I decided to toss it, which was after the melting started and I realized what happened. I just assumed it was toast. Maybe it would have lived, but I didn't want somebody to pay for shipping for a dead plant.



I know some folks that have Belem. 
I'll also have some UG if you are glutton for punishment in about 4-8 weeks. 
Belem sounds like the way to go.

The Hydrocotyle and the UG made a very nice contrast I thought.


----------



## vraev

Honestly the best tank I have ever seen. Can stand among the best designs by amano himself. More than his simplicity, I love your stand..the design aesthetic and the overall look. More homely as well (I know it is ur home) compared to the more "urban" "photoshoot" setups in Amano's gallery.


----------



## AnotherHobby

Whiskey said:


> I didn't buy them online, and don't remember the brand but I think this is the same design, see how there is a rubber pyramid rather than a metal spring and plastic bit? That is what you are looking for, the metal parts all rust out when used with fluid rather than air.
> Amazon.com: MR. Aqua Plastic Check Valve: Pet Supplies
> 
> I think these are much cheaper and the same thing, but it is harder to tell by the picture:
> Amazon.com: Jardin Plastic Air Pump 2-Piece Check Valves for Fish Tank, Pink/Clear: Pet Supplies


Thanks for the links!



plantbrain said:


> I know some folks that have Belem.
> I'll also have some UG if you are glutton for punishment in about 4-8 weeks.
> Belem sounds like the way to go.
> 
> The Hydrocotyle and the UG made a very nice contrast I thought.


Thanks Tom! I'll shoot you a PM on the belem. I got a good start with the hitchhiker I got from you, but I'd like to get more plant mass faster to help it from becoming an algae farm.

I also loved the look of the hydrocotyle and the UG. Actually I loved pretty much everything about my tank other than the massive amount of trimming I had to do, but even that was enjoyable for me. That said, I'll have to pass on more UG until I'm better at this. I don't know what I did wrong, or if that's just what UG does (eventually let go of the substrate and lift up), but it was really disappointing to watch it do that.



vraev said:


> Honestly the best tank I have ever seen. Can stand among the best designs by amano himself. More than his simplicity, I love your stand..the design aesthetic and the overall look. More homely as well (I know it is ur home) compared to the more "urban" "photoshoot" setups in Amano's gallery.


Thanks for the kind words.


----------



## AnotherHobby

*Post Mortem*

What's left from my disaster?


8 little sprigs of blyxa japonica
2 decent stems and 14 uber small sprigs of ludwigia sp. red
16 very small and unhealthy looking (but alive) stems of alternanthera reineckii mini
1 tiny 3 leaved vine of hydrocotyle tripartita japan (left front)
a few clumps of flame moss
43 one inch or less tall bocapa (harvested from the tops that lived)
1 one inch tall stem of rotola indica
All of my anubias nana petite and anubias barteri (never dipped them)
12 little plugs of DHG belem that I grew out from one tiny plug
It's not much, but it'll grow. EI dosing, 70 par at the substrate, and good CO2 should get this thing back to life. I'm also ordering a few new plants to play with. 2 Euriocaulon Cinereum, 1 c. parva, a tiny bit more DHG belem, some fissidens to cover the rocks on the right hand side, and a couple others. Not sure what all I'll keep as I work on a new layout.

Here is the current full tank shot. The red fuzz on the anubias and a few other places is dead algae. You can see the DHG belem and a few of the blyxa along the front, the ludwiga back left, and the very sad looking alternanthera reineckii mini in the middle.










You can see all of the ludwigia sp. red I salvaged and my 1 sprig of hydrocotyle.










Here you can see a lot of the tiny bocapa tops I saved and more of the very sad looking alternanthera reineckii mini.










Considering it was producing a quart ziplock full of plant stem trimmings a week before this happened, it looks pretty desolate. I hope I can nurse it all back to life. It's going to take a lot time and a lot of TLC. 

Wish me luck.


----------



## natiedean24

Hope the tank is recovering well. I just finished my driftwood hard scape that uses eggcrate like yours. So thankful you posted that here - it is an idea that helped me greatly.


----------



## ringram

I concur. I'm working on setting up a 60P tank and want to implement an exaggerated hill, so I used your egg crate idea to help with stability. Thanks for the idea!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## AnotherHobby

Thanks! It's recovering, but slowly. Far from pictures at this point.


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## LICfish

I hope your tank is recovering nicely. I know how frustrating it must be. Some of my plants also melted quickly (but my tank was nowhere near as nice as yours though).


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## jlfkona

Any updates?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## AnotherHobby

Although it doesn't look like it did in it's prime, it's actually recovering pretty well. However, it really needs to be cleaned up. I've been kind of letting it go, only doing water changes, feeding the fish, and fertilizing. I'll try to get some pics in the next week or so. I have a lot of plant moving and reorganizing to do. It's been mostly layed out so that I could get stuff growing again.

About a week ago I changed out the glass lily pipes in favor of NA's stainless flow pipes. I paid $123 shipped with the exchange rate. I'll be curious to see how much ADG sells them for. The don't disappear like freshly cleaned glass pipes, but they also don't get all nasty like glass pipes. I think they look really cool, and they make me want to change out my acrylic light hanger poles for steel ones. I think I probably will at some point.


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## AnotherHobby

In my last brief update, I mentioned the NA pipes that I replaced my lily pipes with. I'm super happy I got them when I did, because now that NA has been bought out by ADG, they said they are only selling complete systems, so you can't buy these pipes anymore. For me the key selling point was that they go all the way down and into the cabinet. Because of this, I was able to ditch the clear vinyl tubing.

I don't like clear vinyl tubing, because it's hard to bend and it constantly fights to keep it's shape. It also gets gross like the glass lily pipes, so even when I cleaned the glass pipes, the vinyl still looked like crap. It's was also, for some reason, slowing down my flow by about 50%. I have since swapped back to the black ribbed fluval tubing that my pump came with. It's very easy to bend and doesn't push the pipes around, and my flow is back to being very strong again.

As for the tank, it's coming along pretty good. It's been about 2 months since I self distracted my plants, and considering that I have not added one single plant, I'd say I've done well. Every thing in there has been nursed back from death. The DHG belem is really filling out quickly now, and pretty much all of the plants that lived are now taking off. If you look at the pic below you can see it filling in the whole front area pretty well.

Here is a pic of the pipes and how they run down into my stand now. If you look at the pics I posted on November 30th, it's made some pretty good strides. I'll post some close ups of the tank in a week or so. I just trimmed and propagated them today, so it needs to fill out a little more again.


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## talontsiawd

That's crazy that ADG bought out NA, especially since it was never available in the US before them. Shame they will not sell the lily pipes separately. I have to say, they fit your stand so well. I don't think you could have done a better job here, they actually look more interesting than they do on an N/A stand, IMO. 

Glad this is rebounding, love the tank.


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## AnotherHobby

Thanks! I love how they look too, and they have definitely made me want to ditch my acrylic light poles for brushed metal ones. I'll be making some in the near future. I think the acrylic ones look a little out of place now.


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## datsunissan28

Did the Steel Flow pipes take awhile to ship for you too? I was also lucky enough to order just in time. I hope ADG reconsiders their position as the build quality is great.


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## Bserve

The whole look is SWEET! 

The AR mini grew in very well (Again). Looks nice compared to... Well, you know.


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## AnotherHobby

datsunissan28 said:


> Did the Steel Flow pipes take awhile to ship for you too? I was also lucky enough to order just in time. I hope ADG reconsiders their position as the build quality is great.


I ordered the pipes on November 19th and got them on January 8th, so yeah, it took a while. Worth it though.

I hope they reconsider as well, because I was pretty excited to see NA's stuff coming to the U.S., and was really disappointed to hear it would only be sold as complete sets. I just wouldn't buy that way, as most people in this hobby don't, so it's all as good as non-existant for most of us.



Bserve said:


> The whole look is SWEET!
> 
> The AR mini grew in very well (Again). Looks nice compared to... Well, you know.


Thanks! I enjoy how the whole setup (and my chair) is surrounded by plants. There are many out of frame. The natural tank adds to the house plants and visa versa.


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## ua hua

Looking really good. Very nice recovery from just a couple of months ago. That's what separates those that really love this hobby. We all have set-backs and disasters that make you want to give up but being able to start over again and make something good out of the unfortunate is what separates those that are just dabbling in the hobby and those that are fully invested.


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## lamiskool

Glad to see everything up and running smoothly


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## mihnata

Love your tank! Especially all the live plants around the tank! Looks so natural!


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## The Trigger

I love that stand the tank is on. Lighting looks great too!


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## usmonkey

So glad you have brought the tank back to life, and even better looking hardware to go along with. Can't wait for close up pictures in time to come.


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## Asu1776

Really inspired by your tank AnotherHobby! I went through your journal and appreciated the detail and tank eye candy. I got tired of my scape and wanted to really try incorporating driftwood branches. Yours came at the top of the list for inspiration. I hope you don't mind, but I wanted to try to emulate what you have and see what I can do.


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## Jack Gilvey

Still bad-ass as hell I see. Those pipes are so awesome.


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## AnotherHobby

Asu1776 said:


> Really inspired by your tank AnotherHobby! I went through your journal and appreciated the detail and tank eye candy. I got tired of my scape and wanted to really try incorporating driftwood branches. Yours came at the top of the list for inspiration. I hope you don't mind, but I wanted to try to emulate what you have and see what I can do.


I don't mind at all. I got inspiration from many other tanks as well, added in some ideas of my own, and in the end made it mine. The overall concept of a branch laying on it's side with plants around it has been done many times, so it's not like I invented it. 



Jack Gilvey said:


> Still bad-ass as hell I see. Those pipes are so awesome.


Thanks! I love the pipes. I'm so glad I got them.



The Trigger said:


> I love that stand the tank is on. Lighting looks great too!


Thanks! The stand was fun to make, and I really like it. My only gripe is that due to the 2x4 and 4x4 construction and the smallish tank size, the space under it for a pump, heater, CO2 tank and regulator, cerges reactor, plumbing, and electrical wiring is incredibly limited.


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## Aquaticus

This is definitely one of my favorite tanks on PT. Very inspiring!


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## Asu1776

Update?


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## AnotherHobby

Asu1776 said:


> Update?



Dang... I promised pics and got too busy. The tank continues to improve, and I really like how it's looking now. It's taken a while, but it's come a long way. Everything seems really healthy right now. I also added 2 little bushy nose plecos about two weeks ago, and I really like them. 

I'm on vacation up at the family cabin in NW Wisconsin with my wife this week, so it won't be until early next week until I can snap any pics.


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## Brian_Cali77

Speaking of pics, what camera do you use?


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## AnotherHobby

Brian_Cali77 said:


> Speaking of pics, what camera do you use?



I have a Nikon D7000 with a Nikon 18-200 VR lens. I absolutely love both.


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## Brian_Cali77

Awesome... great pictures. Had to ask.


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## parrottbay

So gotta ask, when ever you get around to taking pictures of the tank, can I see some close UPS of the pipes? I'm trying to mimic them. Also, where did you get the acrylic pipe?


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## AnotherHobby

parrottbay said:


> So gotta ask, when ever you get around to taking pictures of the tank, can I see some close UPS of the pipes? I'm trying to mimic them. Also, where did you get the acrylic pipe?



I can certainly take pics of the pipes.

I got the acrylic pipes from a local acrylic pipe manufacturer that's a couple of miles from my work. They have a small walk-in retail front.


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## pinkman

this is a really beautiful setup


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## parrottbay

Thanks for the info, can't wait! I was really hoping Lowes or home depot would have it  lol


AnotherHobby said:


> I can certainly take pics of the pipes.
> 
> I got the acrylic pipes from a local acrylic pipe manufacturer that's a couple of miles from my work. They have a small walk-in retail front.


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## PeterN1986

Wonderful comeback! This tank is like a phoenix, coming back from the ashes. SO glad to see that it is bouncing back.


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## AnotherHobby

*Fallen Tree Branch 60cm*

Thanks! I'm coming home from vacation a day early because my wife is sick, so hopefully I can take a few tank tonight.


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## AnotherHobby

In the meantime, here is a completely non-aquarium related post. I hiked out on Lake Superior yesterday evening to check out some ice caves in the Apostle Islands and take some pictures. They were pretty amazing:


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## Mike00726

Wow great pics. I saw these caves on the news a few weeks ago.


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## hydrophyte

Those ice cave shots are awesome. When I was in college we paddled out to some of those caves with sea kayaks.


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## AnotherHobby

Alright, finally took some time to get some pics. The DHG belem is coming in quite well, considering I started with literally one little sprig with about 10 1/2" blades on it.

And, it's amazing how far it's come when you consider that I have not added one plant since this picture was taken on November 30th last year:










So I'm pretty proud of my little recovery. 

I am starting to get a bit of GDA on my Alternanthera Reineckii Mini and Anubias. Hopefully I can get that figured out.

I accidentally shot all of these pics a bit over exposed because I still had my D7000 set on some custom settings from my ice cave shooting, so that's why they may look a little off. I'm too lazy right now to reshoot correctly.


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## Asu1776

Great recovery! I really like how the plant height transitions from short in the front to tall in the back. Doesn't feel too cluttered but also with enough elements to keep it interesting. Looks like you are farming a massive amount of AR mini too. Haha! Awesome tank v2.0. 

I've been struggling with keeping my plants growing upwards instead of bending, especially ludwigia red. Not sure if putting out lots of side shoots may affect that, and if the distance of the light from the plants plays a factor (too much light?) :/ Ive noticed your corner plants seem to grow straight up too. Mystery for me but thanks for the update.


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## AnotherHobby

Thanks! The plant height was planned that way for a couple of reasons. One is it makes the tank look deeper than it is, and one is that it makes the fish swim out in front where there is more room.

As for plants bending, they used to do that until I raised the light 4" above the tank. When it was right on top, they bent. The tall tree like ones along the back and to the right have always grown straight up though. They were sold to me as bacopa but I've been told they might be rotola indica.


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## AnotherHobby

*Seeing My Tank in a Different Light*

In the winter, the morning sun hits the side of my tank and casts a warm morning side light on it. This was causing some algae issues so I had a black side cover to keep the light out. A few weeks ago I removed it while doing tank maintenance and completely forgot to put it back. 

It dawned on me this morning where the GSA was coming from. My aquarium lights were completely off when I took these, so you can see why it's causing the GSA. I obviously need to to put the side cover back on, but it's amazing how pretty and natural a tank looks when the morning sun hits it.


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## Tyrone

Those are some really captivating pictures. I especially like the third one which reminds me of light breaking through the clouds after the rain. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Brian_Cali77

Nice quality photos and composition. I like how natural it looks with the sun rays.


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## corrupt

Very nice and as a newby I appreciate you stepping through your tank with us. Well done with the whole setup. Just orded a sheet of that eggcrate after reading through your setup, thanks.


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## shift

Nice shots!


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## trailsnale

agree w/ tyrone. 3d pic is cool.

thanks,


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## AnotherHobby

Thanks for the nice comments people. 



corrupt said:


> Very nice and as a newby I appreciate you stepping through your tank with us. Well done with the whole setup. Just orded a sheet of that eggcrate after reading through your setup, thanks.


Well, I stepped through the whole process because I am a newbie as well. It's been a rewarding learning experience, and this site is amazing. I think it's a pretty fantastic thing that I was able to come here and learn so much about planted tanks, and then create this for my living room. The learning continues every day as I observe and tweak.

The number one thing I learned is how spending a lot of time planning and building the scape before water and plants go in really payed off in the long haul. I think that's an easy part of the process to rush, but it's super hard to change big things once you add water. So spend a lot of time with that egg crate when you get it, and don't hurry to fill up the tank.


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## Kntry

Your tank is awesome!

Can you answer some questions for me?

In the back left corner where you built up the substrate with pvc and egg crate, did you put anything else there to minimize the thickness of the soil? I've read that the soil shouldn't be more than 2" deep.

What is the grassy looking plant at the forefront?

Sorry for the questions but I'm just about ready to start my tank.


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## coco4pr3z

Awesome tank man. Really impressive.

Sent from my NX008HD8G using Tapatalk


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## AnotherHobby

Kntry said:


> Your tank is awesome!
> 
> Can you answer some questions for me?
> 
> In the back left corner where you built up the substrate with pvc and egg crate, did you put anything else there to minimize the thickness of the soil? I've read that the soil shouldn't be more than 2" deep.
> 
> What is the grassy looking plant at the forefront?
> 
> Sorry for the questions but I'm just about ready to start my tank.


Sorry it took me a while to drop back in here an answer this. I put nothing in there. The soil is probably 3-4" deep back there. I've had no issue, and I've seen other tanks (even Amano's own) with very deep substrate, so who knows. 

The current new grass in the front is Dwarf Hairgrass 'belem' and the old one was UG (Utricularia graminifolia).


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## Kntry

Thank you for answering my questions.


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## talontsiawd

I guess I missed your updates. I am super happy it all came together. I like the belem, even though it's a common plant, I rarely see a full carpet of it. I was thinking about switch over to it on my tank in the future. 

I have to say it again, I absolutely love your stand. The new pipes, again, just pull it all together. Though I am more into the "clean" look, this design is brilliant.


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## tomfromstlouis

Brian_Cali77 said:


> Nice quality photos and composition. I like how natural it looks with the sun rays.


+1

I get some evening sun shooting into my tank and am always amazed at how glorious it makes everything look. The true colors and low angle makes for a very captivating look. 

Really nice tank you have here.


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## Chiefston

Your tank is awesome, and so is the stand. FYI, I lifted your RGB idea for my tank, almost exactly. Thank you very much for the inspiration. I hope you don't mind if I link to your thread.
Great job, and keep the awesome pics coming!


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## Bserve

Hey, just wondering, where did you get the egg crate? I want to use it instead of lava rock to build up the slope in my tank because it's lightweight.


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## talontsiawd

Bserve said:


> Hey, just wondering, where did you get the egg crate? I want to use it instead of lava rock to build up the slope in my tank because it's lightweight.


You can get that at hardware stores. It's in the lighting section. It's normal use is for diffusing florescent lights. Isn't any sort of specialty product so it should be easy to find.


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## Bserve

talontsiawd said:


> You can get that at hardware stores. It's in the lighting section. It's normal use is for diffusing florescent lights. Isn't any sort of specialty product so it should be easy to find.



Thanks Matt, I'll look tomorrow


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## Centromochlus

How much do you want for those steel pipes?


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## Hilde

AnotherHobby said:


> As for the moss/yogurt thing, it's a method used to get moss to grow on stuff emmersed. Google moss graffiti, and you'll can see pics and read about the method. Basically blending moss and yogurt and then painting it on things.


Did you blend the moss up too?


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## Hilde

AnotherHobby said:


> As for plants bending, they used to do that until I raised the light 4" above the tank. When it was right on top, they bent.


That is probably because the light was so strong they didn't need to reach for it.


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## AnotherHobby

Hilde said:


> Did you blend the moss up too?


Yes, I blended up the moss. It's amazing how much the little pieces got everywhere. I've had the moss removed from the tank for a while now, and I keep finding it everywhere.


----------



## AnotherHobby

*Current Status*

It's been a while since an update. The tank is coming along nicely, but I don't any pictures on hand at the moment (I'm at work). I have made a few changes, but nothing major. However, I have a huge electronics project on the bench that'll take me a long time to finish, and I'm quite excited about it.

What started the project was the death of my cheap RGB LED strip lights. They died a week ago, and were a huge part of the enjoyment of my tank. Allowing for lighting from 6am to midnight has been awesome, as well as adding warmth to the Finnex Ray 2. I needed a replacement, but didn't want to do the same thing again.

I decided to just replace the Ray 2 with something controllable. In my research, the only light that I could control as well as (actually better than) my old setup would be either to (1) build my own from scratch, or (2) get a Current Satellite Plus. One CSP is about half the PAR I was getting with the Ray 2, and I knew I wanted close to the same. Building my own would give me a lot of control and possibilities, but to make it as attractive and a functional as I wanted, it would take a long time and cost at least as much as what I ended up doing. 

So, I bought 2 Current Satellite Plus's. Not cheap at $177, but damn if they don't look great! I've also already built a controller based on the Arduino thread here. It's working great, although it's in a pile on my floor right now. I'll be selling my Ray 2 shortly. It's a great light, I just wanted one I could tinker with.










I'm loving how it the controller and CSP works. With my PAR meter, I was able to dial it in to make sure that my dim evening and morning lights aren't driving growth. Right now I'm doing a similar lighting routine, but with better color rendering than before. I am just using the 4 presets on the CSP, each mixed to the lighting level and color I want. I didn't like any of the built-in preset colors.

6am — lights on
6am — "sun below the horizon" custom color blend
10am — "warm low sun" custom color blend
12pm — "daytime" custom color blend
8pm — "warm low sun" custom color blend
10pm — "sun below the horizon" custom color blend
11pm — "moonlight" custom color blend
2am — lights off

Here it is doing the 8pm switch from "low sun" to "sun below the horizon" (about 3-4 PAR to 0-1 PAR):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MQjFqlo41E

*The Big Electronics Project*

I am going to be building my own touch screen aquarium controller built on an Arduino Mega. I've already ordered all of the parts. I'm using a 320x240 3.2" TFT touch screen. I've found code that can use images as buttons, and while it's pretty complicated, I'm hoping I can figure it all out. I want a simple touch screen interface to do some routine things, and to see the tank status. Here is what I want the controller it to do:


Display Date/Time in GUI
Control both lights independantly (front/back tank lighting) in GUI
Display status of both lights in GUI
Show tank temp in GUI
Schedule lights in code (no GUI needed)
Automated fish feeding timer in GUI (push a button and it turns off filter, circulation pump, inline heater, and CO2 for 10 minutes)
Control all power in GUI (relays for 125v outlets)
Control dosing pumps and schedule in code (no gui needed)
Control CO2 in code (no GUI needed other than power on/off)

I have the code to do all of the functions, but no GUI code yet. Also, I don't need a GUI for any schedules or preferences. I can set all this in code far easier than writing code to change that stuff. I just want it to be simple, useful, and attractive. Who knows if I'll add more in the future (such as scheduling and preferences), but that's where I'm starting.

Below is my planned interface. I designed the whole thing yesterday. It only has 4 screens. It might be overly ambitious, but I may as well shoot for the moon first, and if I can't make it work, I know I can do a far less graphical touch interface GUI.

It's obviously somewhat mimicking an iPhone-esque look. The 4 main app icons will always be at the bottom. Every icon (except the big color fish bowl pic) is a button. The power icons are planned to be toggle on/off and will change color to show current state. As you can see, I plan on 8 power outlets, two of which will be unused initially (7 and 8). The funnel icon is for the filter, and I think the rest is self explanatory.










This should be one heck of a challenge and super fun to build. It's certainly the most ambitious electronics project I've attempted.

Since this is a tank journal, I'll try to get some current pics posted in next day or two.


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## Whiskey

Wow,.. that is quite an ambitious project.

Question,.. have you considered using a Raspberry Pi for the controller instead? It runs Linux, and is capable of some more advanced programing languages. It might be easier to have a raspberry pi run the GUI/Screen and if you want feed directions/Read data from an Arduino to do the control. I think it was a home automation project, but I saw someone use both because the control boards for the Pi were a little pricer, or lacked something they wanted.

Whiskey


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## AnotherHobby

I did consider Raspberry Pi, but I already have almost all of the parts for the Arduino. All I had to order extra was the LCD screen, and it was only $17.49 shipped (evilbay item 271201097446). I also already have an arduino running my dosing pumps and controlling the lights, and I have code for the rest. I have the scheduling and all of that figured out too. The big part have to figure out is the screen. With Raspberry Pi I'd be starting all over.

If I pull it off, I'll gladly share the code.


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## Tyrone

Pictures are always good, but regardless of that, this is a nice update! Very intricate set-up, well to me, not too tech saavy but I try. I'm always learning something new here, I've got to give it to you! I've always liked the Satellite +'s, but just like you said, they're not cheap. Have you seen the new Planted +'s? Almost the same features as the Satellite +'s. I believe they are made by the sister company, Ecoxotic, not too sure so correct me if I'm wrong. I heard they put out more PAR than the Satellites. 

Nice little vid by the way!


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## AnotherHobby

Tyrone said:


> Pictures are always good, but regardless of that, this is a nice update! Very intricate set-up, well to me, not too tech saavy but I try. I'm always learning something new here, I've got to give it to you! I've always liked the Satellite +'s, but just like you said, they're not cheap. Have you seen the new Planted +'s? Almost the same features as the Satellite +'s. I believe they are made by the sister company, Ecoxotic, not too sure so correct me if I'm wrong. I heard they put out more PAR than the Satellites.
> 
> Nice little vid by the way!


Thanks! I waited to see the new Ecoexotic lights before I bought mine, and then still settled on running 2 CSPs instead. One thing I like about running 2 is better light coverage from front to back. If I had a deeper tank, I think the Ecoexotic would definitely be a contender.

I need to do some testing with my PAR meter and compare the CSP to the Ray 2 I have. When I just stuck the PAR meter down there with both CSPs running on full bright, it read 100 PAR, which is fantastic. It seems high though for being about 11-12" from the substrate. The CSP is supposed to be just 36 PAR at 12", so I was expecting maybe 60 or 70.

Maybe it's because the PAR meter's light sensor sticks up almost inch above the substrate, so maybe it's closer to 10". Either way, I need to measure it all and compare it relative to the Ray 2 first, so don't quote me on the 100 PAR number.


----------



## AnotherHobby

It's been a while since some pics. I just did a bunch of trimming and cut out massive amounts of anubias. There is some dark areas in the DHG belem where there was algae that killed some of the grass. Other than that, everything is going quite well right now, with all of the plants growing nicely, and not much algae. I can't believe I grew all of that DHG belem from 1 node, with about 7 blades coming out of it.

I also moved a piece of wood. There was one that was always buried in the reineckii mini and you couldn't see it. I moved it to the right of those and in front of the hydrocotyle.

Here it is with two Current Satellite Plus lights:





































Here is the branch I moved. It looks better here.


----------



## Whiskey

AnotherHobby said:


> I did consider Raspberry Pi, but I already have almost all of the parts for the Arduino. All I had to order extra was the LCD screen, and it was only $17.49 shipped (evilbay item 271201097446). I also already have an arduino running my dosing pumps and controlling the lights, and I have code for the rest. I have the scheduling and all of that figured out too. The big part have to figure out is the screen. With Raspberry Pi I'd be starting all over.
> 
> If I pull it off, I'll gladly share the code.


Makes sense, I'd love to see the code when you get it running.
I'm struggling with the desire to have a menu on mine right now, but I am NOT a programmer. Powershell and JavaScript for Google apps is the closest I come, so the code to make a menu that reads in button presses is proving to be a challenge.

I did make something you might like though! I put together an autotopoff. It reads analog in on one analog line with a 50K ohm resistor to ground, then another digital line is used as a 5V out only during sensing. When the pump runs it pushes the digital out high and waits to read voltage on the analog in.

This is proving effective as long as I average a couple readings, and it means I don't need a huge float valve in my tank. 

Once dosing is complete the digital in is sent low,.. I figure that works as a grounding probe.

I'm using 2 steel finishing nails 1/4 inch apart right now for the probe, but I have stainless steel ones in the mail.

The tank looks great!

Whiskey


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## AnotherHobby

I was thinking about doing something similar with top off. I was really obsessing on it though, because if it wigged out at the wrong time and I wasn't there to catch it, bye bye hardwood floors. After working out different possibilities, I was thinking of adding the top off process into my feeding button. Always watch when I feed them, so at that time I could just have it do an auto-top off routine since I'm watching it anyway. Seemed to me to be the only way I'd trust it.


----------



## Whiskey

AnotherHobby said:


> I was thinking about doing something similar with top off. I was really obsessing on it though, because if it wigged out at the wrong time and I wasn't there to catch it, bye bye hardwood floors. After working out different possibilities, I was thinking of adding the top off process into my feeding button. Always watch when I feed them, so at that time I could just have it do an auto-top off routine since I'm watching it anyway. Seemed to me to be the only way I'd trust it.


I had a similar concern, so I built in a couple fail safes. First, I limit the max time it can top off,.. a couple min in my case with a 10G low tech shrimp tank. It seems to take about 80% of that time on an average day to top off,.. and I have it warn me on the screen if it hits the failsafe. This way I know if I see that warning on the screen day after day something might be wrong.

I also only topoff once per day, at a particular time, and this is the only place I use a while loop so nothing else will interfere.

Finally,.. I have a 1 gallon jug for my topoff container, for a 10G tank. I keep the water level low enough that it will take about a half gallon before overflowing, so 50% of the time a full failure will cause no problems. The other 50% of the time the problems will be minor unlike a constant water source like direct from RO.

Whiskey


----------



## AnotherHobby

Yeah, since it's a rimless tank, I top mine off to just 1/4" to 1/8" from the top (just .15 to .3 gallons to spare). That is why automating a top off makes me nervous. Not much room for error. I'd have to find a very accurate way to sense water level that's not visually unappealing.


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## Asu1776

Check this contraption I made a while back. Probably way too simplistic and unaesthetic for your tastes, but it could be possible to modify it so it's hidden behind your intake pipe. This is how I auto top-off when I go on vacation. 





















AnotherHobby said:


> Yeah, since it's a rimless tank, I top mine off to just 1/4" to 1/8" from the top (just .15 to .3 gallons to spare). That is why automating a top off makes me nervous. Not much room for error. I'd have to find a very accurate way to sense water level that's not visually unappealing.


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## koumchev

Hi, awesome tank ...I love DIY stuff so decide to ask you for help. I have similar autodoser but without the lights control. It is arduino UNO based and adafruit motor shield + RTC 1307. I struggle with the code setting the motors to run and setting the RTC. I have 2 the same as yours peristaltic pumps. Can you help if I post my cdoe and pics with the connections I have made? Thanks


----------



## AnotherHobby

koumchev said:


> Hi, awesome tank ...I love DIY stuff so decide to ask you for help. I have similar autodoser but without the lights control. It is arduino UNO based and adafruit motor shield + RTC 1307. I struggle with the code setting the motors to run and setting the RTC. I have 2 the same as yours peristaltic pumps. Can you help if I post my cdoe and pics with the connections I have made? Thanks


I'd open a new thread for help. I'm not much of an expert, I just try hard.


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## AnotherHobby

Well I have now commenced my touchscreen aquarium controller. First major obstacle has been cleared: getting the touchscreen working with the Arduino Mega 2560 and putting my "dock" icons in their proper locations on the screen. The protective plastic is still on the screen, so it'll look better when I take that off. Looks pretty damn good though!


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## 180g

NICE tank man.


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## Down_Shift

beautiful tank man. that controller looks bad ass too


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## mistuhmarc

The wires coming from that controller looks intimidating hahahahahahaha.


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## 180g

mistuhmarc said:


> the wires coming from that controller looks intimidating hahahahahahaha.


lol


----------



## Whiskey

Ho-ly SMOKE that's allot of wires! Is there any way to run that thing on a serial bus to free up some data lines? Maybe it's not important with the Mega, but it might make for a smaller wire to allow you to position the screen remotely from the rest of the controller. That's what I did with my screen,.. granted for mine I only had to cut it down from 12 wires to 4.

Impressive work!
Whiskey


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## AnotherHobby

Thanks for the positive comments everybody! 



mistuhmarc said:


> The wires coming from that controller looks intimidating hahahahahahaha.


Yes they do. :confused1: 



Whiskey said:


> Ho-ly SMOKE that's allot of wires! Is there any way to run that thing on a serial bus to free up some data lines? Maybe it's not important with the Mega, but it might make for a smaller wire to allow you to position the screen remotely from the rest of the controller. That's what I did with my screen,.. granted for mine I only had to cut it down from 12 wires to 4.
> 
> Impressive work!
> Whiskey


There are 29 wires from the display hooked up now, and I need to hook up 4 more to get the SD card working. My GUI icons may be tiny by modern standards, but they are insanely huge by Arduino standards. Just those 4 icons take up 39% of the Mega's 256 KB of flash memory. Once I get the SD card working, I'll just drop in a 4 GB card and it'll be a non issue.

The Mega has more than enough pins for me to do what I'm doing, so i don't think I'll run into any issues using so many pins. I don't know about making it serial, but I did find plenty of round 40 pin cables that would work pretty well for the final project. Here is one example:










I still have a ton of work to do, but I'm pretty excited that I was able to get this far so quickly.


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## AnotherHobby

Made some good progress tonight. I successfully got the home/overview screen laid out with mock data (drawing lines, text, and icons). I am also successfully registering touch events, so I can tell exactly what buttons I'm pushing. Still lots of work to do, but this is coming along quite well! 

Next big step will be to get the SD card slot working, because I'll need that to store all of the icons.


----------



## ua hua

Very cool project. I would burn down the house if I attempted anything like that.


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## 180g

AnotherHobby said:


> Made some good progress tonight. I successfully got the home/overview screen laid out with mock data (drawing lines, text, and icons). I am also successfully registering touch events, so I can tell exactly what buttons I'm pushing. Still lots of work to do, but this is coming along quite well!
> 
> Next big step will be to get the SD card slot working, because I'll need that to store all of the icons.


now THAT IS BOSS!! :icon_twis


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## Mides

Wow wow wow!


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## AnotherHobby

I gotta say, the dual Satellite Plus setup can really push out some beautiful evening light. This is my custom setting for when they dim down after 8pm. The pic is straight off camera RAW as shot. I just love staring into it.


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## 180g

still very nice man


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## Brian_Cali77

Stellar work on that controller! Way beyond some of us layman. I think Current should hire you to create a controller like that for mass production! 

Anyways, I absolutely love running dual CSP's on my 60p. Colors just look great and it's quite evident in your red plants too -- compared to the pics of when you first started using them.


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## Kntry

What is the carpet plant? Beautiful tank!


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## boxboy

I remember seeing it someplace in these 22 pages, but unable to find itlol
what lights excatly are you using? I know you also added SMD RGB LEDs strip and built a controller, vut Im more intrested what NM values of colors you are using... example 6500k, 445nm ect.

Thanks


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## AnotherHobby

180g said:


> still very nice man


Thanks! 



Brian_Cali77 said:


> Stellar work on that controller! Way beyond some of us layman. I think Current should hire you to create a controller like that for mass production!
> 
> Anyways, I absolutely love running dual CSP's on my 60p. Colors just look great and it's quite evident in your red plants too -- compared to the pics of when you first started using them.


Ha! No mass production here. I'm just doing this because it's super fun. I'll post the code and info when I'm done, but that'll be the extent. 

Your tank was the inspiration to run 2 CSP's, and I absolutely love them. Thank you! The reds are looking much better than before, but some of that is the lighting mix on the CSP's that I'm using in that picture. There is a little algae on the a. reineckii mini, but that's because my wife didn't fertilize at all when I was out of town for 5 days, and my dosing pumps are offline for this new project.



Kntry said:


> What is the carpet plant? Beautiful tank!


The carpet plant is dwarf hairgrass 'belem'.



boxboy said:


> I remember seeing it someplace in these 22 pages, but unable to find itlol
> what lights excatly are you using? I know you also added SMD RGB LEDs strip and built a controller, vut Im more intrested what NM values of colors you are using... example 6500k, 445nm ect.


I've swapped out lights. I'm running two Current Satellite Plus's, and nothing else.


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## Chondrobob

Awesome work!
I have a 30" deep 150gal 1/2 cylinder already have a 48"CPS AND 36 "CPS should I add another 48 CPS ?


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## mistuhmarc

Went back to look at your arduino codes and projects with the automatic dosing and the light controllers. I have to say, it was fun to read, and I've been thinking about doing something like that myself in the future once I have funds for it. Question! How difficult is it to be able to put something like that together? I'm sure it requires a lot of work to get all the wires together. As a total noob to arduinos, I know I have a lot of research to look through before I can fully use one to my advantage.


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## AnotherHobby

Chondrobob said:


> Awesome work!
> I have a 30" deep 150gal 1/2 cylinder already have a 48"CPS AND 36 "CPS should I add another 48 CPS ?


I am not a lighting expert. Do you have access to a PAR meter to see where you are at?



mistuhmarc said:


> Went back to look at your arduino codes and projects with the automatic dosing and the light controllers. I have to say, it was fun to read, and I've been thinking about doing something like that myself in the future once I have funds for it. Question! How difficult is it to be able to put something like that together? I'm sure it requires a lot of work to get all the wires together. As a total noob to arduinos, I know I have a lot of research to look through before I can fully use one to my advantage.


How hard? It's tough for me to judge. I'm an IT nerd by trade, do occasional programming, and have a pretty firm grasp of electricity and electronics. For me it was not hard, but I think how hard it is shouldn't matter. If it looks like something you'd like to do, you could totally figure it out, and learn all sorts of new things at the same time. If you didn't take on challenges, life would be boring. That's why I decided to dig into this. I'm learning tons of stuff and it's super fun for me.

