Japes' 2010 Eartheater Work/Photolog
- Thread starter japes
- Start date
Ok, after pretty much five flat out days of crafting, moving, painting, setting up and cleaning, the 215 system is up and running.
I didn't get as much photos of the setup process I would have liked because I was basically on my feet for 12 hour days in hot, humid weather. Here we go in chronological order, split by days, from pickup.
Saturday, February 20.
2 hour drive both ways to pickup the tank. Had to remove the back seats completely out of my fathers Patrol instead of hiring a van/ute... and home:
Self explanatory. 6x2x2 with 2 32mm holes at either end.
3x15x18" Sump, with bulkheads and spraybars in. Very basic design, but still a solid amount of media capacity, and most importantly, room for a Jager 300W in the return chamber.
Sump spraybars.
Stand frame underway. If you're wondering why the posts at the nearest end are different, there's a door on that end wide enough to slide the sump straight in and out.
Single coat of paint on the tank.
Sunday, February 21.
Stand progress. Ply floor and top in, with lip. Can see the old 5x15 stand of mine behind it (got picked up today, thank god).
Paint done, four coats for those curious. Little patchy on the back, but it makes no difference.
.. and now for the 30 odd meter trek, up steps in the backyard, into the house. Luckily there was 4 of us.
Stand and tank in, with doors open to show how it's setup.
Sump in, and plumbed, with Eheim Compact+ 5000.
Plumbing done, with taps easily accessible.
Fluval FX5 Nozzle for the return, purchased the setup, including U clamp and suction cups brand new. Unfortunately Fluval don't like Glass tanks, and designed it for acrylic tanks that don't have as much bracing (I presume, Acrylic tanks aren't big here) So it's setup a little differently, but still works well.
Lights on with tank pushed back into position. Done for the night.
Monday, February 22.
Had a meeting in the morning and was absolutely frothing to get home.. to wash sand.
Sand in. Ended up being 60kg Play Sand, 2kg of coarser sand in the back left corner, and a few handfuls of small aquarium gravel. Additional stuff not pictured in above photograph.
Close up of bucket filling to try and minimise clouding. After filling it up a little more I had to run a rake through it to remove as much air as possible (got all of it), so it ended up clouding a bit more.
Beginning of scaping, driftwood in.
More water, leaves in, ended up removing the plant.
Ended up being a very long day, but I ended up having fish in later that night. Unfortunately I have no photographs.
The S. leucosticta haven't been netted or moved for between 12-18 months, and didn't enjoy it at all. There is a fair amount of split fins from both netting and stress in the tub, but nothing permanent. Should heal up completely over the next few days.
Tuesday, February 23.
Today was cleanup day, and a horrible one at that. After spending most of the day cleaning up all of the crap in the shed and house, as well as where the old 4x2 was, I had to move the 4x2 to the garage for an easy pickup.
The tank, which is in an alcove in the wall where a desk normally goes, would not budge at all on carpet, so we had to pull the tank out over the top of the covering lips on the front of the stand, without damaging them. This was bad enough as it is, but then the stand still wouldn't budge. After tilting it backwards and forwards it sort of "clipped out", to reveal this lovely mess.
Big tanks on carpet are bad. I'm presuming this mouldy mess was caused by sump evaporation and small amounts of spilt water each water change, but my carpet is ruined.
On a lighter note, heres a photo of the sump running.
Mechanical arrangement isn't how I really planned it but it works. I need to elevate those extension cables (the pump/heater cables are tiny, why? :/) to create a drip loop.
Coarse Black Foam > Semi-Coarse White Pads > .50 Micron Felt > Ceramic Glass Rings > 10L Seachem Matrix, 1L JBL Micromec, 4L EHFI Substrat, 1L EHFI Mech. > 600mL Seachem Purigen.
Fish enjoying themselves (settling disputes) Can see some of the main fin damage, especially the dorsal split on my dominant male in the top photo.
Wednesday, February 24.
Drove 90 minutes both ways for some more fish and driftwood today.
.. and the full shot you've all been waiting for:
Still slightly clouded.
Current residents are:
11x Satanoperca leucosticta
40x Hyphessobrycon rosaceus
10x Otocinclus sp.
Planning to add 15 Hemmigrammus occellifer when I can find some quality specimens.
Also have a 3x18x18 Rio Tapajos (Teles Pires) flooded woodland biotope launching completely late next week with the following:
5x Dicrossus maculatus
3x Taeniacara candidi (Wild, 1M 2F)
12x Hyphessobrycon heliacus
5x Otocinclus sp.
I didn't get as much photos of the setup process I would have liked because I was basically on my feet for 12 hour days in hot, humid weather. Here we go in chronological order, split by days, from pickup.
Saturday, February 20.
2 hour drive both ways to pickup the tank. Had to remove the back seats completely out of my fathers Patrol instead of hiring a van/ute... and home:
Self explanatory. 6x2x2 with 2 32mm holes at either end.
3x15x18" Sump, with bulkheads and spraybars in. Very basic design, but still a solid amount of media capacity, and most importantly, room for a Jager 300W in the return chamber.
