Day 4 - Sunday 12th December 2010

I started to set up the tank, so got my filter media, heater, gravel and plants all to hand and started my set up.

Heater:              300w 38cm completely submersible automatic aquarium heater

Filter Media:     Juwel Compact Filters, 1 x Fine Blue, 1 x Cirax, 1 x Course Blue, 1 x Green, 1 x Black, 1 x White

Airpump:           Superfish Air-Flow Mini - Output 78 L/H

Thermometer:   Digital and LED Thermometers

Plants:               25 various plants

Grave:               20kg Medium Dorset Pea Gravel

  

After I had all the bits together I attached the filter media into the compatment and then connected the pump. I then filled the tank with roughly 18kg of gravel to the tank, I was not sure what the gravel would look like as some people have said that this kind of medium pea gravel is too big but as it is all i had it was worth using in the meantime.

Once thhe gravel was added I then attached the heater to the inside of the tank, it is roughly 2-3 inches from the bottom at the rear of the tank and still a bit concerned as not fun seeing a 240v electric cable in the water.

I then started filling the tank with water and then added the plants and the air pipe. I found it extremely hard planting the plants, its not an easy task and as you can see from the pics i hade a very poor effort at planting them.

Some people say that the Juwel tanks do not need additional air as its provided through the pump and filter but to be honest cannot see how it can provide air as all its doing is pumping water about. But when it comes down to it, I think air bubbles looks good in a tank, its a good feature to look at, a still tank can be boring, the bubbles adds to the atmosphere.

Once the tank was completely filled with water it looked so weird as soooooooo cloudy, but guess that was just from the gravel.

I turned on the pump/filter and the heater and will leave it for 24 hours to settle.