Right all,
I finally got around to re-doing my main tank. This gave me an opportunity to change the actual tank over as the old one was looking very tired and the seals were not in a good way when I took it apart ready for the tip, so glad I did it while I had the opportunity!
Right as to what I've done, I think I’ll let the pictures do the talking as there are lots. I am hoping to change all but the anubias for dwarf sags, to give it that grassy look, and the small piece of bogwood on the right will go as well, but the clowns like being under there so though I would keep it until they are settled.
Here goes………
A before picture so you know what a disgrace it is (I will post this again at the end so you can see the difference without all the scrolling!)
Now all the stuff to go with it!
And the new tank, the piece of wood to the right will go under it as the top of the stand has warped a bit, doh!
The new CO2 system. Cost me around £85 quid all in so a complete bargain and it’ll last me years! Cylinder from ebay for £10 and refill at a welding shop for £28.
And the reg, which I also got from ebay, through a
German seller. Excellent reg too, easy adjustment of the bubble rate and cheap at abut £45 including deliver.
And the wood that’s going to be the focus, most of you will have seen this before but for those that haven’t
The cat wanted to get involved and spent most of the day watching the fun! I’m mid strip at this point, water and stuff everywhere. Literate and gravel all washed and mixed. Old tank replaced with the new one, with the wood and foam underneath.
Here’s the new tank on the stand. Its not ADA but you can hardly see the brace so decided to leave the top black boarder off as I think it looks better
In goes the black gravel and laterite
And the eco-complete over the top
Now the wood so I can see how it’ll look, after which I took it out and attached the anubias, then put the wood, water and fish back in.
And here it is, the final layout
the bigest difference is the colours, the black of the EC really helps and the anubias are really green. Fish seem to like it too, swim much nearer the surface now. The only down side was that I lost 3 of the x-ray tetras, I should have added a small filter to the bucket to increase surface water movement as I think they ran out of oxygen, but the others were fine and were swimming about quite happily within a few minutes.
And as promised the before shot again
Comments welcome, once the dwarf sags are in and the other stuff removed I hope it’ll look much ‘cleaner’ but you get the idea for the time being
Sam
Its been worth the wait. Might give the black gravel a go in my tank the plants stand out much better. 
