Noah's 40B Rainbow Garden

[Noahma]

Originally Posted by BruceF

Oh I thought you were using towels!

HA HA HA HA!!!!! Just did not want to scratch the glass. lol the background is a black blanket!

[Noahma]

The tank has now been moved into my garage in front of my Camaro. I will have it filled for a few weeks doing its leak test, and soaking the wood. Hopefully the last week of Jan. I will be ready to set it up.

[Noahma]

Tank is filled for the leak test, and wood is floating to sink. I cannot wait. It will be test filled for about a month, or at least until the weekend before I do the setup.

here are a couple pics.

[Noahma]

More update!! Stand is together.

overall tank shot



mounting area for the light bars


in stand electrical


Commonly used equipment mount tabs


Tank is still doing well in my garage, I have the driftwood in there as well trying to sink. hopefully it will be by the time the tank is setup.

[Noahma]

Figured I would post a pic of my herbertaxelrodi's

Messing around with my New Lumia 920's camera.... its much much much better than the camera in my old Iphone lol

[hydrophyte]

That's a cool fish!

[Noahma]

Tank has passed leak testing lol. I had to cut it a bit short. The original plan was to have it filled in the garage up to two days before the setup. Well we have been hit with a very cold bit of weather and the tank started to get a little ice on the top. I broke that up and placed a tank heater in the tank to bring the temp up slowly. And then tonight in 7* weather I drained it out of the garage and got the tank all dry. It will sit in the garage until thursday and then i will move it into the house, put on the black background and let it sit for a couple weeks until its time to do the setup. I cannot wait, everything is in place.

[BruceF]

Sounds like the leak test turned into a stress test. Glad to hear things are progressing.

[Noahma]

here we go, tank is in the house now. There was a casualty though, the bottom rim split right at the seam, small split, not something to concerning to me, I will take a piece of strap tie and epoxy it across. I now know which side of the tank will be the rear lol. My guess was that the heat / cold contraction caused it to split right there.

Here are a few pics of the complete setup now. I just need the next week and a half and its go time.

[Noahma]

Next Friday is the start date for the switch. These are the last pics I have before setup.

these are by far the worst pictures I have taken with my lumia so far lol. I was playing around with the hardscape while the tank is filled in my living room to keep the wood wet. I think this is what I am going with. There is a hole in the center I will fill with substrate so I can have a little bush of planted something a little higher in the mound. Java fern along the very top and some hygro pinnitifida (sp?) somewhere attached to the rock too.

[BoxxerBoyDrew]

Those are some BEAUTIFUL Rainbows you have there!!!!

I really, really, really miss my Rainbows!!! I setup my 55g as a planted rainbow tank when I first started doing planted tanks, and I got some awesome fish at a shop in Austin. I had them for a while, then something different came into the Fish Shop I was working at, and I traded the Rainbows out, for what I can't remember! MAN I KICK MYSELF IN THE ARSE FOR THAT!!!! The store I got the rainbows at is now gone, and I don't know if I will ever find the quality of fish I had!!! Anyway sorry about the rant!

I can't wait to see the 40B come together!!! If you are still planning on using the Coal slag "sand" be sure to rinse it VERY GOOD!!!! I have it in my 55g now, and I like it, but it was pretty dirty and OILY too! I rinsed mine in a old 5g bucket making sure to keep the water output MOVING! If not the water pressure and the sand will wear a hole in the bottom of the bucket! I put about 4-6" of sand in the bucket and using a adjustable nozzle on the jet setting and washed the crap out of it! Usually about 8+ times of filling t he bucket all the way up, then dumping as much water as I could, over and over, till there would be just a bit of oil film on the surface of the water. I could never get all of the "Oil" to go away. Then when I filled the tank I put some good carbon and fine filter pads in my Fluval 205s and ran them for a few hours, then cleaned the filters out and added more carbon and normal filter floss and that was it!

I know it sounds like a lot of work, but just go slow and steady, and it won't take too long! The "oil" never hurt any of my fish or inverts after adding them to the tank with the Black Beauty blasting grit! I also run a surface skimmer on one of my 205s, and after doing my first water change and filter cleaning about a week after adding the Black Beauty sand cap, I haven't seen ANY oil residue at all! Others that have used it haven't had any reports of the oil doing any harm either, or at least none that I have read about!

