Hello all!
I have another thread on here (that definitely needs to be updated) for my DIY 33 gallon planted community tank, but I'd like to introduce my latest project.
Everything I do with my aquariums is DIY and done on a budget, partially because it's difficult to find anything but the basics here in Nova Scotia, Canada, but mostly because I enjoy tinkering and building things myself whenever possible.
This particular tank started as a fry tank for my 55 gallon mbuna Cichlid tank and evolved into a low-light no-tech holding tank for a few ferns and mosses - basically all put together with leftovers from my other builds.
About 2 months ago, I decided to finally spruce it up a bit and began planning what I wanted to accomplish.
The tank itself is a basic, cheap 10 gallon that was given to my by my sister in law when she realized fish tanks actually take some work. I de-rimmed it immediately but, up until recently, never really put much thought into it beyond that.
My goal was simplicity and relatively low-maintenance/low cost but, most of all, I wanted it to look good without breaking the bank. To me, this means absolutely the bare minimum for visible equipment in the tank.
With this goal I devised a plan for how it would be lit, filtered, heated, CO2 injected and displayed without any ugly equipment getting in that. It took a while to get everything the way I wanted, but I'd say I did pretty well!
Tank: 20"x10"x12" 10 Gallon (DIY de-rimmed)
Lighting: CurrentUSA Satellite+
CO2: DIY w/ two 2l bottles, check/shutoff/needle valves, DIY bubble counter and fed into a Ista Max Mix inline CO2 reactor.
Filtration: Fluval 105 w/ eBay lily pipes, stainless steal prefilter and clear tubing.
Substrate: EcoComplete capped with Pool Filter Sand
Heating: Hydor 200w inline heater
Dosing: EI dosing pre-mixed Macro and Micro on alternating days, Flourish root tabs in substrate, occaisional Excel spot treatment and Iron supplements.
Flora: Eleocharis acicularis, Eleocharis vivipara, Glosso, and Blyxa Japonica and Java Moss
Fauna: 7 neon tetras, 5+ red cherry shrimp
New setup has been up and running for about 3 weeks (since the tear down and rebuild...running for over a year prior to that) so the plants all need to grow in and I'm still working some small bugs out, but it's getting there!
All of the equipment is mounted on a shelf I built under the desk (originally an Ikea computer desk, but it's been modified quite a bit). The shelf is hidden by a cabinet door that, when it's closed, is pretty tough to notice. The filter tubing gets to the tank via small holes that I drilled into the table so all that is visible is clear tubing, lily pipes and the tank itself.
I also built a box-shelf over top of the aquarium (which actually holds my TV... this is all for the computer desk in my Man Cave) and that box contains my Current USA Satellite+ fixture. This puts it about 10-11" from the substrate, so I could use more light, but it could be worse.
I will take some better pics and also show the inner workings later tonight, but I figured I'd get a start on this thread now.
Let me know what you think!
I have another thread on here (that definitely needs to be updated) for my DIY 33 gallon planted community tank, but I'd like to introduce my latest project.
Everything I do with my aquariums is DIY and done on a budget, partially because it's difficult to find anything but the basics here in Nova Scotia, Canada, but mostly because I enjoy tinkering and building things myself whenever possible.
This particular tank started as a fry tank for my 55 gallon mbuna Cichlid tank and evolved into a low-light no-tech holding tank for a few ferns and mosses - basically all put together with leftovers from my other builds.
About 2 months ago, I decided to finally spruce it up a bit and began planning what I wanted to accomplish.
The tank itself is a basic, cheap 10 gallon that was given to my by my sister in law when she realized fish tanks actually take some work. I de-rimmed it immediately but, up until recently, never really put much thought into it beyond that.
My goal was simplicity and relatively low-maintenance/low cost but, most of all, I wanted it to look good without breaking the bank. To me, this means absolutely the bare minimum for visible equipment in the tank.
With this goal I devised a plan for how it would be lit, filtered, heated, CO2 injected and displayed without any ugly equipment getting in that. It took a while to get everything the way I wanted, but I'd say I did pretty well!
Tank: 20"x10"x12" 10 Gallon (DIY de-rimmed)
Lighting: CurrentUSA Satellite+
CO2: DIY w/ two 2l bottles, check/shutoff/needle valves, DIY bubble counter and fed into a Ista Max Mix inline CO2 reactor.
Filtration: Fluval 105 w/ eBay lily pipes, stainless steal prefilter and clear tubing.
Substrate: EcoComplete capped with Pool Filter Sand
Heating: Hydor 200w inline heater
Dosing: EI dosing pre-mixed Macro and Micro on alternating days, Flourish root tabs in substrate, occaisional Excel spot treatment and Iron supplements.
Flora: Eleocharis acicularis, Eleocharis vivipara, Glosso, and Blyxa Japonica and Java Moss
Fauna: 7 neon tetras, 5+ red cherry shrimp
New setup has been up and running for about 3 weeks (since the tear down and rebuild...running for over a year prior to that) so the plants all need to grow in and I'm still working some small bugs out, but it's getting there!
All of the equipment is mounted on a shelf I built under the desk (originally an Ikea computer desk, but it's been modified quite a bit). The shelf is hidden by a cabinet door that, when it's closed, is pretty tough to notice. The filter tubing gets to the tank via small holes that I drilled into the table so all that is visible is clear tubing, lily pipes and the tank itself.
I also built a box-shelf over top of the aquarium (which actually holds my TV... this is all for the computer desk in my Man Cave) and that box contains my Current USA Satellite+ fixture. This puts it about 10-11" from the substrate, so I could use more light, but it could be worse.
I will take some better pics and also show the inner workings later tonight, but I figured I'd get a start on this thread now.
Let me know what you think!