37-g Tall; Living Room Display Tank

I got this and the stand for $32 off a Craigslist ad back in May as a "Mothers Day" present to myself.


Over the past few months I have been building and curing the backdrop and piecing together the rest of the equipment I need.




It's been sitting on my back porch this whole time, and FINALLY last night I moved the stand and the aquarium upstairs and set it up. (I don't want to talk about the spiders who I had to evict. Just...*shudders*) I added dirt capped with sand, the VERY nice piece of driftwood I got on sale, and enough water to run my seeded sponge filter... and unfortunately the stream of water slipped and BOOM the water was filled with dirt. Letting that settle today, draining, capping with MORE sand, planting some things, and filling all the way. And then to let it cycle > _ < ...Aquariums--all about the patience.





And despite ALL that, and buying things for the past few months for it, I still have a shopping list 14 items long, have to paint the back black (will do tonight before I refill it--wanted to see how it looked against the white wall first.)

Hope to get some photos in here soon about how it looks full! But I did mess up pretty badly in one part--there was something adhering to the inside of the glass after curing the backdrop. I soaked it and wiped it off...and in the process scratched the glass pretty badly >_< Hoping it isn't that obvious under the water. If I ever tear this down again, I'll try to fix that, but didn't see it until it was inside and partly set up, for whatever reason :/

 

It's looking great, what a fun project Lacey!
I really like those rock formations made from the foam, how creative!
What fish are you planning on putting in here?

 

It's looking great, what a fun project Lacey!
I really like those rock formations made from the foam, how creative!
What fish are you planning on putting in here?

Thanks!!

The fish I know are going in there are male endler. Before I add females I will have to make a decision between rainbowfish or female betta(s) to keep the population down. And I'm thinking at least a pair of bristlenose pleco. I'd like some dwarf chain or kuhlI loaches too, but I don't know how they and the pleco would do together. There are a lot of hiding places though

 

Thanks!!

The fish I know are going in there are male endler. Before I add females I will have to make a decision between rainbowfish or female betta(s) to keep the population down. And I'm thinking at least a pair of bristlenose pleco. I'd like some dwarf chain or kuhlI loaches too, but I don't know how they and the pleco would do together. There are a lot of hiding places though

I am voting for rainbow fish!
Personally, the loaches should be fine with a bristlenose, if they have a hiding cave, it should work.

 

Much clearer now:

 

You got guts!!

I have a couple of dirty tanks. But I was afraid to go with white sand. But now that I think about it, once the dirt is capped for a while, it would be just as easy to clean as my BDBS.

Good luck.

 

You got guts!!

I have a couple of dirty tanks. But I was afraid to go with white sand. But now that I think about it, once the dirt is capped for a while, it would be just as easy to clean as my BDBS.

Good luck.

HA, less gutsy, more cheap That's Sakrete Medium Sand, made for pool filters, landscaping, kiddy sand pits, and for use by those who have recently succumbed to MTS and don't want their husbands to freak out when they see the bills. It does vacuum nicely thought, and any dirt that settles onto it comes right up. It eventually yellows a little, but I like the look.
New pics of it filled:



The boys, telling me it's time for bed:


I usually don't use the "moonlight" feature, but I wanted to test it out since this is probably the only way we'll ever see our kuhlI loaches when we get those...and found out that the boys got more adventuresome in this lighting too.



Finished filling it--mostly with tap water, and then I did large changes on my current 2 10 gallons and my 7.5, netting about 15 gallons of "seasoned" water, give or take. I added it to this setup to keep the seeded filters going with free ammonia (again, cheap). I tested the water parameters tonight, and these were actually better than the 10 gallon I had the boys in already (0.25 ammonia, 0 nitrites, 5 nitrates vs 0.25 ammonia, 0 nitrites, 20 nitrates AFTER their water change), so... I bit the bullet and transferred in 10 of the developing endlers I had, which are just starting to show their color. If they do well--and it looks like they are--I will move the rest over next Sunday.

