Flora Planted

Just a quick update. During the course of this week I have acquired some plants, which have now been planted. I will post more about each one later on.

Still looking a bit sparse so will be popping into the local fish shop to acquire a few more. Of course once they start growing the tank will fill up a bit more. 

The tank is still a bit cloudy, but each day it has been improving, so it appears the filtering is working.  

Gravelled And Watered

It has taken L and I 3 nights worth of gravel washing to get the 35 kg of Dorset pea gravel clean so that it can go into the tank. Unfortunately the gravel is covered with a fine dust that takes on average about 4 washes before the clear water runs off it. But it was worth it as the gravel looks great with the backing and the bogwood on top of it. 

Once the gravel was in, it took 23.5 bucket loads of normal tap water to fill the tank. After which I switched on the filter pump and heater. By tomorrow the tank should be warm enough to start planting plants, but we will have to do a bit of shopping for them first.

Back(ing) Breaking Installation

I have finished installing the Juwel Rock 600 structured background, which had to be cut and shaped to fit the aquarium. Once the correct shapes were achieved, I glued both pieces onto the back glass of the aquarium using silicon glue. This turned out to be more difficult than expected as the backing was slightly curved. But after lots of glue, what felt like hours of pressing and with a bit of luck, I think they are either glued into place or just wedged together, waiting to pull away at an inappropriate time. We will see what happens when the water goes in.

As you can see from the picture, there is a distinct line where the one backing joins onto the other. I will try to hide this with some tall plants like the Amazon Sword (Echinodorus amazonicus) or by using bogwood or both.

With the help of L, we moved the tank onto the cabinet, which led to a few hair raising moments and lots of back pain for the both of us. Big is not aways better, but is aways heavier! The combination of size and weight made picking and moving of the tank very difficult. From getting your fingers and hands under the tank to moving the tank into position can be very tiring and finger/back breaking. But we managed none the less. Thanks L for all your help!

Completed Cabinet

By Sunday night I had completed the cabinet and after cleaning the alcove L and I moved it into place. The dark wood is a bit lighter than the rest of the lounge furniture, but still matches nicely.

I have decided to put an artificial backing in the tank and am going to use the Juwel Rock 600 structured background. It is a 3 dimensional background, which is attached to the inside rear glass panel with silicone adhesive. Hopefully it will create a few crevices for the fish to hide under and a place for a few plants like Java Fern (Microsorium pteropus) to attach to. Currently I am waiting on the delivery of a second panel to the pet shop before I will be able to install them. Once the panels are in I will move the tank onto the cabinet and start the next phase of putting the gravel and water in. 

Location, Location, Location

L and I had already decided to keep the fish tank in the lounge as we both enjoyed having one there when we lived in SA. Choosing the room was the easy bit, finding a spot in the room was a bit more difficult. The two main factors that were affecting the location were the current setup of the lounge furniture and the location of power sockets. Luckily we had some work done in the lounge, which gave us the opportunity to rearrange the lounge with the fish tank in mind. The location I chose is an alcove between the fireplace and the radiator. The alcove is 135cm wide and 33cm deep, with 2 power sockets.

It faces out to the conservatory, so there should be lots of natural light for the tank and it is far enough from the doorway that the fish should not be affected by people coming and going, and from any drafts.

Currently my only concerns are the effects of the heat from the radiator and gas stove during winter and the algae growth from the sunlight in summer. Only time will tell.