General Aquarium Talk

[Stanza]

no, no co2...

Just 2 x phillips aquarelle t8 bulbs and a dose of flourish excel once a week.

Quite happy with the bulbs, and only $14 at bunnings.

Lights cost me $39 each (wired T8 compton mounts from bunnings.) with standard tri phosphor bulbs.

Put 3 of them in the hood, added the 2 x aquarelle's and a NEC quad phosphor t8 tube $24...but mainly only run the 2 x aquarelles.

Noticed they had some NEC fish tank bulbs there also. (Parafield store)...might swap out the NEC quad phosphor tube for one of those next also $24....

Plants seem to love the lights.

Plain jane black 3mm gravel in the bottom. 2 x 40kg bags from Pure Aquariums in Unley $40 each

Very low tech

But with plenty of water flow and lot's o air bubbles....all going good.

oh and no guage, they are the ammonia alert and the ph alert (seachem)

[Dorz]

Originally Posted by Stanza

and a dose of flourish excel once a week.

well, i know what ill be buying next time i go to the lfs! my plants all seem to wilt away... :P

[Stanza]

Quick description of the tank build

Worklog for 4ft Tropical Tank

Looked around Adelaide and several Local Fish Shops….and Pet stores..
Some cheap tanks out there…. Some VERY cheap in cost… but also cheap in construction…
Decided I was after a quality tank and stand and could afford the little extra cost. Also decided to get a hood to house some lights and lower the noise of the tank overall

Placed a deposit on the New Tank + Stand + Hood all plain unfinished Pine from Aggies Aquariums here in Adelaide

Went on a shopping spree to collect all the pieces of the puzzle I thought would be required to complete the tank.

Purchased the following
Jebao 918 Canister filter from Ebay
5kgs of Quartz noodles
Aqua One 500 grams Ceramisub Filter Media
Aqua One 136 Sponge Filter
Resun 300L/ph powerhead
Resun twin output air pump
40cm flexible air curtain
Fluval Tronic 300w heater
Stick on temperature strip
Seachem Ammonia Alert
Seachem PH Alert
API Master test kit
API Stress Zyme+
General Water agers and chlorine remover solutions
Various plants from Ebay and local fish shops
2 x 40kg bags of Dark / Black 3mm gravel
9W UV Clarifier designed for a pond
3 x Compton pre wired 4ft T8 light fittings
2 x Phillips Aquarelle T8 tubes
1 x Nec Quad Phosphor T8 tube
Various Rocks and Driftwood from local creek selected


Placed the Sponge filter and power head in another tank to start building it’s bacteria up
Placed an Eheim 2010 internal filter into another tank to build up it’s bacteria.

Test fitted the UV Clarifier, Canister Filter hoses etc, Heater and power board to the Stand and tank.

UV Clarifier mounts in the middle of the rear on the stand. Output from Canister filter piped to the bottom of it, then out and into the tank.

Once sorted they were removed and the stand and hood were painted with an undercoat. Once dry 2 coats of a Satin finish dark grey/black pain was applied.
Painted the inside of the hood with 3 coats of the White undercoat in preparation of the light fittings

Mounted 2 of the T8 light fittings to the rear of the hood, and the remaining T8 light fitting to the flip up access lid.

Opened the Jebao Canister and filled it with the Noodles and Ceramisub media’s (as the Canister comes with very little media)

Decided the Canister pickup and exit pipes were fairly basic and the suction mounts snapped on first try…so ordered some Eheim 16/22 installation sets 1 & 2 Suction and pressure sides off Ebay…..much much better quality.
Test filled the aquarium to check for leaks and to test how level it would sit on my carpeted floor once full (and the weight had settled the legs down)

Emptied it again then adjusted the legs to level it out.

Cleaned the gravel and lined the bottom of the tank, placed rocks etc on top of the gravel and arranged the gravel to be about 1inch deep at the front of the tank and getting deeper towards the rear. So the plants had some depth to get their roots down and bedded.

Hooked up everything, filter / heater / air pump etc….and filled the tank with water and the de chlorinated aged water conditioner

Added a pinch of fish food flakes to the water, to start off the fishless Cycling of the tank…. Also added the required amount of Stress Zyme+ to start some bacteria in the gravel.

Turned on the lights and air pump and left it run for a few days…each day adding another pinch of fish flakes.

After about 1 week of running I removed the Sponge filter and power head from the other tank along with the Eheim 2010 filter and put them in the new tank.

Left it go for another couple of days adding more fish flakes and other fish foods each day.

Checked the Ammonia / Nitrite / Nitrate levels which were all @ 0ppm

Added a bag of large coloured gravel from my current 2ft tank (to help seed the new gravel)

Added all my critters from my 2ft tank to the new tank (12 large neons, 2 x medium sized Common Bristlenose’s, 2 x Fist sized Apple-Mystery Snails and 17 Bronze Corey Catfish along with whatever little brown and white snails came with the plants)

Added Seachem Flourish Excel to fertilise the plants

Added some more plants I purchased from Ebay….

