My Project Tank

[tomtomtom1230]

You could always go to your water suppliers website. They should have a rap sheet or a typical analysis sheet of your tap water although buying a test kit is your best bet. Whilst you're at the store/surfing Amazon for some liquid test kit bargins, get a kit for hardness (gH and kH). That's the only thing that doesn't come with it really and it should do since it's a "master" test kit.
 
It's alright though, Just trying to inspire you with what I'd do with it

Provided you aerate the tank well, you've got plenty of options, even though your tank is short in length. It just limits the size of fish you are able to keep. If it was me I'd go with a decent size Ember Tetra school (maybe like 25ish) and a trio of Gourami or a pair of Rams as the centrepiece fish. Keyhole cichlids even? I understand they like softer, more acidic water. I prefer an understocked tank to a nearly completely stocked one though. It's personal preference and whether you're confident about keeping maintenance up. Mine was through taste.
 
I have incredibly hard water in Shropshire and I've never had a pH reading go below 7.8 yet. And that was from a tank with a shed load of wood in it! If you aim for fish that like your water straight out the tap, that will also lessen some maintenance issues for you. That's what I'm doing at least.
 
I apologise for my ignorance now, but what's your fish keeping history like? I've been in it 2 years or more and I'm still learning a lot, so I mean hopefully somebody else could chime in and help you more if you need it. You come across confident enough and know what you're doing though xD So yeah, sorry. I don't mean to undermine. 

 

[Asidhunter]

I apologise for my ignorance now, but what's your fish keeping history like? I've been in it 2 years or more and I'm still learning a lot, so I mean hopefully somebody else could chime in and help you more if you need it. You come across confident enough and know what you're doing though xD So yeah, sorry. I don't mean to undermine. 

 
Not so much confidence as blind faith and a whole lot of google searching

. This is actually my first aquarium, my background is mainly reptiles so im used to fairly high maintenance pets at this stage. No need to apologise i love hearing other peoples opinions on how things can be done, i find it helps me get ideas straight in my head if that makes sense.
 
I also like the idea of understocking a tank, gives me room to add any offspring once they are grown on enough. Breeding was always my plan with lizards but money and space never allowed it

 
Didnt think to even look at the suppliers website for any info will give that a look before i call it a night ( Coursework due date is tomorrow at 5pm so gotta be up before the sun lol )
 
Asidhunter
 
Edit:
 
Wow my supplier has a very detailed report for my area giving the minimum , maximum and average readings for every chemical under the sun!
 
pH - min: 7.06, max: 7.73, average: 7.45
Hardness (Clarke) - min: 1.2985, max: 3.4125, average: 2.345
 
so yeah very soft water and fairly neutral pH is what they expect to come from my tap, but we will see once the test kit arrives

 

[tomtomtom1230]

Yeah. It may differ slightly. My supplier tells me that everything from the cold tap (hot tap is different since it needs to be heated and go through several boilers and stuff) should be 18 degrees general hardness @ pH 7.8 but it's not. It's 21 degrees of gH @ a pH of 8.1-8.2! Hence why I'm so interested in dwarf African cichlid species right now

Heh I keep a very high maintenance Beardie. They're a rescue animal and they're also a biter! I know what you mean about a rigorous maintenance regime. I would much rather deal solely with fish but my reptile knowledge is pretty good, and I felt sorry for the little bugger. She was kept with no UV and no heat source. She was in a cardboard box with crap everywhere underneath a radiator. So yeah.. They hand fed her too which (I guess) is why she's a biter. I don't have this problem with fish : p

I can empathise with you on the assignments. I'm currently in the middle of writing a 7.5k work reflective essay for Uni. It's a ball ache to say the least, but my deadline is 2 weeks away yet! Good luck with your work, I hope you get the grades you're after.

Edit: I meant b*gger not bother

 

[Asidhunter]

Shopping spree time
 
Pretty much everything i need is ready to be ordered including a very nice 2000 l/h external pump and all the test kit goodies i need. Pay day tomorrow so will be clicking buy in my lunch break (13hr shift *sigh*), my only thought now is will i be able to clean the light rig that came with the tank? This thing is pretty filthy so i d ont know if it might save me lots of time and possibly wasted effort to buy a new rig, then again if i buy a new one i will need to alter the lid on the tank so its going to be a pain either way.
 
Also does anyone know how i would get hold of a 24" square condensation tray? tried the usual online places but couldnt find anything wider than 12". Only reason i want one is to protect the lights which are currently mounted inside the hood  about 4 inches away from where the surface of the water would be.

 

[tomtomtom1230]

Haha aw man, if you were about 75 miles closer, the store I work at has a big selection of condensation trays right up to 56"! Although I suspect you could just cut a sheet of corrugated acrylic or untreated plastic to size. Something that's not going to go funny if it was to get hot from the lights. :s

Personally, I'd try and clean it up. Unplug it all and take a scouring pad to everything, polish the reflectors with a TINY smudge of beeswax or something that doesn't give off fumes. It all depends on what state the light unit is in. Can we have some pics? Other than the usual warm water as elbow grease solution, I can't offer you much! A bottle of lime scale remover might be worth it but be sure to rinse the surfaces off really well afterwards.

 

[Asidhunter]

Will get a picture of the unit when I get back from work tonight, started at 8am will get home about 10.30pm the joys of working in a betting shop lol.

I tried taking the end caps off the tubes last night and they wouldn't budge not really wanting to clean it when the tubes are still in, I've got the worst luck right now so will probably shatter them .

Will check uni workshops tomorrow see if they have anything suitable for a tray that they can give me, normally plenty of spare scraps at this time I the year.

Also does anyone have tips on removing bad areas of silicon and replacing it or is it better to just patch the bad areas?

 

[tomtomtom1230]

They aren't the twist-to-tighten end caps are they? I know some ballasts have a screw fitted tighteners. I can't help you with the silicon I'm afraid!