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Aqauoak 200L escapade..

egon

egon

Member
Joined
22 May 2011
Messages
49
Location
N kent
Starting a journal up as I imagine the next few months are going to be a seriously steep learning curve.
I like a good story, so here goes...

My first tank foray started in a weird way. I was given a tank, cabinet and hood, along with T8 lights and a nice little timer unit (mk one-more on that later) for a crate of man beers.
The guy had hand made the lot from start to finish and it was the start of a slippery slope that culminates in me being here!!!
160L 3x3' T8, mahogany cabinet and hood.
Loads of learning later and I have a happy tank running on a fluval 405, co2 and plants growing...

Two kids appear on the scene and it turns out that kids and wooden floors don't make for a happy partnership. Several bruises and tears later and me & mrs Egon decide that carpet is a good move.
And I start looking at ridiculous size tanks...:)
Maidenhead aquatics being all of 500 yards away was the first choice and oak was demanded by swmbo...
Until they turned me down for credit...
(Experian 978 score...some people!!)

Cue 4 day sulk.

Then spotted an ad in a paper for "oak tank £250"
Too good to be true....bought it as soon as I saw it!
So it resides in my spare room awaiting my advance into aquascaping...

Plan:
Largish rocky outcropping on left flank on top of akadama, sandy Central avenue with smaller outcropping on the right.
Ideally for Cory, ancisytrus and khuli.

Filter:405 & hydor inline heater.

Oh and logistics of moving an old tank out and new tank in....
Let the fail begin!!!!
 
This all sounds like super fun can't wait to see it progress :)

Sent from my GT-I9505G using Tapatalk
 
Porksword said:
Any ideas for what type of plants your wanting to grow?
Click to expand...
Well I have the usual beginners type of plants, vallis, anubias (random one that seems to sprout then die back), some hair grass and three random mosses.
Oh and a couple of frogbit that seem to multiply exponentially when I'm not looking!!!!

I'd like a bit more colour but I think that reds are a bit hard going aren't they?
 
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Existing tank....
 
Whoa, never noticed how much the airline jumps out at you! Gotta change that!!!
 
Its all coming out at the end of the month anyway. Might look for some black co2 tube.
 
All sounds really exciting, I'm sure we'll all be watching your progress with much interest!! Looking forward to seeing some pics when you get it off the ground.
Harry.
 
10kg of akadama purchased from lee, a thoroughly nice chap that has a fantastic bonsai set up near me. £12.
Lee Verhorevoort Bonsai
T5's, led bar and slate pieces also waiting in the wings....shift buddy bought his spare tank in today so everyone has a temporary home.
Getting closer to d-day!!
 
Chaps, is there a good way of keeping the plants once I've removed them from the outgoing tank?
Temporarily (3-4 days) but didn't see much point in planting the hospital tank up!
Also need to offload a few bristlenoses as after a breeding pair I now have about 12 of them!!
(Free In dartford if anyone wants any!!)
 
Many moons ago I used to import plants from the far east. They usually took 2/3 days to arrive and were packed in wet newspaper inside a polythene box.
The plants will keep okay for a few days like that. Some people with algae problems will completely black out their tanks for a few days, the plants don't suffer too much in the dark for a few days and soon recover. The main thing is to keep them wet and not too cold.

Disclaimer!!;) This is the way I would do it but the risk has to be yours:nailbiting:.
 
I have kept plants in old tank water in a bucket in the cupboard for about a week before.

Please see above disclaimer ;)

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Heh, disclaimer acknowledged! :)
Sounds sound enough to me. Cheers guys.
 
Original tank disassembled and plants in a bucket of tank and clean dechlorinated water. Room temp will be fine, I think. Seems the vallis was trying to take over the world with feet upon feet of runners!!!
Got more plants than I originally hoped and managed to offload some ancisytrus too.
Everyone made it to the hospital tank safe, just need that carpet laid on Friday!!
 
8jsdM8k.jpg


Ok, carpet people did a fab job, and the furniture moved back in so finally I can get going!
Tank in position and two seperately areas of akadama with a sandy v shape seperating them.
Two large lumps of bogwood and some slate added to compliment the dark wood.
Only saved a few plants as I ordered an 18" pack from plantsalive. Planted the healthiest looking vallis at the back near the plec caves, hair grass at the front.
Mosses are sitting in the hospital tank at the mo to keep them warm and fuzzy!
Wasn't keen on just laying the t5's on top of the glass so I made up two plastic plates with holes in to poke the end caps through and keep them raised. Reflectors fitted too.
 
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