• You are viewing the forum as a Guest, please login (you can use your Facebook, Twitter, Google or Microsoft account to login) or register using this link: Log in or Sign Up

Skinz180189's 60L Budget Tropical Tank *Now Planted!* (56K)

skinz180189

Member
Joined
27 Jun 2009
Messages
325
Location
Selby, N.Yorks
Hi everybody. This is my credit crunch budget tropical tank thread. :oops:

After one of my colleagues got a fishtank, I decided I wanted to have one again. We already had all the stuff I needed, except for half of it had gone missing, and half of the stuff had stopped working!

So I went out with my girlfriend last week, and bought a whole Hagen Elite 60L tank & stand setup for £115. (Tank, Stand, Hood, Light, Filter/Pump, Heater, Thermometer, Decorative Rock/Plant Thing, Fish Food, Water Treatment & Water Cycle Chemicals)

The Gravel/Rocks & Air Pump were salvaged from the old tank setup, with a couple of rocks found in a wood near Loughborough. I connected the air pump to a 6" air stone I bought for water oxygenation, and also bought 3 fake plants. The plant pot is a makeshift "cave" for the plec, a steal at 50p! I also got a digital thermometer for £3.50 off ebay, as I didn't trust the strip thermometer. The heater is actually 4 degrees warmer than it should be (set at 23C, tank is 27C).

Yesterday, I decided the tank is safe for fish now, so I bought 5 Dalmation Mollies (2 Males, 3 Females), and one Ancestrius Plec (Sex Unknown).

A couple of pics (aquarium photography is hard!)

AquariumWhole.jpg

DalmoMolly1.jpg

DalmoMolly2.jpg


I live in a hardwater area, so I've gone for hard water tolerant fish. I'd like a few rainbows too, but fear they will get too big. Any suggestions for a few more fish which will fit in with my current community?

In the future I may redo the tank and plant it with live plants, but for the time being this suffices.

Now for a couple of points made by "garuf" on plantedtank.net. I can't be bothered with a huge flame thread about these points on here. (Please don't read this bit as being sarcastic/confrontational/argumentative etc)

*I've read up about the air stone, I don't see it as being detrimental. If it does nothing then that's fine, I like the effect it makes :)
*The pump/filter won't be getting replaced for something more powerful for a long time, it's rated to 100L and makes a reasonable flow. Yes it's only a cheap pump, but this is a cheap tank.
*The ancestrius plec IMO won't grow too large for the tank, we had one in our old 60L and it grew no larger than 5" and lived very happily. Currently, it's only 2.5" in size.

And this morning, I found the mollies nipping at a molly fry that appeared overnight, they keep hiding, but there's definitely 2 that I can see in there!

EDIT:

A couple more pictures;

How it stand's in my bedroom
TankStand.jpg


And utilising my DVDs as an air pump stand (the wiring isn't long enough to put it elsewhere really!)
AirPump.jpg
 
Re: Skinz180189's 60L Budget Tropical Tank *Not Planted* (56K)

**UPDATE**

Well we've got 2 dalmation molly fry already. So went and bought this floating breeder for £4.59 for them. Will try and get some pictures of the fry and edit this post later.

27062009313.jpg

27062009314.jpg


EDIT: And here are the fry...
MollyFry.jpg

MollyFry2.jpg

They are already nibbling at crushed food.
 
Re: Skinz180189's 60L Budget Tropical Tank *Not Planted* (56K)

These are some lovely, sharp images with great colour balance. I think people are being put off by the plastic. :lol:

Dave.
 
Re: Skinz180189's 60L Budget Tropical Tank *Not Planted* (56K)

Dave Spencer said:
These are some lovely, sharp images with great colour balance. I think people are being put off by the plastic. :lol:

Dave.

Most probably. The thing is, I just don't have the time to maintain a planted tank ATM. Plus it's a big expense, what with CO2 and Ferts. I have been tempted to maybe pick up some hardier plants and see how they get on without any equipment.

As for the pictures, Thankyou very much. They come out a lot better linked from flickr than useless photobucket. WB is set to Fluorescent, seems to work best with my lighting.
 
Re: Skinz180189's 60L Budget Tropical Tank *Not Planted* (56K)

Well after my Heater problem thread I decided to test the heater.

So I filled a bucket up with water,put the heater and digital thermometer in it, placed it on a plastic box in the garage (so the concrete floor didn't cool it) and tested the heater.

Turns out the heater is actually around 0.7C cooler than it reads, and doesn't overheat, which I'm happy about.

