Starting fresh.

[magical trevor]

Good evening folks!!

Right little bit rusty on here not been on this forum in over 5 years!! Originally I purchased my aqua oak tank and stand from Maidenhead but after a house move and a rather unfortunate accident recently with overflowing the tank (I have a HMA filter rigged up to the mains and forgot to completely turn it off before bed = a very angry wife) it was torn down to start fresh fish given up as I couldn't keep them sadly, plants sadly died.

So all new underlay and whole living room carpet later ,I made the decision (allowed) to buy myself a new tank so I got in contact with ND Aquatics to build me a custom tank to fit the aqua oak stand, also opted for opti-white front glass. They upgraded side glass as well to opti-white as a good will gesture because it was an absolute nightmare with them from start to finish! If anyone's interested I'll go into further details about it but this post isn't about a rant.

I figured people might be interested in my newest journey of starting afresh. Here is my newest tank.
this was the day after delivery 5/12/2020

Currently set up as follows
New Nd aquatic tank 43 x 21.5x 21.5
2x cheap amazon led strips not quite bright enough.
Fluval fx6 filter
Eheim Jager heater 300w (overkill for tank size I know.)
Aquahouse HMA filter.
Pressurised co2 using pub bottle

Plans are as follows semi densely planted once I can upgrade the lighting. I have on ordered 1x fluval plant 3.0 46w led , I will eventually get another 1 or 2 of these but can't do with the expense currently.

First job was to paint the back of the tank with black acrylic Paint. I done about 6 coats came out nice.

After many considerations I settled with Manado dark as my substrate. Mixed in about a kilo of black gravel (just to recycle it hate binning things) I had lying around from a previous tank. Spent hours washing this stuff through! But it's quite nice stuff although very light I think plants will root easily in it but until they do I think that even the slightest nudge they will pop out of it until they root.

Once it was finally washed and in the tank overall depth when flat is about 5cm.

Plants I have ordered or are coming are as follows
1 xAlternanthera reineckii 'Pink' XL - arrived
1 xCryptocoryne undulatus green - arrived
1 x Cryptocoryne wendtii green - arrived
1 x Lagenandra meeboldii Red - arrived
2 xHydrocotyle tripartita sp 'Japan' - arrived
2 x Bucephalandra 'theia' - arrived
4 X Eleocharis Acicularis Hairgrass - not here yet.

Before we went into lockdown in Scotland just before Xmas I took a trip up north to what used to be a large slate quarry for some free rock. Don't have images of my haul.

As it is currently. Waiting for more plants added seachem stability being used currently to cycle the tank. Will add some pictures when I've got my rocks and wood in with it planted. Will need to get out to the fire extinguisher refill shop soon to get my tanks filled as there empty currently.

 

[mrsjoannh13]

Beautiful tank and stand. Can't wait to see more!

 

[mcordelia]

Exciting! Looks good! Also wow, expensive ooosie on the old tank, hopefully wifey likes the new carpet!

 

[magical trevor]

Thank you... Thankfully house insurance covered the replacement of the underlay and carpet as our living room, while the the tank was torn down we got a decorator in to give the place a freshen up this also sweetened the Mrs up.

 

[Wills]

Looking really good Excited to see the rocks in the tank!

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Congratulations on the new tank. It's going to be a really beautiful setup. That overflow scenario has probably kept a lot of us up at night.

Just out of curiosity: Do you vanish cows? That would be ever so clever.

 

[magical trevor]

Congratulations on the new tank. It's going to be a really beautiful setup. That overflow scenario has probably kept a lot of us up at night.

Just out of curiosity: Do you vanish cows? That would be ever so clever.

Thank you. It was one stupid mistake, Being uch I don't need to double check I've turned it off. I should have checked it. So lost fish that I had for numerous years were very well grown out and breeding pair of angels.

Moral of the the story DOUBLE check that tap is off!

Indeed I do disappear cows. I haven't done that in years lol

 

[itiwhetu]

How are you going with Covid-19 you will get a Noble prize, become President and be every ones best friend. I would say you would never have to by a beer again.?

 

[magical trevor]

Pmsl sadly disappearing covid 19 is far beyond my capabilities , But Christ it would be nice if we could all wake up tomorrow and for this nightmare to be finished. Thankfully myself and my wife are key workers so we have kept some kind of normality to our life's as we have worked through it all from the beginning. I do feel for the people who have been less fortunate due to this living hell.

 

[itiwhetu]

Pmsl sadly disappearing covid 19 is far beyond my capabilities , But Christ it would be nice if we could all wake up tomorrow and for this nightmare to be finished. Thankfully myself and my wife are key workers so we have kept some kind of normality to our life's as we have worked through it all from the beginning. I do feel for the people who have been less fortunate due to this living hell.

Keep up your good work and I was taking the piss. . We need more people like you in the world. We are very lucky here in New Zealand.

 

[magical trevor]

Keep up your good work and I was taking the piss. . We need more people like you in the world. We are very lucky here in New Zealand.

Yeah absolutely I think it could have been far bettered handled by our government and that's coming from someone who's employed by the government.

New Zealand has more than luck on its side being that is far less densely populated than the UK but also you went into lockdown sooner which had a huge impact. I feel our "relaxation" on lockdown on the run up to Christmas and Christmas sent us back into a downward spiral as a country.

 

[itiwhetu]

Yeah absolutely I think it could have been far bettered handled by our government and that's coming from someone who's employed by the government.

New Zealand has more than luck on its side being that is far less densely populated than the UK but also you went into lockdown sooner which had a huge impact. I feel our "relaxation" on lockdown on the run up to Christmas and Christmas sent us back into a downward spiral as a country.

I agree. back in March our Government got it. They locked us down completely, paid us to stay at home and made sure that we understood how bad this could get. The rest of the world has shown us, that our Government was right.

 

[magical trevor]

I agree. back in March our Government got it. They locked us down completely, paid us to stay at home and made sure that we understood how bad this could get. The rest of the world has shown us, that our Government was right.

Sadly I wish our government had taken it as seriously. And we wouldn't be in the situation we are in now with 83,000 life's lost.

 

[itiwhetu]

We are way off the subject, love your project. Keep us up to date with the progress

 

[magical trevor]

This morning has been productive joys of a 2 year old, early morning rises. I decided before I set the tank up how I was going to make things a easy as possible for me for maintenance as I work 12 hour shifts days and nights so the quicker I could do water changes or general tidy ups the better.

So when I was buying all the new media for my fx6 this popped up on my eBay feed

After looking about it seems to have decent reviews and it works via the filter so that's pretty nifty.

I used a python gravel vac before and drained the tank into the back garden plants but with this one it recirculates so I'll still need away to drain water for my weekly water changes. This when I decided I'd use the fx's purge valve to its fullest potential.

Ordered a new pvc pipe and added quick hose pipe connections to all my pipework.

Cut a small piece of pvc pipe that's permanently attached to the purge valve with a stop lock ( incase I forget to turn it off and ruin another carpet)

This wee doofer makes the magic happen.

with the drain hose attached.

and finally the gravel vac attached.

Pleased with myself. Still waiting on my new light and hairgrass arriving.

No overnight leaks which is good. Super glad I got the opti-white glass on it. It's so clear. Well worth the upgrade. Just itching to get fish in it!! Hopefully the beginning of February provided my water parameters are good never used seachem stability before so on a learn curve currently.