Well, I'm going to need a few days to get up to speed after years of absence...Maybe after my NFL Sun. playoff games...I would like to understand better than I do right now...
DIY Biotope w/ tons of plants & a living wall and potential for disaster!
- Thread starter Pinkey
- Start date
I've been away from AC for a few years, too. I always come back when it's time for an upgrade. If you have questions I can answer, I will.
Yes, I have that, too. They tend to stick to the latex strongly enough that when they die (which each vine will after a few years) they leave scars in the paint. I've not seen any dig through the drywall yet but that doesn't mean it hasn't happened without my noticing yet. I couldn't do this in a rental. From all I can tell, if I ever take down the vine there will need to be some texture repair and a professional repaint. Our plan is to live here until we die which means we have a few decades left. It might end up being a job for the kids. Who knows. . .I might get tired of the whole fish thing one day and take it all down. I don't see that yet but most of the future is pretty hard for me to see.
Wow, according to my own posts, I got the 180g tank in January of 2023. It's taken a lot more than a few months to set it up. Life happens. Anyway, here is the update. I installed the 180 gallon tank. I built the stand and put in the tank. I peeled back the carpet to put the tank directly onto the plywood subflooring. It was pretty rough from some leaks from the 125 over the years. It was solid enough that I didn't have to replace anything but it was still startling. It was completely dry as there haven't been drips in several years.
The stand is 80" across because I like the way tanks look with a little practical shelving on the sides. I have about 2" in the front, 2" on the left, and 8" on the right. This also helps disperse the weight over an additional floor joist. The front is 58" thick plywood held in place by cupboard magnets. The color is a Home Depot color called Fishing Village.
The 180g shares a 27g sump with the 125g for a total of about 330 gallons to help keep the chemistry predictable. I made the sump returns for each tank and have fiddled with them to get them as quiet as possible. So far, I have quieted them the most by reducing the water flow through the aquaponic system. This happened by accident. Dropping the Mag 9.5 another 2.5 feet down slowed the flow at the head of the waterfall so much that the drains in both tanks are plenty quiet. The 125 has a Fluval 407 and the 180 has a Fluval Fx6. The aquaponic wall has at least 2 cubic feet of bio media in addition to what's in the filters. Since I haven't added any fish to these tanks in years, the filters are overkill which is always fine with me.
The current population is 2 12" pictus cats, 1 9" gold severum, a 12"+ pleco, 5 tiny clown loaches, 8 5" silver dollars, and 3 community fish left over from their schools from several years ago.
I have an Inkbird heater controller and two heaters in each tank. Lighting on the 180g has not been finalized. I'll be buying something soon. I installed a new custom-painted background on ceramic tiles of Little Mermaid characters (my wife's request). We painted them ourselves.
Here are some photos.
Now, life can finally get back to normal. Tank upgrades are a lot more work than I remembered.
The stand is 80" across because I like the way tanks look with a little practical shelving on the sides. I have about 2" in the front, 2" on the left, and 8" on the right. This also helps disperse the weight over an additional floor joist. The front is 58" thick plywood held in place by cupboard magnets. The color is a Home Depot color called Fishing Village.
The 180g shares a 27g sump with the 125g for a total of about 330 gallons to help keep the chemistry predictable. I made the sump returns for each tank and have fiddled with them to get them as quiet as possible. So far, I have quieted them the most by reducing the water flow through the aquaponic system. This happened by accident. Dropping the Mag 9.5 another 2.5 feet down slowed the flow at the head of the waterfall so much that the drains in both tanks are plenty quiet. The 125 has a Fluval 407 and the 180 has a Fluval Fx6. The aquaponic wall has at least 2 cubic feet of bio media in addition to what's in the filters. Since I haven't added any fish to these tanks in years, the filters are overkill which is always fine with me.
The current population is 2 12" pictus cats, 1 9" gold severum, a 12"+ pleco, 5 tiny clown loaches, 8 5" silver dollars, and 3 community fish left over from their schools from several years ago.
I have an Inkbird heater controller and two heaters in each tank. Lighting on the 180g has not been finalized. I'll be buying something soon. I installed a new custom-painted background on ceramic tiles of Little Mermaid characters (my wife's request). We painted them ourselves.
Here are some photos.
Now, life can finally get back to normal. Tank upgrades are a lot more work than I remembered.
Looking good and I agree that time flies when you do a project like this.
This is kind of an invitation for storytelling and predictions rather than a dire request for help. I've already bought everything and am curious to know about speculation. I'll document as it evolves and we can all learn together if this was a great or terrible idea. I've learned most of what I know by making mistakes along the way.
About 9 months ago I bought a bunch of Finnex LED lights to cover the top of my 180 gallon tank. Last week, one of them started dimming and I could only get it to light to about 60% brightness. I know Finnex has a 1 year warranty so I looked into what it would take to swap it. It turns out the same hardware has a 1 year warranty only if it's purchased through certain vendors. The warranty is not included for Amazon purchases so there you go.
I was reading around about brands and reviews and, while I love Fluval 3.0 lights, several forums said they are too expensive for what you get. The watt/dollar ration isn't very good and they have extra features not everyone needs. I love the features but was still curious. I looked into grow lights for terrestrial plants. Now that pot is legal in so much of the US, grow operations are a booming market and prices for everything have come down a lot. I can buy the most expensive LED light fixtures I can find and they still cost less than Fluval. I did the math and it would cost me $500 to add two 48" fixtures. There would be double coverage over the center of the tank and each end would have single coverage so it still may not be enough light to reach the bottom of the tank for great growth.
I decided to try something completely different. I bought grow lights. I bought more watts than I could possibly need for the entire tank for about $330. I'm currently running them at 40% brightness and the moss on the bottom of the tank is already producing bubbles like I've never seen before and this is a few hours into the first day. I'm posting some before pictures.
The downside of these lights is that they are very yellow looking. The spectrum analysis shows they're great for plants and the reviews talk about how amazing these lights are for both pot and general greenhouse use. They're missing the blue that we aquarists like to bring out some of the better colors of our darker fish. These get 5 stars for ease of use. I can daisy chain up to 20 units and they can all run from a single control knob. What I don't know is if I will get used to the yellow or if I'll need to do something about it.
Anyway, here are photos.
About 9 months ago I bought a bunch of Finnex LED lights to cover the top of my 180 gallon tank. Last week, one of them started dimming and I could only get it to light to about 60% brightness. I know Finnex has a 1 year warranty so I looked into what it would take to swap it. It turns out the same hardware has a 1 year warranty only if it's purchased through certain vendors. The warranty is not included for Amazon purchases so there you go.
I was reading around about brands and reviews and, while I love Fluval 3.0 lights, several forums said they are too expensive for what you get. The watt/dollar ration isn't very good and they have extra features not everyone needs. I love the features but was still curious. I looked into grow lights for terrestrial plants. Now that pot is legal in so much of the US, grow operations are a booming market and prices for everything have come down a lot. I can buy the most expensive LED light fixtures I can find and they still cost less than Fluval. I did the math and it would cost me $500 to add two 48" fixtures. There would be double coverage over the center of the tank and each end would have single coverage so it still may not be enough light to reach the bottom of the tank for great growth.
I decided to try something completely different. I bought grow lights. I bought more watts than I could possibly need for the entire tank for about $330. I'm currently running them at 40% brightness and the moss on the bottom of the tank is already producing bubbles like I've never seen before and this is a few hours into the first day. I'm posting some before pictures.
The downside of these lights is that they are very yellow looking. The spectrum analysis shows they're great for plants and the reviews talk about how amazing these lights are for both pot and general greenhouse use. They're missing the blue that we aquarists like to bring out some of the better colors of our darker fish. These get 5 stars for ease of use. I can daisy chain up to 20 units and they can all run from a single control knob. What I don't know is if I will get used to the yellow or if I'll need to do something about it.
Anyway, here are photos.
Update: I cooked all my plants and grew a lot of algae in just two weeks. I dialed them back to 10% total brightness and they're on from 7:00 AM - 5:00 PM. I removed much of the algae. After a week of the lower brightness, the plants are starting to grow again and the algae hasn't really done much. I've never had too much light before so this was a completely new experience for me. Still learning after all these years.
jamyanderson
Registered Member
That was quite the rescue mission! Sounds like the original setup was really struggling under the bioload. Installing the Magnum 350 and improving water changes must have made a huge difference. Did you eventually transition the tank into a proper biotope, or did you go with a mixed setup? I'd love to hear how it turned out!
