i thought i would do a thread on my 8yo sons community tank, he wanted an aquarium out of his birthday money, hes well into animals and wildlife in general, he keeps bugs, worms and all other types of stuff, he does look after them also so i had no worries about him looking after the fish with a bit of help from me,
not knowing alot about fishkeeping i did what most parents would do and headed off to a large pet chain, the one in the UK we have is called Pets at Home, i suppose its ok for a shop, can be a bit expensive though, we paid £80 for an Elite 60 Aquarium and £30 for the stand,
the aquarium came with a filter, heater and bottles of tap safe and bio start, we were off and running, i didnt know anything about cycling the tank, they told me to put water in it and leave it running for a week before adding fish,
we did as they said and a week later bought 5 cardinal tetra,
over the next week all but 1 of the tetra had perrished, still we did everything arse firsts, we didnt have gravel in yet, nor any plants, it was a learning curve and we were doing it backwards,
over the next few weeks we added some ornaments (unfortunately my 8yo loves spongebob), we had the lot, a pineapple under the sea, gary the snail and a host of other characters in there, at least it got us started and gave the tank a bit of character,
as the weeks went by i got the diy bug and decided to make myself a decent sump setup, the design i settled on was a drainpipe tower trickle fitler incorporated into a sump,
i work in manufacturing using cnc milling machines so i was able to cut perspex for my sump with no trouble at all, glued it together with acrylic glue and ran a bead of aquarium silicone just to be safe,
once the sump was done i persuaded my son to remove the sponge bob stuff and we went about redoing the tank,
our stock at the moment is
5 cardinal tetra
5 glowlight tetra
4 peppered cory`s
1 siamese fighter (male)
2 african dwarf frogs
1 zebra snail
pics and a vid follow to show where we are at at this moment,
(appologies for the generally poor video quality, only done with a camera phone)
[YT]<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/xahtTOAI4cc&hl=en_GB&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/xahtTOAI4cc&hl=en_GB&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>[/YT]
heres a couple of snaps of the tower filter, filled with pot scrubbies
the sump and return pipe into the tank
frogs hiding away in the corner
just cropped off the tops of the plants and redone them to hopefully make a thin but tall forest effect in the back corner, still need to plant some more over the next week or so
thanks for reading and any hints tips or advice will always be welcome
not knowing alot about fishkeeping i did what most parents would do and headed off to a large pet chain, the one in the UK we have is called Pets at Home, i suppose its ok for a shop, can be a bit expensive though, we paid £80 for an Elite 60 Aquarium and £30 for the stand,
the aquarium came with a filter, heater and bottles of tap safe and bio start, we were off and running, i didnt know anything about cycling the tank, they told me to put water in it and leave it running for a week before adding fish,
we did as they said and a week later bought 5 cardinal tetra,
over the next week all but 1 of the tetra had perrished, still we did everything arse firsts, we didnt have gravel in yet, nor any plants, it was a learning curve and we were doing it backwards,
over the next few weeks we added some ornaments (unfortunately my 8yo loves spongebob), we had the lot, a pineapple under the sea, gary the snail and a host of other characters in there, at least it got us started and gave the tank a bit of character,
as the weeks went by i got the diy bug and decided to make myself a decent sump setup, the design i settled on was a drainpipe tower trickle fitler incorporated into a sump,
i work in manufacturing using cnc milling machines so i was able to cut perspex for my sump with no trouble at all, glued it together with acrylic glue and ran a bead of aquarium silicone just to be safe,
once the sump was done i persuaded my son to remove the sponge bob stuff and we went about redoing the tank,
our stock at the moment is
5 cardinal tetra
5 glowlight tetra
4 peppered cory`s
1 siamese fighter (male)
2 african dwarf frogs
1 zebra snail
pics and a vid follow to show where we are at at this moment,
(appologies for the generally poor video quality, only done with a camera phone)
[YT]<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/xahtTOAI4cc&hl=en_GB&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/xahtTOAI4cc&hl=en_GB&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>[/YT]
heres a couple of snaps of the tower filter, filled with pot scrubbies
the sump and return pipe into the tank
frogs hiding away in the corner
just cropped off the tops of the plants and redone them to hopefully make a thin but tall forest effect in the back corner, still need to plant some more over the next week or so
thanks for reading and any hints tips or advice will always be welcome
