Amano New Year Build!

Thanks, boss!

 

I've used a mix ratio of "Garden master" organic compost X 1 part and "Garden master" organic potting soil X 1 part and Coconut peat x 2 part.

1" soil mix capped with +-50mm pool filter sand

Left the tank overnight for sand dust to clear, and added fish on day two. Running a new sump and 2 filters from old tank. Plants were also from old tank. Its been a week and havent lost any fish or shrimp.

 

In my experience, I have to disagree with you on the Aquatic Mix.
What you should've done (same as Jaco posted above):
a) wash it and remove the floating debris from the mix (there is a lot of bark in there as well)
b) Only used a thinner layer on the bottom of the tank - 1cm - 1.5cm and then capped it off with gravel or sand (pool sand or if you wanted something finer, then play sand) or if you wanted a different look, then aquarium gravel.
c) wash the capping layer as well to remove all the dust.

 

The aim was never to have it for aesthetic purposes, only to keep the plants happy temporarily and I wasn't going to waste gravel or whatnot. Floating organic debris and some cloudiness are the least of my worries if I have a dense, light-blocking colloid that will not settle out nor be caught with filter wool.

 

Anyway, SCIENCE!

WARNING: DO NOT DO WHAT I'M ABOUT TO DO ON YOUR OWN AQUARIUM.


This was the state of the toilet after 48 hours of settling and (after it didn't settle) an overnight hit with a HOB stuffed with filter wool. It made no difference whatsoever, the particles are too small, and negatively charged so they won't clump and neither will they stick to the filter wool.



Experimentation time. I cut a sheet of glass and wedged it to make two compartments.



Aluminium sulphate, which I had originally bought for plant quarantine purposes but will come in handy for my dilemma here:





Made a saturated solution in hot water, I'd guess about 50g or half a block.



I slowly added it 10ml at a time with a syringe until BAM suddenly the particles started to flock together and settle out.





Now that I was satisfied that it would work, I added my HOB back. The Penn-Plax Cascade 300 is a GREAT filter, I could literally see the water getting clearer before my eyes.



I continued to add the aluminium sulphate solution until I could see no more flocculation (is that even a word) happening. In total I added the whole liter of solution. The aluminium sulphate is toxic to invertebrates, and to fish at higher concentrations. The trick is to keep it out of solution by only adding small amounts at a time and having an excess of crud in the water. The alum ions gel in the water and are opposite in charge to the clay particles, and so it acts as a flocculant that gets filtered out along with the clumps of muck. A very effective one, I might add.

What remains in the water column won't harm the plants, but it can kill simpler/unicellular algae, but nevertheless I will do a water change and gravel vac and then I'll be ready to replant. Yes, there is water in the pic below. This took all of 15mins to clear with the Penn-Plax and filter wool.



Anyway, I will not be reusing this substrate for anything other than keeping plants. I will definitely not consider this mix, even if fresh, for the ada either. It's too much of a pita.

 

Sheesh that's seriously impressive!! Very ingenuitive.

Glad there's some chemistry nuts around that can figure this stuff out. I'd still be sitting with the toilet tank had I been in your situation

 

I'm pretty chuffed with my wasted youth also if I might say so myself

I've been sitting here babysitting it for maybe two hours now. I rake the substrate to get everything up into the column, then sit and wait for the water to clear. I've had to wash the filter wool thrice, but I am satisfied that I don't need to add anymore alum and that any concentration of it left in the aquarium will be very low. The amount of kak that came out of the first rinse was unbeliefies. It was like red oxide paint. One more rinse and then I'm going to vacuum it. I want to get those plants in tonight.

 

Won't ask where you learn those skill from

Keep us updated with the planting please! Would love to see the first future tank members

 

After the gravel vac I set it up next to my computer desk so I can keep an eye on it and started planting. I still have some cryptos and an entire container of unknown frags to plant, but there simply isn't any more room. I'll tell ya, planting dozens and dozens of clippings is back-breaking work. My kingdom for a neckrub!

I'll squeeze out some space for the remaining cryptos but I think I might try container propagation for the rest.

I added a capful of stability for the hype factor and now I wait. The water is finally gin-clear and the caustics (and tinkling water) caused by the filter are very pleasing. Unfortunately, the shelf at the back means that the hob is now a hof, it's too big to be a hos too But not a problem, I don't have livestock so just really need a smol corner filter. Tomorrow I'll think about making some CO2.

 

48 hours in and the expected bacterial boom is in full swing. Plants are looking all right, the Rotala are picking themselves up. No CO2 yet, so long 14 hour photoperiod at low light.

