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Bedroom Tank - 37 Gallon

1K views 6 replies 2 participants last post by  scolba 
#1 · (Edited)
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!
  • 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!!!
 
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#2 ·
I love that you were able to get a free tank and also genuinely help someone out. Whenever I manage to get a full-time teaching job, I too would love to have a tank in the classroom. Would be awesome. Where did you get a glass top for the 37-gallon? I have a 37-gallon tank too, and it seems impossible to find tops made for them. o__o
 
#3 · (Edited)
Yeah I was pretty pleased with how it all worked out too. Def feels nice. :)

I think a classroom tank is such a good idea, you definitely should do it! I know it will help some kids chill out, and since a lot of these kids have emotional issues anyway, it can def help. I'm just worried about it becoming a target when things get thrown in the room, as they sometimes do. lol

The glass top was surprisingly at Petco, and was only $20! Its the Aqueon Versa-Top, sometimes described as "hinged glass top". A 37 is the same size as a 20L and 29, so CL might have some sold under different sizes too. But the Aqueon one is proving to be a benefit. I woke up last night to one of our cats sitting on top of it looking down (moon lights on), and it was stable as can be. lol.
 
#4 ·
That's awesome, thank you! I just posted a thread yesterday in the equipment sub-forum about the madness that is the top to my 37-gallon. I have it under control for the moment, but maybe in the future one of those tops could be part of the solution! You got the 30x12-inch one?
 
#6 · (Edited)
Update time. There are quite a bit of changes that have happened since the last update. The first is....my wife doesn't want it in her classroom. She wants it to stay in our bedroom now. haha, works for me. I think we will end up moving the Fluval Edge there like we initially planned. Additionally, she wants to leave the fish in there that were in there when we got it. Sounds good too.

So since the last update, equipment wise I put on an AquaClear 70 filter, updated the lighting to a Current USA Satellite+. Those have turned out to be good choices, However I think the photoperiod is too long. I am really struggling with super hard green algae, as you can see in the pic, both on the rocks and on the glass. I am hoping that an increasing plant biomass will help with that.

For rescaping, so far it has been minimal. First thing I did, with the current residents still in there, was rake the gravel around a bit. I created a small dip in the middle and raised the sides a bit. (It has settled a bit in the photo, and its hard to see contour in pics anyway.) Mainly it was just for interest, but I was also trying to push the algae covered rocks under as well. Additionally my LFS has seiryu stone for $3/lb, which I thought was pretty good. So I added a little bit of that to the right hand side, and moved around the existing decorations. I eventually plan to move the fake log out when I add driftwood (just ordered that on aquabid), and will put plants around the head/cave thing, so it looks like a really overgrown jungle with ruins.

After that I added another 5 aeneus to keep the albinos (probably also aeneus) company. They are all doing great! What an active little bunch of fish!!

For fauna, I have just contacted a PTer to buy some wisteria and water sprite, which will replace the fake bamboo in the back right side of the tank. The grass species that is in there has taken off a bit after adding the new light, sending up 4 new shoots. That's fun to see. Then finally, 2 days ago, I added some ludwigia and rotala from trimmings of Stump Island. I'm happy to finally see some new plants in there! I think the corys are too.

My plan for ferts is now going to be a weekly dose of NilocG's Thrive, and will see how that does!

Comments and suggestions always welcome!
 

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#7 ·
Update time!

Things are going quite well in the bedroom....tank. Ha.

I've pulled the fake plant out and been adding trimmings from Stump Island. The still-unidentified grass type plant has been sending out lots of runners, and its looking pretty good, though a bit hidden. I might consider relocating that one. Maybe take all the runners and separate them, then put them in a cluster in one area. I also removed the head/cave thing, and sent it to a different tank that will be the classroom tank. I added some hydrocotyle to replace the fake plant, but also wanted something on the rocks, so decided that a big ol java fern would be fun there. The fish love the new cover. There are also a couple of pieces of spider wood, and now some cholla wood that just came in My Fish Box. The cholla may not stay. I was trying to supplement the wood situation for the BNP, but he doesn't seem to give a rats patootie about it.

I have started doing a pretty low dose of NilocG Thrive weekly, just after the water change. That seems to be doing well.

Stocking is complete now too. The totals are 7 Serpae Tetra, 7 Aeneus Cory's (5 bronze, 2 albino), and 1 male BNP. Its a pretty active tank with all that!

The only thing left to deal with is replacing the fake pleco cave with something that looks a bit more natural. Maybe a piece of slate that's off the rock cluster on the right? Not sure...suggestions welcome. :)

Google Photos gave me an animation of some of the pics, so I have a gif for the update today!
 
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