3 season porch tank with native fish…

[TwoTankAmin57]

What I want to know is with the cows proving warmth that rise doesn't the aroma from cattle poop and farts drift upwards?

 

[Magnum Man68 183]

I still need to put a couple outlets here, and route the air lines, but cold well water going in the tank today ( so much colder than the air temp, causes the tank to sweat initially )… washing the river rock, as it fills… the piece of sculpted driftwood sinks from the start, but it’s not heavy enough yet to stay fully in place with fish, but it may be by the time I’m ready for fish

 

[Magnum Man68 183]

the heaters in place, with the controllers backwards, so they can be monitored from inside the house ( through the window )

 

[Magnum Man68 183]

took over an hour for 55 gallons of cold well water to get to 60 degrees… coldest setting on the heater is 59 degrees

 

[Magnum Man68 183]

ok, got a power strip to the tank, and the sunrise, and sunset lighting going… will take one after dark, right now a lot of reflection of the tree line ( woods ) behind me… also I still have to get a couple air lines run, to get the sponge filters percolating…

 

[Magnum Man68 183]

heaters are on, but set at 59 degrees… the tank is holding 64 degrees through this cool spell, without the heaters running

 

[Magnum Man68 183]

sun set lighting, at night ( no reflection ) now to move the hanging LED floodlights from the eve, over the old tilapia tanks, for the main viewing lights

 

[Magnum Man68 183]

now 2 new air lines run through the wall, from the sponge filters, to the gang valve on the fish room air pump… next are the hanging LED flood lights, the cut glass plate glass tops, then time for some blue spot sunfish…

 

[Magnum Man68 183]

it’s really amazing how a couple working filters will clear up the water, pretty quickly, the tank looks great right now… if I get the plate glass cut for the top of the tank, I’ll be ordering fish ( should happen this week )

 

[Magnum Man68 183]

even though this driftwood piece stands on it’s own, it’s not super stable, and if fish were battling for territory around it, it could tip over… so i’m thinking of drilling a hole in the center of a small limestone slab, drilling a pilot hole in the wood, and picking up a 2 inch stainless screw to screw in from the bottom, into the wood, to give it exceptional stability…

it’s not been finished with anything, I had just put it in the tank, to see if it would sink ( it does ), which is why it’s so shiny in this picture…

 

[Magnum Man68 183]

so I have a handful of rainbow shiners coming to get things percolating in this tank… I still need tank covers made, and some plants I decided to go with 5 blue spot sunfish ( they are only an inch at shipping, so they should be fine for a long time with the shiners, and 1-2 brown bullheads, that will be 1-2 inches to start…
I have ordered in some needle leaf java fern, with the long thin leaves, they will have a “val” look, but the ease of a java fern to grow… I have 6 pots of it on the way right now, that should give me a fair amount of greenery to start with…

 

[Magnum Man68 183]

also contemplating snails of a larger variety… a little looking, and it seems Japanese trapdoor snails would likely tolerate the over wintering temps in the upper 50’s just thinking about some sort of clean up crew / fuller environment, in the tank… I’d suspect that pest snails will come, and likely at some point be food for the sunfish, also, maybe glass shrimp???

so maybe hold off on the bigger snails, expecting the pest snails, and hoping at some point the sunfish and bullhead eat them… certainly not going to stock them initially, but if the fish end up eating them eventually I may begin to trap them from some of my live bearer tanks, and adding them to this tank later???

 

[Magnum Man68 183]

I got the LED floodlights hung, this morning… still need a little tweaking when I get time… but I wanted them up before the plants show up….

 

[Magnum Man68 183]

limestone slabs to build a cave, and a couple of those ceramic cichlid caves, and the tank, with full lighting, this evening, after dark, with the crickets chirping in the trees… very peaceful… the 6 potted plants listed above, will be here Monday, the half dozen rainbow shiners next Tuesday… it’s coming together… maybe sunfish here before next weekend…

BTW… I got my multi pack of jelled super glue today, for the plants, we’ll give that a try…

 

[Magnum Man68 183]

those small slabs of limestone for caves, since the blue spots will only be 1/2 to 3/4 inch to start with… I have a lot of limestone slabs most bigger, so as the fish grow, the caves can get progressively bigger… I’m also putting a patch of black sand to left of the drift wood, and I’ll be attaching the needle leaf java’s to small pieces of limestone, and placing several in the black sand…

I’m also installing some full wall sized roll up shades, particularly for in the winter, to reduce the breeze blowing though the screens, and block any end driven snow…