Current Tank And Upgrade

[DrRob]

I've had a settled community tank in a convenient alcove in the living room for a while now. It's an annoyingly shaped bit of room, around 1 metre across (but annoyingly, the uneven stone wall sticks out slightly beyond that in places) and about a foot deep. It's currently home to an old, fairly battered and scratched 30 inch clearseal which has been serving well since the late 80's, having seen itself home to all sorts of fish, ranging from hordes of platys to angel fry.

For me, this post is a mixture of a chance to give the tank one last chance to be shown off (sadly to nowhere near it's full potential as it's been somewhat neglected recently with having no time after running backwards and forwards to hospitals a lot recently) and to start the update on it's replacement and take the opportunity to delve into the collected wisdom as the upgrade starts. The clearseal will be retired to the shed to serve as a quarantine tank.

Currently the plan is for a 36"x24"x24", probably from ND unless anyone knows of a better source for them. It'll also be a good opportunity to drill a hole in the wall to add a drain point, which should hopefully make water changes for this one a lot easier. The stocking will be an amazonish based community, given that the current stock will move over and it contains shoals of cardinals and glowlights, along with an apistogramma agassizi that resolutely refuses to pair off with any female he encounters. The larger tank should allow for an enlargement of the shoals and an increase in stock, quite what I haven't really decided yet. I'm also still trying to work out if it's a terrible idea to have some holes drilled in the base to reduce the hanging tubes around the tank.

Anyway, for now, and with my terrible camera....

 

[ian]

Looks healthy Rob, look forward to the new tank though...Hi tech planted??

 

[DrRob]

Aye, that's the plan. I have the CO2 system already and dose EI ferts. That's what has caused the most havoc with being away, the fertilisers stopped and the algae exploded. I'm also a little low on flow after a powerhead died, so all in all it's been troublesome recently.

It's the filter I'm wondering about. I have access to a fluidised sand filter for not a lot of money, and would be tempted to use this for a lot of the biological and then run a pure mechanical alongside this with powerheads for slow, but have never used one before so I'm not so sure.

Oh, and thanks. It is growing healthily. I take a bucket of hygrophilia out most weeks and a fair amount of the bacopa.

 

[DrRob]

Right, just to run the very slow update.

As of today I'm due to acquire one of these.

http/www.ndaquatics.co.uk/?pg=details&ii=14

Nice to have the OH supporting the hobby with birthday presents.

It's going to be interesting getting it into place, as it's probably best placed where a tank is currently standing. So I suppose I'll have to set up one of the empty tanks to take the stock of that one to move it.

Currently the plan is to stick a couple of eheim compact 1000's in the sump return and hide some heaters in there. Then I'll have to see what the flow looks like and how a couple of high output T5's hold with the CO2 (I'd ultimately like to go LED, but don't have the time to experiment with this at present). I suspect I'm going to have issues with the sump drains gassing off the CO2 but hopefully if I keep the sump inlets under the surface and keep the bubbles to a minimum I'll be good with the fire extinguishers I have. There's bound to be a powerhead or two in here eventually once the plants start messing with the flow.

I have some fairly good looking apple roots soaking in a water tank in the garden so there will eventually been some good sized wood hardscape in this tank but I suspect they'll take a while to be ready, but I have some nice bogwood for now that doesn't fit in my current tanks. Under that I was thinking of trying a cat little substrate capped with sand.

Otherwise I'm not really sure what I'd use the sump for in this, apart from filling it with more plants....maybe a cherry shrimp refugium would work as a constant live food/extra interest source. Otherwise it'll give me a chance to have a play with drip feeding fertilisers so I can get better spread when I keep going away for a day or so here and there.

Any questions, ideas, comments, or suggestions, gratefully received.

 

[thereverendturtle]

Sounds like a good setup. What about running your CO2 out put by below the intake of the return pumps? Might spread the CO2 a bit around the tank before off gassing. Just a thought.
Btw, I'm going to steal your shrimp refugium idea, when I get around to setting up my 100 gallon.

 

[DrRob]

The CO2 will almost certainly be going in in an inline reactor on the return feeds. Seeing as I have one. It was also one of the reasons for choosing those pumps, as I have tubing that should fit on them.

 

[ZoddyZod]

have you ever put your Apisto forward for FOTM? If not, I think you should....

 

[DrRob]

I did, it was beaten by another. Can't remember which month now. He's also incredibly camera shy.

We do have a better camera now though.....

Maybe when I've had a chance to get the tank looking neater. I've been rubbish at dosing the ferts (we keep going away for overnights and doses get missed) and the algae has been growing again. Hence my plan to play with gravity feed fertiliser dosing. I'm sure I can knock something together with a drip set that would do a fair job.

 

[minnnt]

Really nice tank Rob. Looking forward to seeing what you create next!

 

[DrRob]

Oh, that. I've already stripped it back a bit from that and moved the wood around. It was looking messy and the hygro was taking over, which it will be again soon, I'm sure.

Looking forward to having more room to play with with the new tank.

 

[DrRob]

Having commented on using the eheim compact 1000's, don't suppose anyone has any experience of these?

http/www.allpondsolutions.co.uk/aquarium-1/aquarium-equipment/aquarium-pumps/1000-l-h-submersible-water-aquarium-pump.html

They're slightly bigger, and slightly cheaper, but no reviews. Without any experience I'll just go with the eheim.

 

[DrRob]

Just to bring things up to date, the ND tank should arrive in early August, so the current tank needs to move (hopefully in time for me to drill a hole in the wall to feed a drain line through for easier water changes).

In the meantime, the stand is built to a strength that will take the temporary tank (or maybe not temporary, you never know what you can get away with, I'm still trying to convince the other half that an ecosystem tank would require almost no looking after).
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/400541-another-stand-build/

A spare 30" tank has now made its way out of retirement, has had a thorough clean, and is sitting happily in place with no signs of leaking and a good layer of cat litter on the base. Next trick is to slowly fill with water, then move the fish once it's got settled with a few plants started up and some cover sorted out.

Then all I have to do is take down the old tank and prep the connections to the mains drain for the new tank (as it's just on the other side of the wall and I need to move the pipes anyway to get a rubbish bin into the under sink cupboad properly).

Challenge is to get the temporary tank looking good enough for the OH to want to keep it.

 

[minnnt]

Nice plans.

Did you go for the 3x2x2 in the end?

Don't forget me when you're thinning out the hygro.

 

[DrRob]

Nice plans.

Did you go for the 3x2x2 in the end?

Don't forget me when you're thinning out the hygro.

It's the 36x18x24.

I have both you and cazzie down for some hygro when I'm next thinning, but it's been sulking since I last thinned it. Looks like it's suffering from low CO2 so I've thrown in another powerhead near it.

 

[minnnt]

That's a nice sized tank.

Thanks very much.