Heyo,
So I'm moving up in tank size big time, and for the first time. Just for my own fun, I'll be using this thread as a journal with pictures from beginning to end of setting up and transfer of my tank inhabitants. Warning: boring details and some ranting.
I have a120 gallon glass with a black wood stand. For filtration, I have a used Fluval 405 that I got with the tank. That's of course not enough, so I bought a new Fluval 406 to run along side it.
For substrate, I had my lfs order in 40lbs (I'll order more if I like it when it comes in next week) of caribsea, crystal river from the super natural line.
I have several fish to move over including a 5 inch retic ray.
Day 1: I moved the tank into a flat, level spot that I liked. I opened the used canister filter and discovered a nightmare! It looked like it was just full of semi-dried brown mud. I spent couple of hours cleaning it and in the process I broke the impeller well cover. I kinda freaked at first until I googled the part and saw it was common and inexpensive. I called my fav lfs and they had the part and I needed filter media anyway so I headed in.
I purchased everything, but not quite all the media I wanted. They didn't have any prefilter media, or polishing pad so I choose to do two compartments of carbon, and the top two with biomax.
While I was at the store I also purchased 6 feeder goldfish. Now I'll likely come under fire for doing this to get my cycle going. Let me just say that I did not know about fishless cycling when I set up my current and first tank, so I used goldfish. It worked well for me, the goldfish were taken care of and were rehomed when the job was done. The only other life they would have had would was to be eaten alive. I'm going to use goldfish again, and a few other tricks I've got up my sleeve to speed it up and minimize spikes.
I came home and first things first I put about 30 gallons in the 120 and floated the goldfish bags. In the mean time I was finishing the cleaning and prep for the canister. I put in another 10 gallons, and let the goldfish free in the best tank environment they've had in their terrible life.
Day 2: For reasons I won't go into, I have to fill the tank 9 gallons at a time with a 10 gallon bin. I spent considerable time and energy doing this! Then opened and rinsed my media and put it in the baskets. One problem I had was that one of the carbon bags was not completely sewed closed so I hand stitched it with fishing line.
The boxes are stacked in the same order I put my media into the baskets.
Finally its time to hook up the fluval 405 filter. I discover that the previous owner didn't ever cut the hoses to the proper length so I put everything where I wanted it and cut the hoses for optimal operation.
Finally with the hoses in place, I primed the filter (simple and fast) and turned it on. Even after cleaning the filter, a bunch of crap shot out that I netted and got with a gravel vac. Its a pretty quite filter, not really worth hyping, but MUCH quieter than the hob (penguin 350)I had before. I put the lids on, plugged in the light, and sat back to enjoy my labor so far.
Tomorrow is day three. I'll be hooking up the fluval 406, and other good stuff.
So I'm moving up in tank size big time, and for the first time. Just for my own fun, I'll be using this thread as a journal with pictures from beginning to end of setting up and transfer of my tank inhabitants. Warning: boring details and some ranting.
I have a120 gallon glass with a black wood stand. For filtration, I have a used Fluval 405 that I got with the tank. That's of course not enough, so I bought a new Fluval 406 to run along side it.
For substrate, I had my lfs order in 40lbs (I'll order more if I like it when it comes in next week) of caribsea, crystal river from the super natural line.
I have several fish to move over including a 5 inch retic ray.
Day 1: I moved the tank into a flat, level spot that I liked. I opened the used canister filter and discovered a nightmare! It looked like it was just full of semi-dried brown mud. I spent couple of hours cleaning it and in the process I broke the impeller well cover. I kinda freaked at first until I googled the part and saw it was common and inexpensive. I called my fav lfs and they had the part and I needed filter media anyway so I headed in.
I purchased everything, but not quite all the media I wanted. They didn't have any prefilter media, or polishing pad so I choose to do two compartments of carbon, and the top two with biomax.
While I was at the store I also purchased 6 feeder goldfish. Now I'll likely come under fire for doing this to get my cycle going. Let me just say that I did not know about fishless cycling when I set up my current and first tank, so I used goldfish. It worked well for me, the goldfish were taken care of and were rehomed when the job was done. The only other life they would have had would was to be eaten alive. I'm going to use goldfish again, and a few other tricks I've got up my sleeve to speed it up and minimize spikes.
I came home and first things first I put about 30 gallons in the 120 and floated the goldfish bags. In the mean time I was finishing the cleaning and prep for the canister. I put in another 10 gallons, and let the goldfish free in the best tank environment they've had in their terrible life.
Day 2: For reasons I won't go into, I have to fill the tank 9 gallons at a time with a 10 gallon bin. I spent considerable time and energy doing this! Then opened and rinsed my media and put it in the baskets. One problem I had was that one of the carbon bags was not completely sewed closed so I hand stitched it with fishing line.
The boxes are stacked in the same order I put my media into the baskets.
Finally its time to hook up the fluval 405 filter. I discover that the previous owner didn't ever cut the hoses to the proper length so I put everything where I wanted it and cut the hoses for optimal operation.
Finally with the hoses in place, I primed the filter (simple and fast) and turned it on. Even after cleaning the filter, a bunch of crap shot out that I netted and got with a gravel vac. Its a pretty quite filter, not really worth hyping, but MUCH quieter than the hob (penguin 350)I had before. I put the lids on, plugged in the light, and sat back to enjoy my labor so far.
Tomorrow is day three. I'll be hooking up the fluval 406, and other good stuff.
