Author Topic: What fish to get? (Read 32488 times) 101 replies

Helen · « **Reply #40 on:** January 06, 2013, 09:25:42 PM »

Hi Natalia. Do you mean the 'rule of thirds'? I was quite interested in landscape photography for a while. I learned the 'rules' but just don't seem to have enough of an artistic flair to be particularly good at it. Perhaps this is my problem with aquascaping! Ironically, I might have more success with quantum physics!

I've posted a new photo of my tank today. I just try to make up for my lack of artistiic flair with science and technology!

Chucklett · « **Reply #41 on:** January 06, 2013, 10:34:08 PM »

Quote from: Natalia on January 06, 2013, 07:38:46 PM

I was going to say to you and to Chucklett that we all should actually post pictures of our tanks more

Absolutely agree! But Ive not been too happy with either of my tanks since moving house. My molly tank was at its best just before I stripped it down to remove the plant substrate from under the gravel (I think that was about a year or so ago) and Ive not yet succeeded with plants in my 4ft tank (apart from the crypt which has taken well the last couple of months). So no photos from me for a while

Good to see you popping by every so often Natalia

I hope things are getting better your end. I remember you telling me that when life deals ugly blows in succession, then sooner or later it has to break and give way to better things

SteveS · « **Reply #42 on:** January 07, 2013, 12:31:50 PM »

Quote from: Helen on January 06, 2013, 09:25:42 PM

Hi Natalia. Do you mean the 'rule of thirds'? I was quite interested in landscape photography for a while. I learned the 'rules' but just don't seem to have enough of an artistic flair to be particularly good at it. Perhaps this is my problem with aquascaping! Ironically, I might have more success with quantum physics!

The "Rule Of Thirds" and the Golden ratio are different ways of allocating space within a view to create the maximum visual impact. The first came from the art world in the middle ages, the second comes from architecture and mathematics from ancient Greece. Quantum physics is the Edward Lear school of rational thought and has no place in the world of aquaria (or anything else for that matter!)

ColinB · « **Reply #43 on:** January 07, 2013, 12:49:23 PM »

Quote from: SteveS on January 07, 2013, 12:31:50 PM

Quantum physics is the Edward Lear school of rational thought and has no place in the world of aquaria (or anything else for that matter!)

Quantum Physics is one of the twin pillars of modern physics (along with Relativity) and is the most precisely proven fact in the annals of experimental physics, and it is everything to do with everything - though not at any descernable levels in the world of aquaria or, indeed, day-to-day life.

As a physicist I just thought I should to clear that up

Helen · « **Reply #44 on:** January 07, 2013, 01:15:02 PM »

Oops, did I say something wrong?

Was just commenting that I find "rational thought" easier to do than optimising visual impact. Sadly for my fishtank, it means I have to do a lot of research to make it work and I don't have a natural instinct for what 'just looks right'.

(Maybe it is because I am an engineer, or maybe I'm an engineer because that is how my brian works!)

(if you want to wander over to the gallery and help me out with the visual impact bit of my tank, any comments will be gratefully received!

)

ColinB · « **Reply #45 on:** January 07, 2013, 01:38:12 PM »

Quote from: Helen on January 07, 2013, 01:15:02 PM

Oops, did I say something wrong? Was just commenting that I find "rational thought" easier to do than optimising visual impact. Sadly for my fishtank, it means I have to do a lot of research to make it work and I don't have a natural instinct for what 'just looks right'.

(Maybe it is because I am an engineer, or maybe I'm an engineer because that is how my brian works!)

(if you want to wander over to the gallery and help me out with the visual impact bit of my tank, any comments will be gratefully received! )

Good ol' Brian - I'm glad that's how he works!

jesnon · « **Reply #46 on:** January 08, 2013, 04:28:44 PM »

Thanks for the link to that fluval edge aquascape! I guess I should probably measure the opening before I buy anything to go in the tank - stupidly I hadn't even thought of that!

My boyfriend is back from holiday on Saturday, with enough pestering he might have set the tank up for me by a week or so and hopefully I can convince him he really wants to go to Maidenhead aquatics on Sunday

I guess whilst I'm there I can ask about any media, though it's probably doubtful they would give me some! Worth a try though!

Once the tank's all set up and in the process of cycling I'll take some photos

Helen · « **Reply #47 on:** January 10, 2013, 08:55:27 PM »

Quote from: ColinB on January 07, 2013, 01:38:12 PM

Good ol' Brian - I'm glad that's how he works!

jesnon · « **Reply #48 on:** January 13, 2013, 08:27:55 PM »

I've just been doing a bit of aquarium shopping, though as you guys said a lot of the things I'd planned to buy are unfortunately much cheaper online so I'll be getting the rest that way!

