ajm

That does look good actually, nice effect!

Nice tank too! Are the plants real?

PG

yup they are real.
I am going to be placing an order with Green Line Aquatics for another 200 plants this week.
I like a nicely planted tank
previous tank:

ajm

It does look great! I like real plants too, but just find the maintanance is a nightmare for a few reasons:-

1) The amount of waste piranha produce, it would get stuck in and around the plants - great for the plants, not good for the fish!

2) The depth of gravel needed to plant properly meant significantly more time gravel cleaning afforementioned poop!

3) My common reds go all broody every few weeks and try and turn the plants into a nest by "hedge clipping" them into nothing but stumps which doesn't help either! They seemed to pick on the Amazon Swords above all others which meant long stalks clogging up the filter inlet!

Your tank looks immaculate though!

ProperCharlie

yeah, some fish just don't mix with plants. i had some barbs that grew to about 6" long - they had a tank to themsleves but were a pita in the end. they got really skitish and also ate every plant that went into the tank. i sold them back to the shop. kio carp as well - forget any plants when you have a few of them in a tank or pond.

ajm

I just noticed.... he is buying "another" 200 plants???? What is your plant attrition rate like PG? Even with my living mini hedge clippers, 200 plants would keep them busy for a while!

PG

The Trigon has just a handfull of plants in there that will go in to the Record 60 I have under the stairs and the 200 plants will go in the Trigon.
The bottom pic in my post had fookin loads of plants in it and had nothing other than standard Juwel equipment and a small community of tropicals and the plants took hardly any looking after at all.
They lasted ages with only a knackered tube causing a problem. The lighting seems to be the main ingredient.
I just want another 200, dont need another 200

ajm

Since when has need ever contributed to an aquatic purchasing decision? Want overrides need, because if you want it you want it, and if you need it you want it! ....

not that I need to justify frivellous expenditure!

PG

lol !
Can't wait to see your set up finished ...... neither can you I bet !!

ajm

Well.... we made it through the night with no disasters! Now at 22 degrees!

Leslie

Looks like a good job ajm, looking forward to seeing it finished with all the fish etc.

Les

prodriva

More pics please

tiggers

ajm,

Despite our 'differences' I have been following this thread with interest. I have to say that despite possessing only a casual visual interest in fish and their tanks that you appear to be doing what looks (to a layman like me) a great job.

Keep posting - I'm looking forward to seeing the finished result.

Regards,

tiggers.

P.S. The frame construction (joinery is something I do know a bit about) looked top notch - very impressive.

Leslie

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Disagreements over that shouldn't necessarily lead to mutual dislike. Well said Tiggers.

Les

ProperCharlie

Ahhhh...

Group Hug.

ajm

I've been a busy little bee today... the stand is now complete with tongue&groove sides and solid pine doors!





Tomorrow's task is to install some lights in the hood and put the hood on the tank!

ajm

Cheers tiggers! (even if it was probably through gritted teeth! )

tiggers

No not at all. Well may be just a little teeth gritting then

Regards,

tiggers.

PG

I am a lazy **** and cant be bothered looking back the threads so what are the overall dimensions ?

PG

oh, and what are you using for lighting ?

Leslie

Get your finger out then!

PG

perhaps he has drowned ?

ProperCharlie

Looks very smart indeed. Fancy making one for me?

Incidentally, I was wondering if there are any problems with acrylic tanks getting scratched?

David Lock

Depends on how hungry the fish get

ajm

LOL! I havn't drowned... have been having some dramas though!!!

The lights are now attached to the hood and are wired up to the dual light timer (one pair of tubes to each). I am using 2 x dual Arcadia electronic ballasts powering 4 x 42" tubes. Using electronic instead of traditional magnetic ballasts means I can power T5 bulbs aswell should I ever want to use the tank for a marine setup in the future.

Also washed 75kg of aquarium sand which is now in the tank.

Problem 1) My first choice of pump finally arrived today (Eheim 1262). I have been testing with another pump rated at a similar flow to the Eheim, except when I fitted it, it is obvious the Eheim performs much better with the 1.5m of head of pressure and it chucks out quite a bit more water. This had the unfortunate effect of raising the level in the tank too high.

