Not an easy hobby

[malik uddin]

Looking into setting up a community tank. Why is so hard? So many temperatures, alkalinity, flow and plants. I had a 300l reef tank, that was so much easier. All reef fish require the same conditions. I got my saltwater and ro delivered once a month for £40 all I had to do is take out 25l and dump in 25l once a week and test once a week. You might have to buffer certain things now and then, but all marine fish share the same parameters. Yes marine fish are more pretty, but that only peaks your interest for so long.

But freshwater is another animal. My marine tank leaked so I thought I would start a planted tank as a relaxing interim project. How wrong I was, there was nothing relaxing about it. It was just as exciting and challenging as the marine hobby and I have now decided to turn my marine tank into freshwater. If anything with the fish coming from all over the world rivers, lakes streams, water temperatures and chemistry, I am currently finding this hobby complex and fascinating. I wanted to throw a bunch of fish together in a community tank but was soon set right by members of ukaps community. I cannot have my cake and eat it! But I will have great fun along the way. Multiple tanks is the only way to go.

 

[G mac]

Have to agree, not always the most relaxing of hobbies but rewarding when it comes good.
I'm finding pest snails a real challenge at the moment, despite adhering to the usual advice "cut down on feed, get some Assassins" etc. they are multiplying at a mind buggering fast rate

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

All reef fish require the same conditions.

Why is so hard? So many temperatures, alkalinity, flow and plants.

I think that is right to some degree, the oceans are a very stable environment, in terms of water chemistry, and freshwater is much more <"shades of grey">.

If anything with the fish coming from all over the world rivers, lakes streams, water temperatures and chemistry, I am currently finding this hobby complex and fascinating.

I'll accept that <"I'm a pretty lazy and shoddy aquarist">, tight with my money and that I have <"no interest in aesthetics">, but I think the secret to long term success is to find plants and fish that are size appropriate and happy in your tap water (or in my case rain water) and then keep them.

It may not seem very exciting, but it has a higher probability of success.

cheers Darrel

 

[Mike Singh]

Welcome to the jungle!

 

[LMuhlen]

I think that is right to some degree, the oceans are a very stable environment, in terms of water chemistry, and freshwater is much more <"shades of grey">.

Also for this reason, fresh water animals tend to adjust more easily to different water parameters.

 

[MichaelJ]

Also for this reason, fresh water animals tend to adjust more easily to different water parameters.

In general I think your absolutely right, but its worth to keep in mind that the fish we find in the ornamental fish trade are the fish that are commercially viable - we simply wont find fish at the LFS that can't be bred at scale in captivity or harvested at scale in the wild and ultimately be kept under under a wide range of water parameters.

I always wondered which potential ornamental fish species we are missing out on due to - for whatever reason - the lack of commercial viability.

Cheers,
Michael

 

[bazz]

Consider setting up a biotype aquarium where the the fish and plants come from the same (or close by) location, this will help for fish Seriously Fish — Feeling fishy? and the Tropica website for plants.

 

[malik uddin]

What's interesting is that I am making the same mistakes I made when I first started reef tanks many years ago. In my freshwater tank I added too much bio load, my scape was wrong blocking out flow. I over feed, I panicked when I first got algae and cyanobacteria, but now am starting to see the tail end of it. I watched many videos before starting my planted tank, but common sense went out of the window.

 

[MichaelJ]

Consider setting up a biotype aquarium where the the fish and plants come from the same (or close by) location, this will help for fish Seriously Fish — Feeling fishy? and the Tropica website for plants.

Solid advice there @bazz !

On a total side note, I have decided to become more of an observant member on UKAPS as I realize we got so many new and newer members here with new perspectives and solid common sense, and occasional brilliant advice to offer. Looking though my recent posts I realize I don’t really offer anything that couldn’t be found in posts I made a year ago, added to that most of my recent months post are mostly ignored. No harm done, I still love this forum and will still post occasionally.

Cheers,
Michael

 

[malik uddin]

That seriously fishy website has a lot of spam @bazz. But i wish i had the space for a biotope. At the moment my tank swimming space is limited. But i do have some house plants in hanging holders on the rim of my tank, maybe i could use them.

 

[malik uddin]

@MichaelJ. I tried looking for information on earlier post lots of times, either I am doing something wrong or the search is rubbish. Also, in the marine hobby new methods and ideas we're always evolving. I tended to look at the most recent information. So I don't think you should become a lurker

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

Looking though my recent posts I realize I don’t really offer anything that couldn’t be found in posts I made a year ago

Don't let that stop you, I've only really made four different posts, but <"re-posted each of them thousands of times">. I've always enjoyed your posting, and <"I've learned new things">.

either I am doing something wrong or the search is rubbish

The search is pretty good, it maybe to do with the <"search terms you use">? You can always specify titles or a poster etc. I'd suggest you ask a question in this thread and I'll couch it in appropriate terms and find some answers.