Same thing goes for planted tanks. I didn't get into them because I thought it'd be easy.


----------



## Chondrobob

Originally Posted by Chondrobob 
Awesome work!
I have a 30" deep 150gal 1/2 cylinder already have a 48"CPS AND 36 "CPS should I add another 48 CPS ?



The PAR value for 1 SAT+ 12" deep is 36 micromols and at 24" is at 21 micromols.. No info on 30" PAR, what would be optimal PAR at that depth? Also i need to consider it's 30inches wide at the center convex..


----------



## AnotherHobby

Chondrobob said:


> The PAR value for 1 SAT+ 12" deep is 36 micromols and at 24" is at 21 micromols.. No info on 30" PAR, what would be optimal PAR at that depth? Also i need to consider it's 30inches wide at the center convex..


I think I'd open a new thread to get input from people that know better than I. Maybe somebody local has a PAR meter they can loan you. I have no idea how much your PAR would drop off at 30" vs 24" deep, and how much PAR you want is going to be dependent on plant mass, plant selection, and if you are dosing ferts and have CO2.

Really cool wood in your tank by the way!


----------



## AnotherHobby

Here is a video of my own interface and my own touch screen code all working together to control 125v relays, so that I can control the power on all of the aquarium accessories.

This is the feeding routing concept test, where I hit the feeding button, and it flips 3 relays (pumps, CO2, heat). Then I press stop and it flips the relays back.

In the video I double tapped the icons because I was touching the screen too soft trying to not bump it out of the clamps holding it in place. The code does not require double tapping.

This was a pretty exciting moment for me.


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## 180g

this defines hi tech. :hihi:


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## minority

Such a wonderful read 
Looks like you are making good progress - I was going to ask how you got the CSPs to communicate with the Arduino, but in looking up CSPs & Arduino I stumbled upon another thread here that describes exactly how to do it.... After reading your thread I realised I have to try this out.. first step: automatic dosing pumps.

Any ideas on where you'll place the touchscreen display when you're done - out and about for everyone to see or hidden away?

Keep us updated!


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## AnotherHobby

minority said:


> Such a wonderful read
> Looks like you are making good progress - I was going to ask how you got the CSPs to communicate with the Arduino, but in looking up CSPs & Arduino I stumbled upon another thread here that describes exactly how to do it.... After reading your thread I realised I have to try this out.. first step: automatic dosing pumps.
> 
> Any ideas on where you'll place the touchscreen display when you're done - out and about for everyone to see or hidden away?
> 
> Keep us updated!


Thanks! That's the thread where I got all of my info. There are threads on controlling lights, temps, dosing pumps, power, and other things, but none all together. I hope I can pull it off. 

As for the touch screen, I haven't decided where it'll go yet. My current idea is in a custom made acrylic housing on top of the box with all of the electronics in it. I haven't really made up my mind on that yet. It's a little bit of putting the cart before the horse. I want to make sure I can pull it all off.


----------



## AnotherHobby

Took a few pics tonight. The tank is looking healthy and the fish are happy. Once again, the pics are taken with my evening lighting setting. I just trimmed yesterday, so some of the plants are looking shorter than normal.


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## vegakat

That is beautiful! Great job.


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## ringram

Very nice tank!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## AnotherHobby

vegakat said:


> That is beautiful! Great job.





ringram said:


> Very nice tank!


Thanks! 

So I've completed 100% proof of concept with my touchscreen controller. I haven't achieved 100% satisfaction, but I can do 100% of what I wanted. 


Successfully implemented the GUI I designed
Touch responds nicely and is easy to program
Temperature sensor works flawlessly
Clock module keeps time
SD card stores graphics, log files, and preferences
125v Power relays are easily controlled and scheduled
Dosing pumps are easily controlled and scheduled
Both Current Satellite Plus's are controlled easily/independently via IR
All electronics, relays, CO2, and both lights can be run from a single high quality 12v Power supply

** note: these have all been accomplished independently, and some together, but I haven't put it all into one big arduino project together yet.

The only disappointment is that since the arduino can't hold all of the icons/graphics in memory, it must read the icons from an SD card, and this is slow. I haven't decided if the cool looking GUI is worth the speed hit. I can draw the screen almost instantly with simple looking buttons that aren't images. It's only for me, so I don't know how much I care. It's mostly the power screen and lights screens that draw slow. 

Here is a demo of it booting to the home screen, and then loading the power screen (the icon color is the actual status of the relay), and then toggling some relays. The screen doesn't photograph/record well, but looks great in person. It you watch it on youtube you can toggle 1080p and see it much better.


----------



## minority

AnotherHobby said:


> As for the touch screen, I haven't decided where it'll go yet. My current idea is in a custom made acrylic housing on top of the box with all of the electronics in it. I haven't really made up my mind on that yet. It's a little bit of putting the cart before the horse. I want to make sure I can pull it all off.


I know, I just tend to get carried away dreaming about all the things you can do. I have placed an order for the parts so I soon can start tinkering myself , soon I get to live out all my ideas.

And I see now you've completed it!



AnotherHobby said:


> The only disappointment is that since the arduino can't hold all of the icons/graphics in memory, it must read the icons from an SD card, and this is slow. I haven't decided if the cool looking GUI is worth the speed hit. I can draw the screen almost instantly with simple looking buttons that aren't images. It's only for me, so I don't know how much I care. It's mostly the power screen and lights screens that draw slow.
> 
> Here is a demo of it booting to the home screen, and then loading the power screen (the icon color is the actual status of the relay), and then toggling some relays. The screen doesn't photograph/record well, but looks great in person. It you watch it on youtube you can toggle 1080p and see it much better.


Before playing the video I was thinking "it can't be that slow" but it is actually as slow as you say . But to be fair - it seems like it's the initial load on screen change that's tiring to wait for... I think the screen looks good though - even on video.

- the power supply you're using, what is it rated for?


----------



## AnotherHobby

minority said:


> And I see now you've completed it!


Well... completed accomplishing all of my tests. Now I have to actually build it and tie all the code together.




> Before playing the video I was thinking "it can't be that slow" but it is actually as slow as you say . But to be fair - it seems like it's the initial load on screen change that's tiring to wait for... I think the screen looks good though - even on video.
> 
> - the power supply you're using, what is it rated for?


I'm pretty sure the power supply is 3A.

Yeah, it's very slow to load the icons. It's not bad when you a toggle power relay, because I don't redraw the screen, I just draw that 1 icon in place. However, waiting so long for a whole screen of icons to load is painful.

I did find out that I can make my own custom "fonts" for the UTFT library. I could make a font set of the white part of the icons. The fonts are 1 bit (basically black/white with no anti-aliasing), so they wouldn't look nearly as good as my gradient icons with anti-aliasing. However, they would draw very fast because I can use the button library and the font instead of reading images off the SD card.

This is the full color dock I have now:










And this is how they'd look if I made them draw super fast instead (either with or without a white border):



















So basically, I'd just draw what the library calls a round rectangle, and then just write "text" over it in the form of the icon.

I'm going to code this next to see how I feel about it.


----------



## minority

Worth trying the super fast font icons - they still look good!

Also, the text that is displayed on screen as far as I can see isn't anti-aliased, maybe the font icons with no gradient will blend in naturally with the rest of the text, and you won't miss the gradients so much.

Or a settings menu to switch between the two types of button: high and low-res? That way depending on your mood you can switch between them.

Another question: I saw some other Arduino solution that included a menu to control scheduling, not something you want to include in yours?

Kasper


----------



## AnotherHobby

minority said:


> Worth trying the super fast font icons - they still look good!


It was definitely worth it. The interface is now nice and responsive!



> Also, the text that is displayed on screen as far as I can see isn't anti-aliased, maybe the font icons with no gradient will blend in naturally with the rest of the text, and you won't miss the gradients so much.
> 
> Or a settings menu to switch between the two types of button: high and low-res? That way depending on your mood you can switch between them.


Now that I've tested my flat icons, it's just way too fast to change moods. As much as I like the gradient icons, they are too slow, and as you said, they actually don't really match the fonts that aren't anti-aliased anyway.



> Another question: I saw some other Arduino solution that included a menu to control scheduling, not something you want to include in yours?


At this time, I'm not planning on it, but I might do it for fun. This project is just for me, and I never change schedules. If I did, it's just a few lines of code to adjust, vs building a whole GUI for scheduling that I'll almost never use. I'm not ruling it out though.

Here is how far I got tonight. Home screen is unchanged other than the new fast icons and better fonts. The feeding routine now keeps track of itself, so I can do other stuff and come back to it. When I do that, it lets me stop feeding, restart the timer on the feeding, or resume the timer. The power screen is all done and fully functional. The only thing left in the GUI right now is the lights screen, which will probably be done tomorrow. After that, I just have to tie in the rest of my code (lighting schedule, dosing pump schedule, CO2 schedule) and then do the massive task of actually building and doing final wiring.

Here is a demo of everything but the lighting screen (1080p if you watch on youtube):


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## ua hua

Ok, when do these go into production? :help:

I would buy one in a heartbeat. Very cool!

I'm both amazed at your talent to build something like this and your photography skills. I have to admit I'm a little envious.


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## minority

It looks really good, what an improvement in speed. You actually see the difference on the feeding? screen where the fish bowl image is loaded. That and the boot screen. Regarding the settings menu for scheduling, I thought maybe someday if you got another tank you'd appreciate the ability to change this on the screen, instead of having to adjust the code.

Keep the posts coming 


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


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## AnotherHobby

ua hua said:


> Ok, when do these go into production? :help:
> 
> I would buy one in a heartbeat. Very cool!
> 
> I'm both amazed at your talent to build something like this and your photography skills. I have to admit I'm a little envious.


Thanks! And they won't be going into production. HA! I will share all of my code and what I did though. It's not really that hard if you are a technical person.



minority said:


> It looks really good, what an improvement in speed. You actually see the difference on the feeding? screen where the fish bowl image is loaded. That and the boot screen. Regarding the settings menu for scheduling, I thought maybe someday if you got another tank you'd appreciate the ability to change this on the screen, instead of having to adjust the code.


The speed is infinitely faster! It actually feels nice and quick now (except for drawing the feeding fish bowl, but I don't care with that).

I wouldn't be surprised if I end up putting scheduling in there later. I tend to tinker and not leave things alone (in case you haven't noticed).


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## AnotherHobby

*Rethinking my Dosing Pump Situation*

So I haven't used my dosing pumps since about 3 weeks after I built them. The problem was that lifting the liquid 42" up to the tank created pressure in the lines, and the liquid would slowly creep back down as it slowly forced it's way through the pump (maybe 1" per day). I tried a couple of check valves, but it didn't work. I stopped using it until I could come up with something better.

After thinking about it long enough, I figured that if I could have the ferts up at the water level, then there wouldn't be any/much pressure on the pumps since the in/out are at the same height. I just needed to figure out how to do that attractively and simply. Here is what I've been working on.

I bought two 50mL glass syringes that have a large enough opening on the bottom and a lip at the top. They will easily hold 60mL worth of liquid ferts no problem. This is one weeks worth of ferts if I mix it for a 10mL dose, or 2 weeks if I do a 5mL dose. So I just fill them back up when I change the water. I'm going to use 2 big corks to loosely plug the top. I also bought 2 long glass J hooks that hang on the tanks and are meant for CO2. These will feed the ferts back into the tank. 

The trick was mounting the syringes to the tank attractively and securely. I ended up making a bracket out of aluminum flashing that simply hangs on the glass. I cut two holes it in to slide the syringes through. The tubing is pressure fit into the inside of the syringes nozzle (a little KY and stubbornness). 

You cannot really see this side of the tank in the room, but I still wanted it to look nice. You cannot even see the syringes from where I sit, or from really anywhere in the room due to the reflection off the inside of the glass. 

Glass Syringes: $26.78 total for both, shipped from China
Glass J Hooks: $9.98 total for both, shipped from China
Aluminum flashing and tubing: $0 had on hand


----------



## [email protected]

*styrofoam support*

just realize your tank wasn't put on top of a Styrofoam, is it easily subject to break ?
furthermore it is a custom made stand, you must be a really good carpenter


----------



## Ecas32

This is unbelievable. You sir, are a very smart man! You will need to create a how-to guide for idiots like me to even make use of your code you're gonna make available. And charge people a little bit for it man! You deserve something for this lol.

Beautiful tank btw!


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## minority

Looking nice.

I'm pretty sure a design feature/advantage of a peristaltic pump is no back flow. I'm guessing they hadn't considered the height difference you have, or the quality of peristaltic pumps can be had better. Watch out that your corks don't actually plug the top of the syringes or else the pressure will be back - you could place a hole in the side of the cork to ensure no pressure build up, but still keeping debris/dirt out of the syringes (I'm assuming that's what they are for).


Please do post a video of the whole setup in action when you get so far!



Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


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## AnotherHobby

[email protected] said:


> just realize your tank wasn't put on top of a Styrofoam, is it easily subject to break ?
> furthermore it is a custom made stand, you must be a really good carpenter


No, it won't easily break. Lots of tanks aren't on styrofoam. It's sitting on a 1" thick table top I made out of 1x3's, on top of 2x4's and 4x4's. I'm not worried in the least, and it's already been sitting there almost exactly a year. roud:



Ecas32 said:


> This is unbelievable. You sir, are a very smart man! You will need to create a how-to guide for idiots like me to even make use of your code you're gonna make available. And charge people a little bit for it man! You deserve something for this lol.


Ha! Thanks. Well I do this for fun, so no need to make any money. This tank wouldn't even exist if it wasn't for all of the free advice, information, and learning that this site provides. 



minority said:


> I'm pretty sure a design feature/advantage of a peristaltic pump is no back flow. I'm guessing they hadn't considered the height difference you have, or the quality of peristaltic pumps can be had better. Watch out that your corks don't actually plug the top of the syringes or else the pressure will be back - you could place a hole in the side of the cork to ensure no pressure build up, but still keeping debris/dirt out of the syringes (I'm assuming that's what they are for).
> 
> 
> Please do post a video of the whole setup in action when you get so far!


Yeah they do block back flow, but like you said, I don't think these are meant to hold 42" of liquid. They were only $14 pumps, and aren't exactly medical grade. I don't think they are meant for precision. That said, you can get more than enough precision for fert dosing with programming and a little ingenuity.

I'll post a video of it working when it's done.


----------



## AnotherHobby

Today I got my auto doser working again along with putting the project back in it's box, and mounting the IR LED through the box. This needed to get back up and running in a safe box again, because it'll be a while before I finish my bigger arduino project.


Here is the auto-doser and Current Satellite Plus controller. You can see the LED coming out the top of the box, and the 2 CSP IR receivers hanging over the top of it.










And here is one last pic of the liquid fert containers, all filled up and ready for the week! It'll be nice to not have to remember to do this every day.


----------



## AnotherHobby

Also, in case anybody is curious, here is my dosing mix:

*Marco Mix* (mixed into 16 ounces of water)
2 tbsp	KNO3
1.5 tsp	KH2PO4
1.5 tsp	K2SO4

*Micro Mix* (mixed into 16 ounces of water)
1.5 tsp Micros
3/4 tsp	Iron

16 ounces of water with those amounts provides 48 doses of 10 mL each, matching the recommended EI dosing amounts for a tank this size. The only variance from standard EI dosing is the extra Iron in the micro mix. I do that for the red plants.

With 6 doses per week, that's exactly 8 weeks of dosing. So I get 2 months out of each mix. I got the ferts from GLA.


----------



## AnotherHobby

Normally I'm good with my math, but for some reason it escaped me that my dosing is every other day from each tube. Thus it's 3 doses per week from each tube, and not 6. I just looked at my ferts and wondered why they are only about 1/2 empty on Friday. It dawned on me that 60 mL of 10 mL doses is two weeks. 

My whole touchscreen arduino aquarium controller project is going a little bonkers with the GUI. I figured out how to make the SD card read data FAST, so now I'm back to gradient buttons and I'm adding way more features that I originally planned. For now I'm going to hold off on posting much more until I'm done so I don't clutter this thread up with Arduino stuff. I think I'll just start a new thread with all of the parts, code, graphics, and schematics when I'm done.

The tank is looking very lush and healthy. Right now I'm trying to decide if I should keep trimming it as it is, or start letting the hydrocotyle start to grow low and in front of the a. reineckii mini. _Ignoring_ color differences in the red plants (the CSP lights rock!), do you prefer the a. reineckii mini more exposed as in the second picture, or the hydrocotyle transitioning across from right to left as in the second picture (I'm referring to the bright green clover looking plant sweeping across the bushy red plants). I'm torn, because I really like both.


----------



## Asu1776

AnotherHobby said:


> The tank is looking very lush and healthy. Right now I'm trying to decide if I should keep trimming it as it is, or start letting the hydrocotyle start to grow low and in front of the a. reineckii mini. _Ignoring_ color differences in the red plants (the CSP lights rock!), do you prefer the a. reineckii mini more exposed as in the second picture, or the hydrocotyle transitioning across from right to left as in the second picture (I'm referring to the bright green clover looking plant sweeping across the bushy red plants). I'm torn, because I really like both.


I like having the Hydrocotyle transitioning in front of the A. reineckii mini. I think that the bottoms of the A. reineckii end up looking a little raggedly, so the Hydrocotyle keeps it looking clean and tidy and transitions the foreground well. However, when I tried what you did, I found it a bit of a PITA trimming the hydrocotyle and controlling runners from invading other areas. I eventually always have to rip it out and start again. Aesthetically, I think the transition is better. My 2 cents. Either way, this is the most advanced, worry free tank.


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## talontsiawd

Asu1776 said:


> I like having the Hydrocotyle transitioning in front of the A. reineckii mini. I think that the bottoms of the A. reineckii end up looking a little raggedly, so the Hydrocotyle keeps it looking clean and tidy and transitions the foreground well. However, when I tried what you did, I found it a bit of a PITA trimming the hydrocotyle and controlling runners from invading other areas. I eventually always have to rip it out and start again. Aesthetically, I think the transition is better. My 2 cents. Either way, this is the most advanced, worry free tank.


I wouldn't have noticed as much until you posted but I agree. Add some Hydrocotyle ASAP haha. It does give a really good "late foreground" or low midground, however you want to say.

