9 Foot tank finally complete ready for Altums

[ALTUMA]

Well after 2 years of planning and waiting to build the new house so i can build my tank in, the wait is over.
The tank is in and being cycled. I have 7 young Altums to go in it and would have liked to have more but 7 more died on me, don’t ask me what happened. It a sad story. :cry:

Here are some pictures of the 9x2.5x2 planted tank with a 6x18x15 sump and additional 2250 Ehime filter as well as a custom made under gravel PVC filter. No excuse that there is not enough filtration, this guys are going to have the best quality water that I can provide for them, and once it is all stable and cycled the young’s will be transferred into there new home.

As some will tell you this is a stressful time as the two tanks would need to have almost the same water condition to eliminate any stress on the fish after the transfer. Fingers crossed. :lol:

[lpiasente]

I got all excited to see pics, where are they?? :)

[ALTUMA]

Sorry for the delay in posting images, image size was the problem, and finely i got around to resize and post them on.
So far I have managed to transfer 2 of the Altums in to the new tank, and they are doing extremely well.
Despite what I have been reading my Altums are kept in a PH of 6.8 and cant see any problem with them. It took some time to bring the P.H up but they are happy, and more importantly growing.

I don’t have any images of the fish yet, but that will come shortly, I didn’t want to stress the fish by taking pictures of them.

Well here are some pictures of the tank.

[ALTUMA]

More pics
the tank is 9 foot long x 2.5 foot high and 2 foot wide made in 15mm glass.

The sump is 6foot long x 18inch wide x 15 in high

[ALTUMA]

more pics

[ALTUMA]

here come the plants

[ALTUMA]

more plants

[ALTUMA]

and more plants

[ALTUMA]

More pics of full tank

the water is brown because of the peat moss bags in the sump

You see the 2250 ehiem canister here as well, this is connected to the under gravel pipes, via the taps behind the canister. this system doubles up as an easy gravel vacuum system, just connect a pump to the taps and suck the water out, each tap will control 3 foot length of the tank.

[lpiasente]

Looks great, has to be a fishes dream to be in that big tank.

[fish crazed]

Very impressive setup mate. Great to know you still have your altums too. How are they growing for you? Can't wait to see some pics of them when u get the chance.
Did you build the tank yourself?
I've lost ur number so give me a bell when you're free for a yarn.

Happy New Year!!
Tony

[fish crazed]

Very impressive setup mate. Great to know you still have your altums too. How are they growing for you? Can't wait to see some pics of them when u get the chance.
Did you build the tank yourself?
I've lost ur number so give me a bell when you're free for a yarn.

Happy New Year!!
Tony

[Red Tail Shark]

im definatly sufering from some tank envy would love to see somore photos on plumbing configaration congrats on the setup guess you will spend a little longer eating dinner now

cheers Cal

did i mention how envious

[ALTUMA]

:D

Hi Tony,


Long time no see.

Yes the tank finally came together. The sheer size of the tank and the stand as well as the filtration system made it difficult to move and get in place.
The Altums now have settled in and are happily eating and no indication of stress. must say they are a bit shy and hide when they see someone close to the tank, I’m seeing them out more offend in compare to when they first where transferred in to the new tank.

Yes I did build the tank myself, including drilling holes in the glass, welding the stand, making the under gravel pipe system, works a charm. All I have to do now is build the cabinet and a low line hood so that it’s more pleasant to the eye.

I must say I did have a bit of a scare at the start during the cycle, as the water has high KH value of 120ppm that’s 7 drops, now Melbourne water literally has 0-1 KHppm, so either the gravel, or the 23 pieces of sand stone I had in the tank introduced the minerals in the water and increased the KH.

As for the P.H it at 7.6 and I am not attempting to reduce it as it would be pointless since the KH is high.
I’m expecting the P.H would drop as I do more water changes; this is due to the low KH in the tap water. The fish look very happy and so I don’t see any reason to change the water parameters in a hurry.

I have added 5 bags of peat moss to the filter that I am expecting will reduce and stabilise the PH, I think it is the safest way instead of adding chemicals and treatments to adjust the water.

1300 litre of water tend to take longer to register changes, even during the cycle I did not detect any Ammonia, Nitrate or Nitrite. it is strange but again the fish are happy. the size of the tank and the number of the fish play a big part in this. I only have 100 neon’s and 7 Altums.

I have got some video of the young’s; I will post it on YouTube and post the link here soon.

More pics to follow too.

