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fish for me water

Chris Tinker

Member
Joined
25 Jun 2019
Messages
231
Location
leeds
hello all, names chris, i live and work in Leeds, got a wife (the boss, you will see why) 2 kids 3 and 4months.

i use to have a 60litre tank that after 6 months got upgraded to a 210 litre oak tank from maidenhead

sold my house and tank etc, as i planned to build a 800litre wall divider, after 3 years we decided to move again (for the above mentioned kids) so it never got built.... boooo

new house and all funds are going in to this, still no kitchen or floors etc due to extension etc...

so as you can imagine tank funds are, well not allowed... got my daughter a little tank for growing tropods... yea that was boring too small to see much... que a friend gifting me an unused 60ltr biorb

now i bought some sponge, new air stone, cranked this bad boy up, and o it was bad, 3 days later the wife moaned about the noise (she was right but i wanted the tank so i was happy to ignore it)

so i turned it off, but i have got the bug! im on it again...

saturday i will be buying a second hand 300ltr tank for £250.00

and since im back on it im starting to think... which fish.

budget is so so so tight!

i still need as far as i am aware,

substrate
bog wood or stones
some plants (very basic but to provide colour and contrast)

and which fish to have....

this time i really want to focus on, this is my water, so i should have these fish...

so can you a) reccomend a site to input water parameters
b) if you know which fish will suit reccomend.

i use to have a community and over the years kept angel fish, blue rams, rummy nose, several tetras, loaches, chinese hill stream, shrimps

i am open to ideas ...

just done some readings

GH - General hardness 60
KH - carbonate hardness 40-60 measured twice and its in between

PH- 7.0

nitrite and nitrate zero as i would hope.

yorkshire water says....
Screenshot_20190621-084118.png

Screenshot_20190621-084112.png
 
Ignore the water report, that is not your tap water and not your tap water today.

Ignore your test kits as well, as generally are only good for getting unknowing fish keepers wallet contents in to the local fish shops till.
https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/what-about-test-kits.52487/

So basically work with what comes out of the tap as changing any of the parameters (RO, HMA filtration etc) makes volumous water changes, required for planted tanks, so so so so much harder and so so so much more effort and consumes so so so much more time and costs so so so much more. Even more so if you have a 300litre tank.

Fish and plants generally don't care about water hardness, some may spawn more reliably in softer water. I have very very hard water and plants need trimming every week as they start "to leave the tank" and fish breed "like rabbits" (fish actually !!).

Just make sure you dechlorinate tap water before use and possibly warm the water before water changes, though many people just put a hose pipe in the tank and fill it.

Just spend you effort, pennies and worries on monster filtration, decent CO2 injection and comfiness of tank viewing chair rather than something that is very hard to do anything about.
 
Is the tank you're getting going to have any equipment with it? If so do you know what?
Filter? Lighting? CO2?
As Ian says most fish are not as bothered by water parameters as some people would have you believe. All the mss-produced fish are pretty adaptable, and we often forget that lots of the cheap, 'common' fish are among the most attractive, eg Neons, Black Phantom Tetras, Cherry barbs etc.
Have a look at garden centres for your wood and stones, they're usually cheaper than aquatic shops.
They also have big bunches of Elodea quite cheap, that's useful for getting lots of plant mass into your tank to get started. Lots of plans help you to achieve a balace. You can replace them bit by bit with your preferred plants as funds allow.
People on this forum often have good surplus plants to sell for good prices. When you have made 25 ( I think it is ) posts, the For Sale/Wanted section becomes visible.
 
thank you both, its got a filter in the hood and heater.

going to stock low and liking the idea of a rock and plant tank. going to wait till i have the tank, its tall and long, not very deep...
 
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