Anyway SORRY about the long post, but I just wanted to let Ya know how I went about using the Black Beauty Blasting Grit! I know it is some work, but my time is worth the $40-$60 I saved by not buying the black sand at Petsmart!

Hope this helps ya some, and feel free to holler at me if ya have any questions about the Black Beauty or anything else for that matter!
Drew

[shiloh]

Is your wood sinking or do the rocks hold it down?

[BruceF]

I keep having people trade me plants that came from you in the first place. Can’t wait to see them all in this tank!

[Noahma]

Originally Posted by BoxxerBoyDrew

Those are some BEAUTIFUL Rainbows you have there!!!!

I really, really, really miss my Rainbows!!! I setup my 55g as a planted rainbow tank when I first started doing planted tanks, and I got some awesome fish at a shop in Austin. I had them for a while, then something different came into the Fish Shop I was working at, and I traded the Rainbows out, for what I can't remember! MAN I KICK MYSELF IN THE ARSE FOR THAT!!!! The store I got the rainbows at is now gone, and I don't know if I will ever find the quality of fish I had!!! Anyway sorry about the rant!

I can't wait to see the 40B come together!!! If you are still planning on using the Coal slag "sand" be sure to rinse it VERY GOOD!!!! I have it in my 55g now, and I like it, but it was pretty dirty and OILY too! I rinsed mine in a old 5g bucket making sure to keep the water output MOVING! If not the water pressure and the sand will wear a hole in the bottom of the bucket! I put about 4-6" of sand in the bucket and using a adjustable nozzle on the jet setting and washed the crap out of it! Usually about 8+ times of filling t he bucket all the way up, then dumping as much water as I could, over and over, till there would be just a bit of oil film on the surface of the water. I could never get all of the "Oil" to go away. Then when I filled the tank I put some good carbon and fine filter pads in my Fluval 205s and ran them for a few hours, then cleaned the filters out and added more carbon and normal filter floss and that was it!

I know it sounds like a lot of work, but just go slow and steady, and it won't take too long! The "oil" never hurt any of my fish or inverts after adding them to the tank with the Black Beauty blasting grit! I also run a surface skimmer on one of my 205s, and after doing my first water change and filter cleaning about a week after adding the Black Beauty sand cap, I haven't seen ANY oil residue at all! Others that have used it haven't had any reports of the oil doing any harm either, or at least none that I have read about!

Anyway SORRY about the long post, but I just wanted to let Ya know how I went about using the Black Beauty Blasting Grit! I know it is some work, but my time is worth the $40-$60 I saved by not buying the black sand at Petsmart!

Hope this helps ya some, and feel free to holler at me if ya have any questions about the Black Beauty or anything else for that matter!
Drew

I love rainbows! I cannot wait to get ahold of some of the more rare ones. Hopefully to be able to breed them. The sand has been rinsed, and man did that take a while lol. I have 150 lbs (probably wont use it all lol) I rinsed two of the bags to make sure I had enough. It was not oily in the least, just dusty.

Originally Posted by shiloh

Is your wood sinking or do the rocks hold it down?

At first it was the rocks holding it down. Now its fully submerged and will sit at the bottom by itself.

Originally Posted by BruceF

I keep having people trade me plants that came from you in the first place. Can’t wait to see them all in this tank!

Now thats funny. I usually give out my trimmings to whoever would like some lol. We will see what other species make the rounds once I get this sucker up and stocked. I am now about a week away. I was originally going to start the tear down on Thursday, then it got moved to Friday as the office got busy enough to warrant 4 days again (wahoo) and then i was asked to come in on Friday to fill in for someone that is going on vacation (wahoo again) So now I will start the tear down on Friday evening, and move into sat for the fun stuff.

[Noahma]

Everything is all set for the swap tomorrow morning. I trimmed and bunched the plants I am going to keep. I have everything moved to where it will be easily accessible, and the Q-tank is running and ready for the rainbows. I just need to drain the 40B that I had filled to keep my driftwood soaked and start the move. I will post pictures after everything is up and running. this should be fun.