PeteA
Member
After a couple of months thinking, purchasing and planning I can finally start the journal of my new tank. The beginning of October I managed to get a second-hand Juwel Trigon 190, they're not everybodies cup of tea as its a 190 litre corner tank that's 2ft tall. This tend to cause a bit of headache when it comes to flow and maintenance as they're a peculiar shape and quite deep. However it looks more pleasing in the living room than a regular shaped tank would in the same location, and a lot of serious research (on here especially) means I think that I can get the flow half decent.
The actual tank was in quite a state when I got it, so it's had the nasty Juwel backing removed and the internal filter, resulting in a much lighter and bigger tank. It's been cleaned with a hose, allowed to dry and is on it's second "fill" of clean tap water. The lid components have also been run through the dishwasher and had a good scrubbing to try and clear the limescale and green stain.
Me and my other half have spent quite a bit of time searching for bog wood as it's the intention to stock the tank with smaller varieties of fish - the biggest likely is 8cm, so we wanted bog wood that was going to create interesting arches and loops for them to swim through. There are going to be five pieces in, however some of those will be used to support the two largest pieces (and fixed together using stainless steel screws for extra stability).
The tank originally came with a (very dirty) T8 light unit with one natural and one terrapin bulb - so that's now been replaced with a new T5 unit with a natural and daylight bulb with reflector on each so that it gets to the bottom of the tank. I'm hoping this will be enough light (0.28 w/l) to reach the bottom and provide a bit of lighting for what I aim to be a moderately planted tank. Filtration is being provided in the form of a Hydor Prime 30 external canister filter with 300w Hydor inline heater. CO2 will be from a 2kg FE which I intend to use one of the new style UPAqua inline diffuser, although this may in time get changed to a reactor. Ultimately the only bits of equipment I want in the tank will be the filter tubes, thermometer and drop checker.
Substrate wise I've not completely decided 😀 Originally I was going to put in a layer of cat litter and then a layer of gravel, however now that I've seen the cat litter I may just go fully for that and sell the gravel on - time will tell.
Here's the tank so far...
This weekend is my last full weekend at home before Christmas so I need to get everything installed (FE reg on etc) and as much substrate washed as possible.
The actual tank was in quite a state when I got it, so it's had the nasty Juwel backing removed and the internal filter, resulting in a much lighter and bigger tank. It's been cleaned with a hose, allowed to dry and is on it's second "fill" of clean tap water. The lid components have also been run through the dishwasher and had a good scrubbing to try and clear the limescale and green stain.
Me and my other half have spent quite a bit of time searching for bog wood as it's the intention to stock the tank with smaller varieties of fish - the biggest likely is 8cm, so we wanted bog wood that was going to create interesting arches and loops for them to swim through. There are going to be five pieces in, however some of those will be used to support the two largest pieces (and fixed together using stainless steel screws for extra stability).
The tank originally came with a (very dirty) T8 light unit with one natural and one terrapin bulb - so that's now been replaced with a new T5 unit with a natural and daylight bulb with reflector on each so that it gets to the bottom of the tank. I'm hoping this will be enough light (0.28 w/l) to reach the bottom and provide a bit of lighting for what I aim to be a moderately planted tank. Filtration is being provided in the form of a Hydor Prime 30 external canister filter with 300w Hydor inline heater. CO2 will be from a 2kg FE which I intend to use one of the new style UPAqua inline diffuser, although this may in time get changed to a reactor. Ultimately the only bits of equipment I want in the tank will be the filter tubes, thermometer and drop checker.
Substrate wise I've not completely decided 😀 Originally I was going to put in a layer of cat litter and then a layer of gravel, however now that I've seen the cat litter I may just go fully for that and sell the gravel on - time will tell.
Here's the tank so far...
This weekend is my last full weekend at home before Christmas so I need to get everything installed (FE reg on etc) and as much substrate washed as possible.