Building my new 120cm aquarium
I am currently constructing a new aquarium, aquarium stand, and a live status page.
Aquarium Stand
See woodworking for more pictures of the custom stand I built.
Aquarium Control/Server
I decided to run the logic that controls the light of the aquarium on a Raspberry PI. Using I2C a digital in and out put chip is controlled which handles the relays of the TL-D lighting and is used to poll the state of a hardware switch that overrides the light level. With this switch it is possible to activate the light and override the light pattern. Further features include:
- Telnet server that allows control over the internet
- A HTTP server generating the status page
- An I2C driven 4x20 lines LCD display with the current status
- A statistics process that keeps a log of the different measurables
- Several DS18B20 1-wire temperature sensors
- A homebuilt water level sensor
- A future Ph sensor and CO2 valve
Some pictures of the controller:
Plumbing
Two separate water flows are installed in my aquarium. There is a closed loop which filters the water by a "potfilter". The inlet of this system is located at the bottom of the aquarium to extract dirt. The second system is a open system ("overloop") that has its inlet on the surface. This second system actually regulates the water level, keeping it on the same height at all times and removes any waste on the surface. This open system will also house the heater, removing this from sight.
Light Sources
For lighting 6 TL-D with electronic starters are used. More on the custom hood later.
Background
I have decided to make a DIY background using polystyrene (with the 5 mm spheres). As a base material for the background a 5 cm thick 100 x 50 cm plate was used, however, I would recommend to use a thinner material to start with. The thinner plates can then be laminated together, with overlap, to the desired width and height. This alleviates the dimension restrictions imposed by the size of the polystyrene plates. I have coated the polystyrene plates with "tegellijm" which I colored by some wall paint that I still had from some remodeling work. This colored background was then coated with a 2 component epoxy resin on which sand was sprinkled.
Fish/Plant Stock
Name | Quantity |
---|---|
Puntius Pentazona | 11 |
Puntius Titteya | 3 |
Trichogaster Leeri | 4 |
Badis Badis Badis | 7 |
Otocinclus affinis | 8 |
Gastromyzon punctulatus | 8 |
Name | Status |
---|---|
Vallisneria Asiatica | Well |
Hydrophila Corymbosa | Well |
Red Tiger Lotus | Well |
Cryptocoryne Wendtii | Well |
Cryptocoryne Becketii | Well |
Blue Algae
Easylife blue exit
I used easylife blue exit to combat a blue algae plague. It reduced the growth of the algae significantly, however, it did not succeed in erradicating them. Shrimps and calms were unaffected by this product (nor were the fish and the plants).
Colombo Aerocol
Currently in my aquarium