Hugbug's 4ft planted community tank

Well this tank is now officially ready to become the setup it was meant to be.
It's a 4ft / 120cm / 250L tank.

The plan is to set it up as a planted community tank.
Inhabitants will be neon tetras, dwarf neon rainbow fish, an SAE, shrimp and snails. And then other fish as well that I still have to buy.

I bought the pfs today.
I got 2 different kinds because the one was sooo uniform in colour (whitish), it just didn't look natural, but the other was a dull grey, not very pretty, so I got both so that I can mix them together.



I then also bought some nice pebbles to scatter around on top of the sand.


I'm hoping to get out to Namibian hardwood tomorrow morning to go and get the wood.

 

Great stuff! Looking forward to seeing it unfold. Shout if you need plants

Sent from my SM-N770F using Tapatalk

 

Another exciting thread to follow..

 

Just went to Namibian hardwood and got some really nice pieces of mopani (and one long piece of vine) that will work perfectly for the picture I have in my head.
Also got a few small pieces of tiger rock.
Can't quite believe how cheap it is there!
3kg of mopani, a long piece of vine (440g), and 3.4kg.of rocks, all totally at only R178!!!

 

I feel like Scrooge McDuck there, but with a vault full of wood

 

WOW it is like this comment was made for me. Thank you for the mention.

I am excited.

 

I spent today washing the lava rock and pfs for the tank. Can I just say, washing pfs in a pillow case is absolute genius. Seriously the easiest substrate I have ever cleaned! Will definitely be doing it again in future if I ever need to wash substrate again!

I also bought a background for the tank. It's just one of those cheap plastic backgrounds that you stick on with sellotape, but I really like the picture. It actually has two totally different pics on either side - one is just under water (so just blue, but made to look like under water), and the other side is a picture of exactly how I'm hoping to scape the tank. So now I'm in a quanderry as to which side to use.
Hubby also came up with a way to fix it so that I can add it easily after scaping the tank (without having to move the tank), which will also allow me more options and will let me change it easily. I'll show you the contraption when it's finished. He spent half the afternoon making it, only to discover he measured 1m 20mm instead of 1m 20cm Needless to say he was not impressed.
The concept though would be the same as whatever is on the wall behind your tank showing through. So it won't be fixed onto the tank directly.

I also bought a multiplug yesterday.
Got inspired by a couple threads on here where people are tidying up their electrics.
So I got one with surge protection, and also individual on/off buttons for every plug. That will allow me to switch off things like the filters and heater much more safely during water changes. I want to fix it under the desk so it's also on a safer location than at present.

 

I'm glad the pillow case worked out for you it really is a genius hack.


I also need to sort my cables so tomorrow is waterchange and cable sorting

 

We landed up testing out the backing stand, just to see how it works (before he makes another one that's the right length), so I got to take a photo. It actually works really well. And it gives me a third option of a wooden background if I don't attach the backing I bought.
I dont want to leave the back of the tank open because it's not a solid wall that shines through, it's half wall and half window into the braai room. I also want the backing to hide all the wires that come out the tank.


(it should be the full length of the tank)

This is with the blue side of the backing sheet I bought slotted in. It's not fitted in properly as I was just checking it would work but it gives you an idea.


So this way I can now scape the tank, fill with water, and then test out the various options (wood, blue, or picture) before committing to one.
If I choose to use the blue or the picture I will fix it properly to the wood so it is nice and straight and smooth and properly fitting.

 

Love the idea of using the pillow case.

Re the background contraption, have you perhaps considered getting those plastic sliders that's used for glass? That way, the background can just slide into it and will always be there. Just my 2c

Looking forward to seeing this build unfold

 

I had not considered it, but the background is thin plastic stuff that rolls up, so I don't think it would work to slide it into something like that. It kind of needs to be fixed onto something - either the back of the tank using sellotape (which leaves bubbles because you can never get it 100% plush only fixing it on at the sides), or onto something solid which you then place behind the tank.
So I suppose I could buy a solid piece of plastic to glue the backing onto and then slid that into those sliders...

 

So this happened this morning...

Lava rock


Pfs - white and grey mixed together


Banked towards the back, highest in the corners




Im really pleased with how my tree turned out.


The trunk is maybe a bit thinner than I would ideally like, but I plan to have a lot of plants around there, mainly fairly tall ones, so hopefully it will hide the fact that it's not wide enough.
The rock on the longest root is simply to hold it down. That's the piece of vine - it really does float like mad, despite being soaked for 2 days on hot water.

I still need to add the rocks and detail and plants etc, but I'm just really pleased with how it's looking so far.
I am aware it will likely continue to leech tannins for a while still, but I just couldn't wait any longer.

Need to take a break now to get some actual work done.

 

Oh my you've done excellent work on that sand if your water is that clear.. well done to you

 

That might work yes You could then make multiple backgrounds and interchange them whenever you will with ease

 

Very nicely done! This is gonna look epic!