Yesterday I went to the Atlanta Area Aquarium Association Fall Auction (that's a lot of A's), and I went a little crazy, but there were some outright steals that I couldn't pass up. Until last night I didn't even have any tanks set up(not counting the 55g rubbermaid tub holding my fish since the move) and I still came home with 5 or 6 bags of fish.
The fish I brought home are all juvies, so I couldn't just dump them into the rubbermade...hence I just *had* to purchase a few tanks while at the auction, all below the $1/gallon benchmark.
I'm excited about all the fish. If I had to pick two highlights, they would be the 2 pairs of Apistogramma cacatuoides 'Triple Red' and the 2 pairs of Dario rubra. The Dario rubra are a real highlight because they have just been imported into the hobby. I also picked up 4 F0 Parotocinclus eppelyi, 2 Scarlet Badis, and 5 or 6 Apistogramma borelli 'Opal'.
Once they've had a chance to eat, grow, and display their colors I'll post pictures.
45g Planted: First Love
In January 2008 I formally put together my 45g tank. This tank started out as a 30g, with blue gravel, and one slowly dying piece of L. repens. In September of 2007 I built a DIY CFL light hood and began DIY CO2. Quickly I also ditched the blue gravel and added some Soilmaster Select followed by some Flourite.
This tank was pieced together over time with great buys from craigslist. A quick run down of the equipment is:
- Hood and stand I built.
- Lighting started out as 208 watts of DIY CFL, and later was "upgraded" to 2x96w PC with AH Supply reflectors. 1 10,000K bulb and 1 6700k/Colormax
- Eheim 2128 Pro II for mech and bio, and a Magnum 350 with micron for water polishing
- Pentair 15w UV
- Pressurized CO2 with Milwaukee pH controller
