[Bacon Is Good]

Can`t wait to its finished.

Do you need the address to my house?JK

[bdgiese90]

@jaysee- I covered a lot of it in concrete because my original intention was to only have little coves in the bottom. I'm planning on putting some gravel in little pits in the bottom for some plants and that's about it.

@Bacon- Let's see if I can keep anything alive in this tank before I think about home delivery
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[pop]

Hello bdgiese90;
There exist a type of concrete that can be poured into water to setup did you use a form or just poured.
Concrete has lime and is depending on the type water soluble over time. Listen to the suggestion about checking ph. There might be a non-toxic sealant available.
Novel idea i like it a lot.
pop

[bdgiese90]

Originally Posted by pop

Hello bdgiese90;
There exist a type of concrete that can be poured into water to setup did you use a form or just poured.
Concrete has lime and is depending on the type water soluble over time. Listen to the suggestion about checking ph. There might be a non-toxic sealant available.
Novel idea i like it a lot.
pop

I put on a thin layer of concrete by hand, and the layers progressively became thicker until I was happy with it.

I did more extensive research on the concrete and discovered that the lime WILL raise my alkalinity immensely and it will be hard to keep fish alive in it. So I'm definitely glad I researched that. I'm still wet curing my tank, but now I'm having thoughts about draining my tank until I get sealant for it. I found sealant that you can brush on to the surface of the concrete, and its non toxic. Even better, its used in zoos. It also makes the concrete so dense that it is impermeable to water, and it works with the alkali in the concrete to seal it

This means no leaching lime in my tank, no alkalinity, safe fish. I'm glad I posted here first. I knew i didn't research thoroughly enough Thanks!

[bdgiese90]

I just found new research which I am actually pretty excited about:

Turns out that use of unsealed concrete in aquariums is safe after the proper leeching process is completed (i.e. all that lime we were talking about). The lime is what makes the concrete very alkaline, and when its submerged in water (whether its curing or not) it will leech out lime among other things for an extended period of time. After said period accompanied by several large water changes, a cycle can be started with nitrifying bacteria and fish food or whatever method you prefer (people like to use feeders, I personally think its cruel, but I won't break any balls over it).

So with that being said, the leeching period can take 2 or 3 weeks depending on the amount of concrete, type, etc.. Safe to add fish after that

Looks like I have many, many water changes in my future on top of the 12 gallons I did tonight. Ugh..

On a side note. What do you guys think of the color of the concrete? Should I go darker with it? I want my tank to have crazy contrasts with the shadows I created and plants (moss coming soon, new development) along with the fish and substrate I will eventually be adding, probably a dark brown gravel. I like to think I have a good eye for things, but if someone has better ideas, I want to hear them!

Thanks for following my posts by the way. You guys are great. And it has gotten me even more excited to learn about keeping fish and building tanks altogether.

And if you read through my entire post to listen to me nerd out about concrete, thanks for that too.

[bdgiese90]

Hey everybody!

It's been a while since I've posted on here. I had my tank running unstocked for quite a while to get rid of the cloudiness from the concrete in there. I also had driftwood in there, which is making the tea color in the water. It's certainly been a test of my patience, but I have come to terms with the tea color. I was just concerned about how hard my water was. Turns out that the water where I live is hard anyways, so that will have to be remedied with a softener pouch or something similar.

Anyways, I decided to go with the fish-in cycle, using only fish I planned to keep. I also heavily planted my tank (at least its heavy to me) so that my fish don't suffer ammonia burn and things like that during the cycle (of course after doing research on this matter). I think I understand this cycle much better, and though water testing is necessary, I didn't find it to be so crucial as such when planting the tank as well. More discussion on that later if you so choose.

Here's my tank!

20120925_002214.jpg
At this point there's a Delta Tail Betta and 2 Silver Lyretail Mollies, along with the moss ball, Java Fern, bleheri, and some other plant I can't remember the name of. They all seem to be hiding in this pic.
20120927_141623.jpg
Betta and mollies came out of their shell after a few days. Added 5 Harlequin rasboras (super active right away, they were all over my tank!) and another plant described as "aquatic combo". Can someone identify this for me please?
20120927_141630.jpg
Rasboras swimming through the hole in the center and..
20120927_142015.jpg
They came out on the other side! This got me really excited. My betta and mollies don't even use a fraction of the hiding spots/obstacles I've created. They seem to like just being out in the open.

Comments and criticism please!

Ben

Note: I realized after I posted that you can't see the Java Fern in the later pic. I moved it when I put in the new plants. It's in there I promise :) I also decided against the cichlids in this tank because I picked up a 40 breeder that I will so something similar to in and put them in there instead.

[ninjablackghostknife]

That must have taken foreverI would screw a project like that up so bad...