I do love the Belem or whatever Hair Grass you are using, more than the UG to be honest. UG is nice looking but the Hair Grass looks more "delicate" where the UG looks beefy and full. We all know why that changed but I do think it actually looks better, more than being more practical.

In general, I think a blend of the old scape and the new would be perfect. I like the Hydrocotyle, as said, I also like the Blyxa at the base of the branch. However, I like the more defined stem groupings of the current tank, must be stunning in person.


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## AnotherHobby

Asu1776 said:


> I like having the Hydrocotyle transitioning in front of the A. reineckii mini. I think that the bottoms of the A. reineckii end up looking a little raggedly, so the Hydrocotyle keeps it looking clean and tidy and transitions the foreground well. However, when I tried what you did, I found it a bit of a PITA trimming the hydrocotyle and controlling runners from invading other areas. I eventually always have to rip it out and start again. Aesthetically, I think the transition is better. My 2 cents. Either way, this is the most advanced, worry free tank.


I really don't mind trimming the Hydrocotyle. I find it easy to trim because I can just hack it up like a hedge and it looks great within a day or two. It just grows super fast, so you have to stay on top of it. I have to trim weekly anyway, so it's fine by me.

Aesthetically, I think I also like it transitioning across better too, and that's a good point that the bottom of the a. reineckii isn't that nice looking anyway. I think I like it because it's so bright and can create really cool visual flow.



talontsiawd said:


> I wouldn't have noticed as much until you posted but I agree. Add some Hydrocotyle ASAP haha. It does give a really good "late foreground" or low midground, however you want to say.
> 
> I do love the Belem or whatever Hair Grass you are using, more than the UG to be honest. UG is nice looking but the Hair Grass looks more "delicate" where the UG looks beefy and full. We all know why that changed but I do think it actually looks better, more than being more practical.
> 
> In general, I think a blend of the old scape and the new would be perfect. I like the Hydrocotyle, as said, I also like the Blyxa at the base of the branch. However, I like the more defined stem groupings of the current tank, must be stunning in person.


Thanks for the input on the scape. I also like that blyxa at the base. If you look at the second pic, a tiny piece is floating in the same spot — it popped loose and I didn't notice it until after I took the pic. It's so small it's growing insanely slow, but it's been planted where the downoi used to be.

I don't mind it looking a lot like it did at first. I loved the layout when I originally came up with it, and I still do. I've only had it a year, with ups and downs, so I'd like to enjoy it for quite while longer.

I also like the looks of the dwarf hair grass 'belem' better than the UG, now that it's filled in. I get what you mean by "delicate" in that it's thinner and each blade is more visible than the UG. I still can't believe I grew ALL of it from this one piece!


----------



## AnotherHobby

Here is a little teaser on my DIY touchscreen Arduino aquarium controller. SD card now reads very fast, so I can have fun with heavy graphics.

I might be over doing this thing a little. 

The Home screen shows date, time, temp, hours since last feeding, current light mode for both lights, doses remaining in each of my fert reservoirs, current status of power outputs, and access to other apps (extras is also a screen of more apps).

8 other apps/screens are also done. I'm having way too much fun. :bounce:


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## mistuhmarc

AnotherHobby said:


> I also like the looks of the dwarf hair grass 'belem' better than the UG, now that it's filled in. I get what you mean by "delicate" in that it's thinner and each blade is more visible than the UG. I still can't believe I grew ALL of it from this one piece!


Ah yes, the beauty of dwarf hairgrass 'belem' . I'm growing it too, and I have to say, once it fills in, it looks beautiful.


----------



## Aquadawg

Wow! 

I stumbled upon this thread 90 minutes ago and have been hooked ever since. I've been doing this for 46 years now and even so I have learned an absolute ton of information from all of these posts.

Your tank is absolutely fantastic. Both before and after your "tsunami". Staying with it after an episode like that and so generously giving out information throughout this process says a lot about you as a person too. You will find as I have that it just gets in your blood after a while. Remember the 8 foot space in your home is bare for a reason 

I have one question for you and some advice as well. Have you had any problems with your pleckos uprooting plants? It doesn't look like it but I thought I would ask anyway. Now the advice. Do yourself a favor and get about four ****** loaches. They will help to keep the tank clean, won't effect your bio-load, look amazing in the belem... (great contrast), get along great with every fish you have, and are an absolute blast to watch.

Thank you again for starting such an incredible tread. I'll be sure to check back in with you soon.


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## vraev

Just absolutely spectacular. I would love to make something like this for my terrarium. Unfortuntely I suck at programming stuff. I tend to get ready made stuff even if they cost more. I have two independent timers to control lighting (all or none) and one second timer for a misting system. I also hooked up a hygrotherm to control fans, but need to hook up the humidifier and fan to get better control.


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## AnotherHobby

Aquadawg said:


> Wow!
> 
> I stumbled upon this thread 90 minutes ago and have been hooked ever since. I've been doing this for 46 years now and even so I have learned an absolute ton of information from all of these posts.
> 
> Your tank is absolutely fantastic. Both before and after your "tsunami". Staying with it after an episode like that and so generously giving out information throughout this process says a lot about you as a person too. You will find as I have that it just gets in your blood after a while. Remember the 8 foot space in your home is bare for a reason
> 
> I have one question for you and some advice as well. Have you had any problems with your pleckos uprooting plants? It doesn't look like it but I thought I would ask anyway. Now the advice. Do yourself a favor and get about four ****** loaches. They will help to keep the tank clean, won't effect your bio-load, look amazing in the belem... (great contrast), get along great with every fish you have, and are an absolute blast to watch.
> 
> Thank you again for starting such an incredible tread. I'll be sure to check back in with you soon.


Thanks! It's a giant and continual learning experience for me, and I love that we have this place to share and learn form each other. Regarding my plecos, they have not been uprooting anything. They've been really well behaved other than chasing the cories a little at feeding time.

As for the kuhli loach, that's interesting because I bought 2 of them last winter, and both died within a day. I have no idea why, and I've never had anything else die after being introduced. I thought they were super cool, but I've been gun shy about replacing them.



vraev said:


> Just absolutely spectacular. Can you please share some links on where I can learn from the very ABCDs to start doing such programming and how to create those controllers? I have a terrarium with automated misting and multiple LED lights. Would love to create a localized touchscreen controller for each light, scheduling, fans, misting etc.


Thanks! The auto doser is what started me on the Arduino stuff. The thread that got me going was on here on TPT: Arduino auto dosser. From that thread I was able to build a simple 2 pump auto-doser. Just doing that project taught me a lot. While messing with that, I figured out that I could control cheap LED strip lights. I'm not sure where I got that info, but the snowball was rolling down hill, and I was figuring it out. I learned about the touch screen and how to make it work from this LED lights controller with TFT LCD touch screen thread (named Stilo). I learned how to control the Current Satellite Plus lights via IR from this thread here on TPT: Guide: Arduino based LED controller for Current Satellite LED+.

So it's kind of all over the place.

It came pretty easy to me because I've worked in IT for almost 20 years, so I have a very technical background, and my brain is also geared for this stuff. I've done lots of programming and scripting, but never in C or C++, so that was new. However, I had a very firm grasp of programming structure in general, and many languages are quite similar. The Arduino site has massive amounts of info and is super helpful. Google is also your best friend. 

Making the GUI graphics was easy for me because I work in the graphic industry and I'm pretty comfortable in Photoshop. I can post the PS files, but if a super slick GUI isn't that big of deal, there are button libraries that are easier to use and save a ton of work. (see the Stilo touch screen link above)

The best way to figure it out is just to dive in and start building what you want. As you work through it, you'll start to figure everything out. There is nothing like just digging in and doing hands on work. That's how you learn. I think that with the help of the Internet, most smart people can figure this out given enough time, interest, and patience.

The parts are super cheap for the most part. An off brand Mega is just $17. The TFT screen was also just $17 on evilbay (item 271201097446). The SD card reader was just $2.50. A breadboard is about $4 and wires will run you another $3 per 70 pieces. After that the parts you need will depend on your build, but less than $50 you'll have enough to build the core of what you need for a full touch screen controller. I got almost all of my stuff off DX.com because it's so cheap, although shipping is slow because it's in China (usually a couple of weeks).


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## talontsiawd

I absolutely love your autodoser.  I never would think of putting them outside of the stand, in view so you can make sure everything is going as planned with just a quick look. Very attractive and functional. Great work.


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## Aquadawg

Your kuhli loaches may have been starved when you got them. They don't do well in most fish stores. They need plant growth and lots of it since their eyelids are transparant, as well as proper food that your tank provides. They'd love algae wafers that fall in your belem. Do a one hour drip acclamation and give about four poor khuli loaches living in some pvc pipe another chance.


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## vraev

AnotherHobby said:


> Thanks! The auto doser is what started me on the Arduino stuff. The thread that got me going was on here on TPT: Arduino auto dosser. From that thread I was able to build a simple 2 pump auto-doser. Just doing that project taught me a lot. While messing with that, I figured out that I could control cheap LED strip lights. I'm not sure where I got that info, but the snowball was rolling down hill, and I was figuring it out. I learned about the touch screen and how to make it work from this LED lights controller with TFT LCD touch screen thread (named Stilo). I learned how to control the Current Satellite Plus lights via IR from this thread here on TPT: Guide: Arduino based LED controller for Current Satellite LED+.
> 
> So it's kind of all over the place.
> 
> It came pretty easy to me because I've worked in IT for almost 20 years, so I have a very technical background, and my brain is also geared for this stuff. I've done lots of programming and scripting, but never in C or C++, so that was new. However, I had a very firm grasp of programming structure in general, and many languages are quite similar. The Arduino site has massive amounts of info and is super helpful. Google is also your best friend.
> 
> Making the GUI graphics was easy for me because I work in the graphic industry and I'm pretty comfortable in Photoshop. I can post the PS files, but if a super slick GUI isn't that big of deal, there are button libraries that are easier to use and save a ton of work. (see the Stilo touch screen link above)
> 
> The best way to figure it out is just to dive in and start building what you want. As you work through it, you'll start to figure everything out. There is nothing like just digging in and doing hands on work. That's how you learn. I think that with the help of the Internet, most smart people can figure this out given enough time, interest, and patience.
> 
> The parts are super cheap for the most part. An off brand Mega is just $17. The TFT screen was also just $17 on evilbay (item 271201097446). The SD card reader was just $2.50. A breadboard is about $4 and wires will run you another $3 per 70 pieces. After that the parts you need will depend on your build, but less than $50 you'll have enough to build the core of what you need for a full touch screen controller. I got almost all of my stuff off DX.com because it's so cheap, although shipping is slow because it's in China (usually a couple of weeks).


Thanks a lot for the links and detailed reply. I will check those out and see if I can order one of those beginner sets to play with.


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## AnotherHobby

I really love this dark little corner under the anubias at the base of the branch. This is taken with my late evening lighting, which is very dim and doesn't even register on a PAR meter.


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## 180g

reminds me of a mangrove forest.

very calming.


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## Brian_Cali77

Beautiful! The advantage of having dimming options in these LEDs is like having the "golden hour" (aka: magic hour) in photography.


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## AnotherHobby

Brian_Cali77 said:


> Beautiful! The advantage of having dimming options in these LEDs is like having the "golden hour" (aka: magic hour) in photography.


That is definitely a big advantage of dimmable LEDs for photographing the tank. For me, I really love that I can run my lights longer. I have them dialed back so the light is dim enough to be zero PAR, but bright enough to see in the tank quite well. As such, I can enjoy viewing the tank all morning before they turn bright at noon, and all evening after they go dim at 8pm.

I don't think I'd ever buy a fixed brightness LED again. Dimming is just far to great of an advantage.


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## AnotherHobby

Earlier this week I started training/moving/trimming the hydrocotyle to grow across to the left in front of the alternanthera reineckii mini. Another 2 weeks and it should be a nice little shrub in between it and the dwarf hairgrass belem (which is really thickening up).


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## AnotherHobby

For any of you that were wondering where my controller project was at, here is a new thread dedicated to it: 
iAqua: My Touch Interface Aquarium Controller (Arduino)​It's taken on a life of it's own.


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## AnotherHobby

The tank is looking healthy, happy, and colorful!


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## mistuhmarc

AnotherHobby said:


> The tank is looking healthy, happy, and colorful!


I really love the color coming off of your tank. It's making me really want to switch lights so that I can get the same light off of my tank .


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## AnotherHobby

mistuhmarc said:


> I really love the color coming off of your tank. It's making me really want to switch lights so that I can get the same light off of my tank .


Thanks!

The color you can get out of these lights is beautiful. For reference, that's not even close to full bright. The whites (where all the power is) are only at level 4 out of 42. Red is 100% full at 42, green is at only 8 out of 42, and 0 blue. It's a late afternoon/early evening feel, and it's a time that I'm frequently by my tank.

I don't do this just to get good photos (but it's the perfect light for it). This is my "mid sun" setting, and it's how the lights are from about 8pm until about 10pm. By 10pm they go to "late sun," with the white at zero, and green and blue come up a bit for a late sunset feel. That's too dark for good photos.

During the day it's much brighter, you loose a bit of the color, the shadows fill up with light, and photos don't look as good — just like outside on planet Earth.

Bump: I also forgot to mention, I added some Hygrophila Pinnatifida on the left by the rotola and lidwigia red, and I added two Ludwigia inclinata var. Tornado over on the right (to help hide the intake pipe).


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## Emplanted

Love the colours in the tank. Everything just pops so well! Beautiful.


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## bluelife

Superb looking tank , just love the vibrant mix of colors . What is the reddish pink plant to the leftmost of your tank?


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## BruceF

This is great.


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## AnotherHobby

bluelife said:


> Superb looking tank , just love the vibrant mix of colors . What is the reddish pink plant to the leftmost of your tank?


On the far left, the more orangish pinkish one with really long leaves is hygrophila pinnatifida, and the bright red one is rotala sp. red.

I just added the hygrophila a couple of weeks ago. I wanted for the leaf shape and different color. I thought it would fit in well back there, and I'm really happy with how it turned out.


----------



## OVT

AnotherHobby said:


> On the far left, the more pinkish one with really long leaves is hygrophila pinnatifida, and the bright red one is rotala sp. red.


I think you meant Ludwigia sp red ?

Anyways, I got a color shock, had to squint my eyes. Talk about red!


v3


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## AnotherHobby

OVT said:


> I think you meant Ludwigia sp red ?
> 
> Anyways, I got a color shock, had to squint my eyes. Talk about red!
> 
> 
> v3


Doh! Yes, I did mean ludwigia. It's early and I'm still working on my coffee.


----------



## sma

Do you use an equipment to break up surface scrum and oil? or anything to add aeration?


----------



## AnotherHobby

sma said:


> Do you use an equipment to break up surface scrum and oil? or anything to add aeration?


I do get plenty of film on the surface. I've been using the Hydor Koralia Nano 240 circulation pump really close to the surface of the water, but it doesn't seem to make much of a difference with the film. 

What I've found works best is paper towels. About half way through the week I'll just lay dry paper towels over the surface of the water, let them soak up the film for a second, and then pull them out. Two paper towels just about cover the top of my tank. It usually takes 3 times to get all of it. So 6 paper towels a week. Pretty cheap, and takes less than a minute. roud:

I've been thinking about other options, but that's what I'm doing for now.


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## Brian_Cali77

Try the Eheim Skim 350. I used to run it 24/7 but due to the small sponge inside, it would require weekly cleaning to unclog it. But now that I have it on a timer for 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours at night (after co2 & photoperiod) I get crystal clear surface and no weekly maintenance on the skimmer. You could probably work the skimmer in your automated "everything" controller


----------



## lamiskool

Brian_Cali77 said:


> Try the Eheim Skim 350. I used to run it 24/7 but due to the small sponge inside, it would require weekly cleaning to unclog it. But now that I have it on a timer for 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours at night (after co2 & photoperiod) I get crystal clear surface and no weekly maintenance on the skimmer. You could probably work the skimmer in your automated "everything" controller


THIS!!! One of the best things you can buy and its pretty cheap and works perfectly. Havnt had to worry bout suface scum after getting this.


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## AnotherHobby

Brian_Cali77 said:


> Try the Eheim Skim 350. I used to run it 24/7 but due to the small sponge inside, it would require weekly cleaning to unclog it. But now that I have it on a timer for 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours at night (after co2 & photoperiod) I get crystal clear surface and no weekly maintenance on the skimmer. You could probably work the skimmer in your automated "everything" controller


Maybe I'll try that out. I just have a huge aversion to putting equipment in the tank. Although, I could probably hide it in the back left corner somewhat. (edit: I just ordered one)

Also, I already have power control and scheduling in my controller. It's only coded to allow for one "on" time and one "off" time for each power output, but I could obviously change that if I needed.


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## Brian_Cali77

Just wondering where you have the hydor koralia, if you don't like equipment in the tank? Anyways, I think you'll be able to conceal the eheim skim in the back left corner behind the hygrophila pinnatifida.


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## AnotherHobby

Brian_Cali77 said:


> Just wondering where you have the hydor koralia, if you don't like equipment in the tank? Anyways, I think you'll be able to conceal the eheim skim in the back left corner behind the hygrophila pinnatifida.


I took it out because I didn't like it in there. I think I can hide the skimmer more easily though.


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## DvanK

Try spraying hydrogen peroxide ... it wil run you <$2. Check out this video for more info...


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## AnotherHobby

DvanK said:


> Try spraying hydrogen peroxide ... it wil run you <$2. Check out this video for more info...


I've tried that, and it didn't put much of a dent in the film.


----------



## lovasnj

Thank you so much taking the time to share all the hard work you have put into this project...it is amazing/inspiring!

Any chance you would share where you picked up the metal brackets for your table? The are wonderful.

Thank you.


----------



## AnotherHobby

lovasnj said:


> Thank you so much taking the time to share all the hard work you have put into this project...it is amazing/inspiring!
> 
> Any chance you would share where you picked up the metal brackets for your table? The are wonderful.
> 
> Thank you.


Sure! This is the thread where I learned how to build the stand: aquarium stand in raw industrial style

The metal brackets are this exact connector at Home Depot. Yes, a little spendy for 8 of them.

If I was starting from scratch with the same exact tank, I'd probably just save my time and buy a Besta stand from Ikea ($65-100 depending on what color door you get). But I see you are starting with a bigger tank, so the Besta won't work for you.


----------



## lovasnj

Thank you!