I've bought some gravel, a thermometer, a few small bits of bogwood (they sell bogwood with java fern attached in Maidenhead Aquatics so once my tank is up and running I plan on getting that... though I was unsure of the 'right' way to do it! Is this complicating things for myself? I've seen Sue recommend not getting plants until the tank is ready for fish because having the lights on causes algae, hence why I didn't buy it at the time and my tank wasn't set up so I wouldn't have got it anyway! But would it be sensible to do it this way or add it with all my other decor?). I also bought some small feature rocks, a little net and some fish food. I still need to pick up some ammonia, a siphon and tester kit and two buckets (though I'll probably get most of this online!)

I also had a chat with one of the girls in Maidenhead Acquatics - she said that all the fish they kept were in Bristol tapwater so should be fine in my tank also... which confused me even more! Is that true or just her being nice and not just telling me 'you can only have this one fish'!? She pointed out lots of different small fish and said they'd all do well in my Fluval!

There were some gorgeous guppies there, but having had a look on here I discovered they're really weak! There were some really cute Endlers - teeny 'green endler guppy' which I really liked the look of alongside the other more standard endlers. They were also pretty cheap (or seemed it to me!).

I also went to Pets at Home who were telling me the aquarium only needed to be set up for 3 days! Obviously I won't be following that advice, but I also discovered they do free water testing with all the parameters which is quite nice. They had a few very cute fish in there - and I was recommended a variety of tetras and fell in love with the 'rummy nose tetras' - though once again they're all very weak / not suited to my water according to the articles here! Blah! It's so frustrating ha. Like I said I loved the little endlers, but my boyfriend's reaction wasn't very positive!

I did see some other fantastic fish too (obviously not for my tank, but a girl can look eh?!) - there was a glass catfish which I thought was amazing and a huuuge wood shrimp. Disappointingly neither Pets at Home or Maidenhead Acquatics had many shrimps - and no red cherries. There were some the last time I went to hopefully once my tank is ready it'll coincide with them having some red cherry shrimps!

Ahh I just want to start my terrible attempt at aquascaping now! Haha

Natalia · « **Reply #49 on:** January 13, 2013, 09:49:02 PM »

Hi Jesnon,
Aahhh, window shopping for a new tank! My favourite bit!

To be absolutely honest, I disagree with Sue on not putting the plants in straight away. Risking confusing you even more, I can say, that setting up a very well planted aquarium first and than introducing the fish virtually straight away after the plants have settled is a normal thing with heavily planted tanks. And it is NOT a “fish in cycling” at all. (Did you see that George Farmer had planted his tank from very new – without cycling?). Of course, your Fluval will not be heavily planted and in your case I would not follow the advice of getting the fish straight in after a couple of days... The problem with all advice given about fishkeeping, to my opinion, is the following: there are methods for non-planted tanks (which Sue advises), methods for heavily planted tanks (which are different to fish-only ones) and there are plenty of tanks in between. Each tank is an individual eco-system, and things correct for one tank cannot be used for another... Sorry, if I made it even more confusing...
Returning to your very individual and unique tank and your personal preferences and intensions (as I understood them, of course), I would say: putting the fern in at the beginning or later will not make much difference whatsoever. You can (and will) get some algae no matter when you put the fern (any plant!) in. Algae is a sign of imbalance and almost every tank (planted or not) goes through this stage (some more some less so). Unfortunately, Rummy Nose Tetras need more space than a Fluval Edge 23 litres can provide... but hey – this is your first tank and this is a captivating hobby, so you may want to get another bigger tank soon for those tetras!

P.S. Helen and SteveS – you maybe interested: I will have to start (I feel) a separate topic on the Golden Ratio and the Rule of Thirds. I think, “plants” section is the most appropriate as this is “sort of” close to aquascaping...

ColinB · « **Reply #50 on:** January 14, 2013, 07:55:54 AM »

Quote from: jesnon on January 13, 2013, 08:27:55 PM

I also had a chat with one of the girls in Maidenhead Acquatics - she said that all the fish they kept were in Bristol tapwater so should be fine in my tank also... which confused me even more! Is that true or just her being nice and not just telling me 'you can only have this one fish'!?