Everything going fine so far….. Ammonia @ 0ppm, Nitrites @ 0ppm, Nitrates @ 10ppm

Cleaned the Eheim 2010 filter and the Jebao Canister filter after 2 weeks….. to remove all the dust collected from the new gravel.

Purchased a couple more baby Common Bristlenose and 2 x baby Pakistani Loaches, added them into the community.

Added 6 more baby Apple-Mystery snails and some small brown ones from the snail tank I have.

Will do a 25% water change this weekend and see how it goes

Then I will remove the Eheim 2010 filter….then maybe a couple of weeks later remove the Sponge filter. Replacing them both with an internal OTTO 1200 L/ph filter to keep the water flow fun for the Catfish…. Who seem to like playing in the water stream.

I will purchase another Aquarelle T8 tube to replace the NEC Quad Phosphor tube….that will give me a really nice (not too bright for the lounge room) amount of light. With good plant growth.

Currently the lights are on a timer and come on @ 06:30….untill 12:30…then off until 17:30 and back off at 22:30

This allows the fish to wake up a little before I feed them in the morning before I go to work… and same again for when I get home from work. With a few hours to ENJOY the tank at night before it’s lights out again.

I would like to get another 2 timers and stage the lights properly over the day… that is 1 Tube comes on….then the 2nd tube then the 3rd tube……so the light ramps up and down for each period…and not the current 3 tubes blinking and all popping on at once….then all lights off.

Something like

05:30 Off
06:30 Tube 1
07:30 Tube 1 + Tube 2
08:30 Tube 1 + Tube 2 + Tube 3
09:30 Tube 1 + Tube 2 + Tube 3
10:30 Tube 1 + Tube 2
11:30 Tube 1
12:30 Off
~
16:30 Off
17:30 Tube 1
18:30 Tube 1 + Tube 2
19:30 Tube 1 + Tube 2 + Tube 3
20:30 Tube 1 + Tube 2
21:30 Tube 1
22:30 Off
~

[Agg]

might be worth a separate thread for your worklog, stanza?

speaking of which, I will definitely be doing a separate worklog thread, but in the meantime here's the pics of the 6x2x2 i am about to take possession of, it's been a basically dead marine tank for about 5 years so pretty grim. after talking to a few people and mulling over my options i think i'll keep the sump/weir if i can make it quiet, and make a nice planted tank with a big school of angelfish.


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most of the extras included I'll be chucking out.. and I'm kinda assuming nothing will work anymore in terms of pumps and heaters etc.

[Micah.]

Originally Posted by Agg

most of the extras included I'll be chucking out..

I hope that includes that powerboard it looks a tad dangerous...

[japes]

It's only salt. No rust here, nothing to worry about! Give it a good rinse and plug it in straight away!

[Dorz]

got a few new additions in my tank that nyah8 needed to part with..

4x Angelfish

pics soon.

edit: PICS!
















and the updated combs on the marine aquarium

[Stanza]

Our tanks are nearly twins

Nice Angel Fish

[Dorz]

Originally Posted by Stanza

Our tanks are nearly twins

Nice Angel Fish

haha, cheers. i need some more plants and driftwood in there though... some of the fish need better homes.. getting territorial, and whenever they see some of the other fish hanging around, they will have a go.

seems to happen more between the 2 chinese algae eaters though... understandably.

[Dorz]

4ft'er for sale in perth for $150:

http://forums.overclockers.com.au/sh...d.php?t=903456

thought id link it here

[n3wbi379]

My old 4 footer is listed on ebay too......

No need for it any more.....

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/AquaOne-4-Foo...item2a0a3e0b14

[Jaded5542]

Originally Posted by n3wbi379

My old 4 footer is listed on ebay too......

No need for it any more.....

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/AquaOne-4-Foo...item2a0a3e0b14

DAMN YOU LIVING ON THE OTHER SIDE OF MELBS!

Anyone know of a freight company thats game to move a fish tank?

[pugsley]

Originally Posted by Jaded5542

DAMN YOU LIVING ON THE OTHER SIDE OF MELBS!

Anyone know of a freight company thats game to move a fish tank?

Most will, but might not offer any cover for breakage. Got a mate with a ute? Or you could even hire one for a half day. Might work out cheaper than getting someone else to do it.

[Dorz]

bought and scaped my live rock tonight got some the other day uncured from marine +, and some tonight from a masa member (cured), came with a little bit of coral on there but i think its dying off... bleaching out around the edges already. need some salt water in prep for lots of water changes!

[Dorz]

and the supervisor,




hopefully the bleached corals make it through the cycle