Walter

[ALTUMA]

By the way you can just see the young Altums in the second planted picture, thy are behind the plants on the top right hand side. :idea:

[Merrilyn]

Love what you've done with the tank. It's a work of art, and I'm so pleased to see another altum nut on the forum, and in Melbourne too. Great. :D

Did you get your altums from Ravi at Finland? They look about the same size as my second batch.

Love to hear your thoughts on the under gravel filtration. I'm from the old school of fishkeeping, when undergravel filters were the mainstay of the hobby, and I still think they provide the best biological filtration, but it's an unusual choice today. Is it power driven or air driven. Best looking UG setup I've seen in a long time. Are you interested in building one for a ten foot tank? :lol:

More photos of your altums please, and a detailed run down of your filtration set up :wink:

[angel101]

What about UG filtration and plant growth? Doesn't UG filtration preclude it, unless of course one uses pots.


Gary

[ALTUMA]

Hi Merrilyn,

Thanks for your comments, it has been a long time in planning and so the results are as good as I expected them to be.

Yes the young ones did come from Ravi, not without problems, as I got the last 14 fish he had. And some where already in trouble where it resulted in 7 fish meeting there maker sooner than they should have.

My thoughts on UG filtration,
well you have to ask why is it that they have become less popular, this is the way I see it, they are not very profitable and so when the customers ask at the counter they get told that the canisters are the way to go, reason is there is money in a $700 canister. Where a $30 UG filter has little return.

I think that UG are grate and I always had them in my tanks, but I wanted to make them better, and so I came up with the design you see in the pictures above.
Now my UG is not air driven, if you look in the pictures, you will see 3 PVC pipes run up from under the gravel (Left hand side) the run down from the back of the tank and down to the back of the stand. There you can see 3 red taps. For every 3 foot of the tank I have one UG filter, they all joining back together via one outlet, the taps allow individual control or flow for each section.
This UG filter doubles up as gravel cleaning system as well as the filter.
I have a 12,000 LPM pump that I connect to the outlet past the taps, and then I close 2 of the taps, then I run the pump where in affect it drains the waist from under the gravel and UG filter. I then repeat that process for each section by turning the taps. It means that I have gravel clean done on a 9foot tank in less than 5 min.

Every other time the outlet is connected to a 2250 Ehiem, where it sucks the water from the UG system, see picture.
Also the stainless steel mesh prevents the PVC holes from getting blocked by the gravel. As for the gravel it is 6-8 mm gravel that allows the dirt to make its way to the top of the SS mesh. The larger bits will sit on the mesh and slowly brake down to smaller pieces until they can go threw the holes of the mesh.

The waste gets collected in the canister, where there is a concentration of bacteria’s that assist in braking down the waste.

This system is perhaps more than sufficient to run the tank on its own. But I decided to add a 6 foot sump with bio-balls and sponge as well as carbon also peat moss, and Ehiem media. 3 foot of the tank is filed with above media, the rest houses a 7,000 litre Laguna pump that circulates the water in the tank. I don’t run the full 7000 in the tank; I have a splitter and some of the water about 2500 runs via a UVC canister then back into the sump. The UVC is a 25 watt unit that runs 24/7.
The 3foot of the sump also is a new home to a colony of 9 adult Albino Bristle nose 2boys and 7 girls, I hope they will breed often enough to subsidise some of the cost of food and setup.

the latest addition is a CO2 injection system, to feed the plants as well as stabilise the PH in the tank.

Well that’s about it, besides feeding the young’s, and I believe you have a good recopies for that. Do you mind sharing the imprudence and results.

[fish crazed]

Hey Walter,

The whole setup is very planned mate. I would have asked you to weld me a stand for my 8fter if I'd known you were a handyman.

How are the plants settling in for you? Are you going to keep it as a low light setup since you're injecting with CO2? Let me know if you need any help dealing with ferts, CO2 etc... I've been setting up a planted tank ready for the Altums too so I've learnt a great deal.

Its interesting how your kh is high though and I don't think its the red rocks shown in your photo thats causing it. Do you know whats in your gravel?

Love the link to those Altums breeding too! Its inspiration for us all here to achieve one day!!!

Keep up the great work and updates mate!

Tony

[AHC]

Hi,

Love the tank. Looks great. I found your thread interesting especially the filtration. As ive only been in the hobby a few years ive had limited knowledge about UG filtration (my first tank given to me by my brother had one that used air to suck in all the dirt etc.) Needless to say i got rid of it based on some adivice that they are useless. SO its good to hear your experience and thoughts on teh setup. Its totally changed my view on the subject. Do you think its all in the design of UG filtration that gives you the best results? I wouldnt mind trying an UG in the future.

I appreciate the effort you have put into the tank and cant wait to see it all grown in. :D Thanks again for sharing