Kilyth's 120L tank

**kilyth** · 11-06-2011, 11:00 AM

I bought a 120L (approx 30 USgal) tank second hand.

It came with some ornaments, bubble tubes, heater, filter, hood, lights, and a crushed glass substrate. I'm unsure about whether or not to keep the heater, it's pretty crusted with limescale and parts of it look charred. The glass of the tank was also pretty crusted with scale.

Yesterday I cleaned out the substrate and binned it and one of the ornaments which was broken. I scrubbed the glass with vinegar and it's now spotless and shining. Today I will be making a new top for a coffee table that will be acting as my stand.

**sheamurai** · 11-06-2011, 09:09 PM

Excellent! Great to see another journal thread?

What are your plans?

**kilyth** · 11-06-2011, 09:22 PM

Initially it's going to be home to just one elderly goldfish, but eventually I'm going to change substrate and plant it and then... well I haven't decided yet, but I'll probably have a few months, if not years (goldfish seems near immortal), to figure it out. It'll almost certainly involve cories

Today I went and got some pea gravel. I also cut a larger top for the stand, painted it and attached it.

**kilyth** · 11-27-2011, 04:30 PM

I finally got back to the tank and OH and I manhandled it up to the bathroom and I filled it.

The filter that came with it seems to be working ok. I wasn't sure about the heater that was included because it seemed charred so I've ordered a new one and will be keeping the tank at 22c.

**kilyth** · 12-05-2011, 11:40 AM

Did some planting with Cabomba and Java Fern

Amm 0
pH ~8
Nitrate < 5
Nitrite ~0.1

**Cliff** · 12-05-2011, 03:16 PM

Looks like that tank might have been a SW set-up in the past

Are one of the bulbs in the hood blue in color ? The one pic you have posted almost looks like it. If it is, I would suggest changing that to a white FW bulb to help you avoid algae. FW algae just loves the blue color tones.

Good call replacing the heater.

**kilyth** · 12-05-2011, 05:43 PM

It does seem to have a blue tint to it. I'll swap it as soon as finances permit, thanks for the head's up. What makes you think it was a SW set-up?

I figured that the heater had probably been left on during WCs, and new ones are practically free on ebay, so I thought 'better safe than sorry'.

**Cliff** · 12-05-2011, 06:45 PM

The reason why I thought it might have been a SW set-up would be the Blue / Actinic lighting in your hood. Those are typically used in SW set-ups. The fact it might have been a SW set-up before really won’t impact you as you cleaned the tank really well before setting it up. I just wanted to give a heads up about using the blue lighting in a FW tank.

**kilyth** · 12-07-2011, 09:55 AM

New heater arrived today, so have that in and cranked up to max to put it through it's paces before I turn it down to 22C.

Amm 0
pH 7.5
nI 0
nA <5

**kilyth** · 12-08-2011, 01:01 PM

On the algae front, I'm thinking of adding a snail, either an apple, or a couple of nerites. I'll have to see how the goldie get on in there first though, although aqadvisor seems to think I could get away with it, bioload wise. I'm very concious of not overstocking, since goldies are so messy.

It's weird how I immediately thought 'snail' when I read 'possible problems with algae'. I don't like garden snails at all, but I'm very fond of my nerites for some reason.