I’ve spent the last week working on our new aquarium. It used to be a marine aquarium, but the fish kept dying, so we finally gave up and decided to turn it into a freshwater tank instead. I had to empty it, clean it, clean the filter to get rid of all the salt, clean all the gravel and ornaments from an older tank, and put it all together. A lot of work, but well worth it.

It is a 55 gallon tank with a wet/dry external sump filter that sits in the cabinet below. The overflow is built into the black column in the back of the tank. It is a great filtration system, but that black column is unsightly, so i used it as an opportunity to create a dramatic “riverbank,” enhanced by the shadow created by omitting one of the lights in the hood. I used only plastic wood, and mostly plastic plants for easier maintenance. I think it looks pretty cool. We used Bio-Spira to quickly cycle the tank so we could add the fish quickly.

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