This thread is much much overdue, but I am happy to report that good progress has been made!!!
A few of you probably remember the first shots of the tank:
Nice overall, but far from level! We ended up shoving a couple of carpet squares under the front corners - I was hesitant to get wood shims since the stand is particle board and I didn't want to torque it too strongly, but we had some carpet samples laying around and it turns out that was just the recipe!
Once the tank got leveled and filled, it was time to sink some driftwood! Hubby found me a nice birthday present of three pieces of wood for $100 on FB marketplace, so that was pretty cool!! Note ugly carpet squares that have yet to be trimmed under the front corners of the stand, but at least the water is now level haha
A week or two later, sand and another honker of a driftwood piece that had been sitting out in our yard in a barrel of water went in.
An effort was made to get it to sink by piling sand on top of it
Eventually, we just piled a bunch of rocks on it to make it sink, and that's how it stands to this day haha.
This is a not great picture of the tank and scape before we added plants. I had gotten a FX6 on a black Friday sale, and unfortunately when we set it up the first time the noise was unbearable. Must have been some issue with the impeller or something. Fortunately Petsmart let me do an exchange for it even though it was March by the time we were setting up the filter, so I am very thankful for that. The new FX6 is a lot quieter.
I don't have any more recent pictures of the tank apparently, but some plants from the 20g moved into it, and the black skirt tetras that ended up being in quarantine for almost three months were relocated to the 125 about three weeks ago! They were amazed when their digs got bigger haha.
I'll have to post some more recent pictures soon, but this was basically the beginning story! The saga started, oh my gosh in October or November of 2020? Water finally went into the tank in January 2021, and the fish moved in at the end of March. We now have cories and two firemouths in quarantine in the 20g as of yesterday, so those will be the next addition!
A few of you probably remember the first shots of the tank:
Nice overall, but far from level! We ended up shoving a couple of carpet squares under the front corners - I was hesitant to get wood shims since the stand is particle board and I didn't want to torque it too strongly, but we had some carpet samples laying around and it turns out that was just the recipe!
Once the tank got leveled and filled, it was time to sink some driftwood! Hubby found me a nice birthday present of three pieces of wood for $100 on FB marketplace, so that was pretty cool!! Note ugly carpet squares that have yet to be trimmed under the front corners of the stand, but at least the water is now level haha
A week or two later, sand and another honker of a driftwood piece that had been sitting out in our yard in a barrel of water went in.
An effort was made to get it to sink by piling sand on top of it
Eventually, we just piled a bunch of rocks on it to make it sink, and that's how it stands to this day haha.
This is a not great picture of the tank and scape before we added plants. I had gotten a FX6 on a black Friday sale, and unfortunately when we set it up the first time the noise was unbearable. Must have been some issue with the impeller or something. Fortunately Petsmart let me do an exchange for it even though it was March by the time we were setting up the filter, so I am very thankful for that. The new FX6 is a lot quieter.
I don't have any more recent pictures of the tank apparently, but some plants from the 20g moved into it, and the black skirt tetras that ended up being in quarantine for almost three months were relocated to the 125 about three weeks ago! They were amazed when their digs got bigger haha.
I'll have to post some more recent pictures soon, but this was basically the beginning story! The saga started, oh my gosh in October or November of 2020? Water finally went into the tank in January 2021, and the fish moved in at the end of March. We now have cories and two firemouths in quarantine in the 20g as of yesterday, so those will be the next addition!
