The water has cleared quite a bit now, there is a pale residue of particles on the surface still and I think this may be from the cheap flake food in the tights. I could try to scoop it out but until fish are going in its not doing any harm. Some of the plants are showing new shoots and I swear the green bog brush has grown.

Todays readings
Temperature : 27C (turned thermostat back down one click)
PH: 7.2
Amonia : 0.50
Nitrite : 0
Nitrate : 0
CO2 : Good

oh, and the laterite arrived.... definately have to do another tank now

Well not much has changed since yesterday.
CO2 : Good
Temp : 26C
Am : 0
Nitrite : 0
Nitrate : 0
Ph : 7.0

Last night I put some plant food in and gave one of the CO2 canisters a shake because it didn't seem to be producing. The thermostat adjustment hit the nail on the head by the looks of it. Finally this morning I scattered some gravel around for aesthetics and moved the slate forward a bit.

The water has cleared a bit not enough for a decent photo but enough that I was able to sit down and try to properly identify the plants that I got from the lfs. They where able to tell me the names but they didn't have anything that was on my list so I cant remember what it was I actually walked out with! I spent about 30 minutes staring at photos but was unable to confidently identify what I had so here are some pictures for you to guess at.



Large spade leaved background plant.



Tall narrow leaved background plant



Mid sized fast growing bog brush - I also have this one with the goldfish and apparently its ok in cold or tropical.



10-15cm tall dainty looking plant sold as foreground/midground.



The one on the right is the tall thin leaved plant again, but the one on the left is a small foreground/midground plant. I got enough of these in one bunch to nearly carpet the tank once split out!

Part of me thinks this is the day that setup has been completed. The realist in me knows that I am only half way through. If that.

Yesterday I placed the plants in but the water was too murky to take a photo. Today the water is still clouded but I've taken a shot anyway. I also placed a CO2 detector and sock load of fish food in the tank and switched on all the devices last night.

The CO2 diffusers can be seen to spit out a fine spray of bubbles every so often and the CO2 detector is showing 'Green' which is apparently 'good'.

The pump is working, quiet and a current can be seen as is of the required strength with several quieter areas around should the fish need a rest.

This mornings job was to see how things where going and make small changes where required. First thing I did was add my spare thermometer to the middle of the tank - this will tell me how accurate the new one is but also tell me if the tank is not warming equally. Later I found that despite the thermometer being set to 26C the tank actually heated to 29C so I turned the thermometer down two degrees as I actually want a temperature of 26C. It also told be that the heat is constant around the tank and that the new thermostat is suitably accurate.

Next I did a water test, Amonia 0.25, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 0, pH 6.8. From this I know that the Kh of the water will need to be increased slightly for the mollies to be comfortable and that the cycling process has just begun.


From now until the tank is cycled I'll be mostly monitoring and tweaking.

Well as you can guess the Laterite didn't arrive yesterday, or today to be honest but I ran out of patience and haggled one of the LFS to give me a decent deal on enough Red Sea Laterite to continue with the project. It was the same price as the stuff I ordered so I'll keep that stuff for the next tank which is sadly enough already in the planning stages! Yesterday I spent the afternoon churning out RO water adding minerals and filling an 80litre dustbin that I bought from B&Q and rinsed very,very thoroughly.

So armed with sand, laterite, 115litres of RO water I began work at about 11.30am. It took 2 hours to rinse the laterite. I did this in the same method used to rinse sand - ie I poured it into a bucket and stuck a hose in then walked away and checked on it every 30 minutes. I then laid the laterite base out on top of the thin layer of sand already present. During this time the first bucket of sand was rinsing. Wet sand is very messy to work with and my wife was very glad that I had the forthought to lay a large old blanket out infront of the tank. I laid out the sand thicker at the back and sides than the front middle to add an illusion of depth.


I added about 18kg of sand to cover the laterite then placed the bog wood, slate and fake root into a tank again before scattering the last 7kg of sand into the gaps and around the structures. This gave everything a settled and more established or natural look. A glass plate was positioned in the only available space so that the water would not disturb the sand when it was poured in. Previously I've used a gravel substrate and this wasn't so important but this silver sand is so light that the slightest current washes it around.


