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Hi and some questions

I would not bother with the bottled filter starters biomature ect they are rubish.

If you go low tech make sure you choose plants that dont need lots of co2. Im not sure if you could find easycarb localy but a couple of our sponsors sell it aquaessentials for one.

EI is a dry fertilising method thats another thing you will need to decide how your going to feed the plants
 
ei is estimative index its a way of dosing the nutrients pottassium nitrate, potassium phosphate, and a chelated trace element mix into a tank (the powders i talked about before), easy carbo is not like any bio maturing product, its a carbon based additive for the growth of plants and its a slight aligicide too, you can add this product to a low tech instead of injecting CO2.

the bio maturing products are pretty much a con in my opinion, they have very little substance to them, your better off with the media 'squeeze'

you probably wont get easycarbo at the LFS you have to order from online, but the sponsors on the forum have it in stock.
 
RudeDogg1 said:
I would not bother with the bottled filter starters biomature ect they are rubish.

If you go low tech make sure you choose plants that dont need lots of co2. Im not sure if you could find easycarb localy but a couple of our sponsors sell it aquaessentials for one.

EI is a dry fertilising method thats another thing you will need to decide how your going to feed the plants
Click to expand...

Okay Rudi,
if I can but online then that's fine and even better off the forum, like the Aquassentials people.

So the other is plant food. Is that a liquid or pellet?

Loads of questions.... sorry about that.

Angela
 
EI is all the eliments in dry form which you mix with water and add daily which can also be bought from several of our sponsors. Currently Im using tropica plant nutrition + which is a liquid food but once ive used my 2 bottles up Im switching to the TFF mix from our sponsore aquariumplantfood uk (one of our sponsors). The tropica stuff is good but quite expensive and you need to tripple the recomended does realy
 
Thanks for all that Rudi,
Has cleared things up no end for me. I am now more than interested in this empty (apart from gravel) 2 foot tank that's cycling, it will be interesting to see how long it takes. Didn't get the ammonia until the 29th but it was running well before that. I expect the addition of ammonia has just restarted the whole cycle again so it will be a while before that level begins to go down. If it does I top it up again on a daily basis.

Cheers for all your help,

Angela
 
Hello Angelah,

I think I saw some of your posts on the PFK forum or another one?

Anyway welcome back to the hobby and a group of tiger barbs of the number you were thinking would be great. They will confine most of their antics within thier own species.

The only thing i find disappointing with the orignal form in your average LFS is that they have become somewhat grubby with marks inbetween their lines. I see more of these than the good qulity ones with nice clean black stripes.
 
I know what you mean sanj I noticed that in ma at the weekend they have started to look like the green ones. When I had my first saturday job when i was about 15 they looked totally different and clean and allways seemed smaller than they are now
 
RudeDogg1 said:
I know what you mean sanj I noticed that in ma at the weekend they have started to look like the green ones. When I had my first saturday job when i was about 15 they looked totally different and clean and allways seemed smaller than they are now
Click to expand...

Actually I quite like those Green Barbs, they would offset the colours of the other fish nicely. 15 or so would look good. The only snag with that is it means the other more streamlined fishes will need to be bigger, certainly bigger than Neon Tetras I should think, they only get to about 1.5 inches (40cm). This would again restrict the numbers, I wanted a nice big school....

And you may have noticed I bought the second filter. Not from where I ordered it, they were messing me about and I don't like that from a shop, they took my money and didn't even have the filter in stock...!!

So told them to cancel. Sorted about on the Internet but not many places stock the JBL externals. However and off the top of my head, I phoned my LFS (MA) and they had one in a sale. Not the e 900 I was going to buy for 89 quid, but the CristalProfi e 1500 for 99. So for an extra tenner got 1500 lph instead of 900.... can't be bad.
Must say these German filters are very well made and thought out, even has carry handles on the top for lifting the motor head off.
So this and the Fluval 305 should give a really good flow. Snag now is where do I set the inputs? And which inputs? I have either venturi or spray bars. And along the back or at an end?
The reason I made the last distinction is that some (in fact most) of the fish are long and thin so I assume that means they live in a reasonable water flow environment. If the flow is coming from the back of the tank then won't they point that way? Where as if it came from and end they will swim with their sides to the front glass.... just theories dearies, I have been thinking about.

Angela
 
you want the spraybars to cover the whole length of the back of the tank just under the waterline if possible, set the inlets up at either end that way they will pick up more detritus.

venturis arent really a good idea as they create excess aeration which you are looking to avoid in a low tech.

glad to hear you got the 1500lph model as all filters push around a lot less water than the rated flow. :)

one thing i would say about the green tiger barbs (ive kept normal and green) is that they do get slightly larger and thick set, and tend to be even more aggresive, they would pick at my serpae tetras fins, and serpae's are meant to be a very boistrous small fish that is good for putting with nipping species (as they are one themselves) when i kept serpaes and green TB's together the serpaes seemed to be very shy and retiring not anything like when i had them by themselves, and the green tiger barbs ruled the tank. i would say steer clear of anything that isnt over 2 inches with greens, even cardinals would be a risk.

hope you have been doing your homework on low tech style tanks too angelah! hehe.

