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Tirtha C
Committed Member of IAH
Joined: Feb 24, 2007
Posts: 4066
Location: Miyapur, Hyderabad
Status: Offline
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 Posted: Sat Nov 22, 2008 1:55 am Post subject: DREAM ::120 Gallon Journal :: Update 1st June |
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Hi Friends, I have started a planted 120G tank. I am putting up this journal, so I can key down all my experiences through the journey and can get your help, encouragement and help through out this project.
I am giving the name of this project 'Dream' as for last one year I was just trying to start this tank but could not do this due to different priorities at home front. Finally this is the time to get started.
Lets take a quick look at the basic details of this tank.
Size: 50"x24"x24" (It's a 124G custom made tank with 12mm float glass)
Stand: It's sitting on a Iron Stand made with L Angles. It's my own design and again custom made one. Lets take a look at the stand.
Substrate: Yes.... this is not going to be an ADA tank. I will follow normal year old method of Laterite+Peat and River Sand. I picked up a bag full of Laterite when I went to my native place last year. From the color you can see this is reach with High Iron content. This is a crushed small gravel form of Laterite brick.
As it is pure laterite, hope it will help me to bringdown the pH little bit. The next part was to add a commertial substrate with the laterite available in India. It's known as 'Soilrite' but not exactly for aquariums(Thanks Trevor Sir To Discover this). But lots of hobbyiests have tried this with success while growing aquatic plants. Soilrite is a mixture of Canadian Peat Moss, Vermiculite and Solirite. Vermicules are kind of volcanic ash and famous for its very high ECE.
So my bottom layer is a mixture of Laterite and soilrite. Total thinkness of the bottom layer is arround 1".
I topped it up with 2 types of River Gravels. For the back and Mid ground plants I have used 3-4mm River Gravel where as for the foreground carpet plants am going to use finer river sand of arround 2mm. Below is the River Gravels used in Back and Midground.
Total substrate thickness at back is arround 5" where as it is just 2.5" at foreground. Used pieces of Thermocol to make the initial slope at the bottom and spread the substrate layers top of it.
Hardscaping: I have used only Rocks for Hardscaping. The tallest one is arround 1.5 feet high where as rest of the rocks are hardly 6" tall. We had a detailed discussion on finalising Hardscape for this tank before in forum itself and will like to thanks members to help me finalizing the Rock setup.
Here We Go,
Sorry for the lousy condition of the tank glass. Too lazy to clean them up. As of now the tank left for cycling. I will love to avoid the initial algae attack to some extent with a cycled tank. 
BOOM Setup: I will be using 2 x 150watt MH for lighting. I have picked up 2 8000K astralux bulb for this tank. The MH are placed 1 feet above of the water surface to avoid extra heating. To fix these MH top of the tank, again I sat with pen and paper to design the stand and came up with this.
the complete stand is splitted into 4 parts and bolted together, so if I want to move the tank later somewhere else, it will take just 5 min to split the stand into bits and pieces.
I am a good boy.... so before my wife kicks me out of my apartment, I painted that ugly iron stand last weekend.
CO2 Setup: I will be using a 4.5KG CO2 Cylinder and a AquaBay CO2 Kit along with Dymax tower type Internal CO2 reactor which will be driven by a Powerhead of 700lph capacity. Later I have a plan to upgrade it to a external reactor may be an Aqua Medic.
Filteration:
Control Unit:
A good utilization of a lazy Sunday Afternoon. I have made the Switch control board.
I give 2 inputs to the board. 1 from 15Amp Line another from 5 Amp line. I have connected each timer to different Amp input line. And there are 4 independent switches which are not connected to timers and taking 5 amp input.
As I have used 5 pin timer, I will get double output. So I made the design like something so when Timer 1 will be on my MH will Glow and when It will be off One spot light will be on. Same for timer 2. When it will be on, My CO2 will start and when it will be off my Air pump will Start running (Just An Example. I am not going to airate the tank at night even.)
Here is the plant list, what I have planned for this tank.
Let There Be Light 
Plant List:
Ammannia Senegaleniss
Rotala Rotundifolia
Rotala Sp. "Nanjenshan
Rotala Sp'green'
Rotalla Wallichii
Tonia Sp Belem
Ludwigia Inclinata Var. Verticillata
Ludwigia Ovalis Sp "Red"
Ludwigia Plaustris
Ludwigia Sp "Cuba"
Mayaca Fluviatilis
Crypt Petchii
Eriocaulon Sp.
Glossostigma Elatinoides
Limnophila Aromatica
Hemianthus Micranthemoides
Micranthemum Umbrosum
Yesterday I have completed plantation. But still working on that. Plants got stuck in Singapur Airport for 3 days and came in a pathetic condition. Will update you with pictures soon.
My special thanks goes to Raghu, Tarun, Deepak, Seetharam and Bhaskar. They helped me a lot to kick off this project.
Oops forgot to say thanks my betterhalf, who gifted me the CO2 Setup and Eheim 2217.