After this came the big moment, rather over exitedly I filled the tank with all the water I had then stuck the canister under the ro unit to get some more while I rushed out to the LFS to get a selection of plants. I bought 6 bunches, two background, 2 mid and 2 foreground. When I got back I seperated the bunches out and carefully planted them individually around the tank. Currently the water is too murky to get a good picture.

The final steps once the water was high enough was priming and starting the filter, adding a sock full of food for the cycling and then remembering that I'd just put a few dozen tropical plants in water that was about 15C ! (I dug out the spare 100W heater and added it to the tank next to the 200W one so it should be up to temperature by tomorrow).

After a trip to the store I bought the tank from I came away happy that the rather unfortunate mistake of capacity has been resolved. I'm definately keeping this tank but I got a cut price deal on CO2 equipment and a substrate heating cable.

The CO2 infusers are the £33 Red Sea Bio Turbo thingumies, two of them is hopefully enough for 220L. I fitted one to each end of the tank making sure that the difuser is as low as is practicle and not under the pumps intake. CO2 bubbles dont do water pumps any good at all! They have a powered pump so can be turned off at night with a simple plug socket timer and I've connected them to the same trailing socket as the lights, so CO2 will only be added to the water while the lights are on.

One minor complaint about these systems is the length of the power cord for the pumps. Because its only about 1.5m long by the time its gone out of the tank and down the back there is none left to go across to the plug socket. I'm mounting a socket on the wall directly behind the tank because of this. One good reason to leave a decent gap around your tank is that you never know when you need to get behind or beside it.

Costs to date, I'm going to work these out on the retail costs and ignore the discount I was lucky enough to gain for compensation over the tank's capacity mix up:-
£798 +
CO2 infusers £66
Substrate heater, £50
CO2 Tester, £13
Plant Guide Book £8
API Master Test Kit (free with tank kit rrp £25)
= £935

Well the tank is finally begining to look like a home. I dropped by the lfs on the way home and bought two bits of bogwood and a large slab of slate. Also a thermometer and some ceramic filter media - all of which is not included in the "all you need to get started" kit. You can do without but I want to get things right. I rinsed the first 8 kilos of sand and layed it in but it needs to be mixed with the laterite to give the plants a proper base and that hasn't yet turned up from the internet store. I had a call from them today and they tried to ship it but I gave them the wrong post code. DOH!

Hopefully that will come tomorrow. Now time to reflect on what I have spent so far setting up this tank.

Tank kit and stand £500 (reduced from 995 to 795 to 600 to 500)
Plastic Root £40
Juwel 600 Rock background (x2) £80
Filter media £6
Thermometer £2
Rock £5
Bogwood £20
Sand £15
Gravel £2
Reverse Osmosis Filter £100
Laterite (110oz) £28
Total to date : £798

A word on the RO filter. It connects beneath the sink in the kitchen and gives me access to a dribble of RO pure water whenever I need it. As the water quality here is poor with high hardness and very alkaline pH I decided it was the best long term solution to keeping my tank suitable for softwater fish, like Neons and Corys. Filling a tank with multiple trips to the lfs would cost rather a lot even in the short term.

Tomorrow hopefully the Latarite will turn up, then I can finish putting the substrate down and begin filling the tank.

Initially the tank was supposed to arrive last Thursday, unfortunately there was an accident and I had to wait for a new tank to arrive.

I phoned the store this afternoon and found out the new tank was in stock. The offered to deliver it on Friday but being an impatient git I then nagged the owner for the rest of the afternoon until he found someone that would drive it over for me today. I dropped what I was doing at work and headed home. I made sure to give the nice lad enough of a tip to buy a round at the pub tonight as I really do appreciate the effort put in.

Unfortunately things started to take a turn for the worse after I shut the door. Mainly due to my inexperience I'm sure. My first suprise was that the feeding hatch had broken. The runner had fallen off but as it was orignally just glued with aquarium sealant a little sandpaper and it was easy to re-attach. The second thing I noticed is that it wasn't quite as deep as expected. Also the advertised liquid test kit was not included. I'll have to mention that. None of this bothered me though as I had my lovely 380L tank...

