Ch4rlie's New Tank!

WhistlingBadger said:

That's a really nice looking filter! I like the idea of an onboard heater, but I tend to take a more modular approach more than multi-component gear. If something breaks, I like to be able to swap that part out and leave everything else alone. Maybe the Oase works that way. I'll have to read up on it. Love the drawer concept, too. Brilliant

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This is a first for me to be honest, I’ve always tended to stick to Fluval or Eheim for external filters but costs and quality of these are going down somewhat, not as good build quality as they once were imho.

Asked the chap at the shop if I could open the box to see the filter itself before purchase said was fine, upon first impression quite liked the sturdy build quality and layout etc, heater compartment nice and easily accessible, a spare heater cover for the filter if you remove the heater so that you can leave the filter running without the heater if you have issues with heater or change mind.

Then asked to see if could see same filter running in one of their tanks, luckily they already had a Oase filter running on a 200 litre tank, had a nozzle attachment for output rather than spraybar but looked like good flow from what I could see.

Had a think about it for a few days then decided to go for it after reading pretty good reviews and also George Farmer recommends this on his website, well, can’t get a better recommendation than that really.

Now I have the filter up and running for a couple of weeks now, at first was not overly impressed with the flow from the filter but with a few tweaks and tricks I know, managed to get a decent flow from spraybar in the tank going from left to right.

Heater temp is spot on, have it set at 24Con heater dial and with two separate thermometers it is very steady at 24.1C just 0.1C difference, can’t say fairer than that.

That filter slider drawer is a simple but really effective addition that saves time and effort alongside the connectors will make life that little bit easier when it comes to those upcoming maintenance cleans.

Only experience tells you those things to look out for in advance when planning ahead in doing a new tank. Pretty glad I did that to be honest.

Ch4rlie said:

Yep, I do enjoy reading a good tank build journal every now and again as long as there’s good photos and explanations as to what is going on with lots of useful little tips that helps others.

This is what am trying I do anyhow, trying not to be too boring!



I have had Threadfins (Iriatherina werneri) before, was actually my very first stocking in my first tank many moons ago, really are lovely little fish especially when the males flare against other males or for females attention, always something going on with these lovely fish specie.

Unfortunately my hard water is actually that little bit too hard, even for threadfins
Nice suggestion though.

According to SF hardness range is 18-215ppm

My water hardness is in the 300 range

Iriatherina werneri – Threadfin Rainbowfish — Seriously Fish

www.seriouslyfish.com

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I've looked at Threadfin before when I was planning to get a bigger tank. My LFS guy said they might be aggressive so that was disappointing.
And, bigger tank idea bombed for financials. Quite the bummer since my tanks are breeding.

Beautiful fishies!

@Ch4rlie I have video for you and have been meaning to respond to your questions from my thread Blue eyes and Peacocks

Ch4rlie said:

Thank you!

I like it too, have to say why did I not think of this ages ago!
On one of my previous tanks I had a Tetra Tec ex1200 filter, that was a REAL pita to take out of the cabinet as it would spill water and be awkward to take out simply due to the weight and tight space.

Lessons were learned!



Thank you, yep, you assume correct that the drawer does indeed hold the weight of the filter fully laden, in fact the picture above in my previous post is the filter fully running and full of water with drawer fully extended, just waiting for the filter media to become full of gunk as this will add a little extra weight. But rest assured its nice and secure and no movements when I try to force any movements to drawer with the filled filter.

I did wonder about the runners when I first found them in the garage, very standard 12" drawer runners, not the ball bearings type which tbh I would have preferred but I did not have any that size lying around so therefore thought would try it out, if it fails, easy enough to swap out the runners but honestly, the standard runner on there is really pretty good and I have complete trust it will serve for years to come. Worked out better than I thought tbh.

Reckon this is going to be a standard thing for me from now on for bulky and heavy external filters in tight cabinets, need to give it a proper name, filter drawer, filter slider, filter pulley.....hmm....

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Cut a wooden block to slip underneath when fully extended just in case.

Love the external heater idea.

Time for the next little update methinks -

Finally added the wood, its actually 3 pieces of wood attached together using cable / zip ties and one stainless steel screw to make it look more like one long piece of wood.

Added a variety of my favourite plants, anubias, marimo moss ball, crinum calamistratum, straight vallisernias, silvina natans, a couple of crypts and a japonica blyxa, think thats about it, will let them grow out and it should fill out a the tank a bit more in future if they establish properly, likely will add more plants in future, think may add floating water lettuce as well since i like the longer roots but for now, not too bad.

Not bad, not the best but not bad.





Have also already started the fishless cycle, using Dr Tims ammonium chloride, hoping the plants that I got from LFS will contain at least some BB to sort of kick start the cycle a little bit to save me maybe a week of cycling but not worried though as I do enjoy the process of fishless cycling anyway!

