Your current Fish tank Setups!

Just curious, what do you guys do if you're going on holiday for 2 weeks?

I'm thinking of getting a tank in but not sure what would happen when I go on my jollies :)

I'v heard about auto feeders and such so that's probably what I would have to use as I don't have anyone close enough really to give my keys to in order to tend to the fish.
 
grimm said:
Just curious, what do you guys do if you're going on holiday for 2 weeks?

I'm thinking of getting a tank in but not sure what would happen when I go on my jollies :)

I'v heard about auto feeders and such so that's probably what I would have to use as I don't have anyone close enough really to give my keys to in order to tend to the fish.
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I've recommended it before in here but the Fish Mate Automatic Aquarium Feeder works well, it twists round and drops one to four segments in a day so you can keep them going for up to two weeks easily. Its got an airline input as well so you can stop the food moulding up.
 
lookitsjonno said:
Lost my 5 year old LDA33 snowball plec, not seen him for a couple of weeks so emptied my rocks out last night and he's nowhere to be seen :(

Gutted.
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Sorry to hear that!

My Gold Nugget pleco died when I moved house a couple of months ago and I was also gutted. I then replaced it with a inferior cheap bristle nose pleco and wish I hadn't and held out for another Gold nugget pleco or something.
 
I've decided to go Marine again, i have hopefully secured an already established Aqua Medic percula 90 (3x2x2), with 30kg of live rock, 150w MH + 2x 39w T5s, 2 hydor coralia powerheads and Deltec MCE300 skimmer stock includes a regal tang, scooter blenny, chalk goby and torpedo goby and a single clown. I will see if my local LFS will take all the stock from me so i can start again, then i'm going to go the natural sea water route, as there are loads of people close to me using natural sea water from my area with excellent results, corals showing far better than they ever would with synthetic salt, it also means i don't have to pay for salt or RODI so should save me quite a bit a year. Win win i'd say. Anyway, hopefully, i'll be picking my new aquarium up on Sunday or Monday so will add pics as i go along.
 
King4aDay said:
Quick video of the inhabitants of my nano tank (tank is a little messy at the moment as it's a new setup).

Dario hysginon - http://vimeo.com/35705701
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Looks really nice!! Wish I had the effort to make my sons little 60litre nano like that. Its hard enough keeping my 240litre tank clean and tidy!

My tank is like a big nursery at the moment with Discus babys everywhere and Guppy babys. Unfortunately my 4 Discus which have paired off aren't to experienced yet. This time the babys survived until the stage they were swimming and suckling onto the mother and father. I think the parents had a little tiff as I heard a little splash and the babys had gone. But I managed to get this picture just before.

IMG_0965.jpg


that was 2 days ago and that pair have already laid more eggs.
 
King4aDay said:
Cool, I've never been into discus really but I do like their parental strategies.
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Yeah its nice that the male often is the better parent and that its best to basicly leave them to it. I have separated the 2 pairs of in the tank with netting as they will fight to the death once the babys have hatched.

I have had Discus for a few years now and just treated them like any other tropical fish except to worm them and give them beefheart as food. I really don't get why ppl make a fuss of Discus and say they need this and that etc. When they seem more than happy living a normal tropical fish life.
 
Yeah, cichlid parental strategies are cool.

Had a mbuna setup a while ago, and the mouth-breeding was cool. Colours were bright too, but there wasn't much diversity in the tank - they all pretty much looked the same shape.

Switched over a year ago to rainbowfish and WC Blue Acara's - lucked out and the 2 I bought paired up before crimbo, and are now spawning every 3 weeks now. They're just got to perfect parenting now.

Family find the blue acara's far more interesting, especially when the eggs have hatched into tiny wee fry.
 
Updated pics of my Seahorse fry tank:
P1000817.jpg

P1000818.jpg

P1000819.jpg


I've managed to get the oldest lot to the stage where they can be sold, actually got a couple coming round this evening to view and hopefully buy a few.
 
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Hey guys after some advice. My mum wanted a tropical tank for Christmas so I bought her a small 'FishBox' (48L). I don't think she realised how much upkeep was necessary but Anyway, we set the tank up at the end of December. We ran it (fishless) for 3 weeks, regular water changes etc.

Last week we took a water sample to the fish shop to be tested and got the all clear to add fish. We bought 4 neons, 1 fighting fish (betta?), and a small sucker fish (like a miniature plec but don't grow near as big). Was told to leave it a week before adding any more. Within 24 hours one of the neons died (never seemed right since we got it, pale and unsocialable)

The next day I came home to find my mum had added another 5 fish (3 neons and 2 mollies) and 3 live plants!!! Despite what we were told by the fish shop! Again within 24 hours another neon died, same as before.

