My Tank

Hi Folks,

It's been over a decade since I had an aquarium, and I'm finally in a position to get going again. I bought myself a tank today and as I go through my journey, I'll keep this thread ticking over with ideas, thoughts, photographs and video footage.

Hope you all enjoy!

 

Ok, so here are some visuals: The whole unit and the sump..

 

wow..nice cube.. what u plannin for this tank?

 

Thanks @shihr

I was pondering over a number of things from a tropical tank to a malawi tank to a marine thank, but because it's been about a decade or longer since I kept an aquarium, I think I'm going to go with tropicals just because I have decent knowledge about them and feel it's a good way to get back into the whole hobby. I'm thinking lots of time spent creating a beautiful landscape with all sorts of plants and some bogwood..

What do you reckon?

 

what are the dimentions of ur tank?

it seems a bit tall.. which tells me that if you want a planted tank you will need quite abit of lighting..

other than that, for a cube, i'd create a mound in the middle where i place rocks and driftwood also planting only in the middle.. this will be able to give it a nice view 360 deg.. no matter where you look at the tank

fish, im a very big tetra fan.. so i'd get a huge school of one species, corys and hatchet fish.. oh and maybe some dwarf chiclids to keep things interesting i know this fish stock list is always what i suggest but its my preference

 

Very nice!! Welcome and enjoy!!

 

@shihr - Unfortunately I'm in the office, so I don't have exact dimensions with me, but I'll get them this evening and post them up. The placing of items in the center is definitely a popular choice for cube's and I'm considering it - I've even been juggling with ideas of using a stack of slate pieces in the middle, but I'm not sold quite yet.

I was was wondering about getting black gravel, black backing and then going with a very like type of rock in the center and then tetra's might look quite awesome.

So much of ideas!

@WaRn00b - Thanks!

 

Ok, this isn't terribly interesting, but I said I'd keep the updates and photographs coming, so here's the lastest - @HenkHugo and I setting up a tank/sump via the Interwebs

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Few more:

 

Yip that centre island idee for cubes are great.
There are one that looks really cool but can't remember who made it.
Google always have great ideas in the picture section

Something I always wanted to try was that underwater waterfall, not sure how you are about
DIY?

Then you can start high up at the back centre and work down to the corners of the tank.
Anyhoo looks like henk got you sorted.

 

@Vis Oh ya, I've been spending a lot of time on Google Images, some incredible inspiration.

I must say, that's a pretty cool idea, I wonder if I could DIY something along these lines:



Ref: http://www.aquatic-eden.com/2007/10/creating-waterfall-illusion-underwater.html

My DIY isn't bad and I definitely want to DIY most of the tank as I find that half the fun. The main problem will be sourcing the right plants and such, but I'm sure I'll learn which ones are best as I get back into the hobby. Because this isn't a big tank and is located in my lounge, I know that I'll need to put a great deal of time and effort into how it looks, so if it's going to take time to explore options like the underwater waterfall, then so be it!

 

that looks way cool

 

Ye!

I got some PVC Weld, so I can get started on the tubs, but I need to get some clear tubing as well for attaching the PVC pipes to the pump - that's going to be interesting, because their diameters are different, can anyone say.. make shift solution coming up!

 

Chris, what lights do you have in that tank - looks very marine like .. so you might have to look at what needs to be done to make is suitable for your tropical scape.

Later Ferdie

 

@f-fish I was just on my way here to ask a question about that. I've got a HOPAR Moble: BT-206. T5 Aquarium Lamp - 72cm. Power: 14w x 2. Photograph below, but my question was that I have no idea how to secure the light, I duno if it goes on top or inside (because there is a lid)"??? It looks too big to me..



Any advice?

 

Right, now onto a few other things.

I got the large out pipe and the smaller in pipe in place, just need to connect the small in pipe to the filter, need some tubing:



The small in pipe goes really high up and needs to obviously pump water into the main tank, I'm thinking I need to get some tubing and put the tubing from the top of the in pipe into the actual main area of the tank? There is a little area in the overflow box, which is where I think the water needs to flow through before getting into the main tank though, indicated in yellow in the image, but then I need something fancy to get the water in there, which in turn flows into the main tank? I'm really confused about this area!!!



HELP!?

 

is that 32mm pvc ? can you maybe get a wider angle from the front ?

 

Here you go:

 

i think the return line should go directly back to the tank, you can use silicone tubing, but using pvc would just look much neater IMO. You would just use 3 elbows and a small piece of pvc tube (elbow to the right, then over the brace,elbow down and the finally just under the water level another elbow to the right) also remeber to drill a hole just under the water line in the return pipe, this will act as a syphon break should you have a power failure. Are you going to ad an durso or anything else to help silence the overflow ?

 

Bottom of the overflow box has slits leading into the main tank: