journal Custom Aqua One 620T

[rawprawn]

Just now, jayc said:

Nah. Just kidding. You did ALL the hard work.

If I ever need to mod another Aqua One hood, can I hire your services?

 

Actually, I'm looking for another so I can put together a kit of 3D printed parts for doing this.

I'll do an instructional vid and make them available online when I do.

It seems the 620 range is very popular and common, and is a good candidate for a performance upgrade.

[buck]

looks great dude! its a bit late but i was going to say you should use heat shrimp around the pvc pipe to hide it but to late now !

hows the tank going have you started scaping yet?

Im a big fan of belem "dwarf" hair grass, for easy ground covers, and as for moss the world is your oyster there are heaps available that would look great!  just ask and im sure some one on the forum will have some they can share :)  maybe a small form of jarva fern would look good on the drift wood aswell? 

[Wilzee83]

I love your mango root! Where did you get yours from? I looked at a shop today and they looked nothing like yours! :(

[rawprawn]

OK, so I've been a bit busy with kids, work and whatnot, but I'm back on the job.

At least I know my paint is fully cured.

Can anyone recommend a good heater other than the Eheim one with the calibrating rings? I don't like them and want to try something else.

I've got my mangrove root in the dishwasher (wife is delighted with that) and will try to get more done tomorrow.

I'm a little disappointed that I couldn't get the glass cleaner. It seems to have some etched in calcium stains or something.

 

 

 

 

[buck]

Looks great! Its like that spot was made for a tank! 

[rawprawn]

1 minute ago, buck said:

Looks great! Its like that spot was made for a tank! 

It does doesn't it?

That's why I snapped up this tank when I saw it for sale.

No standard size tank was going to fit, I'd never heard of these Aqua One tanks.

[al4n]

Nice clean handy work you have done mate, well done. Looks good!

[fishmosy]

Awesome setup mate. Only comment is that you may need to have the abinet doors open for the heater/chiller to run effectively. Well done

[rawprawn]

1 hour ago, fishmosy said:

Awesome setup mate. Only comment is that you may need to have the abinet doors open for the heater/chiller to run effectively. Well done

 

Yes I have thought about the chiller being "smothered".

It's in an airconned room and the back of the cabinet is removed to help it breathe, but if it becomes an issue I'll fit some sort of aircon grill from Bunnings into the door at the front.

I'm not leaving the door open all the time.

Edited March 17, 2016 by rawprawn

[Ronskitz]

Hi rawprawn im running on 1 t8 atm as the other decided to retire on me iv followed the link and there are a few different watts on there can you tell me which ones you got and also if they have individual power cords or if i could run them inline with an electrcians help cheers [emoji106]

[Ronskitz]

I just reread the description and seen they come with 15-20cm of wire no plug so disregard that question lol

[rawprawn]

So here we are, finally filled it up today.

Bought a bunch of plants from Z aquatics or something online. Don't really know what they are, just went through the "background, middle and foreground" sections and went for the "easy care" selections.

There's a stainless mesh square of java moss flexed between the root blades (worked a treat) and frogbit floating around there as well.

Filled it up with a combination of rainwater and RO water then added my saltyshrimp, which is why the water looks white.

Substrate is NZ black iron sand, no regrets there.

The lighting looks bright, which it is at the surface, but is not excessive IMHO. The frogbit looks very happy, and some of the plants look to be turning to face the light as well. I like the "beams of sunlight" effect, and as the frogbit grows I'm sure it'll all find a happy place light wise.

I'll run it for 4-6 hours a day (any suggestions, want to avoid algae while getting my plants to start) while cycling using a timer.

Really happy with the cannister filter and the top box, the flow rate is spot on. When I first fired it all up it was just overflowing the top box a bit (back into the tank, not over the back), but with the intake strainer covered in plant debris it's still holding right up at the maximum level it can be.

I've used Mr Aqua ceramic noodles in the cannister and top box, and after the tank is cycled I'll add a mat of that expensive "poly filter" in the section under the spray bar for a final scrub of the water before adding livestock.

Hope you like it!

 

 

 

 

Edited March 24, 2016 by rawprawn

[KeenShrimp]

Wow, the black on black will give you epic looking shrimp photos! :) I have bought from Z- aquatics a few times and their plants were in top condition.

[rawprawn]

2 minutes ago, KeenShrimp said:

Wow, the black on black will give you epic looking shrimp photos! :) I have bought from Z- aquatics a few times and their plants were in top condition.

Yes the black works well.

I've just got to get a black poly fitting to replace that white one on the intake, and the black air line hose was good value too.

[rawprawn]

All coming along nicely.

I've added some seasoned material and half a dozen red ramshorn snails, and a treatment of "Aquasonic Bio Culture", which is said to be a cycling bacteria additive that actually works. Time will tell, I'm watching/testing carefully.

Plants are responding very strongly to 6 hours a day of light, set on timer.

Water is much clearer now, but certainly not finished and highly aerated with both an airstone and the filter box out let.

I dropped the level to about 6cm from the cover edge to allow the light to fully reach the surface for the frogbit (which is taking off). If I wasn't having floating plants it would be fine filled right up.

Camera didn't quite focus properly, I'll play with the settings more next time.

 

 

 

Edited April 2, 2016 by rawprawn

[OzShrimp]

Looks good mate , look  forward to seeing updates

[rawprawn]

13 hours ago, OzShrimp said:

Looks good mate , look  forward to seeing updates

 

Cheers for that.

Just did a water change today and wiped down the glass, which had started getting a little bit of algae, but it seem to be slowing down by itself already.

Cleared up nicely actually, parameters as follows:

24 degC

TDS 180

PH 7.5

GH 4

KH 2

Got a light ammonia reading this time, so added another dose of bio culture.

Got some nice colored red ramshorns in there who have cleaned the amazon swords to absolute perfection, and they are screwing non stop it seems as well as some babies have hatched, so it's all looking reasonable.

I'm running a hybrid mix of Salty Shrimp GH+ and GHKH+, as I don't like the way GHKH+ makes the PH go through the roof, and I plan to have tigers in there as well, so I don't want the KH too high. I'm aiming for GH 6-8 and KH 1-3, with a plant friendly PH of around 7.2-7.4 hopefully. Not too fussed right now as it's not fully cycled and the wood is just starting to darken/waterlog.

Was thinking of getting some new yellows, but I've got about a dozen really nice ones in my big tank so I'll just bring them across and see if they give me the line I'm looking for.

 

 

[Williamh]

Any update on the tank?

How is the plant growth going?