Back after a Loooooong time away from fishkeeping.

[xxBarneyxx]

I completely understand!

This is mine if you’re interested: https://www.fishforums.net/threads/29g-saltwater-nano-tank.471210/#post-4043346

lol I was actually skimming through your journal and some others today while I was waiting for things to install at work. Looking great, The snowflake clowns are beautiful as well.

In the same boat! Only planned for one 60 L, got another then another, ended up with four running tanks and spares. Finally shifted stock around and dismantled one tank, but getting the yen to set up another. It's a real sickness!

Hope to be able to follow your journey as you set up and get it going, always good to have new members too!

Thanks. Yeah, I am super limited by space here though. It has been bad in the past, a little nano reef tank eventually turned into 100G and I had simple FW setups that ended up turning into multiple racks of breeding tanks. They do just seem to multiple by themselves....

I found all my old CO2 and dosing kit so already my "low tech"plans are shifting to a more "high tech" approach, which means having to buy additional lighting.... Then of course a little bit of my brain goes "hey, if you are getting a bunch of lighting, might as well do a reef tank".......

Also eyeing up a spot on my desk thinking "hmmm little betta or shrimp tank might fit there"..... It is definitely a problem.

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Had a dig back through Facebook and this is my first planted tank from 2008. I did have tons of photos of my old tanks over the years but most of them are long gone now.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Had a dig back through Facebook and this is my first planted tank from 2008. I did have tons of photos of my old tanks over the years but most of them are long gone now.

View attachment 143029View attachment 143030

View attachment 143031

Oh wow, absolutely stunning tanks!!
Glad you came back to the hobby, and the forum! Experienced hobbyists like you can really help those of us who are new to the hobby learn a lot, even after a long break. It's invaluable knowledge, and I want to pick up more aquascaping and planted tank tips Seeing how healthy your plants look there, makes me want to improve my own tanks!

lol I was actually skimming through your journal and some others today while I was waiting for things to install at work. Looking great, The snowflake clowns are beautiful as well.


Thanks. Yeah, I am super limited by space here though. It has been bad in the past, a little nano reef tank eventually turned into 100G and I had simple FW setups that ended up turning into multiple racks of breeding tanks. They do just seem to multiple by themselves....

I found all my old CO2 and dosing kit so already my "low tech"plans are shifting to a more "high tech" approach, which means having to buy additional lighting.... Then of course a little bit of my brain goes "hey, if you are getting a bunch of lighting, might as well do a reef tank".......

Also eyeing up a spot on my desk thinking "hmmm little betta or shrimp tank might fit there"..... It is definitely a problem.

Haha! Yep, you have to start a journal thread, please! It'll be a way to preserve those photos you've found, and it's fun to watch the journal threads when you're first beginning to set up too. How it changes from "one small low-tech tank" to "wait, I found this high-tech stuff I have, so maybe.... oh, and maybe a little shrimp/betta tank too!"

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Haha! Yep, you have to start a journal thread, please! It'll be a way to preserve those photos you've found, and it's fun to watch the journal threads when you're first beginning to set up too. How it changes from "one small low-tech tank" to "wait, I found this high-tech stuff I have, so maybe.... oh, and maybe a little shrimp/betta tank too!"

Thanks a lot. Yeah I will definitely be doing a journal thread once I get going. I have had some of the plants turn up this morning. I'm hoping there is a lot more still in the post as £40 of plants doesn't seem to get you much nowadays!!

Planning a trip to some further away LFS at the weekend to check them out (and maybe buy a few plants) the 2 actual LFS we went to yesterday afternoon were really terrible!

 

[Bruce Leyland-Jones]

Thanks a lot. Yeah I will definitely be doing a journal thread once I get going. I have had some of the plants turn up this morning. I'm hoping there is a lot more still in the post as £40 of plants doesn't seem to get you much nowadays!!

Planning a trip to some further away LFS at the weekend to check them out (and maybe buy a few plants) the 2 actual LFS we went to yesterday afternoon were really terrible!

I've had good results from both Amazon and eBay for plants.
I'll guess that's why the LFS doesn't do so well.

 

[xxBarneyxx]

I've had good results from both Amazon and eBay for plants.
I'll guess that's why the LFS doesn't do so well.

Yeah I got all mine off ebay. Still some things working out to about £1 a stem seems a lot. Had about £30 of stuff turn up this morning. Was less then I used to trim out of my tank every other day...

Need to find some local planted tank people I can blag cuttings from I think

I always try and support my LFS when I can but plants have always seemed to be better to get online. Even some of the very good LFS I had near me never had much of a plant selection going on and it was always a ton more expensive.

 

[Deleted member 149562]

On the odd occasion that I dived into live plants in the past, my second fish supplier also does tropical aquarium plants (mounted on things, bunches and potted). They are based near Gatwick and are open to the public or will arrange courier delivery for livestock/plants etc if required

Tropical Plants Archives

We sell a large range of tropical plants, bunches and pots for your aquarium.Alongside our tropical fish these can all be delivered to your door.

www.aquaticstoyourdoor.co.uk

Unlike plants bought elsewhere, I didn't get any hitchikers with their plants and they were good quality/value imho.

 

[xxBarneyxx]

On the odd occasion that I dived into live plants in the past, my second fish supplier also does tropical aquarium plants (mounted on things, bunches and potted). They are based near Gatwick and are open to the public or will arrange courier delivery for livestock/plants etc if required

Tropical Plants Archives

We sell a large range of tropical plants, bunches and pots for your aquarium.Alongside our tropical fish these can all be delivered to your door.

www.aquaticstoyourdoor.co.uk

Unlike plants bought elsewhere, I didn't get any hitchikers with their plants and they were good quality/value imho.

Thanks for that. They have a pretty good selection and some of the prices are a lot cheaper then I just paid. Added to my bookmarks.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Thanks for that. They have a pretty good selection and some of the prices are a lot cheaper then I just paid. Added to my bookmarks.

I like Pro-Shrimp for my plants-if you go to the potted plants section on their site, you'll find some plants at really reasonable prices, especially for rooted plants compared to many other places.

I'm wary about where I get plants now, especially because I keep shrimp. There are import laws that mean any plants grown outside the EU and UK have to be sprayed with a pesticide to kill snails- the aim is to prevent invasive species making it here, so understandable - but at least one of those chemicals is banned for use within the UK itself, which worries me. It's also not easy to remove, and can contaminate your tank and kills shrimp and snails. Not everywhere discloses where they buy their plants, but it's often cheaper for stores and online companies to import tropical aquarium plants that have been grown somewhere like Thailand or Indonesia, and those plants will have been treated with one of these pesticides.

If you ever want to keep shrimp or snails, best to stick to plants grown within the UK or EU, ones grown in-vitro, or trimmings from a trusted hobbyists tank. Personally, I wouldn't want those pesticide treated plants even in my fish only tanks, since while they're not fatal to fish, who knows what effects they may be having internally or in the long term.

I learned this the hard way by impulse buying four plants from LFS, which I'd done before without issue. My shrimp colony began dying off, came here and learned about this shrimp-killing pesticide law, removed plants, but still needed to set up a new, uncontaminated, in-vitro plants only tank in order to save my shrimp colony; and it took a long time for the deaths to stop and the remains of the colony to bounce back.

Just a heads up since we're talking sourcing plants, and not many people are aware of this!

 

[Deleted member 149562]

I use ProShrimp for food and filtration needs....they also supplied two of my hex's too, very good firm, very reliable