I bought the new tank about six months ago and mothballed it whilst I waited to move house. During this time I was able to accumulate all the hardware I needed and also build a cabinet. I'm a bit of a snob when it comes to furniture and have tastes *way* outside of my pay scale. Ebay helps with that but nobody made a solid wood aquarium cabinet that I both liked and could afford.
After a failed attempt at oak veneering MDF, I stumbled across the HOL storage table in IKEA.
Solid acacia and cheap (£33) but flimsy construction and a lift off lid making it totally unsuitable for my purpose off the peg. Annoyingly I don't have any photos of the work, but a couple of hours later, it was reinforced with 2x2 redwood uprights and braces, a 24mm MDF base and a hinged down front (after fixing the lid). I also removed the stubby feet and added a 2x2 redwood frame underneath for that 'floating' effect.
Front open showing AquaOne Aquis 1000 and lots of other crap yet to be sorted out.
Rear of unit cut to locate filter piping (both sides done.
I didn't want anything in the tank except for the 'scape, the fish and and the inlet/outlet pipes so there's a Hydor external heater hidden in the cabinet. I cannot recommend this unit enough- unlike a traditional heater, it heats all the water passing through it, so you get an even heat in the tank and tap temperature->25 degrees took far less time.
The chosen theme was one of a riverbed, so I got some Sumatran driftwood and cobbles in addition to the play sand I used in my previous tank. There's also an Anubias/Coconut cave in the left foreground disguised with cobbles. Finally, some coarse naturally coloured gravel has been sprinkled against the other hardscape to mimic the right->left flow direction of the outlet pipe. The driftwood is 'placed' but not buried to give the impression it's just caught on the rocks.
Fish stock so far is slowly being transferred from my previously overstocked and now very barren looking 2ft'r (complete with temporary espresso cup caves). Thankfully I didn't lose a single fish moving the setup between Guildford and Bristol
In the big tank so far are the following;
To be transferred over in the next couple of weeks;
No particular theme to the fish stock, but they all get on well and have complimenting colours. I'd like to get a couple of Pictus cats at some point and maybe an Angel or two but who knows. The tank is intentionally overfiltered so I'll be able to get it looking quite lively
I'm aiming to add some more Java Fern and Amazon Swords in the background 'thicket' behind the wood. A bit of Java moss on the branches would probably look good as well.
I've also been working on the lighting. I hate tank mounted luminaires with a passion. You work so hard to make the tank look good, then clip a nasty black or silver lump on top of it. Yuck! The alternative is to create a frame above the tank and hang something. Suspended luminaires look alright, but I spotted something on a US forum that I just *had* to copy.
Take one IKEA Hemma lighting pendant & cord (£3ea) and one IKEA Blanda Blank stainless serving bowl. These are the 20cm version (£2.99ea).
Drill the bowl to accept the light fitting. I used the ghetto method of repeated small holes but a hole saw would be neater. Screw together and voila!
Moving forward I need to build a minimal frame over the top of the tank- probably using galvanised condiut and a pipe bender.
So that's a hell of a lot of work condensed into a post. What do you all think?
I must also thank you all for a number of hugely helpful threads and posts that I digested over the last few months.
After a failed attempt at oak veneering MDF, I stumbled across the HOL storage table in IKEA.
Solid acacia and cheap (£33) but flimsy construction and a lift off lid making it totally unsuitable for my purpose off the peg. Annoyingly I don't have any photos of the work, but a couple of hours later, it was reinforced with 2x2 redwood uprights and braces, a 24mm MDF base and a hinged down front (after fixing the lid). I also removed the stubby feet and added a 2x2 redwood frame underneath for that 'floating' effect.
Front open showing AquaOne Aquis 1000 and lots of other crap yet to be sorted out.
Rear of unit cut to locate filter piping (both sides done.
I didn't want anything in the tank except for the 'scape, the fish and and the inlet/outlet pipes so there's a Hydor external heater hidden in the cabinet. I cannot recommend this unit enough- unlike a traditional heater, it heats all the water passing through it, so you get an even heat in the tank and tap temperature->25 degrees took far less time.
The chosen theme was one of a riverbed, so I got some Sumatran driftwood and cobbles in addition to the play sand I used in my previous tank. There's also an Anubias/Coconut cave in the left foreground disguised with cobbles. Finally, some coarse naturally coloured gravel has been sprinkled against the other hardscape to mimic the right->left flow direction of the outlet pipe. The driftwood is 'placed' but not buried to give the impression it's just caught on the rocks.
Fish stock so far is slowly being transferred from my previously overstocked and now very barren looking 2ft'r (complete with temporary espresso cup caves). Thankfully I didn't lose a single fish moving the setup between Guildford and Bristol
In the big tank so far are the following;
- 8x Penguin Tetra
- 2x Female Congo Tetra
- 2x Male Congo Tetra
- 1x Rainbow/Ruby Shark
To be transferred over in the next couple of weeks;
- 1x Silver/Moonlight Gourami
- 2x Gold Barbs
- 2x Zebra Loach
- 1x Female Bristlenose Plec
- 1x Syndontis Nigrata
- 2x Neon Swordtail (1 female, 1 male)
No particular theme to the fish stock, but they all get on well and have complimenting colours. I'd like to get a couple of Pictus cats at some point and maybe an Angel or two but who knows. The tank is intentionally overfiltered so I'll be able to get it looking quite lively
I'm aiming to add some more Java Fern and Amazon Swords in the background 'thicket' behind the wood. A bit of Java moss on the branches would probably look good as well.
I've also been working on the lighting. I hate tank mounted luminaires with a passion. You work so hard to make the tank look good, then clip a nasty black or silver lump on top of it. Yuck! The alternative is to create a frame above the tank and hang something. Suspended luminaires look alright, but I spotted something on a US forum that I just *had* to copy.
Take one IKEA Hemma lighting pendant & cord (£3ea) and one IKEA Blanda Blank stainless serving bowl. These are the 20cm version (£2.99ea).
Drill the bowl to accept the light fitting. I used the ghetto method of repeated small holes but a hole saw would be neater. Screw together and voila!
Moving forward I need to build a minimal frame over the top of the tank- probably using galvanised condiut and a pipe bender.
So that's a hell of a lot of work condensed into a post. What do you all think?
I must also thank you all for a number of hugely helpful threads and posts that I digested over the last few months.
