First Big Tank

[SELINA]

Okay, so I've never had a blog or anything like this before, so this is as much of an experiment as the tank is, please bear with me.

We (my boyfriend and I) currently have a small (20L) tank, with a Bronze Cory, Blue Siamese Fighter and four Harlequin Tetra's. I had a larger tank a few years ago, five foot long, which I bought already stocked with fish and well established, so I knew nothing about the ammonia cycle. Needless to say the ammonia spiked pretty quickly, in fact it only took a few days which I'm guessing is because the tank is small. We panicked and spent almost a week desperately trying to find some filter media to cycle the filter in. Viking Aquatics in Ipswich (where both my boyfriend and the tank are located) graciously obliged, along with selling us a new 54L tank and some nice liquid to pop into both tanks to help it along. I've heard bad things about these solutions for cycling a tank in, and indeed the Tetra products i bought did absolutely nothing, but I figured it was worth a shot. So I got the filter media and sliced a section off the bottom to pop into the little filter in the 20l tank, and put the larger block of media into the new tank as we set it up. Within two days the ammonia was 0 and the nitrite was 0 too.

The new tank is set up and ready to move the fish but seeing as we've not decided on a theme to decorate it with yet we're hanging on for now. Pets At Home actually had some beautiful Cambodian Temple Ruins that would look amazing, and I love the idea of an Egyptian theme, but the other half naturally wants a crashed submarine or helicopter, which is absolutely not happening. We have plenty of sand, and some black stones too, not that these go together as we sound out in the small tank. However sand is surely the way forward, as the cory loves burrowing his little snout into it, and the plants always look better in sand. Plus I think it looks more natural. But we shall see...

 

[Noahs ark6]

Stick to your guns, don't let him have a crashed submarine. Sand is defineatly the way to go, it's also alot easier to clean. I look forward to future updates

 

[Ps3Steveo]

Stick to your guns, don't let him have a crashed submarine. Sand is defineatly the way to go, it's also alot easier to clean. I look forward to future updates

I found it easier to clean cos it shows the dirt more lol, but then my Discus were a bit messy.

Got any pic's Selina

 

[SELINA]

UPDATE

Long awaited - I know. I have had so much going on recently that I've had very little time to even think about posting again.

Right so where did I leave off? Good grief 29th August??? Wow... Well here goes...

So I won out and we went with the Cambodian theme, but it's still very much a work in progress. We put sand into the big tank, and the next day bought this fantastic green neon light thingy. It's a long airline attached to a network of adjustable green neon lights. It forms a sheet of green bubbles along the back of the tank. I would like to mention I then spent about half an hour getting the sodding sand out of the way so I could stick the dozen suckers to the bottom of the tank. That was a complete ordeal but thank goodness it wasn't after the tank had been planted and set up, I would have trashed the lot getting them to stick.

Right so that done we travelled 80 miles in total from Ipswich to Norwich because the Pets at Home in Ips didn't have the ornaments I wanted.
We got a large temple which I think is rather cool looking, and found a stone-effect lion/dog in Viking which also looks pretty Cambodian. Don't get me wrong, I do like the natural-looking tanks, furnished with just rocks and plants, but my old tank was like that and I just fancied a proper theme this time.
So we bought a tonne of plants (I spent ages combing through them to prevent snails) and settled those in with the ornaments and waited an hour before we popped the Bronze Cory, Blue Siamese Fighter and four Harlequin Tetra's in.

I have never seen such a happy fish as the Cory. He was ecstatic. Rootled every inch of the new sand and turfed almost every plant out of the sand. It was seriously cute bless him.
After a week we bought him a little chum, and even now he's still a little bigger than the newer one. We also bought two new tetra's as we now had plenty of room for them, two dwarf blue gourami (the fighter isn't terribly impressed with these) and a tiny sailfin Plec. I used to have two of these and they were almost a foot long each.
We encountered a problem in that the tank wasn't receiving enough light so it had to be moved to the other side of the room. Several of the plants had died off within a week or two which was annoying. So at the moment it's still understocked with plants but that should be changed soon.

This is the point I took the pictures below, so bear with me on the lack of plants, and the quality of photo's they were taken with my phone and my fish aren't exactly keen on staying still for pictures.

