Making this fish tank was incredibly tough. It took us over a year to get from start to finish. The process was slowed down since we didn't have a lot of time to invest in it, except for in the summer. Plus the fact that I didn't have a job for a while put a financial strain on the project. But this September we finally got it finished.
It's a 45 gallon tank. It's pretty huge compared to a standard 5-10 gallon tank, but in our many trips to various pet stores, the tanks we have seen just dwarf this one (we have seen 180 gallon tanks). So we are now humbled concerning its size. But its contents are quite unique. I've never seen a tank anything like it.
The gravel is mostly black glass chips. We needed some more later on, but the store where we first bought it from stopped carrying it, & we couldn't find it anywhere else. So, we decided to mix a small amount of purple gravel with the black glass. This looked incredibly cool, so we decided to add a smaller amount of orange to it also. Now it looks awesome.
We got some unique rocks to put in it. One is some unknown type of yellow rock (the one in the left of the picture) that looks like a tower. It has 7 openings all around it that connect to 2 chambers inside. This is what really makes it look like a tower. Behind the tower is a big piece of bog wood (or whatever you call it). The wood looks like a tree growing out of the bottom, with its branches wrapping around the rock tower. We also put another piece of wood and another rock in there, as well as a bunch of plants.
The crowning piece of work for the tank was a rock tower that I made from a bunch of rainbow rock (in the right side of the picture). This rock tower is rising out of a pit of black sand. This picture is the only one I have. Its not that great, with the reflections and all, but it will do until I can take some better ones.
January 14, 1997 - Lately, we have had to make some changes to the tank. We were having a lot of problems with the pH. So we had to remove the yellow rock tower. It was disolving into the water, increasing the pH and the hardness. Most of our plants have not survived either. We had to replace most of them with artificial plants. It seems the only plant that will actually grow are grass-type plants.
March 1, 1997 - Today, Bubbles, the Dalmation Molly, had about 20 babies. We only managed to save 6 of them from becoming snack food. So far, all 6 of them are fine.
April, 1997 - Well, she did it again! Bubbles had another 6 babies that we saved. We released the first 6 back into the take now that they are big enough to not get eaten.
May, 1997 - We released the second batch back into the tank, bringing the Molly count up to 13!
Here is some information about the aquarium & its components.
- 45 gallons (36" Wide x 24" High x 12" Deep)
- Fluval 403 filter
- AquaFlow 402 Powerhead
- Whisper 400 Air pump
- VisiTherm 300 watt heater
The fish currently in the tank are:
- Pleco - Mr. Clean
- HorseHead Loachs (2)
- Coolie Loachs (5)
- Algae Eaters (2)
- Zebra Angel - Tigger
- Black Angel - Angel
- Three Spot Gourami - Dot
- Dalmation Mollys (13) - Bubbles & her 12 babies.
- Mickey Mouse Platties - Mickey & Minnie
- Glowlight Tetras (4)
- Cardinal Tetras (4)
- Serpae Tetras (2)
Fish Keeper 1.1
On another note, I just want to mention a program I wrote which you can download here If you are a serious Fish enthusiast. It's called Fish Keeper 1.1, and you can use it to save records of lots of information about fish tanks, including water chemistry, fish, and diseases. You can browse the data in tables for quick comparison. For example, you can browse the water chemistry readings (pH, Hardness, Nitrate content, etc.) in a chronologically arranged table and see how it changes over time. You can keeps notes about what you did to treat the water, what symptoms a diseased fish had and how you treated the disease, and what a fish looks like (you can also use pictures), or how it acts. There is also a general use diary that you can use to keep notes about anything else that is not specifically included in the program. You can download this program & try it out for free. You can also register it via email and use it permanently for a small price (NOTE: THE REGISTERED VERSION IS CURRENTLY AVAILABLE AT NO CHARGE). So please check out this program. I find it pretty handy, and I think any aquarium enthusiast would agree. So give it a try. You can download Fish Keeper 1.1 here.