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.

D.I.Y Coconut breeding cave

As I got some new dwarf cichlids and only have tube shaped caves I decided to make a new home for them. These coconut caves are very easy to make, cheap and suitable for many dwarf cichlids and smaller catfish.

What you need: suitable coconut, fine toothed saw and a knife. 

Start by sawing the lower part of the coconut to make it sit steady on the substrate. Be sure to be careful sawing through it as a coconut can be quite slippy. It’s best if you can find a suitable holder to fix it in place for this step.

Next step is to carve a hole to function as the entrance. I used a knife but and an awl might be better. The size and place of the entrance depends on the fish’s needs.

Carve out the coconut meat from the inside. The meat is quite firm and you will need a solid tool for this. Again I used a knife but a spoon might work well too.

That’s it, your new cave should now be ready for use.

Within a couple of hours this girl moved into her new home.

New Additions; Pelvicachromis taeniatus “Nigerian – Red”

As most of you know my main interested lies in the various catfish inhabiting the rivers of South America. I have however strayed away from these with my latest additions to the collection in the form of a young beautiful pair (hopefully) of the West – African dwarf cichlid; Pelvicachromis taeniatus “Nigerian Red”. This is one of many colour forms of Pelvicachromis taeniatus and a truly stunning fish.

The pair was acquired from my good friend Bart at Rainbow Aquatics in Dublin where they were bred in store and are as Rainbow Aquatics's other fish of superb quality.

For the moment they will be kept in a 125 litre community tank, pH 7, 24°C. The tank is shared with guppies and Corydoras and the plan is to do this tank up as a nice community setup, but who knows I might eventually go for a full West – African biotope and I would not mind having a go at breeding these in the future either.

There will be more posts about these as they grow but for now I leave you with some pictures. The photos however don't do the fish justice!

Melander

Hypancistrus sp., photos

These photographs are not of the best quality, but they are of a very special little fish and will be added to the gallery.

 

In 2010 I ordered some Peckoltia compta, L134 at the time and the fish below came in as one. After some speculations on various sites it seemed to resemble the L080, a Peckoltia species. 

 

Having taken some photographs of its dentition it was however confirmed that it was a Hypancistrus species.

 

I have been in contact with people around the world that keep a similar Hypancistrus and there is a possibility that this is a so far unidentified species. 

It has a total length of around 10cm and seems to be an adult male.

The fish has been an absolutely joy to keep, a real character fish.

 

Corydoras panda, photos

Next up to get its own gallery is possibly my favourite aquarium fish the panda cory or Corydoras panda: