New Aquarium

@ricky101 - the external filter we bought the other day is one of AllPondSolutions ones, and it I can now (thankfully) say that it is working and not noisy at all. This is the one

So, as you know, we weren't able to get the external filter working and the hood would not sit down in its place with the filter pipes in place and I was looking at some sort of silicone hoses to sort the issue out..... well, putting it bluntly, I do not have the money at the moment for buying hoses, and as I put in a night from hell pain wise last night, I had quite a bit of thinking time.

Eventually, it hit me - I was focussing on modifying the pipes, and not the tank itself, so this morning I took a look at the hood and realised that there was a solution! We got the faithful Dremel out, and cut part of the tray in the top where the pipe comes up into the built-in filter - this allowed me to wriggle both of the pipes for the external filter in through that part of the hood; it was a bit of a mission, but we got them in. We relocated one of the air stones to the middle of the tank, so we have one at the left and one in the middle, with both filters drawing water from the right hand side of the tank. The spray bar coming in from the external filter is positioned just to the right of centre and has its 'holes' pointed toward the glass to quieten it down a bit. We have also stuffed a bit of filter wadding into the area where the water comes out of the in-built filter which has quietened it down massively. I did have to chop an inch off the surface skimmer on the intake of the external filter, as it was sitting too high and even adding water still wouldn't have got it into the water.

It took Mrs C an age to prime the external filter - it is essentially a hand pump that you use to fill the filter itself and then the pipework to purge air before you start the filter. Once running, there was a bit of a gurgling session whilst it knocked out the last of the air bubbles and then we were left with a fairly quiet hum. Better still, it has only been a couple of hours since both filters were switched on and the water is really quite clear now (it was really cloudy with a bit of a greenish tinge to it before they went on)

We had to add a hell of a lot of water once we were done modifying stuff, and did so using the hose for convenience, so that coupled with the time that we had the hood sitting outside being modified, I reckon we must have stuffed up our good bacteria that we put in yesterday - so we will restart that again today.

All of a sudden, it is starting to look like a fish tank! Very quick pics, please forgive reflections/mess/water marks.








@Vince - I would love to see pics of your aquarium when you get a chance. Although we have had to put quite a bit of graft into this one, particularly as we are trying to do it on a zero budget, but it is already providing a sort of therapy in as much as it is requiring reading, learning and problem solving; to be honest, I think it is the wee kick up the bum that I needed mentally to get me feeling a bit more 'normal'.

 

Oooooh. that is a wee cracker of tank! I look forward to seeing how you get on with it! Bargain at £65 too.

I am pleased with the filter from APS - it is in the cupboard under the tank, which helps a bit with noise, but it is much quieter than I thought it would be, and its construction seems to be very robust.

I have 5-in-1 test strips, which I will start using tomorrow and will knock up a quick spreadsheet so I can monitor what is going which way. I also have specific ammonia test strips, so they will be pressed into service too.

Having knackered the bacteria that I put in so far, I have had to buy another bottle, so have API Quick Start coming instead; they claim that you can use this stuff and put fish in the same day, but I won't be doing it that quickly - if it gives me a quicker result, particularly when combined with the filtration and air supply, then fair enough. I am thinking of starting with some neons, and maybe a bristlenose plec and then we can slowly build from there.

And yes, it has been a lot of graft (mostly for Mrs C due to my current state of disability), but it has been worth it as we have a fairly handsome tank even if I do say so myself.

@Perki - I forgot you asked about the rocks, I'm afraid I cannot tell you what type of rock they are as they were donated by my neighbour; speaking to him and his wife earlier, they don't seem to know either. They did give me one compliment though - they are planning to move in the next few years, and said yesterday that they now know where their fish are being re-homed when they do move! I was chuffed with that.

 

@Perki - thanks, I Googled Dragon stone, and it looks identical to the stuff in my tank; never seen rock quite like it before. The one on the far right is not actually a rock - it is a bit of dogwood that we picked up at Maidenhead aquatics.

I've tested the water for the first time today, and the results are:



As you can see, there is no ammonia, but I have elevated nitrite and nitrate levels - I suppose that is as a result of me knackering the good bacteria with my lid and filter modifications yesterday?

The hardness is something I can't really do much about, but I will get some more driftwood to put in there somewhere and see if that lowers the pH a bit?

And yes, I have created a spreadsheet where I can track things, conditionally formatted of course......

I have dosed the tank again today with the Bio-Boost, and as there was only a small amount left in the bottle, I slightly over-dosed it, so at worst I suppose any bacteria that are too much will be just die off. The water is fairly clear (we still haven't added the carbon to the filters, and won't do until we have fish in there, and the tank is settled a bit).

The Quick Start has arrived, and doing some further reading, it seems that you actually have to put fish in within two hours of putting the stuff in the tank, otherwise the good bacteria will die and you have wasted your time.

So, what fish would you guys suggest, and how many?

I was initially thinking neons, danios and maybe a small plec - - but, other reading suggests that the neons are not all that hardy (news to me!) and that it should be danios and platys?

 

Hi @ricky101 ,

I have just checked the water out of the tap, and the NO3 is 100, NO2 is nothing, and the water is much harder (suggests that the wood and substrate are doing something to soften it a bit?)

Nothing wrong with the bottle of bio-boost, but as I had to remove the hood and take it outside to modify it, and then rinse it thoroughly with the hose, and then it sat outside for quite a while, I think that will have knackered the initial dose of bio-boost that I had put in. For this reason, I decided to do the initial dose again, but that virtually emptied the bottle (it is supposed to be 1 dose, then ½ dose the following day, then ½ dose on the third day), so as I only had about 20ml left I walloped it in this afternoon.

I now only have Quick Start to hand, and it states that it is for the immediate addition of fish (presumably to keep the ammonia supply up); in fairness, it does say that this is only the case if all the other parameters are met (aeration, filtration and heat).

We are going to go back to the aquarium shop we visited at the weekend, and take a water sample with us for them to test - they seemed very helpful, knowledgeable and everything looked really, really healthy (nice 'glint' to their eyes etc), and we can be guided by them. To be honest, I think that they will become our preferred place to purchase fish, as it just seemed to be cleaner and not as dingy as Maidenhead was.

 

@Perki - I had a look oat Cichlids, and beautiful as they are, I think they are maybe a wee step to far at the moment; we are going for more of a community tank, and are looking at things like neons, danios, platys, angels, a plec or two and maybe some shrimp.

 

I remember the red tailed black shark from years ago - a friend had one, and it would nip just about anything it could get near.

Oddly, when we had a tank many, many moons ago, we had neons and angels co-existing without any problems....... maybe we were just lucky. I know that neons aren't the most interesting things in the world, but I have a soft spot for them. Some thinking needed as to what we are going to put in there.

I quite like guppies, but remember them breeding like rabbits and having to get additional tanks. Do you think I would get away with a bristlenose plec fairly early on? I am keen that we have something cleaning up around the tank, rather than getting to a situation where we are catching up?