A Work In Progress

Howdy!

Some updated shots since the tank has been filled up. There is still so much work to be done! I have some drift wood soaking in a tub, not yet ready to go in, still floats if I take the rock off! Once that is ready to go in I will add some plants. Also really looking forward to getting the hood, doors and frame up, but it still has to be built! So it is a big work in progress. I have setup the filter and sofar it is working very well, I've setup a syphon from the tank into the first chamber with filter floss, then in the second chamber is charcoal and ceramic balls and the third chamber is the pump pumping back into the tank. It trickles very slowly and if the colour of the filterfloss is anything to go by then it is working quite well, my water is also much clearer than what it used to be and there is not such a build up of debris on the bottom anymore, I might add another internal filter at a later stage, but am happy with it for now. A silent tank is also fantastic compared to what it used to sound like when I was using a hang on filter! The background has also made a big difference to the tank.

 

Looks really nice.

 

Looking great

 

Some fish shots

 

Looks great man, well done!

 

great tank will look much better once you add the driftwood

 

Thanks everyone for the compliments. It is still along way from where I want it to be, but I am happy with the progress so far.

 

Looking Great dude

 

Looking good.

 

Looks great Peekay.

Just a quick observation:

You have your charcoal before your ceramic balls... thus the water get's to the bacteria "polished"... your bacteria colony might not populate to correct levels then.

Any reason as to why you have charcoal in at all? Charcoal only lasts about 3-5 weeks, and is usually only used when we want to take medication and chemicals out the water... most people don't keep it in the tank permanently.

 

Hi Zoom,

You are correct, I have the charcoal before the ceramic balls as per the recommendation of the guy at the petshop, he said it was for the nitrates. It's been in there for app. 2 weeks now, shall I take it out after another couple of weeks?

 

Charcoal will not do ANYTHING to nitrates. The ONLY way you can get rid of nitrates is to do a weekly 25-40% water change.

The only good charcoal is for is to take out medicine and chemicals that you have put in. So for example if your fish is sick you medicate according to botle instructions for x amount of days. WHen the medication is finished, you add charcoal to your filter to take the medication out the water.

A lot of pet stores tell you to put it in because it makes your tank look cleaner... but trust me, it ain't worth having it in. Expecially if you going to go the planted route, and add fertz. The charcoal will just take all the fertz out.

Peekay... take the charcoal out.

 

Thanks Zoom. Damn I wish I knew that before going to the petshop!! Thanks for the advice. I feel like going and ringing the little punks neck!

On the topic of going planted, would I need to add any ferts (if so, what?) for java fern, anubias and vallis?

 

not wanting to jack the thread but does that thing with charcoal also apply to a carbon sponge(blonde moment):bigsmile:

 

peekay i use flourish excel and it works really well you could also get proffesor. B's ferts they work well too

 

Um.. not sure MC. I would say maybe keep the sponge in.. I'm sure by now it's completely useless and inneffective... depending on how long it's been in the tank... but would be good for housing the bacteria.

Most liquid fertz are good. A lot of people swear by Prof B's fertz. I've been waiting for a few weeks now for a final quotation from him on some stuff I asked for... He is pretty busy. But I know the flourish excel works very well too.