Wet Project…

I like having projects to do, not only to keep me busy, but it keeps depression at bay. If it is a large project then all the better. This, however, is one the huge side. I decided to start a new aquarium tank. But, not the usual type of tank you see in most houses, this is a massive 250-litre job, complete with 65-litre sump below the tank, hidden in a cabinet.

I have had 2 tanks running in the house, one in the lounge and the other in one of the halls, but I wanted to combine these two tanks and create a larger one.  Three weeks ago I started the project firstly with the tanks and getting them installed in the house and ready for use. This sounds easy enough, but I had to prep the tanks, silicone glass and install all the pipework from the weir to the sump in the cabinet below, and make sure everything was completely watertight.  After a few leaks and many pipe problems, I managed to get everything sealed, watertight and all in the right place.

The sump is gravity fed through a weir at the back of the tank, so to be on the safe side in case it ever gets blocked, or I forget to turn the flow tap back on after cleaning out the sump, I fitted an overflow pipe to the sump, and of course a return pipe connected to a 600/4000 litres per hour pump back into the tank.

The sump has three compartments complete with baffles. The first compartment (right) where the water feeds into has three grades of pond sponge, the super fine floss. Below that is a double set of biological balls where the water feeds through into the baffles and into the next compartment. The second compartment (middle) has K3 media, a skimmer and three aeration stones to make the K3 rotate and develop the required nitrification bacteria and an aquarium bacterial bomb. The water then flows to the final chamber (left) through the baffles and is heated and returned via the pump to the display tank.

I have used an iLumenAir V2 for the lighting which has automatic sunrise, sunset and lightning storms, which is quite cool.

Today I added transferred the fish to the big tank. So far I have 24 fish in the tank including 3 Corydoras, 12 Tetra 2 Goldfish, 2 Plecos, 1 Siamese fighter, 1 Platty, and 3 fish I cannot remember the name of. I am hoping to get quite a few more including giant fan shrimp, but depending what I can find and what will live with the other fish will determine the outcome of the final fish family.

Now this project is close to completion, and summer is finally over, I will be going back to my knitting, so more projects to come.