Tropical Fish Forum
Think Fish Tropical Fish Forum => Introductions and hello's => Topic started by: Mici on November 22, 2018, 10:27:23 PM
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Hi guys and girls
Let me introduce myself , my name is Michael I'm 32 from the north east of England , been scouring the forums for about a month or so as I'm looking to get into the fishkeeping hobby.
I love fish , although I've never personally kept them, it all began in my teens , my dad had two HUGE tanks ( both about 10foot wide) . One tank was full or red belly piranha and the other tank full of oscars. I would sit and watch them for hours.
So, I'm looking at getting a fluval Roma 200 , which I want to make into a peaceful community tank of soft water fish ( looked at my water company site and its about 3 German d, alothough I will test it myself) I know a peaceful community tank is a mile away from what my dad used to keep haha!!!
I've been looking at the tropica website in the inspirations section and I'm going to go for a planted tank.
I'm going to set up a separate post for this in the relevant section of the forums but these are the fish I'm looking at and would love people's advice and opinions
For the schools of fish I'm looking at
Cherry barbs
Harlequin rasbora
Cardinal tetra
Rummy nose
Some sort of Cory (maybe pandas )
Now for my centre price fish I'm looking at (I know I can only have one from this list maybe as a pair)
Electric blue ram or German blue
Honey gourami
Opaline gourami
If you've got this far down thanks for your time! Look forward to hearing from you all
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Hi there! Welcome to the forum!
All looks doable from my perspective. Don't rule out Bolivian Rams until you have seen them in person... they are a lot hardier than normal rams and I think just as stunning. They are next on my list when I have the space!!
Ever considered planting the tank?
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Hi Matt!
I'll have a look at the Bolivian ram , if they are hardier and just as nice maybe that's the way to go!
I'm defiantly going to be planting the tank , I've been looking on the tropica site in the inspirations section ( the easy section ha) for ideas and been doing a lot of research on how to look after the plants
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Welcome, Mici :wave:
Good to read about your plans - great choices of fish, in my opinion, and a planted tank sounds great too. (Also, well done for doing your research in advance which is of course the correct way to approach it.)
:cheers:
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Hi fcmf , and thanks
Yeah I've been doing a lot of research into the fish , the plants , And of course the fishless cycle , although I'm sure there is still a lot to learn!!! Which is one of the reasons I've joined all you guys .
Good to know you think the choice of fish is good that's reassuring ! Going to have a good look at them at MA in the next week or so
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Greetings Michael and welcome to the forum... :)
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Hi Micheal, and welcome to the forum. :wave:
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Hi Mici :wave:
I'm not too far from you (down in the county of Cleveland), though your water is a bit softer than mine (5 GH) :)
Your fish list looks good, though I would change the opaline gourami for pearl gourami as one of your potential centrepiece fish. Opalines are a colour variety of three spot which are at the more aggressive end of the gourami behaviour spectrum while pearls and honeys are at the less aggressive end.
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Thanks for the welcomes
Hi sue, yeah I’ve seen the pearls at a glance will have a good look at them , what would you recomend , or what would you go for as a centre fish ?
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A 200 litre tank is big enough for a centrepiece fish, but whether you have one/a pair is a matter of personal choice. I tried to have a trio of honey gouramis but one female and the male died, and the remaining female spends all her time in the plants.
Bottom dwellers don't make particularly stand-out fish like mid water fish. I have 4 peacock gudgeons which I suppose you could call centrepiece fish except they spend most of the time in the bottom quarter of the tank :)
If you decide to go for gouramis, remember they don't like a lot of water flow so either turn the filter flow regulator down, or aim a spray bar (if the filter has one) at the tank wall.
In 200 litres you could have a m/f pair or a 1m/2f trio of pearls, and with honeys, 1 male + 3 or 4 females.
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I'm a bit of a fan of the Fluval Roma tanks, I think the sectioned lid allows for very good access to the tank.
I'm less of a fan of the U4 internal filter that they come with, as I think they are a bit bulky, but they do the job.
I've replaced mine with a Fluval 206 external filter, but the only problem was that I had to make some adjustments to the lid for the pipework to fit.
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Ah good to hear littlefish
How do you rate the lighting that comes with the Roma 200
I've read in many places that people think external filters are superior to internals , is this correct?
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I think the lighting is good. You can add more if you want to do specialist or heavily planted tanks.
As for internal v external filters, I don't know enough about them to say if externals are superior. I use externals on my larger tanks, and have internals on my smaller tanks. Sorry, I'm not being much help here.
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For me the advantage of an external filter is the fact you have less kit in the tank. In my biggest tank I have an external filter with a inbuilt heater. I've hidden the filter inlet and outlet behind plants in the tank so I now have a really clean look which I love.
I have a 64 litre with internal filter... it's a black plastic job and with the black background I put on the tank it's not so bad... but I'd prefer an external for it.
Finally I have a homemade filter which I've hidden under hardscape in my name tank... this is something I would actually really recommend if you feel confident enough to give it a go...