My first planted tank - Fluval Flex 57L

DeeGeeDee said:

That's quite weird. When I first thought about getting a tank, I was researching the Fluval Egde and found a lot of your posts about how you set yours up etc. Then I saw the Flex and decided that it would be easier for me to maintain. Just a bit strange how you now say you saw mine and were interested!

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Well they are two great looking little tanks!
You will have a far easier time getting in and out of yours while cleaning and setting up and whatnot as the tiny opening in the edge makes it super difficult.
I'd read that when deciding but I loved the look so much that I figured it was worth it.
Two years later I still think it's worth it (even though I grumble and curse when I'm working in it).

Some updated photos. Definitely seeing growth in the stau. repens and rotala but not so much with the dwarf hair grass. Dosing 1ml of Easy Life Easy-Carbo daily and 5ml Profito weekly to try encourage some more.

Green algae (hair I think) was beginning to become a problem on the rocks and getting quite bad but with the Easy-Carbo, I think it's starting to reduce. I'll scrub off what I can but the rocks aren't the smoothest so it's quite difficult to do without moving them - which I don't want to do.

Cycle almost complete now. Just waiting on Nitrites to come down followed by a few more doses to make sure it can do a cycle in 24 hours, then it's stocking time.

It looks amazing! And I'd leave that algae as I think it looks great and it will make the tank look more natural and alive and trust me your inhabitants (especially shrimp) will love it!

Oh and maybe get a nerite snail (super gorgeous algae eaters) and it will Looooooove those rocks! And it will keep them clean..it that's what you're after!

Looks wonderful!!! I once had a tank with a DHG carpet and it took a couple weeks for it to get settled and grow out the roots and bit, and then it started shooting off runners like crazy. I'm sure it's just getting fully acclimated.

Love the hardscape! Can't wait to see the plants grow out!

This certainly has promise!

The foreground is going to look amazing once it fills out

Cycle has finally finished. Dosing to 4ppm each day just now to make sure it can convert all within 24 hours which is managing to do. Fish arrive on Thursday - I'm even taking the day off work to get them settled in properly and not rushed. 6 male guppies, 4 amano shrimp and 3 nerite snails ordered. Will post some new pictures once they are in.

Tank is filling out slowly. Hopefully most of the plants are rooted well enough so that the new inhabitants don't rip them out. Been dosing with Easy Carbo each day (1ml) to control the algae which is working, it's definitely disappearing. Snails will hopefully handle the rest I'm sure.

One big water change Wednesday night before the little guys arrive on Thursday! I'M SO EXCITED!

DeeGeeDee said:

Cycle has finally finished. Dosing to 4ppm each day just now to make sure it can convert all within 24 hours which is managing to do. Fish arrive on Thursday - I'm even taking the day off work to get them settled in properly and not rushed. 6 male guppies, 4 amano shrimp and 3 nerite snails ordered. Will post some new pictures once they are in.

Tank is filling out slowly. Hopefully most of the plants are rooted well enough so that the new inhabitants don't rip them out. Been dosing with Easy Carbo each day (1ml) to control the algae which is working, it's definitely disappearing. Snails will hopefully handle the rest I'm sure.

One big water change Wednesday night before the little guys arrive on Thursday! I'M SO EXCITED!

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Soooooooooo excited for you!!!!!!!!!!
Can't wait to see!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Water change carried out. Nitrate still a little high at 20>40ppm so will do a 50% change in the morning to get it down some more before the fish arrive. Ammonia and nitrite both at 0 and can convert 4ppm within 24 hours.

Carried out Gh and Kh tonight and sitting at 8 and 3 respectively. I think Kh of 3 is far too low for guppies so going to have to get some oyster shell to raise this. If anyone knows how much I should add to a 15G tank to get this to a safe level that would be great. I'll maybe post another thread about this!? pH is 7.4.

Some updated photos after the water change ready for the new tenants!

Man this looks fantastic!

As for you're parameters I will throw out a little suggestion as I've learned along the way.

I have soft water, that has fluctuating PH due to my well water running thru a "softer" that buffers the PH.
I always kept harder water fish because when I originally tested, my PH was 7.6-7.8.
BUT I'd never tested the gh and kh.
And because my source water (from the well) has zero buffering at a KH of Zero the ph would always come back down.

I had to learn a lot about all of this and decided to start using a little bag of Aragonite to keep the PH up and stable but my low GH is too low for the harder water fish (endlers and guppies) and they suffer for it.

Sooooo, to now....
I still have two endlers left that I have to keep as comfy as possible but when they pass on I will indeed be using water directly from my well (which is very soft) and I will be purchasing fish that thrive in these conditions.

Hi Jen. That probably makes more sense to keep fish suitable for the natural parameters rather than adjusting the parameters to suit the fish. I'm probably being selfish keeping guppies if the Kh isn't high enough and they'll probably suffer for it. I really hope not though. There are so many conflicting threads out there saying they're now so inbred that they adjust very quickly and then on the other hand saying that it HAS to be VERY HIGH KH!! Fingers crossed.

My new additions are in and looking amazing. I'll get some pics later as it's actually sunny in Scotland for once (almost 26degrees!! ) and there are too many reflections in the room to get decent photos just now. One is being weird and totally terrified when I go near the tank but the other 5 are fine. I'll stay away until tomorrow and hopefully he'll calm down a bit. My snails are absolutely beautiful. I have a photo of them - see below! The shrimps are also acting a bit cautious and only staying around the intake (it's covered with mesh so they can't get sucked in) but hopefully they'll get braver! Absolutely loving it so far

DeeGeeDee said:

I'm probably being selfish keeping guppies

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don't feel bad, we've ALL done it. We want the fish we want to watch.
If we have the know how and the drive to keep them as happy as well possibly can I don't see the harm in it unless they wind up suffering.
Mine never appeared to suffer at all but they never lived very long lives and I have to attribute that to the fact that that the water was just not to their particular needs.

DeeGeeDee said:

There are so many conflicting threads out there saying they're now so inbred that they adjust very quickly and then on the other hand saying that it HAS to be VERY HIGH KH!!

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There are and I think there's probably some truth to that if they're tank raised. But wild caught will most likely be very different and require specific needs.

DeeGeeDee said:

I'll get some pics later

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Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Not the best quality at all as they move so quickly!

Ohhhh what stunners! They're just beautiful!
Looks like all 6 in the pic! So I'm assuming they're doing well?
I spied some nerites also!
And one shrimp....amano? I couldn't quite tell but it looked colorless.

Managed to get all 6 in some of the pictures. Fair enough, not the best quality but I managed.

3 nerite snails and 4 amino shrimp but they just hide all the time. Been reading that they can take longer to get used to a new home so hoping they come out shortly. They did for the first day and now they just hide behind the rock at the back on the right.

Beautiful!