a predicament

[Jbulls54]

i have some good news and bad news

The day before yesterday my red-tail shark sadly past away, rip Edward

on the good news i now own a 30gallon fishtank....
My mum when she was out looking at a second hand shop spotted the fishtank for 20 australian dollars. considering the price for it and the stand which when i was looking else where was about 700-800 im very very very happy with the price. She says i have to build walls for the stand. along with that it will need a lid as it does not really have one at the moment. along with this i have to place it inside the house where it will live, clean it, redo some of the apoxy as it is slim in some places. and also the most important step of checking for leaks.

so i have to plan out the gravel, what filter i need, the lights, the lid, the sides of the base, the heater, and then finally the last set up and then what fish to put in it.

117 litre, 31 us liquid gallon, 25.85 imperial gallon

 

[FishAddict74]

LOL! And a colony of beetles. . .That's great. I suppose if we're counting enclosures without fish I also have a 65g hex terrarium overgrown with mosses and ferns with a healthy colony of naturally-occurring microfauna. Back in my heyday I had a couple of indoor ponds in Rubbermaid livestock totes. That's where I kept the larger fish. Now the question becomes, is it possible to build some sort of paludarium where you can keep fish, plants, reptiles, and beetles together?

A Rubbermaid tote is what I’m using for my pond. That terrarium sounds cool, but dammit now I want to try that lol
I think the paludarium is possible with the right combo. The feigning death beetles I have are good for a bioactive desert type setup. Maybe those with a small type of desert gecko and creosote and red yucca with something like pupfish or desert gobies could be pretty sweet.

 

[FishAddict74]

i have some good news and bad news

The day before yesterday my red-tail shark sadly past away, rip Edward

on the good news i now own a 30gallon fishtank....
My mum when she was out looking at a second hand shop spotted the fishtank for 20 australian dollars. considering the price for it and the stand which when i was looking else where was about 700-800 im very very very happy with the price. She says i have to build walls for the stand. along with that it will need a lid as it does not really have one at the moment. along with this i have to place it inside the house where it will live, clean it, redo some of the apoxy as it is slim in some places. and also the most important step of checking for leaks.

so i have to plan out the gravel, what filter i need, the lights, the lid, the sides of the base, the heater, and then finally the last set up and then what fish to put in it.

117 litre, 31 us liquid gallon, 25.85 imperial gallon

That’s a good looking tank! I’m not too knowledgeable about sumps, but I think with that tank a sump or a canister would be the way to go. Personally I think sand looks better than gravel, but it also depends what you intend to keep in it

 

[Pinkey]

Nice find! Yes, it's a lot of work. While I don't mind doing lots of work, I also try to avoid extra work. If it were mine and I had a great back yard like you do, I'd fill it with water now to check for leaks before doing anything else. It might be perfectly fine as it is and need nothing. Set it up for a few days. You'll know if it starts dripping. Also, lids are optional in some cases. There are plenty of fish that jump. I like no lids because I think it's cool to look down into my tank like a small pond or lake. I live where it's dry and open tanks raise the humidity in my house in the winter which I really like.

Hmm. . .Australia has a reputation through the rest of the world that you have crazy predatory animals and bugs and nature in general. If you were anywhere else in the world I'd assume you're only talking about fish jumping. In Australia, you never know what might crawl into the tank at night and lay eggs.

Other than leaking, lids, and a filter, the rest is art. Every art project inspires the next one. Sometimes I get a tank that has a period of perfection but then something changes. Either the plants start doing something different or I get a new idea. The worst one was a few years ago. I had a 125g tank that had a great carpet of val growing out of sand. I had 3 oscars and two large pictus cats that all left the plants alone and got along great. I appreciate nature's ecosystem and though I had plenty of snails and some other tiny bugs, I thought I'd add a colony of blackworms to live in the substrate and make the whole thing a little more natural. Well, the catfish discovered the worms and were so excited to eat each and every one of them that they tore through every single plant and dug up the entire tank that had taken years to grow in just a week. It has never been the same since.

Good luck with it all.

 

[Pinkey]

That’s a good looking tank! I’m not too knowledgeable about sumps, but I think with that tank a sump or a canister would be the way to go. Personally I think sand looks better than gravel, but it also depends what you intend to keep in it

I see how we're working together here. Yes. . .a sump. Probably a 55g sump. What? You mean I could just use that as the tank? What a great idea. The 30 is now the sump. I might as well light and plant it. With lights and plants it kind of needs a separate sump of its own. . .

 

[Pinkey]

A Rubbermaid tote is what I’m using for my pond. That terrarium sounds cool, but dammit now I want to try that lol
I think the paludarium is possible with the right combo. The feigning death beetles I have are good for a bioactive desert type setup. Maybe those with a small type of desert gecko and creosote and red yucca with something like pupfish or desert gobies could be pretty sweet.

Rubbermaid is the way to go. Those things are awesome. You see, if you built an island in the middle of the tub you could have small land life, too. Another equally awesome idea; use cinder blocks (or something more artistic from a landscaping place where it's really cheap compared to aquarium stuff). The cinderblocks would go to near water level. Build the island on those in a large plant pot tray at the right level. Then, invert a smaller aquarium over the island, and now you have a terrarium in a pond with a way to keep the plants humid and the land life in captivity! Start a new thread with photos!

 

[Jbulls54]

it has been a while since i have posted here, and i am happy to say that with 25% the largest tank holds up. this is a stupid move but the large tank has been sat outside since the day we brought it home. In that position i have filled it to 25% of its capacity for the last 3 days, some of the marks i did on the side of the tank are now above the water line but the more accurate ones i drew are still at the water line. im going to conclude that some evaporated.

today is a water change so im going to do about 20% of the 64L and im going to clean up the filter sponge, for the next filter im definitely not getting another one of the f101 internal filter again because it cannot be adjusted for flow-rate and so i have a janky double spray bar set up and it seems to work.

i have a nitrite reader in the fish tank and its reading as safe, along with a PH reader which is reading as about 7.4. so im going to leave the carbon filter and change half of the white cloth filter medium.

also i found out recently after looking online for substrate for my new tank that the one i have current is apparently not suitable for fish tanks ... its made of quartz but it was a bit jagged, i have wash it many times and it has since lost that quality.

Okay so i have a question, when syphoning the water from the fish tank do you have one of those fancy one way value devices and do you recommend? i use a 100ml syringe to start the flow.

 

[Pinkey]

Okay so i have a question, when syphoning the water from the fish tank do you have one of those fancy one way value devices and do you recommend? i use a 100ml syringe to start the flow.

I just use a Python hose and drain out the window. The worse your aquarium water is, the better it is for plants. Fish waste = fertilizer. I also water my indoor plants every week which kind of counts as a water change. One of the best pieces of advice I ever got about aquariums is to keep a journal. Test your tap water. Test your tank parameters. You only need to change water when something builds up. A 30 gallon tank with a single shrimp in it will need a water change once a year or so. A 30 gallon tank with an adult oscar will need a water change every 8 hours. You'll get to know your tank after a while. Write down filter changes, equipment changes, and everything else you do. Patterns will show up over time.

As far as substrate goes, there will be plenty of trial and error over the years. Quartz is silicone dioxide and inert. It will not react with your water or cause problems. The potential problem is only for some bottom dwelling fish or some fish that sift through the gravel a lot. Many fish are plenty tough and won't have any issues. Some have softer underbellies and may abrade. If your fish spend a lot of time digging through or laying on the ground, it might matter. If you have a bunch of middle and top fish, it won't matter much at all.