fddlss
Aquarium Advice Freak
Hello everyone,
As I promised when I became a member of this forum, here's how I started in the hobby:
I wanted to have a little fish tank or bowl to decorate my room and/or house, I remember having a fish tank when I was about 5 years old, but I never thought that I would be so passionate about this hobby until I bought my first 10 gallon fish tank.
So... by October 2010, I bought my 10 G, gravel, dechlorinator, etc. Then, I cleaned the gravel and set up the tank as soon as I got home, with my girlfriend, and let it run for about 72 hours. Soon after, I found out that I almost overstocked my tank with 7 fish in a week, in an uncycled tank, so, when my tank's water started to get cloudy I freaked out, asked an expert online, and did a lot of research. The day after, I decided to go to Fish's Paradise (that was my first time going there -love that place) and trade in my fish (I didn't want the fish to die), after trading in my fish I started from scratch, it was a really hard decision but I had to do it.
I started looking for a fish tank around 30 gallons or more, initially I didn't wanted anything above 55 gallons, but it just took a few days to get excited and go for an aquarium above 100 gallons. I saw a few tanks from 75 to 180 gallons, E-mailed the sellers, and ended up buying a 110 gallon, its measurements are 61 x 18 x 23 1/2, not quite standard measurements, but whatever. The tank came with the stand, Coralife Aqualight 48" 4 x 65 watt CF fixture, overflow box, and acrylic wet/dry sump. The guy used it as a saltwater aquarium and I was planning to go with freshwater, so it took me a few weeks (I don't have a lot of free time) to clean the tank, sump, and stand, I also painted the tank's frames and stand with my dad and built the return line with PVC, I have pictures of all that that I might post later.
I had previously bought a 1056 EcoPlus Submersible pump, and got 100 pounds of dark blue gravel, a Python, and a few other maintenance accessories. By last week, I filled up the tank, siphoned the overflow's U tubes, and started the pump which is connected to a battery backup, in case of power failure (I also have the siphon hole on the return line).
Unfortunately, one and a half day after filling up the tank a leak appeared. I was lucky enough because the leak was a small one near the top, on one of the corners/edges, it took me 5 minutes to find the leak so I quickly removed about 40% of the water, dried the area and applied aquarium silicone over the leak (outside and inside of the tank) and about 3 inches below and above the leak, of course that didn't work and I had a huge leak in my living room 3 days after, the glass in the corner split apart. I tried to fix the aquarium outside my house by removing the old silicone (what I had to do in the first place) and adding new silicone but that didn't work either, I fixed it, let it dry for 24 hours, and when I filled it with water so that the silicone would finish curing under water it took 10 minutes and I had the same problem again, so I decided to get a new tank. Period.
I finally got a Perfecto 120 x High with corner-flos from my LFS and I had a professional repair the leaking tank, which will go to the storage for now.
A few months have passed and now I'm half way through my fishless cycle. I will be posting pics of my current tank and some other tanks that I have.
Well, I hope nobody felt as sleep while reading this, but this is just another thing that shows how passionate I am about the hobby, I'm sure many of you have a similar story.
As I promised when I became a member of this forum, here's how I started in the hobby:
I wanted to have a little fish tank or bowl to decorate my room and/or house, I remember having a fish tank when I was about 5 years old, but I never thought that I would be so passionate about this hobby until I bought my first 10 gallon fish tank.
So... by October 2010, I bought my 10 G, gravel, dechlorinator, etc. Then, I cleaned the gravel and set up the tank as soon as I got home, with my girlfriend, and let it run for about 72 hours. Soon after, I found out that I almost overstocked my tank with 7 fish in a week, in an uncycled tank, so, when my tank's water started to get cloudy I freaked out, asked an expert online, and did a lot of research. The day after, I decided to go to Fish's Paradise (that was my first time going there -love that place) and trade in my fish (I didn't want the fish to die), after trading in my fish I started from scratch, it was a really hard decision but I had to do it.
I started looking for a fish tank around 30 gallons or more, initially I didn't wanted anything above 55 gallons, but it just took a few days to get excited and go for an aquarium above 100 gallons. I saw a few tanks from 75 to 180 gallons, E-mailed the sellers, and ended up buying a 110 gallon, its measurements are 61 x 18 x 23 1/2, not quite standard measurements, but whatever. The tank came with the stand, Coralife Aqualight 48" 4 x 65 watt CF fixture, overflow box, and acrylic wet/dry sump. The guy used it as a saltwater aquarium and I was planning to go with freshwater, so it took me a few weeks (I don't have a lot of free time) to clean the tank, sump, and stand, I also painted the tank's frames and stand with my dad and built the return line with PVC, I have pictures of all that that I might post later.
I had previously bought a 1056 EcoPlus Submersible pump, and got 100 pounds of dark blue gravel, a Python, and a few other maintenance accessories. By last week, I filled up the tank, siphoned the overflow's U tubes, and started the pump which is connected to a battery backup, in case of power failure (I also have the siphon hole on the return line).
Unfortunately, one and a half day after filling up the tank a leak appeared. I was lucky enough because the leak was a small one near the top, on one of the corners/edges, it took me 5 minutes to find the leak so I quickly removed about 40% of the water, dried the area and applied aquarium silicone over the leak (outside and inside of the tank) and about 3 inches below and above the leak, of course that didn't work and I had a huge leak in my living room 3 days after, the glass in the corner split apart. I tried to fix the aquarium outside my house by removing the old silicone (what I had to do in the first place) and adding new silicone but that didn't work either, I fixed it, let it dry for 24 hours, and when I filled it with water so that the silicone would finish curing under water it took 10 minutes and I had the same problem again, so I decided to get a new tank. Period.
I finally got a Perfecto 120 x High with corner-flos from my LFS and I had a professional repair the leaking tank, which will go to the storage for now.
A few months have passed and now I'm half way through my fishless cycle. I will be posting pics of my current tank and some other tanks that I have.
Well, I hope nobody felt as sleep while reading this, but this is just another thing that shows how passionate I am about the hobby, I'm sure many of you have a similar story.