----------



## AnotherHobby

Brian_Cali77 said:


> Try the Eheim Skim 350. I used to run it 24/7 but due to the small sponge inside, it would require weekly cleaning to unclog it. But now that I have it on a timer for 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours at night (after co2 & photoperiod) I get crystal clear surface and no weekly maintenance on the skimmer. You could probably work the skimmer in your automated "everything" controller


Brian, I can't thank you enough for this simple suggestion. Good ol' two day Amazon Prime shipping, and I dropped it in when I got home from work today. I am able to hide it about 95% back in the corner behind the tall plants. It'll show after a trimming, but it's worth it. Within a short amount of time of dropping it in, the mid-week film that was there was gone. The top of my water has never looked this good! Thank you sir! :thumbsup:

Also, I added some new stock to the tank today. I dropped in 6 Porkchop Rasbora. (aka Espei Rasbora). They have only been in for about 20 minutes, but they are coloring up to bright orange quickly! They also seem to be much more open swimmers than my CPDs or Neons, and they seem to actually be drawing the CPDs out. That could just be curiosity though.


----------



## Dantrasy

Beautiful tank! Very impressive in every way.


----------



## lovasnj

I was wondering how you feel about the co2 reactor setup you have been using? Trying to decide between going that route or a in-line diffuser. 

Thank you.


----------



## Brian_Cali77

Man, those porkchop rasboras look cool! I've seen them once at my LFS. BTW, glad you like the Eheim Skim as much as I do. It's not the prettiest, but concealed somewhat, the pros definitely outweigh the cons.


----------



## AnotherHobby

Dantrasy said:


> Beautiful tank! Very impressive in every way.


Thank you! It's a continual learning experience and a lot fun. 



lovasnj said:


> I was wondering how you feel about the co2 reactor setup you have been using? Trying to decide between going that route or a in-line diffuser.


I love the reactor. Zero air bubbles, zero cleaning, no affect on flow, it hides in the cabinet, and it cost me less than $20. roud:



Brian_Cali77 said:


> Man, those porkchop rasboras look cool! I've seen them once at my LFS. BTW, glad you like the Eheim Skim as much as I do. It's not the prettiest, but concealed somewhat, the pros definitely outweigh the cons.


I am quickly falling in love with the pork chops! They swim out front all day long, they are a pretty bright orange, and their courage draws out the other fish that have been hiding more. Excellent addition!

The Eheim Skim is almost completely hidden. I don't see it from where I view the tank, and the top of the water is like glass. It also seems to aerate the water a bunch, which is great for at night when I'm running it. It's really simple, but a fantastic suggestion. Thanks again!


----------



## 180g

have the plants changed since your last fts? please post a new fts.


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## AnotherHobby

180g said:


> have the plants changed since your last fts? please post a new fts.


The last full tank shot and update is current (page 25).


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## AnotherHobby

Trouble is brewing... :icon_twis










I've been working on my iAqua project, but I'm at a bit of a stall waiting for some parts I need. I'm really digging the ramping code for the lights, but it's not programmed on the Arduino that's currently running my dosing pumps and lights. I had an LCD, a temp sensor, an ambient light sensor, and some other parts sitting around, so I decided to update my existing controller with the ramping code, the LCD screen, the LCD auto-dimming code that uses an ambient light sensor, and the temp sensor. Ignore the -269, as that's a counter I am testing, and it doesn't normally run high sun at 10 PM. This is some test code.

No harm in pimping out this controller, and I'm sure I can sell it when I get done with my other one.


----------



## 180g

lota technical stuff you got goin on there.


----------



## ADAtank

Your pictures are nice...what camera are u using?


----------



## mistuhmarc

So many wires....I'd probably lose track of everything...


----------



## lamiskool

id definitely pay for a controller like that haha!


----------



## AnotherHobby

180g said:


> lota technical stuff you got goin on there.





mistuhmarc said:


> So many wires....I'd probably lose track of everything...


Yeah, I have problems. Once I got the hang of this stuff, I got seriously sucked in. It's really fun for me.



ADAtank said:


> Your pictures are nice...what camera are u using?


Thanks! It's a Nikon D7000 with the Nikon 18-200mm VR lens.



lamiskool said:


> id definitely pay for a controller like that haha!


If I don't sell it, I might use it as an excuse to get another tank.


----------



## lamiskool

AnotherHobby said:


> If I don't sell it, I might use it as an excuse to get another tank.


Doooo it haha, theres always an excuse to get another tank :hihi:


----------



## lovasnj

Do you by any chance know if the code you use in the controller will work for other lights or is it specific to the satellite. I have a BML and am wondering what mods if any I will need to figure out. 

Thanks for sharing...it's been so helpful.


----------



## AnotherHobby

lovasnj said:


> Do you by any chance know if the code you use in the controller will work for other lights or is it specific to the satellite. I have a BML and am wondering what mods if any I will need to figure out.
> 
> Thanks for sharing...it's been so helpful.


I haven't read up on the BML lights, and how you can control them. If you can control them with PWM, then yes, the code is incredibly easy to adapt for PWM. Right now it's sending an IR signal to the lights to ramp each lighting channel from 0-42 (in my case the channels are RGBW). With PWM you write to a PWM pin from 0-255 instead. It's just a matter of sending commands to PWM instead of IR. If you need more or less than 4 lighting channels, the code is easily adapted.

I actually have 4 channels of PWM lighting control built into my iAqua project, even though I'm not using it. It was so easy to add, I just did it. I could add it into this more simple code in a matter of minutes. 

First you'd have to research if PWM can control the BML lights, or I'm sure somebody on here knows. Maybe search for Arduino and BML on here.


----------



## lovasnj

Thank you. I found this 

http://forum.buildmyled.com/index.php?threads/arduino-control.107/

I don't really understand it but hopefully when I get into the project it will make more sense. It looks like it is doable one way or another. If you or anyone else has any input I would be interested. 

I am looking forward to jumping into this... Arduino is exciting to me. I have never done it but I would LOVE to become familiar with it. Your projects have inspired a lot of us I believe. 

Thanks


----------



## AnotherHobby

lovasnj said:


> I am looking forward to jumping into this... Arduino is exciting to me. I have never done it but I would LOVE to become familiar with it. Your projects have inspired a lot of us I believe.
> 
> Thanks


I'd never touched an Arduino before last year, and had only heard of them. It was this site that gave me something to build with one and a reason to learn it. They really are fun, and I've gotten quite obsessed lately. I now consider it a new hobby, separate from, although contributing to, having a planted aquarium. I've taken over a room in my house.

I'm always getting into or learning something new. One day I realized that my one true hobby is learning and "mastering" new things. I don't mean master as in "be a master," but rather me learning everything I crave to learn about something. Some times things really stick and I continue with them (like fishing, hiking, backpacking, photography, audio, technology, cars...), and with some things I get content and move on. But the core is the same: researching, doing, and learning.

When I signed up, this whole aquarium thing was new to me. It was my new hobby; hence AntherHobby. So far, it's sticking. It's one of the best new things I've started.


----------



## lovasnj

It's funny... You sound a lot like me. My wife was laughing when she read your reply. I am always driving her nuts with getting into new things intensely until I understand them. Planted tanks is a new thing for me as well but I worked as an underwater photographer for ten years so this is right up my alley... Hopefully it's something that sticks. 

Thanks for your willingness to share and enthusiasm.


----------



## AnotherHobby

Woohoo! I've been looking for chili rasboras for over 6 months, and tonight my LFS (World of Fish) finally had some in! I picked up a small school of *tiny* little ones. I'm stoked! You can see a couple in the first pic below.

These pics were taken with my CSP lights in mid the middle of a 1 hour fade going into full on sunset. Normally I shoot it a little brighter, but the sunset colors are just beautiful. This is by far my favorite time to watch my tank. I know it's easy to push colors a little in Photoshop, but these pics are completely unedited, straight RAW import, other than a tiny bit of sharpening. This is exactly what it looks like right now.


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## 75ona76

Amazingly beautiful tank sir! I hope mine is half this nice when I finally get it together and running.


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## mistergreen

Wows, man, that's a nice looking tank. So that's what ground cover looks like. I have big loaches and it's impossible. 

I would let the substrate show somewhere in the middle for contrast.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD


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## AnotherHobby

75ona76 said:


> Amazingly beautiful tank sir! I hope mine is half this nice when I finally get it together and running.


Thanks! Have you started a Journal yet?



mistergreen said:


> Wows, man, that's a nice looking tank. So that's what ground cover looks like. I have big loaches and it's impossible.
> 
> I would let the substrate show somewhere in the middle for contrast.


Thanks! The only downside to the ground cover is feeding the cories. I now have to put a dish in and set it on top of the grass, and then send food down a tube to land in the dish. They used to feed fine, but now with so much grass they can't get to the food very easily when it falls in. Starting at the alternanthera reineckii mini there is lots of substrate under the plants for them to root around in, so they are plenty happy, but feeding is now a little bit of a PITA.

I don't really want any open areas, because I don't love how uncovered Amazonia looks. I like open sand, some gravel/rocks, and stuff like that, but I don't like plain dark dirt.


----------



## pewpewkittah

You're tank is beautiful. The colors are out of this world! I love your stand so much I'm going to be building one just like it once I finish moving. 
I know this is asking a lot, but I wanted to install the RGB strip that you have. Could you give a link to what size and how you attached it? 
Thanks .


----------



## sma

What's the current fish stocklist?


----------



## AnotherHobby

pewpewkittah said:


> You're tank is beautiful. The colors are out of this world! I love your stand so much I'm going to be building one just like it once I finish moving.
> I know this is asking a lot, but I wanted to install the RGB strip that you have. Could you give a link to what size and how you attached it?
> Thanks .


Thanks! A link to where I got the lights, and all the info on how it's attached is all on page 6 of this thread.



sma said:


> What's the current fish stocklist?



8 neon tetras
7 celestial pearl danios
7 Porkchop Rasboras (aka Espei Rasbora)
6 tiny Chili Rasboras (each about 1/2" long)
2 quite small Bushnose Plecos
4 Cory Pandas (that I may trade in this weekend)
Unknown count of Amano shrimp, probably 6 or so

Now, that stocking list may look a little on the heavy side for a 17 gallon tank, but I have a Fluval 306 filter, which is a bit of overkill and is rated for a 70 gallon tank, and I have lots of hiding places for the fish. Also, with the big plant mass and 50% weekly water changes, I know the bio load is well within control. All of my water parameters come back good, and all of the fish get along surprisingly well. I actually had more chasing and nipping when I had 1/2 as many fish (mostly among the neons). Not sure why.


----------



## tylergvolk

Your tank is out of this world man. I saw the same fish over at World of Fish the other day and thought to myself... Hey, they actually have chili Rasboras in stock. Cool!

Ever go to Aquatropics? North St. Paul.

That's another good LFS.


----------



## lovasnj

Minnesota... Me too  never been to aqua tropics... Thanks for the tip.


----------



## vvDO

I think you may have boraras maculatus, although it's hard to tell.

Stunning tank overall!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## AnotherHobby

tylergvolk said:


> Your tank is out of this world man. I saw the same fish over at World of Fish the other day and thought to myself... Hey, they actually have chili Rasboras in stock. Cool!
> 
> Ever go to Aquatropics? North St. Paul.
> 
> That's another good LFS.


I've been to Aquatropics in St. Paul, and they are a nice LFS, but they are a bit of a trip to me. World of Fish is literally right on my way home. There is another Aquatropics in Crystal is a good one too.



lovasnj said:


> Minnesota... Me too  never been to aqua tropics... Thanks for the tip.


Minnesota!




vvDO said:


> I think you may have boraras maculatus, although it's hard to tell.
> 
> Stunning tank overall!!


Thanks! I'm pretty sure they are Chili's, but I guess we'll see as they mature. I'm definitely no expert.


----------



## AnotherHobby

vvDO said:


> I think you may have boraras maculatus, although it's hard to tell.


After looking at some more pictures, and comparing them to my fish, I'm pretty sure you are right. It's a bummer when a good LFS like World of Fish mislabels fish. I guess they are okay little fish, but I really wanted chili's. :icon_cry:

I might return them, but that would mean catching them. Not easy in this tank.


----------



## lovasnj

Bummer... Have you ever tried forest lake pets? Sort of a drive but they have good prices and availability nice selection.


----------



## vvDO

These little fish often get mislabeled from the distributor/supplier. Same thing happened to me from a very reputable fish store, ended up with 3 different rasboras and none are chili for sure.


----------



## burr740

Just read through this entire journal for the first time, great read. This is one of most fantastic set-ups Ive ever seen. It takes the term high-tech to a whole different level. The tank itself is beautiful too. Just awesome all the way around.


----------



## kman

Wow. I just stayed late at work to finish this thread. So many ideas I want to try out!

One thing for sure, I have GOT to pick up a second Sat+, get off my duff and start building an Arduino controller, and get some plants with red in them. I love the reds you're getting! I think it would take my tank to next level.

And then an auto-doser. And then... 

Thanks again for the inspiration. Hopefully life lets me stick with the plan long enough to actually get started, rather than accumulating 90% of what I need to get started and then get distracted by something else... LOL


----------



## AnotherHobby

burr740 said:


> Just read through this entire journal for the first time, great read. This is one of most fantastic set-ups Ive ever seen. It takes the term high-tech to a whole different level. The tank itself is beautiful too. Just awesome all the way around.


Thanks! I can't help the tech. I'm a geek. 



kman said:


> Wow. I just stayed late at work to finish this thread. So many ideas I want to try out!
> 
> One thing for sure, I have GOT to pick up a second Sat+, get off my duff and start building an Arduino controller, and get some plants with red in them. I love the reds you're getting! I think it would take my tank to next level.


The color of the Sat+ RGB's in the evening mode I have programmed is fantastic. After having this, I don't think I could get another light that didn't do custom RGB mixes. And yes, you need to make an Arduino controller.



> And then an auto-doser. And then...
> 
> Thanks again for the inspiration. Hopefully life lets me stick with the plan long enough to actually get started, rather than accumulating 90% of what I need to get started and then get distracted by something else... LOL


Yes, you do need to make an auto-doser since you are making a Sat+ controller anyway. 

And I hear you on the distraction thing. :help:


----------



## kman

AnotherHobby said:


> Also, in case anybody is curious, here is my dosing mix:
> 
> *Marco Mix* (mixed into 16 ounces of water)
> 2 tbsp KNO3
> 1.5 tsp KH2PO4
> 1.5 tsp K2SO4
> 
> *Micro Mix* (mixed into 16 ounces of water)
> 1.5 tsp Micros
> 3/4 tsp Iron
> 
> 16 ounces of water with those amounts provides 48 doses of 10 mL each, matching the recommended EI dosing amounts for a tank this size. The only variance from standard EI dosing is the extra Iron in the micro mix. I do that for the red plants.
> 
> With 6 doses per week, that's exactly 8 weeks of dosing. So I get 2 months out of each mix. I got the ferts from GLA.


I'm totally going to shamelessly steal this. My fert schedule, with multiple little bottles of Seachem mixes, needing differing amounts of each on differing days, it getting too annoying. We have the same tank, so I'd assume our mix should be pretty darned similar? I don't have any red plants at the moment, but as soon as I find a place to buy, I definitely want to add some "Ludwigia sp red" like yours to my tank.  I assume with the same tank, same lights (for now), and same fert schedule, my plants should thrive similarly. In theory, anyway. LOL Plus, the more I copy your proven work, the easier it'll be to use your settings on the iAqua. 

And eventually, I'll likely steal your mix syringe setup idea, or at least adapt something similar. I'm finally in the process of testing my outboard heating rig so I can get closer to my goal of eliminating nearly all visible equipment in the tank. My upgraded canister filter should finally make this possible, unlike my old one which was barely adequate.

Is this the fert mix you use, or do you buy individual components at this point? What about iron, you just use the straight iron chelate from GLA?
http://greenleafaquariums.com/aquarium-fertilizers-supplements/micro-macro-fertilizers.html


----------



## AnotherHobby

kman said:


> I'm totally going to shamelessly steal this. My fert schedule, with multiple little bottles of Seachem mixes, needing differing amounts of each on differing days, it getting too annoying. We have the same tank, so I'd assume our mix should be pretty darned similar? I don't have any red plants at the moment, but as soon as I find a place to buy, I definitely want to add some "Ludwigia sp red" like yours to my tank.  I assume with the same tank, same lights (for now), and same fert schedule, my plants should thrive similarly. In theory, anyway. LOL Plus, the more I copy your proven work, the easier it'll be to use your settings on the iAqua.
> 
> And eventually, I'll likely steal your mix syringe setup idea, or at least adapt something similar. I'm finally in the process of testing my outboard heating rig so I can get closer to my goal of eliminating nearly all visible equipment in the tank. My upgraded canister filter should finally make this possible, unlike my old one which was barely adequate.


The EI dosing schedule really makes it easy, and the dosing pumps take it from easy to automatic. 

If your tank is heavily planted, then probably the same mix as I have. If it's not as heavily planted, you could cut back some. The CSP lights (even 2) aren't high light, so I'm probably over dosing a little as it is.

I've taken so many ideas from this forum, it's not even funny. The glass dosing syringes hanging off the side of the tank was all my own though, and I'm actually really proud of the idea, even if it's simple. It looks great and it's super functional. It's not even expensive either. 



> Is this the fert mix you use, or do you buy individual components at this point? What about iron, you just use the straight iron chelate from GLA?
> http://greenleafaquariums.com/aquarium-fertilizers-supplements/micro-macro-fertilizers.html


I got all of the individual items, but that package is a great way to start. They didn't have that back when I got my ferts. As for the chelate, yes I got the GLA chelate.


----------



## Aquadawg

AnotherHobby said:


> As for the chelate, yes I got the GLA chelate.


 Red is definitely the new green as they say. I think that's what really makes your tank pop for me. I am excited to see your next journal "Superior roots" as well. You are certainly off to a great start.


----------



## Brian_Cali77

So... any plans for the e-Series?


----------



## AnotherHobby

Aquadawg said:


> Red is definitely the new green as they say. I think that's what really makes your tank pop for me. I am excited to see your next journal "Superior roots" as well. You are certainly off to a great start.


Ha! I've noticed this about red too, and I agree that red plants can really make a tank pop with color. 

The Superior roots tank will take a bit of time to get up and running due to cycling the Aquasoil and coordinating when I can sneak in on a weekend at work to set it up. I'm in an upper level position at my company, so I can't sit and play with my tank when people are there. It may sound weird, but that's how it works. It'll have to be a covert weekend operation.



Brian_Cali77 said:


> So... any plans for the e-Series?