Also, in the marine hobby new methods and ideas we're always evolving. I tended to look at the most recent information.

Yes and no, science is always moving on, but the ~20 years of the UKAPS archive is full of really useful threads.

cheers Darrel

 

[richardcunliffe]

Don't let that stop you

Plus one for keeping the buzz @MichaelJ

 

[zozo]

Why is so hard? So many temperatures, alkalinity, flow and plants.

The most simplistic answer is, that what we do with planted freshwater aquariums is far from what nature does. Maybe 99% of the plants available in the trade are bog plants that seldom grow permanently submerged as solitary plants in nature.

And we have very few true aquatic plants. And since the CO² hype entered the hobby the number of plants available increased by over 100%. Split up into plants with easy, medium and advanced care sheets.

If you like to go easy on yourself, limit your plant choice to true aquatics only. These plants aren't very fussy and grow in many different conditions from stagnant puddles to flowing streams. That is the most natural and maybe less versatile and less colourful aquarium you could set up...

A tad more complicated but more versatile and still relatively easy are the bog plants labelled as easy some might require a decent amount of flow which is also a relatively easy problem to overcome. Then the startup is a tad more complicated because you buy terrestrial form bog plants that need to transition to their submerged form and might require extra care. Once this process is completed it's pretty much self-sustaining without much care.

Then there are the beautiful and colourful medium and advanced care bog plants that require a lot of energy input to thrive in their submerged form. An often-made analogy is these high-energy setups are the top-notch design racecars among the aquariums. They need adequate strong light, fertilization and other parameters. A small steering error can flip it over and crash... This requires a lot of experience, knowledge and tools to run decently and work to keep on track. Once you know, this isn't very hard but just a lot of work and things to monitor. But before you know or learn this you might hit a brick wall now and then and that's hard.

It's this last category, showing off the most beautiful aquariums possible triggering beginners to copy this and jump unexperienced into the deep...

The right aquarium plants - Tropica Aquarium Plants

The right aquarium plants

tropica.com

 

[Ibz10]

For me nothing beats experience, you will get better at keeping what you want and like overtime but it does come with alot of ups and downs. Ive also learnt that the time I can spend on maintenance, upkeep and other things associated with keeping an aquarium effect what I want vs what I can actually do so I had to be realistic, for example, my tap water is super hard and although I use some RO it limits my ability or desire to keep livestock or plants that may need different parameters. Ive also learnt to make the best of the situation and 2 aquascapes/aquariums later I finially have a 3rd that im happy with. This forum has been great at helping a rubbish scaper produce something decent.

 

[ElleDee]

I think constraints can be your friend here. IMO, a good strategy is to figure out the least flexible parts of your situation and build everything else around that. If you already have your aquarium, everybody has to comfortably fit inside. If you are going to use your tap water, you know what parameters you are bound to. If you know you want to keep a particular fish as the star of the show, make sure all the other aspects of your tank are compatible. You don't need to learn everything right away, you just need to focus on the bits that are relevant to you.

And if you don't want to get too deep into it, there are a ton of middle of the road community fish that are pretty flexible as long as you have a big enough group and enough space. Those can be mixed together fairly easily.

So what are your limits? Your priorities?

 

[simon_the_plant_nerd]

Why would you want an easy hobby? You’d just be bored. 😊

 

[malik uddin]

Hi all,

Don't let that stop you, I've only really made four different posts, but <"re-posted each of them thousands of times">. I've always enjoyed your posting, and <"I've learned new things">.

The search is pretty good, it maybe to do with the <"search terms you use">? You can always specify titles or a poster etc. I'd suggest you ask a question in this thread and I'll couch it in appropriate terms and find some answers.

Yes and no, science is always moving on, but the ~20 years of the UKAPS archive is full of really useful threads.

cheers Darrel

I will certainly look into refining my searches. i had been trying to find out about treating cyanobacteria with blackouts, but was not very successful in finding information on this

 

[malik uddin]

@zozo I have been going for only easy to grow plants and have seen great success in this. even though i have only been growing them for 3 months, in fact some have gone mental and i been trimming to keep the flow alive in my tank.

 

[malik uddin]

@ lbz10 and elledee Thats exactly how i ran my reef tank, i knew unless the tank fitted into my life style then it would fail. I am not the one to chase parameters and if the task was too big then it would not get done, i used to get natural seawater and ro water delivered, people used to say sea water is not as good as home made saltwater. but for homemade salt water you first need to make ro water with zero tds, then add a salt mix and add heater and pump to mix??? if i did that i would have lasted only 6 months in the marine hobby. I have no desire to use anything other then tap water the only thing i can guarantee is stable PH and temperature and lots of water changes, i think those 3 things would equal to a happy tank