An ongoing distraction...

[Chez_]

I have begun a big distraction/project and it seems like a journal dedicated to it might a good thing.

A while back my delightfully amenable husband said that if I tidied out and and emptied two cupboards in the living room, we could put a big tank in there. So I did. And I got a 250l tank and stand from a bloke of Facebook, as you do.

The tank was too low -- I was worried my daughter's wheelchair would bash it -- so we chocked it up on breeze blocks. Then @ian_m pointed out that they'd crack, so I bought some racking (Thank you, Ian!).





I messed around with the idea of a sump for a bit and couldn't make it work. We live in a rented house and I don't want to flood it and rot the floors. Abandoning that meant I had a bit of space underneath for a quarantine tank.



This was the point I went from 'let's spend minimal money' mode to 'I deserve nice things' mode.

Today we are here...



I am about to replace the big 250l with a 360l. I have been reading the 'quick' mineralising soil threads. I am going to use new Westland Aquatic Potting Compost mixed with peat moss rather than the generic 'pond compost' I used without sieving when I set it up. I'm going to cap with the same sand and put the same plants and hardscape back in and use the same filter. Old tank is 66*15*18h new one is 60*18*24h, which is approaching the max load per shelf. Filter is a Fluval 307. Needing the tank up high out of the way of the wheelchair is no longer an issue, so it can come down a bit.

My aim is for a jungle feel, with lots of nano fish and red rili shrimp as well as Amanos and Nerites.

On the bottom shelf I'm going to put a shallow tank with moss-covered bogwood coming out of the water. Not decided on the live inhabitants yet.

On the top shelf I'm going to put a row of 12l tanks with a sandy substrates, epiphytes and floaters, with a different colour of cherry shrimp in each one.

I have a 50l tank to disassemble and combine with this big one and maybe a 100l one as well.

I'm going to put fascia around the steel shelves eventually and my amenable husband is a lighting designer by trade, so is quite keen on that aspect of it all.

 

[foxfish]

Seems like you have been bitten by the bug!

 

[Chez_]

Seems like you have been bitten by the bug!

To my shame I told my husband about MTS and now he won't stop taking the mick 🙄

 

[Chez_]

This is where I am this morning. The lights for the little shrimp tanks arrived and I have got them and the sponge filters connected. I have the tanks connected together with one inch pipe and tank #8 has the heater, and a tiny 200lph pump that moves the water to tank #1. I reckoned that would mean I could treat the body of water as one rather than mucking around with each tank individually. At the moment I've got hornwort, guppy grass and java moss in each one and one or two other things I'm going to put in the big tank when it arrives next week -- I'm going to try a riccia fluitans lawn. I've got some anubias nana and java fern I need to attach to the hardscape.



Today I'm going to start breaking down the big tank so I can put the new 360l together when it arrives next week without too much drama. I've had buckets of mineralising soil in the bathroom for three weeks now and my family are getting bored of it all.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

I reckoned that would mean I could treat the body of water as one rather than mucking around with each tank individually.

They look great, and I think you can.

and one or two other things I'm going to put in the big tank when it arrives next week -- I'm going to try a riccia fluitans lawn.

I'm pretty sure "lawn" is <"unsustainable">. Susswassertang <"Lomariopsis lineata"> would be more of a possibility, you are more than welcome to <"some of mine">.

These are Marcel's (@zozo )

The problem with Riccia fluitans is that it really wants to be at the water's surface. It <"pearls"> really well, mainly because the thallus interlock to retain oxygen and <"keep it up in the light">.

cheers Darrel

 

[Chez_]

Thanks, Darryl, that would be amazing. I've tried a mini fluitans lawn in my 100l, attached to a piece of mesh with a hairnet. It's reaching the point where it's all trying to float away now 🙂. Although at least the coreys haven't dug it up 🤣

As well as the mineralising soil in the bathroom I now have a spare 3' tank full of all the fish, so if the new tank doesn't come as promised on Thursday I'm in trouble.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

Thanks, Darryl, that would be amazing.

