Oh man that's terrible! Wow good on you to keep going. That's great your wife supports you too.
My first fish room
- Thread starter Matteus
- Start date
Haha ya I always introduce the room with the catchphrase -“ do you like my lighting- I did it myself”. Some people love it and others hate it.
I imagine at some point I will need to get an electrician in and do a more permanent lighting situation. But for now I just need to focus on getting my tanks set up and stabilized.
nice set up by the way, what is that a 350g?
So at this time I have already established where in my town to find the best plumbing parts (for the most part) and the guy at the hardware store is getting to know me. So I go in for one last trip to see him(2-3 times) and I get the overflow plumbed into this other pup tank. I originally had this tank drilled and added a top brace so I could possibly turn it into a sump with a lid some day if I choose to, or need that. Another idea I have is to make another 1-2 at the same size so I can do a racking system of it to maximize floor space.
So the magic leak test- my bulkhead was too small. When I grabbed it from the shop, it seems as if there was smaller sized bulkhead in the wrong drawer. I figured I would try it anyway, and
no it didn’t work, but I figured I’m here I might as well try. So another day added as I had to order it from Amazon. Hmm wait it’s Friday at 10:30 pm. Guess I have to wait to Monday with only this one stupid piece missing 
Once I got it ready to add water one of my friends says, “don’t you have styrofoam underneath It?” I was like no it’s sitting on osb should be fine.this tank is built like a tank(pun intended) 10mm glass on 14” tall... I scratched my head and headed back to the hardware store again. Why even chance it after all these shenanigans. Get there and turned out I had to get 2 pieces because I was short about 6” on one side- which was exactly perfect for this whole project. Lol
So the magic leak test- my bulkhead was too small. When I grabbed it from the shop, it seems as if there was smaller sized bulkhead in the wrong drawer. I figured I would try it anyway, and
no it didn’t work, but I figured I’m here I might as well try. So another day added as I had to order it from Amazon. Hmm wait it’s Friday at 10:30 pm. Guess I have to wait to Monday with only this one stupid piece missing Once I got it ready to add water one of my friends says, “don’t you have styrofoam underneath It?” I was like no it’s sitting on osb should be fine.this tank is built like a tank(pun intended) 10mm glass on 14” tall... I scratched my head and headed back to the hardware store again. Why even chance it after all these shenanigans. Get there and turned out I had to get 2 pieces because I was short about 6” on one side- which was exactly perfect for this whole project. Lol
So I finally got the bulk head, figured out the height I wanted my water level and started up the pump. It was so good to hear that water flowing and see it pumping through the sump. Man is that water ever pumping through there, hmm the sump is losing a lot water, oh shoot the tank is about to overflow, my ball valve is almost closed. So turns out my pump was way to strong for the tiny little overflow drain. Luckily I had a smaller pump to sub it out with. This pump and sump came from a 650g tank that was torn down after a leak happened. (Last 2 pics)
now I’m happy with the flow, it’s good to hear that water flowing again. But man is it ever gurgling so loud and obnoxiously. After much cussing and complaining I talk to a friend of mine about it and he advised to add a ball valve to bottom of the overflow to kind of fill up the tube. Haha I already have the ball valve from the other pump so I switch it over, I wait nope another trip to home hardware for a 3$ piece. I install it and boom no noise anymore even with the ball valve wide open. Neat, I love it when a plan comes together.
so my wife gets a message from out neighbor asking if we want their goldfish in a bowl because their 4 year old son isn’t taking care of them so she is going to teach him a lesson by getting rid of them. My wife says as long as you are ok with them being fed to other fish. But what my wife didn’t realize is that goldfish are so gross I wouldn’t even feed them to my fish. So I put them in the 7’ tank to live instead. Then once my fish arrive they can go in my brother in laws koi pond.
now I’m happy with the flow, it’s good to hear that water flowing again. But man is it ever gurgling so loud and obnoxiously. After much cussing and complaining I talk to a friend of mine about it and he advised to add a ball valve to bottom of the overflow to kind of fill up the tube. Haha I already have the ball valve from the other pump so I switch it over, I wait nope another trip to home hardware for a 3$ piece. I install it and boom no noise anymore even with the ball valve wide open. Neat, I love it when a plan comes together.
so my wife gets a message from out neighbor asking if we want their goldfish in a bowl because their 4 year old son isn’t taking care of them so she is going to teach him a lesson by getting rid of them. My wife says as long as you are ok with them being fed to other fish. But what my wife didn’t realize is that goldfish are so gross I wouldn’t even feed them to my fish. So I put them in the 7’ tank to live instead. Then once my fish arrive they can go in my brother in laws koi pond.
