stardotstar
07-07-2006, 10:18 PM
Hello everyone here,
I kept gold fish and then tropical freshwater for many years of my youth and early twenties. I worked my way up to about a 100L tank and kept Cyclids (mainly into Oscars which I had to trade back when they got too large) I never really got into breeding or a great deal of technical aquaria.
Due to an itinerant lifestyle after Uni I got out of the hobby and as a result of continuing to move around never got back into it.
Now in another city and married with a little girl and a boy on the way, my wife and I decided to get our daughter a little tank because she is always captivated by tanks when she sees them.
We got a local pet shop starter - something like 16-20L or something, no lid, light and barely adequete filter and no aeration.
Naturally within days I had an air line, new filter, new gravel and plants for our comet and fantail.
I aslo added two snails and while walking around the local aquarium supplier which is far too close to work for anyone's good ;) I began thinking about getting a really good setup for the house we are building.
Then the comet jumped out of the tank during the night and died on the tiles, the air pump died and the plants kept coming out of the gravel due to the rather limited cover such a size tank forced me to use.
Anyway, (almost) on impulse I just went ahead and bought a new setup instead of another comet :lol:
So... What do I have now? Basically just a "real" starter kit.
60L EHEIM 60x30x35 with proper lid/cover with light and internal filter, heater (50W), thermometer and (I think) 15kg of river gravel.
So I am keen to get a basic tropical community going and enjoying the hobby again.
I will steer clear of Oscars this time and try to work on a more community oriented setup.
I have only a couple of initial questions at this time (and if this is the appropriate place to put them?):
1) The gravel has been thoroughly washed, about 5 kg at a time until the washing water ran fairly clean, all floating debris and most of the dust washed out. However I have found that since I added it to the tank and then carefully filled the tank the water was initially very cloudy, although it was a clean "fog" kind of effect which I expected, and have run the filter overnight . This morning it is still a bit cloudy but not so much that you can't see through the tank easily - it looks clear from the front but is still rather obscure from one end to the other.
This will continue to settle won't it? Should I rinse the filter at this time before I begin to introduce plants or stock?
2) The water is conditioned with 5in1, liquid fertilizer added and the ph is good. The temperature has come up to 26' overnight and the aeration system only needs a longer feed line to be ready.
How long should I wait before adding the plants and initial stock (I only intend to add two or three to start with - medium size) and then build up the stock over time.
Thanks for the forums and I look forward to learning heaps :)
Will
I kept gold fish and then tropical freshwater for many years of my youth and early twenties. I worked my way up to about a 100L tank and kept Cyclids (mainly into Oscars which I had to trade back when they got too large) I never really got into breeding or a great deal of technical aquaria.
Due to an itinerant lifestyle after Uni I got out of the hobby and as a result of continuing to move around never got back into it.
Now in another city and married with a little girl and a boy on the way, my wife and I decided to get our daughter a little tank because she is always captivated by tanks when she sees them.
We got a local pet shop starter - something like 16-20L or something, no lid, light and barely adequete filter and no aeration.
Naturally within days I had an air line, new filter, new gravel and plants for our comet and fantail.
I aslo added two snails and while walking around the local aquarium supplier which is far too close to work for anyone's good ;) I began thinking about getting a really good setup for the house we are building.
Then the comet jumped out of the tank during the night and died on the tiles, the air pump died and the plants kept coming out of the gravel due to the rather limited cover such a size tank forced me to use.
Anyway, (almost) on impulse I just went ahead and bought a new setup instead of another comet :lol:
So... What do I have now? Basically just a "real" starter kit.
60L EHEIM 60x30x35 with proper lid/cover with light and internal filter, heater (50W), thermometer and (I think) 15kg of river gravel.
So I am keen to get a basic tropical community going and enjoying the hobby again.
I will steer clear of Oscars this time and try to work on a more community oriented setup.
I have only a couple of initial questions at this time (and if this is the appropriate place to put them?):
1) The gravel has been thoroughly washed, about 5 kg at a time until the washing water ran fairly clean, all floating debris and most of the dust washed out. However I have found that since I added it to the tank and then carefully filled the tank the water was initially very cloudy, although it was a clean "fog" kind of effect which I expected, and have run the filter overnight . This morning it is still a bit cloudy but not so much that you can't see through the tank easily - it looks clear from the front but is still rather obscure from one end to the other.
This will continue to settle won't it? Should I rinse the filter at this time before I begin to introduce plants or stock?
2) The water is conditioned with 5in1, liquid fertilizer added and the ph is good. The temperature has come up to 26' overnight and the aeration system only needs a longer feed line to be ready.
How long should I wait before adding the plants and initial stock (I only intend to add two or three to start with - medium size) and then build up the stock over time.
Thanks for the forums and I look forward to learning heaps :)
Will