Underwurlde
Always look on the bright side of life..
Hello!
I am writing this thread as a way of saying thank-you to the members of this fantastic forum who have helped me out so far, to gain some true feeling / feedback of my setup so far and finally as perhaps a way to encourage those people who are yet to get into fish keeping...
As of almost 7 weeks ago, or to be more precise, 45 days, I have NEVER kept fish. For the last 10 years I have been looking at the tanks in fish shops, gob-agog, wishing that I myself kept fish - something I have been reluctant to do and always thought out of reach. Then on my birthday, completely out of the blue, my wife & kids got me a Juwel Rekord 60 tank with some gravel, ornaments, fake plants and a pictorial backing.
I was like a 7 year old kid on Christmas morning!
The guy in the LFS suggested that tank to my wife (a good choice IMHO) and to let the tank run for a week before adding some hardy fish, This I did, waited & added some hardy fish - 2 Harliquin and 2 Glowlight Tetra. Oh & an excellent, if not dated book: 'Guide to the Tropical Aquarium' by Dick Mills.
Here's my set up approximately 2 weeks later! You can clearly see the kids choice of ornament. HONEST GUV!
THEN I discovered and enlisted to this forum with a flurry (still on-going, sorry all) of inane newbie questions - Never once was I flamed, criticized or discourage!
But my major error - I had not done a fishless cycle!!Not to worry! Through advice & encouragement I think I am well on my way now to a healty tank. On this path I learnt about water changes, testing, planting (for a low tech tank - something the LFS suggested I stay well away from, that is to say using ANY plants whatsoever), substrates, lighting.
Then my wife & kids nagged me into getting two 3-lined corys. (I know, I know!)
To make the tank a HELL of a lot more pleasing to the eyes, notice (apart from the removal of that bloody dinosaur with the inane grin and that sodding cross-eyed octopus), the removal of the backing (before I got a BLACK backing) proper plants (although the fake ones still ocupy the tank).
The plants are: Amazon Sword, Green Cabomba and Red Rubin Sword Plant (<- I was informed this may be a bad choice in a low tech tank, but 3 weeks later seems OK)
The bulb was swapped out for an Arcadia Freshwater one.
I purchased some Japonica Shrimp and they all ended up jumping out of the tank and perishing! Another severe lesson learnt - KEEP THE LID ON!
Laterite was added to the substrate, on top of which more gravel was added.
The plants were removed from their plant pots, tidied up and split up (where possible) and tied together before being pushed into the new substrate.
Unfortunately (I think, can't explain it other than this) these major changes resulted in the death of one of my cories! He just flipped out & the next day he was flippers-up!
I was then nagged into buying a Siamese Fighter... (I say nagged because I'd have WAITED).
Proper (from the LFS) BLACK backing was attached to the back of the tank, I then purchased a log of Mopani wood, boiled it (to kill any nasties & get the tannin out) and soaked it in a bucket of old tank water for a week.
Rearranged the plants a bit and removed almost all of the fake plants.
Then removed the Black Carbon filer and the Green Nitrate filters and replaced the whole lot with another fine
Blue filter and added a course blue filter (cut to the size of the old Black Carbon filter).
I also learnt how to take pictures of my tank (not easy by a long chalk).
This is my tank as of 2 hours ago:
Future plans are to graft on some Java Moss and possibly some Dwarf Anubias onto the Mopani.
Add a lawn of Dwarf Sagittaria.
Get some Neons in there and hopefully a German Blue Ram Cichlid.
Possibly construct a DIY CO2 using the yeast method.
So, there you have it! 45 days of steep learning curve learning!
Please, your HONEST comments on my final se-tup. I'd love some feedback on my tank.
What I am doing right or wrong and how you'd improve it!
Regards,
Andy
I am writing this thread as a way of saying thank-you to the members of this fantastic forum who have helped me out so far, to gain some true feeling / feedback of my setup so far and finally as perhaps a way to encourage those people who are yet to get into fish keeping...
As of almost 7 weeks ago, or to be more precise, 45 days, I have NEVER kept fish. For the last 10 years I have been looking at the tanks in fish shops, gob-agog, wishing that I myself kept fish - something I have been reluctant to do and always thought out of reach. Then on my birthday, completely out of the blue, my wife & kids got me a Juwel Rekord 60 tank with some gravel, ornaments, fake plants and a pictorial backing.
I was like a 7 year old kid on Christmas morning!
The guy in the LFS suggested that tank to my wife (a good choice IMHO) and to let the tank run for a week before adding some hardy fish, This I did, waited & added some hardy fish - 2 Harliquin and 2 Glowlight Tetra. Oh & an excellent, if not dated book: 'Guide to the Tropical Aquarium' by Dick Mills.
Here's my set up approximately 2 weeks later! You can clearly see the kids choice of ornament. HONEST GUV!
THEN I discovered and enlisted to this forum with a flurry (still on-going, sorry all) of inane newbie questions - Never once was I flamed, criticized or discourage!
But my major error - I had not done a fishless cycle!!Not to worry! Through advice & encouragement I think I am well on my way now to a healty tank. On this path I learnt about water changes, testing, planting (for a low tech tank - something the LFS suggested I stay well away from, that is to say using ANY plants whatsoever), substrates, lighting.
Then my wife & kids nagged me into getting two 3-lined corys. (I know, I know!)
To make the tank a HELL of a lot more pleasing to the eyes, notice (apart from the removal of that bloody dinosaur with the inane grin and that sodding cross-eyed octopus), the removal of the backing (before I got a BLACK backing) proper plants (although the fake ones still ocupy the tank).
The plants are: Amazon Sword, Green Cabomba and Red Rubin Sword Plant (<- I was informed this may be a bad choice in a low tech tank, but 3 weeks later seems OK)
The bulb was swapped out for an Arcadia Freshwater one.
I purchased some Japonica Shrimp and they all ended up jumping out of the tank and perishing! Another severe lesson learnt - KEEP THE LID ON!
Laterite was added to the substrate, on top of which more gravel was added.
The plants were removed from their plant pots, tidied up and split up (where possible) and tied together before being pushed into the new substrate.
Unfortunately (I think, can't explain it other than this) these major changes resulted in the death of one of my cories! He just flipped out & the next day he was flippers-up!
I was then nagged into buying a Siamese Fighter... (I say nagged because I'd have WAITED).
Proper (from the LFS) BLACK backing was attached to the back of the tank, I then purchased a log of Mopani wood, boiled it (to kill any nasties & get the tannin out) and soaked it in a bucket of old tank water for a week.
Rearranged the plants a bit and removed almost all of the fake plants.
Then removed the Black Carbon filer and the Green Nitrate filters and replaced the whole lot with another fine
Blue filter and added a course blue filter (cut to the size of the old Black Carbon filter).
I also learnt how to take pictures of my tank (not easy by a long chalk).
This is my tank as of 2 hours ago:
Future plans are to graft on some Java Moss and possibly some Dwarf Anubias onto the Mopani.
Add a lawn of Dwarf Sagittaria.
Get some Neons in there and hopefully a German Blue Ram Cichlid.
Possibly construct a DIY CO2 using the yeast method.
So, there you have it! 45 days of steep learning curve learning!
Please, your HONEST comments on my final se-tup. I'd love some feedback on my tank.
What I am doing right or wrong and how you'd improve it!
Regards,
Andy
great work
/s92.photobucket.com/albums/l40/underwurlde666/
