"64.8L Passionately Curious": Treatment for Driftwood and Stones

Treatment for driftwood and stones/rocks takes time. Hence, it would be better to prepare it in advance. 

After getting the driftwood, the next day I soaked it in water so that tannin can be leeched out slowly. After 2 days, it can be seen tannin had been leeching out but not so much. So, I decided to boil the driftwood so that the process of tannin leeching could be accelerated. Driftwood was boiled for a few hours and tannin was leeched out a lot as can be seen from the tea colour of the boiled water. It was boiled totally about 6-7 hours and after 3 times changing water, water seemed much clearer and should ready for hard-scaping. Boiling driftwood also minimize or even eliminate the chance of having unwanted snails or algae or any harmful parasites attached to the driftwood before it is placed in the aquarium. 

My kid's old bathtub was used for driftwood soaking purpose :P

Water was clear at first

And it became brownish after 2 days 

Boiling driftwood in the biggest pot that I have, to accelerate tannin leeching process and disinfect the woods.  

After one hour

After 3 hours, I have some tasty Teh-O colour :P

After the 2nd water change, now I have green tea colour. :)

And after boiling, leave the wood to dry and cool off before using

For the stones or actually river pebbles, I soaked them in water for 2 days and before using I also pour the boiling water on them and soaked overnight in the pot. Interestingly, the pebbles absorbed and keep the heat extremely well as the next day morning when I took them out from the pot, I still could feel the water was very warm. No wonder in the old time, people use to heat the rock, wrap it in the blanket and use that to keep them warm during winter time. With the same reason of boiling driftwood, with this disinfection method, I don't think any kind of harmful parasites could survive under 100 degree C hot water.

Stones were put in the pot and boiling water was poured in for disinfection. They were left overnight there in the pot.

After disinfection, they were brought out to dry and cool off. I also measured the weight of all the rocks, about 10kg in total.

After the treatment and disinfection, now the driftwood and stones are ready to use for hardscaping. So excited and cant wait to explore my aquascaping journey ahead. :) Yay!

"64.8L Passionately Curious": Receiving of Cabinet

Finally, the cabinet was ready to be collected. To save some bucks, I decided to self-collect the cabinet from the factory which is located at Premier@Kaki Bukit. Reaching the factory, I realized that the sub-contractor who did the cabinet I ordered from AquaFishtank (Deco O) was CR Aquarium. That gave me peace in mind since CR Aquarium has been in this line for very long time and they are quite well-known for making fish tanks and aquarium cabinets. 

CR Aquarium Factory at Premier@Kaki Bukit

Happy to see my cabinet (right side, second row)

The Boss from CR Aquarium is a very nice gentleman. He arranged the transport to deliver the cabinet (and also me) back home free of charge. I really appreciated that gesture. It was not about the money, but about the kindness.  

The cabinet was brought back home just like that, safe and sound. Although the dark walnut colour is kind of lighter than my furniture's walnut colour but overall is fine. Great feeling to unwrap the new cabinet. Ya, I believe everybody would enjoy an opening ceremony. :) 

Unwrapping in progress...

To make sure the cabinet is balanced from side to side and from back to front, I adjusted using the self-adhesive foam pad attached to the cabinet feet. After that, a long spirit level was used to check whether cabinet is properly balanced.

Self-adhesive pads were used.

It was properly attached to the cabinet's feet

Spirit level was used to check from back to font

And from side to side to make sure the cabinet is balanced

It is very important to make sure that cabinet and fish tank is placed and levelled properly. It will be extremely difficult to make any changes once the tank is filled with water. Imbalanced tank can cause crack or leakage after tank is filled, that would be a nightmare! 

Spirit level was checked once the tank is in place

Also remember to check the level at the side

Voilà! The tank is ready now on the cabinet. Some cleaning was done for the tank and cabinet before any hardscaping work can be started. I used glass cleaner solution to clean the outer tank while inner tank was cleaned up using the damp cloth without any chemical. 

OK. It is ready for hardscape set up now. 

This is the best location that I can get in the living room, although it is not so ideal since TV and speakers are around. I hope the fishes would enjoy the music when they are here. :P

Some barang barang that I bought from NA and also from neighbourhood shops to be used at the later stages. 

Shopping frenzy

Next chapter, hard-scape setup! :)

"64.8L Passionately Curious": Background For Aquarium

I have decided to have a background for my planted tank after some consideration. On one hand, I would like to see the transparent beautiful tank. On the other hand, it was mentioned in some of the reference books that it would be better to have a tank background so that the fish can feel more secure. Furthermore, the background can cover those piping and wiring behind the tank. 

I chose simple black Oyama background to create good contrast for the plants and fish later on. In order to have background properly pasted, I followed a guideline from the very helpful Youtube video below to complete the background setup.

https://youtu.be/j9nWuvMadjA 

The good trick is to spray solution of water with 1 drop of dishwasher to the sticker so that it will not be so sticky and easy to adjust while pasting.  

Tools are ready for background setup.

Using a card to squeeze the air trap out

Waiting for the background to be dried and settled first

I will leave the background to dry up and stick properly to the tank first before trimming the excessive part off. Trimming is easier than I though, just use very sharp penknife to slide the excessive protruded sticker along the tank side.

Slide the penknife against the edge of the tank to trim the excessive sticker off

Put the tank in this position with background on top will be easier to paste the background. However, need to check the air bubble inside carefully and use the card to squeeze the bubbles out.

Tada! Background installation done!

Overall, I am quite happy with the background installation. A pat on my shoulder for the work well done. :)