At Last !

[Jam Jam]

At long last after weeks of water changes my nitrite readings are zero!
Thanks for all the advice to the people who helped me off this forum,after a week I added a few more plants and three Corey's after reading on here about them.they seem to like the tank so far and have real good personalities.
Will post a pic in a mo,I think I may add some more plants still as it still looks a bit bare and was thinking maybe after a few weeks if waters still doing well maybe adding a few dwarf gourami ?
Really enjoying my new hobby so far,testing the water has been a real eye opener and a big learning curve,out of interest I tested the Los water that the Corey's came in and I was shocked how good it was all readings were zero and a ph of 8 !

 

[Jam Jam]

 

[The Taffy Apple]

They, naturally, prefer sand...so keep a very close on them and their barbs, they can be prone to wearing away and possibly causing infection.

 

[Jam Jam]

They, naturally, prefer sand...so keep a very close on them and their barbs, they can be prone to wearing away and possibly causing infection.

Ok Thankyou I will watch them very carefully

 

[dannybgoode]

Congratulation on completing the cycle. As Taffy says they do prefer sand - I didn't know this either and mine had been on gravel for a year or so before I upgraded my tank this week and swapped the substrate also - they've been going mental ever since!

It is possible to swap substrate with a full tank so it may be something to consider for the future. Don't worry, not much bacteria lives in the gravel so you won't put your hard work back much by doing this.

Also, Cory's prefer to be in shoals of 6+ of the same sub species so again something to bear in mind as you stock going forward.

Good luck and keep us updated...

Cheers

Danny B

 

[Pellet113]

+1 but very nice looking tank! Very clean and decorated. Happy Fish!

 

[Questions?]

nice tank, but i would recommend switching o tank imeddiatly, because from the pictures, the barbs are all ready a little short

 

[Tuxyu3]

nice tank, but i would recommend switching o tank imeddiatly, because from the pictures, the barbs are all ready a little short

If they are young cory's, the barbs have probably just not grown yet. Gravel looks fairly smooth to me but they will indeed always prefer sand.

 

[Jam Jam]

I only stocked them yesterday lol they are only babies so not fully developed yet he gravel is very smooth as it has a coating on it to give it the colour. Is it possible to put a sand patch in the tank to keep them happy at all or does it not mix with gravel well? If it does what sand do you need and how do you add it without it all drifting around do you add wet in a plastic bag or something?

Thanks for the posative comments guys its my first attempt at tropical and if I did another tank the cycling and decor would be very different! The kids chose the gravel and decor as I am trying to keep the interest going

 

[MBOU]

I hate to tell you this but most of those plants arent true aquatics they will just go brown and die in the next 2-3 weeks

The only ones that are true aquatic are the vallis (grass at the back in the middle) and the one slightly forward and to the right of it (though cant remember its name... might be a species of Rotala).

 

[Jam Jam]

I hate to tell you this but most of those plants arent true aquatics they will just go brown and die in the next 2-3 weeks

The only ones that are true aquatic are the vallis (grass at the back in the middle) and the one slightly forward and to the right of it (though cant remember its name... might be a species of Rotala).

Oh dear another expensive learning curve

I suppose they sell them because you always come back for more ?

I will look into getting plants that will grow from now on thanks for the tip

 

[Tuxyu3]

I hate to tell you this but most of those plants arent true aquatics they will just go brown and die in the next 2-3 weeks

The only ones that are true aquatic are the vallis (grass at the back in the middle) and the one slightly forward and to the right of it (though cant remember its name... might be a species of Rotala).

Oh dear another expensive learning curve

I suppose they sell them because you always come back for more ?

I will look into getting plants that will grow from now on thanks for the tip

Where are you located? If you try eBay there is usually some great stuff there. I personally recommend indian fern if you are not interested in high-maintenance plants.

 

[MBOU]

I suppose they sell them because you always come back for more ?

not necessarily, lots of people prefer the ritual of buying brand new plants every few weeks when they clean out their tank.

Also people with goldfish and cichlids like to keep pretty plants that the fish are less likely to eat, even if they die after 3 weeks or so... thats about 2.5 weeks longer than they would have survived with the fish the non true aquaticsare a lot tougher and less edible.

Its a bit of a vicious circle really because if one shop stops selling non true aquatics like the varigated dracenia... customers will go elsewhere... and no one wants to be the shop to have all their customers go elsewhere.

 

[Aquascaper]

What are the rocks you've got in there? They look like live rock

 

[Jam Jam]

I am in Derbyshire thanks for the recommendation will try a few of those indian fern.
The rocks are artificial bought from the LFS,they look very real though

Just tested water today,corys look really happy and are darting and playing all the time,can you feed these a treat of cucumber ?

PH7.5
Amo 0
Nitrate 0
Nitrite 0-trace slightest pink tinge hardly visible you could give it a zero really if you are not piccy lol