Hi
I wanted to document a little of my tank upgrade that I've gone through over the past few months.
It's not monster by some standards, but it's still a pretty big process to go through.
So firstly the old tank and stock...
210 litre (ish) or 55gal.
Owned this tank around 15 years and it's gone through quite a lot of changes.
Inhabitants are Gibbicep Pleco, royal panaque, 5 Filament Barbs, 7 Clown Loaches, striped zebra loach, pakistani loach, 3 male bristlenose pleco. (I think that's it?) Obviously overstocked, had been waiting for the wifes permission to upgrade.
So permission granted I continued by search and found a second hand 5' x 2' x 2.5' 600 litre (160gal). Exactly what I wanted: ND aquatics with lid on a modern stand filters etc included.
Currently housing some discus, clown loaches, corys, small tetra, bristlenose and a 3 beacon pleco.
Only problem was it was a 4-5 hr drive away. Time to call in some help for a lads roadtrip!
Moved the old tank to the next room.
Hired a van (should have gone bigger), picked up 2 mates and off we set.
Arrived about 2pm and spend 2 hours finishing the drain down.
Transferred fish into containers with airstones for the hang around and journey back.
Finished draining and removing the old sand before lugging 160kg of tank, stand, all equipment (including a lot of extras) and fish around the house and into a van which I really wish had been bigger! With half a mm to spare the tank and stand were in and the rest was packed in and around.
Back we drove, 4+ hours later after some nervy speedbumps, we dropped discus off at their new home (they were not part of my plans) and arrived home ready for the unload.
We needed to get the tank setup that night (I was trying to keep media alive), but the fish were temporarily going into the overstocked 200l.
Acclimatised the fish slowly (they were in RO, but I use tap water) and they were getting cold by this point.
Got everything else unloaded and stand into place. Wifes reaction was priceless (doghouse for me) but it has to go in the middle not to the right of the wall. "you mean I could have gone bigger?!?"
Called another mate, as it was a 4 man job to move the tank, and set that on top.
Pipes and electrics sorted, pizza stuffed in face, time add water!
Meanwhile lets put the fish in the temporary home.... Sadly the tetra didn't make it, but everything else was moved in.
Time to drop the lads off and go to bed, but not before switching filters on and nearly forgetting to add water conditioner! Very tired by this point.
Next morning... Time to check the tank. Heaters failed! OK, I have a backup and house was almost 20 deg C anyway.
And I forgot to move the whole tank back the extra 6" that I left for pipework fitting (did I mention I was tired?) so it's still a bit far out from the wall.
Over the next 2 days added new heater, sand, decor, plants, airstones etc. And here's the result.
Have to say I was pretty pleased
Meanwhile fish were surviving next door, but really needed to move to something bigger... (That's for the next post)
I wanted to document a little of my tank upgrade that I've gone through over the past few months.
It's not monster by some standards, but it's still a pretty big process to go through.
So firstly the old tank and stock...
210 litre (ish) or 55gal.
Owned this tank around 15 years and it's gone through quite a lot of changes.
Inhabitants are Gibbicep Pleco, royal panaque, 5 Filament Barbs, 7 Clown Loaches, striped zebra loach, pakistani loach, 3 male bristlenose pleco. (I think that's it?) Obviously overstocked, had been waiting for the wifes permission to upgrade.
So permission granted I continued by search and found a second hand 5' x 2' x 2.5' 600 litre (160gal). Exactly what I wanted: ND aquatics with lid on a modern stand filters etc included.
Currently housing some discus, clown loaches, corys, small tetra, bristlenose and a 3 beacon pleco.
Only problem was it was a 4-5 hr drive away. Time to call in some help for a lads roadtrip!
Moved the old tank to the next room.
Hired a van (should have gone bigger), picked up 2 mates and off we set.
Arrived about 2pm and spend 2 hours finishing the drain down.
Transferred fish into containers with airstones for the hang around and journey back.
Finished draining and removing the old sand before lugging 160kg of tank, stand, all equipment (including a lot of extras) and fish around the house and into a van which I really wish had been bigger! With half a mm to spare the tank and stand were in and the rest was packed in and around.
Back we drove, 4+ hours later after some nervy speedbumps, we dropped discus off at their new home (they were not part of my plans) and arrived home ready for the unload.
We needed to get the tank setup that night (I was trying to keep media alive), but the fish were temporarily going into the overstocked 200l.
Acclimatised the fish slowly (they were in RO, but I use tap water) and they were getting cold by this point.
Got everything else unloaded and stand into place. Wifes reaction was priceless (doghouse for me) but it has to go in the middle not to the right of the wall. "you mean I could have gone bigger?!?"
Called another mate, as it was a 4 man job to move the tank, and set that on top.
Pipes and electrics sorted, pizza stuffed in face, time add water!
Meanwhile lets put the fish in the temporary home.... Sadly the tetra didn't make it, but everything else was moved in.
Time to drop the lads off and go to bed, but not before switching filters on and nearly forgetting to add water conditioner! Very tired by this point.
Next morning... Time to check the tank. Heaters failed! OK, I have a backup and house was almost 20 deg C anyway.
And I forgot to move the whole tank back the extra 6" that I left for pipework fitting (did I mention I was tired?) so it's still a bit far out from the wall.
Over the next 2 days added new heater, sand, decor, plants, airstones etc. And here's the result.
Have to say I was pretty pleased
Meanwhile fish were surviving next door, but really needed to move to something bigger... (That's for the next post)
