David R's 370g thread...

[David R]

Haha I know that feeling all too well, spend a fortune on it them sell it for less than the sum total of the parts...


Sump is now in place and full of water, just waiting for the gue to set before I switch it on. Feels good to be making progress with it, seems like every time I do something to the tank something good happens. The day I ordered the tank I got a phonecall from the shop to say they're going to be getting black aros in after not being able to get them for years. Then when I broke the old sump down and took it to get remade I got an email saying the breeding pair of uaru I gave away had finally done the deed and there was a group of young waiting for me. And now today while I was at Plumbing World getting the bits needed to plumb the sump I got a call saying the shop had managed to source a replacement black aro for the one I lost a couple of weeks ago. So happy!!!

Anyway, here's some pics, I'll make sure its running right before loading it up with the media that has been seeding in my other sumps for the past six months. The dead-end pipe sticking out the left end will eventually be set up as a drain for a continuous drip system.

 

[Garlover]

lookin really good

 

[David R]

Well its all up and running, and even has a bit of media in it. The filter bags are working well, but I don't get why people suggest to have them out of the water, unless the water level in the bag rises as they clog, its only the submerged part thats doing anything.

Unfortunately I've had to use a tap to bleed a bit off the return pump as it was flowing too fast for the bulkheads, it was fine with the old set up but with the bags it has shorter pipes off the bulkheads and [I guess?} gravity isn't doing as much to pull the water through. A little disappointed, but its not the end of the world, tank should still have 4-5x turn-over per hour, plus a small amount being recirculated back through the bio media. If I eventually find its not keeping up I'll chuck a dirty great canister on it, kinda wish I'd done that to start with, would have been finished 6 months ago!

Just checked the water and the 160g housing the geos and other fish destined for the 370g is up to 7.2 now after a few water changes and some crushed coral, so I'm happy its close enough to the 7.5 of the 370g to start transferring fish over. The 160g was running at about 6.0 and I didn't want to shock the fish with an increase of 1.5, which is why I've been adjusting the water.
Fingers crossed no disasters happen tonight.....

 

[David R]

Geos are finally in the tank!!!!!!

And a terrible pic to show what it looks like, tank only has one old 4' T8 light at the moment and the room is very bright, so about the worst possible conditions for trying to take photos. Excuse all the clutter you can see in the reflection...

I got two surprises while moving them. First, I thought I only had 11, but I actually have 12! They're pretty hard to count when they're all swimming around in a tank, but in the bin I was able to get an accurate count on them. And the second surprise...

Hannah (my partner, who has been an amazing help throughout this project, couldn't ask for a better more tolerant woman!) was siphoning the water out of the 120L bin we had used to acclimatise them and says "there's something moving in here!". I thought it was just because of the heat in the fish room (30C +90% humidity at the moment) but she was right, there's about 30 fry! I hadn't even noticed them spawning, she must have spat the fry while in the bin. I've got nowhere to put them, but one of the guys at the LFS has a spare tank so he'll take them.

I'm pretty pleased with how the tank looks, can't wait to get some decent lights on it and get the plecs in there!! And as usual, Toby had to oversee the proceedings...

 

[ceeej31]

great job and congrats!, even with that pic i can tell that they look spectacular in their new home

 

[valderi123]

sweet tank

 

[Loves severums]

wow cool tank

 

[David R]

I should have taken a photo of the fish with something to show scale, the biggest geo is nearly as long as my 20cm net is wide.

 

[Sethg]

Progress!! looking good man

 

[mu_2176]

i envy your tank mate!
love it, very natural!
what type of altifrons you got?

any fts of the tank? would love to see more pics!