Yes! Kevin from Current just emailed and said they are sending me a 24" model for my tank! I'm pretty excited to start testing it out. I'll have to build another light hanger for the more powerful LED's, and the more narrow spread of the beam (vs. 2 Sat+ models). I'm looking forward to getting the top of my tank more open again.


----------



## Brian_Cali77

Congrats man! You deserve it. Why not just run all 3 and dial it in for "high light?"


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## AnotherHobby

*A Disturbance in the Force*

There is a disturbance in the Force. I think I might be on to what it is, but I'd like some feedback with ideas. I think it was about 2-3 weeks ago, I noticed my Ludwigia Red was not as happy as usual. I decided to ignore it for a few days because I was busy. About 2 weeks ago I was working on my dosing pumps, and realized a week later (so last week) that I wired the micro pump backward, so it didn't pump micros for about a week. Doh!! 

I thought that was it, but now it's a week later, and it's become very apparent that something is wrong. Now upon closer inspection, the hydrocotyle Japan isn't looking great either, which is weird because it grows like a weed and always look a weed. Here are exhibit A and B:



















Granted, the hydrocotyle was just trimmed, so it's mostly leaves that were slightly shaded, but still, I don't normally see this.

After staring at it for about 10 minutes after work today, one thing that dawned on me is flow. About 3 weeks ago I added in a sweet skimmer that I'm loving. Since it made the top of my tank crystal clear, I took out my little Hydor nano circulation pump. I did a little test a few minutes ago and dropped in a slow sinking object, and it fell almost straight down next to the ludwigia, which also supports the flow idea.

After that, I added the circulation pump back in, even though I don't care for how it looks. So I've officially taken a measure to finally help it. Also, it's pretty clear from the pictures that I've got some GSA growing on both of these plants. CO2 is good, but I had 1 week of no micro ferts. Ferts stopped about a week after I removed the circulation pump, so it's hard to point a finger based only on timing. So what up I ask? Do you think it's flow, or am I barking up the wrong tree?

And just for reference, look at the Ludwigia just 3 weeks ago!


----------



## Ach1Ll3sH33L

Flow can cause plant issues, since your not getting good co2/nutrient distribution. I see a lot of green spot algae, which is usually indicative of low po4 levels. That could be attributed to not enough dosing, or lack of nutrient delivery due to the flow issues. Another problem could be co2 in general, your plant mass has increased, and with it so to does the co2 demand. I would start with flow and try increasing co2 slowly.


----------



## zergling

GSA can also be triggered by lack of CO2. My guess is the lack of flow is causing areas in your tank to be CO2 deficient, causing the GSA and plant death.


----------



## AnotherHobby

I think the Ludwigia Red will survive. All of the big leaves have dropped, but each plant has 4 or 5 off shoots with new growth. It'll take a long time to grow them back, I think I can save them.

I realized another stupid mistake today. I'm not sure when this happened, but I'd guess it was sometime in the last month. I've never had a thermometer on my tank, but today I finally hooked up my iAqua controller and was a bit shocked when it powered up and said *81.5°* in red letters with my warning icon, and it immediately powered off the heater outlet. I looked at my hydor heater, and at some point must have bumped the dial. It was set to between 81° and 82°. Ugh... not good. Several hours later it was still at 79.8°, so I did a 50% water change with 72° water to bring it down to 76°.

On to GOOD news! I've kept my iAqua project out of this thread for the most part. But today it's attached to my tank, so now it can make an appearance. The pics are cross posted from the other thread, but I don't care. I'm so stoked! It was 3 months, over 7000 lines of code, hundreds of solder joints, and way more hours than I'll ever admit to — and now my project is done, and in use!

I stained and poly'd it to match my stand. I love the way it looks, and how it's perfectly positioned to use from my chair.



















Here are the guts on the inside.










I won't go over all of the details, because they are in the other thread, but basically it does the following via a colorful touch interface:


controls all of 8 of the power outlets via automated editable schedules
does dimming and fading of the lights via automated editable schedules
runs my dosing pumps and keeps track of the volume in the reservoirs
has temp control
has a feeding program to stop the pumps, heat, and CO2 so the fish can feed, and then automatically turns them on later
informational home screen with status of everything
I'll also be adding an alert for when I run out of CO2 (which I can sense via pressure in the regulator).

It replaced this:










So I'm feeling pretty damn good right now. :bounce:


----------



## pewpewkittah

Wow, awesome! I wish I had the skill to make one of these


----------



## mlongpre dxYh

Incredible...


----------



## kman

AnotherHobby said:


> I think the Ludwigia Red will survive. All of the big leaves have dropped, but each plant has 4 or 5 off shoots with new growth. It'll take a long time to grow them back, I think I can save them.
> 
> I realized another stupid mistake today. I'm not sure when this happened, but I'd guess it was sometime in the last month. I've never had a thermometer on my tank, but today I finally hooked up my iAqua controller and was a bit shocked when it powered up and said *81.5°* in red letters with my warning icon, and it immediately powered off the heater outlet. I looked at my hydor heater, and at some point must have bumped the dial. It was set to between 81° and 82°. Ugh... not good. Several hours later it was still at 79.8°, so I did a 50% water change with 72° water to bring it down to 76°.


Yikes! Good thing your new toy will help make mistakes like this easier to catch.  Do think the extra few degrees of heat are what made your Ludwigia drop it's leaves? What's your usual temp? Mine is usually around 78, +/- a few tenths of a degree. 

Might be a good idea to tape that heating dial in place. A few inches of scotch tape won't leave much residue, if any, and will help stop issues like this before they happen. 

Funny, I've read about this happening with those Hydor inline heaters a number of times. It's one reason (of several) why I decided to go with a housed Eheim Jager inline heater instead, even though it's bulkier and more of a PITA than the Hydor.


----------



## lamiskool

drooool.....I know who im coming too when I want to upgrade my control setup lol


----------



## Xzavier247

Subbed, This tank is a different type of animal.


----------



## pandacory

So awesome! Subbed, so that I can come back later and steal your secrets. roud:


----------



## kman

AnotherHobby said:


> Also, in case anybody is curious, here is my dosing mix:
> 
> *Marco Mix* (mixed into 16 ounces of water)
> 2 tbsp KNO3
> 1.5 tsp KH2PO4
> 1.5 tsp K2SO4
> 
> *Micro Mix* (mixed into 16 ounces of water)
> 1.5 tsp Micros
> 3/4 tsp Iron
> 
> 16 ounces of water with those amounts provides 48 doses of 10 mL each, matching the recommended EI dosing amounts for a tank this size. The only variance from standard EI dosing is the extra Iron in the micro mix. I do that for the red plants.
> 
> With 6 doses per week, that's exactly 8 weeks of dosing. So I get 2 months out of each mix. I got the ferts from GLA.





AnotherHobby said:


> Normally I'm good with my math, but for some reason it escaped me that my dosing is every other day from each tube. Thus it's 3 doses per week from each tube, and not 6. I just looked at my ferts and wondered why they are only about 1/2 empty on Friday. It dawned on me that 60 mL of 10 mL doses is two weeks.


As I just mentioned in the iAqua thread, my EI ferts came in from GLA today.  Since we have the same size tanks, and the plant quantity is similar (enough), and the same lights (well, up until your new toy arrived), I'm going to assume I can copy your EI schedule as well.

The mixing instructions are clear (dump x amount of the respective powders into 16 ml of water), but I have a couple of quick questions, if you don't mind:

1) Do you use distilled water to mix, or just tap water?

2) And just to confirm the schedule, you do 3 days of macros (10 ml per dose), and 3 days of micros (also 10 ml), and on the 7th day you rest?

3) What about Excel? Use any? (I know some mix it into one or the other of their solutions, both as an easy way to add to the tank all at once, and as an algae retardant within the solution)

4) Should I worry about our respective KH and GH levels?

Daily dosing is going to be a PITA until I get those auto-dosers set up, but at least is seems pretty straightfoward.  I assume I can just dump in the 10 ml dose when I feed them. My fish get to fast on Sundays, so that works out well, too.


----------



## AnotherHobby

kman said:


> 1) Do you use distilled water to mix, or just tap water?


I used distilled because everybody said, then I just started using tap. I noticed no difference for me (no difference in mold or anything), and it's convenient.



> 2) And just to confirm the schedule, you do 3 days of macros (10 ml per dose), and 3 days of micros (also 10 ml), and on the 7th day you rest?


Yes and no. I dose macros/micros on every other day and not on Sunday, but I rest every day because iAqua. 



> 3) What about Excel? Use any? (I know some mix it into one or the other of their solutions, both as an easy way to add to the tank all at once, and as an algae retardant within the solution)


I do squirt some excel into the mix if I notice some mold in it, but otherwise I don't. I only use it in my tank when I've done an H2O2 algae treatment. It's a good follow up. For feeding plants, it's only purpose it a source of carbon, but straight CO2 is a better source of carbon for plants. So it's not needed.



> 4) Should I worry about our respective KH and GH levels?


I don't know. I use aquasoil to buffer it, but other wise don't take much concern with hardness unless I'm selecting new fish, so as to not choose a software fish. You may want to look into it more.



> Daily dosing is going to be a PITA until I get those auto-dosers set up, but at least is seems pretty straightfoward.  I assume I can just dump in the 10 ml dose when I feed them. My fish get to fast on Sundays, so that works out well, too.


A cheap 10 mL syringe makes it even easier. roud:


----------



## kman

Har-har! . One of these days I won't be dosing every day, either, LOL

I have 10 ml syringes, all set to go there. 

Thanks!


----------



## pewpewkittah

kman said:


> Har-har! . One of these days I won't be dosing every day, either, LOL
> 
> I have 10 ml syringes, all set to go there.
> 
> Thanks!


You're making me one of those fancy pants controllers, right!?


----------



## AnotherHobby

Not a beauty shot down below by any means — all my gear is in the tank and the plants need a trim — but I wanted to show my new E-Series! I still need to paint the light bar black and get nice hanging hardware, but my ghetto job will do until I get the time. The light looks fantastic! I'm so happy I have my open tank back! I loved the dual Sat Plus setup, but it was a little tedious having them blocking tank access all the time. 

I managed to bend an almost perfect ADA-style light bar from 1/2" conduit... on my third try. 

I was smart and bought 4 pieces 5' long knowing I'd need more than 1 practice to get it perfect.

Now I have to decode a few remote buttons. I need R, G, B, and W up and down, and the 4 memory keys for my iAqua controller before I go to bed.


----------



## mistuhmarc

Ohhh, another ecoxotic. It definitely brought out the color in your tank. It looks fantastic!


----------



## AnotherHobby

mistuhmarc said:


> Ohhh, another ecoxotic. It definitely brought out the color in your tank. It looks fantastic!


Thanks!

Here are 2 pictures of my $3 ADA style light bar before I paint it black. If it were stainless I'd leave it, but I don't like the look of galvanized steel.

Also, I just cant get over how awesome the shimmer is with this light! It's in the middle of fading through sunset here.


----------



## Xzavier247

What are you shooting with? Lens FS? Pictures are amazing.


----------



## talontsiawd

Tank looks amazing and the light bar came out great. One thing I never realized is how much more substrate you have than I. I don't have any slopes so I used the recommended least amount and seeing your tank from that angle, you loose about 1 in compared to my setup which I always said, I wish I could take an inch off the height. I may do on my next try, looks great like that. Love the journal, I know your controller has been a significant part of your contributions to the forum lately, trust me, very impressed with that but I just love seeing the tank.


----------



## mistuhmarc

How are you hanging your light? It looks like you improvised a type of wiring there to make it. I want to raise mine in my rack to allow the light to disperse better.


----------



## AnotherHobby

Xzavier247 said:


> What are you shooting with? Lens FS? Pictures are amazing.


Thanks! The camera is a Nikon D7000 and the lens is a Nikkor 18-200mm VR. I love the combo!



talontsiawd said:


> Tank looks amazing and the light bar came out great. One thing I never realized is how much more substrate you have than I. I don't have any slopes so I used the recommended least amount and seeing your tank from that angle, you loose about 1 in compared to my setup which I always said, I wish I could take an inch off the height. I may do on my next try, looks great like that. Love the journal, I know your controller has been a significant part of your contributions to the forum lately, trust me, very impressed with that but I just love seeing the tank.


Thanks! I do have a lot of substrate, and I like it. It's 2.5" deep from the right side to the middle, and then about 3-3.5" deep on the left, maybe a tad more. Back left corner is probably 4-4.5" deep. 

If you go back to page one, it was originally 2" deep all the way across the front, with a hill in the back corner that lifted about 2" higher. Well over time the hill moved down toward the glass on the left. Every time I've done much slope with substrate, it tries to even itself out over time due to replanting and such.

I posted this pic in a different thread where where somebody was asking about how far my CSP lights were from the substrate, but it shows how much substrate there is.












mistuhmarc said:


> How are you hanging your light? It looks like you improvised a type of wiring there to make it. I want to raise mine in my rack to allow the light to disperse better.


I have temporarily used stainless steel wire in the most ghetto fashion possible. The only care I took was to use a level to get the light balanced. I'll be replacing it with something proper in due time. I was just too excited to wait and wanted to get the light set up.


----------



## lovasnj

Nice job with the light bar! What did you use to bend it? Well done.


----------



## AnotherHobby

lovasnj said:


> Nice job with the light bar! What did you use to bend it? Well done.


Thanks! I used a 1/2" conduit tubing bender from Home Depot. It's getting returned today.


----------



## lovasnj

☺ thanks!


----------



## AnotherHobby

Massive trim job today. Time to do a little reset on a whole lot of plants to get them to grow a little bushier. The downside is that it'll look a little spare for a few weeks. The upside is that it should fill in thicker than before.

Here was the start of it. I uprooted all of the alternanthera reineckii mini, pulled off any unhealthy leaves, shortened the stems, and replanted all of them. 










The hydrocotyle tripartita sp. Japan I just mow down because it grows back so fast. The background plant, which I'm not even 100% sure what it is (I think it's rotala indica), I actually cut the tops off. I never do this because the look better if you cut the tops off and replant, but if you cut them low, I guess they are supposed to shoot out more leaders and will fill in bushier. They are all cut below where the alternanthera reineckii mini will grow back to.

I clipped every anubias leaf with algae on it. I left the dwarf hairgrass belem. Here is some of the pile that cut out:










And here is what it looked like at the end. I have to do water change still. Holy cow does it look sparse. Sometimes you have to hack them back though. 

Don't expect any beauty shots for a few weeks. 

Also, I wasn't able to save the ludwigia sp. red. It all died due to my lack of flow, or whatever I ended up doing. Luckily it's cheap. I'll buy some more.


----------



## ua hua

How's the H. pinnatifida doing? Every time I had that plant it would get holes in the leaves. I couldn't put enough K in the tank to keep it from happening. That plant is a K hog and it never looked as good as I saw it in other peoples tanks.


----------



## AnotherHobby

The the h. pinnatifida is doing okay. I think it suffered from the same lack of flow that my ludwigia did, but it made it through and appears to be improving again. I'm not getting any holes in the leaves and I'm getting color out of it, so that's good. Good to know about the K hog thing!


----------



## kman

Do you have excess alternanthera reineckii mini? Shoot me a PM if you're interested, as I'd love to take that off your hands. I'm following along, but my alternanthera reineckii cardinalis isn't nearly as red, despite the same EI ferts and the same Sat+ lighting. I need to find Belem, too.


----------



## AnotherHobby

kman said:


> Do you have excess alternanthera reineckii mini? Shoot me a PM if you're interested, as I'd love to take that off your hands. I'm following along, but my alternanthera reineckii cardinalis isn't nearly as red, despite the same EI ferts and the same Sat+ lighting. I need to find Belem, too.


I didn't actually remove any alternanthera reineckii mini. I only trimmed them shorter, split off some side shoots to replant, and removed some leaves that had algae or looked unhealthy.


----------



## zenche

lovely tank, amazing tech setup. that controller, blows my mind.


----------



## vraev

Indeed the best tank I have ever seen anywhere. Love the automation and creativity. I think even major companies like Ecotech and others will try to learn and realize the potential of the high end aquarium market.


----------



## AnotherHobby

zenche said:


> lovely tank, amazing tech setup. that controller, blows my mind.


Thanks! The controller has been pretty awesome, and it's been working great. There are a few tweaks I'd like to make, but I'm overall super happy with it.



vraev said:


> Indeed the best tank I have ever seen anywhere. Love the automation and creativity. I think even major companies like Ecotech and others will try to learn and realize the potential of the high end aquarium market.


Wow, thanks! I know there is definitely a market for high end controllers in freshwater tanks, but I don't know how big it is. To be honest, I'd probably never buy something like this. For me personally, it was all about the fun and challenge of building it.


----------



## AnotherHobby

Got my light bar all completed and painted!


----------



## Asu1776

Dude. Just when I thought your tanks couldn't get any nice, you one up me. Nice job!


----------



## vanish

That's a pretty slick bracket.


----------



## luky

so clean ...
very nice indeed!
been meaning to reach out to you to say hi and see whats been going on in the mad scientists laboratory ...
did you fab that piece that holds the fixture yourself or is that something you re-purposed?
if dyi .... details please ...


----------



## kman

Custom cut acrylic hangers, or did you do them yourself?

Either way, kudos. Leveling up yet again, I see!


----------



## AnotherHobby

kman said:


> Custom cut acrylic hangers, or did you do them yourself?
> 
> Either way, kudos. Leveling up yet again, I see!


I did not design them or cut them. I'm just a huge fan of them! :bounce:

Gotta level up every once and a while!


----------



## AnotherHobby

luky said:


> so clean ...
> very nice indeed!
> been meaning to reach out to you to say hi and see whats been going on in the mad scientists laboratory ...
> did you fab that piece that holds the fixture yourself or is that something you re-purposed?
> if dyi .... details please ...


Ha! I love the red arrow. Made me chuckle. I had another member here make them for me as a favor after I saw his. The amount of lust I had was a little overwhelming since I had the exact same light. They are perfectly fit, look great, and are also super functional.

Also, I busted out my Hoppy PAR meter today for a quick test. The dual Satellite Plus setup was pushing around 50-55 PAR on this same meter, and the E-series is a few inches higher and pushing about 75 PAR at roughly 14" from the substrate to the LED emitters. I was expecting a tad more, but I'm still super happy with it. Measuring front to back was really surprising, as there is hardly any fall off, measuring 65-70 PAR.