After this the fish seemed ok. Fish count stood at 5 neons, fighter, sucker, 2 mollies. Everything seemed fine until wednesday when the fighter died. Mum was a little upset (her fave fish), probably not helped by me 'telling her off' for adding too many fish too soon.

Anyway, testing kit bought on wednesday to see what may have caused it. Here's the results.

Wed
Ph 7.8
Amonia 2.0ppm
Nitrite 1.0ppm
Nitrate 5ppm

Thu
Ph 7.8
Amonia 0.5ppm
Nitrite 0.25pmm
Nitrate 5ppm

Fri
Ph 7.8
Amonia 0.5ppm
Nitrite 0.5ppm
Nitrate 5ppm

Ideal results according to the kit
Ph 7.0
Amonia 0ppm
Nitrite 0ppm
Nitrate <40ppm

The only test that is 'ok' is the nitrate level. I've been doing 25% water changes daily since Wednesday.

Is there anything else I should be doing to bring the levels in line? Should I carry on with the day water changes until things settle and hope the fish survive?

I hope my mum has learned from this and follows advice from now on!

Thanks.
 
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Batf1nk said:
We ran it for 3 weeks, regular water changes etc.
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Unless you were putting in some kind of ammonia source then running it for 3 weeks did nothing to add any bacteria to your filter. Some people put a bit of food in, some just put household ammonia in and one person on here pees in it.

Do you know anything about the nitrogen cycle?

I would suggest a read of this thread since you have fish in your tank already.

What kind of test kit do you have? liquid droppers or test strips?
 
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I should have said in the post above. We used "tap safe" to dechlorinate the water and "filter start" to initiate the bacteria growth. There's deffo bacteria in there as after the first week to ten days you couldnt see the filter at the rear if the tank it was so cloudy. I think it's called a bacterial bloom? (still learning so not 100% with all the correct terms and fish names etc)

The test is the liquid drops/test tubes.
 
Batf1nk said:
I should have said in the post above. We used "tap safe" to dechlorinate the water and "filter start" to initiate the bacteria growth. There's deffo bacteria in there as after the first week to ten days you couldnt see the filter at the rear if the tank it was so cloudy. I think it's called a bacterial bloom? (still learning so not 100% with all the correct terms and fish names etc)

The test is the liquid drops/test tubes.
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Unless you added a source of ammonia though any good bacteria will have died off from not getting fed.

This thread has a full explanation of bacterial blooms for you. A bloom doesn't automatically mean that the bacteria you have are good bacteria.

Liquid tests are accurate enough so thats fine, just keep doing water changes whenever you get an ammonia/nitrite reading above 0.

Obviously remember that in a 48l tank if you have an ammonia reading of 1.0ppm that replacing 50% of the water would only drop that to 0.50ppm.

Have a read of those threads I've already linked. By the sound of it your filter is not cycled and so just cannot process the ammonia that your fish are creating.

If you want more help maybe try creating a thread there, they've been helpful for me getting my own head around what's going on :)
 
This thread is making me want to get some fish! I have some desk space which would fit a fluval edge nicely on it. But I've read the fish you can keep are limited, what type of fish do people keep currently in their fluval edge? I quite like the idea of having a shrimp in the tank as well is this possible?

thanks
 
Well picked up my bargain today, had to go to Hull for it though. I picked up an Aqua medic percula 90 all in one tank with 2 koralia powerheads on a wave system. An Arcadia series 3 pendant (150w halide + 2x T8), a spare Deltec MCE300 skimmer, another couple of spare power heads, a full set of Salifert test kits, spare bucket of salt, 2 heaters, 35kg live rock, a regal tang, scooter blennie, chalk goby, torpedo goby, peppermint shrimp, cleaner shrimp and a few crabs and snails. All for the princely sum of £250. I've just finished filling it up and getting it back up to temp for the fish, i'll have to scape tomorrow now then i'll add pics :)
 
Batf1nk said:
I should have said in the post above. We used "tap safe" to dechlorinate the water and "filter start" to initiate the bacteria growth. There's deffo bacteria in there as after the first week to ten days you couldnt see the filter at the rear if the tank it was so cloudy. I think it's called a bacterial bloom? (still learning so not 100% with all the correct terms and fish names etc)

The test is the liquid drops/test tubes.
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Seems like you helping your mum is like the blind leading the blind! :D
Best really to read up as much as possible before going anywhere near an aquarium. Learning as you go is often at the expense of the fish, as you've found out!

Most tetras aren't the best for new tanks, not that hardy but you know that now.
Don't just rely on what a fish shop tells you. IME, they often give poor advice.
Don't buy anything on impulse and on the shop staff's "Yeah, it'll be fine" attitude.

It is just surprising how many people get new setups and haven't got a clue what to do and end up coming on to fish forums wondering why all their fish have died.
 
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