Hi
About 6 months ago I decided to have a fish tank in my apartment, since my beloved conure was attracting noise complaints and I had to rehome him
I've never kept fish before and this was a huge learning experience for me.
So I went to the store and was tossing up between a 400L and a 200L but since I didn't know how much room I had in my apartment I chose the smaller tank. The aim of the tank was to be a low-maintenance Eco-system which would be a centerpiece to my library/chill out room. It ended up in the loungeroom, and not much else went to plan either
First up was washing the sand - which took 2 days and didn't really work. 6 months later I'm still vacuuming sand out of odd places.
Next up was cycling. It took nearly a month to locate safe-to-use ammonia, but after that everything went smoothly and voilà, fish were ready to go in right before I was due to go on holiday for a month. So I bought some cheap fish (10 Neon Tetras) as well as my original plan of 6 Kuhli Loaches. I intended to just use the tetras to keep the tank cycled while I was away, but pretty quickly fell in love with them. I added a few plants to keep things looking cool.
The snails were gone in no time, so it was time to plan out how to do an efficient water change in an apartment. I plumbed the tank into the mains, and have since got it timed to do a 30% water change every day while I'm at home. The process takes about 15 minutes, as opposed to the half hour plus of buckets, without the messy carpet and uprooted plants.
After this hassle was sorted, time to plan my stocking and order fish. After observing whereabouts my fish spent most of their time, and the time of day I decided on species where I could be technically overstocked but still provide a very comfortable environment. This bit actually (very very nearly) all went to plan, the stock plan was:
Apart from the Rummynose not being in a school, everything went according to plan. The glass catfish all stayed in one place for the most part, the Pakistanis scrubbed all the surface, the butterflyfish stuck up the top, away from the flow and in the flotsam of plants, and the Kuhlis spent most of their time in their caves they'd tunneled under the rock and behind the pump that is used to drain the tank. Butterflyfish soon became my favourite - he'd swim up to me, be hand fed and even allow himself to be "patted".
After a week or two of complacency though, the new light arrived and this caused the butterfly fish to become skittish and often swim under the surface. He became agitated one day and took a bite out of my female Rummynose. The fish survived for two days before finally perishing. That was my first (and to date, only) fatality that I am aware of (I also have one Kuhli loach possibly unaccounted for).
My future plans are:
The whole experience has proven to be enormously addictive, and I already have 3 more tanks ready to be set up in a new "tank room". I've just placed a 400L tank with sump which I'm hoping to house a common pleco in (haven't researched enough yet) or failing that possibly a marine setup or cichilid tank. This is a hobby I really enjoy and would be great if I didn't have to travel so much, which means my tanks have to be reasonably self sufficient. I'm reasonably confident that this tank is a success, which is mainly due to large amounts of research and picking up a lot of advice from people here on the froums.
Thank you for checking this out, I hope you enjoyed my journey.
About 6 months ago I decided to have a fish tank in my apartment, since my beloved conure was attracting noise complaints and I had to rehome him
So I went to the store and was tossing up between a 400L and a 200L but since I didn't know how much room I had in my apartment I chose the smaller tank. The aim of the tank was to be a low-maintenance Eco-system which would be a centerpiece to my library/chill out room. It ended up in the loungeroom, and not much else went to plan either
First up was washing the sand - which took 2 days and didn't really work. 6 months later I'm still vacuuming sand out of odd places.
After the tank started to be filled, it was obvious the sand was not clean properly, but at this point I just wanted it to be done so I topped it up, threw in the decorations and let the filter do its job.
Next up was cycling. It took nearly a month to locate safe-to-use ammonia, but after that everything went smoothly and voilà, fish were ready to go in right before I was due to go on holiday for a month. So I bought some cheap fish (10 Neon Tetras) as well as my original plan of 6 Kuhli Loaches. I intended to just use the tetras to keep the tank cycled while I was away, but pretty quickly fell in love with them. I added a few plants to keep things looking cool.
After I returned from holiday, the tank had been running for a month without a water change and had been overrun by algae and snails that had snuck in on the plants. I scrubbed off the algae, performed a water change and threw in a bristlenose catfish to keep it under control. The snails were a new problem I hadn't foreseen, but they weren't falling for the lettuce traps I was using, so I hesitantly put in two Pakistani loaches. They weren't part of my stocking plan, but they are great fun and the larger one bonded with my Bristlenose. To this day, they are inseparable.
The snails were gone in no time, so it was time to plan out how to do an efficient water change in an apartment. I plumbed the tank into the mains, and have since got it timed to do a 30% water change every day while I'm at home. The process takes about 15 minutes, as opposed to the half hour plus of buckets, without the messy carpet and uprooted plants.
After this hassle was sorted, time to plan my stocking and order fish. After observing whereabouts my fish spent most of their time, and the time of day I decided on species where I could be technically overstocked but still provide a very comfortable environment. This bit actually (very very nearly) all went to plan, the stock plan was:
Up the school of tetras to 15
- Add a school of 9 Burmese Rummynose
Add another Pakistani loach
Up the number of Kuhlis to 10
Add a school of 9 glass catfish
Add an African Butterflyfish.
Apart from the Rummynose not being in a school, everything went according to plan. The glass catfish all stayed in one place for the most part, the Pakistanis scrubbed all the surface, the butterflyfish stuck up the top, away from the flow and in the flotsam of plants, and the Kuhlis spent most of their time in their caves they'd tunneled under the rock and behind the pump that is used to drain the tank. Butterflyfish soon became my favourite - he'd swim up to me, be hand fed and even allow himself to be "patted".
After a week or two of complacency though, the new light arrived and this caused the butterfly fish to become skittish and often swim under the surface. He became agitated one day and took a bite out of my female Rummynose. The fish survived for two days before finally perishing. That was my first (and to date, only) fatality that I am aware of (I also have one Kuhli loach possibly unaccounted for).
My next shipment of Burmese Rummynose was sent out (and a Mussel). However, what arrived were not Rummynose at all - but black neon tetras. So my tank is in an interesting situation at the moment.
My future plans are:
- Rehome the butterfly fish, let the back neon tetras be the surface fish - as it is I'm convinced thy are going to swim into the butterflyfish's mouth.
- Possibly the Rummynose (since I can't track down more, and if I could I'd be overstocked). I might just leave them though until I get some more and place them in a second tank.
The whole experience has proven to be enormously addictive, and I already have 3 more tanks ready to be set up in a new "tank room". I've just placed a 400L tank with sump which I'm hoping to house a common pleco in (haven't researched enough yet) or failing that possibly a marine setup or cichilid tank. This is a hobby I really enjoy and would be great if I didn't have to travel so much, which means my tanks have to be reasonably self sufficient. I'm reasonably confident that this tank is a success, which is mainly due to large amounts of research and picking up a lot of advice from people here on the froums.
Thank you for checking this out, I hope you enjoyed my journey.
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