New Tank :d

[Ian H]

Well sort of! was in my favourite LFS and saw a rather nice looking bow fronted tank for sale at a reasonable price so i've put a deposit on it sadly i dont think its going to be big enough to house my common plec so he's going to have to go to them i think

this is the tank:

http/www.aquaone.co.uk/aquience_bow.php

and at 83 uk gal i'm very happy with it

just need to work out where to put it now

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Nice tank and a good size to

Assuming you find a spot to put it what are you planning on putting in there?

 

[Ian H]

oh i'll find a spot some where just no idea where yet!

well all of my fish from my old tank which include:

6 amano shrimp
1 male bristle nose plec
1 common plec (will be going though as i don't think the tank is big enough )
5 pentazona barbs
3 bronze cories
2 julii cories
6 glow light tetras
7 neon tetras
3 black tetras
1 cockatoo dwarf cichlid
1 blue german ram
1 clown loach

wow that looks like a lot of fish!

anyways all them plus 3 more clown loach, a few more of each cory and maybe some new ones, couple more tetras and havn't decided on anything else yet. Will see whats about when im buying i suppose

 

[paul_219]

Looks gr8.

 

[katt]

Your new tank looks wicked! Its such good fun setting up a new tank..

When i upgraded to my new tank, i too i had to say good bye to my common plec as he looked like a wale compaired to my other fish, i was well gutted!

Good luck setting it up!

 

[Ian H]

Thanks, its a great looking tank and can't wait to get it delievered and set up

Didnt realise it in the shop but its just under 5ft long so need quite alot of space! think its going where the computer is now and work out later where that can go

for the time being im going to have to use the 2 filters supplied with it but no doubt i will upgrade to one better one in the long run. I'm hoping to have quite a few decent plants in there i think it works out at just under 1.5WPG but does anyone know if i can change the 30W bulbs for some 40W?

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Not sure on if you can swap the lights but 1.5wpg is enough to have a very nice planted tank (and according to some is a lot easier and more forgiving to maintain then a high light tank). Growth might not be as fast as if you have 2-3wpg but beleive me that is not a bad thing I have about 4wpg of light over my planted tank but things just grew way to fast if I had it on full blast for any length of time. Now I have it at 2wpg and it is ticking over nicely. Not having to prune things back quite as much but everything is still really healthy and growing. I do have quite a lot of plants blocking out light to the lower level plants as well so I would estimate the bottom of the tank to be at around 1.5wpg or even less maybe.
Linky
There where some other really stunning low light tanks posted on here (by Geroge and Tom I think) but i cant find them now.

 

[Ian H]

That just takes me to the forum index??

im newish to plants, i dont want a crazy planted tank just a back corner filled and maybe a few dotted around the place. Whats substrate (sp?) should i be using? i was planning on using black gravel should i be putting a layer of aquarium soil (no idea what its called!) underneath this?

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Not sure what went wrong there but should be working now

I went for the ADA substrate which is working very well for me. There are cheaper alternatives that do the same job and you can put whatever you want over the top (I like the look of the ADA substrates though so wouldnt cover them). I have no experience of any other substrates but florite based ones are popular. I went for a fert heavy substrate which means I dont have to add as many ferts. This works really well with root feeding plants which a lot of the lower light plants tend to be.

It is possible to just use gravel and root tabs but it is easier and better to use some sort of nutrient rich substrate. Have a look around though as there are lots of options and some very expensive ones do exactly the same as some of the cheaper ones

 

[Ian H]

lots to do then since i was hoping to have the tank here by the weekend although it all depends on when they can deliver

and wow that tank looks great but not what i'm looking for!!

i got quite a bit of java fern here (seems to be growing quite fast?) so most of the tank will start as that i think!! I think i may try and have a go at riccia to, i know its alot of work but looks great

Could you suggest any rooted plants? as in common names with pictures if possible (sorry i know its a bit much to ask for!!) can;t be doing with all these fancy names

my plan for this tank is a more natural look i think rather than the skull/pirate ship ect thats in my current tank but we'll see

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Yeah java fern is a good choice. I wouldnt go for Riccia personally. It does need high lighting and CO2 to do well and I can say that it is a complete pain in the arse. I have it in my tank and every other week I have to remove it all and tie it back down again as it does not root and grows through the netting. If you let it grow too much as well (as in a deep layer of it) the bottom parts starts dying off and rotting.

Some good low light plants include: (sorry haven't got common names for these)

Anubias
Aponogeton
Cryptocoryne wendtii
Echinodorus
Hygrophila
Vallisneria

If you look these up on www.tropica.com they should have them there with pictures and more information.

 

[Straydum]

holy! that tank looks lovely! cant wait to see the pictures once you get it all set up

 

[Ian H]

Yeah java fern is a good choice. I wouldnt go for Riccia personally. It does need high lighting and CO2 to do well and I can say that it is a complete pain in the arse. I have it in my tank and every other week I have to remove it all and tie it back down again as it does not root and grows through the netting. If you let it grow too much as well (as in a deep layer of it) the bottom parts starts dying off and rotting.

Some good low light plants include: (sorry haven't got common names for these)

Anubias
Aponogeton
Cryptocoryne wendtii
Echinodorus
Hygrophila
Vallisneria

If you look these up on www.tropica.com they should have them there with pictures and more information.

yeah i know it needs loads of work but it does look great and i really want to see it pearling may give it a go until i have enough of taking it out every week although saying that i dont think i want a full co2 set up so maybe i wont see it

thanks for that list will deffo have a look

thanks straydum i can;t wait to get it home! gonna pop in there on my way home tomorrow to find out when they can deliver it B)

 

[jakeroberts]

personally if that was my tank i would make it into a nice african cichlid tank but what you are going to do sounds good

 

[Ian H]

sadly (well not sad but you know what i mean!) its an upgrade tank for what i already have