Post by rickl on Sept 10, 2011 18:31:11 GMT -6
After far too many years of not having a fishtank, thanks to you guys I'm rolling again! Glen was kind enough to donate some used filter material to my cause, and here it is bubbling happily away in a 10 gallon tank.
I can't find my bottle of Dr Tim's Ammonium Chloride solution, so feeding the filter will have to wait until I can get some non-sudsing ammonia tomorrow. All they had at the dollar general was some lemon ammonia
.
Though I was thwarted on the ammonia front, the good General provided some scotch-brite pads and vinegar for the Great Cleaning of the 29 gallon tank (which had sat... and sat... and sat... until all the water evaporated out, leaving all the lovely minerals deposited on my glass). I was very pleased at how well those scotch brite pads got the job done, I was expecting to have to hit it with a razor blade, but didn't.
Not wanting to stop there, I hosed off the rocks (which I stole from my Mom's retaining wall several months back), broke out the bucket-o-shells (which has been following me over 3 years, along with this 29g tank and stand), and mocked up a preliminary aquascape...
FTS :
From the Top :
Zoom in on the rockwork :
And on the shellbed :
Whee! My initial plan was to silicone all of the vertical rocks, but I'm reconsidering that since I can obviously get to stay upright, even before I add the Pool-Filter-Sand to the left half. I'm leaning towards siliconing the divider rocks in place though, just so that I can remove the shells if I ever need to (fearsome task taht would be) without worrying about those middle rocks falling and sand spilling all over the shellbed.
Filtration : Just a HOB. I had some mad DIY plans but this has got to be ready by Oct 2, so an old standby it is.
Heat : I've got a 50-watt top-fin heater in the 10 that I plan to move to the 29, if it doesn't keep it warm enough I'll get something bigger at the LFS.
Light : Somewhere around here I've got a 30" single-bulb fixture, but eventually I want to build a little T-5 fixture for it.
Plants : maaaybe some jungle-val or an anubias among the rocks, but probably not right away.
Livestock : Lamprologus Multifasciatus for the shellbed (yes, that's right, no sand for the multies... their natural environment is shellbeds that are *meters* deep, so just shells on shells on shells....), and probably a smaller Julidichromis species for the rocks. I may aend up with a bachelor gobie for the rocks instead, who knows.
-Rick (the armchair aquarist, slowly leaving that armchair behind)
I can't find my bottle of Dr Tim's Ammonium Chloride solution, so feeding the filter will have to wait until I can get some non-sudsing ammonia tomorrow. All they had at the dollar general was some lemon ammonia
.Though I was thwarted on the ammonia front, the good General provided some scotch-brite pads and vinegar for the Great Cleaning of the 29 gallon tank (which had sat... and sat... and sat... until all the water evaporated out, leaving all the lovely minerals deposited on my glass). I was very pleased at how well those scotch brite pads got the job done, I was expecting to have to hit it with a razor blade, but didn't.
Not wanting to stop there, I hosed off the rocks (which I stole from my Mom's retaining wall several months back), broke out the bucket-o-shells (which has been following me over 3 years, along with this 29g tank and stand), and mocked up a preliminary aquascape...
FTS :
From the Top :
Zoom in on the rockwork :
And on the shellbed :
Whee! My initial plan was to silicone all of the vertical rocks, but I'm reconsidering that since I can obviously get to stay upright, even before I add the Pool-Filter-Sand to the left half. I'm leaning towards siliconing the divider rocks in place though, just so that I can remove the shells if I ever need to (fearsome task taht would be) without worrying about those middle rocks falling and sand spilling all over the shellbed.
Filtration : Just a HOB. I had some mad DIY plans but this has got to be ready by Oct 2, so an old standby it is.
Heat : I've got a 50-watt top-fin heater in the 10 that I plan to move to the 29, if it doesn't keep it warm enough I'll get something bigger at the LFS.
Light : Somewhere around here I've got a 30" single-bulb fixture, but eventually I want to build a little T-5 fixture for it.
Plants : maaaybe some jungle-val or an anubias among the rocks, but probably not right away.
Livestock : Lamprologus Multifasciatus for the shellbed (yes, that's right, no sand for the multies... their natural environment is shellbeds that are *meters* deep, so just shells on shells on shells....), and probably a smaller Julidichromis species for the rocks. I may aend up with a bachelor gobie for the rocks instead, who knows.
-Rick (the armchair aquarist, slowly leaving that armchair behind)
.'
. Maybe a water change is in order tomorrow, then another ammonia test. If it's down at ~4 I'll be happy. I've heard that anything over 5 is an unhappy place for Bacteria the First, and it can slow down the cycle. Dunno if that's true, but why tempt fate?