Oh My What Have I Gotten Myself Into.....

[BubBleBee]

This is my second tank I'm putting up within two or so weeks of putting up the 30 gallon.....Can anyone say MTS......lol. I bought jobber604's Rena XP2 filter what a sweet deal that was. Not to mention all the other goodies he provided me with for the start up of this tank.
Putting this set up has been a joy. Up till I got to the filter....wow so many questions as to how to do it. At first couldn't get the hoses on properly, now the clamps....broke one using pliers. Arghhh...The priming well that's taken a little longer than expected.
All together i decided to go with a different substrate than my 30 gallon(eco-complete). The filtration as well....for my 30(fluval 304). So the different substrate,(Florabase) and a different filter for the 15(XP2).
Was it just me, or did others using this type of filter have the same problem putting the hoses on and clamping them down?? I'm not a slow individual....I catch on quite fast and man oh man did this take forever....I started at 6pm and it's now 1am. Thank you very very much Ming for helping me out in the wee hours of the morning. At 1 in the morning I have managed to get the hoses on almost 5cm after the last thread and all but one clamp on....I think She-ra over here underestimated her power.....LMAO...
Last task on the list before i plug in this bad girl is to prime it. That's the other thing.... I was going by the instructions pretty much word for word and even that I was doing wrong. In the instructions and pics it shows the valve upright but your supposed to have it down before u start putting the water down the funnel. Needless to say I started panicking cuz my tank was filling up with water rather than the hose connected to the darn canister. I have a few choice of words I'd like share with the individual whom got paid to write and illustrate the instructions in the manual. Lastly, my darn hands hurt...I feel like I'm going to have calluses. Putting the XP2 together compared to the Fluval... Drum roll please.....Two thumbs n two toes up!!!! for the fluval. I will add pics once i can get the filter going....for some silly reason the cannister is not filling upn with water even with the lever down this time....WTF am I doing wrong....

[gklaw]

Make sure the cap where you pour water in has a good fit. On one of the filstar I bought used, I have to take the bibble thing out and snug the cap so the siphon does not break and the pump ends up sucking air.

[turtlez]

fill your xp2 with water, put the lid on, put all your hoses in the water, lift the lever up, fill the intake with water (from the cap on top of the hose), put the lever down, plug in.

[BubBleBee]

Thank you both....I got it going.....the manual was useless in a sense....regardless....I got the tank up and going took a lot longer than I had expected....

[BubBleBee]

9 hours later.....So far so good...one thing I'm a lil concerned is with the florabase. As in the pics you can see how cloudy the water is right.?.?. Every time the soil get's disturbed will the water go all murky and cloudy looking??? Will anyone who has used florabase.....share with me your experience...What worked and what didn't??? So these are the pics of the tank.........Ming has a few that I will upload later....
These are pics of when I first got the Filter plugged in and going (1am)


9 Hours later at 10am the tank is starting to look a lot clearer



I noticed the attachment that goes onto the spray bar keeps popping off....u can see it in the picture....I didn't even know it was off up-till I uploaded the pics....Everything except the tank,stand, and the heater came from kind Jobber604 thanx bud for all your help till early this morn getting the filter up and running....I would have given up if it wasn't for you.....

[gklaw]

Just used my first a bag in my new 20g wall. The fine seems to settle or filter out much faster than flourite dust I used.

I think if you throw a filter floss in the Rena. It should clear up with 24 hours. If still cloud, a bit of ClearFast should do the trick.

[BubBleBee]

Thank you....Ya I went IPU and picked up filter floss....I'm going to throw that in....While I'm here in my journal I might as well add the pics that jobber604 sent over of the tank as i was adding the substrate and water...here's a few to see what it looked like then...
First comes the Flora-base(substrate) Looking Good
http://i1130.photobucket.com/albums/...01217-2356.jpg
http://i1130.photobucket.com/albums/...01217-2356.jpg
Then we have a pic of what it looked like with water in the tank without the filter hooked up
http://i1130.photobucket.com/albums/...01218-0030.jpg

[jobber604]

Nice setup. I like how the tank is already taking shape. The stargrass is going to love the new home especially the coralife fixture. looking forward to seeing the plants grow into the tank.

[2wheelsx2]

Thank you....Ya I went IPU and picked up filter floss....I'm going to throw that in....While I'm here in my journal I might as well add the pics that jobber604 sent over of the tank as i was adding the substrate and water...here's a few to see what it looked like then...
First comes the Flora-base(substrate) Looking Good


Then we have a pic of what it looked like with water in the tank without the filter hooked up

Just a hint that if you put the image tags on the pics will appear right in your post instead of the link. See above.

Also, with the filter hoses, it's best to heat them with hot water before extraction or removal, makes everything more pliable and of course, expands them a bit.

Great job so far.

[BubBleBee]

Thank you....ya I did have to heat the ends of the hoses to get them off and on....my hands hurt a few days later.....I just recently learned how to add pics rather than links....Thank you Ming for the step by step guide.... Merry Xmas to all and All a Happy and Prosperous New Year...