My New Aquarium

[melave]

Here are some photos of my Aquarium. It's a 54 Litre Aqua One Horizon Aquarium which I got from Pets At Home. I originally wanted to get an Arcadia Arc Tank but my local fish shop let me down when they said they would order one for me before xmas. After waiting for so long I decided on this Horizon Tank which is bigger and has a better overhead light anyway. I've put dechlorinator and introduced some bacteria to start a fishless cycle. I'm going to put a Betta and some Cory's in the tank which I'm going to get on Saturday. Looking forward to getting the fish!

Thanks to everyone for your previous advice; I basically copied the design from some guy on Youtube. There are some fake plants only, so its a poor version. I'm still very happy with how it looks though. What do you lot think?

 

[VictorMeldrew]

Nice little tank that, I also seen it on youtube a whie ago, you say you are doing a fishless cycle but adding fish on saturday, confused.

 

[shaund]

nice tank uve got there!!! not too sure about the bhudda ornament thing tho lol

 

[melave]

Nice little tank that, I also seen it on youtube a whie ago, you say you are doing a fishless cycle but adding fish on saturday, confused.

I have a bottle of something called nutrafin cycle which is basically bacteria. It says you add it to the water 3 times and it "immediately establishes a safe biological aquarium environment". I put the first dose in yesterday, so hopefully by Saturday the tank will be good to go.

 

[Honeythorn]

It's very nice and not a bad copy at all . But bettas really do prefer a lot more plants than that, as they come from heavily vegetated waters with a lot of plant matter ( dead and alive)

The bamboo ( which I hope is not real as it will start to rot eventually and pollute the water ) looks nice and echos plant stems in the water, but you need to fill a lot more of the gaps to provide hiding and resting places for the fish, you do need to think of more than just how you want it to look in your house, he's the one who has to live in it.

In order not to detract too much from the overall effect and still provide lots of hiding spots for the fish, try filling the back areas ( all behind the bhudda along the back wall) and sides with plants for him to hide in , leaving the central area open so you can see the ornament and the betta has some free space if he wants to come right out.

To keep it from being too busy, just stick with getting more of that same tall plant you have at the back. It keeps things simple to look at and does the intended job for the fish.

 

[melave]

It's very nice and not a bad copy at all . But bettas really do prefer a lot more plants than that, as they come from heavily vegetated waters with a lot of plant matter ( dead and alive)

The bamboo ( which I hope is not real as it will start to rot eventually and pollute the water ) looks nice and echos plant stems in the water, but you need to fill a lot more of the gaps to provide hiding and resting places for the fish, you do need to think of more than just how you want it to look in your house, he's the one who has to live in it.

In order not to detract too much from the overall effect and still provide lots of hiding spots for the fish, try filling the back areas ( all behind the bhudda along the back wall) and sides with plants for him to hide in , leaving the central area open so you can see the ornament and the betta has some free space if he wants to come right out.

To keep it from being too busy, just stick with getting more of that same tall plant you have at the back. It keeps things simple to look at and does the intended job for the fish.

That's a good idea, I wasn't too sure if I had enough plants yet so I'll get some more thanks. Is it essential to have small cave aswell or can I manage without it? I don't have a huge amount of space to work with and it would mean a re-design if I was to put a cave in aswell.

 

[Forestpisces]

The bottle of nutrafin cycle is useless as the bacteria in it are already dead i'm sorry to say. The only thing that will boost your cycle (not complete it) are bactinets which are refrigerated live bacteria.
It's a lovely tank and i agree about adding more plants, but it's just a heads up that you still need to fishless cycle normally.

 

[Honeythorn]

That's a good idea, I wasn't too sure if I had enough plants yet so I'll get some more thanks. Is it essential to have small cave aswell or can I manage without it? I don't have a huge amount of space to work with and it would mean a re-design if I was to put a cave in aswell.

If you plant heavily there isn't really any need for a cave and not all bettas need one . The plants themselves become the cave

I agree with Forestpices on the Cycle. It's a marketing ploy and nothing more.

Filter bacteria need a constant supply of "food" in the form of ammonia . fish waste provides this, but when fishless cycling, you would add pure bottled ammonia to the tank for them to feed on .

Since these bottle of cycle have been sealed up and sat in storage, transit and shop shelves for months on end, they have of course,, had nothing on which to feed in all that time. No ammonia or fish waste can be added to a sealed bottle, so any bacteria that may have been in there would be very much dead and gone by the time you buy a bottle of the product.

You've basically bought a bottleof useless empty liquid. It absolutely will not cycle your tank for you.

In order to start a cycle of any sort you need a source of ammonia. This means eithr starting from scratch with bottled ammonia, or squeezing out the contents of a currently running filter ( from a stocked tank of course ) over your filter sponges/media, and then either stocking your tank VERY lightly with hardy fish and doing a lot of water changes and tests to keep an eye on things ( not reccomended ) or feeding thebacteria you squeezed out with pure ammonia and then testing as normal until they can process ammonia and nirtites in 12 hours

 

[theshadowinc]

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Nice little tank, I figured this was a copy from U-Tube the point behind this is the person that designed it designed it for the ones that came from Rice paddies and thats all they would see is stalks like that but alot thicker. I think its fine the way it is although the man in the middle I don't know lol...........

 

[Jonty]

very nice, I'd fill out the back corners with lots of big leaved plants though

Nutifin cycle DOES NOT WORK! You need ammonia to complete a proper fishless cycle, as explain in the newcomer section

 

[melave]

very nice, I'd fill out the back corners with lots of big leaved plants though

Nutifin cycle DOES NOT WORK! You need ammonia to complete a proper fishless cycle, as explain in the newcomer section

Ok, I'll check this out and make sure I do the cycle properly before I add fish. Thanks.

 

[Assaye]

Nice little tank that, I also seen it on youtube a whie ago, you say you are doing a fishless cycle but adding fish on saturday, confused.

I have a bottle of something called nutrafin cycle which is basically bacteria. It says you add it to the water 3 times and it "immediately establishes a safe biological aquarium environment". I put the first dose in yesterday, so hopefully by Saturday the tank will be good to go.

Great tank! My partner has that tank for his bettas. We've got it divided up. Here's a picture:

Just need to say something about where you got your tank from. Not naming names, but I work there (not necessarily the same branch) and I'll warn you to take their advice with a pinch of salt.

Nutrafin Cycle WILL NOT cycle your tank for you. Even if it does add bacteria, they'll probably die before you add the fish and most of the bacteria are likely to be dead anyway. The only reliable way of getting the right bacteria into your tank early is to use a big chunk of mature media from a mature filter. These 'fast cycling' products are usually total crud.

If you want to do a proper fishless cycle (which I would always recommend), you need to ignore the fish shop and get some pure ammonia. Thus process takes about a month but it saves the fish being exposed to exceptionally dangerous waste chemicals which they WOULD otherwise be exposed to.

If you get fish on Saturday, you need a liquid test kit for ammonia and nitrite and to be prepared to do very large water changes at least once a day. Again, the shop will probably tell you that you only need to do one or two water changes a week. During a fishless cycle, this is false. They might say you'll lose good bacteria by doing too many water changes. This is also false.

Read this - Beginners' Resource Centre

Bettas also need quite heavily planted tanks and plastic plants will rip their fins. Pets At Home stock some really soft fake fern style plants in at least two sizes. Give them a go if you don't want real plants. Also, try silk plants

 

[Gill]

nice tank, that member used to be on here and his tank looked great.

 

[melave]

Nice little tank that, I also seen it on youtube a whie ago, you say you are doing a fishless cycle but adding fish on saturday, confused.

I have a bottle of something called nutrafin cycle which is basically bacteria. It says you add it to the water 3 times and it "immediately establishes a safe biological aquarium environment". I put the first dose in yesterday, so hopefully by Saturday the tank will be good to go.

Great tank! My partner has that tank for his bettas. We've got it divided up. Here's a picture:

Just need to say something about where you got your tank from. Not naming names, but I work there (not necessarily the same branch) and I'll warn you to take their advice with a pinch of salt.

Nutrafin Cycle WILL NOT cycle your tank for you. Even if it does add bacteria, they'll probably die before you add the fish and most of the bacteria are likely to be dead anyway. The only reliable way of getting the right bacteria into your tank early is to use a big chunk of mature media from a mature filter. These 'fast cycling' products are usually total crud.

If you want to do a proper fishless cycle (which I would always recommend), you need to ignore the fish shop and get some pure ammonia. Thus process takes about a month but it saves the fish being exposed to exceptionally dangerous waste chemicals which they WOULD otherwise be exposed to.

If you get fish on Saturday, you need a liquid test kit for ammonia and nitrite and to be prepared to do very large water changes at least once a day. Again, the shop will probably tell you that you only need to do one or two water changes a week. During a fishless cycle, this is false. They might say you'll lose good bacteria by doing too many water changes. This is also false.

Read this - Beginners' Resource Centre

Bettas also need quite heavily planted tanks and plastic plants will rip their fins. Pets At Home stock some really soft fake fern style plants in at least two sizes. Give them a go if you don't want real plants. Also, try silk plants

Thanks, your tank looks very well. It could be something I would do in the future. I got some extra plants today so the back doesn't look as bare. I'm also going to do the cycle before I put fish in the tank. I'll try the pure ammonia route to get the tank sorted. I wish I hadn't wasted money on that Nutrafin stuff!

 

[Lacuna]

Nice tank, looks zen and peaceful, which is what I presume you were going for. I like tanks with themes, bit different to the natural looking tanks you always see.