Today, a new 85 gallon (320 l) aquarium came from the house of my friends. It was an extra at their home.

My friend installed some soundproofing for the power filter chamber from the gym mat. The whole setup is a little bit DIY, but it is working.

He also drilled holes to the filter cabinet for wires and hoses.

There was a 10 cm lifting stand mounted on the base to raise the aquarium.

The original stand is a bit low, and the aquarium itself is also low. However, I can not put the stand any further up, I’m not that long, and I need reach to the bottom of the aquarium also.

The aquarium is angular, made of plexiglass, so it is quite easy to move.

The bevels on the front wall are also a big plus; I get a headache from the curved front panel …

Overall the tank and stand are in excellent shape.

The tank is from Tropeakvarier. Googling made it clear that it is a Danish design (tropeakvarier.dk). My friend bought it from the yard sale, so no idea how it came to here!

For the lightning I would like some metallic or the like, new ones are quite pricey, probably I will be looking for used one.

Until I find something suitable, I can use my friend’s old and little bit inefficient light, but anyway it is working still (this way I can balance the costs and the joy, hopefully my aquarium is not expensive to maintain).

The filter is Eheim 2017.

I’ll probably take also a small filter as a trash collector.

The heater comes from Hydor’s.

I like Hydor’s heater; it has temperature control scale, which is not exact, but nice anyway, and I shouldn’t have to worry about it getting water inside so easily.

Anyway, it is clear to read and see whether or not to warm up.

As a backdrop to this new aquarium, an exterior wall tile is what I’m after. It should be water-resistant, unlike interior tiles. The color is pretty lukewarm, reddish brown. The tiles I will attach with clear aquarium silicone.

The tile has an uneven surface that will hopefully add some vitality, as well as lights and shadows.

Hi! Here, a 60-year-old engineer writes about his aquarium hobby. My blog will focus on the creation of a small aquarium and the problems around the subject that are per dozen.

I have to analyze and investigate all kinds of issues related to how to make an aquarium, and how to take care of it, such as:

• How do you set up an aquarium?
• Is it easy to handle?
• What fish is suitable for a small aquarium?
• Big or small aquarium?
• Sand or a gravel base?
• Internal or External Filter?
• Soft or hard water, high or low pH?

You learn by doing. And I hope my learnings are useful to others. I like to share my experience so that you do not need the same mistakes like mine.

And I already had made lots of mistakes! My aquarium experience so far is based on school days, when I founded my first aquarium. A 40-liter catastrophe project ended up with the Platys overcrowding and the algae revival… But, fortunately, it did not kill my passion for this fascinating underwater activity, as aquariums still interest me.

After working and living for ages abroad in a multilingual environment (over 20 years in Austria and Dubai), I’m moving back home. It takes some time to get language back (and it wont be perfect anyway since my parents were from Germany). So it is a little bit like reverse culture shock. I apologize for it at this stage.

The subject of the blog will range from aquarium management to a broader range of aquatic sciences and phenomena, and what I now think is aquariums interesting.

I try to set my tone in a way that is ideal for beginners (as I’m a beginner myself), but it also offers something to chew to more experienced aquarium enthusiasts.

I’ve been using different kinds of Computer Aided Design (CAD) software through my previous worklife like Ideas, Catia and Solidworks. Now that I use CAD more for hobby, it’s free options like Draftsight and SketchUp. So after using all that stuff, this WordPress is totally different, but hopefully not that hard to learn.