Osaka 260 Winter Project

[gray cat]

All of your tank set ups look beautiful. You have a true talent for sure. Can't wait to see how the moss wall does.

[gray cat]

Love your vintage tank. Very nice. I also love your black "Raven" ZZ plant.

[*Ci*]

I also love your black "Raven" ZZ plant.

What is not to love about a Raven ZZ, right? ~•♥•~

[kdh]

I enjoy a ravine ZZ myself once in a while. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ae829mFAGGE

[Dannyhaitran]

I was browsing FB marketplace when, lo and behold, there was another Osaka tank for sale in my town! Needless to say … I bought it.
Fluval made 3 sizes of the Osaka line of tanks. My 260 (litres) was the middle size and the new one is the larger size - 360L or 84.5g. Whoop!

I shored up the floor underneath and put the new tank on the wall opposite the old one. I am going for the same low tech, easy to maintain esthetic, with potted plants and wood. This time I am putting in a moss wall, which is basically a mesh grid suction cupped to the glass with bits of moss tied on that will eventually fill in to cover the back wall.
Fish will be larger and all either black or yellow. I bought an Oase Biomaster Thermal 850 filter for it, moved some filter material from my established canisters to jumpstart the filters and added 6 black lyretail mollies for the rest of the cycle. More plants are on the way and I expect no large ammonia or nitrite spikes with this combination. I’ll add more fish slowly over the next few months. Black Angels, gold Gouramis, black Corydoras, gold Lazer Cories, yellow long finned Danios, Black Knight rams, and yellow Plecos.

Nothing like a new winter project!

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Amazing journey thread! I'm in love with these aquariums, I have the 155L and I can't get enough! If you ever decide to sell - do let me know! I had the chance to get one in Chilliwack for the 260 but the deal fell through.

[*Ci*]

Update on the tanks:

Osaka 320

Things were going fine - I added a few more fish and pieces of wood, my cories and plecos both spawned and the moss was filling in nicely. I decided to remove the vases in this tank so I added more sand mixed with some of the fine gold/brown gravel from my other tank and planted the crypts and swords into it



It was during this changeover that I discovered how my moss wall was trapping and killing fish! The mesh was suction cupped to the glass and I guess one of the black angels squeezed behind there during the re-planting disruption. I discovered it dead a day later. Then it happened to another for no apparent reason. When I removed a section of the wall to find it, out floated an old, fungus covered black molly! Yechhh!
Plus it was trapping a lot of debris behind it so out came the moss wall.
Since my plants are all so slow growing, I didn’t want to lose the mass that the moss was providing so I collected more mopani wood to tie all the moss on to. I soaked it for only a day, so there is still a lot of tannins in the water (which I like!)
Here’s the result so far:



Osaka 260:

I decided to rescape my original 260, as well. Three reasons.

1) I can’t believe how much easier it is to plant into sand vs the ADA aquasoil I started out with in this tank. I have a mixture of Topfin fine gravel and CaribSea Sunset Gold in the 320 and I find that everything just stays in place on the first try. I usually had to weigh plant roots down with rocks in the aquasoil.

2) One day my husband said to me, “I forgot, why did you plant everything in pots, again?”, and I couldn’t really come up with a good answer, lol! Ease of maintenance was my main motivation, but I think that has more to do with the plant choices, rather than the fact that they were in pots. I had removed all the stem, carpet and co2 dependant plants, keeping only crypts, swords, and a lotus.

3) I just felt like it : ) I want the plants to spread and get jungle-y.

Without removing the fish, I added some richly coloured brown lava rock, collected in Arizona years ago, filled in the depth with carefully poured scoops of substrate (same gravel and sand combo as my other tank) and re-planted all my potted plants, spreading out the crypts a bit. It got a little cloudy, but cleared up within a few hours.

The Ozelot Sword on the right really dominates the tank, but I love it and so it stays. I also like the tannin stained water in the other tank so much that I have added powdered almond leaf to this one to get a more amber hue. Happy with the final outcome:

[Incognito]

Lol, no that thing with the knobs is a Theremin, a musical synthesizer that you play by waving your hands at it to manipulate the electromagnetic field.

My DH has always been reluctant to go along with any of my ideas involving animals, but has had a bit of a change of heart recently when he agreed to adding the second Osaka. In fact it was his idea to bring out an old vintage tank I had from years ago (found in a flea market in Ill, back in the 80’s), and set it up as a betta tank.
It is a 2.5g Jewell cast iron and slate tank from the early 1900’s. I put clear plastic hanging baskets in it with bare root houseplants, plus a lucky bamboo and some java fern. No filter, and a single male betta.

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This tank has been through many iterations over the decades, including as a tarantula habitat:

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It’s job well done ! It looks quite nice. I am looking for some ideas 💡 with setting up a Fluval Osaka tank maybe you can help me ! Awaiting response. I think you know quite a bit about tanks and the science /practical side of things .Inca

[Incognito]

Hi
You’ve done a brilliant job with your Fluval Osaka tank. I too have one but I am not sure what to do with it as the cabinet unfortunately is not big enough for my Fluval fx6 filter unless I tweek the middle section a bit i.e remove the top drawer . Any suggestions ?

[matherfish]

Build a platform the size of the tank from 2xs and stain the platform the color of the stand.

[*Ci*]

Hi
You’ve done a brilliant job with your Fluval Osaka tank. I too have one but I am not sure what to do with it as the cabinet unfortunately is not big enough for my Fluval fx6 filter unless I tweek the middle section a bit i.e remove the top drawer . Any suggestions ?

It doesn’t fit in one of the side cabinets without the shelf?
I have my canister filters in the basement below the room with the tanks (yes, I drilled holes in the floor!) because I can’t stand even the slightest hum. You could probably remove the drawer and just affix the facing back on for looks, but if it were me, I would do as Matherfish suggests and put it on a stand or in a separate cabinet on the side, keeping the Osaka stand original.
Please post photos of your tank! Is it in good condition? What size is it?

I will post some updated tank shots tomorrow when the lights come back on : )