Journal of a cheap tank (56k)

[Wasserpest]

After your kind help by voting what to do with this old scratched tank my wife decided that the garage would be a good place for it, and I agreed since that way I wouldn't need a new stand, and to quarantine fishies and do some experimenting it would still be a good place.



Did I say cheap? The only initial expense here will be the heater, which is on mail order right now, and a timer to turn on/off the shoplight that I had hanging in the garage. For the substrate, I used approximately:

40 cents worth of Kitty Litter ($2/25lb)
80 cents worth of Profile ($6/10lb)
50 cents worth of Pea Gravel ($3.50/50lb)
80 cents worth of Play Sand ($3.50/50lb)



I never used Sand in any of my tanks, but I like the beach-like appearance. To keep it separated from other stuff I glued a plastic something to the bottom. I mixed the Litter and Profile to get the best of both worlds, and covered that with pea gravel.



I still had one of these tiny, silent, cheap and powerful powerheads (AS606, $12, 169gal/hour) laying around, so I constructed a filter that I read about in some German article. It is (have I mentioned that before?) cheap, effective, reliable, and low maintenance. Basically you cover one corner of the tank with a foam pad (packaging material for some electronic stuff I bought, I think computer memory). Well, a picture is often worth a thousand words:



An old rug that I used to clean oily hands made an excellent background. Ready for water and some plants!



In the meantime, I filled it up, and after 2 days it looks really good... picture to follow soon.

[jerseyjay]

Excellent.

I want to see the outcome of mixing substrates and dividing sand from gravel, sooo Amano like :idea: .

1) Is your powerhead placed all the way on the bottom or is it in the air mounted on the wall with suction caps ?

2) How will the water Enter powerhead chamber ?

[GulfCoastAquarian]

I like it! I love frugal creativity. Partly because I'm a cheapskate, and partly because it is part of my job (cost reduction design improvements to consumer appliances). Keep us posted.
I'm assuming the water enters the powerhead chamber through the foam pad. Clever. And when the pad clogs up, it can spill over the top edge to keep from dry-running the powerhead.

[Wasserpest]

That's right... water is pumped out of the corner compartment into the tank, and then flows back through the filter pad. If the filter pad clogs, the water level in the filter compartment goes down. But I don't expect that to happen... where I read about that they said they hadn't cleaned it for a year or so, and whatever bacteria or animals were in the foam actually recycled any detritus buildup. Obviously nothing for heavily stocked plants.
The pump has four little suction cups on the bottom, that's where it is standing on. All the way on the bottom of the tank, you can see the hole in the side where the water enters. Normally there is a screen in front of that, but I removed it.

I haven't read anything from Amano, so any similarities are purely coincidential But I know that IF you do any gravel vacuuming, and you have a fine substrate on top of a coarse one (like sand over gravel or say fluorite) the coarse particles always end up on the top. And I think sand isn't a good medium for growing plants (maybe I am wrong), I have it only for the look :shock: therefore the divider.

Yesterday I added 3 tiny mosquito fishies to start cycling very gently. Also added a soda bottle for CO2, which goes right into the impeller of the power head.

The plants look kind of interesting, probably because of the much cooler temperature. The Rotala indica/rotundifolia (not sure) turned into a nice flesh-red. The red Myriophyllum is changing from brown to red... Not sure if perhaps temperatures are a factor in this.

I promise... tomorrow I will post a picture of the outcome!

[Wasserpest]

This is how the tank looks after 2 days, not bad for it being basically free... I had great fun in setting it up, mostly because I wasn't under pressure to get everything perfect, if I'd screwed it up it wouldn't be a big problem, compared to when you set up that huge tank for your living room...



I noticed that someone had cleanly cut off the two braces that keep the top together... not that the glass will break, but the pressure on the silicone might be too much. So I will cut a piece of glass, take out some water, and glue it just under the top rim for some peace of mind.

In a few weeks, if everything grows alright, I will probably put some White Clouds in it, and move them into the pond outside next spring.

[GulfCoastAquarian]

I like it! Sometimes these "extra" tanks that just take clippings and are haphazardly thrown together end up being some of the most beautiful and maintenence free.

[Phil Edwards]

I love "leftover" and/or Cheap tanks. In fact, I've got a couple myself:


Here's a 55 put together completely with leftovers or things mooched off of friends, vendors, and sales reps. That 80lbs of Flourite was the Coup de Grace.

[Gwinna]

The beach look you created is beautiful! I haven't seen it quite like that before, great job! I might try that in my next tank

[Wasserpest]

Thanks! Got some inspiration by a beautiful tank that we discussed here.

In the meantime I have added many more plants and a heater. Will add some ghost shrimps and Otos to it, and post an updated pic soon...

[Gwinna]

I'd love to see a picture of it now, after it's really mature

Question: Are shrimp ever aggressive? They're fun, but I always worry that they'd eat fry....

[Wasserpest]

Somewhere I heard that they (GHOST shrimps) can get a little aggressive with higher temperatures, but I can't agree to that... They are really too small to be a thread to others, maybe they scare them (Ghosts :lol: )
Regarding fry, I don't think they will actively chase after fry, unless it is laying there motionless/dead :roll: They are more after regular fish food and detritus.
I am having a great time observing them, right now one of my four is full with eggs... not sure if they will grow up without salt, but if I could catch it I would move it to the other tank and see how breeding shrimps goes.

[GDominy]

True Ghost/Glass shrimp generally wont hunt fry.. but many of the larger species of Shrimp will hunt fish quite readily

[Gwinna]

When I had ghost shrimp they never made it, but that was when I was just starting with aquariums, had a box full of 'necessary' water quality controls, and no plants. I may try them again, thanks

[Wasserpest]

Last night I added 2 male and 3 female White Cloud Mountain Minnows and a Ghost shrimp to the tank. They seem to like it that much that after about 10 minutes the boys started showing off, trying to impress the girls.

Although they look beautiful, the males seem to fight quite a bit. I wonder what the best number of fishies would be... more males, so the agression will be more distributed?

This morning the males already try to lure the females into the wisteria growth, for, uh, I don't know what

As the plants grow in, I hope I will get a few little ones. Next Spring I want to move them to the pond outside. Well so much for my quarantine tank :roll: I will post a new image soon.

[Guttboy]

wasserpest,

I have 7 wcmm's in my 100 gallon and i see no agression at all.....I do see a mating dance they do displaying their fins etc but no agression. They are the most peacefull fish in my tank!

Mike