Roma 240 slow burn...

I'm blaming this purely on @PheonixKingZ he made me do it!



This is how it arrived! Our house is down a long drive and the delivery dude couldn't get down it in his lorry so he had to pull the pallet with his little hand pump thingy.... I'm so grateful my dad and hubby were muscley enough to carry it indoors... That was a heart attack waiting to happen!



Only one place it can go in the lounge... Next to the window ? might go down as a bit of an error..

I want to do like a jungle style scape with some dwarf neon rainbowfish ?... Eventually!

I'm going to have to save up as we've had/got some hefty bills to pay, including the vet. My poor sausage has a slipped disc ? and it's not going to improve without surgery which our insurance won't cover (not enough) so it's looking I might have to say goodbye to him ?



Here he is enjoying the bit of snow we had beginning of the year

CaptainBarnicles said:

I'm blaming this purely on @PheonixKingZ he made me do it!

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Bwahaha.

CaptainBarnicles said:

This is how it arrived! Our house is down a long drive and the delivery dude couldn't get down it in his lorry so he had to pull the pallet with his little hand pump thingy.... I'm so grateful my dad and hubby were muscley enough to carry it indoors... That was a heart attack waiting to happen!

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The tank looks really good! The stand compliments the tank very well.

Congrats on the new tank, but I'm so sorry to hear about your pup....he's precious

PheonixKingZ said:

The tank looks really good! The stand compliments the tank very well.

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It could only have been walnut, hubby wanted oak but it just didn't look right

Slaphppy7 said:

Congrats on the new tank, but I'm so sorry to hear about your pup....he's precious

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Thank you, he is my first fur baby

Really nice tank! So sorry about your poor buddy

Well...I realise I've not been here for a long while, life has a habit of getting in the way sometimes! I did say it would be a slow burn!

Here it is as of today...

Due to unfortunate circumstances and cash flow I've decided to break down my other tanks and condense everything into this one...thankfully the MTS has been cured and I don't miss them...at all!

I've managed to save all my existing plants, even the crypts (no melt!) and although it's not exactly what I envisaged I'm pretty happy with it so far. I'm not impressed with the light that came with the tank, (bear in mind that the photo was taken while the lights were in sundown mode) there are a few plants on my list that just wouldn't thrive with the current lighting so I'll be investing in something better eventually. I'd love Hydrocotyle tripartita in there and a red tiger lotus amongst a few others....and a Crinum calamistratum if I can find one although I'm sure it won't mind low light.

So we've only been set up for about 4 weeks and I'm astonished to not have the dreaded diatoms outbreak! I've used gravel from my previous tanks and seeded the filter with existing media...and all the plants and hardscape etc are old and been in tanks a long time so maybe that's helped? Don't know but I'm not complaining!

I have 4 dwarf neon rainbows and 3 boesmani so far, I wasn't sure how many I should get for 240l as obviously they're going to grow, I've never had rainbows before so it's all a learning experience at the moment.

Please, someone tell me how to go forward with water changes??? My poor back I'm struggling with my bucket! If I've done my maths right, 25% of 240 is 60...that's 6 buckets out...6 buckets in...12 buckets every week
I'm used to doing 50% changes and it's making me anxious to not continue doing them but I just can't cope with 24 buckets of water! Plus it's super time consuming....and yes I should have thought about this before I bought the tank I've heard mixed views on the python and I'm not in a position to waste water either so please fish folk help me out!

That's all I've got for now peeps! Cheerio!

Edited for spelling

Since working out how to do big water changes with a submersible pump and an extra long hose, maintenance day has become a joy!

Any suggestions as to what other plantage would like nice in here? Baring in mind I'm still new to a planted tank! It had its first dose of TNC lite tonight, waiting on the root tabs

Glad you got a solution that helps with those weekly water changes, using buckets is back breaking work even for smaller tanks.

Was going to suggest getting a python hose set up but a pump with long hose is a good solution as I use this myself, saves a lot of trouble and practice makes perfect with little tweaks here and there until you get that set up just as you like it to make life easier.

Nice looking tank, I like the grey substrate that compliments the green of the plants

Though must mention that a background colour would help make the tank pop a bit more. Black or dark grey background poster that can stuck on with tape might help a bit perhaps, will bring out green colour of plants and helps bring fish colours alive imho.

Just a tip / opinion as I always like the back of the tank to be covered to hide wallpaper of walls and any tank equipment wiring and pipes etc. Am a bit OCD about hiding wirings and pipes truth be told…..

Rainbow fish are lovely to have, very active and great looking fish IMO. Have had Threadfin Rainbowfish in the past.

As for plants, I tend to keep things simple and have bunches of the same plants, like cryptocoryne (lots of different types of differing sizes) for mid to foreground of tank. Back of tank as taller plants like vallisernias, and also tall plants like Cryptocoryne crispatula Balansae being a particular favourite of mine.

I use plant websites like this, a good site to look for basic information about sizes of plants and if easy or hard to care for etc

Thanks, I'm looking to get a big piece of black acrylic to stick behind it as I can't stand the flimsy backgrounds that brought have to stick to the glass with soapy water.

On both sides are a variety of different crypts all mixed together, I quite like them mingling like that...a bit like my brain! All mixed up an nonsensical

On backgrounds.....Fablon self adhesive.

Comes in a multitude of colours including black...but I also use the frosted window Fablon too.

One of my aquariums is infront of a window, the curtains are behind it and one end is always "open" to the sun through the window. To prevent excess heat and UV getting into the aquarium I have covered one end with Fablon self adhesive window film. No algae or any other issues despite the end of the aquarium being in direct sunlight for the best part of the daytime.

Fablon is extremely inexpensive available online and in hardware shops and can be cut to length. The backing has 1cm squares all over it so once home it is very easy to measure up against the aquarium and fitting equally easy too....just peel the backing off a little at a time, smooth the air bubbles out as you go with a credit card - and if you get it lined up wrong you can peel it back off as many times as needed til its right.

Way cheaper than actual aquatic backgrounds especially if you only want a plain colour...and the window film has the added bonus of being frosted transluscent so ideal for those back or end parts of the aquarium exposed to sunlight.

Ooh thanks, will look into that! The trouble is I'd have to move the tank away from the wall to apply it and it's sooo heavy

Maybe some floating plants?

I'd love to try red root floaters ...water lettuce and salvinia didn't do well for me before, I've no idea why

Water lettuce tends to like natural sunlight, idk why. Red root floaters are cool. Water hyacinth is awesome. The blooms are super pretty, but only last hours. Here are mine in an outdoor 55g