i have a 60 litre tank, with 7 col water fish. the one keeps on swimmin to the bottom this is a fantail fish. they all always seem hungry, we have only had the tank for about 4 days. pets at home told us the amonia levels where low but that we still could have some fish from them. we already had 4 fish in the tank. they not stop eating at the minute and the tank seems very cloudy. we have a magic jet filter in the tank!! i did a 20% water change today and it dont seem to have helped. please can u help me i dont want my fish to die !!!

I have just got a new lionhead goldfish and it spends most of its time lying on the bottom of the tank. When anyone walks past it gets up and swims around really well. Is this normal?

ok, its been a over month since the last blog. I suppose you're all wondering how things are going? No? Just glad I shut up for 5 weeks perhaps?

Well, lets see... no more deaths and no further signs of illness. Thats a bonus. Dory is making a recovery after treatment with metronidazole for hexamita (causing HLLE) which seems the last of her ailments. Fingers crossed, and thats not far short of miraculous.

While I was waiting for the meds I rebuilt the sump baffles from glass. Word of advice, get the glass cut 2mm shorter than you need to allow for exansion and dodgey glaziers' measures. It all fits, water tight and works like a dream. The biggest problem was the drain down to the display tank as it was dragging in air bubbles. I fixed this eventually with a sealed standpipe and a hole drilled to an exact measurement to allow just enough water to flow down the pipe when there is 4cm of water pressure on it. No space for air to get in. This is balanced against the inlet flow from the pump. The joys of an overhead sump

Good news is its been tested and cross tested and the flow rate through the hole increases as the water builds up even by a few cm so it wont overflow (yes, I am touching that wood again). If I was to design the sump again I'd place two drains, one for emergency overflow.

I added a TMC V2-800 skimmer as planned. Had to buy it new though. That draws from the last chamber and delivers to the first adding another 2800lph of flow over the mudbed. Oh yes, I bought nearly £100 of mud too for the main section at the back. Mineral mud and some of the kent biosediment stuff too that was on special. Topped off with a little live sand. You can see in the picture I've used masking tape to mark the acceptable high and low water levels as an early alert should flow in one section change at any point.


I also replaced the main pump for an eheim of slightly higher power and placed it inside an eggcrate box so it could be well hidden under the rocks without getting blocked.


The UV has returned to the display tank with Dory. This pumps from the last section to the 3rd.

Yes that right, Dory is back in the display tank! The humbug damsels remain in quarantine for now.

Other additions are nightlights from ebay:

and you might be able to spot an "Encrusting Leather" Coral which was bought today.


Still to do... I still have more algae than I want, both cyno and hairy so a DIY phosphate reactor is on the cards and I'm playing with the direction of the powerheads. I want to remake the facia of the cabinet for easier access without unscrewing the doors, which should be straight forward enough.

Over the next 4 weeks I need to decide on the humbugs. Then they either go back into the tank or returned to the store.

Hi Guys,

I've just started a blogg listing all fish jobs including aquarium/technical/sales! The site's just been started but will hopefully grow into a fishkeeping career site in the future!

Take a look http://aquajob.blogspot.com/

Cheers

Chris

Hi all,
I'm new at this and thanks to bad advice from a LFS i got caught in the 'tank not cycled' trap and lost two of my babies within months of having them . So even though i've only been doing it 3 months, I know now that when fish are sick you learn fast. And I have this site to thank for that. I am very grateful to all of you whose expertise has helped me.
Anyway, despite being a newbie, I felt confident this weekend to intervene when I over-heard a member of staff at a LFS telling somebody buying a tank that it should be ready for fish in 10 days!!!
I pulled them aside when he'd gone and begged them to learn about fishless cycling, buy a test kit, and use the internet, and not to put fish in their tank after 10 days. I told them of my mistakes and the poor advice and asked them to learn from it for the sake of their future fish.
It felt good, and I felt I had enough knowledge to help them even though I still know so little myself.
I hope in time I will learn what so many of you know already and have a long and happy fish hobby.
Thanks, Jo

OK. For those of you who don't know, I'll start from the beginning. Then you'll all know what I'm going on about

It started 6 weeks ago, when I went to my nephew's birthday party. The party was held at a children's adventure play area - which had 2 fish tanks (I reckon they'll be about 15gal each). Both tanks had tankbuster fish in them. In one, there were 4 Silver Dollars and a cichlid (identity unknown). The cichlid didn't have any tail or fins left, and paddled and bounced in the water rather than swam In the other, they had 2 clown loaches, and a single rainbowfish. Both had filters, at least, but that's about the only positive thing I can say for them.

I sent a letter to the company later that week, after being unable to get the cichlid out of my mind (I don't mind telling you I was tempted to grap a bag, scoop it out and take it home with me), and asked on this forum for people's opinion on the letter.

On the following Tuesday, when I still hadn't received a reply, I phoned them and asked them if they'd received the letter. They denied it. My hunch was telling me that they did get it, and they were just trying to mess around with me (NOT generally a good idea ) So I sent them another letter by recorded delivery. They got that on the 6th Mar - and I know they did because I used Track and Trace.

Now for the update (or lack of ).

