DIY aquarium setup, enjoy the process... not the cost.

[Herpin Man]

You do nice work.

 

[Retired Viking]

Very nice woodwork for your tank, you did a great job. When my kids were young they liked helping me with my fish, that was many years ago. Now my 1 1/2 year old granddaughter comes over and likes watching my fish.

 

[PheonixKingZ]

Awesome workmanship man!!

 

[Ch4rlie]

Very nice, have to say I do really like the finish on that tank stand cabinet, the very sort of thing I would buy to be entirely honest, I can’t do woodwork if my life depended on it!!

And so to see good carpentry skills being put to good use is great to see and to do it with your boy makes it really even more worthwhile.

Tank and equipment costs is always ending up way beyond most folks budgets and it’s can be astonishing how much certain equipment can cost, really makes you think twice before buying anything new.

Hence the second hand market for tank equipment is flourishing but of course not without its risks and can be a gamble sometimes.

Especially during these covid times when everything is done practically online.

Keep up the excellent work and I look forwards to seeing the next stage on this thread.

By the way, sorry to hear of your pandas, I too have heard stories of these cories are not particularly hardy at all and easily dying of various causes.

I am a sucker for salt & peppers btw, really like these cories!

 

[DAnCSF]

great project there and the results look great!

 

[FFGuest6357]

Wow,

Thank you everyone for the kind words, the nostalgia, compliments, encouragement and every other bit of positivity. We all need a little bit, or as much of it as we can nowadays.

I’ve done my best to save the pandas. Meds are hard to come by in Canada, and I’ve lost all but two. But the remaining two appear to be recovering well. Which makes me happy, we’ll see.
I have completely disassembled the original scape of this setup, purely for the fact that I needed to keep an eye on the health on the pandas.
The scape is very bare minimum right now so I can moniter fish health and I will leave it that way until I feel comfortable to put them into my holding tank that is currently cycling.

updates will follow, but only once the fish are healthy enough to handle the change.

Thanks again everyone, this is a great community!

 

[FFGuest6357]

what a great project! I think it's so cool that you're doing this as a project with your son, can't put a price tag on that That stand came out beautiful, and some ruggedness is perfect in case your kid is more on the "rough and tumble" side of things (mine sure is and he's only two...). I sure hope your pandas pull through, I hear you on it being a bummer for your son too. I'm sure you know this stuff, but as someone returning to the hobby after a 15+ year gap, I've learned that water hardness is more important apparently than pH and perceived "easiness" for selecting fish that will do well for you. It probably explains why I was never able to successfully keep otos in my previous life. If you are looking for any tips on what to stock based on your water parameters, go ahead and post your ph, KH and GH and you will hopefully get some good feedback on that as well! I've gotten a ton of helpful advice here and ended up with a much longer list of fish to choose from that should do well with my water than I originally expected! Good luck with everything, I'm excited to follow along on your journey!

This is a great reply and perfect timing.
I only found out a couple of days ago that my water softener program really messed up. And was treating my water in a very inefficient way. I’ve corrected the issue, set the program according to the local parameters. I’m planning on getting test kits for Gh and kh in the next day or so, but until then, I can’t give those numbers. Hope it wasn’t part of killing off my pandas.