48 Gallons Rimless Planted Aquascape

[CarlP]

Hello everyone!

I'm Carl from Kanata and I thought I'd create a thread about my upcoming project.
It's a 90P aquarium loosely inspired by Stability, a tank built by Daishi Araki at the Ada headquarters in Niigata, Japan.
It'll bea heavily planted nature scape as I like my aquariums and the fish will be an apistograma cacatoide double red couple, leopard corydoras, dwarf rainbow fish and some other oddball. Also some amano and nerite.

I'll be easier to follow a build thread than trying to post on Facebook.

Cheers!

[charlie]

Hi Carl, welcome!
I'm certainly interested to follow your build thread.
Thanks for sharing.
Errol

[GregA]

Hi Carl,

Sounds like it will be a great project.  I look forward to seeing it progress.

[CarlP]

I installed the dosing pump in the stand.
I used a lot of Jebao dosing pump in the past but I love this one for the fact that it's controlled by my phone over Bluetooth. Way easier to program than the Jebao SP4.

The stand itself is a temporary one as the real thing is being built by my father in law who's a woodworker.

[CarlP]

Finally got enough black lava rock to start the rock scaping of the tank.
I got rid of the Seiryu stone after some members talked me out of it regarding KH swing.

[CarlP]

The perks of having a bicycle frame builder friend!
I designed this Chihiros RGB Vivid 2 light holder and he built it today.
I'm 3d printing brackets to install it next week.

[Jody]

Hi Carl,

   Thanks for the updates, I always like to see how people build their tanks.

Jody

[CarlP]

Another piece of the puzzle acquired.

For the majority of this project, I'll use Ada substrate system and sand.
The aquasoil will be ADA Amazonia ver.2 capping a raising layer of crushed lava stones with ADA Tourmaline and Bacter 100 additives.
As for the sand in the front, I went with La plata sand. I'll might mix it with some Colorado but I'll need more for sure.

Another detail is the tank mat. Mine was pretty much just a tin layer of foam.
The ada one is 5mm thick and distribute the weight of the tank more evenly.

Lastly I set my mind on the rocks I'll use. Lava rocks. It's not as striking as seiryu but like I said during our last meeting, I'm lazy as well and chasing parameters on an unstable aquarium is my version of hell. The soil could control that for a while but not forever.
I'm keeping some seiryu for the aquascape contest in May! 😉

[charlie]

Thanks for the updates, looking and sounding good.
Hint hint, this has the making of a nice little show and tell at one of our meetings 

[CarlP]

Thanks for the updates, looking and sounding good.
Hint hint, this has the making of a nice little show and tell at one of our meetings 

I'd be down for that! 😃
Also had an idea about a talk about aquascaping hardscape and substrates (and plants!).

[CarlP]

Some progress on the CO2 reactor prototype.

I couldn't find anything that would fit my needs so I decided to make one.

[CarlP]

The CO2 reactor is complete! I can't wait to test it once the tank is up and running.
Speaking of the tank. I now officially filled it up with water and started the dark cycle to get the ammonia out of the ADA substrate.
The scape looks weird right now but the goal is to get shadowed areas next to the rock line to reproduce the shore line of clear water tropical rivers and creek.

[CarlP]

Update!
I missed the meet in March! 🥲

Here's the tank as for today:
-I installed a thermostat to control the oase heater in the filter to get a better control of the temperature.
-My light settings are pretty much on point.
-The plant selection is a mess as I'm moving some other plants to my other tanks (I'm moving in 4 weeks).

[OVAS-Webmaster]

CarlP, I reduced the size of all your pics as the accumulated size of all of them was causing your progress thread to open very, very slowly. 

Going forward, would it be possible to reduce the size of your pics before posting?

Thanks!

[CarlP]

A small update on the tank.
-I installed a circulation pump to get more water moving
-all the fish and plant are thriving!

The last steps are to tint and varnish the base and paint the light mast.
Maybe put some door as well (glass).
Oh and a toplid! Those corys are scary!