StandbySetting
Fish Aficionado
Hi all
It's certainly been a while, a lot has happened in my life during my various times away from the forums, good to see a few friendly faces are still knocking around. For those of you that have been here since before 2010 you may remember me as Truck, thankfully for you I've grown up a lot since then, bought a house and got a job at least!
My partner and I moved into our first home together this year and I've been badgering her for a new tank ever since. One impulse buy later and a grumpy conversation and my Rio 125 is setup and running. I've always been a big fan of.planted aquaria, kept everything in-between, cold water, tropical, salt you name it but I always gravitate back towards planted tanks. I've tried to keep this setup sensible and cheap to get my girlfriend on board, hence no external filtration and lily pipes yet... Such is life, fish choices will be a bit more beginner too in the hope I can get her hooked!
Run down:
Juwel Rio 125
2x LED day strips, one is blacked out though as it's too intense.
Upgraded internal filter to 1000lph
Planting is fairly easy a mixture of Crypts, Hygrophila polysperma, Rotala, Vallis, Anubias, Mosses etc.
Normally I'd load the tank with plants bit keeping things to a tighter budget I've been a bit more sparse and will play the long game whilst things settle in.
Inhabitants so far are 4 Platies, I am using the silent cycle method, water parameters are looking good, plants doing most of the filtration for me at the moment.
Here goes the pics, excuse the crappy phone photos, I don't have a big old DSLR any more.... Any questions feel free to ask!
From empty to now is about 10 days
, as you can see, plenty of growth! The rock was there to sink the wood.
It's certainly been a while, a lot has happened in my life during my various times away from the forums, good to see a few friendly faces are still knocking around. For those of you that have been here since before 2010 you may remember me as Truck, thankfully for you I've grown up a lot since then, bought a house and got a job at least!
My partner and I moved into our first home together this year and I've been badgering her for a new tank ever since. One impulse buy later and a grumpy conversation and my Rio 125 is setup and running. I've always been a big fan of.planted aquaria, kept everything in-between, cold water, tropical, salt you name it but I always gravitate back towards planted tanks. I've tried to keep this setup sensible and cheap to get my girlfriend on board, hence no external filtration and lily pipes yet... Such is life, fish choices will be a bit more beginner too in the hope I can get her hooked!
Run down:
Juwel Rio 125
2x LED day strips, one is blacked out though as it's too intense.
Upgraded internal filter to 1000lph
Planting is fairly easy a mixture of Crypts, Hygrophila polysperma, Rotala, Vallis, Anubias, Mosses etc.
Normally I'd load the tank with plants bit keeping things to a tighter budget I've been a bit more sparse and will play the long game whilst things settle in.
Inhabitants so far are 4 Platies, I am using the silent cycle method, water parameters are looking good, plants doing most of the filtration for me at the moment.
Here goes the pics, excuse the crappy phone photos, I don't have a big old DSLR any more.... Any questions feel free to ask!
From empty to now is about 10 days
, as you can see, plenty of growth! The rock was there to sink the wood.
