600g DIY plywood build

Niners4952

Candiru
MFK Member
Jan 17, 2016
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I was meaning the returns would be over the top and for the drains I would be drilling holes at the top of the back panel and putting bulkheads. I watched a couple of videos on you tube about it but still a little unsure of the whole box thing
 
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DIFish

Plecostomus
MFK Member
Jul 30, 2015
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St. Louis
I was meaning the returns would be over the top and for the drains I would be drilling holes at the top of the back panel and putting bulkheads. I watched a couple of videos on you tube about it but still a little unsure of the whole box thing
Ahh, that makes more sense. I don't like the look of the box, that's my only real complaint. It is supposed to clean the water better with more surface skimming, but plenty of people have succes doing it other ways.
 
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Niners4952

Candiru
MFK Member
Jan 17, 2016
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Also did you put the glass in with the top bracing already in and how much of the glass surface did you glue? Looks like only a couple of inches
 
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DIFish

Plecostomus
MFK Member
Jul 30, 2015
158
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St. Louis
Just a small update, ordered the first batch of fish for my tank! I cannot wait for friday to get here soon enough. I am still skeptical of my cycle being truly finished, so I am going pretty light with just 8 small fish for the moment. I will get pics up over the weekend once they have settled in granted everything goes well.
 

DIFish

Plecostomus
MFK Member
Jul 30, 2015
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St. Louis
Well everything definitely did not go well! I had 8 fish come in from 2 separate vendors. 6 fish together that were shipped same day and in a box less than 8 hours, and 2 fish that were overnight shipped and in a box for almost 24 hours. Can you guess which box I had problems with? If you guessed the fish that spent almost a day in shipping, you are wrong just like me! I assumed the overnight fish would be in bad shape so I started acclimating them first, however they did not seem distressed at all and the water in their bags was immaculate as if they were just put in. While I was starting on them I figured why not check out my other fish, if the longer shipping time looked this good these others should be perfect! Boy was I wrong. As soon as I opened the box the smell of dead and rotting fish filled the room. There was 2 fish per bag, 3 bags total. 1 bag was leaking and almost out of water, but if the other bag of fish was the same I would have been happy.... The smell was coming from a bag of fish that was literally brown, so dark that I couldn't see the fish inside. Every fish from this 8 hour trip looked like they were about to roll over dead, and I couldn't even see 2 of them. Needless to say I put them all in my quarintine/acclimation tank asap, and using my best judgment, didn't even bother with acclimation because I was more concerned about getting them out of the water that was killing them. Unfortunately I lost a fish already that went belly up as soon as he hit the water, and a couple others are just sitting on the bottom of the tank not moving much even though it's been a couple hours. I am not a very happy camper at the moment, but I am hoping the rest pull through. I think it's kinda sad that the most stressful part of my aquarium build this far has been adding fish...
 

DIFish

Plecostomus
MFK Member
Jul 30, 2015
158
217
61
St. Louis
Wow, im sorry to hear about the bad processing of your fish.
Thanks, I am a little bummed out, but all the other fish are doing better I think so it is not as bad as it could have been. Here are photos as promised, the lighting is only halfway on because all the fish still seem pretty stressed, especially my datnoid and ornate bichir. I haven't seen either more than a handful of times as they hide under rocks and in the corners of the tank. Mostly the only fish I can see so far is the group of 5 altifrons( was 6). Hopefully more pictures to come as these guys recover and get used to the tank. The only fish I fear might have lasting problems is the datnoid as he has been swimming sideways all day and even slept on his side.
IMG_6368.JPG IMG_6369.JPG IMG_6383.JPG IMG_6373.JPG IMG_6385.JPG IMG_6387.JPG
 
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