90L Low-Tech Community Journal

[kiwifeather]

Wanted to make a proper journal, a bit cleaner than my thread asking about stocking

 
So after having to give up my last tank, a lovely planted low tech 55L 3 months ago due to moving, the folks have bought me a new one for xmas to go in my bedroom. Got a great deal on a Aqua One Aquastyle AR620 with cabinet. The low tech thing worked really well last time, and I love well planted tanks so going to do it again.
 
Tank is here and at the stage of making sure all equipment is working and there are no leaks. Have a slight concern about the Jebo heater but I'll wait a bit longer and see. Just tested my pH using a liquid kit for first time (very science-y!) and it appears to be 7.2.
Have a big bit of wood in there (its bigger than I thought and only just fit, may replace it down the line) which has some good hiding spots. Its got a hollow hole in one end and at the back has a nice flat bit for fish to rest on, as well as a few holes to swim through. Substrate is smooth small pebbles/gravel and then some slightly larger smooth ones. Going to add some larger again river stones when I find some nice ones and maybe another bit of driftwood, perhaps a branch upside down. Plants will be in in a couple of days when the LFS re-opens. They aren't great at labeling plants so its going to be a bit of luck involved to get suitable ones. I'll need help identifying them when I get them
 
 
Current Stocking Options are (based on suggestions and what my LFS stocks, feel free to make more suggestions):
 
1x Dwarf Gourami OR Honey Gourami OR Male Betta
7-9x Neon/Black Neon/Glowlight/Cardinal/Rummynose Tetras OR 7-9x Harlequin/Red-Lined Rasboras OR 9-11 Emerald Eye Rasboras.
1x BN Plec
7-9x Pygmy Cory OR 7x Panda/Peppered Cory OR 7x Kuhli Loach (need to check suitability of all of these guys on smooth pebbles)
 
Any advice and suggestions are most welcome. We never stop learning haha.
 
One massive pic of the tank just after adding water (going to try get a smaller version sorry!)
 

 

[kiwifeather]

Oh and I took Blue Rams off the list because I believe my pH doesn't suit them?

 

[Blubble37]

i'll be following this, what're you using for filtering?

 

[dave840f1]

Personally I would not get Cardinals till the tank has been running for 9/10 months.

 

[508]

Cories won't be suitable for your tank because of the pebbles you used, they need very fine gravel or sand. 

 

[kiwifeather]

Blubble37- Just using the in-hood filter the tank came with for now, I have heard it may not be the best but I'll see how it goes and change to something else down the track if needs be.
 
dave840f1- Okay thank you for letting me know on that! I'll just take them off the list since there are several other choices.
 
508- Alright thanks. I wasn't sure. How about the Kuhli Loaches? I wanted to get sand but LFS doesn't stock it and I completely forgot I could get playsand and the like from other sources. I may change substrate down the track when the budget allows, or perhaps partially add sand if that would work. If I did I think it would look quite nice potentially!
 
 
Woke up four times during the night and still no light coming from the heater each time I looked over. The light on the heater hadn't been on since about five minutes after I turned everything on when I first finished putting water in the tank. Thermometer was reading 22 with lights on before I went to bed last night and was 21 this morning after having the lights off during the night. Heater was set to 26. So when before I turned the lights on this morning I turned everything off and cranked the heater all the way up to 34. Light finally came on again and is still on when I checked earlier. I have no idea whats going on here send help.
 
Water is pretty yellow this morning, I'm guessing this is from the log? It was all ready to go in when I bought it but I gave it an extra wash in boiling water to be sure.

 

[508]

It wouldn't work, the sand would just fall through the pebbles.

 

[kiwifeather]

I meant sort of having a sand patch where its all sand. I suppose it would make no difference for the corys but it may look nice. Anyway its all moot atm anyway, I won't be doing any substrate changes for a little while since its a bit of an involved process.

 

[PlumbersMerchant]

Really interesting thread and I like the wood And it's positioning. I reccomend harlequin rasboras as they are great fish. Bloke in my LFS said they were hardy and good to do a fish in cycle with. 3 years later and I still have 4 of my original 5 with sum extra buddies. The reason I know they are the original ones is because there are 3 fish that are commonly called harlequin rasboras but each is slightly different.

 

[kiwifeather]

This post is a bit image heavy sorry!
 
I found a super sweet bit of wood down the river today, even though I've been considering not getting anymore due the size of the bit I already have. It's soaking now, once thats done I'll try it out in the tank and see whats what. If Kuhli loaches are still ok they would love this thing I'm sure. 

 
After cranking the heater up to 34 it finally seems to of come to life. The thermometer is now at 26 (what the heater was originally set at). I'm not too sure whats going on, can anyone offer their thoughts?

 

[Blubble37]

Blubble37- Just using the in-hood filter the tank came with for now, I have heard it may not be the best but I'll see how it goes and change to something else down the track if needs be. As far as my experience goes, they're alright, but they can be hard to set up properly with water not leaking round the sides of the media, i'd suggest you get something like a fluval U2 as a backup, as nearly all the water in the U series is passed over the media, up to you and see how it goes. Good luck though, if you could post a picture of the filter (open) it'd help.

Woke up four times during the night and still no light coming from the heater each time I looked over. The light on the heater hadn't been on since about five minutes after I turned everything on when I first finished putting water in the tank. Thermometer was reading 22 with lights on before I went to bed last night and was 21 this morning after having the lights off during the night. Heater was set to 26. So when before I turned the lights on this morning I turned everything off and cranked the heater all the way up to 34. Light finally came on again and is still on when I checked earlier.

