Fluval Roma 125 - first attempt

[awood85]

Hey all, finally got the tank and bought all the innards minus the fish and set it all up last Sunday. Just doing a fish less cycle now.

Apologies if the post seems a little disjointed or full of mistakes, not got the hang of longer posts from my phone yet...

Just a quick list of everything:
Fluval Roma 125l - 80wx35dx45h,
2x 20w t8 tubes, 7 hour photoperiod, Internal fluval u3 filter and 150w heater, liquid carbon and EI complete kit from aquarium plant food UK on its way!

Hardscape:
Random tub of fert substrate capped with tesco cat litter, nice chunky root section and some unknown rocks from my local lfs.

Plants:
I believe my lfs plants are all aquafleur but a couple didn't have labels so I couldn't say for sure. Anyway I got a largish echinodorus bleheri, a rotala macrandra, 2 pots of eleocharis acicularis, 2 alternanthera (1 rosaefolia and 1 cardinalis although I'm not sure what the difference is, they looked the same...). I also got an unmarked plant (rear left, not sure of its name but see it in lots of people tanks) and a tub of unknown moss which I've spread around the root crevices.

This was taken about an hour after planting and filling, not too bad, only slightly cloudy.

Nearly a week in the tank has pretty much cleared but I've got white slimey stuff all over the wood, from what I've read it is probably a harmless fungus that should disappear in a week or two.... Hopefully!

I also think I'm getting some plant melt going on until they establish a little more, either that or I need the ferts and liquid carbon to arrive quicker! How and when should I remove leaves that have seen better days? Does this look like new tank melt or a deficiency of some kind?

The alternanthera looks a little withered...

The odd leaf is going a little yellow and others a little see through...

Can't wait for it to fill in a bit and also to get some fish in there.

Was thinking about a large shoal of chili rasbora but I my water is a little on the hard side so I might rethink that. Looking for a colourful shoal that's not the typical neon or cardinal tetra... Also looking for a few other perhaps slightly larger fish to give some different movement around the tank.

Will get some shrimp in too at some point.

What are your thoughts so far? Tell it to me straight

Cheers,
Adam

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[awood85]

Hi everyone, sorry for not updating since the first post.

I'm having a few issues which I've explained below, hopefully you'll be able to help.

I let the tank cycle for 2 weeks and although that's not a massive time I nicked a test from my sister and found ammonia and nitrite looked ok. I added some endlers guppys and some chili rasbora at this point and they all were all fine for another 2 weeks, eating well and exploring the tank.

I then added 2 pairs of dwarf gourami, 2 orange laser corys, a few more chilis and a handful of red cherry shrimp. Unfortunately one of the female gouramis didn't make it into the tank so I quickly swapped it assuming the journey was too stressful.

Quite soon after this, one of the endlers had its whole tail munched off so I had to put him out of his misery. Anyway over the last 2 weeks the endlers have been disappearing 1 by 1, now I only have 3 left. I've seen a couple hang around at the very bottom of the tank not looking as happy as normal. I've not found any dead ones yet but they must be going somewhere.

Today I also found the other female gourami had died.

I've not really changed much in my tank, I do a 30-50% water change each week and dose ei ferts and liquid carbon.

I'm assuming water conditions are to blame but my shrimp are fine and thought these would be the first to suffer from poor water? All the chilis, male gourami and corys look fine too.

I haven't tested again since as I've heard they should really be trusted, do you think I should or do you think it's something else?

Cheers
Adam

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[awood85]

Everything seems to have calmed down, not lost anything for a little while now and everything looks ok.

Had a little rearrange and trim of the grass followed by a water change yesterday and took a few pics, it's grown in load since I started dosing

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[awood85]

Just a quick update:

Since last time I have upgraded the filter to an aqua one aquis 1200lph external filter (I had awful trouble getting it bled properly! But great other than that)

I've had a big trim and small rearrange. Everything is nice and stable now and doing well, I've seen 2 berried shrimp too, couldn't get a pic though

The only thing I'd like to improve is the propagation of the dwarf hair grass to create a more natural looking carpet, at the moment it just gets longer and often falls (or gets pulled!) out of the substrate.

Anyway all critiques welcome please.

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[krazypara3165]

Nice looking tank you have there!

 

[martinmjr62]

Hi Adam. How long did the fungus take to disappear from the wood. My tanks only been set up just over a week now and I have exactly the same stuff on mine. I clean mine off with a toothbrush at water changes and suck it up the syphon pipe. Check my journal pictures to see the fungus. It is slowing down. Tank looks good mate


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[awood85]

Hey sorry only just seen your reply! A sign I'm not updating this often enough I think!

I had fungus for around 6 weeks so if you still have some it should go soon. I never scrubbed mine once it appeared, just large weekly water changes.

Journal update coming soon...

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[Antipofish]

You've got that looking pretty natural, well done. What is the rock ? Looks cracking

 

[awood85]

No idea what the rock is, I got it from my lfs which was just labelled as rock, sorted into colours.. Very useful!

I picked it cos it looked good dry, got it all in the tank and some didn't match as well as I thought (particularly the bit under the root), I've had another rearrange since those pics. Will update tonight, and ask a bit of flora scaping advice. Thanks for your comments!

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[awood85]

An update a bit later than I'd planned.... Anyway here is the latest full tank shot.

You'll see I've moved a few rocks about and the plant life has grown fairly well. I'm finding it not looking very green though, the red plants are our growing the rest and paired with the cat litter substrate its looking a bit red and washes out the greens I do have. I've added two small pots of crypts, which add a lovely dark green.

Do you have any suggestions of some dark green plants that might make the fish stand out a bit. I think I need a good background plant, quite bushy and space filling and some small to mid sized foreground plants. I think I'm going to get a load more dwarf hair grass for a carpet at the front.

Fauna wise I've added 8 odessa barb to the tank, they are great fish being very busy exploring, chasing each other (and leaving the other fish alone which is good) and again very colourful, especially the males. Unfortunately they blend in a bit with the scape being red so more green is definitely required.

A few more detailed shots, sorry about the phone camera quality, gonna borrow a dslr this weekend and hopefully get some better ones!

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[Deano3]

great tank and i love that wood on the right, hope all going well i cannot wait to flood my tank very soon

Dean

 

[jojouk]

That piece of wood is amazing