My "mid sun" setting (which is more sunset than mid sun) is 3 PAR. My "low sun" (which is supposed to have the feel of the sun below the horizon) and my moonlight both measure out at 0 PAR, which is exactly what I was hoping for.


----------



## mot

Everything about this tank is inspiring. I just purchased an Ecoxotic E90 and was wondering about the mounting legs. Question is can they be flipped so they are upside down?


----------



## AnotherHobby

mot said:


> Everything about this tank is inspiring. I just purchased an Ecoxotic E90 and was wondering about the mounting legs. Question is can they be flipped so they are upside down?


Thanks! That's a huge compliment coming from you. 

Yes, the legs can definitely be flipped. I just removed them (as you can see), which was a pretty simple task. Here is what the legs look like. There are basically little plastic clips that snap on/off that stop the legs from sliding out when the flattened tab gets to them. The won't come out until you pop off those little plastic discs, then just a little patience and tugging and they pop out pretty easy.


----------



## mot

Thanks. Im surprised how long those rods are as my marineland LED ones are much shorter. Im really looking forward to this light as the LEDs i have now have good PAR readings but poor spectrum/color to my eye...cant complain too much as i did win them.


----------



## AnotherHobby

mot said:


> Thanks. Im surprised how long those rods are as my marineland LED ones are much shorter. Im really looking forward to this light as the LEDs i have now have good PAR readings but poor spectrum/color to my eye...cant complain too much as i did win them.


The rods are exactly 12" long when removed. I think each side extends out about 6" or so, leaving the other 6" inside for stability. So far I like the spectrum of these. I was expecting them to be more washed out than the Satellite Plus (which are 6500k vs 8000k on the E-series) in full bright daylight mode. I was pleasantly surprised with how strong the RGB's are, so when I run them at 100% white and 100% red with zero green and blue, I really like it.


----------



## sma

did you take out your skimmer?


----------



## Okedokey

Summary of this thread:


Awesome idea and innovative hardscape
Nice plants
What camera lens is that?
WHOA EPIC
Where can i buy that?
Wifey destruction time
Fixed
I'm not selling stuff 
Just when you thought it was epic enough... it goes epic-warp-drive!
Heart rate stabalises....
Then EPIC CONTROLLER! Epic.
Im not selling
Temp and nutrient brain fart
Recovery!
What camera lens is that?
Just EPIC!

Amazing dude! just amazing!

PS you've just made mine look like a complete swamp bucket - wheres that credit card???

Thanks for the inspiration mate, btw, if you're interested in selling???


----------



## AnotherHobby

sma said:


> did you take out your skimmer?


It was out of the tank during that pic for cleaning. I don't love the way it looks and it does need to be cleaned every to every other week, but it's completely worth it for the crystal clear surface water. I don't ever see permanent removal unless I get a different surface skimming solution.



Okedokey said:


> Summary of this thread:
> 
> 
> Awesome idea and innovative hardscape
> Nice plants
> What camera lens is that?
> WHOA EPIC
> Where can i buy that?
> Wifey destruction time
> Fixed
> I'm not selling stuff
> Just when you thought it was epic enough... it goes epic-warp-drive!
> Heart rate stabalises....
> Then EPIC CONTROLLER! Epic.
> Im not selling
> Temp and nutrient brain fart
> Recovery!
> What camera lens is that?
> Just EPIC!
> 
> Amazing dude! just amazing!
> 
> PS you've just made mine look like a complete swamp bucket - wheres that credit card???
> 
> Thanks for the inspiration mate, btw, if you're interested in selling???


Ha! Whoah... this is a long summary... :icon_eek:

The lens is a Nikon 18-200mm VR attached to a D7000. I love both of them.

Yeah, I still don't sell stuff other than things I'm done with (like I have to get my 2 Current Sat+ lights listed). I'm not interested in making my one off stuff to sell. Most of it is more labor than it's worth, and I do it for the fun of making things more so than saving money or anything else.

And, thanks for the compliments.


----------



## mot

AnotherHobby said:


> It was out of the tank during that pic for cleaning. I don't love the way it looks and it does need to be cleaned every to every other week, but it's completely worth it for the crystal clear surface water. I don't ever see permanent removal unless I get a different surface skimming solution



For the last three months ive been spraying a mist of hydrogen peroxide on the surface film. Its been working great to break down the film. I use one of those small hand sprayer pump bottles at the drugstore for a $1. I probably only spray like 2 or 3ml across the surface at the most.


----------



## Raymond S.

Exactly which light is this in the picture. It seems to have decent color.
I had a Marineland Double bright on a 10g tank and now it's in the closet.
Back to the T8 bulbs because of better color in two ways. Tha actual color of couse but it also looke like someone was shining flash lights down into the tank. Directly under each bulb was well lit but between them was obviously darker. Quite pathetic for an "improvement" in
techknowlogy(spelling never was my favorite) but the fixture is so close to the sub in there. @ 10.5" the light couldn't spread fast enough.
Fair when it got down to the bottom but horrible near the top of the tank.








[/QUOTE]


----------



## AnotherHobby

mot said:


> For the last three months ive been spraying a mist of hydrogen peroxide on the surface film. Its been working great to break down the film. I use one of those small hand sprayer pump bottles at the drugstore for a $1. I probably only spray like 2 or 3ml across the surface at the most.


I tired that, but it didn't take care of all of it, and it was daily manual labor. I still had to occasionally do paper towels, and it was all a little but much. This thing just runs during the night on a schedule in my controller, and all I have to do is clean it every so often. 



Raymond S. said:


> Exactly which light is this in the picture. It seems to have decent color.


It's an Ecoxotic E-Series (E-60). I'm super happy with it, but I'm relatively new to the hobby and have never used fluorescent bulbs (other than PC for a few months), so I'm not qualified to give any comparison to that technology. I have had 4 different LED fixtures, and this is by far my favorite.


----------



## kman

Curious how the single E-Series is doing for you, compared to the dual Sat+ fixtures? I know it more light, but is the spread adequately even? All the corners well lit, etc.?

I love being able to see the surface more, but I've had a bad run of luck with jumping fish lately, so I'm loathe to expose more of the water surface than I already am... in fact, I've been considering adding a top... or at least, a couple of strips of lexan to cover the front and back 1 3/4" exposed strips, even though I'll have to notch it or something to deal with the lily pipes.

Also, curious how you cut the perfect circles in the aluminum flashing to hold your dosing syringe/vials?


----------



## AnotherHobby

kman said:


> Curious how the single E-Series is doing for you, compared to the dual Sat+ fixtures? I know it more light, but is the spread adequately even? All the corners well lit, etc.?


The spread is actually better than I thought it would be. Time will tell how effective it is overall. When I first put it on, it was obvious that the spread was not as good as 2 lights, and there is no reason to expect differently either. Now that I'm used to it, I think it looks good. 

I also think the overall view of the tank in the room is better with the E-Series, and I find it more attractive. The look of the open top with the hanging light is more pleasing to me. Also, when I look in the tank the LED's are actually not directly visible, so they don't blast me in the eyes, which the dual Satellite Plus config did. They are recessed further into the fixture, and as such are completely hidden from view. I _really_ like that.



> I love being able to see the surface more, but I've had a bad run of luck with jumping fish lately, so I'm loathe to expose more of the water surface than I already am... in fact, I've been considering adding a top... or at least, a couple of strips of lexan to cover the front and back 1 3/4" exposed strips, even though I'll have to notch it or something to deal with the lily pipes.


Yeah, I've had a few jumpers with the completely open top, but not too many. I had a few with the dual Satellite Plus setup too. You'd think there would be less, but I think it's about the same. Unless you are completely covered, you'll have a few suicides.



> Also, curious how you cut the perfect circles in the aluminum flashing to hold your dosing syringe/vials?


It's a trick I learned from making ultralight backpacking stoves out of soda cans. First you trace your circle around a stencil on the aluminum using moderate pressure with an x-acto knife. Then just keep going over and over the same circle applying some pressure. Eventually you'll pop through and then the aluminum should tear very easily along the remaining score. It might take 5-10 passes over the circle. Be careful because the aluminum is pretty sharp.

When you get good at cutting and working with thin aluminum, you can make a 1/4 ounce stove from Red Bull cans that will boil 1L of water on just 3/4 fluid ounce of denatured alcohol. Ultralight backpacking happens to be another one of my hobbies.


----------



## kman

Gotcha. I've seen those made. Clever... but I'll stick with my MSR WhisperLite. 

I'll give it a go, thanks!


----------



## AnotherHobby

I decided to change things up a little. When I first tried this scape, it was with staurogyne repens in the middle and alternanthera reineckii mini behind it. That is my first full tank shot. That plan changed when the s. repens all succumbed to mold from my brief DSM. I never replanted it. 

I've always wanted to try it again in that same spot, so I decided to give it a go. I hacked back the hydrocotyle tripartita sp. Japan and planted the s. repens and moved the a. reineckii behind it. It'll take a bit to fill back in, but I'm really happy with the initial look.

This is a _terrible_ photo. My wife is on vacation and took the D7000 for the next week. All I have is my iPhone camera. Compare this to my other photos and you can see why phone cameras suck. That aside, and ignoring all of the debris from all of the uprooting and planting, I'm digging it:


----------



## AnotherHobby

Time for a little better picture. Lighting is in my sunset mode, and I took the picture during feeding and after another fresh trim.

I've been letting the anubias varieties grow in heavier on the left, while thinning out and lowering the right. It's actually a pretty impressive mass of anubias right now. I love how the smaller nana on the left blends right into the bigger leaved barteri. I think it gives the branch more of a base, and you can see the wood better. Another benefit is that the fish can't hide as much. 

The s. repens looks okay, but not as good as when I planted it. I hope it's just adjusting.

There are lots of bubbles in the dhg belem from getting trimmed today.


----------



## AnotherHobby

Every once in a great while one of the Amano shrimp steals a sinking food pellet from the panda cories. It cracks me up. The little thing grabs this big pellet and just takes off, and then has to defend it from other Amanos. Tonight I finally caught it red handed with my camera handy.


----------



## AnotherHobby

Also, the start of my first flower ever on an anubias!


----------



## Islandgaliam

AnotherHobby said:


> Every once in a great while one of the Amano shrimp steals a sinking food pellet from the panda cories. It cracks me up. The little thing grabs this big pellet and just takes off, and then has to defend it from other Amanos. Tonight I finally caught it red handed with my camera handy.


What a great pic!


----------



## vvDO

Great pic... My Amano shrimp would do the same, find a hiding spot then munch away. I started breaking the wafers up and forced them to share.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## pewpewkittah

Ugh, this tank is so beautiful and rich in color it makes me stomach hurt! LOL. Your anubias look very healthy, and I love how they somewhat dominate the scape . 

Is that blyxa right below the anubias? I can't tell because the plant is so many different colors!


----------



## AnotherHobby

pewpewkittah said:


> Ugh, this tank is so beautiful and rich in color it makes me stomach hurt! LOL. Your anubias look very healthy, and I love how they somewhat dominate the scape .
> 
> Is that blyxa right below the anubias? I can't tell because the plant is so many different colors!


Thanks! Your username makes me laugh. 

Yes, that is blyxa under the anubias. There are 2 small stems in there. They don't really grow very much at all because they are super shaded. I think they "struggle" a little bit there, but I like them the size they are, since if they grew at a normal rate they would dominate too quickly. They do give off a lot of color too.


----------



## AnotherHobby

pewpewkittah said:


> Your anubias look very healthy, and I love how they somewhat dominate the scape


In response to this specific comment, the thing that seems to work for mine is to aggressively trim off any unhealthy looking leaves. It's a hearty plant, so a leaf can live for a long time in an unhealthy state. If one starts getting algae, snip it. Ragged edge, snip it. Pale, snip it. Spots, snip it. And so on. Right down to the rhizome. It's better to remove every unhealthy leaf to make way for a healthy one.


----------



## pewpewkittah

AnotherHobby said:


> In response to this specific comment, the thing that seems to work for mine is to aggressively trim off any unhealthy looking leaves. It's a hearty plant, so a leaf can live for a long time in an unhealthy state. If one starts getting algae, snip it. Ragged edge, snip it. Pale, snip it. Spots, snip it. And so on. Right down to the rhizome. It's better to remove every unhealthy leaf to make way for a healthy one.


That's good to know. Maybe I am not trimming mine aggressively enough.


----------



## kman

That IS good to know.

Any specific method to encourage growth in a particular direction?


----------



## AnotherHobby

kman said:


> That IS good to know.
> 
> Any specific method to encourage growth in a particular direction?


I've only been trimming to encourage growth, so I'm not sure.


----------



## AnotherHobby

My flowering Anubias during a water change.


----------



## Dropped

Im probably the 400th person to say this tank look amazing, you have just robbed my boss of a good 1.5 hours work time due to me reading this when i am meant to be errrr...... working.

Love how you have incorporated tech into your tank,and the automation as well seriously floats my boat haha.


----------



## Sub1117

Any videos of this beautiful tank?


----------



## AnotherHobby

Dropped said:


> Im probably the 400th person to say this tank look amazing, you have just robbed my boss of a good 1.5 hours work time due to me reading this when i am meant to be errrr...... working.
> 
> Love how you have incorporated tech into your tank,and the automation as well seriously floats my boat haha.


Wow, thank you very much for the kind words! 



Sub1117 said:


> Any videos of this beautiful tank?


Nope, and my D7000 can take great video, so I don't even have a good excuse. I'll have to give that a go some day here.


----------



## knm<><

Outstanding thread. This tank has been fun to follow. I really enjoyed all the time I wasted, I mean spent, reading about it. You have done some impressive work. My interest in planted aquariums has been renewed by this. I subscribed hoping to get more.

I love the huge mass of Anubis, they are my favorite plants. I also like to remove any sickly looking leaves immediately. They tend to grow slow but man do they look good, and they are easy.


----------



## AnotherHobby

knm<>< said:


> Outstanding thread. This tank has been fun to follow. I really enjoyed all the time I wasted, I mean spent, reading about it. You have done some impressive work. My interest in planted aquariums has been renewed by this. I subscribed hoping to get more.
> 
> I love the huge mass of Anubis, they are my favorite plants. I also like to remove any sickly looking leaves immediately. They tend to grow slow but man do they look good, and they are easy.


Thanks! You posted right as I was writing the update below. Glad you've enjoyed the read — it's been a lot of fun for me. 

Anubias are awesome! When I started this tank, I didn't expect to grow such a big anubias mass at the base of the branch, and had I no idea it'd end up being my favorite part. I wanted the nana to fade into the barteri, but I didn't expect it to be so seamless. It adds depth. 

Now for my update. The plants are looking good, and fish are happy. I'm now growing Ludwigia sp Red back by the a. reineckii mini. I also added a branch in the mid-ground, and was able to zip-tie it to the structure I made back when I started the tank well over a year ago. It's wrapped with fissidens, and I stuck a tiny buce out on the tip of it. I'm happy to see the s. repens is adapting well. Also, you can see the 1/2" strip I stole from front of the DHG belem to start a carpet in my new work tank.

Regarding the pics, I just have to note, I'm not pushing saturation to get these colors. This is exactly how it looks to the eye every evening. The e-series it keeping everything growing quite happy during the day, and it's in a late sun / going into sunset mode during this pic. It basically looks this way from about 8:30pm until 11:30pm. I _*love*_ dimmable/customizable RGB LEDs.


----------



## LRJ

This is my favorite version yet - love that new branch.


----------



## AnotherHobby

LRJ said:


> This is my favorite version yet - love that new branch.


Thanks! I'm eager to see the fissidens fill in on that branch. 

Here is one more pic I took last night around 10pm. This is post-sunset/dusk and about to fade into moonlight. It's very dim and rich. I didn't touch any color controls in Photoshop, but I had to lighten the pic up a bunch — it's much dimmer than this in person. It's zero PAR. For reference, white LEDs are off, reds are at 66%, greens are at 29%, and blues are at 5%.


----------



## Asu1776

Looking good, looking good! Joined you and brian on the ecoxotic bandwagon. Sick lights, love the customization. If only I could customize the girlfriend to be able to sleep with the moonlights on...


----------



## AnotherHobby

*Morning Sun Photos*

I've posted pictures in this thread about this before, but I'm doing it again. 

Every clear morning this time of year, the sun blasts in through the adjacent window at a low angle and casts beautiful light on the scape. It is a very different looking aquarium, and not one that we typically see in the hobby, because we always use artificial lighting. 

I'll probably need to do what I did last year and block the sun from the side of the tank, otherwise it'll start promoting a bunch of algae over there (and in fact already is). But aside from that little issue, enjoy the pic overload.

CPD's are are to photography because they never stop moving, but here these two little guys are, chilling in a sunbeam:










Foraging Panda Corydoras foraging in the dwarf hairgrass belem:










A couple of neons (and a whole bunch of dust particles) enjoying a the sun under the anubais:










A porkchop rasbora next to my new fissidens branch:










My bushnose pleco loves nibbling on this branch:










A CPD cruising slowly through the anubias:










A panda cory cleaning off the s. repens:










I love how this little boraras merah is lit up in green light reflecting off the fissidens:


----------



## kman

Great shots!

How do you get such nice shots of those hard-to-shoot fish, that rarely stop moving?


----------



## AquaAurora

Stunning photos!


----------



## knm<><

Where did you get your boraras and pork chops?


----------



## AnotherHobby

kman said:


> Great shots!
> 
> How do you get such nice shots of those hard-to-shoot fish, that rarely stop moving?


Thanks! I have a pretty fast camera, took about 80 pictures (of which maybe 10 were usable), and was patient.



AquaAurora said:


> Stunning photos!


Thank you! The sun really makes the tank look fantastic when it shines in during the morning. I think I'll have to block it off though.



knm<>< said:


> Where did you get your boraras and pork chops?


My LFS caries them (World of Fish). They don't have the boraras in very often, but the pork chops are a regularly stocked fish.


----------



## knm<><

Must be nice...


----------



## kman

AnotherHobby said:


> Thanks! I have a pretty fast camera, took about 80 pictures (of which maybe 10 were usable), and was patient.


LOL ok. I have a D7000 as well, although my usual lenses are 18-55 and 105 macro. Except usually I'm lazy and just use my iphone...


----------



## Spit1A

Gorgeous photos!


----------



## AnotherHobby

Spit1A said:


> Gorgeous photos!


Thanks!

Tank is getting overgrown, but looks really cool. I've let a ton of ludwigia red grow up in back for a big slpash of red. I love it when it gets lush, but it can't last. Need to trim this weekend for sure — the hydrocotyle is out of control over on the right.










