*I will be updating this post at various points throughout the day, feel free to follow along *

Today I am starting my Taiwan Bee Tank Setup. It is a 26 gallon bow front aquarium.  And here she is
 

The obligatory before picture.


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Originally I was going to go with a 25 gallon acrylic, when shipping was delayed on that I decided to cancel that order and buy a tank locally.

Unfortunately I had also ordered a under gravel filter (UGF) to fit the tank that I had ordered. 😦

Well that is no good but expected with the tank change.

This would reduce the effectiveness of the UGF


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
So I get out my trusted serrated kitchen knife (I love to cook and high quality blades can be multi-purpose) and a pair of pliers. After creating a seam with the blade I simply use the pliers to break along the seam and voilà I get the fit I was looking for.

Granted if I had broke out my power tools I could of made the fit better but this is close enough, don't you think


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Now to power the UGF I have decided to go with HOB filters, now granted I have never tried this method but I think the theory should be fine. I do have 1 issue that I will have to resolve later that the HOB filter and the UGF don’t exactly fix snugly so I used an old sponge filter to temporarily fix this issue. I plan on picking up something to make a proper seal at some point today. Suggestions are welcome.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

I am kind of a big fan of Seachem products, and I wanted to use Seachem Matrix as part of my Under Gravel Filtration. After asking around to make sure it was shrimp safe I found I was not the first person to do this and it was completely safe for shrimp. I also found this thread (Shrimp Tank How to by Mordalphus) (also known as Liam from Aquarliam, the next part of what I did I got the idea from him. In addition to the Matrix I also wanted to add a bit of “substrate starter” if you will.
 


 
 
 
 
 
 
While I didn’t have time to order Liam’s proprietary blend for my substrate setup and my Mosura old sea mud didn’t arrive in time to use it I did the best that I could with what I did have available to me.
 

 
 
 
 
 
 

Here is what I used, Biozyme at 3x normal dosing, equal amount of Ken’s Freeze Dried Cyclops and a double dose of Ebi-ken Sose provided by Aquarliam
 

 
 
 
 
 
 

Africana finally arrived but it was missing 1 bag (ordered 5-3 liter bags, received 1-9liter 1-3liter) ADG was very fast to respond as they shipped all they had and offered to express ship another bag, was unneeded as the 12 liters was plenty. I will update with pictures soon-ish.
 
Substrate in, and some small decorations.
 



 
 
 
 
 
 

And the first of the water and the plants are added
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Another Item from mordalphus goes into the tank, 1 package of Ebi-ken Shou. (it is only a half dose, I need to pick up another 2 packages)
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Okay the tank is 1/3rd full and I have the aeration going. Also wanted to say thank you to OVT for the plants (TPT Thread)

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Tank is setup and running, photos in the morning (left the camera on and the battery died)