LOL

Seriously though, good for you. Now I just gotta figure out how to do that here 🐟😁

 

SO COOL!!! I would do that but I'm too poor.🤑

 

LOL

Seriously though, good for you. Now I just gotta figure out how to do that here 🐟😁

Its been too long since I had a large tank, currently I spend my evenings wandering around the house with a tape measure staring intently at furniture and making thoughtful noises

SO COOL!!! I would do that but I'm too poor.🤑

This will be both my Birthday (28th November) as well as my Christmas Present, most likely valentines day too
The most expensive part of this is looking like it will be the Aqauscaping and Plants, unless I start dragging home large rocks from each of my local walks.....

In other thoughts I could do something South East Asian Themed and just bulk up the Rasbora Population and get some other interesting fish...
30 Harlequin Rasbora
8 Glass Catfish
6 Kuhli Loaches

I could then leave the Gobies in the Fluval and turn it into a stream style Aquascape and ramp the flow right up. Couple of Hillstream loaches

 

Imagine all the food you would need to feed all those fishies!!!! Hope you have a LOT of hospital tanks too!!🤑

 

I dont really understand the point of this comment.

 

In case several of your fish get sick. A lot of hospital tanks would be needed.

 

IMHO,no.

 

I would consider myself an experience aquarist so I have enough equipment to establish a QT/Hospital tank if required.

Even if several get sick I would only need 1 tank per fish level (1 for Catfish, 1 for Tetra, 1 for Butterfly Fish if taking African tank into example) for which I have several waterholding totes and equipment that I can use if medication is ever needed, which personally if i get to that stage I have had a serious failing with my water quality

 

A tank or a few 5 gallon buckets from Lowes.

 

Okay.Sounds cool!!

 

So this weekend the tank arrives!!

In the end I have decided to go slightly smaller than the previously anticipated 240 Litre Fluval Roma, not much of a downsize however going for a Juwel Rio 180. This is so that we can upgrade the Guinea Pigs Habitat

Now just need to completely re organise the living room to make room for this tank....

 

Fits like a glove into the space

 

Rockwork is in

 

So in total I have nearly 150KG of Hardscape in the tank.

3 Big rocks from Friends Garden 25KG
Scottish Cobbles (80-120mm) 25KG
Scottish Pebbles (40-80mm) 25KG
Pea Gravel 20mm 25KG
Pea Gravel 10mm 25KG
Play Sand 25KG

I still have perhaps a 3rd of a Bag of Each of the 40-80mm Pebbles, 20mm and 10mm Pea Gravel as well as the play sand for other tanks

 

Moved a few plants over from the Evo

 

Finally got around to getting the Fluval U4 Filter working in the tank last night so I will be expecting much clearer water tonight when I get home. I can then fill the tank the rest of the way and install the other Hardware Items such as the temperature controller and probe.

 

Has cleared up nicely, kind of wished that I had painted the back glass now though 🤣

 

Decided that I'd add the planted Balrog skull to this tank and shut down the Cheapskate challenge for a little while.

 

Picked up a few fish for the tank today.

12 teeny tiny Harlequin Rasbora (I have 8 already to move across in a few weeks)

6 Kuhli Loaches aka the water noodles

 

Love these loaches always active in the evening

 

Moved across my original 8 Harlequin Rasbora taking the number in the school to 20. The behaviour already is a lot better in greater numbers

The size difference is a lot more noticable in person

Also been removing the Amazon Frogbit to allow the Salvinia and Dwarf Water Lettuce to take over. These both have a much nicer root structure

 

Currently faffing about with the Cabinet of this tank and have decided that I would set something up to try and grow some Emersed (grown out of the water) Aquarium Plants as I have already installed some LED lights within the cabinet so that I can see what it is I am doing when it comes to maintenance

Roma 200 Stand: L100cm x W40cm x H71.5cm
Usable Space: L95cm x W35cm x H60cm
Cabinet Power strip: 8 Gang Surge Protected with Individual Switches.
Cabinet Lights: Full Spectrum 40cm 30LED Strip Plant Grow Lights
12 On/Off Schedule: On 6pm – 6am

