Re-doing my 30cm tank

[chesterchuen]

I believe some of the bros here know that i'm building a bigger 2 feet tank in my other thread. On this thread, i will be discussing about my 30cm tank. It is actually my first tank that i did aquascaping. Basically this tank was purchased from my colleague. Initially it came with the EHEIM 2211, but i've since relocated the 2211 to my other tank. As a result, i first used the Ocean Free Ultra Slim Hand On Filter US-1 but it gets clogged and overflow very frequently that i ended up purchasing the EHEIM AquaCompact 40(you can see that i'm running the EHEIM with the US-1 because the US-1 have to reduce flow so much to prevent overflowing that it's actually trickly with water instead). It currently houses my Apple Snails and 3 Amanos.

I plan for this tank to be relocated inside the cabinet of my 2 feet tank therefore i feel it is also time to redo my aquascaping layout. Firstly, due to the presence of Apple Snails, i can't use real plants otherwise these plant devouring monsters will consume them in no time. After looking at the layout, i feel that it's too cramped for my liking. The photo below will do the talking:



Somehow the rocks appear to be slightly too big to look good in this tank. Will consider using smaller stones or river pebbles. Also notice the algae issues. That's the problem i faced due to the tank being situated near the windows and facing direct sunlight in the morning. That's the reason why i'm shifting this tank. The driftwood will remain in this tank, so is 1-2 plastic plants. Will play around with the rocks and see how it will look like. The sand i'm using is ANS Naturesand Brightsand that was given to me by my colleague.

Meanwhile despite the algae issues, the little guys inside the tank is living pretty happily. Needless to say, the algae is actually food for the Apple Snails especially the baby snails. Below you can also see a moulted shell of the Amano shrimp.



On the other side of the tank, you can see the huge adult Apple Snail at the background resting on the glass while in the foreground shows the adolescent snail.



Now moving on to plans on changing the layout of the tank, i will first discuss about the filter. While the EHEIM AquaCompact 40 is an outstanding filter, it occupies quite abit of space out of the tank, where space is a premium inside my new cabinet. Therefore the EHEIM has to go (possibly sell it on Carousell or here). However the stupid Ocean Free US-1 filter is a useless filter for me that clogs every single week. The main reason is that it has no space for me to put in bio media to filter out the stuff. The filter pad that comes with it clogs way too easily. After reading some of the post here, i came across some fellow members using the Dophin H80. I also read that the Shiruba PF120 is similar in size with the H80. Went down to C328 but couldn't find the H80 so ended up purchasing the PF120.



As shown below, following what some of the fellow members have done, i've cut out the coarse filter into 2 to fit the filter as shown below:



For the bio media, i'm using EHEIM's Bio Mech. The media acts as mechanical filtration as well as providing biological filtration.



Now i'm using another spare tank to test the filter and so far it's working pretty well.



Will post more updates in the future. I will possibly rearrange the tank once the cabinet arrives. Meanwhile i will think and plan the layout while also using the filter with the tank to cycle the filter with bacteria.

[jackychun]

Great start bro!

Keep update more on the progress!


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[chesterchuen]

Thanks bro Jacky! Managed to do some simple readjustment. Removed some big stones and 1 plastic plant. Did some cleaning up too. Looks better now. Will redo the substrate in future.



Closer look, compare the size of the baby snail and the adult snail behind.



Amano already hard at work cleaning the algae off the stones.



Not sure if other snails exhibit this feature. Apple Snail extending it's snorkel to breath air from the surface. I read that they have this feature as they sometimes live in waters that have close to zero oxygen levels. Not sure why this fella still breathe from the surface. My other creatures living as per normal without any deaths or stress.



And introducing my largest snail in the tank. it's the size of a golf ball now.