Steves Jewul Re-Vamp

[NewbeeSteve]

Hi Guys,

Ive decided that today i am officially converting to sand substrate instead of gravel. With thanks to all on the forum for their help on converting me the tank has now been stripped, all the gravel has been removed, the fish are currently in the little holding tank until the sand settles and the bog wood and stones are in:

Heres the tank progress so far

and 20 mins after the sand has settled quite a bit

Hopefully i should be able to put the filter and pump on in about half hour to an hour from now and the fish back in by tonight. As you can see it does need a good vac but im hoping the filter will sort the worst out when its on. I have added 7ml of fresh start to de-chlorinate the water also

Next stage is to get the plants when the seller decides to bloody ship em, 5 days after i have paid and still not been sent in the post! And a schoal of 9 tiger barbs aswell in a week or so let the tank settle down.

Should look a million times better soon

Will keep you all updated

 

[Tizer]

nice, how come its so cloudy? didnt wash it until it ran clear? whats all the black crud and particles on top of the sand? make sure you put some filter wool into your filter before you run it, i wouldnt want that much sand going though the impeller section.

 

[mtbdean]

Its going to look awesome when finished!

 

[NewbeeSteve]

I did clean the sand just obviously not that good!

The stuff on top of the sand is from under the filter it came off whilst i was filling up so i guess its the old roots of my plants etc . Definitely going to vac it once the pump has been running for a while. The cloudy pic was just after the last bucket of water went in it has cleared up a little more now.

Do tiger barbs need quite a lot of shelter in the form of plants, wood etc? Im just hearing twenty different stories on what they need. Thanks

 

[Tizer]

I did clean the sand just obviously not that good!

The stuff on top of the sand is from under the filter it came off whilst i was filling up so i guess its the old roots of my plants etc . Definitely going to vac it once the pump has been running for a while. The cloudy pic was just after the last bucket of water went in it has cleared up a little more now.

Do tiger barbs need quite a lot of shelter in the form of plants, wood etc? Im just hearing twenty different stories on what they need. Thanks

ewww mank, i would have given the filter a bit of a clean before hand :> Probably do better to hand pick the junk out then stir up the new sand with a spoon or something, should all vanish then.

I think most fish like some form of cover to be honest. My tigers are all over my tank, but i have noticed they like to sleep under the floating plants i have at night time. Probably worth trying to find a nice big chunky Amazon Sword to go in there, always a popular and easy plant to care for. Just be a little careful with your stocking with the Tigers, if you're not sure and the advice from the local fish shop doesnt feel right, post back here. Quite a few of us have tiger barbs and they can be right gits to other fish, even in large numbers they still like to harras others.

 

[Blubble37]

nice, how come its so cloudy? didnt wash it until it ran clear? whats all the black crud and particles on top of the sand? make sure you put some filter wool into your filter before you run it, i wouldnt want that much sand going though the impeller section.

+1 tha\r stuff will ruin your pump motor

 

[NewbeeSteve]

used the vac now cleared all of it up

Wud u say to do a water change tonight to take the cloudyness away?

 

[Tizer]

used the vac now cleared all of it up

Wud u say to do a water change tonight to take the cloudyness away?

cant hurt if you do it now instead of waiting, then make sure you use a bowl or something to pour the water into when you refil, saves distrurbing it again

 

[Blubble37]

+1

 

[NewbeeSteve]

Ok so left it overnight and woke up to this

Gotta admint it very pretty! Will take some photos after in the dark. Sorry for the blurryness


Plants on their way also

Any comments welcome

 

[Tizer]

spot on

clean that green algae off the glass down at the substrate you lazy git.

 

[NewbeeSteve]

Lol i was so excited in getting it done that i didnt do it

Plan for the tank now:

What ive got for the tank:
2 x catfish
1 x silver plec
1 x Pakistani loach
7 x danios, striped and golden mix

Fish to get for the tank:
10 tiger barbs

Plants got in tank:
1x Anubias barteri nana on driftwood

Need:

10 x java fern plants to put on rocks and large pieces of drift wood (on the way hopefully)

Monosolenium tenerum on smaller stones buried in the sand (carpet effect)

Would this be ok with my current setup? As far as i can see the are all low demand plants. I dont use co2 at this moment but will be soon and i have the standard light on one and the UV on the other. Any help welcome.

 

[mtbdean]

Looks awesome!

 

[NewbeeSteve]

Ok so im thinking I dont like looking at the filter inside but that can be covered up with some stickers if i want to.

One question though, Ive got a 2.5gallon spare tank which is not being used atm. Could i use this as a sump? If so how would i do it as i have never used a sump before. I was thinking that it could house the biological filter media and use the origional jewul filter as the skimmer and mechanical filter.

Overkill maybe?? Or just get another internal filter to boost the filter turnover? Im currently running 600lph (according to the box) which is 4 times turnover. But im looking for 10 if possible so that it cleans more efficient and takes the pressure of the jewul.

Good idea?

Sorry if this confuses you all

 

[Tizer]

skimmers not needed on tropical setups.

sump is possible, but would need some holes cut in the tank glass...not the easiest things to do with no experience and probably overkill for a tank that size.

most people simply remove the filter, its only stuck on with a bit of silicone (stanley knife does the job), then get an external filter setup instead.

Check out the Tetratec EX1200's they about £90 would turn over the tank plenty and a powerhead for additional circulation for the plants would bring you up to 10x

On second thoughts, if thats a juwel 125, the filter alone would suffice and the spray bar you get would get a nice bit of water movement going in there.

you dont need your filter to turn over the tank "that" much, but its recommended for planted tanks that the water circulation is 10 times the volume (if i remember correctly). You can also restrict the flow on that filter if the tank becomes too much like a whirlpool.