*Insert excitable topic title here*

I'm just about managing to stop myself from bouncing around with happiness. After nearly 6 months after my Rio 180 cracked, I have a brand new, bigger tank on the way It'll be here on Friday XD

I took a chance and ordered an All Pond Solution tank instead of one of the big brands, purely because we don't have much money at the moment. I think they look hell of a lot nicer than Juwels and other brands though, and I get more literage for the price than I would if I went with the general brands.

I've gone for the 3.3 ft tank in Walnut. Clicky here. It says it's a 200ltr tank, but if you convert the measurements it comes up with 293ltrs, so I'll have to measure it once I have the water up to the maximum level and see what I've got.

I've got 2 bags of eco-complete ready to go in it, and it'll be topped with the sand that's in the clear-seal tank now. I don't have a huge amount of plants at the moment, so it's going to be a bit bare for a while until I can make some money with commissions to buy more to fill it out.

The tank comes with an internal filtration system in the hood, which does about 900 ltrs per hour, compared to the 1000 ltrs my external does. I'm going to transfer the media from my external to the internal and try that for a while by itself; As much as I'd like to have both filters running, I think it might push the electricity bills up , and seeing as I'm not the one paying the bills, I don't want to make it more expensive than it already is The external has been a bit sluggish recently anyway despite me cleaning it out often.

Stocking wise it's going to have:
2 x Krobia (two will be rehomed to Star over the next week at some point)
2 x Keyholes
1 x Female Pearl Gourami
1 x Male Golden Panchax
1 x Male Bristlenose
7 x Julii Corydora
2 x Albino Corydora
1 x Bronze Corydora
1 x Adolfi Corydora

I'm going to be getting some dithers for it to try and give the Krobia some more confidence. Bryn (my OH) has chosen Rummynose Tetra, and he's also decided that he really likes Electric Blue Rams, but we'll have to wait and see if there's enough room first.

There are very few reviews of the APS tanks, so I'll be taking lots of photos so I can do a proper review. Fingers crossed that the delivery company are gentle with it and I don't end up having to send a smashed tank back >.<

These do look nice tanks, I dont know just how big they are but reading some comments on APS facebook page most people do claim they are a lot bigger than they expected. It would be nice to know what they are like as most of my tanks all leak

I'm hoping it'll be a lot bigger than expected I'm going to be doing a video review (APS are holding a competition where you can with £50 of vouchers if your review wins), and a photo review so hopefully you'll be able to get a better idea of what they're like then.

Hurry up delivery blokes! I want my tank!

It's here!!!!!!!!!!! XD
I'll update later once I have it up and running XD

eeeeeeeeeeeekkkkkkk

get that screwdriver going

Have you finished yet?????????

Noooo D: Cabinet is a bit fiddly to set up, instructions weren't the clearest. Plus Bryn likes to take his time *rolls eyes*
Looks really nice so far though!

Now I finished! D:
Took waaaaay longer than I had anticipated. I was going to set the internal hood filter up, but there are parts missing so we had to back track and set up the external again. There is some minor damage to the hood, so I'll be contacting APS to see what they say. It doesn't impare the functionality of the hood, but it doesn't look nice considering we spent £240 on it. Cheap for a tank this size I know, but still worth asking.

But.......... my god it's a beautiful tank!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So, so pleased with it! I'm going to let everything settle down. Despite poor fish being so pale from the stress, they're happily pottering about exploring their much larger tank XD When I give them a feed later I'll take some pictures

Happy Flute is happy XD I have a big tank again XD

Aaaaaand now I need a beer!

pm sent

Glad its all together ok, cant wait to see pics

Well the keyholes are happy with their new home- they're flirting like mad with each other already! XD

Even the Krobia are out and about

I have only seen 1 of the two krobia, he came out for a feed tonight where the other is hiding I have no idea, so many hiding places in the tank though.

Same with my two tonight- the smaller one was out feeding, but the other just sulked behind some bogwood. I caught a quick glance of him after I'd finished feeding them, but thats it really.

Everyone has pigged out though which re-assures me that they'll all be ok.

Photo time! Although they're really poor, and please excuse all the bubbles- I'll try and get some proper photos tomorrow. Especially of the cabinet as it's such a lovely looking stand.





Tank looks tiny in the pictures XD

I did start off initially trying to give it a nice scape, but by then the fish had been in the storage container for so long that I just checked everything in. I'll try and do more with it next week once they've settled. It looks so bare now though! I'm going to try and find some cheapy plants to give it some nice colour, and I'm going to keep an eye out for some oak branches. I loved how they looked in your tanks Star, makes them look so much more natural. I also want to get some nice sized pebbles to grow moss on, and get a load of almond leaves.

*sigh* looks lovely so jealous I would love a brand new tank. Its a shame, meatball & noodle left yesterday I now have a load of oak twigs already soaked in their old tank I have no where for, I doubt they would post.

Some better photos I stole a load of bogwood and plants from the betta tank, as I plan to give that a right over haul in a few weeks anyway. It looks much better now, although some nice long sticks for height should be nice too, we've got plenty of parks about so I'm bound to find something eventually Any plans on what you're going to do with Meatball and Noodles old tank? Really glad I got to see them before they went to their new homes, they're such beautiful oscars

If you ever get the chance then I really recommend the APS tanks Star Especially if you wait around for a discount to come up, we got it for £240 instead of £270, and I think they do bigger discounts sometimes too, don't they?









I'll move the air stones at some point, but for now the keyholes and julii corys have spent all day playing in the bubbles, which is so cute to watch. I need to get a background for it sometime soon too as the keyholes and krobia are obsessed with their own reflections.

Everyone seems to be doing well, apart from my poor old bronze cory, who's barbels I accidently damaged the other day. She doesn't look at deaths door, just not happy, so I've done a water change just to help them all out.

I've had to unplug the heater too as the hot weather has bumped the temperature from 25c to 29c! I'm just concerned about the corys and keyholes more than anything, so I've put some bottles of water in the freezer to try and cool them down later.

I have been struggling with my tank temps

Orders are to close down the 240 (filter is still running though at the moment) I will hopefully get it emptied tomorrow and cleaned up, along with the 260 and get them both on ebay. I have decided meatball & noodle are my last rescues , tough decision but I cant help people out with their mistakes and problems any more, I have enough of my own at the moment. OK If something turns up on the doorstep like they did then of course I would take them in.

A nice plain blue background would look brill on that tank

It's been so crazy hot for the past couple of days, I'm not surprised. When you do a cold water change, how cold do you make it (as in do you put any warm water into the mixture at all?) and how long do you take to fill the tank back up? I want to do daily water changes for a few days anyway just to make sure that they're all alright, as some do have some scrapes and bumps from panicking when I was trying to catch them all.

I can imagine rescuing is so draining, both emotionally and physically, so it makes sense for you to stop taking rescues. Especially when people abuse your help and don't make the effort with their tanks because they know you can't say no

I was thinking a blue background would be best, as I don't really like the ones with photos, apart from the ones that have rock work on them But I'll have to see what I can find locally.

I am doing just cold out of the tap, pouring it in slowly across the tank so there is not a cold spot, not that is bringing the temperature down much. I have also increased the air into all the tanks lifting spray bars/filter outlets right out of the water.

Okies, I'll do a cold water change tomorrow morning. I've had the heater unplugged since yesterday and the blinds down on the windows, and the temperature has gone down to 27.

I've got a frozen bottle of water floating about, I doubt it'll do much but it's worth a go for now

Just measured now and the tank is about 220 ltrs