So far so good. I just finished filling the tank and I am nervous but happy. Nervous as it's a used tank, happy that the 300 is up and running. Have to go into the hardware store in the morning and buy some decent clamps. The clamp i put on my fx 5 mod incoming water gave way about 5 minutes into operation so buying new ones and replacing all of em. Nothing major as far as leaks are concerned. I've been watching this like a hawk and caught it when it first started to drip.
So some facts.
I live in a town house in millwoods. The floors are 2x8 construction and this place was built 30 years ago. So as you can imagine, there's been a lot of sag over the years. To the point where the floors bounce when you walk.
The challenge was to put the 300 gallon in the mainfloor dining room. There is no way the floor will sustain that wieght so I had to do some construction.
I doubled the joists. With the tank against a wall thats supported by concrete I simply added a 2x12 beam with a 12"x 1 3/4" piece of timberstrand sandwiched by 2x12. The posts are every 4' and are 3 2x6 screwed together. This will enable the floor to sustain the load. It took a lot of work and time as I am currently off on wcb so did this with one arm essentially. ha ha
After making sure it was perfectly level, I proceded to fill the tank, checking level and plumb every 75 gallons or so.
The stand was made with pressure treated 4x4 posts and 2x4 frame. with lots of bolstering with miters. The stand will be completed (cosmetics) by the end of june, both the stand and the canopy will be finished with cedar with aspen trim.
I have placed grapevine inthere wieghted with rock for a few months till the wood is properly soaked. I have elected to put a few plants on a beautiful half stump I found (all wood is grape vine from "just reptiles" on the west side by princess auto). I have 2 types of Crypto, and dwarf java fern. This will be the only plants in this aquarium.
For now I have put the snake skin gourami in there to be the guinea pig as I just finished the plumbing this morning. If he's still alive in the morning he will be followed by the tin foil barbs and the jack dempsey. (the jack and snakeskin are available for trade for plants as I am converting my 120 to a heavy planted community tank.)
I am rather proud of my diy spray bar. I have set it so its on top of the euro bracing in the middle of the tank and have created a "waterfall" that eliminates the need for an air pump. The other fx 5 is standard dispersal though i have replaced all the original lines with 1" white pvc (potable) and have found the flow rate to be fantastic (about 750 gph each estimated)
Pics will be taken and up-loaded in the morning when the light is better.
The canopy will be built on the 6th with the cabinet for the stand planned for the end of june.
The 300 will house:
a clown knife
2 red spot gold severums
1 stunning green/turqoise (i'm a guy and have no clue how to spell that lol) severum
2 black moors
1 viel fin goldfish
3 tin foil barbs (these guys have blue/pink scales, red fins with black tips)
2 senegal bichirs
1 chocolate pleco
1 mango pleco
1 albino clawed frog
1 jack dempsey (female)
1 snakeskin gourami
if he doesn't sell in the next 2 weeks i'll add the electric catfish
With the exception of the electric cat, all fish are in the 4"-6" range currently.
I am running 2 fluval fx 5's on this tank.
The canopy will be made with 4 x 4' double fl. lights, 2 x 250w metal halide, and blue led for night. I was thinking of adding a blacklight...what do you folks think? The metal halide's are being added for the heat produced. I'm going to monitor it closely but my hope is the heat will be sufficient that I don't have to put in heaters. Anyone have experience with this?
I cycled the filters in my 5yr old 120 for 6 weeks prior to adding them to the new tank, further I took all the substrate from the 120 and added it to the new tank with bottled bacteria. I've done this many times in the past and manage to avoid NTS, though those tanks were in the 50-80 gallon range.
Pics will be uploaded in the morning when the light's better.
So some facts.
I live in a town house in millwoods. The floors are 2x8 construction and this place was built 30 years ago. So as you can imagine, there's been a lot of sag over the years. To the point where the floors bounce when you walk.
The challenge was to put the 300 gallon in the mainfloor dining room. There is no way the floor will sustain that wieght so I had to do some construction.
I doubled the joists. With the tank against a wall thats supported by concrete I simply added a 2x12 beam with a 12"x 1 3/4" piece of timberstrand sandwiched by 2x12. The posts are every 4' and are 3 2x6 screwed together. This will enable the floor to sustain the load. It took a lot of work and time as I am currently off on wcb so did this with one arm essentially. ha ha
After making sure it was perfectly level, I proceded to fill the tank, checking level and plumb every 75 gallons or so.
The stand was made with pressure treated 4x4 posts and 2x4 frame. with lots of bolstering with miters. The stand will be completed (cosmetics) by the end of june, both the stand and the canopy will be finished with cedar with aspen trim.
I have placed grapevine inthere wieghted with rock for a few months till the wood is properly soaked. I have elected to put a few plants on a beautiful half stump I found (all wood is grape vine from "just reptiles" on the west side by princess auto). I have 2 types of Crypto, and dwarf java fern. This will be the only plants in this aquarium.
For now I have put the snake skin gourami in there to be the guinea pig as I just finished the plumbing this morning. If he's still alive in the morning he will be followed by the tin foil barbs and the jack dempsey. (the jack and snakeskin are available for trade for plants as I am converting my 120 to a heavy planted community tank.)
I am rather proud of my diy spray bar. I have set it so its on top of the euro bracing in the middle of the tank and have created a "waterfall" that eliminates the need for an air pump. The other fx 5 is standard dispersal though i have replaced all the original lines with 1" white pvc (potable) and have found the flow rate to be fantastic (about 750 gph each estimated)
Pics will be taken and up-loaded in the morning when the light is better.
The canopy will be built on the 6th with the cabinet for the stand planned for the end of june.
The 300 will house:
a clown knife
2 red spot gold severums
1 stunning green/turqoise (i'm a guy and have no clue how to spell that lol) severum
2 black moors
1 viel fin goldfish
3 tin foil barbs (these guys have blue/pink scales, red fins with black tips)
2 senegal bichirs
1 chocolate pleco
1 mango pleco
1 albino clawed frog
1 jack dempsey (female)
1 snakeskin gourami
if he doesn't sell in the next 2 weeks i'll add the electric catfish
With the exception of the electric cat, all fish are in the 4"-6" range currently.
I am running 2 fluval fx 5's on this tank.
The canopy will be made with 4 x 4' double fl. lights, 2 x 250w metal halide, and blue led for night. I was thinking of adding a blacklight...what do you folks think? The metal halide's are being added for the heat produced. I'm going to monitor it closely but my hope is the heat will be sufficient that I don't have to put in heaters. Anyone have experience with this?
I cycled the filters in my 5yr old 120 for 6 weeks prior to adding them to the new tank, further I took all the substrate from the 120 and added it to the new tank with bottled bacteria. I've done this many times in the past and manage to avoid NTS, though those tanks were in the 50-80 gallon range.
Pics will be uploaded in the morning when the light's better.
