The tank as of 8/4/2011
Greeting everyone!
I'm am very excited to FINALLY be starting this thread. It seems like I have been planning and getting things situated for a long time now. With any luck I should get this tank up and running within a week or so.
I am not new to planted tanks, but it has been a few years. I had a 75 gallon up and running back in 2008.
this is the best it ever looked haha
Anyways I haven't really been able to think about a tank in a while becuase I lived on campus at the University of Kentucky for the past two years, and a tank just wouldn't work in the dorms or fraternity house. But This year I am finally getting a house with a group of guys from my fraternity (hence the title). This of course means I will be able to set up a tank in my room. Our house is shaping up to be a little wild, so I figure that this will be an excellent way to escape and relax with all the craziness around me haha.
Anyways its funny how this all started. I finished my last final and started thinking about doing a tank again. I started out thinking something small. I was going to do a ten gallon "no frills" DIY set up. Then I saw a 20L at petco and figured "hell its only 10 more gallons, and I could still keep it DIY and simple." Then in the strange way that things happen I started thinking about how low the tank was and said to myself, "Well a 29 and 20L have the same footprint, what could an extra 9 gallons hurt?" So here I am haha 29 is the biggest I can/want to deal with. So in settling on the 29, I pretty much came to terms with putting some investment in it. I'm going to finally go Pressurized! I'm going with T5's, the works baby! roud:
Anyways I bought a tank/stand for $50 off Craigslist a few weeks ago. It came with an awesome stand, but the tank was from 1994 and I didn't think using a tank that old from unknown origins was a great choice, so I Sold it for $25, not bad.
the tank I sold
you may recognize this from the thread I started earlier, haha.
I'm painting the stand black this weekend and its going to look sharp! I will also be buying a new (black) trimmed tank tomorrow as well.
I also bought (2) Odyssea csf4 Canister filters from the same guy on craislist for 20 bucks (for both). One was broken and the only salvageable pieces were the outer "bucket" and the trays. And the second one was missing the tubes. I thought that would be easy enough to deal with...wrong.
Jebo replacement parts are REALLY expensive and a complete ripoff with shipping. The wanted 6 bucks each for the in/output valves which I had to buy.
$2/ foot of their crappy hosing and $9.99 EACH for the curved tubes that go in the input/output and the spraybar. $4.99 EACH for the intake strained and elbow to connect the spraybar to the output. I about flipped my ****. So I ended up DIYing my tubes and they actually turned out alot nicer than the ones I would have bought.
So the Filter didn't end up being a great deal but whatever, you can't hit it
out of the park everytime. but it does work now at least ha.
Also my lights Finally came in!
I went with the Aquatic Life 30" 2x24 watt fixture. I was a little upset to find that the reflectors were not truly "individual," as the advertisement would lead you to believe, but at least they are somewhat seperated and reflect the bulb on either side. So far I'm happy with them, they seem to have a solid construction and nice sturdy legs.
some shots of them on the old tank I sold
Well that should do it for now, I'm really excited to get this up and running, I will keep you all posted when my Co2 system comes in and also with any other updates that happen.
Thanks for checking it out! I'm sure I'm going to need plenty of help along the way once this really gets started!
Greeting everyone!
I'm am very excited to FINALLY be starting this thread. It seems like I have been planning and getting things situated for a long time now. With any luck I should get this tank up and running within a week or so.
I am not new to planted tanks, but it has been a few years. I had a 75 gallon up and running back in 2008.
this is the best it ever looked haha
Anyways I haven't really been able to think about a tank in a while becuase I lived on campus at the University of Kentucky for the past two years, and a tank just wouldn't work in the dorms or fraternity house. But This year I am finally getting a house with a group of guys from my fraternity (hence the title). This of course means I will be able to set up a tank in my room. Our house is shaping up to be a little wild, so I figure that this will be an excellent way to escape and relax with all the craziness around me haha.
Anyways its funny how this all started. I finished my last final and started thinking about doing a tank again. I started out thinking something small. I was going to do a ten gallon "no frills" DIY set up. Then I saw a 20L at petco and figured "hell its only 10 more gallons, and I could still keep it DIY and simple." Then in the strange way that things happen I started thinking about how low the tank was and said to myself, "Well a 29 and 20L have the same footprint, what could an extra 9 gallons hurt?" So here I am haha 29 is the biggest I can/want to deal with. So in settling on the 29, I pretty much came to terms with putting some investment in it. I'm going to finally go Pressurized! I'm going with T5's, the works baby! roud:
Anyways I bought a tank/stand for $50 off Craigslist a few weeks ago. It came with an awesome stand, but the tank was from 1994 and I didn't think using a tank that old from unknown origins was a great choice, so I Sold it for $25, not bad.
the tank I sold
you may recognize this from the thread I started earlier, haha.
I'm painting the stand black this weekend and its going to look sharp! I will also be buying a new (black) trimmed tank tomorrow as well.
I also bought (2) Odyssea csf4 Canister filters from the same guy on craislist for 20 bucks (for both). One was broken and the only salvageable pieces were the outer "bucket" and the trays. And the second one was missing the tubes. I thought that would be easy enough to deal with...wrong.
Jebo replacement parts are REALLY expensive and a complete ripoff with shipping. The wanted 6 bucks each for the in/output valves which I had to buy.
$2/ foot of their crappy hosing and $9.99 EACH for the curved tubes that go in the input/output and the spraybar. $4.99 EACH for the intake strained and elbow to connect the spraybar to the output. I about flipped my ****. So I ended up DIYing my tubes and they actually turned out alot nicer than the ones I would have bought.
So the Filter didn't end up being a great deal but whatever, you can't hit it
out of the park everytime. but it does work now at least ha.
Also my lights Finally came in!
I went with the Aquatic Life 30" 2x24 watt fixture. I was a little upset to find that the reflectors were not truly "individual," as the advertisement would lead you to believe, but at least they are somewhat seperated and reflect the bulb on either side. So far I'm happy with them, they seem to have a solid construction and nice sturdy legs.
some shots of them on the old tank I sold
Well that should do it for now, I'm really excited to get this up and running, I will keep you all posted when my Co2 system comes in and also with any other updates that happen.
Thanks for checking it out! I'm sure I'm going to need plenty of help along the way once this really gets started!