My Rena 350l tank

[discusturkguy]

totally loving it mlgt but when you say imperfections do you mean with the moss on the mesh because if so im sure once they begin to fill out you wont notice anything unusual and will blend in with the dragon rock 

[frosties]

I must admit - I could not see any imperfections...!

[mlgt]

Thank you for the kind comments.

I guess its hard to say, when I say inperfections I guess I should say placement and detail.

For me I am somewhat a perfectionist, even though I like to comment on other peoples tanks and of course the tank is just set up it will take a good 6 months before the whole tank takes shape.

I am simply fast fowarding in my mind too quickly and realise time doesnt travel in a click of a page to 6 months :)

The layout in my eyes is good, I think over time as plants grow I will need to do slight adjustments. I know that the slates of mosses that I will introduce to the tank will mature and grow, thus hiding the wood roots and tie clips. Algae will start to grow on the rocks making it more natural.

I will remove the background in a few months time when the plants have grown in (and when I tidy whats behind the tank area) and this will make it look much more natural. I will add a small light that shines away from the tank and uses the wall to bounce the light off to create a nice mood.

Have been tempted to install LED strip so that at night when the lights are off I will have 1 hour to see my clown plec and pekolita roaming around and forraging for food.

I have to shape the slope at the front more, I havent been inclined to do so because it stirs up alot of sand and I didnt want to disturb the substrate if I was going to take a photo :)

In a months time I should be able to move the other filter over and I have thought about creating 1 spray bar that connects perfectly from both sides and slightly smaller holes so that the filter pushes from both sides and have a nice spray area.

The heater will be removed and placed on the right side of the tank or even used as an inlet pipe therefore reducing the clutter (minus 1 tubing)

When I am settled I will install my co2 back into the tank and have a really low bubble count which will be on for aboout 5 hrs a day from 12-6pm. Lights currently are on from 2-9 each day.  But I suspect I will change this and have the light come on around 4pm-10.30pm, therefore I will adjust the co2 from 2-7pm instead.

[discusturkguy]

very true mlgt i can be the same at times when it comes to plants growing and covering a area so know what you mean. i like the idea of using the heater has a inlet has i wanted to do that with my old rena smart heater but never got around to sorting that out. and i must be honest i was wondering what was on the roots but realise now that you used clips to hold them together which is a great idea 

[mlgt]

Heres a few pics of me getting the fish ready.

More videos to come, but clarissa has run off with the camera to watch a concert at the 02.

opening the bags of the sterbai and rummys.... Quick as a flash
http://img828.imageshack.us/img828/6715/party016800x533.jpg

Duck!!! Where?
http://img64.imageshack.us/img64/7784/party018800x494.jpg

Ready? No... wait another hour please..


Sterbais go in after 1 hr..
http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/5738/party023800x533.jpg

Not long to go.... Another 40 mins and 2 more bag dips..
http://img843.imageshack.us/img843/2706/party025800x533.jpg

Can we come out to play yet?


We are stressed and need more space....
http://img843.imageshack.us/img843/8044/party029800x449.jpg

[mlgt]

Heres a quick vid. Will do another video next week when I am home at night.

Introducing Rummynose

[frosties]

thats gonna look great when they colour up...

[mlgt]

THey coloured up nicely within the hour. But everytime I made a video my Gran was commenting on the little fishes swimming around (lol)

So it was funny watching her commenting on the fishes. I will do another one at night time.

[mlgt]

Yearly update

Apologies as the back is quite dark. First time Ive tried black backing on the tank and freaked the big discus out.



Video included

Rena 350l aquascape

[mlgt]

Tonight I did some tinkering with the lights. I had a T5 starter set from my old Juwel 180.

I thought "what if"....... So i went through all my boxes and dusted off the starter kit. Surprisingly it still works even though the tubes were semi crushed under 2 heavy boxes. The toblerome tent box that stored them did their job!

So I found some cable ties. I looked at the structure of the light strip and how to work both together. Took me a few goes and finally I unscrewed the old tubes, slid the T5 ends and then attached the relavent tubes together.

This is what I came up with.





This is a before photo of the tank with normal T8 lighting that came with the tank. 2 x T8 36w - 72w


This is now the tank with the new T5 lighting. 2 x T5 39w - 78w


Both lights - 150w


However the issue I face is that the actual tubes are shorter than the rena so therefore the sides of the tank arent lit that well but still better than before.
What I will do is group the plants at the side closer which wont be hard to do.

I am now happier with the end result and hopefully will make a better difference to the tank.

For me its like having my tank in High definition. When all the lights are on, its quite nice :)

Taken with a point and shoot camera, couldnt be bothered to set up with the SLR.

[frosties]

That's some improvement. Well done and good thinking!

[Noshalot]

Thanks for sharing and showing pics of what you have done.  I'm going to pinch your idea, if you don't mind  I've been struggling trying to fit another light in my hood, it never occurred to me to attach it to an existing bulb with cable ties.

cheers

[mlgt]

I dont intend to use the old lights unless I am taking photos. With more lighting comes algae issues.