He we are again, the beginning of a tank.
The influx of information has at times been overwhelming, but I'm looking forward to the completion of this project.
I have only started putting it together, so that's where we are starting.
Table of Contents
Update #1 - Curse of the Black Water
Update #2 - Let There Be Light
Update #3 - I Got an Itch I just Can't Scratch
Equipment:
4.12 Gallon Aquatop Cube 9.84"x9.84"x9.84".
Hagen Elite Mini Filter
My Marina 10c Heater from previous tank (I realize it is a little underrated, but the heater that I got with the tank is a little unreliable. I will replace it in the future.)
I purchased all this for $60 (plus gravel that I won't use, a thermometer and the aforementioned heater). So it was a pretty sweet deal I couldn't pass up. Craigslist may not be the best place to find your soulmate, but fish tanks are another story. The seller had promised another buyer who bailed on the last minute, and I was trying to avoid letting my husband know about it too soon. So I waited over a week before I picked it up, then had it in my house for a week before I admitted to having it, and it only surfaced last night when I started working on it.
It will also be using the light from my marineland 20 gallon tank, which fits perfect across the top, but I will also be replacing this in short order. This is all just to get it started and running.. I will also need to make or find a top for it, but seeing as my LFS sells aquatop, I may be able to find something there. Otherwise I will do something DIY.
I will be replacing a small 2.5 gallon tank that currently houses my betta, and attempting a nature scape. The idea behind this is someone picks up a section of the riverbed and looks into it.
I picked up this neat piece of driftwood from my LFS when my mom came to visit on the weekend. It has flat ends which will allow me to do interesting things with my scape. I let it sit in water for 3 days and cleaned it. It is independently heavy, so it had no problem sinking immediately. 3 days was just because I was too busy to do anything with it sooner.
Now enter aquarium safe silicone! (Can you find the cat? She kept trying to cover my driftwood in cat hair.)
Before I applied silicone to anything, I spent awhile positioning the flat edge in the tank, where it had the most contact, and also figuring out the proper height. My super professional elevation tools worked out really well for placement.
I placed the silicone on the wood where it touched the tank, and then proceeded to place it on my elevation tools and squeeze more silicone in some of the gaps. I'm leaving it for 24 hours to cure before I remove the elevation tools and begin the rest of my hardscape.
View of the silicone:
I used q-tips while the silicone was just out of the tube, to clean up most of the excess. While it was tacky, I used toothpicks to scrape away the thin film around the adhesion points. I will probably go over it more closely today once I'm sure pressure won't make the whole thing fall.
I plan on using pool filter sand as a cap for a thin layer of soil, and have purchased several plants from tropica. I am planning on a semi dry start because I still need to find some moss before I flood it.
I placed the sponge from the filter into my penguin biowheel when I got the tank last week so it could be colonized when I go to add it to the filter.
The Plants:
Helanthium
Heteranthera
S Repens.
The tank will live on my desk, and House Sterling, my lovely Betta.
That's all for now, more when more happens!
The influx of information has at times been overwhelming, but I'm looking forward to the completion of this project.
I have only started putting it together, so that's where we are starting.
Table of Contents
Update #1 - Curse of the Black Water
Update #2 - Let There Be Light
Update #3 - I Got an Itch I just Can't Scratch
Equipment:
4.12 Gallon Aquatop Cube 9.84"x9.84"x9.84".
Hagen Elite Mini Filter
My Marina 10c Heater from previous tank (I realize it is a little underrated, but the heater that I got with the tank is a little unreliable. I will replace it in the future.)
I purchased all this for $60 (plus gravel that I won't use, a thermometer and the aforementioned heater). So it was a pretty sweet deal I couldn't pass up. Craigslist may not be the best place to find your soulmate, but fish tanks are another story. The seller had promised another buyer who bailed on the last minute, and I was trying to avoid letting my husband know about it too soon. So I waited over a week before I picked it up, then had it in my house for a week before I admitted to having it, and it only surfaced last night when I started working on it.
It will also be using the light from my marineland 20 gallon tank, which fits perfect across the top, but I will also be replacing this in short order. This is all just to get it started and running.. I will also need to make or find a top for it, but seeing as my LFS sells aquatop, I may be able to find something there. Otherwise I will do something DIY.
I will be replacing a small 2.5 gallon tank that currently houses my betta, and attempting a nature scape. The idea behind this is someone picks up a section of the riverbed and looks into it.
I picked up this neat piece of driftwood from my LFS when my mom came to visit on the weekend. It has flat ends which will allow me to do interesting things with my scape. I let it sit in water for 3 days and cleaned it. It is independently heavy, so it had no problem sinking immediately. 3 days was just because I was too busy to do anything with it sooner.
Now enter aquarium safe silicone! (Can you find the cat? She kept trying to cover my driftwood in cat hair.)
Before I applied silicone to anything, I spent awhile positioning the flat edge in the tank, where it had the most contact, and also figuring out the proper height. My super professional elevation tools worked out really well for placement.
I placed the silicone on the wood where it touched the tank, and then proceeded to place it on my elevation tools and squeeze more silicone in some of the gaps. I'm leaving it for 24 hours to cure before I remove the elevation tools and begin the rest of my hardscape.
View of the silicone:
I used q-tips while the silicone was just out of the tube, to clean up most of the excess. While it was tacky, I used toothpicks to scrape away the thin film around the adhesion points. I will probably go over it more closely today once I'm sure pressure won't make the whole thing fall.
I plan on using pool filter sand as a cap for a thin layer of soil, and have purchased several plants from tropica. I am planning on a semi dry start because I still need to find some moss before I flood it.
I placed the sponge from the filter into my penguin biowheel when I got the tank last week so it could be colonized when I go to add it to the filter.
The Plants:
Helanthium
Heteranthera
S Repens.
The tank will live on my desk, and House Sterling, my lovely Betta.
That's all for now, more when more happens!