Whelp. It took me a solid week but it's finished and I have 4 very happy swimming fish!
I found this 29 gallon aquarium at the local Goodwill and could not resist picking it up for twelve dollars and change! If you don't shop at Goodwill - you really need to !! HA
About $150 layyyyyterrrr.....I had the sufficient amount of special sand, crushed coral, Texas Holey Rock (about $5 per lb.) and a nice coral centerpiece. It really was too big for this smaller size aquarium but oh well.
Right after I finished this set up a guy offered to trade me a brand new 40 gallon aquarium for one of my sets of hockey goalie pads so of course! After looking the tank up online I saw it would have cost $250 in the store - the pads, I had also picked up off the Goodwill online auction store for less than $30 inc. shipping!
I bought a nice glass canopy top new at PetSmart for just $24.99. I was happy to find the background on eBay for $9.99 which exactly matches the aqua~scape I planned to design. You'll notice it is a bit short on the right side because I had purchased it for the 29 gal. - no worries as you shall see! A second hand 36" matching black hood w/LED light strip which fit to perfection for a quick twentie bux and a sleek 'n sexy finish!
I began by laying the 36" flexible air bubble wand on the bottom - clearly 36" wasn't gonna cut it! I also did not realize it would have an open end on either side......so I purchased a second 36" wand, connected them with a six inch piece of tubing and added an air pump to power either side ~~> VOILA!!
I was not impressed by the day~glo orange jet pumps I purchased but was only offered a 50% refund to keep them. So until I upgrade they will suffice and I just decided to hide them within the decor. They will serve their small aeration / filtration purpose for now.
This was an all day project I had to work quickly on while the poor poor fishies had to sit & wait in a heated bucket. The sand and gravel would need to be rinsed as I moved it (always always rinse your sand & gravel before putting it in! A 5 gallon pail works great to do this). Those bubble wands have to be weighted down to be held in place.
Next ~ the centerpiece! The special African Cichlids I have seem to love it even though it's not really native to their usual surroundings.
Bring on tha agua !! (Had to be added quickly to get the filter & heaters up an running ASAP)
Add plants, add holey rock!
Hey the bubbles work ~ WAHOOOOO!~*
Did some shufflin' with the rocks to give fishies 1, 2, 3, & 4 a hopeful, happy home! (I can't believe these plants are still alive as they sat in a vase on the counter for a week, purely an experiment to try & keep these suckers going strong!)
Notice the hanging plant I placed in corner to strategically meld the scenery and hide the end space ~ ah~HAH!
A lot of the work beyond designing the inside of the tank was everything on the outside hidden behind from view. I bought a second surge protector with a built in LED clock and timer screen so the lights, air pumps and jets come on at 8AM and go off at 8PM while the filter & heaters operate 24 x 7. Here she is, the reveal all done and . . . . . . .
♥¸.•°”˜˜”°•.✫ B★E★A★U★T★I★F★U★L ✫¸.•°”˜˜”°•.♥
Hope you enjoy my project as much as I did putting it together. If so, please kindly upvote, resteem if you care and share love with all of your family and friends in this world ~ we sure aren't here long!
Always,
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