Saph's 6ft/800L Amazon Adventure (Customer Display Tank)

[sapherion]

Latest Project: 6ft x 2ft x 2.5ft - 800Litres

This is a customer's display tank for an apartment residence. Set in the living area. Whole job took 10 hours from start to finish including the time taken to tear down the existing scape.

Glass: 10mm Starfire Premium Custom made Tank
Stand: Custom made painted matt black
Lighting: DIY Metal Halide 2x 150w & Downlight fixture (To be replaced with Dupla Electra Kombi 2)
Filtration: 2x Eheim Pro's
Co2: Dupla Alpha Set & Aquamedic Reactor 5bps
Heating: 300W Dupla heating cables & 2x 200W Hydor inline heaters
Substrate: Plain 3mm black gravel & thin layer of Dupla laterite
PH: 6.0 Controlled by Dupla
Temp: 29'C

Flora:
Echinodorus Tennellus
Anubias Nana
Anubias Barteri
Various Swords
Crypt Walkeri
Java Fern
Java Moss
Blyxa Japonica
Pogostemon Stellata
Thin Vallissnera
Aponogeton Crispus

Fauna:
Blue Turquoise Discus
Sterbei Corydoras
Clown Loach
Bristlenose Catfish
Ottocinclus

Day starts by draining water and taking everything down
http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j97/Sapherion/DSC01028.jpg

Make sure you have plenty of towels, there will be major spillage!
http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j97/Sapherion/DSC01029.jpg

Setting out equipment and supplies
http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j97/Sapherion/DSC01030.jpg

8x 80L bins to house existing water and all the fish. Notice they are being filtered to keep water oxygenated
http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j97/Sapherion/DSC01031.jpg

Plenty of space for work
http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j97/Sapherion/DSC01032.jpg

Plants laid out. Make sure water is constantly sprayed to avoid plants drying out. Its 37'C today!
http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j97/Sapherion/DSC01034.jpg

River rocks. They're not from the local creek I swear!
http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j97/Sapherion/DSC01035.jpg

Existing plants. Needing to be trimmed of dying leaves/algae ridden leaves
http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j97/Sapherion/DSC01036.jpg

Draining the rest of the tank. Almost there..
http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j97/Sapherion/DSC01037.jpg

Clearing the old gravel and taking heating cables out
http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j97/Sapherion/DSC01038.jpg

This tank is big.. and I mean big.. it could fit 3 of me!
http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j97/Sapherion/DSC01041.jpg

For a job this size, get as much help as you can
http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j97/Sapherion/DSC01047.jpg

Almost empty.. Man this is tiring so far
http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j97/Sapherion/DSC01049.jpg

Laying out hardscape. For this scape, I decided to use the golden ratio and mount two mounds using river stones to hold the mounds in place.
http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j97/Sapherion/DSC01051.jpg

Climbing back in, this tank is too deep to work from outside
http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j97/Sapherion/DSC01052.jpg

Laying out black gravel slowly
http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j97/Sapherion/DSC01053.jpg

Checking depth
http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j97/Sapherion/DSC01054.jpg

Basic layout almost done
http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j97/Sapherion/DSC01058.jpg

And done..
http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j97/Sapherion/DSC01061.jpg

Adding driftwood with moss tied on using cotton thread
http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j97/Sapherion/DSC01065.jpg

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j97/Sapherion/DSC01068.jpg

Hardscape done
http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j97/Sapherion/DSC01071.jpg

Starting from the front moving back
http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j97/Sapherion/DSC01078.jpg

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j97/Sapherion/DSC01079.jpg

Planting finished. Whole planting process took 4 hours. Started to fill again slowly
http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j97/Sapherion/DSC01080.jpg

Finished filling. Checked all hardware. Good to go
http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j97/Sapherion/DSC01083.jpg

These lights are pretty bright already
http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j97/Sapherion/DSC01085.jpg

Still cloudy, should clear by tomorrow
http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j97/Sapherion/DSC01087.jpg

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j97/Sapherion/DSC01089.jpg

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j97/Sapherion/DSC01091.jpg

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j97/Sapherion/DSC01092.jpg

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j97/Sapherion/DSC01095.jpg

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j97/Sapherion/DSC01097.jpg

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j97/Sapherion/DSC01099.jpg

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j97/Sapherion/DSC01100.jpg

Please excuse the dark pics, not good at taking pics :(

Overall although this was a big job, it turned out pretty much how I wanted. We used all the plants and there was still room for a bit more. Fish were added an hour after filling.

Hope you enjoyed this journal and please feel free to comment.

Cheers,

Brandon.

[Mr Discus]

Looks awesome Brandon, nice job!

It definately looks like the time put in was worth it in the end by how good the aquascaping and planting has been done. Great job mate.

[racefiend]

Awesome job. Love the tank

[benkk]

what are the plants that you tie on driftwood ??

[nicholas76]

Great job,, can you post a few more pics of teh entire tank id like to see how its settled in more.

Have you considered using a hood to hide those lights might be a good option, plus discus wont mind the cover.

[taksan]

the Getto light fittings kinda ruin the look .....

[sapherion]

Lights are going to be replaced with full Dupla set. These are just temporary :)

[sapherion]

Update: 16th of January

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j97/Sapherion/DSC00016.jpg

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j97/Sapherion/DSC00020.jpg

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j97/Sapherion/DSC00021-1.jpg

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j97/Sapherion/DSC00024.jpg

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j97/Sapherion/DSC00027.jpg

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j97/Sapherion/DSC00032-1.jpg

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j97/Sapherion/DSC00034-1.jpg

[Matt15]

Wow.... that looks bloody awesome. The hard work certainly paid off, just a shame its not in my living room.... :lol:

[ILLUSN]

is it just the light or is the water still a little hazy?.

Still the tank looks fantastic!

[ellwa]

I LOVE the look of all the same strain.

I really wish that when I'd bought mine I'd got all the same strain. I think it looks fantastic seeing such majestic fish all schooling together.

[Robdog]

I dig the new lights but I kinda liked the old ones too.


is it just the light or is the water still a little hazy?.

Still the tank looks fantastic!

:stupid What he said. :wink:

[MSD]

That is one gorgeous tank, hard work really paid off. The haze in the tankI believe is just the cameras lens flaring due to the high powered lighting. Like the haze you get shooting into the sun on some pictures.

[nicholas76]

stunning new lights

i just looked them up ,, yoru running 3 x 150 watts! nice


hmmm cant find any 250 watters x 2

[scott bowler]

looks great nice set up thanks for shareing the job as you did it