Once you have your testing kit then take a container along to MA and ask for a sample of their water. You can then test your 'aged' tap water and their water and compare the two. It's also a good way to have a practice with your new test kit. My local MA has a livebearers section (platies, guppies and mollies), a fancy goldfish section, a softwater section and then the main section (the size of the other three combined) is their 'local tap water' section - I tested it!

jesnon · « **Reply #51 on:** January 14, 2013, 12:32:13 PM »

Ha yes Natalia - I can imagine once I've gotten settled into this I'll probably end up with another bigger tank! I eventually would love to have a go at Marine fish too, though I imagine that'll take me a long time to get to that stage! I loved window shopping - very good fun and so many pretty fishes out there! At first the wood shrimp scared me because it was HUGE but eventually it's little eyes won me over haha

Colin - that sounds like a good idea actually! I'll definitely do that! =) Also gives me another excuse to have a browse at their fish again =P I just hope the cute little endlers I saw are a regular thing!

I think Maidenhead must have been restocking after the Christmas / NY period or something as they didn't seem to have much compared to the last time we went - there were a lot of tanks that had covers over because the fish were acclimatising so perhaps in a few weeks time there'll be more stuff to look at!

Ooh I also meant to ask - I read somewhere that shrimps love moss balls and MA had lots of different moss balls which all seemed quite cheap. I thought maybe I could get one of those to keep my eventual shrimp happy - what would I need though to keep a moss ball? They didn't seem to have any base and I saw a MA guy selling one to a customer, he just said that every now and then you needed to give me a bit of a squeeze to get rid of dirt etc (which he was demonstrating). If I got one of those would I need any fertiliser type stuff? Or do they just sort of sit at the bottom?

I'm also thinking of, once I get everything set up of course, making a thread on here to note down all my parameters etc as I think it'd be nice (more for reassurance etc!) to have feedback as I'm going along! I can also post some photos of the progress and how my tank's getting along! Would that be OK or would it be a bit too 'spammy' (just having lots of posts about my water reading etc!)?

RE: the small bits of bogwood I bought - would this need 'pre-soaking' to weigh it down or does it normally sink?

Natalia - great to see your thread on aquascaping! I love photography but I've never been particularly 'arty' in other ways, so I'm hoping the arty-ness from my photography is enough to allow me to make a good job of my tank haha!

(As you can tell I'm a little exciteable!) I just want my boyfriend to set the tank up ASAP so I can get stuck in! I would do it myself but I'm just scared of doing it wrong! I still need to buy something to replace the carbon filter media I have too. I saw lots of things I thought might work but I hadn't written down exactly what I needed from here so I whimped out incase I bought the wrong thing ha.

Oh another thing I considered buying... there's a small filter bit I saw (that was actually cheaper in the shop):

http://www.amazon.co.uk/RC-Hagen-A1387-Fluval-Pre-Filter/dp/B002LL32RY/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1358166618&sr=8-3-fkmr1

It says it stops inhabitants being sucked up the filter! Would that be worth investing in since most of my fish are likely to be very small? I don't want to spend so long making the water safe for my fishes, only to have them sucked up to their death!! But I also didn't want to buy something if it's not actually necessary!

Helen · « **Reply #52 on:** January 14, 2013, 12:56:50 PM »

Moss balls are actually a type of algae. They can be included in a tank to help with algae problems - they use up the nutrients that can lead to algal blooms and they are easy to get rid of if you get too much of them. I can't make any comment on their actual effectiveness because the two I have in my tank have been there from the beginning. The only thing I struggle with in terms of care, is keeping them spherical. The lakes they originate from in Japan are very tidal, so they move around the bottom a lot. This is what gives them their shape. I can't get the same effect in my tank and haven't worked out which side they grow most on - ie which way to make them face to get them to stay round.

And apart from an occasional squeeze at water change, I don't have to do anything to care for them. Though I'm sure they benefit from the dosing regime I follow for the rest of my plants.

Bogwood would probably need soaking, not to weigh it down, but to remove some of the tanins that are naturally present in it. These aren't toxic to the fish or plants, but will make your tank water look the colour of tea. The tanins also contribute to softening the water, which is something to be aware of if you are aiming for hardwater fish. I think I had to soak my bogwood for several weeks to get the worst of the colour out, changing the water several times a day and using water straight from the kettle. But I do have a huge piece of bogwood. If you can 'simmer' it in an old saucepan, then the tanins will come out quicker.

jesnon · « **Reply #53 on:** January 14, 2013, 01:08:23 PM »

Ooh I hadn't realised that - I think I might get just a little one then at some point

They seem quite easy to just sort of 'plop' into the tank, so unlike the bogwood with java fern I guess they're easy enough to pop in at any stage?

Ahh yes I'd forgotten about the tanins - I guess I should get started at that ASAP! The pieces I bought are only teeny so hopefully they won't take quite as long. I'm guessing the big piece won't need this doing if I get one with a java fern attached because they're already 'pre-soaked' from being kept in tanks at the MA? I think I need to go back and re-read all of the posts here before I get started!! Phew - so much to do before I even get my little fish!

