Good evening from stonehenge

[Phil90]

Evening all!

I am new to the forum, just checking in. I have just inherited a juwel vision 180 with a selection of fish etc.

It seems to be a right mix of red eye tetra, platys, a pair of sailfin mollies, two small plecos, a couple of shrimp and a koi betta.

All are getting on very well, everyone says that bettas can be tricky in a community but this one is doing very well.

The setup came with a fluval u2 which is too small so currently waiting for a bigger filter to arrive in the post. There was no lighting with the tank but as I have a few plants in there I decided to make a light out of two LED floodlights which seems to work pretty well.

I kept fish ages ago but not for years, so getting back into the swing of things now.

I'm sure I'll be coming here a lot for advice and guidance.

Cheers all!

 

[Phil90]

The top photo is the tank itself, a few plants it came with, a few I have added. All the fish etc.

Below is the koi betta which I think is stunning.

The next picture shows the light unit I made, a bit rough and ready but does the job and easily upgradeable if needed in the future. In the picture you can see the wire holding on a tupperware box. This has large holes cut into it and the whole thing covered with a pair of tights as a fry box (the sailfin gave birth about 2 weeks ago)

 

[seangee]

Welcome. When your new filter arrives keep the old one running for a month or two as it takes a while to establish the new one.

You have a mix of hard and soft water fish. It would be worth establishing what the GH of your water is before deciding on the direction you wish to take. The fish you have cannot all thrive in the same conditions - they may well survive but we should aim for better than mere survival.

 

[Colin_T]

Hi and welcome to the forum

 

[Phil90]

Cheers,

Yep, I know it's a right mix, it's all stuff that I've inherited so fish were all there already.

I'll make sure to get the filter Cycled properly before removing the old one.

 

[TallPaul]

Your betta is stunning looking. Is it a koi plakat? Would you consider giving him his own tank?

 

[Phil90]

As far as I can see it is a plakat, I think it's stunning.

I would consider separating him, but this tank and its inhabitants were thrust upon me unexpectedly, so I'm still figuring out what to do with it. The previous owner had this setup with all of the current fish for over a year with no problems. Hopefully that means I have a bit of time to figure something out

 

[TallPaul]

If anything it's an excuse to have more tanks and more fish haha.

 

[Phil90]

Haha, yep, very true. Unfortunately I also need to convince my wife which could be slightly more tricky

 

[TallPaul]

I have a 35 litre nano tank for my betta, it's huge for him and even half that would be still be a lot. I was surprised by how a few centimetres on each side of the tank adds up to a lot more water.

I've already got permission for another tank since my wife prefers neon tetra and so I have the opportunity to put together a South American tank.

I have OCD like that and try to stock and plant the tanks as a biotope.

 

[TallPaul]

How is Stonehenge anyway? It's a long way from me. I'm in North West England

 

[Phil90]

I like the biotope idea and the whole aquascaping thing. Love gardening so if I can do it with a low-tech fishtank then brilliant. Unsure of how with the bits which are in the tank at the moment. Don't really want to go through the whole rehoming of fish thing.

Stonehenge is still there! I run past it most days.