I then tried to adjust the level back down by loosening off the connection on the bottom of the tank to slide the overflow tube down a bit (did this loads of times during testing without any more than a few drips of water escaping.)

Unfortunately I forgot about the sand in the tank which managed to get down into the joint and when I tightened it back up again the thing was pissing water!!! Aaarrrrgh!

So, I had to drain the tank down a bit and drain and move the sump so I could get at the connector better. Using the garden hose I managed to squirt the sand away from the inside of the tank where the pipe goes through. I then had to unscrew the connector totally, let water woosh out of the tank into a bucket (and in my face) to wash the sand out of the joints then tightened it back up.... praying.....

Fortunately it worked and we are now water tight again!!!

Problem 2) The tank didn't seem to want to go any higher than 26 degrees C. I think this is because the heaters in the sump have their own thermostats and, even with the stats set as high as they go, they keep turning off when the water in the sump reaches 32 or whatever the max is. So basically the tank ended up on 26 and the sump ended up on 32. With the flow what it was it just didn't seem to be able to move enough water into the tank to close the gap. It probably WAS closing the gap but it was taking longer and longer to raise the temp.

I will see what happens now the flow rate is higher with the new pump. If it still takes too long to come up to temp I may have to abandon the idea of using heaters with their own thermostats and come up with some other way to failsafe the heating system if the main temp controller fails.


Anyway.... I will try and get some updated pics up tomorrow when the water has cleared a bit. Its still a bit cloudy from the new sand.

Tomorrow I will start soaking some big pieces of wood I have got for the tank. I think I will probably end up going with the minimalist look as live plants, although very nice, will be a nightmare to maintain with these fish, especially in a tank this size. Plastic plants are an option (if I can find any that are big enough) although I have heard piranha like tearing them up too!

tiggers

Re Problem 2

I reckon you could be OK with an increased flow rate. We had similar probs with a swimming pool solar panel and heat exchanger in France that we designed and built ourselves (for a mate's holiday rental pad).

We had very hot water running across the heat exchanger from the panel, but it was running across so fast and the pool water so slowly that most of the heat from the panel water wasn't going into the exchanger and much of what was coming out was getting lost before it arrived at the pool.

After several days of adjustments we got it spot on and now except for Winter the whole pool is permanently heated from the solar panel.

Good luck,

tiggers.

ajm

Cheers tiggers, I have hung an extra heater over the side for the time being just to get the temp back up to where it was yesterday before I had to drain some of the tank in yesterdays overflow debacle! I'll then switch it off and see if the higher flow makes a difference!

Here's a pic of the tank as it is at the moment (spot the heater dangling over the side! )

super_si

So whats actaully going inside of have i missed that?

If you dont mind me asking, whats the setup going to be worth? without including man hours because it looks like its going to be pretty damn good when its all done

S

ajm

I have the following ready to go in:

5 x 6-7" Red Bellied Piranha (pygocentrus nattereri)
3 x 6-7" Venezuelan Red Bellies (pygocentrus caribe)
1 x 10" Yellow Belly Ternetzi Variant (pygocentrus nattereri)

I will probably also get a few pygocentrus piraya to complete the range of species in the pygocentrus genus!

It's always difficult to say how much an aquarium is "worth", but put it this way, if I was going to be selling it I would find it has depreciated like a scooby! I have spent about £2000 setting it up, I would probably get half that selling it, further down the line. In a few years time, when the fish have grown to decent sizes, they will probably be worth more than the tank by then.

super_si

how much to the piranahs get imported for?

ajm

Depends what species and what size. Common Red Bellies can be bred in captivity so are not worth much, other species have to be live caught. You could be talking anything up to a few hundred pounds for a specimen size of one of the rarer species.

I paid £30 each for my Caribe in April. They are probably worth double that now due to their size.

Its worth saying that piranha are not rare fish, they are rare fish HERE. If more people imported them then the value would go completely. As it is there are very few people importing in the UK.