Early Xmas... The start of a fishroom

Hi All,

So A friend mentioned he had a few glass pieces cut into squares laying in his garage, he wanted to get rid of them, obviously I jumped at the opportunity to grab them.

turns out his dad used to own a pet shop and those pieces were cut specifically for fish tanks.

400 X 400 X 400 (64L)

I garbed all of them, turns out i can get 5 sets out of them, each has a base piece cut perfectly



I cleaned them up and decided to give building a tank a go, watched a few videos from the king of DIY and it seemed so easy, Until I got into it... ended up taking about an hour to get it right. I BUILT MY FIRST TANK!!! doesn't look perfect, silicone was a bit messy.



I let it cure for 24 hours and took it out for a test ride. it has been standing outside for 2 days now, no leaks yet and looking strong.




So tonight I will attempt building 4 more of these.

The plan will be to convert my wendy house into a fishroom, I will be breading rainbows in these tanks.

My tank count has now gone from 1 monster 2 months ago to 10 tanks. ( serious MTS)

the fish room will start with 5 of these cubes, 3 X 2 foots, 1 X 3 foot ( cracked bottom needs to be fixed) and 2 X 1foot.

I will attempt to bread Rainbows , shrimp and golden Rams

hopefully I will have more pics this weekend. my research now is on filtration, I will have to find a way to have a central filter running these tanks..

looking forward to sharing and hearing from you all.

Ammar

 

Looking good. I think I need friends like yours. Sounds like a very nice start to a fish room. The temptation now will be to avoid filling those tanks with all different species and eventually having no breeding tanks left.

 

you are so right, it will be tempting, but for that i have my monster show tank and a second one the same size on its way..
I get so angry every time i see my kutubus dropping eggs and Rams feasting on them.
also I read all these breeding success stories here and dying to be part of one. it will be hard I know but a nice challenge.

I think so far my shrimp are doing really well and now i have enough tanks to start culling and working on a good line of blue dreams and RCS

 

Wow Ammar that is a nice present you got there, I also want to try and build my own little cube. Enjoy it hopefully I will be able to buy some rainbows from you....

 

Thanks @hviviers75, once you get the hang of it, its very easy to put them together. for peace of mind I will add a thin piece of bracing at the top.

looking forward to the rainbow breeding, i really hope i get it right. They are beautiful fish but and I feel they really are overpriced as from what I saw it is an easy breeder.

 

Rainbow breeding isn't difficult. You just need a pair, some Java moss and a spawning tank. Raising the fry is the challenging part. Make sure you have microworms and infusoria for the first few weeks, then you can move onto bbs when the fry can take it. After 4 weeks you should be fine. Lots of WC required. As the fish grow they will produce more waste as well as waste from excess food will need to be removed.

 

im thinking bare bottom tanks with a moss ball to start with. i will have to read up on microworms, im assuming i make my own?

 

Starting a microworm culture is easy.

1. Get a starter culture from someone.
2. Get some oats (Tiger brand works best for me.)
   
3. Get instant dry yeast and brown sugar.
4. Cook 1/4 cup of oats in 1/2 a cup of water for 3-4 minutes.
5. Let the oats cool down until it is luke warm.
6. Sprinkle yeast and grown sugar over the oats, and mix well.
7. Ladle the oats into a tupperware, empty margarine tub or similar container.
8. Smear the micro worm starter culture over the oats.
9. Keep the culture in a warm dark place.
   
10. Within a week or so you will be able to harvest microworms. They climb up the sides of the tub, and you remove them with an earbud, spoon or spatula.

 

thanks @Pezulu will have to hide that tub from the wife.. any of that stuff creeps out and we have a problem.
do i then repeat this every time to get new ones or do i just keep feeding the tub with oats..

sorry if im sounding dorf, its because i am with these things

 

The worms do not creep out the container - just up the walls. They are easy to take off with a sosatie stick (if you are squeamish) or your finger. And they dont smell bad at all. A culture produces worms for 2 or 3 months. During this time the oats goes very watery. I usually add bread or flake food to try and dry it out a bit. the worms eat it in the end anyway. its a good idea to have 2 cultures going simultaneously and then you need to you can use the one to start a new one each time.

 

Awesome, I will get going with that and then infusoria, is that as simple as putting a water container out in the sum with some fish food in it for a while? or do you also need some kind of culture to kick start it?

 

This is absolutely awesome @Ammar !!!

And well done on building these tanks
Ja... sigh... MTS.... what can I say...

Good that you want to breed Rainbows, I agree there is always a shortage of them and when you do find them they not cheap anymore

I just want a pond room.... with plants all round the pond.. dream on....

 

lol, you dream, James will build... ( thats what I put on his website )

im really looking forward to this, hopefully it works out.

 

Hahha I guess its true..

Wish you all the best

 

I have never had much luck with infusoria but then again I have always tried to do it in a windowsill. Just last week someone told me to put it outside so I put out a 5L glass jar with some lettuce in it. I should really check up on it.

 

Ill give it a try as well, please let me know, apparently the water will cloud up first with bacteria first and then Infusoria comes and chows that up

 

You make a new batch as and when needed.
You can easily get a month or more out of a single batch.
Once you see the old batch is starting to reach the end of its life, you start a new one.

 

Once the batch starts to die the smell changes. A new batch smells like ripe bananas - its the ethanol produced I think. When the batch starts getting old it smells like vinegar. You will also start to see a decline in worms on the sides of the container. I replace my culture every 2 months. I also have 2 cultures that are made 3 weeks apart so there is always a constant supply of micro worms.

 

so to get this started I have to have a starter culture?
can i not just put all ingredients in and wait?

 

Nope. Need a starter culture. Someone should be able to help you. I could but the postage wouldn't be worth it. Someone nearby will have