[byte]

Here is a journal of the setup and planting of a 60 gallon Hagen Waterhome Euro Style Aquarium.

I had been watching this tank and stand at a new local pet store, but the price tag (with light, gravel, heaters, cheap filter, plastic plants, net, etc) was too much. On the next visit to the store, the tank was by the door (waiting for me) with a new sales price tag! :rolleyes:

• Hagen Waterhome Euro Style Aquarium -- 120 cm by 40 cm by 50 cm (48x16x19) -- 10mm glass with beveled and polished edges -- 223 Liter -- 59 gallons
  
• Hagen Glo T5 HO Lighting System - Double - 48" -- 108 Watts
  
• Hagen Glo T5 HO Lighting System - Single - 48 -- 54 Watts
  
• Eheim Professional II - 2026 Canister Filter
  
• Hydor 200watt Inline Heater
  
• Seachem Flourite Black Substrate (6)
  
• AquaClear 70 foam for intake screen pre-filter
  
• Coralife Pro Light Hanger Kit
  
• Coralife Digital Timer

>----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------->

Adding water to the tank. The filter has just floss and foam in it for now and the heater is warming up the water. I have cut a hole into a AquaClear 70 foam to keep plants and rocks out of the canister filter. A few giant duckweed plants have been added with macro and micro fertilizers.

http://AlbertaAquatica.com/uploads/1222186517/gallery_2943_239_30600.jpg

No sense having a clean tank for too long :tongue: I rinsed a pre-filter sponge from my 90 gallon planted mbuna tank in the water. I hope to trap some of this material in the layers of substrate that will be added next.

http://AlbertaAquatica.com/uploads/1222186517/gallery_2943_239_31231.jpg

I added 3 bags of flourite to the tank after rinsing out the dust. Time for more yucky stuff. I took the ehiem canister filter off my 90 gallon tank and put half of the used filter media into the new filter. A bunch of the "goop" from the used filter was added to the tank. Now its really dirty... you really don't want to see a picture of that... :unsure:
Next I added the last 3 bags of rinsed flourite and mixed it all together. By morning the water should be clear.
-_-

This post has been edited by byte: 23 March 2009 - 03:32 PM

[Kayen]

Don't know if anyone else is having problems seeing hte pictures.
I can't seem to see your pictures ;( .

[Erin]

that looks just like a tank we have a the petsmart I work at. Can't wait to see more photos.

[byte]

DAY TWO:

I will have to break this into smaller posts due to limit of nine pictures allowed in a single post.

• 10 pound CO2 cylinder
  
• Permaseal brass seal
  
• CO2 regulator/solenoid with dual needle valves and bubble counters
  
• Milwaukee SMS122 PH Controller
  
• Elite In-tank filter for C02 mixing ($12)
  
• C02 tubing
  
• KH STANDARD / 4 dKH
  
• CAL AQUA "Double Check" Drop Checker

After 8 hours the dust and muck have settled. Time to add some Seachem Flourite (root) Tabs to the substrate. If you ever need to remove gravel from a tank with water in it, try a lenght of 3/4 auto heater hose like shown. It will fill a 5 gallon pail in no time so you need a helper to move pails. Put your finger over the end in the tank to stop the flow.

http://AlbertaAquatica.com/uploads/1222186517/gallery_2943_239_165776.jpg

First I start to label the cords to help sort out the maze of wiring with a Brother label printer.

http://AlbertaAquatica.com/uploads/1222186517/gallery_2943_239_217003.jpg

Next the pressurized CO2 will be added and luck has it the cabinet is tall enough for a 10 pound bottle.
There are many types of washers to seal between the CO2 cylinder and the regulator. I switched all mine over to the Permaseal brass O-ring type after losing a tank of CO2 to reusing a fiber washer. I had been told you should replace the fiber or plastic seals every time you change the cylinder.

