My New Seashell 60X18X24 Wdh

[Tizer]

Picked up my new tank on Saturday, have to say im very chuffed with it. I've been eyeing them up every time i go into local Maidenhead Aquatics shop but the £850 price tag means i have to walk straight past them

Anyway, I spotted this on eBay for a £400 Buy Out price or open to Offers. So i put an offer in for £280 and it got accepted. I was a little suprised as i might have been tempted to hold out a little longer if i was the seller, but he needed it gone, so i would say i got quite a nice deal. Especially as it was used to keep a lizard in it, thus no water marks/stains. It does however mean i have to set it up with heaters/filters and lighting, hence the reasonably low offer i put in.

So i got the tank home with little effort using the father in laws van and gave it a good clean. Quite honestly, its scrubbed up so well, i could look at it and consider it brand new. Not one single scratch on it and all the seals are perfect.

I've just ordered 2 x Tetratec EX1200 Filters, some extra Bio balls to replace the default Carbon media thats included in each one and an Arcadia Controller for a couple of T5 54W Tubes at a rough cost of £230.

So thats me down by £500 this weekend...oh well

Need to make a choice on the substrate now. I'm semi keen to have a planted tank but i dont want to go too crazy. Planted substrates dont seem too Cory friendly and since i have about 40 of them i think i'm just going to do a cheap cat litter / play sand base. Which will help me keep the costs down a little more.

I'll be selling my Juwel Rio 240/Fluval 305 External once this tank is up and going, if anyones in the Oxford area and is keen, let me know. I'll do a propper thread in the classifieds section later on, will probably be looking in the region of £150.

Anyways, more to come once my stuff arrives

 

[ZoddyZod]

nice find!

what colour is your 240l? I'm in the market for a 4ft upgrade.....

 

[Tizer]

This is it

 

[ZoddyZod]

This is it

lovely set-up! Sadly it's beech colour, and therefore a no go for the wife who demands a dark wood.

Shame as I'm only an hour away.

 

[Tizer]

Hehe, no worries, i had to get beech because we have a similar coloured floor and furniture, plus im not a dark wood fan, especially of the black version, yuck

 

[minnnt]

New tank looking good. Might be interested in the 240 if we can come to some sort of an agreement... Shame you have already ordered 2 ex1200's, i had a brand new that we could have done a deal with for some cash off the 240.

Cheers.

 

[Tizer]

Cat litter in:

Sand in:

Water in:

1 x 15k bag of cat litter and 4 x 15k bags if Argos play sand in the end.

Cloudy water? Na, i spent all night washing the sand

 

[minnnt]

That is seriously clean sand!! Well done to you!

 

[Tizer]

Yey, filters and lighting just arrived at work, 2 hours before i can clear off home I bet its going to go slooooooooow too

 

[KkAaNnEe]

Looking good!

Haha cant you stick them somewhere so you cant see them!? Oh and get off here, you know you're just teasimg yourself lol

 

[SchottayB]

One word here: Jealous!

Lovely tank, will look stunning!

 

[ZoddyZod]

the cat litter substrate.....what's that all about? I'm not familar with why you would use it in an aquarium.

 

[Ferg1985]

Yeah, Cat litter is a new one on me too haha..

That's a nice tank/cabinet.. good luck setting it up (I may have to steal some tips (well, not the cat litter though.. think I'm a little too far into my tank to put that in )

 

[Tizer]

Cat litter is made of Clay, or in this case "fullers earth" clay, and is supposed to absorb nutrients and release it slowly over time. Im not all that up on the science but planted tank forums highly recommend it as a cheap planted tank substrate so im giving it a go.

Managed to get most of it setup last night, finished it at about 1am after moving the fish over im knackered

I've in no way "scaped" the tank, i've not really planned the layout yet, but i moved the healthy plants over anyway just to provide some cover for the fish.

The Tetratec filters are amazing. Rather large but fit nicely into the cabinets, probably just an noisey as the 305 i had before, but this cabinet is a lot more solid and dulls the noise even more. I've shared my filter media between the two and im hoping it will continue to do its job. Not quite worked out if i want to use the spray bars that come with the filters yet, i tried them on the back and it just blasted the vallis all over the place, so they are now blasting in from the sides of the tank. Might just knock off the spray bars entirely. I did work out you can restrict the flow via the outlet valve but since i went for a 5/6 times turn over, i might as well try for it.

Quite happy with the T5 lighting, although i had to modify the tank lid a little as a support strut was in the way when i came to fixing them to the lid.

Only one casualty this morning and that was a rummynose who decided he didnt like the net and did a back flip and went splat on the floor

Tiger barbs to move over tonight, then i'm going to redo my 90 litre with play sand and put my 200 one month old bronze corys into it.

Co2 needs setting up again and i need to think about some new plants and how im going to lay the tank out and find some simple black background which i'll probably go get at lunch today, along with another heater :>

 

[L_Plates]

Looking good, great steal on the tank there. How did you manage to get the wife to agree ? Or is she getting another horse