manikmonk
Seedling
Hi all, I've lurked for a while and figured it was about time I registered and introduced myself. My name is James, I live in Maidstone, Kent and work as a teacher of sorts in Brompton. I currently have 3 tanks in varying stages of "I want to start over":
The first is a 125L Fluval which if I'm honest I wish I hadn't bought, there's nothing wrong with it and it was on offer at Pets at Home, this was my first tank in the UK, and I'd only kept a much smaller tank as a teenager in Spain. "If I knew then what I know now..." I'd have gone with something nicer, hey-ho, live and learn. This is currently planted with various anubias species, java fern and vallis of one form or another. Livestock is rummy noses, pygmy corydoras, otos, endlers (males only now) and a few CPD which I'll be moving to work soon as well as amano shrimp.
I'm currently gathering together the materials for the re-scape which will also include a new larger filter, replacement bulbs (current ones are 18months old now), I'll still be keeping it low-tech for now though with no CO² etc. The driftwood I want is evading me though, with no LFS stocking what I'm after it's starting to look like I'll have to resort to ebay. I did however get some great rocks/stones/pebbles for it from CES in Thurrock, really helpful people and at ~£300 a tonne I ended up going waaaay over the top and buying around 140kg
Livestock will be rummies, corys, amano shrimp, ottos and something else, undecided!
The second tank is a 30L Aquael shrimp cube I have set up at work, happier with the "scape" in this one as it's simple, a large piece of mopani wood with xmas moss growing on it (slowly), an amazonia plant of some sorts and again the faithful java fern. I'm just getting the algae under control in this after someone decided to be helpful while I was away and turned the lights on (overrode the timer) and over-fed the occupants which are endlers (just 2 during the over-feed period, currently 5), amano and bamboo shrimp and nerite snails.
I'm swapping the endlers out soon, moving a bigger filter onto the tank and moving my 5 CPD in. I'm also tempted to re-scape this one after George Farmer's (much larger) cube set-up in PFK this month. Very tempted to do something similar on a smaller scale. We'll see.
The third tank is another 30L hexagonal thing I got to keep a betta in who unfortunately died from dropsy not all that long after I got him. Now it's scaped with a large column of ceramic filter rock, a moss wall that's taking its sweet time to do much in the way of moss walling, moss balls, an amazonia again and (in case you thought I'd forgotten) a tiny java fern plantlet! Livestock is low grade shrimp of the cherry red and black crystal varieties. This one I want to swap for a 12gallon long, like the Mr Aqua ones, if I can get one or have something similar made. No rush on this plan as yet though.
I also have another 80L tank sat in the spare room that's going to house the fish that I keep while I re-scape the main tank, any fish I don't keep will go to my LFS along with the assassin snails that have multiplied more than planned. The tank was originally bought to help me get a handle on the out of control endler/guppy problem... You've all heard this story, or similar, before, I'd wager: I started with a few guppies, a couple died and I was left with just 1 male, so I decided to add 2 females which turned out to actually be endlers. A few months down the line and I had guppy/endler hybrids coming out of my ears. Via aquarist-classifieds I gave away at least 200-300 adults and several thousand fry to almost a dozen different people. Thankfully they all had larger tanks than me or were keeping several tanks of various sizes. The rest I took to my LFS, Aylesford Aquatics.
Between this site and plantedtank.net I've learned a lot and can't wait to re-scape my main tank. I loosely promise a journal, step by step and pictures when I do so.
I've added myself to the members map, am happy to meet people in the area for LFS visits or tank discussions over a coffee.
Lastly, a big thanks to everyone who contributes to the site via articles, journals, pictures, informative posts or threads and by asking the questions I've been too lazy to register and ask myself in the past, something I hope to rectify from now on
Cheers,
James
The first is a 125L Fluval which if I'm honest I wish I hadn't bought, there's nothing wrong with it and it was on offer at Pets at Home, this was my first tank in the UK, and I'd only kept a much smaller tank as a teenager in Spain. "If I knew then what I know now..." I'd have gone with something nicer, hey-ho, live and learn. This is currently planted with various anubias species, java fern and vallis of one form or another. Livestock is rummy noses, pygmy corydoras, otos, endlers (males only now) and a few CPD which I'll be moving to work soon as well as amano shrimp.
I'm currently gathering together the materials for the re-scape which will also include a new larger filter, replacement bulbs (current ones are 18months old now), I'll still be keeping it low-tech for now though with no CO² etc. The driftwood I want is evading me though, with no LFS stocking what I'm after it's starting to look like I'll have to resort to ebay. I did however get some great rocks/stones/pebbles for it from CES in Thurrock, really helpful people and at ~£300 a tonne I ended up going waaaay over the top and buying around 140kg
Livestock will be rummies, corys, amano shrimp, ottos and something else, undecided!The second tank is a 30L Aquael shrimp cube I have set up at work, happier with the "scape" in this one as it's simple, a large piece of mopani wood with xmas moss growing on it (slowly), an amazonia plant of some sorts and again the faithful java fern. I'm just getting the algae under control in this after someone decided to be helpful while I was away and turned the lights on (overrode the timer) and over-fed the occupants which are endlers (just 2 during the over-feed period, currently 5), amano and bamboo shrimp and nerite snails.
I'm swapping the endlers out soon, moving a bigger filter onto the tank and moving my 5 CPD in. I'm also tempted to re-scape this one after George Farmer's (much larger) cube set-up in PFK this month. Very tempted to do something similar on a smaller scale. We'll see.
The third tank is another 30L hexagonal thing I got to keep a betta in who unfortunately died from dropsy not all that long after I got him. Now it's scaped with a large column of ceramic filter rock, a moss wall that's taking its sweet time to do much in the way of moss walling, moss balls, an amazonia again and (in case you thought I'd forgotten) a tiny java fern plantlet! Livestock is low grade shrimp of the cherry red and black crystal varieties. This one I want to swap for a 12gallon long, like the Mr Aqua ones, if I can get one or have something similar made. No rush on this plan as yet though.
I also have another 80L tank sat in the spare room that's going to house the fish that I keep while I re-scape the main tank, any fish I don't keep will go to my LFS along with the assassin snails that have multiplied more than planned. The tank was originally bought to help me get a handle on the out of control endler/guppy problem... You've all heard this story, or similar, before, I'd wager: I started with a few guppies, a couple died and I was left with just 1 male, so I decided to add 2 females which turned out to actually be endlers. A few months down the line and I had guppy/endler hybrids coming out of my ears. Via aquarist-classifieds I gave away at least 200-300 adults and several thousand fry to almost a dozen different people. Thankfully they all had larger tanks than me or were keeping several tanks of various sizes. The rest I took to my LFS, Aylesford Aquatics.
Between this site and plantedtank.net I've learned a lot and can't wait to re-scape my main tank. I loosely promise a journal, step by step and pictures when I do so.
I've added myself to the members map, am happy to meet people in the area for LFS visits or tank discussions over a coffee.
Lastly, a big thanks to everyone who contributes to the site via articles, journals, pictures, informative posts or threads and by asking the questions I've been too lazy to register and ask myself in the past, something I hope to rectify from now on
Cheers,
James
