New Again After 30 Years!

[mickelmass]

Hello all

I just joined this forum as I have just set up a new tropical freshwater tank after a lapspe of some 25-30 Years. Whilst I still remember quite a lot, there are so many new fangled and wonderful things on the market now for tropical fish hobbyists, it's getting a tad on the confussing side for me. I used to have eight aquariums. 2 x 4' show tanks, 2 x 3' mixed show tanks and the rest were smaller for breeding, fry etc.

I just got myslef a SuperFish Aqua 60L Silver panoram tank, with Aqua-Flow 200 internal filter/pump and built-in blue and white energy saving tubes. I just wish it were possible to turn the tubes off independantly, so that I could use the blue for moonlight effect but that cannot be done. I am still awaiting loads of plants from a very reputable seller on eBay as the high street shop stuff is pretty crap at the best of times, from what I have seen lately?

The tanks has been set up for nearly a fortnight now with no fish or plants etc, whilst the water matures and gets rid of the chlorine. If I remember correctly, that's the norm isn't it? I have just left the pump/filter set exactly as it was out of the box, half way between min and max. Should this now be set to max or is it OK as it is? I can't get to grips with these types of internal filters as years ago, you had to save for months to buy one as they were so expensive. Now, you can get them so very cheaply. I still prefer the old under substrate filters with or withoug power heads but I don't think I can get one for this tank as it's a bow fronted panorama style.

As and when I get onto home dialysis, I shall be getting a 4' tank in my bedroom as the fish are so relaxing, especially when one is stuck on that abominable machine for four hours, three days a week. Many thanks and I hope I enjoy my stay with this forum and can get some good, friendly advice? I joined a Yank one, but they coudn't even be bothered answering my questions so I saw this one and was hoping it was British? Many thanks.

Mike
Kent

 

[anwhyte]

Hello all

I just joined this forum as I have just set up a new tropical freshwater tank after a lapspe of some 25-30 Years. Whilst I still remember quite a lot, there are so many new fangled and wonderful things on the market now for tropical fish hobbyists, it's getting a tad on the confussing side for me. I used to have eight aquariums. 2 x 4' show tanks, 2 x 3' mixed show tanks and the rest were smaller for breeding, fry etc.

I just got myslef a SuperFish Aqua 60L Silver panoram tank, with Aqua-Flow 200 internal filter/pump and built-in blue and white energy saving tubes. I just wish it were possible to turn the tubes off independantly, so that I could use the blue for moonlight effect but that cannot be done. I am still awaiting loads of plants from a very reputable seller on eBay as the high street shop stuff is pretty crap at the best of times, from what I have seen lately?

The tanks has been set up for nearly a fortnight now with no fish or plants etc, whilst the water matures and gets rid of the chlorine. If I remember correctly, that's the norm isn't it? I have just left the pump/filter set exactly as it was out of the box, half way between min and max. Should this now be set to max or is it OK as it is? I can't get to grips with these types of internal filters as years ago, you had to save for months to buy one as they were so expensive. Now, you can get them so very cheaply. I still prefer the old under substrate filters with or withoug power heads but I don't think I can get one for this tank as it's a bow fronted panorama style.

As and when I get onto home dialysis, I shall be getting a 4' tank in my bedroom as the fish are so relaxing, especially when one is stuck on that abominable machine for four hours, three days a week. Many thanks and I hope I enjoy my stay with this forum and can get some good, friendly advice? I joined a Yank one, but they coudn't even be bothered answering my questions so I saw this one and was hoping it was British? Many thanks.

Mike
Kent

welcome Mike, hope you enjoy getting back into the hobby. you can get water treatment chemicals to remove chlorine/chloramine, which you'll need once you get fish & start doing water changes. Apologies if you know this already.

 

[finalfantay85]

Hello and welcome to the forum. You'll get all the help you need on here, the members are amazing even to complete newbies like me who make mistake after mistake lol.

Anyway i'll just beat one of the more experienced members and advise you to read this link:

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=113861

It's about fishless cycling and is the easiest way to get your filter up and running to cope with the waste from the fish without getting too stressed and having to do multiple massive water changes

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome back to the hobby Mickelmass and welcome to our forum. I am freshly back, in about 2000, since my previous adventure in aquariums in the 1960s and 1970s. I am sorry to report this is not just a UK forum, I am here with lots of other folks from the US. It is a truly international forum. I know one of the other MODs is from South Africa and lots of members are from Canada and Australia. I am the newest MOD so I am not sure where they are all from, but I am learning. If there is a place they speak some form of english, we have members from there.

You will find that there are bulbs available for your hood that are white lights only and that will be better for a planted tank than the 50/50 bulb. The important factors, to get the right bulb replacement, are the pin pattern and the wattage of the current bulb. A white looking bulb having a spectrum with a value between 5000K and 6700K is your best bet for a planted tank. You are definitely right about the high street suppliers of plants, or main street as they are called here, they are terrible quality plants in general.

We no longer just set up a tank with water and wait. The science has moved forward and we now have the skills to get the filter ready for fish, with the right bacteria in them, without losing any fish. It is done by faking fish being present by putting traces of ammonia in the water. The bacteria respond as if fish were present in the tank and start growing. When the bacterial colony is big enough, our tests tell us that the filter is ready and we do a huge water change and add fish. It is called fishless cycling and there is a link to an article on it in my signature area. We also understand enough about doing a cycle with fish in the tank that we seldom lose any, but that is at least 10 times as much work to accomplish. When you do a fishless cycle and the filter is ready, it is ready for almost a full stock of fish. You still need to be careful of the same fish we always knew could not live in a young tank but the rest can all go in at once.

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, just to echo what anwhyte said up there, the situation for treating public water systems around the world has begun a slow change from past decades. Whereas we were all used to chlorine being the treatment since way back, now many systems use chloramines, which have a chemical which has chlorine and ammonia bound together. They typically use this most of the year but switch back to chlorine for short periods of the year.

This chloramine does not "gas out" of the water when it is left to sit. Instead, the use of a chemical conditioner to neutralize it has now taken on more importance. Nearly all the major conditioners we now buy in the local fish shop (LFS) can handle the neutralizing of both chloramines and chlorine.

Of course, there are still water districts that have not changed, and it those cases there's nothing wrong with the older method of simply letting the chlorine gas out. But the widespread adoption of the new chloramine method does mean that any fishkeeper would need to keep a close eye on their water authority for a switch in methods if they chose not to use a conditioner.


Welcome to our forum Kent, I'm from the US but its my hunch that our larger numbers are still from the UK where I think the hobby is probably larger, percentage-wise. I'm a "Re-Beginner" too from the older days. ~~waterdrop~~