# Kitchen tank



## chris.m (20 Jul 2012)

Hi,

I wanted to share some (iPhone) shots of my 60l kitchen tank that's now six months into the running. Took up the hobby a year ago after rather accidentally venturing into a nice fish store near Brussels that had some wonderful display tanks. I quickly got hooked to it and soon came across the UKAPS site which has been a great source of information and inspiration (at times bit intimitating too, for newcomers, given the outstanding quality of much of the work you get to see here)























PS: Part of the deal for getting family permission to set up a planted tank was to get another "proper" aquarium  with some "real" fish for the children. So I installed this low maintenance Juwel Rekord 600 - my kids love it.


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## Ady34 (20 Jul 2012)

Wow, really nice looking tank, and an impressive start into the hobby, you must be well pleased with the results   
I love crypts, ferns and mosses, and balansae is one of my favourite plants. They all look exceptional against the crisp rock lines which seperate them from the fine gravel foreground. The subtle addition of pinatiffida and hairgrass are nice touches and it all works so well together. Loads of colour and great fish choice.
Really nice scape and love the photos of the fish and shrimp in particular.
Sponge bob tank is also very colourful and a great way of introducing kids to the hobby   
Cheerio,
Ady.


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## nayr88 (20 Jul 2012)

Looks really good, and the kids tank has been pulled off pretty well to considering haha.
What filter is that on the kitchen tank?


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## johnski (20 Jul 2012)

Whoooo lives in a pineapple under the seaaa?? neeeeeon tetraaa! 

Real nice lookin tank you got


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## chris.m (20 Jul 2012)

Hi all,

thanks a lot for the kind feedback.

@Ady64: yes, I do love my Hengelis Rasbora - beautiful colours and great schoolers, even in this small tank. Also got some Celestial Pearl Danios and Boraras Maculatus which were rehomed from a previous nano cube attempt - gorgeous little fish. In addition four Otos which work really well.

@ nayr88: the filter on the kitchen tank is a Dennerle nano external skim filter rated at 360l/h. I chose it for its compact size and relatively inconspicuous design. Works OK so far, but I'm thinking about replacing it with something that has more oomph, possibly a Fluval G3 (together with some decent glassware). Any other recommendations welcome, but it needs to fit beside the tank as I have no option to fit it underneath in the kitchen cabinet. 

Other specs:

Tank: 60 x 30 x 36 cm opti-white
Light: 2 x T5 24w Arcadia OTL
CO2: Dennerle Nano CO2 system with Dennerle Solenoid
Substrate: ADA Power Sand Special, Aqua Soil Malaya, Mekong Sand. 
Fertilisation: ADA Green Brighty, Easycarbo
Décor/hardscape: Seiryu landscape stone, Reedmoor roots
Plants: Microsorium pteropus ‘Narrow’, Eleocharis, Hygrophila pinnatifida, Salvinia natans, Vesicularia farriei 'Weeping', Anubias barteri var.nana 'petite', Aponogeton crispus 'Red', various crypts (wendtii 'Brown', wendtii ‘Green’, wendtii ‘petchii’, crispatula, willisii)
Inverts: Amano shrimp, Red cherry, Red fire, Assassin and Zebra snails


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## sr20det (21 Jul 2012)

Lovely tank.

Think the fish are Trigonostigma espei as opposed to hengeli's.

http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/tr ... gma-espei/

Have hengelis myself and they look simmer generally I think


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## chris.m (21 Jul 2012)

Yes, I think you're right.

Thanks for pointing that out!


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## sr20det (21 Jul 2012)

chris.m said:
			
		

> Yes, I think you're right.
> 
> Thanks for pointing that out!


No probs, in the notes it states that it can be confused easily. Yours look lot more colourful compared to hengelis, hence.


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## jack-rythm (26 Jul 2012)

2 questions! what fish do you have in the first couple of photos? and what filter set up do you use on such a small tank?

Amazing setup by the way


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## chris.m (27 Jul 2012)

jackrythm said:
			
		

> 2 questions! what fish do you have in the first couple of photos? and what filter set up do you use on such a small tank?



Thanks!

The (barely visible) fish on the first two shots are Trigonostigma espei which you also see on the close-up shot. There are also a handful of each Boraras Maculatus and Celestial Pearl Danios in there,plus s ome Otocinclus, but they don't stick out from a distance.

