New 50 G Acrylic Tank - Pics

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InJuxHurYlem

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Apr 6, 2011
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I knew it as soon as I setup the 20 G.......I was going to have to go bigger. Two days ago I finished setting up our 50 G. All I have are the fish and the decorations from the 20 G, but I already have an order from msjinkzd enroute and will be picking up some more Malaysian driftwood and plants today.

I'll be updating this as I go with pictures and video. For now, here is some perspective of how much larger the new tank is. Purely by chance, the stand I built for the 20 G was the absolute perfect size for a 50 G. I'm still setting up my router outside to make the drawer fronts and doors for the stand.

I wanted to get a 55 G tank, but anything over 36" in width apparently incurs a freight charge with the shipping companies and effectively doubles the cost of the tank. This 50 G SeaClear was shipped free from Petco. Looking at it, this really is the ideal size for what we're going for. I'm gonna have to raise that picture frame a little bit through. :)

20g.JPG


50g.JPG
 
Very nice.
 
Very nice! I looked into getting that same model tank a while ago, but i decided against it after hearing stories about the tank losing its shape over time. I hope that doesn't happen, because it is a very nice tank!
 
Well, not even a week in, we have a snail problem. We caught a few small snails and had snail eggs floating in the water. We absolutely hate snails. They goo up the acrylic, die and float on the surface, are always hanging on the plants. Ugh.

So we're tearing down and rebuilding. I cleaned the 20 G, filled it with water from the 50 G and will move the fish and shrimp over tomorrow. I have four Petcos within 15 minutes of my house and one of them happens to carry Eco-complete, so I got three bags of that as all the LFSs around here wanted at least $30 for Flourite Black. I'm not sure how we got the snails this time. But we aren't taking any chances. We'll be cleaning the filter and scrubbing the filter tubes and boiling the driftwood and tossing the plants. A nice way to spend an entire Saturday, but we should have everything back in place by the evening.
 
Eco-complete is an excellent substrate! I've had excellent results with it. Crypts, Vals and Swords grow like crazy in it!

Roy
 
So I transferred the fish and shrimp (that always sounds like an entree) to the old 20 G, emptied the 50 G of water and substrate, power washed the inside of the tank, and then swept it with an acrylic-safe foam pad. I put the tank back on the stand and went outside to clean the filter tubing, but first I had to clean the filter. I open it up and there are tiny snails in every compartment from the coarse filter all the way to the fine filter at the end. So, ya, it makes sense how the snails were able to show themselves so quickly in a new tank. It never occurred to me that the snails could have colonized the filter.

I basically need to replace everything and nobody around here carries Eheim accessories. Odds are I'll just go get a new filter.

BTW, the new plants we order from LiveAquaria came with snails. We quarantined them while we resolve the tank issue. We go look in their bucket and there is a snail up on the waterline. That's how we got the snails in the first place, from the plants from a LFS. Now I'm trying to figure out a safe place to buy plants from.
 
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