So the last few changes came a couple of weeks ago when I went to Viking with my boyfriends father. Clearly a mistake because instead of coming out with a new more efficient filter I came out with a beautiful catfish with the largest barbels I have ever seen. He's a beautiful pearlescent white, and was simply too pretty to leave in the shop, or so my boyfriends father said. So he came home with us. I will post a picture of him as soon as I get a chance, as I cannot remember his full name and I would be grateful if anyone could inform me as to his species. The guys in the pet shop told us he is carnivorous and would take any neon tetra's and other very small fish and when I told him the size of our Harleys he said he should be fine. We get him home and pop him in the tank and he settles straight away to a spot under the heater.
Problem is he grows pretty quickly it turns out, faster than the Harleys. And so a week ago one of the smaller two (I got two new ones remember) disappears overnight. And I mean disappears. No trace. So we're not sure if he was eaten or simply died and was cleaned up by the corys and the now doubled in size (6cm) plec.
But whatever happened to it, one night we had six, the next day there were five.
Which leads me to the last change the tank has undergone, I went Sunday to Viking to get some plants, and I had clearly not learned my lesson as I went with my boyfriends father again and long story short came out with a stunning pair of killifish. I didn't mention it to my boyfriend, just put the new plants in and the fish, and it took him two days to notice them. Amazing.

Anyway, here's a couple of pictures, again please excuse the dreadful quality, I will upload better one's when the tank is more worth looking at.

 

[KCB]

Your cambodia theme looks great! I bet you're glad you stuck to your guns .

 

[SELINA]

Your cambodia theme looks great! I bet you're glad you stuck to your guns

.

Thank you, it's really kind of you to say. I'm very very pleased I stuck with it. I would still like a few more pieces and a few rocks to really give it an abandoned ruin feeling, but I'm rather picky and nothing has caught my eye so far.
I quite like java moss too, that gives a really good look I think.

 

[SELINA]

UPDATE

So the new killifish (I'm still not sure what species they are, if anyone can help it would be much obliged) were lovely, and as I said at the end of the last post, went unnoticed by the bf for two days. So I get back round there late wednesday evening and we can't see the male. Long story short we find what is left of him, and I assure you with the corys, the alleged vegetarian plec, and the catfish, there wasn't much left.
Gutted. Utterly gutted. I get so attached to them, and so did the bf to my surprise, he was pretty cut up too, I think because it was the first one we've lost.
Still, nothing we could do about it then, I had tested the levels of everything, and I mean everything, the day before we got him so I know it wasn't my tank, it must have been stress.
I took him next day back to Viking, I honestly cannot rate that place enough, they are amazing. I will post their website at a later date if anyone lives nearby, they really are so clued up on everything. They replaced him just on my word alone, didn't even ask if I had the little fella with me, just gave me a new one.
He's all settled in and the female is much calmer now, she was all sulky by herself.

AAAAnyway, there's a little update on what's been going on this week, I'm going to try and keep this updated every time something new or exciting happens.
If anyone can tell me what species the catfish or Killifish are it would be awesome, I know I should look in the shop but I never remember.

 

[Questions?]

im pretty sure that is a pictus catfish. if so you are definitely overstocked. also what is that food your a feeding the pleco, and how much did it cost and get it to stick?

 

[SELINA]

Yes I knew my tank was getting full, but we had to take the gourami back because they just would not stop harassing the fighter, so it's all good now as we bought a more powerful filter too, even though the last one was doing just fine and all the levels of ammonia etc. were 0. But thank you for your concern all the same.
Anyway, the tablet the plec is feeding on is an algae pellet. Algae forms a high percentage of a plec diet, and as I keep my tank very clean I buy him little supplement tablets to make sure he gets all the nutrition he needs. I would recommend them even if your tank has plenty of algae as it makes sure your plecs have an adequate supply of nutrients.
As to how much they cost? About £2.99 for a small pot I think, which has about 100 tablets in. They stick by pressing them to the side of the tank...
Thanks for your help in the catfish naming department.

 

[Questions?]

your welcome, and what are the name of them (the tablet) , because i am in the US, and right now i am stuck on feeding my two bristlenose plecos with cichlid pellets, they eat them alot, but i think they would prefer something else

 

[SELINA]

your welcome, and what are the name of them (the tablet) , because i am in the US, and right now i am stuck on feeding my two bristlenose plecos with cichlid pellets, they eat them alot, but i think they would prefer something else

They're from KingBritish, let me know if you have trouble finding them in the US, I can post you some if you need =]

 

[SELINA]

UPDATE

So I've started the moss wall at last. What a saga this is turning out to be. I foolishly dried out the moss thinking it would make it easier to manipulate. Mistake. It takes forever to become green again. Still, live and learn. Bought plastic mesh panels from ebay and stitched them together by hand using plastic thread on three sides to make a pocket type structure. Then popped the moss in and fussed it about a bit until I was happy with it. Then stitched up the final side, and put a few more stitches in the centre through the moss to keep the centre from bowing outwards and releasing the moss.
Popped this into the tank and used the thermometer to pin it to the front of the tank so it gets maximum light. It will stay there until it starts growing properly whereby I will move it to the back of the tank and make the next one.

 

[Ps3Steveo]

That moss looks a little dead to me.

 

[SELINA]

I did mention it's dried! It's now starting to perk up again, I'll post a picture once its fully green