I'm also on the lookout for Java Ferns/Java Moss, Anubias & Crypts (I have a wanted thread in the sale section), to get rid of the plastic and go planted :)
 
Re: Skinz180189's 60L Budget Tropical Tank *Not Planted* (56K)

Hey, there is absolutely nothing wrong with not keeping a planted tank at this time. IMO, better to not keep a planted tank, then to try to keep one without doing research only to end up killing the plants. Take your time and go into it gently. Java fern, mosses, and anubias are great first plants to try. I am also all about budget. If you have any questions about planted tanks on a budget, feel free to ask.

Tank looks good so far, and you take pictures well.

llj
 
Re: Skinz180189's 60L Budget Tropical Tank *Not Planted* (56K)

lljdma06 said:
Hey, there is absolutely nothing wrong with not keeping a planted tank at this time. IMO, better to not keep a planted tank, then to try to keep one without doing research only to end up killing the plants. Take your time and go into it gently. Java fern, mosses, and anubias are great first plants to try. I am also all about budget. If you have any questions about planted tanks on a budget, feel free to ask.

Tank looks good so far, and you take pictures well.

llj

Cheers. A few people over on the planted tank showed me some low light tanks full of Java fern/moss, anubias, crypts and even some swordplants without any CO2 or Ferts and they seemed to be thriving. So I'm hoping It will all work out once I find some :)

Also bought myself a cheap aquarium fan off of ebay, to try and stem the temperature rises a little.
 
Re: Skinz180189's 60L Budget Tropical Tank *Going Planted!* (56K

Well it looks like I'm going to make the jump to planted this weekend, with mr.luke offering me over 10 Java Fern Plantlets & a selection of Moss. I'm really struggling in my mind as to how I can re-arrange the tank. I've got a few smaller stones which are similar to the large triangular piece, and will probably keep the plantpot as the fish have started sheltering in there occasionally. I'm not bothered about driftwood for the time being, I like it but I'm digging rocks ATM, far less hassle. I also want to try and hide the filter unit as much as possible. Any body got any ideas/suggestions?
 
Re: Skinz180189's 60L Budget Tropical Tank *Going Planted!* (56K

hi,
have you had a look at the El natural and low tech section.
also you need something to put your ferns,anubias etc on so you may need some wood.unless you're putting them on your stones
 
Re: Skinz180189's 60L Budget Tropical Tank *Going Planted!* (56K

nelson said:
hi,
have you had a look at the El natural and low tech section.
also you need something to put your ferns,anubias etc on so you may need some wood.unless you're putting them on your stones

I'm just going to get some small stones out of the garden and tie the ferns to them.
 
Re: Skinz180189's 60L Budget Tropical Tank *Going Planted!* (56K

skinz180189 said:
Well it looks like I'm going to make the jump to planted this weekend, with mr.luke offering me over 10 Java Fern Plantlets & a selection of Moss. I'm really struggling in my mind as to how I can re-arrange the tank. I've got a few smaller stones which are similar to the large triangular piece, and will probably keep the plantpot as the fish have started sheltering in there occasionally. I'm not bothered about driftwood for the time being, I like it but I'm digging rocks ATM, far less hassle. I also want to try and hide the filter unit as much as possible. Any body got any ideas/suggestions?

re-scaping/ designing a new tank is always hard. I always end up getting to many ideas in my head :rolleyes:
 
Re: Skinz180189's 60L Budget Tropical Tank *Going Planted!* (56K

Downloaded paint for Mac, had a very rough mock up.
Untitled.jpg

Basically, I'm thinking stack some rocks around the plantpot in the midground somewhere, with ferns either side of it. Hopefully they will grow out to hide the filter a bit. Then moss on the rocks/plantpot. Positions can be played with, ideas are welcomed.
 
Re: Skinz180189's 60L Budget Tropical Tank *Going Planted!* (56K

skinz180189 said:
I'm just going to get some small stones out of the garden and tie the ferns to them.

Sounds like a plan, remember to wash, then boil the pebbles (10-15min. is probably enough) then let them cool. Before you put them in the tank.
 
Re: Skinz180189's 60L Budget Tropical Tank *Going Planted!* (56K

a1Matt said:
skinz180189 said:
I'm just going to get some small stones out of the garden and tie the ferns to them.

Sounds like a plan, remember to wash, then boil the pebbles (10-15min. is probably enough) then let them cool. Before you put them in the tank.

No worries, always do that :)
 
Re: Skinz180189's 60L Budget Tropical Tank *Going Planted!* (56K

it will take a while for the ferns to grow like that :lol:
 
Back
Top