Hello,
My name is Ruben, 30y and living in London. Originally from Portugal where my enthusiasm for fish tanks start when I was younger. Moving in to UK and having my own money to spend in whatever I wanted gave me the opportunity to start the hobby.
With me it all started with a small Biorb with 15L and 4 male guppies, I think almost everyone starts with this little nice fish, but the addiction to have a bigger tank was always present until I saw the AquaOne 130L on sale at Pets at Home.
My first big setup was pretty simple low-tech with a few more fish, such as Gouramis, BN pleco, Amano Shrimp, Corydoras, Neon Tetras and off course Guppies.
As the time passed, I feed up with white sand (looks amazing but to maintain, takes a lot a time) and end up changing it to gravel, until a major power supply surge hit my place while I was in Portugal, losing 90% of my live stock. Since I still had the Biorb and a small 19L tank, I kept the remaining fish in there and decided to dismount my current tank.
Off course, it was only a small break until I decided to get back and end up dismount the built-in filter that came with the tank and started to buy slowly all the parts that I currently have (all below).
Comparing with the previous setup, I can say that this is what I always wanted, a kind of mixture of Dutch style and Iwagumi. Of course this an ongoing project, in which I'm planning to make a few more changes to make more pleasant for me and for those who enjoy homemade projects (mostly me ).
Enough talk and lets get to some pictures that I toke myself with my Canon.
Start: 12 of November 2017
Dimensions: 80x40x40 ~ 130 L
Stand: From Amazon (had the exact measurements for the tank, as the one from AquaOne never like it)
CO2: Barn Dual stage regulator + solenoid with pressurised 2kg fire extinguisher, running from 17:30 - 22:30.
Filtration: Eheim EccoPro 300 & Purigen
Lights: AquariumEco LED 29W
Heater: Hydor inline 200W
Photo Period: 16:30 - 23:30
Fertilisation: Tropica Plant Growth Premium & Specialised and Seachem Flourish Iron
Substrate: ADA Amazonia
Hardscape: Dragon stone
Flora: Pogostemon Erectus, Gratiola viscidula, Rotala macrandra, Rotala wallichii, Staurogyne repens, Micranthemum 'Monte Carlo' (all tissue culture from Tropica).
Fauna: 9 Neon Cardinals, 1 Zebra Angel (sold as Blue cobalt), 1 Apistogramma cacatuoides Triple Red (female), 7 otocinclus, 1 lamp eye kilifish, 1 goldpencil fish, 2 white cloud mountain minnows, 5 nerite snail.
I'm aware that the stocking levels might be close to the limit but I bought a higher capacity filter in order to accommodate a more fish.
It always start with an empty tank
After a few hardscape attempts, I end up with this (just note that I end up changing a bit the big stone on the left and pointing it up but with the water it didn't stay on the original position).
And now planted with the ones mention above
2 weeks:
The filter cycled faster as I used media from my nano tank (I will create a journal for that one as well later on), allowing me to stock with a few fish that I have and others that were been quarantine.
3 Weeks:
4-5 Weeks:
Photobombing all the time
ohh hello again
2 months before major change
After the big change, removed the Vallis Nana (it was growing very very slow and started to dislike it) and moved the rotala macrandra to the corner.
Ignore the scratches on the glass lack of knowledge in the beginning when I started.
Thanks a lot if you had the patient to read my huge testimonial, but I wanted to give a good history about my "Valley" and how it all started.
For the future that comes, I'm planning to use the espace used previously by the Rotala macrandra and plant Alternanthera reineckii ''Mini' and probably replace the Gratiola Viscidula for Didiplis diandra.
What you guys think!? I'm open to suggestions and critics, as long its to improve my tank and my experience.
I will try to update The Valley at least 1x a month or when any major change occur.
Thanks!!!
My name is Ruben, 30y and living in London. Originally from Portugal where my enthusiasm for fish tanks start when I was younger. Moving in to UK and having my own money to spend in whatever I wanted gave me the opportunity to start the hobby.
With me it all started with a small Biorb with 15L and 4 male guppies, I think almost everyone starts with this little nice fish, but the addiction to have a bigger tank was always present until I saw the AquaOne 130L on sale at Pets at Home.
My first big setup was pretty simple low-tech with a few more fish, such as Gouramis, BN pleco, Amano Shrimp, Corydoras, Neon Tetras and off course Guppies.
As the time passed, I feed up with white sand (looks amazing but to maintain, takes a lot a time) and end up changing it to gravel, until a major power supply surge hit my place while I was in Portugal, losing 90% of my live stock. Since I still had the Biorb and a small 19L tank, I kept the remaining fish in there and decided to dismount my current tank.
Off course, it was only a small break until I decided to get back and end up dismount the built-in filter that came with the tank and started to buy slowly all the parts that I currently have (all below).
Comparing with the previous setup, I can say that this is what I always wanted, a kind of mixture of Dutch style and Iwagumi. Of course this an ongoing project, in which I'm planning to make a few more changes to make more pleasant for me and for those who enjoy homemade projects (mostly me ).
Enough talk and lets get to some pictures that I toke myself with my Canon.
Start: 12 of November 2017
Dimensions: 80x40x40 ~ 130 L
Stand: From Amazon (had the exact measurements for the tank, as the one from AquaOne never like it)
CO2: Barn Dual stage regulator + solenoid with pressurised 2kg fire extinguisher, running from 17:30 - 22:30.
Filtration: Eheim EccoPro 300 & Purigen
Lights: AquariumEco LED 29W
Heater: Hydor inline 200W
Photo Period: 16:30 - 23:30
Fertilisation: Tropica Plant Growth Premium & Specialised and Seachem Flourish Iron
Substrate: ADA Amazonia
Hardscape: Dragon stone
Flora: Pogostemon Erectus, Gratiola viscidula, Rotala macrandra, Rotala wallichii, Staurogyne repens, Micranthemum 'Monte Carlo' (all tissue culture from Tropica).
Fauna: 9 Neon Cardinals, 1 Zebra Angel (sold as Blue cobalt), 1 Apistogramma cacatuoides Triple Red (female), 7 otocinclus, 1 lamp eye kilifish, 1 goldpencil fish, 2 white cloud mountain minnows, 5 nerite snail.
I'm aware that the stocking levels might be close to the limit but I bought a higher capacity filter in order to accommodate a more fish.
It always start with an empty tank
After a few hardscape attempts, I end up with this (just note that I end up changing a bit the big stone on the left and pointing it up but with the water it didn't stay on the original position).
And now planted with the ones mention above
2 weeks:
The filter cycled faster as I used media from my nano tank (I will create a journal for that one as well later on), allowing me to stock with a few fish that I have and others that were been quarantine.
3 Weeks:
4-5 Weeks:
Photobombing all the time
ohh hello again
2 months before major change
After the big change, removed the Vallis Nana (it was growing very very slow and started to dislike it) and moved the rotala macrandra to the corner.
Ignore the scratches on the glass lack of knowledge in the beginning when I started.
Thanks a lot if you had the patient to read my huge testimonial, but I wanted to give a good history about my "Valley" and how it all started.
For the future that comes, I'm planning to use the espace used previously by the Rotala macrandra and plant Alternanthera reineckii ''Mini' and probably replace the Gratiola Viscidula for Didiplis diandra.
What you guys think!? I'm open to suggestions and critics, as long its to improve my tank and my experience.
I will try to update The Valley at least 1x a month or when any major change occur.
Thanks!!!