Our Very First Freshwater Tank!

[Linway]

Hey all,
a few of you will have seen me post in the various question threads as I basically knew nothing when starting this project lol but for those of you that hasn't myself and my girlfriend decided what we wanted to set up a freshwater tank so I figured I'd write this journal as I've found a lot of useful information on this forum

.
 
So after much deliberation we decided on this tank because we found an expired offer in PetsAtHome and they apparently have to sell at that price even if it's expired but still advertised at that.
http/www.petsathome.com/shop/marina-style-95-tropical-aquarium-set-(available-in-selected-stores-only)-78663
We got the tank and stand for like £140 so was a great steal!
 
We decided to start a fishless cycle and it just went horribly! Basically we discovered that we didn't have enough initial bacteria in the tap water to start a cycle, after weeks of levels not dropping at all I started looking at store bought bacteria to start the cycle. My LFS recommended a product called "Special Blend", and I found that this product is AMAZING! It immediately started breaking down the ammonia into nitrite and a few days later the nitrite into nitrate. It is amazing stuff and I would recommend it to anyone! Anyway, a few more weeks down the line and with the help of Special Blend, my tank finally arrived at "cycled".
 
Today we went to the LFS to get our first batch of fish, we had the guy who owns the store test the water just to ensure all was well and with his approval we bought 10 neon tetras and 5 platys.
 
Here are some pictures of the first set of fish we purchased. I should say we decided to go with fake plants to first as I wanted to just focus on getting the water right for fish first and decided I'd attempt to plant it after Xmas.
 
Our tetras:

 
A couple of the platys:

 
A bunch of the fishes around this gorgeous fake wood/plant we found:

 
The tank overall:

 
So yeah, it's nothing "AMAZING" like the 1000gal tank but we love it and felt we should share with you all as you guys have helped us a lot throughout the cycle etc.
 
We will be getting more fish over the next few weeks aiming at peppered corys, red cherry shrimp and a betta (of the fighting fish variety) and I'll post more pictures with each addition.
 
Thanks all and I hope you enjoy the pics.

 

[NeonBlueLeon]

 
You should tilt your heater to an angle so the heated water doesn't rise straight to the top where the sensor is.  Having it vertical might make it turn off too soon.

 

[Linway]

Oh, I didn't realise that could happen... I had wondered though because it has a controller on it to say what temp it's set at but the thermometer which is at the other side of the tank is always a couple of degrees lower than the heater... I'll tilt it now, thank's for the advice

 

[Blondielovesfish]

Looks great!
That log looks really real!
Will look even better when it's planted

What size is it? (Sorry if its in the above post, I'd didn't see it anywhere )

 

[Linway]

Cheers man, yeah I love the fake log/plant thing, it's great lol
 
I didn't post the size just cause I linked to the sales page, my bad lol. It's 95L (W80 x D30 x H40cm).

 

[Blondielovesfish]

Oh, sorry. I was on my phone when I posted that, which is why I couldn't go into the link
 
Its a good size tank! Looks a lot bigger than it is!

 

[Linway]

Lol no worries
Yeah we were originally just going to go with a 50L tank but when we saw the offer of this one at 95L for almost the same price it just wasn't even a question, but I do think the picture makes it look bigger than it actually is

 

[Blondielovesfish]

Good choice getting the bigger one! 

 

[Linway]

Ok so woke up to some sadness this morning. One of the platys died... It's not an issue with the water or anything, when we put the plats in the tank we noticed that he had trouble swimming due to a broken tail and a dodgy fin so he was already troubled (quite annoyed the LFS didn't offer me a new one when I called them)... But because he had a couple of problems he was the only fish in the tank that was identifiable from the rest so we made the mistake of naming him which caused a bit of attachment which led to a bit of sadness when he died
 
The rest are all swimming around, the tetras are extremely lively especially when we fed them, they kind of remind me of seagulls of the fish world in that they all just swarm and rip food from each other lol it's quite entertaining to watch

 

[Blondielovesfish]

sorry to hear that.

 

[Blobfish]

Sorry you lost a fish, always sad.

 

[Linway]

Hey again all, been busy lately so haven't had time to update this

 
So 2 weeks ago we got our red cherry shrimp!

 
They are very cool, the only problem is that they spend around 23.5 hours a day hiding so we very very rarely see them

 
Then a couple of days ago our LFS finally got in some smaller corys, we were hoping for peppered corys but they only had the massive variation (like 3 inches as babies) so we got some bronze corys. We got 4 as that's what the LFS sold them at (4 for £10).
 

 
I absolute love them, they are spazzy as hell lol they never stop moving and shaking around! They are so entertaining to watch, which is a nice break as the tetras/platys are quite slow (tetras are a bit more lively than the platys but only really get hectic when it's feeding time) and the shrimp are rarely on show.
The most annoying thing however is that a couple of the green pieces broke off the big log in the middle so we put them into the sand just as extra little bits of decor but since getting the corys they just constantly dig them out of the sand and they end up floating haha
 
The most noteworthy thing (in my opinion) is that they have come to acknowledge that my face means food haha. If my girlfriend goes near the tank they just ignore her and continue with their daily business, but if I go near it all fish start spazzing out and attacking the surface expecting food

 
Just gotta get my hands on my betta now and will be done

 
Thanks again for all the advice peeps of fishforums.net! Been a massive help with getting this set up finally.

 

[Blondielovesfish]

Looks great! Especially with some more life in there!
 
The corys look great! But, if you can, try to get them some more, as they should ideally be kept in schools of at least 6
 
Do you think you will try live plants? The fish would love them!

 

[Linway]

The corys look great! But, if you can, try to get them some more, as they should ideally be kept in schools of at least 6

I had read that on various threads on here but the numbers varied between like 5/6/7/8 etc depending on the specific breed of the cory so I assumed it was different for every variation and when the store was selling them at 4 for £10 I figured that's what the "default" number should be for that breed.
 
 

Do you think you will try live plants? The fish would love them!

I am starting to think about it now. There is a garden center about 30mins drive away that has a huge aquarium store (Maidenhead Aquatics) that I'll be going to in about 2 weeks to look at their bettas and was considering picking up a few live plants then. Any recommendations? I have absolutely no idea what I need to care for plants? Is the sand I have ok? If the sand isn't ok then it's pretty much a no as I really don't want to go through the hassle of changing it lol