Gareth's 105 Gallon Planted Tank (Pics)

[GeekPhysique]

Hi guys, I'm Gareth, some of you probably know me already through various places. I'm just starting to get into Reef keeping but I am a plant guy primarily.

I just thought I'd share my current project, this is my 105 gallon planted tank.



Tank is controlled by 2 x Profilux units synched to a Pentium IV 2.4 Ghz mounted in the stand




I have a Profilux viewer mounted in the canopy... (This was during initial setup, forgive the alarm and faulty readings)



Tank is filtered with a Rena XP3 (left side) and a Rena XP4 (right side). The outlet off the Rena XP4 is T'd off to redirect some flow through my CO2 reactor (Aqua Medic CO2 Reactor 1000) and Coralife TurboTwist 6X 18 watt UV. This setup allows me to keep the CO2 abosorption rate set pretty consistently, and the slower flow through the UV allows for rapid algae removal (a must have for fertilized planted tanks initially).

I have created a thunderstorm routine for the primarly profilux controller that activates a strobe light set up on one of hte digital powerbars set to "thunder". I also have a dedicated Korellia 4 that kicks in during a "storm event" moving an extra 1200 gph from teh right to the left. This actually serves a valuable purpose stirring up settled plant matter and making sure that the water on the right side of the tank (where Co2 concentration is highest) gets circulated through the tank periodically.



I've set up the tank using Seachems Flourite Black Sand and Flourite Black in a 50/50 mixture with the sand at the bottom. I couldn't afford to just do 9 square feet of substrate in ADA's layered products so I went with a more affordable approach. Sand on the bottom, courser material on the top. This allows for easy root penetration while keeping a denser layer where mulm will collect between the two types of substrate.

The wood I used in the tank are 7 pieces of Indonesian driftwood all piled together to try and recreate the "root" look of a forest stream/river. I used local river rock to try and finish the look.

Plants are numerous, but the main feature will be a field of Utricularia Gramnifolia on the left and Hemianthus Calitrichoides on the right.

The profiluxes currently control every aspect of the tank from temperture control (heating and chilling), Ph Control (CO2 or air injection to raise Ph), lighting, storms, wavemaking, fertilizing and topoff. Topoff is via a 10 gallon resevoir tank mounted in the stand. When sensor one is triggered on the main profilux a powerhead is turned on for no more then 2 minutes. If the float sensor registeres its closed then the flow stops, or after 2 minutes elapses (whichever occurs first). If the pump runs for two minutes without a sensor being triggered the pump is turned off untill the alarm condition is cleared (thus preventing overflow).

The fertilizer is currently being housed in a 7.5 gallon resevoir. I've pre-mixed a fertilizer solution that is dosed every day to compensate for plant comsumption. An aqua lifter vaccum pump in the canopy pulls the fertilizer out of the resevoir and doses it once a day into the main tank.


Thats a lot of writing.. I think I'll take a break for now, but let me know what you think.. you reefers are a tough crowd to please ;-)

[niloc16]

un-bloody-believable. that is awesome

[Der_Iron_Chef]

What he said.

Wow. Well done.

[corpusse]

not bad for a non reef tank :P

Seriously it looks great, don't see any fish though.

[digital-audiophile]

WOW! I'm not really into FW tanks but that is amazing!!

[GeekPhysique]

Thanks guys.. There ar esome fish in there, but not many. I have several on order for this tank but I wont have them for a while longer as they are coming in from overseas :-)

[Joe Reefer]

Great Job! What is the reasoning behind having the 2 controllers sync'd through a pc?

[Chowder]

Very nice planted tank.

[Delphinus]

Wow, great setup. Although I can tell you're not completely a reefer yet, because in all that description about your tank, you missed the lighting (the one thing I guarantee all reefers were hoping you'd mention)

The thunderstorm effect is quite neat. How often does it happen and for how long?

It is really an amazing looking tank. Congratulations! It almost makes me want to dabble more in FW.

[jasond]

Great looking tank. I don’t know much about FW (or SW in all honesty), but that is an awesome looking setup. I must admit I did say to myself, wonder what kind of lighting that would take!

Either way, great job, love the automation!