Setting up my two 40B tanks................finally!!

I finally managed to get the tank stand built to support the two 40B's i got on the 1$/gallon sale awhile back. It's meant to have them side by side. It's made with a pretty typical frame of 2x4's and plywood and trimmed with red oak. I spray painted it a satin black(other than the oak) to give it more of a furniture look. I made the base out of 2x6's, overbuilt I know, but I was thinking of setting two 10 gallon tanks down there as quarantine/hospital tanks and wanted them a little higher. This turned out to be a mistake possibly as I'm not sure there really is enough room for them with all the filters etc... and it has reduced the height available for filters etc... underneath the stand.

I'll try to get a pic or two posted when I get home from work tonight.

The tank on the left will be a community tank of dwarf cichlids etc... , while the one on the right is going to showcase a quad of Otter point Jakes. or at least that's the plan at this point

Here's the stand.



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cobfreak said:

very cool setup and nice looking stand

Click to expand...

Thanks! I built the stand a little over-sized. It's dimensioned so I can swap out the two 40B's for a 210 if I can't help myself sometime in the future .

The right tank is currently going to be used as a growout tank for some Anomalochromis Thomasi, Hemichromis cristatus, and Cryptoheros nanoluteus that I'm hoping to get some pairs out of. Which is why it's currently so bare bones. I'm filtering it with a TOMS RP3 wet/dry model(rated for a 150gallon tank) to help insure the water conditions stay tip top when it's setup as a true breeding tank.

The left tank is where I'm going to be focusing my efforts for the moment. It's setup is going to be something like this;
Substrate=base of organic potting soil capped with eco-complete.

Plants; Pretty basic medium/low light stuff. Crypts, some swords, anubias on the driftwood, red root floaters on top, a dwarf lily, and hopefully something a little special to make it pop(suggestions welcome)

Lighting; I making a DIY hood with 3 hardware store clamp lamps mounted on a plywood plate that is connected to the top of the canopy via chain so I can adjust the height to get the intensity right for the plants. I'm going to start with three 13W(60W equivalents) 6500K CFLs unless I see a good deal on some LED type replacement bulbs before I get it set up.

Filtration; filter #1 is a Fluval 205 with a 200Watt Hydor inline heater. I want to find something to prefilter the intake for the 205 so suggestions are welcome. Filter #2 is an old Fluval 203 that I want to modify so it has a surface skimming intake/prefilter(similar to what you see for a wet/dry) as well as a return that disperses the force of the outflow. Again suggestions are not only welcome, but encouraged

Stock list; This is were it gets tricky. You can never keep everything you want, can you

Here's were it started, but it's not even close to final.
4 American Flagfish(sort of a requirement as I'm rehoming them from another setup that's getting to boisterous for them)
2 Anomalochromis Thomasi(also kind of a must as I already have four that I'm waiting to get a pair from)
10 Rummynose Tetras(Hemigrammis bleheri
10 Five banded barb(Puntias Pentazona)
4 Otoclincus cocoma
4 Peacock Gudgeon
4 Betta Imbellis
2 laetacara curviceps(pair)
2 Bolivian Rams(pair)

Can I say overstocked, yeah I know.
subtracting the Betta Imbellis as I think this crowd will just be too active for them
thinking of loosing the Rummynose just for bioload reasons( I do hate to as I like how they school so tightly)
probably loosing the Bolivian Ram pair out of concern that there won't be enough bottom room for everyone to have a territory.

I've got a ways to go before putting any stock in though, so plenty of time for everything to change. For now it's build the light, modify the filters and start collecting plants.