hamfist
Fish Herder
It was a long month waiting, but the tank and cabinet arrived on friday. The delivery man spoke no English, but we got on fine with sign language and smiles, and eventually got the cabinet and tank into the right position.
Here it is, in place, dwarfing our TV, hood is on the settee to the right.
The fluorescent tubes were set up in the reflectors in the hood, but we had to search for the power units and starters, which we found in the cabinet in the end !
Next job was to fill her with water, gravel and a few bits of wood. One thing I had not expected was the set up of the cover glass over the top of the tank, which is all siliconed in, on it's sliders. It only gives a limited maximum opening but, thankfully, I was able to squeeze both the large pieces of wood I had through the gap and into the tank. Phew !
I think the cover glass arrangement is going to be a slight pain in the long run as is will get covere with gunge, algae and limescale, and one cannot take it out fully to clean it. I will just have to do my best.
The tank is to be filtered by a new AllpondSolutions 2400 external and a mature Eheim 2217. The Eheim will fit by the side of the cabinet behind the TV, but the other larger filter went in the cabinet, and the pipes fitted nicely through the holes in the back of the cabinet. I also bought a new Koralia wavemaker (900 lph) to give a bit more flow around the bottom of the tank, as both external fiters output into the tank via spray bars near the surface.
The first real problem occured with the lights. The tubes themsleves fitted within the hood, but the tubes with the end caps of the power units on them did not ! However firmly I pushed them on, they were always going to be about 5mm too long to fit within the hood, so would only fit at an angle, and not into the clips on the reflectors.
So i phoned ND to discuss the problem, and it seems that they didn't actually check that the tubes plus the power unit's end caps actually fitted within the hood. So an amicable agreement was made. They would refund me the money I paid for the light units and tubes, and I would source locally some slightly shorter lights that would fit within the hood. They would then collect the "too long" light units from me when their delivery man was next passing in this area. A bit of a pain, but probably the best compromise considering what had happened.
So I've been around the local LFS's and got what I need. It was a pretty simple job really, to adapt the reflector clips for slightly shorter tubes, and there's still plenty of light in the tank.
The next problem was that the 300W heaterstat that I had bought for the tank was faulty and the thermostat was not working at all properly. So i had to take that back on sat morning for a replacement .. thankfully with no problem.
So later on the saturday, with a goo heaterstat and the water all up to temp, and both filters running nicely, the fish were introduced from my other tank.
So it's my pair of severums left in the 300 litre (80 gallon) and into the new 500 litre (130 gallon) went ...
2 x Uaru
1 x chocolate cichlid
2 x threadfin acara
2 x Brochis splendens
8 x dwarf neon rainbows
4 x red eyed tetras
1 x bristlenose
4 x cories
2 x Otos
1 x golden gourami
2 x platies
1 x stiphodon goby
and ..... Edwin (my stunted non-growing 1.5" severum)
Eventually, all is good with the tank. I'm pretty pleased with it really. the fish complement is great, although some of them will need to grwo out a lot to make the tank look rather fuller. The chocolate cichlid is only about 2.5" for example. The Uaru have also got a lot of growing to do. And those 3 are my centrepiece fish really.
So this is what it looks like today ....
This thing looks ENORMOUS in my living room, but I'm not complaining ! I think my wife and daughter will get used to it too. My good lady is very much into her fish too, and she got a new Betta and tank out of the deal too, so she's pretty happy.
My pair of sevs also seem to be happy to have the whole 300 litre to themselves. Bruce is rampantly displaying to Hetty . He's a seriously horny severum. But she's just not taking the hint just yet. We watch and wait !
Not sure if I'm happy with the aquascaping in the 500 yet. I would appreciate any thoughts and ideas concerning that. All the plants are plastic or silk BTW, as the Uarus would demolish anything live.
Here it is, in place, dwarfing our TV, hood is on the settee to the right.
The fluorescent tubes were set up in the reflectors in the hood, but we had to search for the power units and starters, which we found in the cabinet in the end !
Next job was to fill her with water, gravel and a few bits of wood. One thing I had not expected was the set up of the cover glass over the top of the tank, which is all siliconed in, on it's sliders. It only gives a limited maximum opening but, thankfully, I was able to squeeze both the large pieces of wood I had through the gap and into the tank. Phew !
I think the cover glass arrangement is going to be a slight pain in the long run as is will get covere with gunge, algae and limescale, and one cannot take it out fully to clean it. I will just have to do my best.
The tank is to be filtered by a new AllpondSolutions 2400 external and a mature Eheim 2217. The Eheim will fit by the side of the cabinet behind the TV, but the other larger filter went in the cabinet, and the pipes fitted nicely through the holes in the back of the cabinet. I also bought a new Koralia wavemaker (900 lph) to give a bit more flow around the bottom of the tank, as both external fiters output into the tank via spray bars near the surface.
The first real problem occured with the lights. The tubes themsleves fitted within the hood, but the tubes with the end caps of the power units on them did not ! However firmly I pushed them on, they were always going to be about 5mm too long to fit within the hood, so would only fit at an angle, and not into the clips on the reflectors.
So i phoned ND to discuss the problem, and it seems that they didn't actually check that the tubes plus the power unit's end caps actually fitted within the hood. So an amicable agreement was made. They would refund me the money I paid for the light units and tubes, and I would source locally some slightly shorter lights that would fit within the hood. They would then collect the "too long" light units from me when their delivery man was next passing in this area. A bit of a pain, but probably the best compromise considering what had happened.
So I've been around the local LFS's and got what I need. It was a pretty simple job really, to adapt the reflector clips for slightly shorter tubes, and there's still plenty of light in the tank.
The next problem was that the 300W heaterstat that I had bought for the tank was faulty and the thermostat was not working at all properly. So i had to take that back on sat morning for a replacement .. thankfully with no problem.
So later on the saturday, with a goo heaterstat and the water all up to temp, and both filters running nicely, the fish were introduced from my other tank.
So it's my pair of severums left in the 300 litre (80 gallon) and into the new 500 litre (130 gallon) went ...
2 x Uaru
1 x chocolate cichlid
2 x threadfin acara
2 x Brochis splendens
8 x dwarf neon rainbows
4 x red eyed tetras
1 x bristlenose
4 x cories
2 x Otos
1 x golden gourami
2 x platies
1 x stiphodon goby
and ..... Edwin (my stunted non-growing 1.5" severum)
Eventually, all is good with the tank. I'm pretty pleased with it really. the fish complement is great, although some of them will need to grwo out a lot to make the tank look rather fuller. The chocolate cichlid is only about 2.5" for example. The Uaru have also got a lot of growing to do. And those 3 are my centrepiece fish really.
So this is what it looks like today ....
This thing looks ENORMOUS in my living room, but I'm not complaining ! I think my wife and daughter will get used to it too. My good lady is very much into her fish too, and she got a new Betta and tank out of the deal too, so she's pretty happy.
My pair of sevs also seem to be happy to have the whole 300 litre to themselves. Bruce is rampantly displaying to Hetty . He's a seriously horny severum. But she's just not taking the hint just yet. We watch and wait !
Not sure if I'm happy with the aquascaping in the 500 yet. I would appreciate any thoughts and ideas concerning that. All the plants are plastic or silk BTW, as the Uarus would demolish anything live.
