TANK STAND

 

 

5 TANK STAND

 

I bought this tank stand and tanks from the fish shop in Yeoville, about 14 years ago in 1991.

The idea was to set it up to breed fish. Unfortunately, as described before :  Final school exams, technicon, moving out, girls, nightclubs, getting married etc.. left the tank standing in the garage at my old mans house for years.

 

There are 4 100L tanks and a 4 foot 166L tank

 

I decided to put them where my 200L tank stands and setup the top two 100L tanks as marine, the middle two with one as a brackish and one as a paludarium.

The lower 166L would house my old 200L stock and equipment as a planted community.

 

I had to sand down the stand and weld in replacement pieces that were too rusted. Paint it with water resist paint and cut out wood cladding to make it presentable inside

I started all this in mid 2003 and finally had it ready to move into the house in May 2005!

 

Finally sanded, welded and painted.

 

The tanks were painted baby blue, I had to scrape it off with a razor - it took ages!

 

More tanks.

 

The cut wood - took ages- stained and varnished.

 

Below are pics of the move, which took 2 days.

 

Starting the teardown.

 

Plants roots definitely do grow down under your UGF!

 

All my plants and fish in a temporary 100L tank.

 

The stand finally inside, after 2 years of planning.

 

The light ballasts behind the tank.

 

Installing the filter, a Penn Plax 700.

 

A  plastic baffle (A black plastic dustbin from Waltons) is siliconed to the tanks one corner.

It hides the heater and CO2 diffuser as well as the filter intake pipe.

The baffle is drilled to let water in and you have a tank with no visible equipment.

 

JEBO's crappy electronic CO2 system which I have subsequently removed as it does not work.



Replaced with a CO2 fireextinguisher and CO2 regulator with bubble step ladder.



Auto refill system using reed switch with magnetic float

 

The reflectors joined together with some Perspex strips.

 

Lights installed and plants moved to tank.

 

I filled the tank with fresh water and dechlorinated it. I added some biostarter and left it for 24 hours.

24 hours later I would take a bucket of water from the new tank to the holding tank and do a swop every 10 mins.

After 2 hours I reckoned the fish would have acclimatized and I netted them into their new home.

 

Some of the wood cladding installed.

Notice the sump for the marine tanks.

 

All of the wood cladding in place.

The top two will be marine and the middle left brackish. The middle right will be a paludarium. (hopefully freshwater river crabs).



Setting up the Paludarium. 


Setting up the Paludarium. The rocks are placed on Styrofoam pieces to stop them slipping.

 

Shot of the two tanks now running in the stand - 25 May 2005.

 

Brackish tank added, two Green Spotted  puffers living in there (Tetraodon nigrifilis). - June 2005.

 

The tank stand as at Dec 2005.

The Marine tanks are setup, The Paludarium has been changed to a

Cichlid tank and the Brackish and Tropical tanks have matured.









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