Tank Progress One Week Later...

New Gadgets!

 

Lots of new gadgets have arrived over the week and I've enjoyed setting them all up in the new tank.  I've bought 4 pieces of really interesting looking dark grey yingshi rock, I decided to move one I already had in my discus tank with all the lovely added bacteria to make 5 in total.  I now have 3 pieces of gold vine driftwood soaking and a variety of plants.  The majority of plants I have put in there were new: 1 x Echinodorus Latifolius, 2 x Corkscrew Vallisneria, 1 x Narrow Amazon Sword, 1 x Crypt Balansae.  I also bought two pieces of malaysian driftwood with plants already attached: 1 x Anubias Nana and 1 x Anubias Coffeefolia.  I transferred a couple of existing plants from the discus tank, 2 x Red Tiger Lotus and 1 x Crypt Balansae and even 1 x Hygrophila that will help establish the bacteria equilibrium in the tank.

 

I have 3 beautifully handmade brown triangle shaped ceramic caves, 2 x small slate triangle caves (which turned out to be a lot smaller than I would have liked) and 2 x rounded clay log caves which look very natural.  These I have arranged amongst the yinshi rock and driftwood to try for a more natural look.  I also have a hand made slate cave, sectioned into two, currently making its way here from England.

 

I decided on a Hailea 5504, 4.2L per minute, super quiet air pump with two outlets.  One for the small Aqua Nova sponge filter and one for the large 15cm dark grey dome shaped air stone.  Up and running now is my Jager Eheim 150 watt heater which is performing beyond expectation.  After much deliberation for filtration I decided on an Aqua One Nautilus 600 canister filter.  So far I am very impressed with its quiet and efficient performance, it has a flow rate of 600lph and is designed for a tank up to 150L.  I already have the larger Aqua One Nautilus 2700 for my discus tank and have been impressed with its performance.  I love the Aqua One quick release system which disconnects the taps for maintenance, plus the simple primer button which makes life so much easier.  I was very happy with the filter media that came with the filter, but also added plenty of bacteria soaked biological media from my discus tank to help with seeding.  In addition, I purchased the impressive Seachem Matrix porous rock filter media to add in, I love this stuff as it provides both external and internal macroporous surface areas for the bacteria to multiply on. 

I completed the look with a rocky background poster and a cute Heto, adjustable leg, 2 foot T8 reflector light with a 20 Watt daylight tube.  I also got a black 6 way individual switch powerboard with surge protector, I found a black extension cord to keep with the black theme.  I am still waiting on my new HPM 7 day 24 hour digital programmable timer to help with the light automaticity.  I have even managed to source some black suction cups for the black air hose tubing, thanks eBay!  I am going to trial some Fluval pre-filter foam sponges on the filter intake in this tank, I'm sick of finding shrimp in my filters in my other tanks.  If it works I will try to place them in the other tanks too.  Just awaiting on arrival by mail on these products.

I am also awaiting a Blue Planet UView 9 Watt Purifier, I have been very happy with my UV steriliser sponge filter combination in the discus tank, and thought this would be worthwhile in this tank.  Fingers crossed it was a good purchase.