Panda chillin...


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## erimar

Very inspirational! Read your thread and everything is really cool. I have a guy that is going to do ADA style stands for me in plywood for a really good price but your thread is making me reconsider and I may just make them myself using your design, besides my fish tanks are in the garage. What happened to the acrylic pipes that were holding your light?


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## AnotherHobby

Thanks! 

The stand thread that I built mine from is here: aquarium stand in raw industrial style

The acrylic pipes were sold to somebody that asked when they noticed I took them off. They worked okay, but I really prefer the 1/2" bent conduit that I have now.


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## ChemGuyEthan

Looks really great, man!

Definitely going to do a similar setup. I got a Mr. Aqua 60p and just scored an Ecoxotic E-60 on craigslist for cheap!

I may have missed it seeing that this thread has made its way up to 35 pages, but could you fill us in on your tank parameters? Temp, pH, GH, and KH? How about dosing? I know the light supplements some of the red color, but I've read a lot about different water parameters and their effect on red colored plants so I'm curious about your values.

Thanks in advance for the info and keep the eye candy coming!


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## AnotherHobby

Thanks!

Substrate: ADA Aquasoil
Pressurized CO2 enrichment through a cerges reactor (built my own reg)
Ferts: EI dosing + Iron Chelate (Iron is at 50% of micros, mixed with the micros)
Temp: 76°
pH: Moving target (see below)
GH: somewhere near 20
kH: Moving target (see below)

Regarding the red plants, yes, the lighting mix I run does intensify the red plants, but they are still are pretty red. The red plant's I've purchased from Tom Barr in the past are a better looking red than mine (not sure how to explain it), so I definitely have room to improve. I really do think some of it is just the nature of LED lighting vs. the giant rack of lights Tom has over his tank. I'll take that trade off though, because I like the other stuff that comes with LEDs for a smaller tank like mine. If I ever did a big tank, I'd have to think long and hard about LED vs something like Tom's ATI setup.

Regarding my pH/kH, it's a moving target. Out of the tap, my water is kH around 18, and the pH is 7.4. After 24 hours the CO2 in the tap will offgas and it'll be at ph 8.2. However, the Aquasoil buffers the kH to an impressive level. I ran these tests a year ago, so maybe it's not buffering so much anymore, but kH will drop to 6 by the time I change the water on Sunday. After a 50% change by adding my 18 kH water back in, it'll bounce up to 12, and then back down to 6 by Sunday again. On Sunday mornings pH was down to 6.8 before CO2 turned on.

Those tests were over a year ago, and the continual moving kH target made it pointless for me to test kH and pH, especially factoring in pH drop from CO2. Instead I don't obsess on it, never test it, and just try to take good care of my tank. That said, I recently picked up a used RODI kit from somebody, and I need to get it hooked up, figure out how I want to do all that, and re-test all of my water. I know that dumping in high kH water will use up the buffering in the substrate (and maybe already has), so it's something I need to figure out.


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## ChemGuyEthan

AnotherHobby said:


> Thanks!
> 
> Substrate: ADA Aquasoil
> Pressurized CO2 enrichment through a cerges reactor (built my own reg)
> Ferts: EI dosing + Iron Chelate (Iron is at 50% of micros, mixed with the micros)
> Temp: 76°
> pH: Moving target (see below)
> GH: somewhere near 20
> kH: Moving target (see below)
> 
> Regarding the red plants, yes, the lighting mix I run does intensify the red plants, but they are still are pretty red. The red plant's I've purchased from Tom Barr in the past are a better looking red than mine (not sure how to explain it), so I definitely have room to improve. I really do think some of it is just the nature of LED lighting vs. the giant rack of lights Tom has over his tank. I'll take that trade off though, because I like the other stuff that comes with LEDs for a smaller tank like mine. If I ever did a big tank, I'd have to think long and hard about LED vs something like Tom's ATI setup.
> 
> Regarding my pH/kH, it's a moving target. Out of the tap, my water is kH around 18, and the pH is 7.4. After 24 hours the CO2 in the tap will offgas and it'll be at ph 8.2. However, the Aquasoil buffers the kH to an impressive level. I ran these tests a year ago, so maybe it's not buffering so much anymore, but kH will drop to 6 by the time I change the water on Sunday. After a 50% change by adding my 18 kH water back in, it'll bounce up to 12, and then back down to 6 by Sunday again. On Sunday mornings pH was down to 6.8 before CO2 turned on.
> 
> Those tests were over a year ago, and the continual moving kH target made it pointless for me to test kH and pH, especially factoring in pH drop from CO2. Instead I don't obsess on it, never test it, and just try to take good care of my tank. That said, I recently picked up a used RODI kit from somebody, and I need to get it hooked up, figure out how I want to do all that, and re-test all of my water. I know that dumping in high kH water will use up the buffering in the substrate (and maybe already has), so it's something I need to figure out.


Thank you so much for the detailed response!

You're lucky with your tap, haha. In my apartment I get pH 8.2 out of the tap (never measured after 24 hours), GH is above 20 all the time, and KH is usually above 20 as well. TDS is absurd, above 400 now with the recent drop in water quality from the drought related things here in SoCal. I too just got an RO kit cause I would like to get into shrimping and the tap here just sucks. I don't want to obsess over it too much either, but I think the extreme values in my water are cause for concern.

Amazonia is really good stuff for these buffering problems. But I think in my case, there's just too much to buffer out. 

Thanks again and I'll keep an eye on this thread!


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## AnotherHobby

JUNGLE MODE! I haven't trimmed in a couple of weeks. The coverage from the rotola over the top is so dense, it's almost jungle like. I'm not used to such an overgrown tank, but I like it.

EDIT: picture.


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## LRJ

Looks awesome!


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## AnotherHobby

Adding a view of the full tank — I love seeing this on display in my living room every evening.


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## 75ona76

Beautiful! Love the color splash on the wall behind it.


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## pewpewkittah

Beautiful as always. I love the overgrown look! A rainbow of colors


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## AnotherHobby

Thanks! The color splash on the wall is from the E-Series. Since it has so few, but very powerful LED's, it has fantastic shimmer in the tank, and it reflects off the water all over the wall and ceiling. When the lights are off in the room, it puts on a pretty cool show.


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## Dropped

AnotherHobby said:


> Adding a view of the full tank — I love seeing this on display in my living room every evening.


Its also my desktop back ground haha


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## prasoonv

I just used my lunch break and another 1 hr of office time reading this thread from the very beginning.  
Great great Tank Hobby!!


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## AnotherHobby

Ha! Thanks — glad you found it entertaining. 

I haven't updated the thread in a while because nothing has really changed. Everything pretty much looks the same, give or take the latest trim job. That's a good thing. It's been easy to maintain.


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## Juliek

Amazing tank.....I have been following this thread for the last six months! I have the e series light as well and wondering what your lighting schedule is and what your values you have set your rgb values to. I do apologize in advance if I somehow missed it in one of your threads :icon_smil


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## AnotherHobby

Juliek said:


> Amazing tank.....I have been following this thread for the last six months! I have the e series light as well and wondering what your lighting schedule is and what your values you have set your rgb values to. I do apologize in advance if I somehow missed it in one of your threads :icon_smil


Thanks! The lighting period is all automated and doesn't have hard starts and stops due to cross fading all 4 channels. To do this I use the 4 memory positions, with M2 being used for Sunrise and Sunset and M1 being used for Dawn and Dusk (Moon and Daylight are self explanatory). 

Here are the values:

Moon: W=0, R=3 , G=3, B=3 (0 PAR at 12” deep)
M1: W=0, R=66, G=28, B=5 (0 PAR at 12” deep)
M2: W=7, R=100, G=19, B=2. (1-2 PAR at 12” deep).
Daylight: W=100, R=100, G=0, B=0 (full PAR)

This is how the schedules goes:

6:00 am : lights turn on
6:00 am : Moon > M1 one hour cross fade, then sits in M1
8:00 am : M1 > M2 two hour cross fade, then sits at M2
11:30 am : M2 > Daylight one hour cross fade, then sits at Daylight
8:30 pm : Daylight > M2 one hour cross fade
9:30 pm : M2 > M1 one hour cross fade
10:30 pm : M1 > Moon one hour cross fade then sits at Moon
1:00 am : lights turn off

I'm waiting on one last part from China, and then I'll be posting a DIY on how to make a controller that does this. It requires no soldering, no case fabrication, and no programming. It's all just plug in parts and then uploading the Arduino sketch over USB.


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## Juliek

Thank you for that explanation! One last question are you able to program all four lighting modes on the Eco series light straight out of the box.......I thought you could only do moon and daylight.


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## AnotherHobby

Yes, you can program all 4 modes right out of the box: Moon, Daylight, M1 and M2.


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## mistuhmarc

AnotherHobby said:


> Yes, you can program all 4 modes right out of the box: Moon, Daylight, M1 and M2.


Not sure if this has been asked yet, but can you implement them all together to make them function together?


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## AnotherHobby

mistuhmarc said:


> Not sure if this has been asked yet, but can you implement them all together to make them function together?


The built-in functionality will only do a fade from Day to Moon over a 15 minute period twice per day.


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## Juliek

So to do your lighting set up you currently use on your Eco you do need a controller to do it automatically?


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## kman

Juliek said:


> So to do your lighting set up you currently use on your Eco you do need a controller to do it automatically?


Click the iAqua link in AnotherHobby's signature, and be prepared to be very impressed.


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## AnotherHobby

Juliek said:


> So to do your lighting set up you currently use on your Eco you do need a controller to do it automatically?


I'll be posting instructions very soon on how to build the light controller with: 

No soldering. 
No wiring.
No code editing. 
No drilling. 
No cutting. 
No case fabrication. 

All plug and play with 100% of the config done in an on screen menu.

Total cost to make one is $50 for just 6 parts.


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## AnotherHobby

The tank is struggling (has been for a while) and I finally figured out what it is. 

I have very hard water of about (18-19 Kh and about the same Gh), and it has a very high natural pH of about 8 or 8.1 (I don't recall). The Aquasoil buffered the Kh down to somewhere in the 6-8 area when I first set this up, and the pH was quite low as well (somewhere in the 6-7 range).

I've always just used the hard tap water, and I knew it would eventually burn out the buffering in the Aquasoil. Well that's what happened. I measured my Kh the other day and it was back up to 18-19 or so, and it'd been almost a week since the water change, so there is literally ZERO buffering left. I didn't measure PH, but I know it's about 8 when the CO2 isn't running and 7-7.2 when it is.

My Ludwiga red didn't survive at all. The Anubias is doing fine. I the fussidens moss looks fine. The DHG 'belem' seems to be doing okay, but definitely not great at all (it's "surviving" as best it can). The alternanthera reineckii mini and s. reopens are both struggling terribly. The hydrocotyle tripartita sp. Japan does just ok, but nothing like the growth is used to get. The rotola is fine. Overall, it looks pretty rough.

Have a RO setup that I have not installed yet because I've been super busy. That would probably solve the issue since I can mix it with tap to get what I want. It'll be much more of a pain than just hooking up the handy aquaeon water changer. 

But I might just let it limp along until I have the time for a full tear down and a complete rescape. At that point I could replace the aquasoil to get the buffering back, and also start blending in the RO water so it lasts longer.

At any rate, I won't be posting any more pictures because it's kind of sad and pathetic looking. 

I'm contemplating getting a slightly larger 25 gallon Landen 60P, which is the same 24" length as this tank, but 16" deep and 16" tall, which would give me 2" more height and 4" more depth. All I need to do is make 4 new cross beams for my stand to make it 2" deeper, which would be easy. The extra space would be much welcomed, and my fish could staying this tank until I had the other one scaped, cycled, and running well.

Who knows. Just don't expect much more action in this thread.


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## vraev

Why don't u get one of the doaqua blue step solutions? There is one for acid living plants. It will act as the required buffer until u get the RO figured out.


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## salman

AnotherHobby said:


> The tank is struggling (has been for a while) and I finally figured out what it is.
> 
> I have very hard water of about (18-19 Kh and about the same Gh), and it has a very high natural pH of about 8 or 8.1 (I don't recall). The Aquasoil buffered the Kh down to somewhere in the 6-8 area when I first set this up, and the pH was quite low as well (somewhere in the 6-7 range).
> 
> I've always just used the hard tap water, and I knew it would eventually burn out the buffering in the Aquasoil. Well that's what happened. I measured my Kh the other day and it was back up to 18-19 or so, and it'd been almost a week since the water change, so there is literally ZERO buffering left. I didn't measure PH, but I know it's about 8 when the CO2 isn't running and 7-7.2 when it is.
> 
> My Ludwiga red didn't survive at all. The Anubias is doing fine. I the fussidens moss looks fine. The DHG 'belem' seems to be doing okay, but definitely not great at all (it's "surviving" as best it can). The alternanthera reineckii mini and s. reopens are both struggling terribly. The hydrocotyle tripartita sp. Japan does just ok, but nothing like the growth is used to get. The rotola is fine. Overall, it looks pretty rough.
> 
> Have a RO setup that I have not installed yet because I've been super busy. That would probably solve the issue since I can mix it with tap to get what I want. It'll be much more of a pain than just hooking up the handy aquaeon water changer.
> 
> But I might just let it limp along until I have the time for a full tear down and a complete rescape. At that point I could replace the aquasoil to get the buffering back, and also start blending in the RO water so it lasts longer.
> 
> At any rate, I won't be posting any more pictures because it's kind of sad and pathetic looking.
> 
> I'm contemplating getting a slightly larger 25 gallon Landen 60P, which is the same 24" length as this tank, but 16" deep and 16" tall, which would give me 2" more height and 4" more depth. All I need to do is make 4 new cross beams for my stand to make it 2" deeper, which would be easy. The extra space would be much welcomed, and my fish could staying this tank until I had the other one scaped, cycled, and running well.
> 
> Who knows. Just don't expect much more action in this thread.


I am sad that such a great looking tank coming to an end but looking forward to your rescape. I actually never checked kh or Gh of water for my tank so i might do that. I am having hard time growing some plants maybe that is the reason.
I say go for the Landen 60p 25gl. I have 2 and the footprint is great for scaping.


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## mistuhmarc

AnotherHobby said:


> The tank is struggling (has been for a while) and I finally figured out what it is.
> 
> I have very hard water of about (18-19 Kh and about the same Gh), and it has a very high natural pH of about 8 or 8.1 (I don't recall). The Aquasoil buffered the Kh down to somewhere in the 6-8 area when I first set this up, and the pH was quite low as well (somewhere in the 6-7 range).
> 
> I've always just used the hard tap water, and I knew it would eventually burn out the buffering in the Aquasoil. Well that's what happened. I measured my Kh the other day and it was back up to 18-19 or so, and it'd been almost a week since the water change, so there is literally ZERO buffering left. I didn't measure PH, but I know it's about 8 when the CO2 isn't running and 7-7.2 when it is.
> 
> My Ludwiga red didn't survive at all. The Anubias is doing fine. I the fussidens moss looks fine. The DHG 'belem' seems to be doing okay, but definitely not great at all (it's "surviving" as best it can). The alternanthera reineckii mini and s. reopens are both struggling terribly. The hydrocotyle tripartita sp. Japan does just ok, but nothing like the growth is used to get. The rotola is fine. Overall, it looks pretty rough.
> 
> Have a RO setup that I have not installed yet because I've been super busy. That would probably solve the issue since I can mix it with tap to get what I want. It'll be much more of a pain than just hooking up the handy aquaeon water changer.
> 
> But I might just let it limp along until I have the time for a full tear down and a complete rescape. At that point I could replace the aquasoil to get the buffering back, and also start blending in the RO water so it lasts longer.
> 
> At any rate, I won't be posting any more pictures because it's kind of sad and pathetic looking.
> 
> I'm contemplating getting a slightly larger 25 gallon Landen 60P, which is the same 24" length as this tank, but 16" deep and 16" tall, which would give me 2" more height and 4" more depth. All I need to do is make 4 new cross beams for my stand to make it 2" deeper, which would be easy. The extra space would be much welcomed, and my fish could staying this tank until I had the other one scaped, cycled, and running well.
> 
> Who knows. Just don't expect much more action in this thread.


Sad to hear that. Mentioning that your plants are struggling due to higher level conditions gives me tips for my tank once I go back to Richmond since the pH levels over there are definitely higher. 

On another note, new tank journal for the new tank? :red_mouth Sounds like it'll be fun!


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## kman

Sorry to hear this! I look forward to seeing your next rescape, whichever way you take it. This is a GREAT tank, but your previous effort was great, too, so I'm sure the next iteration will live up to your usual standards. 

That Landen tank is very interesting. I have a lot sunk into the 60P concept at this point, but I've also been considering a larger tank, and have been considering upgrading to the E-series anyway, so new lights are not the impossible proposition they may have been before. Except I wanted something longer, not necessarily deeper, although I see the attraction. Their "90P" 48 gal (just shy of 36" long) is just a little too deep for my console table (I can only accommodate 16" deep) but that 25 gal would work beautifully, at 15.7" deep. The ADA 90P is deeper still (not to mention $500) so that's not an option, either. Hmm, I should look at CADlights, perhaps, or go custom...


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## osh

You should continue! Part of the beauty of this hobby is that it is always evolving and we evolve with it. 
A tank not doing well is an opportunity, not a failure. 
I, for one, would still love to see you go through what it takes to learn what works and what doesn't to bring your tank back to splendid. 
I have tried numerous plants in one tank, only to see half of them flounder while others flourish. I keep the ones that like the conditions that come out of the tap with added co2 and ferts. That's all I can do. 
I'd love a super fancy, high-tech paradise, but I don't have time for that. 
I'd still love to see this thread continue and watch your tank change. I want to see your successes AND your "opportunities". :blush:


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## tylergvolk

I have the OP's Aqua Controller for sale. If anyone is interested, please message me.

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/1...controller-sale-anotherhobby.html#post9592241


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## BettaBettas

This tanks lighting is what really makes the tank...
Oh and the beholder, forgot sorry (lol)! 
But seriously, _*this tank is like looking into the eye of nature. The anubias, and nowadays this is rare, creates a shady (pure shade) underwater retreat with its hanging roots, and the sun like light reflecting off the leaves. Plants in the back left background pearing above the wood trying to suck in as much light as possible. The Panda corys digging around through the plants in hopes to find some crumbles of food left from last nights feeding frenzy. The neons basking in the sunlight atop the shiny dwarf hairgrass...
*_Well I just turned this journal into a damn straight majestic adventure now didn't I.


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