Mini fish room

[Munroco]

I've been planning this for ages and finally decided to do it. There is a large walk in cupboard sort of affair in my sons room. He is in the forces and doesn't live at home, so it seemed fair game. I got a joiner friend to knock me up a base unit. Its 6ft long almost exactly, which will prove to be lucky or unlucky soon. The worktops are 2 ft deep. I'm planning 6 24*12*15 tanks end on up top, and I have a 36*12*15 and 30*12*15 to go on the bottom. THe 24" tanks are on order and should arrive this week, then I'll see if 6 will fit in. It will be tight but hopefully my measurements are good.

 

[Munroco]

The original plan was for 6 tanks of Crystal shrimps, but I may split them between shrimps and fish at first. The 2 tanks on the bottom will be for plants. I'm going to use mattenfilters in the top tanks and I've made all 6. I tested them all out together on the 36" and they worked great. I asked about an air pump on here a little while ago and decided to go with the hailea 30 as per Hotashes recommendation. I bought a 10 way manifold to go with it so I can control the flow on each tank easily. This is them all working together http://s435.photobucket.com/user/Javalad/media/DSC_0820.mp4.html

 

[RRaquariums]

Very nice looking stand and can't wait to see the rest of your set up. I'm sure you are very proud of your son and we are certainly all thankful for his service.

 

[Liv15]

You could paint the wall blue or black behind the tanks, might make them stand out more


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[Mrscmurray]

I like the wooden stand idea, I especially like the cat making itself at home lol

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[NickAu]

You could move the shelves forward about a half an inch then you can hang a bit of black cloth( I use half a bed sheet ) on the wall, I do this with my six foot tank, and its easy to change the color when ever you want

 

[RRaquariums]

Will you be using a sump to run all the tanks off of or will each one have there own filter system?

 

[Liv15]

^I am wondering the same. Looking forward to seeing how this turns out


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[Munroco]

I can move the top shelf forward, but as I will be using Mattenfilters, the backs of the tanks will be hidden. I may paint the long sides of each tank or just slip something between them to screen them from each other.. I did think about a sump, but decided I wanted to try the mattenfilters. This video explains how they work better than I can. Tanks should arrive at the shop tomorrow. It might be a challenge fitting them all into my car. The part that may hold me up is the lights, which I ordered online about 3 weeks ago and are coming from Hong Kong.

 

[NickAu]

Hamburg Matten filter? I have been looking into those they seem quite good.

Mattenfilter - SWISSTROPICALS

 

[Ch4rlie]

I have been using Swisstropicals mattenfilter poret sponge on my eheim filter for over a year now. Swisstropicals are actually very helpful and will recommend which foams/sponges and how much will work best in your particular setup, just send off an email with your query.

Have to say the poret foam I have does work real well, filter maintenance every 6 months or so!! No loss of water flow and plants growing fairly nicely.

Takes a while for this partcular foam to start the dentrfying process but once it starts its all good

I'd like to try a proper mattenfilter setup in a sump under main tank one day, am sure this would prove very effective and worthwhile.

But your project is looking good and will look great once its all set up to your satisfaction. Do keep up the great work and look forwards to seeing more pictures.
Love your catfish btw, as usual hiding in far corner.....

What lights did you order btw?

 

[Munroco]

I ordered 8 of these... http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/172402596440?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

I didn't get poret foam, it was going to be really expensive. I sourced the foam myself a lot cheaper. Hopefully it will work just as well

 

[Liv15]

Be careful with the lights as I ordered some simple LED strips off of eBay and a neighbour came knocking as they had picked up some weird interference on their radio, and basically it turned out that the transformers were wired really dangerously (and illegally) and could have been a massive fire hazard.


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[thrujenseyes]

What an awesome project! I can't wait to see it taking place! That cat has a lot to look forward to! ha

that the transformers were wired really dangerously (and illegally) and could have been a massive fire hazard.

OMG!!!

 

[RRaquariums]

One of my local LFS has that style of filter in there tanks and it seems to do a good job even on very large systems. I can see the advantage of It especially when trying to grow out shrimp with how tiny they are it would be a pain to keep them from ending up in the sump. I've never personally used one as I'm a fan of the diy sponge filter made with pvc for all my breeding tanks but I'm giving some serious thought to using a Hamburg style filter for a future grow out tank where the fry will be large enough not to worry about them getting into trouble. Excited to see how you set them up