For those of you who HAVE been following the thread, I haven't given up, abandoned or forgotten about those fish. Sadly, there still hasn't been any word - which just reinforces my suspicion that they did get the original letter. My next plan of action is to go and see if they've done anything to improve the living conditions of the fish. (Sadly, I think I was a bit too late to save the cichlid. Just a hunch, but the condition he was in . . . I'd be surprised if he's still alive. Maybe it's better for him if he isn't. That way he's not suffering anymore. ). With this in mind, I've been planning on going this week, but twice I've been in that area, and twice I haven't managed to go because of other commitments (and a bus that took me in the opposite direction - which I didn't realise until it was too late because they've changed the numbers ).

So, it's been arranged that, the next time my brother takes his son to the adventure playground, I'll be going with them (permission granted by bro himself ).

I'll be keeping this Blog updated as and when things develop.

Meanwhile, if you want to read the thread, help yourself;
http://www.fishkeeping.co.uk/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=14665&viewmode=flat&order=ASC&type=&mode=0&start=0

Wow, well after 2 months of disaster I now have the surviving fish in quarantine.

Lesson learned - ALL fish need to be quarantined and clear of disease for at least 2 months prior to introducing to the main tank.

I have 5 humbug damsels and the regal tang left. All the others are dead mainly thanks to Brooklynella. The main tank has to remain isolated from fish systems (and water from fish systems) for 2 months to rid all traces of the parasite. Getting the fish out of the display tank required that I drain it and take all the live rock out essentailly destroying the first 3 months of work. All for the sake of proper quarantine.

I added some more cerith snails and hermit crabs to the tank and then began its isolation. At this rate it will be May before it has fish again.
I also drained the sump, cut out all the baffles and redesigned the layout.


Being nearly all the way back to square one after trying so hard and having only a £100 of dead fish to show for it is devistating, depressing, demoralising and heart rending. Right now if I was able to take it all back to August I'd have used the tank for the goldfish, or not bought it at all.

Hopefully things will be brighter next time.

The empty capacity of the tank is 212L

I want the tank to look as natural as possible - show as few of the workings as possible.


Filtration & Heat

From what I have read - it is best to get a filter that will turn the water around 2-4 times per hour.

I initially went for the Eheim 2213 Classic and an external heater (Hydor 300)- but had later read that the filter was not as powerful as the claimed. So the filter was eBayed and the Heater went back.

I was told about filters with internal heaters (which I didn't know existed) and thought that would be a better idea.

The next filter was the Eheim 2324 Professionel Thermo edition... very pleased with this choice, plus I got a really good deal... for £110.00 I got the filter, the heater and the filter media... delivered!!!

Eheim 2324 spec:

Up To: 250 liter
Pump Performance: 700 l/h
Cycle Performance: 500 l/h
Total Performance (Power Input + Heat): 8 + 150 Watt
Size in mm: 340 x 178 x 178

Hmm, I should have known it was too good to be true... the filter arrived and the canister was cracked, the company put it down to misshandling... so they sent me another filter right away... within about two days I had the second filter.

And guess what... it was broken too... in exactly the same place!

I was not happy this time round (as you can imagine) "twice bitten" sort of thing - although I did get a lot of attention from them - as compensation they have replaced the filter with a free upgrade.

So I am now awaiting delivery of my Eheim 2126 Professionel II with heater...

Eheim 2126 spec:

Up To: 350 liter
Pump Performance: 950 l/h
Cycle Performance: 650 l/h
Total Performance (Power Input + Heat): 25 + 150 Watt
Size in mm: 375 x 178 x 178


Light

I have received a mass of information on lighting here at FK. I'd like to thank EagleC for his attention and amazing reply to my forum post.

I have acquired an Arcadia Electronic Stater Unit for twin tubes. I'm still to decide which tubes.

I have also got a moonlighting kit for excellent night time viewing.

I am still waiting delivery on most of this equipment so I will get some more pics online when I am about to install.

I have read so much on FK i think im addicted to fish...

So, in the light of this new addiction I have the need to set up a fully custom built aquarium - completely mad for a beginner - i know...

I'm a graphic designer by trade, and I love watching something that I have created, materialize. So a few weeks ago a had a stab at designing some furniture, namely a cabinet for our lounge. (This is currently with the cabinet maker)

Then along came the passion for all things aquarium related - so I thought that I could bring the two together - so I sized up an aquarium to fit the cabinet - a 36" x 24" x 15" I did look at aquariums on the market but couldn't get the size I wanted.

I am aiming for the best spec I can reasonably afford.

I had ND Aquatics build the tank for me... I had no prior ralationship with them but there website was the best looking out of all the manufactures I could find, so I went with them... I know, I know... I didn't even think that I was a sucker for decent design...

When the tank arrived I was really pleased with the quality, and they deliver in person, so I was happy with the service too.

The tank was made from 10mm glass with clear silicone. There is a sliding lid included also.

The tank was £110.00 + £55 delivery...

26.01.08

So about one month on - the tank is fully cycled the fish are loving it!!!




Forgive the water colour - we are due a change today!

As you can see we have had plenty of grown in the plants.













Here are the happy goldies...