 

Everything is definitely perking up nicely!

Your holding tank is going to end up looking like a lil Dutch aquascape there

 

My least favourite style :/

 

My preliminary design for the cabinet is done. I want a flush, monolith-style cabinet with overlay doors and Eurostyle hidden hinges. I still need to figure out how I'm going to do the hinges, since the inset with the frame in the way will foul the corners and I haven't yet found a hinge that will do, apart from the small hinges that facemount and are inset into the door. I'll see, that's the least of my worries now.

I have selected 32x1.9mm square tubing as the frame material, and it will be clad in 16mm melamine. The tank itself will rest on a 32mm thick piece of melamine (and some foam), with the frame inset 16mm to account for the width of the cladding. The edges of the tank will not rest directly on the frame, but I think the 32mm melamine will suffice to spread the load.

I want to have space for a sump, and a shelf. I also added castor wheels and leveling feet, the latter will also allow the wheels to be raised so they don't develop flat spots. I'll add fillets from stock 5mm baseplate or something similar depending on the castors I get. That is up in the air at this point.

Any comments or suggestions very welcome! Any advice on the hinges would be SUPER helpful. Thanks!




EDIT: After doing some research and a couple of sums, I've come to the conclusion that 32mm is WAY overkill and I can easily get away with 25mm while keeping the ~2mm thickness (the compressive buckling load for a single 1000mm length of 1.9mm 32x32mm mild steel tube is 31MPa, or nearly 800Kg)



This also means that I will need a 25+16 = 41mm inset concealed hinge, which may be obtanium.

 

Are you wanting co2? If this is just a temp setup why not go for the diy co2 method? 2l bottle, yeast and sugar water and an airstone with some tubing?

 

Dude I been thinkin' (a rare indulgence). It will take a good long while before the ada is ready to be set up, and I might as well use it for something useful. I received a lot of micro sword cuttings and there are hundreds of nodes I could be dry-start propagating. Currently they're just kind of haphazardly stuck to the bottom in the holding tank. This is kinda apropos to the LanGa soil question you also responded to - I have a scape in mind that will require a big amount of carpet and I might as well start with using the ada as a propagation tank using a cheaper soil that won't cause problems (once bitten, etc). I'd just need a thin layer. And I won't need CO2 either until such time as the final setup is filled.

 

Sheesh... I would've screwed some 2x4s together and called it a day with the stand.

The level of thought that's gone into this matches the quality of the tank! Definitely worth the extra effort to build something nice that'll last an age.

What's your plan with the sump? Are you wanting to drill the ADA?

 

The thought is rattling around. I emailed ADA and they replied in the negative that the glass is tempered, so it can be drilled. They tried very hard to convince me not to drill it lol. Once it's drilled it's drilled and it can't be undone, which kinda bothers me. But I don't want heaters and tat spoiling the tank itself so it may be the best way forward. Alternatively I could get a HOB overflow box but that's also somewhat janky.

This is a very nice tank and I don't want to dress it down with too much cheapness. Building the frame is within my ability - well, there is only one way to find out. I have access to power tools including a mig welder (this is why I went for 2mm tubing, it's just easier to weld than the thin stuff, the extra strength notwithstanding).

 

I love it! Might have to sleep with one eye open if some of the ADA heads see the drilling comment

Never understood why sumps aren't more common in the freshwater hobby. They give you endless filtration options and as you say, they keep all the junk out the tank. I say go for it.

Im really enjoying following your thread. Definitely some inspo for future builds of mine

 

Thanks! I do enjoy the chinrubbing and maak-a-plan factor.

I'm thinking of doing this: HDPE bulkhead with 50mm compression fitting at the bottom, using a 50mm glass tube that acts as my overflow. Inside this I run a 20mm glass tube upwards as my return, with either some sort of off-the-shelf lily pipe that can fit on the end, or an acrylic bend, or else find someone who knows how to do glassblowing. Below the tank I can use another compression fitting and switch to PVC, where the return will enter the outflow through a hole drilled in a 45' connector. The issue is it might be noisy, or it might not flow enough, or I might have to fiddle endlessly with the height of the standpipe to tune the water level - AFTER the tank is drilled and what has been done cannot be undone.

The glass tubes; I have already found a local lab glass supplier, they cut it to length too. No idea how many Mzanzistani zlotys it would rip me, I have not made inquiries.

The other thing is that the bulkheads with 50mm compression fittings are very, ahem, bulky and it may make unreasonable demands on what I can and can't do with the 'scape. I'd have to eyeball it with the peepers IRL to make a decision.