Good morning, good evening and good night (depending on where you're reading this!)
I'm new to the hobby (not counting the obligatory childhood golfish) having promised myself a 'proper' fish tank when I got my own house. A few years later than planned, I set my South American tank up in June. My first fish purchase was 6 'sacrificial' silvertip tetras to get the tank cycled. All but one survived, so I followed that up with 15 cardinals. They settled in nicely, so I got 6 black phantoms. Somehow I ended up with 5 dudes and a lady, which didn't end too well as the lass was properly harrassed and my attempts to give her a break in my QT resulted in her premature passing (entirely my fault, she was run down and the water parameters weren't quite up to scratch). Aside from one case of fungal growth on one cardinal (who was swiftly removed from the tank before he could infect anyone else) I've been really lucky and out of 27 fish I've only lost 3, which is better than I'd hoped for. I have a Starlight/Whiteseam/L183 Bristlenose pleco on order, which will be my penultimate addition before I get my 'statement' apistos in the new year.
I am running a Fluval Roma 125 litre tank with Fluval U3 filter and FluvalSmart light (sensing a theme?) I do weekly water changes of about 30% with substrate hoovering. The tank is pretty well planted, and I use liquid carbon top ups daily and liquid feed weekly (substrate tabs went the way of the hoover, so had to revert to liquid).
There's still lots to do on the tank, and I'm looking forward to working on it over the coming months.
I'll try and get some pics up soon.
I'm new to the hobby (not counting the obligatory childhood golfish) having promised myself a 'proper' fish tank when I got my own house. A few years later than planned, I set my South American tank up in June. My first fish purchase was 6 'sacrificial' silvertip tetras to get the tank cycled. All but one survived, so I followed that up with 15 cardinals. They settled in nicely, so I got 6 black phantoms. Somehow I ended up with 5 dudes and a lady, which didn't end too well as the lass was properly harrassed and my attempts to give her a break in my QT resulted in her premature passing (entirely my fault, she was run down and the water parameters weren't quite up to scratch). Aside from one case of fungal growth on one cardinal (who was swiftly removed from the tank before he could infect anyone else) I've been really lucky and out of 27 fish I've only lost 3, which is better than I'd hoped for. I have a Starlight/Whiteseam/L183 Bristlenose pleco on order, which will be my penultimate addition before I get my 'statement' apistos in the new year.
I am running a Fluval Roma 125 litre tank with Fluval U3 filter and FluvalSmart light (sensing a theme?) I do weekly water changes of about 30% with substrate hoovering. The tank is pretty well planted, and I use liquid carbon top ups daily and liquid feed weekly (substrate tabs went the way of the hoover, so had to revert to liquid).
There's still lots to do on the tank, and I'm looking forward to working on it over the coming months.
I'll try and get some pics up soon.
