I've been planning on upgrading the living room display since the new year. There was an old clearseal 30 inch tank on some old furniture in an alcove in the room and it was one of my old, not too well looked after tanks. Pretty enough with the lights on when the tank distracted the eye but a bit of an eyesore when the lights were off.
The OH obviously agreed as she ordered an ND aquatics 36x18x24 tank for my birthday in June.
It's thrown me a bit that it's drilled but she's aware that I want to go marine at some point in the future when we stop spending all of our money trying to rebuild the house.
After a delivery delay, some chaos with work deadlines and the distractions of a 5 month old, I've finally reached the stage where I'm getting things set up. Not really the best time financially for us to be doing this, for a variety of reasons, so forgive any associated DIY projects and some of the more interesting variations.
Anyway, to get the ball rolling, and because I know you all love pictures, I've got some hardscape in place, hopefully with better pictures once the light levels drop in the room so I get less glare.
Anyway, stats wise, the tank itself is a 216 litre (47UK gallon) set up. It's the size it is because it fits in the alcove, nothing more complex than this really.
The corner is drilled, which is new for me, so it has a durso set up in it, leading to a rainwater butt sump with the media out of the old external on the 30 inch that used to stand there and a whole pile of extra filter media.
The rest of the sump system is a work in progress, for the moment it houses 2x150W heaters and 2 return pumps, 1 1000lph and one 3100 lph. So that should give 4100lph of pump power, minus whatever the head and corners take off the flow.
Fire extinguisher CO2 system will migrate from my previous tank. As my luck seems to run true the reactor split a couple of weeks back, merrily emptying half the tank out through the cat flap (fortunately) so I'll probably have to make a new one and run it off the 1000lph return system.
Lighting will temporarily be 2x10k 24W T5's, with this being next in line for an upgrade. I'll have to see if I can get 39W tubes in the hood to start with. Then I'll take a look at LED systems once I have some money again.
Plants are an open book. I feel the need for something new, plus my current stock is sulking and covered in algae after the CO2 system ran out and then burst in fairly quick succession, so I need to get some healthy stuff in again. Interesting ideas are welcome here, although personally I think the wood is crying our for some anubius.
Stock wise, I'm staying with my SA community theme, as I have to put them somewhere, plus I quite like them anyway, so it'll start understocked with.
1x flame apistogramma aggasizi, male. (my psycho fish that hates females).
5x cardinal tetra
5x glowlight tetra
3x corydoras sterbai
I'm aware of an underlying mixture of desires otherwise. I've got a history of obsessive angel breeding, and a part of me wants angels again, part of me is also interested in keeping something different and knows the risks of me ending up with 200 angelfish again, so suggestions again, for interesting additions to this mix, are very welcome.
The OH obviously agreed as she ordered an ND aquatics 36x18x24 tank for my birthday in June.
It's thrown me a bit that it's drilled but she's aware that I want to go marine at some point in the future when we stop spending all of our money trying to rebuild the house.
After a delivery delay, some chaos with work deadlines and the distractions of a 5 month old, I've finally reached the stage where I'm getting things set up. Not really the best time financially for us to be doing this, for a variety of reasons, so forgive any associated DIY projects and some of the more interesting variations.
Anyway, to get the ball rolling, and because I know you all love pictures, I've got some hardscape in place, hopefully with better pictures once the light levels drop in the room so I get less glare.
Anyway, stats wise, the tank itself is a 216 litre (47UK gallon) set up. It's the size it is because it fits in the alcove, nothing more complex than this really.
The corner is drilled, which is new for me, so it has a durso set up in it, leading to a rainwater butt sump with the media out of the old external on the 30 inch that used to stand there and a whole pile of extra filter media.
The rest of the sump system is a work in progress, for the moment it houses 2x150W heaters and 2 return pumps, 1 1000lph and one 3100 lph. So that should give 4100lph of pump power, minus whatever the head and corners take off the flow.
Fire extinguisher CO2 system will migrate from my previous tank. As my luck seems to run true the reactor split a couple of weeks back, merrily emptying half the tank out through the cat flap (fortunately) so I'll probably have to make a new one and run it off the 1000lph return system.
Lighting will temporarily be 2x10k 24W T5's, with this being next in line for an upgrade. I'll have to see if I can get 39W tubes in the hood to start with. Then I'll take a look at LED systems once I have some money again.
Plants are an open book. I feel the need for something new, plus my current stock is sulking and covered in algae after the CO2 system ran out and then burst in fairly quick succession, so I need to get some healthy stuff in again. Interesting ideas are welcome here, although personally I think the wood is crying our for some anubius.
Stock wise, I'm staying with my SA community theme, as I have to put them somewhere, plus I quite like them anyway, so it'll start understocked with.
1x flame apistogramma aggasizi, male. (my psycho fish that hates females).
5x cardinal tetra
5x glowlight tetra
3x corydoras sterbai
I'm aware of an underlying mixture of desires otherwise. I've got a history of obsessive angel breeding, and a part of me wants angels again, part of me is also interested in keeping something different and knows the risks of me ending up with 200 angelfish again, so suggestions again, for interesting additions to this mix, are very welcome.
