Ermm Hi..

[Reckless_Angel]

Name is Sean, live in Den Haag in Holland, born in the Uk, moved to here about 8 years ago,
Started with my first tank ( 120l ) around 4 years ago, before my 1st son arrived,
moved house about 2 years ago, so that seemed a good time to buy the third and my only current 250l tank ( in between was a bizarre attempt at aquaculture.....)

Tank is in a bizarre nomad state at the moment, all real plants, but they are again fading fast, half a sunken pirate ship, a bridge, several pieces of driftwood, a plant pot broken in two, and about 9 stones....

It's still looking for direction, but amazing how little time is left in the evening and weekends after work, the two kids are in bed, the warzone is tidied...

Currently maintenance is also limited, luckily the tank pretty much maintains itself, occasional water refreshes and the external pump keeps on ticking.
Have just moved the Gibby from the 120 into the 250 now to give him some company and some more space, when the lighting gets fixed ( hopefully Thursday ) I will see if I can grab a few shots of him ( he's about 20 cms or so, so I need him in the front for full effect, or sucking some serious high glass...

Well, that's about me, found the forum from a search and seems like a good place to start taking the hobby seriously again ....

[Severus]

Welcome to AC. Sounds like a nice tank

[Lady Hobbs]

Welcome to the forum. Hope you like it here.

Do hope you will get more into the hobby. These guys depend on us for absolutely everything in their life.

[turbomkt]

Welcome!

Of course, the first thing I'll want to know for the sake of your plants is how much light you have over the tank and what kind (50/50, 6500K, 10000K, etc). :)

[Reckless_Angel]

huh ??
and what kind (50/50, 6500K, 10000K, etc). ???

Two tubes 38W ( one plant specific and one colour tube for the fish... )
but currently not working ( being repaired / replaced ) should be back on Thursday

Trying to keep some more light on lately to give the plants a boost , had the baby monitor plugged into the light socket ( weird dutch house where some of the plug sockets are beneath the light switches... )

Decided simplest thing to do was move the baby monitor :)

Thinking about a CO2 set up, used to have one of the cheap alternatives but wasn't convinced with it. But the decent setups seem to be expensive... then again refreshing the plants every 3-6 months ain't so cheap either...

[turbomkt]

OK...the color tube for the fish. Does it look blue?

And is that 38W per light? If so, you should get at least a third light on there, if not a fourth. Even with 4x38W CO2 isn't a must, but it will definitely help.

I'd start with getting the lights in order. Also, there's a ton of info on fertilizers you should look into. I use the Estimative Index found on the Barr Report (http://www.barrreport.com/forums/index.php?referrerid=145). It works well and there are high and low light versions.

[Reckless_Angel]

fish light is a slight blue yes it's "Daylight 10000 Kelvin"
No space for 3 yet alone 4 tubes, these things run the length almost (1.04m ) thing is so bright that normally I kill the other lights in the room and just leave the tank on...

The plant light is 3000K
depth of the water from the gravel to the top is 35 cms.
Tank is a bioplast 120 hamburg- ( german site, but you can see the detail )
http://www.smart-interactive.de/projekte/bioplast/produkte/moebel_standard.html
http://www.smart-interactive.de/projekte/bioplast/produkte/moebel_masse.html

[turbomkt]

That's a nice looking tank. You're still going to be short on lights. If you can't get any more of the factory lights in there, you'll need to get a retrofit kit to up the lighting. You really need 120W or more of light on that tank. Until you have lights up, you're going to have a hard time keeping anything alive. I learned the hard way. :(

[betta mom]

welcome to the forum . :malelovies:

[Reckless_Angel]

did some more investigation, checked with the LFS by me ( which has been in the same location since 1917 I found out and active in aquariums for over 100 years... ) explained to them and they kinda agreed on the 0.5w per liter but its also depending on many other factor ( reflectors on lights, width of tank etc )
They are the ones that had the hood fixed for me and said that as the inside of the lid is white it acts already like reflectors. and that as the tank is 45cms ( 18inches) deep the lights that are in there should be enough to provide a reasonably good light ( not brilliant but good enough ) I will work with them to see what I can do see what plants would work well.

Also side point apparently they are getting new wood in from next monday that is ready to go in the tank :) ( obviously will still give it a good scrub first but they mean it doesn't need to be boiled/soaked ) I really want some mangrove roots, but no chance of that over here, although seen some nice driftwood in their tanks....

[turbomkt]

I'm glad they are talking about reflectors, but white paint is no replacement for a polished metal reflector that curves around the bulb to get as much light in the tank as possible. .5W per liter is really what you want if you have a good reflector. For you, I'd look for .75W per liter if you don't/can't upgrade your lighting.

I'm not sure if they ship your way, but www.ahsupply.com has some of the best lights around. You could also look at some of the T5 systems that are out there. The Tek reflectors for T5's are well respected and you get a lot of light out of the T5.

[gwenkat]

Welcome to the forum.