I have no idea whats going on here send help. 1. What model is your heater (brand aswell). 2. Do you have a spare heater? it sounds like the heater has either a badly sync'd thermostat, or a faulty thermostat. I'd get the tank up to 26 and then play around with it until it stays there, unless you want to look into getting another heater
 
Water is pretty yellow this morning, I'm guessing this is from the log? It was all ready to go in when I bought it but I gave it an extra wash in boiling water to be sure. This will be the wood, i tried to get the tan out of my three pieces, but they leach for quite a lng time, not much you can do about it. I think, from what i remember, the tanins in low to moderate levels benefit some fish. I'll have to check that one

ALSO I woulsnt have the heater standing bolt upright, the best position for efficiency and heating is on the back wall, at about 45 degrees, this way, the thermostat isnt directly in the hot water from the element, which may be causing it to power down early. Alternatively, i put mine at 180 degrees and put a powerhead so it would blow the water over and around it, works perfectly

 

[kiwifeather]

 

Blubble37- Just using the in-hood filter the tank came with for now, I have heard it may not be the best but I'll see how it goes and change to something else down the track if needs be. As far as my experience goes, they're alright, but they can be hard to set up properly with water not leaking round the sides of the media, i'd suggest you get something like a fluval U2 as a backup, as nearly all the water in the U series is passed over the media, up to you and see how it goes. Good luck though, if you could post a picture of the filter (open) it'd help.

Woke up four times during the night and still no light coming from the heater each time I looked over. The light on the heater hadn't been on since about five minutes after I turned everything on when I first finished putting water in the tank. Thermometer was reading 22 with lights on before I went to bed last night and was 21 this morning after having the lights off during the night. Heater was set to 26. So when before I turned the lights on this morning I turned everything off and cranked the heater all the way up to 34. Light finally came on again and is still on when I checked earlier.

I have no idea whats going on here send help. 1. What model is your heater (brand aswell). 2. Do you have a spare heater? it sounds like the heater has either a badly sync'd thermostat, or a faulty thermostat. I'd get the tank up to 26 and then play around with it until it stays there, unless you want to look into getting another heater
 
Water is pretty yellow this morning, I'm guessing this is from the log? It was all ready to go in when I bought it but I gave it an extra wash in boiling water to be sure. This will be the wood, i tried to get the tan out of my three pieces, but they leach for quite a lng time, not much you can do about it. I think, from what i remember, the tanins in low to moderate levels benefit some fish. I'll have to check that one

ALSO I woulsnt have the heater standing bolt upright, the best position for efficiency and heating is on the back wall, at about 45 degrees, this way, the thermostat isnt directly in the hot water from the element, which may be causing it to power down early. Alternatively, i put mine at 180 degrees and put a powerhead so it would blow the water over and around it, works perfectly
 

Thanks for all that helpful advice. I followed the instruction manual in setting up the filter so hopefully its ok. I'll grab a picture later today when I put the plants in (yay!), and you can let me know how it looks. I'd like to get another filter as back up but I'm on a fairly tight budget (this was a gift from the folks, and they are already slightly appalled how much its cost so far!) so I'll have to see whats what money wise once I have gotten the fish, but it may have to wait a while.
 
Heater is a Jebo 2010 200W. The LFS only had two choices of heater at the time for whatever reason. It was either this, or the Fluval heaters which were over twice as expensive. The wattage was recommended to me by one of the staff.
I'm thinking I might agree with you on that. After being on 34 yesterday the themometer read 26. To see what happened, I turned the heater back down to 26 late afternoon. Boom, this morning 21 again, and again heater showing no signs of life. I'll see if I can shift it to the back wall at that angle but the places where the cord can come out are limited. Besides I never had a problem with my Aqua One heaters doing this in the past, and they were straight (which is how they say to place them???)
 
Yeah I figured it was the tannins from the log. The water is tea-coloured this morning. If it doesn't do any harm I won't worry about it then, I don't dislike the look too much, quite natural once I get plants in I think. I'm guessing with water changes it will eventually go away anyhow.

 

[EllieJellyEllie]

Alot of fish (Like wild bettas) enjoy the tannins and some fish require them. It makes them feel more secure and is more like a wild setting because the water wont be clear in the wild.
 
Im actually sad all my tannins from my wood escaped, I quite liked it.

 

[Blubble37]

Alot of fish (Like wild bettas) enjoy the tannins and some fish require them. It makes them feel more secure and is more like a wild setting because the water wont be clear in the wild.
 
Im actually sad all my tannins from my wood escaped, I quite liked it.

there we go, i thought as much c:
 
i just tend to either add bits of wood or swap them every few months if i want a tanned tank

 

[kiwifeather]

First lot of plants are here! You get these "lucky-dip" bags of 14 bunches at the LFS, which is cheaper than buying bunches one at a time. Only downside is the risk of getting unsuitable plants and having no idea what you have. I was conservative since I didn't know how much space they would take up and only got one lot, I'll have to go back and get one or two more. But for now the tank looks like this!

 
Hey look the new heater (the LFS gave me a free replacement!) is on. Time will tell if this one works properly I guess. Its set to 25.

If you'd like to identify what plants I have here feel free.
 
Also here's that shot of the inside of the filter. You can see its been filtering the tannins lol