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Last edited by Tirtha C on Tue Jun 02, 2009 12:11 am; edited 20 times in total |
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trevor
Committed Member of IAH
Joined: Jul 27, 2003
Posts: 4290
Location: Bangalore
Status: Offline
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| Posted: Sat Nov 22, 2008 2:06 am Post subject: Re: DREAM :: Making Of A 120 Gallon |
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Wow. Awesome. Way to go.  |
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kunalrsingh
Regular Poster on IAH
Joined: Nov 04, 2007
Posts: 1057
Location: Allahabad
Status: Offline
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| Posted: Sat Nov 22, 2008 2:10 am Post subject: Re: DREAM :: Making Of A 120 Gallon |
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| would love to see how this develops... where did you ge the regulator kit from? |
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Demon
IAH New Member
Joined: Jun 02, 2007
Posts: 82
Location: Chromepet, Chennai-600044
Status: Offline
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| Posted: Sat Nov 22, 2008 2:46 am Post subject: Re: DREAM :: Making Of A 120 Gallon |
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| Nice Work Tirtha, All the best for a wonderful Aquascape :-) |
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mithunda
Regular Poster on IAH
Joined: Aug 20, 2008
Posts: 272
Location: Kolkata, West Bengal
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| Posted: Sat Nov 22, 2008 4:39 am Post subject: Re: DREAM :: Making Of A 120 Gallon |
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Hi tirtha,
nice start... but if u r doing this for AGA 2009 then i have a lil suggestion.. as much as i read from AGA sites they hate different textured rocks in same scape.. so if possible try to put similar textured rocks in this scape.. otherwise no problem  |
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matsya
Frequent Visitor to IAH
Joined: Aug 11, 2008
Posts: 107
Location: Delhi
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| Posted: Sat Nov 22, 2008 8:38 am Post subject: Re: DREAM :: Making Of A 120 Gallon |
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Wow!
I am going to follow this closely and hope to learn a lot |
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bmvbab
Regular Poster on IAH
Joined: May 19, 2008
Posts: 1332
Location: Bangalore/Coimbatore
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| Posted: Sat Nov 22, 2008 8:39 am Post subject: Re: DREAM :: Making Of A 120 Gallon |
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@tirtha: where did you get those MH lights?
Great setup...good going |
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raindeepak4u
Regular Poster on IAH
Joined: Feb 07, 2008
Posts: 594
Location: Chennai :: Coimbatore
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| Posted: Sat Nov 22, 2008 8:46 am Post subject: Re: DREAM :: Making Of A 120 Gallon |
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Nice setup tritha..  long way to go.. keep updating. |
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amitkrm
Frequent Visitor to IAH
Joined: May 02, 2008
Posts: 110
Location: Jamshedpur
Status: Offline
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| Posted: Sat Nov 22, 2008 9:29 am Post subject: Re: DREAM :: Making Of A 120 Gallon |
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Nice setup  ..... i am alos in the making of my 175L planted tank, so i m going to follow this very closely.
please keep updating regularly. |
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rupak
Regular Poster on IAH
Joined: Feb 12, 2008
Posts: 388
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| Posted: Sat Nov 22, 2008 9:55 am Post subject: Re: DREAM :: Making Of A 120 Gallon |
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Brilliant Tirtha
thanks for sharing in such a detailed manner |
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sgravi2k
Regular Poster on IAH
Joined: Jun 02, 2008
Posts: 566
Location: Chennai : Coimbatore
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| Posted: Sat Nov 22, 2008 11:52 am Post subject: Re: DREAM :: Making Of A 120 Gallon |
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| Good luck Tirtha |
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sundar
Regular Poster on IAH
Joined: Jul 29, 2003
Posts: 507
Location: Chennai
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| Posted: Sat Nov 22, 2008 12:25 pm Post subject: Re: DREAM :: Making Of A 120 Gallon |
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Hi
Wish you Good luck
Regards
Sundar |
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Kaushik
Committed Member of IAH
Joined: Sep 11, 2007
Posts: 2059
Location: Ujjain(MP)
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| Posted: Sat Nov 22, 2008 12:42 pm Post subject: Re: DREAM :: Making Of A 120 Gallon |
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Dear Tirthankar
Good Beginning
A request for you, please post in details about the progress on bimonthly basis, so that new planted tank beginners can have an idea how to start and maintain. Make it a true and worthy to read planted aqualog.
Regards
Kaushikda |
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Shankar
Committed Member of IAH
Joined: Nov 19, 2003
Posts: 3719
Location: Chennai
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| Posted: Sat Nov 22, 2008 12:46 pm Post subject: Re: DREAM :: Making Of A 120 Gallon |
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| All the very best, Tirtha. |
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fishyman
Regular Poster on IAH
Joined: Aug 31, 2007
Posts: 261
Location: New Delhi
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| Posted: Sat Nov 22, 2008 1:00 pm Post subject: Re: DREAM :: Making Of A 120 Gallon |
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Hi Tirtha,
Looking ffw to see your aquascape now.
regards |
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