Upper Shelf: L95cm x W20cm x H30cm – plant grow bins
Bottom Shelf: L95cm x W35cm x H25cm – generic Fish Tank Storage and QT Tank (L45cm x W30cm x H30cm)

Grow Bins: 3x Ikea Samla Boxes w/ Clear Lids (L28 x W20 x H14)
Gravel Layer: 2-4mm Leca Horticultural Grit
Substrate Layer: Tetra Complete Substrate

I plan on testing this idea with some Cuttings that I have laying around, as well as some of the Plants that I have in various tanks that are currently growing very well

Starting with the Epiphytes, I know following my Dry Start/Moss Misting that the below works well
Bucephalandra Diabolica Kedagang
Bucephalandra Micranthra Needle Leaf
Bucephalandra Pygmea Bukit Kalem
Hygrophila Pinnatifida

I want to try again with the Pogostemon Helferi as I believe that the issue I experienced is that I over fertilized these plants as I was not as religious with emptying the stagnant water from the container as I should have been, they often get dug up by the Kuhli Loaches as well in the display tank so I constantly have a floater or two to hand. Similar to the Hygrophila Pinnatifida.

I know from messing around with my Plant Cupboard that the Java Fern (Microsorum Pteropus) also grows well in an Emersed set up but does require a lot (nearly 100%) humidity so that will be an interesting experiment.

I will give this idea a decently long period of time (60 days from set up) so that I can see any issues that i experience and also since the Bucephalandra is a slow growing species whether it would be worth expanding this idea to include more plants (list below) I can also use on of the 3 Plant Bins to store Propagations and Cuttings from my house plants as we are now entering into the main growing season for those as well.

Again these will be In Vitro plants as I really enjoy growing these out

Plant Bin 1: Epiphytes
Anubias Barteri “Mini Coin”
Anubias Barteri Nana
Anubias sp. Nangi – AQAUDIP In-vitro


Plant Bin 2: Cryptocoryne’ s
Cryptocoryne Crispatula
Cryptocoryne Flamingo – AQUADIP In-vitro
Cryptocoryne Nurii
Cryptocoryne Parva
Cryptocoryne Petchii Pink – AQUADIP In-vitro
Cryptocoryne Wendtii “Mi Oya”

If this goes well then I plan to slowly expand into rarer and harder to locate Species of plants that I want in my tanks, especially the below two species of Lagenandra
Lagenandra Keralensis
Lagenandra Thwaitesii

 

Working out PAR levels

The tank and stand

 

The latest additions to the tank a school of 9 Glass Catfish (Kryptopterus vitreolus)

I've wanted to keep these fish for a very long time.

 

Wow, they're amazing!

 

Yes they are a very unique looking fish, also really nice to have a catfish that schools as well so definately add a uniqueness to the appearance of the tank

Jus the centre piece surface level fish then i am done with stocking this one..... will most likely then move onto swapping out the plants and seeing if i can find any interesting inverts

 

Spent the weekend trimming and replanting stem plants in the tank. Also noticed that the formerly melty Vallisneria is now producing pups all over the tank

Have also started the Moss and Buce farm inside the cabinet so will be offering more plants on my Etsy soon

 

Farm been running about a week now and the Bucephalandras are putting out a new leaf so on track for a little grow out

Also have some Java Fern and Java Moss growing out in patches in these little prop trays.

Floaters are selling ok on Etsy shop, at the rate it's going I can afford 3/8 Pearl Gourami that'll finish off my fish stocking.

I also want to sort the lid out so I can propagate some houseplants in the back of the tank and encourage to go up the wall.

 

So this weekend I am planning on going to my Local Fish Store to reserve or order the final fish for this tank. I am more excited then usual because all of these fish are going to be funded by the plants that I have been growing from this tank over the last couple of months. These I have sold either on Ebay, Etsy or in this case taking a bag of plants to the fish store.

Pearl Gourami Harem or two will be going into here shortly, then focus will shift to buying and selling aquatic plants as well as the Ramshorn Snails