Warmfish

Now that Christmas and New Years is over, I’ve had the time to continue the set up of my new aquarium.

Figure 1 – Dorset Pea Gravel

I purchased some pea gravel (Figure 1 and 2) for the substrate. I purchased 50KG of gravel for my tank as I wanted to ensure a substrate depth of 3-4 inches. I only ended up using 1 and a half bags to do the job.

Figure 2 – Gravel out of bag and washed

Gravel was dusty, as predicted and needed lots of washing before placing into the tank. I used a salad crisper/spinner to wash the gravel in small batches.

 
Figure 3 – Quarantine tank, Testing kit, two nets, ammonia solution and medicine dropper

I purchased a few more items that I am going to need for the future maintenance of the tank. Quarantine tank will be essential for checking new fish and medicating existing fish. The testing kit will be used throughout setup and into the maintenance phase of the tank. I will need to know my tap water pH level, and will be testing any rocks that will be added to the tank.

Ammonia was bought from Boots Pharmacy (I know it can be difficult to find – see this link). This will allow me to do a ‘fishless cycle’.

Two nets, because two nets make it easier to catch the fish :-)

A medicine dropper is essential to ensure you dose the tank correctly with the correct about of ammonia (5ppm). See the ammonia calculator if you need this information for your set up.

 
Figure 4 – Gravel Siphon

Gravel siphon is an essential tool to enable cleaning of the substrate. It will also allow easier water changes.

 
Figure 5 – Fitting the lights to the hood

The Maidenhead Aquatics ‘lighting’ start up kit included as part of my tank/cabinet deal was:

1. Glo Electronic Ballast T5 (x1)
2. JBL Solar Reflect 1000 (x2)
3. Glo Life-Glo T5 High Output Premium Full Spectrum Aquarium Bulb [K6700] (x1) – For back of aquarium to support plants
4. Glo Life-Glo T5 High Output Super Bright Aquarium Bulb [K18,000] (x1) – For front of aquarium

The reflectors supplied are too big to be used separately, so you need to overlap them, which is easy to do. Once you’ve got those assembled you know where you need to drill and screw the light clips.

The lights are mounted towards the rear of the hood, because I want to keep the hinged door free from clutter to allow me to do routine maintenance without having to remove the lights.

 
Figure 6 – Attaching the electrical connections

 
Figure 7 – Light test

  
Figure 8 – Fitting the light switch and electronics inside the oak cabinet

I fitted the ‘ballast’ inside the cabinet, ensuring that there was a ‘droop’ in the cable to prevent water from running down the cable into the electrical components.

Figure 9 – How does it look?

Figure 10 – Sorting out distribution board, heater and external filter

The Maidenhead Aquatics kit included a JBL CristalProfi e900 external filter. The hoses supplied with the filter are 1.5 meters in length, which is a little stingy if you wish to house the ‘out’ hose at the other end of the tank to the intake. I purchased a 2 meter hose to enable easier fitment.

I also purchased a timer for the lights, and a remote controlled distribution board for when I really feel lazy!

Figure 11 – Fitted black acrylic background, added washed substrate and a few rocks

Figure 12 – Filled with water, rearranged rocks

This particular tank took 8.5 builders bucket loads (200 litres approx) of water to fill!

 
Figure 13 – Looking at rock/substrate layout

Next step is to add plants… but not until I am happy that the pH level is stable!

Martin