ynotfish's 240L Juwel Rio

[ynotfish]

Hi Y'all! 

So, its finally "Rescape Time" - I've been meaning to add (even) more sand for my albino Corys and do some terracing for ages... so my LFF finally had a pair of the same terrace walls that I used for my original terracing, I had some sand left over, and a very kind TFF member offered to send me some left-over plants...

All I needed was a few hours time, and some help from the kids!

Two weeks later... I finally got the time... 

Here's what the tank looked like before Operation Jungle Clearance began:

[TropicalFishForums]

[ynotfish]

First cleaned the sand... in the bath in a bucket using the shower head to power clean and my youngest daughter stirring the sand with a cleaning brush.
I put a stocking in the drain-hole to prevent sand getting into the drains, with the intention of allowing the water to flow through, then hoovering the remaining sand out a few hours later. 
Unfortunately, my older daughter came along, thought, "What idiot has left a stocking in the bath tub", and promptly removed said stocking, thoughtfully using the shower head to clean all the sand into the drains too! 
 

Now onto the jungle clearance part... most of my plants were suffereing from brown diatoms, which were not shifting, so I was forced to consign most of them to the bin   

Removed plants, sorting them into "plants to be chucked" and "plants to keep"; took out decorations and cleaned them.  The resulting devastation looked like this:

[ynotfish]

From then on, things could only get better!

I cleaned as much diatom gunk from the decorations and remaining plants as I could, added the new terrace walls and then moved the gravel with a sieve from the middle of the tank to the new, back terrace.

Then I added the freshly washed sand (all 15kg of it) using a sieve and a funnel into the front terrace area.  My daughter held the funnel just under water, with the neck pointing at the "target area", my son scraped sand out of the bucket with the sieve, and I dumped the contents of the sieve in the funnel.  The funnel allowed us to (fairly) precisely aim the sand into the areas where we wanted it... 

By this time, the kids were more interested in TV than in helping Daddy, so I put the remaining plants and deco into the tank on my own. 

At this point, it looks like:

(notice the three flying foxes all flying in formation!)

[ynotfish]

I allowed the tank to settle over night, made a couple of "last minute" adjustments and now all I need is a few more plants... I may well be contacting AquaPlant after pay-day next week!

The plants need to grow - I got some of "Johnnie's Ferts" and will be getting some LiquidCarbo too - but won't start with that until I've got all the plants together.

Maybe someone can suggest a good mix of "easy to grow" plants?  I was thinking of:

Some nice big bushy ones (with some red in them?) at the back and in front of the filter.
Some long thin ones (Hornwort or E.Densa) right at the back.
Then some smaller low-growing ones in front of the deco, but not that they grow so big that the deco can not be seen!  
The sandy area is to be kept, mostly, free - although I'm sure that my Hygrophila polysperma "rosa" will gradually take over again!  

The fish are none the worse for their two hour adventure - but I think that the tetras are missing their plant cover!  

Here is the (for the moment) finished article:
BTW - the photos with the slightly yellowish tinge were taken with my Canon Olympus C-4000 and the more "white" ones were taken with my Nokia phone.  Which ones look best to you?

[Ruthie]

Hey looks nice now, I prefer the whiter picture myself.

[Hayley]

I'm not sure, the whiter ones possibly.  I love the background picture, did the kids make it for you?  It has slipped but you can still make out the fish drawings

The tank looks good, I like the terracing, I've got some stuff to do one of my tanks, just got to get round to doing it.  The filters in the juwel tanks are a bit of a pain but are good filters, you can remove the box and replace it with an external filter.

[ynotfish]

I love the background picture, did the kids make it for you?  It has slipped but you can still make out the fish drawings

Yeah!  Unfortunately, you can no longer see SpongeBob and Patrick as they're hiding behind the decorations!  

Putting in an external filter is also on my list of "things to do when time/money allows", but for the moment I'm happy with the built-in Juwel filter and the small Fluval TetraTec filter from my daughter's ex-aquarium.  

[plankton]

Looks really effective Tony, looking forward to when the plants have taken hold again

[Adam]

Dosen't look bad without plants either TBH. 

I like vallis, decent long thin background plants. The big vallis I don't like but the smaller one grows to around 30 cm tall - I think, can't remember the name for it though.

Try indian water ferns for a bit of bushyness, clump about 3+ of them together, should disguise the filter area nicely. Easy growers IME.

Anubias for the front would probably do well so you can still see the whole fantasy thing going in the background.

[keepontrying]

I love it Tony.  I like all the sand.  I would love that in my 240L but don't want to move my plants at the moment.  Too much like hard work.
I think you have a fantubilistic angle fish there in the 'white' photo.

I do prefer the 'white' photo myself.
Your children were very good to help you.
I hope the sand that went down the drain won't block your drains! 

Great job.  i like your moss balls too.

[ynotfish]

Thanks!

All the fish seem happy enough, except I lost one cory, its was a small one which got battered about by my ex-CAE (got rid of it as it was terrorising the other fish) a few months ago and never really recovered.

  albino cory.

[keepontrying]

Oh no.....poor cory....i love cory's.......

I'm sorry about that.

This week i lost one budgie, i shrimp and one fish!!!!

[ynotfish]

This week i lost one budgie, i shrimp and one fish!!!!

Eek!

Sorry to hear that, still... your other shrimp are looking great! 

[keepontrying]

This week i lost one budgie, i shrimp and one fish!!!!

Eek!

Sorry to hear that, still... your other shrimp are looking great! 

Yes thank you Tony.  I love the shrimp.
My budgie was just dead in the cage. don't know why.
I lost a crs after it moulted or shed, whatever you want to call it.
And the fish was a white molly that we have since the start of the aquariums. Maybe just old?

[Hayley]

Sorry to hear of both of your losses   Good move getting rid of the CAE Tony