That's going to look amazing when the plants fill in. Those are some mighty handsome chunks of wood.

WhistlingBadger said:

That's going to look amazing when the plants fill in. Those are some mighty handsome chunks of wood.

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Thank you for that, nice. The wood looks a bit bare and small for the tank but it bends in the same shape as the bow fronted glass so it works, photographs are hard to do this justice to be fair but honestly am no aquascaper (obviously!) and not a photographer either!

Thinking I may add some java moss or something on the wood and hope it sort of carpets the wood eventually. maybe.

Off topic, my tank;
It's a 20g
7 Peacock gudgeons 3m 4f
10 Blue-eyes. 5m 5f (2nd gen)
1 Nerite snail
1 Assassin snail

Oh, this "I'm no aquascaper" junk. ha ha Aquascaping is a skill; you learn by doing. It looks great. Now, it might be OK to say "I'm no Takashi Amano." But honestly, amazing as they are, I kind of think all his tanks look the same after a while. I find these real tanks much more interesting.

Some Java moss on the wood would look great. You can attach it to the wood (and to your fingers) with super glue. If you want something different, try Christmas moss.

WhistlingBadger said:

That's going to look amazing when the plants fill in. Those are some mighty handsome chunks of wood.

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They look dense and heavy.

WhistlingBadger said:

Oh, this "I'm no aquascaper" junk. ha ha Aquascaping is a skill; you learn by doing. It looks great. Now, it might be OK to say "I'm no Takashi Amano." But honestly, amazing as they are, I kind of think all his tanks look the same after a while. I find these real tanks much more interesting.

Some Java moss on the wood would look great. You can attach it to the wood (and to your fingers) with super glue. If you want something different, try Christmas moss.

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I know what you mean about takashi tanks, looks stunning but a lot of them are sort of samey with these grey rocks and carpeting plants.

Funnily enough, I was actually thinking of christmas moss as well, might go for that if can come across some somewhere if nothing else catches my eye first.

And yes, been there and got the t-shirt and mug when comes to glueing my stupid fingers to whatever am trying to add certain plants to wood and decor using superglue!

vanalisa said:

They look dense and heavy.

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Had these wood for several years in the spares cabinet never been used. Hence why I soaked them for a couple of weeks first to be sure they are waterlogged and did not even have to add weights on top to weigh them down in the water, they were heavy enough to sink by themselves, bonus!

Tank is going through a bit of an 'ugly stage' when a bit of hair algae is growing on plants, wood and tiny bit of BGA on sand but its not too bad actually and is mostly gone after cleaning these off, was expecting this anyhow so have dealt with it for now and hope the plants will start to flourish a bit more now and take over the nutrients in the water column.

I did clean tank up a bit but not too much so as to interfere with the cycling process which incidently is very nearly finished, should be done by the weekend methinks, nice and smooth and slightly ahead of schedule by a week or so which is fabulous and good timing really as the weekend is best time for me to get to LFS to buy some new fishies!!

Tank as it is now, added a couple of new plants today which hopefully will grow nicely -

Ch4rlie said:

Tank is going through a bit of an 'ugly stage' when a bit of hair algae is growing on plants, wood and tiny bit of BGA on sand but its not too bad actually and is mostly gone after cleaning these off, was expecting this anyhow so have dealt with it for now and hope the plants will start to flourish a bit more now and take over the nutrients in the water column.

I did clean tank up a bit but not too much so as to interfere with the cycling process which incidently is very nearly finished, should be done by the weekend methinks, nice and smooth and slightly ahead of schedule by a week or so which is fabulous and good timing really as the weekend is best time for me to get to LFS to buy some new fishies!!

Tank as it is now, added a couple of new plants today which hopefully will grow nicely -

View attachment 147569

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Looking good, sir....

Slaphppy7 said:

Looking good, sir....

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Thank you, kind of you to say so and I know its not the best aquascape and certainly won't win any prizes for this but am hoping the plants will eventually grow out and fill in the back of the tank and the anubias and taxiphyllum will grow and spread on top of the wood decor so it will look nice in 6 months or so.

At least thats the plan, for some reason what I plan in my head does not always come to fruition, especially with aquascapes

Ch4rlie said:

Thank you, kind of you to say so and I know its not the best aquascape and certainly won't win any prizes for this but am hoping the plants will eventually grow out and fill in the back of the tank and the anubias and taxiphyllum will grow and spread on top of the wood decor so it will look nice in 6 months or so.

At least thats the plan, for some reason what I plan in my head does not always come to fruition, especially with aquascapes

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Yep, you can't really judge a new setup until the plants have taken hold and have grown-in a bit, IMO

And, deco can always be moved around during WC's, until you get the exact look you are hoping for