like my gf's birthday present?

[Russ_gibbo1985]

Hadn't shared these yet looking through my photos on my phone i found these, i thought how far it had now gone. I set this up initially in the living room for my gf birthday. Since then our ebr have spawned and we have upgraded this 20 gal to a 30 in the living room and this is now set up and cycling for the rams to go into upstairs in our spare bedroom!
Since then again i bought a cheeky little 30l betta tank for the bedroom, and am currently looking for a Trigon 190 for the living room for maybe something a little larger (cichlids ??!!) who knows!?
I was wondering if any one else has a story like this?!
Ill post pics of all tanks as they are now with stocking in the morning.

 

[Russ_gibbo1985]

Lol sorry excuse the beer bottles a recent night in with the football and a couple of friends!

 

[Russ_gibbo1985]

Ok so here goes, this is now how the tank in the living room sits its a 30gal open topped.
Stock is
10x Corydoras of different types
5xblack neons
5x endelers guppys
2x ebr
2x adf
2x pitbull plecos
2x apple snails

 

[Russ_gibbo1985]

This is the tank that was in the living room and is now in the spare room. Well be using it for the ebr can have a PROPER go at spawning as the greedy little corys snaffled all the eggs the last time. Just finished cycling and has 12x vietnamese mountain minnows in there to keep the cycle going till the rams go in. Just need to finish off the planting and add some slate!

 

[Russ_gibbo1985]

And the final tank (that is set up !) its a 30l nano i had a crowntail betta in here with 2x panda corys and 2x black venezeulan corys but the betta died last week :-(
So i put the corys in the tank downstairs and this is now empty.
Ive been dying to do an SW tank for a long while now and am currently looking for a Trigon 190 which will eventually be an sw as i also have a brand new 2ft aquarium knocking about ill use as a sump.
Sooooo having never gone marine before if like to have a shot at something smaller first im going to setup the nano as a small soft coral tank and maybe a shrimp or two!
Any build ideas or thoughts are welcome as im a total marine novice. Ill put together a build thread once I begin but some ideas would be much appreciated!

 

[ollief9]

All lovely tanks!

 

[Russ_gibbo1985]

Hey thanks a lot ollie!

 

[redsea]

Very nice aquariums!

 

[Mouth-Brooder-Fanatic]

when is the cichlid tank happening?

 

[Russ_gibbo1985]

when is the cichlid tank happening?

Tbh im not too sure yet, im currently looking for a trigon 190 as i have an aquarium suitable for a sump and a shiny looking corner dying for a fish tank! im not sure weather to set it up as a cichlid tank first before the BIG SW challenge. Might just make a nice slow build on it and get a trigon 350 for the cichlids as the 190 is a little small Waddya think?!

 

[Mouth-Brooder-Fanatic]

i like the BIG SW idea, sounds like a great challenge. plus the tank sizes ur going for.... veeeery nice, they should be fine
a trigon 350 for cichlids would be better as you could hold more and they could reach their potential.
what saltwater fish do u like?
what cichlids do u like?
x

 

[Russ_gibbo1985]

i like the BIG SW idea, sounds like a great challenge. plus the tank sizes ur going for.... veeeery nice, they should be fine
a trigon 350 for cichlids would be better as you could hold more and they could reach their potential.
what saltwater fish do u like?
what cichlids do u like?
x

Tbh i think I'm going to do what I said slow build on the 190 for sw, really like to have it as a reef so obv ill need compatible occupants.
Id really like a clown hosting a nem, i reeeeally like mandarins, flame angels and coral beauties really tickle my fancy too although im not too sure if they are compatible with each other or if the flame would br reef compatible any ideas!??
On the 350 for the cichlids, i really like green terrors, flower horns, midas. Do you keep large cichlids yourselff?? X

 

[Sharkbait54]

Lol sounds like me I started with a 54g bowfront i have 2 marble angels in that then a 25g high I got for 10 bucks I put a pair of cockatoo cichlids in that and then I got a 10 gallon with a Betta .... I might do what u did and put a divider and get 2 bettas luv ur tanks btw!

 

[Russ_gibbo1985]

Lol sounds like me I started with a 54g bowfront i have 2 marble angels in that then a 25g high I got for 10 bucks I put a pair of cockatoo cichlids in that and then I got a 10 gallon with a Betta .... I might do what u did and put a divider and get 2 bettas luv ur tanks btw!

Lol trust me that tank with the divider was a NIGHTMARE! she wanted it fitted into the old fire place i had to plasterboard it out so to stop the drafts. Then for space I decided to fit a big external filter having it massively over filtered to help get over the divider did a tank clean and 30% water change every week and swapped round which side the inlet and outlet of the filter so both sides had equal filtration. It was a big head ache but in the end worth it, it looked beautiful and scored MEGA Brownie points!
Had the betta either side with a few friends each! Ill dig out a few more pics and post them tomorrow.
Ooooo cockatoos ilove them, was considering a dwarf cichlid community, maybe my ebr pair, pair of cockatoo, and a pair of kribs or borelli?! Who knows!

 

[Mouth-Brooder-Fanatic]

i am currently scouring for the best 75 gal (affordable lol) that is good looking too so i can get three oscars, let them pair then take the unwanted one back.
i keep red zebras (2), cobalt zebras (3), male kenyi (1), peacock (2), buffalo cichlid (1), pseudocrenilabrus nicholsi juvi (1) and fuelleborni (1). in my smaller tank i am raising the 15 red zebra fry from a redxblue strain. its only 40 gal, but i do 3 x 40-50% water changes per fortnight to control the bioload.
i soooo reccomend zebras, they are my life
aaaand... great perseverance on the divider ha! xx