Etherelda
Member
Hello all,
thanks for all of the advice on here. I have 2 community tanks with some success with very basic plant and hard scaping. I also have an ornamental garden and an allotment, so I thought i'd give a planted tank a go.
I aquired this tank off fleabay, l120 x h18 x d12. It is quite badly scratched by terrapins, but beggars can't always be choosers. It came with a sturdy home made cabinet, and a 1200mm arcadia luminere, 3 38w 42'' tubes.
Had a lot of trouble with the supports of the luminere. They have snapped several times. Also, my oh got electrocuted somehow, and one of the switches has blown. So, just down to 2x38w at the mo. This malfunctioning is due to his meddling. He likes to 'fix things'.
I've got a fluval 305 running at the moment, but might add another if I can pick one up cheap at some point. I've also got myself a big vat of TPN+. I'm hoping to go for a 'nutch' look but I don't if this means that I don't know what I want yet. I have four bits of wood, and about 10 spherical stones. These are a bit larger than a large fist.
Cleaning it out
Took OH to Travis Perkins to buy these huge breeze block things, to raise the height of the tank, without having to make a new cabinet. They were £2 each, and b****y heavy. On the invoice, it said 200kgs!!!!! Poor OH. My car looked like it had lowered suspension. The living room floor is screed concrete. Its a 10yr old house. Hope it doesn't sink!
you can actually see the tank now instead of mostly sofa:
added under susbtrate heating, know it is dubious if effective, but found it reduced from £55 to £15, so better to add it at that stage then regret later
Then added 5ltrs of aquabasis plus soil. This was about 2 to 3 cm deep
Here came the tedious bit. The jbl manado had to be dunked in water to get rid of the dust. Admitedly not as bad as washing my argos play sand for the 2foot, but still took a while. I'm so glad I bought a 79p value litter/poop scoop from Pets at home, as this lets the water through. Its about 4 cm at front, then raised up to about 14 at back. When plants arrive, I will terrace some of it, to stop it slipping down. My apple snails were not happy with the manado to start with, but fine now.
Adding water: it nearly matched the colour of the sofa. I hurried to fill and cycle it as I had an overstocked tank after rescuing some unloved fish that might have ended life in the loo. Some people.
We had put some castors on the sofa, but after a drunken escapade that involved me jumping on the sofa, they snapped. So moving the sofa for maintanance has become a right pain in the bum, especially as I had surgery on my back 8 weeks ago. I'm on the hunt for some studier castors, that are not too tall.
initial photos of it once cycled.The tank was illuminated at this stage by my SAD lamp (150w). Probably not correct spectrum, but as supports were bust on luminere, it was better than nowt, for the plants. Only bunged in a few pilfered plants from my other tanks, so the rescued fish had somewhere to hide. Bit cruel to chuck them in such a large tank with no-where to hide. The variegated vallis has been melting. Could this have been caused by flourish excel? Swords, fern, anubia, frogbit are all doing well. Rhizomes on the anubias are going mad so I might to a bit of butchery.
I've just also added a JBL easy kit, I have a better diffuser coming from ebay.
My plants are arriving this week so lots to do.
I have this vine in the tank, although it seems to be emitting this white gunk. It hasn't affected the fish in a way visible to me, the gouramis nibble it at times. The vine was in the aquatic wood section, but I have a feeling it may be suited towards a vivarium? It still floats given a choice.
Today I've been umming and ahhing about positioning my wood pieces.
settled with this for now, although this may change when I terrace the substrate in before I plant my new delivery of plants.
Its rather murky with diatoms at the mo, I think my 3 ottos are overwhelmed. I have 4 more to join them, they are in my 'quarantine' tank at the mo, they will be added later this week.
I'm looking out for some tracking to replace the black stuff I have, it works as runners for the two glass lids I have for the tank.
My dad works in shopfitting, so can get hold of materials easily, but has a feeling that this extruded track can't be obtained in clear. If I could get some in 'clear' it would make my tank look far better, or I could do away with the glass tops altogether, although OH is not keen.