No it's only a 180 that, I had my camera on panoramic mode so I could sweep the whole room. That's why it looks so big. That picture was taken about 3 years ago, that tank is amass with jungle val now, I took those little potted plants out ages ago. I thought it looked great at the time, in reality it looks crap, lol.
By the way, I want that unusual tall tank.....and your cat, lol.
Haha naw both the tank and cat only look nice from the outside. The tank was 4x4x5 tall but wasn’t reinforced properly so it sprung a leak and cost the homeowner 10k plus to fix everything. I was part of the clean up crew.
the cat was super cute but a real terror. Clawing things and crapping all over the place outside of the litter box.
ya that set up looks real nice, even if it’s a 180. Lol
Not yet. I have a few options on the table but nothing finalized yet.
So if anyone reading this knows of any big tanks 300g + in southwestern Ontario area please hit me up.
Ok it’s game time. I got the pup tank set up. Brought my silver dollars over from in-laws house where I have a little 130g tank set up. Brought in my fx6 that has been running on their tank for last 6 months. And a bunch of ceramic rings that have been in the tank to load up my sump.
I watched the levels, and tweaked the sump, pump, plumbing for a week before we booked the flight. Things are looking good right?
Mhmm my wonderful wife, decides we need to go to the farm to boil the maple syrup because it’s maple syrup season.
I told her this is the worst timing everBut she insisted I go. so I have had water in the tank for like 2 days and had to leave it alone with the fish in there hoping nothing goes wrong. So this adds another week onto this agonizing long process.
Luckily no major casualties in my absence- things are starting to get better, just in time for my rays.
I watched the levels, and tweaked the sump, pump, plumbing for a week before we booked the flight. Things are looking good right?
Mhmm my wonderful wife, decides we need to go to the farm to boil the maple syrup because it’s maple syrup season.
I told her this is the worst timing everBut she insisted I go. so I have had water in the tank for like 2 days and had to leave it alone with the fish in there hoping nothing goes wrong. So this adds another week onto this agonizing long process.Luckily no major casualties in my absence- things are starting to get better, just in time for my rays.
I’m back now, rays are on route, heading to Toronto (roughly 3hrs away) to pick up the rays. All is good until I get to the airport. It looks nothing like the cargo area that I am used to in Calgary. It says to go to cargo 2 or something on the email. No one seems to be answering the number on the email I was sent. So I follow signs to go toward this cargo 2. They lead me up some stairs, across a really long hallway to a doorway that takes me to a long walkway, open the next set of doors and it is a hallway 2x longer than the first one and all these offices are abandoned. I’m starting to panic because it is 7pm on a Saturday and it is starting to look like I won’t be able to pick them up if they are closed.
I walk to the end of the longest hallway ever, thinking to myself, I hope they have a cart or something they can lend me, because these 2 boxes are going to be heavy af carrying them across all this way. I keep repeating to myself- don’t panic, don’t panic, panicking is never good, don’t panic. I get to the end and nothing there, a set of stairs so I go down them, and only a door leading to cargo 2 that is locked. So I try calling the number again, turns out I was just around the corner from where I needed to be but I mis read my gps location, which is why I ended up walking so far. So I walked back to my truck about 15 mins away and drove up to the right spot.
plane had arrived but cargo won’t be there for another hour. I think to myself , I should go eat something, but I almost threw up in my mouth I was so nervous after all that I had been through at this point.When I got the box, the rays were good so I speed home as fast as I could without getting a ticket. Alas I see that my beautiful rays have grown so much since I saw them last.
I walk to the end of the longest hallway ever, thinking to myself, I hope they have a cart or something they can lend me, because these 2 boxes are going to be heavy af carrying them across all this way. I keep repeating to myself- don’t panic, don’t panic, panicking is never good, don’t panic. I get to the end and nothing there, a set of stairs so I go down them, and only a door leading to cargo 2 that is locked. So I try calling the number again, turns out I was just around the corner from where I needed to be but I mis read my gps location, which is why I ended up walking so far. So I walked back to my truck about 15 mins away and drove up to the right spot.
plane had arrived but cargo won’t be there for another hour. I think to myself , I should go eat something, but I almost threw up in my mouth I was so nervous after all that I had been through at this point.When I got the box, the rays were good so I speed home as fast as I could without getting a ticket. Alas I see that my beautiful rays have grown so much since I saw them last.
