Hi Everyone : D

[mattyouk]

Hi everyone I'm new to the site, my names Matt 19 years old and have been keeping tropical fish since I was 10, I work at Pets At Home and study part time in carpentry. Joined the site to get serious with the hobby, I'm currently keeping a pair of Oscars and a convict cichlid in a Fluval 180 Vicenza,(I do realise they'll need a bigger tank soon!) but I love biotopes and would love to do a planted South American biotope based on Angels. Pictures of my tank below comments/ criticism/ advice welcome!

Thanks for looking!

 

[basil1]

Hi Matt, and welcome, iv'e just joined this site (about a week) as I wanted to start tropicals up again ( used to keep them in the 70s) so I class myself as a reborne newbie cause things like equipment and stuff has totally changed, and found this site to be very friendly with stacks of advice.

Seen your pics perhaps you can help me, Im looking at the interpet fishpod, I think its packaged as fishbox in your store 64l tank in one of your stores £99, as I think its a nice size to start from scratch,and seems good value at the moment, as you work there what is your opinion of it, I think it comes with a 150 watt heater but not sure if its a pf 1 or pf 2 filter, the only thing holding me back is your rather limited with the lighting, I like the moon light idea but you cant change to tubes, the other tank I fancy is the aquael brillux, I dont think petsathome stock that, also I noticed you use black gravel which looks really nice is this just for asthetics or is it just easier to keep clean,

 

[mattyouk]

Hi Matt, and welcome, iv'e just joined this site (about a week) as I wanted to start tropicals up again ( used to keep them in the 70s) so I class myself as a reborne newbie cause things like equipment and stuff has totally changed, and found this site to be very friendly with stacks of advice.

Seen your pics perhaps you can help me, Im looking at the interpet fishpod, I think its packaged as fishbox in your store 64l tank in one of your stores £99, as I think its a nice size to start from scratch,and seems good value at the moment, as you work there what is your opinion of it, I think it comes with a 150 watt heater but not sure if its a pf 1 or pf 2 filter, the only thing holding me back is your rather limited with the lighting, I like the moon light idea but you cant change to tubes, the other tank I fancy is the aquael brillux, I dont think petsathome stock that, also I noticed you use black gravel which looks really nice is this just for asthetics or is it just easier to keep clean,

Hi, as you've allready said the lighting isnt as good as the tubes you can buy, but you can allways swap over the 1 blue bulb for another white and it will make the tank much brighter,(quite a few customers did this they said it makes a massive difference with lighting). The filter it comes with is a Interpet PF2 iirc, which is a decent filter, it comes with all the filter media you will need, carbon, bio and foam. Has flow control on it too and you can direct your water flow. I'd reccomend the tank, Its easy for maintanance too.
Thanks the black gravel is more for enhancing the fishes colors, but I dont think any gravel will be easy to keep clean with two messy Oscars and Plecs! I dont think it does hide the dirt though to be honest but that just, I think you'd be better off with the standard riverbed gravel. Hope i helped with the tank.

 

[basil1]

Hi Matt, and welcome, iv'e just joined this site (about a week) as I wanted to start tropicals up again ( used to keep them in the 70s) so I class myself as a reborne newbie cause things like equipment and stuff has totally changed, and found this site to be very friendly with stacks of advice.

Seen your pics perhaps you can help me, Im looking at the interpet fishpod, I think its packaged as fishbox in your store 64l tank in one of your stores £99, as I think its a nice size to start from scratch,and seems good value at the moment, as you work there what is your opinion of it, I think it comes with a 150 watt heater but not sure if its a pf 1 or pf 2 filter, the only thing holding me back is your rather limited with the lighting, I like the moon light idea but you cant change to tubes, the other tank I fancy is the aquael brillux, I dont think petsathome stock that, also I noticed you use black gravel which looks really nice is this just for asthetics or is it just easier to keep clean,

Hi, as you've allready said the lighting isnt as good as the tubes you can buy, but you can allways swap over the 1 blue bulb for another white and it will make the tank much brighter,(quite a few customers did this they said it makes a massive difference with lighting). The filter it comes with is a Interpet PF2 iirc, which is a decent filter, it comes with all the filter media you will need, carbon, bio and foam. Has flow control on it too and you can direct your water flow. I'd reccomend the tank, Its easy for maintanance too.
Thanks the black gravel is more for enhancing the fishes colors, but I dont think any gravel will be easy to keep clean with two messy Oscars and Plecs! I dont think it does hide the dirt though to be honest but that just, I think you'd be better off with the standard riverbed gravel. Hope i helped with the tank.

Thanks for info, went down to my local petsathome to purchase, just mentioned I would be putting tank in conservetry, and guess what, they refused to sell it to me saying it is totally impossible to keep tropicals in that sort of environment due to excessive temp fluctuations, now I know they have a duty to animal care within reason, but I know there are people in these forums who manage quite succesfully doing the same thing, its not ideal I know but that is the only place I have, I know I may have a problem with algae, but we do have blinds so will not be in direct sunlight, as for temp the 150 watt heater should be sufficent for the winter and as for the summer I have had plenty of advice on how to deal with the few days this country gets of a hot day anyway looks like I will have to rethink my stratagy.