If you see anything that is really wayward give me a shout. I shall fumble around until I find out what I like and what works! :?:
thanks for all of the advice on here. I have 2 community tanks with some success with very basic plant and hard scaping. I also have an ornamental garden and an allotment, so I thought i'd give a planted tank a go.
I aquired this tank off fleabay, l120 x h18 x d12. It is quite badly scratched by terrapins, but beggars can't always be choosers. It came with a sturdy home made cabinet, and a 1200mm arcadia luminere, 3 38w 42'' tubes.
Had a lot of trouble with the supports of the luminere. They have snapped several times. Also, my oh got electrocuted somehow, and one of the switches has blown. So, just down to 2x38w at the mo. This malfunctioning is due to his meddling. He likes to 'fix things'.
I've got a fluval 305 running at the moment, but might add another if I can pick one up cheap at some point. I've also got myself a big vat of TPN+. I'm hoping to go for a 'nutch' look but I don't if this means that I don't know what I want yet. I have four bits of wood, and about 10 spherical stones. These are a bit larger than a large fist.
Cleaning it out
Took OH to Travis Perkins to buy these huge breeze block things, to raise the height of the tank, without having to make a new cabinet. They were £2 each, and b****y heavy. On the invoice, it said 200kgs!!!!! Poor OH. My car looked like it had lowered suspension. The living room floor is screed concrete. Its a 10yr old house. Hope it doesn't sink!
you can actually see the tank now instead of mostly sofa:
added under susbtrate heating, know it is dubious if effective, but found it reduced from £55 to £15, so better to add it at that stage then regret later
Then added 5ltrs of aquabasis plus soil. This was about 2 to 3 cm deep
Here came the tedious bit. The jbl manado had to be dunked in water to get rid of the dust. Admitedly not as bad as washing my argos play sand for the 2foot, but still took a while. I'm so glad I bought a 79p value litter/poop scoop from Pets at home, as this lets the water through. Its about 4 cm at front, then raised up to about 14 at back. When plants arrive, I will terrace some of it, to stop it slipping down. My apple snails were not happy with the manado to start with, but fine now.
Adding water: it nearly matched the colour of the sofa. I hurried to fill and cycle it as I had an overstocked tank after rescuing some unloved fish that might have ended life in the loo. Some people.
We had put some castors on the sofa, but after a drunken escapade that involved me jumping on the sofa, they snapped. So moving the sofa for maintanance has become a right pain in the bum, especially as I had surgery on my back 8 weeks ago. I'm on the hunt for some studier castors, that are not too tall.
initial photos of it once cycled.The tank was illuminated at this stage by my SAD lamp (150w). Probably not correct spectrum, but as supports were bust on luminere, it was better than nowt, for the plants. Only bunged in a few pilfered plants from my other tanks, so the rescued fish had somewhere to hide. Bit cruel to chuck them in such a large tank with no-where to hide. The variegated vallis has been melting. Could this have been caused by flourish excel? Swords, fern, anubia, frogbit are all doing well. Rhizomes on the anubias are going mad so I might to a bit of butchery.
I've just also added a JBL easy kit, I have a better diffuser coming from ebay.
My plants are arriving this week so lots to do.
I have this vine in the tank, although it seems to be emitting this white gunk. It hasn't affected the fish in a way visible to me, the gouramis nibble it at times. The vine was in the aquatic wood section, but I have a feeling it may be suited towards a vivarium? It still floats given a choice.
Today I've been umming and ahhing about positioning my wood pieces.
settled with this for now, although this may change when I terrace the substrate in before I plant my new delivery of plants.
Its rather murky with diatoms at the mo, I think my 3 ottos are overwhelmed. I have 4 more to join them, they are in my 'quarantine' tank at the mo, they will be added later this week.
I'm looking out for some tracking to replace the black stuff I have, it works as runners for the two glass lids I have for the tank.
My dad works in shopfitting, so can get hold of materials easily, but has a feeling that this extruded track can't be obtained in clear. If I could get some in 'clear' it would make my tank look far better, or I could do away with the glass tops altogether, although OH is not keen.
If you see anything that is really wayward give me a shout. I shall fumble around until I find out what I like and what works! :?:
