# Tank at work



## cumbrianewbie (Jul 25, 2013)

So, I moved jobs around 18 months ago.

The first thing I saw after arriving was a rather sad looking tank in the rest room. It is a 4 foot long, 160L ish glass tank that had seen better days. The stocking was all over the place: Gourami, BN PLeco, Common Pleco, Guppies, Platy and a lone Kribensis.

It was pretty dirty, didn't get regular cleaning and was full of far too much (2 inches deep) gravel and some horrible old (ripped) fake plants. It did however have two internal filters. A Fluval and an Eheim. There was no water conditioner used during water changes sothe fish will have been exposed to a lot of Chlorine over the years.

While the BN Pleco bred like crazy, I sold them to our local LFS and bought food, filters etc. Eventually however, I found the female BN dead one morning for no obvious reason, which put a stop to the constant breeding ! The guppies, Platy and Gourami have also died off over the last 18 months, although the Platy was deformed when I arrived so I'm surprised it lasted as long as it did tbh.

We were now down to just the Krib and the catfish - a plan was forming 

Coincidentally, I had been breeding a load of Ps Saulosi at home. The ones I had left were all over an inch long and in need of a new home....

So, I removed all of the tired old fake plants, cleaned the tank completely and removed all but half an inch of the gravel. I then sourced (found on site but don't tell my boss) a load of rocks for the tank. I also donated a container of water conditioner I had left over when I started using Prime at home. Its now used at every water change. This is what it looks like now:



What do you all think ? I quite like it now :dancing:

I also added a dozen of my juvenile Saulosi to join the Krib and three catfish:



A rubbish pic I know, but the shutter speed is not fast enough on an IPhone to catch these fast fish 

They all seem pretty happy and appear to be getting along fine. The Krib is loving the new caves the rocks have created, as well as the Saulosi. My only problem will come if more than three of those fry turn out to be males 

Hopefully you all think it looks ok


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## wortel87 (Apr 15, 2014)

pack the tank with allot more stones all the way up to the water line. like 2 heaps on either side of the tank. 4 foot is a nice long tank that will keep them verry happy  i would up the numbers a little bit though, to 16. in such large groups the male number is not realy a problem as long as there are not more males than females.

almost there  nice tank


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## cumbrianewbie (Jul 25, 2013)

wortel87 said:


> pack the tank with allot more stones all the way up to the water line. like 2 heaps on either side of the tank. 4 foot is a nice long tank that will keep them verry happy  i would up the numbers a little bit though, to 16. in such large groups the male number is not realy a problem as long as there are not more males than females.
> 
> almost there  nice tank


Well, I currently have another brood of fry in my grow out tank so another few fish to be added might not be a problem.

As for the rocks, I was wanting to add another couple of rocks to the central pile but I just need to get out and find some when I get chance. I am loathe to put too many in though, for two reasons:

Firstly, it is a communal work tank, not mine, and I think it looks more attractive with slightly fewer.
Secondly, although it is 4 foot long, it doesn't hold much water (about 40G) so more rocks would take up valuable space and mean less water can be put in there. That makes the water harder to keep clear.


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## Deeda (Oct 12, 2012)

Very nice job on the revamp. Tank looks great! Now you just need to figure how to keep other people from adding fish to the tank. :wink:


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## cumbrianewbie (Jul 25, 2013)

Deeda said:


> Very nice job on the revamp. Tank looks great! Now you just need to figure how to keep other people from adding fish to the tank. :wink:


Not really Deeda, the guys at work know that it is pretty much 'My' tank now. If any of them try it I will launch them towards the nearest open window, and we have to consider that this rest room is on the 1st floor :wink:


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## wortel87 (Apr 15, 2014)

saulosi will be verry happy in a 4 feet long tank. regardless of the gallons it holds. its the footprint that matters most.


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## Iggy Newcastle (May 15, 2012)

Coolest restroom tank ever!


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## cumbrianewbie (Jul 25, 2013)

Iggy Newcastle said:


> Coolest restroom tank ever!


It will be a lot cooler when some of the males colour up to that impressive bright blue though :thumb:


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## InfamousAquatics (Jun 24, 2014)

Restroom tank looks better than most peoples display!


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## Dovii 64 (May 18, 2014)

Great work tank looks good. :fish: :thumb:


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## Filet O Fish (Apr 26, 2012)

cumbrianewbie said:


> Deeda said:
> 
> 
> > Very nice job on the revamp. Tank looks great! Now you just need to figure how to keep other people from adding fish to the tank. :wink:
> ...


Requests the ability to "like" posts.


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## cumbrianewbie (Jul 25, 2013)

Ok guys, update time.

I've got another picture for you all to look at. This shows the extra rocks suggested earlier this year by the contributors.

What it also shows however, is the big gap in the lower part of the stand. This got me thinking about what I could do with the gap.



I happened to find a 4ft tank for sale in the local area on Ebay that would fit in there perfectly. I tried to use the 'buy it now' option and get it for £40, but (long story) it didn't work so I eventually had to use the auction and won it for £26 (or $48) which is an absolute steal :dancing:

I've split the cost with the other guy in my office who is also into his fish. Overall it cost us £13 each ! We are trying to set it up low cost as it is at work. I have an old (but unused) powerhead that we are going to utilise. We also found an old Juwel internal filter box that we have cut down to fit and will be used with some filter media I had at home. I also have an unused spray bar that we will use. We just need to work out how to make it all work together :lol:

The plan is to cycle the filter by dumping it into the established tank for a couple of weeks first.

We aim to breed something and sell the young onto our LFS to pay for the upkeep of these tanks. Not sure what fish yet, but if I have my way it will be a cichlid of some variety :wink:


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## clhinds78 (Jul 27, 2012)

Very cool tank! I actually want to do a 40G saulosi tank at my office one day.

Can't wait to see the new tank!


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## cumbrianewbie (Jul 25, 2013)

Here is the new tank in place which already had a background applied. We have added some gravel we had spare, but not added the water or any rocks yet.



I need to buy an LED strip light to mount on the wood above the tank at some point. Then I need to get a heater, and It seems a 200W heater will be more than sufficient.


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## clhinds78 (Jul 27, 2012)

cumbrianewbie said:


> Here is the new tank in place which already had a background applied. We have added some gravel we had spare, but not added the water or any rocks yet.
> 
> 
> 
> I need to buy an LED strip light to mount on the wood above the tank at some point. Then I need to get a heater, and It seems a 200W heater will be more than sufficient.


Nice! What's going in the lower tank?


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## cumbrianewbie (Jul 25, 2013)

Were not really sure what will go in there yet. We need to worry about getting all the equipment in place and then getting the new filter cycled.

We have very hard water out of the taps, so it is likely to be something from Malawi or Tanganyika.


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## clhinds78 (Jul 27, 2012)

cumbrianewbie said:


> Were not really sure what will go in there yet. We need to worry about getting all the equipment in place and then getting the new filter cycled.
> 
> We have very hard water out of the taps, so it is likely to be something from Malawi or Tanganyika.


A tank community tank would be sweet! 10-12 cyprichromis, 3-4 calvus and a colony of shell-dwellers would work well in this tank!


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## cumbrianewbie (Jul 25, 2013)

I am quite tempted by a Tanganyika tank and I do love the Calvus. Me and the other guy from the office will have to have a discussion about stocking when we have got the filter cycled.

He is actually a big fan of the Rams, although I suppose we could put a whole load of those in a 4ft tank ! Would they work with Calvus ?


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## clhinds78 (Jul 27, 2012)

cumbrianewbie said:


> I am quite tempted by a Tanganyika tank and I do love the Calvus. Me and the other guy from the office will have to have a discussion about stocking when we have got the filter cycled.
> 
> He is actually a big fan of the Rams, although I suppose we could put a whole load of those in a 4ft tank ! Would they work with Calvus ?


I wouldn't mix rams and calvus, they have totally different tank requirements. Since rams are from south america they prefer soft water with lots of plants and driftwood. Calvus are tangs and like very hard water with a lot of rocks.


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## cumbrianewbie (Jul 25, 2013)

Yeah, I actually looked at the species profiles just after I posted, then realised that the Rams need much softer water than we have here. Cheers for the reply anyway


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## clhinds78 (Jul 27, 2012)

cumbrianewbie said:


> Yeah, I actually looked at the species profiles just after I posted, then realised that the Rams need much softer water than we have here. Cheers for the reply anyway


No problem!

Many ppl do keep SA cichlids who have hard water .There are ways to soften your water (chemicals, driftwood, RO, ect.) Also, many of the tank raised species out there have adapted to harder water over time. I just wouldn't keep them with africans since they do require hard water.


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## cumbrianewbie (Jul 25, 2013)

Further update time:

Firstly, we needed to sort out the filter for this new tank. So, utilising the old Juwel internal filter we found, my spare powerhead, a spray bar, a bit of tubing and copious amounts of Araldite we managed to get it all working perfectly. Even incorporating some ceramic filter media in place of some of the original Juwel foam. Here it is:



Ignore the tape as that was a temporary fix to stop the unit rattling until we fixed it into the tank properly.

The filter was undergoing a fishless cycle until we were unexpectedly given an unwanted gift. Another guy who works here dropped in a box full of baby BN Pleco. So, even though the tank was not cycled we had to throw them in there as they would have become food in the other tank 

The top tank had two cycled filters, so I swapped one of the cycled ones for a new one that I had bought as the backup for the bottom tank. That way, both tanks had one cycled and one un-cycled filter in place.



This is what it looks like now with both filters in place. If you look closely you can see one of the young BN on the left.

Here is a pic of the cycled Eheim (2012) filter that went into the new tank. It actually struggled to keep up initially, with a high Nitrate reading after 48 hrs. I suspect this is due to it being a foam only filter with no real media in place. I can only assume that most of the BB was in the substrate of the top tank, rather than being inside the filter.



Although, the water is fine now after a few days of regular water changes. That filter (and the new one) seems to be coping fine with the relatively light bio-load from the tiny BN.

It's almost time to decide on fish to stock with now. We were thinking about a dozen Demasoni, or possibly half a dozen (1M - 5F) Protomelas Steveni Taiwan Reef. Both are available from breeders locally for £2 or £3 each at an inch or so long. Anyone think those would work ok in this four foot tank ?

We just want something that we can breed to help the tanks pay for themselves really. Most of the BN will also be sold to the LFS when they are a decent size too.


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