Haven't Posted For A While So...Ramble

[Smells Fishy]

I was in Pets At Home a while back and I couldn't help but notice the Aqua One Aqua Aspire 130 because its a seriously gorgeous tank. I was there again this week taking my cat Lilly to their vets and the tank is no longer for sale in store but it still is online. For those of you who don't know it, the whole back hides the heater and filtration which is a pump that fires the water through a series of compartments, you get a nice looking LED light, the front glass is curved and its 130L. So yeah, I want one. Its affordable. Pets At Home is the place to go, £200 for the tank and the cabinet is £90. I want this tank to be my first attempt at using a planting substrate and actually making something that looks appealing to most people's eyes. I'm a Goldfish guy atm so that means maintaining plants with my goldies is a nightmare and its hard to keep the tank how I want it. Keeping Goldfish is great, I love them, but its not what this site is about and what I'm trying to say is I'm getting a bit fed up of my tank not being super tranquil and I want to achieve a higher level of underwater gardening. Doing this future project will help me feel I fit in a bit better here as well. Anyway that's the tank and cabinet price sorted now down to the really fun part of what fish I would like. Lately I've been re reading my PFK mags and if you remember the Acid House article then you're with me. Two fish that were suggested that really appealed to me were the Chocolate gourami and the Two-striped Aphyosemion. From another mag the Rocket panchax. All of these fish are tiny, biggest the Gourami tops out at 2inch. If anyone reading has experience with these fish please do tell me what you thought of them. These fish need a low pH and mine is 7.6 so I'll need to buffer it somehow. What's the best approach? I've been thinking Tropica. They do two different ones: a growth substrate and a powder... What's the difference? For a 130L I don't have a clue how many bags I'll need, does anyone know? I'm coming on strong with the questions, last one: I'll need root tabs for my Banana plant I wish to grow and also maybe a Tiger lotus as well, one on either side of the tank sounds good for contrast. A Lace leaf plant as well and I'll be happy. So if I've got those 3 that's a lot of roots right? This could be a massive ground breaking idea I'm about to share that could have you nodding your head in agreement or not, or slapping your forehead thinking "why didn't I do that!". Couldn't you just buy some root tabs and grind them up preferably with a mortar and pestle and then mix the root tab powder into your substrate before use?

 

[Lindy]

You need a low ph but equally important is soft water too so you may have to cut with RO water. I keep chocolate gourami along with liquorice gourami and other soft water loving fish. They are maintained at a ph of 5.5 and the tank tds is 101. Me adding ferts raises my tds from the tap tds of 49. If you are looking at a plant substrate I would recommend ADA africana or Malaya as Amazonia buffers to around 6 - 6.4. Tmc nutrisoil buffered my tank water up to 6. My journey to keep these fish is documented in my journals gourami gloaming 1 and 2. You also are limited on what rock you can use as many raise tds. I sometimes regret my choice of fish as it makes things harder. Water has to be prepared to the right ph and also tanins are added. I have just set up a new tank 5x2x2ft for all my gourami and have used pool filter sand, dragon stone and ada africana.
Saying all that I am passionately in love with my chocos, paros and bettas lol...

 

[Smells Fishy]

Sounds like your the Chocolate gourami authority so I'll search your journals cheers. Forgot to mention if anyone has any experience with the tank I mentioned then fire away.

 

[Smells Fishy]

I did a search and #4 only came up. Could you post a link for 1 and 2?

 

[Lindy]

It could be all the same journal. I think I may have kept changing the number with each major rescape lol..I am by no means an authority. Check out Alistairs box of chocolates I think it is called. He successfully bred them in a fully planted tank.

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[Lindy]

Alistair has 2 journals in the featured journal forum . Little box of chocolates and also 1300l chocolate lake.

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[Smells Fishy]

I am by no means an authority. Check out Alistairs box of chocolates I think it is called. He successfully bred them in a fully planted tank.

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My bad. I feel a bit silly now, you seem very knowledgeable on Chocolate gourami as a topic. Wow. I'll have to check Alistair out and I'll definitely finish reading yours.

 

[AquaMan16]

Just looked that tank up and it is nice. I want one too. Woooo all 3 of us have a grove on for Chocolate gourami. In a recent issue of PFK George Farmer set up a NEWA 60L that also looked nice and relates to the Aqua ones filtration, its sort of like it. He uses his Chocolate gourami from a previous set up. Anyway he said his water is hard in the article, so if he can get away with it, I would like to think most people can.