http://AlbertaAquatica.com/uploads/1222186517/gallery_2943_239_123609.jpg

Installing the permaseal onto the cylinder. Not all CO2 bottles have the inner threads for these types of washers!

http://AlbertaAquatica.com/uploads/1222186517/gallery_2943_239_113110.jpg

The pH controller will turn the CO2 solenoid on and off to maintain the set pH. My tap water is 7.8 pH and by adding CO2 it will drop the pH to 6.7. It is recommended that you do not let the pH probe dry out once it has been used. I have tested the unit with a store bought 7.0 pH test solution.

http://AlbertaAquatica.com/uploads/1222186517/gallery_2943_239_15238.jpg

http://AlbertaAquatica.com/uploads/1222186517/gallery_2943_239_165498.jpg

I will be using a glass diffuser and an Elite In-Tank filter ($12) to dissolve the CO2 into the water. I was running the filter without the ceramic air stone before, but adding this really made the CO2 bubbles into a finer mist. It really is simple to add the CO2 with this filter, all I had to do was cut a small piece of the grill on the bottom to push the line through. The foam all ready had a hole cut out the size of the ceramic CO2 diffuser.

http://AlbertaAquatica.com/uploads/1222186517/gallery_2943_239_51853.jpg

A drop checker will also be used to monitor the CO2 levels in the tank. The solution will be blue when CO2 is low, green when CO2 reaches about 30 ppm, and yellow when CO2 gets really high. This CAL AQUA "Double Check" Drop Checker has two "bubbles", one contains a pre-mixed solution of 4dKH solution and Bromothymol Blue pH indicator solution which changes color with CO2 concentration, and the other is a reference color to compare with.

http://AlbertaAquatica.com/uploads/1222186517/gallery_2943_239_20777.jpg

The instructions that come with this drop checker say to use aquarium water in the drop checker. Not a good idea as then drop checker may or may not work right depending on your water, any buffers used, etc. You can make a 4 or 5 dKH solution of distilled water and baking soda, but the measurements are tough to do without graduated cylinders to measure the water and a centigram scale to measure out the baking soda.

http://AlbertaAquatica.com/uploads/1222186517/gallery_2943_239_44474.jpg

The instructions to make 4 or 5 dKH solutions are HERE

http://AlbertaAquatica.com/uploads/1222186517/gallery_2943_239_65563.jpg

• The CO2 system is now installed at 2:15pm. CO2 rate set to about 4 bubbles per second. I have super-high GH and KH so it takes a lot of CO2 to lower the pH.
  
• One hour later the pH has dropped 0.1 and the drop checkers are still blue.
  
• At 6:00pm the pH is at 7.5.
  
• By 9:00pm, the pH was at 7.3 and the drop checkers are blue-green color.
  
• At 1:00am, pH at 7.2. There is a fair amount of surface agitation with H2O level lower than usual. Bumped up CO2 to about 6 bubbles per second.

Time to figure out how much dry fertilizers to dose. The Ferti-lator at APC (Aquatic Plant Central) is a very handy calculator used to find dosage for fertilizers. Link to Ferti-lator at APC

For a 55 gallon (US) tank
KNO3 >1 teaspoon >15ppm
KH2PO4 >0.0625 teaspoon *1 Pinch* >1.1ppm
K2SO4 >0.5 teaspoon >17ppm
Flourish Iron >2ml >0.1ppm

*Dash-Pinch-Smidgen measuring spoon sets can be bought at Canadian Tire.*
Dash=1/8 tsp
Pinch=1/16 tsp
Smidgen=1/32 tsp

That doses the N-P-K and iron, I also added Seachem Excel, Stability, Trace, and Flourish Comprehensive. It is best to dose Iron by itself to prevent problems. :shifty:

Hmmm... have substrate... have water... have ferts... have CO2... plants next :smokey:

This post has been edited by byte: 12 March 2009 - 08:03 AM

[byte]

Time to start planting... Some of the plants may be mis-labeled or even be unknown to me so if you see an error, please let me know.