The next thing I noticed was that the heater was a 200W Rena heater, very nice but rated for 200-300L tanks. That's odd I thought. Then I saw the filter, an xP2, rated again for 200-300L tanks and I began to be concerned. Yup, I'd been duped

Basically they had two tanks for sale a "220L Panorama 120" and a "380L Panorama Calvados 120" but unfortunately looking through the booklets that came with the tank Rena dont actually do a 380L and what I have is a bow front tank that is 340L only if using the maximum dimensions but only 220L useable. www.rena.net explains clearly but sadly until the tank arrived I hadn't realised that Rena had actually got a website. Tried google and everything, honest!

I'll be talking to maidenhead aquatics because as far as I am concerned 380L capacity should mean that it can contain 380L or at least close! I'm sure this is an honest mistake rather than intentional misrepresentation. It is big enough at 200L for me in all honesty and it wasn't a bad price... and its here now. So I have carried on regardless. I just wish it had been what I had thought it was. In honesty I'd have bought the 260L fluval instead if I'd known this was 220L... but then maybe the 260L fluval is only 120L ???

Assembling the cabinet was very straight forward and the quality was generally quite good. Looking closely though build quality could have been better. Sealant has squeezed out of a few joints just a fraction and the seal at the base of the tank could have been tidier - BUT there is going to be substrate covering that and the main thing is that it will be waterproof. I hope.

The pump was equally easy to set up for a novice like me, although it took me a while to get the pipes fitted. They where far too tight until I dipped them in a cup of hot water for a few minutes.

The main thing was for my to glue the background on today as the aquarium sealant takes 24 hours to dry. I used Juwel Rock 600 background, it looks great and was really easy to fit although I'm not sure I'd call it value for money. Definately would have worked better if the tank had been that bit deeper. Still used loads of sealant to make sure that none of the little critters can sneak behind it.

Tomorrow, the decoration and filling of the tank. As long as the substrate arrives...

Hi,
I'm new here quite by chance stumbling on this site while blinding flailing in the internet ether to discover some facts about looking after 'my' fish properly.
I use quote marks around 'my' because the fish we have at the moment aren't really mine. They are my childrens but when things started to go wrong my wife threw in the towel pretty quickly and it became a case of "Daddy fix it".

It all started over a year ago when my son received a 6l cold water 'national geographic' tank from my mother. At this point I wasn't paying much attention and my wife helped him set up and get going. I do know that many fish where lost in the first few weeks. Then just as things got under control the tank started to leak.

Nan came to the 'rescue' and pulled her old 40L tank from the loft. My wife filled it and went to the lfs. There she was told she might as well go tropical and the white clouds would be just fine moving from cold to warm water. This was wrong. As was the advice to let the water settle for a few days then put all the neons, loaches, the Betta and the guppies in at once with the WCMM. We no longer use that fish store and I really think places that employ people like that should be closed down.

Many tears later the tank seemed to be settling. My son gave up on keeping a Betta after 2 deaths early on. All the other fish died in the first week too.

At this point my wife gave up and I took over taking a decidely more scientific approach to things I began reading and researching about the nitrogen cycle and different fish requirements. I talked to everyone I knew and wasted hours of shopkeeper time trying to get the right information. During this time my wife came back from a car boot sale with a 10L tank and 3 goldfish.... she is now banned from buying anything fish related without consulting me.

Eventually we began to get things working properly and we got to the stage where both my daughters 2 surviving goldfish and my sons tropicals where happy and content. At this point my sons tank sprung a small leak and this is where we are now, in need ofa replacement. One problem with the tank being in Lukes room is he couldn't be trusted to wash the kit out properly and had a tendancy to leave the food open or spill it on the floor and walk away. This lead to a nasty smell so the new tank will be in the living room where I can keep more control over it.

I'm waiting on the imminent delivery of a 380L Rena Panorama Calvados tank which will rehome all the tropical fish and then I'll add some more of my own. This blog will catalogue my progress from this point on.

Heres some updated pics :)

FTS

Xenia

Star polyps and brown polyps

Some of my zoos

Clown Fish

Toadstool

Clown Goby

Sun Coral (closed