Sump spraybars.
Stand frame underway. If you're wondering why the posts at the nearest end are different, there's a door on that end wide enough to slide the sump straight in and out.
Single coat of paint on the tank.
Sunday, February 21.
Stand progress. Ply floor and top in, with lip. Can see the old 5x15 stand of mine behind it (got picked up today, thank god).
Paint done, four coats for those curious. Little patchy on the back, but it makes no difference.
.. and now for the 30 odd meter trek, up steps in the backyard, into the house. Luckily there was 4 of us.
Stand and tank in, with doors open to show how it's setup.
Sump in, and plumbed, with Eheim Compact+ 5000.
Plumbing done, with taps easily accessible.
Fluval FX5 Nozzle for the return, purchased the setup, including U clamp and suction cups brand new. Unfortunately Fluval don't like Glass tanks, and designed it for acrylic tanks that don't have as much bracing (I presume, Acrylic tanks aren't big here) So it's setup a little differently, but still works well.
Lights on with tank pushed back into position. Done for the night.
Monday, February 22.
Had a meeting in the morning and was absolutely frothing to get home.. to wash sand.
Sand in. Ended up being 60kg Play Sand, 2kg of coarser sand in the back left corner, and a few handfuls of small aquarium gravel. Additional stuff not pictured in above photograph.
Close up of bucket filling to try and minimise clouding. After filling it up a little more I had to run a rake through it to remove as much air as possible (got all of it), so it ended up clouding a bit more.
Beginning of scaping, driftwood in.
More water, leaves in, ended up removing the plant.
Ended up being a very long day, but I ended up having fish in later that night. Unfortunately I have no photographs.
The S. leucosticta haven't been netted or moved for between 12-18 months, and didn't enjoy it at all. There is a fair amount of split fins from both netting and stress in the tub, but nothing permanent. Should heal up completely over the next few days.
Tuesday, February 23.
Today was cleanup day, and a horrible one at that. After spending most of the day cleaning up all of the crap in the shed and house, as well as where the old 4x2 was, I had to move the 4x2 to the garage for an easy pickup.
The tank, which is in an alcove in the wall where a desk normally goes, would not budge at all on carpet, so we had to pull the tank out over the top of the covering lips on the front of the stand, without damaging them. This was bad enough as it is, but then the stand still wouldn't budge. After tilting it backwards and forwards it sort of "clipped out", to reveal this lovely mess.
Big tanks on carpet are bad. I'm presuming this mouldy mess was caused by sump evaporation and small amounts of spilt water each water change, but my carpet is ruined.
On a lighter note, heres a photo of the sump running.
Mechanical arrangement isn't how I really planned it but it works. I need to elevate those extension cables (the pump/heater cables are tiny, why? :/) to create a drip loop.
Coarse Black Foam > Semi-Coarse White Pads > .50 Micron Felt > Ceramic Glass Rings > 10L Seachem Matrix, 1L JBL Micromec, 4L EHFI Substrat, 1L EHFI Mech. > 600mL Seachem Purigen.
Fish enjoying themselves (settling disputes) Can see some of the main fin damage, especially the dorsal split on my dominant male in the top photo.
Wednesday, February 24.
Drove 90 minutes both ways for some more fish and driftwood today.
.. and the full shot you've all been waiting for:
Still slightly clouded.
Current residents are:
11x Satanoperca leucosticta
40x Hyphessobrycon rosaceus
10x Otocinclus sp.
Planning to add 15 Hemmigrammus occellifer when I can find some quality specimens.
Also have a 3x18x18 Rio Tapajos (Teles Pires) flooded woodland biotope launching completely late next week with the following:
5x Dicrossus maculatus
3x Taeniacara candidi (Wild, 1M 2F)
12x Hyphessobrycon heliacus
5x Otocinclus sp.
The new tank scape is looking great japes, but then we all expected that.
I am curious as to why you painted the back of the last two tanks instead of using the vinyl method you used on earlier tanks that created those amazing backgrounds?
I am curious as to why you painted the back of the last two tanks instead of using the vinyl method you used on earlier tanks that created those amazing backgrounds?
Looks great as always. Like the time lined photos. Fantastic color on the new leuco's. Nicely Done.
The tank scape is far from final, but for now I'm quite happy with it. I painted the back of these two tanks because they'll be with me for a long time, when I knew the other two would not be. The vinyl is great, but its not 100% permanent, and I don't want to move a sumped 6x2x2 a few years down the track to redo a few slight issues with it. It's also cheaper to paint.darth pike;3920394; said:
There's no new leucosticta in thereevojoey;3920396; said:
In that case, the color on the Leuco's is fantastic. Especially the one with the red dorsal and nice trailer.japes;3920406; said:There's no new leucosticta in there
Cheers. I see where you got the thought of new S. leucosticta though. Only picked up a few more Rosy Tetra and the Otocinclus though.evojoey;3920502; said:In that case, the color on the Leuco's is fantastic. Especially the one with the red dorsal and nice trailer.
I quite like the look of my rearranged storage cupboard.
