So this is a tank I hadn't really planned on starting, and certainly not this soon! My soon-to-be wife is a special ed teacher and has wanted a tank in her classroom for a while now. Things are working out in such a way that we will be able to put it in place starting with summer school, that starts up the 2nd week of June. Originally it was going to be our Fluval Edge. But now.....well, this happened.
I responded to a CL ad that listed a free 37 gallon tank, "MUST PICK UP TODAY!". I was like....sure, I'll take a 37 gallon for free. We can sit on it for a while and maybe do a low tech, low light eventually (its 22" tall...I swear I am a tall tank magnet...our 65 is 24" tall). So I responded that I was interested and could be there whenever. So we make the arrangements, and headed that way. As it turns out, the lady was moving....like, right then. There was a uhaul in the drive, and about half the house was empty. And...the tank was still up and running with 3 Serpae Tetras, 2 Albino Corys and an Golden BNP. Not exactly what we were expecting. We didn't get the entire story, but from context and reading between the lines, I think these fish belonged to the lady's brother, who shared the house with her, and passed away about a month before. So she was stressed, rushed, and couldn't deal with it all. So I was happy to tear it down for her, and glad she didn't just flush them. She was actually pretty happy to hear our plan. We wanted corys and a BNP in our 65 anyway, so that worked out great. And then after she saw it, Megan said wanted it for her classroom instead of the Edge. So the lady was really happy and almost relieved that it was going to a good home. Worked out well. So she gave us a couple of nice food grade buckets with the twist on tops, and we went to work. We drained about 10 gal of water for the buckets, and put the pleco in one and others in the other. Then we drained the rest of the tank, leaving a few inches of water in the bottom to keep the bacteria hydrated for the trip home.
We packed up all the supplies she was including, wished her good luck, and headed home. Then scrambled to find a place to set it back up right away. Since that wasn't our plan initially, we were caught off guard a bit. Eventually we moved some dressers around, and put it up in our bedroom. There were 2 things I wanted to fix right away. The light/hood weren't great products from the get-go, and the light barely functioned as it was. Luckily I had a Current Freshwater 24-36" LED not being used, and it fit on there great. I also picked up a glass top for it, so I could ditch the Marineland combo altogether. The second part was the super noisy filter. I tried to clean and adjust the impeller area as one normally would to quiet it down, but it seemed beyond help. After a less than restful night listening to the grinding, I decided to get a new HOB from a local pet store. So this is how it sits now, though this pic is before I changed the filter. We will leave it as is for a while yet to give the new kids a break before changing things up on them again. Also our 65 is still cycling so isn't ready for them yet.
I was able to get pics of the Cory's and BNP too:
The Plan!
So the move to the classroom will again be a challenge, but we have enough buckets on our own now (since we will be prepared for it) to be able to move all the water without a problem.
The next step will be to add the hardscape with the current inhabitants! I hope to use some of the petrified wood I have, but we will see how it looks. This would be a good candidate for seiryu stone, though!!!
I responded to a CL ad that listed a free 37 gallon tank, "MUST PICK UP TODAY!". I was like....sure, I'll take a 37 gallon for free. We can sit on it for a while and maybe do a low tech, low light eventually (its 22" tall...I swear I am a tall tank magnet...our 65 is 24" tall). So I responded that I was interested and could be there whenever. So we make the arrangements, and headed that way. As it turns out, the lady was moving....like, right then. There was a uhaul in the drive, and about half the house was empty. And...the tank was still up and running with 3 Serpae Tetras, 2 Albino Corys and an Golden BNP. Not exactly what we were expecting. We didn't get the entire story, but from context and reading between the lines, I think these fish belonged to the lady's brother, who shared the house with her, and passed away about a month before. So she was stressed, rushed, and couldn't deal with it all. So I was happy to tear it down for her, and glad she didn't just flush them. She was actually pretty happy to hear our plan. We wanted corys and a BNP in our 65 anyway, so that worked out great. And then after she saw it, Megan said wanted it for her classroom instead of the Edge. So the lady was really happy and almost relieved that it was going to a good home. Worked out well. So she gave us a couple of nice food grade buckets with the twist on tops, and we went to work. We drained about 10 gal of water for the buckets, and put the pleco in one and others in the other. Then we drained the rest of the tank, leaving a few inches of water in the bottom to keep the bacteria hydrated for the trip home.
We packed up all the supplies she was including, wished her good luck, and headed home. Then scrambled to find a place to set it back up right away. Since that wasn't our plan initially, we were caught off guard a bit. Eventually we moved some dressers around, and put it up in our bedroom. There were 2 things I wanted to fix right away. The light/hood weren't great products from the get-go, and the light barely functioned as it was. Luckily I had a Current Freshwater 24-36" LED not being used, and it fit on there great. I also picked up a glass top for it, so I could ditch the Marineland combo altogether. The second part was the super noisy filter. I tried to clean and adjust the impeller area as one normally would to quiet it down, but it seemed beyond help. After a less than restful night listening to the grinding, I decided to get a new HOB from a local pet store. So this is how it sits now, though this pic is before I changed the filter. We will leave it as is for a while yet to give the new kids a break before changing things up on them again. Also our 65 is still cycling so isn't ready for them yet.
I was able to get pics of the Cory's and BNP too:
The Plan!
- Move existing fish to "Stump Island"
- Temperate, heaterless tank
- Low Tech
- Add hardscape
- Update lighting
- Low light plants
- Temperate water fish (WCMM, Peppered or other Cory that is comfortable in the high 60's low 70's, Cherry Shrimp.)
- Move to classroom
So the move to the classroom will again be a challenge, but we have enough buckets on our own now (since we will be prepared for it) to be able to move all the water without a problem.
The next step will be to add the hardscape with the current inhabitants! I hope to use some of the petrified wood I have, but we will see how it looks. This would be a good candidate for seiryu stone, though!!!