PM your address when you are ready.

cheers Darrel

 

[Chez_]

Here we are this morning. I cannot tell you how much I loathe fishing line, hairnets and super-glue. I have glued a big clump of my hair to my glasses and I can't open my phone with a thumb print because it's all glued over. It's starting to look like it does in my head, though.



I have to get it done in the next couple of days because my friend is coming for the weekend with her daughter and there is a) no bed in the spare room and b) a 180l tank with an inadequate filter in the middle of the floor -- I moved the cycled one back over to this rank yesterday to try and clear it a bit quicker. Which worked, thankfully.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

I have glued a big clump of my hair to my glasses and I can't open my phone with a thumb print because it's all glued over.

I think a lot of us may <"have been there">.

cheers Darrel

 

[Atragene]

I love what you are doing and I am sure that both your daughter and yourself will enjoy it immensely.I don’t want to spoil your fun but…
I can’t see properly but it looks as if the stand base has nothing to spread the load and it appears not even to be sitting on a joist. Another thought is the steel frame up to the additional hundred or so kilos?
I hope I’m wrong but it will look great in the end.

 

[Chez_]

I love what you are doing and I am sure that both your daughter and yourself will enjoy it immensely.I don’t want to spoil your fun but…
I can’t see properly but it looks as if the stand base has nothing to spread the load and it appears not even to be sitting on a joist. Another thought is the steel frame up to the additional hundred or so kilos?
I hope I’m wrong but it will look great in the end.

It's rated 500kg per shelf, so I'm good, so long as my maths was right!

And thank you -- my daughter died in June, which is why bashing by the wheelchair is no longer an issue.

 

[Bradders]

I am very sorry to hear that, @Chez_ .

 

[Chez_]

I am very sorry to hear that, @Chez_ .

Thanks, Bradders. We'd been on borrowed time since Christmas, it wasn't a surprise. I started my MTS problem with a tank in her room when she came out of hospital on January. It was harder than I thought to break it down at the weekend, to combine with the new big one 🙂.

 

[Chez_]

Huzzah! I have come home from a week's holiday and not only has our seventeen-year-old kept all the fish alive, BUT ALSO, the tank has cleared a lot with the bigger FX6 (hat-tip to @Bradders in this post in thread 'Finrot help please' Finrot help please there 🥰) but also there's visible growth on some of the plants.

My next decision is whether or not to break down the 45cm cube in my bedroom and combine it with the big tank.

It's not a great pic of the cube, the light's wrong this morning, but it's about six months old and has a few different mosses that are taking off nicely, and blue shrimp, blue emperor tetras and some CPDs. I really like it, but it's on top of my chest of drawers and how many hundred litre tanks does one need in ones bedroom? I thought I might get a smaller, shallower tank there and muck about trying to get a sand waterfall going -- I could use most of the hardscape and mosses in that -- and then my sock drawer wouldn't fill up with water every time the chest of drawers gets bashed with the hoover.

 

[megwattscreative]

I'm really loving the chaos of all the tanks! How many are you up to now? It all looks beautiful.

 

[richardcunliffe]

my sock drawer wouldn't fill up with water every time the chest of drawers gets bashed with the hoover

😂
Nice to hear an update from you @Chez_

 

[Chez_]

I'm really loving the chaos of all the tanks! How many are you up to now? It all looks beautiful.

Thanks, Meg! I have 2 x 100l in the bedroom and either four or eleven in the living room, depending on whether we are counting the 8 x 12l shrimp tanks as one system or not (which I firmly am for 'staying married' purposes) -- they are a single system connected by siphons and a little pump.

I have a small tank I am trying with seed shrimp and moina and a 44l with cull shrimp and snails and my slightly out of control assassin snail family, that also seems to be working well for some corey fry I shoved in there whilst I was moving all the tanks around. I do have plans to Do Something Nice with it, but I quite like it as it is -- I literally transferred a load of the hardscape and all the inverts into it as part of the tank swap shenanigans and I haven't moved anything out. The hydrocotyle leucocephala seems to really like it in there and I've got some random bits of wood with java fern attached tucked in the back.