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My first ever aquarium. Juwel Rio 180l

Uh oh. I did a bad thing
I ventured into ADC, London and bought some stuff. I knew I could not resist.

However I was convinced not to spank the money on the orange eyed blue shrimp, rather test out on some others. And I for some reason (probably weight) avoided the dragon stone.

So in the end I got the following:-
  1. 5 CRS - Not expensive grade ones. Just to see if they can deal with my tank
  2. Some sumatra (I think) wood (best get soaking when I get home)
  3. Some capatta leaves - I thought they were food for the shrimp, but was told the main reason is to lower the PH.
  4. A European guide on Specialist shrimps
  5. I got given the old Tropica brochure, an ADA brochure and some shrimp food.
Very pleased with haul, apart from having to lug two ADC bags, plus my laptop bag with uber heavy laptop on the tube to catch the train home without whacking and spearing people with the wood and bashing the bag with the shrimp in.

When I get home I will immediately turn off lights and CO2 and start a use my makeshift drip method of introducing the tank water to the bag with the shrimp in (Use a kids Nurofen syringe to put 5ML doses of tank water in the bag every 10 mins for 1.5hrs)

Will also dump the wood in a plastic washing basket/beer ice bucket/new tank water syphon bucket (takes 4-5 normal sized buckets to fill this baby up. Guessing that I soak the wood in boiling water each day for 5 days?

Now to plot how I can finance a shrimp only tank cheaply! I am thinking of a relatively small tank that can be next to my bed sitting ontop my bedside "Tallboy". So the pump needs to be extremely quiet as I am a light sleeper. Want something that is less worrying than my high tech tank.

Will provide some more photos when I get to the camera.
Cheers
R
 
Pictures of the wood I got from ADC.
Which way though?
8u4y8eny.jpg

vutedasu.jpg


Oh and a pic of the shrimp mag I got.
ta6apaby.jpg
 
Hi Roly,
looking great, some super fish shots there, particularly like the vibrancy of both fish and plants in the first photo :thumbup: Keeping Rams is also testament to your tank husbandry.
Saw those Tennessee shiners in my LFS too.
Could you tell me what the neon tetra looking fish is in the right of this photo please? Ive never seen one like that before and curious as to whether its an anomaly or an actual species? Im guessing species as you have several of them looking back at some of your other photos.
5avp.jpg

Cheerio,
Ady.
 
The neon is a Diamond head neon tetra.
Thanks for the info R :thumbup:


Not sure I understand the husbandry comments. Are Rams tricky to look after in some way? They certainly appear to enjoy the tank.
well like you say, maybe not tricky if your looking after your tank, they are known to be quite sensitive and require good water quality. Yours do look very happy :)

Cheerio
 
Sorry Ady I did not mean for a short response last night, I was in bed falling asleep.
I like the Diamond neons as they have sparkley spots on the front of their heads. However
They are not quite as majestic as the larger cardinals.

Rams - ah I did not realise they can be sensitive to the water conditions. When I bought them to replace the red dwarf gourami the LFS said the type I was purchasing were the less boisterous of rams. Which so far is true. Apart from I have not seen any of the 5 CRS I put in the other day. Gulp.
R
 
Hey, no worries R :)
Shrimp are pretty illusive so they could've just hidden. However rams I'm sure will pick off smaller shrimp, so hopefully not Gulp from them!
Cheerio
Ady
 
Hi Roly, your journal has quite simply for me, been the most interesting and informative journey of discovery into this absorbing hobby I have read. I'm sure the members who have contributed solutions and encouragement for you have been an inspiration to many that are new to planted aquariums and fishkeeping, who aspire to have a happy healthy tank.
It can be frustrating when things don't quite go as one would expect, or even hope, but the pleasure we get when things work out is very rewarding.
Took a long time to read, but well worth it :)
 
Hi Fern
Sorry for the delay. BT have just fixed the Internet in the holiday apartment where i am staying so i can reply now.

Glad to hear you like the journal.

I guess this is the side effect of me just jotting down what is happening my first tank.

UKAPS is certainly a great forum. Really nice a responsive place and there always appear to be admins and senior contributors on hand to help most of the day. I signed up to a global shrimp forum and post in the welcome area and have not had a welcome yet (1week in). So clearly UKAPS much nicer place to hang.

I think the big lesson for me is the whole CO2, circulation thing. Clearly the science of this needs to be understood very quickly and the relevant investment made. As once you understand this (along with the ferts) it is one less thing to worry about and you can watch your plants thrive and hopefully not the algae.

Ceg4048's lessons along others have been invaluable and it is amazing to be able to interact with such intelligent people. Especially as they must get bored of noobs like me asking the same old questions.

For my next insane challenge I have just bought a second hand nano tank and once I get back plan to try my hand and the specialist shrimp. Hopefully using the knowledge built from my first tank. It will be scary as its smaller, will have sensitive shrimp and if something goes wrong I have no buffer of the larger volume of water as a safety net.

I will keep a separate journal for this and keep you all posted.

Thanks for the praises
Roly
 
Back after 9 days holiday. Oh how I miss Cornwall, hitting the beach with the board.
Anyway.

Water change today, a good inspection of everything.
Fish all appeared to be alive. I have one missing Tennessee Shiner, but that went missing before I went away. And no trace, so I am guess the shrimp clean up crew were not very forgiving.
Most plants appeared to be fine, trimmed the ones that were a little tatty.
Fish were fed last night and they appeared to be very pleased with a granular food as apposed to the Tetra weekend capsules I put in for the week.
As for the impact of mixing and dumping the complete weeks worth of EI. I am not sure. I plant appeared to have leaf damage on about 5 leaves. Everything else appeared to be ok.
Tank, Filter and substrate cleaned throughly.

Wood is still floating in the bucket in the Garden. 3 weeks after purchase. I clearly have not put boiling water on every day. In fact the week away it just sat in cold. What is the impact of doing boiling water, is it just to remove tannins?
I did fill up the bucket with tap hot water.

Just now planning the shopping list and layout for the shrimp tank.

I am going to shoot for some ADA Amazonia as it seems a lot of German breeders use that.
I am thinking of moving 1 rock from the fish tank (has a Microsorum narrow growing on it) into the shrimp tank, thus making room for the wood when it eventually sinks.
Wondering if I can transplant some of the Elocharis sp. 'mini' from the fish tank into the shrimp tank?

Oh did I mention I added 5 Rummy Nose Tetra's before holiday. They are cool funny fish. Love the colour and tail patterns. They also constantly shoal without fail. However its usually at the back of the tank or the front. From left to right, right to left and repeat again. Quite amusing. Reminds me of the goldfish 10 sec rule really. Guess they are not bored.

Over and out.
R
 
You boil the wood to clean it and to reduce how much white mould you get once it's in your tank.
 
I don't know as I always tie mine to slate now. Got fed up with wood moving every time I touched by accident, it ripped up plants and never went back to where is was.
 
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