Plant List

• Tiger Vallisneria
  
• Micro sword
  
• Giant Duckweed
  
• Hygrophila corymbosa
  
• Narrow leaf chain sword
  
• Egeria densa
  
• Hydrocotyle (Pennywort)
  
• Narrow Leaf Chain Sword
  
• Dwarf Sag
  
• Dwarf sword
  
• Ozelot sword
  
• Aponogeton crispus?
  
• Cryptocoryne wendtii
  
• Java Fern
  
• Anubias
  
• Limnophila aromatica
  
• +3 types of unknown plants

-_-


54 watts of T5HO at 11000K. Not really the ideal bulb, but it came with the light.

http://AlbertaAquatica.com/uploads/1222186517/gallery_2943_239_113421.jpg

Added a few more plants and fish to the tank and added on the 2x54 watt light (6500K).
The plants on the left at the front (thin, tall, small green leaves) are unknown to me and also don't know the names of the two reddish colored plants.

http://AlbertaAquatica.com/uploads/1222186517/gallery_2943_239_62870.jpg

Had time today to stick a few more plants in and clean up a tree for the tank.

http://AlbertaAquatica.com/uploads/1222186517/gallery_2943_239_32674.jpg

Added most of the big plants today.

http://AlbertaAquatica.com/uploads/1222186517/gallery_2943_239_23086.jpg

Running out of room to plant...

http://AlbertaAquatica.com/uploads/1237014777/gallery_2943_239_98733.jpg

Driftwood and you can see the CO2 bubbles in the water.

http://AlbertaAquatica.com/uploads/1237014777/gallery_2943_239_171569.jpg

:)

This post has been edited by byte: 14 March 2009 - 12:21 AM

[byte]

The Glo lights have been hung using a Coralife aqualight pro hanger which had to be modified to fit the Hagen lights. I have 2 hooks in the wall so that the lights can be swung back and held away for working in the tank.

I also added 8 LED moonlights on top of the tank and 8 LED lights under the cabinet. The are controlled by the Coralife digital timer which switches them on as the main lights go out. There is a DIY thread HERE for the moonlights if you are interested in building a set for your tank.

One thing I really like about this tank is no center brace! It is nice to be able to move from one side of the tank to the other without the brace getting in the way. A few of the fish have been added and in another week there will be 50 more ready from quarantine tank.

Completed, but waiting for more fish...

http://AlbertaAquatica.com/uploads/1237014777/gallery_2943_239_42134.jpg

Moonlights...

http://AlbertaAquatica.com/uploads/1237014777/gallery_2943_240_130847.jpg

Stand moon lights

http://AlbertaAquatica.com/uploads/1237014777/gallery_2943_240_193581.jpg

:)

[BlackMumba]

Great set up... I love the moonlights.. dunno why blue lights I always find attractive!! :thumbs:

[byte]

One week later the tank is coming along nice. The floating and stem plants are doing great, except one of the new plants (Limnophila aromatica) that I really wanted to get going. The new fish have been added along with an extra established filter.

March 18-2009

http://AlbertaAquatica.com/uploads/1237014777/gallery_2943_239_42134.jpg

March 24-2009

http://AlbertaAquatica.com/uploads/1237014777/gallery_2943_239_4588.jpg

http://AlbertaAquatica.com/uploads/1237014777/gallery_2943_239_22496.jpg

Now the setup of this tank is complete, I will start a new thread to watch things grow (hopefully plants).

:rolleyes:

This post has been edited by byte: 25 March 2009 - 01:57 PM

[violet c]

super- nice set up!

[soliver]

Updated Pictures?

[Iceturf]

wow, that is totally wicked!

This post has been edited by Iceturf: 02 May 2009 - 07:17 AM

[corrosionjerry]

Just had a look at your pics after planting the tank.... good job it will be awsome

[Nikonoclast]

Wow, beautiful set-up!

Love to see some updated photos.