Author Topic: Back in the hobby (Read 18687 times) 10 replies

Afterburner · « **on:** January 14, 2021, 08:25:12 PM »

Hi all, thought I would do my intro!

I first picked up a fish tank at University, we had a shared house and we had loads of pets - between the 4 humans we had 2 russian hamsters, 1 rat, 2 gerbils, 5 mice, a snake, occasionally a bunch of tarantula's and scorpions, and two three foot fish tanks.
One tank was mine and I inherited the other when the guy left. I took them home with me and had them for a good 5 years before moving country and giving them to the local fish shop.
Near the end I had the 2 tanks on a stand with the lower tank having the larger fish and a 'deep' look to it - no plants, a bit of bogwood type hollow ceramic thing, sand and a 12"bubbler, the upper tank had a 'shallow' feel to it with gravel, a couple of plants, a matching bubbler to tie the tanks together, and smaller fish.
Lower tank - 2 4" T-Barbs, 2 5-6" Tinfoil Barbs, 13" plec and an eel (I think it was an eel, it had a wobbly nose and hid in the sand, liked eating platy babies so had to go in the lower tank)
Upper tank - 2 dwarf gouramis that were the only things to survive the heater malfunction, and a variety of platy's, neon tetra type things and harlequin rasboras.
Most of the big fish were bought as small from Pet City (nicknamed Pet Cemetary after we realised) - now called Pets at Home - we were assured they would be suitable for a community tank with Neon's

Looking back probably had both tanks overstocked, but they survived!

But that's history, and now 20 years on I am married with 2 kids and a dog, living in Yorkshire and just managed to get the wife to agree to (and in fact bought me for Christmas) a small (2ft) tank.
Some soil substrate covered in gravel in one diagonal half of the tank, the other half sand. Bogwood & plants on their way (hopefully) in the post. The plan is for small Corys and Guppies - crowd pleasers to get the family hooked - especially if we get a few babies!

Cheers,
Afterburned

Matt · « **Reply #1 on:** January 14, 2021, 09:12:27 PM »

Good luck with your tank!! Assume you are planning to plant heavily from your substrate choices? Are you up to speed with tank cycling?

Littlefish · « **Reply #2 on:** January 14, 2021, 09:24:46 PM »

Hi @Afterburner and welcome to the forum.

Great to hear about your previous pets and tanks.

I'd suggest soaking bogwood before putting in into your tank, not only to help it sink but also because woods often from a sort of slimy layer for a few weeks when first put in a tank. It's not really harmful, but it doesn't look great.

What are the parameters of your local water? You can usually find the information on the website of your water provider, and it is very useful when working out if the fish you like will work with your water. I will admit that I have pushed my luck several times with the fish I've kept because I have very hard water.

I'm looking forward to hearing more about your tanks, and seeing lots of pictures too.

Afterburner · « **Reply #3 on:** January 14, 2021, 09:30:02 PM »

Not fully up to speed on cycling as is doesn't seem to be happening yet, but have chucked ammonia in until it got to 0.2 and then it stayed there. Still got time to let it happen - won't get any fish until lockdown is over!

Plants - got 1 Echinodorus Midifluer & 1 Microsorum pteropus Windelov (on lava rock) in already.
Loads of vallisneria spiralis (straight and corkscrew) and a bit of bogwood and java moss on the way as we speak.
I dont have a background on the tank so the vallisneria spiralis will form a bit of a wall along the back.
So yeah, going to put a few plants in!

Afterburner · « **Reply #4 on:** January 14, 2021, 09:33:36 PM »

Quote from: Littlefish on January 14, 2021, 09:24:46 PM

Hi @Afterburner and welcome to the forum.

Great to hear about your previous pets and tanks.

I'd suggest soaking bogwood before putting in into your tank, not only to help it sink but also because woods often from a sort of slimy layer for a few weeks when first put in a tank. It's not really harmful, but it doesn't look great.

What are the parameters of your local water? You can usually find the information on the website of your water provider, and it is very useful when working out if the fish you like will work with your water. I will admit that I have pushed my luck several times with the fish I've kept because I have very hard water.

I'm looking forward to hearing more about your tanks, and seeing lots of pictures too.

Very hard water - according to Yorkshire Water:
pH 7.3
Water hardness type: Very hard
Water hardness average: 128.3mg/l calcium

The plan is for Guppies & Corys & maybe a banjo cat. A few guppies first to get the tank balanced (after the cycle) and expand from there.

Afterburner · « **Reply #5 on:** January 14, 2021, 09:41:06 PM »

Pic attached, will update once I get some more plants and the bogwood in.

Littlefish · « **Reply #6 on:** January 14, 2021, 09:47:24 PM »

Looking forward to seeing your tank progress.
New tanks are very exciting.

Sue · « **Reply #7 on:** January 16, 2021, 08:58:33 AM »

Quote

Water hardness average: 128.3mg/l calcium

The two units used in fish keeping are ppm and dH - every fish profile will use on or the other. Your mg/l calcium converts to 18 dH and 320 ppm.
It is indeed very hard.

Quote

The plan is for small Corys and Guppies

I'm afraid the water is too hard for any species of cory

But banjo catfish are OK up to 20 dH.

With the plants you have and are getting, you could probably do a plant cycle, especially as you won't be getting fish for a while. With a silent cycle, the tank is heavily planted with fast growing plants then left to allow the plants to grow. It's a good idea to take a photo as soon as all the plants are in then you have a reference to see how well the plants are growing. Once they are growing well, fish can be added a few at a time. To be on the safe side it's advisable to check ammonia and nitrite every day after each batch of fish till you are sure they remain at zero.

Afterburner · « **Reply #8 on:** January 16, 2021, 09:40:43 AM »

It's very confusing all the info out there... LFS says Fairy Corys can go up to 18 https://www.fishkeeper.co.uk/help-and-advice/freshwater/catfish/fairy-cory-
SerouslyFish for the same species says 10!

Anyway, got the wood & more plants in...
More Vallis to come & then I'm done for a bit!

Sue · « **Reply #9 on:** January 16, 2021, 09:54:02 AM »

I would go with seriously fish as it is the most reliable website out there. It is written by scientists and other experts. I wouldn't trust anything written by a shop.

Soft water fish have evolved to retain as much as possible of the hardness minerals (calcium and magnesium) as the water they live has only a few of these minerals. When they are put into hard water their bodies still retain the minerals but there are now so many of them that they cause deposits in the organs, especially their kidneys, and they do not live as long as they should.

Hard water fish have evolved to excrete most of the minerals they take in from hard water. Put them in soft water and they continue to excrete the minerals, but now they are not replaced. They suffer calcium depletion and get sick more easily.

Littlefish · « **Reply #10 on:** January 16, 2021, 01:11:41 PM »

My water is around 17dH, so quite similar to yours. I tend to use a mix of RO & tap water, but have also used supermarket own brand bottled water in smaller tanks to reduce hardness.
If you want to keep corys (and who doesn't) then those are a few options for adjusting your water parameters to make them more suitable.

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Back In The Hobby

Back In The Hobby

Author Topic: Back in the hobby (Read 18687 times) 10 replies

Afterburner

Back in the hobby

Matt

Re: Back in the hobby

Littlefish

Re: Back in the hobby

Afterburner

Re: Back in the hobby

Afterburner

Re: Back in the hobby

Afterburner

Re: Back in the hobby

Littlefish

Re: Back in the hobby

Sue

Re: Back in the hobby

Afterburner

Re: Back in the hobby

Sue

Re: Back in the hobby

Littlefish

Re: Back in the hobby

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