Good day

[Lowflyer]

Good day to you all.

My name is Luke and I reside in South Africa. I have been keeping fish since I was 11 years old, but don't profess to be an expert.

My current setup is a standard 4 foot aquarium. Equipment:
4 foot aquarium

Filtration
Tidal 55 - filled with biomedia(currently Boyu biorings and Seachem Matrix/I am seeding volcanic rock to replace the biorings at the moment)
Internal power filter with floss for polishing
Sobo surface skimmer(because the Tidal wasn't doing a great job at skimming)

Lighting
I'm using LED floodlights I bought from the local hardware shop. 1 x 20watt 6500k and 2 x 10watt 6500k
1 x strip of blue LED lights
1 x strip of red LED lights(hopefully will assist plant growth)

Subtrate
PFS with Flourish Root tabs

Rocks
I have access to dolerite rocks which are quite heavy, but inert.

Plants
Vallisneria
Cabomba Green
Pearl grass
Crypt (not sure of type)

Livestock
2 x Pearl Gouramis
4 x Peppered Cories
1 x Bronze Cory
4 x Neon tetras
1 x Rummy Nose
1 x Black Phantom
1 x SAE
1 x Black molly(grown up from birth in my tank so difficult to let her go)
1 x Ancistrus male
2 x nerite snails
2 x cherry shrimp

The first pic is what my tank looked like before I removed the internal sump and had a filamentis outbreak and the second pic is of my month old setup now.

 

[aqua.land]

Hi!
Welcome to the forum!

 

[JakeKPO]

Good day to you all.

My name is Luke and I reside in South Africa. I have been keeping fish since I was 11 years old, but don't profess to be an expert.

My current setup is a standard 4 foot aquarium. Equipment:
4 foot aquarium

Filtration
Tidal 55 - filled with biomedia(currently Boyu biorings and Seachem Matrix/I am seeding volcanic rock to replace the biorings at the moment)
Internal power filter with floss for polishing
Sobo surface skimmer(because the Tidal wasn't doing a great job at skimming)

Lighting
I'm using LED floodlights I bought from the local hardware shop. 1 x 20watt 6500k and 2 x 10watt 6500k
1 x strip of blue LED lights
1 x strip of red LED lights(hopefully will assist plant growth)

Subtrate
PFS with Flourish Root tabs

Rocks
I have access to dolerite rocks which are quite heavy, but inert.

Plants
Vallisneria
Cabomba Green
Pearl grass
Crypt (not sure of type)

Livestock
2 x Pearl Gouramis
4 x Peppered Cories
1 x Bronze Cory
4 x Neon tetras
1 x Rummy Nose
1 x Black Phantom
1 x SAE
1 x Black molly(grown up from birth in my tank so difficult to let her go)
1 x Ancistrus male
2 x nerite snails
2 x cherry shrimp

The first pic is what my tank looked like before I removed the internal sump and had a filamentis outbreak and the second pic is of my month old setup now.

Really nice tank! Love the planted look keep it up welcome to the forum

 

[PheonixKingZ]

Hello and welcome to the forum!

Nice tank!

Tag me if you ever need help with bettas or live plants. Hope to see you around TFF!

 

[Retired Viking]

Hello, nice to meet you and welcome. Most of your fish are soft water, Do you have soft water or hard water and know the GH and PH readings. The Molly is a hard water fish, I understand why you have him. I would suggest you add more plants and also look into some floating plants. Your tetras and cory need to be in groups of 6 or more-the more the better. They are shoaling fish and need numbers for safety and they will feel stressed in small numbers. The tetra also like shade so floating plants that provide shade is helpful. You can also reduce the brightness of your lights to help. This will also help reduce the tetra's stress. Tetras come from South American jungle streams with lots of shade. Here is a picture of my tetra/cory tank. The floating plants are anacharis. I call it the sunken forest tank.

 

[JuiceBox52]

Welcome to TFF!

 

[Lowflyer]

Hello, nice to meet you and welcome. Most of your fish are soft water, Do you have soft water or hard water and know the GH and PH readings. The Molly is a hard water fish, I understand why you have him. I would suggest you add more plants and also look into some floating plants. Your tetras and cory need to be in groups of 6 or more-the more the better. They are shoaling fish and need numbers for safety and they will feel stressed in small numbers. The tetra also like shade so floating plants that provide shade is helpful. You can also reduce the brightness of your lights to help. This will also help reduce the tetra's stress. Tetras come from South American jungle streams with lots of shade. Here is a picture of my tetra/cory tank. The floating plants are anacharis. I call it the sunken forest tank.

Thank you for the welcome. I am aware of the needs of a lot of my fish , but my tank was beginning to crash and had to start over. I lost quite a few fish before changing over unfortunately.

 

[dmpfishlover]

to the Forum!!! Nice looking tank! I like the rocks.

 

[FishGuest5123]

 

[Lowflyer]

Thank you everyone!

 

[Lowflyer]

Two reasons I believe my old setup was beginning to crash:

1.misinformation when I started making my own root tabs. We don't have Osmocote where I live, but I was told Multicote was the same thing by a different company. Unfortunately, it turned out that the pellets are coated with a substance which is not aquarium safe. Some of it became exposed in the tank and poisoned it.

2. My internal sump wasn't effect as the inlet holes were too big, reducing the suction power.

My tank has been running now for a month. Have a bit of a bacterial bloom, but not going to stress too much.

Question though. I have an internal power filter running filter floss for polishing. Any better ideas? I'm trying to go with something more aesthetically pleasing.

 

[Lowflyer]

Hi everyone. I have struggled with cloudiness for the first time in my life.

The fish are happy, bright colours, no heavy breathing etc.

I ran out of test strips, so not sure what is going on. I did a 20% water change today and I added an airstone last night to see if it would make a difference(just taking a chance).

I tried using Seachem Clarity and have dosed with Prime 3 days ago with no luck.

Just to remind everyone of my filtration:
1 x Tidal 55 (matrix, Boyu biorings and lava rock)
1 x Sobo internal power filter (running floss only)
1 x Sobo surface skimmer

The cloudiness seems to have a slight green tint to it, which makes me wonder if it is an algae bloom in the water column.

Suggestions welcome.

 

[seangee]

This is how I have concealed my tidal 55