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Yesterday I setup/moved the filtration from the 25 gallon over to the 75. Once I had that running, I tore out the plants and moved the fish. Agh, catfish are so difficult to catch! Actually, those little tetras are pretty horrible to catch too.

Mostly my planting style is “plop where it’ll fit” …I need to give the plants time to adapt and become more ‘true to form’ and all that fun stuff. There are some that are floating around, but I’m a bit tired of having my arms shoulder deep in water.

Leonard, the angelfish I bought a year ago when he was the size of my thumbnail, has been ludicrously aggressive towards Oliver (older, original Angelfish)& Samantha (blue gourami). So, for now, Leonard is in the 25 gallon with only spare plants as his company. He’s a large and by that measure a valuable fish… he’s also a total jerk.

That’s the “wet side” of the aquarium stand. On the left, the square filter is my Eheim Pro II 2028, it’s the primary filter. Its output is piped up through a Hydor Eth 300w inline heater and then out through a spray bar mounted on the left of the aquarium.

The little cylinder filter is my Eheim Ecco 2234 (?) anyway, it’s the middle line Ecco. Its input is a Fluval surface skimmer, output goes out through a 25 watt Current USA Gamma UV Sterilizer, then out to my DIY “Rex” style Reactor, just a couple of minor modifications. The reactor takes in CO2 through the 1st Tee, the second Tee is plugged, but that’ll be for auto dosing and top off.

I still need to more properly secure some of the hoses, and also elevate the electrical cords. I need to have a decent amount of slack in some of the tubing, due to having to burp the reactor, etc. I do have some stick on cord holders, but they’re not sturdy/big enough for the super heavy duty cords from the UV and CO2 Solenoid. My CO2 cylinder containment system is lacking, while it’ll keep it from falling over, I don’t really feel it is secure enough.

That’s part of the “dry side” of the stand. I decided to go with Coralife’s “Aqualight” power strip, it was considerably cheaper than buying half a dozen timers… and then still needing a power strip. I have it set right now to flip on the first row of lights while also turning on the CO2, and turning off the Lunar lights and UV Sterilizer. That means, of course, CO2 is off during the night, but the UV is on. I’m giving that way of doing things a trial run. An hour after the first row of lights comes on, then the second row flips on too. The process then reverses, with the second row of lights cutting off an hour before the rest. Again, I still need to secure all the wiring.

That’s an American DJ power center. Most of the outlets/switches are unused at the moment, but if I’d take the UV, CO2, etc, off the timers they’d be plugged in there. Right now it’s just the filters and heater. It’s so very convenient to be able to press a switch instead of having to unplug that stuff. In the future my dosing pump and auto top off system will also be plugged into this.

That’s Henry, about a year old now (since I’ve had him anyway). Here’s a photo of him from April last year.