jimbooo
James flexton
Hi Everyone,
well i lasted 2 days looking at the tank without plants and thought what the hell, lets go for it.
On friday afternoon i went to the fish shop with my shopping list to buy the bits and bobs. i bought most of the following minus one of the ballasts, filter and heater: (this is a complete equipment list for the tank)
Black gravel (very fine, almost sand)
big box of laterite
twin ballast (20W)
twin ballast (15W)
2 x 4000K 20W Hagen sunglow tubes
2 x 6500K 15W Arcadia fresh water tubes
wooden airstone (for co2 diffusion)
airline
one way valve
thermometer
Fluval 304 External filter
heater (standard, not under gravel)
I washed all the black gravel friday night ready for the big day.
so Saturday morning at 9am i set off for the LFS to get a big fish storage box and enough water barrels to hold 40G.
i then siphoned enough water into the storage box to keep the fish happy for 4 hours or so (thank god it was a hot day), then added an airstone and moved all the fish into the box. i then covered the box and kept in complete darkness for the duration.
Now with an empty tank it was just a case of siphoning the remaining water into the 20 gallon barrels. i then scooped up all the gravel putting half into a pair of tights and discarding the rest. next was a thorough wash out of the tank (not generally the best idea but it was filthy, dont do this unless you know what your doing!).
before i started the next stage i had to rince the laterite, 30 mins later my god i forgot how long that takes, all done and ready for the refil.
first in was the bogwood as i didn't want any gravel under the contact points to cause any undue pressure on the glass.
Then i added 1/2 inch of black gravel to the base of the tank, then put all the laterite on top and gave it a thorough mix. Then placed the remaining black gravel on top.
next was the water. lifting a 20G barrel wasn't an option especially with my carefully laid substrate 2 foot below the tank top so i hoisted the barrel up on a kind of pile of chairs and household junk until it was above the tank and siphoned the water back into the tank. 2 barrels later and the tank was almost full.
then for the plants.
4 amazon swords (bhleri)
1 big java fern
1 anubias barti
a few clumps of vallis
something else that came with the tank which i cant for the life of me remember the name of. it's green though and grows on wood rather than in the substrate.
i planted all the above / tied to the wood. then put the fish back in.
then placed the tights/gravel sausage on the substrate for the bacteria to "move house". i left this in place for about 24 hours, probably no way near long enough but i wanted to take pics and i'm impatient.
final touch was the co2. as i'm only running 1.4 WPG i dont think i'll go the whole hog with multiple nutrafins etc.. time will tell. for now i've knocked together a 2 ltr diy bottle leading to a wooden airstone directly under my external filter intake. fingers crossed it may be enough not really sure yet.
This morning i popped into the LFS for a browse and ended up coming home with another bristlenose and two baby gold ansistrous (sp?).
total fish stock now:
- 2 silver dollars
- 2 bristlenose plecs (male and female)
- 2 gold ansistrous (sp)
- 2 clown loaches
- 1 black widow tetra (soon to reunite with some buddies in the LFS)
so a few pounds later and with a soggy carpet here's the tank in all its glory sorry for the cloudyness, it's still settling. In case your wondering i'm planning on leaving the front open for the clown loaches. They do like to play and need a bit of space to tumble about in, also the low light levels will not lend them selves to a good carpet.
I must admit to a certain amount of inspiration from gf225's current setup, thank you george for setting the wheels of my mind in motion.
what is this plant? it's on the tip of my tongue but cant quite remember
hope you like it, all coments more than welcome and gf225 feel free to "wee on my bonfire" if you so wish.. B)
well i lasted 2 days looking at the tank without plants and thought what the hell, lets go for it.
On friday afternoon i went to the fish shop with my shopping list to buy the bits and bobs. i bought most of the following minus one of the ballasts, filter and heater: (this is a complete equipment list for the tank)
Black gravel (very fine, almost sand)
big box of laterite
twin ballast (20W)
twin ballast (15W)
2 x 4000K 20W Hagen sunglow tubes
2 x 6500K 15W Arcadia fresh water tubes
wooden airstone (for co2 diffusion)
airline
one way valve
thermometer
Fluval 304 External filter
heater (standard, not under gravel)
I washed all the black gravel friday night ready for the big day.
so Saturday morning at 9am i set off for the LFS to get a big fish storage box and enough water barrels to hold 40G.
i then siphoned enough water into the storage box to keep the fish happy for 4 hours or so (thank god it was a hot day), then added an airstone and moved all the fish into the box. i then covered the box and kept in complete darkness for the duration.
Now with an empty tank it was just a case of siphoning the remaining water into the 20 gallon barrels. i then scooped up all the gravel putting half into a pair of tights and discarding the rest. next was a thorough wash out of the tank (not generally the best idea but it was filthy, dont do this unless you know what your doing!).
before i started the next stage i had to rince the laterite, 30 mins later my god i forgot how long that takes, all done and ready for the refil.
first in was the bogwood as i didn't want any gravel under the contact points to cause any undue pressure on the glass.
Then i added 1/2 inch of black gravel to the base of the tank, then put all the laterite on top and gave it a thorough mix. Then placed the remaining black gravel on top.
next was the water. lifting a 20G barrel wasn't an option especially with my carefully laid substrate 2 foot below the tank top so i hoisted the barrel up on a kind of pile of chairs and household junk until it was above the tank and siphoned the water back into the tank. 2 barrels later and the tank was almost full.
then for the plants.
4 amazon swords (bhleri)
1 big java fern
1 anubias barti
a few clumps of vallis
something else that came with the tank which i cant for the life of me remember the name of. it's green though and grows on wood rather than in the substrate.
i planted all the above / tied to the wood. then put the fish back in.
then placed the tights/gravel sausage on the substrate for the bacteria to "move house". i left this in place for about 24 hours, probably no way near long enough but i wanted to take pics and i'm impatient.
final touch was the co2. as i'm only running 1.4 WPG i dont think i'll go the whole hog with multiple nutrafins etc.. time will tell. for now i've knocked together a 2 ltr diy bottle leading to a wooden airstone directly under my external filter intake. fingers crossed it may be enough not really sure yet.
This morning i popped into the LFS for a browse and ended up coming home with another bristlenose and two baby gold ansistrous (sp?).
total fish stock now:
- 2 silver dollars
- 2 bristlenose plecs (male and female)
- 2 gold ansistrous (sp)
- 2 clown loaches
- 1 black widow tetra (soon to reunite with some buddies in the LFS)
so a few pounds later and with a soggy carpet here's the tank in all its glory sorry for the cloudyness, it's still settling. In case your wondering i'm planning on leaving the front open for the clown loaches. They do like to play and need a bit of space to tumble about in, also the low light levels will not lend them selves to a good carpet.
I must admit to a certain amount of inspiration from gf225's current setup, thank you george for setting the wheels of my mind in motion.
what is this plant? it's on the tip of my tongue but cant quite remember
hope you like it, all coments more than welcome and gf225 feel free to "wee on my bonfire" if you so wish.. B)