Regards, Gus.
 
Hi Angela
Welcome to the ukaps gang.
If you had access to a relatives or friends aquarium you could use half of their filter media to kick start your aquarium.
Regards
hoggie
 
hogan53 said:
Hi Angela
Welcome to the ukaps gang.
If you had access to a relatives or friends aquarium you could use half of their filter media to kick start your aquarium.
Regards
hoggie
Click to expand...

I have a son with a big tank but unfortunately it has BBA in it, a lot of it, so I am very unsure about squeezing any media out of that.

Angela
 
RudeDogg1 said:
Can't go far wrong with german filters eheims r the best tho
Click to expand...

This is certainly a nice bit of kit, no mistake about it. Never had an Eheim though, just Fluvals previously.
A Fluval 305 will also be used in the 4 foot tanl along with this JBL, more flow.
As has been suggested and if I fit both filters at one end, there may well be a need for a submersible pump part way along to help the flow get to the parts others can't... you must know the words for that lager advert... lol.

Angela
 
hi angelah,
i personally don't think it is set in concrete that you need to have your spraybars along the back of your tank seeing as you're going low tech. its your tank and you are the one that has to find it aesthetically pleasing. you could toy with the idea of having both inlets at one end of the tank and both spraybars at the other end giving you a river/stream kind of effect, you could even place the smaller one (concealed) at ground level giving you some flow across the substrate, or any other scenario you might fancy that allows you to view your plants and fish in the way that you want to.
in my eyes, the only thing you would need would to do is gravel vac maybe 20% of different areas of the substrate once a month or so and replace the expelled water with fresh, add a lean dose of nutrient perhaps once a week or fortnight and the golden rule, keep the lighting well down.
don't make it any more hard work than you're prepared to put in, otherwise it just becomes a chore!
just my 2 cents,
cheers and good luck,
bazz!
 
Hi Angela ,

With regards to fish selection alot of speicies suffer not just from fin nipping by tiger barbs
but also come 2nd best when feeding time comes , tigers are vigorous feeders abeit nice
fish .
Take a look at Melanotaenia praecox - Neon Dwarf Rainbowfish . Ive kept these a few times
they grow to around the same size , shoal well , and hold their own at feeding time .
The plus side is they show their best colours...which look quite spectacular...in well planted
low light/low tec set-ups .
Sounds like you have a while to choose yet , so plenty of time to decide but definately worth
considering to house alongside tiger barbs .

Good luck

Jay .
 
JayUK said:
Hi Angela ,

With regards to fish selection alot of speicies suffer not just from fin nipping by tiger barbs
but also come 2nd best when feeding time comes , tigers are vigorous feeders abeit nice
fish .
Take a look at Melanotaenia praecox - Neon Dwarf Rainbowfish . Ive kept these a few times
they grow to around the same size , shoal well , and hold their own at feeding time .
The plus side is they show their best colours...which look quite spectacular...in well planted
low light/low tec set-ups .
Sounds like you have a while to choose yet , so plenty of time to decide but definately worth
considering to house alongside tiger barbs .

Good luck

Jay .
Click to expand...

Hi Jay,
I have decided to dump all Barbs, they seem trouble wherever you look.
So my next option was a Tetra tank with Lemons and Neons and 10-12 Corydoras on the bottom. I have looked at Rainbows because this is a large tank at 4 feet with good depth and width so will take another school of something or other, but they need to be a smallish fish to match the others.
Rainbows were a choice I have been considering and they may well be on the shopping list. I can always adjust the sizes of the other 2 mid-water schools slightly as I want to keep plenty of leeway in the tank, not near to capacity in other words, even though it will be double filtered and heavily planted. Err on the safe side, it is always tempting to stock to maximum levels but I personally think it is a mistake.

Angela
 
Hi Angela ,

Sometimes its wise to re-think , alot depends on the type of tetra you
want to keep not all will shoal in a tight group . Ive not kept lemon or
(believe it or not) neons , in almost 17yrs of fishkeeping . African
cichlids were my thing , but ive got 10 purple emperor tetra's and
they shoal for around 2 mins a day...feeding time...then disperse
everywhere .

But i am a fan of Nannostomus trifasciatus - Three-lined Pencilfish ,
only have a group of 5 but they stick together all day , very peaceful
and when their in a planted tank are little gems , size is 2ins max .
Dont , like most fish, look good in dealers tanks but when in a planted
tank start to colour up , they display a gold stripe which really stands
out . Im considering changing my emperors for 10 of these because
i like the tight shoal , so 1 worth taking a peek at .

Jay .
 
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