Well Its been an eventful weekend and an experience!
Started 8am Saturday morning and didn't stop until 9pm and I still had more to do!
It all started by draining the tank and removing the plants and fish into temporary accommodation.
home for a little while.
Next was to tackle the filters, pumps, lights, co2........
Once that lot had been stripped down and cleaned it was time to take apart the cabinet.
One thing I've learnt is to give your self plenty of scope to get pipes, tubes, plugs, etc through the back of the cabinet so many holes were cut. I didn't do the neatest of jobs but I had limited tools at home and needed to get it done quickly.
Back fixed back onto the cabinet and the lighting arms fixed in place. You can see the groves in the arms to raise the lights up and down.
Next I cut two 22mm holes for the filter tubing.
And then set about fitting the light box.
And gave it a test run, working ok at the moment.......
Next I cut the tubing. IF you're struggling with bent tubing and you need it straighter just soak it for a few minutes in boiling water then insert something straight into the tubing and run it under the cold tap for a few minutes and it will stay perfectly straight.
tubing and lily pipes installed.
filter installed and in the back ground you can see the knob that holds the lighting arm in place.
time to take a step back and have a quick bite.
Next was to install the heater and LED moonlighting.
The suckers on the LED's are knackered so I had to DIY a holder for them. again not the prettiest thing but you don't see them any way.
next was to add the soil substrate capped with floragrow, the wood and the stones.
Then the plants and finally stand back and watch it slowly fill up with water...........
The tank was nearly full when the first disaster happened. Because I had taken the wood out of the tank it had dried out to much and became buoyant.
It decided it didn't like its current position and floated to the top of the tank ripping out all of the plants along the way. This resulted in a cloudy, muddy mess of a tank.
It was getting late in the day so I decided it would be best to remove the wood and let the tank settle over night,
And thus concluded day one!