I am very happy with my new 26g tank and thought I'd share! (journal)

[john_matrix]

Hello everyone. I just cycled the tank with some filter media from my 10 gallon established tank and the numbers checked out so I went and got some fish Saturday. (after MUCH reading about what fish I wanted.)

It's still a work in progress, there are more fish to come in a few weeks maybe.

I got the tank for free, it's a 26 or so gallon clarity plus acrylic. It was in my friend's dad's basement for YEARS and looked...well gross. It started off like this: :eek3:

Then after some vinegar and light scrubbing, I got it looking good:

So, after a few weeks of cycling, I have added:

Two Bolivian Rams. (Love these guys!)
Two Guoramis, a blue one and a dwarf one. I read in an actual book that the blue one would not be a problem...so far he seems ok but I am keeping my eyes on him.
A male and a female guppy just for fun. I will probably get more fancy guppies to keep them company soon.

For substrate I used Tahitian moon sand. I rinsed it well and it only took about 18 hours for the filter to make it crystal clear. I was surprised by that.

I also made the stand myself at a cost of $30 because I used some leftover wood from my parents' kitchen re-modeling project. It doesn't look the best but good enough for me!

Here are some pics:

In the future I'd like to do 12-15 schooling fish, possibly more fancy guppies or Cardinal Tetras. Suggestions on fish are welcome!!

I hope everyone likes the pics, this project has been very fun!

-Pat

 

[OrandaRookie]

Wow what a difference! Very pretty tank!

 

[OhNo123]

The sand you are using, does it get sucked up by vacuums easily? I doesn't look like regular sand.

Nice tank btw! I wish I had that tank rather then my boring rectangular 10g.

 

[Dangerdoll]

you've done a great job, John..... I guess you don't use the stand to store fishy stuff though. huh

 

[Que]

^^^ What she said..nice job.

Q

 

[john_matrix]

you've done a great job, John..... I guess you don't use the stand to store fishy stuff though. huh

Yeah, it's a simple tank stand for sure... I would have liked to have more storage, and there is a cut out in the back, but it's not very accessible.

I built the tank with my brother in law's help at his house. I wanted to get it done all in one day so there were time constraints...What can I say I was eager to fill the tank!

To build a good stand you def. need a lot of time.


And about the sand, it is Caribsea Tahitian Moon substrate. I just use a siphon style hose, no python or anything, so not much gets sucked up.

Here is a great vid on how to clean sand:
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/videos/cleaning_sand.php

Thanks for the compliments everyone! I am really enjoying the tank!

 

[irishspy]

Wow, you've really done a nice job with that. :clap:

 

[john_matrix]

Thank you!

 

[rich311k]

Nice looking tank. Very well done.

 

[erin14]

In the future I'd like to do 12-15 schooling fish, possibly more fancy guppies or Cardinal Tetras. Suggestions on fish are welcome!!

I hope everyone likes the pics, this project has been very fun!

-Pat

The shooling fish would be fine, but give your guppies like 2 weeks and you'll have lots more guppies and you won't have to go out and buy any (provided they don't get eaten!) By the way, very nice tank! I bet you could grow some realllllly nice live plants in there, looks pretty good though, i like it!