Sue · « **Reply #54 on:** January 14, 2013, 02:23:04 PM »

Natalia - I tend to omit cycling with planted tanks for two reasons. The first is, as you well know by now, I'm not very good with plants so I can't advise on how to set up a planted tank. Secondly, a lot of newcomers just want fish and plastic plants - I tend to write things aimed at them. Why don't you write a 'how to' thread on setting up a new tank which is to be planted, and include how to introduce fish to a setup like this. That is, in your hours of spare time

Jesnon, if you are getting real plants, then follow Natalia, not me

Be careful with bogwood - boiling it too much can cause the wood fibres to break down. So pour boiling water over it, but don't leave it boiling in a pan for hours. Simmering, as advised by Helen, is not letting the pan boil furiously but having the water only just moving

The pre-filter - most adult fish won't get sucked up, but fry and baby shrimps might if you ever have those in your tank.
Stick with small hardy fish while you have the Edge. You can get into larger fish when MTS (multiple tank syndrome, the desire to own more and more, bigger and bigger tanks) sets in. And you'll have more experience to try the more delicate species by then.

jesnon · « **Reply #55 on:** January 14, 2013, 04:45:02 PM »

Thanks Sue - I'll hold off on buying the pre-filter for the time being then if my actual fish aren't going to get sucked up!

Just done a spot of internet shopping and popped down to my local The Range after a spot of inspiration that they'd probably sell some ammonia - so I think I'm now all stocked up once my deliveries arrived! Wooho!

I'm still a little suspicious of my ammonia though! It was only £1 'Homecare Essentials Ammonia' and it appears to make no claims to be anything else, but there's no actual ingredients list, only 'hazardous ingredients' where it simply lists ammonia. I'm hoping this is OK!! Still it was only a quid so if not it's so great loss!

I've got two buckets and a little jug for water changes (which I'll probably use in a sec to start sorting my bogwood!). Online I got the API master tester, and a few other bits... I think I'm almost ready to go - just waiting for the tank to be set up now! Eek exciting!

ColinB · « **Reply #56 on:** January 14, 2013, 05:09:59 PM »

Remember to use your test kit to work out the concentration of your ammonia solution that you've just bought. My ammonia worked out as four drops in 10 litres of water = 1ppm. Yours might be different, but probably not by much. Anyway, this gives you a rough idea of what to expect.

jesnon · « **Reply #57 on:** January 14, 2013, 06:08:32 PM »

Oh dear - again this is all much more complicated than I originally thought, thanks Colin!

This is the ammonia I got today:

http://www.rosspa.co.uk/homecare-essentials-ammonia-500ml-p-4166.html

I can't find much online about it, though on another forum someone said they had contacted the manufacturer who said it was 9% ammonia... so hopefully that's OK? I have 500ml so in theory that should be enough right!?

Sue · « **Reply #58 on:** January 14, 2013, 06:40:44 PM »

Does the ammonia bottle give a website? That could contain info on ingredients. Or failing that, I see the link gives an email address. I've found most companies to be very helpful. You need to ask if the bottle contains anything else besides ammonia/ammonium hydroxide* and water. You don't want any perfume, soap, detergent, surfactant etc.

*Some give it as ammonia, some as ammonium hydroxide. For cycling purposes they are the same thing.

Most bottles of ammonia solution are around 9.5%. The easy way to check is: measure a litre of water, add 0.05 ml ammonia (or 10 litres and 0.5ml), mix and test. If it's 9.5%, that should give a reading of 5ppm. It is well worth buying a babies medicine dosing syringe from a chemist. Given that a 5ppm dose of 9.5% ammonia in a 23 litre tank will take 1.2 ml, a 1ml syringe would be perfect. I have one, and it is graduated in ¹/₁₀₀'s ml.

If the reading is not 5ppm, just tell us how much you added to how much water, and the ppm and we'll do the calculation for you

jesnon · « **Reply #59 on:** January 14, 2013, 07:00:17 PM »

Ahh you guys are so helpful! Thanks again!

I just went onto their terrible terrible website (it seriously hurts the eyes and ears ha http://www.hcdirect.co.uk/) and have sent a quick e-mail via their contact section asking for some more details as I couldn't find any more information available online!

Thanks again for the tips Sue, once my testing kit arrives I'll test my ammonia and let you know what it comes up as!

Ahh I knew I'd forgotten something! Damn! I was near a big Boots 'Pharmacy' shop as well so I probably could have gotten a syringe! I'll pop down again tomorrow and see if I can get my hands on one!

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What Fish To Get?

What Fish To Get?

Author Topic: What fish to get? (Read 32488 times) 101 replies

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