My Tanks...some Of Them Be Round!

[Skellie]

Hi Jennybugs,

Your tanks are all amazing!!

I am new to fish-keeping, and have recently bought a Biorb 60ltr tropical.

After all the negative comments I have heard about it I was extremely disheartened, however seeing the awesome job you have done with yours I can see all is not lost!

Thanks & any tips for a beginner?

 

[jennybugs]

Thanks for the comments skellie!

Best tip I can give is ignore the Reef One instructions. Cycle the tank properly - the instructions are lying when they say you can set your tank up, add water and 24 hours later thanks to magic sachets then add hardy fish. This is not the correct/best way to prime your tank so it's safe for fish!
Do not over stock (1cm of adult fish length per litre max)...understocking is much better for the filter...and stock the tank slowly, sticking to small slim bodied fish like tetras, platy (males only), guppies (males only), small gouramies like honeys and sparkling gouramy, cherry barbs, zebra danios, minnows and the like.
Do a weekly 10% water change and media vac and squish the sponge out once a week in old tank water - feed every other day. Don't waste money on expensive Reef One filter cartridges (I will pm you a link to the filter sponges as I know someone who gets them made up) and you don't have to have the black carbon and such in the bottom of the filter. I only add carbon pellets if I need to remove medication from the water (which has so far not happened since I started running Reef One tanks).
It seems I can't pm you yet as I don't think you have enough posts or something so get posting
HTH

 

[Skellie]

Thanks for the comments skellie!

Best tip I can give is ignore the Reef One instructions. Cycle the tank properly - the instructions are lying when they say you can set your tank up, add water and 24 hours later thanks to magic sachets then add hardy fish. This is not the correct/best way to prime your tank so it's safe for fish!
Do not over stock (1cm of adult fish length per litre max)...understocking is much better for the filter...and stock the tank slowly, sticking to small slim bodied fish like tetras, platy (males only), guppies (males only), small gouramies like honeys and sparkling gouramy, cherry barbs, zebra danios, minnows and the like.
Do a weekly 10% water change and media vac and squish the sponge out once a week in old tank water - feed every other day. Don't waste money on expensive Reef One filter cartridges (I will pm you a link to the filter sponges as I know someone who gets them made up) and you don't have to have the black carbon and such in the bottom of the filter. I only add carbon pellets if I need to remove medication from the water (which has so far not happened since I started running Reef One tanks).
It seems I can't pm you yet as I don't think you have enough posts or something so get posting
HTH

Thanks for all the tips Jennybugs!

Unfortunately I did follow what the instructions and LFS recommended. Had the tank running for three days with no fish and magic sachets, then added the fish (4 guppies & 2 Mollies). That was when i learnt about cycling!

The fish are fine (had a problem with a molly, see other thread) but wanted to make the Biorb as suitable for the fish as possible. Dont mind making alterations just want it to be the best it can be.

Also, how many posts are needed for pms???

 

[jennybugs]

10 posts or more is what you need

 

[mandi]

Wow you have some gorgeous tanks! Those are some of the prettiest Biorbs I've seen done!

 

[jennybugs]

Thankyou MAndi I do enjoy all my tanks I have to say

 

[aly_starh]

OMG Jenny, your tanks are like so amazing!
Where do you find the best deals for tanks?

 

[jennybugs]

Thanks I've really just been lucky I guess. The juwel Rekord tanks are economy tanks really pricewise, but the biorbs have been purchased through a good company on ebay. Other tanks have been good deals with two of my fave LFS.
Not sure I can actually mention them on the forum or not?

 

[aly_starh]

Im starting a marine tank in my Juwel Rekord 600.

And im using your tank mainly amongst others as inspiration...!
Your tanks, especially the scaping of them are just amazing!

 

[jennybugs]

Oooh good luck with that I love my marine tanks!

 

[jennybugs]

Unbelievably I was lucky enough to get another surprise tank given to me for Christmas for my new little redcap oranda!
I now have an Interpet FishPod 64 ready to be set up next to the bed and have the substrate etc on order at the mo.

I will be taking pics of the tank (of course) when it's up and running, but in the mean time here's a few pics of my redcap, Cilla.

Please excuse the quality of the pics (or lack of) as the water was still murky from a water change.

Can you see why we called her Cilla?

Excuse the blobs in the photo - they aren't on her

She's only 2 inches long nose to tail but has pudgey cheeks and a most impressive wen

Beautiful blue foil eyes too

She got a bad bout of whitespot and officially became the first ever fish I have owned to have this, and when I went back to the store to mention it (it appeared the day after I got her home), the whole tank she came from was infested too. The shop gave me a refund and some free whitespot meds too, but I ended up reling on my Wormer Plus to get rid of it. Good job she is in a QT tank and wasn't put straight in one of my other goldie tanks!
Can't wait to get the new one set up for her now

 

[jennybugs]

Yet another tank set up!

A FishPod 64 this time

Not finished yet and no fish in, but I like how it's going so far. I'm going to be trying out my first attempts at CO2 with this tank

Java moss mines

At the moment the tank still has the blue mooonlight bulb in as well as the white one, but I am changing it to a white bulb and adding flexible moonlight leds to it too.

I also have a couple of new fish...

Churchill the black oranda

General Montgomery the redcap oranda

I also have a male pink scooter blenny named Toots

The tank above is going to house Honey Gourami and either sparkling or croaking gourami (preferably the former)

 

[AdAndrews]

Looks great your redcap oranda looks awesome, why not get some puffers for the fish pod, you know you want to

 

[kiriyama]

Hi, just read through this thread, is it the longest running on here? Just wanted to say that I enjoyed looking at all your lovely pics, some really nice tanks there, and all scaped so nicely, wish I had your imagination, really liked the pics of the F8's , they have them in my LFS and if I could get the tank I'd snatch them up in a second, also I have never seen a red tailed red eye puffer before AWESOME!!!!!!!!! cracking pics, look forward to having a look in a few years time to see where you're up to then, cheers again, keep up the good work

 

[jennybugs]

Looks great your redcap oranda looks awesome, why not get some puffers for the fish pod, you know you want to

I was on the verge of filling the tank with more DPs admittedly, but I am not sure how my two big'uns would be in the tank with more puffs. I did think of SAPs too but it's only 65 litres and I don't relish dentistry
I loved my 60L I used to run with honeys and sparklers in so I will be sticking to that. If it had been a bigger tank I would have had more choice with regard to puffs.
I had thought of C. salivator or even the red eyes again....

See what you're doing to me?

kiriyama...I don't know that this is the longest running thread I am sure I've missed some tanks out though! I am totally hooked on my fish so it's a good job I don't mind not having much of a social life