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My 750L Amazon tank
- II
By Frank Panis
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3. The moulding of
the 3D-background can begin! |
| Before I got completely
geared up for the sticky molding job I first changed the layout of the
water outlets a bit, so the right one will release water at the bottom
instead of working as an overflow. This should prevent the buildup of
waste products behind rocks or bogwood in that corner. I also went to
the pond shop and bought all kinds of PVC connections, elbows, valves,
hose and pipes. Despite this is a 100% DIY project, these parts raised
the bill considerably. Then on with the molding! I was a bit on the
economical side when I bought the components, so after a first round of
pouring, I discovered that I needed at least the same amount of
components again to end this job successfully! After getting them I
could finally finish this sticky job, and after the extra coating it was
time to put the tank in it's place.
The 750L aquarium on its back with all plumbing ready
to get mould-in!
 
I used PVC end caps that I glued to the aquarium to
ensure the background is fastened. The foam swallowed up the caps that
remained invisible after the molding job.
The background completely finished: not a single
technical element can be observed!
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| After connecting all the pumps
and filters the testing could begin! I'd like to be sure that every
part of the aquarium works like I want it to before any fish will
swim in it! The Eheim 1060 circulation pump and the reservoir were
immediately removed, as they caused a loud hum all over the living
room, what definitely was not the goal we liked to achieve! Silence
is what we want, so I connected a second Eheim 2329 canister instead
of the Eheim 1060! The flow was on the poor side, especially
compared to that of the Eheim 1060. Wouldn't it be possible for a
brand like Eheim to make pumps that are completely silent? They
could ask some extra money for it, as people like me would love to
spend some more money on such a silent pump!
Shock, horror and disbelief! After a full
month cycling and when the tank finally became ready to move to the
next step, the special PU foam 3D background shrunk with 2cm and
came loose on the right side! What a stupid setback this was! After
emptying the tank, removing all filters and equipment I had to lay
the aquarium on it's back, and fill the gap with new foam. As this
couldn't be done in a minute I had to break down and reinstall
everything and repeat the complete cycling process again! Meanwhile
I also made an additional groove in the background to install an
additional small pump for additional surface movement. This incident
has set me back for at least a month and hopefully from now on no
problems will prevent me to move on with the Amazon project! Of
course this month was used to think about what specific fish I would
keep in this tank... Amazon cichlids or other ones??? |
A groove was cut out of the background to
mount an additional pump.
See next page for the next part |
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