Well, after cleaning my old 20.5 gallon tank to set it up, I realized all the seals were essentially shot to hell and back. Yes, I have built custom fish tanks and could (in theory) easily spend 2+ hours sealing it up tighter than a dolphin's butthole (aquatic, not Miami). I decided I would rather buy a new tank that fit in the same footprint, since my old tank was over 15 years old. I found out that the 25 Gallon "Tall" by Aqueous fits the same footprint (within 1/2 inch) as my old 20.5 Gallon. The new tank was assembled in December, so I know it is fairly new technology (and silicone!).
It came with a 45GPH HOB filter (a weird looking one with all kinds of bells and whistles), a 100 watt heater, glass top and T5 light head with dual bulbs, one blue 6700 14 watt and another of unknown abilities/stats. Of course the promised "digital thermometer" was not in the box (though it did come with a large bottle of non-nitrogen "plant food" and a little bottle of tropical fish food), so I ghetto rigged a 20+ year old sinking pond thermometer to work for the time being. Yes I am old-school. No, I will not lead your rag tag team of misfits to victory in some obscenely over-hyped sporting event.
I painted the back of the tank black because...well....I wanted to dammit! I hate those fake plant backgrounds, and I want to have people able to see my fish from anywhere in the living room. In case you had not heard black is the new.....black.
The fish currently here are 5x Fathead (aka Rosy Red) Minnows that I purchased for the sum of 75 cents. They survived my extreme quarantine measures- a 4 gallon flat back, open top mop bucket with 3 gallons of 50 degree water, a 5-15 HOB filter, absolutely no heat and a neon colored hidey cave. I call this my "Quarantine bucket O' Doom (TM)". If they aren't killed by the temperatures, the current, or the horrific colors of the cave, they won't be dying of anything anytime soon. After filling and treating the tank water I transferred the bio sponge from the old bucket filter into the back of my newfangled filter. I added copious amounts of "Cycle", fired up the heater and the filter, and we will see how they do.
My next trick will be running my air pump and a bubble stone into the little hole in the back of the flowerpot on the right and covering the back end (and the rubber air line) with rocks to give the appearance of a broken ceramic pipe spitting out bubbles. Yeah, you wish you though of it. It's OK, I forgive your seething jealousy. There is still much for you to learn padawan. Yes, that is a piece of Dinka wood in the tank. Yes, I bought it over 6 years ago when you could get it for less than $300 for a branch that size. The smooth red stones are chipped red Irish flagstone and the rough ones Arizona Sandstone, formerly of my Oscar tank from those many years ago. The rocks are Lowe's pea gravel ($3.50/40 LBS) rinsed extremely well so as to remove most of the sand. I would say about 10-15% of the sand stayed, but it will give me a more balanced plant substrate. I like it because it actually looks like river gravel from the northeast. Most of the rocks are quite tiny, so hopefully I will be able to have a buncha Cories
Planned plants-
1x Amazon Sword, back right.
1x Java Moss, driftwood
1x Java Moss, ceramic pot
3x Anacharis, back left
3x grassy looking stuff Newman has (if I can find it around here), front left
Planned fish
I have no clue what I want other than some Cories and Ottos. There is a local mom&pop pet store that sells Julii Cories for only $2 each and Hypotristia (sp?) Cories for $2.50. I might very well go with a few native sunfishes, since they can be very active and colorful. Part of me really wants to just get 5 different colored female platies and let them populate the tank for me (since every female at my local pet stores comes preggo).
Questions, comments, concerns, suggestions and human sacrifices allowed here---->
It came with a 45GPH HOB filter (a weird looking one with all kinds of bells and whistles), a 100 watt heater, glass top and T5 light head with dual bulbs, one blue 6700 14 watt and another of unknown abilities/stats. Of course the promised "digital thermometer" was not in the box (though it did come with a large bottle of non-nitrogen "plant food" and a little bottle of tropical fish food), so I ghetto rigged a 20+ year old sinking pond thermometer to work for the time being. Yes I am old-school. No, I will not lead your rag tag team of misfits to victory in some obscenely over-hyped sporting event.
I painted the back of the tank black because...well....I wanted to dammit! I hate those fake plant backgrounds, and I want to have people able to see my fish from anywhere in the living room. In case you had not heard black is the new.....black.
The fish currently here are 5x Fathead (aka Rosy Red) Minnows that I purchased for the sum of 75 cents. They survived my extreme quarantine measures- a 4 gallon flat back, open top mop bucket with 3 gallons of 50 degree water, a 5-15 HOB filter, absolutely no heat and a neon colored hidey cave. I call this my "Quarantine bucket O' Doom (TM)". If they aren't killed by the temperatures, the current, or the horrific colors of the cave, they won't be dying of anything anytime soon. After filling and treating the tank water I transferred the bio sponge from the old bucket filter into the back of my newfangled filter. I added copious amounts of "Cycle", fired up the heater and the filter, and we will see how they do.
My next trick will be running my air pump and a bubble stone into the little hole in the back of the flowerpot on the right and covering the back end (and the rubber air line) with rocks to give the appearance of a broken ceramic pipe spitting out bubbles. Yeah, you wish you though of it. It's OK, I forgive your seething jealousy. There is still much for you to learn padawan. Yes, that is a piece of Dinka wood in the tank. Yes, I bought it over 6 years ago when you could get it for less than $300 for a branch that size. The smooth red stones are chipped red Irish flagstone and the rough ones Arizona Sandstone, formerly of my Oscar tank from those many years ago. The rocks are Lowe's pea gravel ($3.50/40 LBS) rinsed extremely well so as to remove most of the sand. I would say about 10-15% of the sand stayed, but it will give me a more balanced plant substrate. I like it because it actually looks like river gravel from the northeast. Most of the rocks are quite tiny, so hopefully I will be able to have a buncha Cories
Planned plants-
1x Amazon Sword, back right.
1x Java Moss, driftwood
1x Java Moss, ceramic pot
3x Anacharis, back left
3x grassy looking stuff Newman has (if I can find it around here), front left
Planned fish
I have no clue what I want other than some Cories and Ottos. There is a local mom&pop pet store that sells Julii Cories for only $2 each and Hypotristia (sp?) Cories for $2.50. I might very well go with a few native sunfishes, since they can be very active and colorful. Part of me really wants to just get 5 different colored female platies and let them populate the tank for me (since every female at my local pet stores comes preggo).
Questions, comments, concerns, suggestions and human sacrifices allowed here---->
Last edited:
Good luck, and I can't wait for pics!!!
