Hello From Fife

Hi All

I've recently taken my tank out of stoarge in my garage, now that my youngest child is old enough to understand they can't climb into it with the fish...

I have a Juwel Rio 180 which I kept for about 4 years before mothballing it in 2010.  One large catfish, tiger barbs, leopard danios, a gourami - nothing outrageous.  I'm hoping to have something similar in terms of community - as long as there are tiger barbs in there!

Glad to have this facility to search, compatibility advice, knowledgeable chat, etc.  I'm slightly concerned that my tank's hood ballast may be knackered as the lights only flicker for an instant (it's a a red dot Juwel!) but I bought new tubes today as the old ones are so old.  I'll fit them tomorrow.  Fingers crossed!  I've already read the DIY repairs threads...  My wife definitely wouldn't want a tank with a hole cut in the top - not in her living room thank-you-so-very-much - so I may have to buy a replacement hood.  If anybody has one to sell?.....

Anyway, nice to be here!  If anyone is in or near Fife, give me a shout.
m.d.

Hi Emmdee 

I'm glad to hear you are getting back into the hobby. Our member Helen also has young children and can help you with that aspect  And we also have members in Scotland, though I'm not sure which part.

Red spot light bars (as you are aware) do have ballast problems. If you don't mind the expense you should be able to buy a new light bar, though it may come with different fittings from the bar you have now. If my maths are correct, you bought the tank around 2006, about the time I bought my Rio 125, and that had T8 fluorescent tubes. I know they changed
 to T5 tubes a couple of years after I got my tank (High-Lite bars) and I think they've now moved on to LEDs. You can still buy T5 High-Lite bars from various on-line shops at ~£100, and there does appear to be the odd shop that still sells T8 bars.


As for fish, I know you had them together before but tiger barbs and gouramis are not a good idea. Tigers are nippy fish and they can't usually resist the long 'feelers' of a gourami. And gouramis are sedate fish that don't appreciate fast swimming fish like tiger barbs and danios.
I don't know if you used this website last time round but Seriously Fish is the best site for looking up fish - their water needs, tank needs and compatibility with other fish. It is written by fish experts, unlike other sites which tend to be written by people who just keep fish.

You have plenty of time to decide which fish to keep this time round while you cycle the tank. There is a newer method for fishless cycling https://forums.thinkfish.co.uk/fishtank-filtration-and-cycling/fishless-cycling-how-to-do-it/ which was designed to stop nitrite getting high enough to stall the cycle.
Or if you want lots of live plants, you won't need to cycle. Just set the tank up, plant it and wait a week or two to make sure the plants aren't about to die, then add fish slowly and test every day to make sure ammonia and nitrite are staying at zero.

Whichever you decide to do it will be a few weeks before the tank is ready for fish, plenty of time to decide on tank mates for the tiger barbs - or have just a tiger barb tank with several different colour morphs   

Welcome back to fishkeeping   I can see part of Fife from my flat on the other side of the Firth of Forth. 

I've recently taken my tank out of stoarge in my garage, now that my youngest child is old enough to understand they can't climb into it with the fish...

I think there are some adult members on here who would like to climb into their tanks and swim with the fish, if the tanks were large enough.