Ferryman's Tiny Tank

So, my first aquarium was given to me by my uncle when i was in school, it was a small 61x30x30, and it had DIY glass sliders built in that worked great, and holes drilled in the glass to allow for air tube and heater wire everything... sadly when i was in Uni, that tank got destroyed by an imbecile whom i asked to help me move it into its stand... he proceeded to help me by putting his flat hand in the middle of the glass side pane and push, which resulted in the tank cracking, and i had to speed clean my dad's old 61x30x30 and transfer the fish asap.

those fish for some reason died off within a week or so (probably due to ammonia poisoning etc, as back then i was unaware of the cycleing process...) anyways. my tank got dissassembled to use the panes for "greenhouse purposes" with my bonsai.

My dads tank got cleaned out, dried off, and put away...

Come four years later i had forgotten all about having ever owned a fishtank, a friend gave me a new tank, a 180liter 3ft, which he got from a guy in durban years before at an sareefkeeping club meeting... said tank was wasting away in the member's yard, covered in cement and paint etc, it was a half built sump that never got finished...

My friend Falko took that tank home, cleaned it, and used it Once to keep his marines in during a tank transfer, then it got cleaned out and stored outside in the yard as per history... That tank is now My 3ft display tank seen here -> http://www.tropicalaquarium.co.za/showthread.php?t=1296

But, when setting up that tank, i took out and cleaned once more, my dad's old, beat up and semi scraped, multi coloured silicone sealed tank to hide away under the 3ft cabinet as a breeding/quarantine tank...

I then decided its a waste, dried it out and cleaned it... then put it on a counter where it waited to become a small planted betta tank... Now, its been setup once more, to be the new home for Slayer's guppies, while my 3ft takes care of my newly to be acquired pinkish danios...

So, here i will post up the progress on my new, old, reused, and handed down small 50-60 liter tank...

Let the MTS commence....
Qt duty

Left to dry

Give and take...

Neighbours

Newly filled


Its currently got the AquaClear Mini on it, as it was handed down to me with my original tank.
Circulation provided by a small Chosen 300l/h pump donated to me in highschool by the same friend who gave me the 3ft...
Drivtwood was taken from the 3ft as it was crowded after the rescape idea...

there's a big piece of drifting wood that wount sink in there donated by my lil brothers old babysitter tannie, originally intended to be a roots on wood feature for one of my Natal wild ficus bonsai...

Heating yet to be bought tomorrow, will be a chinese make 75watt thingy. during the day my room temp is 25+ degrees, at present the unheated tank is about 23-24 degrees and its 00:14 so it'll be okay for the fish that are arriving tomorrow, yes, tomorrow... guppies...

Nitrivec was also added to help the filter and the transfered water from the 3ft to seed the substrate, which is the rest of the silica sand i bought for the 3ft...

the filter was directly transfered from the 3ft which now runs solely on a cascade 200, and circulated by 2 600l/h powerheads.

When i have the money, i'll buy a filter esp for this tank, and return the aquaclear to the 3ft...

Right

 

looking good so far! keep us posted

 

Looking good there buddy MTS has got you now... welcome to the Dark side.....lol

 

hehe, i like it, the midichlorians shall bow before my uh.. seachem Safe, mwahahaha...

Er.. anyway, snapping out of the darkside nerdville act

Today i recieved a package from f-fish containing loads of goodies, including some guppies and smallish fry, some apple snails (golden shell, white body + golden shell black body), some stow away snails in the plants, lots of different cuttings, ambulia, vallis (nice type, slender leaf and new growth looks rdish?) amazon sword cuttings, stuff with no names i know cuttings etc, AND my dad drove all the way to the other side of the galaxy, (johannesburg south i think) and picked up the occupants of Slayer's 2ft'er, fulla guppies, and some nice little pink zeb-danios (fast little buggers, cant snap a good pic)

So, naturally i started a planting frenzy and jam packed what i could into my main tank, complementing what i already had and makin it even more interesting to gaze at, and then i added the fish,

I decided to add all Slayer's fishies to my new/old tank, now scaped and looking way better than i had ever had it. they are eager lively little fellows, and have some really nice colours and patterns coming through. excuse the pic quality, my cam struggles to take fast pics, i dunno how to manuvre it yet, will try again when i find our HP once more. these guys are movin all over the place, easiest to take a pic of, are the snails, lol...

anyway.

As i mentioned, the filter was running in the main tank, and directly transfered to the small tank, the water was completely siphoned from the main tank till full, only think new was the glass panes holding the water, and the substrate.

For safety i added nitrivec to the system, some course salt, and seachem safe to help neutralise any buildups, while the substrate seeds aswell. hoping this tank is gonna be a success. it looks awesome already, me an my bro have already spend quite some time ogling the newbie now. so, without further delay, some pics...

All thanks go to SLAYER and F-FISH for fish and plants, you guys are awesome and really helped me get more into the hobby at this stage when my pockets are empty, true hobbyists you guys are!

 

Really looks good man I think I might get some of those pink danios for my 1.9m tank that I am busy with they look cool

Well done I hope one day when your plans are growing nicely you will share with me.....lol :bigsmile:

Tanks look Awesome :congrats: :top:

 

Tank looks great. What substrate you using?

 

You are doing all the hard work ... looks real good.

 

Very nice dude! They tanks are looking great!!

 

Thanks guys, Gareth, you are more than welcome to have some of the plants once they settle and grow. I'm hoping they'll all turn out successfully. Will get better light on my main tank when i get the wood for the canopy, almost done with the master bedroom painting, then my parents will do their living room where the wood curtain box is, which i'll be cutting up.. for this little tank, i dunno if i can fit anything better, its currently got one osram cool white in it, 2ft, stuck in the hood diagonally to fit in, i left the smaller little grolux in where its mounted, but don't have a ballast to run it... so if plants don't grow well in there, i'll move some more to the 3ft... and yes. i am contemplating another 3ft or something for next year when i have some money, then i can spread the plants more, get more success...

Its gonna be chaos, just like my bonsai hobby

@gareth, about that pm on bonsai, check the off topic forum, i posted there

 

@ brentnorm, i'm using normal poolfilter silica, but i mixed in some gravel pebbles (the orange pebbles you see, for a different effect than just the balnd white silica (which works nice in a big tank, but looked boring in this small one.)

I will probably top off some more silica, (vigourously washed) once my dad breaks open the other 80kgs of sand to fill the pool filter with, the substrate is about 3cm thick but i'd like an inch or so more...

I might transfer some of the pennywort to my dad's koi pond to grow, or maybe just to the 3ft...

 

Cool thanks
Hope all you plans grow your tanks are really looking good now

 

just playing around with my phone's settings, i found panorama and sequential shot

 

Nice set ups dude.

Plants look good and healthy too mate

 

Thats thanks to f-fish's mad plant growing skills

I'm hoping to maintain and grow from here

 

Egad! they multiply

Sooo, i found this tiny little creature spontaneously appeared today (after i took it out of the shed, cleaned and dried it, and put it there...)

Anyone know what i might use it for, any ideas?

 

A snail tank?

No wait... hatching brine shrimp!

 

Good size for a awesome looking Siamese fighter........

 

u don't think a bit small?

 

Is it a bit small for a quarantine tank ?
What filtration would you add, a corner filter with an air pump?

Turn it into a small hydroponics container

 

I like that idea