Hi all,
Glad to see the forum finally up and running again.
The revamp of the whole site looks pretty amazing.
I joined the previous forum just a small number of weeks before the site went dark, so here's a quick recap of where I was up to.
I had scrapped an an attempt at a planted fresh water tropical tank because I was having problems with plants and decor and decided to go for a "temperate" fresh water variant instead. When I arrived at the forum last time (21st April 2012) I had just started a fishless cycle.
By 28th April I suffered a pH crash, which I think it was Sue helped me out by suggesting addition of a small quantity of bicarbonate of Soda. This worked a treat and got me back on track again, but it did take until 26th May to get the cycle completed, and then I started to add fish.
The decor has gone through some changes, from just plastic plants to some potted live plants, which are just about to be replaced by some silk plants and the live ones are slowly being devoured
So, here's the low-down thanks to the ThinkFish "tank mates" and stocking calculator (hope they come back):-
64 litre Interpet "FishPod" (aka "FishBox") ([L] 60cm x [W] 32cm x [H] 37cm)
[26th May] 5x Vietnamese White Cloud Mountain Minnows (Tanichthys micagemmae)
[2nd June] 4x Japonica (Amano) Shrimp (Caridina multidentata)
[22nd June] 1x Zebra Otocinclus (Otocinclus Cocama) *deceased 11th July
[30th June] 1x Zebra Otocinclus (Otocinclus Cocama) *deceased 20th August
[7th July] 5x Glowlight Danios (Danio choprai)
[14th July] 5x Glowlight Tetras (Hemigrammus erythrozonus)
Very Soft water is a steady heated 24 deg, pH 6.5 to 7.6
Fluval 130 External Cannister filter (replaced the manufacturers internal one)
You'll see from the above that I lost both of my Zebra Oto's. I'm convinced that the first developed an illness that went undected due to their reclusive nature and the second I think gave out during a water change, possibly suffocating, but I can't prove it. The body of the first Oto was not touched by the other fish, whilst the second was almost half eaten by the time I spotted the carcus.
Not happy about loosing both, as they were absolutely brilliant lookers, but I'm not planning to get any more.
I've had one outbreak of Planaria which I replaced the whole of my substrate to combat. This worked great, and indeed it looked like it was caused by waste food rot.
Well, that's where I'm up to at the moment and all is going fine. 60% water change once a week is keeping the Nitrate levels at 20ppm and below, and I'm a happy fishkeeper at long last.