Returning to the hobby after a long absence

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TiberiusJones

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Joined
Mar 30, 2021
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Location
Oak Ridge, TN
Hello fellow hobbyists, its good to be here and healthy again after recovering from Covid 19 fully. Thank God! I am just getting back into fishkeeping after a 20 year hiatus. I have had various sized freshwater tanks over the years and then got into a 125 gallon reef coral tank that was just too time consuming and expensive a hobby to maintain so I sold it all. Now I am married and have four kids. My wife loves animals and we are blessed with a freshwater pond near our property that is stocked with catfish and tadpoles. My twin boys are 7 and love to catch critters and we had the idea of making a tadpole aquarium just to show the boys how the life cycle of a toad progresses. The pond is a few hundred feet away so water changes are pretty easy. Anyways I got the bug again to keep fish but this time I decided to keep it small and simple so I bought a Fluval 15 gallon Flex tank. I am going to use it mostly for Aquatic plants and few shrimp, maybe another tropical fish or two but fish will not be the main focus, the focus will be plants. I am hoping to select plants that balance out my scheme. I am thinking southeast asian habitat and no CO2. I purchased some fluval lava substrate and might use some potting soil, will see. Looking for a local club in knoxville but I guess Covid has shut many down. Also seeking good sources for online plant purchases. Thanks. Look forward to learning from the group and sharing experiences.
 
Welcome!:hi: I have always loved the look of those fluval flex tanks!
Also seeking good sources for online plant purchases.
YourFishStuff is really great. I have ordered from them 3 times now. They have a website and an ebay thing. The prices on the site are different from on ebay though, so if you want to save a couple dollars you need to check both:lol: all my orders came quickly and arrived healthy, and I personally was very happy with the prices
 
Hello and welcome to the forum! :hi:

Glad you are back at the hobby, it’s an amazing one! :thumbs:
 
Tiberius welcome sir, you do know that just one small tank is how it starts? That little tank magically grows in a month or so to a much larger and the original tank will be a brooding or quarantine tank....ahh ok but now I need a tank for yadda yadda yadda. ?
 
Well any decent make of heater would be ok in reality, I’d go for 100w myself or a 150w as then if you do get another tank it would suffice a larger tank
 
Well its a bit cloudy now, I just put in the Fluval soil pellet substrate, after it clears up and I put my rocks and driftwood arrangement I will post pics. I made my own 'wave' aquarium stand out of 3/4" MDF board painted black to match it.
 
Here are photos of my recently started tank, with some rock and A.Nana, A. Congensis and unidentified "minnows" obtained from a local pond. Any help with identification of said minnows would be most appreciated. More plants to arrive by mail order.
 

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