17 replies to this topic

[Johny]

Well for those who were around back then and may remember I kept quite the collection of tank busters for a pre-adolescent teenage kid haha some of them including Aros, bichirs, rtc, clown knives etc etc.

Unfortunately all good things came to an end after I lost some of my prized fish and so I decided to sell what was remaining and move on from the hobby for a little while.

I didn't think it would take so long but life had kept me at bay to get back into it sooner but finally after 8 or so years I bit the bullet and purchased a new tank.
A brand new 6x2x2 with a pine stand came up for sale and I managed to score it for $600. Freshly built by Morley Aquariums it hasn't even be filled yet! Has the back painted black and black silicone around all the edges. Couldn’t ask for more. 

 

The plan was always to have it in my room so the lack of cabinet / hood does not worry me.

I’ll start with a quick photo of the stand after I took delivery.

 

 

I was not too happy with the overall strengthening of the stand. There was excessive movement when pushed from each end.
Went past the local Bunnings and purchased 5 metres of pine timber and cut it down to size and braced the entire bottom of the stand.

As shown I went both horizontally and vertically between each main leg. Finished it off with a thin piece of ply board over the top where the tank will eventually sit on with foam as well.

Here is the end product.

 

 

Made a huge difference. Now there is no longer any movement either way and I am finally feeling confident with it.

Tonight I will sand it down and apply the first coat of varnish to it.

Will keep this post updated as I go along.

 

[Jules]

Nice one!

What kind of fish are you planning on keeping?

 

Couldn't interest you in a full set up 7x2.5x2 for TBs? Im getting out.

[Johny]

The plan will always be to keep whatever tb's and exotics I can get my hands on! 

Quick update - 

This was the end product of the stand once all sanded down and varnished.

 

 

Did some shopping over the last couple weekends and managed to pick up the heater and light as well. Big thanks to Morley aquariums and City barn malaga for providing the goods!

Opted for a NemoLight 72w and a titan G2 Heavy duty 600w heater.

 

 

Now for the lighting I remember it was always such a pain taking it off and on again during the water changes and generally just getting in the way of things when it was time for water changes so I did not want a repeat of that.

Decided I was going to run a smaller light and have it suspended over the tank.

Reason for the smaller light was also because I do not want excessive lighting. I like the more ''natural'' look in a tank and if I can have the two sides a tad bit darker then that would be ideal.

So after 2 weeks from ordering, my custom light stand brackets finally showed up yesterday.

 

 

Wasted no time in getting them installed to the back of the stand.

 

 

Finally it was time I could move the tank to inside the house and on to its stand.

Here is a quick photo with the suspended light hanging from it.

 

 

Still need to play around with the height of the light as I want to bring it down a bit lower now that I have seen it lit up but Ill worry about that later.

 

Additional extras I have purchased that are arriving and due on its way is the Fluval Air pump, Various water conditioners and test kits and filter media. Forgot How quickly it all adds up starting from scratch again haha.

Next pay I plan on ordering the cannister. Deciding to go for the Eheim 2260. Figured for the sheer size of media it can hold there is no equivalent on the market! Just costs an arm and a leg when you factor the additional quick disconnect taps and all the filter media but as they say do it once and do it right 

 

 

 

 

 

[Jules]

That's looking really good!

Agreed, the light needs to come down a bit.

 

Going to put a substrate in the tank? And does that driftwood fit?

[Johny]

Cheers mate!

I'm still 50/50 on what I want to do... I want to use a fine sand but do not want to cover the complete bottom and only have a certain section with sand like the back or the two corners and the remaining bare bottom. Not sure how it will turn out from what I am trying to picture but Ill cross that bridge once the aquascaping begins haha.

Driftwood fits perfectly thanks once again for that!

[Jules]

Look at garnet sand, always looks awesome for big exotic/predator tanks (better then standard white IMO).

I buy the bags direct from GMA Garnets.

 

Nice, yeah pretty sweet bit of wood, so will look good in your tank!

[Westie]

I'm enjoying watching this thread. I also like the look of the dark corners. If you light it up bright like an xmas tree it will look artificial. Hope you manage to track down some cool fish

[Johny]

Okay so since last post I tracked down a proper hanging kit and got the light sitting to where it should be.

 

 

 

What also finally arrived today was the new Eheim, here is a photo of the big girl.

