I recently saw a 30gallon tank for £25 and impatiently bought it. Since then I have exhausted all my savings in buying a fluval 4 plus filter, t5 light fittings and one plant pro bulb. I am trying to get an Amazon bio-tope-ish look. My first problem was that the fluval is way too strong a current for apisto swimming. I attached some tubing to the nozzel and put it facing up as a fountain. This made alot of noise so I decided to put it facing down into the tank. I then found that the cardinals i had in the tank were gasping slightly, which they hadnt been doing with the fountain. Ive got an airstone but hate it, so instead i punctured holes along the tubing to create several less noisy jets to break the surface. This worked and gave an ambient noise like a stream.
I then needed to get some tannins. The wood I bought did nothing. I took regular branches (boiled) from my garden, still nothing. I tried Roiboosh tea but although the water was stained and the fish were fine, the tank smelled like tea so I elected against this method. I bought some super-peat from sera. I do not have an external filter so I stuffed the peat balls into womens tights. Because I just dumped this into the tank the peat was not being aggravated enough, so i put the tubing with the end current into the tights (the tube is long so it can traverse the length of the tank and then travel down the leg part of the tights into the peat ball pouch located at the crotch of the tights). This worked ok but not enough so i bought some cattapa leaves from e-bay and tannins were 'go'. I then tried my hand at c02. This was instantly successful. 2litre evian bottle, tube and valve from the bubbler, sugar, yeast, wonderfully easy. The co2 was just bubbling up to the surface and I noticed online that you need to give it time to mingle with the water. I put the tube into one if the holes i had made for the jets.The c02 now travels along the tube into the sock through the peat balls and out the sock lining. Ha Ha, so now i have this interesting network of co2, peat filtration and oxygenating. A sort of haphazard D.I.Y success.
My next project is to get a tree trunk (bark and all) , half it, hollow it out, glue broken mirror pieces to the inside, attach the light fittings and use it for a lid.
I am hoping the broken mirrors will reflect the light from different angles replicating heavy tree cover (maybe not) but im energised from my D.I.Y progress.
I then needed to get some tannins. The wood I bought did nothing. I took regular branches (boiled) from my garden, still nothing. I tried Roiboosh tea but although the water was stained and the fish were fine, the tank smelled like tea so I elected against this method. I bought some super-peat from sera. I do not have an external filter so I stuffed the peat balls into womens tights. Because I just dumped this into the tank the peat was not being aggravated enough, so i put the tubing with the end current into the tights (the tube is long so it can traverse the length of the tank and then travel down the leg part of the tights into the peat ball pouch located at the crotch of the tights). This worked ok but not enough so i bought some cattapa leaves from e-bay and tannins were 'go'. I then tried my hand at c02. This was instantly successful. 2litre evian bottle, tube and valve from the bubbler, sugar, yeast, wonderfully easy. The co2 was just bubbling up to the surface and I noticed online that you need to give it time to mingle with the water. I put the tube into one if the holes i had made for the jets.The c02 now travels along the tube into the sock through the peat balls and out the sock lining. Ha Ha, so now i have this interesting network of co2, peat filtration and oxygenating. A sort of haphazard D.I.Y success.
My next project is to get a tree trunk (bark and all) , half it, hollow it out, glue broken mirror pieces to the inside, attach the light fittings and use it for a lid.
I am hoping the broken mirrors will reflect the light from different angles replicating heavy tree cover (maybe not) but im energised from my D.I.Y progress.