Filter is an external canister filter from Dennerle (Nano External Skimfilter 360l/h). When setting up the tank I first thought about going with an internal filter, but quickly discarded that option as it would have taken up too much space inside the tank. The Dennerle external filter is not too big and fits nicely beside the tank. However, I am now contemplating to go with something that has more turnover (but is not too ugly and still small enough to not distract from the tank itself).


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## Tim Harrison (27 Jul 2012)

N





			
				chris.m said:
			
		

> Hi,
> 
> I wanted to share some (iPhone) shots of my 60l kitchen tank that's now six months into the running. Took up the hobby a year ago after rather accidentally venturing into a nice fish store near Brussels that had some wonderful display tanks. I quickly got hooked to it and soon came across the UKAPS site which has been a great source of information and inspiration (at times bit intimitating too, for newcomers, given the outstanding quality of much of the work you get to see here)
> 
> ...



Nice IKEA print, and your tanks ain't so bad either. I especially like the last one; it demands real aquascaping talent to pull all those disparate elements together in to a coherent theme   Seriously though, well done, I like them immensely.


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## chris.m (27 Jul 2012)

sr20det said:
			
		

> Think the fish are Trigonostigma espei as opposed to hengeli's.
> 
> Have hengelis myself and they look simmer generally I think



By the way, I'v run a closer identity check on my fish since your reply (something that I should have certainly done before). 

Turns out that most of my Trigonostigmas are indeed Espeis as you correctly pointed out, but there are also a few Hengelis amongst them. Out of the 16 that I have,12 seem to be Espeis and 4 Hengelis. I got them young and still quite small in two batches from the same tank at my LFS which had them all labelled as Hengelis. I think I'll have to have a word with them next time...


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## chris.m (28 Jul 2012)

Troi said:
			
		

> Nice IKEA print, and your tanks ain't so bad either. I especially like the last one; it demands real aquascaping talent to pull all those disparate elements together in to a coherent theme   Seriously though, well done, I like them immensely.



Yes, the IKEA print... It was there before the tank and part of my aquarium sales pitch to my wife was that we really needed something to fill the space beneath it.

Thanks for recognising my aquascaping talent. The kitchen tank is of course perfect, but I know that I can still improve on the kids' tank. I think I would still need to install some LEDs inside that crocodile skull in order to make it into the top 100 of next year's IAPLC, what do you think?


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## sr20det (28 Jul 2012)

chris.m said:
			
		

> sr20det said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Yeah, my hengelis are narrow bodied compared to the espei, more silvery, less colourful too. My lfs only has hengelis unfortunately, but grown to love them.  Espei are lovely though, red sides stand out. Yours look exceptional.


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## jack-rythm (29 Jul 2012)

I personally think you made the right decision! I think internal filters unfortunately ruin the whole objective of creating such a relaxed and calm scape. How old is your tank? The gravel looks so tidy and clean. Soon ill have some photos up that i can show my very first iwagumi. Im already thinking about another and its only about 3 months old!


Jack


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## chris.m (29 Jul 2012)

Hi Jack,

tank was set up in mid-February and it took about three months to grow in. Since then it's been pruning and keeping algae under control. Not a major issue, but I do have a few green hair algea and bba. I've started using Easycarbo about two months ago and it had an almost instant effect on keeping the algae in check.

Funny that you mention the gravel. It's rather easy to keep clean by syphoning off any detritus during water change (although I never have much anyway). However I've been fighting a bit of a losing battle with keeping the Mekong sand in the foreground from mixing with the Aqua Soil Malaya in the back. The sand and the substrate are separated by rocks, but the substrate keeps coming through anyway in some places.

Cheers


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## GreenGrow (20 Aug 2012)

Hey mate, love the tank.

What size is the filter in CMs as am looking to replace my current filter with this?!

Cheers,


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## PPage666 (7 Dec 2012)

love it


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## Martin cape (22 Dec 2012)

Liking the little shrimp!!


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## hrishi007 (27 Jun 2016)

Nice...


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## Aqua360 (27 Jun 2016)

beautifully executed, very impressive for first efforts


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## Smells Fishy (27 Jun 2016)

Kitchen tank, hmmm that's new to me. Very nice.


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## billiemackers (1 Aug 2016)

This is fantastic, one of the best I've seen. How is it getting on?


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## Jester (11 Aug 2016)

perfect little tank, I like how natural it looks. Hard to achieve I would imagine.


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