Also ordered the quick release taps to go with it.

 

 

Over the last few weeks I was already accumulating the filter media so it would be ready to go in once the eheim arrived.

Here is all that I ended up purchasing. All in all I used most of it bar the seachem matrix as I did not have enough room to fit that in. Will keep it as spare bio media or move it on perhaps depending how the other stuff does the Job.

 

 

 

Ill do a step by step guide as to how I stacked the filter.

First layer of Mechanical filtration I used 5 litres of Eheim EfiMech

 

 

Second stage of mechanical filtration was Poret foam that I ordered in from Swisstropicals over in the US after hearing Rave reviews online about it.
They were easy to deal with and shipping was cheap so couldn't complain.

Ordered one sheet of 10PPI 2inch and one sheet of 20PPI 1.5inch.

Cut it to suit the cannister.

 

 

 

Then to top the mechanical side off I just added in some cheap filter wool.

 

 

Now moving on to the Biomedia this is where I originally wanted to run both matrix and substrat pro. Of course prior I didn't know how much of each I could fit so after adding all the mechanical side in I was not left with much room so opted to do just the full 5 litres of Eheim SubstratPro and leave out the seachem.

 

 

 

After the biomedia I cut the PolyFilter pad to suit the cannister as the final layer of filtration followed by two bags of Seachem Purigen for extra water clarity.

 

 

Lid then went on and I finished fitting of the pump to the lid of the filter (All comes disassembled for those wondering)

 

 

Afterwards finished fitting of the cap, attaching the inlet and outlet hose along with the quick disconnect taps.

 

 

 

Overall a timely and costly exercise opting for this filter but for the purposes, functionality, performance and reliability I intend to use it for I couldn't look past it.

Extremely happy with the flexibility to stack the filter exactly how you want it and getting the best of both worlds with mechanical and bio filtration. The sheer amount of media you can fit in is astonishing.

Moving on I now am pretty much ready to fill the tank with water, connect everything up and start the cycle! Snowed under the next few days but hopefully by end of week she will be there.

 

 

[Delapool]

Wow - a lot of media

What’s the filter volume out of interest?

[Jules]

Haha - Beat me to it Delapool. What is the size of the media compartment on that filter? Looks huge.

 

You have a nice quality build there, cant wait to see it stocked!

Edited by Jules, 28 November 2018 - 07:36 AM.

[Johny]

Specs from the Eheim website are;

Filter volume 18.00 l Container volume 23.00 l

In comparison the Fluval FX6 (The other filter I was considering) has a filter volume of 5.9L. So three times size comparison which is huge imo. Should also mean less frequent maintenance which is a plus for me haha.

Also forgot to mention I added the substrate and I did end up going for Garnet sand over regular white sand as you also recommended Jules 

[Jules]

Far out, that's amazing, that's a lot of media, but whats the water turn over rate for a tank your size?

 

Very nice, you wont be disappointed, it looks really good once in the tank, especially if you got the nice pinky redish colour stuff...….

 

[Johny]

Turnover rate is 2400L/H - and suitable for up to 1500L tanks. Considering the tank is half that size it should turn it over well enough.

Certainly is - will try post a pic once its filled with water and the rocks and driftwood is in!

[Jules]

Look forward to it!

Sure you don't want to upgrade to a 7 x 2.5!

[Johny]

Wish I could at this stage haha she should sell soon though its a steal! Then you can consider giving up those birchirs 

[Delapool]

Specs from the Eheim website are; Filter volume 18.00 l Container volume 23.00 l
In comparison the Fluval FX6 (The other filter I was considering) has a filter volume of 5.9L. So three times size comparison which is huge imo. Should also mean less frequent maintenance which is a plus for me haha.
Also forgot to mention I added the substrate and I did end up going for Garnet sand over regular white sand as you also recommended Jules 

That’s great size! The aqua one I have is around that volume but no auto-prime or anything

[Johny]

With the eheim classic there is no auto prime either but surprisingly primes so easily.
Update - tank is now filled and been running for the last few days with water. Of course of all things I forgot to get was an air stone so still need to sort that out haha.

Here is how she is currently looking with rocks and driftwood in - 

 

 

 

 

Close up of the Garnet - 

 

[Jules]

That's it, garnet looks awesome!!

That would suits well in a 6x2 too, coming together nicely, just need to get some of them fish