after deciding to decorate my front room i noticed that the wall where the chimney breast is was made out of some kind of mdf so i decided to investigate
what i found was a perfect place to put a ... Fire place.
after much convincing i manged to get my girl to allow me to put a tank in there.
now this tank would have to be custome made as a 3 footer would be to big
so i email a few place for the price of the glass.
after maybe 15 quotes the cheapest i could get 6mm glass was 115 pounds. so i thought about it then somone suggested i try wharf aquatics. they quoted me 41 quid for the tank built never mind the glass alone!
so i ordered it there and then
the size will be
31" high
13" front to back
15" top to bottom.
now comes the planning phase.
Filteration
sump. i plan on turning my 2 foot tank into a sump by adding a few dividers
which i still need help with btw.
[URL="http
/www.fishforums.net/content/Hardware...nk-Into-A-Sump/"]http/www.fishforums.net/content/Hardware...nk-Into-A-Sump/[/URL]
i know its small for a sump but its gotta be betetr than my hydor external.
Lighting
As this is a diy project and im a cheapskate
i plan on using some diy lighting for this i plan on using daylight spiral bulbs as discussed here
[URL="http/www.fishforums.net/content/Hardware...nk-Into-A-Sump/"]http/www.fishforums.net/content/Hardware...nk-Into-A-Sump/[/URL]
posibly 2-3 of them depening on how many lamps i can salvage from a car boot this coming Sunday.
Substrate
First idea was ADA aqua soil but after lookign at the cost i decied this was too expensive.
second idea was to just use my play sand. i love the stuff and it looks great but then again it aint the best for plants
so i have 3 choices.
1) 3L ada aqua soil. spreaded out accross the bottom with sand on top
2) 2 differant sections of the tank with aqua soil on one side and sand on the other, ora front og aqua soil with sand in the back ground. ( this would aid my carpet plans)
3) some random substrate from my lfs w/e they have in posibly mixed up with sand.
Plants
this is where it gets fun. i plan on trying to grow a few carpets before adding water! growing them emersed is supposed to give you a much better start but for this i guess i will need some top quality substrate
so basicly my plans are to try and grow
Ricca
HC
Glosso
Hair grass
and posibly moss
if anyone has any ideas on other carpets i could try growing emersed please let me know. also of places where i can get these plants from ( preferably one supplier, as ive seen them all over the place but each place has got like one plant)
MORE to come
picking up the tank on Sat!!
what i found was a perfect place to put a ... Fire place.
after much convincing i manged to get my girl to allow me to put a tank in there.
now this tank would have to be custome made as a 3 footer would be to big
so i email a few place for the price of the glass.
after maybe 15 quotes the cheapest i could get 6mm glass was 115 pounds. so i thought about it then somone suggested i try wharf aquatics. they quoted me 41 quid for the tank built never mind the glass alone!
so i ordered it there and then
the size will be
31" high
13" front to back
15" top to bottom.
now comes the planning phase.
Filteration
sump. i plan on turning my 2 foot tank into a sump by adding a few dividers
which i still need help with btw.
[URL="http
/www.fishforums.net/content/Hardware...nk-Into-A-Sump/"]http/www.fishforums.net/content/Hardware...nk-Into-A-Sump/[/URL]i know its small for a sump but its gotta be betetr than my hydor external.
Lighting
As this is a diy project and im a cheapskate
i plan on using some diy lighting for this i plan on using daylight spiral bulbs as discussed here
[URL="http
/www.fishforums.net/content/Hardware...nk-Into-A-Sump/"]http/www.fishforums.net/content/Hardware...nk-Into-A-Sump/[/URL]posibly 2-3 of them depening on how many lamps i can salvage from a car boot this coming Sunday.
Substrate
First idea was ADA aqua soil but after lookign at the cost i decied this was too expensive.
second idea was to just use my play sand. i love the stuff and it looks great but then again it aint the best for plants
so i have 3 choices.
1) 3L ada aqua soil. spreaded out accross the bottom with sand on top
2) 2 differant sections of the tank with aqua soil on one side and sand on the other, ora front og aqua soil with sand in the back ground. ( this would aid my carpet plans)
3) some random substrate from my lfs w/e they have in posibly mixed up with sand.
Plants
this is where it gets fun. i plan on trying to grow a few carpets before adding water! growing them emersed is supposed to give you a much better start but for this i guess i will need some top quality substrate
so basicly my plans are to try and grow
Ricca
HC
Glosso
Hair grass
and posibly moss
if anyone has any ideas on other carpets i could try growing emersed please let me know. also of places where i can get these plants from ( preferably one supplier, as ive seen them all over the place but each place has got like one plant)
MORE to come
picking up the tank on Sat!!
