Just bought a used 40 gallon, wooo! Very excited as you can tell, currently I have a Fluval Chi, which is only 5 gallons, and my first fish for it was a young angelfish, fortunately she's still very small because I was feeling terrible about how cramped her tank was, so here's her replacement. The girlfriend wasn't too happy about how large the tank ended up being but I think she'll get over it once we get the tank filled and move her in. At least we got a good deal on it, I assume. It was $50 off craigslist and came with two pumps and a heater. The only problem is the dresser we were intending it for is 30" wide, while the tank is 36". I decided we could move it to my old computer desk, however thats only 34" wide and worse, the front looks like a bow front, 15" at its shortest, 16" at its deepest..the tank is 16" deep . So now I'm back to the dresser idea, but I think maybe I could make a support for one side that comes out about 7" from the dresser and throwing a blanket over it or something, making it 37" wide. What do you guys think?

you may get away with getting a thick solid board at 36x16 and placing it on top.. but check stability without water and with water before committing fish to it.

That's a good idea, Thanks! I'm going to try that. And that way if worse comes to worse and its just a little bit unbalanced I can just stick one 2x4 with a foot of some sort for balance under the plywood board instead of having to build a structure.

make sure its at least 1/2 in. thick.. plywood wouldnt be totally recommended. It flexes too easily and holds water too much which causes it to get weaker and moldy. If you can find a board or add some together that would be better. If you have access to a power saw, you could just get some smaller boards and joint them together.. dont do a butt joint, would be way too weak.

Sounds good, I'll get looking, I appreciate the help.

Also the filters that came with it are a Penguin Bio-Wheel for 20 gallons and an AquaClear Mini that's rated for 15 gallons. I have the Penguin running on my 5 gallon right now to jumpstart the bacteria colony, however when I tried out the AquaClear it sounded a little noisy. Occasionally it would sound like there were pieces of sand in the impeller, however I took the entire filter apart and cleaned everything. Since it's rated for 15 anyways I'm thinking about just buying a new one? Can't decide though if it would just be better to look for replacement parts and keep the stocking fairly low.

Sounds like a fun project.I would think about getting a true stand,ot if you are comfortable with it,DIYing one.Then you can customise it,and make the girlfriend happy by asking what she thinks would make it look nice,IE accents,stain color,and shape.Also,if possible look through CL for a canister filter.I highly recommend one as it will take up less room on the back.easy to hide and to me,its better full filtration.I think a HOB may be rated for certain sizes but due to where the inlet and outflow are,theres always dead space,whereas a canister you can have an intake on one side and the outflow or spray bar on the other,moving all the water.Just be sure to see the filter and do your homework on price,and issues the brand has be fore buying,and also have them show you it working.

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"Come to the dark side....we have cookies...and filters/heaters/and water changes!"

I'd just buy a new one rated for a 40 gallon if its noisy. check out the fusion power 3 or 4. they're super quiet.

Personally I'd go with the Aqua clear rated a step above (AC50 I believe).

With a sponge on the bottom and 2 Biomax =D Only HOB I'll run.

I appreciate all the help so far.
Just got started on the stand part, I decided to go with a sheet of 1/2" CDX and put a 2x4 support under the side that's hanging over, with a 'foot' attached to that. I'll have pics up soon.

As for the filter I decided to make a delphi chart for it . The weights are mine, but if you guys have any suggestions on the values for certain filters I'm always open to changing the chart, because I don't have much experience in UG or canister filters.

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I got an aqeon quietflow 50 for a good price.
sound of rippling water is relaxing sometimes.
The motor is quiet atleast...
Only thing I really dont like is the priming.

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Updates:
Got the support built and the tank filled. I decided to use play sand, silica based, and the dust was loooads of fun. I rinsed it off 2 lbs at a time in a bucket, filling it up and dumping the water about 5-6 times per load. After all that rinsing the tank still got cloudy, but after a day its already much better.

Also the noisy AquaClear decided to stop being noisy, occasionally it will get loud again after a power shut off but then I just reset it one or two times and it quiets down.

Currently doing a fishless cycle

looks like a good start!

Wow
Excellent work.

Thanks guys!
Almost through the cycle, after dosing ammonia two days ago its at 0 now, nitrites are still pretty high though. The nitrates are acting funny, yesterday they doubled from the day before, and today it halved. I'm attributing that though to the new plants (couldn't resist). I'm thinking I might transfer the angelfish once the nitrites reach 0, even though I didn't see the ammonia go to 0 in a day I figured it would be alright since for a couple weeks I will probably only be stocking it to a quarter of its capabilities. What do you think?

Long overdue update

Unfortunately the angelfish died a while ago, she got infected with camallanus worms and after numerous treatments of fenbendazole they either rotted inside her or the infection was too far because she died a little while afterwards.

Since then the tank has been fully cycled, I got 9 black neon tetras, 2 SAE's, 5 red cherry shrimp and one apple snail. Unfortunately I placed the apple snail in the tank before realizing it's possible it might be infected as well since it was in the tank with the angelfish. After she died I treated the original tank again several times and the snail went through that so I'm hoping they're gone. Until then I'm waiting on getting centerpiece fish.

Started DIY CO2 and dosing trace elements for the plants and they're all doing much better after an outbreak of BGA. I bought a Coralife freshwater fluorescent light, 2x39w t5 HO, Colormax Full-spectrum T5 fluorescent bulb and a 6700K plant bulb and the plants are loving that too.

The rock in these pictures is no longer in the tank. I found it on a beach and rinsed it off well then soaked it in a bucket of water. Then put it in the tank, however I'm pretty sure it's fossilized coral, so to maintain my slightly acidic pH I decided to take it out, despite the awesome caves and pockets the shrimp hid in.

HIGH FIVE!
looks great,BTW.

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http://bountifulbettas.blogspot.com/

"Come to the dark side....we have cookies...and filters/heaters/and water changes!"

nice snail !

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Great looking setup! I love your snail. I have a apple snail thats about that big, I can watch him for hours. Here he is next to my Zebra snail



Also great job on the stand.

If you are still looking for a good center fish, look at some Gourami. Its what I have and they are very entertaining and get along well with community fish like your tetras.

Keep the pix comming!

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Subaru4wd never heard of Onion snail.

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