D.I.Y Insulating a Fish Tank

There are many ways to save bit of money in this hobby and it is perhaps more important these days with increased energy costs and upcoming water charges. Insulating your tanks might be one of the easier methods.

The heater of a tropical aquarium is probably one of the necessities that have the highest energy consumption (unless you are packing some impressive light system), by simply insulating a tank you can save a few buck in the long run. It all ads up especially when keeping several tanks. Another positive side is that as the tank will retain the heat longer you will have more time to sort out a malfunctioning heater.

What you need: suitable amount of styrofoam or another insulating material, a carpet knife, a measuring tape, silicone and paint (optional)

Sheet of Styrofoam:


 

If you want a background (painted or not) on the outside of the tank now is the time to apply it. I choose to paint the back and sides of the tank before attaching the styrofoam. Make sure to leave a square free from paint around each piece of glass for the silicone, see the masking tape in the picture below:

 

Cut out the pieces of insulating material that you need and attach them to the rear (and sides) of the tank using silicone:




















Detail of the silicone binder (a rough job i know:)):

The next step i optional. I decided to paint the styrofoam just to make it look less intrusive:

My tank is not a display tank but If your tank is a centerpiece it is worth to hide the insulation for instance in a rack or by lining it with wood panels.
 

Finally, it's never a bad idea to use styrofoam below the tank as well for a minimun heat loss:

That's all, a quick easy and cheap solution.





Melander

Videos: Pelvicachromis taeniatus Nigerian Red and Ancistrus red & black

Got my hands on a video camera and thought I would share my first two aquarium videos, there will hopefully be more of this in the future.


First of is my young pair of Pelvicachromis taeniatus Nigerian Red interacting, it does look like they have paired up. These two will be interesting to follow.

Secondly, here's a horde of Ancistrus red & black from my latest batch. 

Driftwood Jan, 2013

Another great day for foraging today in the sunny south-east.

I went to the beach and as usual came home with bags of driftwood, this is a particularly nice piece just screaming to be used in a river set-up.

The treatment of the wood will start with a long period (months) of soaking outdoors to get rid of any excess bark and other nasties, after that any left over bark is easy enough to peel off. The wood is then dried and then boiled. The first tank with fish it goes into holds a number of Ancistrus which happily feed on the exterior and in doing so create a very nice smooth surface.