Then comes the great tank shuffle--
1) The 10 gallon they were in becomes my son's betta's new home. His tank will be emptied and all the plants in with him will move into this display setup (anubias, crypto wendtiI and some others). I will quite possibly put in a divider to house another male betta at some point, once I figure out if Ocean's cataracts are due to age, or to the inability to maintain a cycle in his current setup.
2) Where the 10 gallon currently is (in my "office"/closet), will spontaneously generate the 20 g long I have hidden in our laundry room. Hopefully the hubby won't notice it doubled in size >_> That will become my fry grow-out tank.
3) Then the other 10 gallon can go back to the function I bought it for before I realized that 4 endler (2 males, and 2 VERY fecund females) could become 100 in a few months--the quarantine tank for the rest of the stock for this display tank. Including something to keep the endler to reasonable population levels -_- I got them because I love wild-type guppy genetics...not because I wanted to end up with 2 dozen tanks just to house them all in the first 6 months

Anyways, I will update this as I finish moving all the plants in, buying additional plants and stock, etc. Thanks for the support so far!

 

Nice!

Not my best photos but the soil under a sand cap generates great plant growth.

In the betta tank I had 8ppm ammonia just from the organic potting mix after I put the cap on.

But seasoned sponge filters took it to 0 in 8 days. Every other tank was cycled in 24 hours with seeded sponge filter.

 

Beautiful!-what did you coat the foam with?

 

Beautiful!-what did you coat the foam with?

A bread knife This is an electronics packing foam (Polyethylene) which also has marine and aquarium applications. It's easier to work with than Styrofoam, in my recent experience, but it does need a lot of concrete layers. I did a lot of research and everything pointed to it being safe for this...lets hope the "everything" is right.

I cut out several pieces and used silicon to adhere them together, then used a bread knife to do a rough cut to the look I wanted. I did a lot of fitting and adjusting until I arrived at the final look, then applied the concrete over the next week. The tank has a center support at the top, and I didn't want to loose TOO much overall volume, which is why I went with the look I did.

 

You have inspired me

 

Nice!

Not my best photos but the soil under a sand cap generates great plant growth.

In the betta tank I had 8ppm ammonia just from the organic potting mix after I put the cap on.

But seasoned sponge filters took it to 0 in 8 days. Every other tank was cycled in 24 hours with seeded sponge filter.

Glad you have such a great experience with the soil, and that black sand (sand blasting sand?) just looks so classy I heard it took a lot of washing, so I steered clear, but now I'm tempted again...

I know the soil makes a huge difference to my crypts, but I still have to use ferts for everything else :/ My water seems to be pretty sterile--living in Seattle with all our rain has it's upsides and downsides

 

When I wash BDBS I put a quart in a bowl in the sink with warm water running. I stir with my hand. Once the bowl is full I dump the water out and repeat. Three time total then I dump the quart of BDBS into a 5 gallon bucket.

Every other quart, I add a 1/2 cap of Prime to the bucket to declorinate.

I can do 1/2 bag (25lbs) in a little over an hour so it isn’t quick, but not overly time consuming either.

But at $8 a bag, it’s cheap.

 

Update:
In another thread, I asked for stocking advice:
Help - Stocking For 37g Tall

I then promptly ignored it, and have kept it as a billion endler (OK, 'only' around 25 or so), a million ramshorn and bladder snails (I mean it this time), and I added a female betta in a moment of weakness. And a TON of plants, since Petsmart had a ton on 80% off clearance:
Question - Is There Such A Thing As Too Many Plants?

So this is it now. Pardon the low light, but I took this at 4AM

 

It was such a beautiful piece of driftwood, and you can't even see it anymore *le sob*
Ah well. And the betta girl, Sweetheart:


Not sure if this will be her permanent home if I do get some of the other fish I was looking at, but for now she is ruling it

 

Pretty betta. I’m sure she is loving her aqua-jungle

 

IMO no!

But I love plants and most of my tanks are pretty overgrown.

Never heard the fish complain though.