Long Winded 8 Ft Tank Thread

[Lorne]

I just hope I can post all the pictures!!

I have always been in love with Clown loaches, and recently travelled to Southamptoon to buy a Juwel Rio 400 with 15 of them in it, I knew immediately they would need a bigger tank, especially if they were to join my other group of 13!

This led to a bit of a problem, the only area I had for a big enough tank (8x2x2) would be in front of a window, BUT, there was a radiator there!!!!

Seeing as the boiler had a leak, and a radiator upstairs had a leak, I took the opportunity to get a plumber in, remove the radiator and old, disconnected gas fire and boiler, and put the new radiator on the chimney brest, along with a new radiator upstairs

 

[Lorne]

And more pictures of the expensive carnage

Of course, this led to the wife getting the urge to make me paint walls!!

 

[Lorne]

Then came the big day, Nick and Alf of ND Aquatics arrived at 10:30 am

Waited 10 days to fill it up and empty it

 

[Lorne]

I designed a rack system and bodged it together to be able to move the light out of the way for maintenance

I also added the gas struts to take some of the weight of the hood, they work to a certain extent, but you still have to keep hold of the lids when closing them.The light rack is going to have to come out again to be raised towards the lid, as the lights touch the straps, I also want to get the 2 blue bulbs added to the rack. There are 2x 54w Day bulbs and 2x 54w Nature bulbs in there, as well as 2x 35w blue bulbs to reduce stress in the morning and at night.

 

[Lorne]

So, the big day came, put all the new and used gravel in and half filled the tank, then filled it with 400 litres from the Juwel Rio tank and the 2 Eheim 2076e Filters I was running on that tank

Added a third Eheim 2076e filter

Then when all were in, the fun began

It has the 3 Eheim 2076e filters running,shedloads of Eheim instalation parts (Don't want to even think of the cost of that!) a 9w U.V. 2 Eheim 400 airpumps (Set to minimum), 2 Fluval E300 heaters (Why the hell did I buy 3? LOL), A Hydor Koralina 2 Wavemaker blowing on one of the Heaters. 2 Hagen Glo twin 54 watt light chokes and 1 Hagen Glo 39watt twin choke.

Stocking is

28 Clown Loaches, 8 or 9 Bristlenose plecs (Home bred), 7 Sterbai Corydoras (2 of which are homebred), 3 tiny gouramis, 20 Neons, about 12 Rummy noses, 6 or 7 Norman's Lampeyes, 2 large flying foxes, 5 shrimp, 6 Bronze Corydoras (Home bred), 7 or 8 ember tetras and a baby fire eel who has tried to eat the shrimps ha ha ha, he has some growing to do before he can manage them and the neons.

This build cost a bleedin' fortune, but fortunately for me, I managed to sell 2 bass guitars for over 6 times what I had invested in them.
The investment hasn't stopped there either, I had a custom made radiator cover made £210, a folding pine door to the kitchen and on tuesday a 500mm x 2000mm tall kitchen cupboard will be delivered to go beside the tank for the kid's coats and shoes!

There are no handles on the doors as requested, as I have a son under the age of 1 years old and a Severely Autistic son, whom I don't wish to be opening doors and turning stuff off, the doors have push to open catches inside

I hope you enjoy the pictures

 

[Dieses Madchen]

Beautiful tank! I am in love with your shoal of clowns!!

 

[lolobunnz]

Your clowns look like they are having the time of their life. Nice seeing so many together. I enjoyed all of the tank and construction pics. The new paint job is great!

 

[jarcher1390]

Hi

Two words

EPIC TANK!!!!!!!

Regards

Jonny

 

[garyspence84]

Just took the best part of my morning looking through all your pictures.. felt like I was actually there

Awesome tank by the way! Simply awesome!

And who needs a window anyway?!?! Overrated if you ask me

 

[Lorne]

Thanks for the comments guys, this is the biggest tank I've had so far, although I did once have a 5x2x2 right next to a 6x2x2

There are some fish I forgot to mention, the lights were off when I typed all this, there are 9 pencil fish and 4 small rainbows, 2 or 3 large black neons and a siamese fighter,2 Synodonsis Multipuctatis still looks empty though

Also, in the house there is a Juwel Vision 180 with Fluval 305, inhabitants are 6 gourami's, a big synodonsis and 3 home grown Ancistrus

A Juwel Rio 180 with Fluval 305, 4 Yoyo loaches, 6 dwarf chain loaches, many home grown guppies, several home grown albino and bronze corydoras, 2 flying foxes, 2 otocinclus', several home grown ancistrus, some swordtails and platies

A Juwel Rio 125 with several home grown Guppies, 7 Leopard corydoras and another corydora, 2 home grown ancistrus, about 9 White clouds and a red tailed shark

A Fluval Roma 125 with a Crayfish in it

A Juwel Lido 120 with 11 Synodonsis Petricolors in it (My babies)

3 small tanks in the loft (Just in case)

A pond full of koi

I should mention, that the rear of the 8' tank has a 3mm hardboard sheet stuck to the rear to prevent any light heating the tank and creating algea

The Juwel Rio 400 was sold due to the boss mentioning something about tables and chairs or something, I have no idea what she is talking about

 

[snazy]

I wish I could have an 8f tank!!! It looks lovely and seems like a lot of work too
Don't know if it's from the pictures, but the clowns are a bit pale looking. Is there room for a cave in the scaping plan

 

[Lorne]

Snazy, these are big clowns, 3 are about 10" each, as they get bigger they lose some colour, besides, this was the first night they were in the tank, so they were probably upset with me for netting them

 

[snazy]

Oh, I didn't know they lose colour when they grow up. I only commented because when I got mine, they were pale looking in the beginning too but are black now, stress from moving I guess. Would they not like a cave anyway

 

[Lorne]

There is a large terracotta pot in the tank, could fit quite a few loaches in it, unfortunatley the largest feamle clown says it is HER pot, and no other clown loach is allowed in.

There are 4 large pipes in the tank, 2 are usually empty and the other 2 will have about 5 clowns squashed in, in each of them, they like to have no room to move it would seem.

There is also a ceramic cave which is new to them and about 5 clowns like that one, there is also a Large piece of bogwood that several clowns like

I am going to try and find some similar pots to the one the female clown has, and remove the pipes

 

[dougie]

Wow. Great thread, stunning tank. Jealous (of the tank, not the cost/work though)